Matt Stoller's On To Something ...

That is exactly what I saw in New Jersey as well. Blogs, far from being fever swamps, are discussing ideas and policy in a way that far surpasses the cynicism of the media cartel. Bloggers and the people who read and comment on them connect politics to our lives, even if there is sometimes vulgarity or a certain rawness to our expressive medium. We're filling a demand for normalcy in politics, for anti-elitist open discussion. And now the new politicians like Lamont who are actually providing real political leadership are like catnip to us, and as a result we're becoming a very powerful megaphone for them. Lamont doesn't have to ask anyone to 'get his message out'. He simply has certain values, and because his values are our values, we're talking about about and supporting him. With no TV in the way.

Which brings me back to a certain sense of, well, freshness in the air. There's something changing, new winds in our political system, and we're all a part of it. It's called hope, idealism, or maybe just plain honor. You see, I blog because while I am a pessimist, I am also an idealist. I believe in the power of ideas, in the healing power of discourse, and in the ability of all of us to work towards our own sense of community and personal responsibility. Ultimately, America is what we make of it, and all of us, by reading this blog, by participating in door-knocks, or even by the simple act of declaring oneself responsible for what one's country does instead of being a passive consumer of other's royal actions, are becoming better citizens.

Good post ... go read.

King Bush To America: What Constitution?

President Bush has quietly claimed the authority to disobey more than 750 laws enacted since he took office, asserting that he has the power to set aside any statute passed by Congress when it conflicts with his interpretation of the Constitution.

Among the laws Bush said he can ignore are military rules and regulations, affirmative-action provisions, requirements that Congress be told about immigration services problems, ''whistle-blower" protections for nuclear regulatory officials, and safeguards against political interference in federally funded research.

Legal scholars say the scope and aggression of Bush's assertions that he can bypass laws represent a concerted effort to expand his power at the expense of Congress, upsetting the balance between the branches of government. The Constitution is clear in assigning to Congress the power to write the laws and to the president a duty ''to take care that the laws be faithfully executed." Bush, however, has repeatedly declared that he does not need to ''execute" a law he believes is unconstitutional.

[snip]

Bush is the first president in modern history who has never vetoed a bill, giving Congress no chance to override his judgments. Instead, he has signed every bill that reached his desk, often inviting the legislation's sponsors to signing ceremonies at which he lavishes praise upon their work.

Then, after the media and the lawmakers have left the White House, Bush quietly files ''signing statements" -- official documents in which a president lays out his legal interpretation of a bill for the federal bureaucracy to follow when implementing the new law. The statements are recorded in the federal register.

Why none of this scares the bejeebers out of that 30+% that still thinks he's "doing a heckuva job" is beyond me.

I know we never elected Bush, but by now, even that 30+% must realized they installed a king.

Thank You, Neil Young

Funny, it takes a Canadian singing a bang-up protest song, to make me feel truly American again.

Marc Cooper's Take On The $100 Bribe

Meanwhile, Senate Republicans have come up with their own farcical plan. They want to send taxpayers a $100 gas rebate check. But with a greasy string attached: the same bill that would provide the niggardly rebate would also open up the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to drilling. Hell, why not go all the way
and offer the American people a more robust bribe: say $500 for each family in exchange for the rights of oil companies to drill in any and all ecologically sensitive areas for the rest of eternity?

I never really can tell if I am with Cooper or against Cooper, half the time. But on this, I'm with Cooper.

P.S., anyone that works niggardly into contempory political commentary, correctly, has some cajones, in my book.

FRT

1. Living For The City - Stevie Wonder
2. My World Is Empty Without You - Diana Ross
3. Everybody Have Fun Tonight - Wang Chung
4. Love To Love You - Donna Summer
5. Carry On Wayward Son - Kansas
6. I Should Care - Modern Jazz Quartet
7. (Last Night) I Didn't Get To Sleep - Fifth Dimension
8. We Are One - Mike Phillips
9. Sorry Seems To Be The Hardest Word - Elton John
10. Ya Ya - Lee Dorsey

Bonus Track:

11. I Met Him On A Sunday - The Shirelles

Tonight's Random Ten is not via a media player or my 10,000 song titles on my hard drive. Tonight's songs are courtesy of Yahoo's Launchcast music center. With a deeper catalogue of music, I find myself listening more to music randomly selected by this service than from my own collection. It's free, but you can upgrade (with more categories of music) for about $36.00 a year. I'm not interested in satellite radio, and I have to listen to music at work, so this has been quite beneficial. Most of the radio streams have buffer problems, and this has not been a factor in Launchcast.

Isn't There A Party Hillary Won't Attend?

Another reason Mrs. Clinton will not be getting my vote.

There was a buzz when Dick Cheney walked into the "Fox News Sunday" 10th anniversary bash Wednesday night, but it was another guest -- arriving fashionably late -- who really got heads turning. Hillary Clinton ?!!? Here?

"Having the clear frontrunner for the Democratic presidential nomination show up at a Fox News party created a lot of excitement, and makes a statement about how we're regarded in top Democratic circles," said host Chris Wallace, who invited her to the celebration.

Clinton spent an hour at Cafe Milano schmoozing with News Corp. Chairman Rupert Murdoch (very chummy since last year's truce), Fox News Chairman Roger Ailes , and most of the Bush administration, including Karl Rove, Josh Bolten, Karen Hughes, Dan Bartlett and former Fox host Tony Snow, just hours after he was named the new Bush spokesman. "Ten years ago we could have never gotten the White House press secretary to come to this party," joked Ailes.

More than 300 VIPs crammed into the Georgetown hot spot, passing a gantlet of security to make the cut. Much jockeying for face time with Brit Hume and Bill O'Reilly, and once-and-future power brokers such as House Speaker Dennis Hastert , Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, Sens. John McCain and Ben Nelson, Rep. Tom DeLay , Newt Gingrich, Ken Duberstein, Ted Olson, Vernon Jordan and former DNC chairman Terry McAuliffe. Yes, that flashy redhead was Georgette Mosbacher. Mike Wallace, Chris's dad, was on hand for the festivities. "Stop following me, Mike," Ailes told him. "This is it! The kid already got the job!"

The mood was conservatively expansive, with only playful jabs at CNN and MSNBC, and appropriately lush: Open bar, lots of food, cigars aplenty. The veep actually smiled when we interrupted his chat with Murdoch to ask about Snow. ("He'll do a superb job.") The new press sec starts briefings on May 8 and said he was rested and ready: "I was sleepless while I was trying to decide," Snow said. "I slept like a baby last night."

One Year, 705 Posts, 4,800 Hits

It has been one year now since my first entry into the blogosphere. What prompted me, it’s hard to say. An overall dissatisfaction with politics, in general, and with the Bushites, in particular would rank in the top three. Mostly, it was wanting simply to keep a few friends of mine politically informed without inundating their email boxes with countless links to stories I felt had relevance.

Once I had decided to blog, I concentrated on what would be my very first post. After Bush was installed in the White House in 2000, my relationship with my best friend started to sour. He became more and more openly bigoted and extreme, and it alienated me. When I had the audacity to feel hope that the 2004 election would vindicate those of us who believed Bush was in the White House illegally, he mocked me, and took personal pot shots at me. It was sort of like being swift-boated by my own friend. So, I had to end the friendship, and I did my first post (as well as my first diary at MyDD) about the ending of that friendship over political partisanship.

I did not dream in the slightest that any of my diaries or blog entries would garner the attention of more than a handful of friends, and it was with extreme surprise and excitement that my first diary was selected as a feature diary that day at MyDD. That resulted in my blog’s very first day receiving nearly 500 hits!

It is now one year later, 705 posts later, and 4,800 hits later, and in looking back, I am pleased with the effort, and still have the drive to continue this blog. There were absolutely zero low lights, and the high lights include being been nominated for a Koufax for best post, a nomination that came from MyDD, for that very same post about my best friend, and being a featured blog at the Daou Report courtesy of The Carpetbagger. My favorite postings, though, are the Friday Random Ten, especially cross-posting over at feministe.

So, thank you to all who stop by occasionally (and I know there are a few), and to those that just found their way here by blog browsing. Step up to the bar and browse the menu. I’m sure there’s something here that will whet your appetite.

Damn, That Legal Fees Provision!

I thought this little tidbit was noteworthy. Seems Sprint is refusing to let a GI over in Iraq out of his cell phone contract, causing him to worry about this stupid bill while on duty. A law has been proposed to, hopefully, eliminate this problem. Sprint, of course, indicates it supports the new bill, with reservations, as follows:

Telecom lobbyist Chris LaRowe offered a similar line.

We're not saying we're perfect," LaRowe said. "We're confident it's a case of the right people not talking to each other."

However, LaRowe says that while his his people support the proposed bill in principle, they have a small problem with it as it's written currently. They're unhappy with the provision that requires phone companies to cover the legal fees of anyone who has to hire a lawyer to get a phone cancelled.

Ha ha. Duh. If these people would have to pay the legal bills of those that find themselves forced to get legal representation just to get out of stupid, stupid, contracts such as cell phone contracts, they would be letting them out of their contracts, hand over foot!