October 2007 archive

I was very close to making the title a call for a new Senate Majority Leader, but I am holding off for now.  I fully realize that there is a slim, if any, majority for the Democrats in the Senate, and I fully realize that it is pretty easy for the minority party to make most things get 60 votes to even get the “upperdown vote”.

And yet, when Reid was minority leader, he couldn’t (wouldn’t?) pull off the same tactics when it came to horrible bill after horrible bill was rammed through.  However, this isn’t really my reason for writing this diary today.  It is one thing to have your hands tied by procedural maneuvers, or even to be gun shy for political reasons – but it is another thing to actively do things that would undermine the values that this country (and presumably the Democratic Party) holds dear, especially when it is behind the scenes and in a sneaky manner.

[Cross-posted from OOIBC]

Let’s hear a big round of applause for Senator Chris Dodd (D-CT).  President Dodd?

Speaker Pelosi? It is time to stop funding and put an end to George Bush’s occupation  of Iraq and get all the troops there home. Now. You have exhausted all your excuses, and all of them have just been shown up to be nothing more than the hot air they are. If you will not end it before November 2008, after Chris Dodd’s clear example yesterday of real, honest legislative leadership, you deserve to be unseated and sent home in disgrace.

Dodd issued a press release yesterday stating

…that he would block the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) “from being considered by the full Senate and from receiving a vote on the Senate floor.” The statement came as the Senate Intelligence Committee met to consider the legislation — and weeks before it is likely to reach the floor.

On Wednesday, a bipartisan group of Senators and the Bush administration reached a compromise on the politically charged bill, which governs the federal government’s domestic surveillance program, including a highly controversial grant of legal immunity to telecommunications companies. Civil libertarians oppose the compromise as going too far to protect telecoms that were revealed to have participated in a warrantless wiretapping program, and because the legislation wouldn’t establish warrants for each individual wiretap.

Dodd said he would place a “hold” on the FISA bill, a device available to any senator to stop legislation from moving forward. “By granting immunity to telecommunications companies that participated in the president’s terrorist surveillance program, even though such participation may have been illegal, the FISA reform bill sets a dangerous precedent by giving the President sweeping authorization to neglect the right to privacy that Americans are entitled to under the Constitution,” Dodd explained in a statement outlining his concerns.

The rhetoric got hotter with every paragraph. “It is unconscionable that such a basic right has been violated, and that the president is the perpetrator,” Dodd said. “I will do everything in my power to stop Congress from shielding this President’s agenda of secrecy, deception, and blatant unlawfulness.”

Chris Dodd deserves to be elected President next year.

He has just blown out of the water all of the claims by Nancy Pelosi and the Democratic Leadership that they are unable to defund and end the occupation of Iraq with the claims that they ‘don’t have the votes’, and set a clear, effective example of the “power of the purse” that Pelosi now has no excuse not to follow.

David Swanson explains in greater detail…

I noticed this article yesterday from Associated Press, and following the foot-steps of several players in the run up to war with Iran, it looks like time is running out.

MOSCOW – Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert made a surprise trip to Moscow on Thursday to discuss Iran’s nuclear program with Russian President Vladimir Putin, who just returned from talks with Iranian leaders in Tehran.

The very day after Putin meets with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Isreali Prime Minister Ehud Olmert makes a surprise visit to the Kremlin.  His message;

“In a situation in which Iran has nuclear weapons and Syria has sophisticated weapons from Russia, Israel will have to weigh its actions against these threats.”

Other Isreali officials (Ze’ev Hanin, an Israeli expert on Russian affairs) have declared Olmerts message as;

“Iran must not be allowed to acquire the atom bomb. Officials here have warned time and again that if the world does not stop Iran, Israel will. They say military action against Iran’s nuclear facilities is a last resort, but it is an option.”

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