Jeb & His Hacks Still Hacking at the Church/State Wall

And you thought he was the "good" or "competent" Bush? Or at least, safely out of power?

Think again. My buddy monitoring church/state relations and militant creationists attacking science education sent me this scary piece, from AlterNet.org:

... If former Gov. Jeb Bush and his allies have their way, all of these [Florida mainstream religious] schools – and private academies like them around the state – will soon be eligible for massive new streams of public funding, courtesy of the state’s taxpayers.

Bush has engineered onto the November ballot two initiatives that would eliminate the state constitution’s strict church-state separation provisions, mandate funding of religion and water down language requiring a quality public school system.

For advocates of church-state separation and strong public schools, it’s a political showdown with breath-taking possible consequences. ...
—By Joseph L. Conn, Church & State Magazine

FISA Delayed - Stay Vigilant

TPM Election Central | Talking Points Memo |

Looks like the Senate vote on the FISA cave legislation, which was set for as early as today or tomorrow, has been postponed until Senators come back from recess in July:

Senator Boxer on the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act

To watch this video, go to Boxers website, HERE!


If you don't have the current Flash Player you will be prompted to download and install it.

Charlie Brown on FISA

Calitics California Politics Blog

Brown was concerned that we seem to continue granting immunity to the wrong people, and not just the telecoms. We bail out Bear Stearns but not individual homeowners. We throw individual privates in jail for Abu Ghraib but never go up the chain of command. "There is an accountability problem in Washington, DC," as Brown put it. And the Title I aspects of the bill, which allow warrantless spying of bulk targets under executive-proclaimed "exigent circumstances," particularly with no need to throw out the intelligence gained that way if later found to to be illegal, was a concern as well.

If Charlie Brown can manage to run for office in what has traditionally been a heavily Republican district and understand that Constitutional principles and federal statutes must come first, then it's just impossible to take Bush Dogs who voted for FISA out of fear seriously. "Conservative Republicans should never vote for this kind of bill... they ought to be skeptical of government power and protective of civil liberties."

Beating back the offshore drilling hysteria

Aside from McCain's own flip-flop on this, the new call to open up offshore drilling will NOT do a thing to really change current gas prices--and does nothing to get us off Big Oil longterm except to go broke giving Big Oil another windfall:

As Crooks and Liars notes:

... The oil industry has drilled in only 19 percent of the more than 40 million acres they already can that are not covered by the current ban — 40 million acres that represent 79 percent of America’s technically recoverable offshore oil reserves. Using generous estimates from the latest analysis from Bush’s own Department of Energy, allowing unlimited drilling both offshore and in ANWR “would lower the price at the pump by less than 6 cents by 2025.”

As Sen. Reid correctly pointed out, this recent push by George Bush & John McBush represents “nothing more than a cynical campaign ploy that will do nothing to lower energy prices, and represents another big giveaway to oil companies already making billions in profits.” and the NYT went further to note that “the only real beneficiaries will be the oil companies that are trying to lock up every last acre of public land before their friends in power — Mr. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney — exit the political stage.“

Stop Steny's FISA cave-in! CALL NOW!!

This is unbelievable--after all we've been through and fought for... to have a Democrat lead the cave-in in the HOUSE on the FISA giveaways ... !! An aptly-named consortium of left and right dubbed Strange Bedfellows has come together to fight this practically overnight.

Author/blogger Glenn Greenwald is taking the lead, but as the New York Times’ editorial board says of Democratic House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer’s outrage:

[..]The bill is not a compromise. The final details are being worked out, but all indications are that many of its provisions are both unnecessary and a threat to the Bill of Rights. The White House and the Congressional Republicans who support the bill have two real aims. They want to undermine the power of the courts to review the legality of domestic spying programs. And they want to give a legal shield to the telecommunications companies that broke the law by helping Mr. Bush carry out his warrantless wiretapping operation.

And from unity@Democrats.COM:

Steny Hoyer's warrantless wiretapping bill is obscene because it gives complete immunity to the telcos that have spied on us illegally since 2001, as well as the Bush Administration officials who illegally asked them to break the law. And it lets them continue spying on us by creating Big Brother with a figleaf of meaningless "protections."

On May 14, Democrats defeated a similar immunity bill 213-197. There is absolutely no reason for any Democrat to change his or her vote now except corrupt greed for telco campaign cash.

What to do?? The club's Executive Board advises:

Call both our Burbank congressmen, Adam Schiff and Brad Sherman, and ask them to vote against this FISA bill! Call them at their Washington offices and at their district offices. Then e-mail them. And two hours latter, call again! And fax! You can call 24/7/365 and leave a message.

Brad Sherman:
http://bradsherman.house.gov/sherman/contact/
Washington phone: 202 225 5911 Washington fax: 202 225 5879
Local Phone: 818 501 9200 Local fax: 818 501 1554

Adam Schiff:
http://schiff.house.gov/HoR/CA29/Contact+Information/Contact+Form.htm
Washington phone: 202 225 4176 Washington fax 202 225 5828
Local phone: 626 304 2727 Local fax: 626 304 0572

Then Nancy Pelosi. She can decide that this bill will not even be considered.
Phone (202) 225-4965, Fax (202) 225-8259

Get after Steny Hoyer and tell him this is a bad deal:
Phone (202) 225-4131, Fax (202) 225-4300

And call Barack Obama at both his Senate office and his campaign and demand that he take a clear and unambiguous stand against this bill.
Senate: Phone (202) 224-2854, Fax (202) 228-4260
Campaign: (866) 675-2008

And here are more congressmen who need to hear from you! http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/6/19/115414/787/632/538388

Make no mistake about it: This is a Get out of Jail Free card for W and Dick!

Music + Irony

Call Your Congressperson!

V.A. Ban on Voter Drives Is Criticized - NYTimes.com

Voting rights groups are criticizing the Department of Veterans Affairs for its decision to ban registration drives among the veterans living at federally run nursing homes, shelters for the homeless and rehabilitation centers across the country.

The groups say such drives make it easier for veterans to register and participate in the political process, which could be particularly important this year in a presidential election in which the handling of the Iraq war and treatment of veterans will be major campaign issues.

Water Supply Alert!

Burbank Leader

The Metropolitan Water District of Southern California announced a water supply alert that does not call for mandatory restrictions, but does ask cities to ratchet up its efforts to save water in the face of the dry conditions, spokesman Bob Muir said.

“We’re urging local cities to update their drought ordinances,” he said. “A lot of them have them on the books and now it’s time to dust them off.”

The alert follows Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s announcement on June 4 of a statewide drought and comes more than four months after Metropolitan approved a Water Supply Allocation Plan to restrict water deliveries.

Officials could implement the plan — which would require cities to call for mandatory water restrictions — by spring 2009, Muir said.

Schwarzenegger declares statewide drought

sacbee.com

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger will declare a statewide drought Wednesday as farmers and communities face water shortages due to two consecutive years of below-average rainfall and court-imposed restrictions on the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.

The Republican governor will sign an executive order that seeks to accelerate water transfers to shortage areas, pursue federal assistance and improve coordination between government agencies.

The order does not impose statewide water rationing but attempts to reduce water use by bolstering state and local conservation programs.

Now we have a nominee

TPM Election Central | Talking Points Memo |

Nancy Pelosi has just said that the Democratic Primary is over, declaring Barack Obama the "nominee."

Pelosi's office just sent me some audio of some remarks she made to reporters from the cable networks that haven't aired yet. "Now we have a nominee," Pelosi said, "and that's pretty exciting."

John McCain wants HIllary's voters.

John McCain voted to filibuster the minimum wage. John McCain doesn't support the troops. John McCain agrees with Bush's Iraq strategy. John McCain wants to overturn Roe v. Wade. John McCain supports NAFTA. John McCain is a puppet for the lobbyists. John McCain is fine letting our troops rot in Iraq for 100 years.

Unfortunate, but inevitable

Gay marriage measure qualifies for November ballot

California voters will have a chance to overturn the recent state Supreme Court decision to legalize gay marriage just five months from now, as the secretary of state certified a measure to define marriage as "between a man and a woman" for the November ballot.

Proponents of the measure submitted more than 1.1 million signatures to qualify for the general election ballot. A random sampling by the Secretary of State's office determined they had collected more than the 694,354 valid signatures needed.

In 2000, more than 61 percent of voters passed Proposition 22, which defined marriage in state law as only "between a man and a woman." But in mid-May, the California Supreme Court ruled that measure was unconstitutional because it prevented same-sex couples from maintaining the same rights as straight couples.

I find this heartbreaking. Gay couples can adopt and raise children. but are denied the legal rights of co-parenthood; they can make the same life long commitments as straight people but can benefit from none of the legal advantages of that commitment; because of the sex of their partner, they are treated as different, they are discriminated against. Sad. I hope this measure fails miserably. And it very well might in what may very well be a presidential election with unprecedented turnout. When everyone votes, fears like these are exposed as radical and extreme. There is a reason the law was found unconstitutional, so lets not change the constitution.