OK. So 18 Democrats crapped their pants and gave up a golden opportunity to break out of the ” Democrats are unprincipled, weak-ass pussies” stereotype that has grown up over the past 5 years.

In a prefect world, here’s what the Democrats would have done.

1. They would have runded up the 41 votes necessary to force a filibuster, and shift the pressure onto the moderate Republicans who may not have the balls to oppose Alito, but who also may not have the stomach’s necessary to blow up the Senate with the nuclear option either.

2. The Democrats would get an uninterrupted media opportunity to make the case against Alito. Which would move the numbers against him. The more the public knows about Alito, the less they want him on the Court. In one recent poll, the public said by almost a 20 point marin that he should not be on the Court if he would vote to overturn Roe v. Wade.

At worst, the GOP blows yp the Senate (preferably with Dick Cheney casting the deciding vote) and the Democrats have their pride back, an energized base, and newfound respect earned from the voters.

Plus, the media would have been amazed at how the Dmocrats managed to do this on short notice.

Oh well. That’s what we get for having piss-poor visonless leadership in the Senate.

Now, for the real purpose of my post.

Let’s see if the Democrats can manage to get their acts together for the upcoming Senate Judiciary Committee hearings on Bush’s domestic spying program.

Here’s a suggestion, Democrats on the committee. Stop worrying about face time and grandstanding, and give one member of the Committee (say Chuck Schumer) ALL OF YOUR TIME FOR QUESTIONS!

I don’t need to see Joe Biden’s shit-eatin’ grin anymore. I want ONE SENATOR up there grilling the hell out of Alberto Gonzalez and other administration officials. Had they done this during the Alito, or Roberts hearings, I think we’d have seen a different result. The questioning would have been more consistent, and narratives would not have been lost. There must have been at least a dozen times when a Senator started getting some traction on an issue with Alito, and his damn time ran out.

So, the idea should be to either do what Al D’Amato did with the Whitewater hearings, and hire some high-powered, ass-kicking attorney to grill Bert Gonzo, or pick ONE Senator to do it, and funnel all questions through him or her.

My preference would be for Schumer to do it. If someone can make a case for Feingold or Leahy, I’d listen. But, quite frankly, I’d prefer Schumer. He’s smart, well-prepared and knows how to cross-examine.

Please God just do not let Ted Kennedy and Di-Fi bluster or look stupid. Just one voice for the Democrats on this.

Put your Goddamned egos aside, for once, and do something right.

If Dean’s spent a chunk of change making state parties more effective, I’d consider it cash very well spent.

Of course, considering Drudge’s record on getting the facts right, I’ve no way to know if the story’s even true.

I do know this: with Dean at the helm the Dems have started demonstrating more backbone than I’ve seen in years. And knowing Dean’s fundraising prowess, I don’t consider this shortfall - if there is one - as anything more than a temporary thing.

As I said at the outset, though, Dean promised to make the state parties more effective and better funded. If he’s acheved that, I’m certain we’ll see the results in November that’ll silence his critics completely.

Consider what a lousy job the NSA is doing.

Consider that George Bush the Elder was hired purportedly to reform the CIA in the last half of the 1970s. As a result, they didn’t see the Iran revolution coming and a few years later missed the evidence that the USSR was about to fall.

Consider that George Bush the Younger carried on the family tradition when he ignored the intel about Al Qaida prior to 9/11, then cooked the intel ever since to make the case against Iraq.

And consider what Condi Rice’s response was to the Hamas victory, as reported in the NY Times:

LONDON, Jan. 29 �€” Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice acknowledged Sunday that the United States had failed to understand the depth of hostility among Palestinians toward their longtime leaders. The hostility led to an election victory by the militant group Hamas that has reduced to tatters crucial assumptions underlying American policies and hopes in the Middle East.

“I’ve asked why nobody saw it coming,” Ms. Rice said, speaking of her own staff. “It does say something about us not having a good enough pulse.”

Consider that the FISA court has approved nearly 18,000 wiretap requests and rejected only four. Question: I don’t even recall 18 terrorists prosecuted, so how valid are all those approved wiretap requests?

Not to mention the tens of thousands of Americans Bush has spied on illegally. Where’s the results of all that intel work?

Answer: nowhere.

For 30 years, the Bush family’s handled all the intelligence. Yet they always claim to need more, bigger and better, legal or illegal. Yet even if we were to grant them that, their interpretation of all the data gained has been surprisingly consistent. Consistently wrong.

Isn’t it time America recognizes that a Bush and intelligence have never produced a single positive result? In fact, the Bush family and intelligence seem to be mutually exclusive. And if they always interpret the data wrong, why should we believe his interpretation of Scripture?

Of course, the reality is that Bush never relies on intelligence. He just sets a course and delivers propaganda mislabelled as intelligence. And as Jeanne notes at Body and Soul, his methods drive a stake through the heart of democracy.

Which is why the only intelligence we have to rely on is our own. We, the citizens of a dying democracy, must assemble our wits to save this democracy. We must exercise our collective intelligence to defeat the corruption that gnaw at the core of democracy with all the brains of a colony of rabid termites.

seeing Michelle Malkin try to make a mockery of Kennedy and Kossacks in the same post.

Of course, Michelle reserves her passionate displays of emotion for licking Karl Rove’s jackboots, with all the fire of a mudpuddle and all the affection of Nathan Bedford Forrest in a bedsheet wooing Harriet Tubman.

And if she had a brain, she’d still only be half as intelligent as Terry Schiavo’s corpse.

Harriet Miers won’t get an up or down vote.

And I’m changing my registration back to Independent where I’ll pursue the rise of third parties because the two party system is broken.

Kevin Drum asks the wrong question: “What does this say about the lefty blogosphere?”

The real questions are: What will the lefty blogosphere learn from this and aim to schieve next? And what does this mean for the chances of American democracy to survive?

The best comment I’ve read. Because we’re in a war and this is just one battle. Surrender is not an option.

The best message we can send in response to this cloture vote? Kevin de Bruxelles nails it. Let’s ‘raise the bat and put $100,000 in Ned Lamont’s coffers in the next 24 hours. We don’t need to immolate numerous Dems. Let’s target one, the titular head of the DINOs, as that will reverberate to the others that DINOs will be facing extinction if they don’t evolve.

Akaka, Daniel K. (D-HI) Yes
Baucus, Max (D-MT) Yes
Bingaman, Jeff (D-NM) Yes
Byrd, Robert C. (D-WV) Yes
Cantwell, Maria (D-WA) Yes
Carper, Thomas R. (D-DE) Yes
Conrad, Kent (D-ND) Yes
Dorgan, Byron L. (D-ND) Yes
Harkin, Tom (D-IA) NV NV
Inouye, Daniel K. (D-HI) Yes
Johnson, Tim (D-SD) Yes
Kohl, Herb (D-WI) Yes
Landrieu, Mary L. (D-LA) Yes
Lieberman, Joseph I. (D-CT) Yes
Lincoln, Blanche L. (D-AR) Yes
Nelson, Bill (D-FL) Yes
Nelson, E. Benjamin (D-NE) Yes
Pryor, Mark L. (D-AR) Yes
Rockefeller, John D., IV (D-WV) Yes
Salazar, Ken (D-CO) Yes

They’ll say they were trying to preserve the filibuster from being nuked, but when Alito nukes America, what good is that?

Go Ned Lamont!

Update: Since Lamont’s still in an exploratory phase, there’s no place to send your bucks just yet. Maybe we can convince Jane Hamsher or Kos to setup a special fund that will go 100% for Lamont if he runs, and otherwise will be spent on ANYONE who’ll put up a primary challenge to Lieberman (DINO head) or to Landrieux (because Katrina’s victims deserve at least one politician to be on their side).

Courtesy of ThinkProgress here’s a reminder of the KATRINA TIMELINE, while the MSM is in the process of obscuring the facts:

Friday, August 26

GOV. KATHLEEN BLANCO DECLARES STATE OF EMERGENCY IN LOUISIANA [Office of the Governor]

GULF COAST STATES REQUEST TROOP ASSISTANCE FROM PENTAGON: At a 9/1 press conference, Lt. Gen. Russel Honoré, commander, Joint Task Force Katrina, said that the Gulf States began the process of requesting additional forces on Friday, 8/26. [DOD]
Saturday, August 27

GOV. HALEY BARBOUR DECLARES STATE OF EMERGENCY IN MISSISSIPPI [Office of the Governor]

5AM CDT �€” KATRINA UPGRADED TO CATEGORY 3 HURRICANE [CNN]

GOV. BLANCO ASKS BUSH TO DECLARE FEDERAL STATE OF EMERGENCY IN LOUISIANA: �€œI have determined that this incident is of such severity and magnitude that effective response is beyond the capabilities of the State and affected local governments, and that supplementary Federal assistance is necessary to save lives, protect property, public health, and safety, or to lessen or avert the threat of a disaster.�€� [Office of the Governor]

FEDERAL EMERGENCY DECLARED, DHS AND FEMA GIVEN FULL AUTHORITY TO RESPOND TO KATRINA: �€œSpecifically, FEMA is authorized to identify, mobilize, and provide at its discretion, equipment and resources necessary to alleviate the impacts of the emergency.�€� [White House]
Sunday, August 28

2AM CDT �€“ KATRINA UPGRADED TO CATEGORY 4 HURRICANE [CNN]

7AM CDT �€“ KATRINA UPGRADED TO CATEGORY 5 HURRICANE [CNN]

MORNING �€” LOUISIANA NEWSPAPER SIGNALS LEVEES MAY GIVE: �€œForecasters Fear Levees Won�€™t Hold Katrina�€�: �€œForecasters feared Sunday afternoon that storm driven waters will lap over the New Orleans levees when monster Hurricane Katrina pushes past the Crescent City tomorrow.�€� [Lafayette Daily Advertiser]

9:30 AM CDT �€” MAYOR NAGIN ISSUES FIRST EVER MANDATORY EVACUATION OF NEW ORLEANS: �€œWe�€™re facing the storm most of us have feared,�€� said Nagin. �€œThis is going to be an unprecedented event.�€� [Times-Picayune]

AFTERNOON �€” BUSH, BROWN, CHERTOFF WARNED OF LEVEE FAILURE BY NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER DIRECTOR: Dr. Max Mayfield, director of the National Hurricane Center: �€œ�€˜We were briefing them way before landfall. �€� It�€™s not like this was a surprise. We had in the advisories that the levee could be topped.�€™�€� [Times-Picayune; St. Petersburg Times]

4PM CDT �€“ NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE ISSUES SPECIAL HURRICANE WARNING: In the event of a category 4 or 5 hit, �€œMost of the area will be uninhabitable for weeks, perhaps longer. �€� At least one-half of well-coseverely damaged or destroyed. �€� Power outages will last for weeks. �€� Water shortages will make human suffering incredible by modern standards.�€� [National Weather Service]

LATE PM - REPORTS OF WATER TOPPLING OVER LEVEE: �€œWaves crashed atop the exercise path on the Lake Pontchartrain levee in Kenner early Monday as Katrina churned closer.�€� [Times-Picayune]

APPROXIMATELY 30,000 EVACUEES GATHER AT SUPERDOME WITH ROUGHLY 36 HOURS WORTH OF FOOD [Times-Picayune]

LOUISIANA NATIONAL GUARD REQUESTS 700 BUSES FROM FEMA FOR EVACUATIONS: FEMA sends only 100 buses. [Boston Globe]
Monday, August 29

7AM CDT - KATRINA MAKES LANDFALL AS A CATEGORY 4 HURRICANE [CNN]

8AM CDT �€“ MAYOR NAGIN REPORTS THAT WATER IS FLOWING OVER LEVEE: �€œI�€™ve gotten reports this morning that there is already water coming over some of the levee systems. In the lower ninth ward, we�€™ve had one of our pumping stations to stop operating, so we will have significant flooding, it is just a matter of how much.�€� [NBC�€™s �€œToday Show�€�]

MORNING �€” BUSH CALLS SECRETARY CHERTOFF TO DISCUSS IMMIGRATION: �€œI spoke to Mike Chertoff today �€” he�€™s the head of the Department of Homeland Security. I knew people would want me to discuss this issue [immigration], so we got us an airplane on �€” a telephone on Air Force One, so I called him. I said, are you working with the governor? He said, you bet we are.�€� [White House]

MORNING �€“ BUSH SHARES BIRTHDAY CAKE PHOTO-OP WITH SEN. JOHN MCCAIN [White House]

11AM CDT �€” MICHAEL BROWN FINALLY REQUESTS THAT DHS DISPATCH 1,000 EMPLOYEES TO REGION, GIVES THEM TWO DAYS TO ARRIVE: �€œBrown�€™s memo to Chertoff described Katrina as �€˜this near catastrophic event�€™ but otherwise lacked any urgent language. The memo politely ended, �€˜Thank you for your consideration in helping us to meet our responsibilities.�€™�€� [AP]

I just don’t get it, Linus.

What’s the matter, Charlie Brown?

I don’t understand why a Democratic Senator who already opposes the extremist Supreme Court nominee of an unpopular President and is going to vote against him anyway would be hurting himself by supporting the filibustering of said extremist Supreme Court nominee.

That’s easy, Charlie Brown. Samuel Alito is not an extremist.

But all his past writings, his opinions, the entire course of his career show he’s a man devoted to taking away rights from regular people and giving more power to the forces of authoritarianism. That sounds like an extremist to me.

Sounds like my sister Lucy to me.

Remind me to tell him no way if Judge Alito offers to hold a football for me to kick. But isn’t the judge an extremist?

Of course not, Charlie Brown. An extremist would not have appeared at his televised hearings smiling and looking like a reasonable guy. He would have turned all red in the face at every question, fire would have come out of his nostrils, and his head would have spun completely around on his neck. He would have told the Senators when they asked him that he not only wanted to overturn Roe v. Wade, he wanted to have all women of childbearing years forcibly impregnated by their husbands and overlords. And the wife of a real extremist wouldn’t have broken down in tears when a big mean old Liberal caught her husband in a lie and called him on it.

But what about President Bush? He is unpopular, isn’t he?

He can’t be unpopular. He is a wartime President. All wartime Presidents are popular.

But the polls…

The polls count everybody. But the only people who matter, really, are his Republican base. They love him.

So even if his approval ratings fall below 40 percent again he’ll still be a popular President if his base loves him?

I’m afraid so.

But what about the Democratic base? Won’t they be upset if their Senators don’t oppose Alito?

The Democratic base doesn’t count. The Democratic base are a bunch of overly sensitive, smug, out of touch, metrosexuals and girly men. They aren’t real Americans.

Oh. So the Democratic Senators should never do anything to make their base happy because that would offend real Americans?

Sure, Charlie Brown. It’s much more important that a Democratic Senator win one conservative vote than three Liberal ones. Besides, who are those three Liberals going to vote for anyway?

What if they stay home on election day because they are tired of being taken for granted and sick of their Senators never doing anything that they want them to do.

Then they are just being big babies, and that proves that they aren’t real Americans. Real Americans don’t pout, Charlie Brown.

But what about all those Democrats who plan to vote against Judge Alito but won’t support the filibuster? If you’re voting against him, doesn’t that mean you don’t want him to be on the Supreme Court? And if you don’t want him on the Supreme Court, shouldn’t you do what you can to stop him from being appointed? Shouldn’t you stand up and fight for your principles?

Only Republicans have principles, Charlie Brown. The Democrats are controlled by their special interests. Whenever a Democrat takes a supposedly principled stand, he’s really just kowtowing to his special interests.

So you’re saying that whenever a Democrat stands up for what he believes in, he’s really being weak?

Yep.

So it’s better when a Democrat just surrenders and lets the Republicans do whatever they want?

That’s what conventional wisdom is all about, Charlie Brown.

Rats!

Well, it’s like the Preacher says.

You’re about to smugly quote a verse from the Bible again, aren’t you?

“The race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, nor bread to the wise, nor riches to the intelligent, nor favor to the men of skill.”

I can’t stand it. I just can’t stand it.
__________________________________
Call you Senators. Ask them to stand and fight!

Cross-posted at my place.

If you appreciate biodiversity and want to read about organisms other than pet cats, and if you aren’t too squeamish about spiky creatures with crunchy carapaces of squishy ones encapsulated in slime, the latest Circus of the Spineless is just the thing for you. Browse the thumbnails at Pharyngula, and follow through to the critter that appeals to you most. I thought the snail armored in iron sulfide was spectacular, but the mantispids are pretty neat, too, and I’ll always have a soft spot for the squid. Oh, and the strange pram bugs that occupy salp tests…never mind, you need to read them all.

While you are bleeding at the gas pump, the oil companies are taking record profits home to their shareholders. Just thought you’d want to know.

But you have to read the foreign press to learn this.

Lucia Pinochet gave up her asylum bid (which I wrote about here) in the US and returned to Chile today:

A federal judge greeted a tired Lucia Pinochet Hiriart, 60, as she arrived from Buenos Aires, where she made a brief stopover after being sent back from Washington late Friday.

"Ms. Lucia, how nice that you’ve arrived, please come with me so that I can arraign you," Judge Carlos Cerda, who is handling the tax case against the Pinochet family, told her as she came off the plane.

Pinochet Hiriart, dressed in a light pink shirt and cream pants, was then taken to a detention center in downtown Santiago where she will be held until a decision is made on bail.

Why should she get bail? She’s already proven that she’s a flight risk. I love her post-facto ass-covering:

"There was so much being said about me in Chile that I preferred to come and show my face and clear the air," Pinochet Hiriart said when she was asked why she withdrew her asylum request.

I also love her cry for sympathy:

On her arrival in the US, at Washington’s Dulles airport, she was denied entry and taken into custody.

She had arrived from Argentina and was transferred to an immigration service detention centre while her position was assessed.

She told a reporter on her flight home that during her short stay there she was "very badly treated" and forced to wear a prison uniform.

Get used to it. At least she wasn’t dumped in the Mapopo River or buried in an abandoned mine in the Tacama Desert.

Chevron Corp. reported the highest profits in its 126-year history Friday, prompting outrage and charges of gouging that are likely to echo through next week as other oil giants report their earnings.

[link]

“It’s a pattern,'’ said Comey, the AAA spokesman. “Prices go up, consumers get angry, politicians investigate, nothing changes.”

Wait. I thought 9-11 changed everything. I thought the war in Iraq wasn’t supposed to have anything to do with oil. Unh-unh, no way.

Questions for the press to ask:

How many oil executives have attended the funerals of our 2300 dead soldiers who died to make them fatcat war profiteers the fattest?

How many oil executives has Bush accidentally wiretapped for their conversations with mad tyrants using WMDs to attack tens of thousands of civilians?

Dahlia Lithwick:

Vice President Cheney was sued by two watchdog groups�€”Sierra Club and Judicial Watch�€”for information about the outsiders who served on his energy policy task force in 2001. The watchdogs contend that “task force” was just a series of cozy get-togethers in which energy executives and lobbyists, including Ken Lay, took turns sitting on Cheney’s lap, licking his ear, and requesting special favors. The final report issued by the commission sort of reads that way. When Cheney was ordered to produce the rosters and minutes of these meetings as part of pretrial discovery, he appealed that order all the way up to the U.S. Supreme Court.

You remember Ken Lay, don’t you? He’s the Jack Abramoff of energy.

And giving aid and comfort to this terror group? Why that would be the Supreme Court.

Fortunately, Congress will represent the interests of us Americans by washing our windshields with mud while the oil execs mug us. Then they’ll put a pro-oil ringer named Alito on that court to keep the oil execs safe.

We’ll pay with record budget deficits, we’ll pay with higher pump prices, and we’ll pay with the blood of 2,300 troops.

If Alito joins the Supreme Court, we’ll return to old-fashioned filling stations and service with a smile.

And if those nasty Dems try to filibuster Alito, our Republican protectors will go to “the nuclear option” to keep those frightened oil execs safe and to keep each of us illegally wiretapped.

Those who endanger our American democracy are not terrorists who hate our freedoms. It’s the greedy oil barons who’d suck our Constitution and wallets dry with the full blessing of every elected Republican, who only build levees to hold back the minimum wage.

For Chevron’s “highest profits in its 126-year history”.

Is we safer yet?

What? No terror alert?

Oh, that’s right. Only the desire for nuclear arms should cause us to worry. During a presidential campaign. Actual possessors of nukes threatening an attack? YAWWWWN.