This Is Becoming An Alan Grayson FanBlog

Grayson schools No-Nothing Rethugs trying to defund ACORN. When you claim to be upholding the Constitution, you'd better know a little about the document. Or Alan Grayson will flay you like a deer in the north woods. Watch and enjoy.

Sarah Palin Is Stupid

I mean, really, really stupid. Shouldn't you know at least a little about what the job you're running for entails? Watch this fool:

Q: Brandon Garcia wants to know, “What does the Vice President do?”

PALIN: That’s something that Piper would ask me!.... [T]hey’re in charge of the U.S. Senate so if they want to they can really get in there with the senators and make a lot of good policy changes that will make life better for Brandon and his family and his classroom.

From ThinkProgress:

Article I of the Constitution establishes an exceptionally limited role for the Vice President — giving the office holder a vote only when the Senate is “equally divided”:

The Vice President of the United States shall be President of the Senate, but shall have no vote, unless they be equally divided.

Moreover, the U.S. Senate website explains that the modern role of Vice Presidents has been to preside over the Senate “only on ceremonial occasions.” ThinkProgress contacted Senior Assistant Paliamentarian Peter Robinson, who also disputed Palin’s characterization of the Vice President’s role:

In modern practice the Vice President doesn’t really control the Senate. … If anyone has a responsibility to try to govern the Senate, it’s the responsibility of the two leaders

.

If someone came in to interview for a paralegal job, and told me she was looking forward to filling in for me in court, I'd smile at her and show her the door. Hopefully America will do the same with Stupid Palin.

Wuzz Happenin?

Today's cave, from wikipedia:
Photo by Dave Bunnell showing stalagmites, stalactites, and draperies by a pool in Lechuguilla Cave, New Mexico
Today is the day the Senate sells out the Constitution. It's just the fucking constitution, after all, no biggie, just the founding source of law and order for this once-great country. Congress now has a pre-1776 mentality. King George the Tyrant can now outsource violations of the law. Smirky McConstitutionFucker can order a private entity to violate the Constitutional prohibition against unreasonable searches and seizures and Congress will say hey, no problem, whatever, it's OK by us, we had our spines removed a decade ago, just do it. And the private entity can invoke the Nuremberg defense: They were just following orders. Javold, Herr Bush.

Here's what Congress is going to pass:

H.R. 6304, THE FISA AMENDMENTS ACT OF 2008 (6/19/2008)

The ACLU recommends a no vote on H.R. 6304, which grants sweeping wiretapping authority to the government with little court oversight and ensures the dismissal of all pending cases against the telecommunication companies. Most importantly:

• H.R. 6304 permits the government to conduct mass, untargeted surveillance of all communications coming into and out of the United States, without any individualized review, and without any finding of wrongdoing.

• H.R. 6304 permits only minimal court oversight. The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISA Court) only reviews general procedures for targeting and minimizing the use of information that is collected. The court may not know who, what or where will actually be tapped.

• H.R. 6304 contains a general ban on reverse targeting. However, it lacks stronger language that was contained in prior House bills that included clear statutory directives about when the government should return to the FISA court and obtain an individualized order if it wants to continue listening to a US person’s communications.

• H.R.6304 contains an "exigent" circumstance loophole that thwarts the prior judicial review requirement. The bill permits the government to start a spying program and wait to go to court for up to 7 days every time "intelligence important to the national security of the US may be lost or not timely acquired." By definition, court applications take time and will delay the collection of information. It is highly unlikely there is a situation where this exception doesn’t swallow the rule.

• H.R. 6304 further trivializes court review by explicitly permitting the government to continue surveillance programs even if the application is denied by the court. The government has the authority to wiretap through the entire appeals process, and then keep and use whatever it gathered in the meantime.

• H.R. 6304 ensures the dismissal of all cases pending against the telecommunication companies that facilitated the warrantless wiretapping programs over the last 7 years. The test in the bill is not whether the government certifications were actually legal – only whether they were issued. Because it is public knowledge that they were, all the cases seeking to find out what these companies and the government did with our communications will be killed.

• Members of Congress not on Judiciary or Intelligence Committees are NOT guaranteed access to reports from the Attorney General, Director of National Intelligence, and Inspector General.

Of course, FISA is just the tip of the government's abrogation of the Fourth Amendment; every branch, every agency, every law enforcement entity, they're all spying on us.

Tiny ray of light: Judge in Guantanamo case tells the government, no, you're not getting any more postponements, you've had these poor men in jail for six years. If you've had enough evidence to keep them in jail for six years, you're ready for trial right now. Go.

Hire these losers: Mark Penn starts a consulting company with Karen Hughes. Really.

I'm going to the studio to make pears. Reality is too depressing today.

In 2008, 30 Pieces of Silver Equals $8,359

Tate Britain (uk)
$8,359.

That's how much the average Congresscritter who changed his/her vote on FISA got from the telecoms.

$8,359 to sell out the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution.

Pretty good deal for the telecoms: about 165 customers' monthly cell bills to purchase blanket immunity.

Disgraceful Treatment of Veterans By Bush Administration

Bush's Veterans Administration is banning voter registration at federally run nursing homes, Veterans Administration hospitals, shelters, and rehab hospitals. This is the ultimate insult, to those who served their country to ensure democracy and are now disabled as a result, to be deprived of the franchise. A complete disgrace, but what can you expect from a bunch of constitution-hating chickenhawks?

NYTimes: V.A. Ban on Voter Drives Is Criticized

Cali Catching Up With Massachusetts

Supreme Court of California

NYTimes: California Supreme Court Overturns Gay Marriage Ban

Here's the actual opinion (pdf): In Re MARRIAGE CASES [Six consolidated appeals]

Steroid Hearings

Droning on in the background of my house.

My take: Roger Clemens is not the smartest person in the room.

Imagine if Congress spent as much time on Bush & the telecoms eviscerating the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution?

Nah.

Only the Little People Obey the Laws

President Bush and the telecoms just get Congress to exempt them.

Glenn Greenwald, salon.com: Amnesty Day for Bush and lawbreaking telecoms

Roger Clemens is more likely to get jail time for lying to Congress than President Bush will ever be for his multiple lies and lawbreaking. Disgraceful.

Huckabee: No Separation for Church and State

This guy is batshit crazy. He says he wants to amend the Constitution "so it's in God's standards". Somehow, I doubt that he really means it. Will he end the death penalty? Thou shalt not kill instructs the King James Bible (not that I'm a believer or anything, but the King James has the prettiest and most colorful language of any of the Bible versions). No, Huckabee is in favor of the death penalty, and as Arkansas governor the state carried out 16 executions. Thou shalt not kill being apparently advisory in nature to god-squadder Huckabee. He is the extreme example of the Republican party's capitulation to the religious right.

rawstory: Huckabee: Amend Constitution to be in 'God's standards'

"I have opponents in this race who do not want to change the Constitution," Huckabee told a Michigan audience on Monday. "But I believe it's a lot easier to change the Constitution than it would be to change the word of the living god. And that's what we need to do -- to amend the Constitution so it's in God's standards rather than try to change God's standards so it lines up with some contemporary view."

Here's the video: