Holy Crap Guys...

MONDAY AUGUST 13, 2007

Okay, so it's been about a month since I've put anything on this blog and I keep saying that I'll be better about that...*looks sheepish* heh, um...sorry?

Now though I really have to stay on the ball. My friends at The Free World Radio Network have been busy over the course of the last month. Hans Meyer, host of Situation Awareness, has designed an awesome home page for our rag tag band of Internet Personalities. So since we're becoming legit, I should pull my weight and actually update my blog more often.

The Free World Radio Network has launched a new show, on August 11th at 11am EST the first installment of The Free World Pub went live and in color( well colorful) on The Free World Radio Network. The Reverend Damien Darko, Hans Meyer, Brian Wolf, Michael Siliman and myself gathered in a virtual darkened pub and discussed Women in Political Blogging, Religion, Materialism among other things for 60 minutes of insight and laughter. If you missed us this week, I recommend tuning in next week and listening to us live. You can also check out the archive of last weeks show by visiting www.freeworldradionetwork.net clicking on programs, scroll down to The Free World Pub and click on the link to the show page on Blog Talk Radio.

On Sunday, Brian Wolf discussed Reverend Fred Phelps on Shakedown Street and will be doing part 2 this Sunday, August 19 at 4PM Pacific where he may have participation from Fred Phelps Jr. I'll keep you posted as this develops.

I'll be resuming my broadcasts of Cry Freedom beginning tomorrow, August 14th at 7PM Central Time with a segment about Whine and Cheese. Conservative pundits and bloggers whining about the hate from the left and then gleefully cutting the cheese all over the same people they accuse of being hateful freedom bashing facists seem a bit hypocritical to you? Yeah it does to me too, so I'll be spending an hour telling you all about it.

Now that the shameless self whoring is out of the way it's time for some shameless opining.

It is hard to know where to begin with the continuing Republican disconnect with reality. I'm also none too happy with certain Democratic Congresspeople right now.

I think I'll tackle Congress and the Protect America Act today.

I was understanding when this fucked up nation remained pretty fucked up seven months after the dems took over with a very slim majority. We in the reality based community understood that there was only so much that could be accomplished with a narrow majority and a President who was hell bent on vetoing just about everything that challenged his very limited vision of the nation and yes, the world. We understood that the bitter, obstructionist Republicans led by Senator Trent Lott in the Senate would and have obstructed as much meaningful legislation as possible in order to perpetuate the myth that this was a do nothing democrat controlled congress.

I'm going to start talking about the updated Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act and I'm not upset with some Democrats for the reasons you probably think.

Surveillance serves a purpose, no one can reasonably argue that it doesn't and no one can reasonably argue that FISA didn't need to be updated to include the leaps forward in technology and communication that have occurred since 1978. Reasonable people do not have a problem with this portion of the bill.

What I fail to understand is why any Democrat would vote in favor of giving a pass to acts committed by this Administration in the form of illegal, warrentless wiretapping by now saying that it is okay with their vote. I also fail to understand why any democrat would give broad and unconstrained decision making power as to what would constitute an appropriate use of the provision that allows for warrentless monitoring of communications to and from American Citizens.

In the house of representatives, there were 41 Democrats that did just this.

1. Jason Altmire
2. John Barlow
3. Melissa Bean
4. Dan Boren
5. Leonard Boswell
6. Allen Boyd
7. Christopher Carney
8. Ben Chandler
9. Jim Cooper
10. Jim Costa
11. Bud Cramer
12. Henry Cueller
13. Lincoln Davis
14. Artur Davis
15. Joe Donnelley
16. Chet Edwards
17. Brad Ellsworth
18. Bob Etheridge
19. Bart Gordon
20. Brian Higgens
21. Baron Hill
22. Nicholas Lampson
23. Daniel Lipinski
24. Jim Marshall
25. Jim Matheson
26. Mike McIntyre
27. Charles Melancon
28. Henry Mitchell
29. Collin Peterson
30. Earl Pomeroy
31. Ciro Rodriguez
32. Mike Ross
33. John Salazar
34. Stephanie Herseth-Sandlin
35. Heather Shular
    
36. Vic Snyder
37. Zachary Space
38. John Tanner
39. Gene Taylor
40. Timothy Walz
41. Charles Wilson

In the Senate there were 16 Democrats that voted in favor of this bill.

1. Evan Byah
2. Thomas Carper
3. Bob Casey
4. Kent Conrad
5. Diane Feinstein
6. Daniel Inoyue
7. Amy Klobuchar
8. Mary Landrieu
9. Blanche Lincoln
10. Claire McCaskill
11. Barbara Mikulski
12. Bill Nelson
13. Ben Nelson
14. Mark Pryor
15. Kenneth Salazar
16. Jim Webb

I did a little experiment with this bill. I did not pay attention to the vote. I did not know who voted how until after it had all been said and done, and before I looked it up I wandered around Blogworld listening to what our dear friends on the right had to say.

"Dems Cave" was the predominate sentiment in various forms around blog world and even to an extent in the MSM and Fox News.

And people wonder why Liberals and Progressives lay claim to the reality based community?

However, what I found distressing is that many of my fellow Liberals and Progressives were falling into the same trap and placing blame at the feet of the wrong people. So, above, I've listed the people who deserve to be blamed. There are 57 Democrats that deserve our anger, the rest of them voted the right way on this bill. The large majority of Democrats in Congress DO care about America and the freedom of her people and voted that way on August 3rd.

This is what happens when you have a very slim majority. This is why sometimes the wrong things get through and why the right things languish in congress. You can't realistically blame Speaker Pelosi or Majority Leader Reid for these things because their power is limited. There is only so much they can do.

It is also vitally important to remember that the Democrats that are voting in the best interest of America need our support. They need us to tell the truth and counter the spin being thrown out by the corporate and conservative machine. They need us to remind people who they are and how they are voting. They need our voices of support.

They also need us to remain calm and call for patience, they need us to remind people that with a slim majority the changes will take time and that unfortunately some changes will not happen unless we get more Democrats in office. These people do not want business as usual, they want change but in order to effect those changes they must not only have the tools but also the power to make better things happen for America.

Am I saying not to be angry? No, you should be angry, especially when a Democrat casts a vote that is clearly against the best interests of our great nation. What I am asking is that you do not lump all your Democratic representatives in with the few who are content with business as usual. What I am asking is that you do not sabotage the potential for change that having Democrats in Congress allows us by propagating dishonest talking points and continuing to allow the conservative loyalists to dominate the dialogue. Do not engage the the act of painting all Democrats with one brush as your conservative counterparts do. YOU are better than that. WE are better than that. Stick to the truth and keep us moving forward.

As always, thank you for reading.

Lisa Litchfield