This is the impression I've had about Harry Reid for some time now ...

... It's almost enough to make one believe that the inability to "get 60 votes" to support their claimed agenda is a desired, rather than lamentable, state of affairs.

So much of what Reid does seems engineered to produce results opposite to what he claims to be supporting.

And Obama is apparently supportive of Harry Reid as leader of the Senate. This is one of the reasons why, though I think Obama will get something he can point to as meeting his promise about healthcare, the actual product will not be anything like a national health care plan but, instead, something concocted by the insurance companies with Obama's cooperation to fool the rubes for a few years.

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Today's QUOTES:

... the psychologists who helped the military and the CIA develop torture techniques have a special place in hell waiting for them alongside some of the most terrible people in history. ... --Shrinking Violence by digby, Hullabaloo ... These were murders directly coming out of a program of interrogation approved and directed at the highest levels. But according to the Democratic Majority Leader of the Senate, it was the "right" decision. And thus the law becomes irrelevant. --If Homicide Is Wrong, I Don't Wanna Be Right by dday, Hullabaloo Many people scoff at the notion that the American media propagandizes the American citizenry, but here one sees the vivid essence of that process. Our establishment media loves to point to and loudly condemn the behavior of other governments as proof of how tyrannical and evil they are [...] while completely ignoring, when they aren't justifying, identical behavior by our own government. [...] complaining about the rights-abridging behavior of other countries while ignoring the same behavior from our own government is worse than a mere failure of duty. It is propagandistic and deceitful, as it paints a misleading picture that it is other governments -- but not our own -- which engage in such conduct. --Roxana Saberi's plight and American media propaganda by Glenn Greenwald, salon.com

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Why ...

... are Reid, Pelosi, Hoyer and other Democrats so insistent on helping George W. Bush hide his crimes?

If they do back down on FISA and telecom immunity then they should be kicked out of their positions in the Democratic Party and kicked out of office as fast as possible.

I wonder if they would consider that a fair trade for their betrayal ...

Jokes and other important matters ...

Avoidance by joke -
David Baltimore, the outgoing president of AAAS, spoke harsh words about the performance of banana-brain Bush and his enablers in Congress. I don't know if Baltimore has been as up-front about the crimes and disasters this country and others have been subject to at the hands of this worst of worst US administrations but whether these are his first words on this subject or just the latest of many they are important and deserve respect which is more than I can say for many in the US government. What really offended me was the cutesy, joke-like title to the article in the Science Magazine that reported on Baltimore's speech:

Tell Us What You Really Think, Professor Baltimore by Eli Kintisch

Right on, Prof. Baltimore. Bad show Science Mag and Eli Kintisch!

Other Serious Matters -
Paradox at The Left Coaster writes:

It’s hard to be happy the House works when the Senate is as busted as ever.

The House worked this time, but I wouldn't say the House 'works.' I fully expect them to come back and cave because that's what they've done time after time after time after time and on and on and on ...

Early on in Pelosi and Reid's majority status tenure I would send e-mails congratulating them (and others) on their stand on some issue or other only to find they had cravenly caved in to the ridiculous, illogical and perverse threats of a criminal and out-of-control administration almost before I hit the send button.

I don't believe them anymore. Both Reid and Pelosi have to go. I do not have confidence in them. And I don't know how they can gain my confidence at this point.

Yesterday's QUOTES ...

But there’s got to be a better way to keep the country on its toes than scaring the tar out of us. It’s a high the American psyche can’t and won’t maintain and I wish the Feds would grasp a better understanding of this.

For about three years following the Sept. 11 attacks, the watchword was Mexico. For a little while, 2003 to 2005, it became Canada but that proved to be boring.

Then things picked up again in 2004 when a South African woman, Farida Ahmed, with pages missing from her passport, was popped crossing the Rio Grande.

That story was reluctantly let go by most congressmen and newspapers after she was held on immigration violations and deported home. Now the word coming down from Washington is that the terrorists walk among us.

Frankly, Secretary Chertoff, I wish you and the terrorists would make up your damned minds.

... Harry Reid ... took our money and support last year to become majority leader apparently so he could advance the Bush agenda as well or better than Mitch McConnell could. Harry Reid --not a poor puppy but-- a wolf in Democratic clothing?

... an international research team has discovered that during the warm period following the next-to-last ice age, when global temperatures reached at least 2°C above the current average, the seas rose by as much as 6 meters over just a few hundred years.

Thank you Senator Dodd ...

From this point out I will support your nomination to run for president as a Democrat.

'Til now I've only been looking at who I didn't want running for President (Senator Obama).

I quite like John Edwards but he doesn't seem to quite take hold or he backed off 'taking hold' or I don't know quite what.

I think Hilary Clinton is qualified and will vote for her if she is nominated.

BUT, you Senator Dodd are the ONLY one who has acted on principle.

The other presidental hopefuls are not much removed from Senator Reid. They support the Constitution and the law and do nothing to stop legislation that subverts the Constitution and invalidates the law for specific people and organizations (namely the Bush mafia and the corporate mafia). After all Senator Reid 'agreed' with you, Senator Dodd, that passing a law granting the communications companies immunity was a bad idea. Senator Reid 'agreed' with you as he insisted that that very version of the bill MUST be the version to be voted on. Senator Reid 'agreed' with you as he ignored your hold on the bill while honoring the holds of Republicans. Senator Reid 'agreed' with you but somehow cannot help himself? After all he's just the elected leader of the Senate, that's all! Poor little puppy, Senator Reid.

For months now we've had Democrats, who are in the majority, by the way, tell us how much they don't like the bills that are being passed, the approval of the war they keep giving to Bush, the lack of accountability, the state of the administration and its disregard for all law ... and yet, they continue to pass those bills, they never filibuster, they continue to approve Bush's nominees when anyone who pays attention knows that Bush will NOT nominate anyone who will not agree to his bidding in advance. What is the Senate smoking?

You, Senator Dodd, are the only one who has done anything. And the other presidential hopefuls did nothing, nada, zilch.

UPDATE: Thanks also to

• Barbara Boxer
• Sherrod Brown
• Russ Feingold
• Ted Kennedy
• Bill Nelson
• Ron Wyden

Why ...

... must we continually beg (lobby?) Reid to do the right thing? The right thing which he often does not do preferring to fall in line with a crooked, deceptive and lying administration.

The decision is Reid's--go with his Democratic caucus, or go with the administration.

Update II: I've heard a rumor that there will be an all Senate briefing with Director of National Intelligence Admiral McConnell, and Attorney General Mukasey tomorrow afternoon on FISA. This sounds like an all out offensive by the administration on protecting the telecoms.

Call your Senators and urge them to 1) lobby Reid to bring the Judiciary Committee's bill to the floor, and 2) tell them to oppose any bill that includes telecom anmnesty.

So Senator Reid ...

Today's Must Read

By Paul Kiel - November 6, 2007, 9:42AM

So now that the country has undergone its collective tutorial on the torture technique waterboarding (see here, here, and here if you missed class), Congress is ready to begin voting on the nomination of Michael Mukasey for attorney general.

So Senator Reid once again takes out his RUBBER STAMP for a Bush nominee. By being a non-leading 'leader of the Senate' Reid is ensuring that Mukasey will be approved. Reid helps Bush appoint another pro-torture Attorney General, albeit one not as stupid as the previous one.

I just don't think these people understand that as the driver of a bank robber's getaway vehicle is taking part in the crime the failure of our Senators and Representatives to fight this administration when it is doing wrong (which is most, if not all, of the time) makes them complicit in the crimes being committed in our names. They are also responsible and should be placed in the dock along with Bush and his gang of criminals.

I thought the problem might be generational but then I look at the younger elected Democrats, like Representative Giffords from Arizona and even Senator Obama and I see the same tendencies to the mere spouting of platitudes; making spurious justifications and excessive excuses.

I realize that the Republicans are worse, but Democrats just ain't no prize either ...

Oh, how the mighty never were ...

I thought Pelosi was going to be good for the House. Well, she's proved me wrong time after time ...

Pelosi rebukes Stark for Iraq comments

She's supposed to be a leader and she's not. Not only that but she often follows the Republican lead on the most stupid and ridiculous issues, no less.

ADDED 10/22 AT 6:37pm - I should had added that I think Reid is worse than Pelosi and that Pelosi has actually done a few things right. But in total she is just too likely to try to stem Republican stupidities by agreeing or apologizing. In this she's following the worst strategy ever.

I am not a Democrat ...

I am not a Democrat ... and I'm not going to bother signing some form so officialdom can identify me as an independent .

The Democrats who are in the majority (slight though it may be) have given the Senate to the Republicans. How are these people any different than collaborators in war zones? What do they think they are doing and why? Are they being threatened? Are they trying to save their families from Bush.

Goodness, they don't even need threats to cave! Or has Bush threatened to blow up major cities, American cities that is, and the Republican mafia is backing him? .... mmmm, after years of BushWorld this is actually horribly possible.

Read about the Democratic Senators' perfidy here: The Filibuster: now painless and more convenient than ever! by Kagro X

ADDED: Sen. Reid: Do Your Job And Make Them Stand And Filibuster by Christy Hardin Smith

Wanna bet ...

Trapper John writes: No More Gonzos.

A Democratic-led Senate cannot allow this Administration to once again graft the cancer of cronyism to the head of the Justice Department.

Watch, the Democrats will do nothing, nothing, but talk as if they still had (or is that ever had) a few principles left and watch it happen. Some of them will actually grease the skids.

There are no elected Democrats.

Don't stop now Harry ...

Is Ron Elving at www.npr.org as much of a dunce as he seems in this article (All-Nighter Focuses Media Attention on War Pullout)?

Of course, this aggressive strategy is the worst way to make friends and influence people in the Senate. If you really want to romance senators into voting your way, you don't start by forcing them up against the wall. Reid may well find his efforts causing the GOP to circle its wagons more closely than ever, and to become more protective of its president. That may well make it more difficult to bring the war to a swift conclusion.

But the fact is that many in the Senate have already despaired of a swift conclusion to this war. They now expect the September report of Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, to be inconclusive. They expect the president to press on into 2008. And they expect the real crunch to come when, sometime around March of next year, Defense Secretary Robert Gates tells the president there are no more troops available and qualified to rotate into Iraq. At that point, many now believe, meaningful reductions in U.S. troop strength will be unavoidable.

In the first paragraph above Elving criticizes Harry Reid's "aggressive strategy" and parrots the usual media idiocy suggesting that Democratic aggressiveness will just make the GOP Bush kissing Republican Senators worse. Worse than treasonous, lying, cheating, thieving hypocrites? Well, I suppose it's possible, but is that a legitimate reason for the head of the Senate to avoid doing his job? It's certainly the one that's been most in use til now.

Sometimes one must stand up to the bully. And THAT is Harry Reid's job. And I say it's about time and keep is up, dammit, Harry!

Hopefully the Democrats do not plan to go back to non-business as usual tomorrow ...

God ... it's about time!

Reid to the GOP: You want to filibuster? Then do it.

Why, why, why ...

If Bush vetoes the money for the troops, he is the one turning down the money.

Why does Congress refuse to understand their own power and worse, their responsibilities? Because the Republican Congress kowtowed to the the childish tantrum-throwing Bush does not mean the Democratic Congress has to do the same.

If Bush vetoes the bill ask him where he's going to get the money from?

And why are Democrats letting the corporate press dictate the debate. The corporate press just parrots baby Bush's childish babble ...

Why do Democrats keep saying publicly that they will go back and create another bill? There's the bill. Sign it, kiddo.