April 2005 Archives

[An exciting installment in our ongoing series to heal the politically lame… this cryptic note was delivered to me while on vacation in Escanaba, Michigan.]

Dear Polly:

I would have called you, but I think my phone has been wire-tapped. I am a government employee. Meet me in the lobby of the Antler Lodge near the potted pine at 6:00 pm… I need your help. Your country needs your help. Please burn this letter after you read it.

Signed,

X

Needless to say I was completely a-twitter upon receipt of this mysterious missive! I must share with my readers that my heart was beating quite rapidly as I approached the lobby of the lodge, and cast about to find the designated potted pine.

And then I saw him.

It was as if the Earth stood still. No sound. No movement. Just those remarkable eyes, shining between pine boughs.

I quickly pulled myself together, and reminded myself that I was here as part of the All-Across-the-USA-Resistance movement. I had to keep my wits about me. He stepped out from behind the pine, and motioned for me to take a seat.

What follows is the best memory can summon of our conversation. I will confess that had he not been so strikingly handsome, so troubled in a sensitive yet manly way, I may have recalled more details. Alas, dear reader, I am but human.

X: Thank you for meeting me. I don’t have much time.
PS: Oh, my god… you’re dying…
X: No, I’m late for a meeting. Did you see the President’s news conference?
PS: Sadly, yes.
X: Do you think anyone bought it?
PS: Not that I’ve found. And I do have my finger on the political pulse of America.
X: I know. That’s why I asked you here. Listen, what I’m going to ask you is very important.
PS: Naturally.
X: Have you received a letter from a guy in Missouri?
PS: Yes, it was appalling.
X: I thought so. We’ve been watching him for a long time. But now we think he might be watching us.
PS: I can see why.
X: Thanks, but that’s not what I mean... we think he’s in counter-intelligence, and he’s been working against some of us in the company. He’s not really from Missouri.
PS: The scoundrel…
X: He’s a member of the home team… if you get my meaning.
PS: Of course. He plays for the Tigers.
X: No, he’s a member of the administration.
PS: Oh, dear… how intriguing.
X: We’d like you to maintain contact with him.
PS: You realize he’s quite disgusting…
X: Oh yeah, we realize that. We’ve just got to catch him at it.
PS: I understand. I will do my duty and write to him immediately.
X: Tell him you want to meet him.
PS: Actually, he suggested that in his first letter…
X: Excellent.
PS: Where should I meet him?
X: Pick a hotel lobby. I don’t care which one. Then call me at this toll free number. Tell me where you’re meeting. I have to go now. Please tell no one of this meeting.
PS: Of course not. I am the picture of discretion, darling…I mean X.
X: Thank you. And one more thing before I go…
PS: Yes?
X: I find courageous women very attractive.

As my eyes melted into his, he nodded quickly and disappeared. I then concluded that I could not proceed intelligently without a martini, and walked slowly across the lobby to the bar.

I pondered my new assignment and sipped my martini, realizing suddenly that I was now engaged in espionage to save my beloved country. X and I together. Fighting sculduggery and protecting the American Dream.

I felt very proud.

Discreetly yours,

Polly

Good Morning Hitchhikers...

(Oh sorry-took my son to see the movie last night. Assessment: God, I miss Douglas Adams. We all need to grab our towels these days, don't we? Go see it--stunning work).

About the DCP:

How many have noticed what is on this website beyond the Blog and Forum? Let's go to the newsreel:

1. The Front Page: Have you noticed that it changes daily? This is where we put the Five Minutes of Democracy a Day, Talk About It, and Learn About It suggestions. We also put late-breaking important news at the top when necessary. The photos come from the DCP Crew members, but you can also submit photos for this page, along with...

2. the right nav bar has a place for photos of your groups or gatherings. We see democracy cells happening all over. Take digital photos and send them in to info@democracycellproject.net and we can change them more regularly. There are lots of other links on the right nav bar; follow them--the right nav bar leads you inside the site, as opposed to the...

3. left nav bar, which has links outside the site. The organizations listed are worth your time, in our humble opinion. The list is hardly exhaustive, but we have vetted all those sites and found them to add value to what we do here. There is one other item on the left nav bar that I want to bring to your attention...

4. the button that says Grow Democracy Cells/Donate Here. The DCP is a participatory community, and we all learn from each other, but we are also a nonprofit and the site needs maintenance and updates regularly. Right now, no one gets paid to do this work, but we would love to be able to support our volunteers with occasional trainings and participation in conferences, so we can grow and expand our community. If everyone who came to the site clicked on that button once a month and donated $10 or more, we would be able to relax a little and move this effort along.

An economist by profession, Atrios gives a good and easy analysis of what President Bush proposed last night:

The Plan

In one paragraph:

President Bush called on Congress last night to curtail future Social Security benefits for all but low-income retirees in an urgent new effort to address the popular program's shaky finances.

Let's be clear, by "low income" we're really talking about "low income." Everyone else gets big benefit cuts. Here's the CBPP analysis of the Pozen plan, which is basically what Bush is embracing.

A "medium" earner, one earning $36,507 in 2005, would see benefits cut by 16% in 2045 and 28% in 2075.

A "high" earner, one earning $58,411 in 2005, would see benefits cut by 25% in 2045, and 42% in 2075.

By 2100, basically everyone earning above $20,000 would earn exactly the same benefit, no matter how great their tax contribution was. You think Social Security provides a poor rate of return now? Just wait.

This turns the system into a modest welfare program.

And, let me add, for most workers this is worse in the long run than the "do nothing" plan - the one which assumes given current projects benefits would have to be cut 28% or so starting somewhere between 2040-2050.

(via Atrios, and thanks to Dr. Black)

I'd like to add this suggestion to what Dr. Black has given us:

I think this information would make a good one pager for the people we are looking to share the truth with about what the government is doing to our future and our children's future. Additionally, this is a very good illustration of how government affects our everyday lives, which can also be a difficult concept for folks who are unfamiliar with politics to get their arms around. It's also good fodder for Letters to the Editor in your local papers.

Let's be sure to share this with our friends, neighbors and members of our community.

As always, let's remember to work from the heart.

Let's start with the awards...

BEST POLITICAL KNEECAPPING AND THE BIG STORY

President Bush left Frist, Dobson, Perkins, and the rest of the Fristian Right out on a big limb all by themselves with this exchange from NBC's David Gregory:

Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist has defended the claim that opponents of President Bush’s judicial nominees are “against people of faith.” Tonight President Bush was asked if he agreed, and his answer was clear:

BUSH: … I just don’t agree with it.

QUESTION: You don’t agree with it?

BUSH: No. I think people oppose my nominees because of judicial philosophy.

QUESTION: Sir, I asked you about what you think of…

BUSH: No, I know what you asked me.

QUESTION: … the way faith is being used in our political debates, not just in society generally.

BUSH: Well, I can only speak to myself. And I am mindful that people in political office should not say to somebody, You’re not equally American if you don’t happen to agree with my view of religion.

Good night, Senator Dr. Mr. Frist, James, Dobson, Tony Perkins, and the rest of the Fristians. Don't let the door hit you on the way out...

BEST DISPLAY OF BAMBOOZLING (ALSO KNOWN AS THE JOSH MARSHALL AWARD)

The award goes to...President Bush!

There was so much bamboozling going on tonight in that press conference that it was easy to miss one essential contradiction in the president's argument. You don't have to worry about private accounts, he said, because if you want you can fill your account with US Treasury bonds which have no risk at all. They're backed by the full faith and credit of the US government. But he says that the very same Treasury notes, when they're in the Trust Fund, are just worthless IOUs.

BEST IDIOTIC BUSH QUOTE TO ADD TO THE LIST OF 1,205,305,472 BUSHISMS

Bush On Terrorism

"We need to find those people who intend to do us harm and remove them from harm's way."

BEST MISSING IN ACTION-NEWSMAKERS THAT REPORTERS FORGOT TO ASK ABOUT:TOM DELAY AND OSAMA BIN LADEN

It's hard to believe that in a press conference so long that it went over its scheduled time, reporters never got around to asking about embattled House Majority leader Tom DeLay, or the status of the government's ongoing efforts to capture or kill the criminal responsible for the worst terrorist attack on American soil, Osama Bin Laden. It was particularly surprising given the fact that both partisanship and 9/11-terrorism were discussed by the President. Well, we don't call them the White House Press Corpse for nothing.

And our last award

BEST PRESS CONFERENCE BLOGGING BONUS NUGGET OF FUN

In a daring move, NBC, CBS, FOX and other television networks pulled the plug on the President's press conference to return to scheduled programming, despite the fact that the conference continued for nearly another fifteen minutes.

You have to wonder who the decision maker was over at CBS who said, "Cut the President. Go to Survivor! NOW, dammit." At NBC, they cut him off for "The Apprentice", which, is weird, because you would think that if the audience liked one apprentice, they would like them all. And on Fox, in a strangly similar twist of fate as NBC faced, the President was given the ax in favor of "The Simple Life: The Interns".

Okay, so I was wrong. Apparently,if you've seen one intern you haven't seen them all.

Now, we go below the fold to the grim reality...with a huge assist from the Think Progress Team. You have my deepest gratitude and thanks for the rapid response research.

Just a little reminder for everyone:

Per CNN, the President's rare, unusual, hardly ever done, once-a- yearish-if-he-feels-like-it press conference has been rescheduled from its original time of 8:30PM-EDT, to 8:00PM-EDT.

Tonight, on the IRC (CHAT ROOM), we will be deconstructing the frames (and maybe a few other things...people..) that President Bush will be using tonight in his attempt to bolster his Social Security debacle.

Join us after 8 pm EST. Discussions and blogging will ensue.

We WELCOME new participants! You have to download a small piece of java software if you do not already have it. The link is provided on the DCP Live Chat page.

If you have trouble logging in, please let the tech staff know HERE.

Republican leaders, reading off of the same tired page of talking points, have repeatedly asserted that the Democratic use of filibuster to block judicial nominees is unprecidented. Here is an example, Senator Frist on March 1, 2005:

It is true that after 220 years of history in this country in the last Congress for the first time in history a judicial nominee came from the president to our body and we denied them, we denied them because of the use of filibuster an up or down vote for the first time ever.

He's lying.

Here is Walter Cronkite's new broadcast from September 25, 1968, featuring a report on the filibuster from Roger Mudd:

Good evening. The Senate today began its expected, but unprecedented, filibuster against confirmation of a President’s nominee for Chief Justice of the United States, Abe Fortas.

The closing of Roger Mudd's report on the filibuster by Republicans:

If the administration falls embarrassingly short of the two thirds vote needed to break the filibuster, the nomination could well be withdrawn. Roger Mudd, CBS News, Washington.

Watch the video.

More via WaPo.

From Air America:

This isn’t new information, but it’s hard to sustain the fantasy that 1968 didn’t contain a filibuster once you’ve watched the actual newscast.

Thanks to Air America Radio, and hat tip to Ira for the request.

There ought to be a law against using crap made-up phrases, like "deliberately misled", instead of just saying what is what.

From Gallup via E&P:

NEW YORK Half of all Americans, exactly 50%, now say the Bush administration deliberately misled Americans about whether Iraq had weapons of mass destruction, the Gallup Organization reported this morning.

"This is the highest percentage that Gallup has found on this measure since the question was first asked in late May 2003," the pollsters observed. "At that time, 31% said the administration deliberately misled Americans. This sentiment has gradually increased over time, to 39% in July 2003, 43% in January/February 2004, and 47% in October 2004."

Also, according to the latest poll, more than half of Americans, 54%, disapprove of the way President Bush is handling the situation in Iraq, while 43% approve. In early February, Americans were more evenly divided on the way Bush was handling the situation in Iraq, with 50% approving and 48% disapproving.

Now that half or more of America thinks that the Bush Administration "deliberately misled" Americans about whether Iraq had WMD, can the media please retire the phrase "deliberately misled" and start using the correct phrase?

I'll even go first--they are liars.

Over at one of my favorite blogs, First Draft, Holden has an item up about Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's confusing response yesterday about whether or not we are winning the war in Iraq.

You can go read the full item on Rumsfeld's gaffe and Myer's attempt at the late save, but here's the part that struck me:

But even Gen. Myers had to admit that U.S. forces have made absolutely no progress over the past year.

Iraq's insurgency remains undiminished in its capabilities in the past year despite U.S.-led efforts to crush the rebels, the top American general said on Tuesday.

"I think their capacity stays about the same," Air Force Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said of Iraq's insurgents during a Pentagon briefing. "And where they are right now is where they were almost a year ago."

[snip]

Myers said rebels are staging 50 or 60 attacks a day in Iraq after the number had dipped to about 40 daily. He said the number of daily attacks is about the same as a year ago.

Now, here's what concerns me about that statement. I write an informational and commentary blog about politics, government and democracy. I read a number of newspapers a day, other blogs, websites and watch television news in order to do so. I consider myself to be pretty well informed, and I was shocked by the number of attacks being 50-60 per day.

I did a rough survey among my equally well-informed friends and not one of them guessed over 7 per day. Not one.

Prior to reading this, how many attacks do you think were happening per day?

How many attacks do you think the average American thinks are happening per day?

This is rhetorical, but there's only one possible reason for this level of ignorance--the media. That's not only sad, that's serious.

We'd like to hear your response to the questions asked above. We would also be interested in hearing what you think we could be doing, both as individuals, and as the DCP, to correct this widespread impression of the state of the war in Iraq.

When last we left our hero for the day, he was waxing eloquent on paybacks for rule-breaking. As in "just retribution".

He continued by pointing out that, interestingly enough, Iraq HAS the filibuster (part of the Democracy delivery package we brought to them, along with...never mind...another story to come). And the filibuster exists there for the same reason as it does here. Al breathed life into Isaiah: "Come, let us reason together."

But we cannot reason, he pointed out, because we are in CRISIS.

(nonverbal moment--watch for it on C-Span later tonight--beautifully timed comic shrug).

WMD--a crisis. Social Security--a crisis. And now federal judges--a crisis. At the end of Clinton-Gore, he pointed out, there were 103 vacancies on the federal courts--the nominees for most blocked by the Republican leadership. Now there are 47. And President Bush has not sent nominees for most of them.

From Karen:

Key tidbits, hot off the Press, beating the wire services:

He was fabulous. The first person who spoke was Sarah Landon, MoveOn member from Baltimore MD, with her ten year old daughter. She stated that the reasons that she wants to stay active are for her daughter's future, our country's future, and as a Mom, she teaches her daughter NOT TO BREAK THE RULES. She introduced Al Gore.

Gore began his speech with a story about how, in the year 2000, the majority did not rule, and that even when we don't like the rules, we are a country of rules, not men. However, what is happening now, he called, "crass partisan decisions". He quoted Aristotle on the virtues of respect for the Rule of Law.

He stated, "If either party is seduced by a lust for power, we lose freedom and democracy." He continued with citations of Hamilton and Madison's writings regarding the independence of judges.

The key message of his speech came next--The reason the Founding Fathers gave the decision about federal judges to the Senate is because the Senate is the repository of deliberative and reflective decision-making. The six-year terms allow for the depth of discussion necessary for a reflective frame of mind, consideration and deliberation to advise and consent, because Federal judges are for life.

Gore said he spoke today, "not as a Democrat, but as an American, to protect the role of Senators from both parties." He then moved into anecdotes of the current leadership's statements from the past, comparing them to their statements now.

Most importantly, he raised the topic of how some right-wing Republicans (most recently at a Washington DC conference called, "Confronting the War on Judicial Faith") have openly discussed defunding and disenfranchising the courts and judges with whom they disagree. He quoted Edwin Vieira's citation of Stalin in a public speech regarding how best to manage the "problem" of judges--"no man, no problem". As a result of death threats to judges such as Viera suggests in his remarks, the judiciary has now become fearful of retribution by the members of the extremist Fristian right wing of the Republican party. After a long and steadying silence, Gore thundered with all due seriousness, "HOW DARE THEY...". The audience erupted into applause and a standing ovation following this remark.

Gore continued, "The Founding Fathers and their forebears escaped despots who would have dominion over out pocketbooks and our souls...Religious freedom is a precious entity, and not a tool to divide and conquer."

He told us that "laws are human creations with our informed consent. Any who act without consent, act unjustly."

He quoted Robert Bolt, author of A Man For All Seasons. The charater, Sir Thomas More speaks to his son-in-law, who had said to him, "No law stands before God". In answering this statement, Gore reminds us of More's reply:

"And when the last law was cut down, and the devil turned on you, where would you hide?"

To be continued...

[UPDATE] Sorry we haven't started yet. Just waiting for the phone call from our intrepid and top flight, on-the-scene blogporter, Karen. Hang in there. We are poised and ready to bring you all the bloggy goodness that Al Gore has to offer us!
_________________________

Beginning at shortly after noontime today, we will be LIVE BLOGGING the MOVE ON PAC event featuring Al Gore giving a major policy speech.

Here are the details:

Former Vice President Gore to Deliver Major Policy Speech; MoveOn PAC Media Advisory for Wednesday, April 27

WASHINGTON -- April 25 -- News Advisory:

Former Vice President Gore to Deliver Major Policy Speech: Republican Attempt to Force Judicial Nominations a "Poison Pill for American Democracy"

Speech Accompanied by MoveOn PAC Rallies in Over Forty States, TV Ad of Stampeding Elephants

WHAT: MoveOn PAC Media Advisory for Noon, Wednesday, April 27th

Former Vice President Al Gore, in his first major policy address since the election, will address MoveOn PAC members about Republican attempts to appoint radical judges to courts across the country. The speech, coming on what could be the eve of Majority Leader Bill Frist's attempt to break over 200 years of tradition and eliminate the filibuster of judicial nominations, will keynote a day of action that will include rallies in over forty states and release of a new television ad.

Gore will lay out the role of the filibuster and its important role in American democracy. Furthermore, he will explain how this latest move by the Republican party is an historic threat to the health and vitality of America and could perhaps be the beginning of the end of meaningful debate in the U.S. Senate.

WHO: Former Vice President Al Gore

MoveOn PAC

WHAT: Policy speech on judicial nominations

When: Wednesday, April 27 at noon

Where: Hyatt Regency Washington on Capitol Hill

400 New Jersey Avenue, NW (between D and E Streets on New Jersey Ave, NW), Washington D.C.

So tune in to the DCP for LIVE BLOGGING!!

The Roman god Janus looked in two directions, as does Shiva, the Hindu god of the dance, creation and destruction. Yesterday, so did I.

A presentation at the University where I teach took me back to the 1960s, a heady time indeed. The topic was the role of universities in creating liberal, if not radical, activists who were active in the Civil Rights and anti-Vietnam War movements.

Four university professors who were part of that time shared reminiscences--lessons for OUR times now:

Heh, heh.

We need to remember to laugh every now and then.

One of the things that is constantly reported on throughout elections cycles and beyond, is polling. So, here's the latest polling from the Washington Post (note: it's in PDF format), followed by the latest polling from Lou Harris :

First up, WaPo (with a tip of the hat to the folks at Daily Kos)

Do you approve or disapprove of the way President Bush is handling:

Approve Disapprove
A. Social Security 31 64
B. Iraq 42 56
C. Economy 40 57
D. Terrorism 56 41
E. Energy Policy 35 54

Which party better represents your personal values?

Dems - 47%
GOP - 38%

What the Washington Post had to say about the numbers:

As the Senate moves toward a major confrontation over judicial appointments, a strong majority of Americans oppose changing the rules to make it easier for Republican leaders to win confirmation of President Bush's court nominees, according to the latest Washington Post-ABC News Poll.

It's time for FILIBLOGGING!

PLEASE SPREAD THE WORD THROUGHOUT THE BLOGOSPHERE

CALL YOUR SENATORS AND TELL THEM TO PROTECT THE FILIBUSTER!

SENATE SWITCHBOARD NUMBER (202)225-3121

Link here to find your Senator's phone number and e-mail address.

During last night's event mocking justice in America, the leaders of the Fristian Right had their audience program their cell phones with the number of the US Senate switchboard, (202) 225-3121, and asked them to call Senators this morning on their way to work. Though they want people to call their own Senators, they are also targeting members of the Senate such as Lincoln, Pryor, Chaffee and Hagel. Given the intense pressure they must be facing this morning, they need our support.

As we noted on the front page, it's time to call and let our Senate know that we want them to protect the filibuster. Here's the link for finding your Senator's phone number and e-mail address.

If you have the time, I think it's a good idea to write, too.

Here's part of my letter going out to all 100 members of the Senate:

I am writing you today to ask you to keep the filibuster intact and vote against ANY attempts to change the rules governing the filibuster.

Removing the filibuster will take away the last small bit of control we can excercise to make sure power is used with wisdom and judiciousness.

This isn't about judges. This is about changing the US Constitution. I don't know about you, but I think it's been working pretty well these last couple hundred years or so...It seems to me that the framers of the constitution went to an awful lot of trouble to try to ensure no one group could change the foundation of our country by a simple majority. And it seems to me, that they went to equal lengths to protect the rights of the minority.

I said it before and I'll say it again. This is America. The majority doesn't rule. It governs.

[This is the latest installment of my weekly series for the tired, poor, huddled masses who dot the charred American political landscape. May god bless you all. You are my people.
-- Polly Sigh]

Dear Reader –
I received this letter from a very enthusiastic archeologist. It has changed my life.

Dear Miss Sigh:

I have made a remarkable discovery that I feel must be shared with the world. The current political climate is not conducive to the pursuit of scientific knowledge, so I have entrusted my findings to you. And also because I believe your destiny to be inextricably connected to this discovery.

For obvious reasons, I cannot share the location of my work, but I have spent the last two years engaged in the translation of a text that was part of my discovery. The many artifacts found have provided priceless clues to this previously unknown society. And what a Utopia it was!

[Editors Note: Part of our ongoing Sunday series examining the intersection of religion and politics and its relationship to our present state of democracy, written exclusively for the DCP, by Matthew Carnicelli]

This week brought yet another example of the confusion that arises from any attempt by the Federal Government to become involved in the sanctioning or regulating of religious practice. As Linda Greenhouse reported in the April 19, 2005 edition of The New York Times, in an article entitled Supreme Court to Hear Case of Dispute Over Religious Group's Use of Banned Drug:

The Supreme Court added an important new religion case to its docket on Monday, agreeing to decide whether the government can ban the importation of a hallucinogenic tea that is central to the religious rituals of a small Brazil-based church.

The case raises the broader question of how the court will interpret, in the context of an illegal drug, a law that ordinarily requires the federal government to refrain to the maximum extent possible from interfering with religious practices.

UPDATE, April 23, 2005, 10:30 EDT: Glenn W. Smith from DriveDemocracy has a diary over at Daily Kos, updating us on the events from Louisville. In an exciting development, Jim Wallis will be joining the pro-democracy rallies in Louisville tomorrow.

So, if you know anyone in Louisville, get them to the church on time. There'll be a crowd, but crowded is good.

As Glenn says, in what will be my new favorite phrase, "Progressive religious leaders are learning that to take back heaven, they're going to have to raise a little hell."

You can read more here.
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It is well known that the reason people came to settle in this country was to escape the imposition of religious beliefs by political bodies.

On Sunday, April 24, 2005, we face a challenge to our religious and political freedoms once more and it's called "Justice Sunday".

"Justice Sunday", as readers of this blog well know, is the attempt by the fundamentalist religious right to hijack the Senate of the United States. They are using God to pit family against family, by labeling people who disagree with them as "filibustering against people of faith". In other words, if you believe in the rules of the Senate, you are a Godless heathen.

I can't think of any more blatant attempt to hijack God for political purposes.

But there is something we can do about it.

The nomination of John Bolton to the United Nations suffered a serious setback the other day when three Republican members of the Senate Foreign Relations committee, Senators Voinovich, Chaffee and Hagel, unexpectedly asked for more time to review information and allegations presented during the emotionally charged meeting. We pick up the story from the Washington Post:

"Justice will roll down like water
And righteousness like a mighty stream."
-- Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King

DCP supports a powerful new national movement that will change the direction of American politics. From the Drive Democracy site:

Leaders of the progressive religious community are traveling America, speaking out against immoral and inhumane national policies which widen the gap between rich and poor and feed the military and the unjustified occupation of Iraq at the expense of the poor and middle class at home.

These are the folks who helped put together an event at Riverside Church in NYC on April 4, and who are hoping to build the "Beloved Community" Martin Luther King spoke about April 4, 1967. The video on their page is eloquent and moving. Please watch it, and send the link out to every friend, every blog, every forum you know about.

The "Breaking the Silence" movement is one for all of us. For too long we all have toiled in the wilderness, while understanding that the Promised Land lies just beyond the walls of hate, intolerance, greed, and arrogance.

Raise your voices too, DCPers. It is going to take a mighty swell to take down those walls. Get involved. We have a lot of wonderful voices here...

http://www.drivedemocracy.org/breakthesilence/

Utah is sending a message to the White House regarding its signature education law "No Child Left Behind". That message seems to be "mind your own business".

From the NYTimes:

SALT LAKE CITY, April 19 - In a stinging rebuke of President Bush's signature education law, the Republican-dominated Utah Legislature on Tuesday passed a bill that orders state officials to ignore provisions of the federal law that conflict with Utah's education goals or that require state financing.

The bill is the most explicit legislative challenge to the federal law by a state, and its passage marked the collapse of a 15-month lobbying effort against it by the Bush administration.

Why is Newsweek cleaning up after Rush Limbaugh's radio droppings?

In its April 25, 2005 issue, now available online and on newstands, Newsweek carries a widely reported comment by Limbaugh in its weekly feature of noteworthy and oft embarassing quotes, "Perspectives".

Only one problem. They got the quote wrong. Very wrong.

Newsweek, in an astonishing display of either bad journalism or outright whitewashing, changed an offensive and obscene comment made by Limbaugh on his show, April 12, 2005, from this:

Limbaugh: What the hell is that, Al? What the hell is the point of view of young people? Blow jobs, that's what they're doing out there. They're out there getting oral sex all day long, that's what they're talking about.

To this:

"What the hell is that, Al? What the hell is the point of view of young people? They're out there getting oral sex all day long, that's what they're talking about." Rush Limbaugh, on Al Gore's new TV network, which aims to reach young viewers

For anyone that missed it, the sentence Newsweek left out was this:

Blow jobs, that's what they're doing out there.

Why is this important? Because that is the part of the quote that is likely obscene under the FCC's regulations. When a news organization leaves out the part of the story wherein the key figure commits the illegal act (not to mention the part later on wherein he admits to it), you have to wonder what's at the bottom of it.

So Newsweek, which is it? Bad journalism or whitewash?

--Casey Morris

What's the last thing in the world you would want a Supreme Court justice to be doing?

Why "doing his own research on the Internet," according to Rep. Tom DeLay on FOX News Radio's Tony Snow show on Tuesday night.

Here's DeLay's full quote on Justice Kennedy's many failings:

"We've got Justice Kennedy writing decisions based upon international law, not the Constitution of the United States. That's just outrageous, and not only that, he said in session that he does his own research on the Internet. That is just incredibly outrageous."

Unfortunately, Snow was too slow-witted to pick up on this fascinating tidbit, embedded as it was in a Delay rant against Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy.

And as you can see in the quote, DeLay does not elaborate on why he finds Justice Kennedy's research habits to be "outrageous."

So we have a great mystery, which hopefully some more enterprising reporter will plumb in the coming days: why is Tom DeLay outraged by Justices doing research on the Internet? Is he worried that their minds will be polluted by pornography? (Remember Justice Potter Stewart's famous 1964 opinion, where he wrote that he couldn't define pornography, but "I know it when I see it.")

Or perhaps they might wander upon some material not previously edited or scripted by the White House?

Who knows...DeLay has been braying loudly about exercising what he calls the power of Congress to rein in judges who don't rule the way DeLay wants them to. We can only hope that DeLay introduces a bill banning federal judges from using the Internet to do research. In the ensuing debate, we might finally find out why DeLay is afraid of the big bad Internet.

Today's Five Minutes for Democracy is: Write a Letter to the Editor

Topic: Global Warming: IT'S HERE

The House of Representatives is preparing to debate yet another terrible energy bill, virtually the same bill that was defeated the last time it came up. The bill provides literally hundreds of billions of dollars in subsidies for the most polluting energy sources--coal, oil, and nuclear energy. Meanwhile, the Bush Administration continues to resist the global consensus that global warming is a real and present danger.

For a quick and powerful look at the reality of global warming, see the New Yorker. Choose your favorite example and write a short and focused letter to the editor of your local paper.

Tell your cell members. The energy bills are going to be discussed this Thursday and Friday. Friday is Earth Day--the 35th anniversary of Earth Day.

Heads UP.

Someone has already said it better than I ever will. His name is Christopher Allbritton, and he has written this remembrance of his friend, Marla Ruzicka.

Even now, I have a hard time believing that she’s gone.

Marla Ruzicka died Saturday, April 16 when a suicide car bomber blew up his car next to hers in an apparent attack on a nearby civilian convoy on Airport Road in Baghdad. She was 28.

Marla was a friend of mine here in Baghdad. She was a matchmaker, a social hub and the heart of our journo-tribe, both here and in Afghanistan, although she wasn’t a journalist. She was known and loved—sometimes through gritted teeth, admittedly—by the majority of Baghdad, it seems. Everyone knew Marla.

That’s because Marla made it her business to be known. She was tireless and ubiquitous in her work, which was to get compensation for Iraqi victims of war from the U.S. military. She confronted, cajoled, flirted with and—more often than not—convinced generals, diplomats and politicians that Iraqi civilians were worthy of remembrance and that the U.S. had a responsibility to the families of those killed or injured by American munitions.

Many of us worked our tails off in preparation for the the 2004 election. There are still many unanswered questions about the election process in this country. We have a long road ahead of us and a lot to do. Our hard work at grassroots organizing for our parties and candidates may be in vain if our elections are not secure.

My friend Elizabeth attended a grassroots election reform conference in Nashville last weekend and reports, as she did for our democracy cell:

Attendees and panelists represented 30 different states. The panelists were people who are the leaders in this movement. They included statisticians, journalists, professors, politicians, lawyers and activists participating in the Ohio recount, New Mexico recount, and others. The information they have gathered is stunning! The general consensus is that electronic voting machines, with or without paper ballots, but especially without paper ballots, are a direct threat to our democracy.

According to Sid Blumenthal, if John Bolton is confirmed, it will be because senators believe that the evidence making him unfit for the U.N. job, unearthed at their own hearings, is false.

- - - - - - - - - - - -

By Sidney Blumenthal

April 14, 2005 | Once again, President Bush is conducting a grand experiment in cognitive dissonance, testing whether his asserted "truths" can prevail over new and obvious facts. This psychological phenomenon was first defined by sociologist Leon Festinger and a team of social scientists in 1957 who studied the behavior of members of a UFO cult under duress when aliens failed to land on Earth as predicted. Some in the cult dropped out when the announced deadline came and went; others redoubled their conviction in the face of disconfirming evidence.

Bush's latest experiment involves his appointment of John Bolton as ambassador to the United Nations. The cognitive dissonance being tested goes beyond the nominee's oft-stated contempt for the United Nations, and extends to his blatant efforts to twist intelligence. Bush's guinea pigs are the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and, as always, the American people.

On Tuesday, John Negroponte, nominated as the first director of national intelligence, pledged in his confirmation hearings before the Senate intelligence committee that he would attempt to ensure reliable information, unlike that provided in the run-up to the Iraq war. "Our intelligence effort has to generate better results," said Negroponte. "That is my mandate, plain and simple ... The things that need to be done differently will be done differently."

In this next installment of The Tao of Politics, I intend to use the arrival of Earth Day (on April 22) as an opportunity to apply Lao Tse's wisdom to one of the critical issues of our time. That issue is the urgent need for the development of environmentally friendly, renewable sources of energy.

In the Fourth Chapter of the Tao Te Ching, the sage invites his reader to contemplate a cosmos of infinite possibilities.

The Tao is like a well:
used but never used up.
It is like the eternal void:
filled with infinite possibilities.

It is hidden but always present.
I don’t know who gave birth to it.
It is older than God.

[This is the latest installment of my weekly series for the tired, poor, huddled masses who dot the charred American political landscape. May god bless you all. You are my people.
-- Polly Sigh]

In a break from tradition, I will not be answering the increasingly depressed, angry, and hopeless letters from the lumpen masses. Instead, I will focus today on what has clearly become the issue for our times: Mental Illness.

It used to be that the legions of loons - the magical misfits - the wonderful wackos – were made up largely of the downtrodden poster-children of the lumpen masses. But now, in breaking news, it turns out that mental illness has infiltrated the elite class, and is afflicting some Congressional members particularly hard.

In a comment to my last post, Toolmaker points out that Democrats need to provide an alternative.

In a larger sense, Toolmaker is asking the question that others ask. What have the Democrats got to offer instead of what they don't like?

I don't think it's necessarily a question of Democrats and Republicans, as you may note in my writing. I know plenty of Republicans who want complete disassociation from what is going on in their party.

And I don't think it's a matter of Christian versus whatever you may believe. I know more than a few evangelical and fairly fundamentalist Christians who also want nothing to do with the current effort to create a constitutional crisis of sorts.

So what do we want instead?

[Editor's Note: The opinion expressed below is not necessarily the opinion of any other member of the DCP. It's mine. There is always room here for dissent. Lots and lots of room. If anyone wants to write an op-ed piece, please, I encourage you to do so, not just in the comments. Send it in to Dick, Karen or me. This is a reasonable place where people of all opinions can come and mix it up.]

What happens if you reflect the language of the Extreme Right back on them to describe their own recent and planned activities?

It would look something like this:

While the Ayatollah Frist is spending his time covorting with the "moolahs" of the extremist fundamental christian groups around the country about the best way to shred the Constitution of the United States, there are a number of things to which we, and he, should be paying attention instead.

The Short List

Before you filed that income tax return, did you calculate your AMT liability? If you are asking what the AMT is right about now, you aren’t alone. AMT stands for Alternative Minimum Tax, and it was brought into being as a means to make sure that those with the highest incomes, the very wealthy, were paying their fair share of income taxes.

We here at the DCP are lucky to be able to speak with the finest minds on a plethora of subjects. Recently, I was lucky enough to speak with Richard Parker, author of JOHN KENNETH GALBRAITH, His Life, His Politics, His Economics.

www.johnkennethgalbraith.com

Richard Parker was educated at Oxford, and is a senior fellow of the Shorenstein Center at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government. He is a co-found of Mother Jones, and writes extensively on economics and public policy.

With help from Mr. Parker, I present to you the AMT for the Little Guy.

Jack Abramoff is a lobbyist who is under investigation by the Justice Department, the Senate Indian Affairs Committee, the IRS, the Department of the Interior, and the FBI. These investigations have tentacles that reach deep into the Republican Party, including Rep. Tom Delay, Ralph Reed, and Senator David Vitter.

Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington has put together this new web site to help you keep track of Abramoff's friends and their multiplying troubles. Enjoy!

From Tom DeLay's softball session, oh, I mean interview, with the office of Rev. Sun Myung Moon, sorry, I mean Washington Times yesterday:

Tom DeLay on Spending:

When Bush came here, the Senate was still the lowest common denominator. And we had to deal with them. Now that sounds like an excuse, and I guess it is. But if you look at the real record, sans the effort to fight a war - and we'll spend whatever it takes to win the war on terror - but if you look at the other spending, it's actually been going down. The rate of growth has gone from - I'll get you the numbers, but as I can recall - after the first year, in the second year - that's when Bush really had control and provided discipline - the rate of growth was about 5 percent. The next year, it was 4 percent. The next year, it was 3 percent. Last year, on discretionary spending, we increased spending ever so slightly, but you can say we froze discretionary spending.

Umm, not so much, Tom. As a matter of fact and record, no, you didn't.

Wal-Mart Employees in Jonquiere, Quebec, Canada, became the first in Wal-Mart employees in North America to vote to unionize the employees in their store. What happened to them as a result? The corporate bullies at Wal-Mart headquarters closed the store, throwing its 190 employees out of work.

The union movement is much healthier in Canada than the in the United States. Whereas unions have dropped to 12.5% of the workforce in the US, they comprise over 28% of the workforce in Canada and the movement is still growing.

Clearly the company is seeking to send a strong message to employees who want to start a union to lobby against Wal-Mart's low pay -- starting at about $6.20 (U.S.) an hour -- its floating shifts for part-timers, or the rules that limited some full-time employees to 28 hours of work a week. And that message seems to be "Unionize, and you will lose your jobs."

[Editor's Note: DCP blogger Tutterfly makes several interesting points in her post about the goals of Radical Christian Fundamentalism. We have elevated her post to its own thread to give everyone an opportunity to read it and comment.]

The Religious Right seems to feel that the power to control people's lives is almost in their grasp.

Daily, they evidence their unrelenting need to dictate a kind of SUPER-MORALITY. It was not enough for them to have a following within their own churches. They have begun to imagine that if people do not follow them willingly, then they must expand outward to force their will upon the unwilling people. For them, a free society only means that you are free to follow them, and if you don't, then they are free to impose their will on you by making laws that would make it impossible, and illegal not to follow them. With these laws, they would solve the problem of individual morality by making it a criminal ideal.

I shudder to imagine a society where their stated missions would actually come to exist. Let's just think about the plans they have. It started with abortion, so let's ban that. Then there are those horrible gay people wanting to get married. Nope, that's against the law. The ten commandments are going up in every classroom in the country. All children will be taught the fundementalist doctrines in these homemade madrases. There will be no sex education of any kind.

Suppose they could make all that come true. Why stop there?

Move On is now involved in the Bankruptcy Bill fight. They are sending this e-mail to their members:

Dear MoveOn member,

A great majority of the families that declared bankruptcy last year did so because of a major life crisis—huge medical bills or layoffs—that threw them into a spiral of debt. Now, after a multi-year, multi-million dollar lobbying effort by credit card companies, Congress is poised Wednesday to approve a sweeping change in bankruptcy law that would make it impossible for folks who have been dealt a bad hand to get a clean start. The law actually gives credit card companies new ways to seize your home and car if you get into financial trouble.

When my brother-in-law's partner died, after twenty-five years of living together, raising a daughter, and co-owning a house, my brother-in-law was required to pay over $30,000 in order to stay in his own house.

Why?

Even though they had left property to each other in survivorship, it turned out that in order to inherit a HOUSE, a marriage license was required. Since my brother-in-law and his partner were gay men, however, a marriage license was not possible.

A heterosexual couple who had been married for fifteen minutes would not have had a problem.

WE, THE PEOPLES OF THE UNITED NATIONS, DETERMINED to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war, which twice in our lifetime has brought untold sorrow to mankind, and to reaffirm faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person, in the equal rights of men and women and of nations large and small, and to establish conditions under which justice and respect for the obligations arising from treaties and other sources of international law can be maintained, and to promote social progress and better standards of life in larger freedom, AND FOR THESE ENDS to practice tolerance and live together in peace with one another as good neighbours, and to unite our strength to maintain international peace and security, and to ensure, by the acceptance of principles and the institution of methods, that armed force shall not be used, save in the common interest, and to employ international machinery for the promotion of the economic and social advancement of all peoples, HAVE RESOLVED TO COMBINE OUR EFFORTS TO ACCOMPLISH THESE AIMS Accordingly, our respective Governments, through representatives assembled in the city of San Francisco, who have exhibited their full powers found to be in good and due form, have agreed to the present Charter of the United Nations and do hereby establish an international organization to be known as the United Nations.

Preamble to the Charter of the United Nations

The Bankruptcy Bill. Wow! That's some seriously sexy legislation they have going on in the House of Representatives this week.

Well, no. It's not sexy. It's just serious. Very serious. They look to be voting on it as soon as Wednesday.

The heat is on.

Right now, House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer does not plan on cracking the whip over this, nor does House Minority Leader, Nancy Pelosi.

And if you need more information to know why this bill is upsetting people, there's this:

There are many things to love about New York City and one of the things I love is the New York Public Library. I remember my Dad taking me there when I was a little girl and for the first time maybe, feeling how big the world is. I love to sit on the front steps and watch New York rush by as I sip coffee and take in the city's unique energy. I love the way the books smell, full of paper dust and mystery. I love the way I can get lost inside among all of the words and stories and ideas on its many shelves.

It's a sad reminder of the lost sense of cultural priorities that has the New York Public Library struggling financially, to the point of selling the artwork off of the walls:

[Editors Note: Part of our ongoing Sunday series examining the intersection of religion and politics and its relationship to our present state of democracy, written exclusively for the DCP, by Matthew Carnicelli]

In one of the seminal moments of the 1960 Presidential campaign, John F. Kennedy sought to assure the American people that he would not take orders from a Pope. In a famous address to Southern Baptist leaders, Kennedy affirmed:

I believe in an America where the separation of church and state is absolute – where no Catholic prelate would tell the President (should he be a Catholic) how to act and no Protestant minister would tell his parishioners for whom to vote – where no church or church school is granted any public funds or political preference – and where no man is denied public office merely because his religion differs from the President who might appoint him or the people who might elect him.

I believe in an America that is officially neither Catholic, Protestant nor Jewish – where no public official either requests or accepts instructions on public policy from the Pope, the National Council of Churches or any other ecclesiastical source – where no religious body seeks to impose its will directly or indirectly upon the general populace or the public acts of its officials – and where religious liberty is so indivisible that an act against one church is treated as an act against all.

(Another entry in the continuing saga of the politically lame, as we climb our way out of the muck...)

Dear Polly –

Man of Judiciary Office

Dear MOJO –

Message received. Troubled times are so exciting, don’t you think?? I’m all a-twitter – really! As you know, I am a leader in the All-Across-the-USA Resistance movement. I have resisted many things over the years, and one of them is participation in any form of organized religion. I don’t like being told what to do. It’s un-American. And I deeply resent the expectation of being organized.

When a child imagines a monster under the bed, they find the trusted grown-up who can rid their bedroom of the object of their fear. Calm is restored once the grown-up banishes the monster. Tucked back in with a favorite blanket or cuddly stuffed animal, the child returns to a peaceful slumber. The mythical monsters of childhood are easliy managed.

Grown-ups know about other monsters. Monsters with an agenda of destruction on a large scale. Like frightened children in the night, America's grown-up children are looking for that security blanket that will restore their peace of mind, and keep them safe. There is a popular myth that one party is good at keeping the monsters away and that the other party would not be very good at a monster eradication program.

I find that curious. Large numbers of people in America feel that the Republican Party are somehow better equipped at safety. But are they? It escapes me how the party that was on the job on a beautiful September day that turned devastatingly tragic can be viewed as the keepers of the 'blankey.' Almost four years later, instead of that colossal failure being proof of their weakness, it has been mythologized into their greatest triumph. For all too many Americans, the security blanket fairy tale didn't begin with the ignored warnings, it began on a pile of smoldering ruins and a picture of a President with a bullhorn in his hands.

Nobody could call me sleeping beauty. Especially in regards to the election campaign last year. I was not sleeping beauty during the election campaign of 2004, nor was anybody else sleeping through the mass hysteria over gay marriages and the rumors of "liberals will ban the bible" heard far and wide from the deceitful lips of Republican strategists, Bush, Cheney, and Rove.

However, I certainly feel as if the kiss of death has certainly landed somewhere in our country. That kiss of death is the result of a wily campaign designed to take peoples' minds off issues like health care, social security, and jobs, and instead replace the well being of all of us with the extreme ideas of a few. This ploy has now come to light by the actions of this NeoCON regime occupying the White House.

According to CNN, Americans might finally be waking up to the false promises and the switch and bait of these extreme NeoCON leaders. According to the latest poll done by CNN, Bush would not be sitting there in the White House had he told the American people his REAL agenda last summer or last fall when people were asking him for his campaign plans. Those who were awake, recall his plans NEVER included any mention of Social Security or bankruptcy, nor did they include any real commitment to improving the lives of average Americans.

Financial responsibility was best taught by my grandfather, who, as a Depression Era child, learned fiscal discipline early in life. My grandpa's family was so poor that he quit school after 8th Grade to help on the family farm, then volunteered for duty in WWII to qualify for a low interest farm loan. Today, after years of watching his pennies, grandpa is comfortably retired. He follows politics and supports our president, but is not pleased with how his tax money is being spent.

I agree.

Finally, President Bush and his friends in the pharmaceutical companies have joined hands to fight the fat in our National budget--otherwise known as pork barrel spending. Of course normally, one would expect to have to tighten a belt, show some willpower, and exercise regularly to lose the fat, but who better to figure out a way to make decreasing size as simple as a pill and still make oodles of money to boot?

And I for one am quite thankful for the fantastic timing in discovering this amazing fat-eliminating pill. Its arrival comes just in time to cut the fat from our 7.1 trillion dollar national debt! We certainly will need this incredible shrinking pill to help take the national budget down to a manageable size. After all, fat retention is genetic and is easily passed to our kids. In this case, the National Debt is so full of fat, it will actually guarantee a few extra pounds for our grandkids too.

On April 4, 1967, Martin Luther King gave one of his most famous speeches, BEYOND VIETNAM: A TIME TO BREAK SILENCE. He gave it the Riverside Church in New York City. Here is an excerpt:

We are now faced with the fact that tomorrow is today. We are confronted with the fierce urgency of now. In this unfolding conundrum of life and history there is such a thing as being too late. Procrastination is still the thief of time. Life often leaves us standing bare, naked and dejected with a lost opportunity. The "tide in the affairs of men" does not remain at the flood; it ebbs. We may cry out desperately for time to pause in her passage, but time is deaf to every plea and rushes on. Over the bleached bones and jumbled residue of numerous civilizations are written the pathetic words: "Too late." There is an invisible book of life that faithfully records our vigilance or our neglect. "The moving finger writes, and having writ moves on..." We still have a choice today; nonviolent coexistence or violent co-annihilation.

We must move past indecision to action. We must find new ways to speak for peace in Vietnam and justice throughout the developing world -- a world that borders on our doors. If we do not act we shall surely be dragged down the long dark and shameful corridors of time reserved for those who possess power without compassion, might without morality, and strength without sight.

Now let us begin. Now let us rededicate ourselves to the long and bitter -- but beautiful -- struggle for a new world. This is the calling of the sons of God, and our brothers wait eagerly for our response. Shall we say the odds are too great? Shall we tell them the struggle is too hard? Will our message be that the forces of American life militate against their arrival as full men, and we send our deepest regrets? Or will there be another message, of longing, of hope, of solidarity with their yearnings, of commitment to their cause, whatever the cost? The choice is ours, and though we might prefer it otherwise we must choose in this crucial moment of human history.

Last night, a coalition of over 60 faith-based groups unveiled a new Declaration, written by a collective consensus-building group of over 13,000.

The DCP Tool Kit is an evolving piece of work that is in need of your suggestions. While there are many Tool Kits for activists out there, none (as far as we know) addresses the passion and commitment for change that we saw in the recent campaigns.

Go here for more information.

We have been talking a lot about the "Five minutes a day for democracy" that every citizen can do. Whether it is correcting a falsehood, responding to a request for participation in the democratic process, calling legislators, writing a letter, or sitting down with a child and teaching them something they did not know about their own power, each one of us can do SOMETHING.

For this Monday afternoon--a question:

What will you do during your five (plus) minutes a day for democracy TODAY?

[Editors Note: Part of our ongoing Sunday series examining the intersection of religion and politics and its relationship to our present state of democracy, written exclusively for the DCP, by Matthew Carnicelli]

Battles between American freethinkers and religious traditionalists are nothing new in our nation’s history. What is new is that we’re witnessing the emergence of the next generation of freethinkers on the political scene. And their experience mirrors the journey of the Founders and Framers in several key ways. This group is best described as the “Spiritual Not Religious” or “Secular and Spiritual” bloc in American politics.

Dear Polly Sigh –

Signed,
Protector of The U.S.

I live in the region that has been called "Ecotopia." In Ecotopia, people dumped the internal combustion engine and corporate capitalism for a sustainable energy paradise. Ecotopia did not come to pass, but the ideas were influential as we now see transit projects, urban villages, recycling.

Three decades ago, author Ernest Callenbach of Berkeley CA penned "Ecotopia," the novel which imagined the Pacific Northwest seceding from the Union and forming an ecologically sustainable new world.

This novel is being republished in a 30th anniversary issue (Bantam Press) and at an especially relevant interval, as we head into the second term of a notoriously environment-averse administration. In the western part of the country, there is serious talk of secession by the left and of dividing states by the right.

After Kerry failed to trounce Bush on election night, I didn't think I'd ever go to the Westin Ballroom in Seattle again. Today, however, I played hookie from work to see seven powerhouse women Senators talk to one thousand very enthused people (the majority of them women). They talked to us about our Democratic values and the need to empower more women to take part in government and and for all of us to fight hard for what we believe in. We saw the following Senators:

Senator Barbara Boxer, California
Senator Maria Cantwell, Washington
Senator Mary Landrieu, Louisiana
Senator Blanche Lincoln, Arkansas
Senator Barbara Mikulski, Maryland
Senator Patty Murray, Washington
Senator Debbie Stabenow, Michigan

Pat Wright of the Total Experience Gospel Choir sang "The Star Spangled Banner" and there was not a dry eye in the room. The Senators spoke in succession and had us completely riveted for almost two hours. They planned then to move on to a Town Hall meeting about Social Security, then to fly to Michigan to do the same sort of presentation. Senators Murray and Boxer had just returned from the middle east and were still jet-lagged.