First, we have the scoop on the Senate’s filibuster-shy cowards by Steven D, here by Howie in Seattle, and here by BooMan.
Then we have the madmen — the madmen who run this country and make cowards out of every Democrat who refuses to stand up to their insane, cruel, inhuman, and inhumane policies.
The blogosphere is atwitter over Glenn Greenwald’s discovery of a 2002 Senate statement (via Intoxination blog). The WaPo puts it succinctly:
The Bush administration rejected a 2002 Senate proposal that would have made it easier for FBI agents to obtain surveillance warrants in terrorism cases, concluding that the system was working well and that it would likely be unconstitutional to lower the legal standard.
Among the breathless blog story titles: “Crooks and Liars: FISA lies exposed by Greenwald — John / AMERICAblog: This is huge. … — Michelle Pilecki / The Huffington Post: Administration Flip-Flopped on FISA.
Call me an brassy NYC-ish bitch drenched in dew and covered in moss in my Olympic rain-foresty clime, but I don’t think this means diddly-squat. One of my overly frank mother’s rules was: “Tell it like it is.”
So here’s “it like it is”: This “flip-flop” matters only to us lefty bloggers and to a few sane people like Brenda Stewart. It won’t mean a thing in the news cycle, or god knows in Congress, the Dept. of Justice, or — heavens to Betsy [Ross] — the White House. Laura Rozen at War & Piece, who quotes Atrios, Knight-Ridder, and the WaPo, calls it like it is:
“Entirely inconsistent” is the polite, academic way of saying big fat liars. But it’s even worse than that. Lying would suggest they held some regard for the truth at some point. Who needs to be consistent? Who needs to modify a law? Karl Rove was happy to make the lie itself and breaking the law itself part of some campaign strategy. Their contempt for the truth, their true contempt for the intelligence and manipulability of the public, knows no bounds.
“Knows no bounds.” Nor does the Bush administration know — by any empirical evidence that I can perceive — any viable opposing force in the Democratic party or members of Congress.
I ask you: What in the hell are we going to do to try to save this country? Clap every time the brave John Conyers holds an unofficial hearing that goes nowhere, and keep bitching?
Or can we can die knowing we tried to save our form of government that has never worked as it should — as Howard Zinn reminded me last night on UCTV, in a replay of “Embracing Humanity: Truth in a Time of War with Howard Zinn” (watch it yourself!) — but was a hell of a lot better before we had a one-party dictatorship?
And, lastly, who are the REAL madmen here? The Bush criminals or those among us who give them a pass every time?
P.S. Laura Rozen is herself a fine journalist whose investigative work was recently cited by former CIA/State Dept. analyst Larry Johnson at BoomanTribune.com: “A New Case of CIA Waterboarding?.” In the comments section of that story, I provided more links that Laura sent me after I alerted her to Larry’s story.
Don’t forget our own BrandsStewart’s WOW!!JUSTWOW!!!
Yes we were all atwitter when she broke it here last night. We have to keep fighting, no matter how hopeless it looks. Something is going to give somewhere. There are holes in Bush’s royal ship of state… they are bailing like mad.
I personally think that they are making shit up as they go along, and are getting sloppier as the arrogance and power-grabbing increases. We can’t give up… ever.
I added a link to Brenda’s diary! Damn, I missed that last night! Brenda’s one of the sane people. If only we had more.
“What in the hell are we going to do to try to save this country? “
Steps One Through Five: work the media.
As Peter Daou said, and as I quote in my recent diary, “If your core values and beliefs and positions … are filtered to the public through the lens of a media that has inoculated the public against your message …. then NOTHING you say is going to break through …”
Work the refs.
Change our language.
Pick fights.
Kick ’em when they’re down.
What exactly can we (activists without access) do to ensure that our message–or at least that fragile thing call ‘truth’–breaks through? We need organization (even the dreaded ‘hierarchy’), activism, and overarching plans to correct the media: does this currently exist?
Daou’s outstanding piece really hit home with me too. I just read your diary… recommended.
While we have to generate the pressure on all Senators, the decision to filibuster (or not) will also be a leadership decision.
Call the Leadership Offices!
Harry Reid, NV Democratic Leader (202) 224-3542
Dick Durbin, IL Assistant Democratic Leader (202) 224-2152
Patrick Leahy, VT Ranking Member Judiciary Committee (202) 224-4242
CALL YOUR SENATORS! (And those that need a spine implant)
1-888-355-3588
or
1-888-818-6641
If Repug, tell them “No” to Alito; if Democrat: FILIBUSTER!
If the Washington lines are busy, the Senators’ home office numbers and fax are listed here: CONTACT YOUR SENATORS (Click here)
For extra credit, use the same numbers to call all the 2008 Presidential candidates who are sitting Senators – Evan Bayh, Joe Biden, Hillary Clinton, Russ Feingold – and tell them to either LEAD THE FILIBUSTER or FORGET ABOUT YOUR SUPPORT. You can also send that message to the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (202-224-2447) and the Democratic National Committee (202-863-8000).
Polls and public opinion are another way to apply pressure — get word out about why Alito needs to be filibustered:
Write a letter to the editor of your local newspaper. (Click here)
People for the American Way has collected nearly 65,000 signatures to send to the Senate, please add yours: Save the Court Petition
John Kerry has endorsed this anti-Alito petition, signers’ names will be read into the Congressional Record:http://www.johnkerry.com/action/alito/
Awesome work, and Peter Daou is really on this.
Ok…I will tell it like it is or more honestly, how I see it. Nothing, absolutely nothing, not even the 06 elections will change a fricken thing because as Booman pointed out yesterday look what “they” the dems keep forcing on us for candidates like Casey!
Arthur Gilroy keeps saying it and although I don’t agree with alot he says I do agree that until we take our time and money away from the media, they will continue to report the propaganda.
The other thing that I think hursts us honestly that there are just too many “groups” trying to get signitures, etc from us. It all gets lost because there are too many petitions saying the same thing with all the same sigs on them. We need One voice/One central oraganisation that will help us take our country back. It is no longer a matter of Right and Left as we are being widdled down into a one party system. Now it is Us v Them!
This is one reason I made a point of mentioning that I watched part of Zinn’s October 2005 speech replay last night on UCTV. Thank god I still get that station via DISH satellite …. another favorite station, PBS You, is gone because of Congressional cutbacks … I hope UCTV can stay afloat. I’ve caught other great speeches on it, including one by Seymour Hersh.
And you can listen to Zinn yourself because UCTV makes the audio available.
What we need to do is stop the outrage. Yes, they’re up to a whole lot of bad stuff. It doesn’t matter. We can’t do anything about it right now. What we should be focusing on is ways each of us can make a difference today to start taking our countries back. Plans for grassroots organizations, for pushing out the corruption working from the ground up. Plans for organizing for alternative candidates (like Chuck) during primaries. Plans for controlling and channeling fundraising. Plans for taking advantage of mistakes by our enemies, rather than just being outraged at them.
I can only speak for myself here but I am doing that too. The outrage is what has driven me to work for the campaign of candidates in ’06. part of writing on a blog is having a place to vent all the outrage. I believe we can do both vent and work for a better world.
You are right Susan, the honest truth no longer matters except to those of us on the left who give a damn about democracy. Fascism is now firmly ensconced in our own country. The real question is what are we going to do about it? I’m waiting for your ideas.
I’m dry.
I told my daughter last night that if Americans were awake, they’d all be in their cars heading to D.C. to storm the palace (formerly White House).
But I don’t feel that happening … I get no sense of fury and passion and desperation, except among a few of us.
And how do we spread the word? I just don’t know.
“And how do we spread the word?”
This is the only question. We’re doing exactly what Jon Stewart says about the media itself: like 6 year old playing soccer, we stumble around after the ball, without a real clue. Or a gameplan.
There’s a new outrage every week with this administration, which actually benefits them–no scandal gets traction before the new outrage erupts. The cronyism and incompetence of Katrina is forgotten as the wiretap story emerges, the ongoing healthcare disaster (“Medicare Katrina”) is ignored in favor of Jack “Member of the Bush 2000 Transition Team” Abramoff. Plamegate, Gannon, body armor, the mission $35(?) billion dollars …
It’s too much. We feel so much outrage that we’re largely paralyzed. Instead of coldly deciding which of these things we can use, we heatedly rail against the fact that Bushco is breaking our military, torturing innocent people, spending recklessly, outing CIA agents, hurting our parents, leaving our children behind, et-endless-cetera.
But we never lay the groundwork. And if you have the groundwork, you don’t even need a real scandal (see: the right-wing during the Clinton Administration) to get traction. (Not that scandals are hard to find: talk about a target-rich environment.)
Whenever I opine about ‘what the Democrats should do,’ I always end with a shame-faced, “Well, if we had message discipline …”
But that’s getting old. As the bumpersticker says, “If the people lead, the leaders will follow.” So what real steps can we take–right here, right now–to change the media environment in such way that we can ‘spread the word?’
Well, first we can brainstorm about what steps we can take:
Impose message discipline on ourselves. This is the hardest step–especially for lefties, of whom many resist authority. But actually at the moment all this requires is the support of a handful of high-profile bloggers: they already do control much of our messaging.
Change the playing field, play the refs.. “Traditional Media?” No. BCM: Big Corporate Media, as in: “Even the New York Times, a member of the BCM, supportings filibustering Alito.” The right’s demands for ‘even-handedness’ wouldn’t end until there were headlines such as: “God Strikes New Orleans with Hurricane” and such. Because many of them truly believe that a secular press is by definition biased against the Truth. We should do the same: never be satisfied. Why hasn’t the NYT run a huge headline reading: “NO WMD IN IRAQ?” That’s about the biggest story ever. Why don’t they refer to Jack Abramoff as, “Jack Abramoff, a member of the Bush 2000 Transition Team?” Hit them and hit them and hit them again. And if they do start responding, you don’t say thanks: you hit them with increasingly outrageous demands: Why aren’t they covering Laura Bush’s vehicular homicide? ‘Some people say Halliburton is poisoning the troops …’
Never defend. If you defend and explain, you lose. That’s incredibly hard for the left to understand, because we enjoy rational discourse and explanation. But in the media, defense is failure, and offense success. If someone says, “Osama has been listening to Howard Dean again …” you don’t defend, you attack: “Yeah, I saw the Republican Talking Point too, you shill. But the truth is that Osama is a right-winger: he’s against women’s rights, against popular culture, against gay marriage. He’s a religious fundamentalist who thinks abortion is murder gays are evil and supports the theory of the unilateral executive.”
Never defend, never explain. If they give you the ‘opportunity’ to explain, take that opportunity to attack. Never say, “Well, I voted for body armor for the troops initially, but in the bill I voted against, body armor took a back seat to enriching Halliburton.” Say: “This administration sent our troops to war without an exit plan or body armor. Our boys and girls are dying.” Say that over and over, and never explain.
Okay, I’m drifting into a rant, here!
So I think we have to play the refs, in an organized fashion. Decide on language, and use it every time. The ‘Constitutional Option’ is the ‘Crybaby Option.’ Medicare D is Medicare Disaster (nobody likes my ‘Medicare Katrina …). This requires coordination at the top, of course.
I think we have to pick fights: look at mediamatters, and get whipped up into a frenzy over one glaring mistake a month. Ignore other mistakes, and just pound that one, until no journalist wants to suffer the Month of Leftie Rage. I sound like I’ve been reading the Godfather, but we need to make an example of some journalists.
We need to focus on the media (obviously). I called Snowe and Collins about Alito, but who cares? Only if the media drives an “A vote against filibuster is a vote against choice” narrative do we see real influence. We need to ignore the wedge issues that divide us, and focus on agreements. And, my one non-media idea, we need to use our fundraising strength to reward and punish very specific actions, the way on the old Dean blogs we answered trolls with donations.
These are all things we (and our Fearless Leaders) can do. Maybe I’ll write a diary about it, instead of a long-ass rambling comment that never ends …
I will refer back to this, assimiliate it and implement it and perhaps expand on it. Focus will be on the message an on the media. Stay on the offense and take the fight to them giving no quarter and accepting no excuses. We demand accurate reporting, honest accounting, and the rule of law. I will be looking for more brainstorming and practical advice from you again in the near future and will search for new diary entries by Steggles. Truth and justice will triumph!
Susan,
Nice read, but I think you are reflecting the confusion that grips the country.
Starting with Mr. Alito
Somewhere in all of this, there is a kernel of logic, but we don’t see it, and the media won’t display this kernel very much.
Susan, I have a sneaky hunch that for some reason, that perhaps the D’s don’t need to filibuster. Have we considered this angle? Maybe I’m taking a leap here, but what would be lost if you filibustered, and contrast this against what would be gained if you didn’t? This may seem murky to you but think about it.
The N.S.A. fiasco.
Around here, the average joe has not been touched, and what most of these folks say is, “Man are those guys going to be bored, unless they are a pack of voyeurs listening in on my teen aged daughter’s endless phone calls. they won’t hear much here. Do you think they can stop those damn telemarketers from charities that somehow get around that no-call list rule?”
Susan, I am not being flip here. What has Joe Work-a-day felt? what does he see? How has he or his family been hurt? Now we can point out the constitutional issues here, but if the public feels no pressure, and the secret police are not making Sam the baker, or Joe the foundry man disappear, and no one, not even the city cops, will make that kid down the block turn down that damn rap music what does it matter to the public at large?
We aren’t talking about ethics here, we’re talking about the things that make people vote in a reactive manner. Will this issue make people vote against a political party? This and this alone is Rove’s guideline. Will we be able to sell a constitutional issue as a proactive reason to vote, or will this snooping and eavesdropping have to be peddled reactive? Recent election history has shown a reactive vote for something as inane as “God, Gays and Guns” worked.
No, you’re on to it.
I backpeddled a bit on my view of the Alito filibuster … a couple weeks ago or so, I made many comments here — on this blog — that Alito is a done deal and that we best look ahead, and try to keep Bush’s problems on the front pages — not put our own Democratic names on the front pages.
Get the front pages talkin’ Abramoff, Delay, etc. …. not have every pundit calling the Dems a bunch of inept fools for trying a filibuster sure to lose.
But, I was convinced that it was important to stand up to the nomination, if only for symbolic reasons.
Among the things that’ll resonate with common Joe: This new Medicare plan disaster. Even our little local paper has has horror stories of cancer patients unable to get their medications, even after they did everything right in the sign-up process, and even after their cancer specialist doctors spent hours on the telephone trying to solve the problem.
Street Kid has been doing important work on this, btw.
Susan, thank you for your reply.
As of this hour, I stand more confused than ever. Kerry and Ted are yakking up filibuster, in spite of there likely being no support for a filibuster.
I think this is eyewash. And, I think Alito is going to get in.
So, I want to apologize for thinking that maybe Reid had a trick up his sleeve.
As for the NSC, we have to reach more than our community, we need to reach Joe and Sam I mentioned in my original post.
As for standing up, we must and should do so loudly.
I’ll start here, if you will start out there!
I’m in a hurry to get to work :'( so I don’t have the time to really look at this the way it deserves!
But I will say that they are all insane, Susan! Tinpots all need their little enablers and one is no less insane than the other imho.