Kevin Drum is on a roll today. Here’s the money point:

That’s about the size of it. Today’s New York Times explains Mitch McConnell’s “nyet” strategy for making sure that nothing gets done

…

But why does the media have to play along? It’s nice that the Times ran this story, but it would be nicer if the media simply reported what was happening on a regular basis. I’m not asking for special treatment, just headlines that tell us what’s really going on. If Republicans have adopted a strategy of simply blocking every piece of legislation that makes it to the floor of the Senate — and everyone agrees that they have — then we should be regularly seeing headlines that say “Republicans Block ______ ” There’s nothing partisan about this, it’s just a description of what’s happening. If Democrats block things, they can say that too. But unless the press reports this stuff accurately on a regular basis, the public simply has no idea why nothing is getting done.

The Times story relates the tale of one bill where the Democrats gave up and gave the Republicans what they wanted on that legislation and the Republicans reflexively blocked it before realizing what they did. That’s the state we’re in, but you wouldn’t know that from watching the news or reading the paper.

While I wouldn’t be surprised if you could take any war supporter of this war and line the quotes up, the Nixon quotes do sound like Lieberman.

Update: The Lamont campaign put together this video to highlight the similarities:

(via Atrios)

I admit, I took the day off from work and completely tuned out everything to give my brain a rest. I also felt that common sense would prevail in the Senate. After all, they’re far less prone to radical election posturing. A bill authorizing the President to detain people without trial or even charges would fit the definition of radical. It wouldn’t pass in the Senate.

Obviously, I was wrong. The bill passed 65-34. Our horrible Senator, Joseph Lieberman voted for the bill (Dodd voted Nay), along with 11 other Democrats. Despite his moralistic bombast on other issues, Senator Lieberman is apparently pro-torture and against the Bill of Rights.

To put a clear frame on the electoral posturing here, only one Republican, moderate Lincoln Chafee (R-RI), voted against the bill. The remaining 33 votes were Dems and Jeffords (I-VT).

It’s 3AM, and I don’t have the energy to write something deep and meaningful here. So, I’ll direct you to some other people who have done the job for me:

• Hilzoy at Obsidian Wings reacts.
• The NY Times details why this bill is an affront to everything America stands for.

• Glenn Greenwald points out some truly remarkable statements about this bill:

  Jay Rockefeller (who voted for this bill) is the ranking Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee. When he was defending the amendment he introduced to compel the CIA to disclose to the Senate and House Intelligence Committees information about their interrogation activities, he complained that the White House has concealed all information about the interrogation program and that the Intelligence Committee members (including him) therefore know nothing about it. His amendment to compel reports to Congress was defeated with all Republicans (except Chafee) voting against it. He proceeded to vote for the underlying bill anyway, thereby legalizing a program he admits he knows nothing about (and will continue to know nothing about).

  oversight? We don’t need no stinkin’ oversight… Apparently, Congressional oversight emboldens terrorists.

It would not be an overstatement that I’d like to scream into my monitor right now. I would, and it wouldn’t be an overreaction, except that Heidi is sleeping and it is, after all, 3:43AM.

Our Congress, with the help of both parties (goddamn pansy Democrats that didn’t filibuster this to hell), just sold out the most basic of American values. They just enabled the President to define his own laws, to imprison people indefinitely simply by calling them a name, and then prevented any check on this power by either Congress or the judiciary. All in order to boost their own standings in the 2006 election.

Stupid Democrats, for not realizing that people would’ve seen through the bullshit had they stood up from the beginning. Consistency would outweigh demagoguery and the 32 that voted against this bill should’ve been screaming about this from the beginning.

Stupid Republicans for being the craven, corrupt, and cavalier representatives they are. They don’t care about our country, they just care about winning. Orwell had a point:

The Party seeks power entirely for its own sake. We are not interested in the good of others ; we are interested solely in power. Not wealth or luxury or long life or happiness: only power, pure power. … We know that no one ever seizes power with the intention of relinquishing it. Power is not a means, it is an end. One does not establish a dictatorship in order to safeguard a revolution; one makes the revolution in order to establish the dictatorship. The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power.

If that doesn’t describe the modern Republican party, I’m not sure what does.

Stupid us, for falling for this type of garbage during each election. They use fear to manipulate us, they use a war of choice (”preemption”) to promote the jingoist, and they treat us like idiots. As long as we keep voting for this nonsense, or keep putting inconsequential issues like abortion or marriage amendments above the welfare of our nation, we will suffer the consequences.

America changed on Thursday. So, now the question is, what are you doing to change it back? All we need is one house taken by the Democrats and we can start working our way back to an America that we are proud of.

Long time without a post on the Lieberman/Lamont/Schlesinger race here in CT, so here’s a quick update. The campaign has quieted down a bit in recent weeks. Not quite the same press as right before primary, as you might imagine. Since then, Joe Lieberman lied about his campaign website being “hacked,” then finally a few days ago relaunched the web site in this cheesy new design. The site has a blog which tellingly links only to out-of-state blogs. It’s weird, because there are CT blogs that support his candidacy, at least in part. The fine folks at CT Local Politics have a few Lieberman supporters.

It’s indicative of a larger trend. People, including senior political figures in our state have dropped Lieberman. His campaign is dependent on a lot of out-of-state support, including ads and support from a shady Republican-backed outfit. In fact, he has spent more time hanging out with Jodi Rell, our popular Republican governor, than any Democrats in the state. Bipartisan indeed.

I hope he loses big come November. The power of incumbency is very tough to beat, and Joe has deep connections and outstanding favors in all sorts of places. The labor movement is split between the two candidates (Lieberman has an edge there), so traditional sources for volunteers and ground support will be split as well. This is going to be an interesting race as we get closer to November.