I can't believe it's not a democracy!

I'm taking some time off from the internets, heading down to

to points south today.  Yes, I will be hanging with some of the family, but this time they are headed to a small town a bit north of Cape May, New Jersey.  My sister-in-law's father bought a place down there a while back, but I've never been.  Although I like spending some time to myself, I thought some sun (very little apparently), seafood and salt air might do my soul some good.  We shall see.  Hope you all have a lovely extended weekend.  I'll be back Monday night, will post again no later than Tuesday. 

If at first you don't succeed:

Hedge fund scammer tells NY judge he tried suicide. Poor Samuel Israel, looks like he may get another 10 years added to his 20-year sentence for scamming investors out of half a billion (yes, that's a b) dollars. Good for the judge for wanting to slam this asshole against the wall. Personally, I think his sentence should have been doubled just for this: Israel went on the run June 9, when he was supposed to report for a 20-year prison sentence. He abandoned his SUV on a bridge north of New York City with the phrase "Suicide is Painless" scrawled in dust on the hood.

Because I take points off for being a trite asshole, that's why.

Because women don't have enough to worry about:

A Spa for Those Women Concerned About ‘Pelvic Fitness'. The NY Times reports: [On the opening of] the first medi spa in Manhattan wholly dedicated to strengthening and grooming a woman’s genital area. Phit — short for pelvic health integrated techniques — is to open this month on East 58th Street.

Dr. Lauri Romanzi, a gynecologist who performs pelvic reconstruction surgery, said she came up with the idea for the spa one day while walking by an outlet of BriteSmile, the tooth-whitening chain. She liked that the stores cater to people with healthy teeth. [And, she thought, hey, wouldn't it be nice to have a gynecological office where you can make your vagina shine!]

The spa is essentially a gussied-up examination room down the hall from Dr. Romanzi’s medical practice. At the spa, the signature treatment will be a $150 gynecological exam — in which a client contracts her pelvic muscles around Dr. Romanzi’s fingers — to determine by feel whether muscle tone is weak, moderate or strong.

Dr. Romanzi likes to call the vaginal workouts she prescribes “personal training.”

Personal training...is that what they are calling it these days? No doubt the patient has to pay for the pre-workout dinner and movie too.

Woo-hoo, we're number 1:

U.S. leads world in substance abuse, WHO finds. Oh...nevermind. Then again, after over seven years with W at the helm, it should be a big fucking deal that the whole lot of us are addicts. So there.

First he flips on FISA, then he disavows Wesley Clark's dead-on assessment of the usefulness of John McCain's military experience and now this:

Obama to expand Bush's faith based programs. I know that democartic candidates track to the "center" (i.e., right) after they lie to the base and run as progressives in the primaries, but Obama seems determined to set a record in how quickly he can piss off progressive and liberal voters. Kudos Senator Obama, you've won!

So, who is Obama going to throw under the bus next? I'm guessing the queers may need to be taken down a peg or two after winning the right to marry in California. Don't want to turn off the evangelicals, after all. But no worries, it's only politics, right?

No posting today. Woke up with the sure signs

that my sinuses were rebelling.  Odd thing is that I am really tolerant of the heat and humidity, but in the last few years I've noticed that really humid weather affects my sinuses and my ears feel, well, full.  It's not painful, just uncomfortable.  But this morning I felt congested.  And things weren't helped by the loud Pride party a neighbor was throwing last night.  The do it every year, but this year their guests stayed late, talking--screaming, actually--until the wee hours.  I don't know when I finally fell asleep, but it wasn't shortly after my head hit the pillow.  Long and short, I went into work a little later than usual and I am contemplating an early evening.  

That said, all this tit-for-tat campaign bullshit is boring the shit out of me.  Wesley Clark said this, Obama backs off, McCain's people go ballistic.  Whatever.  Can't we just vote now and get this over with?  

Hope you all got a good night's sleep last night.  

Global warming is a hoax, my ass:

North Pole Could be Ice-Free This Summer. And, according to LiveScience.com, if this occurs, it would be "the first time in human history the pole would be ice-free." The first time in human history. My god, what have we done?

They aren't just whores. They are cheap whores:

House Dems who changed their vote to support FISA bill, giving immunity to telecos, received, on average, $8,359 in PAC contributions from Verizon, AT&T, and Sprint. The MAPLight.org "compiled PAC campaign contributions from Verizon, AT&T, and Sprint and correlated them with the voting records of all House members who voted on last week’s FISA bill." Click the link to see the sad results.

Q: If they will sell out our 4th amendment rights for $8,359, what will they do for $15,000? $20,000? $25,000? One thing for sure, there isn't enough money in the world to get them to fuck with the 2nd amendment, because the people who are unwavering about their rights under that amendment are armed.

That said, there is one senator out there who is doing everything he can to try to stop this travesty: Feingold gets FISA Delayed! Pundicrat writes that according to The Hill: Objections by Sen. Russ Feingold (D-Wis.) will push back an overhaul of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) until after lawmakers return in July, Democratic leaders said Thursday. Feingold is strongly opposed to language that would likely give telephone companies that participated in warrantless surveillance retroactive immunity from lawsuits.

We need to cover Feingold's back. No doubt Steny Hoyer, Harry Reid and others are not amused by his move to stymie this piece of shit bill. Call and thank him (202-224-5323) and Senator Dodd (202-224-2823), and call your senators and Obama's office and demand that they kill the telecom immunity provision (at a minimum). Senate contact information can be found here: Senate contact list. Hell, send Obama an e-mail right now.

Thanks to Morse for the MAPLight.org link.

Update: I forgot to mention Senator Dodd's role in fighting FISA.  I just added his name to the relevant paragraph and his DC phone number.  He and Feingold deserve our thanks. 

The FISA fight is over. We lost:

The Real FISA Vote Passes 80 to 15 With the Presidential Nominees Passing. Ian Welsh, at Firedoglake, writes: The FISA Cloture vote just passed. The Senate will now consider the motion to proceed with the bill, then they'll head to the bill itself (corrected procedural details, h/t and thanks to CBolt). Various motions will be put forward to strip immunity, odds are they will fail. Then a number of the 80 who voted to restrict debate will vote against FISA so they can say they were against the bill. However this was the real vote, and the rest is almost certainly nothing but kabuki for the rubes.

Obama didn't vote. Clinton was absent too. Schumer voted the right way (i.e., against cloture), but it was a safe vote for him since only 14 other senators joined him. It's all fucking political kabuki. As Welsh notes, some of the 80 who voted to limit debate will peel off to vote against the bill. But it won't be enough. Because the outcome was pre-determined. As for Obama, Welsh gives us his response: "The bill has changed. So I don't think the security threats have changed, I think the security threats are similar. My view on FISA has always been that the issue of the phone companies per se is not one that overrides the security interests of the American people." Really? So the promise to filibuster telecom immunity the last time the bill was up was what, Senator Obama? I guess winning really is everything.

The calls to senators offices may be working:

We May Have Just Gotten The FISA Debate Extended. Senators Dodd and Feingold are speaking out against the FISA bill as I type (there is some confusion as to whether this is the start of the filibuster...I don't know). If you have a tv, check out C-Span. I don't have a tv, but some folks are live blogging the event and Dodd has been fucking impressive. In any event, dday, a diarist at Kos, writes: Anyone watching C-SPAN? Senator Reid just informed his colleagues that, because of all the other bills in the queue (like the housing bill, and the Iraq supplemental), FISA may not get a vote until after the July 4 holiday recess.

This is honestly the best we can hope for with this bill. Sens. Dodd, Wyden and Feingold are ready to filibuster and gamely trying to get colleagues to do the same (Sen. Dodd's speech tonight was a bravura performance), but realistically there aren't the numbers to stop cloture. However, that could change if the delay continues. And getting this to the recess means being able to get in a lot of Senator's faces on their trips back home. In addition, there's going to be a very short window in August where a ton of must-pass bills have to get through Congress, and throwing FISA in with that mess means that anything can happen.

Keep calling your senators. Hell, call any senator. Ok, call your senators and Senator Obama's offices. The phones are apparently ringing off the hook. I called Clinton and Schumer's offices this morning. Naturally, Schumer's staffer told me that "he hasn't released a statement yet" in response to my question about his stance on the FISA bill, but the staffer also said he was getting lots of calls from people opposed to the bill. We have a small window of opportunity. Just pick up the phone and make a few calls. Politicians don't like to be watched, so let's let them know we are watching...very carefully.

Find your senators' contact information here: Senators of the 110th Congress. And call or e-mail Senators Dodd and Feingold and thank them for standing up for us.