Consideraton of FISA bill HR 6304 delayed: Hey senators, how about reading the bill?

In one furious blog after another, this week bloggers have ranted, fumed, and waxed eloquent over the perfidy of Obama in reversing his opposition to FISA and over the shortcomings of the FISA bill itself. But if you read far enough into the comments you will see frequently repeated the phrase: “I haven’t had a chance to read the FISA bill yet, but…..”

Judging by the remarks of some of the senators, (did I say Senator Obama????) it doesn’t look like they have read it either.

Well, it looks like the consideration of the bill has been delayed until after the fourth of July weekend, so kiddies, this is your chance to put FISA on your summer reading list. You can find the official version of HR 6304 on Thomas right |here| or at the unofficial GovTrack site |here|.

As for myself, I haven’t had a chance to read the FISA bill yet, but……

Sprint, Verizon, and AT&T try to buy congress–is your freedom worth $53.6 million dollars?

As the “FISA compromise bill” HR 6304 makes its way to the senate floor, the Center for Responsive Politics is telling us how much it is costing the telecoms to buy retroactive immunity for their illegal wiretapping activities.

Although AT&T, Verizon, Sprint and the other companies facing more than 40 lawsuits haven’t spoken at all about it publicly, they’ve been heard loud and clear on Capitol Hill. The industry has spent a total $13.4 million on lobbying in the first three months of this year, putting it on course to surpass last year’s $40.2 million total. Both AT&T and Verizon moved up in the ranks of companies spending on lobbying efforts (including those in all industries), from eighth and 13th last year to third and fourth, respectively, so far this year.

That’s right, At&T, Verizon, and Sprint have spent $13.4 million in three months to take away your 4th amendment rights.

Sounds like corruption. But is it working?

Yup.

And how much does it cost to get one representative to change a vote?

$8,359

According to maplight.org, which tracks government corruption, 94 Democrats changed their vote on FISA between March 14 and June 20. The average contribution that Sprint, AT&T, and Verizon made to those campaigns was $8,359, as opposed to $4,987 for those who did not change their votes.

My, my, my, I see here DNC heavyweight Rahm Emmanuel from Illinois’ 5th district changed his vote after receiving $28,000. He is always so impeccably dressed, too. Click |here| to see if your rep is on the list.

Then check your phone bill.

Who is your service provider?

Stop FISA secret domestic spying bill HR 6304–call your senator now

Stop FISA. Call your senator now.

The senate switchboard number is (202) 224-3121. Ask for your senator by name and they will connect you.

Or you can look up your senator’s direct number |here|.

For up to the minute info on opposition to FISA, check Electronic Frontier Foundation. They were the first to publish the text of the secret FISA amendment compromise. Last week they had current info on every House member’s position on the bill. This week they will link you to your senator’s info as well as collecting information about what your senator’s office tells you when you do make that phone call.

Care Bears in Sudan–”Punish with Bullets”

A friend of mine once nearly triggered an international incident when he put children named Saddam and Mohammed in a wastebasket to demonstrate the preposition “in”. The administrator stuck up for him–after all, he was wearing traditional robes in the classroom–and it all blew over.

Sudan is not quite so unemotional. Knife-brandishing crowds, demonstrating, when else–on Friday–demanded a British teacher whose students named a teddy bear “Mohammed” be executed by shooting. Uh, don’t you shoot people with guns?

Academic Freedom–the shirt

I’m not one of those people who arrives at a meeting with a Chomsky quotation up my sleeve. But I was impressed with the strong turnout for academic freedom at University of Chicago’s Rockefeller Chapel Friday–an event where Noam Chomsky was scheduled to speak along with Israel Lobby co-author John Mearsheimer and others.

So here are two Chomsky Freedom T-shirts with academic freedom themes. One says,

If we don’t believe in freedom of expression for people we despise, we don’t believe in it at all.

The other says,

For those who stubbornly seek freedom, there can be no more urgent task than to come to understand the mechanisms and practices of indoctrination. These are easy to perceive in the totalitarian societies, much less so in the system of ‘brainwashing under freedom’ to which we are subjected and which all too often we serve as willing or unwitting instruments.

Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week is coming up. Might be just the thing.

Tees are sweatshop-free and ethically produced, either in the U.S by union labor or by American Apparel whose fair labor practices have been well documented. Chomsky Freedom Tees are available in organic, fitted, hoodie, raglan, tank top and dog.

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Related posts:

Chomsky Ditches Rockefeller Chapel, Politics is Still Local

Noam Chomsky and Israel Lobby Co-author Mearsheimer to Speak at Rockefeller Chapel in October 2007

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The Cost of Discipleship: IRS drops investigation of Pasadena church’s anti-war sermon

The IRS has dropped its investigation of the all Saints Episcopal Church in Pasadena over a 2004 anti-war sermon. So what did they determine? The anti-war sermon is illegal and the church loses its tax-exempt status? Nope. Maybe the anti-war sermon is completely legal and the church should never have been investigated? Nope. The IRS has concluded that the anti-war sermon was illegal but the church can keep its tax-exempt status.

The church has spent approximately $200,000 defending itself from the IRS investigation.

During an audit, taxpayers are usually given the opportunity to discuss and explain issues of concern, but in this case, the IRS has yet to explain exactly what violates the rules against intervening in a political campaign. The current rector says the church has “no more guidance about the IRS rules now than when we started this process.” The church has decided to ask for an explanation and an apology from the IRS, and an investigation by the Treasury department which oversees it.

The church has also obtained e-mails through a Freedom of Information Act request that call into question the role of the Justice Department in the case. The emails show the Justice Department communicated with the IRS before the IRS became interested in the case, that the Justice department coordinated IRS requests for documents and also discussed news coverage of the case.

“In view of the fact that recent congressional inquiries have revealed extensive politicization of [the Department of Justice], my client is very concerned that the close coordination undertaken by the IRS allowed partisan political concerns to direct the course of the All Saints examination,” attorney Marcus S. Owens wrote in a letter Friday requesting an investigation.

No kidding.

Jesse Jackson, Barack Obama and being black enough: What color is justice?

Now it’s not enough to be black in the world of Jesse Jackson. You also have to act black.

According to South Carolina newspaper The State :

Jackson sharply criticized presidential hopeful and Illinois Sen. Barack Obama for “acting like he’s white” in what Jackson said has been a tepid response to six black juveniles’ arrest on attempted-murder charges in Jena, La.

When it comes to justice, is there a difference between black and white? Are some things criminal when done by whites but not criminal when done by blacks, or the other way around? More importantly is the standard of conduct for a black candidate different from a white candidate?

So if Obama is “acting like he’s white”, how does that mean he’s acting? And what about the other contenders? Are they acting black and white–or red and blue? The press release from the Obama offical campaign website:

Today I stand with those who stand for justice in Jena. The thousands of Americans from every race and region who have descended on this small Louisiana town carry forth the legacy of all those who sat at lunch counters and took freedom rides to strike a blow against injustice wherever it may exist. When a noose hangs from a schoolyard tree in the 21st century and young men are treated in a way that is not equal nor just, it is not just an offense to the people of Jena or to the African-American community, it is an offense to the ideals we hold as Americans. I renew my call for the District Attorney to drop the excessive charges filed in this case, and I will continue my decades-long fight against injustice and division as President.

Similar press releases were issued from the offices of major Democratic presidential contenders Hillary Clinton and John Edwards. No comments at all came from the official websites of top-tier Republican candidates Rudy Guiliani, John McCain, and Mitt Romney.

And what exactly does it mean to “act black”?

“Jena is a defining moment, just like Selma was a defining moment”, said Jackson.

But commenter Fred on Obama’s campaign blog disputes that characterization:

I know Rosa Parks. I love Rosa Parks. And Mychal Bell (the ring-leader of the Jena 6) who has become the cause celebre for the same crowd that was last spotted at Duke University extolling the virtues of a conniving stripper who tried to ruin the lives of three young men is no Rosa Parks.

Mychal Bell was in a group of black students that knocked a white student to the ground and continued beating him after he was unconscious, leaving him blind in one eye for three weeks. Some of the same individuals were involved in another racially charged incident between three black students and a white student at a gas station in a black neighborhood.

So what is the politically correct “black” response? “The lives of six young black men are being ruined”… charging them with crimes has “the power to ruin their prospects for a happy and prosperous future”. The only proper response is to “drop all charges” and “grant immediate reprieves to any of the young men who are convicted”, according to an on-line petition. After all, the noose incident was seen by the black community as a “threat”, but the white student who was beaten blind and unconscious was only attacked “with sneakers”. For anyone who thinks this is a caricature of “black” thinking, the petition got 145,000 signatures.

Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton can go rushing down there and reinforce the idea that it’s okay to hurt someone as long as they’re white. After all, it’s good publicity for the voter registration drive. Or is it.

Maybe the Reverend Jackson can galvanize some black voters to register and vote with this issue, and maybe for now Obama will go along with the political strategy in order to reach this voting block.  But when it comes right down to it, how many people want a black president and how many people want an American president? The only reason Obama has gotten as far as he has in American politics is his ability to work within the mainstream.  If he is seen as merely a tool of black leaders who can fetch him whenever they want for whatever crackpot cause, instead of a leader in his own right, he will quickly end up in the backwaters trying to cater to a very limited group of voters, who, quite frankly, don’t turn out to vote.

Turkey’s presidential campaign rhetoric heats up

Turkey’s prime minister, Tayyip Erdogan, is under fire from the press and other non-governmental institutions in Turkey’s latest battle over the candidacy of Abdullah Gul for the presidency. While the secular nature of the state of Turkey is guaranteed by the constitution, Gul is a former Islamist. Even worse, his wife wears an Islamic headscarf.

“The people who say that [Gul is not my president], must renounce their citizenship,” Prime Minister Erdogan said on television Monday, a reference to columnist Bekir Coskun of the nation’s largest daily newspaper, Hurriyet.

In an August 15 column Coskun had written that Gul would “not be my president”. “From now on no one can speak of a secular state… political Islam has taken another step forward.”

On Wednesday Erdogan’s critics started weighing in.

Leader of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), Deniz Baykal:

“It is clear that tolerance, democratic thought and a sense of law does not lie behind these comments. How can the prime minister tell a respected journalist to leave Turkey?”

Radikal newspaper columnist Murat Yetkin:

Erdogan’s comments echoed those of far-right groups who in the past had used to say about Turkey “love it or leave it”.

Sedat Ergin, a columnist at leading liberal daily Milliyet:

“Prime Minister Erdogan showed the understanding of an autocratic leader. In the next statement, he may even send dissenting writers into exile.”

Turkey’s president is elected by the legislature. The first two rounds of voting were on 27 April and 6 May, where the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) was unable to get a two-thirds majority for Gul, after millions marched in public demonstrations for secularism. An election returned the AKP to power with a larger majority, and Gul was once again selected as the candidate.

The first round of voting on August 20 failed to elect Gul and a second round was scheduled for August 24.

Gul is expected to be elected on August 28 when only a simple majority of the legislature will be required. Unless, of course, the military steps in to prevent an Islamist government as they did in 1997.

Banned in Turkey: religious extremist demonstrates control of Turkish courts by banning WordPress.com

Hot diggety dog. I’m banned in Turkey.

Okay, everyone else with a wordpress.com blog is banned in Turkey too.

Apparently this is all the doing of a Moslem creationist and holocaust-denier named Adnan Oktar who is the author of the books written under the pen name Harun Yahya. As far as I can tell, Oktar has been accused in the Turkish courts of sodomy, sex with minors, blackmail, bribing public officials, carrying on defamation campaigns against a political rival and a movie star who refused to have sex with him, and oh yeah, illegal possession of guns. He is the named author of a huge array of books that one would think impossible for only one person to write, including a very expensive-looking anti-Darwin tome filled with glossy photos that infringe an a number of copyrights. The books are being given away in European countries.

Somehow Adnan Oktar (or Harun Yahya) also has enough hidden clout to get a Turkish court to issue an order banning all WordPress.com blogs from the country.

No one seems to be able to trace Oktar’s financial backing.

Impeach Bush sign taken down? Try a t-shirt instead.

Is it illegal to post an “Impeach Bush” sign on public property? We’re about to find out.

Ohio teacher Kevin Egler and his friends have been posting anti-war signs all over Ohio and surrounding states. They say the war in Iraq is illegal and immoral. Now Egler has been issued a ticket for posting an Impeach Bush sign in Kent in Portage County. The Kent police said he was “unlawfully advertising in a public place”.

Egler said that when he was stopped in Kent, he asked the police officer how his sign differed from Realtors posting signs on public property saying “This way to the house for sale.” He said the officer asked, “You don’t know the difference?” but never explained what it might be.

Egler’s lawyer says he knows the difference. A real estate sign is a commercial message. Egler’s sign is a political message. Political messages have more legal protections, says the attorney, Bob Fitrakis, who specializes in first amendment law. Fitakis is also editor and publisher of The Free Press website, which so far has not commented on the arrest.

For some time I have been quietly offering a few sweatshop-free “impeach” t-shirts through the Columbus, Ohio-based company Skreened. I haven’t written about them though, because I’m not at all sure impeachment is the best approach. But if someone does believe impeachment is the right approach, they should be able to say so. That part is a no-brainer. So for anyone who wants to exercise their freedom to say Impeach!, here is your shirt.

Shirts are available in a several styles and colors. The slogans are shown on a variety of different tees so you can get an idea of what’s available. Sizes run small–they are “fashionably snug”–so for a looser fit, order up a size. Oh, yes, there is one slightly naughty slogan. If you were offended by the detail of the Monika Lewinsky discussion, you will be offended by this–it’s definately NSFW and not child-friendly. It’s the light green one in the upper right with the navy blue slogan, but too hard to read in thumbnail size. So if you’re offended by that sort of thing, don’t click on it.

To order a shirt, click on the picture.