If you've seen this post at Firedoglake or were lucky enough to be at the Coffee with the Troops discussion in person, then you know that the vets on the panel asked us all to get out and be part of the movement that is trying end this war.  

If you live near Reading, PA, or near Philly, you'll have a great chance to do exactly that this Tuesday, August 28th at 6PM.  

Please come out and be part of national Take a Stand Day.

Everyone needs to ignore Arlen Specter's criticism of our likely lying AG Alberto Gonzales. Specters huffs and puffs, but actually "does" nothing. People in PA who have been watching his rope-a-dope act since 1980 are used to it.  Snarlin' Arlen is an "act", because he votes to rubber-stamp Bush and Mitch McConnell, time after time.  He's so widely disliked that if he were to switch parties and jump to the Democrats, there is some likelihood that he would be thrown back.
   I would not be fooled by his fundraising towards his claimed reelection in 2010.  That too is a rope-a-dope.  Many PA. Dems think he is planning to have his son, Shanin Specter, succeed him.  But Shanin could not win a GOP primary.  By raising money now, he plans to scare away a strong GOP primary challenger on the right - but then at the last minute not file for reelection, but instead the election petitions would be for his son Shanin Specter.  It would be too late for any strong GOP challenger to file.  

It's been a rough week for those of us who still think America should set the example for human rights and rule of law.  One is tempted to phrase that role in past tense, as in these are things we used to represent.  As Congress sleep walks through an agenda orchestrated by the most dangerous, incompetent, and deceptive administration in our history, the American people seem, for the most part, uninterested.

I tapped the following into my PDA this morning (Thursday, July 27) when I attended the ceremony for the signing of the bill extending particular provisions of the Voting Rights Act on the south lawn of the White House, and edited it later on in the day. UPDATE: I later discovered that the day before Bush signed the law, nine of ten Republican Senators on the Judiciary Committee, including chair Arlen Specter, signed a report questioning the constitutionality of a renewed Voting Rights Act. They reportedly submitted the report into the legislative record without showing Democrats, and Dems claim that the report was submitted to increase the likelihood that the U.S. Supreme Court will invalidate or cut back the renewed Voting Rights Act. So much for “We Are the World.” More on the last minute report is here.  

I'm at the signing of the renewal of the Voting Rights Act.  Like too many things in my life, I made it here just in time at 8:57 am (we were warned officials would close the gates at 9:00 am).  

There are about 400 people here.  Perhaps 40% (maybe even half) are African American, and the rest are Asian-American, Latino, or white.  I see a lot of friends from the Hill, the academy, the civil rights community, and other arenas.  Despite the fact that the sun is not yet at full blast, we are all sticky from the humidity and the heat.  

Those with red tickets get to sit in the white lawn chairs inside the ropes, while those of us with blue tickets are to stand outside of the ropes (I don't know if that's just coincidence, or if the colors for insiders and outsiders are switched when a Democrat sits in the White House).  Red ticket holders include dignitaries like Don King, Juan Williams, Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson, and Martin Luther King III, while blue ticket holders seem to be Hill staffers and others of us who are not household names.  A group of twenty-something kids (I don't see any who are people of color) manage the crowds and enforce this separation.

A friend and fellow blue ticket holder tells me that he's looking for a red ticket, but I'm not on a similar quest.  The Washington phenomena of getting into the VIP reception, section, or whatever it happens to be is common, but I'm not into playing it (not that I haven't found my way into an occasional Congressional Black Caucus legislative weekend reception when I was in law school).    

The military band has taken a break, and I ask the conductor if they'll play "The Battle Hymn of the Republic" today.  He responds, "Great song, but it's not on our list today."  I guess it is a bit much to expect that the White House military band will take requests, but the song would have been very appropriate for the signing of renewal of important provisions of the Voting Rights Act.  I wonder how often the playlist is connected to the substance of the ceremony.

Over the next 10 minutes, about 50 members of Congress wander onstage, including Senators Clinton, Leahy, Spector, Reid, Frist, and Kennedy, as well as Representatives Conyers, Watt, Pelosi, Scott, Rush, Rangel, and Kilpatrick.  They mount a grandstand behind the presidential podium.

At about 9:25, perhaps to fill empty seats, those of us with blue tickets are allowed inside the ropes, and we scramble in like mice picking up crumbs.  I feel a bit hypocritical as I enter the red section.  I quickly grab a seat in the back row.  

At about 9:40, George W. Bush comes out.  He's on the stage surrounded by members of Congress, and they are looking out toward the Washington Monument, while we're looking at them toward the south side of the White House.  

Talk about convenient timing for the Bush administration.

Jammed off the radarscope this week by Ann Coulter's mouth and the demise of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was the squaring off between Senator Arlen Specter (R-Pennsylvania) and Dick Cheney (unofficial master of the universe) over the NSA domestic spying investigation.  

Under the fold: Springtime for Dubya

There's a touchingly childlike tone to this piece over at FDL on the exploits of three Bay Staters going to the Senate to try and find out where their senators stood on the Feingold res.

Needless to say, they got no joy. As would have been entirely predictable.

Don't get me wrong - I think the more the pampered denizens of the Capitol are confronted by the folks who pay their salaries, the better. (Not that the three got to see an actual senator.)

Just as long as these meetings are seen for what they are.

I must start off by saying that my opposition to the proposed "guest worker" provisions in the current version of the Senate's compromise immigration bill; "The Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act of 2006", sponsored by Judiciary Chairmen Arlen Specter, are not based solely on the flaws in this particular bill, but on the whole concept of using "temporary" workers to fill our nations labor demands.

Before I begin my rant as to why the concept of guest workers is both morally wrong and economically ill- conceived, I would like to look at this particular piece of legislation