Tell Harry Reid to block granting telecoms immunity from the spy scandal

It’s heartening to see how Democrats and the American public alike are rallying behind the idea that the major telecom companies should not be immune from prosecution for their role in abetting the NSA’s illegal spying. The common wisdom is that Americans care less about esoteric issues like privacy than those that hit them in [...]

Prescription for congressional democrats…

Something from Mark Fiore for those congressional democrats who keep voting for FISA and war funding, and can’t seem to muster the political will to treat Bush like the lame duck he is:
Spineocrat!

Quotabull

Our purpose is, and has always been, to ensure a civil and safe environment where the many types of campus activities and open discourse can occur.
— University of Florida Police Chief Linda Stump. According to an Oct. 25 Associated Press story: “University of Florida police were justified in using a Taser against a student who [...]

Is that a bottle in your vagina, Rep. Pete Stark?

…because, good Sir, you are the star of your own dirty shame today.

I guess if you’re going to hang yourself, your own spine is as good a noose as any. Slithering up to the podium like a worm, apologizing for:

Dodd threatens filibuster of FISA bill

“Why does Harry Reid hate America and freedom?”
That’s the question I was asking myself after S&R reader “Dee Loralei” pointed out in comments to my post yesterday that Senate Majority Leader Reid was planning to move ahead with a vote on the FISA update, even in the face of Dodd’s hold on the bill. [...]

Democrats’ spines turn to jelly on warrantless spying once again–but there’s still hope

It was largely expected, but no less disappointing to wake up this morning and find out that Senate Democrats on the Intelligence Commitee agreed to carry water for the Bush administration by granting retroactive immunity to the telecom companies involved in the NSA’s warrantless wiretapping scandal:
The draft Senate bill has the support of the [...]

Electric transmission lines, eminent domain, and the consequences of vague and broadly worded laws - Part 4

The past three parts of this series discussed national interest electric transmission corridors, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s (FERC’s) authority to issue federal construction permits over the objections of state and local regulators, and the use of easements, rights of way, and eminent domain by the utilities to get access to the land needed for [...]

Electric transmission lines, eminent domain, and the consequences of vague and broadly worded laws - Part 3

The last two parts of this series have discussed how and why the Department of Energy and the Federal Energy Regulation Commission (FERC) may declare a “geographic area” as a national interest electric transmission corridor and how that designation enables the FERC to overrule local regulators and issue construction permits under a very broad set [...]

Electric transmission lines, eminent domain, and the consequences of vague and broadly worded laws - Part 2

Yesterday I discussed the Energy Policy Act of 2005 and how it permits the Department of Energy to declare large swaths of the country as national interest electric transmission corridors (NIETCs) with little or no justification. Today I’ll discuss how the process of granting transmission line construction permits works in the aforementioned NIETCs.

Electric transmission lines, eminent domain, and the consequences of vague and broadly worded laws - Part 1

In 2005, Congress passed the Energy Policy Act of 2005 (referred to as the EPAct from here on), the first attempt in recent history by the federal government to address the generation, transmission, refining, etc. of all types of energy on a national scale. At 551 pages, the EPAct is packed full of good [...]

I’m a carboholic, and so are you

What, precisely, is a carboholic? When I first read the title of today’s guest column in the Washington Post (“We’re Carboholics. Make Us Stop.), I initially thought I was about to read a column on the poor dietary habits of U.S. citizens. But no, the author was actually David Crane, the CEO [...]

Gays on ENDA: No special rights for trannies

Imagine for a moment that you are born into a perfectly healthy body. You are a perfectly good person. For some odd reason, though, you are somehow “different.”
Imagine that, for whatever reason, your body functions more or less like it ought to according to your biology textbook. Something, though, is “off” from [...]

John McCain and our Christian Nation®

John McCain is at it again. This time out he’s arguing, in an interview with Beliefnet, that the Constitution established the US as a “Christian nation” and he comes dangerously close to suggesting that only a Christian would be fit to be president (in fact, he seems to say just that before waffling and backpedaling [...]

Iraq war surtax is DOA

Yesterday, Democratic representatives David Obey (Wi), John Murtha (PA), and Jim McGovern (MA) proposed a 2% surtax for low and middle income taxpayers and 12-15% for upper income taxpayers in order to pay for the $150 billion costs of the Iraq occupation in 2008. The response, both by the Democratic leadership and the Republicans [...]

New Medicare prescription rules for tamper-proof prescriptions pads hopefully delayed

UPDATE: President Bush signed this extension into law.
Apparently medical professionals need to read every single line of every bill that Congress ever passes that the President approves, no matter how unrelated to medicine the bills actually are.
On October 1st of this year, all prescriptions for Medicare patients were supposed to be written on tamper [...]