NOT THAT MANY DEMOCRATS VOTED FOR BUSH'S UNCONSTITUTIONAL FISA LEGISLATION-- BUT ENOUGH TO PASS IT

Most Democrats voted against Bush's FISA bill. But the congressional leadership didn't do anything to derail it and more than a few of the Democrats who voted against it-- caving in to the will of their constituents-- were secretly glad it passed. (Yes, we have our sources.) One walks away from this disgraceful episode thinking our congressional Democrats are weak and wobbly; hardly the champions of liberty the times call for.

I received an e-mail from a friend of mine yesterday, Steven Porter, twice the Democratic candidate against depraved rubber stamp Republican incumbent Phil English. It looks to me that '08 could well be the year English is finally sent packing for the northwest Pennsylvania voters. Steve, however, doesn't see the Democratic Party as the solution to much. He's decided to run as an independent! Steven is the kind of Democrat who takes the values thing seriously. He seems to have gotten to the point where being part of the Democratic House caucus seems as unappetizing to him as being part of the Republican House caucus. Steve takes things like this seriously; he sent it to me this morning. "It states that the US has now fallen from 11th to 41st in life expectancy and goes on to detail why the US has done so and why our heath care system is not nearly the best even though we pay the most for it by far. The answer to improving it," suggests Steven," of course, would gore the oxen of the health and insurance lobbies and fly in the face of our Congress which is paid by those lobbies to make them money."

This morning's Washington Post has a story explaining how Bush won the FISA battle against the American people. The Regime bowled them over by playing to their cowardice. They wanted to be able to monitor calls-- with no judicial or congressional supervision-- and the Democratic leadership either lacked the skill or the will to stop them. And as long as we keep electing quasi-Democrats like Jason Altmire (PA), John Barrow (GA), Melissa Bean (IL), Dan Boren (OK), Chris Carney (PA), Henry Cuellar (TX), Joe Donnelly (IN), Baron Hill (IN), Dan Lipinski (IL), Jim Marshall (GA), Collin Peterson (MN), Heath Shuler (NC), Gene Taylor (MS) the reactionaries will have a governing coalition in America.

There are various courses of action to take in different districts. Obviously, never vote for a Republican for anything, anywhere. They all stink because their underlying partisan philosophy of Greed, Bigotry, Hatred and Selfishness is just plain toxic. Reactionary and corrupt Democrats who voted like Republicans should never be supported and when primary time comes around they should be opposed. There are strong primary opponents to Al Wynn and Dan Lipinksi and we should all be supporting Donna Edwards and Mark Pera. Where there is no incumbent Democrat, it is important to figure out if there is a progressive-- like Rick Noriega in Texas, Angie Paccione in Colorado, Victoria Wulsin in Ohio, John Laesch in Illinois, Darcy Burner in Washington-- and vote for and support her or him.

And in the case of PA-03, we have a specially interesting opportunity: someone who is neither a reactionary Republican nor a gutless, corrupt insider Democrat, Steven Porter.