Thank you for taking this onto the Rec list... Democrats are ignoring a goldmine  

This spring while Oil prices soared, debate festered between various factions as to whether supply/demand vs. speculators were causing the energy markets to rocket up.  In case you haven't noticed, Oil markets are crashing and only one real actual thing has happened to affect this situation, and that thing was predicted to cause this exact response.... what is it?  

The Democratic Congress CLOSED the Enron Loophole in the Farm Bill on June 22nd

Take Credit NOW PLEASE!!!  The MSM is claiming there is a fear of soft economic growth... This is laughable as oil went up and up through the spring and summer as it became common for the MSM and everyone else to talk slow growth, recession, etc... Something else happened, something the press is ignoring as well as our Party, at our own peril.

Paper trail and links to back this up below with graphs...

Those of you with long memories or wonky fixations will recall our years-long push to force Senate candidates to file their FEC disclosure reports electronically and bring them into the 21st century.  It's beyond ridiculous that we haven't eliminated this convoluted mess, as I explained last September:

Let's remember what it's all about: it costs taxpayers about $250,000 a year for a private Virginia contractor to convert the Senate paper filings -- which are created by the campaigns using computers and software -- back into electronic format for the FEC to post on its Web site. The conversions take anywhere from 18 to 27 days to complete, which means that most of the last campaign filings for the Senate do not become electronically available on the FEC website until after the election.

So the Republican Leader in the Senate and the head of the Senate Republicans' campaign committee are conspiring to not only block more timely disclosure in campaign finance, but also to try and stymie the ethics woes that they face.  Indeed, as Dennis Green said, they are who we thought they were.

Sen. Feingold has more to say.  

As mentioned above, it's NRSC chairman Sen. John Ensign (R-NV) who was gumming the works with procedural nonsense.  It's time to route around him.

Our friends at the Sunlight Foundation, Change Congress, Public Campaign and other pro-technology, pro-transparency reform organizations have launched a new wikified tool to make it happen: Pass223.com.

The website is simple -- it tells you where your Senators stand on the bill and on Sen. Ensign's opposition, and how many calls have been made to each Senator.  Click on your Senators' names, and it will pull up a phone script tailored to where s/he stands on both the underlying bill and Sen. Ensign's attempts to derail it.  Make the call, report the response on the website, repeat with your other Senator.

It should just take a few hours for the readers of this site to steamroll through this electronic whip sheet and obtain the information needed on all 100 Senators.  Then, we can start applying pressure where needed.

Can you make two calls today to bring greater transparency to the Senate?

Dianne Feinstein has, with Republican Robert Bennett, introduced perhaps the worst bill yet drafted on the issue of electronic voting. Meet S.3212, the Bipartisan Electronic Voting Reform Act.

S.3212 does not require a voter-verified paper record,  paper ballot, or paper anything.  The bill allows "independent records" of ballots which could be electronic, audio, video, pictorial, or "other independently produced record." The bill is so crappily written that it seems these independent records don't necessarily have to be seen by the voter before she casts her ballot. The bill places a representative of the voting system industry on the federal committee that drafts voting system guidelines (not an unheard of practice in the federal government, but the voting system industry just ain't ready for this kind of role, to put it kindly).

Click here to sign VerifiedVoting.org's action alert opposing S.3212.  More on the flip.

Back in November of 2007, Democratic activists in the California Democratic Party, aided by our friends at the Courage Campaign, drew up a resoution to Censure Senator Dianne Feinstein for her repeated enabling of the Bush agenda.  This particular outcry was created by Senator Feinstein's swing vote on the Senate Judiciary Committee that allowed for the confirmation of our torture-loving Attorney General Bob Mukasey.

The Courage Campaign collected 33,000 signatures supporting a resolution to censure Dianne Feinstein for her pro-Bush votes.  Needless to say, the efforts of those who actually support and defend the Constitution were met with great howls of execration by the serious people in the California Democratic Party.

But now that Senator Feinstein has once again sold the Constitution down the river by voting against removing telecom immunity from the FISA bill, it's time to ask: should the effort to censure Senator Feinstein be revived?

The Courage Campaign would like to know.  More below the fold.

Below the fold I have included a letter that I electronically submitted to Senator Feinstein just minutes ago. As I have experienced in the past on these matters I fully expect that I shall receive a form response that does nothing to address the points I have written about beyond the fact that they are nominally on the same topic. Figuring I might as well at least get a "paper cut" of real effect in I requested that she respond via snail mail instead of letting her fob me off with just a spam email.

Happy Independence Day, everyone. Stay safe and enjoy the holiday weekend.

Like many Kossacks out there I too wrote to and received the response from Senator Feinstein regarding her position on FISA. I have responded to her letter and I'd like to share some of that with you.

The now delayed final vote on the FISA bill is scheduled for AFTER the holiday on July 8th. The bill contains retroactive immunity from prosecution for the telecom giants who illegally allowed access to all YOUR telephone records without a search warrant. It is like a bankrobber who KNOWS his crime is against the law and does it anyway, then goes to Congress and gets them to pass a law saying it WASN'T a crime AFTER the fact. It is so bizarre as to be laughable if it weren't happening in our country at this very moment.

PDLA urges you to

CONTACT SENATOR FEINSTEIN IMMEDIATELY

Pardon me if this is diaried elsewhere; I did a search and didn't see it.

I called Sen. Boxer's office yesterday to urge her to vote no.  Today she e-mailed constituents outlining her opposition and providing links to video and a transcript.  A few highlights:

I've been emailing my Senators and Representative pretty regularly regarding various topics of interest, including but not limited to impeachment.

This morning, I recieved something I never thought I'd get from dear Senator Feinstein...a response.

Guess her staffers figured out how the mail merge function works in Outlook.

The response, my response to her response, and her response to my response to her response, under the fold.

Dianne Feinstin describes meeting between Obama and Hillary.

The New York Times have article this morning on the meeting between Obama and Hillary. It took place at Dianne Feinstein's home near American University. This while CNN had someone camped out watching Hillary's DC home.

Speculation that Barack Obama will choose Hillary Clinton as his running mate has peaked now that Obama has clinched the nomination. Common wisdom is that he must do this for the women who supported Clinton and have been bitterly disappointed by her defeat. But bringing her onto the ticket has significant problems, and Obama would be well served to use other means to heal the wounds of a brutal primary season.

That’s why he should pledge to appoint women to at least fifty percent of the cabinet seats in his administration. This may not be enough for many in the Clinton camp to bring them on board, but it would go a long way toward it. Beyond that, it’s time that women got their fair share of the real power in the executive government. A fully balanced cabinet is in the best interests of the country and certainly in keeping with the mission of the Obama campaign.

CNN reports

Major Hillary Clinton supporter Sen. Dianne Feinstein said Tuesday the final primaries mark a "moment of truth" for the New York senator, who should end her campaign.

"I think after the campaigns are wrapped up today, it is in fact a moment of truth," Feinstein told CNN. "I think a decision has to be made about whether keeping this nomination wide open is in the best interest of winning in November. I do not believe that it is, and I’m a very strong supporter of Hillary being placed on ticket as a vice presidential candidate."

"I think the time has come to end the primary, to put the ticket together, to bring people together and to march forward together into the convention."

The Asia Times is reporting Sens. Feinstein and Lugar will write an op-ed pice in the NYT "within days" alerting the American Public that the Psycho-n-Chief has plans for "proposed air strike as a limited action to punish Iran for its involvement in Iraq" within the next two months.

Everyone's talking about Obama's running mate. But who would you like to see in an Obama cabinet?

Today you can vote on the next Secretary of Veterans Affairs. Also, the previous rounds are still open for voting. More below the fold.

Senator Dianne Feinstein is a Democratic Senator in my state of California.   Today I spoke with three staffers in Senator Feinstein's offices (Los Angeles and DC) with a very simple question:

I know Dianne Feinstein supports Hillary Clinton.   And I see Clinton supporters going on TV and claiming they will never vote for Senator Obama should he be the nominee.   I see a terrible rift in the party.  

What is Senator Feinstein's plan for reuniting the party after the nominee is picked?  

Their answers below the fold.

      California's most immigrant dependent industries, agriculture and Silicon Valley, are pushing narrow measures through Congress in an effort to employ foreign workers at opposite ends of the labor market, people who pick vegetables and the post graduate engineers and scientists of Silicon Valley.  Senator Dianne Feinstein attached a farm guest worker program to the giant Iraq spending bill Thursday in a last ditch effort to remedy a shortage of workers in California's produce fields as the Federal Government continues to crack down on illegal immigration and the political climate proves hostile to more sweeping measures.  Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-San Jose, teaming with Republicans, is pushing several bills to give permanent residence to top engineering talent.

My friend Rachel Maddow walked on to the set last night saying she'd just heard a prophesied "dog-whistle" tell-tale sign, earlier in the show (namely that Dianne Feinstein had just given anything less than a cheerleader-style answer to the prospect of the Clinton campaign continuing).

I replied I'd just heard a different whistle that the end was nigh, but I couldn't say anything yet pending additional sourcing.

I can say it tonight and before the tv audience gets the full thing, I thought I'd offer up a little preview: At least one very prominent Clinton campaigner has just this week started shopping for a book deal.

to urge her to step forward and be a leader and announce her support for Senator Obama.

It is time to end Hillary's destructive madness.  

Hillary is playing the ultimate race card in an attempt to tout her own electability.  The sad result is that she is creating painful divisions that the Civil Rights movement sought to bridge. This is not what the Democratic Party is about!  Since she has only a Huckabee-esque route to the Democratic nomination, her end game must be to destroy Senator Obama's chances in order to enhance her chances in 2012.  This will lead to George Bush's third term in 2008 and will hurt down ballot candidates.