Jane Hamsher of the wonderful blog Firedoglake, one of the best and most influential in the blogosphere, had her mother pass away a few hours ago today.

Some of you may have seen her in Vegas as she was also the moderator of the Valerie Plame leak panel at YearlyKos.

Jane was with her mother at the end.

Several days ago I wrote my Senator, Dianne Feinstein, urging her to join Senator Feingaold in calling for censure over the NSA Spying scandal. Today I got a response.

It seems DiFi agrees that what Bush did is both illegal and unconstitutional, but is just not ready to do anything about it. So on the one hand she decries the administration's actions, but on the other refuses to commit to any actions of her own to hold them to account,  The letter is really a dodge, a prevarication dressed up as a stand and beating around the bush presented as a bold position.

I am disappointed, but not surprised. Follows is her letter, and my response.

From Juan Cole comes this disturbing news:

The proto-fascist mini-state of the Kurdistan Democratic Party in Arbil [Irbil], northern Iraq, has sentenced an Austrian-Kurdish journalist to 18 months in prison for criticizing Massoud Barzani.

And he's not alone.  According to Amnesty International  Kamal Sayid Qadir, an Austrian national of Kurdish origin was originally given an the draconian sentence of 30 years. Appeals overturned the sentence and sent it back to a criminal court in Arbil for re-trial. On March 26th the court imposed a new sentence of 18 months imprisonment.

What is going on here? More below the fold.

Today I spent part of my Sunday going to an event at a private home in Venice, CA held for Marcy Winograd. The place was fairly packed, with nearly a hundred people filling the modest residence.  All the chairs were filled, people spilled over to adjoining rooms and stood in the hallways and I ended up kneeling on the carpet.  It was quite an experience.

Who is Marcy Winograd and why is she important? Marcy is a progressive Democrat who is running in the Democrat primary to replace Jane Harman as the Representative from California's 36th District.  Yes, that Jane Harmon.

Harmon as we know, is a big gun Dem, ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee, and a hawk.  What kind of person would take on the seemingly quixotic task of going after an entrenched member of the DC elite, who has tremendous name recognition and is bound to be well funded? Maybe our own version of Ned Lamont.  Read on...

Everyone is upset with Bill Bennett's latest gaffe about aborting black babies, while the estimable Mr. Bennett defends himself and refuses to apologize.

Of course, the caveat in his statement that  "That would be an impossible, ridiculous, and morally reprehensible thing to do, but your crime rate would go down" is used as a defense, in that he wasn't actually advocating aborting black babies, but just making a point about abortion. True enough, but it misses the point as to why he even thought of that analogy in the first place. Why didn't he talk about aborting rich white babies so that the corporate crime rate would decrease?  We can all guess.

But wait, there's more! Over at TPM Cafe Reed Hundt tells a story that we all need to hear.

Here they go again!

Redlands, a city of 78,000 in California's Inland Empire near San Bernardino, has been roiled for the past year and a half by a battle by the Religious Right to place a Christian cross on the city's official seal.  Now a initiative to do just that is on the November 8 city-wide ballot that is just a few weeks away.  It's another instance in which a minority of wingnut believers wants to put their particular sacred symbol on official documents, stationery, police and fire badges, vehicles, and all other government property even though such displays are strictly forbidden by the First Amendment and over a century of court opinions.

But the situation in Redlands has a new wrinkle.  A local group has formed an impressive political alliance to oppose the initiative and achieve a victory at the ballot box.

I've been foillowing closely Paul Hackett's run in Ohio. From out of nowhere he now seems to be not only a real contender in a very red area, but perhaps the man to beat.

Just how he has accomplished this holds a lesson for us. Beyond the personal appeal, the war vet marine gloss (which is great, BTW) good looks and handsome family is a case book study in positioning. If we look at his platform we may find a really good foundation for a new way of presenting Democratic candidates and ideas that should have a lot of traction across the political spectrum.

It's worth discussing.

 

Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA) has introduced new legislation,  The Pharmacy Consumer Protection Act of 2005, S. 778, which is terribly important and deserves our attention and support.

As you may know, some pharmacists are refusing to fill valid doctor's prescriptions for birth control and other women's reproductive medications based on their so-called religious or moral beliefs.  This can impose great hardships on women, especially those who live in smaller towns and rural areas, where alternative pharmacies are either not available or distant.  Boxer's bill addresses this travesty.

From an email I received from the Senator:

More below the fold

In this age of polarization, and with the increasingly radical and extreme views of Bush, Rove, Cheney, Santorum and DeLay, I think there are a lot of Republicans who are beginning to feel more and more out of place in their party.  I talk to them all the time.  We need, and the country needs, them to speak up.  My conjecture is that they are fiscally responsible, socially moderate, cautious about foreign policy adventurism and even somewhat libertarian as regards personal freedom and separation of church and state.  Kind of like Barry Goldwater (who has been quoted on these pages a bit lately) was in a lot of ways.   They are upset about a needless costly war, financial irresponsibility, huge deficits, government encroachment on civil liberties and the entwining of religion in politics.  Well. so are we.

Remember the old Roman Empire's "Bread and Circuses"  prescription for controlling the populace?     It's baaack!   The real question - how willing are we to be controlled?   And just what does this mean for the future of our democracy?   (This is an expansion of a comment I posted to the diary titled " An Absolutely Irrefutable Prediction.")

Most l today's entertainments are just glorified circuses.  People love circuses, whether they are trained elephants, acrobats and clowns, gladiators or Christians fighting lions in the Colosseum or reality TV.   All the same in a functional sense, if not necessarily a moral one.