There have been several diaries on who voted for the recently passed House bill for FISA "extension" and Telecom Immunity.

As most people here know, the House Judiciary Committee had zero input into the legislation, as it was rammed through by the Intelligence Committee--particularly Jay Rockefeller.

Of the twenty-three Democratic members of the Committee there were six who voted for the FISA "extension" and for the Telecom Immunity provisions it contains.

The title of this diary is really not my own, but rather a quotation from General John Abizaid speaking at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government Friday, November 17, 2006.

The story is in the Boston Globe and can be found here:
http://www.boston.com/...

Abizaid, addressing academics, students, and members of the military at the John F. Kennedy School of Government, recognized the reality of souring public opinion in America about the war, but hastened to add, "We have not failed yet."

"I think we can win this fight," he said. "I think we are winning this fight."

According to the BBC (http://news.bbc.co.uk/...), an entire Iraqi police brigade has been taken out of Baghdad for retraining after accusations of complicity in death squads.

"There was clear evidence that there was some complicity in allowing death squad elements to move freely, when in fact they were supposed to be impeding their movement," Maj Gen Caldwell said.

"It was realised that removing them from Baghdad would, in fact, enhance security," he added.

Reuters is reporting that the head of Iraq's national olympic team has been abducted:

Police and Interior Ministry sources said the well-known Olympic Committee chief Ahmed al-Hadjiya and about 20 bodyguards had been taken, along with other committee officials and the convention center's guards.

Twenty bodyguards and the convention center's guards were apparently an insufficient number to prevent the abduction of a very high-profile person.  And it gets worse...

I always like it when the Times writes freaky, alarming, and truly bat-shit crazy stuff that goes against the Cheney administration:

http://www.washtimes.com/...

A prominent, U.S.-educated Gulf personality, who keeps a home in Washington, confided, not for attribution, "those Gulf countries, including Saudi Arabia, that have benefited from U.S. protection now fear that same protection endangers their regimes." In Kuwait, he said, the government is "deeply concerned" that when the U.S. pulls out of Iraq it will leave a residual, standby force in Kuwait that will then become the target of a terrorist campaign.

empphasis added

I found this story on the Atlanta Journal-Constitution's website.

Last August, Sgt. Paul Saylor died in Iraq after the vehicle he was in rolled over into a canal.  Two of his fellow soldiers also died in the accident.  

When Saylor's body arrived back in Georgia it was found that his remains were so badly decomposed that his grieving mother wasn't allowed to view them and the funeral was closed casket.

There's something wrong about this...

Short and sweet without a lot of my commentary:

http://www.boston.com/...

Apparently, there is some thought that the Budget Bill that includes all of the cuts may be challenged as unconstitutional.

Opponents of a major budget bill just signed by President Bush are weighing a court challenge on the grounds that the measure is unconstitutional because it was amended after the House voted on it.

Go for it.

I've been waiting for an open thread to write about this.

According to the Anchorage Daily News, the Alaska Democratic Party was told that they could not have the raw data from the 2004 election.  Rather, they needed to be satisfied with printouts from the Diebold system.

Links and excerpt after the fold.

I became interested in the FISA court after I read the story of how our president has decided on his own that he can bypass it.

This link takes you to a general information page that has numerous other links about this court.

Like...

Who is on the court.
How long they'll be there.
Their annual report to Congress.
Justice Department answers to questions submitted by the Judiciary Committee.

and so much more.
Here's the link: http://www.fas.org/...

and you can follow me below the fold for a summary of things I find interesting and alarming.

As if things weren't bad enough for Ford:

The American Family Association has been threatening to boycott Ford Motor Company because of Ford's long-standing advertising and marketing to members of the Gay/Lesbian/Bi/Trans community.

Ford Motor Corporation confirmed on Friday that is stopping advertising of its Jaguar and Land Rover brands in gay publications.

Details of any specific agreement and Ford remain murky; with a spokesman for Ford referring media to the AFA website.

UPDATE: Americablog has more information about this:

http://americablog.blogspot.com/2005/12/ford-motor-company-embraces-homophobia.html

The National Stonewall Democrats are hosting a series of "retirement" parties for Ricky Santorum this month.  The goal is to energize dems (gay dems in particular) to help oust Santorum next year.

I was just reading a sorry thing over at Pendragon
http://www.pandagon.net/

It seems that there are college football games scheduled in Florida this weekend.  People with means fled to hotels and motels in Florida to escape the wrath of Katrina.

The hotel and motel staff people have asked the evacuees to leave.  There are football fans coming to stay, and the evacuees have to find accomodations elsewhere since the football fans have reservations.

Update [2005-9-2 13:27:35 by lalo456987]: I made an error. I removed one state because I misread the original article. My apologies to the wrongly implicated.

Update [2005-9-2 14:34:14 by lalo456987]: It seems the Miami Herald has gotten ahold of the story.

Update [2005-9-4 16:40:10 by lalo456987]: I changed the word to evacuee. Not that anyone is still reading this or anything. :-)