Dear Attorney General Mukasey:

Your comments the other day to the American Bar Association sicken me as an attorney.  Your comments start out with a plea for sympathy that because attorneys at the DOJ do not make salaries comparable to attorneys in private practice, we should have some level of sympathy for them.

New York Times columnist Paul Krugman has finally produced a column worth reading in the current election cycle.  In his opinion piece entitled "Rove's Third Term", Mr. Krugman has finally converted to the reality that electing a Democratic President is more important than his belief that Hillary would be the best candidate.

His column assails the crap argument that Gen. Wesley Clark's comments were in any way an attack on Sen. McCain's honorable service to our country.

Read on for snippets and analysis...

This is my first "call to action" diary.  I'm more of a theory guy.  But I think this is an important, valuable cause.  So here we go.

In today's New York Times, Nicholas Kristof details the story of a young African girl who, as a result of a (tax-deductible) charity, received a chance to gain an education and took it to the ultimate level.  She recently graduated from Connecticut College and is going on to earn her Master's degree from the Clinton School of Public Service at the University of Arkansas.

More below on why I gave and think you should too...

For some time now, the dKosopedia website has been down.  While I lament this loss and hope it will reappear soon, I am particularly disappointed that the DailyKos FAQ is no longer accessible.

Given the recent discussions on here in which terms such as "purity troll" have been invoked, the fact that the FAQ is not presently accessible makes it hard for those of us who like to refer to defined standards to support or oppose a position to do so.

This is a call to action to those who have maxed out on donations to Sen. Obama.  We need Hillary's big donors if we're going to fund Obama's campaign enough to win.  It's time to set aside bad feelings.  Questions about whether Sen. Clinton should have dropped out earlier are academic.  I'm not asking you to dismiss your bad feelings.  I'm asking you to look at the bigger picture.

Like wmtriallawyer, I've generally been indifferent to FISA despite its severe issues.  I've personally felt it's something best dealt with once we have President Obama in office.  I still disagree with overly pressuring Sen. Obama on this issue and with any suggestions that we should somehow give less than our full effort to assure his election as President and the elections/reelections of all our Dems regardless of how they vote.

That said, I think people should press their own Senators and Reps on this issue and on any issue they feel passionately about.  Not with threats, but with passionate appeals that they focus on this issue and evaluate it carefully.  And we should press the House and Senate leadership as well given their ability to control the schedules of their respective legislative bodies.

So how do we make this hit home for them?  How do we get them to think more deeply about this issue?  I propose an amendment to the bill, one which will appear below the fold...

Re: Your Column Someone Else's Alex

Dear Sir:

If you are going to mischaracterize something, you would be well-advised not to make factual errors in your criticism.  You state that MoveOn "slandered" Gen. Petraeus.  The incident you refer to involved a publication.  As such, the conduct you allege MoveOn engaged in would constitute, if anything, libel, not slander.

I am a firm progressive.  But I am not a radical or even a classic liberal.  Many things drew me to Barack Obama, but one of the important ones was his focus on ending the bitter partisanship we face and his progressive, pragmatic views that he repeatedly made clear in The Audacity of Hope.

Since the backlash against President Johnson's "Great Society" proposals, the country has taken a profound turn towards the right.  Presidents Carter and Clinton both presided over relatively centrist administrations.  But during both administrations we made incremental gains towards the left and both helped to move the median of the country back towards the left.  More below...

First: I am not a fan of this FISA compromise (HR 6304).  That said, assuming it does pass, what is likely to come out of it?

There is a possibility that some accountability, not from the telco's but from those in the Executive Branch who provided them "cover", will ultimately come about.  Read below for some analysis...

No reasonable person would deny that our federal government must maintain our military (and that it must have been vested with the power to do so in the Constitution in the first place).  It is vital to our national security and the security of every state, commonwealth, territory, and possession which makes up this great country of ours.

Yet another critical component of our national security is energy.  It's necessary not only for our national economy, but also for our national defense.  The military requires significant amounts of energy to run.  We are an energy dependent nation.

Yet despite our energy dependence, we do not currently vest energy production in governmental hands.  More below...

The Republicans have already begun making charges that we must not "lose" the "War" in Iraq.  There's a subtle undertext that if we begin the phased redeployment that Obama advocates that somehow our troops who have lost their lives and those who have been injured there will have fought for nothing.  This is, excuse the language, bullshit.

When our troops signed up to serve our country they swore to defend our country and put their lives and their health on the line to do so.  Regardless of our opinions of the legitimacy of the mission they were charged with, they were charged with that mission by the Commander-in-Chief and they have done so with honor, dignity, and distinction.

On December 29, 1940, in one of his many fireside chats, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt urged the American people that, "[w]e must be the great arsenal of democracy".  Earlier in the same speech he made clear that, "[t]he strength of this nation shall not be diluted by the failure of the Government to protect the economic well-being of its citizens."

Well, for more than seven years now the government has failed to protect the economic well-being of its citizens and we can be assured of a continuation of this failure for four more years if we allow the Republicans to win the White House in November.  More below...

A common refrain against Democrats is that they are "tax and spend" liberals.  Ignoring the fact that there are a number of conservative Democrats who are unified with the Democratic Party primarily on the basis of their belief in the rule of law and concern for all Americans, not just the top 2%, the Republicans have shown and proven that they are the "borrow and spend" party which is far, far worse for all Americans.  Fold on for more...

There was a poll in yesterday's Cheers and Jeers on maintaining the Electoral College.  I think the Electoral College is not only relevant, but important.  Hence this diary.

On June 21, 1788, New Hampshire, by a vote of 57 to 47, became the ninth of the states to ratify the Constitution for the United States of America thus meeting the requirements of Article VII for the Constitution to become effective between the states which had ratified it.  By March 4, 1789, when the government under the Constitution officially began, a total of 11 states had ratified the Constitution and before the First U.S. Congress ended its term on March 3, 1791, the remaining two states of the original 13 had ratified the Constitution and Senators and Representatives from all 13 had been seated.

More below (including the connection to the title)...

We have many serious tax policy issues in this country.  I'm going to examine one small section of the picture, the period for long term capital gains, and propose some simple policy changes that would help fix it.

This issue is a way to address real revenue problems in our country with a policy solution that would be hard for Republicans to successfully argue against.

I doubt many will read this, but for those who do, thanks for reading and I hope you find it interesting and/or insightful.

Many rumors float around the interweb tubes about how Barack Obama is a "secret muslim".  Well, there is a presidential candidate who's a "secret muslim", but it's not Barack.

That's right, John McCain is, in fact, the "secret muslim".  The proof below...

I want to expand upon a point (a quote, specifically) from Hope08's superb diary Obama's Press Conference:  A Re-education of the Media.  It was a quote about what democracy truly is and it is something that I think more people here and around the world should reflect upon.  The full quote and a bit of an exposition from a lawyer and history nerd below.

Having just watched the "McLaughlin Group" and heard a discussion therein about making English the official language of the United States, I decided to take a look at the Constitution to see whether, in fact, Congress or the President would in fact have the power to enact such a measure, whether by law, regulation, executive order, or any other method.

I note in advance that while I am a lawyer, this should not be construed as legal advice nor is any attorney-client relationship formed by reading this.  Consult a duly-licensed attorney if you have or think you may have a legal problem.