rights – Michael Curry, Literary Agent

You have the right to obey

Originally published at Wake Up. You can comment here or there.

Digby says:

Everyone’s written about this “don’t touch my junk” story, but this new development is so sadly in line with my thesis about these things that it’s almost a cliche. When I wrote about it over the week-end, I pointed out that this was the latest in a series of steps to a police state — the building of a police bureaucracy, the intimidation and the incoherence of security theatre designed to confuse citizens and indoctrinate them to the idea that they should unquestioningly submit to absurd directives from authorities. It’s how you control a populace.

Prop 8 is about discrimination

Originally published at Wake Up. You can comment here or there.

Here’s what happens when you replace “same-sex marriage” with “interracial marriage” in a pro-H8 ad:

via Wil Wheaton

If you’re a California voter, be sure to go out and vote NO on Proposition 8 tomorrow.

That’s my senator

Originally published at Wake Up. Please leave any comments there.

The hero of the day is Senator Chris Dodd, as he stopped the Senate from approving retroactive immunity for the telecom companies, at least for now:

Throughout the day Senator Dodd stood on the Senate floor and spoke out against the Bush administration’s abuse of executive powers. He spoke out against granting retroactive immunity for telecom companies who helped the Bush administration spy on Americans without warrant – noting that if we grant immunity now, we may never know the full extent of what happened behind closed doors and what arguments were used to justify warrantless surveillance.

For now, the FISA debate is over. It will come up again down the road, but for now everyone who supported Senator Dodd’s leadership against retroactive immunity and supported his promise to filibuster should be proud of their work to defend the Constitution and the rule of law.

See some of Senator Dodd’s floor speech here.

And yes, it does feel odd to actually be proud of a politician. If only the rest of the Democratic party could follow Dodd’s example.

I’m not holding my breath though.

Stress Position

Originally published at Wake Up. Please leave any comments there.

The Directors approached the making of the film in a way that has never been done before, choosing to show the reality of Stress Positions in as authentic a way as possible. They filmed a person being put into Stress Positions over a 6 hour period. There is no acting on the part of the “prisoner” – his pain and anguish is for real.

Maybe this time it’ll work!

Originally published at Wake Up. Please leave any comments there.

Today the news came out that the Democrats’ latest attempt to stand up to Bush involves amending the FISA act to expand the NSA’s ability to eavesdrop.

Yes, you read that right, the Democrats apparently want to let Bush have expanded wiretapping powers, because if they don’t they’re worried that the White House will claim they’re soft on terror.

They really just don’t get it, do they?

As Digby says:

I don’t know what it’s going to take to convince Democrats that trying to “out-tough” each other or especially trying to “out-tough” the GOP is always playing to the Republican’s strength — the authoritarian lizard brain. If this keeps up, by the time we get to the election, the Democratic candidate will be vying with the Republican over who will be the first to sign a new law legalizing torture for double parking. We don’t win that way, never have, never will.

It’s the same old Democrats, once again willing to throw away civil liberties in an attempt to not be seen as wimps, and letting the Republicans frame yet another issue to their advantage. Then they’ll wonder why so much of their base seems to be less than enthusiastic about getting out and voting for them in 2008.