Second Paragraph: Shouldn't with be without after anyone?

Ron Paul and Bruce Fein are self described "conservatives", but they are 100% against this.

There needs to be a new word to describe this, because this isn't a conservative v. progressive issue. This is a freedom v. authoritarian issue. A liberty v. fascism issue.

Read Noami Wolf's post in the Huffington Post today (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/naomi-wolf/finally-action-ron-pau_b_69042.html) or watch Bruce Fein on Bill Moyers (http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/07132007/profile.html).

This transcends left/right and liberal/conservative, and we really should frame it that way.

Hillary and Barack don't get any bonus points on this issue, even though they have bona fide "progressive" credentials, so I don't buy "this is because Reid is a conservative". More like he's a spineless coward.

This has nothing to do with Reid being a conservative or a coward.

He's bought. And he went cheap--$22,000 will buy you a bill retroactively clearing you of any crimes you committed.

Hah! Some leader. The least he could've done was demand a job for his grandkids or a hooker. At least the GOP had enough pride to ask for that.

Several months ago I read an article about Chalmers Johnson's most recent book entitled Nemesis. In the article Chalmers makes a statement which I think is the main conclusion of the book which is; you can have an empire or you can have a democracy but you can't have both at the same time. The actions of the Democratic Party post-election lead me to believe that the Democratic leadership intend to walk in lock-step with the Republican Party and turn the United States into a belligerent empire with "democracy for all" becoming a "quaint" euphemism to be dragged out and dusted off for Fourth of July parades and campaign speeches. Why is Reid and Pelosi enabling the Republicans by allowing legislation to come to the floor that only assists the fascist ideas of the Bush administration? Why doesn't Reid go to a simple majority vote instead of the 60 vote rule which helps only Republicans? The 60 vote rule does not help Democrats. It's called democracy Sen. Reid. Why is Reid and Pelosi enabling the neo-cons when it comes to torture, habeas corpus, wide-net spying and a unitary presidency (that we never heard of in 231 years) that transfers power from the people's representatives to the Oval Office? Do the Democrats want a Democratic unitary (read King or Queen) President? This is beginning to smell a lot like a defacto dictatorship.

i swear the only way i can have any hope for the future of america is the very fevered fantasy that the dems are just biding their time and doing what ever it takes to secure votes and ensure the election. once the dems have control, that they would use the steroid ripped excutive powers to repeal the insane policies and decisions of the years of fear as fast as possible. then after the criminals have all been tried they would ensure that such blatant abuses of power, suicidal policies(in almost all areas), and war crimes could never be possible again.

like i said, fantasy. i hate being a pessimist but i doubt the us will ever recover, not before the world is plunged into chaos and conflicts that were made inevitable many years ago.

its really hard believing in anything but a bleak future when so much of what i read online, see in the news, and learn in school points to an endless stream of human suffering and misery and destruction of the environment.

depressing,i know and i hate it. but thats probably why i try to find so many distractions from the real world, that way it wont hurt so much when it all falls apart.

the agonist and the people here gave me some hope, but this beacon of light is so very small compared to the rising darkness.

maybe we will get lucky and some aliens will save us from ourselves. (see, there is a little optimism!)

I didn't disappear when the Democrats lost Congress, just lay dormant and irrelevant. We're starting to get reaquainted with it again now that they took it back

I'm not sure if people are afraid of voting against whatever draconian measure because of the vote itself being used against them, as these things aren't really very popular even in conservative areas. I think they're afraid of what happens if they vote against it and there's a terrorist attack somewhere in the US, whether or not the measure would have done anything at all to stop it. I can understand it, that could easily end a political career in the fit of mania right after such an attack. But it's ultimately a judgement that your political career is more important then America's ideals, or, bigger picture, that America's ideals aren't worth anyone dying over. Only American power is worth that

Money, money, money and getting reelected. Authoritarianism may appeal to both parties as they can institutionalize their flavor, and voters may be willing to overlook government encroachment as long as their team is behind it all, but first and foremost, you need corporate backing.

I faxed a fire-breathing letter to the good Senator, asking what he was so afraid of that he would ignore Senator Dodd's hold, insinuating that the cause of the fear was telecommunications companies and their contributions.

The fear problem is just out of control all over the government. I wonder how afraid my countrymen are, as a group. Fear was the point of Bowling for Columbine, where Moore points out that the media just bombards us with threats to our well-being, probably as a means to get us to watch or to sell us something. I wonder if the fear is so great across the nation that our politicians are channeling something that I cannot and do not feel.

"This isn't a big deal for Harry. Oh he probably thinks it goes a bit far, and he might even vote against it"

It's "no big deal for Harry." Nothing is a big deal for him except his mining supporters in Nevada and his and the advancement of his associates. Sure he opposes Iraq in a pro forma way but what's the result. He supports this and that good bill but NOBODY really follows. The "Sweet 16" Democratic (sic) Senators who consistently vote against real action and for Bush proposals are never effectively managed.

We have an opposition in this country but there is no opposition party. The Democrats gladly endorse the current administration as thought it's "no big deal."

It's all about The Money Party and the rake off. Shame on Reid and the rest of them. History is accelerating and the time for an accounting will come sooner than these Mandarins for tyranny will come much sooner than they thing.