Devil's Dozen

That was a nice stiletto-in-the-back move California Senator Diane Feinstein and 17 other Democrats pulled on the American people yesterday by helping the Republicans vote George W. Bush's FISA bill into law. I'm picking on Feinstein, of course, because she's one of my Senators.

Led by Jay Rockefeller and enabled by Harry Reid, these wolves in sheeps' clothing betrayed us by siding with the Party of Roman Hruska and Mussolini, and legislating our fourth amendment rights away. It's now legal to spy on the phone conversations and internet communications of Americans, and the telecom corporations who have actually been doing the heretofore-illegal spying at the behest of the administration are now handed retroactive immunity.

Barack Obama took time off from the campaign trail and showed up to vote against this unconstitutional and treasonous stab in our collective back. Hillary Clinton didn't bother to show up, and McCain, of course, put in an appearance to stand with his fellow tools of the right-wing dictatorship.

I'm now an Obama supporter. I was waiting for him to stop talking in platitudes and show some leadership, and yesterday he did.

Down With Tyranny has more coverage, and the complete list of Democrats-in-name-only who need to have 666's painted on their foreheads and face serious challenges in the next round of primaries. They are:

1. Evan Bayh of Indiana. This little puke rode into the Senate on his dad's name, and is king of the Bush Dog Democrats.
2. Daniel Inouye of Hawaii is so old he's about to fall out of his chair anyway.
3. Tim Johnson of South Dakota. I hope he's all recovered from his recent medical crisis, so he can drive himself home.
4. Mary Landrieu of Louisiana has consistently shown herself to be an incompetent administrator and a corrupt tool of moneyed interests.
5. Claire McCaskill of Missouri.
6. and 7. Ben Nelson of Nebraska and Bill Nelson of Florida, aka David and Ricky updated.
8. Debbie Stabenow of Minnesota.
9. Feinstein.
10. Herb Kohl of Wisconsin, and 11. Mark Pryor of Wisconsin. Ed Gein's home state manages to score another ax murder, this one a joint effort by Wisconsin's entire Senate delegation.
12. Jay Rockefeller of West Virginia, for whom a special place in hell is now reserved.
13. Ken Salazar of Colorado.
14. Tom Carper of Delaware
15. Barbara Mikulski of Maryland
16. Kent Conrad of North Dakota.
17. Jim Webb of Virginia. Not so long ago we had high hopes for this guy.
18. Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas.

It's time for us to get serious about cleaning house in the Democratic Party. It may be a creaky old vehicle, burning oil and running on two cylinders, but it's the only ride we've got.