Here is a list of the Democrats who voted against accountability and enforcing the rule of law.  If you want to see the official tally here it is.  The Democrats would be …

• Bayh (D-IN)
• Carper (D-DE)
• Conrad (D-ND)
• Feinstein (D-CA)
• Inouye (D-HI)
• Johnson (D-SD)
• Landrieu (D-LA)
• Lincoln (D-AR)
• McCaskill (D-MO)
• Mikulski (D-MD)
• Nelson (D-FL)
• Nelson (D-NE)
• Pryor (D-AR)
• Rockefeller (D-WV)
• Salazar (D-CO)
• Stabenow (D-MI)
• Webb (D-VA)

Each of thir names link to a contact form so you can let them know how they have betrayed our principles and the rule of law.  Expect this to be an election day issue when they want their jobs back.  Of course it doesn’t need to be said, but please keep any correspondence professional and polite.  Even though we may disagree with their actions we are still better than Republicans.  Thanks.

So once again it looks like the Bush administration and their Republican puppets are going to prevent accountability for those who  have broken the law.

Campaigning is reaching a fever pitch in most camps and the voter turnout expectation is growing. 130,000 Democratic voters are expected and 80,000 Republicans. Candidates have been mostly positive in their recent efforts at attracting voters, at least on the Democratic side. Republicans Romney and Huckabee are still going at it with Huckabee maintaining that he is not going to fire back at Romney’s critical ads, and then previewing a commercial in which he does just that. (He did tell reporters the commercial would not air in Iowa.)

Democratic voters have reported receiving phone calls from “pollsters” in which certain candidates were painted in a not so nice light. Hillary would cost the Democrats the election in November if she won the nom, Edwards plan for Iraq would be disastrous, and Obama would deny health insurance to millions of Americans. There were even calls reminding voters of the very important Orange Bowl that was airing on Thursday. So far no one has claimed responsibility for these calls.

My favorite candidate, Kucinich, has urged his supporters to throw their votes toward Obama if he does not meet the cutoff point for voting in the caucuses. The reason behind the support of Obama? His message of change. Obama has shown an amazing ability to garner new supporters from groups that traditionally do not have a high voter turnout. He is a charismatic speaker but his idealism and naivety make him hard for me to support.

William is an ardent supporter of Clinton, and there are times that I agree with him. She has come out strong in the past few days pounding her message home that she alone has the experience needed to start off right as President, she would move decisively on the issues that matter most to Americans, such as her incredibly good health care plan, and she really does come across as a nominee who really cares. To combat this, Obama had a former Clinton supporter introduce him at an event, stating that the “positive” tone of Obama’s campaign is what drew him in.

Personally, I haven’t found Obama’s campaign to be positive overall. In almost every debate and speaking engagement there is a point in which it feels that he is campaigning solely around the fact that he has always been against the Iraq War and Hillary wasn’t. Now, I find it refreshing that there are candidates who have always had better sense than to support this illegal war, however; being against something in the beginning and having a good plan to end it now are two very different things. I have not always agreed with the way that Clinton has handled the fact that she did vote for military action in Iraq, I felt strongly that she should have apologized. I also stopped supporting her when she voted for the Kyl/Lieberman amendment.

Every time something bad happens in the Middle East (which is quite a bit it seems) Obama finds a way to blame it on Hillary’s vote for force. It is very important to keep in mind the context in which Congress voted for the use of force in Iraq. It was at a time when the majority of their constituents supported the proposal, America was grieving, the president was enjoying high approval ratings, and not many people thought that our administration would outright lie to us. The job of a Senator is to represent their constituency, something that she did to the best of her ability at the time and a majority of Congress did as well.

I feel strongly that Obama would be best served by showing us that he in fact has the experience, diplomacy, and fortitude to be our next president. I am not convinced that he has any of those things at this point and I am not one who is convinced merely by rhetoric.

So how is Edwards dealing with his third place position? By a drastic new plan to end the US occupation of Iraq of course! In an interview yesterday Edwards called for the withdrawal of almost all US troops, including those training the Iraqi military and police, within 10 months. This has been a topic in which Edwards’ view has evolved over time, much like the rest of America. He also voted for the use of force, later apologized for it, recommended a gradual reduction of troops over time, and now, citing the failure of the Iraqi government over the last four years, wants to pull virtually every US troops. He would make allowances for 3,500-5,000 troops to protect the US Embassy and possibly some humanitarian workers. (( Edwards Calls For Pullout of Troops Training Iraqis ~ MSN ))

Democrats Joseph Biden and Chris Dodd have already mentioned dropping out of the race if they do not garner enough support in Iowa, which would narrow this bitterly contested playing field in time for the New Hampshire Primary.

I am excited to see that the political process is generating so much enthusiasm and involvement this time around. There isn’t a single Democratic candidate that I believe could not be a good President. I do support Kucinich above them all but I could feel comfortable voting for any of them in the November election. Stay tuned for our continued coverage of the Iowa caucuses and the ongoing election process and let us know your thoughts.

~ Summer ~ WWJV4.com

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uffSoj3hvKI[/youtube]

It will be interesting to see how this resolution impacts his poll numbers against Hillary Clinton. Clinton, and Chris Dodd, were among 28 other Senators who recently signed a letter to President Bush advising him that he had no authority to use force on Iran (which Obama declined to sign). Despite this small measure Clinton has recently drawn fire from progressives for supporting the Kyl-Lieberman amendment which many feel is enough to grant Bush the authority to bomb Iran.

Personally I think that this is a good move by Obama. Not only for the political capital it will gain him, but also for national security. After being stuck in Iraq the United States Military is broken. By all accounts we simply do not have the troops necessary to continue our operations in Iraq past the Spring of 2008. In addition to Iraq we also have troops in Afghanistan who have been seeing increased fighting. The last thing we need right now is to try to take on another country, we can’t handle the two we have now.

We are finally starting to see some signs of success in Iraq, much like we were having fighting the terrorists in Afghanistan before our President got bored and decided to do something else for a while. Well, now like a spoiled child who never finishes anything Bush is starting to get bored with Iraq, maybe not enough explosions to keep him interested, and he’s starting to look for something new to play with. We need to wrap up what we started before we even think about getting entrenched in another long protracted war of choice.

What our President needs to do instead of stomping around throwing temper tantrums about what Congress is doing is take care of his job. Namely that is to act like a big boy and start engaging these countries and groups in some diplomacy. I applaud Senator Obama for taking this step to reign in this administration, I only wish that Bush had not shown so many times that he is more than willing to ignore the law and the Constitution when it suits him. Maybe then I would have more hope that this resolution could have an impact.

~ William ~

The Big Winner!
Chris Dodd!
For his unrelenting stand against retroactive immunity for big telecommunications companies Dodd has exhibited the leadership and moral judgment necessary for a presidential candidate. After 8 years of the Bush regime the country needs a president who can get the country back on its feet and this month Chris Dodd has repeatedly shown that he is up to the job.

Honorable Mention
Hillary Clinton, John Edwards, Barack Obama, and Dennis Kucinich. In that order. Really they are all excellent candidates with strong policies and outstanding track records of promoting progressive causes. I had a hard time not pushing Hillary to the top but her habit of testing the waters before jumping on an issue cost her this month. I do like her policies though and will continue to push for her to become our nation’s first woman president.

The Big Loser!
Rudy Giuliani!
In a surprisingly strong race for worst candidate on the Republican side Rudy Giuliani has pulled ahead. This month Rudy set out to prove that there isn’t a close minded group too bigoted to avoid his pandering. First going after the anti-gay crowd (despite Rudy’s long history of supporting gay rights) then setting his sight on the anti-immigrant racists (despite his history as mayor of a “sanctuary city”). Rudy has raised pandering and bullshit to a level that makes even Mitt Romney wonder about his character.

Add to all that flip flopping and pandering to hate groups Rudy’s association with Bernie Kerik and a defrocked priest accused of molesting children, plus his theory that water boarding (which was used by the Spanish inquisition and was a crime in WWII) may or may not be torture depending on how it’s done and you get a picture of a real slime ball. What is really sad is that his campaign’s complete disregard for telling the truth, even after being corrected, doesn’t even make him stand out from the Republican candidates.

Runner Up:
Mike Huckabee for equating abortion with the holocaust and all around craziness. While he may be gaining among ultra conservatives his gung ho approach to creating a true theocracy in America creeps out the non-fundamentalists.

Why anyone would support blanket immunity before we begin investigations into the depth of the abuses is incomprehensible. The abuses against American citizens’ 4th amendment rights began at least 7 months prior to 9/11 and were obviously of no use in preventing that attack. This is a situation that demands a serious investigation to determine the scope of our governments abuses; an investigation that will never happen once immunity is granted. Which is why our administration is pushing so hard for the immunity, because they know that if we start investigating we will discover massive breaches of laws and constitutional rights.

This is why I am relieved to finally see the top two Democratic contenders step up and start showing their support. While slow it is still better than not at all. This bill is a travesty of justice and I am surprised that more Democrats have not shown the leadership and good judgment to stand against it. Via Greg Sargent at TPM here are two quotes from Obama and Hillary on supporting the filibuster.

“Senator Obama has serious concerns about many provisions in this bill, especially the provision on giving retroactive immunity to the telephone companies. He is hopeful that this bill can be improved by the Senate Judiciary Committee. But if the bill comes to the Senate floor in its current form, he would support a filibuster of it.”

~ Obama Spokesperson Bill Burton on 10/23/07

Q: Can you discuss your position on the reauthorization of the FISA bill?

HRC: I am troubled by the concerns that have been raised by the recent legislation reported out of the Intelligence Committee. I haven’t seen it so I can’t express an opinion about it. But I don’t trust the Bush Administration with our civil rights and liberties. So I’m going to study it very hard. As matters stand now, I could not support it and I would support a filibuster absent additional information coming forward that would convince me differently.

~ Hillary Clinton at press availability in Colorado 10/23/07

I wish these two statements had been worded stronger. Clinton’s in particular is full of holes and barely counts as support giving how easy it would be to slip out of. Obama on the other hand will actually need to show up if he is going to offer any support. I am pleased that they were willing to go on record to support the filibuster and our Constitution however. Any support is much more than I can expect from the other side of the isle. They cant seem to destroy the Constitution fast enough.

*UPDATE 10/24/2007 4:55pm ~ William*

Richardson has thrown in his support on this important issue.  With any luck enough of our Democratic leaders will join in and be able to really make a difference.

There can be no compromise on personal rights and privacy. I urge my Democratic primary opponents, and every Senator, to stand up and state loudly and clearly — without any equivocation — that he or she will not pass any bill that grants retroactive immunity to companies that willingly aided the Bush administration in violating the law and spying on our own people.

Source: firedoglake.com

But every time I get good and settled in with Hillary as my candidate something happens to make me question myself. Lately that something has been Chris Dodd. Most importantly his recent blocking of the amnesty laden domestic spying bill (read more about this here) has forced me to consider him as a serious candidate. Dodd has single handidly stood up for justice by fighting against any domestic spying bill that includes retroactive immunity for telecommunications companies who assisted in the illegal spying on US Citizens. A vile practice that we now learn started well prior to 9/11.

Chris Dodd has placed a hold on the bill and will even filibuster if Harry Reid follows through on his promise to ignore the hold. This kind of leadership in defense of our rights is exactly what is needed from the Democrats and I would like to see more than just Joe Biden step up and offer their support. This is what we have been asking from our elected representatives when we sent them to Washington. Stand up for our rights, and fight against an evil and oppressive right wing movement that threatens our way of life.

This in addition to having very solid policy ideas and an excellent record of leadership and experience makes Chris Dodd a very good candidate for president. If you would like to watch his short video and sign your pledge to support Chris Dodd’s defense of justice go check out his campaign website here. I also urge everyone to let their candidates of choice know that you support Chris Dodd’s hold and ask them to do the same.