I came across this video, originally posted by the Rocky Mountain News, on Commondreams, and it made me so furious I had to literally take a breather.

Thankfully, we have not seen mass numbers of arrests in Denver, and with the recent Redneck Assassination Ops, I can understand the need for an increased police presence during the convention, but with reports of secret police weapons caches downtown we have to ask if they are going too far.  

I can not help but feel that this video shows a freeze-frame of the slip of our democracy toward a police state....

After reading of so many Democrats wringing their hands over how to go after John McCain, maverick philanderer and POW, I have to admit that I don't see the big problem.  

Even my governor Phil Bredesen thinks it isn't advisable, but it would be far from the first time I have disagreed with him!

While Karl Rove is an asshat of the first degree, he wasn't stupid when he said in politics you go after your opponent's strength, not their weakness!

The trick in all of this is in not disrespecting his service or his sacrifices.....how do you do that you ask?

Follow me over the speedbump and I'll give you my 2 cents worth...

I thought I was for Obama, but now I'm not.  I have decided, once and for all, to get me a Toby Keith-length of rope, make a noose, and tighten it to a jar of Republican vasoline (a petroleum by-product, don't ya know)  and tie it to my belt.  

Seriously, this is my attempt to get me some Bloggerpoints(TM) from the McCain campaign committee, and hopefully win an all expenses paid vacation to the soon to be fluorescent landscapes of Yucca Mountain...or somewhere equally illuminating.

I'm even incorporating his talking points verbatim to ensure the rapid transfer of my aforementioned bloggerpoints (TM)

Everyone fastened in?  Okay...awaaay we goooooo!

My father was a true piece of work. Even though he was a die hard Republican, they broke the mold after him.  When he was 9 (in the summer of 1934), his father brought home a handfull of instruments and instructed the entire family (4 boys and one girl), that they were to learn to play so that they could help make money to put bread on the table.

It was only 4 years after their debut on a snowy sidewalk in Thayer, MO., that they were performing regularly on stage at the Grand Ole Opry (where they were all too soon run off because of child labor laws....but that is another story).

When he was 18 he was drafted, sent to Germany, and after 8 weeks of duty he was wounded and would spend the next 4 years in and out of VA hospitals.  His right knee was gone, with the bones fused together, but I never heard him complain...even though his only dream was to be a professional baseball player.

Last night I wrote the first part of this series, a diary almost nobody read, so in following through on my threat I present this diary.

My point in this series is simply to point out that every power that the government is given will be abused to some extent.  So we must be increasingly wary of what we give up, because odds are we won't be getting anything back.

While you may believe that the flame wars are over, I have never been one to let sleeping dogs lie...in fact I like to tickle them just under their chin and run away REALLY FAST.

Anyway, in a sincere belief that those who have disagreed with me on the sheer disaster that is the unraveling of the rule of law are simply unaware of the power the government has been handed, I have decided to do a little background.

Since the tinfoil hat brigades fall under the purview of the tin hat mafia, I will begin with the 'I told you so' of conspiracy theories: COINTELPRO

In the words of The Church committee:

"Many of the techniques used would be intolerable in a democratic society even if all of the targets had been involved in violent activity, but COINTELPRO went far beyond that...the Bureau conducted a sophisticated vigilante operation aimed squarely at preventing the exercise of First Amendment rights of speech and association, on the theory that preventing the growth of dangerous groups and the propagation of dangerous ideas would protect the national security and deter violence."
[emphasis is of course mine...]

The time is now for Obama's camp to jump on this and jump on it hard.

The Republicans have given us, in a basket, the key meme to separate their plans for Iraq from those of the rest of the country, the entire world, and definitely the Iraqis.

Holy $h!t, this is awesome.... I just saw this video, alright so its 17 years old, but it has inspired me..

Apparently in 1991, a group of activists were so fed up with Jesse Helms continuing to block every single piece of legislation to fund HIV/AIDS research and/or treatment that they put an enormous condom on his house that said...

"A condom to stop unsafe politics.
Helms is deadlier than a virus."

If only we had one of these groups for every senator that voted for FISA.

Once again McClatchy shows that it is the only print media on the ball for stories of actual significance.  In their Sunday edition, in a piece called Suspect Soldiers: Did Crimes in US Foretell Violence in Iraq? (via Common Dreams) Russell Carollo pens an in depth piece studying the links between waivers issued by the military to applicants whose background would "otherwise prevent them from serving."

follow me through the jump for the details...

Part of this was written as a reply to a diary that is scrolling toward oblivion as I write this, and I thought I would expand on it a bit and do a diary of my own.  The issue isn't, and has never been, solely about FISA.  Anyone who says it is, on either side, simply does not appreciate the gravity of our situation, as a nation, and the need for leadership to AT LEAST acknowledge its existence.

So this is written as a generic rebuttal to those requesting ANYONE to sit down and shut up when they disagree with a candidate.

For all of you who tuned in to CSPAN to watch the festivities, as well as all of you who are constitutional purists....

Rep. Kucinich needs your help NOW!

Kucinich has a link on his new web site to sign a petition, which he will personally deliver to your own Representative of Congress, to support his new Unitary Article of Impeachment.

So head on over and sign up!

I am writing this diary in the hopes that someone will troll rate me.  You see, I disagree with you.  I will not be supporting Obama with monetary contributions, nor with a donation of my time.

Am I a troll yet?

If I were Obama, this would be my tack....in addition of course to what he has already said re: the failures of the GOP in their GWOT.

My opponent has alleged that I have a "9/10 mindset", as if I am not aware of the risks and dangers of the current day and age.  I would counter that John McCain, and his party as well, suffer from a "9/11 mindset", as opposed to myself and my party which by and large have developed a post-9/11 mindset...

follow me over the hump for more.

I offer the following, an email I sent today to both Rep. Conyers and to Rep. Pelosi.

I implore all of you who are passionate about the impeachment of Bush and Cheney to write or call your local reps, as well as Conyers and Pelosi.

Everyone here is by now aware of Bush's recent overture to finalize a 'Status of Forces' agreement with the Iraqi puppet parliament, and I believe I know a way for Obama to effectively stop this in its tracks....

it involves using the threat of a trick from Bush's own playbook...

My original idea for this post was going to be something along the lines of "in attempt to prove readiness for VP position...Hillary shoots herself in face on live TV"...but on deeper reflection, and loosing the sarcasm, I think I have figured out what is going on.

And Obama supporters can breathe a sigh of relief, she doesn't want the VP slot!

Follow me over the hump to hear my 2 cents worth.

I was just checking out the McClatchy Washignton bureau web pages, and was stunned to see an entry on their  Baghdad Blog commenting on the lack of functional meters on the oil pipelines feeding tankers in the port of Basra.

an excerpt is included below...

So, Bush is scheduled to announce a new sacrificial surge on Wednesday, and we awake to find much of downtown New York wreaking of a gas leak, downtown Austin, TX shutdown due to the discovery of 'dozens of dead birds', and now a bomb squad finds traces of C-4 on a mysterious package on a Miami dock....is this a coincidence?  All this a day after a Reuters report saying Israel is planning a tactical nuclear strike on Iran's nuclear facility......