This will be a short but incredibly important diary (or at least statement).

People, as dismaying, disgusting, and unbelievable as it is that the senate actually confirmed Mukasey as AG without a single Republican standing up against torture and not a single Dem producing so much as a peep to stop or delay the confirmation, it does get worse.  Please follow me below the fold for why...

I have to say that it really pisses me off that New Hampshire, or Iowa, or even a handful of states get to select the party presidential candidates for the nation as a whole every cycle. I don't care about the GOP candidates, they are all the same, so I will simply focus on the Democrats who are merely 90% the same as the GOP.  Follow me, please, below the fold for a suggestion of the simple solution.

This is a short post, a heads-up really.  Over at Rawstory at this very precise instant is a  headline about how the clergy would be used to help calm the populace if/when martial law is declared.

I have one immediate thought if you wish to move below the fold...

While taking part in a Firedoglake diary entry, a poster ("Pow-wow") posted a little gem about how it appears that even those who voted "no" on the FISA bill in the house were NOT good guys.  Not a single person, when given a chance, objected to a unanimous consent call on the Senate FISA (ie, the Enabling Act) bill.  Follow me below the fold for the posting and a link to the record.

Just when you thought the US couldn't do more damage to the "freedom and democracy" brand, there is a new shocker.  Ho-hum.  So jaded I am that Yet Another Outrage(tm) just can't light me up...I'm already at full burn!  Turns out that it appears that our palatial Superduper Mega Embassy of Peace and Freedom(tm) in Baghdad not only is riddled with false/faulty wiring (gasp!) but that it may well be being built with the labor-friendly practice of press gangs (otherwise known as "slave labor" or "forced labor").

I don't get over to the Nation journal often enough but yesterday as I popped over, I found an interesting articlenear the bottom of the page about how the 4th Branch could hold a key position in determining who is the next President.  At first, as I read the article, it was merely interesting to me, something I hadn't known, or actually, thought about before.  Take a hop down below and think about 'stuff'...

There is a way for us, for We the People, to truly take back our government.  It isn't to vote in new progressives to replace the old broken ones.  It isn't to increase voter registration.  It isn't to donate money to the right candidates.  Sure, all those things CAN have a small, tiny, minute effect on the totally dysfunctional system of government we have and, sure, go ahead, if you must, and do those things.  There is another way, however.  A way that puts true power in OUR hands.  Literally.  Please follow me below the fold to read more.

Raw Story is reporting that Specter, in total disregard for the ruling by Judge Diggs that Bush's NSA spying program is unconstitutional AND illegal, intends to bring his travesty of a bill before the Judiciary next Thursday.