Best instructions in Spanish ever:

"No necessita tocar la raton!"


Worst thing overheard during the children's joint bath:

I: Put your head UNDER and DON'T come back up!

[Lisa: (shaking her head after dashing into the bathroom) I don't know what's worse, the actual game, or both of them claiming it's consensual.]

 "Some tyrannosaurus rexes have one daddio and some tyrannosaurus rexes have two daddios and some tyrannosuraus rexes have one mama and some tyrannosuarus rexes have two mamas and some tyrannosaurus rexes have a mama AND a daddio.

"That's the thing about tyrannosuraus rexes."

-- I. Anderson

If Congress short-circuits these lawsuits, we will have lost a prime opportunity to finally achieve accountability for these years of law-breaking. That’s why the administration has been fighting so hard for this immunity. It knows that the cases that have been brought directly against the government face much more difficult procedural barriers, and are unlikely to result in rulings on the merits.

These lawsuits may be the last chance to obtain a judicial ruling on the lawfulness of the warrantless wiretapping program. It’s bad enough that Congress abdicated its responsibility to hold the President accountable for breaking the law. Now it is trying to absolve those who allegedly participated in his lawlessness. Mr. President, this body should be condemning this administration for its law-breaking – not letting the companies that allegedly cooperated off the hook.

Dear Senator Klobuchar,

I'm writing to urge you to vote against the new FISA bill, H.R. 6304, which unjustifiably grants retroactive immunity to companies that allegedly participated in President Bush's illegal wiretapping program, which was in operation for over five years.  H.R. 6304 is an ill-conceived bill that fails miserably at providing adequate protections for innocent Americans and, therefore, erodes our Constitutionally guaranteed freedoms. 

For example, Title I of the new bill, which includes a frightening expansion of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, does not include the most significant safeguards which were approved by the Senate Judiciary Committee earlier this year. Why not? These safeguards would have permitted the government to obtain the intelligence information it needs while also protecting the privacy of law-abiding Americans.  Had Senator Russ Feingold's intelligent and well-supported amendments been included in this bill, H.R. 6304 would have been a win for Americans worried about terrorism, and a win for the Constitution of the United States. Why were these simple safeguards not included in this final version of the bill?

So not only does the bill exonerate telecommunications companies without ever asking them to stand trial for allegedly breaking the law, this bill:

·        DOES NOT provide checks and balances for Americans at home whose international communications are obtained because they are communicating with someone overseas.

·        DOES NOT prohibit bulk collection of information -- "the collection of all international communications into and out of the U.S. to a whole continent or even the entire world" - a complete flaunting of the Fourth Amendment.

·        DOES NOT provide adequate protection against "reverse targeting" - the targeting of someone in the U.S. for surveillance. Reverse targeting is not subject to judicial review under provisions in H.R. 6304, nor does the bill require of a court order for that surveillance. This is offensive to me as an American who was raised to respect the Constitution.

But most curiously, there's Sec. 110 - the redefinition of Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMDs). Please read it if you haven't, Senator Klobuchar, and determine if you want to redefine virtually all conventional weapons and classify them as WMDs, a weapon whose specter frightened this country into an unnecessary "preemptive" war of aggression and the bloody occupation of a once-sovereign nation. This is an egregious redefinition that points, in my mind, to loosening parameters for future pre-emptive war, and it doesn't make me feel safer in the slightest with the current president's saber-rattling with Iran.

Honestly, it's hard to imagine a more horrendous bill, and I trust you have the good sense and faith in democracy to vote against it, Senator Klobuchar. H.R. 6304 mocks the Fourth Amendment while broadening the government's power to wiretap its people. How does this benefit America?

This is not a liberal versus conservative issue, so voting against it will actually cost you nothing with your right wing colleagues. Stand with conservatives who want smaller government, stand with anti-war liberals who want to silence saber-rattling, and stand with our founding fathers by defending of the Bill of Rights and the Constitution that they fought so hard to create and protect.

Can we count on you to vote against H.R. 6034, Senator Klobuchar?

Sincerely,