Let's vote now

... while we're still ahead

Associated Press, via YahooNews:

In an ominous election-year sign for Republicans, Americans are leaning sharply toward wanting Democrats to take control of Congress, an AP-Ipsos poll finds. Democrats are favored 49 percent to 36 percent [...]

" I don't think anyone is hitting the panic button," said Rich Bond, a former Republican National Committee chairman. "But there is an acute recognition of the grim environment that both parties are operating in."

"If the Democrats had any leadership or any message, they could be poised for a good year," Bond said. "But in the absence of that, they have not been able to capitalize on Republican woes. Because of the size of the GOP majority, Democrats have to run the board, and I don't see that happening."

I would love to obsessively watch election returns feeling optimistic and good about the outcome, rather than being burdened by an inevitable sense of failure.

So, let's capitalize on this:

The Congressional Research Service's report rebuts the central assertions made recently by Bush and Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales about the president's authority to order secret intercepts of telephone and e-mail exchanges between people inside the United States and their contacts abroad [...]

The 44-page report said that Bush probably cannot claim the broad presidential powers he has relied upon as authority to order the secret monitoring of calls made by U.S. citizens since the fall of 2001. Congress expressly intended for the government to seek warrants from a special Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court before engaging in such surveillance when it passed legislation creating the court in 1978, the CRS report said.

The report also concluded that Bush's assertion that Congress authorized such eavesdropping to detect and fight terrorists does not appear to be supported by the special resolution that Congress approved after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, which focused on authorizing the president to use military force.

Take THAT, you damned pikey! (Okay, not very funny in print. Just say that out loud in a British accent?)

And let's kick some elephant butt before they kill more treeeeeees.

House Republicans are hoping to rewrite one of the nation's most sweeping environmental laws --in a way that could change how the government gauges the impact of its actions on the land, sea and air.

For 36 years the government has relied on the National Environmental Policy Act to serve as a check on federal activities that have a "significant impact" on the environment. The law requires federal officials to determine whether such things as highway construction and flood-control projects will alter the surrounding landscape. And it allows citizens to challenge the government's conclusions.

Reminds me of that 60 Minutes clip on ANWR drilling (which ain't happening). And also the new Daily Show clips I saw online ("Coot Off"). I am very pro-life... life of trees, that is. And pro-caribou because they are a scarce natural resource.

Oh, and Pat Robertson still cracks me up. He's an embarrassment to Christians. Preaching intolerance while he is supposed to be spreading the fundamental principle of Christianity and most religions- love. I can respect my friends whey they totally disagree with me on issues like gay marriage (although their lack of an actual, non-church-provided argument is frustrating and saddening) because they still accept the people who make different choices in life and/or live differently. And then there's Pat Robinson who predicts locusts for Dover, Pennsylvania just because he cannot bear those who differ in opinion. I was raised a Catholic, but I say that Pat Robertson is a failure to the religious community he claims to represent. Geez, the guy needs a life. At least the Pope wears Prada.