Time to take a serious look at Dodd for president

Senator Chris Dodd of CT is a serious man who deserves to have Democrats take a serious look at him as their nominee for president. He's been a dedicated progressive for a long time - back when Hillary was a Republican and Edwards was busy making a fortune. And there is momentum building.

Some things you may not know:

• The powerful Firefighters' Union gave Senator Dodd their endorsement this week.
• Many online groups, including MoveOn.org are supporting Senator Dodd's Katrina legislation as being the most likely to end the government's failure to help that region.
• Senator Dodd is chairman of the powerful Banking Committee, is considered business-savvy, and is therefore a candidate that would be taken seriously by moderate Republicans.
• Senator Dodd has led the fight to restore the civil rights and liberties destroyed by this administration including Habeus Corpus.
• Senator Dodd has served on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee for 25 years and therefore, unlike several candidates, has credible foreign policy experience.
• Dodd served three terms in the House of Representatives before being elected to the Senate in 1980.
• As a young man Dodd joined the Peace Corps where he served for two years in the Dominican Republic, became fluent in Spanish, and built a school and a maternity ward.

I for one don't want 28 years of either a Bush or Clinton in the White House, which is what we'll have if Hillary is elected. While no one can doubt Hillary's brilliance or her political astuteness, I don't trust her and haven't since she co-sponsored flag-burning legislation.

Obama and Edwards both have no experience. In the end, I don't think any of the threee so-called "top tier" candidates are really electable or that desirable.

Take a look at Dodd as a person and on the issues and decide for yourself.

HILLARY: REPUBLICAN FAVORITE??

Earnest Partridge writes:

Officials at Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation have contributed to Hillary Clinton’s campaign, and Murdoch himself has held fund-raisers in her behalf. Lawyers at Kenneth Starr’s law firm, Kirkland and Ellis, have donated more to Clinton than they have to all of the Republican candidates combined. In addition, Bloomberg.com reports that “Large US [law] firms … are giving thousands more to Democratic hopefuls than Republicans. Top Wall Street investment banks and hedge funds are also giving more to Democrats.” We can assume that most of these donations are going to the front-runners, Clinton and Obama. And finally, Hillary Clinton’s appearance last week at the Yearly Kos, was cut short by her appearance at a fund-raiser at the estate of billionaire, Ron Perlman.

Hillary Clinton appears to be the favorite Democrat of Republican haves and have-mores.

Why is this so?

The oxymoronic “conventional wisdom” in the mainstream media would have us believe that these Republicans, assuming a near-inevitable Democratic victory in 2008, are backing the most likely, and, to them, the most tolerable, Democratic candidate.

I have a different take on it. The Republicans, far from conceding the next election, believe that they may have a plausible shot at winning. But to do so, the Democrats must nominate the weakest and most vulnerable candidate.

There are many compelling reasons why the front-running Democratic hopeful is also the most vulnerable.

Most significantly, among the general voting population Hillary Clinton has the highest disapproval ratings of all the Democratic candidates - in fact, according to a June Mason-Dixon poll, she is the only candidate of either party of for whom a majority (52%) have said that they would not consider voting. In addition, 42% reported an unfavorable opinion of Clinton, compared to 39% favorable; the only candidate with a net negative rating. These are devastating statistics which are unlikely to change significantly, since the public is by now well acquainted with Clinton. One would assume that such statistics would disqualify a candidate. However, the establishment Democrats who support Hillary are unperturbed.

READ MORE...

I have blogged about this before - ARE WE REALLY GOING TO LET REPUBLICANS AND THE REPUBLICAN-DRIVEN MEDIA PICK OUR CANDIDATE???

Their Fear of Appearing Weak, Makes Them Weak

Once again, reports of terrorist "chatter" that mysteriously disappear as soon as the President gets what he wants, and fears of appearing weak on security, combined to cause Democrats to surrender to the adminstration's last-minute demands that Congress give the President ever-widening powers of warrantless wiretapping before leaving for summer recess. As the Washington Post put it:

To call this legislation ill-considered is to give it too much credit: It was scarcely considered at all. Instead, it was strong-armed through both chambers...

The new law will allow the interception and recording of cell phone calls and emails of persons "reasonably believed to be outside the United States" without a court order or any judicial or congressional oversight. If that isn't a loophole big enough to explode a car bomb through ... Although the bill will be reconsidered in 6 months, Rep. Rush Holt said it best, "I'm not comfortable suspending the constitution even temporarily."

Democrats Voting YES

Bayh, Evan (IN) Carper, Thomas (DE) Casey, Robert (PA) Conrad, Kent (ND) Feinstein, Dianne (CA) Inouye, Daniel (HI) Klobuchar, Amy (MN) Landrieu, Mary (LA)

Lincoln, Blanche (AR) McCaskill, Claire (MO) Mikulski, Barbara (MD) Nelson, Bill (FL) Nelson, Benjamin (NE) Pryor, Mark (AR) Salazar, Ken (CO) Webb, Jim (VA)

Sign a petition telling Congress to stop being more afraid of Republicans than they are of destroying our Constitution.

Presidential Candidates at YearlyKos

The YearlyKos session with the presidential candidates was great! The questions came from bloggers and activists at the convention and around the country. They were insightful, respectful, and addressed issues not usually addressed in the candidates' debates like asking Senator Clinton would she continue to take money from lobbyists (yes she will) after it was pointed out that neither Senators Edwards nor Obama have taken any money from lobbyists. Or asking the candidates whether they would appoint a presidential blogger (they will - and Edwards will appoint his wife).

One of the most moving moments was when Senator Dodd talked about how the vote on the detainee bill, which among other things did away with habeus corpus, was one of the worst he had ever seen in his 27 years in Congress. I couldn't agree more - that night I didn't sleep at all and got up the next day feeling literally physically ill - I could not believe that my country including both my Democratic senators had just erased habeus corpus - that was a dark day.

Then Senator Dodd said that he was very indebted to the folks at YearlyKos and all those they represent because they were among those who really "got it", who really understood the horror and magnitude of that vote and what had been done to our country that day.

All in all, it was a free-wheeling session marked by good humor, respect, and a sense of common purpose in spite of different points of view on various issues. The internet is changing politics and this session with the candidates was one sure sign of it.

Caught on Tape! - The Plot to Bury Progress

Don't miss this video featuring Rove as the dark lord.

HIgh Crimes and Misdemeanors

Today the Washington Post reports that Republican Minority Leader John Boehner released classified information (that may have been illegal) when he announced that a Federal Intelligence judge had declared parts of the the administration's NSA spy program illegal and that this is why Democrats are running around trying to update and expand the government's wiretapping authority.

There are so many issues here it's hard to know where to begin. But foremost would seem to be that the president commanded the NSA to engage in ILLEGAL spying on American citizens. Regardless of whether Congress decides that the government needs expanded spying powers, and whether it can do so while still securing Americans' rights to not have their privacy violated by the government without a darn good reason, the fact remains that this administration was engaged in something that could certainly qualify as "high crimes and misdemeanors".

This administration knowingly and willfully went outside the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act's (FISA) court and ignored the FISA requirements for wiretapping. (FISA was passed in 1978 to rein in the Nixon administration's use of warrantless wiretapping.)

Whether the Bush administration could have accomplished the same thing legally and whether their intentions were noble really misses the point - OUR DEMOCRACY CAN NOT SURVIVE an executive branch that thinks it's above the law. The only way this form of government can work is if every single person in this country is subject to the law.

We must remember that the heart of any dictatorship is a leader, who for whatever reason, feels he answers to no one -that he is above the law. We must remember that Hitler was not seen as a monster in the beginning. Because while almost all Germans thought that the pendulum had swung a little too far in one direction, they assumed it would correct itself before too long.

"As nightfall does not come all at once, neither does oppression." -- Justice William O. Douglas