Out of the Mountains: Democrats Surrender: Agree to Buy Kneepads

This is just mind boggling that the Democrats would knuckle under to Bush(mister 25%) on ANYTHING, much less putting Bloody dubya and Abu Gonzalez in charge of who gets spied on without a warrent. You know who will be first to be spied on? Those "surrender monkey" Democrats of course. Or maybe it's already been done. At least that would explain why there's an epidemic of Democratic politicians losing their balls. How 'bout it Jim Web did you happen to get a little folder with some embarrassing info or pics? Secret dossiers on all the Democrats would sure come in handy for Dick "Dick" Cheney and dumbya's errand boy alberto. Once again a circular firing squad by our pitiful Democrats. Here's some points from Kagro and Kos:

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There is something fundamentally wrong here.

"..And of course, at this point it should go without saying that if a bill is placed before you that addresses additional powers and authority for the Attorney General, of all people, this is a full stop moment.

The vote on this bill is no. The vote on any bill expanding the powers of this Attorney General is no.

These are things I should not have to outline for anyone at this point. Certainly not Daily Kos readers. But you'd hope Members of Congress, too. But apparently, in that hope you'd be disappointed.

Still, these are merely the surface issues. There's something deeper and even more troubling going on here. What's happening here is the ceding of the last remaining prerogatives of the legislative branch to the executive. We are currently watching the Congress cede its oversight authority -- not its ability to hold hearings, but its ability to make hearings mean something. We may be watching the Congress cede its "power of the purse," as George W. Bush now threatens to veto any appropriations bill that does not match the numbers in his budget. (You need to know that the president's budget has almost never been the working model for Congress. The traditional reaction to the president's budget, no matter whose it is or even who's reacting, has been that it's "dead on arrival.") Now we are watching the Congress cede even its legislative powers, reacting to Bush's threat to keep them in session until they pass the exact FISA legislation he demands.

Does this comport with any American's concept of the basic functions of the different branches of our government? Since when does the president dictate the terms of legislation... to legislators?

Since they started rolling over for it, that's when.."