I was always curious as to why Russ Feingold did not make a run for the presidency. However, in viewing this brief piece, I think I can see why he didnt: unlike the others, he tells the truth in such a way that it jars the senses (and it should) more than it soothes and pacifies. Thus, in short, he'd be un electable.

He shocked my conscience

talk about a glass of ice-water thrown in your face...

I can't say it isn't needed. I also agree with what Steve said; "he tells the truth in such a way that it jars the senses (and it should) more than it soothes and pacifies. Thus, in short, he’d be un electable." Americans need to pull their head out of the sand.

"Trust us." ???

Trust no one...

To build a better world:

History progresses in a predictable direction and points toward a certain end: a world of increasing human cooperation where greed and hatred have outlived their usefulness. Progress often requires a rethink and often tough change is needed to move ahead.

How Can We Change Ourselves?

Every political candidate running or who has run says “we must make change” but who can deliver REAL change?!

Let’s start a list of what to change here (add your own list):

1st: Any dem candidate is better than any non-dem candidate at this point in that they have populist and progressive tendencies if not real capabilities until they achieve executive power.

2nd: Once the mantle of exec power is transfered they will build the necessary team to implement real - pull the rug out - follow thru; out from under the corporate special interest groups that grease the palms and wheels of Washington legislators.

3rd: New seats in congress and the senate will also need to be in place in order to push through the new laws that will bring about the turn around implementations to repair the damage done by the Bush administration. Most of us don’t think this thru and it’s missing most of the time in arguments for change.

4th: All agencies and budgets must be reevaluated - some dismantled and others recreated. Military spending must be totally brought under control and transparent!

5th: Disclosure of all black budget special access programs must be exposed and brought to the light of day. Trillions of unaccounted for tax payer dollars go missing yearly and must be accounted for in the future.

6th: Bring all troops home and secure/protect our borders.

7th: Make reparations with all nations and apologize for any and all wars and violence towards them, promising neutrality and U.N. peacekeeping troops to arbitrate national and international disputes.

3 CafeenMan Says:

You are right. Anyone in politics that speaks the truth is generally booted out.

One thing that can be done is for people to start employing SSL. Probably needs to use self-signed certificates, because, who knows, maybe VeriSign is in the key escrow business. I'd like to access this site via SSL. Email, even grandma's recipes need to be encrypted. Government seems relaxed with 128 bit encryption now, probably means that 256 bit encryption should be used.

JTM @ 11:

FISA?!

If you can't keep FISA separate from the PAA, get a job with the M$M.

Ok, so they should have said that Feingold presents "the FISA controversy" or "the amendments to FISA" in 30 seconds. Yeah, they could have said Feingold presents the PAA in 30 seconds, but it's not like FISA is irrelevant to the discussion.

GO RUSS!!

Proud2bHumble, you are very funny (and subversive)....(or not :)

please tell me why a congress person would support this law

it seems crazy

I am from Wisconsin, and Senator Feingold is the man other elected officials would do well to emulate. He is the ONLY senator who actually read the original Homeland Security Act and voted against it. Everyone else is a whore for the special interests. I would not want Russ to become President. He is much more effective as gadfly and conscience of the Senate! Go Russ!

Just another trust us (me) lie ... The check's in the mail, I only want to put the head in, I wont cum in your mouth. ... we'll only listen to calls of real terrorist,

Feingold is the thinking person's future. He is the credible replacement for Rahm Emanual (the progressive's worst enemy) after Obama is elected . . . and the future President. Place your bets now.

As a Michigander, I too was happy Russ didn't run. He's my neighbor and we need him right where he is. (For now).

We all know that the only phone calls they're tapping are those of Democratic officials in hopes of catching a scandal.

But this is completely clockwork:
Russ briefly, poignantly and directly explains the insanity of the administration's actions, and leaves no doubt that he's right; and is promptly ignored by his colleagues and opponents.

28 cg Says: "We all know that the only phone calls they’re tapping are those of Democratic officials in hopes of catching a scandal."

Not true, they tap everyone. How else were they able to set up Larry Craig after he voted against the wiretapping bill?

Feingold's endorsement is going to become very valuable after next Tuesday. Wisconsin has many independents who love him. In 2004 he received many more votes in his re-election bid than Kerry did for president. Folks voted Bush and then Feingold. If Obama can get his blessing he wins in a landslide.

The vote is announced for Monday.

The Feingold amendment will get a simple up or down vote (51% to win, which means we will probably lose). Then the Intell comm. bill with amnesty intact will pass, unless there is a filibuster.

Wedged in before the primary and after the Superbowel, scheduling as bad as possible, this looks like another win for evil. I hope some of the readers here will break the apathy and work the phones to help with filibuster and to help let their Senators know that constituents will not be friendly about votes for passage of Bush's telecom immunity scam.

troydog @ 32:

In 2004 he received many more votes in his re-election bid than Kerry

No such claim can be made as fact. The 2004 vote was widely RIGGED. In Wisconsin, problems may have been less than elsewhere, given the large number of optical scan counters used -- but they are not reliable if not audited, so the 2004 count is not necessarily accurate.

Local R scare tactics were also employed:

"In Milwaukee, Wisconsin, in 2004, fliers from the nonexistent Milwaukee Black Voters League were distributed in black neighborhoods, warning residents that "if anyone in your family has ever been found guilty of anything, even a traffic violation, you can't vote in the presidential election," and that "if you violate any of these laws you can get ten years in prison and your children will get taken away from you."

http://www.motherjones.com/news/feature/2006/09/just_try_voting_here.html

Here is a link to a WI voting rights activist's blog you might want to visit:

http://washburnsworld.blogspot.com/

Obama/Feingold '08?

Basically, all of the people in the US, citizens or not, have lost any semblance of the protections guaranteed by the Constitution.

According to the bush administration, we are all "Guilty, until proven Innocent" - and that is the legacy of this, the most criminal of administrations the country has ever known. Too bad the vast majority of Americans are just to apathetic to "get it".

Much more of this, and we may not survive as a democratic republic.

As a Michigander, I too was happy Russ didn’t run. He’s my neighbor and we need him right where he is. (For now).

I for one wouldn't want him slimed by the MSM as they did to Gore, since he's one of the few Democrats that I actually trust to look out for us.

I personally don't give a shit if he's been married three times or six times and I certainly don't care if the man is Jewish or not. HE'S the person that should be President in my opinion.

Why the hell didn't he run for president?

Do not give in on any thing on this BAD BILL. I konw you will not. (There is only one time you and all the SENATORS in the DIMOCRATIC party let me down and that was when NONE OF YOU would BACK Maxcine Walters in the GORE electon all of you let the whole COUNTRY down that day.)