Potpourri

Hey, the Bahamas don't wait. Poor Congress had to stay in late over the weekend and work. Wah. Anyways, seems like they got a lot done since they passed a buttload of stuff, or versions of stuff, including, but not limited to FISA, Defense Appropriations, and an Energy Bill (House only). To give the rundown, FISA, or the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, would immediately allow the US to start warrantless surveillance of foreign targets, regardless of whether or not that person is communicating with someone in the US. However, it would require the attorney general to note how the info is collected, and the procedures would be subjected to a FISA court later. The Republican version of the bill passed, but all in all, I'm okay with this. Plus, the bill expires in 6 months so they can come back and revise as needed (vacation was calling, it was getting late...) The Energy Bill looks to have a tough fight in the Senate. It has a lot of provisions, some more soporific than others, to tax oil and gas companies to help cough up the funds to pay for alternative energy measures and other programs. We'll see you back on Sept 4 Congress! Damn you and your month long vacation.

Tea with Dr. Strangelove. Republican debate on Sunday, sponsored by ABC News, moderated by the dashingly handsome, charmingly witty, and endearingly intelligent George Stephanopoulos. Oh yeah, the guy is apparently not half bad as a speech writer either. The candidates mostly stayed away from bashing each other, although they all took a jab, more or less, at the Dems. Romney in particular made a er, strange(love) comment about Obama, saying,

"I mean, in one week he went from saying he's going to sit down, you know, for tea, with our enemies, but then he's going to bomb our allies," Romney said. "He's gone from Jane Fonda to Dr. Strangelove in one week." (WaPo)

I will pay someone good money if they can provide a visual of this.

Tancredo also mentioned that he would bomb Islamic holy sites. Holy sites, more like holy shit, that is a terrible idea! I actually agree with Thompson's (that's Tommy) statements,

"Bombing religious artifacts and religious holy sites would do nothing but unify 1 billion Muslims against us."

Let's talk less about bombing people and more about flowers and love and bunnies! Bunnies, people! and Kittens! and Peace! peace kittens!

Gimme some mo' Hagel might join the pres race. He's using the August recess to decide. Of all the Republicans, I probably like him the best. I think the real question is, though, do the Republicans need more nominees? The debate stage only fits so many. Still, I bet Chuck will think about it, decide, declare, run and have hell freeze over before Fred Thompson plans a date to declare (Sept 5 is the actual date, for any who care)

Important Dates?
Aug 4/this Sat was Obama's 46th birthday! Hoorah?
Aug 7/tomorrow AFL-CIO debate for Dems

Also, I'm really excited for this Indiana Jones movie. I'm a big fan of the series, so I'll just plug my ears and go "la la la" to all the bad rap it's eventually going to get.