You should see Representative Bernard Sanders speaking his outrage (Real Video) at how the vote was secretly orchestrated (Washington Post) to stop an amendment to the Patriot Act. It would have had law enforcement go to regular courts instead of a secret ones to get library and Internet access records of people it is investigating. More at The Progress Report.

Left unsaid in the press is that a deal was made not to criticize the President, by the U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee, until after the election. The report that was released found the CIA’s prewar estimates of Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction were overstated and unsupported (CNN). Also left unmentioned are the claims some in the CIA were pressured by Cheney (SMH) via dangerousmeta.

Why isn’t the headline “We Went To War For Unfounded Reasons”?

“If ye love wealth greater than liberty, the tranquility of servitude greater than the animating contest for freedom, go home from us in peace. We seek not your counsel, nor your arms. Crouch down and lick the hand that feeds you; May your chains set lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that ye were our countrymen.”

Samuel Adams

So begins a terrific post at Hullabaloo on the 4th of July. Must read.

Bush, more so than any other incumbent President I can think of, is working his base instead of reaching towards center. He turned down an invitation to speak at the NAACP’s annual convention (CNN) held in Philadelphia this year. You wouldn’t know it from our local news papers however. Strangely silent.

Fewer than half of American adults now read literature (NEA). Scary. I can attribute almost my entire success on following Garret’s advice to “Read widely, read deeply, read tomes you wouldn?t necessarily pick up.”

Wow. Conspiracy theorists will have a ball with this.

McCain turned down Bush for the VP in 2000 (Political Wire). Cheney was his second choice. Imagine that.

9/11 Commission: Cheney can’t support his claim (Reuters). No ties between Iraq and Al Qaeda. None.

And Iraq has been a distraction from the war on terror (U.S. Army War College quoted at the Washington Post).

Collect donations for the Republican party and earn 30% of it (Metafilter). Talk about something begging to be corrupted.

Saudi Arabia for Bush (Slate). Nothing new here, but thought provoking.

Pakistan for Bush (Metafilter): Some were told to time bringing down Bin Laden during the Democratic Convention.