is stock answer number one that you learn when you go into politics.

From an email I received this morning from my local HR676 advocacy group:

As many of you know, when Rep. Altmire was first running for Congress in 2006 he promised to co-sponsor HR 676 if elected. He did not keep that promise. When asked about it, he has often told people (including me) that it was because "they changed the bill." Let me tell you that the only changes in the bill from 2006 were: #1 hearing aids were added to other services/medical equipment that would be covered; and #2 two years of unemployment compensation was added to the job retraining for displaced workers.

(Pardon me if this take on politicians is too much old news to be mentioned here. I'm trying to get educated and thought I'd share.)

5 (FIVE) days ago Obama said--in a statement he issued:

"[The bill] does, however, grant retroactive immunity, and I will work in the Senate to remove this provision so that we can seek full accountability for past offenses."

The headline at the CBS blog Horse Race was:
June 21, 2008, 12:20 PM
Obama: I'll Fight To Strip Telecom Immunity From FISA

Thanks Obama!

I feel completely justified in not voting for you.

Gravel!!!

There you have it!

[x] Very tepidly voting for Obama [ ] ?????. [ ] Any mullah-sucking billionaire-teabagging torture-loving pus-encrusted spawn of Cthulhu, bless his (R) heart.

his excuses, prevarications, flips, flops, preaching, evading...I don't know if I can take it.

His aides are going to have to take a whole lot of blame for any mistakes or things he wants to deny he said/wrote/ordered.

I thought last week was bad, but this one's continuing on the downward slant. Not fun.

there will be endless struggles amongst his aides because Obama will never be responsible.

I almost feel sorry for Obama.

Here is a person who clearly wasn't ready for this job yet, in either experience or temperment. Maybe he would have been after spending a 4-8 more years in the trenches and finding an agenda to fight for. We will never know now what he could have become, had he decided to put a check on his ambition, and that is sad.

But as it is, he is pure political expediency. Saying what he feels he needs to say, doing what he feels he needs to do, not to achieve any clear goal beyond getting his fanny in the cushy, leather President's chair.

And then I don't feel sorry for him anymore, because he is fucking the rest of us in the process.

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Around these parts we call cucumber slices circle bites

He done it again:

Obama: I disagree with Supreme Court's child rape decision