Today's coverup of surveillance crimes and Barack Obama  —  What we learned in December, 2005 that George Bush and the telecoms were doing — listening in on the private conversations of American citizens without warrants — is a felony under clear U.S. law, punishable by up to 5 years in prison and/or a $10,000 fine for each offense.

He quit rather than lower flag for Helms  —  RALEIGH - L.F. Eason III gave up the only job he'd ever had rather than lower a flag to honor former U.S. Sen. Jesse Helms.  —  Eason, a 29-year veteran of the state Department of Agriculture, instructed his staff at a small Raleigh lab not to fly …

One nation, not just speaking English  —  After a substantial speech decrying the current state of bankruptcy law in the United States, Barack Obama took a few questions from the audience in Powder Springs, Georgia on Tuesday morning.  One young woman asked whether there was anything …

Jesse Ventura To Run for Senate?  —  In an interview with NPR's David Welna that ran today former Gov. Jesse “The Body” Ventura, Ind-Minn., sounds like he may run for Senate, challenging incumbent Sen. Norm Coleman, R-Minn., whom Ventura defeated for governor in 1998, as well as Democratic nominee …

Pemberton GOP: Airbrushing Racism Since...  So the Pemberton and Burlington County GOP got caught today.  Take a look at a before screen shot of the Pemberton GOP website and see if anything looks out of place...  Ah, what a tasteful municipal party message.

Maliki's Withdrawal Card  —  A year ago, the conventional Beltway wisdom had it that Iraq was a failed state.  Today, the same wisdom holds that it is less chaotic but still fragile, dependent entirely on a U.S. presence to survive.  But judging by recent comments from Nouri al-Maliki, even this view may be out of date.

FISA: Final Votes On The FISA Amendments Act  —  digg it  —  From Sen. Chris Dodd this morning: … The Senate is scheduled to come back into session at 2:15 pm ET.  The votes on final passage for the FISA Amendments Act will occur shortly thereafter.  As usual, we'll be watching...

MORE McCAIN-ONOMICS....This is amusing.  A couple of Politico reporters called some of the 300 economists who “enthusiastically support” John McCain's “Jobs for America” plan and found that their support was somewhat less enthusiastic than advertised: … Maybe he shouldn't have!

Senate agrees to Sept. 26 adjournment date  —  Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) has agreed to the House target of adjourning Congress by Sept. 26, giving it only a few weeks to finish an agenda that, Democrats say, has been backed up because of Republican opposition.

INTELLECTUALS LIE, THE POWERLESS DIE  —  THE greatest lie intellectuals tell us is that “the pen is mightier than the sword.”  That's what cowards claim when they want to preen as heroes.  —  Billions of words have been hurled at Sudan's government.  The misery in Darfur not only continues but deepens.

QUITE A STATEMENT  —  People say a lot of things about Social Security — a lot of it nonsense.  But I haven't heard something like this in a long time.  John McCain says that Social Security, as originally conceived more than 70 years ago, is an “absolute disgrace.”

Dallas County meeting turns racial  —  A special meeting about Dallas County traffic tickets turned tense and bizarre this afternoon.  —  County commissioners were discussing problems with the central collections office that is used to process traffic ticket payments and handle other paperwork normally done by the JP Courts.