SCOTUS 1 Constitution 0, Senate Abdicates, House GOP Thinks They're Bad, Condi the Baptist and Osama's Dupe Bush.

The land of the free is a little less free today. The five anti-American, anti-Constitution, authoritarian Supreme Court Justices that voted to basically do away with the Fourth Amendment are Justice Antonin Scalia, Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr., and Justices Samuel A. Alito Jr., Clarence Thomas and Anthony M. Kennedy.

We also have to thank the weak-sister Democrat Senators that were too gutless to even put up a fight over the conservative freaks Roberts and Alito.

A divided Supreme Court ruled today that evidence can be used against a
defendant even when seized in violation of a long-standing rule requiring a
knock on the door before executing a search
warrant.
The 5-4 decision, written by Justice Antonin Scalia, ran counter to previous
decisions requiring suppression of evidence obtained in violation of the
so-called "knock-and-announce"
rule.

Breyer, by contrast, wrote that the decision does indeed diminish the
requirement and represents a significant departure from "basic principles"
established by the court and common
law.
He took particular exception to Scalia's claim that "causality" -- a direct
link between the violation and the evidence -- should be a factor in applying
the exclusionary rule. That reasoning, said Breyer, could make the Fourth
Amendment unworkable.

The Senate has once again decided that doing it's job is just too much trouble. They handed Bush his $94.5 billion compromise emergency bill on a 98-1 vote. Despite the fact that the bill eliminated oversight of Iraq construction contracts and cut veteran's funds the Democrats couldn't rouse themselves to do anything other than vote "Aye".

"I am pleased that Congress has addressed these urgent national priorities
within the spending limits I set," Bush said.

Pennsylvania Republican Arlen Specter, who was the only senator to vote
against the emergency bill, did so because the new budget cap did not include $7
billion he wanted for additional health and education funding.

The House wasn't any better. They just give Bush what he wants when he wants it. This kind of makes the Congress pointless. It's no wonder that Americans are sick of this bunch.

The Republican-controlled U.S. House of Representatives maintained its track
record of providing absolutely no checks and balances on the Bush
administration's warmaking this week, when it voted 351-67 to authorize another
$66 billion in "emergency" spending for the occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan.

While the House will hold a symbolic "debate" on the Iraq imbroglio
Thursday, that endeavor has been so constrained by the House Republican
leadership that it will be of no more consequence than the discourse in a mock
legislative exercise for high school students – although, in fairness to the
students, a mock Congress would undoubtedly take the Constitutional imperative
of shared responsibility for warmaking more seriously than does the actual
Congress.

But why work when the perks of the job pays more than your salary anyway? And besides, you know that your politically ignorant constituents are going to keep on sending you back to profit from your position, instead of doing your job.

More than a dozen lawmakers reaped book royalties ranging to millions of
dollars last year, according to their annual financial disclosure reports,
released yesterday. And when they weren't at their writing desks, some were at
gambling tables or lottery kiosks, netting a few thousand dollars from casinos
or winning tickets.

Meanwhile, scores of House and Senate members and their spouses traveled the
world as guests of think tanks and corporations, even though recent lobbying
scandals have prompted some to curb their wanderlust.

Over in the House the Republicans are up to their old crap of, if you don't support our version of the war on terror, then that makes you a traitorous Al Queda supporter.

Choreographed by the GOP, the debate unfolded four months before midterm
elections that will decide the control of Congress. The administration, for its
part, was so determined to get its message out that the Pentagon distributed a
highly unusual "debate prep book" filled with ready-made answers for criticism
of the war.

Partisan lines were drawn quickly.

"Is it al-Qaida or is it America? Let the voters take note of this debate,"
said Republican Rep. Charles Norwood of Georgia, attacking war critics as
defeatists who do not deserve re-election.

Real men weren't swayed by the lunatic ravings of the rabid right.

Republican Wayne Gilchrest, a Purple Heart and Bronze Star honoree, took it a
step further. "While you were in combat, you had a sense of urgency to end the
slaughter," Gilchrest told
the Washington Post. "And around here we don't have the sense of urgency."

Jim Webb, the former Secretary of the Navy who's challenging George Allen for
a Senate seat in Virginia, summed it up best. "They're sending other people's
kids to war," Webb said
of the Republican Congress. "They're allowing other people's kids to suffer from
bad schools, outsourced jobs, crime-ridden neighborhoods, deflated futures, no
health insurance. They've lost sight of why they should be in government in the
first place."

Even Majority Leader Boehner’s Confidential Strategy Memo For Thursday’s Iraq Debate has gotten out, thanks to Think Progress.

1. Exploit 9/11. The two page memo mentions 9/11 seven times. It describes
debating Iraq in the context of 9/11 as “imperative.”

2. Attack opponents ad hominem. The memo describes those who opposes
President Bush’s policies in Iraq as “sheepish,” “weak,” and “prone to waver endlessly.”

3. Create a false choice. The memo says the decision is between supporting
President Bush’s policies and hoping terrorist threats will “fade away on their
own.”

Condi went to the annual meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention in Greensboro, N.C. Like any good Republican Condi won't miss an opportunity to suck up. The thirst for power is the common thread that links the GOP to the Religious Right.

Appealing to the evangelicals, Rice asked rhetorically: "If not for America,"
would issues such as religious liberty, human trafficking, HIV/AIDS prevention
and violence in Sudan even be addressed?

It had to be rhetorical, because Condi wouldn't like the true answer to her question.

The Republicans have the nerve to accuse us of being Al Queda supporters while their idiot president has been trying to do exactly what Osama wants more than anything else.

BAGHDAD (AP) — A blueprint for trying to start a war between the United
States and Iran was among a "huge treasure" of documents found in the hideout of
terrorist leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, Iraqi officials said Thursday.