Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama claimed over and over during the primaries that they were strong leaders who could take America in a new direction. They also claimed that George W. Bush was the worst president in US history. Then, how come they have never been able to beat him in almost any legislative battles?

This week they surrendered again. This time it was about giving immunity to telecommunication companies who broke the law to placate the Bush administration. Nearly everyone involved admits they broke the law -- otherwise they wouldn't need immunity.

I didn't rob a bank, so I don't need immunity for robbery. Everyone should have their rights, and that definitely applies to the telecom companies and the Bush administration as well, so it should be very simple for them to go into a courthouse and show there was nothing wrong with what they did. Except they can't, and that's why desperately need immunity for the crimes they have committed.

This isn't about spying on terrorists. The FISA court gives out warrants like they're growing on trees. If they spied on terrorists, it's the easiest thing in the world to show. No, this is for breaking the law and spying on Americans without a court order. Do we know who they spied on? No, and now we never will. Why? The Democrats are going to give these companies -- and by extension the Bush administration -- immunity for breaking the law.

In essence, the Democrats are giving a preemptive pardon to George Bush and everyone else that authorized and participated in this illegal surveillance program.

Now, if we only had a couple of strong leaders on the Democratic side who could stop this. Oh wait a minute, I remember two people that kept telling me how strong and capable they were. One of them even claimed that change was coming. You know when it might be a good time for change? Right about now.

Instead, Hillary Clinton is on vacation somewhere doing absolutely nothing about this immunity bill. When it's not about her career, all of a sudden she's not that moved to fight for us, our laws and our constitution. Since she's not going to be president, she's taken her ball and gone home.

And what about Obama? Nothing. Worse than nothing, because he's actually thinking about voting with the Republicans on a so-called compromise, which in the words of Sen. Feingold is nothing short of a "capitulation." Leadership you can believe in!

You think I sound angry here, you should have seen me all week on the show. If you want to see what I think of pathetic Democratic weakness, watch this (not safe for work or with kids around). The Democrats make it nearly impossible to respect them. And if you want to see what I think of Senator Clinton and Senator Obama's awful record of leadership on this issue, watch this:




If you can't beat the most unpopular president of all time in a simple legislative fight like this, how can you claim to be a strong and effective leader?

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The Democrats going on Fox News Channel is a terrible idea for many reasons. They legitimize a propaganda outlet for the Republican Party by agreeing to the fiction that they are a real news organization. They field twisted and slanted questions that set them up for answers that will later be used against them.

Obama fell into this trap last week when he told Chris Wallace that the Rev. Wright controversy was a legitimate political issue. He is trying to be nice to a Fox News anchor, which is just stupid. He is going to use it against you! And he already has. Wallace used Obama's statements to justify several more questions he asked Howard Dean about Rev. Wright this weekend.

But the one reason I never found persuasive for not going on Fox is that the Democrats can't handle it. But there's some chance I'm wrong about that. You can't go and talk to Bill O'Reilly if you're not prepared to challenge him on the obvious bullcrap he's going to toss your way. And that's exactly what Hillary Clinton did. She went in unprepared and pretty much lost a debate on torture. Watch below:





One of our viewers, Tony Daughtrey, made a good point after watching this on our show. O'Reilly keeps calling waterboarding a dunk in the water. You know who else we used to dunk in the water to get confessions? Witches.

Does O'Reilly think we got reliable information out of those women by dunking them in the water during the Salem Witch Trials? Remember, they almost all confessed. So, I guess they must have all been witches after all.

There's a reason why we don't torture people anymore. It's barbaric and useless. They'll tell you whatever you want to hear -- I did it, Iraq is connected to Al Qaeda, I'm a witch, I'm a terrorist, etc., etc.

Finally, we invaded Iraq based on the faulty intelligence we got from one of the guys we tortured. You can read about it here. That wrong information cost the lives of countless people. Is it too much to ask Democrats that they at least learn that one fact and bring that up the next time someone attempts an asinine defense of torture?

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There is a misconception in the mainstream press now that the netroots and progressive activists want more liberal representatives or candidates. That is totally untrue. I know, from the listeners to our show and readers of our website, that the reality is that we just want stronger representatives. People who are willing to stand up and fight for their beliefs.

I wrote about this phenomenon on our website. You can read that article here.

As I explain in that piece, some of the Democratic senators are significantly to the left of me on domestic and trade issues. I don't want them to become "more liberal." I just want them to fight the Bush administration on Iraq and abuses of the constitution. I don't even think those are liberal positions. They used to be conservative positions. I don't know what they are anymore, but I just wish someone would follow them and take on the most unpopular president of our lifetimes. The fact that they can't muster up the courage to do that is what makes us really sick of them.

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Pete Stark came out last week and made a strong statement against the Iraq War, the President and the Republicans in Congress (you can watch that here). So, immediately the Republicans attacked -- because that's what they do. And immediately the Democrats caved in -- because that's what they do. Nancy Pelosi, instead of rebuking the president for getting our kids killed in Iraq, rebuked her own party member for having the courage to stand up to the president.

So, what happened this week? Rep. Stark came out and ... apologized! It's pathetic. The Democrats wouldn't recognize a spine if they got smacked upside the head with one. Here is the sad unmanning of poor Pete Stark:



When the Democrats tried a similar rhetorical trick on the Republicans and tried to get them to condemn Rush Limbaugh for calling troops who disagreed with him "phony soldiers," you know how Republicans reacted? Instead of voting to condemn Limbaugh, they tried to introduce a resolution commending him. That's how you fight back.

I think the current Republicans are radicals, extremists and warmongers. They are a danger to this country and to this world. But at least I respect them. I give the devil his due. On the other hand, it is impossible to rally around the stomach-churning weakness of the Democrats.

Our founders have set up an excellent democratic system. This is what primaries are for. I wouldn't vote for a Republican on the national level now if you put a gun to my head. But I can't stomach voting for these wavering, vacillating, weaklings that are the current Democrats. But that's why we have primaries! Nearly every one of these Democrats in Congress should have primary fights on their hands. We should have a citizen rebellion. Enough is enough. We have to replace them all.

I don't need the primary candidates to be more liberal or more progressive. I am a centrist, with fairly conservative economic beliefs. I just need the candidates to be STRONGER. Please give us some people who will not cower in the face of petty tyranny and schoolyard intimidation tactics. I just want someone to represent me that has a brain AND a spine. That shouldn't be too much to ask for.

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Bush has announced that he is going to withdraw 30,000 troops from Iraq a year from now -- maybe. That would leave us in the same exact position we were in after the 2006 elections. So, he will have surged, then unsurged. And in the end, he will have done nothing about getting us out of Iraq -- which was his plan all along. He just wanted to run the clock out so he can blame the next president when Iraq inevitably goes down the tubes.

Now, who would be so stupid as to buy into this plan to stay the course, yet again? The Democrats, of course!

New York Times is reporting that Democrats are working on a compromise that gives George Bush exactly what he wants. I explain what the compromise is in the video below. Have you ever seen a group of people so pathetically weak your whole life? And ironically, they are trying to convince Americans that they are strong by agreeing with Bush. It's so miserably stupid.



I wrote about whether the Democrats will give in to this fraud of a proposal here. What do you think -- do the Democrats fold again? And will you have any respect for them if they do?

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President Bush has been holding our troops hostage while he demands that Congress do as he says. He threatens to endanger their lives every time Congress says they have a different plan for Iraq. We explain more in the video below:



Democrats have to understand this trick and call it for what it is. Otherwise, Bush will keep using this tactic to get whatever he wants. And he will keep endangering our troops lives while pretending to support the troops.

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I am not responsible for these outrageous "Week in Review" videos. If you've got complaints, take it up with our director, Jesus Godoy. Otherwise, enjoy!



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This is how you do it:



Now that wasn't so hard, was it?

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I can't take them anymore. Democrats keep calling Bush the worst president in US history and then they keep voting with him. At the end of last week, they just allowed Bush to retroactively make his violations of the FISA law legal. They are the worst!

I'm way beyond the Republicans. All they ever do is rubberstamp the awful policies of this administration and I wouldn't vote for them in a million years (or at least twenty, until they cleaned up the party). But the Democrats are supposed to be opposition party. They are supposed to care about our rights and the constitution. But, of course, for most of them, they don't. They just care about their own power.

In this video I explain why Democrats keep voting with Republicans. In this article I explain what a terrible capitulation the vote on this FISA bill was. And in this article I rip Hillary and Obama a new one for being completely AWOL on this issue. If Bush is the worst president in history and you've done nothing to fight back, what does that make you?

Well, I'll show you what it makes you. A reader on Daily Kos put up this absolutely great video that explains what the Democrats are perfectly:



There you have it. It's funny and it's incredibly sad at the same time. Will someone step up and lead already?! Or do we have to settle for these schleps that can hardly stay on their feet long enough to oppose this out of control administration?

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What more can you say? How does anyone take this guy seriously? Well, I guess they don't. There is some chance that Savage is actually unbalanced, that he is in fact mentally disturbed.

Remember this unbelievable rant? Listen to him scream, "That's how I see it!!!" These guys are downright spooky. Now, a polonium sandwich. I literally cannot imagine what they are going to come up with next.

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I'm not a guy who is very fond of protests. I'm also not fond of giving up a part of my Sunday. But I am going to do both of those things for the foreseeable future because I have had enough. When Bush commuted Scooter Libby's sentence it was the straw that broke the camel's back.

I am tired of politician's being above the law. I am tired of this administration breaking every conceivable law and endlessly violating the constitution. I am also tired of the ineffectual opposition party that never holds them to account.

So, we are going to try democracy the old fashioned way. We are going to get together and try to make our voices heard by our government. We will be doing protests every Sunday at 12Noon to 1PM. Just one hour every Sunday, starting this Sunday. All across the country, with one simple message: Enough!

If you'd like to join us, you can either come to the one Wes Clark, Jr. and I will be attending in LA or simply pick a spot in your hometown and show up with a sign or t-shirt. Wes explains the protest a little more in his Daily Kos diaries, where people are beginning to organize local get togethers or you can read more about it on Huffington Post or The Young Turks.

We want this to be low key and very open to all participants. We hope to see you there.

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I have been warning for some time now that the Democrats are pushing too slowly and cautiously to get us out of Iraq. And that at some point the Republicans would try to outflank them and pretend that they got us out of Iraq. That movement has now begun with several high profile Republicans getting ready to pull the plug on this Iraqi misadventure. Now, what's going to be the Democratic response? I hope it's not more of the tepid, lukewarm approach we've been getting so far.

The leading bill among the Democrats is the Levin-Reid bill that says we should begin withdrawal in April, 2008 -- and only if the president agrees. That's an awful bill. That allows the president to continue to get his way pretty much until the end of his administration, against the wishes of most of the Democrats, a huge majority of the American population and now even many Republicans.

They need to scrap that approach and get much tougher, much quicker. Otherwise, the Republicans in Congress will say they got us out of Iraq, and they might even be right.

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I'll tell you what we want, what we really, really want. The dream team. Gore-Obama 2008. GOROBAMA!

Deep in our hearts, that's what we all want. Obama sounds so good. His speech on foreign policy yesterday hit so many good notes. But we're all a little worried about two things. Does he have enough experience to win? In other words, is he quite there yet? And does he have the courage to do what is right even if it might not be popular at the time?

Continue reading an article explaining why it has to be Gorobama!

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