Good news! Sen. Byron Dorgan (ND), who chairs the Democratic Policy Committee (DPC) in the Senate, wants accountability from military contractors who eagerly take taxpayer dollars and then use them to carelessly kill or sicken our troops. Read his blog post below, visit his website, and get involved!

DPC TO CONTINUE DRIVE FOR OVERSIGHT, ACCOUNTABILITY FOR IRAQ AND AFGHANISTAN CONTRACTORS
U.S. Senator Byron Dorgan, Chairman, Democratic Policy Committee

The Senate Democratic Policy Committee (DPC) has launched the  “Accountability Series,” which features video on congressional efforts to ensure accountability in government.

Starts at 1:20.

David Gregory recently began tweeting his Daily Reads, and I quickly noticed his overwhelming bias towards neocons, paleocons, and so-called "liberals" who supported Bush's criminal invasion of Iraq and the rest of his disastrous right-wing policies.

Conspicuously absent from Gregory's Daily Reads were progressives who opposed Bush's war and the rest of his policies. He ignores all of us who were right about Iraq when it counted, who marched in the streets by the millions but were blacked out by the Corporate Media, including MSNBC, which fired its only progressive (Phil Donahue) because he dared to even question the mad neocon rush to war.

Politico's David Rogers recapped the Supplemental vote in the House and quoted an anoymous Massachusetts Democrat dissing progressives:

The dynamics were striking in the Massachusetts delegation, where House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank — a nay vote in May — took a strong stand in favor of the IMF money and two other Democrats also shifted to support the president on this round.

“Off the record, it’s what we call the responsible left,” said one Massachusetts lawmaker. Frank himself was scathing toward both sides, who had often mimicked one another’s arguments that the IMF money constituted a European bank bailout.

“The left and the right live in parallel universes,” Frank told POLITICO. “The right listens to talk radio, the left’s on the Internet and they just reinforce one another. They have no sense of reality. ... I have now one ambition: to retire before it becomes essential to tweet.”

So who dissed us? Here are the votes of Massachusetts Democrats:

One thing we learned from the War Supplemental battle is there are three kinds of Democrats in the House.

1. 32 progressives who truly fight for their principles:

Today was the day to separate the Real Democrats from the frauds. Sadly, there are just 32 Real Democrats out of 258 in the House of Representatives. Here is the Honor Roll:

Tammy Baldwin Mike Capuano John Conyers Lloyd Doggett Donna Edwards Keith Ellison Sam Farr Bob Filner

Alan Grayson Raul Grijalva Mike Honda Marcy Kaptur Dennis Kucinich Barbara Lee Zoe Lofgren Eric Massa

Jim McGovern Mike Michaud Don Payne Chellie Pingree Jared Polis Jose Serrano Carol Shea-Porter Brad Sherman

Jackie Speier Pete Stark John Tierney Niki Tsongas Maxine Waters Diane Watson Peter Welch Lynn Woolsey

These 32 Real Democrats stood up to immense pressure from President Obama, Nancy Pelosi, and Steny Hoyer and voted against the $106 billion war supplemental because they want to bring our troops home. If you are represented by one of them, please call 202-225-3121 and thank them for their courage.

If your Representative is not on the list above, call 202-225-3121 and tell them you will work to defeat them in 2010 because it is long past time for Congress to bring all our troops home.

At 3:21 p.m., Steny Hoyer suddenly pulled the $106 billion War Supplemental bill off the floor because he didn't have enough votes to pass it. That means our calls and emails are making an enormous difference.

So what will Hoyer do next? The Rule allows him to call a vote any time tonight or tomorrow. That means he can wait until progressive Democrats go home and call a sudden vote - even at 3 a.m.

Hillary Clinton said Democrats would be tested by a 3 a.m. call. This is the test. Will progressive Democrats pass?

Calls are urgently needed to Reps. Gwen Moore (WI) at (202) 225-4572 Donald Payne (NJ) at (202) 225-3436, and Jerrold Nadler (NY) 202-225-5635. Call them right now and urge them to vote NO on the War Supplemental.

Amy Goodman is awesome!

Shailagh Murray reveals Rahm's latest strategery for passing the massively unpopular $106 billion war/IMF supplemental:

To relieve pressure on antiwar Democrats, the Obama administration hopes to win at least a few House Republican converts on an emergency war spending bill this week, by emphasizing the flu prevention funds that the package includes.

Rahm thinks flu prevention funds will win GOP votes??? Did he forget how the GOP stripped flu prevention funds from the stimulus bill, deriding it as "porkulus"?

If Rahm is banking on flu prevention funds, he's definitely running a very high fever.

Powered by the Internet, e-Democracy is threatening conservative power in Iran. But it's also threatening conservative power in Washington DC, even if the media isn't covering the story.

In Iran, citizens are confronting police in the streets to protest a stolen election. Despite Iran's government-controlled media, this rebellion is visible to the world through digital photos and videos which are being uploaded and forwarded through Facebook, Twitter, and other global networks.

John Amato tries to watch as much TV news as he can, but even he is ready to throw in the towel on the Sunday talk show circle jerks:

I really can't take watching the Sunday morning shows anymore. It's infuriating to watch hosts like Bob Schieffer (not to single him out) just ask basic questions about the issues, have no facts on hand and rarely ask a follow up.

This week marked the anniversary of Tim Russert's death. I was no fan of Tim's - and give him considerable blame for projecting Cheney's pre-war lies - but at least he usually had "facts on hand" and asked follow-up questions. There's no one like him now.

Amato is right to call the Sunday shows "circle jerks." It's just the Beltway Elite masturbating each other.

So why should the rest of us watch? Let's all them we're not going to watch their "circle jerk." Instead we'll catch up with the best blogs of the week - or spend more time with our families.

Michael Moore's new film is due in October. Here's a sneak preview - enjoy!

FireDogLake founder Jane Hamsher is doing heroic work to persuade 39 progressive Democrats to oppose the $106 billion Supplemental for the wars in Iraq and Af-Pak and to bailout European banks through the IMF. She has 32 votes so we only need 7 more!

But poor Jane hasn't had time to sleep, so if your Representative is on this list, please help Jane by calling your Rep to urge a NO vote.

This week, Gallup tried to identify the Republican spokesperson. Among Republicans, it was a tie between Rush and Newt at 10% each.

Obviously the Democratic spokesperson is President Obama. But who speaks for progressives? This is an important question, because President Obama has been "captured" by the conservative establishment on key issues like bailouts for Big Banks, the wars in Iraq and AfPak, accountability for torture, and corporate control of health care. Who best articulates the progressive alternative to the establishment on these issues? Here are some possibilities:

Nancy Pelosi likes to say she "hates" the U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and wants to bring our troops home. So why is she "fiercely lobbying" progressive Democrats to keep our troops in Iraq and expand the self-defeating Afghanistan war into Pakistan? Politico reports,

The single-largest piece of the bill is $77.16 billion for the Defense Department, largely to maintain operations in Iraq and support Obama’s increased commitment to Afghanistan and Pakistan.