In a story today, as an aside, Markos talks about how we don't have AT&T's millions or its lobbyists.

Well, why not hire a lobbyist for the netroots?

Using a procedural move, the top Republican on the Appropriations Committee, Jerry Lewis, just got a vote on an amendment that condemns MoveOn, by name, for the Petraeus ad.

What's worse? Most Democrats voted for it!!!

Sorry for the short diary, just wanted to get the info out there.

Vote beneath the jump.

Less than an hour after the shameful vote on S.1927, Nancy Pelosi directed the House Judiciary and Intelligence Committees to "send to the House, as soon as possible after Congress reconvenes, legislation which responds comprehensively to the administration’s proposal while addressing the many deficiencies in S.1927."

It's more than a tautology to say that politicians are inherently political. Despite their oath of office or quality of character, almost no elected official is going to do something they believe will harm their holding on to power for the sake of an abstract value, however important it is, like "defending the Constitution."

The great value of the rise of netroots has been to change the political dynamic for Democrats, where "playing it safe" is no longer always the politically safe thing to do. However, as there is no more grave act for Congress that impeachment, what's needed is a political strategy (not legislative or legal, as many diarists suggest) to put impeachment back on the table: convicing the country, through smart political theater, of the criminal nature of Bush Administration.

By now, most of you are aware of the bipartisan trade agreement reached on Thursday afternoon from a number of diaries on the subject. What most of these diaries aren't telling you is that, on every issue, we defeated the Bush trade agenda and got 100% of what Democrats have been demanding for years.

Many of you who are MoveOn members, like I am, are getting an email from Eli Pariser, asking whether MoveOn should support the House Democratic plan to set a deadline for ending the war on the supplemental appropriations bill.

Please, I urge you, vote yes.

In all my years of protests, I've always enjoyed making signs and slogans. For me, the essential question is how to you get your message across in a short, pathy way without losing all nuance from your message or becoming a caricature. I also like the idea of using signs to challenge peoples' assumptions of who's marching. For example, I've marched before under a "Zionist for Peace" sign.

So - if you're going to the march this Saturday, what's your sign going to say? If you're not going, post your suggestions here. Either way, what's your criteria for a good protest sign?

Recommend the ideas you like and maybe DKos can help set the message for the day.

According to a short article in CQ Weekly (one of the Beltway insider trade magazines), the Department of Defense is recruiting anti-Iranian terrorists in Iraq, in violation of US law, as part of their contingency plans for an attack on Iran.

The former official, who retains close contacts with his own sources from the region, says the Pentagon has been using former members of Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK), which is on the State Department's list of foreign terrorist organizations, to plant targeting "beacons" in Iran to guide any future attack.

For those of you concerned about reports of a purge from the Ohio voter rolls, here's the official web site to see if you're still registered to vote: http://www.sos.state.oh.us/....

Hopefully, this way we can find any problems or let us all sleep better and get back to the work of getting out the vote for Brown, Strickland, Sutton, Space, Wilson, Cranley, Wulsin, Kilroy, and everyone else.

I don't have much to say about the election - I'd rather be doing - so, as a late night aside, how about this little parlor game:

I recently learned that all Members of Congress, including my boss, can nominate people for the Nobel Peace Prize. So, after Dr. Yunus' win this year, who should we nominate for next year?

Make your case in the comments and I'll add a poll with the most popular nominees.

This week, Congress is on what we euphamistically call a "district work period." This means that the Members of Congress will be back in their districts for the whole week. If you're getting frustrated from writing letters that get canned answers or posting blogs about your pet issue that don't seem to change anything, take this week to try to get a meeting with your Member of Congress.

In a comment to a diary I posted a few weeks ago, someone asked whether there was a way to know what Congress was doing in advance. Anyway, I figured I post this week's schedule for the House, below the jump.  

If there's something here you have an opinion on, write your Representative here: http://www.house.gov/writerep/. Or better, make an appointment to talk to a staffer in their district office.

If you want to find the whole text of a bill, visit http://thomas.loc.gov. If you want to see what amendments are being offered, visit http://www.rules.house.gov/. Let me know if you find this useful or if you have any questions.

Perhaps the recurring theme in the Daily Kos community is that Democratic elected officials, particularly Members of Congress have no spine and won't fight for the things we believe in. Certainly many examples abound from the Bankruptcy Bill to the Energy Bill to funding for the war in Iraq. I hope this diary will shed some light on why things are this way and what needs to be done to change things.

I've never been as entralled of Paul Hackett as many people in this community are. To many, its Hackett's honor and willigness to speak clearly, truthfully, and from the heart that separate him from your run-of-the-mill politician. Certainly, his partisanship doesn't hurt either.

At the same time, very little has been made of his policies (with the exception of his opposition to the war in Iraq). This is clearly a dynamic that's been repeated among candidates with strong netroots followings and has been oft remarked upon - this isn't an ideological crowd.

For me, this raises the question, why do we care about politics?

In the face of massive disasters such as yesterday's earthquake in Pakistan, its easy to feel helpless. Yet, as we saw from Hurricane Katrina, there are things that can be done to mitigate from the impact of natural disasters.