Via mcjoan, Senator Frank Church:

Personal privacy is protected because it is essential to liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Our Constitution checks the power of Government for purposes of protecting the rights of individuals, in order that all our citizens may live in a free and decent society. . . . When government infringes those right instead of nurturing and protecting them, the injury spreads far beyond the particular citizens targeted to untold numbers of other Americans who may be intimidated...

The natural tendency of government is toward abuse of power. Men entrusted with power, even those aware of its dangers, tend, particularly when pressured, to slight liberty. Our constitutional system guards against this tendency. It establishes many different checks upon power. It is those wise restraints which keep men free. In the field of intelligence those restraints have too often been ignored....

The United States must not adopt the tactics of the enemy. Means are important, as ends. Crisis makes it tempting to ignore the wise restraints that make men free. But each time we do so, each time the means we use are wrong, our inner strength, the strength which makes us free, is lessened.

More . . .

Neil Young sends us a Fourth of July gift:

In the spirit of Independence Day, Shakey Pictures is airing this special web video for the 4th of July weekend. For best results, we suggest that you connect your computer to a good set of speakers, set your volume on LOUD and fire up the BBQ.

Let Freedom Ring!

(Keep on) Rockin' in the Free World, performed live with Crosby, Stills and Nash.

You might also enjoy clicking "Music Video" here.

Seattle Police Officer Zsolt Dornay made a mistake.

Just after midnight, Dornay was riding through Post Alley when his mirror bumped Lisabeth Dias, a paralegal who was leaving Kells Irish Pub. The officer was in street clothes and had finished his shift. Dias took umbrage with him riding through the crowded alley and straddled the front wheel of his motorcycle.

Mistake 1: Don't mess with paralegals. After arguing with Dias and her boss, Dornay made his second mistake.

Dornay, who said he identified himself as a police officer, drove forward with Dias clinging to the windshield.

Mistake 2: Don't try to drive a motorcycle with a paralegal clinging to the windshield, while her boss and a whole group of people are there to witness your reckless conduct. [more ...]

Perhaps preoccupied with his own problems, Gov. Rod Blagojevich of Illinois has neglected the stack of clemency petitions overflowing his IN basket. The day before a long holiday weekend is always a good day to grant pardons. The inevitable "soft on crime" criticism that follows from giving someone a break is softened when voters are too busy watching things explode to pay much attention to the news.

Of the 19 pardons Blagojevich granted yesterday, some are clearly overdue:

Gov. Rod Blagojevich has pardoned three men who were exonerated in 2002 after a federal investigation forced Chicago police to re-examine the 1997 kidnapping and murder that led to their convictions. The men spent years in jail before authorities determined they were not involved in the crimes, and have been awaiting the pardon decision for some time.

and

Blagojevich also pardoned a dead man who served more than a dozen years in prison for a rape and murder he didn't commit.

But the governor needs to get back to work. [more ...]

The Byrds at the Monterey Pop Festival in 1967.

...The chimes of freedom flashing

Flashing for the warriors whose strength is not to fight

Flashing for the refugees on the unarmed road of flight

An' for each an' every underdog soldier in the night

....An' for each unharmful, gentle soul misplaced inside a jail

... we gazed upon the chimes of freedom flashing.

Our earlier open thread is full, here's another one. How is your holiday going so far?

Enjoy your day. This is an Open Thread.

Update (TL): I've added the graphic and will repost some thoughts from a prior year: Given our President's stunning disregard for the rule of law and that it's the Fourth of July, I'm wondering what thoughts you all have on patriotism and liberty and on how this Administration has driven a stake in the heart of both. For opposing the war, we're called unpatriotic. Our civil liberties have been disregarded by everything from the NSA warrantless monitoring program to no-fly lists, the Real I.D. Act and federal immigration raids on workplaces.

One of the best tools we have is the ability to cast a vote and take our country back. 8 Years of Republican rule must come to an end. November can't come fast enough for me, and I'll be voting for every Democrat on the ballot. I encourage you to do the same.

The AP reports:

Former Sen. Jesse Helms, who built a career along the fault lines of racial politics and battled liberals, Communists and the occasional fellow Republican during 30 conservative years in Congress, died on the Fourth of July. He was 86.

We do not speak ill of the dead at TalkLeft, at least on the day of the death. Keep that in mind if you feel a need to comment.

RIP, Jesse Helms.

Yesterday, Barack Obama issued a defense of his support for the FISA Capitulation bill. I want to associate myself with the response of Glenn Greenwald:

The new FISA bill that Obama supports vests new categories of warrantless eavesdropping powers in the President (.pdf), and allows the Government, for the first time, to tap physically into U.S. telecommunications networks inside our country with no individual warrant requirement. To claim that this new bill creates "an independent monitor [to] watch the watchers to prevent abuses and to protect the civil liberties of the American people" is truly misleading, since the new FISA bill actually does the opposite -- it frees the Government from exactly that monitoring in all sorts of broad categories.

I also want to associate myself with the words of Justice Louis Brandeis on the subject of liberty:

Some morning maniac music for the 4th of July from Woodstock:

First, Jimi Hendrix's Star Spangled Banner and then the Jefferson Airplane signing Volunteers (of America.)

This is an open thread.

232 years ago today, the Continental Congress, meeting in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, issued a Declaration of Independence:

The victims this time were Rachel Maddow AND Hillary Clinton. The context was Obama's "inartful" use of the word "refine" regarding his Iraq policy. TChris covered that controversy. Maddow was arguing the Obama argument and Joe Scarborough was not happy about Maddow's laughing as a reaction to Joe's commentary. The result was yet another episode of sexism at NBC:

Yet more guffaws from Maddow.

MADDOW: You're so wrong, I can't even hold it together. You're so wrong.

SCARBOROUGH: You might support Obama but you've got the Clinton cackle down, Rachel. I'm proud of ya.

(Emphasis supplied.) Maddow has been silent and cowardly on the issue of sexism and misogyny at NBC and in general, so you might be tempted to feel some schadenfreude. Resist it. Sexism is wrong whenever it occurs and whomever it is directed at. NBC should suspend Scarborough for this blatant bout of sexism.

By Big Tent Democrat, speaking for me only

I've come to look for America...
They've all come to look for America.

Simon and Garfunkle version here.

One more, Bon Jovi, Miss Fourth of July

This is an open thread. Song suggestions for tomorrow (4th of July) welcome.

Funny headline:

Target: Barack Obama. Strategy: What Day Is It?

The McCain campaign's shotgun attack strategy would be more effective if the campaign had any ammunition with which to load the gun. Today's attack:

On Thursday McCain aides and the Republican National Committee pounced on a comment by Mr. Obama that he would be willing to “refine” his long-held plan to withdraw all combat troops from Iraq within his first 16 months in office.

Because an inflexible unwillingness to respond to changing conditions, even at risk of further endangering lives, is principled? Obama's response:

Time for an open thread. Anyone around?

Here's Obama reaching out to the evangelical right. The Associated Press reports:

In an interview this week with "Relevant," a Christian magazine, Obama said prohibitions on late-term abortions must contain "a strict, well defined exception for the health of the mother."

Obama then added: "Now, I don't think that 'mental distress' qualifies as the health of the mother. I think it has to be a serious physical issue that arises in pregnancy, where there are real, significant problems to the mother carrying that child to term."

Obama made no such distinction last year:

Last year, after the Supreme Court upheld a federal ban on late-term abortions, Obama said he "strongly disagreed" with the ruling because it "dramatically departs form previous precedents safeguarding the health of pregnant women."

NARAL leaders ought to feel like idiots. [More...]