Update: 7:19 pm by TL: The Senate has also passed the bill, by a vote of 80 to 14. Hillary and Obama both voted against it.

Update [2007-5-24 19:0:28 by Big Tent Democrat]: The Iraq Supplemental passes 280-142. Link to the roll call vote. I think all the nays were Dems. So the Dems split 142-89 I believe.

The Debate on the Capitulation Bill, as Kos coined it, starts now on C-Span.

Obey looks beaten down.

Basically Obey's argument is we don't have a veto-proof majority. And how that changes for the next appropriation process? It doesn't.

What Obey admits is that the entire House Supplemental process was a joke form the beginning. I agree with him on that. Time to adopt the NOT funding option Rep. Obey.

Update [2007-5-24 17:31:7 by Big Tent Democrat]: The Floor Manager Obey will vote against the Capitulation Bill, joining the Speaker of the House in opposing the bill that Rahm emanuel argued was a great victory. That said, good for Obey.

More...

Action Alert just received by e-mail from the Anti-Arab Discrimination Committee:

Cornyn Amendment Would Allow Use of Secret Evidence

Thursday, May 24, 2007…Senator John Cornyn (R-TX) has introduced an amendment (#1148) to the on-going immigration debate that would deny lawful permanent residents the opportunity to become U.S. citizens based on secret evidence.

....Senators are voting on this amendment as early as 12:15 EST. As this late breaking amendment has just been added and will be voted on very shortly, we are asking everyone to call rather than email their senate offices. The US Capitol operator is (202) 224-3121.

The details:

• Cornyn’s Amendment denies lawful permanent residents the opportunity to become U.S. citizens based on secret evidence:

• This amendment gives the Attorney General unreviewable discretion to use secret evidence to determine if an alien is ‘described in’ the national security exclusions within immigration law.

• A person applying for naturalization could have her application denied and she would never know the reason for the denial.

More...

Since J, Chris and LNILR seem otherwise engaged, and I have only Iraq on the brain, I thought I'd give an Open Thread with some links to other topics:

NYTImes and WaPo thunder against Goodling and Bush Justice Dep't.

Kevin Drum on bush and Iran.

FDL reviews ACLU President Anthony Romero's book "In Defense of Our America."

Avedon Carol has a nice roundup, featuring especially some sharp words for Gonzo and his "innocent discussions" with Monica Goodling.

Don't forget the diaries listed in the right hand column. Good stuff from John Horse, Scribe, as always, peaches and many others.

If we can text message to pick the American Idol, and 74 million did, why can't we text message to end the war? I have no idea, but I wish someone would set it up.

Back to American Idol, for once I agree with the voters. With Melinda Doolittle gone, Jordin Sparks was clearly the winner over Blake Lewis. The voters agreed.

I watched the entire two hour finale. I didn't know most of those singing, since I only started watching a few weeks ago. I tried to watch at the end of last year, but Taylor Hicks, who ended up winning, was so white-bread mayonnaise I kept changing the channel.

The higlights tonight, in my opinion.

More....

Here is Monica Goodling's opening statement, via Think Progress, which has both the video and transcript.

Christy at Firedoglake is live-blogging. You can watch the live webcast here.

My day will be filled writing motions and visiting clients in jail. The particular jail I'm visiting, 45 minutes from Denver, is new and built like an underground city with a futuristic look that makes me think of StarTrek -- and the Wizard of Oz,because while the guards can see you, you can't see them located high above you and behind blacked out windows. It's like talking to a ghost. The jail is so far underground that my cingular wireless device on my laptop, which has a built in sim card like my cell phone, doesn't even show service. Thus, no internet access. Also, while there are electrical plugs in the walls of the visiting rooms, they aren't activated so battery power runs low quickly.

Clients wear different colored jumpsuits depending on their security level, which doesn't seem to have much to do with the crime they are charged with. One client charged with a very serious offense wears orange and is in lockdown 23 hours a day. Another client, a female charged with not so serious an offense, wears red and is considered the greatest security risk. When she meets with me, they lock the door behind us so she can't escape. She spends 24 hours a day alone in her cell except for some time in an exercise pen which she spends with a guard. It's all so dehumanizing, especially for these pre-trial detainees who haven't yet been convicted of anything. Because the cases are complex federal cases that will take a year to get to trial, they will endure these conditions the entire time.

What all this means is I'll be hard-pressed to follow the news today and it's a perfect time for an open thread.

On this bleak day, I want to remind folks in the Netroots of one of the main rallying cries that has been at the center of that movement:

What I want to know is what in the world so many Democrats are doing supporting the President's unilateral intervention in Iraq?

. . . I don't think we can win the White House if we vote for the President's unilateral attack on Iraq in Washington and then come to California and say we are against the war.

. . . I have never lost an election, but my career has never been about winning elections. My career -- and this campaign -- is about changing the Democratic Party.

Here's what the best of progressive DC has to offer about today's deal:

[H]ere are two reasons why this [Bush] "victory" won't exactly ring down though the ages. First, this development is completely unsurprising, since everyone has known for some time that there was nothing else the Democrats could do. Back in January, it was clear that, whatever the Democrats decided to do with their new congressional majorities, there was one thing they could not accomplish: stop funding for troops already in the field.

That was clear was it? So where was Tomasky to tell us this when everyone was cheering the House Supplemental? Where was Tomasky when Harold Meyerson was telling us all how great the House Supplemental was? Nice 20/20 hindsight there Mike.

Tomasky also lives in a world where he thinks this is true:

In March of this year, I had many a battle with Netroots leaders on the Iraq Supplemental. Today, I think any fair person would say that I was right and they were wrong.

But the Netroots leaders won't admit their mistakes or even try to learn from their mistakes. Here is an example of the disingenuous rationalizing we are sure to see from them:

TalkLeft has been nominated for Best Political Blog in the Bloggers Choice Awards. Winners will be announced in Las Vegas in November.

I hope you'll go over and vote. So far, we're on page 8.

Matt Yglesias, also known as "what's his name," cracks Atrios-like on Peretz-Singer, who wrote this about Matt:

Actually, that's how [he] makes a living: by writing about people who are smarter than him and know more about the world than him. And since neither smarts not knowledge carry much cachet; with the left blogosphere (also not with the right blogosphere) its stars like what's his name ridicule the writers whose arguments he can't quite grasp.

Ha! A little vitriol from TNR. What's Chait got to say about that? Anyway, Matt busts on Peretz-Singer:

In my next life, maybe I'll try to take a more respectable path to media prominence, something like using my wife's money to buy an established magazine.

Snap!

We didn't do an open thread yet this week, so here you go. What are you thinking about or reading that's of interest today?

• Via Mike at Crooks and Liars, take a look a the groups the police had under surveillance before the 2004 Republican Convention.
• Via Lindsay at Magikthise, Max Blumental takes a look at Jerry Falwell's segregationist and intolerant record.
• Via Avedon Carol at Sideshow, Max's father Sidney Blumenthal writes about the unraveling Bush presidency, taking a look at the changing role of loyalty.
• Via Sentencing Law and Policy, Scotus Blog examines how the 2008 election could affect the Supreme Court.

And in the news, two of the three kidnapped soldiers in Iraq may be alive. One is believed to have been killed.