Ladies and gentlemen, start your drinking

But I fucking hate bad news.

The agreement between the Senate Intelligence Committee and the Bush administration would also include a greater role for the secret intelligence court in overseeing and approving methods of wiretapping used by the security agency, the official said.

But it is not clear whether this and other toughened civil liberties safeguards included in the agreement will go far enough to mollify senators on the Senate Judiciary Committee, who will also review the plan once the intelligence panel finishes its work.

Word of the deal came came hours after House Republicans used a parliamentary maneuver to scuttle a vote on a measure that would have imposed new restrictions on the security agency's eavesdropping powers.

"Hey, you, look over there!"
"What am I supposed to see?"
"Did you spit in his coffee?"
"Yeah. Heh, heh. Jackass."

At the start of the day, Democrats were confident that the measure would gain approval in the house despite a veto threat from President Bush. But after an afternoon of partisan sniping [editor's translation: whiny Republican hypocrisy], Democratic leaders put off that vote because of a competing measure from Republicans that on its face asked lawmakers to declare where they stood on stopping Osama bin Laden from attacking the United States again.

I don't know what's more impressive, the continued wingnut chutzpah of evoking Osama and/or 9/11 whenever it suits their nefarious purposes despite the fact of never having caught the guy or not actually wanting the guy caught because who's a better poster boy for the Eternal War on Brown People, or the fact that Democrats fall for it. Every. Single. Time.

The Republican maneuver "would've killed the bill, and we couldn't risk that," said a senior Democratic aide, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal leadership deliberations. "We thought we'd be able to defeat it, but it became clear that we couldn't."

When you've deliberately shot yourself in the foot over and over for the past 6+ years until all that's left is a bloody, pulpy stump, it's quite difficult to kick the lizard-brains in the ass, isn't it.

Oh, Dems, one more thing: Osama!