I'm reading bitter still, Paradox.
Anyhow, enjoy your Monday, find some place of peace for your soul.
Posted by peter at June 30, 2008 07:15 AMNobody gives a fuck what you read, Peter, including me.
Going to call me up again with some heavy breathing at my job? Go ahead, how well did that work last time?
Posted by paradox at June 30, 2008 07:39 AMYou have every right to be upset with him based on your position on the FISA bill. There's nothing wrong with saying "Obama, you're wrong on this." So long as folks avoid using the RNC's talking points, no problem at all.
But, you diagnose the political optics of the FISA contretemps correctly. With the McCain folks desperately trying to alternately paint him as a shift-in-the-wind, no-principles politician and as captive to the dreaded libruls , the last thing he can afford to do at this point is to publicly cave to the the libruls on this issue.
In other words, yes the more noise folks on the Intertubes make, the less likely it is that he will vote against FISA.
Posted by Geek, Esq. at June 30, 2008 08:17 AM"Going to call me up again with some heavy breathing at my job? Go ahead, how well did that work last time?"
Where the hell is this coming from? I don't have the foggyest idea where you work, nor do I want to know. Why would someone call you up like that?
The only contact I've ever had is right here at TLC.
Whatever that's about...it has nothing to do with me.
Posted by peter at June 30, 2008 08:27 AMWe cannot ever give up on the Constitution, and must revisit this issue next year and the next and the next until we get some satisfaction.
To pretend we can live with no accoutability, and secret national security courts that authorize basket wire-taps on millions of Americans in a giant fishing expedition to maybe trap some terrorist is to utterly give up on the entire framework of our Constitution.
People forget our history. The REASON why the FISA was established in the first place was because of decades of rampant abuse by the FBI and intelligence community including BLANKET spying aon millions of Americans and infiltration and disruption of domestic political organizations deemed "hostile" to White House policies.
And the excuse for all this is that anybody who opposed the Vietnam war "had" to be linked to some foreign subversive organization, so the intelligence community needed to spy on them (try looking up operation "Chaos" or COINTELPRO or the Tom Charles Huston Surveillance Plan and Plummers if you're still unclear on the matter).
Unchecked executive power WILL be abused. All history proves this. And we just handed over the most unchecked executive power in the history of our country. That needs to be taken back if we are ever to have a functioning democracy.
Posted by Cugel at July 1, 2008 12:08 AM"People forget our history. The REASON why the FISA was established in the first place was because of decades of rampant abuse by the FBI and intelligence community including BLANKET spying aon millions of Americans and infiltration and disruption of domestic political organizations deemed "hostile" to White House policies."
Cugel, Bingo. The moment Bush admitted that he was illegally spying on Americans, and furthermore had no intention of closing down the program, was the moment he should have been impeached. He took an oath of Office. What is it about "Defending the Constitution of the United States" that people don't get?
Posted by Judith at July 1, 2008 08:34 AM