In addition to whatever congress manages to say about FISA when it comes back into session, another learning opportunity for voters will be yet another 50 Billion request for Iraq that the president just requested. I believe this particular 50 Billion will be to extend the occupation for another 1/2 of a Friedman Unit. This will be yet another opportunity for the democratic congress to reveal what, if anything, it is willing to do.

The congress will also have to act on multiple contempt issues, most now by folks who have rapidly left the WH this past month, or been invited to leave. It's going to be a revealing month.

Jimmy Carter was the author of a real stinker re: replacing a US Attorney who was actively pursuing an investigation centering on a democrat. I think he [Carter] could have been brought up on obstruction charges. So, as you and Glenn both say, the executive abuse, overreach and DOJ meddling spans both parties, republican and democrat. So, with that established and agreed to, I hope this means that you are completely in favor that the exective branch should not have these unfettered powers, and that we are in happy and mutual agreement.

I've been waiting for that Petraeus thing as well. I've gotten completely out of the market, due to the great instability lately. Given the General's extraordinary wisdom and insight, I'm hoping he'll spend some time diagnosing the markets, and perhaps even throw some stock tips in there.

I'm sorry. Did I call him 'the general'? I meant to say "David". Bush has referred to him several times now as just "David".

Retiring. Virginia is competitive again. Dems can pick that seat up.

Patriot,

"Is some judge going to be able to sift through that volume in any meaningful and timely way to provide the protection we need?”"

I do remember reading that the feds were complaining, about the time of the fisa passage and before, that there was a substantial backlog of warrants in the FISC, fisa court. They had also been calling the alarm of "much chatter" at the same time. My problem with these claims is that I simply don't trust what they say anymore. Actually, I guess it would be more accurate to say I suspect that they are often intentionally misleading in their statements with the intention of misleading and influencing congress, the media, etc. Regardless, I believe there were ways to fix FISA without encroaching even further on the bill of rights.

Digression--I think protection and safety are an illusion, regardless of the efforts of the government. All the intelligence wonks have been saying, for years, that we are going to suffer more terrorist attacks. Some may be al Qaeda-based, but imo they are more likely to be by american citizens, for any number of reasons. Terror is a technique, it is not itself an enemy, as we all know. We are going to have terrorism for the rest of our lives, and our children's lives.

And here is another place where leadership has failed us badly. True leadership would be explaining terrorism to the american public, thereby diminishing fear. But instead, this bunch does everything they can to ramp the fear up. At the risk of sounding Manichean, fear-mongering by leadership is as black and pure an evil as I can think of.

Excuse the rant.

dear bebop,

Visiting in Maine for a few days, and just wanted to let you know that yesterday I had the opportunity to experience chilled blueberry soup.

For breakfast, no less.

As Goldsmith says: "I'm not a civil libertarian..."

My candidate for Understatement of the Year. No doubt the SJC will have him over for a little chat soon.

Recent O'Hanlon quote, doing a preemptive strike on the GAO Iraq study:

"In addition, for the GAO to decline to judge whether attacks are sectarian or not is to take an overly rigorous approach to the numbers, says the Brookings expert."

GG, looks like O'Hanlon survived that last thrashing you gave him, but he appears not to have learned much in the process.

She might consider analysis of Bush's recent performance in Autralia, in which he confused APEC with OPEC, Australia with Austria, and then made a grand exit through the wrong door. Newspaper piece used the word 'dazed'.

I'm seriously wondering if he may have a degenerating condition of some sort. His thinking and enunciation have always been poor, but it seems to me he has grown markedly worse in the past year.

Compliments on this topic at this time. There are lots of angles to discuss based on the poll and your discussion of it, but one thing that jumps to mind in looking at the trend numbers is that the poll trends are flat over the last 6-9 months or so. Yes, a move here and there of a percentage point or three, but the overall trend is flat. This suggests to me that the american public has pretty much settled on what they think.

With one interesting exception--at question 5, whether the Democrats or Republicans are better able to handle Iraq. Since the democratic high-point of October '06, BOTH parties have lost roughly 18%. At the same time, Americans who believe that NEITHER party can handle Iraq has grown 271%. Thus, a rejection of both parties is where the real growth is over the past year. Americans, in very rapidly growing numbers, are condeming their leadership, regardless of party.

Also, there is a +/- of 3% in the poll. This error should always be cited when discussing poll data, imo.

Question 11 shows that significant gains have been made in public opinion regarding the effect of the surge on Iraq security. 25% positive gain since July 21st--that is pretty good growth. If I were in the WH political shop, this would be very encouraging.