This silliness about FISA reminds me so much of Whatwater or Whitewater. The Left is going berserk over warrantless wiretapping because it resonates well in the Left echo chamber, for whatever reason, but is a non-starter to rest of us. It really does remind me of Whitewater, which went absolutely nowhere.

When Obama is #44 (McCain is a joke), he will very quietly move to the right on all significant matters related to national security which includes FISA nonsense. If it suits Obama to work around FISA in exchange for national security, he will do so in a heartbeat because he knows the art of survival and one thing that he cannot have on his watch is anything even close to a repeat of 9/11. This political reality will color everything he does even though he goes on and on about "change". He is very coy on national security matters and you can bet that his idea of "change" means more and not less national security programs (some friendly and some not-so-friendly to the Left).

Joan,

You are startng to sound more and more like Glenn G. If I wanted to hear about FISA silliness 24/7, I would read Greenwald, but I don't, so I read you. Get off the FISA nonesense and start being more pragmatic, like Obama.

Obama knows he has this thing "locked up" unless he is rocked by a disaster like the "pastor disaster" or there is a major terrorist event 2 days before the election (like in Spain). So he is innoculating himself such that he is not seen as "soft on terrorism". He also knows that as a democratic POTUS, he cannot afford a major terrorist event under his watch or he is "toast".

If you or Glenn were in his shoes, you would do the same thing.

Joe,

You failed to mention that the real reason the Iraqi government is under pressure by Iran to get the US out of Iraq quickly is in order to force the US to respect Iraqi airspace.

If the US is out of Iraq, then the Israelis air force cannot use, in theory at least, Iraqi airspace to bomb Iran. They would have to go around the Gulf and that would be an extraordinarily difficult mission. That is the real window that is closing on Israeli options. The Israelis are banking on the Bush admin to look the other way as 500 planes fly over Iraq.

Your analysis is interesting but incomplete.

It's people like you who keep lefties in the minority and thankfully out of power.

Dear Joan,

After looking at Obama's flip flopping all week and McCain's major breakdowns, HRC is looking better every minute. Neither of these guys is looking very presidential right now. Looks more like amateur hour and we still have 4 months left. Maybe there should be a "draft HRC" movement.

Silly liberals never seem to learn that stupid anti-war demonstrations harden people's attitudes in favor of the war. They tend to uneducate rather than educate the masses. A case in point are the "progressive democrats" who avoid the looney left like the plague because no one wants to be part of their idea of publicity. A lot of people who had misgivings about the war and the rationale for it are likely to draw an opposite conclusion once they start seeing stupid liberals doing stupid things like dressing up for attention and carrying on like a 56 year-old college freshman.

Then the astute types start seeing that the real pros behind the movement are sinister hard-core leftists and the roof caves in on the movement.

Fortunatley for the left, Obama is expected to win in November so maybe the stupid wing of the Democratic party can stop being stupid.

A-B was acquired because the value of the dollar has declined to the point where the the Euro now goes a long way in the US. Why should we be surprised that prime US properties are being snatched up by foreigners for a bargain.

In CA, the beer aisles in all the major supermarkets are overflowing with foreign beers and micro beers in 6-packs or 12-packs. Bud, Coors and Miller are "sort of" hard to find. But when you locate the Bud section, the smallest sized purchase available is a massive 36-can container like A-B expects you to drink Bud for a month (I don't think so). And A-B thinks they have you sold because the 36-can price is the same as a 12-pack of Stella Artois or Pilsner Urquell or Negra Modelo (I am a beer snob), which in my mind makes Bud taste worse than it actually is.

You are being cautious for good reason. To this day, I cannot believe Bush beat Gore or that it should have been that close. But it was. If I could put my finger on it, Bush beat Gore because Bush was deemed more likeable than Gore. Gore's style rubbed people the wrong way because he was always lecturing and never listening. Gore still has a bad habit of "declaring this or that to be fact" whether it is global warming or whatever, and that only a moron would not agree with him.

Both Kerry and Hillary suffered from Gore's afflictions but perhaps to lesser degrees. Hillary actually performed better when she fell behind and chose to be less scripted. Kerry was simply the height of pompousness and snobbery.

Obama has the same educational credentials as all the others but he reminds me of a more disciplined verson of Bill Clinton. He has a free-flowing style that is not edgy like Gore, not conceited like Kerry and not deceitful like Hillary. He should win.