Arthur Silber (powerofnarrative.blogspot.com), Chris Floyd (www.chris-floyd.com) and now Dennis Perrin - they have an interesting and logical point of view, but ultimately are nihilists. If they really believe in what they say, their logical next stop is Gandhian satyagraha, but they will never take that step. Their variety of realism is paralytic in effect.

The situation facing Gandhi in the 1920s in India facing the British Empire and Indian social and political ills was infinitely more dismal than the one facing the American people and their corporate-interest dominated government and political parties. Americans are nowhere as politically disconnected and apathetic, ill-educated (or even illiterate) and economically deprived as the Indian subjects of the British rule were in the 1900s.

Perrin is the type of guy who would be saying in the past that the US Constitutional system has so institutionalized racism, and such powerful interests support it that no change is possible and we need something new. And he'd be singing that tune all through even till today - when yes, racism is not yet vanquished, but there would continue to remain a void from Perrin & co on how realistically to tackle racism.

The main value these commentators have is that they help illuminate where we want to be. They have very little to say how to get there.

"Lots of powerful institutions have been radically changed in the past, have been brought down, and replaced by others as well."

I too am puzzled by this statement and can not really remember any movement that was not guided by the elites.

Movements are guided by elites. E.g., in India the independence movement was led by elites. The elites are obviously not the best representatives of all the interests they claim to represent; but there were no other options. The key measure is whether the elite leaders are willing to cede power to the new forces they give rise to. So, e.g., you can criticize Mahatma Gandhi and the Indian National Congress as representing socially upper-case Hindu interests and economically business interests, and gender-wise, male interests, because that is the class from which the elite arose. But 60 years after independence, through continuous democratic change, now the politically powerful are those who would have never been near power historically. So a Dalit woman with no political lineage forges a political coalition to become Chief Minister (equivalent to Governor in the US) of India's largest state. The class from which Gandhi arose has lost much of its dominance.

One thing to remember is that a class that comes to power through liberal reform is not necessarily liberal at first. But this is the cost of liberalism. A reinvigorated political participation from the 60% of Americans who currently don't vote won't necessarily want the same things as those who awoke them. But such a situation is better than all the alternatives.

I dislike the way certain posters here turn the letters into commentary about self and each other. Yes, I can ignore them, but it is increasingly painful to wade through them to find the increasingly rare meaningful comments.

If such folks believed their high opinion of themselves, they could start their own blogs, and surely get more traffic and comments and congenial company than being here, parasites on someone else's blog.

I do not know how to fix this, and can only appeal to whatever remaining good sense there is not to inflict yourself here.

Did a quick search at thomas.loc.gov.

In particular, found these three:

6 . [104th] the Omnibus Counterterrorism Act of 1995 (Introduced in Senate)[S.390.IS ]

7 . [104th] Omnibus Counterterrorism Act of 1995 (Introduced in Senate)[S.761.IS ]

8 . [104th] Omnibus Counterterrorism Act of 1995 (Placed on Calendar in Senate)[S.761.PCS ]

Which one should we examine?

For example, S.761.IS has this:

SEC. 808. EXPANDED AUTHORITY FOR ROVING WIRETAPS.

Section 2518(11) of title 18, United States Code, is amended to read as follows:

`(11) The requirements of subsections (1)(b)(ii) and (3)(d) of this section relating to the specification of facilities from which or the place where the communication is to be intercepted do not apply if in the case of an application with respect to the interception of wire, oral or electronic communications--

`(a) the application is by a Federal investigative or law enforcement officer, and is approved by the Attorney General, the Deputy Attorney General, the Associate Attorney General, or an Assistant Attorney General (or an official acting in any such capacity);

`(b) the application contains a full and complete statement as to why such specification is not practical and identifies the person committing the offense and whose communications are to be intercepted; and

`(c) the judge finds that such specification is not practical.'.

SEC. 809. ENHANCED ACCESS TO TELEPHONE BILLING RECORDS.

(a) Section 2709(b) of title 18, United States Code, is amended--

(1) in subparagraph 1(A), by inserting `local and long distance' before `toll billing records'; and

(2) by adding at the end a new paragraph (3), as follows:

`(3) request the name, address, length of service, and local and long distance toll billing records of a person or entity if the Director (or designee in a position not lower than Deputy Assistant Director) certifies in writing to the wire or electronic communication service provider to which the request is made that the information sought is relevant to an authorized domestic terrorism (as that term is defined in section 107 of this Act) investigation.'.

(b) Section 2703(c)(1)(C) of title 18, United States Code, is amended by inserting `local and long distance' before `telephone toll billing records'.

Biden - recent votes on civil liberties

http://glassbooth.org/explore/index/joe-biden/2/civil-liberties-and-domestic-security/2/

or click on signature.