But I fail to understand how endorsing something as patently unconstitutional and opposed to the grain of American political and legal tradition as warrantless eves-dropping is "moving toward the center". The center of what? Ignorance and tyranny?

Obama has gained the support that has taken him to the brink of the official Democratic nomination for president on projecting himself as the principled anti-politician and definitely as the antidote to the nation's current malady of Bush/Cheneyism. When he becomes anything else, he alienates the very people whose time, energy, money, faith, and hopes have propelled him to this point. Idealists have a low tolerance for the revelation that the object of their passion turns out to be just another political opportunist, and, worse, a lackey of the corporate elite that has controlled American policy for decades.

For a while there I thought that Senator Obama might qualify as being worthy of my vote. Now he has shown himself to be just another lackey of the transnational globalist elite, the oligarchs who don't give a rat's rear-end about legal processes, human rights, or national sovereignty. I'm not going for the "Democrat is your only option" BS again. Voting for William Jefferson Clinton was a mistake I have since regretted. Senator Obama, weak on the constitution, is not getting my vote in November.

Well said! I'm sending in a check to renew my membership in the ACLU today! I'm also looking into supporting libertarian organizations that have cooperated in the fight against the FISA sellout: downsizedc.org and Ron Paul's Campaign for Liberty.

Any politician that shows the kind of contempt for the Constitution demonstrated by the 69 senators who voted for the FISA Amendment Act of 2008 deserves in return the contempt of the American people.

This link shows you how each senator voted. Be sure to write a letter of thanks to your senator if he/she stood up for America and our heritage of Liberty.

http://www.govtrack.us/congress/vote.xpd?vote=s2008-168

This article did a good job of showing how the different branches of "conservatism" are at odds with each other. As a libertarian with progressive tendencies who hangs out mostly with people who would classify themselves as "liberals", I see a paradoxical attitude toward immigration in their beliefs. On the one hand they give a great deal of vocal support to unions and on the other hand label as a "racist" anyone who points out that the tide of illegal immigrants undercuts the value of labor for native-born American citizens. And most liberals are also environmentalists, sympathetic to any effort to preserve wildlands, parks, etc. Of course, the human assault on the natural world is largely a consequence of overburdening the planet with an excess of people, most of whom develop consumerist tendencies in our culture. Most of the continuing increase in U.S. population has been shown due to the influx of recent immigrants.

Personally, I find the labels of "conservative" and "liberal" unduly divisive and useful mainly to those who plainly manipulate politics in this country through media control. Much more useful is the effort to build communities of interest from across the "political spectrum", to get people to think about issues themselves individually rather than just going along with what they have been told is the "liberal" or the "conservative" position.

When I wrote to the Obama campaign warning the Senator not to make the mistake of voting for the FISA Amendment Act of 2008, that put me on their cursed mailing list. I'm not voting for the Senator now, regardless of how impossibly bad a McCain presidency would be.

Looking into my crystal ball at the year 2011, I see Barack Obama as president and

1) Warrantless wiretapping continuing unabated and, possibly, the Pentagon's Total Information Awareness program resurrected under a new name or just operating secretly.

2) U.S. military personnel still engaged in combat in Iraq, Afghanistan, and possibly elsewhere.

3) NAFTA and the WTO still in place, continuing the dismantling of unions and workers' rights. The Security and Prosperity Partnership with Mexico and Canada continuing to merge our countries economically, if not in other ways.

4) Congress an impotent side-show, giving the appearance of representative government without the substance.

5) No substantial progress in instituting a single-payer national medical insurance system. Families continue to go bankrupt over medical costs as more uninsured and under-insured people die while insurance companies reap record profits.

6) Deficit spending still wildly out-of-control with a ballooning national debt.

7) Millions of people who are disappointed in the lack of real progress but hopeful that the man with the inspirational oratorical skills will still be able to do something to improve the declining quality of their lives.

Never in history has our Constitution been so shamefully disrespected and abused and all this by persons who took a public and legal oath to preserve, protect, and defend it. I'm talking about George W. Bush, Richard B. Cheney, their Republican henchmen, and their Democratic patsies in Congress.

Every time I write my Congressman (are you listening, Mike Thompson?) on this subject, he tells me that the Congress has more important things to do.

Like what?

What more important that preserving our Liberties and our republican form of government? What is more important than honoring your oath to defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic? What is more important than halting the present march to fascism?

We need to demand a full and fair investigation of the dealings of the Bush/Cheney/Rove Administration, identify the miscreants who have lied, misappropriated funds, sanctioned torture, and ruined our reputation as a beacon of liberty. The guilty should be removed from office and tried on criminal charges for their several abuses and infractions.

And NO PARDONS!