February 18, 2008, 10:30 a.m. - President's Day

Day 3 since the expiration of the Protect America Act. I am writing this from my law office in downtown Chicago. Things are eerily quiet. The train was at only 1/3 capacity today. I suspect that many Illinoisans stayed home today in fear of the imminent attack that AQ started planning at 12:01 a.m. on Saturday morning, safe in the knowledge that the NSA and the CIA could not listen in on their telephone calls and monitor their e-mails.

No doubt AQ has alerted the thousands of sleeper agents in the USA to take up strategic positions in major metropolitan areas like Chicago. I myself am certain that I saw one or two Muslin-looking men speaking Spanish on my way to work this morning. Bad enough that AQ is here plotting our demise, but also disguising themselves as Mexicans. If you are going to blow up our country, at least do it in English!

All government offices are also closed today, quite possibly the only way the federal government can prevent AQ's hordes from taking over vital government institutions. If only we could listen in on AQ, we would know exactly where they were going to strike in Chicago rather than having to take such drastic action as to shut down the entire government.

I have already planned my escape route in the event of an attack, in order to maximize the number of women and children between me and AQ. Oh, how I hate those AQ bastards!

And don't even get me started on the MSM. All those liberal Muslim-loving traitors have been able to talk about all weekend is the shooting at Northern Illinois University, as if the ability of a mentally ill person to buy numerous automatic weapons and kill innocent people for no apparent reason before taking his own life is more important that the now near certainty that AQ will be able to rise up and in one mighty blow overthrow our government and force us all to bow to Mecca five times a day. Where are their priorities?!?!

I have to go now. Since the government cannot listen in on my co-worker's telephone calls, I have taken up the challenge. Hopefully, I can pass along some vital information to the CIA or FBI. Keep the faith (Christian, of course)!

How amazing is it that the House of Representatives seems to have remembered that if you want respect, you have to earn it. I share the concern that this may not last, but it is hopeful (and somewhat ironic) that it will be the House that will act as a check on the worst excesses of the Senate, rather than the other way around (as the Founders originally intended).

Here is an editorial from the WSJ this morning:

Obama's Wiretap Votes

February 13, 2008; Page A26

Now and then sanity prevails, even in Washington. So it did yesterday as the Senate passed a warrantless wiretap bill for overseas terrorists while killing most of the Lilliputian attempts to tie down our war fighters.

"We lost every single battle we had on this bill," conceded Chris Dodd, which ought to tell the Connecticut Senator something about the logic of what he was proposing. His own amendment -- to deny immunity from lawsuits to telecom companies that cooperated with the government after 9/11 -- didn't even get a third of the Senate. It lost 67-31, though notably among the 31 was possible Democratic Presidential nominee Barack Obama. (Hillary Clinton was absent, while John McCain voted in favor.)

It says something about his national security world view, or his callowness, that Mr. Obama would vote to punish private companies that even the bipartisan Senate Intelligence Committee said had "acted in good faith." Had Senator Obama prevailed, a President Obama might well have been told "no way" when he asked private Americans to help his Administration fight terrorists. Mr. Obama also voted against the overall bill, putting him in MoveOn.org territory.

The defeat of these antiwar amendments means the legislation now moves to the House in a strong position. Speaker Nancy Pelosi is in the Dodd-Obama camp, but 21 Blue Dog Democrats have sent her a letter saying they are happy with the Senate bill. She may try to pass the restrictions that failed in the Senate, and Republicans should tell her to make their day. This is a fight Senator McCain should want to have right up through Election Day, with Democrats having to explain why they want to hamstring the best weapon -- real-time surveillance -- we have against al Qaeda.

To build one of Glenn's updates, the fact that this editorial contains all of the important buzzwords (e.g., bipartisan) and the assumption of facts not in evidence (e.g., the telecoms "acted in good faith") leads to the conclusion that this editoral was created entirely by a computer program.

To address the final sentence, Democrats do not need to explain why they want to hamstring the "best weapon" we have against al Qaeda. Instead, as Glenn and others have pointed out too many times to count, Democrats need to say that we do not want this "weapon" turned on American citizens without a warrant and without Congressional or judicial oversight.

As Glenn said, time to turn to the House of Representatives.