When I came to this election I told myself I would not be forced to accept the two choices we're given by the repubs and dems. I wasn't going to force myself to vote for one of them because, though I would be told they were the lesser of two evils, I would also, so they would insist, have no where else to go. I decided I could very easily vote for anyone I liked, and it was up to the major parties to convince me their candidate was better.

I have had my concerns about Obama. One, I think he's right out of the box. That is, he's so new at the game that we don't know what he would do except for what he tells us. I am not happy about that because he's telling us to just trust him. Two, he doesn't protect his luggage. When someone says they don't like his luggage, he seems to disown it and throw it away. Under a bus. This is what he did with his Pastor of twenty years. I do not trust someone who gives up on his friends that way. For political benefit. It makes me wonder whether he would disown any constituency to save himself. I had thought he wouldn't take a stand on major questions because he didn't want to make enemies. Well, now it seems he will take a stand based on who he figures has the most political influence.

The Obama support for snoop crimes makes me angry. I do have somewhere to go. I can vote for Ralph. I know without asking that he rejects the FISA bill.

The Dems in Congress have already turned me off long ago. Their support for Bush and the covering up of his crimes is no surprise. I have given up a long time ago my registration as a Democrat.

They think they can be crooks. And they think that because they are elected crooks they can get away with anything they damn well please. I think, however, that when the truth be known, though it will involve hard work, we can be free of them.

I understand the thrust of Glenn's writing on Obama and FISA to be that the Senator had promised to fight against telecom immunity and other provisions in this FISA legislation for many of the reasons explained here in recent posts. Basically, the President and these companies broke the law and are now empowered, by this FISA law, to snoop in our e-mail and telephone conversations, whether or not there is any good legal cause.

The question is to explain why Obama would betray his former promises. Why does he now support this attack on our fourth amendment protection from government abuse?

I have to say that when we see a person whom we've thought has been reasonable, and a supporter of the rule of law, go against those principles we have to consider the influence of "unseen forces."

What are those? We have to remember that it was possible, and likely, that the last two Presidential elections, at least, were rigged. They were rigged through the use of touch screen technology, the intimidation of voters, and the influence of corrupt election officials. I suspect Obama has changed his position on FISA to show the Bush organization that he will not go after them with criminal or civil prosecutions for their crimes so that they will promise not employ their operatives to fix the election for McCain.

When reason fails to explain what's going on, I'm afraid we have to consider the "unseen."

Glenn wrote, apropos of this comment...

"'...-- but how do we reverse the damage, moral and legal, that the Bush cabal has done? You read this stuff and it makes you sick. It ought to make us mad. Again: what can we do about this? Why has two years of Democratic control of Congress failed to stop it or reverse it?'

That last line is the the central question. And the primary answer is that the Democratic Party as a whole (with many individual exceptions) supports those policies and/or believes in nothing other than the perpetuation of their own power, which they perceive is advanced by supporting those policies."

I wonder whether the Dems in Congress are merely looking out for themselves. I suspect that they realize that even though there are accusations about Bush's criminal history and the complicity by many Dems with it, there is no general acknowledgement that the present government under Bush has broken the law, gutted the Constitution, violated international law, killed American soldiers by lying us into a war, and destroyed more than one foreign country.

There are accusations by "unserious" people like Glenn. But, the truth hasn't been allowed to sink in.

I think they realize that a lawless criminal administration guilty of stealing and killing could not govern. The U.S. would be ungovernable. Hence, the Dems continue the charade as best they can.

The task for "strange bedfellows" should be to show how the crimes and complicity can be exposed and people held accountable, i.e., throwing out the bathwater, without the country,our baby, following along with it.