I remember watching a documentary about the COINTELPRO days and how the FBI agents would call up and harass a women member of the Weather Underground about the condition of the underwear in her drawer.

They would actually take some of it 'for evidence' (yeah, uh huh and who's semen would be on it later?) and she took to planting racier underwear in her drawer and actually got to the point where she knew what kind of underwear they kept taking.

That isn't 'America'. It's some despotic third (turd?) world nation where thugs and criminals run the country. A place where people that are 'out of favor' are harassed and 'dealt with' by those in power who have conveniently immunized themselves from the need to be cautious or accountable.

Welcome to the time when 'adults' ran the government. I'd just as soon have the hopeless romantics and intellectuals in power again... So far I haven't seen any willing to run for the job. (Kucinich?)

"Too many people have been spied upon by too many Government agencies and too much information has been collected. The Government has often undertaken the secret surveillance of citizens on the basis of their political beliefs, even when those beliefs posed no threat of violence or illegal acts on behalf of a hostile foreign power. The Government, operating primarily through secret informants, but also using other intrusive techniques such as wiretaps, microphone "bugs", surreptitious mail opening, and break-ins, has swept in vast amounts of information about the personal lives, views, and associations of American citizens. Investigations of groups deemed potentially dangerous -- and even of groups suspected of associating with potentially dangerous organizations -- have continued for decades, despite the fact that those groups did not engage in unlawful activity. Groups and individuals have been harassed and disrupted because of their political views and their lifestyles. Investigations have been based upon vague standards whose breadth made excessive collection inevitable. Unsavory and vicious tactics have been employed -- including anonymous attempts to break up marriages, disrupt meetings, ostracize persons from their professions, and provoke target groups into rivalries that might result in deaths.

Intelligence agencies have served the political and personal objectives of presidents and other high officials. While the agencies often committed excesses in response to pressure from high officials in the Executive branch and Congress, they also occasionally initiated improper activities and then concealed them from officials whom they had a duty to inform.

Governmental officials -- including those whose principal duty is to enforce the law --have violated or ignored the law over long periods of time and have advocated and defended their right to break the law.

The Constitutional system of checks and balances has not adequately controlled intelligence activities. Until recently the Executive branch has neither delineated the scope of permissible activities nor established procedures for supervising intelligence agencies. Congress has failed to exercise sufficient oversight, seldom questioning the use to which its appropriations were being put. Most domestic intelligence issues have not reached the courts, and in those cases when they have reached the courts, the judiciary has been reluctant to grapple with them."

Don't you dare to tell me and those that speak up against this travesty that we are 'over reacting' or 'being silly'.

This FISA bill unleashes the LION and it's proven to be very hungry and ruthless and partisan in the past.

People that are ignorant of the past really piss the hell out of me. If you think that we live in a Pollyanna world where bad things don't happen from the government than you had better WAKE THE HELL UP while you can.

I will say it again: I WILL NOT VOTE FOR OBAMA! I WILL NOT VOTE FOR ANY DEMOCRAT THAT THINKS THIS BILL IS A GOOD IDEA AND VOTES TO PASS IT. IF THIS BILL PASSES I WILL NOT VOTE THIS NOVEMBER! Yes, to me it's that important! If you can't understand that then I really feel sorry for you and wish you well in the coming police state.

Pinky

"You had better start making friends with your neighbors. One of them could easily rat you out!"

So what are you going to do when your non-vote sends your neighbors kid to Iraq?

For every choice, there is a price to pay. If my not voting for Obama means that he loses or he wins and flips on the 'get out of Iraq' mantra (which BTW makes this moot) then well obviously things haven't gotten bad enough for more people to see the way out. I personally wonder if it will ever be bad enough for the democrats to completely sweep the election but if Obama loses, well or wins, there will be a price to pay.

Either way, this is like Schrödinger’s Cat at this point. The neighbor's kid exists both dead and alive.

See, I don't think that people are really ready for peace and prosperity. The republican war on common sense has been too successful. People are all too willing to vote against their common interests. Like I said in '04, voting for Bush is like a chicken voting for Colonel Sanders and yet what, millions did just that? Maybe things have to get so bad that America nearly ceases to exist as a country. I wonder how far 'it' has to go before people realize that they've been had and start voting as if their lives depend on it. They do you know, but the 'average voter' doesn't have a freaking clue how dire it's gotten and how close it is to the edge.

But hey, you flower power idealists and your rose coloured glasses have your day. Your tab is almost on the table. I don't trust Obama. He betrayed my country.