n/t

I hope you are not accusing me of blind worship or devotion to a candidate. My devotion is to all those who will suffer and die in the future because blind belief in one legislative bill and principle could result in a McSame victory. I refuse to believe that this setback is so monumental that all is lost regarding our constitution. If that is right, then Glenn and his fellow wonderful bloggers should just quit and find something else to do.

In your desire to stand on a vital principle, you are not looking at the consequences if serious damage is done to Obama’s candidacy. No decision is absolute without some gray and room to maneuver. Our enemy the Repugs take a black and white, simplistic approach to their politics. I refuse to adopt that approach and could not live with myself if I did.

What proof do you have to your outlandish position that Obama’s and the Blue Dog decision to cave means that the law of the land will be scrapped? This is one losing battle in a long war that will take a long time to resolve. Too many commenters are making absolute statements that can’t be supported by reason and logic.

Despite how harrowing this process has been to follow, I can't help but feel grateful to Glenn Greenwald for the fire he's put in my belly to fight against this abuse of power and how it's helped make me see that the institutions of government must be kept in balance and it is folly for us to put our faith in leaders rather than in the constitution.

When a candidate becomes the nominee of a party, one would think that that person would take a leadership role in actively participating in the process of supporting (or nor supporting) legislation he or she believes in. Unfortunately, rather than putting forth his position beforehand, he resorted to the old political game of wait and see what happens.

For someone who claims to be a advocate of change, this seems a curious position; also, it certainly does not portend the type of leadership I am looking for in a president. Glenn mentioned Obama's AIPAC genuflection and he has already back-tracked on his NAFTA position.

Glenn also makes the point that as a Constitutional Law Professor, Obama has taken an egregious position on the Fourth Amendment. Sadly, we have to wonder if we are going to get a real candidate of the people or just another politician beholding to corporate benefactors and the DLC.

Dear Scathew,

Thank you for contacting Obama for America. The volume of messages we’re receiving has gone up since Barack’s victory in Iowa. While we cannot respond individually to over a thousand messages per day, the level of interest and thoughtfulness of the comments reflected in these communications are very gratifying. Your thoughts on our campaign and America's future are greatly appreciated.

Translation: Get stuffed, we're not reading your message.

Individual citizens like you are the foundation of this campaign.

I hope, and I hope we get our message through to you.

Since his February 10 announcement speech in Springfield, Illinois, Barack has spoken consistently of working together to reclaim the meaning of citizenship, restore our sense of common purpose and rally the power of millions of voices to demand long overdue change. We hope you will explore our website, www.BarackObama.com, to view that speech in its entirety and learn more about Barack, his record and his plans.

Unfortunately you have made your plans a little too clear in the last week. The meaning, and more importantly the rights, of citizenship are enshrined in our Constitution, which you are about to help shred.

If you’re writing because you want change, we need you to help us fight for it. Please sign up here to volunteer:

http://my.barackobama.com/acvolunteer

Yeah, I want you to change your position on the FISA "compromise". Until then you can pound sand on the idea of my volunteering. Clearly neither of us should hold our breaths on this matter though.

And you can get started from home right now. Blah, blah, blah...

Thanks but until you change your FISA position, I'd rather have a beer. Make that two, I need to drown my disappointment in you.

And if you're not sure you want to get involved, and are writing to express a concern or disagreement, we appreciate that as well. The open discussion we want to facilitate cannot take place without hearing from people expressing a wide range of views.

I think think the technical term for this is a "grin f..k".

Thank you again for writing.

Sincerely,

The Correspondence Team

Obama for America

And thank you for not reading my message!

Well, maybe they will. I'd love to be proven wrong.

In the mean time, no $$$ for Obama until he repudiates his ugly FISA stand (or rather lack of stand). More cash for those beers I guess.

We see it in people like Andrew Sullivan who was so fired up against the FISA atrocity only to "come around" when his guy, Obama, decided he was for it. We see it in the many Obama worshipers who invested so much into his cult of personality only to see him betray both what he himself said he was about and what they thought he was about.

These people held beliefs that they were good people and that Obama was a (superhuman) good person(tm) that was core to their ego structure. Along comes big, glaring evidence that Obama is absolutely not a (superhuman) good person(tm) with intentions to bring "change". Of course, "change" as presented by Obama was so huge, amorphous, undefined, and all-encompassing, that all these erstwhile good people saw in that magic word what they wanted to see in it.

Now there is clear evidence that there is no real change coming, at least not what they expected and fantasized about. Now there is clear evidence that Obama, far from being superhuman, is just another corrupt, lying, sniveling politician that would sell his soul, their souls, and the souls of their mothers in order to obtain power.

How to deal with that? Why, with massive rationalizations of course. All that invested in Obama and his worship, it is virtually impossible to clear that away. Rationalizations come forth on how Obama really IS good(tm) and loves us. He really doesn't like dictator powers but will grudgingly take them upon his narrow, muscle-less, bony shoulders and only wield them kindly and with our best interests at heart. Orrrrr, it is a trick! That's it! A trick! Obama had to go along in order to get the nomination and to get through the election. Once he is dictator, err, President, he will quickly eliminate these dictatorial powers in concert with his tricky Democrap compatriots. See? It is all a ruse, that's all. They don't mean it, there are just political forces (there MUST be!) that we little people can't see that need to be navigated before they can make things right again!

A LOT of people are sorting out their cognitive dissonance the wrong way and rather than accepting that gutting the Bill of Rights is anathema and inexcusable, they are rationalizing it into being a good thing(tm).

Big Brother is watching...but it is out of love. He only want to protect you!