What was that software company that the US government stole their number one product.

You know the one. They tried to sue and couldn't because you can't sue the federal government. Even if they steal your products.

I'd not be feeling comfortable that the number one administration with thick and binding ties to the corporate underworld has access to every company phone call or file transfer...

But I guess we have to trust our government, again... Yeah, right...

This seems to be the new buzzword in Camp Obama (together certain members of the crypto-fascist cabal) to denigrate the "left" with. It's all "hysterics" over nothing.

Boy, can't quite get past that sexist language, can they? "Hysterics," indeed.

But then, the other side of the coin are the Constitutional Puritans, of the left and the right, who can't see beyond that tattered and frayed old document and its long dead makers.

Which are they? Puritans or hysterics? You decide. (Oh, both at the same time, eh? Neat trick if you can pull it off.)

Realistic politics suggests there were and are tradeoffs for the capitulation on FISA, and lo, it appears there were: Bush ceased resisting the various (and long - needed) add ons to the war supplemental in exchange for the capitulation on FISA "reform". Horse trading, politics, what used to be routine in the Congress before Puritans and hysterics took over. Oh, but for show, he'll veto the Medicare adjustment bill, a veto that will then be overridden (well, ya never know), all in a routine kabuki performance such as used to go on all the time, but has been lacking since the Puritans and the hysterics took over.

In other words, what this looks like is foreshadowing and ground preparing for a return to politics in our Congress somewhat like politics used to be, before the Gingrich scorched earth and high-handed Bushevik methods of strongarming and never yielding an inch on anything evah were institutionalized.

Clearly the Powers That Be expect a significant Democratic victory, but perhaps not enough to be veto- and filibuster-proof, so in order not to be completely irrelevant, no matter who ascends to the Throne, the current cohort is demonstrating that it can "get things done" by trading this for that. The way they used to.

Denouncing them for it -- because in the case of FISA "reform" they are violating the Constitution -- has its merits, to be sure, but it's obvious they aren't listening much, except to hurl the occasional epithet about "hysteria" and "the old politics of polarization."

I dunno. Are Constitutional Puritans able to horsetrade?

Two obvious differences:

1. Amazon has access to a limited set of information. NSA has access to much more raw information and has tremendous ability to organize it.

2. Amazon can bombard you with a few ads. NSA, with the rest of the government, can make your life and death very unpleasant.

But these are just minor differences, right shooter?

Yeah, I see that Senator Feingold had said that. What I didn't know was that Ron Wyden, Harry Reid and Dick Durbin also knew about the program and voted against. That helps to eliminate a potential "Yeah, but Feingold is a nut" defense.

After going back and reading Glenn's response, however, I think his summation of the mentality of the supporters ("hey, that guy over there thinks it's a good idea and he's smart, so I'll vote like he does; I don't need to know anything") is probably true.

I'd be surprised if even half of those in Congress bother to read proposed legislation, or even have staff skim proposed legislation, or even get a briefing from the lobbyists who write the legislation.

shooter242 do a cannonball?

Use a diving board @ 6:18?

Ask Iokannan in the Well.

Rush is tanning by a well.

I blame UT! a lewd place.

Build sandcastles at the Hill.

Do not dichotomize at hell.

Who is hell~bound know it.

The DoJ? Swept in a riptide.

Well. I forgot. I messed up!

I forgot a orthopedic visit.

Yesterday? Ice cream cone.

Do fish sneeze? o EMETICS.

Bush ceased resisting the various (and long - needed) add ons to the war supplemental in exchange for the capitulation on FISA "reform"...

Yeah, but what was that? A few billion dollars? For something that will be certain to pass anyway in 6 months? That's a pittance, in terms of political capital. The minimum wage increase was a bigger deal.

If that were really the much-vaunted trade, then it really does go to show how little Congress cares about national security policy and civil rights. So far their point of view seems to remain (and from the Washingtonians I have known I have no trouble at all imagining it) that this is an unimportant triviality. It's just a little back-scratching that Bush needs to get done that can be used to gently twist his arm a little and maybe shake him down for some spare change.

And that alone, to my mind, is a problem.

Another way to look at is from the other side. Kit Bond, a eminently deceitful and seemingly not at all bright senator from Missouri, sings the praises of the bill as he has a big hand in it's authorship. That in and of itself should make one very suspicious about just how well written the bill might actually be.

Here is a link to the ACLU's take on Bond's yakkin' about FISA.

http://www.aclu.org/safefree/spying/35652res20080613.html

The Congress, I mean. Allow me to share a personal story:

A friend of my boyfriend's was visiting New York from an undisclosed midwestern state. My boyfriend asked about his family, particularly a rowdy stepbrother.

He's a congressman now.

Oh, really?

The stepbrother in question sounded like the worst stereotype of a frat boy party dude, plus rich. Like the kind of guy who started the girls gone wild franchise. And he voted for Bush.

But he RAN as a democrat, because, as his stepbrother told us, he knew no republican could ever get elected in his district. He won by outspending the other candidate by some brutal margin.

So what are the lessons of this little true parable? (1) You can't tell nothin bout a person by the little letter after their name. (2) see subject line and (3) PAY ATTENTION TO YOUR LOCAL ELECTIONS.