Thanks for the compliment. I've been getting in the habit of citing USC directly for a few weeks now, here and on slashdot. I wish more people would provide direct citations to the laws in question so that we may read them. Such exposure might make the arcane language they are written in seem more understandable.

Seriously, people. This can practically be taken care of with an executive order on January 21st. Unless, of course, McCain is president.

Should Obama win the election, Jan. 21st will be the start of his re-election campaign, so I don't think he'll be issuing any EOs on FISA or anything else controversial.

jebbie said, 'If you place more value in your money than in your vote, you should immediately go register with the Republican Party. Shooter will welcome you with open arms and closed checkbook."

Bite me, moron. You got it precisely backwards, dumbass. I MAY not -- and I emphasize MAY -- not withhold my vote from that little pussy, Obama, and only because McCain is obviously much worse. But all I can say about two assholes that sell out the Constitution is that they're BOTH assholes. The point is that I value my vote much MORE, you friggin' idiot. I may decide that its worth sending a message with my money but that the vote is too important to withhold.

But you know what? I'm beginning to care less and less who wins. Fuck all of these little pussies.

It's important to recognize that yesterday's defeat is not the end of anything. It should only fuel more resolute and resourceful battles in defense of these core political values.

I wish I could share your optimism.

McCain, Obama, they are cut of the same cloth: the kind that is woven into men who want power. These types will never do anything to reduce the power that the spineless bastards have handed to the presidency, for the simple reason that they covet that very same power.

And Congress? Apparently it attracts that odious brand of humanity that clings to the powerful, enabling it, doing its dirty work, all for the few scraps that will be tossed its way.

Gloom and doom. Let me just wander off to my burrow...

almost all the major elements the White House wanted.

You missed the important part, "almost" means not everything. You gotta look at the big picture, the baby steps!

I would assume that Howard Zinn agrees with you that real change happens outside of the system through citizen movements, it is A Power Governments Cannot Suppress.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0872864758/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top

War is never a means, including the "War on Terror".

http://www.amazon.com/Peoples-History-United-States-Present/dp/0060838655/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1215719001&sr=1-1

According to this classic of revisionist American history, narratives of national unity and progress are a smoke screen disguising the ceaseless conflict between elites and the masses whom they oppress and exploit. Historian Zinn sides with the latter group in chronicling Indians' struggle against Europeans, blacks' struggle against racism, women's struggle against patriarchy, and workers' struggle against capitalists. First published in 1980, the volume sums up decades of post-war scholarship into a definitive statement of leftist, multicultural, anti-imperialist historiography. This edition updates that project with new chapters on the Clinton and Bush presidencies, which deplore Clinton's pro-business agenda, celebrate the 1999 Seattle anti-globalization protests and apologize for previous editions' slighting of the struggles of Latinos and gays. Zinn's work is an vital corrective to triumphalist accounts, but his uncompromising radicalism shades, at times, into cynicism. Zinn views the Bill of Rights, universal suffrage, affirmative action and collective bargaining not as fundamental (albeit imperfect) extensions of freedom, but as tactical concessions by monied elites to defuse and contain more revolutionary impulses; voting, in fact, is but the most insidious of the "controls." It's too bad that Zinn dismisses two centuries of talk about "patriotism, democracy, national interest" as mere "slogans" and "pretense," because the history he recounts is in large part the effort of downtrodden people to claim these ideals for their own.

Wherein he will summarily declare the parts of HR 6304 he finds annoyingly restrictive nul?

to see the president veto this on the grounds that it is an affront to 4th amendment rights!

Typo:

Their rationale for doing that is that it prevents the Republicans from depicting them as "weak," because nothing exudes strength like bowing....

You misspelled "kissing Dubya's big, red, rosy ...."

What a sight to come home to. Maybe Malaysia has it down about how to do politics 'right' ... what they were doing there was charging one of the major party leaders with a sodomy charge based on one person's -- of rather 'interesting' background -- allegation. More direct. More honest. More open.

How's things been otherwise (or, so to speak, "other than that, how'd you like the play")?

Cheers,

Silash's reads are technical. Even if a read about FISA etc., is 'way-out-there' for me, I'll try to comprehend. I'll feel better informed and assisted. No one will think exactly alike, but Listen

The mind is a "muscle" [?] or grander, mystical [?], and needs disciple/discipline. Read the sincere people who seem most in depth. The effort to be 'capturing' of the inward spirit's intent of the person is discernment. It's looking deeply.

( just thinking out loud and open for correction)

Pedinska is to drop a big blueberry into a bucket.

You decide: Way too delicious and plump to share.

You pop the berry into the mouth without any guilt.

Jebbie's reads are so varied. Worth very many dimes?

Jebbie's foes spits mellon seed and walks in poison ivy.

Io`in the Well? Hope he is never locked in a outhouse?

I mean: old time shit's had double seats. a dime drops?

242 dives into a sump-pot-hole for a nasty- plug-pickle.

Tell you what, when I've got a full-time job again, when the dollar is worth more than the Euro again, when children aren't starving or going 5 years without seeing a doctor, when the country's bridges and roads are not literally falling down from lack of infrastructure investment, when my government stops torturing and starting wars, only then will I care about this crap.

Absolutely. As long as the trains run on time, everything else is just gravy. Who cares if the Government spies on us, surveills us with no warrants and breaks the law? All that matters are material comforts -- just like the Founders said.

Seriously, people. This can practically be taken care of with an executive order on January 21st. Unless, of course, McCain is president.

Another good point. No reason to pipe up about any of this. Obama will wave his magic wand and - presto -- all will be good again.