So, for YOU it is EVIL if Bush violates our Constitution and ignores, or intentionally violates, our Bill of Rights, but if your god, Obama, does this, it is GOOOOOD.

I absolutely hate this vote but let's get some perspective here. Bush violated the 4th amendment. Obama merely voted to give telecomms immunity for breaking the law at the government's behest. It was a terrible vote, there's no doubt about that, but to equate Obama's decision with Bush's law-breaking is hysterical nonsense.

I really truly did not want to vote for him that context, as the lesser of two evils. I wanted to vote for the man who was supposed to change how the game in Washington was played, if not the game itself. Someone who would stick to his convictions and live his values because he knew they were right. Someone who did the right thing no matter what anyone thought.

But I guess I'll vote for the other guy. The one who probably won't suck as much as McCain.

Up until he announced his support for the FISA bill, I had every intention of voting for him and giving him some money - even though I didn't like his wavering on keeping the Iraq war going. But now I see that there is no point in voting for someone who will not stand on principle. He has shown that he does not love his country enough to even protect it's constitution and has helped us take yet another step toward a fascist state. Now I know why people turn cynical as we get older. At 39, I've been a progressive democrat for years, always voting because I believed it was my duty as an American. But now I see why people don't vote, because there is no candidate that "represents my values" - love of the principles embedded in our constitution, hard work in contributing to my community, and helping those less advantaged - the latter being why I can't vote for Ron Paul.

Take it easy you'll do yourself some damage.

Well said! I'm sending in a check to renew my membership in the ACLU today! I'm also looking into supporting libertarian organizations that have cooperated in the fight against the FISA sellout: downsizedc.org and Ron Paul's Campaign for Liberty.

Any politician that shows the kind of contempt for the Constitution demonstrated by the 69 senators who voted for the FISA Amendment Act of 2008 deserves in return the contempt of the American people.

This link shows you how each senator voted. Be sure to write a letter of thanks to your senator if he/she stood up for America and our heritage of Liberty.

http://www.govtrack.us/congress/vote.xpd?vote=s2008-168

I guess I missed the part where Ma Bell not footing the bill for Dubya's crimes became the death knell of the republic. Really, some people need to grow up already. In the litany of bad decisions made and outright crimes committed by this administration, granting telecoms immunity for being as cowardly as Congress and the media and capitulating to Dubya's whims is pretty far down the list.

I'm not defending Obama his flip-flop, mind you. Given his earlier statements on the subject, his recent decision is a definite cop-out. But let's keep some perspective here.

As for Joan Walsh's post here, it's a joke, as is much of this site these days. I wouldn't trust her selective outrage or her sense of "betrayal" as far as I could throw her. It's misplaced Clintonite pique, just like most of the posts below.

But as for the shitstorm she's once again trying to stir up, I'll leave comment to the venerable H.L. Mencken, 1924: "Progressives are like Christians in this: that they hate one another far more than they hate the heathen. The devil doesn’t have to fight the Catholics: he leaves the business to the Ku Klux, i.e. to the Methodists and Baptists. Just so the Progressives devour one another, to the delight and edification of the Babbitts…[By Election Day] the whole pack will be in chaos, and dog will be eating dog."

As a fity-something republican veteran from AZ who was planning on voting for Obama I've got news for him: He just lost one of the voters that (I'm will to bet) his "political consultants" thought he was going to reach by voting for this "compromise".

By voting for HR6304 he showed that he doesn't understand the basic job requirement of ALL elected officials: ". . . to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution . . .". He shouldn't have a seat in the Senate let alone the oval office.

I have a list of every member of congress who voted for this and none of them will get my vote.

It's interesting that Joan Walsh's longstanding opposition to Obama and support for Clinton has allowed her to hypocritically ignore Clinton's *unforgivable* vote for war with Iraq and Iran. (And no, the fact that she has written wimpily about how it was the wrong vote, but then continued to support her, does not count.)

While no longer supporting Obama because of his FISA vote may be reasonable at this point, supporting Clinton after her disastrous votes demonstrates that Joan has no credibility.

Salon is a supermarket tabloid.

This vote by Obama was NOT "only" about immunizing criminal telecoms for their blatant and knowing violation of federal law. It also gives the President the power (a power that Obama is just drooling for, hence, his vote) to spy with wild abandon, in secret and with no judicial or congressional review, on all Americans who happen to call (or email) beyond our physical shores. Furthermore, it leaves it entirely up to the Executive Branch to police itself with regards to preventing reverse targeting and related crap.

The immunization of the telecoms itself is more than just immunizing the telecoms from having to pay for their blatant, and knowing, illegal conduct, it also assures that We the People will NEVER know what was done to whom and for what end (we can guess: an equal part of the reason for the blanket illegal spying on Americans was for political and economic reasons).

This isn't a "small" issue. This is the core of what this country was founded upon, and upon which it used to stand. Now it doesn't even pretend (and cannot do so) to stand for liberty, justice, blah blah. It is all lies and Obama is a core part of the lie.

Don't give me that crap about "it was just immunity for telecoms". It was MUCH more than that.

Then, of course, is Obama's "new found love" of NAFTA (without labor or environmental protections!), his growing love of the Iraq Occupation, and his first steps towards relegating women back to second-class citizen status who need men to help them make personal decisions for them about sex and babies. They are just too emotional and ditzy to make proper decisions in this regard.