what do you mean, the bush admin will START using its expanded powers to spy on political opponents? they've been using these expanded powers since 2001 (at least) - do you really believe they've been waiting for congressional authority to use them to spy on political opponents? they're monitoring your emails, for god sake.

Anonymous, you got it right. It is time to join up with other democracies in puncto healthcare, education,fair taxes an a bit financial control over the corporate/milltary money wasting block.

I'm afraid some of you better start packing. We are going to once again snatch defeat out of the mouth of victory this fall. It's all so apparent already--the increasing vitriol from the Right, the daily successes in defining the debate in their terms, not ours, the demonization of Democratic candidates and leaders, the successful manipulation of Congressional votes which can be used to further damn the Democrats as timid or pro-terrorist. And worst of all, the pattern of response by our leaders is shaping up to be the same one that lost us the last two elections--when attacked as unpatriotic or worse, we always say, "Oh, there they go again. Nobody's going to fall for that crap. No, the real issues are....". Well, people DO fall for it, and will every dmaned time. Unless we learn how to play the game, unless we stop assuming American voters all read The Nation or have college-level skills in crreative thinking, we will continue to lose. 85% of the troops on active duty believe Sadamm planned 9/11. Well over half of normal voting Americans believe the Democrats are "weaker on terrorism." And 70% say the Democrats have no plan at all for Iraq. (DO we?? Try putting ours on a bumper sticker.) So, if you're planning to leave the country on NOv 8th if we don't capture at least the House, you better invest in new luggage; you're going to need it. I predict with great anger and sorrow that the Republicans will win about 223 seats in the House, and will have about 52 seats in the Senate. And it doesn't have to be that way, if we would wake up, stop talking just to each other, and figure out how to speak coherently and persuasively to the American people. For a change.

In my darkest moments, Waydot, I feel just like you do. I have given myself a deadline: November 8. If the Democrats do not at least regain the House, I am out of here. Maybe I am paranoid, but these people scare the hell out of me.

There is a silver lining to this nonsense. BushCo will immediately use its expanded spying powers to spy on political opponents. The Bush administration, being what it is, however, will also prove abysmally incompetent at it, will be found out, exposed, and thrown out with the garbage.

Nixon got caught. He was not an imbecile, nor was his entourage.

This clown is an imbecile; his henchmen are so high on power that they are delusional, and their enforcers are crassly incompetent.

Bush says "either you're with us or you're with the terrorists."

Allright. You can't round up everyone.

Do Rove, Cheney, and W.Bush have naughty photos of these senators? Sen. Spector seems especially inexplicable. Sen. Gore, who gave up so easily in 2000, also. Why do they all give up so easily? Why do they not stand up?

I keep hearing this insanity, and the direction that this country is going, and maybe it's just some kind of Jewish angst that I've inherited, but, I wonder if it's not time to think about leaving this country. I keep wondering when we're going to hear that the threat of terrorism is so great, that we have to seal the borders so Americans can't leave, either. Votes are meaningless as elections are stolen. Propaganda is rampant and the Fourth Estate has been bought out. The U.S. has secret prisons. The President wants more permissive laws to allow his sick, sick torture fetish. They want permission to tap phones, email, and who knows what else, and the queazy feeling in my stomach says to me they're going to get it. The new "brownshirts" will march in lockstep and proclaim how much safer we are from terrorism, and before we know it the definition of a terrorist will get broader and broader. When Bush proclaims "If you're not with us, you're siding with the terrorists" it will gain legal status. Neighbors will be wisked away in the middle of the night, maybe even you. Your neighbors will remain mum, hoping it's not them nex. Maybe it's just the thought of losing Air America, our brightest hope for the last three years, but I'm really losing faith and getting really scared. Peace, all.

Assuming that this piece of caving in to another fit of authoritarian tantrum from the White House passes over the objections of the Dems, what will happen if the Dems regain control of the House and the Senate in November? Will they overturn it in January-February or will they keep it as such so as not to look to weak in the GWOT?

It will be interesting to see!

A question - will the Republican leadership have the guts to delay a floor vote until after the November elections? Or will this be 2006's version of the authorization of force in Iraq bill that the had come to the floor just before the 2002 mid-terms?

If it comes up before mid-terms, and for some reason there is no fillibuster, how many of the Dems that are up for re-election will have the intestinal fortitude required for a "nay" vote?

BTW - the post on Hillary made my milk come out my nose.

I thought the President already had the authority to violate the FISA law. Isn't that what AG Gonzales said? So there's no need for this revision. Unless, of course, the AG was full of it (um, which he so obviously was) and the President has been repeatedly violating the law. Not that the rule of law means anything, right? I'm sure that's not something the Republicans impeached a former president over or anything.

Secondly, I might just be dumb, but how can you make a law to make something legal that the court has ruled to be unconstitutional? Wouldn't you have to amend the Constitution?