Foreign Intelligence

A play by play on the FISA 2 vote.
I usually do not like Salon, but Glenn Greenwald's assessment is fairly straightforward. Like you, I was a bit wary of Obama's vote on FISA and against cloture. Now I don't feel so bad. He was with them most of the morning, but then once the power positioning was over, he wasn't playing games.

Obama has asked us not to rationalize his actions. We should pressure him and test him. He's gonna do what he thinks is right. So unconstitutional spying is going to be done on Americans and we're going to know about it. Fucking protect yourself. It's not like this is brand new. Free Speech does not necessitate anonymity or faceless volition. I hate the amount of information that is even collected on us. I hate that the government gives itself a free pass at the cost of virtually delimiting anything companies like Catalist, Voter Vault, Google, AT&T, Time Warner, Citibank, Yahoo, and what virtually anyone else might do.

You'll feel a lot more strongly when its your human face on the issue of data mining. Guilt is not the point. These pricks are not always motivated by finding you innocent or sticking to the facts. Still, it is worse to have bad information that cannot be checked and cross-checked.

This is maybe something that should be available. It's unfortunate that completely authoritarian hacks wield it now, but this is a messy business that might be suffering a bit from progressive rails.

I didn't really think I'd say something like that but, it's how I feel.

As for Obama, I do not know exactly what happened. I would guess Feingold, Clinton, Webb, and Specter could tell you better.

Or if you like the Senate session.

You'll need the newest versions of Flash or Real Player depending on how you finagle the C~SPAN site, but you're used to this kind of treatment. I would link to the Bushwackness signing the bill into law, but he's been on his toes lately not to stub any of them on the podium or the microphone.





We need security but, screw him.