The Trail: A Daily Diary of Campaign 2008

Unless you have worked in systems development for 25 years as I have, then you have no idea what they can do if they can find ANY bogus pretense to install software in the Internet data stream -- Lets look at one single example -- manipulation of global energy prices :

With nothing to show for my trouble except being left alone to enjoy dead silence, I have told my Republican representative, the Department of Justice, and anyone in this corrupt government that would listen to me since 2002 that Internet based commodity auction (energy trading) markets are entirely corruptible and given the money involved almost certainly so. The issue is that the Internet was never built to run auctions -- so they have an unintended Achilles heal. The problem is that computers used by bidders to these online auction markets set their time by making unencrypted port 13 calls to time servers in order to set their time, and since these calls use frames of unencrypted plain text these frames can be nefariously intercepted and manipulated in transit between the bidding computer and the time server. The net effect is that it is possible to manipulate the clock settings on either the computer running the auction or on the computers of the bidders. A nefarious 100 mille second time shift (one tenth of a second) on a 4 meg connection is enough to push a thousand bids by one market participant in or out of an auction time window, but insufficient to not be attributed to excess traffic on the Internet slowing things down and resulting in a slightly off clock setting. Consider the genius of this scam -- without ever touching the communication between a bidder and the auction system (which might be monitored) you can affect the outcome of the bidding process by affecting an entirely different communication which isn't monitored between the bidder and a time server. You pick your winners and losers and thus affect prices over time by altering their time windows to make them individually either bigger winners or bigger losers. This is a crime which cannot be detected or punished, but it will leave consumers punished at the pump -- so at least someone gets punished . Bravo !

In Barack's defense, I think they would have assassinated him if he took away the punch bowl. Oddly he did the right thing.

I do believe that Obama had to come to the compromise and I don't believe it was an easy decision for him or for the others. I am, like you all, not very happy about the compromise on the FISA bill. Still, I haven't lost hope in Obama. I still think he's a better candidate than McCain. I hope you believe the same. Go Obama! Visit WhyObama08.org!

Has anyone posting here actually read the bill. Are you aware of the changes in the initial bill.

Do you feel the same way about
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, and others who also switched sides on the legislation, for the same reasons as Obama.

We are so f*cked.

Obama on FISA compromise: What does it accomplish?

1. "it is a marked improvement over the Protect America Act"
2. "an important tool in the fight against terrorism will continue......
3. ......the President's illegal program of warrantless surveillance will be over"
4. "It restores FISA and existing criminal wiretap statutes as the exclusive means to conduct surveillance..."
5. "....makes clear that the President cannot circumvent the law and disregard the civil liberties of the American people"
6. "It firmly re-establishes basic judicial oversight over all domestic surveillance in the future"
7. "guarantees a thorough review by the Inspectors General of our national security agencies to determine what took place in the past, and ensures that there will be accountability going forward"
8. "It is not all that I would want. But given the legitimate threats we face, providing effective intelligence collection tools with appropriate safeguards is too important to delay." Senator Barack Obama

The FISA bill is not ideal but there are 2 options from this point Democrats or Republicans. Voting on principle with Republicans in the equation has only sent America further and further downhill. I will concede Democrats have complicity, but their record stand for the people than against them overall. The choices this elections are sink or swim. There will be 8 years for principles after November, we must focus or it is completely over, as far as I can see. Without Democrats the future holds zero jobs, except the military, no draft required.

I am greatly disappointed in Obama's decision to go along with this bill. I really thought that he would stand up for us, the people who've worked so hard for him, and not just whatever seems politically expedient. At this point I'll have no choice but to vote for him, but he's lost my respect.

Posted by: Chris Williams | June 27, 2008 2:09 AM

Chris, you do have a choice...stay at home or vote for a 3rd party candidate...see below

Lisa, this is another reason why I don't support Obama or McCain. My integrity is more important than electability...I refuse to sell my soul to the two party system (Obama/Democrats and McCain/Republicans) that has caused so many problems to the country. I will never be voting for corrupt politicians, crooks, liars and cheats. Unlike millions of people, my conscience will actually haunt me for the next 4 years if I vote for the two party system because the next president is just about guaranteed to be as bad if not even worse than Bush. The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results...so if you keep voting for the two party system don't expect different results....you'll keep getting more of the same. As Jay Leno once said...you get the government you deserve.

I am doing the right thing and voting for a third party candidate.

Well said Lisa. Many of us believed in him and now he signs this. Bull crap is right. Another politician waiting for the green, while raping the middle and lower classes.

I was an Obama supporter. I believed his speeches. Now, I see his is just other politician. Liar.

No one should be above the law, unless the House and Senate allow them.

Hope and Change... were just words in speeches. In other words, Bull Crap!

Senator Obama has as strong a grounding in and respect for the U. S. Constitution as any Senator or aspirant to the Presidency in the country's history, with the possible exception of the ones who took part in its writing.

The Fourth Amendment states, "The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized."

Accountability for complicity in violation of this right is not something for peremptory dismissal. Qwest did not go along. Nobody forced AT&T, Verizon (both of whom have me as a customer), or any others to go along to, in the words of Sam Rayburn, get along. Those who did and do violate the Constitutional civil rights of every American.

The betrayal is all the greater when incurred through stewards, the telecommunications companies, of the intercourse of the people with one another, component of the lifeblood of a democracy, whose taint does not enhance the health and security of the body as a whole.

Barack Obama said, "The bill's target should not be the phone companies' culpability, but 'can we get to the bottom of what's taking place, and do we have safeguards?'"

The bill's target is not the phone companies' culpability, for anyone.

When we shirk the Fourth Amendment, we have already lost touch with what's taking place, are already as far to the bottom as we can get, and already have forfeited the safeguards. We cannot substitute for these safeguards telecommunication companies' exemption from culpability.

This episode is a small case study in what Americans do in the presidential process to candidates' integrities for them to get elected.

Even after nearly eight years of George Walker Bush, and after terms particularly of one or two others that come to mind, we still do not want integrity in the Oval Office, whether from Obama, McCain, or anyone else.

We want expediency, and when we can get it, cleverness, shrewdness, and cunning in effecting it.

Hey, Obama's Shifting Church, can you tell us what the bs you're spouting has to do with Obama's position of FISA?

Btw, I am really tired of white people, which I assume you are, who are so intimidated by persons of color (be they black, brown, yellow, or any shades in-between) that you have to find virtually any excuse to attack them.

Be a man (or a woman) and face up to your irrational fear. Persons of color didn't create segregation or Jim Crow, they have only in varying ways responded to it.

But silly me, that would assume that you actually have some grasp of the past in this country that in various ways is alive today.

If you doubt that, compare the "Compassionate Conservative" response to Katrina in New Orleans to the situation currently unfolding in Iowa and other midwestern states.

I am greatly disappointed in Obama's decision to go along with this bill. I really thought that he would stand up for us, the people who've worked so hard for him, and not just whatever seems politically expedient. At this point I'll have no choice but to vote for him, but he's lost my respect.

I am an active Obama supporter here in Calif. My heart is sick. Senator Obama I cannot understand why you would reverse your position . In Jan you were against retroactive immunity that was in the FISA bill, now it is somehow acceptable. Sir we, your base, supporters believed in your message. Hope over fear. You would listen to Us. Big business and lobbyists don't own our government, We do and we are here to take it back. Remember those "words". I am now Hope-sick, no one listens to us (except when our phones are tapped). You ask why so many Americans are cynical and apathetic? Our leaders lack courage, they can't speak truth to power. I feel sick, I believed in you. What a fool I am. Hope-sick....

Posted by: Carla | June 26, 2008 10:16 PM

Carla,

He's not the President yet.

He's just the Junior Senator from Illinois.

Taking a strong stand on this could cost him the Presidency.

Politics sucks, but we HAVE to play to win.

I am an active Obama supporter here in Calif. My heart is sick. Senator Obama I cannot understand why you would reverse your position . In Jan you were against retroactive immunity that was in the FISA bill, now it is somehow acceptable. Sir we, your base, supporters believed in your message. Hope over fear. You would listen to Us. Big business and lobbyists don't own our government, We do and we are here to take it back. Remember those "words". I am now Hope-sick, no one listens to us (except when our phones are tapped). You ask why so many Americans are cynical and apathetic? Our leaders lack courage, they can't speak truth to power. I feel sick, I believed in you. What a fool I am. Hope-sick....

You can't get rid of the Fourth Amendment and just hope that some Inspector General will watch over everything. That's crazy. People fought and died for the Fourth Amendment, and these idiots want us to believe that getting rid of it is no big deal.

If this legislation passes, I will vote third party in November.

THIS presidential race is about race and BLACK racism. Let the race begin!

Barrack HUSSEIN Obama's church for over 20 years, the BLACK Trinity United Church of Christ adopted the BLACK Value System written by the Manford Byrd Recognition Committee chaired by Vallmer Jordan in 1981. They believe in the following 12 precepts and covenantal statements. These BLACK Ethics must be taught and exemplified in homes, churches, nurseries and schools, wherever BLACKS are gathered. They must reflect on the following concepts:

1. Commitment to God
2. Commitment to the BLACK Community
3. Commitment to the BLACK Family
4. Dedication to the Pursuit of Education
5. Dedication to the Pursuit of Excellence
6. Adherence to the BLACK Work Ethic
7. Commitment to Self-Discipline and Self-Respect
8. Disavowal of the Pursuit of "Middleclassness"
9. Pledge to make the fruits of all developing and acquired skills available to the BLACK Community
10. Pledge to Allocate Regularly, a Portion of Personal Resources for Strengthening and Supporting BLACK Institutions
11. Pledge allegiance to all BLACK leadership who espouse and embrace the BLACK Value System
12. Personal commitment to embracement of the BLACK Value System.

Please read the "BLACK Value System" again -- only this time, substitute the word "White" for "BLACK."

If your church had such a "White Value System" Jesse and Al and the NAACP would have 10,000 demonstrators out front in a heartbeat."

It will all be undone after he's president. Obama that is. Seeing these republicans going berserk over Obama is about the funniest thing I've ever seen. They are scared, mad and amazed that they couldn't come up with a candidate they could agree on. The democrats could have put up Mike Gravel on the legalize cocaine platform and still have blown the pubs out of the water!

Posted by: afed27 | June 26, 2008 4:20 PM;Posted by: SAINT---The | June 26, 2008 12:21 AM; READ ON:

Crooks and Liars » McCain Sets a New Record: 10 Flip-Flops in Two ...(Like that other law of nature, McCain's flip-flops are literally becoming a daily occurrence. Since this piece was originally drafted on Saturday, ...
www.crooksandliars.com/2008/06/16/mccain-sets-a-new-record-10-flip-flops-in-two-weeks/ - 176k

Spaceter said it best. After originally being really angry, I am now thinking it was the right thing to do. Obama didn't flip on this. He evaluated the situation and took the best course for the country. Not like George W who would never have changed his mind EVER, even if he had a 26 point approval rating because of it. Oh, wait, he DOES have a 26 point rating. So I guess sticking to your guns NO MATTER WHAT, isn't really the right thing to do. McCain would be a poor president. How about offering 300,000,000 to "anyone" inventing a battery system? I heard the Chinese already have one. Is everyone ready to hand over 3 hundred million to the Chinese? This is just one of his hair-brained ideas.

Obama=Bush

If he votes for this, and refuses to defend the constitution from this attack,I may just have to actively campaign against him.

I have been a strong supporter of him thus far.

I'm sure I can pull 10 votes with me.

I quite surprised there's this many political yahoos on the webpage of a credible newspaper like the Washington Post.

THIS presidential race is about race and BLACK racism. Let the race begin!

Barrack HUSSEIN Obama's church for over 20 years, the BLACK Trinity United Church of Christ adopted the BLACK Value System written by the Manford Byrd Recognition Committee chaired by Vallmer Jordan in 1981. They believe in the following 12 precepts and covenantal statements. These BLACK Ethics must be taught and exemplified in homes, churches, nurseries and schools, wherever BLACKS are gathered. They must reflect on the following concepts:

1. Commitment to God
2. Commitment to the BLACK Community
3. Commitment to the BLACK Family
4. Dedication to the Pursuit of Education
5. Dedication to the Pursuit of Excellence
6. Adherence to the BLACK Work Ethic
7. Commitment to Self-Discipline and Self-Respect
8. Disavowal of the Pursuit of "Middleclassness"
9. Pledge to make the fruits of all developing and acquired skills available to the BLACK Community
10. Pledge to Allocate Regularly, a Portion of Personal Resources for Strengthening and Supporting BLACK Institutions
11. Pledge allegiance to all BLACK leadership who espouse and embrace the BLACK Value System
12. Personal commitment to embracement of the BLACK Value System

Obama has said:

"I will work in the Senate to remove this provision so that we can seek full accountability for past offenses."

"I strongly oppose retroactive immunity in the FISA bill."

To: Obama's Creed | June 26, 2008 2:58 PM

--------

Please apply more Tin Foil to your hat.

This is to a number of you bloggers who have written about Obama's shifting opinion. Are you just now realizing that this is the way the man operates? He is a constant waffler. Examine his Senatorial votes. Most of his votes are "present", a noncommittal way of not taking any side. He is the the prize winner for fence sitting! If he should come out with a statement but is criticised for it, he will switch to the opposite view. An example is his stance on Israel. He told a pro-Israel group [AIPAC] that he supports Israel in its having an undivided Jerusalum. When the Palestinians complained, he told them that he does not rule out Palestinian sovereignty over parts of Jerusalum. Both statements were made this month. The telecom situation is very important. If one does the crime, one gets the time. They did wrong, they must pay the cost. They must not be immune to having a penalty. In the future, if this case is referred to for the action that was taken, it must not show that the telecom industry got away with the prize!
NO IMMUNITY! As for Obama,is this the kind of flip-flopper we want in the White House, someone who changes his opinion whenever someone grumbles? Of course, McCain is not a viable option, either.

Supports FISA, supports murdering individuals convicted of raping a child. Supports the conservative justices of the Supreme Court. Never once, not a single dam time has he led on a progressive issue. He's just another gutless non-principled Democrat, only interested in power and getting elected. He and the rest of those spineless wimps think actual progressives have nowhere else to go. Well it took the conservatives more than a decade of hard work to turn the Republican party into a modern nazi regime. Unless real progressives are willing to take on people like Obama and the positions he espouses, there won't be any progressives and the Democratic party will remain a pale imitation of the Repugs.

Excuse me, but that is a lot of bull! The telecoms appeased Bush by going against the law. They knew that by giving Bush what he wanted, they were committing a crime. They probably felt that if they helped Bush, he would help them. He is doing so with this bill.
They did wrong!They should pay for their actions! Actions already taken have hurt some of the telecom's customers.The issue must be addressed & punished for!
NO IMMUNITY...NOW OR LATER!!!

Obama just showed me that he no longer wants my monetary or other contributions to his campaign. He supposedly was a contritional instructor. If the telecoms did nothing wrong, why do they need immunity? Qwest did not participate in the illegal spying, so why did the others?
Obama does not know the constitution as well as this 70 year old woman.

I had struggled to give Obama the benefit of doubt. Though I would not vote for him, I defended him against Neocon attacks, because Obama would be better than Neocon McCain. I decided to vote for Barr, to protest Democrat House and Senate members' selling out their progressive base. A Bob Barr vote will draw from McCain, not hurt Obama, but would tell Obama he is not good enough if just a much lesser evil.

But now Obama has made me puke -- after backing off his promise of talking unconditionally with Iran, after sucking up to AIPAC and Zionist Israeli politicians, after saying he opposes the death penalty saying we ought execute child-rapers if the victims are 8 years old or younger even if not killed, despite Obama, a Harvard Law graduate knows that the if the Supreme Court says such executions violate the constitution, they do, and after shifting his positions concerning too many other issues -- now Obama turns on everything he said about FISA and telecom immunity.

I erred. In national leaders, evil is not a matter of degree -- not wrongfulness tolerable if measurably less than some greater transgression. Murdering 1,000 is not acceptable if the option is murdering 5,000 instead.

Obama IS a "change" candidate -- changes like Hillary & McCain. Oh, he doesn't lie -- like Hillary or McCain. He plays Bill's game: "It depends on what 'is' is." "Oral sex is not SEX."

"I said I want telecom accountability, to protect 4th amendment rights -- and I'd do all I could to block immunity.

"But the 4th amendment doesn't apply to telecoms. I meant I wanted accountability AND ALSO to protect 4th amendment rights (against Presidential intrusion). Notice the comma between 'accountability' and 'to protect' of my last paragraph.

"I did NOT say I'd trash national security -- when I said I want telecom accountability. And wanting is not the same as having for unbearable cost -- like 'national security' loss.

"Yes. National security includes security of privacy. Soon I'll explain how destroying privacy makes privacy secure -- when I find the right prose.

"I saw -- yesterday -- that national security trumps telecom accountability despite telecoms invaded privacies of millions, millions of times. Telecoms will not secure privacy by invading privacy if they're accountable for invasions. So yesterday I saw that national security trumps privacy ... er, trumps accountability. I DID 'all' I could to block immunity. In this case, 'all' = nothing."

Obama is Bill wearing blackface. (Bill was the first Black president.) Obama is Hillary after a sex-change operation. (Women lie. Men speak dissembling prose.)

Vote for a THIRD party candidate -- ANY third party candidate (Barr, Nader, the Green Party candidate, the Socialist Party candidate, the Nudist Party candidate, the candidate of the Intergalactic Coalition of Atheists, Anarchists, and Pyramid-wearers). Show you won't settle for lesser evil. Mussolini was evil as Hitler despite he didn't harm so many or so much.

Some assure us that Obama will return to his earlier, progressive promises when he is President. He will, magically, get Congress to reverse its grant of retroactive telecom immunity (though very likely the reversal would be unconstitutional). He will "clarify" his supplicating to AIPAC -- so he can remove his nose from the recess of AIPAC's derriere.

But if he may betray his last assurances just as he betrayed earlier, inconsistent ones, then he may behave as President even worse than he has behaved in the previous couple months or more. Instead of telling AIPAC to buzz off he may invade Iran. Instead of pressing Congress to reverse its grant of telecom immunity, he may establish an unconstitutional surveillance program worse even than the Bush-Cheney one.

We cannot trust Obama more than we can McCain or could have trusted Hillary.

THIS presidential race is about race and BLACK racism. Let the race begin!

Barrack HUSSEIN Obama's church for over 20 years, the BLACK Trinity United Church of Christ adopted the BLACK Value System written by the Manford Byrd Recognition Committee chaired by Vallmer Jordan in 1981. They believe in the following 12 precepts and covenantal statements. These BLACK Ethics must be taught and exemplified in homes, churches, nurseries and schools, wherever BLACKS are gathered. They must reflect on the following concepts:

1. Commitment to God
2. Commitment to the BLACK Community
3. Commitment to the BLACK Family
4. Dedication to the Pursuit of Education
5. Dedication to the Pursuit of Excellence
6. Adherence to the BLACK Work Ethic
7. Commitment to Self-Discipline and Self-Respect
8. Disavowal of the Pursuit of "Middleclassness"
9. Pledge to make the fruits of all developing and acquired skills available to the BLACK Community
10. Pledge to Allocate Regularly, a Portion of Personal Resources for Strengthening and Supporting BLACK Institutions
11. Pledge allegiance to all BLACK leadership who espouse and embrace the BLACK Value System
12. Personal commitment to embracement of the BLACK Value System.

Please read the "BLACK Value System" again -- only this time, substitute the word "White" for "BLACK."

If your church had such a "White Value System" Jesse and Al and the NAACP would have 10,000 demonstrators out front in a heartbeat."

We had our chance for sincere change with John Edwards or Hillary Clinton - and we blew it. We're left with a brilliant speaker who changes positions daily to get elected or an honorable man who is stuck in the past. Think write-in.

Posted by: Karol | June 26, 2008 1:46 PM

Well said. But, how do you figure McCain lives in the past? It seems to me that he is presenting some pretty progressive views for our future.

Green Government
Energy resolutions
Solution on how to get out of Iraq PROPERLY
Health Care
Taxes
...

Its seams that just because he's old, he's unqualified? I don't get it.

I've been in business for a few years, but I don't expect them to make me CEO.
I went to college for 4 years but I don't expect to be the Dean.
I served in the Marines for 4 years and I'm sure they won't make me commandant

What's with the age deal? Doesn't wisdom come with age?

I don't understand why there is so much interest in prosecuting telecom instead of the people running "the show" here. With the disclaimer that I work for a telecom I'd like to offer a bit of perspective. In telecom we are drilled from day 1 to cooperate with the goverment at all times. Its a deeply embedded part of our culture. Most of telecom's history has us very tightly leashed by the goverment - until very recently they told us what are prices should be, who we can serve, what services we're allowed to offer and so on - that's been the case no matter the administration - Rep or Dem. So when Bush's jack-booted thugs show up flashing their badges believe me our instinct is to say "yes sir - how high do you want me to jump and how far do you want me to bend over - just take what you want and leave". I'm not going to take some inane line that we're heroes or anything like that but we are thoroughly conditioned to do goverment's bidding. I can only hope that a judge would see this reasoning but it would come at the cost of providing several lawyers a new Lexus. Asking for our prosecution is like spanking the private while the General drives off. I really think the focus should be on the Bush people - we're just trying to survive here.

We had our chance for sincere change with John Edwards or Hillary Clinton - and we blew it. We're left with a brilliant speaker who changes positions daily to get elected or an honorable man who is stuck in the past. Think write-in.

This is what Sen. Christopher Dodd aid about FISA yesterday:

"We can't un-destroy the CIA's interrogation tapes. We can't un-pass the Military Commissions Act. We can't un-speak Alberto Gonzales's disgraceful testimony. We can't un-torture innocent people. And perhaps, sadly, shamefully, we cannot stop retroactive immunity. We can't un-do anything that has been done in the last six years for the cause of lawlessness and fear.

We cannot blot out that chapter. But we can begin the next one, even today. Let its first words read: "Finally, in June 2008, the Senate said: 'Enough.'"

Too bad Obama can't summon the same courage.

BTW, whatever other problems Sen. Dodd may have, don't take away from his passionate and eloquent stand on FISA. Those who refer to his favorable treatment by Countrywide to dismiss his principled stand on FISA are just being disingenuous, sycophantic, obsequiously genuflecting at the feet of the great Barack.

NO to Obama, He betray US, He dont support harsh penalties(death) for criminalists-morderers,bloody gang members,drug dealers, children rapists and molesters, He is against Amendment 2, He lies to US in Primaries, what next. Now He is preaching US how to read BIBLE???, what an ignorance. Jews and all Christian must get united and say no to this man!!! I believe, that CONSTITUTION for Him has no value at all, and He will like to write His own, once He became(if) a President.
Now we need more candidates from diffrent Parties to fight for US . Who said, that only this two candidates shoulf fight for Presidency???Come on Mr.Barr, come on Jessie Ventura, get up and fight for US and USA!!!!

Thank you Spacester & Truth Speaks, for lending some clarity to a troubling policy decision. That, along with concerns about some of Obama's economic advisers, have had me spinning.
OK, here's the deal: I will continue to actively support Obama in the faith that he will be a game-changer. He's got four years.

I will have faith that he will be the kind of leader we hope for based on his rhetoric and ideals. I hope he will abandon the triangulation stragegies that have benefitted no one except the wealthy & powerful. I hope Democrats will actively assist President Obama establish a political system free of corruption and capitulation.

HOWEVER, should Obama and Democrats choose to continue the attitudes, practices & policies that have so corrupted our government OVER THE PAST SEVERAL DECADES, I will NOT vote for him (and very selectively for other Democrats) in 2012.

I will vote instead for the most professive standard-bearer, whether s/he is campaigning or not, even if it means the Rebubs regain the Presidency & Congress.

I am sick of being manipulated and lied to.

Obama has said:

"I will work in the Senate to remove this provision so that we can seek full accountability for past offenses."

"I strongly oppose retroactive immunity in the FISA bill."

TNUCASIYAKYRREHS ---- I sincerely hope you don't drown in your body fluids !!!!

Except, I guess, people with the mental disorder if liberalism.

Protect America, VOTE McCAIN!

Posted by: MikeD | June 26, 2008 11:59 AM
+======================================

Thanks right! Liberalsim is mental disorder that's going to DISTROY this country.

Founding Fathers please pray that J. McCain will be elected!

PROCECT OUR COUNTRY!

This guy is unbelievable. NO ONE in their right mind could vote for this guy.

Except, I guess, people with the mental disorder if liberalism.

Protect America, VOTE McCAIN!

This guy is unbelievable. NO ONE in their right mind could vote for this guy.

Except, I guess, people with the mental disorder if liberalism.

Protect America, VOTE McCAIN!

The hole is getting bigger: If Obama's Campaign thinks this is a pre-emptive strike to position himself well for national security issue, alah, this is the big mistake that will be backfired in the fall.

All politicians tell you what you want to hear, get into power, and then do whatever they want. That is how a republic works. People say we are a republic, not a democracy. So why all the fuss?

Fair weather Obama supporters, you CANNOT get the nuances of his position by reading a snippet from the WAPO. Go to his website (his Senate one) and read what he had to say about the legislation. Legislation is about compromise. Get something passed and work to improve it - some legislation beats no legislation. For example, on the subject of the death penalty for child rape. While you may feel that this is a suitable punishment, perhaps in your gut you know that you do not have the votes to get it passed; so as a fallback position, you would support chemical castration or life imprisonment without parole. But if you will only settle for the death penalty, then you will likely end up with nothing passed at all.

I think most of us have forgotten that prior to GWB, our government had a series of checks and balances on each of the three branches. This legislation is designed to restore some of those checks and balances. Admittedly, it is not perfect, but it is definite improvement over the previous legislation. Finally, it is so vaguely worded, that it is bound to challenged in court at some point.

No offense, OK? We're on the same side, alright? But have you really stopped to observe the US Congress and the absurd way it goes about its business?
-------------------------------

I have watched this congress and it is the worst in history and the dems run it. You have the spineless pelosi and ried that need to be replaced. They are single-handedly giving the repubs an opportunity to keep seats because of their stupidity.

EE HEE HEE! I am a flying, cackling witch who is DETERMINED that the ENTIRE country must live through menopause along with me! Oh, I squeal most foully as I contemplate my horrid visage in the mirror, all while a delicate aroma of sweat mixed with tones of bodily fluids and intestinal gas, mixed with cheap perfume of the kind your aunt would wear, wafts in sickening eddies of odor around and around my head. Like an aura. Anyway, as I was saying - and YOU WILL let me finish what I was saying - Graham, Dole, Pawlenty, Jindal and McBUSH keep
proving how phony,dishonest,corrupt theRepublican Do Nothings perennially are. Vote Democratic in 2008! I'm Voting For Democrat Barack Obama, not anyone like that Fascist
Elitist Right Wing Geritol-Poppin' Power MadRight Wing Extremist Loser John McCain!

TNUCASIYAKYRREHS

Obama wants to keep the campaign focused on race and religious issues, so the American people will not focus on his specific plans for America which include:

In effect, he would legislate a 60 percent tax bracket for upper-income Americans, killing all initiative and innovation. He'd raise the top bracket to 40 percent. He'd apply FICA taxes to all income, not just that under $100,000 as at present.

So add 40 percent plus FICA's 12.5 percent plus Medicare's 2 percent plus state and local taxes averaging, after deduction, at 5 percent-6 percent, and you have a 60 percent bracket.

He would double the capital gains tax, saddling the 50 percent of Americans who own stock with dramatically higher taxes.

He'd double the dividend tax, hitting elderly coupon-clippers now retired and depending on fixed incomes.

He wants to cover 12 million illegal immigrants with federally subsidized health insurance, dramatically driving up costs and forcing federal rationing of healthcare. As in the U.K. and Canada, you will not be permitted certain medical procedures if the bureaucrats decide you are not worth it.

He proposes requiring Homeland Security operatives to notify terror suspects that they are under investigation within seven days of starting the investigation.

He says that unless they can establish that there is "probable cause to believe that a certain individual is linked to a specific terrorist group," Homeland Security cannot seize his documents and search his business. The current standard is only that the search be "relevant" to a terror investigation.

He does not oppose $5-per-gallon gasoline but only says that he wishes there had been a more "gradual adjustment" to the higher prices.

Obama can talk about the Rev. Wright and flag lapel pins and his wife's love of America all day long. But what he resists is a specific discussion of his own plans for our country. That's the discussion he fears and he avoids. And it's the discussion John McCain must force upon him if he is to have any realistic chance of winning the election.

I don't agree with Obama on FISA, but only idiots are one-issue voters, so I am still very excited and proud to support him.

Of course most of the people who say they just won't vote for Obama now are Republican trolls anyway. This won't hurt him in the general election.

pragmatist? Constitutional scholar?
NO, no, no. This one is a deal breaker for me. I cannot vote for the guy now. Nader or just stay home. Obama blew it big time.

YIKES! The Bus Driver Barack Hussein Obama
just Threw the US Constitution Under The
Bus on all you pathetic losers Obamafools
and Obamabot Democrat screwballs. Yep so
there Obama goes again, Flip! Flop! And to
Hell with the US Constituion and Rule of
Law. And so, what else did you expect from
a phony lying crooked corrupt Chicago Gutter Politics Hack like Obama? And it
just goes to prove Barack Hussein Obama,
Nancy Pelosi,Harry Reid and Howard Dean
are definitely more dangerous then both
War Criminals George W Bush and Draft Dodger Cheney together. Can anyone tell me
why Madame Speaker Nancy Pelosi took
Impeachment off the table? The Democrats
only know how to go hold endless phony
hearings and never do anything with them.
And Obama,Pelosi,Hoyer,Reid and Dean keep
proving how phony,dishonest,corrupt the
Democrat Do Nothings have become as well.
Vote Republican in 2008! I'm Voting For
Republican John McCain not that Marxist
Elitist Liberal Cocaine Snorter Power Mad
Muslim Extremist Loser Barack Obama! NOBAMA

So, the Big O has flip-flopped on yet another issue.

He claims to base his campaign on how his supposed judgement trumps Hillary's--and now McCain's--experience. Well, which is it? Was he wrong before, or is he wrong now?

And we are supposed to elect him because of his judgement?

-Wm Tate,
http://www.atimelikethis.us/

It's clear now that repukelicans will just jump on anything the Obama says or does but they miss the most important picture. He no matter what you say or think WILL be the President of the United States and nothing a retarded or brain dead, morally challenged,intelligent lacking neo-con can do about it. I love coming here and reading all the hate and twisted facts you repukelicans write actaully thinking that it's gonna matter. It's not going to make any difference other than the fact that it just fuels my laughter at the fact that when he is sworn in, you guys will probably be jumping off a bridge anyway so BYE BYE!!! President Obama to you rag head repukelicans. Besides, John McCstank probably won't make it thru the election!!! What is he like 150 years old? lolololololol

Any and all of you Bush/Cheney supporters that twist and deceit all issues online... YOU are getting what you voted for! And it is not over! I pray that each and every one of you get caught up in this fourth reich, king george neo-con crusade... and suffer the rest of your evil unconstitutional, abusive and pathetic lives!

Do you honestly believe that we are safer from terrorists with this president and administration and lousy, good-for-nothing Congress?

Make a different in November!!!! The Red and Blue MUST be stopped! It is looking more and more like a crooked cross to me!

Obama's reasoning sounds logical to me. We could try for a long, bitter fight punishing telecoms, but it would be a distraction from what we really need to spend our time and energy on: making sure that it doesn't happen again and cleaning up the messes.

The rationale by Nancy and Barack in changing their positions on this issue just does not hold up. The fact is Bush demanded the Democrats give in, again, to his position and they basically did this, again.

Bush, Cheney and most Republicans seem to have given up on upholding the Constitution, especially separation of powers and key areas of the Bill of Rights. Yet most Democrats have meekly acquiesced.

People today justly criticize the mentality and lack of significant opposition to the internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II and the trampling of civil liberties during the early years of McCarthyism. The same will be true in twenty or thirty years, as posterity criticizes the trampling of the Constitution by the Bush-Cheney administration, with meek complicity by most Democrats in Congress.

Not many profiles in courage in Congress on this important contemporary issue.

Ok, so the left is P.O.'d at Obama for this. What are they going to do, vote for McCain? Obama is not super human, he is going to be swinging his positions closer to the center than they really are over the coming months. Any Democrat who wants to win and is not stupid would do the same. Obama was also smart to oppose the Supreme court death penalty decision regarding child rape.

The whole Monica-gate ordeal seems so trivial, now. Just think about the Bush Presidency - 9/11 attacks, cherry-picked intelligence to justify attacking Iraq, Scooter Libby and company outing Valerie Plame for calling Bush a liar, rendition, Abu Gharib, a dearth of planning for post-Saddam Iraq, Blackwater, Alberto Gonzalez, Katrina, Gitmo, justification of torture, destroying torture tapes, illegal wiretapping. And the Democrats continue to fund the War in Iraq. The disinterest by the Dems while Kucinich spoke about Impeachment. Barack, the constitutional lawyer, so intent on winning the Presidency that he is willing to allow everyone a pass. The Democrats so intent on winning a super majority so they can ... what? - allow gays to get married? Does the 4,000 service men dead really matter to either Dems or Republicans? Support the troops vs. "wait until we get elected, then we'll make changes". Never mind that soldiers are being killed right now. The only true agent of change is Ron Paul.

Thanks to all the Die-Hard but Insipid O'Bomba-Nation Supporters.

I have wondered what ever made any of you support an "Empty Suit" in the First Place.

You have demonstrated that is is only Empty, when not compared to the Space(Hello-Heellooo-Heeeelloooooo) between YOUR EARS! :-(

I'm REALLY disappointed in this. In Obama and all the Dem's in the Senate who supported this. Hell I could have voted Repub for this!

No way, no how, was Obama going to hold the telecoms liable for breaking the law. Heck, the Democrats could care less about the impeachable crimes committed by Bush Administration. GW , Cheney, Rumsfeld, Tenet, Rice - they all get to walk away from this 8 year nightmare. The only criminals to be prosecuted, thus far, were the guards at Abu Gharib. Everyone else will get a medal, a cush lobbying job, and a government pension. Now, look for all the politicians to shake hands, smile and slap each other's backs - the Dem. Crooks will replace the Republican Crooks. I guess Obama is post-racial in that respect.

This is the democratic nominee? He threw the constitution you-know-where. Sickening.

Obama supporters are actually rationalizing his call on this? Even as pandering to the middle? Unconscionable.

What would you have said about anyone else taking this position? Yeah, right.

We're better off electing McCain and ensuring that a solid democratic majority congress is in place for the next 4 years.

The most important event of our time is electing President Obama. Even if we gut the Constitution! Bush ad Cheney were far worse.

What a sad bunch of sickly prostitutes we have making our laws. They are selling us all down the river--BOTH parties.

Way to go Obama! Be your own man!

As long as there are checks and balances in place, I agree with this version of the FISA bill as well. Keeping America safe is our first prioritive!

Unbelievable. This blog tries to paraphrase a complex opinion made by Obama down to a few simple sentences, AND GETS IT 100% WRONG. Washington Post is declining!

Here's some reading for all you would be "pragmatists".

Posted by: pmorlan | June 25, 2008 10:15 PM

Nice articles, pmorlan, thank you. Truly despicable, the way those jokers run our Congress. We need to get Obama out of the Senate and into the Oval before they ruin him with their corruption.

I expect most will laugh at this, but I actually see Obama as taking a Principled stand here.

Wait, wait, hear me out please, I'm thinking the over-riding principle here is what they call Continuous Improvement in business these days. Yes, the word is pragmatism: for all his high falutin talk, Obama is about passing legislation. Solving the thing as best as can be done for the time being and moving on to the next item on the People's pressing agenda.

The fact that the legislation is written so
deviously as to be opaque to the experts would seem to make it a lock for a court challenge. In fact, maybe that's the way to initiate prosecution against the neocon bosses who have so corrupted the program.

Obama should pledge to take this legislation up in his first months in office. If he doesn't, I'll throw a hissy fit and vote for Citizen Kane.

No I won't, Obama has my vote thru thick and thin.

So who would be best at Justice? Dodd or Feingold or Leahy? :-)

Looks like Obama has remade himself into just another "Go along to get along" politician.

There must be a way to challenge this law and overturn it.

Posted by: Rob | June 25, 2008 10:04 PM

***

You bet there is. I suggest as a first step that people wake up and smell the coffee and elect Obama as president so he can write good legislation.

This country doesn't get the chance to hire a constitutional scholar as POTUS every day. Let's not blow this, OK?

Less drama please. Settle down, OK?

'Something as petty as political gain'

Say what? What political gain? Clearly, this is costing him votes.

And since when is running for the POTUS (President of the US) with the wit, wisdom and wherewithal needed to WIN - at any level - a petty act? This word: 'petty' - I do not think it means what you think it means.

Learn how DC works, people. It's ugly. Barack cannot change it until he can literally politically rise above it. What exactly is it you want him to do? Stage a one-man sit-in? Take hostages? WHAT?

Here's some reading for all you would be "pragmatists".

http://www.slate.com/id/2194254/

http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/

Barack Obama is a pragmatist as is any successful politician. No bill is perfect. America has a clear choice between McCain and 4 more years of the same boneheaded policies, or Barack Obama who has the right plans, experience, and judgment, that this country needs at this crucial moment in history.

Posted by: Ed Lynch | June 25, 2008 6:52

I imagine this kind of "pragmatism" is how the Bush administration kept their people in line each time he violated the Constitution.

While compromising is inevitable in politics there is no excuse for compromising on our Constitutional protections especially for something as petty as political gain.

I do not like this law. It is probably pragmatic decision and made by democratic leaders together, but I am not sure it is wise one.

For one it takes not only Constitutional rights, but foundations of the country.

It also tell that laws are a piece of junk. They can be changed, twisted retroactively to fit someone's agenda. There must be a way to challenge this law and overturn it.

"It is a close call for me," Obama told reporters"

Unlike Obama, the illusion of oversight isn't a close call for me. What Obama is doing just makes me sick to my stomach.

As a former Edwards' supporter I donated to his primary campaign and had planned on donating to Obama's once the Convention was completed. That will not happen now.

Typical ambitious politian who would change stands ruthlessly for political expediency-thats some change isnt it?

Obama supporters who feel strongly about this issue should take advantage of this opportunity to learn some additional lessons on basic politics. No offense, OK? We're on the same side, alright? But have you really stopped to observe the US Congress and the absurd way it goes about its business? I doubt you have, or you wouldn't be so judgmental here. I mean who spends their time tracking The Hill (other than inside-the-beltway types, and they don't count here)? I tried, and quickly went ballistic.

Just a couple of facts here:

We live in a representative Democracy. Flawed, yes, but it's still the system. If Barack is expected to work outside that system AND become Prez, well those expectations are absurd.

Those who claim to support Obama but are ready to jump ship over this are not worthy of calling themselves supporters. I think we have some less than sincere posters here.

BO is a Junior Senator in his first term. He has the highest aspirations in the land, but right now, that's what he does and that's the role he is playing.

All the world's a stage. Obama's current role on his current stage is NOT as the Prez.

He is NOT the 'Leader of the Democrats'. Not yet anyway, don't be counting your chickens just yet. Fulfilling his role as Illinois' Junior Senator and being a part of the best solution available considering the presence of so many idiot Republicans is NOT a lie or a betrayal.

If this issue has you up in arms, good for you. Just remember that lots of people get excited and agitated about a lot of different issues, and the viewpoints on those issues vary across the spectrum. You are just another voice in the tumult.

If you want to see this issue resolved correctly, then you need to redouble your commitment to working towards defeating every last Republican in the land.

Only a VERY severe butt-kicking is going to make an impact on those clowns. They STILL think their problem is that they haven't related their message well enough. HAW! We know that their message is severe flawed and only a resounding defeat will get the message thru their skulls.

The other purpose is voting for anyone but a Republican is to remove the filibuster from the Senate, and the various obstructionist tactics from the House.

Whatever else you do, just don't vote Republican. Please.

LOL! :-D

In other Words;

Mommy(San Fran Nan), still insists little O'Bomba-Nation still support it!

So does Daddy! (Georgie Soros)

Sorry Obama,

You will no longer get my vote. I thought you were different and would stand up to those that want to take away our civil liberties. You have went back on your word several times and I can't support another lying politician.

This will be a 50+1 state contest. Obama has changed positions faster than he plays the race card. Even his supporters don't know how to defend him. Obama attacks, so they attack because they have no ideal what he stands for. They just know he gives a great speech. It is funny watching Obama kick the left to the curb as he changes positions on FISA, campaign finance which they will come to regret because politics runs in cycles, so don't b1tch when the next republican skips public financing. Now, he is not even sure if he will have troops out of Iraq by the end of a first term. Bend over and inhale lefties. And today, he decided he is for the death penalty which must be driving you folks to overdose. WOW, now he supports immunity to telecommunications companies, and death to child rapist. Welcome aboard Obama.

Just because you are smart and understand the constitution does not mean you aren't willing to gut the fourth amendment to that constitution for your own political advantage on the national stage.

Rose: The University of Chicago considered him a 'professor', so he was one at that revered institution.

Look it up.

Obama was a lecturer, not a professor of the Constitution, at the University of Chicago.

"His posture on this shows just how poorly informed he is, and how willing he is to ignore the lawless behavior of our current administration."

YOUR imperious "posture" is unwarranted and shows just how poorly informed YOU (who didn't even leave a name) are.

Everybody, please understand this. When a prosecutor wants to get to the bottom of a bombshell (drug-trafficking, steroids, Watergate, etc.), they're not going to want to prosecute the "little fish" because the "little fish" have the information needed to prosecute the "big fish."

Barack Obama intuitively understood this when he said, "the bill's target should not be the phone companies' culpability, but 'can we get to the bottom of what's taking place, and do we have safeguards?'"

Had the telecom community NOT been given immunity and had the bill not been amended FOR a provision for a secret court, the government and the Bush Administration, specifically, would have been that much more insulated from the scrutiny and accountability necessary. If anything, this provides MORE of a check on the Bush Administration.

If ANYBODY knows the constitution it's Barack Obama: a magna cum laude graduate from Harvard Law, a constitutional law professor at the University of Chicago (a top-tier law school) for 10 years, and a state legislator for 12 years. He WILL protect the constitution.

But he's also a pragmatist and a POST-partisan politician, which is why I believe THAT MUCH MORE in his ability to bring about REAL change in Washington!

-Obama '08-

Consider the other choice; it should take no longer than a microsecond to come to the decision of Obama over McCain. There have been several issues where I have not agreed with the Obama campaign positions only to realize the nature of a Presidential campaign where pragmatism grows from idealism. Gore was a better choice than Bush as was Kerry. I suggest we all keep our eyes on the finish line and know there will be a rut or several to cross along the way.

a very wise choice !!! and a presidential one he had to move a little bit to the center and show that he is strong on national security. other wise the Macbush camp would have milked this one to death.

At best, I can see this as an extremely triangulated vote to look tough on "terror" until elections are over. Hopefully the Dodd, Fiengold filibuster prevails.

I have a great respect for Obama's pragmatism and commitment to post-partisanship, but this bill is garbage and a mostly transparent assault on the 4th amendment. As leader of the Democrats he has the influence to help stop this.

I am putting a moratorium on donations until this is settled properly.

I understand the need to comprimise, but not on the Constitution.

If Obama didn't support this bill, he would look soft on terror. The GOP would run with that--it is the only area where McCain leads him in the polls.

No immunity to telecommunications companies!!

No immunity to the Republican traitors!

I am an unwavering Obama supporter, but I would like to hear more detail about this change of thought on his behalf.

I have had so much confidence in his respect for the Constitution that I am somewhat baffled by this turn of events. I want to hear more from him.

I'm a liberal Democrat...and i'm ready to abandon Obama already! His posture on this shows just how poorly informed he is, and how willing he is to ignore the lawless behavior of our current administration. How can we trust Obam to make right the obscene imperial power grabs of the Bush administration?

This shouldn't be a "close call" for Obama at all! Telecom immunity is just BAD policy on all fronts. 1) How can Congress wink and nod at a president who routinely puts himself above our laws and Constitution. 2) How can Congress grant immunity when nobody's been able to get a straight story of what's happened. 3) How can Congress restrict citizen's access to the courts...especially when the government's case is so untenable.

Read Christopher Dodd's speech on the Senate floor today (http://dodd.senate.gov/index.php?q=node/4476). THAT's statesmanship.

Barack Obama is a pragmatist as is any successful politician. No bill is perfect. America has a clear choice between McCain and 4 more years of the same boneheaded policies, or Barack Obama who has the right plans, experience, and judgment, that this country needs at this crucial moment in history.