I can promise that if more information is declassified about the program in the future, as is likely to happen either due to the Inspector General report, the election of a new President, or simply the passage of time, members of this body will regret that we passed this legislation.  I am also familiar with the collection activities that have been conducted under the Protect America Act and will continue under this bill. . . .

Publicly, all I can say is that I have serious concerns about how those activities may have impacted the civil liberties of Americans.  If we grant these new powers to the government and the effects become known to the American people, we will realize what a mistake it was, of that I am sure.

So the presumptive Dem nominee has been warned on the record, on the floor of the Senate, in the Capitol of this country, that Congress already has enabled the  compromising of the civil liberties of all Americans -- and, if the presumptive Dem nominee votes for this bill, he will continue to imperil the civil liberties of all Americans for an unlimited "simple passage of time" to come.

And possibly under President McCain.

Seems to me it's not the absolute count of D v R that is important, but the number of non-Blue-Dog Dems.  Even if the Dems get 60 seats, they still can't break a Republican filibuster unless every single one votes with the party.  

Looking at the FISA vote, and esp. the Senators making a career out of 'bipartisanship' meaning voting with Republicans, the D v R count is irrelevant.

I can't count the number of emails I've received demanding that I stop criticizing Obama for his support of this bill on the ground that such criticisms harm his chances for winning -- as though it's the fault of those who point out what Obama is doing, rather than Obama himself for completely reversing his position [...]

Ultimately, it's the sheer glibness of the support for this corrupt and Bush-enabling bill among Obama and his supporters that is most striking(Today's coverup of surveillance crimes and Barack Obama, by Glenn Greenwald, Salon, Wednesday July 9, 2008 08:21 EDT)

Obama has gone beyond abandoning his posture of being different, beyond even the shabby standard of being a pol like any other (and what did you expect, suckahs who trusted his word to give this uncredentialed inexperienced newbie the benefit of the doubt?)

Forget that so two-months ago promise that he would fight "the politicians in Washington" (Obama's own words, to con people out of funds and support, imploring skeptics to overlook his paltry record but hear his vow and enthrone him based on that promise.)

Obama's latest flip flop to a "new" standard is that he'll be a politician like the worst of them. So the "new" refrain from his cult is that this makes him not just any politician but a brilliant one.

What to do, what to do. Go to town hall and change my registration to Independent???

I do not know what to do about this nominee, this party.

And I'm feeling physically sick. This is awful.

Who will defend the Constitution and our rights???

Nice little Representative Democratic Republic we had there...for a couple hundred years....