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.

Separation of powers between the executive branch and judicial branch began in Florida in the 2000 election when the court rendered a recount of the vote there impossible after the electoral system failed disastrously.

Bush's use of signing statements gave him virtually complete control over the legislative process when he decided what clauses he would implement and which ones he wouldn't.  The refusal of Congress to take firm and effecacious action further nullified the legislative powers of Congress.

Abuse of the convention of executive privilege completely undermined the power of Congress to oversee the executive branch and the refusal of Congress to rectify the problem was tantamount to self-immolation.

Overshadowing all other attacks on democracy in America was the refusal of the House to launch impeachment proceedings against a President who probably committed more "high crimes and misdemeanors" than any other president.  Bush lied to Congress and the American people about the justification for the war against Iraq, authorized torture and illegal wiretappings and ran roughshod over the legislative branch of government.

Comparing impeachment charges against Clinton for lying about a sexual encounter in the Oval Office to the crimes of Bush will be cannon fodder for historians as long as there is a history of the United States.

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....