"What is your major malfunction, Democrats! "

[kentuck]

A good proportion of our Party is acting like "Gomer" in the movie, Full Metal Jacket. What is their fucking major malfunction?! Why do they vote the way they do?



Have they all gotten a contact high from our paranoid Commander in Chief? Are they as fearful and chickenshit as they act and as they vote?? Do they have as little respect for our Constitution as they demonstrated today? How can anyone follow or understand their irrational actions?

Just what is their problem? Are they afraid of George W Bush and Dick Cheney? Are they being blackmailed? Are they fearful that they will be exposed for their own cooperation in breaking these laws? Or are they all simple Judas Iscariots? Thirty tiny pieces of silver from the powerful telecomes is all they needed to change their simple minds?

[ColbertWatcher]

1. You need a picture...

[kentuck]

2. May I borrow that?

It's perfect!

[ColbertWatcher]

3. Absolutely!. n/t

[MercutioATC]

4. The major malfunction is that we need to get elected and 80% of Americans are semi-functional idiots

You've never seen "Idiocracy", have you?

http://www.cinemablend.com/reviews/Idiocracy-1775.html

[jgraz]

8. Really? How many of those "semi-functional idiots" even know what FISA is?

Obama won exactly ZERO votes with this capitulation. ZERO.

And he lost thousands, perhaps millions of formerly inspired people who now see him as another weak-ass political hack.

[MercutioATC]

14. Exactly my point. They know nothing.

They can tell you which American Idol they like or who was on Dancing With the Stars, but they have no idea what FISA is.

...and the same media that gives them American Idol and Dancing With the Stars will be happy to tell them how Obama voted to help terrorists nuke America by not giving the government "the tools it needs to combat Islamofacists".

Obama did exactly what he needed to do. He dodged a bullet. It didn't actively gain him any votes...and it may have lost him some. It inoculated him from a lot of "Democrats can't keep us safe" issues, however...and that's worth a lot when you're dealing with an electorate as poorly informed as ours.

[jgraz]

15. Once again, the Democrats ceded the entire national security debate to the Rethugs

How is that a win for anyone?

[ColbertWatcher]

17. How would you have done it differently? n/t

[jgraz]

23. I would have done it the way Obama did it last August.

Check this out:

This Administration also puts forward a false choice between the liberties we cherish and the security we demand. I will provide our intelligence and law enforcement agencies with the tools they need to track and take out the terrorists without undermining our Constitution and our freedom.

That means no more illegal wire-tapping of American citizens. No more national security letters to spy on citizens who are not suspected of a crime. No more tracking citizens who do nothing more than protest a misguided war. No more ignoring the law when it is inconvenient. That is not who we are. And it is not what is necessary to defeat the terrorists. The FISA court works. The separation of powers works. Our Constitution works. We will again set an example for the world that the law is not subject to the whims of stubborn rulers, and that justice is not arbitrary.

This Administration acts like violating civil liberties is the way to enhance our security. It is not. There are no short-cuts to protecting America, and that is why the fifth part of my strategy is doing the hard and patient work to secure a more resilient homeland.

http://www.barackobama.com/2007/08/01/the_war_we_need_to_win.php

THAT's leadership. That's a real, strong position in favor of national security AND civil liberties. Too bad he couldn't stick to it.

[ColbertWatcher]

24. There have been a few people who say the language of the bill...

...has changed since that statement was made and now allows for criminal charges, just not civil.

[jgraz]

28. That's more spin.

Every version bill allowed for criminal charges. They just realized this loophole because John Dean pointed it out in national television -- AFTER the Democrats had already agreed to cave on it.

I will bet you $1000 that we will never see a single criminal charge against a telecom for FISA violations.

[ColbertWatcher]

5. It's not the elected officials; it's the voters.

There is just enough who believe in FOX to throw everything off balance.

[jgraz]

9. Before Obama caved on FISA, he had a 15-point lead nationally

How does that jibe with your "stupid voter" theory?

[ColbertWatcher]

10. Dumbya was "elected" in 2000 and "again" in 2004.

Polls are one thing, elections are another.

[jgraz]

13. That is a complete non sequitur

What does that have to do with my question?

[ColbertWatcher]

16. We're talking number, yes?

You used a poll, I used an election.

As far as the polls go, I'd like to believe them, but we've got a long summer ahead of us and a whole bunch of morans watching whatever the TV puts in front of them.

[jgraz]

20. So how many votes do you think this cave-in will get him?

If you want to talk elections, let's talk elections. Which state will this win for Obama? How many people will vote for Obama based on his support of this bill?

Here's my theory: any voter stupid enough to support this bill is too stupid to vote Democrat this fall. What say you?

[ColbertWatcher]

27. Hmm...

So how many votes do you think this cave-in will get him?

Depends on whether the GOP-controlled media labels it as a cave-in or not.

Which state will this win for Obama? How many people will vote for Obama based on his support of this bill?

You sound very certain that swing states will definitely vote McCain based on this one vote. Have you already been to the future and seen the returns? If not, I'm going to go out on a limb and say this is speculation on your part.

One of the sad things about being a news junkie is that sometimes it's hard to tell what the general public knows compared to what the junkie knows.

Obama might lose votes based on this one bill. But, it is likely the general public doesn't know as much as the news junkies who populate DU forums do. They might, but it's likely they don't. If anything the voters will decide who to vote for based on the myths created by the TV, not by any one particular vote.

It would be nice if people paid more attention, but the fact remains they don't and for a variety of reasons. One reason could be that the GOP-controlled media finds it easier to call a political move a "cave-in" while not asking why the GOP candidate didn't vote at all.

Here's my theory: any voter stupid enough to support this bill is too stupid to vote Democrat this fall. What say you?

I say the voter who would support this bill probably got their info from the TV and probably doesn't have the time to confirm what they're being told since they're working several jobs and is too damn tired at the end of a long day to research the nuances of one bill no matter how important it is.

Who knows how this person will vote if they find the time to vote at all.

We've got a long, hot summer between now and the election. We can only hope the GOP-controlled media gets their shit together and start doing the work of real journalists.

Or we can convince our neighbors, family, friends and co-workers the truth behind the GOP media lies, so more people can put informed pressure on their elected representatives. That way next time there is an important vote in Congress, DUers won't be working alone.

[notesdev]

6. Shouldn't be a surprise

I predicted that the telecoms could buy as many votes as they wanted, no problem. Some were angry at me for saying so, others were surprised at my apparent cynicism.

But for anyone who has seen the ugly sausage factory that passes for our government, the ease at which legislators - Democrats AND Republicans alike - can be bribed is no shock.

Our government operates on bribery. This is the plain fact, the plain truth, and any plan for change in DC must start by acknowledging how thoroughly corrupt the ENTIRE system - left and right - is.

In DC, there is no left and right. There is the political elite, and then everyone else. Until we sanction the Demo-publican one-party system that really rules our country, there is no effort at change that can be effective. The elites laugh when we argue right and wrong. There is no right and wrong for them, only what they must do to keep their power.

[EbenezerMcIntosh]

12. Very well said.

The only thing I can add is that die-hard party loyalists will look for and find any fucking excuse, no matter how irrelevant to the real crises we face today, to reject alternatives.

No more for me. Fuck party.

I have been a registered Democrat for 37 years. No more.

We are getting fucked sideways every which way by evil-minded neocon hitlerites and spineless dipshit so-called "liberals" who have all twisted our government into an oppressive cluster fuck of tyranny.

It is time to explore alternative views on foreign policy, economic policy and monetary policy.

Out.

[RFKJrNews]

21. Sounds like you're not the only one who has had enough

After the FISA vote today, our blog got flooded with disgruntled Dems and *former* Obama supporters (former as of today)who say they are changing their voter registration status to independent and leaving the party.

Maybe they're just pissed off and venting, but maybe they're dead serious.

And that alone should give us all pause.

[EbenezerMcIntosh]

22. BTW

RFK would make a great president!

:hi:

[lumberjack_jeff]

7. I SUGGEST YOU UNF**K YOURSELVES, DEMOCRATS! n/t

[leftofthedial]

11. it doesn't matter why

it just matters that they have become the enemy.

[HCE SuiGeneris]

18. Corruption? Fear? Complicity? Understaffed to initiate a proper challenge

to the power brokers? http://www.videocommunity.com/pc/pc/display/7167

[spag68]

19. Antrax

[AndyTiedye]

25. Blackmail and Death Threats

By avoiding ALL oversight, they are able to turn the NSA spying operation into the ultimate blackmail machine


and now the added threat of being sent to prison on entirely trumped-up charges,
like they did to former AL Governor Don Siegelman.

If that somehow is not enough, they've got this anthrax, or they can make your plane fall out of the sky.

[ForrestGump]

26. "Oh that's right, Private Pelosi,

don't make any f**king effort to get rid of the f**king war criminals. If God would have wanted them out of there he would have miracled their asses out by now, wouldn't he?"

[slackmaster]

29. Paraphrasing Gunnery Sgt. Hartman's last words?

Interesting.

[kentuck]

30. In my opinion...

There is never a good time to dispense with the Fourth Amendment, for political expediency or otherwise.
However, Barack Obama weighed it very carefully and cautiously - as he does with every issue - and decided that the negatives outweighed the positives if he voted against it. He's a poker player and he played the odds. Being a constitutional scholar, one would have thought he would have welcomed a fight to defend the Constitution but he decided against it. He may have over-thought this issue? He may have thought it was a "trap" set by the Republicans? He may have been right?