Comments on: Democrats Cave on Telcom Immunity

By: Steve Plonk

Steve Plonk — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 15:14:38 +0000

Thanks, America needs all the luck it can get. However, it remains to be seen what happens in November. If Obama gets elected, some folks think that the nails will start being hammered in the coffin of the “ownership society”.
Who knows? I wish I had a “crystal ball”.

By: rayfromuk

rayfromuk — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 12:38:21 +0000

Obama caved as well. From this distance there would seem to be not one iota of difference between parties. The fear as I perceive it, is, Obama having been elected the first man of colur to be president, will think job done and nothing of sustance will change except the ladder that gave him access to the top job will be pulled up after him.As an example,Have the UK had another woman PM since Thatcher?
I wish America he very best of luck in the comming Year, I think you will need it.

By: Big U

Big U — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 21:03:50 +0000

Not related to this story but related to the power issue. “big enough, strong enough, and important enough”. Sounds like the beginning lines of bullying to me. I’m starting to see that political stripe doesn’t really matter in the US. They all like to push their weight around.

http://www.canada.com/reginaleaderpost/news/story.html?id=6c67991a-7d83-45b3-bb6a-9eb2ed6abab6

By: Kevin

Kevin — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 13:43:17 +0000

:show how the Democrats differ from Republicans”

But on this issue, not enough of them do, and not enough in the leaderhip want to. The Washington consensus really is a for a bomb first, spy everywhere security state. its unfortunate, but its real. Yes, the majority of the caucus is against this, but there enough Blue Dogs and “tough” foreign policy people in the leadership to make this happen. This particular sickness is bipartisian enough to be the majority position on congress.

By: Big U

Big U — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 05:00:20 +0000

Well, count me confused. I would think this would be a spectacular way to show how the Democrats differ from Republicans.

By: LarryE

LarryE — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 02:21:41 +0000

Big U -

For the sake of accuracy, we should note that despite the frequent media references to “Congressional leaders,” the people who came up with this surrender were secord-tier leaders among Democrats, not the top leadership. That doesn’t necessarily make it better as that top leadership could have put an end to this if they’d wanted to, but still it should be noted.

On the substance of your comment, I think this is not so much “power corrupts” as it is “fear undermines.” The Democraps, as I said yesterday and yes that is a plug for myself,

are still so ready to piss their pants at the mere hint of being called “soft on terror” that they are desperate to take FISA off the table, particularly since the authority to spy issued under Pah! will be expiring just about the time [they] will be nominating Barack Obama.

“Pah!,” by the way, meaning “an interjection expressing disgust,” is my pronunciation of PAA, the Protect America Act, the reprehensible bill passed last August which served as the basis for this so-called “compromise.”

By: DavidD

DavidD — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 22:17:03 +0000

Vote in November so that you can help keep that dangerous power out of John McCain’s hands.

By: Kevin

Kevin — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 20:45:56 +0000

Big U

hee

Yes, to a certain extent, power corrupts. I don’t mean in the “bwahahahaha look what power I have way!” but in the “well, we are the good guys!” way. That last way is pretty much the political consensus now – -that power in the hands of authority is Godd becasue the authority wants it to Do Good.

Part of this is just the same chickenshit “oh noes! they will call us soft on terrorism!” crap thats left over from the 80s and 90s, of course. Our leadership is to attune to that time period and not enough to this one. its one of the things that makes Obama so refreshing in democratic circles. I am hopeful things will get better, but we are going to lose a lot until it does.

The Blue Dog thing is here:http://www.cqpolitics.com/wmspage.cfm?docID=cqmidday-000002899718

By: Big U

Big U — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 20:30:30 +0000

hehehe. and no Kevin I’m not trying to be a pain. It just looks that way.

By: Big U

Big U — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 20:27:18 +0000

So if stuff like this is true does that basically start to paint all politicians with the same brush? According to the the Wall Street Journal article that was linked, House Democratic leaders approved going to a vote in spite of what many in the party wanted. Is this a sign that power corrupts no matter what party you belong to?

And as a note, I didn’t see mention of conservative Democrats from what I read. All I saw was congressional Democrats. That would be a huge distinction because I would highly doubt the House Democratic leaders would be on the conservative side of things (thought I could easily be wrong).