What She Said

As I go off to bed dreaming of democracy, I leave with these thoughts from firedoglake-

...Republican partisans are already trying to turn this into an "us versus them" argument (in today's NYTimes) -- a straw man who doesn't want any actions toward safety versus the Limbaugh-esque presentation of the he-man Republican Alberto Gonzales and a Preznit who is more superhero than politician.

What a joke. The hard choice is to follow the law -- to go to Congress and request modifications of the existing statutes, rather than sneaking around behind everyone's back and seizing power that is against the law because the President is too much of a chicken shit to be honest with the public about what he thinks is necessary. To respect the Constitution and our long history of liberty against short-term expediency and panic and being scared shitless while pretending to read My Pet Goat.

Surveillance is absolutely necessary to fight a war against terrorists who use technology as a part of their strategy. That is a given, and not something that any sane Democrat would argue against. But that doesn't mean you throw out the Constitution and the entire history of our nation because the President and his staffers pee their pants in fear over a few militant nutballs hiding out in a cave somewhere in Pakistan. Are we a nation of laws -- or a bunch of scardey-pants babies who don't deserve the rights our Founders fought so hard to gain us at the inception of our country?...