House Democratic Version of FISA-Upgrade Bill Passes

Washington D.C.--Go right ahead and veto this bill so that the process has to begin all over again. The shadow cast by impending lawsuits against the telecommunications companies is having a good effect on the Bush administration--it's inflicting a reasonable degree of attrition. The White House and her allies are having to expend a great deal of energy, monies, and resources with little-to-no-effect, even here in gooberville (Indiana).

But there is a sea change occurring in Indiana, a political-shift. Some of this is the gradual dying-off of the WWII generation, but mainly because many people here in the 2nd District--and throughout the state--are not voting straight Republican anymore. That's a cause for alarm for any party, but the rednecks aren't having it up here in Northern Indiana anymore. Why, many of them might even vote for Black man...but people change in this country when all the corruption starts effecting their wallets directly, it doesn't have anything to do with some sudden flash of solidarity or enlightenment.

Human beings are selfish and aggressive at-base. Some of us overcome it. We're seeing the fallout from those of us who cannot. What's important is enforcing accountability, or there's really no point of having laws or order. That appears to be the neoconservative argument in-a-nutshell. Corruption is natural, hence the desperate need for regulation. People aren't inherently-good, and at this point in human history, the concept of community is exotic. Nothing is more natural or human as a thief or a brigand. If generosity and kindness were commonplace, they wouldn't be special.

The Foundation for the Defense of Democracies is spending millions-of-dollars running a new ad in several states right now attacking House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and the rest of the Democratic Party with bald-misrepresentations that we're all suddenly without FISA and that "investigations are being hampered." Correct, investigations without a warrant are being hampered, and our rights are finally being recognized by more members of Congress. One should be asking: who are the FDD's primary backers and donors? I hope for their sake that their records are in order, and that they haven't visited any hookers in the last-few-months.