Instahoglets August 5th 07

By Cernig

Some links, some snark, and thee. Just be careful of Big Brother looking over your shoulder.

So the bill amending FISA has passed both House and Senate. Larissa urges Dems to send back their party cards.

Even the moderate voice, Joe Gandelman, finds himself in agreement with Glenn Greenwald - Dem collaborators are too politically scared of losing their seats, so they submit to Dubya's bully pulpit.

Jack Balkin examines "The Party of Fear, the Party Without A Spine, and the National Surveillance State".

And even with all this spying, Osama's still bin forgotten.

It's almost as if positioning for the next election is more important than actually doing something, or as if Dem rhetoric on executive power only counts if it's Republicans doing the abusing.

Certainly, Republicans want to dodge the issue. Fred!s dodge takes the proverbial - he is "not a candidate" and therefore doesn't need to have an opinion on executive privilege.

But at least let the rest of us be clear on what comes after the spying.

First they come for the whistleblowers - maybe even ex-DOJ lawyers. This is the government we should trust?

Here is how trustable they've proven themselves to be - MI6's pre-Iraq warnings were swept aside by an obsessed White House. Given the many and deep connections to the UK establishment made by both Republican and Democratic politicians on the Hill, they must have known this. But they voted for war anyway. Seems to me there's a lot of folks still looking to dodge a bullet for being liars or knowing enablers of liars over the invasion of Iraq.

But there is a spark of hope for Iraq's future - the oil law has stalled as more and more Iraqis balk at handing their oil wealth to foreigners.

The bad news is that the US is now arming all sides of Iraq's civil war.

Meanwhile, the Iraqi government has no intention of accompanying the surge with political reconcilliaiation. Not ever.

No wonder the Iraqis even hate American street signs.

Oh, and just in case you thought the world wasn't complicated enough...it's time to dust off the old Cold war manuals.

Like relocation plans for the government in case of massive nuclear attack. The White House still won't let Rep. Peter DeFazio's, a senior member of the House's Homeland Security Committee, view the classified portion of the plan to operate the government after a catastrophe. Even if he has sworn an oath and would do so in a secure room.