Comments on: Is Obama Following Through on His Promise to End Warrantless Wiretapping? Should He?

By: Improved Means For Achieving Deteriorated Ends / Legal Links

Improved Means For Achieving Deteriorated Ends / Legal Links — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 18:18:37 +0000

[...] however meager, between angry senators and increased news coverage. In addition, some hold a much more balanced view that promotes waiting and seeing. The NSA position was a major factor in my support of Obama though or at least the belief that he [...]

By: Steve

Steve — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 23:02:50 +0000

Well, the lifecycle costs are lower than using elderlies for tank fuel… but then, elderlies aren’t good for anything and won’t ever be good for anything other than biomass, while babies can be converted into useful people.

By: ACG

ACG — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 22:36:34 +0000

Not to mention implied promises! (“I promise not to use babies for tank fuel”)

By: Steve

Steve — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 22:27:56 +0000

By one count, and I forget if it was ACG here or Jeff over at MNPublius who I saw it from, it was well over 500 promises.

By: bullwhacker

bullwhacker — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 21:39:04 +0000

ACG, things are biginning to make more sense. How old are you? I’ll go first, 58.

By: ACG

ACG — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 20:53:57 +0000

I’ll finish the sentence: “is not Futurama.”

Seriously, that’s bad news! I hope they get him! In the meantime, enjoy this hilarious clip of the man himself:

By: Gotchaye

Gotchaye — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 20:49:03 +0000

Bad news, ACG – http://popwatch.ew.com/popwatch/2009/07/futurama-new-voices.html?cnn=yes

They’re still negotiating, hopefully, but Futurama with no Billy West?

By: Fred

Fred — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 14:51:10 +0000

Mainly because he made a LOT of promises during the campaign. Now comes the tasks of prioritization, finding workable compromise, ect.

By: Mike

Mike — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 13:27:07 +0000

Why do so many of the posts on Obama go something like this:

Obama promised to do (insert action here) before he got elected. He has yet to do it, so here are some extremely nuanced reasons why he probably hasn’t done it, all of which absolve him from any real blame from the Left.

By: Philip H

Philip H — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 12:53:44 +0000

Ames,

You analysis of the why of the lawsuits teetering is one of the most concise I’ve seen in a while, and I thank you for it. Between you and Glenn Greenwald I may yet get a legal education from the Blog-o-sphere!

That said, I am still unable to come up with any scenario in which #3 is possible – nor have I ever been. An aquaintence of mine, recently retired from the senior levels of the permanent White House staff, has told me on more then one occassion that under the old FISA statute, warrants were granted 98% of the time. Show me any other arena where judges are involved and the petitioning party has that sort of success rate.

Now, if what he told me was true, then 1) we didn’t need to “revise” FISA with the Patriot Act or any other statute, and 2) the TSP was illegal when it started. Probably still is to anyone but John Yoo. And that being the case, not shutting down TSP (which, FWIW needs a new acronym since the TSP is also the Thrift Savings Plan into which many federal employees contribute for retirement) means that the government is wiretapping for purposes that are less then savory, to say the least.

And it also means the door is still open for warrantless wiretapping of American citizens for domestic reasons. That should scare you – it does scare me.