Our fine upstanding senators are about to take this:
The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.
And make it effectively say this:
The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, but upon the whims of George W. Bush, who can do whatever he bloody well wants. And oh yes–when he tells the phone companies to spy on you illegally, it’s, like, totally legal now.
I just had some pretty sweet enchiladas Suizas to celebrate. What are you doing while the Senate votes to give away your right of privacy?
Democracy was pretty cool. But now that the terrorists are waiting in every dark corner to kill everyone, it only makes sense to dismantle our entire way of life. And who better to take the helm than the petulant man-child offspring of a former CIA director, whose father in turn was on the board of directors of a bank owned by a primary funder of Hitler?
Life is sweet!
And I’m gonna hurl.
PS–Thanks to mcjoan at Daily Kos for the fine "capitulation day" moniker.
UPDATE: They’ve done it. Even Barack Obama. We will now almost certainly never know what exactly Bush did to spy on us. And everyone will continue watching Wipeout because it’s easier to understand than some goldang liberal talking about some mumbo-jumbo FISA or whatever, and we’ll putter on till November, when, instead of enthusiastically supporting Obama, I’ll once again have to grin and bear it and pull the lever for another freaking "centrist" Democrat and the government will listen to my phone calls with impunity, and hey, if you haven’t done anything wrong, why should you care if the government listens in on your most intimate conversations?
I, for one, am thoroughly disgusted and deflated. Years of fighting against Bush’s horrifying illegal excesses, and the Democratic Party can’t even bother to do a single thing differently from the Republicans. And none of this had to happen. The Democratic congress won the day last spring, standing up to Bush’s fearmongering. But Steny Hoyer came up with this "compromise." I hope he’s happy. And I hope the Bush administration immediately taps Hoyer’s phone and listens to every phone call until he finds the one that will send Hoyer up the river, because he deserves all the praise of, say, Benedict Arnold.
I guess we don’t deserve democracy anymore.
