[Enchante]

"there was nothing to fear in the bill “unless you have Al Qaeda on your speed dial.”"

Unfortunately, when speaking of leftists this is not a stretch at all.....

[Always Right]

I bet Obama did not even bother to vote.

[djsherin]

I don’t trust the government. While I certainly have nothing to hide, it’s a slippery slope. We can only hope that the precident doesn’t allow some future president to justify more overt spying techniques.

[angkor]

>>>>>>the phone companies that took part in the wiretapping program.

Pointless to correct this again, but it wasn’t a “wiretapping” program, it was a trap-and-trace and pen-register program.

There’s a huge world of technical and legal difference among those terms.

[avacado]

"The plan, approved by a vote of 69 to 28, marked one of Mr. Bush’s most hard-won legislative victories in a Democratic-led Congress where he has had little success of late."

LOL! Bush just got the war funded... AGAIN!

[TexasCajun]

The DUmmies and KOSnuts heads’ must be exploding this afternoon!

[traviskicks]

...broadening the government’s spy powers and providing legal immunity for the phone companies...

Libertarian ping! To be added or removed freepmail me or post a message here.

[paudio]

Obama: This is not the FISA I know... so I vote for it.

[NRA2BFree]

in a Democratic-led Congress where he has had little success of late.

Obviously, they haven't been paying attention. The Republicans/Bush have been kicking their butts all over the place.

[TexasCajun]

Here's the list of Democrats voting for the bill:

Baucus (D-MT)
Bayh (D-IN)
Carper (D-DE)
Casey (D-PA)
Conrad (D-ND)
Feinstein (D-CA)
Inouye (D-HI)
Johnson (D-SD)
Kohl (D-WI)
Landrieu (D-LA)
Lincoln (D-AR)
McCaskill (D-MO)
Mikulski (D-MD)
Nelson (D-FL)
Nelson (D-NE)
Obama (D-IL)
Pryor (D-AR)
Rockefeller (D-WV)
Salazar (D-CO)
Webb (D-VA)
Whitehouse (D-RI)

and 'Independent Democrat' Lieberman (ID-CT)

[TexasCajun]

I looked over at DU and they are vowing to stop Obama donations and redirect them to the ACLU.

The kids are having a fit.

[what's up]

LOL. Omamba rapidly running right.

Soon he will placing himself right of McCain, advocating a flag burning amendment and saying David Duke is a friend of his.

[M203M4]

Barack Hussein Obama thinks he will be Mr President Obama in January. If you were a power-hungry stealth-communist on the cusp of assuming the highest office in the nation, with grand visions for remaking America, which way would you vote?

[Califelephant]

Something to think about: Why did Hillary vote no?

Put aside what she thinks about the merits of the bill, and put aside her liberal ideology for a minute. The vote won't make a difference in terms of her next Senate run, and will be long forgotten by 2012. By voting yes instead of no today, she would have decreased the left-wing heat on Obama (not much, but a little). Instead, she opted to draw a contrast between him and her with the vote. It's almost as if she's still in the running to be the Dem's nominee this year.

[pleikumud]

“I urge my colleagues to stand up for the rule of law and defeat this bill,” Senator Russell D. Feingold, Democrat of Wisconsin, said in closing arguments.

Why would Feingold be worried about the rule of law? McCain-Feingold violates the 1st Amendment and he doesn’t seem concerned about that at all.

[Taking Congress back in 2010]

How did McCain vote?

[tobyhill]

Obama promised to filibuster it but now has just thrown all his “civil liberties” base under the bus.

[PastorTony]

Welcome to 1984. It’s telling that not a single Republican senator voted against this.

[In_25_words_or_less]

I just got off the phone with Obama. He thanks you all for the cool new powers he gets to use starting next year. The Constitution was just a stupid piece of paper anyway.

[shrinkermd]

I thought this bill was about "pen register" and "trap and trace records".

In my limited understanding a pen register is an electronic device which records all numbers dialed from a particular phone line. While a trap and trace device records the originating phone numbers of all incoming calls on a particular phone line.

Seemingly, "wire tap" is not what this bill is about or they are now calling pen register devices and trap and trace devices as wiretaps.

Much of the discussion on this seems to be highly emotional and based on an insufficient understanding of what the Bill actually did.