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1

Let me make things easier for everyone:

  1. Ha ha ha! Obamabots! You thought he was sent from heaven and could walk on water and could summon an army of unicorns! But where’s your Obama now?!?!? Change? HAHAHAH!!! He’s worse than Bush! You fools! DOOM!!! Ect., ect...
  2. He was never a liberal! Show where he ever said he was a liberal! His position is the same as it ever was and is the same/better than Hillary’s.
  3. He’s still better than McCain/McSame/McBush.
  4. Supreme Court appointments...
  5. [Link to meaningless poll data]
  6. Baby steps
  7. [Slog regular posts the same exact post that he/she always posts with slight variation]
  8. @[Comment number/Commenter name]: YOU FUCKING IDIOT!
  9. I bet Mr. Poe agrees with/participates in [Despicable act]!
  10. [Mr. Poe] I totally agree with/participate in [Despicable act].
  11. [Slog poster] has totally taken this out of context! Way to be a journalist!
  12. Dan Savage supported the war!
  13. That’s a straw man argument.
  14. [Commenter hits refresh after posting and double/triple/quadruple posts his/her comment]
  15. Fucking Seattle/Seattlites/Capitol Hill!
  16. [Comment number] for the win.
  17. Nanny state!
  18. Use a fucking jump/cut, Erica! Bitch whore slut. Feminism is dead.
  19. Stupid [Elected official/government agency]
  20. I’m sick of everything.
Posted by JC | July 9, 2008 2:09 PM
2

Let me make things easier for everyone:

  1. Ha ha ha! Obamabots! You thought he was sent from heaven and could walk on water and could summon an army of unicorns! But where’s your Obama now?!?!? Change? HAHAHAH!!! He’s worse than Bush! You fools! DOOM!!! Ect., ect...
  2. He was never a liberal! Show where he ever said he was a liberal! His position is the same as it ever was and is the same/better than Hillary’s.
  3. He’s still better than McCain/McSame/McBush.
  4. Supreme Court appointments...
  5. [Link to meaningless poll data]
  6. Baby steps
  7. [Slog regular posts the same exact post that he/she always posts with slight variation]
  8. @[Comment number/Commenter name]: YOU FUCKING IDIOT!
  9. I bet Mr. Poe agrees with/participates in [Despicable act]!
  10. [Mr. Poe] I totally agree with/participate in [Despicable act].
  11. [Slog poster] has totally taken this out of context! Way to be a journalist!
  12. Dan Savage supported the war!
  13. That’s a straw man argument.
  14. [Commenter hits refresh after posting and double/triple/quadruple posts his/her comment]
  15. Fucking Seattle/Seattlites/Capitol Hill!
  16. [Comment number] for the win.
  17. Nanny state!
  18. Use a fucking jump/cut, Erica! Bitch whore slut. Feminism is dead.
  19. Stupid [Elected official/government agency]
  20. I’m sick of everything.

Just pick a number.

Posted by JC | July 9, 2008 2:11 PM
3

if clinton won the nomination, she probably would have been pressured to do the same thing. it's kind of like thinking you need to vote for presidential authority to go to war, you know, to avoid being attacked for being 'soft on terrorists.'

not agreeing with obama's moves. i'm disappointed. but it seems clear this was a calculated move to put the issue behind him for now.

there's a loophole in the bill that will allow retroactive criminal prosecution of the telecoms. it will be interesting to see where that goes once we have a new president.

and i didn't see anyone fillibustering who needed support.

Posted by chops | July 9, 2008 2:15 PM
4

I pick one.

Posted by Vince | July 9, 2008 2:15 PM
5

@ 1 & 2:

i'll take 16.

Posted by chops | July 9, 2008 2:22 PM
6

@1/2: Dude, you used to have passion for the life. What happened?

Posted by Ziggity | July 9, 2008 2:23 PM
7

@4 - your standard comment used to be "ugh, he better just win." Well Vince, he's winning. kinda hard to please, arent we?

Posted by longball | July 9, 2008 2:23 PM
8

Comment number two should just be a #14. Fuckin' Slog.

Posted by JC | July 9, 2008 2:26 PM
9

JC's comment should be a SLOG T-shirt.

Posted by longball | July 9, 2008 2:28 PM
10

FISA is a travesty.


I'm sick of everything.

Posted by laterite | July 9, 2008 2:28 PM
11

So he voted to protect the telecoms from civil suits; that doesn't preclude him from starting his own criminal investigation/prosecution when/if he wins the presidency.

Posted by Lou | July 9, 2008 2:29 PM
12

Yep, fuck it. Fuck you, Democrats. Yet another year where I'm voting for the independent. Die in hell, fucking corrupt political system.

Posted by I'm out | July 9, 2008 2:34 PM
13

Well fuck that.

Posted by Greg | July 9, 2008 2:35 PM
14

The candidate to beat is McCain.

Posted by Sirkowski | July 9, 2008 2:36 PM
15

@7 That was before he tried to become Bush. Now he's just another rat fink politician.

Posted by Vince | July 9, 2008 2:42 PM
16

Lover of schadenfreude and Itoldyouso. Former Clinton supporter. I take no pleasure in this.

Posted by umvue | July 9, 2008 2:44 PM
17

@1 FTW!

Posted by Will in STL | July 9, 2008 2:46 PM
18

I pick @3 and @4. Glad to see Saint Louis representing, @17.

I like the idea of the t-shirt.

Posted by Will in Seattle | July 9, 2008 2:52 PM
19

isn't this issue delt with on "the wire"?

Posted by uhmmm | July 9, 2008 2:54 PM
20

@1 - You missed the "He is being a smart politician -- he doesn't believe in this -- he is showing he knows how to win. Go Obama!" option.

Posted by twee | July 9, 2008 2:59 PM
21

@1
Fuck JC, this could be every Slog politics comments page I've ever read. What am going to read/write about? The Slog is just cold, grey ashes to me now.

You've ruined the whole election.

Posted by blank12357 | July 9, 2008 3:04 PM
22

Me, I usually avoid commenting on the Obama stuff these days but @1 has sucked me in long enough to say, that was fucking brilliant.

Posted by PopTart | July 9, 2008 3:09 PM
23

Hey brilliant call out to HRC supporters -- you know, the people who kept saying Obama ain't that different and stuff? ANd HRC -- not so bad?

Like, they're both human, both pols and both subject to overwhelming forces such as the nature of our electorate?

Us?

Yeah, guilty.

But yeah @3 got it right.

What you fail to get is HRC supporters don't usually adulate her quite so much. There were many good reasons to support her and same for Obama.

In the end they're both mildly progressive centrist Dems who want to fucking get elected. Big news flash!

But if you think calling out HRC supporters to state the obvious is somehow disproving the point -- that they're just not that different -- um, duh, like you are wrong.

Yup they both compromise and guess what -- sometimes any one of us likes it and sometimes any one of us doesn't.

Oh, another thing. We shall see what his health care plan gets watered down to after he wins presidency then you can say "golly gee, those damn Hillary supporters sure are likely to point out they told us so, just to make the point she couldn't get it done and now he cna't either."

And you'd be right. We would point it out.

Both of them, and us, are trapped in a conservatively structured Senate where 18% of the population of the US gets to control 40 Senators and via the cloutre rules choke off anything progressive at all -- a major reason why we ain't so progressive.

Don't y'all get it? It's not the personality or charisma of the president so much. Anyone who would win, would compromise on lots of things, yessir. But it's not a moral fault of theirs. That's the point. It's s-t-r-u-c-t-u-r-a-l.


Thinking it's about the personality (Obama can save us! Obama can save us! He's "different"!!) is so petite bourgeoisie-type thinking I'm going to vomit in my Marxism 101 class tonight just thinking about it.

Posted by PC | July 9, 2008 3:31 PM
24

I'm in agreement. It's terrible and I'm mad. Would I still have voted for Obama? Yes. Will I still vote for him in November? Yes. Will I give him any more money? No. I'm not particularly inspired anymore.

Posted by D. | July 9, 2008 3:35 PM
25

I think it's unfair to accuse Obama of pandering to the center/right or capitulating to outside political pressures on this issue. After all, maybe he just believes he will be President next year and actually WANTS these powers for himself (as Greenwald and others have suggested elsewhere). I mean, if you could vote yourself the power to fly, wouldn't you?

Posted by David | July 9, 2008 3:39 PM
26

Andy Borowitz put it best:

Liberal Bloggers Accuse Obama of Trying to Win Election
Nominee Called Traitor to Democrats' Losing Tradition

The liberal blogosphere was aflame today with new accusations that Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill) is trying to win the 2008 presidential election.

Suspicions about Sen. Obama's true motives have been building over the past few weeks, but not until today have the bloggers called him out for betraying the Democratic Party's losing tradition.

"Barack Obama seems to be making a very calculated attempt to win over 270 electoral votes," wrote liberal blogger Carol Foyler at LibDemWatch.com, a blog read by a half-dozen other liberal bloggers. "He must be stopped."

But those comments were not nearly as strident as those of Tracy Klugian, whose blog LoseOn.org has backed unsuccessful Democratic candidates since 2000.

"Increasingly, Barack Obama's message is becoming more accessible, appealing, and yes, potentially successful," he wrote. "Any Democrat who voted for Dukakis, Mondale or Kerry should regard this as a betrayal."

Democratic National Committee chairman Howard Dean said that he was "sympathetic" to the concerns of bloggers who worry that their nominee seems stubbornly bent on winning the election, but he warned them that the DNC's "hands are tied."

"If Sen. Obama is really determined to win, I don't think any of us can talk him out of it," Mr. Dean said.

Liberal bloggers said that they would be watching Sen. Obama's vice-presidential selection process "very closely" for signs that he is plotting to win the election.

"Barack Obama still has a chance to pick someone disastrous as a sign that he wants to lose this thing," Ms. Foyler wrote. "If not, he should brace himself for some really mean blog posts."

Posted by seattle mike | July 9, 2008 3:50 PM
27

@25 If the choices are "spineless panderer" or "power-hungry pschopath" I think "spineless pandering liar" is probably the nicer thing to say.

Posted by karst | July 9, 2008 3:54 PM
28

is it still too late to chose hillary?

Posted by shucks | July 9, 2008 4:18 PM
29

@11 - That's BS. I think Olbermann only floated that idea to manage his own cognitive dissonance. Nothing Obama has said would indicate that he's considering criminal charges. Besides, that's the easy part. This vote today takes care of the potential civil charges, then, right before Bush leaves office, he'll issue a blanket pardon, and that will take care of the criminal charges. This will never be investigated. Just like the rest of the crimes in this administration. The Dems have either enabled or legalized all of the illegal activity of this administration. They are complicit at best, co-conspirators at worst.

Posted by sleestak | July 9, 2008 4:37 PM
30

HAHAHA!
If anyone has pictures of the Nutroots' heads exploding, please post!
Borowitz @26, priceless!!

Posted by calvin | July 9, 2008 4:57 PM
31

The Roll call vote:

hhttp://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=110&session=2&vote=00168

Update your scorecards.

Posted by LMSW | July 9, 2008 5:12 PM
32

*http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=110&session=2&vote=00168

Posted by LMSW | July 9, 2008 5:13 PM
33

@30 - Nutroots? Oh, I see what you did there. Clever! You changed one of the letters in "netroots" to put down the people who actually care about civil rights. Very witty. Does Limbaugh mind that you borrow his material?

Posted by sleestak | July 9, 2008 5:33 PM
34

I also want to see comment 1/2 on a t-shirt.

And @23 did get one thing right - Obama's capitulation is reflective of our political system's overall structure. I don't know why so many Americans don't care about their civil rights these days, but they don't. I refuse to blame Obama for this condition of our society, but nonetheless, damn him for his FISA vote, and damn everyone else in Congress who voted for it.

Posted by Hernandez | July 9, 2008 6:21 PM
35

Hernandez @ 34,


Let's just hope someone is sewing the names of every one of those vile, repulsive, tongue-waving douchebags in a quilt ala A Tale of Two Cities.


P.S. I'm gonna tear up Barry's picture in my locker now...

Posted by Original Andrew | July 9, 2008 6:53 PM
36

Obama's FISA vote demonstrates that he is already thinking like a President, a good President. If the telecommunication companies can be held liable for allowing illegal wiretapping, the resulting lawsuits would threaten the nation's telecommunication systems, and thus threaten national security. Obama will be cleaning up Bushie's mess for his entire term, and many of his decisions will be unpopular because the Liberals refuse to recognise the realities that Obama has to deal with.

Posted by Mrs. Jarvie | July 9, 2008 7:21 PM
37

We won't support ball-less NO-Bama and will re-defeat him in November.

Posted by clintonsarmy | July 9, 2008 9:37 PM
38

I'll take straw men and fake indignation for $400, Alex.

Posted by Will in Seattle | July 9, 2008 10:46 PM
39

You forgot clintonsarmy and the chick who posts about Dan and dogs.

Posted by hal | July 9, 2008 11:07 PM
40

Check this out before you condemn Obama on his FISA vote: http://youtube.com/watch?v=mBj42uOUc9E I love Keith Olbermann...

Posted by Barbara | July 10, 2008 6:33 AM
41

Mrs. Jarvie wrote:

Obama's FISA vote demonstrates that he is already thinking like a President, a good President. If the telecommunication companies can be held liable for allowing illegal wiretapping, the resulting lawsuits would threaten the nation's telecommunication systems, and thus threaten national security.

If telecommunications companies cannot be punished for breaking the law simply because the president suggested that they break the law, what good are our laws?

Mrs. Jarvie, do you believe in the rule of law or not? Our president believes that he is above the law. Our Congress just confirmed that. It's now up to the judicial branch to solve this, and the most patriotic organization in the nation has set that ball rolling. If the courts don't straighten this out, then we're truly living in a dictatorship.

ACLU is going to run a prominent newspaper ad announcing the suit. Everyone reading, please add your name to those that will be printed in the ad.

Posted by Phil M | July 10, 2008 12:11 PM
42

What I meant to write was, "If telecommunications companies can be rendered immune from punishment for breaking the law simply because the president suggested that they break the law, then what good are our laws?"

see also: Lawrence Lessig: "The immunity hysteria", July 10, 2008

Posted by Phil M | July 10, 2008 1:51 PM

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