Broken promises... so what else is new?

To begin, I am more angry at the Democrats now than I was at the Republicans. Because, face it, I pretty much expected the Republican Congress to blindly enable the Bush Administration with shameless kowtowing to the unconstitutional expansion of executive power. They've been loving that since Nixon. But before I lament the spinelessness of the feckless Democrats (notice how the words applied to the Democrats are -less words? Powerless, careless, worthless. Less, less, less.), let me go over the surveillance law a bit.

It's important to note that the activities allowed by the law basically already happened, but had been ruled illegal by the FISA court (see previous post). Also, the law's ostensible intent is reasonable. After all, with the routing of most international calls through the great fiber-optic switches in the USA, it makes sense to listen in on calls within the country, as long as the two parties who make the call are non-citizens and out of the country. This law is nothing of the sort.

Reasons why this law blows:

1.) It EXPANDS the Attorney General's power. Yeah, that's right. This guy. Rather than leaving the surveillance oversight in the hands of an external court (the FISA court), the attorney general and director of national intelligence get to approve spying.

2.) This law permits wiretapping as long as the party being investigated is out of the country at the time. That is to say, if an American citizen went overseas and called back to another American citizen in the United States, that call could be monitored, violating both of their Fourth Amendment rights.

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.

3.) The Democrats and Bush's National Intelligence Director Mike McConnell had already struck a deal for wiretapping that closed the loophole without giving all the oversight to the most dysfunctional Cabinet Department ever. Bush nixed the idea and with more fearmongering, bent enough Democrats to get what he wanted.

It's disgusting to see the Democrats submit to pressure, since they're afraid of being viewed as "weak on terror." Guess what? Something tells me that the Republicans will STILL call every Democrat they can "weak on terror." You know what else makes you look weak? Doing everything the President tells you too, because you're so scared. Want to show you have guts? How about doing something you believe in every once in a while? How many non-binding resolutions must the American people endure before this Congress takes real action? ARGH.

More (and better-worded) reactions from Balkinization, Greenwald, and Dover Bitch.

OK, on with the linksesses...

• More broken promises from the Army Corps of Engineers. Looks like the 17th Street Canal, supposedly built to withstand a storm surge of 13.9 feet, can't even take a 6.3 foot storm surge. It turns out that if you have a levee which can withstand a high storm surge at almost all points except one, the storm surge still busts the levee. (More about Army Corps incompetence in this long Time magazine feature.)

• Sarkozy keeps it real. Mad real.

• Imagine my surprise that flooding Iraq with weapons in an attempt to spark the ragtag security forces turned out to be a bad idea. Still, 190,000 firearms? Sweet zombie Jesus. Hey, it goes with the NRA position here... guns don't kill people, after all. Guns defend people from people with smaller guns.

• George Bush, master of history.

• This long piece on one family's experience in open adoption in the LATimes really touched an emotional chord with me. I hope you all take the time to read it. I guess in the age of open adoption, the birth parents can suddenly decide to play a much bigger role, but the strain it puts on a child seems extraordinary.

• Looks like Soriano is injured. Time to trade for Griffey.

• A great piece in the Sunday Trib about the mighty 7-Elevens in Taiwan. If Taiwan had a true national symbol, it would be a 7-Eleven. Or more accurately, it would be an unending row of 7-Elevens down the entire street.

• LCD Soundsystem has a great interview/in-studio performance on NPR's World Cafe.

• Apparently, getting rid of a pheromone sensor turns female mice into raunchy dudes, "complete with mounting, pelvic thrusts, and the ultrasound calls that males use to attract a mate." Good-bye sewing circle, hello Foxy Boxing.

• Via reddit, it's Damn Interesting hunting for the source of the word "thug." I always knew Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom had something to do with it.

• Jimmy Wales refuses to submit Wikipedia to the censorship in China that Google has undergone (and downright complicity in repression in which Yahoo has participated). It's a tough line to toe, but I think Wales can do it. Long live Wikipedia!

• There's no stopping the wave of dangerous Chinese goods. There's just too much of it. So comes the true high cost of low prices... sometimes the products kill you.

• More on the issue of the social contagion of obesity. Here's the original article in the New England Journal of Medicine, with some interpretive riffs in Time. The general idea is, as one person got fat, the chance of his/her friends increased significantly. Therefore, obesity can be 'spread' through social networks. There is, however, a dissent coming from children's health advocates like Dr. Neil Izenberg, whose letter in the NYTimes describes the problems of 'quarantining' fat people. I agree that attaching an additional stigma to being fat can aggravate rather than improve the situation, but it's hard to argue against the fact that friends and family strongly influence eating/exercise patterns. Here's Izenberg's interview in Alternet.

• Final note before the video, Lee Hazlewood, great American musician, died over the weekend. While there are a few tributes here and there, the best tribute I could find was this NYTimes article (Select only, folks) from January of this year. Priceless.

Ok, video time. This is terrible. Awful. Horrible. Maybe the worst commercial I've ever seen. Talking sandwiches, saying Filet o' Fish. In different accents. For a whole minute. It's godawful and had me staring in dumb disbelief that such an abomination was ever made. And that's why you should watch it.