Scariest thing I've seen is from yesterday's NYTimes

[DeeDeeNY]

This truly frightens me. Why are Dems "scrambling" to accommodate *?? What's going on?

Democrats Scrambling to Expand Eavesdropping

By JAMES RISEN
Published: August 1, 2007

WASHINGTON, July 31 — Under pressure from President Bush, Democratic leaders in Congress are scrambling to pass legislation this week to expand the government’s electronic wiretapping powers.

Democratic leaders have expressed a new willingness to work with the White House to amend the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act to make it easier for the National Security Agency to eavesdrop on some purely foreign telephone calls and e-mail. Such a step now requires court approval.

And this is the scariest sentence in the article --
"Democrats appear to be worried that if they block such legislation, the White House will depict them as being weak on terrorism."

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/01/washington/01nsa.html?_r=3&adxnnl=1&oref=slogin&ref=washington&adxnnlx=1185971637-vItGtV1UKZanyYUFRI6wgw&oref=slogin

[WilliamPitt]

1. Read the article

The headline is exceedingly misleading. If you read it, you'll see they're doing just the opposite.

There's GD thread somewhere with "IQ's DROPPED" in the headline that breaks this down really well.

[jgraz]

2. Unfortunately, the headline is more accurate than the article

Rather than reading the locked flamebait post, you should probably go over to the original thread and check out the substantive responses therein.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=1487989&mesg_id=1487989

[DeeDeeNY]

4. Yes, the headline is all too accurate

Thanks for the link to your post of yesterday. I hadn't seen it, but I heard Mike Malloy talking about the article last night and when I looked it up today, I truly got ill.

[jgraz]

5. The more you research this, the sicker it gets

We need to get on our Dem Reps right now to make sure this thing doesn't go anywhere. Once they pass anything, * will use it as political cover for all of the crimes of the past 6 1/2 years.

[acmavm]

3. Not exactly

<snip>

Some civil liberties groups oppose the proposed changes, expressing concern that there might be far-reaching consequences.

“Congress needs to take its time before it implements another piece of antiterrorism legislation it will regret, like the Patriot Act,” said Anthony D. Romero, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union. “The Bush administration clearly has abused the FISA powers it already has and clearly wants to go back to the good old days of warrantless wiretapping and domestic spying. Congress must stop this bill in its tracks.”

[peacetalksforall]

6. The White House won't give Dems anything, but wants everything.

Is it any surprise that they want to protect AT&T and the other criminal corporations?

Legal immunity. What gall. Even more data? What gall. They might as well brand us with a hot iron. Stealing us and selling us to renegade nations for slavery is next or just down the road. YOU ARE ALREADY OWNED OR ABOUT TO BE OWNED - IN TOTAL?

I am totally confused about our Democratic leadership - I mean all our leaders. Where is Feingold on all this? Our only Senator who voted against the Patriot Act. I don't even understand the posts here - so contradictatory. I can't keep up.