If you are like me, you've found yourself appalled and frightened by recent revelations of US government electronic surveillance of citizen, but have had a difficult time articulating a rationale why. Federal programs like Carnivore, Total Information Awareness , MATRIX (.pdf), and of course extrajudicial surveillance of American phone calls by the NSA fill me with dread. Yet I have had difficulty articulating an coherent rebuttal to claims that such spying is necessary to protect our citizens with more than stuttering, apoplectic rage. (Follow me below the fold . . .)
I fully expect the Republicans to paint this debate as "The Democrats put the welfare of Carribou above the welfare of Americans." What's more, if I were them, I would paint the issue in the exact same way.
The "What" of the problem is that Oil Demand is increasing while oil supplies are decreasing. This is a real problem that is going to disappear.
This week, Republican's will supply the "Solution": Drill in the Artic National Wildlife Reserve. What's more, like on other issues like the Bankruptcy bill, they may have the votes to win this time.
Democrats will be portrayed as obstructionists more interested in pleasing Radical environmentalists and a herd of unseen caribou, than alleviating the American Families costs at the pump.
Does this leave the Democrats out in the cold? Well of course it does, unless . . . ?
· DNCC Has Inadequate Space for Bloggers (NickD)
· Big Obama Bounce In Gallup Tracking (Josh Orton)
· Obama names WVa battleground state (WVaBlue)
· Interview at 11:00 AM Eastern/8:00 AP Pacific (Jonathan Singer)
· FL-21: Democrat Raul Martinez Leads Lincoln Diaz-Balart by 2 (HellofaSandwich)
· Richardson to speak at Invesco Field (fbihop)
· West Virginian rebuttal to Sen. Rockefeller DNC08 speech (WVaBlue)
· PUMAs are like the tooth fairy (fbihop)
· Start Preparing Now: Hurricane Gustav Aiming At New Orleans (NickD)
· NRCC Reserves $8.8M in Ad Time in 14 Districts (HellofaSandwich)
· DNC Turns Away Bloggers from Seating Area When Jack Danforth is Sitting There (NickD)
· MN-03: Madia hits the airwaves 'Running' (MN Campaign Report)