Here's where the politics comes in.

[last1standing]

Obama is supporting some sort of compromise on the FISA/Telcom bill. That sucks but it's also totally expected now that we know many Democrats knew about the bush* administration lawbreaking and did nothing about it at the time.

Let's face it, powerful Dems like Jay Rockefeller, who sponsored the bill, need to get immunity passed or they could be in legal trouble themselves. While it's immoral and a definite conflict of interest to let these politicians pass legislation that lets them get away with breaking laws, that's exactly what's happening.

Unfortunately, if Obama wants support from many in the house and senate, both during the campaign and after the election, he has little choice but to go along with it, regardless of his own views. Many of us remember what the Carter years were like when he faced a Democratic, but hostile, congress. It was gridlock and helped let in the reagan administration.

So what do we do about it? We either accept that Obama is a politician who needs to work with other politicians to get elected or we all throw our hands up in the air and moan about dirty politics. I hate the fact that they're so dirty but it's going to take a lot more than one election to change all this around. We need to focus on knocking out the cynical, spineless Dems who went along with warrantless wiretapping in the primaries. We were able to get rid of a few corrupt Dems this time and maybe we'll take out a few more next round.

Also, a few calls to your senators wouldn't hurt. At least let them know we'll be basing our votes on what they do, not what letter comes after their names.