Will Rookie Mistakes Sink Obama?

Make no mistake, Sanchez... what Bam did with FISA pisses me off. It pisses me off a LOT. He DID voice opposition to the retroactive immunity clause. He DID vote to filibuster and amend the bill to strip out the aforementioned retroactive immunity clause.

Bam KNEW he was gonna take a harsh hit on that vote. I know why he did it, I understand why he did it. That doesn't lessen the blow.

In reality, when you actually look at the bill, it's not that bad. It tries to rope in all this out of control government eyeballing. Not so much saying you can't do it, but rather that you cannot just say "Gonna wiretap this guy here... terrorism, terrorism, 9/11, 9/11 and all that." and expect to skirt over the word of law.

The main issue is the retroactive immunity clause. Why? Because article 1, section 9 of the Constitution says "No bill of attainder or ex post facto Law shall be passed". Retroactive immunity is ex post facto. It's amnesty for the telcoms and gov't. THAT is the problem.

Bam sees there's a problem. This is much better than Mickey's blind support for the bill, including the unconstitutional part. Bam voted as a compromise, y'know... the whole across the aisle thing.

Mickey didn't even bother to vote. He decided to hide from that firefight. He knew he'd be in the same rock and hard place that Bam put himself into. If he voted yes, it would reaffirm his back pocket residence on Telcom street. If he voted no, his party (who has always been iffy about the guy) would distance themselves from him even more.

Got more then your opinion?

An ex post facto law (from the Latin for "After The Fact") or retroactive law, is a law that retroactively changes the legal consequences of acts committed or the legal status of facts and relationships that existed prior to the enactment of the law. In reference to criminal law, it may criminalize actions that were legal when committed; or it may aggravate a crime by bringing it into a more severe category than it was in at the time it was committed; or it may change or increase the punishment prescribed for a crime, such as by adding new penalties or extending terms; or it may alter the rules of evidence in order to make conviction for a crime more likely than it would have been at the time of the action for which a defendant is prosecuted.

Conversely, a form of ex post facto law commonly known as an amnesty law may decriminalize certain acts or alleviate possible punishments (for example by replacing the death sentence with life-long imprisonment) retroactively.[/b]

Why yes, I do. I have this thing called "Fact". Maybe you should look into it.

Maybe you should look at the Constitution as well. Might do you a whole lot of good to know what you're talking about once in a while.

I look at the Constitution all the time, now i suppose your gonna ask me to read it, LOL.

Why yes, it actually helps.