Comments on: How Not to Win a Surveillance Reform Fight

By: Julian Sanchez

Julian Sanchez — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 14:34:53 +0000

I’m just saying, I call two Republican legislators “smarmtastic bottom-feeders” who compare unfavorably to a slimy Tolkein villain, nobody blinks. But two people apparently found it necessary to express dismay at a pretty tame jibe at Sen. Franken — an admittedly flip way of pointing out that (1) what he was doing there was a bit of hammy grandstanding, and (2) the guy he’s talking down to has vastly, vastly more relevant experience and knowledge in this area, which I think ultimately makes Franken look foolish. Is it a “serious” argument? Of course not. But I’m not sure why people are reaching for the smelling salts.

By: Jesus Maria Alvarez

Jesus Maria Alvarez — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 05:35:52 +0000

I’ll try one last time, on my way out.

To call Senator Franken by the fictional name Staurt Smalley would be like calling Agatha Christie Detective Poirot when describing her exercising her occupation. It only makes sense if your intention is to reduce the Senator to a comedic character or caricature, denying him his many other accomplishments: father, husband, college grad, actor, comedian, best-selling author, radio host and U.S. Senator. I’m not a real fan of the Senator but he earned the right to ask the stupid questions. The validity of the argument you make — and there’s value in it — about his line of questioning is diminished, in my eyes at least, by the flippant characterization. It reminded me of conservatives going after Murphy Brown, another TV character.

Inhofe called Franken a clown right after Franken beat Coleman. This isn’t that much different. You don’t see it or you won’t own up to it. Either way, I’m cool with that. It’s your soapbox.

But to come back and say that “some folks doth protest too much” smells of intellectual snobbism and shows a real lack of sensitivity. The “some folk” protesting are 2 out of 5 — or 40% — of your commenters on this post!

Good luck with the blog and all your other endeavors.

By: Julian Sanchez

Julian Sanchez — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 17:03:14 +0000

Mm, some folks doth protest too much.

By: Good Idea Looking for Pithy Title « Cubiyanqui

Good Idea Looking for Pithy Title « Cubiyanqui — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 20:44:17 +0000

[...] 26, 2009 Congress Leave a Comment Tags: Al Franken, Julian Sanchez, Stuart Smalley Julian is annoyed with preachy Dems: So it looks as though Al Franken reading the Fourth Amendment to [...]

By: Jesus Maria Alvarez

Jesus Maria Alvarez — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 20:38:18 +0000

The Stuart Smalley reference makes me doubt this:

“I’m on Franken’s side in this”

That was a cheap shot if I ever read one.

By: Julian Sanchez

Julian Sanchez — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 15:49:33 +0000

Actually, I think it both has an apt place and does diminish his analysis; he’s grandstanding for the camera and being supercilious to a thoughtful, non-ideological public servant whose understanding of the relevant law Franken doesn’t have the credibility to impugn. Which is a shame, because I’m on Franken’s side in this, and I’d like to see him try a more productive strategy. Blessed with a reasonable interlocutor, he could probably get Kris on board with tweaking the statutory language to leave no question whatever that in the roving case, an individual (not group) target has to be either named or specified with sufficient precision to uniquely identify the target in the context of the type of surveillance. Suddenly the Republicans can’t accuse Dems of trying to cripple the investigators, because they’re either on the same page or disagreeing in relatively minor ways.

By: Random Precision

Random Precision — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 02:39:27 +0000

The Supreme Court has been chipping away at the Fourth Amendment for decades. Bush et al. finally crushed it.

Now it’s gone … until the next revolution …

By: Erica Peters

Erica Peters — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 20:41:41 +0000

The executive branch cannot be trusted to police itself. That is the point of the balance of powers. Kris’ intelligence and knowledge of these issues only means he must be watched with extra care by Congress. Denigrating Al Franken as Stuart Smalley has no place in this conversation; Franken’s acting talent does not diminish his constitutional analysis. As a poster at BoingBoing pointed out, the conflict between Franken and Kris came down to the meaning of the word “describe.” Does it mean to specify with great detail the individual you mean (in which case, why not provide the person’s name?), or would “a Muslim who knows Bob” also count as a description? In which case Franken is right to pounce.

By: Inaru

Inaru — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 20:39:55 +0000

I was an extreme lefty in my younger days. Now I see I was, in many cases, as irrational as the irrational extreme right. If we push to eliminate spying, we’re saying (1) No war ever (2) Don’t torture (3) Don’t spy either. What should we do, send them flowers?

We have to make it clear we want to be legal and practical. No spying on Americans with no connections to any terrorists (friends living in terrorist-supporting countries is not a good enough reason to violate our privacy – our foreign friends can’t all choose their citizenship, no one can choose what country we’re born in). Stop drowning intelligence agencies in too much useless info or else valid necessary info that can save lives will be buried under the deluge.

Ahh, precious Balance, let’s at least try to grasp and hold on to it as we swing by, from left to right. Pandering in public and selling out to the highest bidder in private is exactly why we’re so cynical about our govt – a dangerous place to be for a democracy, or even a representative republic.

By: Brian Moore

Brian Moore — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 13:42:16 +0000

Wait, Franken picked a guy who was basically against all the worst of the Bush era stuff to lecture on the 4th amendment? The one that doesn’t apply to foreign stuff? He didn’t even bother to figure out if the guy he was accusing of violating the constitution was actually trying to? Doesn’t he have, well, a staff of people to look things up like this?