Here Comes the Flood, Pt. 6

• On FISA:
  

  Given the long bipartisan record of wiretap abuse, and given the greater range of possible abuses under modern technological circumstances, it's all-but-inevitable that if we further weaken the restrictions on the White House's ability to act, that abuses will happen.

  It's really baffling to me that Republican members of congress -- and all-too-many Senate Democrats -- don't see it this way. Unlimited, unaccountable power will be abused, and not always in ways that Republicans like.

• Marc Ambinder sums up the Geraldine Ferraro flap in one very, very snarky sentence: "Because running as a black guy named Barack Hussein Obama is soooo easy."
  
  
• Sinbad, the comedian and pop culture historical footnote who accompanied Hillary Clinton on one of her "diplomatic" missions, doesn't see any reason trips like that should qualify her to be president. Clinton's campaign sees this as an opportunity to say flat-out that Sinbad is more qualified to be president than Barack Obama (no really, read the last paragraph).
  
  
• My biggest political pet peeve is when politicians petulantly accuse each other of "playing politics" when they don't get their way. That's what we pay them to do. Democratic voters haven't been getting our way for quite some time, and we don't accuse people of "playing politics," we just get mad at Democratic leadership for failing to play politics well. (That's right, Harry Reid, I'm talking to you.) Finally, someone sent Nancy Pelosi the memo.