Business as usual? Yes we can.

Sigh. So Barack Obama is a regular ol' politician after all. Sure, he's still a politician with better ideas and viewpoints than his opponent in the presidential election, but the brief moment when we believed he wasn't politics-as-usual has passed. That carefully crafted image of a guy who sticks to his guns and crosses party lines to defend the common folk is just that: a facade. Underneath there's still that same ol' cynicism.

What I'm talking about is Obama's vote in favor of renewing the FISA act. That bill expands the government's ability to spy on us without warrants, and grants retroactive immunity to the companies who helped W. break the law before. It legitimizes and codifies some of the more heinous civil liberties infringements that this administration has perpetrated upon us and gives truly scary powers to the executive branch.

Obama's "yea" vote is stunningly cynical, the opposite of the personable, deeply compassionate facade he puts forth: those who find this vote repugnant, like me, aren't going to vote for McCain, so we'll still vote for him. And now he can appeal to those who were worried he's not tough on "the terrists," not committed to "MER-ka." I mean, way to go if it helps him get elected, but the stench of having voted yes to George W.'s Orwellian wet dream isn't going to go away soon.

Worse yet, those who favor the bill are still using the old "if you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear" defense. And people are still buying it. Even a tiny little bit of thought would give the lie to that argument: once the government has the right to spy on you without cause, they always have it, and they can use it against whomever they like. The enemy du jour is the terrorist, which is already problematic (due to the notion that anyone who doesn't genuflect in front of the flag 24/7 while praising W. is a terrorist). But what if the next folks they go after are environmentalists? Or vegetarians? Or Christians? We've given the government a big ol' gun, and people are fine with it because at the moment it isn't pointed at them.