Bloodless Coup

Fucking Democrats

I'm having trouble expressing my level of disdain for the Congressional Democrats in the English language. "Sniveling" might work, but doesn't have enough banal evilness in it. "Evil" gives them to much credit for actually doing something (takes effort to be evil, and the Democrats don't have that). "Useless" sort of implies that they just didn't do anything, and they are clearly helping this along.

WaPo today:

Senate Democrats and Republicans reached agreement with the Bush administration yesterday on the terms of new legislation to control the federal government's domestic surveillance program, which includes a highly controversial grant of legal immunity to telecommunications companies that have assisted the program, according to congressional sources.

(snip)

The collapse marked the first time since Democrats took control of the chamber that a major bill was withdrawn from consideration before a scheduled vote. It was a victory for President Bush, whose aides lobbied heavily against the Democrats' bill, and an embarrassment for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), who had pushed for the measure's passage.

The draft Senate bill has the support of the intelligence committee's chairman, John D. Rockefeller IV (D-W.Va.), and Bush's director of national intelligence, Mike McConnell. It will include full immunity for those companies that can demonstrate to a court that they acted pursuant to a legal directive in helping the government with surveillance in the United States.

Fucking useless. The rest of the story indicates that the only concessions the Democrats got were that the bill would expire in six years (big deal), and that the FISA court would review the governments "procedures for deciding who is to be the subject of warrantless surveillance." More fucking useless. The FISA court operates outside the public eye; we don't get to know what they decide. Plus, they don't have to actually, you know, ask the FISA court for actual warrants; they just have to let the FISA court know what the program is (you know, the WARRANTLESS program, where the government gets to listen to people without a WARRANT).

The Democrats have completely caved on this. I cannot find the words in the English language to express my disdain and disgust.