First off, Alex loves muppets, as can be seen from this pic:

Secondly: Okay okay okay okay okay I totally want to make one of these! But, unlike the guy in the video, I will not be doing any experiments at borders near where I live. I can only imagine the body-cavity searches I’d have to endure before finally convincing them that this is not, in fact, any kind of weapon.

In other news, I am (as usual) extremely disapppointed in the willingness of the American public (including myself) to be  manipulated by our leaders. Here are some highlights:

• Obama capitulated on the FISA bill — which he previously promised to fight tooth and nail –  and thereby actively participated in solidifying and legalizing the expansion of presidential powers, reduction of domestic freedoms, and criminal activities of this administration. I know I already blogged this, but I only have 3 readers anyway, and I hope they’ll forgive me for continuing to be pissed about this. I’m wondering if Obama-as-president would be an executive version of the disapointment that is Nancy Pelosi. You know, failing to do much of anything he said he’d do.
• Not to be out-caputulated, the Supreme Court refused to hear environmental lawsuits against the Department of Homeland Security about their little multi-billion-dollar border project down there. But there is still hope: Homeland Security isn’t just giving itself unconstitutional authority to ignore environmental law; it’s insisting it gets to ignore all the laws, precedents and human rights it feels are standing in the way of its effort to get the Border Fence constructed before someone figures out what a bad idea this is.
• Despite Certoff’s claims (don’t get me started on that guy…) to the contrary, global terrorism is much, much worse since we began our wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

aaaaaand back to work.

Sigh. And sigh again. I have been moderately excited about Barack Obama as a presidential candidate, especially in contrast to the nominees that the GOP produced. And I probably would have voted for Asmodeus if he was Hillary Clinton’s opponent. I don’t think I’ve blinded myself to the planks of Obama’s platform that are in some conflict with  my morals and ideals, but I considered (and still do, I guess) his potential positive effects to be more than sufficient to outweigh them, when compared to the other presidential alternatives.

Sadly, the other shoe has begun to drop. Perhaps, now that he’s no longer campaigning against a fellow Democrat for Democratic Party votes, he’s shifting strategies, being “pragmatic,” or something. This means, apparently, campaigning like a true politician. The most recent annoyances:

1. HE SIGNED THE FRICKIN’ FISA BILL! To be fair, he expressed deep regrets and a promise to keep fighting, but he still signed it. He signed it despite a promise last Fall to filibuster any bill with retroactive telecom immunity in it. So, the value of Obama’s promises is now lower. Not as low as McCain’s (not for a long while, yet), but still, lower. His high ground is getting muddy.

2. Obama now has one foot on the “Bomb Iran” bandwagon. He is following McCain’s and Bush’s footsteps in exaggerating Iran’s known military nuclear capabilities. This is very disturbing to me. Not good. One hint about why he might be doing this comes from his attempts to beat McCain to the pro-Israel votes. In an AIPAC speech recently, he threw them some bones, such as classifying Iran as “always” having been a greater threat to Israel than Iraq. Of course, he’s nowhere near the bellicosity of McCain’s AIPAC speeches, but we already knew that McCain is both ideologically hawkish, and also probably pretty confused about the Middle East in general.

3.  Obama used that fake presidential seal for a few minutes. Okay, that’s not such a terrible sin, especially since it was clearly fake (and also perhaps a bit tongue-in-cheek, a fact completely lost on Obama-haters). The problem, for me, is that’s the kind of thing Republicans usually do. I guess he’s decided he should emulate their tactics… or something…?

I guess the honeymoon has to end sometime. Obama’s has ended here, for me. He’s still — so far — the candidate I find least distasteful, by a long shot, but he’s a politician. He has demonstrated that, for the votes, he will use at least some of the same stupid tricks the other politicians use.