(Updated with a post that totally proves my point) She of 18-hour support wonders, along with the Mighty Glenn:

At last, Glenn Greenwald has gotten down to the nitty-gritty and discussed what no one is saying about the original FISA legislation that was introduced in 1977 - that it was an outrageous ceding to government of the power to violate our Constitutional right to privacy (yes, privacy) as clearly spelled out in the 4th Amendment.
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Indeed; the most liberal position in the public discourse is this: that it’s okay to take our time on constructing a new, more invasive FISA law, because the original law will cover us adequately in the meantime. But virtually no one is arguing that no updating at all of the original law has ever been necessary (except me and a few security geeks), and no one at all is pointing out that FISA itself is and always was a bridge too far. When the authorities violate the 4th Amendment, they should be put in jail, not given greater latitude to spy on us under a legal fiction of national security.

Am I the only one who thinks that we really don’t live in a nation of laws anymore? That this whole discussion is mostly one for wonks who love detail? Because it seems to me that between the AG refusing to do his job, and the “Constitutional scholar” and “experienced lawyer-stateswoman” both wimping out on major Senate debates about the Constitution, talk like this misses the point. I’m not harshing on A or GG, christ no. But I’m asking for a better way to frame the question. Right now the Constitution is a beautiful dream, but it’s clearly not “in force.” The law of the land is: who is closer to the security-military-contractor-prison complex, me or thee? If I am, I win. If you are, you win. This rule applies in confrontation, business, “the economy,” and across most elements of the social environment. And if you have enough of a connection to the MIC, you can get away with anything, anything at all…

I have over the last few decades become increasingly sensitive to the encroachment of the security apparatus into the lives of the poor and people of color. For a long time now, they haven’t really enjoyed any Constitutionall rights. No one (well off and white people) seemed to care. Now, the models perfected in those communities are being applied to middle class and majority populations. The part about today’s Republicans that progressives seem to hate the most is one anyone who’s ever been tossed by a cop knows well: the contempt your harasser has for you, because you are subject to a set of rules that he is not. That’s one of the hallmark traits of the Bushies- they thumb their noses while looking down them at law and those who must follow it. They love the way the Democrats let them get away with anything, and it only confirms their belief that law is for the weak.

Is it?

It seems a tough, really uphill battle, at least in this generation, to reeducate folks and reanimate the social contract that teaches the value of shared and equally applied laws. That sounds harsh…what I mean to say is that right now too many people operate in a wholly different reality; today breaking the rules is a requirement, not a rare exception that brings about great shame and loss. Times are going to get tougher, and there will be less and less money for things. One way to bring back real law is to curb it; defund the MIC and apply that money to needed social programs like education. And teach the next generation why law really does matter.

Ha, Sean-Paul goes and finds a QOTD and anecdote that utterly proves my point.

Nonetheless, as I have followed several of the homes that my wife and I were interested in a few years back, they are all on the market now. What is shocking, that in each and every case, I have been told by brokers and banks that the owners, have ceased paying their mortgages in some cases for nearly 2 years and have continued to occupy these homes. Now, these are homes in excess of $2,000,000 in the very best neighborhoods in South Florida. Brokers have added that these buyers further complicated things by putting huge home equity lines on top of their mortgages and now have no possibility of selling their homes for amounts needed to cover their accumulated debt.

Poor people get tossed out on their asses by the sheriff. I guess there are more important crimes in South FL and they’ll get around to it, later. Or something.