How long are we going to let politicians justify what they do by telling us they have better information than we have?

Yesterday, I noticed that Obama had figured out during the campaign that the fact that the Bush administration and the telecoms broke the FISA law is mitigated by "the degree to which the underlying program itself is, in fact, necessary to help prevent terrorist attacks."

As a matter of fact, the necessity of the underlying program, i.e., electronic surveillance, has apparently convinced Mr. Obama to support revising FISA even if he can't get the telecom immunity provision removed.  That's in contrast to supporting a filibuster of the bill if it contains immunity for the telecoms.

I figured that change in Mr. Obama's position was the result of him receiving some inside information about the success of the surveillance program that the average citizen doesn't know.

So I asked some questions about that information.  Questions like where did the information come from?  When did Obama get it?

And we discussed the issue.  We discussed it up one side and down the other.  We compared efforts to strip immunity from the FISA bill to Kabuki theater.  We argued about whether Obama's change of position was actual or apparent, and, if actual, whether it was a hypothetical or a real flipflop.

We said we knew Obama would disappoint us eventually, because we're far left of center.  We allowed as how we don't have enough information to know whether he's a slick politician or smart and idealistic.

We argued about the nature of the 4th Amendment.  We said the time for action had long passed.  We fretted about the power of the military and the police.  And gave up on the idea of reining them in.  And we lamented the fact that we were being asked to do more than vote and act as a skeptical citizen.

We decided we're hard-eyed pragmatists as well as hopeful idealists, and we're not cynical.  

We talked about Obama's motivations.  We wondered if Democrats are afraid of an October surprise in the form of a terrorist attack, maybe even one allowed to happen so it could be blamed on the Democrats, because there is nothing Bush won't do.