Barack Obama: Retroactive triangulation on FISA
After lying low until the FISA “compromise” passed the House today, he claims to oppose the immunity included in the bill for telecommunications companies who shared private data with the White House, but then says he’ll vote for the bill anyway when it comes up in the Senate.
I gather that he’s trying to unify the Democratic party after the occasionally bruising primaries by demonstrating that they nominated a Clinton after all… if not in name, at least in spirit.
Tags: FISA, Obama, sellouts, telecom immunity
June 20th, 2008 at 7:21 pm
Well, that sealed it for me. I won’t be voting for a president this election.
June 20th, 2008 at 8:11 pm
Over in a Hullabaloo thread they were sending this one out to all those who are coming to realize that the object of their affections is not who they thought that person was. If you are someone who is feeling the first pangs of betrayal and worried about how you’ll be feeling months from now in the early a.m. of November 5, create a bookmark and have this at the ready for a sing along.
Take heart. One way or another, you’ll be back together in 2012.
June 20th, 2008 at 8:48 pm
I opted out of Obama’s emails and contributions today with an explanation as to why. I’m disgusted.
I am weighing whether I should, too, sit out this election. There’s the SCOTUS and so many other issues, but honestly, is there any fucking difference between dems and goopers?
June 20th, 2008 at 10:16 pm
Everybody has to chill-out and realize that he will do the right thing, I have no doubt.
The immunity is for CIVIL suits, not CRIMINAL.
He has already said he would go after the Bush Admin. crimes when he is elected.
He has to get ELECTED first. He might have to trianglate a bit, but we know he gets it, he is one of us.
So not voting or voting for a third party will only get us McSame, totally unacceptable to me.
How about you?
p.s. I believe that he can change this country, I just do. Why? Because he says we can. And I believe him.
June 21st, 2008 at 1:59 am
margoharris,
Look, I understand your concern about anyone opting out of voting, but the way to convince people is definitely not to downplay the implications of Obama’s decision on this matter. Unless your comment is satiric, which it occurred to me it might be.
He ought to be smart enough to realize that there is no political reason for caving on this. None. It may come as a shock to some people, Obama apparently being one of them, but even conservative Americans have a fondness for the preservation of their most basic constitutional rights, and among those, I would guess that the 4th is one of the more popular. Americans don’t like the idea of a big brother government who can listen in on their conversations, or read their emails.
I listened to the call-in show on C-Span during the House vote and I was genuinely surprised, myself, at how many on the Republican call-in line were angry at the Democrats for caving on this.
June 21st, 2008 at 9:00 am
You shouldn’t be surprised: it’s his way of voting ‘Present’ in the Senate.
June 21st, 2008 at 12:51 pm
I watched this and will closely watch other issues and legislative action. Then, I will vote, or not vote, accordingly.
June 21st, 2008 at 1:08 pm
Nope. Not voting. Not voting till I get the friggin constitution back. Obama had his chance to give me a little piece of one stinkin amendment, the fourth, and he fucked it up. Cannot trust the fucker now. Might as well have an emergency extension of Bush’s 2nd term.
June 21st, 2008 at 1:36 pm
Frank! Good to see you here. I loved The Octopus.
June 21st, 2008 at 6:30 pm
Obama is the same as Bush.
Got it.
Good to see the blogoshere is as stupid as the MSM.
June 21st, 2008 at 8:53 pm
There are only 3 possible interpretations I can see (they are not all mutually exclusive):
1) Obama pushed this behind the scenes, because he really wants the same spying powers that Bush used to win in 2004, and that Bush has probably used to blackmail his caucus into marching lockstep with his agenda for so long.
2) Obama deferred to Reid and Pelosi, who pushed this because they desperately and quickly need to cover up, forever, their knowing complicity in all the now-obviously-illegal things that Bush did.
3) Reid and Pelosi acted in response to pressure from the Blue Dogs, and Obama went along with that, because he wants the Blue Dogs to be heavily in his debt when he wins the Presidency.
If it is #1: I guarantee it won’t work for Obama. There will be whistleblowers galore, the Republicans out of power will miraculously become brave champions of civil liberties, and the press will finally listen to our laments about the Constitution when they hear them out of the mouth of Matt Drudge.
If it is #2: I guarantee that the truth will eventually come out anyway, but the constitution will be dead by then so no one will benefit, and Democrats will get most of the blame for pissing on the 4th Amendment.
If it is #3: the blue dogs will not remember what Obama did for them, and they will undermine Obama at every turn, just like they did to Carter.
I hope I’m wrong. Maybe this will pave the way for a successful Obama agenda of national unity behind his program. And maybe a few pigs in the world do have the ability to fly.
June 22nd, 2008 at 12:05 am
Swopa, your analysis is dead on. As soon as Obama got within sniffing distance of the White House, he channeled Hillary.
June 22nd, 2008 at 8:07 am
Politics is a rough sport, one that must be played on the given field. A symbolic vote or a witheld vote hands the opponent a point with no effort on their part. If you don’t like what Obama or Pelosi do, lettem know LOUD. Don’t just walk away with your nose in the air..
June 22nd, 2008 at 12:06 pm
Wow drf, why didn’t I think of that?
June 22nd, 2008 at 10:56 pm
you will
June 23rd, 2008 at 2:06 pm
Exile, though I share your disgust, there are other possible reasons. For example,
#4. The telecoms and the media are hand in glove. Recognizing this, and recognizing what the “We Have the Power” crowd did to Dean after he suggested he’d break up media monopolies, Obama decided not to make a move which would result in all networks at once devoting themselves 24/7 to the re-election of McCain (which they could easily engineer, since after all they do Have the Power), thus guaranteeing the total destruction of the Constitution.
#5. The Pugs and media have brainwashed the country for decades. Obama believes the voters can only handle so much cognitive switching at once. He will concentrate on directly confronting the “only making wars at the drop of a hat can make us safe” meme. That’s a debate the media are finally willing to cover. Other re-education, e.g., what’s in the Constitution, will has to wait until he has the bully pulpit, and is not at the mercy of which soundbites Williams and Wolf feel like plucking from detailed speeches.
Of course, I have no way of knowing whether these conjectures or yours, or some other, are the real ones.
I intend to get Obama elected and see what he does then. It will in any case be less blood-drenched than McCain’s agenda. And – since unlike McCain, he will not have Addison forced upon him as a principal consigliere – probably less dictatorial even in the worst case.