Obama & FISA
Senator Obama isn’t getting off lightly either. For all your talk about change and fixing what Bush has done to our country I’m appalled at the fact that you too, ducked the issue.
[Senate Votes to Expand Spy Powers] (http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/13/us/13fisa.html?ex=1360645200&en=8b814b4745f9de97&ei=5124&partner=permalink&exprod=permalink”)
Among the presidential contenders, Senator John McCain, Republican of Arizona, voted in favor of the final measure, while the two Democrats, Senator Barack Obama of Illinois and Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York, did not vote. Mr. Obama did oppose immunity on a key earlier motion to end debate. Mrs. Clinton, campaigning in Texas, issued a statement saying she would have voted to oppose the final measure.
At this point, both Democratic presidential wannabes can go shove it where the sun doesn’t shine. If the Democrats avoid fixing this gross breach of freedom and stain on our national honor then I’m not going to support the Democrats.
(Though, this stain is just a smudge when compared to the elephants in the room, Guantanamo & waterboarding)
Mr. Hajj’s fortitude has turned him into a household name in the Arab world, and his story is sowing anger at the authorities holding him without trial.
That’s us. Mr. Hajj is one of our forgotten prisoners in Guantánamo Bay.
If the Bush administration appointed an Under Secretary of State for Antagonizing the Islamic World, with advice from a Blue Ribbon Commission for Sullying America’s Image, it couldn’t have done a more systematic job of discrediting our reputation around the globe. Instead of using American political capital to push for peace in the Middle East or Darfur, it is using it to force-feed Mr. Hajj.
Whoops! Quick, everyone pretend that the elephant didn’t just squash fluffy.
My only consolation is that the Senators who represent me voted against telecom immunity, as well as the comfort that the House had a bit more resolve when they passed a bill in November that left out telecom immunity. Maybe the Democratic leadership will find their spines sometime between now and when they have to consolidate the bills that passed in the Senate in the House.
Until Obama & Clinton actually take a stand on the issue, they’re part of the problem. All their talk about “fixing” America and going in “a new direction” is just hollow talk emanating from empty shells propped up by corporate puppeteers.
But immunity supporters said the phone carriers acted out of patriotism after the Sept. 11 attacks in complying with what they believed in good faith was a legally binding order from the president.
Oh, that’s such a load of crap! The very idea of corporate CEOs having an ounce of “patriotism” in their entire body is so ludicrious that I teeter on the edge of madness as I attempt to comprehend such a novel idea. If it was blind patriotism that compelled them to comply, why are there lawsuits against the Federal government by Qwest that allege that due to their refusal to comply with the wiretapping program they were denied lucrative contracts?
If anything, it was sheer greed and machiavellian loyalty to the government that compelled the telecom companies to go along with the Bush administration. They knew what they were doing was illegal, but they knew that the Bush administration and a stuipd, spinless, rubberstamp club would paper over any wrongdoing.