This segment from Olberman's show is a nice emotional rant on the issues involved on the FISA legislation that has now passed the house. Its long on heat, but unlike many of his special comments not terribly enlightening. So thats your warmup. For the real meat and potatoes, read Glenn Greenwald's clear eyed explanation of Obama's ridiculous flip flop on FISA. Pelosi and the democrats, cravenly cringing before the telco lobby, had repeatedly tried to cave in the past, but protests from the blogging community and informed public had made them back off. Now, with only months to go in the Bush term, they finally get this legislation headed to the senate and hand the Bush administration exactly what it wants, retroactive immunity and coverup for its warrantless wiretapping activities.We now have a government that can wiretap any citizen at any time without a warrant and it can't be lawfully challenged. Period. Point blank. And our boy Obama is right now gearing up to be a party to this surrender of our constitutional protections to this government. Dodd and Leahy told the House members not to send this crap to the Senate, but they were ignored by Pelosi. The senate has delayed consideration of the bill until after the July 4th holiday.
I don't want McCain or Obama to have these powers. I don't trust a republican or democratic administration to have these powers. I don't trust the government to have this power, period. They have enough as it stands.
Obama promised to filibuster this abdication of fourth amendment rights if it ever came to the senate. We should make him keep that promise. Obama is going to flip on a lot of things, but this is not one of the things he ought to be allowed to flip on without being given a clear understanding of the downside. He is a pragmatic guy. We need to make him see the downside.
