Obama: Resist FISA in Senate

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.

Obama Lames Out on Telco Immunity

The House Friday approved a compromise bill setting new electronic surveillance rules that shield telecommunications companies from lawsuits arising from the government's warrantless eavesdropping on phone and computer lines in this country. Barack Obama has in the past opposed the retroactive immunity for the telecommunications companies. The House, which had seemed to grow the spine necessary to defeat this legislation, fought back against the administration for months, today caved like big dogs and gave Bush and friends an early Christmas present that effectively prevents the public from ever finding out the extent of their warrantless wire tap activities. What did Obama have to say about this today?

“It is not all that I would want. But given the legitimate threats we face, providing effective intelligence collection tools with appropriate safeguards is too important to delay. So I support the compromise, but do so with a firm pledge that as President, I will carefully monitor the program, review the report by the Inspectors General, and work with the Congress to take any additional steps I deem necessary to protect the lives – and the liberty – of the American people.”

Thats a bunch of crap and pablum. This marks my first major dissapointment with Obama and the first incident that causes me to really question if any of his rhetoric is worth squat. Columnist David Brooks commented in the NYT that Obama is "an idealistic, lakefront liberal fronting a sharp-elbowed machine operator"....He’s the most effectively political creature we’ve seen in decades."

Obama's lame and tepid response to the House's capitulation on FISA and the soon to come Senate cave which Obama intends to enable only serves to confirm this assessment.

We Republicans Decry Big Government....Except for Warrantless Wiretapping?

Let me get this straight. As republicans and conservatives, part of our principle set is the idea that big government, more government, is not the solution to the pressing social and economic ills we face. We distrust government solutions to problems. We don't like government on poverty, on the economy, for any serious issue and rightly so. But.....we do seem to like untrammeled, unfettered government power for things like warrantless surveillance? We republicans seem to trust government with this kind of power? The issue is two fold. The administration wants two things: they want a near effortless capability to initiate wiretaps without warrant and they want immunity for the private sector who's help is required in order to make that stuff happen, an immunity which allows them to protect their complicit telco partners particularly given that they have likely broken the law in pursuing wiretaps.

Republican leadership and the President are frothing that Congress must pass what they want as though this government power is not subject to abuse, is somehow exempt from the issues that make big government a bad solution for so many others things. It shows clearly that republican leadership is bankrupt and devoid of true conservative principles.