I am very disappointed in Obama's position on the House FISA "compromise". The U.S. government does not need to be able to look at every phone call, email, facebook page, video, etc. that everyone posts, not unless every last man, woman, and child in the U.S. is a terrorist. There was no need for it politically: Bill Foster won Hastert's old seat in Illinois while speaking out against the Iraq war and against retroactive immunity. There was no need for the House to do anything about FISA. There was no need for the House to do anything at all about FISA. This is unnecessary capitulation to the worst president in history.
This is not just a "however":
"It does, however, grant retroactive immunity, and I will work in the Senate to remove this provision so that we can seek full accountability for past offenses."
Without lawsuits against the telcos, we will never know that Bush's illegal warrantless wiretapping is over, because we won't know what he did! We won't even know what he or his appointees are still doing, even under an Obama administration.
Obama is the leader of the Democratic Party, the party that has a huge majority in the House. Why did he not speak out against this "compromise"? Why does he not speak out now?
My Representative is, unfortunately, Republican Bush-enabler Jack Kingston. I am actively supporting Democrat Bill Gillespie to replace him. He won't be elected in time to help stop this bad "compromise". The Senate needs to do it.
Senator Obama needs to do more than just "work in the Senate to remove" retroactive immunity for warrantless wiretapping. He needs to be the leader who stops it. Democratic nominee for president Obama needs to come right out and say his party opposes retroactive immunity and warrantless wiretapping, and he wants it stopped now. He needs to hold Bush accountable now, not in some vague indefinite future. This will not only help win him the election, it's the right thing to do.
I'm attending a United for Change meeting for Obama Saturday. I had planned to hand over another check. First I will be asking these questions. I would really like answers.
I gave money to Democrats in 2006 so they would get elected and end the war, stop retroactive immunity, and impeach Bush. They have done none of those things, even with a majority in the House larger than the Republicans had in Gingrich's heyday. All they had to do was just not pass the bill!
This last-minute capitulation to one of Bush's worst illegal offences is yet more spinelessness by Democrats. Spinelessness that will come back to haunt all of us in the future. Which of you will be the next Joe Nacchio, trumped up on charges because he wouldn't wiretap for Bush; charges that he can never refute if this immunity passes? Which of you will be the next Don Siegelman, former governor of Alabama, thrown in prison on trumped up charges because it looked like he was winning his election?
This is America, Obama, not the absolute monarchy of old France or George III's Britain! Or the America of Franklin and Jefferson was what I thought Barack Obama was going to restore.
"Qu'on me donne six lignes écrites de la main du plus honnête homme, j'y trouverai de quoi le faire pendre." "If one would give me six lines written by the hand of the most honest man, I would find something in them to have him hanged." --Cardinal Richelieu (1585-1642), via Bruce Schneier "Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety." --Benjamin Franklin, An Historical Review of the Constitution and Government of Pennsylvania, 1759 http://riskman.typepad.com/perilocity/2006/08/what_can_we_do_.html
Comments are closed for this post.
