http://my.barackobama.com/page/group/SenatorObama-PleaseVoteAgainstFISA
This, quite appropriately, is a use of Obama's own campaign tools to tell him how much we disapprove of his current stand on FISA.
The group in the space of less than a week has become the second largest in that space:
Action Wire
Members: 13389 Access: Public Created: Jun 11th, 2008
The Action Wire keeps you up to date on current rumors and smears and equips you with the information to fight back against them. It's up to all of us...(more)
Senator Obama - Please Vote NO on Telecom Immunity - Get FISA Right
Members: 9471 Access: Public Created: Jun 25th, 2008
Senator Obama - we are a proud group of your supporters who believe in your call for hope and a new kind of politics. Please reject the politics of fe...(more)
First Obama panders to the Israel lobby, then to the faith-basers, and now to American fascists...
ReplyDeleteSo far Obama isn't turning out to be as progressive as progressives have envisioned him to be. And sorry, I just can't buy into this argument (something I've been hearing lately) that if Obama is going to make any progress towards moving our country to the left, he needs to do these two things: 1) keep his rhetoric murky as a way to fool the right into thinking that he's a rightwinger and 2) take baby-steps (not big ones) to the left in order to not frighten the right into thinking he's a leftwinger. Because if Obama doesn't accomplish these two things, then his progressive agenda will either backfire or go up in flames.
I swear, though, it'll be the last straw for me if Obama sides with Big Pharma/Big Health by making zero headway towards universal care/ single-payer or if he sides with Big Finance to privatize social security.
Plus I really can't bear the thought of Krugman telling us over and over again for four long years: I-told-you-so!
That said, I'm still holding out hope -- for change, that is...
I posted this at Glenn Greenwald's:
ReplyDeleteLearn to live with President McCain
Getting FISA right is a very low bar to cross for the Democrats, who control the Senate and the House and face a favorable electorate, and are opposed by a unpopular lame-duck President.
And if they aren't accountable to us now, they will be even less so when they have the Presidency, and increased majorities in the Senate and House.
Since the Senate and House outcomes are much more difficult to change, I think it would be best for the long-term if we have a President McCain and Democratic Congress and we try again in 2012. Otherwise we will have rampant authoritarianism in this country.
The whiners here will say: "But we can't count on the Democrats to block President McCain's objectionable war policies, his Supreme Court nominees, economic policies..."
Well, if we can't count on the next Democratic Congress, then you're putting all your hopes for good government in one man, Obama, who has already revealed that he is not a man of his word. There is no force of circumstance nor any rationale for him to reverse himself on FISA.
Then there is the "Obama + Democrats" are certainly better than "McCain + Democrats" argument.
That is dead wrong. If a political party does not behave, the answer is to punish it, not to expand its power. The punishment to the Republicans is further losses in the Congress. The punishment to the Democrats is not winning the Presidency (and it is currently the only way to punish them).
"But I want healthcare" you wail. Well, with such a pusillanimous bunch of Democrats, you are not going to get it in any case. You think the healthcare/insurance lobbies somehow have less clout than the telecoms? You must be out of your frickin' mind (if mind is the right thing to call it, at this point).
The Audacity of Hope should not be a cause to secede from the reality-based community. Reality is harsh, face it. Since you'll have said one time or the other, anything is better than Bush, take consolation in that - McCain will be an improvement over Bush.
And in any case, pow wow has outlined what it takes to avert this fate, it is not much. If the Democrats can't muster that much, then to hell with them.