One simply cannot rely upon the MSM to tell us what is important. Today, they are all aghast and atwitter over Wes Clark’s comment on Face the Nation, and have deliberately clipped, twisted, and mischaracterized his words as an attack on McCain’s war record. The Columbia Journalism Review has the original quote and a good article.
Appearing as a surrogate for Barack Obama on CBS’s “Face the Nation”, Clark, in reference to John McCain, said: I certainly honor his service as a prisoner of war…But he hasn’t held executive responsibility. That large squadron in the Navy that he commanded—that wasn’t a wartime squadron. He hasn’t been there and ordered the bombs to fall.
When moderator Bob Schieffer interjected that “Barack Obama has not had any of those experiences, either, nor has he ridden in a fighter plane and gotten shot down”, Clark responded: “Well, I don’t think riding in a fighter plane and getting shot down is a qualification to be president.”
A perfectly reasonable observation to make, it seems to me, not an assault on either McCain’s war record or his patriotism. Too bad Obama threw him under the bus so quickly. I guess Clark’s audition for VP is over.
And while they clutch their hearts at this unbearable assault on their hero, St. McCain, other things are going on that real reporters used to cover.
Terry Gross had Sy Hersch on her NPR show today to deliver his latest bombshell, it seems that the fourth branch of government, located in Dick Cheney’s office, is not about to let up on it’s pursuit of conflict with Iran. This coincides with stories that have been murmuring elsewhere (h/t TPM) about the Administration’s haste in anticipation of an Obama victory.
Emptywheel has the best systhesis I’ve seen of why Hersch’s reporting is important.
We won a reprieve, but now is not the time to let up on FISA. Now is the time to concentrate our efforts on our presumptive nominee. The MSM is all about how Obama is "tacking to the center" for the general election, but this candidate started out pretty much in the center -- so we can read that as "tacking right".
Don't let him do it. Can't we at least wait until he is in office before we let him break our hearts? Although we are unlikely to win a straightforward victory, Dem leadership can just delay this thing into oblivion to take the heat off their candidate -- but that is only likely if we create enough heat.
Likeminded supporters have set up a group at Obama's campaign site to help him see the light. Join.
One breathtaking comment from a recent comment (emphasis in original):
1. Why do we claim that our "privacy" is being violated when in fact we are communicating with another person? There is no right to privacy that extends to communication between two individuals, unless that communication is protected by law. There is no invasion of privacy if two or more people are communicating. In other words, if you want privacy, then don't use your phone or email!!! DUH!
2. This idea that we should somehow sue cell phone carriers for responding to an executive order is ludicrous, in my opinion. When you signed on as a cell phone user, did you get a written guarantee from the cell phone carrier that your communications would not be monitored by third parties? Probably not. Did you get a written guarantee that your cell phone records would not be shared with the government? I doubt it. Again, if you want privacy, don't use a phone or email!
Wow. Who thought it was just that simple?! So the only right to privacy we have is confined to our own homes? This commenter apparently believes that what J. Edgar Hoover did to Bobby Kennedy and the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. -- not to mention thousands of anti-war protesters during the 60s and 70s was perfectly okay -- because the idiots had the temerity to leave their homes!
This is ridiculous. Just imagine how much fun the government could have with us if this kind of idiotic reasoning is allowed to prevail. Be afraid. Be very afriad.
For those who want a quick update, here is Ian at FDL on the “real” FISA vote. He’s a little too fatalistic for my taste. I say it’s not over --- even when it’s over.
And certainly before we move on, we need to hail the heros, however humble they might be. Chris Dodd, on the floor of the US Senate:
Under the legislation before us, the district court would simply decide whether or not the telecommunication companies received documentation stating that the President authorized the program and that there had been some sort of determination that it was legal.
But, as the Intelligence Committee has already made clear, we already KNOW that this happened.
We already KNOW that the companies received some form of documentation, with some sort of legal determination.
But that’s not the question. The question is not whether these companies received a “document” from the White House. The question is, “were their actions legal?” It’s rather straightforward—surprisingly uncomplicated.
Either the companies were presented with a warrant, or they weren’t. Either the companies and the President acted outside of the rule of law, or they followed it. Either the underlying program was legal or it wasn’t.
Because of this legislation, none of the questions will be answered, Mr. President. Because of this so-called “compromise,” the judge’s hands will be tied, and the outcome of these cases will be predetermined. Because of this compromise, retroactive immunity will be granted and that, as they say, will be that. Case closed.
No court will rule on the legality of the telecommunications companies activities in participating in the president’s warrantless wiretapping program.
None of our fellow Americans will have their day in court.
What they will have is a government that has sanctioned lawlessness.
And Russ Finegold in front of reporters at the New America Foundation:
The Wisconsin Democrat voiced considerable frustration with members of his own party, who, he says, have enabled the sweeping new legislation. “Sen. Dodd and I and Sen. Leahy are going to do everything we can to stop this mistake,” Feingold noted, referring to fellow opponents of the bill. “But I’m extremely concerned that not only virtually every Republican… but far too many Democrats will vote the wrong way.”
“We met with Sen. Reid on Friday morning,” said Feingold, speaking of himself and Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Conn., “and we indicated our desire that this thing not just be jammed through, we’ll be requiring key procedural votes and we’ll also be taking some time on the floor this week to indicate the problems with this legislation.”
This won’t be the first time the duo has tried to stall the enactment of broad surveillance powers by using procedural tactics. Last December, amid the uproar over the possibility that the government would retroactively immunize telecommunications companies who participated in the Bush administration’s warrantless wiretapping program, Dodd spearheaded a filibuster of a similar set of FISA amendments — a move that ultimately prompted Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., to pull the bill from the floor.
Progressive activists and civil libertarians hailed the filibuster, and the Democratic party’s greater decision not to cave in to White House demands on a national security issue. Nonetheless, several senior Democrats spent the intervening months trying to accommodate the Republicans. And despite containing less than a handful of narrow improvements over the previous amendments, the new legislation has much wider support among Democratic leaders. Many of them claim the bill represents a worthy compromise.
“That’s a farce and it’s political cover,” Feingold said. “Anybody who claims this is an okay bill, I really question if they’ve even read it. ” “Democrats enabled [this],” Feingold went on. “Some of the rank-and-file Democrats in the Senate who were elected on this reform platform unfortunately voted with Kit Bond, who’s just giggling, he’s so happy with what he got. We caved in.”
Now Obama on FISA
And the Apologists weigh in
You’ve got to be kidding me. The Candidate who is too afraid to hold his position on an issue on which most citizens are agreed is going to pursue a criminal prosecution of telecom companies as a vehicle through which to hold the Bush Administration accountable after he takes office?
Yea, right.
We are not expecting too much of Obama; we are expecting too little.
Did you do your FISA homework today? If not, never fear, real action was postponed until later in the week. No doubt so that the Democratic collaborators can bury the story on a summer Friday. So you still have time. Get to work. Tomorrow.
On a more positive note, I have been pretty hard on Obama lately, so hard that some might think I have been re-thinking my position about those threatening to stay at home or vote for McCain. Think again. Since I never bought the trope that Obama was anything other than another politician I am not, shall we say, quite as crushed as some others might be that he has turned out to be just that.
And I have good news from the Heartland about the impact of racism on his chances.
I come from a working class family, one that contains lots of folks that McCain thinks he can mine using the Republican “code” that has worked since Nixon to create a shield for racists.
Not this time. At a recent family gathering I spent some time talking our about candidate to my uncle. A retired ironworker, Marine veteran, and – among other things – a lifelong racist. Throughout my life growing up he and I had many heated arguments, although I have to admit that most of the heat came from me. He delighted in baiting me with racist pronouncements and I, being young, could not help but rise to the bait. I would leave upset. He would leave laughing.
It was a wonderful learning experience. He forced me to hone my arguments, learn to see through the frame of an argument and not just its details, and come to grips with the fact that just because I may vehemently disagree with someone’s ideas, that doesn’t automatically make them a bad or evil person.
My uncle is voting for Obama. Not only that, but he is a regular contributor and, for the general, has offered to be a campaign volunteer. He is so disgusted by the Republican’s underhanded strategy that he has put on two buttons: One declaring himself a Muslim, and another in support of Obama. And – blustery as ever – he has dared any of the small-minded idiots in his small-minded town to take one of them off. He is outraged by the way the Bush administration has abused our troops and their faith in the judgment of politicians. He is McCain’s worst nightmare and a glimmer of hope for our country.
True to form, the MSM did not see fit to spend any time covering the backhanded repeal of the 4th Amendment that Pelosi and Hoyer engineered this week through FISA. Although I’m no longer a big fan of Olbermann, at least he saw fit to bring some credentialed analysis to the subject.
Do you think I am being too dramatic? Watch Constitutional scholar Jonathan Turley on Countdown here:
The response from the left blogosphere? Among those who’ve been slugging Obama koolaid like it’s last call at their favorite bar some have been silent, others merely posted Obama’s statement without comment, and some have actually joined in trying to help the campaign peddle this shit.
Others, both true progressives and the intellectually honest, are having a fit:
What a politician. Obama now says that although he “supports the compromise” he will try to strip the immunity provisions from FISA when it hits the Senate, knowing full well how next to impossible that will be. The Senate already approved that once and there is little hope that they will allow that to happen this time. But the Magic One says we need not worry about this assault on the 4th Amendment, because when he becomes President, he will monitor it very carefully.
Please…
Far be it from me to lecture a constitutional lawyer on our system of government, but the Constitution was put in place expressly so that “we the people” do not have to depend on a benevolent dictator to safeguard our rights.
We are not done with this.
Christy at FireDogLake points out that Obama’s chief foreign policy and national security advisor saw clearly, once upon a time, what was at stake. Oh, but I guess that was before he attached himself to an ambitious and calculating politician.
Is there anything left to do? You bet your britches. I’m asking people to do several things:
First we need you to take to the phones or the fax machine. Email is too easy for us, and thus for them to ignore. But when the phones and faxes start jamming, they know it’s trouble.
Contact Feingold and Dodd and urge them to keep their filibuster promise:
And finally, if you are from Illinois, contact Durbin and tell him to hold tight to his opposition. His support of Obama may bring him to fold on this, and that can’t happen.
Durbin – phone: 202-224-2152; fax: 202-228-0400
Finally, if progressives and Democrats are EVER to have better representation, we must make them pay when they turn their backs on issues as important as this. FireDogLake and Glenzilla have created a punishment PAC through Act Blue that has raised over $300,000 since this issue re-emerged last week.
If you are already contributing to Obama’s campaign, please divert your contribution this week and let the campaign know where and why. If you were planning to contribute but haven’t yet, don’t. Spend your money defending the Constitution yourself instead of waiting for politicians – even smooth, bright and shiny ones – to do it for you.
I am so filled with rage that I am nearly immobilized. The Democrats have become traitors to this country by collaborating with Republicans to betray the U.S. Constitution. Didn’t hear that on your evening news, did you?
In a “bi-partisan compromise” on FISA legislation, they have decided to grant the telecommunication industry amnesty from breaking the law, and to allow the most corrupt administration ever to slink out of office without having to fear any judicial scrutiny of their lawlessness.
Tomorrow will go down in history. For the first time in 232 year history of our country’s history, Congress will pull together across party lines to declare that the President – and anyone serving as his agent – is above the law.
Glenn Greenwald and FireDogLake (can’t make the link work) are all over it, of course, but the accelerated pace of what is happening, which reveals a lot of backstage maneuvering around timing and a certainty that the votes are in line, leaves little hope that we will be able to prevent this.
Instead, FDL is organizing a “Punishment PAC”, that will target the Democratic Majority Whip in the House, and a few other key Democratic betrayers, with a media campaign to reveal their treachery. If you would like to contribute to this fund, as I have, you can do so here.
In 2000, Ralph Nadar gained a foothold among voters by arguing, fairly persuasively, that there simply was NO DIFFERENCE between Democrats and Republicans. He has since become a pariah among Democrats because they blame him for having cost Gore the Presidency. (One could argue that Gore cost himself the Presidency by being such a revulsive piece of white bread, but then we would have to ignore the Supreme Court.)
Today’s (and tomorrow’s) appalling display on the part of Democrats makes the case pretty well, I think, that Nadar is right.
Oh, and in case you’re wondering where the Big O is in all of this, he’s busy cutting commercials in support of one of the worst Bush-supporting Democrats there is, a commercial to help this guy defeat a progressive, African-American woman primary challenger.
So, the Democratic primary season is finally over, and I have commented on the race too much to let that pass without, well, comment! This post should have been done some time ago, but I have been a hamster on the wheel lately.
A couple of observations:
1. In spite of all the vitriol being directed at Hillary’s campaign, this contest has been good for the Democratic party. The best thing that Howard Dean has done as leader of the DNC was his “50 state strategy”, and party elders fought him every step of the way. They were wrong. Dean was right. Democrats were foolish to cede vast parts of the US landscape to Republicans by not even bothering to organize in what were perceived to be solidly red states. That was the universe before Dean.
Now our candidates – and the party -- have been forced by this campaign to organize in every single state. Vast and unprecedented sums of money have been raised and spent. The number of newly registered voters, and of voters crossing lines or declaring in order to be able to vote in OUR primary is historic. That cannot help but be a good thing.
2. And only Democratic voters have been drawn to the ballot because they actually believed that their votes made a difference. “Democracy”, the act of counting, is a powerful impulse on a deeply personal and psychological level, We want to count. Each and every one of us. And we want to count whether we live in Iowa, or Florida, or Montana. I’m not a good enough historian to know if it’s this is the first time this has happened since the founding of the republic, but it is the first time in my lifetime.
I simply have seldom seen such utter indifference to the impact of policy on real live human beings than I hear in McCain here. He doesn't hesitate for a moment to consign these poor troops to endless and repetitive deployments
in the name of what?
He who is supposed to be the most grounded in the hard realities of war. That's why people are supposed to trust him. That's his brand.
Yet instead his own suffering has made him indifferent to the situation of these troops. (Who could match him, after all?) Instead he echoes the lack of reflection of our other most recent cowboy President, and all the other Yellow Elephants, who are so comfortable sending other people's kids (and husbands and wives and fathers and mothers) off to die, who feel so easy spending lives like poker chips on some ridiculous geopolitical play.
Morrigan lives in a little river town near St. Louis, and earns her living by writing and organizing on behalf of the underdogs. She blogs on politics, media and government, and the intersections contained therein.
She is a lesbian feminist mother and grandmother, a working-class agitator that hasn’t figured out when to give up.
Or shut up, for that matter.
