Obama Broke My Heart Yesterday

But, life goes on. I'm seeing several emails from EFF and ACLU regarding their not letting this just go. I haven't had time to read them yet, so I suggest you do. Their efforts will probably not turn this awful, awful legislation around, but what the hell, right?

I've suspended all financial contributions to my candidate's campaign, but not to downticket candidates or to other very worthy causes - like these and StrangeBedfellows PAC.

Peace.

In Honor of the new FISA Bill

In honor of the new FISA bill, at some point in every phone conversation I'm going to make sure to say, loud and clear, FUCK YOU, BUSH or FUCK OFF, BUSH or something equally caustic!

Give 'em something to listen to while they secretly wiretap our phones.

What 4th Amendment? What Constitution?

I am too disgusted to even form more than a few coherent sentences today. The Senate has just said it's ok that our idiot president can wiretap us all he wants in secret for any reason and that all the prior years of warrantless wiretapping he did was ok, too! What a bunch of fucking idiots!

Of course, the dolts in our MSM are too busy covering Christie Brinkley's divorce trial to cover this issue which has been brewing for over a week now, but they'd probably fuck it up like they do everything else anyway.

From what I understand, Obama broke his promise and did NOT filibuster any amendment that included immunity. He did, however, vote for the Bingaman Amendment which required that the Senate wait until the Inspector General's audit of the NSA program is complete before immunizing the telecoms. The Bingaman Amendment failed.

Your best bet for an honest and realistic take on what the Senate has done to our 4th Amendment rights this morning is at Glenn Greenwald.

Talk among yourselves while I vacillate between depression and utter rage!

Update:

Here's how the votes went:

YEAs ---32 = SUPPORTERS of justice and the 4th Amendment
Akaka (D-HI)
Baucus (D-MT)
Biden (D-DE)
Bingaman (D-NM)
Boxer (D-CA)
Brown (D-OH)
Byrd (D-WV)
Cantwell (D-WA)
Cardin (D-MD)
Casey (D-PA)
Clinton (D-NY)
Dodd (D-CT)
Dorgan (D-ND)
Durbin (D-IL)
Feingold (D-WI)
Harkin (D-IA)
Kerry (D-MA)
Klobuchar (D-MN)
Lautenberg (D-NJ)
Leahy (D-VT)
Levin (D-MI)
Menendez (D-NJ)
Murray (D-WA)
Obama (D-IL)
Reed (D-RI)
Reid (D-NV)
Sanders (I-VT)
Schumer (D-NY)
Stabenow (D-MI)
Tester (D-MT)
Whitehouse (D-RI)
Wyden (D-OR)

NAYs ---66 = TRAITORS to their oath of office and the 4th Amendment
Alexander (R-TN)
Allard (R-CO)
Barrasso (R-WY)
Bayh (D-IN)
Bennett (R-UT)
Bond (R-MO)
Brownback (R-KS)
Bunning (R-KY)
Burr (R-NC)
Carper (D-DE)
Chambliss (R-GA)
Coburn (R-OK)
Cochran (R-MS)
Coleman (R-MN)
Collins (R-ME)
Conrad (D-ND)
Corker (R-TN)
Cornyn (R-TX)
Craig (R-ID)
Crapo (R-ID)
DeMint (R-SC)
Dole (R-NC)
Domenici (R-NM)
Ensign (R-NV)
Enzi (R-WY)
Feinstein (D-CA)
Graham (R-SC)
Grassley (R-IA)
Gregg (R-NH)
Hagel (R-NE)
Hatch (R-UT)
Hutchison (R-TX)
Inhofe (R-OK)
Inouye (D-HI)
Isakson (R-GA)
Johnson (D-SD)
Kohl (D-WI)
Kyl (R-AZ)
Landrieu (D-LA)
Lieberman (ID-CT)
Lincoln (D-AR)
Lugar (R-IN)
Martinez (R-FL)
McCaskill (D-MO)
McConnell (R-KY)
Mikulski (D-MD)
Murkowski (R-AK)
Nelson (D-FL)
Nelson (D-NE)
Pryor (D-AR)
Roberts (R-KS)
Rockefeller (D-WV)
Salazar (D-CO)
Sessions (R-AL)
Shelby (R-AL)
Smith (R-OR)
Snowe (R-ME)
Specter (R-PA)
Stevens (R-AK)
Sununu (R-NH)
Thune (R-SD)
Vitter (R-LA)
Voinovich (R-OH)
Warner (R-VA)
Webb (D-VA)
Wicker (R-MS)

Not Voting - 2
Kennedy (D-MA)
McCain (R-AZ)

link

Just Say "NAY"

How many of our senators voted to invade Iraq because they didn't read the NIE or didn't read enough of it or didn't understand enough of it? Five plus years later we're more deeply entrenched in that quagmire than ever before with no end in sight and all our "I wish I hads" don't mean a thing.

How many of our senators are going to vote for the upcoming FISA bill because they haven't read it or won't read it or won't understand enough of it? This is what scares us about your stance on this corrupt piece of legislation, Senator Obama. So many of us believe that if you or your experts really read it, there is no way you'd be voting for it. Absolutely, NO WAY!

We know that you know that the president has no power to "order" any US citizen to do anything, let alone to break the law, yet there is a wall of justification for this bill which has been built with the last 8 years of Bush's corrupt monarchy that has led Americans to believe the president does have that right! You and I both know, HE DOES NOT! Never has had that right. Yet, you stand behind this bill's passage.

We don't understand why your experts and consultants haven't told you this, Senator. We don't understand how your background in Constitutional law could permit you to allow this bill to pass. How can you stand by and watch it pass knowing it's wrong?

Yes, it's true that your one vote won't turn this bad piece of legislation around, but that's not the issue. The issue is your unwillingness to stand up for what you believe in, for what you know is right and say so. The flip-flop accusers need to be damned. They're going to say it regardless. The Republicans have nothing to crow about, nothing to point at and proudly say "yes, we were responsible for that wonderful thing." All they have is the ability to try and focus Americans on the perceived shortcomings of the Democrats. That's the only ammunition they have. They have diversion, we have Barack Obama as our nominee!

Today, CNN accused you of flip-flopping on our withdrawal from IRAQ, yet the video showed the exact opposite - your very consistent stand on that issue. They're going to say whatever their corporate shills want them to say. However, what we want them to say is that despite the insurmountable odds of defeat in the Senate you stood strong and proud and voted against this badly framed, corrupt piece of legislation. That you voted to uphold our 4th Amendment rights because you believe we can maintain national security without compromising even one word of our Constitutional rights!

To put it a different way, Glenn Greenwald wrote today:

The bill thus ensures that what [Nancy] Soderberg [LA Times]
admits is lawbreaking by both the Government and telecoms will never be
addressed or resolved by a court of law. It shields the lawbreakers from
accountability in court. That's its whole purpose. She has to know that, and yet
here she is, telling people that this bill is a just and good policy because it
"allows the courts to determine the legality of these actions." Can anyone
coherently deny that it's outright lying to claim that this bill "allows the
courts to determine the legality of these actions" when it does the exact
opposite?

Help stop their lying, Senator Obama. Don't let Bush & Co. steamroll yet another falsehood on the American people. We're counting on you.