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False Choice on FISA
Ever since 9/11, this Administration has put forward a false choice between the liberties we cherish and the security we demand. … Secrecy must not trump accountability. ... I share your commitment to this cause, and will stand with you in the fights to come.
Barack Obama, 08/01/2007
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Which would you rather have …
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A.) President Obama without the new FISA bill
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B.) President Obama with the new FISA bill
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C.) President McCain without the new FISA bill
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D.) President McCain with the new FISA bill
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If you honestly believe that our country is better off with A than B, then why on earth are you working so hard to tell everybody to shut up about FISA?
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If your argument is that it’s a necessary evil in order to get Obama to the White house, you have accepted the false choice of FISA …
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Obama must support FISA or the big bad Republicans will smear him as soft on terror and that will be insurmountable in terms of winning the election
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That’s a position of fear, of handing power to your opponent, and finally it just plain doesn’t hold up. Do you actually believe that if FISA passes as is, that the Republicans will not attack Obama as soft on terror. Do you honestly believe that having taken a principled stand to oppose and defeat the FISA bill that this fact alone will sway an undecided voter that Obama is ‘soft on terror’? Do you think that voter would have been untarnished by other false Republican smears and would have voted for Obama otherwise? Sorry folks it just doesn’t add up.
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Obama promised to ‘change the way things are done in Washington’. He’s in Washington now. He can demonstrate that change now, by
standing up for the people and the Constitution. People, if he’s afraid of the Republicans now, that isn’t going
to change. We’re going to get one
capitulation after the next if we don’t forcefully demonstrate that we expect
him to keep his word, to us, that I “will stand with you in the fights to come”. Stand now Senator - and stop kneeling in front of the Republican altar
of security trumping liberty.
Comments (3)
Nicely put. I think it's time for the Speech: A national dialog on FISA (and terrist fear-mongering). And I'm only half kidding.
June 29, 2008 3:25 AM | Reply | Permalink
No, sometimes what some see as a position of fear is just prudence and I think this is.
The Republicans will do everything they can to paint Obama as the most leftist leftist on the planet- coddling terrorists and making us vulnerable.
Obama's vote on this isn't going to change anything. FISA isn't going away - it was in place before Bush ever showed up. The point of the statute is to empower the president to authorize the contravention of our 4th and 14th amendment rights - that's why it was enacted. I hate the statute, but it has been used by other presidents without causing this kind of controversy because they followed the statute's requirements. Bush ignored them - he broke the law. But the law he broke is FISA and it isn't going off the books no matter what happens next.
It's a national security ;measure and there's no way Congress is going to repeal it. It's a bitch as originally written and as rewritten because it is meant as a vehicle to go against the constitution.
It's not the statute that was the problem, (like it or not, and I don't) and Obama's vote on it won't change things. It's Bush - he didn't follow the statute. I wish it would be repealed altogether, but then, I don't like a lot of things. I don't like RICO; I am convinced the 3 strikes laws are unconstitutional - but the SCOTUS doesn't agree with me and there's not a thing I can do about that.
I think FISA as originally written is a crock of shit, but that doesn't do one thing toward protecting our rights that I think so. And I can promise you it is not going away - no matter what Obama does.
June 29, 2008 11:26 AM | Reply | Permalink
Stop making sense and highlighting reality. :O(
It's much more fun to stomp our feet, raise our voice in protest and wish that things were different. If we lose the election along the way, it is a small price to pay for taking a meaningless, though highly principled, stand against the Constitutional violations.
If Obama really had the courage of his convictions, he would also come out against DUI checkpoints, Freedom-of-Speech Zones and overly-aggressive TSA officials at the airport. It's never too early to concentrate on the truly historic issues facing our country.
June 29, 2008 12:06 PM | Reply | Permalink
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