Torture and Warrantless Surveillance Are the Same Issue
Via Glenn, the Washington Post has a write-up on Jane Mayer’s new book, The Dark Side: The Inside Story of How the War on Terror Turned Into a War on America’s Ideals. Here is what Mayer reveals in that book, which is due out this week:
How to be on the “Far Left”, from the paper of record
According to the New York Times, an American is on the “far left” if they are angry over Obama’s support for the FISA bill. Or, in other words, if an American is vocal about defending their civil liberties, that puts them in the fringes of politics — the outcasts wandering around the hinterlands, forgotten and ignored because of their extreme views.
Nice.
Why don’t we see extreme activities which receive Republican support as being considered “far right”? Why isn’t the anti-immigration group the Minutemen ever considered far right? How come wanting to destroy social security isn’t from the far right? How come wanting to enforce religion by law (for example, by making gay marriage illegal) isn’t on the far right? How come using tax cuts to distribute more wealth to the greedy isn’t coming from the far right? I could go on — and I’m sure you could, too. Suffice to say, in today’s political discourse “far right” is defined as either God Hates Fags or Adolf Hitler; yet the “far left” consists of activists who dare to defend the Constitution.
Insert some witty cliche about the “liberal media” here. When this is the starting point defined by the mainstream, no wonder political discourse in this country is a joke.
FISA and Journalists
Chris Hedges — one of my favorite writers — has an op-ed in the Los Angeles Times about the chilling effect the new FISA law will have on journalists and their sources:
Profiles in Courage
Blue America has come up with a way, going beyond words, to thank the people who opposed compromising the Constitution with the rewritten FISA that became law this week.
Lawbreaking Is Now the Law
The Senate earlier this afternoon passed the so-called “compromise” FISA bill, 69-28. Obama voted yes; Hillary Clinton voted no. Obama and Clinton also voted yes and no, respectively, on the vote to invoke cloture (which ended debate on the legislation and allowed the Senate to vote on the bill itself). Three separate amendments concerning the telecom immunity provision failed. The first, and strongest, amendment, would have stripped immunity from the bill. The second one would have delayed immunity to allow the Supreme Court to determine whether the NSA spy program is constitutional. The third (and weakest) amendment called for the immunity provision to take effect only upon completion of an audit of the NSA program by the Inspector General.
Obama voted for all three amendments (as did Clinton), but Obama’s yes votes were merely for show. They became meaningless the moment he voted for cloture, and then joined Senate Republicans in approving the underlying legislation.
Glenn Greenwald has two massive posts on the shameful proceedings (the second is linked from the first). There really is no need to go elsewhere, because his pieces have all the details, all the authoritative commentary, and all the links to additional information that you might need.
It is minimally comforting to know that my senator, Sen. Frank Lautenberg, voted for all the amendments, and against the final bill. One source of anger and outrage that I am spared from having to feel.
I also want to say here that Glenn deserves all of our thanks and appreciation for his unending, consistent, and truly fierce efforts to keep this issue front and center, not to mention the work he has done to prevent this disastrous legislation from passing. He, and the folks at Firedoglake — in particular, Jane Hamsher and Christy Hardin Smith — have labored tirelessly to inform and advocate on FISA and warrantless surveillance. The fight to hold the betrayers of the Constitution accountable continues; for more on that, you can start here.
Obama: National Security Trumps Accountability for Telecoms
Turns out “Change You Can Believe In” is “Business As Usual You Can Bet On“:
At a presser today, Obama weighed in again on the FISA cave, and suffice it to say that what he said won’t make opponents any less unhappy about Obama’s position than they were already.
Asked specifically why he’s supporting the current FISA bill when he’d promised months ago to support a filibuster of an earlier version of the bill, Obama suggested flat out that “national security” overrides the question of telecom immunity…
Chris Dodd Gives Hope To Constitution Advocates
I’m listening to the audio of Chris Dodd’s speech on the Senate floor last night about why immunity for telecoms is such a terrible idea. This is a take-no-prisoners speech. One of the best things Dodd does is tie together all the other constitutional crimes committed by the Bush administration, and he makes it clear they are not separate issues and should not be treated as if they were:
Feingold and Dodd Say They Will Filibuster If Immunity Stays in FISA Bill
Thank you, Russ Feingold and Chris Dodd, for showing some integrity and guts (emphasis in original):
Hoyer and Pelosi To Their Base: You Should Thank Us for Screwing You
Nancy and Steny are making the rounds, visiting their friends in the media to get the word out on how fabulously clever they were to foil Republican election strategy by giving the right every unchecked power they wanted in a national surveillance bill.
“It’s Christmas at the White House”
The House of Representatives passed the unconstitutional FISA Amendments Act of 2008 (H.R. 6304) today by a vote of 293-129. The final roll call is up at the House website, so you can see how your representative voted. My rep is Bill Pascrell, and I am proud to say his name is in the No column.
Steny Hoyer’s “Compromise” Is a Sell-Out
As many of you already know, a “bipartisan deal” has been reached in the House that gives the president huge additional powers to conduct electronic surveillance without a court order. The proposed legislation includes full retroactive immunity for the telecoms (emphasis in original):
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