Strangebedfellows-- Alliance From Hell For the Political Class
So the Senate passed FISA reauthorization this afternoon, complete with enhanced warrantless surveillance and retroactive telecom immunity. A smirking George Bush will sign with a flourish-- and why not; he got everything he wanted. Barack Obama completed his graceless 180% turn and voted in favor, while John McCain would have supported the bill if he had bothered to show up. Quite a coup for our establishment political class, it seems. All is well in a free and prosperous Washington DC.
But wait-- do I hear a rumbling sound in the distance? This latest bipartisan French kiss between our Democrat and Republican elites has freed their telecom friends from the annoyance of those pesky privacy lawsuits, but something is amiss. Wired.com (yesterday) sounded the warning:
"A group of high--profile progressive bloggers and Libertarian Republicans are rolling out a new political action committee called Accountability Now to channel widespread anger over pending legislation that would legalize much of the president's warrantless electronic surveillance of Americans, and grant retroactive legal immunity to telephone companies that cooperated with the spying when it was still illegal. . . . They've hired the political media consultants behind a historic Ron Paul online fundraising drive to organize a similar 'moneybomb' set to go off on Aug. 8."
"That is the day Richard Nixon resigned, and the idea is that 35 years ago when you did this kind of stuff, you were forced out of office, and now congress drops everything to make your crimes legal," says [Jane] Hamsher in an interview.
Have you noticed how deeply our friends on the left are incensed by this sellout from their own leaders? Glenn Greenwald writes today at Salon.com/opinion/Greenwald: "The issues implicated by this bill-- government spying, lawbreaking, manipulation of national security claims for secrecy and presidential power, the extreme privileges corporations inside Washington receive-- have been at the very heart of progressive complaints against the Bush era for the last seven years. The type of capitulation which Jay Rockefeller and Steny Hoyer embraced is exactly what progressives hve spent the last seven years scathingly attacking." Greenwald cites Stanford Professor Larry Lessig: "the perception of Obama's craven, nakedly calculating behavior as illustrated by his support for the FISA bill is by far the largest threat to his candidacy as it completely undermines Obama's signal virtue-- that he's different."
Strong words from the left, and such words frame a striking mirror image to what Ron Paul supporters were saying and feeling during the Republican primaries. What has happened to the Republican Party, we asked? What happened to the virtues of limited constitutional governance and a humble foreign policy, we wanted to know? The Republican Party threw such things away in their lust for power, and now the Democratic congressional leadership has similarly cast aside the principles of their own leftist base.
But here's the good news from all of this. Left and right grassroots leaders have come together as Strangebedfellows on a set of issues where we share core values and aligned interests. The Strangebedfellows all hold a commitment to civil liberties, constitutional governance and the Bill of Rights-- the very things that our Republocrat leaders so arrogantly trampled upon today. Our leaders are comfortable when they have us safely divided into "left" and "right," but no more. We and our leftist colleagues are working together now-- for the same things, and against the same elitist people. Strangebedfellows-- the alliance from hell for the political class.
Join our August 8 moneybomb at www.AccountabilityNowPAC.com. Let's send these so--called leaders in Washington DC a message they'll never forget.
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- Rick Williams's blog
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Its time the right and left kick both of our leaders out. If you see an incumbent this November, unless its Ron Paul and Dennis, kick the S.O.B. out of congress!
no principal. The way I see it - he felt vulnerable with the so-called "independents" on national security issues and feared attack ads if he would have voted against this bill. The whole 'soft on terrorism' crap we have been hearing for the last 8 yrs.
I saw this coming a mile away and even warned my roommate about it weeks ago. Obama did the same thing in IL on his medical marijuana stance. First he was for it - then he was ambiguous - and now he apparently toes the establishment line. What changed? He ran for president. He didnt want to alienate voters. Its not about principles - its about winning.
And the same could be said for the republicans ever since the Clinton years - its not about principles, its about winning. Principles go out the window when there is power to yield and influence to peddle.
The whole damn political state of affairs in this country is shockingly abysmal. Our activity within and beyond the RP movement is the only thing worthwhile going on anymore.
"Change You Can Trust" ?