If he votes for this FISA “compromise” bill, I’m not giving his campaign another dime. The bill still has (effectively) telecom immunity, and he promised to filibuster a bill with telecom immunity back in January. Just to be clear, McCain is worse on this than Obama is, but if Obama can’t stand firm on the telecom immunity front, then he’s lost pretty much everything but my vote in November. No canvassing, no phone banking, and no more money. I hope he does the right thing.
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I’m with you on this, Cristobal. I wrote an email to Obama’s spokesman (Bill Burton — bburton at barackobama dot com) and urged him to knock some sense into Barack. Hopefully I’ll get a response, but it may be that us “little people” don’t matter to him anymore.
Thanks for the email link. Don’t forget to call if you have time, too. +1.866.752.2008 is their main line. Option 6 gets you a live person. If you get someone who is at all like the person who answered the phone for me, he or she will want to talk to you about the issue. Be ready with your rationale.
For me, it’s not just telecom immunity. It’s also the fact that in his presentation (youtube video above) of the issue, Obama has bought into the Republican frame of needing this bill for “national security” reasons. The existing FISA gives them everything they need. The idea that it’s broken is bullshit. The “problem” with the existing law is that it requires judicial oversight.
I agree. I just sent this e-mail to Bill Burton
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Mr. Burton,
I recently gave Barack Obama a donation of $25. It’s not much, but it marked the first time in my entire life that I’ve ever donated to a political campaign. However, I now find it difficult to justify giving any more money to the Obama campaign. I originally gave because I believed Obama stood for something new and that he would stand up for his beliefs. Now, however, with Obama failing to stand up and work to defeat retroactive immunity for telecoms, I see that my beliefs were misplaced. Without the rule of law, the U.S. is no better than a 3rd world dictatorship and giving anyone carte blanche to break the laws is not simply bad policy, it’s wrong.
So, if Obama will not stand up for what is right, I’m afraid I cannot support him with any more donations, be them money or time.
Sincerely,
Tanner Lovelace
Durham, NC
A rather interesting commentary about some underlying issues: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/arianna-huffington/memo-to-obama-moving-to-t_b_110026.html
make sure you join the my.barackobama.com group opposed to this bill
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