Information Landmine

"The Americans keep telling us how successful their system is. Then they remind us not to stray too far from our hotel at night." - An un-named EU trade representative quoted during international trade talks in Denver, Colorado, 1997.

Thursday, July 10, 2008

Obama and the Betrayal of US Constitutional Democracy

Once again, BuzzFlash's P.M. Carpenter just doesn't get it.

Thankfully, others who have commented on Carpenter's latest apologist act for Barack Obama's spineless surrender to the fascists of the Bush administration do seem to get it, however. This comment, in particular, from "Clemsy Diggs" really hits the nail on the head:

Well PM, there's just one flaw in your argument that's like a bad taste I just can't get out of my mouth: The assumption that digging in against the FISA bill would have hurt his campaign.

I don't buy it. If this is his reasoning than he's a bit out of touch with what's going on in the street today. The only people not fed the hell up with Bush and his policies are hardcore brown shirts and congenital, reality-challenged idiots.

Congress is down to single digit approval ratings for the first time ever and a lot of that sentiment comes from frustration at a Democrat controlled Congress that keeps playing a shell game with the Bushies and losing every goddamn time.

After almost eight years of watching them walk out of the store, smiling, with all those little details that make America, well, America, people, yes even moderate people, are salivating over the image of someone standing up and saying, "No more!"

Yes, we get that politics in America is a dishonorable, septic tank affair.

But that's another assumption that needs to be put to the test... that this is the way it is and some things will never change.

Obama's initial appeal to many of us was that he was going to challenge this assumption. However, with the FISA bill he's climbed into the septic tank with the rest of them.

That he should know better is bad. That he may know better is worse.

One thing he probably does know is that he has us by the proverbial short hairs. MacCain will drag America into the long dark, and probably take a lot of the planet along with it.

What will Obama do? I really don't know. But I do know that it's way past time for the American people to take the power back from those who have convinced us we don't have any.

And I'm sick to death of politicians "keeping us safe." Their job is to keep the Constitution safe.

Americans need to remember we are willing to make our own sacrifices to preserve our own Revolution. We also need to remember who has the power.

We do.

Well said, Clemsy! If allegedly-smart campaigning now means shredding the principles of our Constitution then US democracy is in even greater peril than most of us already feared to be the case.

*UPDATE*

This bitterly tongue-in-cheek comment from Yman puts all of this in an even more terrifying light:

PM is absolutely RIGHT! Suck it up, people!!!!

What the hell do you people expect? It's about WINNING, damn it!!! And doing whatever it takes to WIN, no matter what the cost!!!

Yeah, yeah .... Fourth Amendment blah, blah, blah ........... who the hell cares! It's not like he's adopting conservative positions on the the Second Amendment and expanding the gun nuts' rights. Or lowering the wall between church and state. Or the Eighth Amendment and expanding the death penalty to crimes not involving killing. Or the Fifth Amendment (and a few others) and restricting a woman's right to choose to have an abortion.

C'mon! All you childish, pollyanna progressives who are criticizing Obama need to get over yourselves! Be PROUD of Obama's FISA support like PM!

Besides ........... there's still a whole bunch of Amendments left.


Indeed.

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