Opinion: Obama Blows It On FISA

An Independence Day Comment

As an early Edwards supporter strong on health care, I considered the erstwhile “frontrunner” [Hillary Clinton] to be well to the right-center of me. As Obama’s star rose, I investigated and found him well to the right-center of me too. I was going for the populist, not The Machine or The Inspiration. Because after all the harm the Bushies have done over nearly eight years, Democrats have proven themselves cowards over and over and over again. Even after 2006. We needed, thought I, someone who understands reality in America, not just for the top 2%.

Sometimes I think we need a third party, to represent those of us who self-identify as ‘progressive’. But I’ve seen too many split-party tactics in my time, and I’m not sure at all that the US can handle more than two parties sans a representative form of parliamentary government. We’re just not equipped for it. Yet the Constitution is the only thing still standing between me and Big Brother. I’m not willing to give up on it now.

Which brings me around to the current presumptive front-runner, Barack Obama. And his odd vote on the FISA bill, complete with expansion of powers and retroactive immunity for breaking the law for the telecoms who were blackmailed into cooperating with illegal wiretaps.

The country’s just not in THAT much danger. I’m not plotting terrorist attacks when I talk to my relatives or friends on the phone. But I damn sure don’t want the NSA listening to everything I say! Or logging all my text messages. Or reading all my emails. I believe it’s a complete waste of resources electronic and human. I am not a threat. The time, money, energy and storage space they waste on me talking to my 85-year old Mother-in-Law or giving hubby a grocery list on his way home from work is wasted EVERYTHING.

Hard earned by somebody, not just me, then given to the government under duress, to be wasted on crap like this. I’m sick of it. I don’t feel safer because they search random 55-year old schoolteachers at the airport. I don’t feel safer because they won’t let me fly (have unpaid traffic ticket). I don’t feel safer because they pay someone more money than I make to do nothing other than listen in on all my private communications with my friends and family, and all those “My Name Is Bob” Punjabis that call innumerable times of the day to collect bills or sell me something I don’t want.

I want the government to understand what the threat is, so when they try to scare me they’re not trying to make me afraid of my next-door neighbor for no reason. Or afraid of my friends. Or my family. Or “My Name Is Bob” in Bangalore. Or myself. I am not a terrorist. I know what Arab terrorists look like. Even when they’re wearing regular clothes. I know they’ve a certain background profile and are usually here on visa. They don’t look like 55-year old-lady schoolteachers or some random business-class regular whose name isn’t on the company credit card (I HATE that commercial!).

Then I want the government to target the threat. If my government is more frightened of me than Al Queda, maybe we should all be asking ourselves why that’s so. The answer might not please us, but it might tell us something we need to know.

I was born and raised in the military (US Navy). My Dad spent 27 years in service as an officer (we called him Commander). I married military (US Navy, nuclear submarine service). I have a son and nephew in the current wars too. I grew up with the firm understanding - as part of my environmental patriotism - that America was not just the Land of the Free. It was, even moreso, the Home of the Brave.

What ever happened to that? Didn’t it have to go away before the whole Land of the Free thing got trashed?

This is the week of the 4th of July. America’s Own Holiday. Mr. Obama, you’re wrong on this FISA bill. It doesn’t matter if you vote on the ‘losing’ side, if you’re President come January. Stand to! Because either way, this legislation is designed to haunt the future. You get to decide how you’d like that haunting to go. Fix what Bush and the Wimps did to us (we’ll insist), or start out as a certifiable autocrat. You’ll lose a lot on that account.

The liberty we’d reserve to ourselves here isn’t worth the cost if you flip us off, honest. I, for one, am not afraid. I’ll die of something someday, it matters more to me how I LIVE. I will not surrender my freedom lightly because you’re afraid of me. No More Cowards.

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Filed under Immunity, FISA, Barack Obama, Analysis, Intelligence |