Angry bloggers on left and right united over FISA

[The Backlash Cometh]

Angry Bloggers On Left And Right Unite Over FISA

<snip>


Bloggers Join Forces

Although Williams considers himself a lifelong Republican, on FISA he sees eye-to-eye with left-leaning Democrats. He was a Ron Paul supporter, and he and other Libertarian-minded Republicans have joined forces with leftist bloggers in a new group called The Strange Bedfellows. Williams says they're planning a Ron Paul-style online fundraiser for Aug. 8.

"That's the day that Richard Nixon resigned the presidency," Williams said. "We feel that the Nixon example — his resignation — needs to be reinforced. No one is above the law — not President Bush, and certainly not a group of law-breaking telecoms."

<snip>

Hoyer says wiretapping is not going to sway any elections this year. "I think that the economy is the major issue," he said. "Changing our policy in Iraq, housing, the environment, global warming — I think those are going to be the major issues that the American people are concerned about and are going to address."

Still, the FISA issue looms large online. On Barack Obama's Web site, it's come to dominate the discussion forums. More than 20,000 of his supporters begged him to vote against the bill. He voted for it, but he made a point of sending them an explanation. The supporters were not satisfied.

Those Obama supporters have now spun off into a new organization — focused on producing a FISA TV ad of their own.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=92814309

[slipslidingaway]

1. Thanks...already pledged to donate. Link below

http://www.accountabilitynowpac.com/


Sponsoring Groups and Blogs

http://www.accountabilitynowpac.com/sponsors.php

[dflprincess]

2. "Hoyer says he has not heard a lot of discussion in his Maryland district on these issues."

I'd bet he isn't listening - or his constituents have gotton tired of trying to get him to listen. I know Senator Klobuchar got an earful about it last year when she voted for it and her office has been swamped the times FISA has come up since then (and she did change her vote).

[The Backlash Cometh]

3. Wasn't it convenient how news of Obama's successful tour drowned out the

criticism over this vote? Even Andrea Mitchell defended him in Germany.

Whatever, I'm glad that the bloggers are getting together on this so we don't have to pick an "either/or" situation.

[SteveM]

25. Hoyer also strongly supports gun control and War on Drugs, Inc. (nt)

[The Backlash Cometh]

4. Shameless self-kick

[happydreams]

5. K&R. The great Left-Right divide. ....

It was all orchestrated by the Captains of Consciousness.

Professor Quigley (author of "Tragedy and Hope")then explained the real reason for our two-party system, and how it has been used to deceive the American public.
The chief problem of American political life ... has been how to make the two Congressional parties more national and international. The argument that the two parties should represent opposed ideals and policies, one, perhaps, of the Right and the other of the Left, is a foolish idea acceptable only to doctrinaire and academic thinkers. Instead, the two parties should be almost identical, so that the American people can "throw the rascals out" at any election without leading to any profound or extensive shifts in policy.

[The Backlash Cometh]

6. Well, I have another theory.

Resistance to the warrantless wiretappings and other Constitutional infractions was lukewarm from the Republican side until now, because now they're about to lose power. So, in other words, they wouldn't mind abusing the rules, as long as it's their party that benefits from the information.

[Radical Activist]

7. Isn't this over? Is there another vote coming up? Does this serve a purpose now...

other than an attempt to dampen enthusiasm about Obama? I ask people to get specific about how Obama has moved to the middle and what makes him such a centrist. This is usually the only issue people bring up. It has been a very useful tool for Greens, cynics and Republicans to tarnish Obama. Now that the vote is over I have to wonder what purpose it serves to put so much focus on this one issue when there are so many other important ones.

[The Backlash Cometh]

8. What are you going on about?

You aren't seriously suggesting that people can't support this movement to protect our American Constitutional Rights AND still vote for Obama, are you?

[Radical Activist]

9. Is there another vote coming up?

If not, what is the goal in criticizing someone who already states he agrees with your position on the issue?

Can you answer?

[The Backlash Cometh]

10. The vote is on record. He will have to live with it, just like everyone else

has to stand by their vote.

But why does it matter, now? It sounds like the blogs are organizing to do what the Congress had no fortitude to do: lead.

[Radical Activist]

11. Yes, why does it matter now?

That's what I'm asking.
Obama already said he would change the bill if he were President and he doesn't support immunity. He said that from the start. So why is it important to beat a dead horse? Why keep bringing up the issue when there isn't anything to do about until after the election is over?
The issue is legitimate but it was also used in a very skillful and deliberate why by Republicans and Greens to promote their "flip-flopper" and "corporate Democrat" memes that they use in every election no matter who is running. I think a lot of Democrats were used and manipulated on this one. I disagree with Obama's vote but there are much bigger issues no one is talking about.

[The Backlash Cometh]

13. You're stuck on one very small part of the article.

We don't have to fight Obama to support the net roots that want to defend the Constitution. That's how I see it. But some of us have limited funds, so we'll give Obama our vote, but maybe our money will go to the organization that is most committed to fighting FISA?

[Radical Activist]

17. That equates to campaigning against Obama.

This is now primarily an issue used to promote Republican and Green memes against Obama and that's the only purpose served by keeping it at the forefront in the public mind. Now that the vote is over, there isn't an action to take until after the election and Obama already agrees with the position of the bloggers in the article.

[The Backlash Cometh]

19. Well, I feel sorry for you.

[slipslidingaway]

28. This is not just about FISA or Obama. n/t

[Pastiche423]

30. The attempt to dampen enthusiasm

was done by Obama himself.

[NNN0LHI]

12. Republicans weren't at all bothered when they thought Bush was going to be in charge of this stuff

Now that it looks as though Obama is going to be president the white supremacists and their ilk who backed nuts like Ron Paul are getting all panicky.

Even the freepers are getting scared shitless last time I checked.

Don

[The Backlash Cometh]

14. That's exactly how I see it.

However, the principle is the right one, no matter how they arrived at the conclusion.

[NNN0LHI]

16. Just so we remember that the enemy of our enemy is not necessarily our friends

I am not going to get myself involved financially or otherwise with any white supremacists and other rapture ready pond scum no matter what.

Don

[The Backlash Cometh]

20. I do believe that giving your money directly to the ACLU would probably

be the smartest bet. I suspect that the money from the other organizations will eventually end up there too.

[Radical Activist]

18. They see that this is a very useful issue for them.

It gets liberals discouraged and promotes the flip-flopper meme. Republicans support this because its a campaign effort against Obama.

[The Backlash Cometh]

21. It has nothing to do with Obama.

It is correcting the Bush's excesses by donating to causes like the ACLU.

[Radical Activist]

22. You're being awfully naive.

[The Backlash Cometh]

24. I'm entitled,.

[SteveM]

26. "Dare to be naive" -- F. Buckminster Fuller (nt)

[JNelson6563]

29. Yeah, funny how that works, isn't it?

Short sighted idiots.

[Recursion]

15. I'm telling you... the Paul phenomenon is something we can tap

He was getting millions in a single day back before it was cool.

The GOP has shat on libertarians for so long that they're literally staging coups d'etat in certain state parties. We've relied before now on just depressing their turnout: but I think if we can argue a persuasive civil liberties case (which we should be able to) we can turn some of these guys blue, at least for a while.

"You don't have to love Obama, you just have to fear McCain" is a message that could get traction, especially if we aren't pushing things like gun control.

[The Backlash Cometh]

23. Hey, I don't think it will look pretty, but the day there is cohesive support

from the public on a matter that might bring on impeachment, I suspect it would start just like this.

[slipslidingaway]

27. This is not just for FISA, although that was the first bill where

both left and right joined forces with the ACLU to try and defeat the bill.

You can read more about the group at their website.

http://www.accountabilitynowpac.com/index.php


http://edwardwinkleman.blogspot.com/2008/07/constitutional-rights-and-civil.html

"...In the spirit of joining forces to highlight this effort, I'm co-posting about Strange Bedfellows with Franklin Einspruch of artblog.net, with whom, if you read here or there often, you'll know that I frequently disagree. On this topic, however, we're perfectly in sync. Washington is not only out of touch with the public, they're out of touch with the Constitution. It's time to remind them they work for us, and we're not at all pleased with them amassing personal power at the expense of our privacy or civil liberties."

http://bloggasm.com/strange-bedfellows-bloggers-from-the-left-and-right-team-up-with-the-aclu-to-fight-telecom-immunity

"...In a phone interview yesterday I asked Williams how this coalition formed.

“One of our members at Break the Matrix works in the media in DC,” he told me. “He was in touch with the leftist bloggers and he came to us saying that we should meet. So we started having some conference calls with the leftist blogs and we came up with the idea to form this group. The Ron Paul community has very strong shared values on constitutional rights — the left and Break the Matrix are on the same page when it comes to these civil liberties issues.”

Spearheading this group is Salon blogger Glenn Greenwald, a former civil rights lawyer who writes frequently about what he calls “telecom amnesty.” Over the past six months he has already worked feverishly with other bloggers to run advertising campaigns against Blue Dog Democrats that supported the new FISA legislation proposed by the Bush Administration.

“Eventually the ACLU started getting involved as well,” Williams said. “They were participating in our conference calls because I think they saw the potential for a leftist group teaming up with the limited-government right. Glenn has been comparing us to an ideologically-diverse coalition that has formed in Britain to fight government expansion over there.”..."



Constitutional Rights and Civil Liberties

http://edwardwinkleman.blogspot.com/2008/07/constitutional-rights-and-civil.html

"Despite the general rancor that flows between the left and right wings of the blogosphere, suggesting that partisanship is an insurmountable plague in this country, there have been a few issues over the past 8 years on which lefties and righties have felt the need to join forces to tell the US government that we, the people, still run the place. And those who abuse our trust will be held accountable.

Now is one of those times.

On August 8, 2008, the anniversary of the day Richard Nixon was force to resign as POTUS for breaking the nation's laws and abusing his power, bloggers from across the political spectrum will be highlighting how little impact that sad day in our history seems to have made on the current crop of Congresscritters and the resident of the White House.

That day illustrates how far we have fallen in this country in less than 35 years, as we now not only permit rampant presidential lawbreaking and a limitless surveillance state, but have a bipartisan political class that endorses it and even retroactively protects the lawbreakers.
The effort is being organized by the political action committee AccountabilityNowPAC, under the name of Strangebedfellows:..."