Yesterday, Chris Dodd spoke before the Senate for 10 hours, convincing his peers to halt consideration of the FISA Amendments Act. He succeeded, and in so doing kept the door open to investigations and remediations of unconstitutional surveillance without a warrant in our country. This was Senator Dodd’s accomplishment of the day.
The campaign of Barack Obama promised he’d be there in the Senate to support Dodd’s filibuster effort. He wasn’t there. He had other priorities.
Barack Obama’s accomplishment yesterday?
Instead of showing up to the Senate and defending the integrity of the Constitution, Barack Obama had a grand appearance scheduled at the Orpheum theater, with his name on the marquee and shiny light bulbs and special musical guest stars and everything. Pretty, pretty light bulbs. Cheering audience. That was Barack Obama’s accomplishment of the day.
Who would you like to lead the country?
Yes,and guess who’s getting all the votes? Distraction wins while real political leadership is ignored by the masses of mindless Americans just “doing their thing.” If it isn’t about who’s ahead in some supposed “poll” then it’s about what’s on tv, who’s winning in some sporting contest and shopping. We don’t even get to hear about events like this brave, powerful, truly patriotic act that Sen. Dodd accomplished, single-handedly standing up for the Constitution and the correct interpretation of its amendments, except by seeking it out in forums like this. But the mainstream media is busy 24/7 convincing you to ignore what’s happening in our government and “get on with your life.” It used to be the case that Congress stood up for we the people, but now, since corporations are “people” too (what a heinous decision that legal title has become), “our” Congress is increasingly (some would argue solely) involved with this one subset of America (or maybe you can combine it with business in general) as the dominant component of their time and legislation. The flesh and blood human people are ignored as the great wasteland in the political landscape. We don’t have lobbyists (which is the capacity that our representatives USED to be in for its citizens).