 | Barack Obama: Yes We Can Spy On You Bumper Sticker |
Barack Obama’s declaration — that he will vote tomorrow in favor of retroactive legal immunity for telecommunications companies that broke the law to spy on millions of American citizens — gives liberty a black eye. Turn the spy fiends’ argument back on themselves: if telecommunications corporations really did nothing wrong, what do they have to fear from a judge?
But there’s more. The FISA Amendments Act doesn’t just give retroactive immunity. It also gives the Attorney General of the United States, a political appointee of the President, unstoppable spy powers to conduct physical searches of Americans’ homes and spy on us as we talk on the phone or use the Internet. It can all be done without any evidence that the people being spied on are even suspected of a crime. All this can be done for 67 days without question, without reasons, without a warrant — and then the president can keep the information he gains as long as his administration deems necessary. That’s tyranny right there. It’s a preemptive police state.
Barack Obama promised in October 2007, in December 2007 and in January 2007 to help filibuster the FISA Amendments Act. In February 2007 he promised to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States of America. A lot of people voted for him on the basis of these promises. After he won the presidential nomination, Barack Obama broke these promises in June 2008, broke faith with the Constitution, and broke faith with the American people.
In reaction to these events, we offer these highly disappointed bumper stickers. They are priced at cost: we won’t make a profit off their sale. We just want the message out:
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Barack Obama: Yes We Can Spy On You. How we wish he just wouldn’t.
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Apparently you “liberals” are single issue voters/bloggers, which is odd, because most single issue voters are Republicans. Since you must want more Scalia’s on the Supreme Court, more tax breaks for corporations and the super-rich, continued occupation of Iraq and a new war with Iran, further destruction of our judicial system, more foreclosures, more de-regulation, a president with strong ties to the oil industry and more legislation that screws our veterans, our children and everybody else except CEOs of giant corporations. If you are looking for the perfect candidate for all of us, you’re never gonna find him/her. I sure hope NOBODY buys your Bash-Obama paraphernalia!
Comment by Gwynne Chesher — 7/10/2008 @ 8:38 pm
If the Constitution is a single issue, then you might accuse me of being a single issue voter, yes.
Comment by J. Clifford — 7/10/2008 @ 9:21 pm
So let me get this straight, Gwynne: according to you it is unacceptable for liberals to identify and talk about actual things that Barack Obama has done. Funny thing: Democrats used to complain about that kind of McCarthyist toe-the-line-and-shut-your-mouth bullcrap. Now they’re spouting it.
Comment by Jim — 7/10/2008 @ 10:04 pm
Actually, people have started to buy these bumper stickers.
We spent a long part of 2008 defending Barack Obama from true bashers, Gwynne, so don’t you come on here and get all whiny.
Obama is bashing the Constitution. Why don’t you aim your anger at him?
Comment by Odd Claude — 7/11/2008 @ 6:09 am
Really, Jim. After all, it’s a time of war. I mean, with troops in the field and all, shouldn’t we tow the line and shut our mouths?
The parallel isn’t perfect, but I’m reminded of a few paragraphs on page 5 of Binderman’s “Communist Attempts to Elicit False Confessions from Air Force Prisoners of War”:
“Where the individual is told to stand at attention for long periods,
an intervening factor is introduced. The immediate source of pain is
not the interrogator but the victim himself. The contest becomes, in
a way, one of the individual against himself. The motivational strength
of the individual is likely to exhaust itself in this internal encounter.
Bringing the subject to act ‘against himself’ in this manner has
additional advantages for the interrogator. It leads the prisoner to exaggerate
the power of the interrogator. As long as the subject remains
standing, he is attributing to his captor the power to do something
worse to him, but there is actually no showdown of the ability of the
interrogator to do so.”
We’re supposed to be acting against ourselves, because if we don’t someone else will supposedly do something even worse to us. But there is no showdown, and we exhaust our energy internally.
I got a very similar comment when I called Obama campaign headquarters: Don’t ask for everything you want, or you’ll end up with none of what you want instead of some of what you want. It really rubbed me the wrong way, for a number of reasons–
It redefines compromise as taking a weaker OPENING position when you START to bargain, instead of asking for everything you want up front, THEN compromising.
It’s an attempt to motivate people to give up on principle for the sake of expediency.
It’s an appeal to fear, not courage.
Bad, bad move, Obama campaign.
Comment by Ralph — 7/11/2008 @ 1:00 pm
Look, all liberals were angry with Obama’s FISA vote, but this country is screwed if McCain wins this election. If any of you think you understand or respect the Constitution more than Senator Obama does, perhaps YOU should be running for President. If you and PUMA (the female wing of the KKK) continue to damage Obama’s campaign, you are going to get the President you deserve.
Comment by Gwynne Chesher — 8/22/2008 @ 12:13 pm
If you continue to toe the line and throw your uncritical support to politicians who undercut your freedoms, Gwynne, you are going to get the President you deserve.
Comment by Jim — 8/22/2008 @ 12:37 pm