YR CALL IS IMPORTANT TO US: OBAMA EDITION
Jun. 24th, 2008 04:19 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
defrogWell, I did wonder how long it would be until Obama began to give me worry. Not long, as it happens:
ITEM: The House of Representatives passed a bill Friday that will expand the government's ability to install blanket wiretaps inside the United States. It will also put an end to the lawsuits filed against phone companies for helping the government spy on Americans without getting the necessary court orders.
Barack Obama says he supports the bill.
Oh crap.
His explanation – which sounds a lot like Nancy Pelosi's – is that the bill is a “compromise” that at least puts an end to Bush’s illegal wiretapping (by making illegal something that was already illegal?), and that he’ll fight in the Senate version to drop the provision granting amnesty to the phone companies who broke the law by enabling warrantless wiretaps.
Small comfort, since the White House still got pretty much everything it wanted in the House version. Some compromise.
Still, why not? What’s a few more laws to a president who can’t be bothered to follow them when national security is at stake? And it is ALWAYS at stake. Just ask John McCain. He’d spy on yr phones illegally too, given the chance.
I suspect Obama is only going along with this because in the wake of the primaries, now is not the time to be bucking against the party line. And unfortunately, the Democrat party line on fighting Teh Terrors involves doing exactly what the GOP would do if they were in charge. That way, see, the GOP can’t be all like, “Yr soft on terrors!”, because then the Demos can just go, “I know you are, but what am I?”
Or something.
Well, we’ll see how the Senate deals with it. In the meantime, you may as well just go ahead and assume that yr phone calls, emails, IMs, text messages and whatever will be govt-monitored for quality control purposes.
On the bright side, it does provide me with an excuse to post another favorite George Carlin quote of mine:
Listen up,
This is dF
ITEM: The House of Representatives passed a bill Friday that will expand the government's ability to install blanket wiretaps inside the United States. It will also put an end to the lawsuits filed against phone companies for helping the government spy on Americans without getting the necessary court orders.
Barack Obama says he supports the bill.
Oh crap.
His explanation – which sounds a lot like Nancy Pelosi's – is that the bill is a “compromise” that at least puts an end to Bush’s illegal wiretapping (by making illegal something that was already illegal?), and that he’ll fight in the Senate version to drop the provision granting amnesty to the phone companies who broke the law by enabling warrantless wiretaps.
Small comfort, since the White House still got pretty much everything it wanted in the House version. Some compromise.
Still, why not? What’s a few more laws to a president who can’t be bothered to follow them when national security is at stake? And it is ALWAYS at stake. Just ask John McCain. He’d spy on yr phones illegally too, given the chance.
I suspect Obama is only going along with this because in the wake of the primaries, now is not the time to be bucking against the party line. And unfortunately, the Democrat party line on fighting Teh Terrors involves doing exactly what the GOP would do if they were in charge. That way, see, the GOP can’t be all like, “Yr soft on terrors!”, because then the Demos can just go, “I know you are, but what am I?”
Or something.
Well, we’ll see how the Senate deals with it. In the meantime, you may as well just go ahead and assume that yr phone calls, emails, IMs, text messages and whatever will be govt-monitored for quality control purposes.
On the bright side, it does provide me with an excuse to post another favorite George Carlin quote of mine:
A guy who used to be in Washington, knew that his phone was tapped, used to answer, “Fuck Hoover”.
Listen up,
This is dF
