doing Archives - Where Is The Outrage?

Obama doing it again

Barack Obama As we have seen time and time again, Hillary Clinton 3 – 4 months out from a race looks unbeatable. Then slowly the gap begins to close as people begin to pay attention to the race. Folks then begin to talk about who is the best candidate. They have had enough of the divide and conquer politics of the last 8 years. The excitement begins to build then they see Obama. They see that he does have substance. They see that he doesn’t do it with mirrors. There is no puff of smoke. Instead, there is the promise that together we can’t go wrong.

He seems to leave the Lone Ranger type of politics behind. The “I’ll save you” type of politician. Instead, it is all about we and us. Not just we now but we tomorrow. That’s the hook. Obama seems to want you to participate not just today but tomorrow and the day after that and the day after that. He seems to want our feedback.

Well, tomorrow, we have Hawaii, Barack Obama’s home state and Wisconsin. The latest polls seem to show that Hillary Clinton is behind 40 – 53%. You never know. New Hampshire has proved that. (Latest polls in Texas show that Barack and Hillary are tied.)

I should add a note about words. The Hillary Clinton camp accused Barack Obama of being really nothing but hot air. Barack Obama over the weekend stated that just words like I have a Dream, We hold these truths to be self evident, etc. Well, it was inspiring but this words were first spoken by then candidate for governor Deval Patrick. The ordeal continued to escalate during the day. Obama was on the Ed Schultz Show. He basically ‘said that it was no big deal. He and Deval are friends. They share lines all of the time. “My friend Governor Deval Patrick — he and I, we exchange ideas and words all the time. I used a riff he has used before. That’s the extent of it.” Charges of plagiarism were bounced around. Now, look. We, the American people, don’t expect that candidates will write every speech by hand. We know that there are speech writers. We know that they quote freely from other political figures. This isn’t a scientific paper. Well, as usual, Obama won this argument with a checkmate move – his camp sent reporters this video. Opps. Hillary Clinton uses Barack Obama’s Fired up and ready to go line.

By ecthompsonmd|2008-02-18T23:53:32-04:00February 18th, 2008|Election 2008|Comments Off

What is Harry Reid doing on FISA? Part 2

Why is Harry Reid trying to give the telecoms immunity against future prosecution? I have talked about the FISA bill on a number of occasions. There were 2 bills which Senator Reid could have chosen for the “basis” of discussion. He chose the Intelligence Committee bill which has the telecom immunity gift and just about everything that Bush and the White House wants. My question is why?

Harry Reid’s statement seemed inadequate. Maybe it is just me. As usual, Glenn Greenwald has a very good discussion on this. Senator Christopher Dodd plans to filibuster any bill that gives away the store.

Update: Okay, just to make sure that the telecoms get off scottfree the senate has voted to move the bill for discussion. The vote wasn’t even close. Again, we see all of the Republicans voting together and the Democrats split. I wish I could figure out why someone like Senator Edward Kennedy would support this bill. I don’t buy what he said on the floor today, “too important to hold up any longer.” If it is that important, shouldn’t we get it right?

Senator Russ Feingold wrote the following this morning to explain the problem that we are facing –

Unfortunately, the bill we are going to be considering is the one reported out by the Senate Intelligence Committee in October, S. 2248. It did not have to be this way. Thirteen Senators joined me last week in asking the Majority Leader to instead bring up a bill that includes the changes approved by the Judiciary Committee last month. That bill, while not perfect by any means, was the product of an open process and heeded the advice of many experts and advocates to provide greater protection for the international communications of innocent Americans. And, unlike the Intelligence Committee bill, the Judiciary bill does not provide automatic, retroactive immunity for companies alleged to have cooperated with the administration’s illegal warrantless wiretapping program. (more…)

By ecthompsonmd|2007-12-16T22:30:20-04:00December 16th, 2007|Congress, Domestic Spying|Comments Off

What is Senator Feinstein doing?

It is becomes very clear that telecoms just handed the Bush administration volumes of our information without a court order and in some cases without even a request. Senator Russ Feingold has spoken out against amnesty for lawbreakers. Interestingly, Senator Dianne Feinstein has come out and supported giving the big Telecoms a free pass. Doesn’t a free pass just encourage the Bush administration to break more laws?

MoveOn has started a grass roots effort to pressure Senator Feinstein into doing the right thing.

Note: The 10 year old that started one of the California fires will not be charged.