A Failure of Leadership

The Democratic party led by Barack Obama will join with the Republicans to assault our Constitution. They will codify into law the abuses illegally perpetrated by George W. Bush. The silent left remains mute against this heinous disregard of the founding principles of our democracy. This sudden embrace of post party unity at the expense of the freedom of the American people is most troubling.

As Will Bower so brilliantly puts it.

If the parties won’t uphold democratic principles, who will?

If the voters don’t hold the parties accountable, who will?

Politicians that would ordinarily be vehemently opposed to this travesty are not only embracing this compromise, they are making excuses for their behavior as if this bill is the slickest thing since sliced bread. At least they got the slick part right. This is hoodwinking at the master level.

Compromising the Constitution

Lawmakers are already justifying their votes for making major changes to that proven regime by saying that the bill is a reasonable compromise that updates FISA technologically and will make it somewhat harder to spy on Americans abroad. But none of that mitigates the bill’s much larger damage. It would make it much easier to spy on Americans at home, reduce the courts’ powers and grant immunity to the companies that turned over Americans’ private communications without a warrant.

I never thought I would hear a single Democrat say that we need to overturn our constitutional freedoms because of national security. But that is exactly the message from the presumptive nominee of the Democratic party, Barack Hussein Obama. That is his leadership.

Like lambs before the slaughter his followers blindly fall in line. And they want to take the rest of us out to slaughter with them.

This PUMA roars No Deal!

If you overturn constitutional freedoms there is no nation to secure.

It would allow the government to bypass the FISA court and collect large amounts of Americans’ communications without a warrant simply by declaring that it is doing so for reasons of national security. It cuts the vital “foreign power” provision from FISA, never mentions counterterrorism and DEFINES NATIONAL SECURITY SO BROADLY THAT EXPERTS THINK THE TERM COULD MEAN ALMOST ANYTHING A PRESIDENT WANTS IT TO MEAN

(emphasis mine)

Isn’t that convenient?

It allows the president to dictate law simply by saying that it is so.

I roar No Deal!

We had one imperial presidency. I do not recommend that we allow another. In fact I insist that we don’t.

The real reason this bill exists is because Mr. Bush decided after 9/11 that he was above the law. When The Times disclosed his warrantless eavesdropping, Mr. Bush demanded that Congress legalize it after the fact. The White House scared Congress into doing that last year, with a one-year bill that shredded FISA’s protections. Democratic lawmakers promised to fix it this year.

And this compromise is their fix. The fix is in. Just like when they fixed that Michigan and Florida problem. Brought about all this unity. Doing what Barack says. Shredding the constitution in the name of post partisan absolution.

Restoring some of the protections taken away by an earlier law while creating new loopholes in the Constitution is not a compromise. It is a failure of leadership.

Time to roar