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Monday, July 7, 2008

There Is Real Danger In The FISA Vote For Obama

Posted by ed. dickau at 7:55 PM

Netroots Activists Mad at Obama for Spy Bill Flip-Flop

http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2008/07/netroots-activi.html

By Sarah Lai Stirland July 07, 2008 | 4:42:01 PMCategories: Election '08

(The Obama campaign has walked on some shaky ground recently making the transition from the Primary mode of Campaigning to the general election. Angering, disappointing the netroots funding base is a dangerous step. Those funds are still needed, and if there is an unannounced “Fall Back Plan “B” Big Donor Card”, and it is played by necessity; the integrity of his campaign will suffer greatly! (Ed.)

Netroots activists who helped Barack Obama to become the Democratic party's presumptive presidential nominee are unmoved by the senator's explanation of his change of heart on a pending bill regarding warrantless wiretapping. The Obama campaign posted the senator's thoughts on the legislation on the eve of Independence Day, and members of his policy team answered questions for an hour and a half.

"My biggest disappointment is the intellectual disappointment over the shoddiness of the legal analysis that's coming from these statements," says Jon Pincus, a Seattle-area technology strategist and civil liberties activist. Pincus has helped round up 20,000 people using the Obama campaign's social networking tool my.BarackObama.com to ask the senator to reconsider his position. (The group was started just 11 days ago.)

Pincus has also set up a wiki to petition Obama and other congressional representatives to reject the pending legislation, which the Senate is scheduled to debate and approve this Tuesday.

The Seattle activist and 30 to 50 other people on a listserv have also responded to Obama's letter with their own letter. It called for Obama to explain why this latest piece of legislation is so pernicious to civil liberties:

"We ask that you back up your words with action by addressing your constituents on the floor of the Senate with the same oratorical power you used in Philadelphia to lay out your vision of a 'More Perfect Union.'

The American people have just as much right to know of the dangerous precedent this Congress would be setting by granting retroactive immunity to those who 'may have violated the law' and allowing spying on law-abiding citizens as we did to relearn of segregation and Jim Crow."

The bill in question would overhaul surveillance law to provide federal authorities broad powers to engage in blanket surveillance using facilities inside the United States. Civil liberties advocates have argued such a provision is unnecessary because the law already gives the authorities fairly unfettered access to the information they need.

The current bill's most controversial provision, which has split members of the Democratic party, gives telecommunications providers legal immunity against lawsuits. The Electronic Frontier Foundation has filed a class action lawsuit against AT&T charging that it has violated its customers' privacy by complying with the Bush administration's orders to illegally wiretap its traffic.

On Thursday, Obama's internet director Joe Rospars posted a letter from the senator to the activists that said that the legislation up for a vote Tuesday is the best deal that could be achieved.

Obama admitted that telecom immunity "potentially weakens the deterrent effect of the law and removes an important tool for the American people to demand accountability for past abuses." He added that that's why he supports an amendment that would strip the immunity provision from the legislation.

Nevertheless, he added:

"The ability to monitor and track individuals who want to attack the United States is a vital counter-terrorism tool, and I'm persuaded that it is necessary to keep the American people safe -- particularly since certain electronic surveillance orders will begin to expire later this summer. Given the choice between voting for an improved yet imperfect bill, and losing important surveillance tools, I've chosen to support the current compromise."

Glenn Greenwald, an author, vocal civil liberties analyst and advocate at Salon, tore apart Obama's statement on his blog, calling many of Obama's statements misleading. Greenwald argues that existing law already provides the administration with the legal tools it needs to track terrorists.

"The current law results in virtually no denials of any spying requests," Greenwald asks. "So how can Obama -- echoing the Bush administration -- claim a new law is needed to provide 'the authority to collect the intelligence we need to protect the American people' when the current FISA law already provides that?"

Pincus says he'll continue to campaign for Obama no matter what happens because of a lack of viable alternatives, but that Obama's recent flip-flop has diminished his civil liberties credentials -- something that made him an attractive candidate to voters like himself in the first place.

Pincus' support is important even though voters like him may represent only one noisy sliver of the general election electorate to which Obama must appeal: Activists have been strategically important in building Obama's critical mass online, which has translated to subsequent offline action.

He has, for example, helped to recruit supporters to Obama's One Million Strong Facebook group, and he has donated repeatedly to the senator's primary campaign. He has canvassed neighborhoods to turn out the vote for the senator. Supporters like him have said repeatedly over the campaign that it's Obama's clear, reasoned logic and lack of political posturing that appealed to them.

Nevertheless, Obama's position reflects congressional politics: Following the White House' messaging lead, Republicans in congress have repeatedly ignored the nuances of the law to broadly paint Democrats as weak on national security.

"In terms of betrayal, I think in general, I knew what I was getting with him. I don't agree with him on everything, and I think his positions have been clear and consistent," Pincus says. But, he adds, "It would really disappoint me if he's making a decision about a constitutional issue based on what his pollsters are telling him."

Meanwhile, the McCain campaign is already using Obama's FISA flip-flop to attack the senator.

"Over the past several weeks, Barack Obama has made it increasingly difficult to take him at his word on anything," wrote John McCain's senior policy advisor Doug Holtz-Eakin in a memo sent out to the press Monday morning. "After pledging to accept public financing, he decided not to. After saying he would debate 'anywhere, anytime,' he decided against participating in any of the 10 joint town hall meetings. After backing the D.C. handgun ban, he now says it was unconstitutional. After pledging to filibuster the FISA bill, he voted for it."

But a new poll from CNN/Research shows that voters believe both candidates are guilty of flip-flopping. The poll shows that six out of 10 voters believe both candidates change their positions when it's politically expedient.

Even if Obama doesn't vote the way that they want, Pincus says he hopes that the body of 20,000 people can be motivated to influence the senator's stance on other issues during the course of the rest of the campaign.

As Ari Melber notes in the left-leaning weekly magazine The Nation:

"By simultaneously growing its membership, mission and ambition, the spying group exhibits the characteristics of a successful net movement.

MoveOn began with the single objective of fighting Clinton's impeachment, but evolved to tackle other issues that resonated with its members.

The protest against the spying bill began last month by urging Obama to change his vote. After quickly drawing him (and his senior staff) into a dialogue, however, it is nimbly shifting its focus to Obama's role in the immunity floor fight -- an easier request on common ground -- while launching campaigns to target senators with constituents recruited through MyBarackObama.com.

Update: MoveOn.org Political Action's Communications Director Ilyse G. Hogue just sent along the following statement. The group enthusiastically supported Obama during the primary phase of the campaign.

But Obama's latest decision on the FISA bill has disappointed the group's leaders. MoveOn.org Political Action is another strategic group that is planning to call on its 3.2 million members to phone bank and engage in other get-out-the vote efforts during the election's key moments.

We're disappointed in Senator Obama's support of the compromise on FISA—the bill doesn’t go far enough in protecting our constitutional liberties and allows a free pass for phone companies who helped the President illegally wiretap innocent Americans.

We hope Sen. Obama will honor his word and do everything he can to strip this immunity from the bill.

He’s also said that accountability is very important to him, so we’re hoping he will follow up with a plan for how to protect our liberty and our security, along with a plan to bring lawbreakers to justice.

Americans want those who violate the constitution to see consequences; it's a core American value and a winning position for the election.

This along with his strong stands on healthcare, the energy crisis and ending the war can help the Senator win in November.

When Sen. Obama takes those strong stands, we're right there with him; and when he doesn't, we will let him know.