Sorry, MoveOn. I don’t care what pledges Obama or his campaign made last September.
You can call his campaign all you want at 866-675-2008. You can e-mail Obama spokesman Bill Burton, who gave that vow back in September; ain’t gonna happen.
Obama will go through the motions of trying to remove the telecom immunity, will do nothing about the basket warrant and “exigency” provisions, will “fail” (scare quotes deliberate) and that will be that. On the basket warrants, Obama has already indicated he likes it and other tech-related parts of the FISA bill.
Glenn Greenwald notes that Obamiacs should not give him a blank check on this issue, i.e., the eventual Obama claim of “trust me.”
Jack Balkin (via Glenn) goes further and says Obama wants the expansion of presidential power the new FISA bill offers.
Tying him back to Glenn, then, there’s no guarantee that Obama will appoint SCOTUS justices who will do nothing but uphold this expanded presidential power.
What good will it ultimately do if a Supreme Court votes to uphold Roe v. Wade but at the same time upholds some possibility of the government spying on you if it thinks NARAL is a terrorist group?
So, call away or e-mail, if you want. (I did.) But don’t hold your breath.
Sidebar: Given all this, is it really the best idea for MoveOn, acting at Obama’s beck and call, to shut down its 527 operation?
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