The Huffington Post is reporting that all is maybe not well between Barack Obama and his liberal lapdog supporters...
www.huffingtonpost.com/20...obama-and-t_n_109098.html
Only weeks into the general election campaign and already a notable tension is beginning to materialize within the Democratic Party. At question is Sen. Barack Obama's relationship with the progressive netroots, the online community that helped aid the Senator's rise to the presidential nomination, but has since seemingly played second fiddle in terms of courted constituencies.
Whaaaaaat? How can this be?
Here's how it all went down. Over the weekend, Barack Obama announced that -- although not in favor of the idea of retroactive immunity for the shady corporatations that helped our own government spy on us -- he supports the FISA legislation that the Senate is about to pass that will magically make all the illegal wire-tapping that the White House did legal after all.
But it's all alright, because he super double-dog swears that, as president, he won't take advantage of the power to watch over all of America like Big Brother...
"Given the legitimate threats we face, providing effective intelligence collection tools with appropriate safeguards is too important to delay. So I support the compromise, but do so with a firm pledge that as president, I will carefully monitor the program," Obama said in a statement hours after the House approved the legislation 293-129.
Oh, well, he seems like a nice man. How can you mind surrendering your Constitutional rights to someone so charming?
Anyway, uber-lib Glenn Greenwald over at Salon was quick to get all "Waa waa waa, I don't want the Constitution* torn to shreds" on Obama's ass...
It is absolutely false that the only unconstitutional and destructive provision of this "compromise" bill is the telecom amnesty part. It's true that most people working to defeat the Cheney/Rockefeller bill viewed opposition to telecom amnesty as the most politically potent way to defeat the bill, but the bill's expansion of warrantless eavesdropping powers vested in the President, and its evisceration of safeguards against abuses of those powers, is at least as long-lasting and destructive as the telecom amnesty provisions. The bill legalizes many of the warrantless eavesdropping activities George Bush secretly and illegally ordered in 2001. Those warrantless eavesdropping powers violate core Fourth Amendment protections.
And Barack Obama now supports all of it, and will vote it into law. Those are just facts.
Isn't it just like a liberal to want to conserve our inalienable rights and keep the federal government from amassing too much power? Fucking predictable.