Today, our brave Democratic public servants voted alongside a lame-duck president and a losing Republican party to tear up the constitution.
And no, it's not Barack Obama's fault. If he would have publicly opposed it, and this bill passed despite Obama's efforts, he would look weak and ineffective. And I think it's clear that this Congress seemed hell bent on giving immunity to the telecoms, so it was going to pass whether Obama liked it or not.
The incredibly sad thing about FISA is that the proponents of the bill could not answer that fact that if the bill was so damn important to our national security, why would President Bush veto it and put our "national security" at risk if the bill didn't include immunity for the telecoms?
And that, my friends, is why lobbyists are so damaging to the political process. Tele-communication companies employ a powerful force of lobbyists that not only have a strangle hold on Washington, but state legislatures, too. They bankroll campaigns (yes, EVEN Democrats) and make our legislators vote against their constituents' interests.
On another note, the California Democratic Party is going to dish out $250,000 in attorneys fees to aid Don Perata, who is battling corruption charges. That's right: the CDP is throwing away a quarter of a mil on a corrupt, lame-duck legislator. In an election year. It's not as if CDP has an overflow of cash, either.
If we're going to keep at it like this, we might as well go home. We don't deserve to win.
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