SubscribeEverybody screams that they want their favorite politician to take a stand on every single issue that comes up. Admittedly this is a big issue and one that I think is stand-worthy, but if a politician took a stand on every issue that came up, nothing at all would get done and the decisiveness that permeates politics will continue as usual.
I think we need to start accepting Obama for what he is: A guy with a lot of charisma who's a bit of an intellectual lightweight and
John Dean's reading of the statute suggests that it immunizes telecom companies against civil lawsuits but not criminal prosecution. It's possible that the Republicans could get this passed, only to have President Obama direct his Attorney General to open an investigation next January.
I said that when I read the bill, and talked to the folks at the ACLU who had been following it, that it was not clear. I raised it when appearing on Countdown with the hope that someone might figure it out. But that is the nature of this badly drafted bill that it is not clear what it does and does not do, and the drafters are not saying.
But even if the bill is unclear there is no question the Bush Administration is not going to do anything to the telecoms, so the question is whether a future DOJ could -- and here there is case law protecting the telecoms. But there may be language buried in the bill that protects them as well but it can only be found by reading the bill with a half dozen other laws which I have not yet done.
I made no declarative statements rather I only raised questions that jumped at me when reading the 114 page monster.
[stand up for his principles] Even if it's not going to do any good? Even if it the bill's going to pass whether he opposes it or not? Even if it helps get John McCain elected?
Ending Bush's illegal program of warrantless surveillance is a good thing.
Are you serious? You think Obama's going to appoint Supreme Court justices who will vote to overturn Roe v. Wade? You think he's going to bomb Iran? You think he'll do his best to keep us in Iraq for a century? You think he'll veto laws banning torture? If you can't see any difference between Obama and McCain, then vote for Nader. That worked out great eight years ago, right?
"Now, I don't think that 'mental distress' qualifies as the health of the mother," Obama told Relevant Magazine. I think it has to be a serious physical issue that arises in pregnancy, where there are real, significant problems to the mother carrying that child to term. Otherwise, as long as there is such a medical exception in place, I think we can prohibit late-term abortions."
During the primaries, Obama was critical of the Supreme Court's decision to uphold the federal ban on late-term abortions, saying that the court had disregarded "a woman's medical concerns and the very personal decisions between a doctor and patient."
Judge Walker's decision (.pdf) was issued in the case of Al-Haramain v. Bush. That lawsuit was brought against the Bush administration by an Oregon-based Muslim charity and two of its American lawyers, alleging that the Government violated FISA -- i.e., broke the law -- by eavesdropping on their telephone conversations without the warrants required by law. The warrantless eavesdropping occurred as part of Bush's NSA spying program, which entailed spying on Americans' international communications without warrants (the lawyers were in London when they spoke on the telephone to their client in Oregon). What makes this case unique is that the lawyers and charity know for certain that they were spied on as part of the secret NSA program because the DOJ accidentally produced transcripts of those calls.
posted by about_time at 11:18 AM on July 4 [3 favorites]