It's hard to write diaries against members in my own party that are acting in such an atrocious and conniving manner. What's worse is that this is directed towards the leaders in our party. But this simply must stop, and it has to stop now before it gets worse.
Per Glenn Greenwald's post yesterday at Salon, it's becoming painfully clear that House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer is pushing forward with a "compromise" that is nothing but a horribly disguised capitulation for amnesty to the telecom industry. I wrote about this the other day that we need to call Hoyer and our own Representatives immediately and tell them to stop with this nonsensical "compromise" of a bill. This bill does nothing but set the bar so low for the telecos to crawl over and attain amnesty.
It looks like much more will need to be done than this, and Greenwald has a very good answer.
About a month ago, Greenwald had organized a campaign asking for contributions that would buy ads targeting freshmen Rep. Chris Carney (D-PA). This was done as a result of Carney's unwavering support of Bush's telecom amnesty demands and sweeping powers for warrantless wiretapping Americans. Greenwald is now helping to form a coalition with other bloggers along with the ACLU, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), and online money bombs from Ron Paul's former presidential campaign that will campaign against our House Majority Leader Hoyer for his deliberate and conniving role of pushing forward this "compromise" bill.
What's even worse, as reported yesterday in the Hill, our party leaders will situate themselves to oppose the bill (including Hoyer himself if you can believe it), however:
Senate Democratic leaders said Tuesday that they would not stand in the way of a compromise overhaul of the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), despite their concerns with the impacts of the sprawling measure.
Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), who also sits on the Judiciary Committee, said some Democrats are "not happy with that, but there may be enough to get a majority vote."
When asked if he would whip his conference to vote against it, Durbin said: "I doubt if it’s going to be a caucus position."
Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) predicted Tuesday that there is enough support within the Democratic Conference to approve a contentious overhaul of the FISA legislation. . . . .
Reid said that he would not ask his members to vote against the bill and that he still had not reviewed the language, pointing out that negotiators have been saying for weeks that they had a deal on the contentious issue.
So our leaders will prop themselves up as if they're against it, yet will not stand in the way to oppose it? This is nothing shy of a travesty, an absolute travesty.
I'm sorry, mcjoan, but I think you're being duped into believing our leaders are really going to do anything at all. And I would say judging from their past actions on this issue, they're right on par for capitulating.
Which means it's once again up to us. Greenwald has formed an Act Blue page that asks for donations that will specifically target Steny Hoyer with advertisements and commercials exposing his shenanigans. We need to join in this effort immediately:
http://www.actblue.com/...
Furthermore, I would also ask that our presidential nominee, Barack Obama, receive a bit more pressure on this as well. He has stated that he opposes any amnesty, but a direct stance against this by Obama would put that much more pressure on Hoyer and our party leaders. Consider calling Obama's office as well.
This has to stop. And a blog like this with a community 500,000 strong needs to step up to the plate now. We've done it before with some very good success, and we need to do it again.
Lastly, I think a page to Mr. Olbermann on this issue would be good, don't you think?
Update: I changed the title up because I feel strongly that this information must be recognized now.
Update 2: Looks like I got beat out by Leslie in CAon this very subject today. Please direct your tips and recommendations to her post. I'm going to leave this up for information sake, however, because this bears repeating over and over.
I also agree with atliberal who commented below. Look, Michelle Obama is terrific. She's a wonderful rock star in her own right. But Jesus, folks, our civil liberties are about to be sold out BY MEMBERS OF OUR OWN PARTY, and we're talking about Michelle's looks on the View? Much bigger issues to fry, IMO.