Give and get involved in Ashwin's campaign.
I've just received through email Ashwin Madia's statement on the FISA Amendments:
I am troubled by the House passage of HR 6304, the FISA Amendments Act of 2008. There is much we can do to prevent terrorism, but such measures do not require the sacrifice of fundamental constitutional freedoms which our country was founded upon. This legislation demonstrates the need for leaders in Congress who have experience in the military and in Iraq, and who value the rule of law as we fight the War on Terror.
The traditionally red seat he's running for (western Twin Cities suburbs) is being left vacant by a retiring Republican who voted for the FISA amendments. Cook lists it as a toss-up. He's been sponsored by the DCCC Red to Blue program.
This is one we can take back, and here's a challenger willing to put out a statement opposing the bill (I don't know any other who has so far).
Give and get involved in Ashwin's campaign.
I started following him recently because of his positions on LGBT equality. He's great on a number of other progressive issues, specifically gay marriage - he favors actual marriage instead of civil unions. He also successfully defended a fellow soldier from being fired because of DADT.
Ashwin would know something about military experience as he mentioned in his statement - he's a VoteVets endorsed former US Marine who served in Iraq in 2005 and 2006.
Give and get involved in Ashwin's campaign.
But this is about more than just this one race. If we're tired of chickenshit Democrats in the Congress, we need to reward them when they go out on a limb on our issues like this.
Let's put the pressure on other Democratic challengers to release statements about this legislation. Let's show them that if they oppose it, we'll stand with them. That if they're portrayed as weak on national security by their opponents, that the center of America's opinion is on their side.
Because if all the emotion and energy I read about this weekend on FISA is accurate, then we should be directing it to something positive and working on changing the legislative branch.
Ashwin Madia's put out a statement on this. Let's force the others to pay attention.
Give and get involved in Ashwin's campaign.