Just when we thought it was safe to go back in the voting booth...

Pardon my French, but fucking hell!!  First Obama essentially puts the final nail in the coffin for public financing, with his "first campaign funded by the American people" tripe.  Now he is supporting the FISA bill granting retroactive immunity to the telecom companies that worked with Still-President Bush to illegally spy on American citizens.  On top of that, his entreaty to the American people to justify this outrageous reversal is little more than, "trust me with these powers.  I know what I'm doing."  An excerpt from his statement:  

"[The 'compromise'] is not all that I would want. But 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, review the report by the Inspectors General, and work with the Congress to take any additional steps I deem necessary to protect the lives - and the liberty - of the American people."

Sorry Senator.  We have had 8 years of that sort of reasoning, and just because you don't speak with a goofy Texas accent doesn't make you more trustworthy with unchecked power.  

These statements are, of course, all the more frustrating after his comments in January of this year:

I strongly oppose retroactive immunity in the FISA bill. Ever since 9/11, this Administration has put forward a false choice between the liberties we cherish and the security we demand. That is why I am co-sponsoring Senator Dodd's amendment to remove the immunity provision. Secrecy must not trump accountability. We must show our citizens – and set an example to the world – that laws cannot be ignored when it is inconvenient.

Here's the issue:  On Keith Olbermann last week, Jonathan Alter of Newsweek said the Netroots bloggers were overreacting about Obama's FISA flip-flop.  "He's always been a politician," he said, and politicians, especially legislators, know that you can't always get everything you want.  Sometimes you have to compromise.  This bill, Alter went on, restores the constitutionality of FISA which had been diminished by the Bush Administration, even if imperfectly.  To put it bluntly:  get over it.

I have to disagree with Alter.  This is the same sort of apologetic rationalizing that allowed the Bush Administration to manipulate the American people for eight years.  After 9/11, people were willing to place their civil liberties on hold for the sake of security.  Soon, we were justifying pre-emptive war, holding 13-year-olds without trial, and torturing detainees.  What Alter fails to understand is that there is now some urgency to this situation.  The stakes have become quite high.  The Bush Administration has collected power in the Executive Branch, and it will be up to the next president to either continue tarnishing our Constitution, robbing people of their rights, and alienating America from the international community, or to deescalate, respect civil liberties, review Bush's executive orders, and restore the separation of powers.  Obama's strongest base, or one of them, the netroots bloggers, campaigned for him on the hope that Obama understood the situation and was committed to honestly changing it.  This sort of betrayal will not--and should not--be ignored.  

"There is danger from all men. The only maxim of a free government ought to be to trust no man living with power to endanger the public liberty." - John Adams [1772].

"Free government is founded in jealousy, not confidence . . . . Let no more be heard of confidence in men, but bind him down from mischief by the chains of the Constitutions." -Thomas Jefferson [1799].