Month: January 2008

Al Wynn Secures Place As Punchline to Jokes for Years to Come

Memo to Al Wynn: desperation is not an attractive cologne. Voters can smell it from a mile away. And when the traditional press runs stories that come this close to calling you a liar and a moron, you know you’ve gone too far.

Matt Stoller provides the background:

I’m reading through this complaint the Al Wynn campaign just filed against Donna Edwards with the FEC. He literally accuses SEIU, the League of Conservation Voters, Friends of the Earth, Anna Burger, EMILY’s List, the Arca Foundation, ACORN, and the Tides Foundation of campaign finance violations, though as you can see it’s kind of hilarious what independent experts think. I hope you’re proud of your endorsee, Speaker Pelosi. And I hope the rest of these groups come out forcefully against Wynn, mocking him mercilessly for his nonsensical claims.

What’s remarkable is that after reprinting wins vinegar-soaked bluster, the Baltimore Sun actually provides space for an independent analysis of Wynn’s charges. What follows is one of the most hilarious takedowns you’ll ever see aimed at long-time incumbents by the press.

An attorney with the independent Campaign Legal Center in Washington who was asked by The Sun to review the complaint said it didn’t appear to contain any facts that would constitute illegal collaboration.

“Interestingly, and unlike most complaints filed with the Federal Election Commission, there’s not a single provision of federal campaign finance law directly cited in the complaint,” attorney Paul Ryan said. “Several of the allegations, in my view, make clear the complainant doesn’t really have a clear understanding of what constitutes coordination under federal law.”

Talking to some people that know, Paul Ryan is a top elections law attorney and he wouldn’t be lining up on the side of “no violation” if it wasn’t air tight. He’s calling bullshit on Wynn’s charges: the complaint has no argument in it and Wynn’s campaign doesn’t know what the law says.

This FEC complaint is an effort to create the appearance of impropriety in Donna Edwards relationships with a wide range of progressive, grassroots organizations. The reality is that this sorry tactic is only necessary because Al Wynn is facing possible defeat at the hands of Donna Edwards and her people-powered movement.

Donate to Donna Edwards through ActBlue.

Russ Feingold & Why the PAA Is A Bad Law

Via Open Left, Senator Russ Feingold gives a very tight encapsulation of the fundamental problem with the Protect America Act and current efforts by Republicans in the Senate to keep there from being judicial and congressional oversight of domestic surveillance activities. “Trust us” is not adequate when we’re dealing with the powers a government has over the rights and privacy of our citizenry.

Senator Feingold notes that as the law stands now, Americans surrender to the government tremendous powers to eavesdrop on their phone calls and read their emails. Glenn Greenwald summarizes it in slightly greater detail:

With all the focus on the travesty of telecom amnesty, it has been easy to forget just how Draconian the Protect America Act really is, how radical are the warrantless eavesdropping powers it vested in the President. In essence, that bill allowed the Government to eavesdrop on every single international telephone call made or received by an American with no restrictions or judicial oversight whatsoever, and further empowered the Government to read every international email sent or received by an American with no restrictions or judicial oversight.

I know something about what it feels like to be an American whose communications would fall into the categories listed above by Feingold and Greenwald. Prior to joining the Dodd campaign, I worked at a non-profit organization called Students for a Free Tibet (SFT). SFT is an international campaigning organization that works towards Tibetan independence. Though SFT is headquartered in New York, it has offices in Canada and India. On a daily basis, I was making and receiving phone calls to India, Canada, England, Germany, France, Italy, Mexico, Switzerland, and countless other countries around the world. Emails, faxes, text messages, and VOIP calls came in and went out from around the world too. Yet as Senator Feingold notes in the video, my colleagues and I had to trust that every single one of these communications between students and young people and nonviolent organizers around the world was something worthy of respectful privacy from the Bush administration. Trust was the extent of our safety net.

I don’t know if anything we said or wrote was ever opened and analyzed by the Bush administration. But I know the thought that doing work that I believed in guaranteed that my communications were not private, that I could only trust my government to honor my privacy, makes me deeply uncomfortable.

Trust is not the basis of law. Laws are past to ensure that there is something deeper, stronger than men. Throughout the Bush administration, those in power have consistently sought to expand their power in contravention of existing laws. Sometimes, when caught, they tried to change the laws themselves. But that was never their first inclination, as we saw illegal, warrantless surveillance practices begin shortly after President Bush took office and long before the September 11th attacks.

The PAA was a law passed under duress, a law that replaced the structure of oversight with the discretion of men. The Intelligence Committee’s revision is equally bad. As Marcy Wheeler notes, “the SSCI has inadequate protection for the privacy of Americans, particularly when they communicate with people in other countries.” Retroactive immunity may be getting much of the attention in the FISA fight, but it is by no means the only concern in front of the Senate. We have to continue to recognize the scope of the issue in front of us and work diligently to pressure the Senate to do the right thing by ending warrantless wiretapping and stopping retroactive immunity.

Cross posted at the CREDO Blog.

Edwards Dropping Out

John Edwards is dropping out this afternoon.

Prepare for thousands of diaries on DailyKos and MyDD with this as their general theme:

oh noes do not want assimilate

Seriously though, this is a shame that was going to happen for a long time. Edwards was the last progressive voice in the race and a lot of liberal Democrats will be left with hard choices between two candidates that don’t really share their political values.

Update:

I think it’s worth nothing that other than Chris Dodd, John Edwards was the candidate whose political views I found most similar to my own. Edwards brought progressivism and populism to the presidential race unlike any other candidate. As such, he was able to validate a political analysis about corporate power and economic disparities on the national stage. The Democratic field is less ideologically diverse with Edwards’ exit and that is a bad thing at this stage in the primary in this blogger’s view.

Giuliani’s Fall

The NY Times pretty much nails Giuliani’s precipitous fall from national frontrunner to punchline for jokes by Ron Paul and Fred Thompson supporters.

In interviews Tuesday, even before he gave a concession speech in which he spoke of his campaign in the past tense, Mr. Giuliani described his strategic mistakes, suggesting that his opponents had built up too much momentum in earlier primaries. But this is a rhetorical sleight of hand; he in fact competed hard in New Hampshire, to remarkably poor effect.

Perhaps a simpler dynamic was at work: The more that Republican voters saw of him, the less they wanted to vote for him.

Giuliani was a bad mayor with fascist tendencies and an egotistical side that would make George W. Bush blush. He took advantage of a national tragedy, first for personal economic gain, then for personal political gain. His campaign’s reliance on 9/11 demeaned the victims of the attack and the nation that moved on from it. The victims’ families asked him to stop. The fire fighters asked him to stop. But perhaps only devastating humiliation in his losses to joke candidates like Ron Paul and Fred Thompson will dissuade him from continuing to profiteer from the attacks of September 11th. After all, it’s all about Rudy in his mind.

I can hardly think of a politician that deserved this public and national a humiliation more than Rudy Giuliani.

Senate Passes PAA Extension

The Senate also passed a 15 day extension to the Protect America Act late last night. It will head to President Bush’s desk to be signed into law, presumably.

While this will give the Senate more time to negotiate a better solution for FISA reform legislation, it also gives us more time put pressure on them to ensure they end warrantless wiretapping and hold fast against retroactive immunity.

Continue the pressure today by writing your Senators through CREDO Action’s email tool.

I’ll have more updates as the day goes on about what we can expect from the next two weeks of debate, negotiations, and voting.

DMI Responds to Bush SOTU

The Drum Major Institute, a progressive think tank, has posted their response to Bush’s State of the Union address (Full disclosure: I’m a member in DMI’s Netroots Advisory Council). Here’s a clip from their section on FISA and retroactive immunity.

“Establishing after-the-fact that it was acceptable for telecommunications companies to break the law and spy on American citizens has nothing to do with protection from terrorism, but everything to do with shielding powerful corporations from accountability for their actions. Granting retroactive immunity in this case would set a dangerous precedent for corporations to trample the rights of middle-class Americans.”

There’s much more on immunity at the link above. To read the full report, which touches on the economy, education, health care, and other issues from Bush’s speech last night, click here.

FISA Response During SOTU

Last night I watched the State of the Union at a Living Liberally event in NYC. There were probably between 150-200 people there, including about a dozen Young Republicans. It was a very vocal crowd, with a lot of hoots, hollers, insults, and rebuttals thrown at President Bush with each spurious claim he made.

What was incredibly interesting is that the lines of the speech that got the loudest boos and shouts was Bush’s lines on retroactive immunity and the Protect America Act.

This is remarkable in large part because the press has not covered this debate in any detail. The traditional media has not called out the Bush administration for why it wants retroactive immunity for the big telecoms, nor the impact of what immunity would have on the rule of law. Nonetheless, the people in this room and people around the country know the stakes in this fight. The American people recognize that the Bush administration’s assault on the rule of law could have a greater negative impact than anything else — more than the war in Iraq, more than the disastrous Bush economy.

It’s reassuring to know that even if the Republican Party, many elected Democrats, and most of the media voices that could draw attention to these critical issues don’t care much for the defense of the Constitution, the American people do.

Cross posted at the CREDO Blog.

Obama on FISA & Our Movement

A very strong statement from Senator Barack Obama:

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.

The FISA court works. The separation of power works. We can trace, track down and take out terrorists while ensuring that our actions are subject to vigorous oversight, and do not undermine the very laws and freedom that we are fighting to defend.

No one should get a free pass to violate the basic civil liberties of the American people – not the President of the United States, and not the telecommunications companies that fell in line with his warrantless surveillance program. We have to make clear the lines that cannot be crossed.

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.

A grassroots movement of Americans has pushed this issue to the forefront. You have come together across this country. You have called upon our leaders to adhere to the Constitution. You have sent a message to the halls of power that the American people will not permit the abuse of power – and demanded that we reclaim our core values by restoring the rule of law.

It’s time for Washington to hear your voices, and to act. I share your commitment to this cause, and will stand with you in the fights to come. And when I am President, the American people will once again be able to trust that their government will stand for justice, and will defend the liberties that we hold so dear as vigorously as we defend our security. [Emphasis added]

This is great. In addition to making a strong commitment to the rule of law and defending the Constitution in this fight, it’s heartening to see Senator Obama recognize how grassroots progressive activists online and offline have stood up and made this an issue that is part of the national debate.

Senator Chris Dodd made a similar recognition of the grassroots power this issue has engendered last week while speaking in the Senate.

“For several months now, I’ve listened to the building frustration over this immunity and this administration’s campaign of lawlessness. I’ve seen it in person, in mail, online—the passion and eloquence of citizens who are just fed up. They’ve inspired me more than they know.”

Combined, Senators Obama and Dodd are showing that they clearly recognize the forces at play in this debate. It is a people powered movement to stop a bad bill and defend the rule of law. It’s a movement that is giving our leaders in the Senate the support and backing they need to do the right thing. This whole legislative fight and the movement that has driven it gives me great hope about what we can achieve when online activists, advocacy organizations, and leaders in the government work together towards a common goal.

Cross posted at the CREDO Blog.

Dodd SOTU Response

Senator Chris Dodd:

“In his last State of the Union speech to the nation, President George W. Bush once again demonstrated why the country is in such dire need of a new direction. Having heard his assessment of the state of America today, I am concerned about his unwillingness to provide real assistance to middle class Americans struggling to make ends meet, his continued trampling of the Constitution – our civil liberties – in the name of national security, and his lack of a plan to end the war in Iraq and bring our troops home safely.

“While I am heartened to hear President Bush acknowledge the foreclosure crisis affecting thousands of families across our nation, the fact is that this Administration has come very late to this effort, years after I and others called for regulatory and legislative changes to protect people from the predatory lending practices that have precipitated the highest foreclosure rates in recorded history. The Administration’s efforts are unlikely to work quickly enough to prevent foreclosures for homeowners who deserve a hand.

“For nearly 47 million Americans in this country, lacking health insurance means lacking the ability to afford prescription drugs for chronic conditions like diabetes or heart disease, getting routine cancer screenings, or taking their children for regular check-ups.  For some, being uninsured may ultimately mean the difference between life and death as they are left to choose between paying their mortgage and paying for prescription drugs. The President’s proposal tonight not only fails to make health insurance affordable and attainable for millions of Americans who lack insurance today, but his misguided proposal will erode the insurance coverage that many Americans already have. A comprehensive approach to health insurance is needed in this country, one that provides a real benefit and that builds on the success of existing public programs such as Medicare and Medicaid.  The proposal offered by the President tonight fails on all fronts.

“Also disturbing is how the President is once again using scare tactics to try to erode our civil liberties – this time favoring the rights of his corporate friends over citizens’ rights to privacy when it comes to their phone records. I stand adamantly opposed to retroactive immunity for telecommunications companies that may have illegally aided the federal government in warrantless wiretapping, and will do what I can to deny the President the unprecedented and unwarranted expansion of power he seeks.

“President Bush isn’t just shredding the Constitution, he’s failing to keep us safe. Bin Laden is still plotting while we are mired in the sixth year of this disastrous war in Iraq, with no end in sight. Last year saw the highest number of American and Iraqi casualties and yet the Administration is now in negotiations to extend our presence in Iraq for years to come, and is doing so in a way that skirts Congressional approval.

“While I have reservations about President Bush’s assertion that the State of the Union is strong, I have confidence and will do all within my power to ensure its fiscal stability and renewed strength.” [Emphasis added]