In fact Jesse Jackson has more in common today with Bill Clinton than he does with Barack Obama -- or anyone else in the black community -- excepting Al Sharpton. Both Bill and Jesse resent the hell out of this young, black Chicago street organizer now that he's pushed them aside and claimed Top Dog status in "their party."
Memo to Jesse Jackson: Shut the hell up.
3) Three Strikes and your stupid: Then came the vote of FISA. Holy turncoats Bat Man! What profiles in cowardice. I'm at a loss for superlatives I can hurl at the 21 Democrats who voted to gut the Fourth Amendment of the US Constitution.
Most crushing was Obama's "yea" vote. How ironic that he should win the nomination of his party almost entirely because his main opponent, Hillary Clinton, had prostituted herself years earlier when she made exactly the same political calculation. Hillary calculated that voting for war with Iraq would make her a more appealing Presidential candidate. That calculation turned out to be Hillary's undoing.
Yesterday Obama made precisely the same political calculation. Fearing that conservatives would paint him as "weak on terror" if he voted against giving the administration the right to eavesdrop on us, and to grant law-breaking telecom companies protection against lawsuits for aiding and abetting.
Obama was, of course, entirely correct about that. The right would have pummeled him with all kinds of sleaze, painted him as a pantywaist, limp-wristed liberal, etc, etc. etc. We all know the drill by now.
And then Obama would have to spend time explaining his vote. It would mean he'd have to spend some time explaining the US Constitution to voters who haven't seen one since high school civics.
God forbid he would have to "waste" valuable campaign time defending the US Constitution.
Memo to Barack: We shall not forget this -- ever. And now, instead of having to explain the constitution we will demand that you fix this mess if you are elected. We need this undone, immediately, and if you fail to do so we will find someone with balls, like Russ Feingold, to replace you in 2012.
Ironically the phone rang last night and it was a very nice young man raising money for the Obama campaign. I explained that my wife and I have taken turns sending Obama a donation each month. He thanked me. But then I added quickly he will not be seeing anything from us for a while. "His vote for the FISA bill was outrageous," I told him, "So, we're cutting him off for now."
The young man did not protest. "I understand, completely," he said, and we parted ways. The line from the now vintage movie, The Candidate, rang in my head -- and, from his tone, maybe that young man's head as well:
"By the time a candidate wins his party's nomination for President, he no longer deserves it."
Very discouraging. So here's a tally of the votes yesterday. Pin it to your frig. And never let them forget. Never let them give a speech in their districts and without being challenged on this vote. Because it's nothing less than the congressional branch's Dred Scott.
Heres a list Democrats who voted for the FISA bill:
(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).
