June 30, 2008

Obama Network Organizes and Revolts Over Spying


About Barack Obama
Good quote, but misapplied. It can better apply to all the shouting going on over an issue we cannot possibly change or control without control of the White House. The Congress cannot stop illegal spying - it's being done by the most secret agencies in government. The courts with Bush-appointed judges will not stop illegal spying.



Honestly, if people were consistent and sincere, if they hadn't stopped fighting the Patriot Act, I'd work on the FISA issue more, but it's a waste of my time. In 2 weeks, there will be no more words about it, and there will be a new net outrage diatribe, and it's frankly totally predictable and inconclusive each time. Yet for the first time, I've got buddies sticking to and putting sweat equity into one issue for over 18 months now - getting Obama elected.



Don't help get Obama in, let him barely squeak through if at all - without a mandate, even a POTUS can't override the Pentagon. Go see how that turned out for John Kennedy, RIP.



I want to end the decimation of our rights, have wanted to for decades, since the Drug Laws confiscated property, spied, Jim Crow'd millions out of their voting rights, financial aid, even housing and food stamps. That's why I work to get Barack elected. None of the others, none (I volunteered for Kucinich in 04) care as deeply or have done as much to protect the defenseless from abuse of power by authorities as Barack.
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Obama Network Organizes and Revolts Over Spying


About Barack Obama
... and unless they're going in circles, and obeying prescribed march routes, and letting themselves get segregated in "free speech areas". And fighting windmills, of course, because, reality: spying is a standard operating procedure, has always been and will always be - until we're too broke to even do that to our own people, we'll be busting them, they'll be denying and paying their way out of any penalties, we'll pass more laws, and they'll keep breaking them.



And again, this has been going on blatantly in the Drug War for decades - where were the progressives all that time? Does it only matter when illegal spying hits the expensive computers, not when it's in the poorest ghettos? A whole HBO series, The Wire, makes it obvious the law never serves the common person. What's news, here, folks, really? If there's no change at the top, how can this really ever change?
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Obama Network Organizes and Revolts Over Spying


About Barack Obama
Get a grip and look up elitist, because I'd love to bet your monthly income, family fortunes and possessions against mine - living disabled on social security, as a daughter of immigrants who left blood on many war fields for this country, and raising a kid alone when I could work and study. I could use the money! lol



What I do is called activism, not elitism. Elitists are the armchair activists, who can't pull away from their top-of-the-line laptops to even take a can to the foodbank - which I live and survive much thanks to, btw. If you do manage to donate a little something to those working hard to feed the hungry, many many thanks. If you do nothing but type away on these sites, pity.
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Obama Network Organizes and Revolts Over Spying


About Barack Obama
Do you refuse to acknowledge that thousands of those group members have zero activity in the past 18 months of this campaign? And, on phonebanking, I did it from Iowa to Kentucky, including Guam and PR, and had problems with only two states getting repeat calls. The vast majority of calls made phonebanking are always voicemails, hang-ups, not-home, and it is for the 2 in 10 we can converse with that we make thousands of calls.



I took a lot of abuse, esp in W VA and PA, but a hitch in the system and people's rudeness were no deterrent. I hobbled around canvassing in five cities in my district, on a cane, and each canvas took days of healing to recover from. I did 15 14-16 hr days in TX which show up nowhere on MyBO too. So, are my thoughts on FISA any less valid?
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Obama Network Organizes and Revolts Over Spying


About Barack Obama
You're right, I was bleary-eyed and missed all the other 21 pages, but among the more than 5000 members now, it's clear as a bell that over 4500 have done little or nothing before on MyBO. You can tell by how many points they have, how many friends they have, how many groups they belong to, how much money they've donated/raised - easily investigated by clicking on the name of any of the members.



MyBO is not a purely socializing site, it's a serious activism site. Every phonebanking call made through MyBO gets a point, as does every event attended/posted, every donation made, every purchase made through his store.



These lemmings have been MIA in the 18 months of primary battle, and now want to dictate the terms for the only candidate we've got who won't send us into WW III. I am too, too disgusted, but as usual, they'll be on to the next issue and never unglue themselves from the computer screen, and the million-plus-and-growing real workers on this campaign will keep on keepin' on.
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Obama Network Organizes and Revolts Over Spying


About Barack Obama
You know, that sounds good, but here's the reality, again. There are anti-drug laws, but there are illegal drug users and drug dealers. There are anti-gun laws but there are illegal guns and gun dealers. There have been and will be anti-domestic spying laws (notice no one among these progressives cares about foreign spying), but there will still be domestic spying.



With no accountability for crimes against humanity that have cost thousands of lives here and millions of lives abroad, wotj crimes against the environment that have cost thousands of lives, crimes against our civil liberties and rights that have turned the entire Constitution into a joke, not just one Article or Amendment, why do you think there will be accountability for spying on emails and phone calls?



With only 38 million eligible voters actually voting in this record-breaking primary, and almost 100 million more sitting by doing nothing - not even voting yet - why gnash your teeth believing this will be the issue that makes people rise up? After they've gotten away with torture? With eliminating habeas corpus? The net roots hasn't struck down the latter, but the Supreme Court did. Who do you want appointing Justices to the Supreme Court. Our next POTUS appoints at least two.
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Obama Network Organizes and Revolts Over Spying


About Barack Obama
they're defending against having to settle out of court, which is the absolute most they will do if brought to courts with Bush-appointed judges. They won't let the investigation show their cards or end in conviction. They invest/settle to save big bucks and keep thei secrets, but they won't change their practices. If the Pentagon says jump, they'll say how high, because the Pentagon controls the media and telecoms.
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Obama Network Organizes and Revolts Over Spying


About Barack Obama
So putting a law on paper stops domestic spying? Nope, and I'll be nice and not call you ignorant for believing it does. Only a very strong, smart POTUS with a mandate can, perhaps, stop the rampant abuses of domestic spying, legalized or not. We citizens have busted the spies before, passed laws, the spies keep going, we are inconsistent and very very distracted.
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Obama Undercuts His Brand


About Barack Obama
The corporate Dems and Republicans are laughing themselves sick reading these comments. The corporate Dems are the DLC and Blue Dog Dems. Obama refused to be a member of either group. Do you honestly believe those oil and arms lobbyist-controlled congressman are and their war chests [literally] and their MSM are going to let Obama "win this one hands down" without your help?



Obama is the only one who can win and has done all this without the oil and arms lobbyists. Let McCain get elected, and my family is out of here and you can stay and get drafted by McBush. Cheney's so excited by the prospect, he's probably having to get his pacemaker adjusted every time he reads these pitiful comments. "Drag Bush into court" ! We can't even get his staffers to testify before congress! What do you think Bush's lawyers will do in Bush's judges' courts? The 2000 election, anyone?



People are so jive and never stick to one goal, before running off screaming "The sky is falling!" over some new MSM-directed "revelation". Get real. Get focused. Get ready to take your country back. It takes work, sometimes tiring, repetitive, even exhausting work. It takes showing up and talking to people. We don't do it because it's so hard, we do it because it's so rewarding. Sharing a meal yesterday with over 100 regular people who are working for Obama every way they can is the only reason any of this is bearable.
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Obama Undercuts His Brand


About Barack Obama
Believing a congressional law stops domestic spying is beyond bull - it's willful self-delusion. Go vote for McCain or some third party candidate and see how much privacy that'll get ya! Until you have a President not beholden to the arms and oil lobbyists, you will not have any privacy. Even powerful Senators can run covert spy operations on Americans if the President is useless enough.
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Obama Undercuts His Brand


About Barack Obama
At least spell his name right. And wake up and smell the coffee: America has spied on its citizens and non-citizens, non-stop, since the advent of communism. Laws don't stop spies. Presidents do.
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Obama Undercuts His Brand


About Barack Obama
All good suggestions of relevant security issues, but Obama has made those an issue and has been ignored by the media when he did. Security and "terrorism" are still his weakest areas to most voters and giving the neo-cons fuel to label him as weak is a valid concern.



Also, we are always spied on, have been spied on every day of my 50 years on this earth. When I was young they were easier to spot; they're better-trained now. The only thing that makes a difference is not laws - which spy agencies promptly ignore and are allowed to cover up for decades after - but a POTUS who has a firm hold of all those spy agencies.



I have an FBI file with entries for almost every demonstration I ever attended, every petition I ever signed, every group I ever joined, my college papers, printed articles, every comment I've ever made on blogs too, no doubt. Spies don't stop spying because Congress passes a law.



Remember the MSM loses when Obama wins. He vowed to give free air time on TV and radio equally to all candidates who make the ballot. MSM will lose millions - or more.
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Obama Network Organizes and Revolts Over Spying


About Barack Obama
Oh, and guess what, the membership in that group is not over 3,000 - there are a grand total of 25 members, and some just joined from reading this article. The vast majority of them, including the group administrator, have never done anything on MyBO before. Feel free to look it up.
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Obama Network Organizes and Revolts Over Spying


About Barack Obama
The group was started by Aaron from Utah, so inactive in MyBO that he has only one "Friend" and on the point-keeping system that measures involvement, ranks: 93 points, 169813th place! To put it in perspective, I'm an at-large delegate, active organizer, and I have 11,104 points.



The second member had 159 points, the third member I looked up has zero activity before this. The fourth has 87 points, the fifth has zero, the sixth is a member of the Vote Against FISA group only - do you detect a pattern in the membership of this so-called most-activist MyBO group?
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June 29, 2008

Oh I Get It, The Left Just Doesn't Want to Win This Year


About John McCain
Thank you, those are great suggestions to take action. I'll definitely do the ones I haven't done already. And yep, Barack's imperfect, but unless we want to be The Borg, imperfect leaders are all we'll ever have. In terms of lesser weevils, Barack's too far from the weevil category still to fall into those blues. He's already done more good for me and people like me and mine than that horror McCain ever has or will do.



Let the left pine. My black grand-nephews and nieces, my black family, my black communities, are still proud and more enthused than ever before - because Barack is not a lesser weevil, and lord knows we've voted (and tried but failed to vote) enough of those in to know. I read both his books, I expected him to be tactical and compromise to achieve concrete goals. It's because he is not an idealogue, but is radically principled and pragmatic, that I work so hard for him. And on this issue, spying, please, I'm 50, and have an FBI file 34 years thick - every activist and politician does and always has. My massively redacted FBI file is my pride and joy. I'm amazed I can still fly.
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June 28, 2008

Oh I Get It, The Left Just Doesn't Want to Win This Year


About John McCain
Huh, if you want the laws to be for the truly powerless, get thee to a prison and start advocating for the 1.2 million incarcerated more than anything to enforce fascist control. Don't even act like this spying is new or different. It's a spying less threatening to those on the losing side of the Digital Divide. We've got cops breaking into our cars and homes and busting our heads, then ruining our finances and future for the rest of our lives and two generations besides. Our phones have been tapped in the name of the Drug War for decades. Welcome to Reality. So many new people here!
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Oh I Get It, The Left Just Doesn't Want to Win This Year


About John McCain
I'll say it over and over again - where was the outrage when this same surveillance was illegally made a standard operating procedure in ghettos? The hypocrisy reeks, and expecting the black male candidate who is facing more than most of these posters and critics can imagine in his effort to be seen as a human being, never mind a man, never mind a leader, is just smug and looks it - and that's not an attractive look!



I do a lot more than read and blog, I've called voters from Iowa to Kentucky, including Guam and Puerto Rico. I can't begin to count how many, when I gain their confidence, almost whisper "But I'm afraid if he gets in all the black people will rise up!" - in English and in Spanish.



Or maybe it's ignorance, as if this spying hasn't been going on for decades. That's also not an attractive look, so read a history book, like The FBI and Martin Luther King Jr.



Again, do you honestly believe taking these people to court will stop their spying? Do you? I have a bridge I want you to see, I swear, you can't live another day without owning it!
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Oh I Get It, The Left Just Doesn't Want to Win This Year


About John McCain
The Constitution was shredded long ago. Didn't see all this fussin' from the netroots when racial profiling landed millions of youth of color with felony records and prison time for non-violent crimes, confiscated their property, denied them housing, food stamps, financial aid for college based on their non-prescription drug felony. Today's Jim Crow, felon disenfranchisement, hasn't been a big issue on these blogs. I guess you mean the Constitution has been shredded now for the privileged who were not the targets of all this surveillance for the past four decades, at least. Welcome the real Real World. Now get real, and quit acting like taking telecomms to court will stop spying. Puh-lease.
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June 27, 2008

Republicans Taunt Obama As Spineless Over FISA Reversal


If I believed for one minute that Bush would follow a law we manage to pass, I'd be more upset about Obama's FISA "compromise" stand, but I don't believe that, since Bush has signed over 1100 statements saying he'd ignore laws we have passed. Our privacy's been long-gone, with scarcely a whimper from our Left, as non-violent pot-growers and sellers got spied on, heat-sensored, property confiscated - you know, the standard operating procedures used in the ghetto. I hang on to one statement Barack made, and that's one I'm holding him to:



"I would call my attorney general in and review every single executive order issued by George Bush and overturn those laws or executive decisions that I feel violate the constitution," said Obama (Reuters, May 28, 2008, on his first 100 days).
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Obama leads McCain in regional polls

In Wisconsin - Obama leads McCain 50% to 37% among independents, 59% to 33% among union households, 53% to 37% among women, and 47% to 43% among blue-collar whites (those without college degrees). Obama also gets 16% of those who voted for Bush in 2004, 32% of born-again and evangelical voters, and 49% of Catholics .. 61%-35% of age 35 and younger.

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