[Fwd: [Marxism] Obama Voters Protest His Switch on Telecom Immunity]

[Hein van Meeteren]

REPLY TO: D66 at nic.surfnet.nl

Inderdaad, dit moet hij niet te vaak doen, want dan ga ik balen.

Antid Oto schreef:
> REPLY TO: D66 at nic.surfnet.nl
>
> Eerste haarscheuren zichtbaar in het Obama-kamp:
>
> -------- Original Message --------
> Subject:     [Marxism] Obama Voters Protest His Switch on Telecom
> Immunity
> Date:     Wed, 02 Jul 2008 10:53:06 -0400
> From:     Louis Proyect <lnp3 at panix.com>
> Reply-To:     Activists and scholars in Marxist tradition
> <marxism at lists.econ.utah.edu>
> To:     aorta <aorta at home.nl>
>
>
>
> NY Times, July 2, 2008
> Obama Voters Protest His Switch on Telecom Immunity
> By JAMES RISEN
>
> WASHINGTON — Senator Barack Obama’s decision to support legislation
> granting legal immunity to telecommunications companies that
> cooperated with the Bush administration’s program of wiretapping
> without warrants has led to an intense backlash among some of his most
> ardent supporters.
>
> Thousands of them are now using the same grass-roots organizing tools
> previously mastered by the Obama campaign to organize a protest
> against his decision.
>
> In recent days, more than 7,000 Obama supporters have organized on a
> social networking site on Mr. Obama’s own campaign Web site. They are
> calling on Mr. Obama to reverse his decision to endorse legislation
> supported by President Bush to expand the government’s domestic spying
> powers while also providing legal protection to the telecommunication
> companies that worked with the National Security Agency’s domestic
> wiretapping program after the Sept. 11 attacks.
>
> During the Democratic primary campaign, Mr. Obama vowed to fight such
> legislation to update the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, or
> FISA. But he has switched positions, and now supports a compromise
> hammered out between the White House and the Democratic Congressional
> leadership. The bill is expected to come to a vote on the Senate floor
> next Tuesday. That decision, one of a number made by Mr. Obama in
> recent weeks intended to position him toward the political center as
> the general election campaign heats up, has brought him into serious
> conflict for the first time with liberal bloggers and commentators and
> his young supporters.
>
> Many of them have seen the issue of granting immunity to the
> telecommunications companies as a test of principle in their
> opposition to Mr. Bush’s surveillance program.
>
> “I don’t think there has been another instance where, in meaningful
> numbers, his supporters have opposed him like this,” said Glenn
> Greenwald, a Salon.com writer who opposes Mr. Obama’s new position.
> “For him to suddenly turn around and endorse this proposal is really a
> betrayal of what so many of his supporters believed he believed in.”
>
> Jane Hamsher, a liberal blogger who also opposes immunity for the
> phone companies, said she had been flooded with messages from Obama
> supporters frustrated with his new stance.
>
> “The opposition to Obama’s position among his supporters is very
> widespread,” said Ms. Hamsher, founder of the Web site
> firedoglake.com. “His promise to filibuster earlier in the year, and
> the decision to switch on that is seen as a real character problem. I
> know people who are really very big Obama supporters are very
> disillusioned.”
>
> One supporter, Robert Arellano, expressed his anger on the Obama site.
>
> “I have watched your campaign with genuine enthusiasm,” Mr. Arellano
> wrote, “and I have given you money. For the first time in my life, I
> have sensed the presence of a presidential candidate who might
> actually bring some meaningful change to the corrupt cesspool of
> national politics. But your about-face on the FISA bill genuinely
> angers and alarms me.”
>
> For now, the campaign is trying to put a positive spin on the new FISA
> fight among its supporters.
>
> “The fact that there is an open forum on BarackObama.com where
> supporters can say whether they agree or disagree speaks to a strength
> of our campaign,” said Bill Burton, a campaign spokesman.
>
> Several activists and bloggers predicted that Mr. Obama’s move toward
> the center on some issues could sharply reduce the intensity of
> support he has enjoyed from liberal activists. Such enthusiasm helped
> power his effort to secure the Democratic nomination, and it has been
> one of his campaign’s most important tools for fund-raising and
> organizing around the country.
>
> Markos Moulitsas, a liberal blogger and founder of the Daily Kos Web
> site, said he had decided to cut back on the amount of money he would
> contribute to the Obama campaign because of the FISA reversal.
>
> “I will continue to support him,” Mr. Moulitsas said in an interview.
> “But I was going to write him a check, and I decided I would rather
> put that money with Democrats who will uphold the Constitution.”
>
> Greg Craig, a Washington lawyer who advises the Obama campaign, said
> Tuesday in an interview that Mr. Obama had decided to support the
> compromise FISA legislation only after concluding it was the best deal
> possible.
>
> “This was a deliberative process, and not something that was shooting
> from the hip,” Mr. Craig said. “Obviously, there was an element of
> what’s possible here. But he concluded that with FISA expiring, that
> it was better to get a compromise than letting the law expire.”
>
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