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Not that it makes me feel any better, but I'm watching CNN and all of the snap news coverage of the FISA vote is about how Barack Obama flip-flopped by voting in favor of retroactive immunity (on cloture and final passage) of the FISA legislation.

Contrary what Obama's inner circle undoubtedly convinced him would happen, the coverage is not about how strong and tough he is. Nor is it about how he just neutralized national security and terrorism as issues for Republicans to attack this year.

Instead the media is focusing on the fact that in the past Obama had said he'd support a filibuster of any legislation with retroactive immunity and now, not only did he not support such a filibuster, but he voted for retroactive immunity. The press and the McCain campaign have noted that this is a flip-flop of epic proportions.

Whatever Obama thought he'd get by supporting the Bond-Rockefeller re-writing of the law and protection of the Bush administration, he has not gotten it. Not only is he being attacked by the GOP and not only is the press duly noting that Obama's position has changed, but he's alienated some of the strongest supporters he has by betraying them.

This isn't a post about a failure of leadership or how the Senate today voted to make illegal wiretapping legal, but about the complete wrongheadedness of the political advice Obama received and responded to on this FISA legislation. He thought he would look tough and he came out looking like the sort of politician America has rejected the last two presidential elections.

The people who advised Obama that this was the best course should all be fired immediately and blacklisted from ever working in Democratic electoral politics. They're not Democrats and they're not smart enough to work for Democrats ever again.

Almost 17,000 of his supporters asking him to be where he was less than six months ago and the best he can do is spin out some Republican Party/Blue Dog talking points on how spying on Americans with no meaningful oversight is necessary to stop teh terrorists.

But hey, at least he responded. It's just that he only flip-flops at the behest of the architects of Conventional Wisdom who have kept Democrats out of the White House in all but 3 elections the last 40 years.

First, Team Obama apparently hasn't seen the news about the Al Haramain decision, where a federal court judge ruled that FISA already was the exclusive authority for electronic surveillance. This has a huge impact on the FISA debate, and Obama isn't even up to snuff.

The exclusivity provision makes it clear to any President or telecommunications company that no law supersedes the authority of the FISA court.

If you're going to respond, at least stop trying to spin us with talking points that are transparently wrong. It's phenomenally insulting and insulting 17,000 supporters who are already pissed off doesn't strike me as wise. Sadly, the crap doesn't stop there.

The ability to monitor and track individuals who want to attack the United States is a vital counter-terrorism tool, and I'm persuaded that it is necessary to keep the American people safe -- particularly since certain electronic surveillance orders will begin to expire later this summer. Given the choice between voting for an improved yet imperfect bill, and losing important surveillance tools, I've chosen to support the current compromise. I do so with the firm intention -- once I’m sworn in as President -- to have my Attorney General conduct a comprehensive review of all our surveillance programs, and to make further recommendations on any steps needed to preserve civil liberties and to prevent executive branch abuse in the future.

Yep, we'll just trust you. Because you've done so much to earn good will the last month, what with the complete rush to the center with no regard to promises you'd previously made to us.

Now, I understand why some of you feel differently about the current bill, and I'm happy to take my lumps on this side and elsewhere.

Being a masochist on this isn't going to make us stop, Barack. You will take your lumps, but your willingness comes not from any genuine desire to dialog with the progressive base, but a cold, calculated assessment that our protestations only serve to help you triangulate against us. Because we care about the Constitution and the rule of law, you're able to Sister Souljah us without the messy business of the Sister Souljah moment.

For the truth is that your organizing, your activism and your passion is an important reason why this bill is better than previous versions. No tool has been more important in focusing peoples' attention on the abuses of executive power in this Administration than the active and sustained engagement of American citizens. That holds true -- not just on wiretapping, but on a range of issues where Washington has let the American people down.

Um, yeah, no thanks to you. And it's great that you've decided to hear "our passion" and continue to let us down.

I learned long ago, when working as an organizer on the South Side of Chicago, that when citizens join their voices together, they can hold their leaders accountable. I'm not exempt from that. I'm certainly not perfect, and expect to be held accountable too. I cannot promise to agree with you on every issue.

No shit, Sherlock. All we're asking - in addition to you upholding the Constitution - is that you agree with yourself on every issue. Stop fucking flip-flopping.

Obama finishes strong with an appeal that he is, in fact, the lesser of two evils:

Democracy cannot exist without strong differences. And going forward, some of you may decide that my FISA position is a deal breaker. That's ok. But I think it is worth pointing out that our agreement on the vast majority of issues that matter outweighs the differences we may have. After all, the choice in this election could not be clearer. Whether it is the economy, foreign policy, or the Supreme Court, my opponent has embraced the failed course of the last eight years, while I want to take this country in a new direction. Make no mistake: if John McCain is elected, the fundamental direction of this country that we love will not change.

Honestly, I don't know that there's ever been a more dramatic regression in campaign rhetoric from "Change You Can Believe In" to "I'm Not As Bad As The Other Guy."

Seriously, folks, this is not a response. This is a semi-polite version of "You are expendable." And it sure as shit ain't leadership.

Oh just fucking stop it already. This isn't how you won the Democratic nomination.

The Senator tells reporters in North Dakota he plans a “a thorough assessment” of his Iraq policy during his coming visit to the country.

“When I go to Iraq and have a chance to talk to some of the commanders on the ground, I’m sure I’ll have more information and will continue to refine my policies.”

Adds: “My 16-month (withdrawal) timeline, if you examine everything that I’ve said, was always premised on making sure that our troops were safe.”

I may never write this again, but the RNC's assessment of Obama's actions the last few weeks is right.

“There appears to be no issue that Barack Obama is not willing to reverse himself on for the sake of political expedience.”

When the RNC is right about our nominee, our nominee isn't leading. Obama has run on the fact that he rightly opposed the Iraq war from the start. Since then, he has accumulated greater and greater responsibility for his actions. As President he will bear the ultimate responsibility for America's policy in Iraq and thus the continuation or termination of the war. Good God, man - an increase of responsibility does not obligate you to become more wrong Barack!

Get it right.

People expect you to end the war. If you win, it's on your shoulders. Don't chicken out now, because you will seal your fate, LBJ-style, to have a brutal, unpopular war define your presidency.

In little under seven days, the My.BarackObama.com group Senator Obama - Please Vote NO on Telecom Immunity - Get FISA Right has become the largest group, organic or campaign created, in the entire Obama universe.

That's leadership. Obama? Still in the way.

...This is a stick-up:

Instructions: Highlight the code inside the box. Press Ctrl + C to copy it. To publish this somewhere, press Ctrl + V to paste the code. Sharing this image will spread the word. <a href="http://tools.advomatic.com/7/fisa"><img src="http://tools.advomatic.com/files/c2c/widgets/1/raise-your-voice-blue-america.png" class="imgLeft" alt="raise-your-voice-blue-america.png" /></a>

The Blue America community - FireDogLake, Crooks & Liars, Down With Tyranny, Digby & Glenn Greenwald - has launched a kick-ass internet calling tool to get constituents whipping their senators to support the Dodd-Feingold Amendment to strip retroactive immunity from the FISA bill. Christy Hardin Smith at FDL has the intro:

Blue America is launching a call tool today to help you get in touch with Senators regarding the FISA bill.   We're trying to make it as easy as possible for everyone to talk with their Senators about the importance of standing up for the constitution, the rule of law -- and standing against telecom immunity.

We have been working hard to put together some tools to make your voice heard -- and there is more to come today.  

This first tool allows you to directly contact Senators to tell them to stand up for the rule of law and vote in favor of the Dodd-Feingold-Leahy amendment.  (That's S.A.5064 to H.R. 6304 which will come up for a vote on July 8th, 2008.)  Not only will this tool help you phone your Senators -- including connecting your call -- but it also gives us the ability to track positions on FISA given your input on what you ascertain during your conversations.  

As the ACLU recently said, "no president should have the power to monitor the phones and emails of Americans without a warrant, and telecommunications companies should not be let off the hook."  The laws apply to presidents and cronies alike, just like they do to the rest of us.  We want to give you the tools needed to tell your Senators just that.  And for you to be able to do so today.

DownWithTyranny, Crooks & Liars, and The Seminal have also posted on the call tool.

Quite simply, this is what happens when you piss off the base. The base finds ways to shove its collective foots up the collective corpuscular asses of the Democrats in the Senate. You fuck with us? You hear from us. All day. Every day. Until you take a leadership position and do the job you were elected to do.

Blue America is leading. Chris Dodd is leading. Russ Feingold is leading. Is your Senator leading? Or in the way? Call and find out now!

Another day, another article, another non-response by the Obama campaign on the fact that their supporters are so livid at The Man Himself that they're using the My.BarackObama.com social network to organize against his FISA stance.

“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.

So disappointing...so unsurprising.

It's almost like doing the right thing isn't actually hard.

Supporters of Barack Obama have used his online social networking platform, My.BarackObama.com, to organize against his cowardly FISA stance. A group titled Senator Obama - Please Vote NO on Telecom Immunity - Get FISA Right was created late last week. It already has over almost 5,600 members (it will likely cross that mark by the time I finish writing the post). Most impressive of all, in this short time the group has become the fifth largest in the entire Obama social networking universe.

That is, a group created among Obama supporters to get him to do the right thing on FISA is now bigger and more influential than New York, Virginia, Massachusetts, and "Barack Obama (One Million Strong for Barack)".

The Obama FISA group is on pace to be the largest group on My.BarackObama.com within its first week of existence.

Ari Melber of The Nation has a write-up on this internet phenomenon:

Since launching last week, the protest group, "Senator Obama Please Vote NO on Telecom Immunity – Get FISA Right," swelled to one of the ten largest campaign groups on Sunday. (FISA is the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which the Democratic Congress is poised to amend under White House pressure.) It is the largest group of its kind on MyBo, which focuses on local networking, official campaign events, and constituency groups like "Women for Obama." It looks like the group grew through the Obama network, with a few web mentions on liberal sites such as OpenLeft and TPM, and it urges Obama to reject the "politics of fear" and lead Democrats to oppose the White House bill. Blogger Mike Stark says the effort demonstrates the kind of civic engagement and "open government" that Obama espouses, even if it delivers the "sting of social networking" pushback during a tight campaign.

One Democratic Internet consultant predicted that Obama's reaction could reveal his commitment to meaningful engagement with supporters. "How Obama responds will tell us a great deal about both his willingness to listen to input from his supporters and what influence the MyBarackObama community has on the campaign itself," said the operative, who wished to remain anonymous while working on another campaign. "In the meantime, this is a huge opportunity for Obama's supporters to organize around an issue, not just the candidate, and take action beyond using their credit card."
...
Obama won the nomination by blending the practical and the ideal -- riding the financial juggernaut of Internet politics and promising a new, interactive civil society along the way. He made people feel good, and connected, and they showered his long-shot campaign with money, energy and adulation. Their votes are already in the bag, in general election calculus, but their work, enthusiasm and contributions to any larger "movement" are not guaranteed. Just as the campaign worked to mobilize so many supporters this weekend, it may have to reengage supporters concerned about Obama's recent drift. He could answer their arguments with a direct video explaining his vision for restoring the rule of the law and constitutional rights. Granting more unchecked surveillance power to the Executive and sidelining judicial oversight is a staggering affirmation of Bush's approach, especially coming from the candidate of change. If Obama is going to stand by that failed policy, he should at least explain his thinking in depth. It might even get more hits than a fundraising video.

This is a test. Obama's supporters are passing it with flying colors, integrating the tools the campaign has given them to do something important: tell their candidate that he is wrong on a crucial issue.

As of now, Obama is failing the test. Ryan Singel of Wired reports, "The Obama campaign did not return a call seeking comment."

Hopefully the strength of his supporters' outcries will get him to reconsider. Or at least say something.

The most remarkable email is floating around. This is the website in a widget that it contains.

I am happy to see this.

There are few heroes in the battle against the Bush administration in the fight over civil liberties than AT&T whistleblower Mark Klein. Klein's courageous actions are the reason why we know that the NSA has installed direct taps into the backbone of the internet, allowing them to receive all internet traffic and content that crosses hubs. Klein knows because he has seen the physical rooms in AT&T buildings in San Francisco and the documents that prove these rooms exist in AT&T facilities around the country.

Wired's Threat Level blogger Ryan Singel reports that Klein is not only continuing to blow the whistle on AT&T and the NSA, he's putting public political pressure on the Senate on FISA:

[Wednesday]'s vote by Congress effectively gives retroactive immunity to the telecom companies and endorses an all-powerful president. It’s a Congressional coup against the Constitution.

The Democratic leadership is touting the deal as a "compromise," but in fact they have endorsed the infamous Nuremberg defense: "Just following orders." The judge can only check their paperwork. This cynical deal is a Democratic exercise in deceit and cowardice.

Congress has made the FISA law a dead letter--such a law is useless if the president can break it with impunity. Thus the Democrats have surreptitiously repudiated the main reform of the post-Watergate era and adopted Nixon’s line: "When the president does it that means that it is not illegal." This is the judicial logic of a dictatorship.

The surveillance system now approved by Congress provides the physical apparatus for the government to collect and store a huge database on virtually the entire population, available for data mining whenever the government wants to target its political opponents at any given moment—all in the hands of an unrestrained executive power. It is the infrastructure for a police state.

Singel notes that, "Neither the House nor the Senate has had Klein testify, nor have telecom executives testified in open session about their participation."

Here's a short video of Klein talking about what he knows and his efforts to lobby against telecom immunity:

If there is anyone whose presence would better strengthen the constitution of the Senate and make the return to the rule of law more likely, I don't know who it would be. Klein is a true patriot and the Democratic caucus (let alone Republicans) could learn a great deal from his example.

If this man were to ever seek elected office, I would energetically support his campaign.