Obama Screws the Pooch.

It has always bothered me that Barack Obama supported Joe Lieberman in the 2006 congressional race against populist Democrat Ned Lamont. But now he has gone too far, and the facade is getting a little thin for my taste.

The back story: John Barrow is a Representative from Georgia. A Blue Dog Democrat. Which is code for a wolf-in-sheep’s clothing, also known as democrat that almost exclusively votes for whatever bullshit the corrupt and way-past-their-shelf-life Republicans come up with, or Republican-Lite, if you will.

The latest steaming stinker to come down the Republican chocolate highway is their attempt to immunize the telecoms that knowingly broke the law in order to assist the Bush administration with vacuuming up all communications between all Americans in order to mine this information for…( information on terrorists?) Anyone with a basic understanding of what is allowed relative to information gathering in this country knows that the FISA court created by the FISA bill written in the seventies is supposed to be the exclusive venue for getting permission for this kind of surveillance. It is a felony, according to the FISA bill, to go around the conventions set up in this bill. Which the telecoms knowingly did because the Administration asked real nice. Which is illegal.

So right now, our congress is trying to retroactively immunize these telecom companies (there are currently dozens of lawsuits against the telecos over this matter, with a huge potential financial penalty at stake) from any current or future lawsuits pertaining to their assistance to the Administration. Effectively, this would cover up any wrong-doing of government officials that may come out in the discovery phase of any number of these trials, as well as give the green light for any corporation to violate any law )if the Administration asks real nice). I personally see this as a crucial piece in the puzzle for having a true fascist system in the United States. If citizens have no recourse against corporations, and in turn government officials, when their guaranteed rights are trampled on, then we have no more guarantee for our rights.

Back to Mr Barrow. He is one of the leading voices in the Blue Dog caucus to lend his full throated support to retroactive immunity, among other Blue Dog BS. He is also being challenged by a progressive state legislator named Regina Thomas. A black woman in a district that had 70% of it ballots cast in past primaries by African-Americans. So of course Obama is supporting Thomas, right?

Wrong. Obama just finished taping a 60 second radio spot for John Barrow.

“We’re going to need John Barrow back in Congress to help change Washington and get our country back on track,” Obama says in the 60-second ad.

Bullshit, Barry!

I don’t know what to say. I was feeling really positive about Obama at least being able to help us step back from the fascist precipice. But the company he’s keeping is a little, well, dubious. Don’t get me wrong, I’m rather terrified of Old Man McCain. But I consider this strike two for Obama. If he’s going to vacuum up votes by putting on the progressive mask, but act as an enabler to the system that has gotten us to this woeful place in which we currently reside, I will not stand by him.

Change we can believe in?