Obama Gets the Eavesdropping Bill He Wants

January 2nd, 2013

Glenn Greenwald:

In other words, Obama successfully relied on Senate Republicans (the ones his supporters depict as the Root of All Evil) along with a dozen of the most militaristic Democrats to ensure that he can continue to eavesdrop on Americans without any warrants, transparency or real oversight. That’s the standard coalition that has spent the last four years extending Bush/Cheney theories, eroding core liberties and entrenching endless militarism: Obama + the GOP caucus + Feinstein-type Democrats. As Michelle Richardson, the ACLU’s legislative counsel, put it to the Huffington Post: “I bet [Bush] is laughing his ass off.”

This comes after then Senator Obama vowed in 2008 to filibuster any bill which provided immunity to the telecom industry for participating in the Bush administration’s warrantless eavesdropping program; of course, Obama then not only voted against a filibuster of just such a bill, but then voted for the bill.

The 2008 FISA bill was set to expire this year, so President Obama pushed for the power to be renewed. He also pushed for it to be renewed without modest oversight amendments proposed by Senators Jeff Merkley, Ron Wyden, and Rand Paul.

Change, indeed.