President Obama begun launching airstrikes in Iraq on Friday morning, presumably to counter ISIS militants. Did you hear anything about Congressional authorization for this action? Me neither. It's like Mr. Obama is desperate to be outclassed by Mr. Bush at everything. Maybe he'll even create his very own economy-breaking bailout toward the end of his term, gift-wrapping the Presidency to Scott Walker in 2016! One good turn deserves another, right? Seriously, Congress gets to declare war, while the President commands the military; the Founders had a reason to divide these tasks among the separate branches of government. And what, exactly, will air strikes do against guerillas, besides demonstrate some "resolve" or other, besides "insulate" Mr. Obama against charges of weakness or whatever? Better to get the good folks of Iraq some humanitarian aid. Hence Council for a Livable World helps you tell Mr. Obama to stop making war in Iraq, while Peace Action West helps you tell your Congressfolk to stand up for their right to declare war, and the Friends Committee for National Legislation helps you tell both the President and Congress to do the right thing.
Meanwhile, the Pew Charitable Trusts helps you tell President Obama to expand the Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument as far as his powers allow. Remember back in the day when right-wingers complained about all the national monuments President Clinton created? Good times, eh? I suppose they'll whine about Mr. Obama's efforts to expand the Monument, complaining that only a liberal President would do that, just ike the liberal President who created the monument on his way out of office, what was his name? Oh, yes: George W. Bush. If we're really lucky, they'll complain that Mr. Obama didn't the feelings of the locals into account, even though the islands are home to exactly zero indigenous people and less than 200 U.S. military and government workers. At least three of the seven islands in the Monument currently don't have so much as an airstrip. What these islands do have are animal and plant species found nowhere else on Earth, and thus opportunities for scientific study unparalleled in the world. Or do we only care about where we can drill for oil and gas?
Finally, S. 2685, Sen. Leahy's latest version of the USA FREEDOM Act, would actually limit NSA spying by ending the data-vacuuming of good Americans' phone records, creating a panel of advocates to argue citizen's privacy rights before the FISA court, and mandating that the NSA report their activities more stringently. The bill would have some wiggle room, unfortunately, but unlike the House version of the USA FREEDOM Act (which, I'm sorry to say, really fell down on the job), S. 2685 would take some steps forward, and sometimes that's what we're fighting for -- steps forward. It may seem frustrating, especially if you've been fighting the PATRIOT Act since its inception almost 13 years ago, but think of how the national conversation has shifted from how we're going to protect ourselves from terrorists to how we're going to protect ourselves from our government. That's actually a good sign that the electorate, never that fond of overarching government spying, is ahead of the politicians, as usual. The Electronic Freedom Foundation helps you tell your Senators to support S. 2685 and fight big government surveillance.
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