Activism Across America

When it comes to the ways of the Senate Democrats, California has the best and worst of what’s available. Senator Barbara Boxer does what a Democrat is supposed to do - upholding progressive values, and defending the Constitution. Dianne Feinstein, on the other hand, doesn’t seem to give a damn about anything other than the calculus of power.

Let’s take the recent vote on the FISA Amendments Act as an example. The FISA Amendments Act represents one of the worst aspects of the presidency of George W. Bush. It retroactively legalizes a program that spied on the personal communications of millions of law-abiding American citizens - without a search warrant or any other judicial oversight. The law allows this abuse to continue. It wrecks the protections guaranteed by the Constitution.

Barbara Boxer did the right thing. She voted against the FISA Amendments Act.

Dianne Feinstein did the wrong thing. She voted in favor of the FISA Amendments Act.

California, you have my congratulations… and my sympathy.

Al Franken likes to depict himself as a well-informed, straight-talking kind of guy. Franken says that if he is elected to the United States Senate, he will stand up for the rights of voters in Minnesota.

So why is it, then, that Al Franken refuses to take a position on the FISA Amendments Act?

Go ahead and search through Al Franken’s Senate campaign web site. Search the news. Search the blogs. Nowhere does Al Franken even mention the FISA Amendments Act.

This proposed law threatens to take away Americans’ constitutional rights, and to destroy the system of checks and balances that keeps our democracy alive. The FISA Amendments Act represents one of the worst policies of George W. Bush - spying on millions of Americans without a search warrant or any other form of judicial control. The FISA Amendments Act is corrupt to the core.

So, why won’t Al Franken take a stand? Has Franken been too lazy to bother to read the FISA Amendments Act, or is he just too afraid to condemn this latest abuse from the politicians of fear?