Sandbagging

I saw a video of Obama on line -- shoveling sand into bags, I think in Illinois, and talking about how serious the flooding is. It's moving downriver now, out of the upper Midwest. This wasn't an ad. It's the man himself in a white shirt, surrounded by ordinary people, shoveling sand.

He does seem a little reserved and awkward. But who cares? It doesn't matter how you shovel sand, so long as you do it, when it needs to be done.

I found it touching. But he had better himself back to Washington and deal the new version of the FISA bill. Once again it gives telecom companies legal immunity for illegally spying on people, such as us. The last try at getting this into law was stopped, but there are jerks in Congress trying to sneak it through again.

Obama's public persona is all about change and democracy. But he seems to be pretty tightly woven into the Democratic Party power structure. He campaigned for Joe Lieberman, for heaven's sake.

I think there's going to have to be strong, continuous pressure on him and the Democratic Party, or we will get same old, same old, instead of change. And same old ain't going to cut it, with the oceans rising, oil peaking and food running out.