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ACLU Chief 'Disgusted' with Obama
WASHINGTON - The top official at the American Civil Liberties Union seems to be losing patience with President Barack Obama and his administration.
Speaking at a conference of liberal activists Wednesday morning, ACLU Executive Director Anthony Romero didn't mince his words about the administration's handling of civil liberties issues.
"I'm going to start provocatively ... I'm disgusted with this president," Romero told the America's Future Now breakout session, according to blogger Marcy Wheeler of Firedoglake.com.
In an interview with POLITICO, Romero confirmed the gist of the quote, though he emphasized it wasn't intended as an ad hominem attack.
"I'm not disgusted at President Obama personally. It's President Obama's policies on civil liberties and national security issues I'm disgusted by. It's not a personal attack," Romero said.
While liberals of various stripes have or had gripes with how Obama has conducted himself since taking office, civil libertarians may well be the most disillusioned at this point.
"There was a discussion this morning, and there has been generally in progressive circles, about expectations that have not been met. I made the point that expectations were high because the president set expectations very high," Romero said.
Asked why he's so animated now, Romero said: "It’s 18 months and, if not now, when? ... Guantanamo is still not closed. Military commissions are still a mess. The administration still uses state secrets to shield themselves from litigation. There's no prosecution for criminal acts of the Bush administration. Surveillance powers put in place under the Patriot Act have been renewed. If there has been change in the civil liberties context, I frankly don't see it."
Many analysts now regard it as unlikely that Guantanamo, which was supposed to close this past January under Obama's presidential order on the subject, will close this year. Romero agreed that if Sept. 11 trials proceed before military commissions at Guantanamo it's hard to see how the prison will close in the year or two after that.
"The unwillingness of the administration to stick by its guns and prosecute the Sept. 11 defendants in criminal court does not bode well for the broader civil liberties agenda," he said. "The fact they've not announced anything raises the specter of doubt that, in itself, is debilitating to the Justice Department and raises serious questions about the administration's commitment to the rule of law. Their silence speaks volumes."
A White House spokesman declined to comment on Romero's broadsides.
However, former White House counsel Greg Craig took aim at the ACLU earlier this year over a newspaper ad the group took out which showed Obama morphing into Bush. Speaking at Harvard in April, Craig called the ad very unfair and said it "shows a real lack of understanding about the profound differences between these two presidents," according to Matt Hutchins, a Harvard Law student who wrote about Craig's appearance for the Harvard Law Record.
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64 Comments so far
Show AllThank You, Anthony Romero !!!!
Finally - someone points out publicly with feeling that the 'Emperor ain't got no clothes.'
While previous presidents can always use the excuse that they got bad advice on civil liberty issues, Obama cannot.
Having represented himself as a constitutional law expert throughout his academic and political careers, Obama bears full responsibility for his anti-civil liberty actions.
Romero should therefore not be constraining his criticism of Obama's personal integrity.
The US Federal Government has had thought reading technology for sixteen years (at least) and has been using that, coupled with selective broadcasting and dream manipulations to attempt to actually change peoples personalities and memories.
Why does the President want to continue to hide illegal Thought Reading activities by the government under the ruse of ‘State Secrets? Why did Obama hire so many Clinton employees in his White House, including Eric Holder who was in the Clinton Admin in when I was first abused by this technology? Why is Obama’s Admin so against holding government personnel responsible for crimes that they commit in office? Doesn’t a man who ran for President partly on the recommendation of his resume as a Constitutional Scholar KNOW that Thought Reading technology is anti-Constitutional against unlawful search and seizures?
This technology is what was exposed due to whistle blowers Atty. Mann (Newsweek 12/22/08) and Russell Tice (Countdown with Keith Olbermann 1/21/09) with reference to surveillance by NSA. I believe that this technology supplies the intelligence that Attorney Mann reported to Michael Isikoff as being supplied to the D.O.J. under Attorney General-only approval and being back-doored through warrantless wiretaps. The method of information gathering (thought reading) that supplies the back-door information later attributed to warrantless wiretaps is hidden under the governments 'State Secrets' privilage.
I believe that this is the technology that Russell Tice referred to as the ‘avenue’ that was keeping some un-terrorist Americans under surveillance 24/7 (he mentioned one group: journalists). Both men are under threat of prosecution for revealing some facets of NSA’s activities, which the government claims violates 'State Secret' laws. I am not.
Until recently, information on the method of their ‘remote’ verbal broadcasting (which can be heard by the victim, but not by others in the same vicinity) was not known. But the
August 5th 2002 edition of Newsweek has an article “Hearing is Believing” (written by Jamie Reno and N’gai Croal) that explains the manipulation of sound waves to isolate a target to hear what others around them cannot.
Kathleen Heckman
echoes44442002@yahoo.com
Please. Go back to Coast to Coast and tell it to George Noory. The adults are trying to have a conversation here.
"I am not disgusted with president Obama personally. Its
president Obama's policies on civil liberties and national
security issues I'm disgusted by. It's not a personal
attack" said Romero
There you go........
What is whatis wrong with America....
And just why nothing is going to be changed..........
For me, it is a personal attack because I am disgusted.
Romero more or less is saying , but he is less of evils.
P.S. Fire Dog Lake......good luck voting for your democrats
Actually, he should be disgusted with him personally. His policies are are reflection to the man himself.
Obama's April 2010 accusations that the Warren and Burger courts overreached to the left unequivocally demonstrates Obama's disdain for civil liberties (see Glenn Greenwald's Salon.com article that was published in CD 4/30/10).
It's such an easy out to say "this isn't personal" when criticizing Obama. It sure as hell is personal for the people Obama has murdered with solders and drone bombers. It's personal for the americans being spied on. It's person for the entire Gulf Coast.
Too much tiptoeing around. Yes, Bush was/is a moron, and so blatantly corrupt, he's easy to criticize. And Obama is supposedly our better alternative, plus he's a Dem and has brown skin, so we're supposed to make sure nothing is a personal attack?
What a load of hogwash. It's personal. Obama is just more of the same, dressed better, more articulate, but he is part of the same ruling elite machine that is chewing up and spitting out the world.
I'm disgusted with Obama, and it IS personal.
Many who post on commondreams share Mr. Romero's disgust with the President Barry, who sold out his base and continued Amerikkka's policies of the expansion of the corporate and Isreali strangle hold in the Middle East.
It's gratifying that finally someone on the left has made a strong statement about the failure of this quisling's administation to rollback the fascist agenda of Bush and Congress.
Typically, we get the Obomobots from MSNBC and the Nation magazine who can find no wrong with this weakling empty-suit sellout. Barry has done nothing to reverse ANYTHING that the warmonger-fascist Bush/Cheney administration saddled the Amerikkkan people with.
Finally, someone with a pair of balls speaks the truth!
The thing is, we were NEVER his base. I don't understand why anyone is surprised at this president's first year and a half. All one had to do was look at his voting record. I don't care if he is a constitutional scholar. He still voted to extend the Patriot Act, the FISA with retroactive immunity for telecoms bill, etc. He said he would renegotiate NAFTA or kill it altogether and then he backpeddled on that while he was still on the campaign! He favors "clean coal", nuclear energy. "CLEAN COAL"! Anyone professing to be progressive should have been running for the hills, not coming out in droves to vote for the man. He also said he supported civil unions but not marriage equality. There were SOOOOO many red flags. I'm still very happy with my vote for Nader. The man has been a solid defender of citizens all his life and his track record proves that. He was really the best choice left. There was also McKinney, but she's a little too out there at times.
Maybe FINALLY all the progressives who still are part of the Democratic party will finally make the switch. I did in 2006 when impeachment was taken off the table and I won't be returning. The Democratic Party does NOT represent progressives, liberals, the left, etc. They are corporatists. maybe slightly better than the crazy Republicans. But only slightly.
I will vote independent and Green as much as I can as long as they have candidates running now. I'm sick of it all. From Rahm Emanuel referring to the left as retarded to the white house chastising the AFLCIO for supporting Bill Halter... It is time to exodus en masse.
WHO'S WITH ME???????????????????????????????????????????????????????????
The profound differences between Bush & Obama?? Hmmmm...
I've always been disillusioned and disgusted with Barack Obama, even before he became President. Obama & Co. is just as corrupt and has continued the evil policies of Bush & Co. in almost every possible way. Of course they don't prosecute their war crimes since they intend to commit their own war crimes and have done so. I long for the safety of all the peoples we kill, injure, and destroy physically, emotionally and economically in the name of the U.S. empire & U.S. "interests". I'm even more disullisioned and disgusted with Obama & Co.'s defenders, who are complicit in the murders all over this world.
""I'm not disgusted at President Obama personally. It's President Obama's policies on civil liberties and national security issues I'm disgusted by. It's not a personal attack," Romero said."
-- Well, I am disgusted with Obama personally. And why shouldn't Romero be? Geez!
It's Obama's people he put in, his policies, his decisions, his acts that have extended the Bush policies.
And, hey, he's gone much further than Bush in worsening civil liberties here. Because of that I'm even more disgusted with Obama personally than I was with Bush.
It would be a superb irony if Romero were forced to "resign" now. After all, his first reaction to USA-PATRIOT was to comply fully and turn over address lists and phone logs to the Feds. That's when he should've been fired.
Although the Obama administration will not act against those who commit war crimes, it has no problem targeting those who reveal such crimes. Case in point: Army intelligence analyst Bradley Manning has been arrested for sending the video to wikileaks in which a US helicopter crew revels in its murder of a Reuters correspondent and other non-combatants in Baghdad in 2007.
Very well put by Valatius.
that is indeed just ONE of so many "acts" from the obama leadership that is even BRAZENLY put out that show it IS a FASCIST adminstration.
i mean -- even when it is compared to the countries that the USA has branded as "tyrannous" - such as China, Cuba, etc....
it turns out - it is the USA that in its own domestic arena - ON TOP of its international hubris and flouting of laws to which IT is signatory (Nuremberg Trials, Commission against Torture, War crimes, etc.) - the one that is the country that flouts "humane" laws - far more broadly, more habitually and in far more ways of masquerades as "law" than ANY of those other countries that are supposedly "Lawless".
any cursory comparison shows this.
an example:
in China - EVEN WITHIN its totalitarian Communist Party leadership - there is such a thing they call "ji-wei" ..
which is a traditional cultural mode in which even the very highest officials - even wen jiabao or hu jintao - CAN potentially be called under scrutiny for personal corruption or going against their own leadership's stated and popularly understood principles. in simple terms - it is simply a system of very HARSH questioning about the "honor" of a particular leader - no matter how important.
it recently led to a purging of a very high official for that reason - when found to have allowed himself to accept bribes or gifts. of course it is in its own way not an "accountable system" according to western standards - but it is used nonetheless to discourage corruption. ..if for NOTHING more than that SHAME is a central component of the system..: that a leader's viability is ONLY AS GOOD as the POPULATION will accept as "honorable" . in the United States - with its supposed "body of laws" as supposedly the most "advanced democracy" in history - WHERE are SUCH cases?
try that in the USA - these CRIMINALS running the USA - in the corporate culture, in the industries, in the congress, in the supreme court, in the administration and its branches, in the spy agencies, in the military complex -- actually are HONORED as HEROES for their criminality!!
in other words - NO SHAME. or shame is used as a "distraction" from NOT changing the culture that is SHAMELESS in its criminality.
NONE whatsoever - in fact the "body of laws" are used or one might say, DESIGNED to PROTECT the corruption that is actually ENDEMIC - not exceptional - to the very nature of american politics and economics.
in other words -- flawed as they each are - WHICH NATION actually has more "justice"? it certainly ISN'T the USA, even in comparison with "brutal china".
No, really it shows no such thing.
The occasional high ranking criminal, whether from government, or from corporations, gets prosecuted in the US too. Stop pretending otherwise.
Your exception proves the rule, not the opposite.
"which is a traditional cultural mode in which even the very highest officials - even wen jiabao or hu jintao - CAN potentially be called under scrutiny for personal corruption or going against their own leadership's stated and popularly understood principles. in simple terms - it is simply a system of very HARSH questioning about the "honor" of a particular leader - no matter how important. "
LOL. When is Li Peng and his family going to be called into account for the 3 Gorges Dam, from which they vastly enriched themselves? And Tian An Men?
And yes, Obama, like Li Peng, can also be POTENTIALLY called under scrutiny. The key part which you are conveniently avoiding is POTENTIALLY. In reality, Li Peng is never going to be called into account.
"try that in the USA - these CRIMINALS running the USA - in the corporate culture, in the industries, in the congress, in the supreme court, in the administration and its branches, in the spy agencies, in the military complex -- actually are HONORED as HEROES for their criminality!! "
Yes, because it is much different in China. The rich elite aren't profiteering of everyone else. Nope.
Teddy, once again I gave up reading what started out like a very interesting and knowledgeable post. Your method of leaving proper nouns and the beginning of sentences, etc. in lower case, while capitalizing whole words for emphasis is difficult to read and very annoying.
I'm on the change.org email list. They call and email me about volunteering. I've participated in a phone bank, but maybe we need a coordinated campaign (insurgent) within change.org to get our message across. We want real reforms and we want them NOW.
that of course means you are now a "person of interest" to the FBI , NSA, CIA, "homeland security"...quite likely through "outsourced" private security and snooping businesses...
of course it is more likely than NOT that ANY of us here and people elsewhere are already in their massive data-base simply for the "words" anyone uses that is even SLIGHTLY critical of
AMERICAN IMPERIAL POLICIES.
they just haven't built enough prisons and come up with an economy driven enough to have a more and more monolithically SPYING "America" where an ever greater number of americans are "employed" as spies against each other.
it's all in the woodwork ,,,,fairly leeching and oozing....
so many years ago -- when 9/11 happened -- i jokingly told friends:
:if you want to "invest" money - go to the "SECURITY INDUSTRY"...anything at all to do with it.
of course -- the USA now openly is nothing more than a POLICE STATE protecting the interests of the Finance industry , corporations, arms manufacturers, warmongers --
SECURITY STATE, in other words.
obama is the head "policeman". FOR THEM...against all others.
it's THAT simple.
Yes, and we also need uncoordinated campaigning.... like a new Insurgent PsyOps for Peace.
Ask those we meet every day what they think this permanent war is doing for their lives...
Just putting the question in their minds and letting them give you the standard line without arguing the standard rebuttal is most effective and gets you respect in the process.
It seems the government wants us to think they can read our minds, email and phone calls, so use psychology for reason and discovery rather than control, like the mind control of fear that we have grown up under in this old and dying security surveillance war economy.
Coordinating campaigns are fine, but we need to emphasize the priceless unpredictability of individual persons thinking for themselves as a means of stimulating reason for change and the pursuit of happiness we have been ignoring in all of our great revolutionary strategic planning.
Today I saw a bumper sticker where all I could read was "Permanent War" and it got me thinkin.
Just question and quietly leave your people to ponder their own response in peace.
They will even respect you for asking how they really feel.
Must be some of my Grandpa's anarchist genes coming out in me.
Organizing is work where you get the usual suspects to deal with this and and that with usual disappointment and burnout which is par for the course and OK, but simple questions allow people to think and that what they think is important because you ask.... and it is the most important thing there is...to really think it through.
I have come to believe, questions make wonderful conversation face to face... while answers are better for written material and tests.
I love it Jim Glover! Especially this part:
"Coordinating campaigns are fine, but we need to emphasize the priceless unpredictability of individual persons thinking for themselves as a means of stimulating reason for change and the pursuit of happiness we have been ignoring in all of our great revolutionary strategic planning."
"It seems the government wants us to think they can read our minds, email and phone calls, so use psychology for reason and discovery rather than control, like the mind control of fear that we have grown up under in this old and dying security surveillance war economy."
Read my mind?? All they have to do is read my emails to them, and read my posts on pubic sites. I've been trying to give them a 'piece of my mind' for years. I just sent in a response to a 'survey' and request for a donation from the democratic party. I told them "Go to hell, you murderous Zionists! You support piracy.". I'll bet they don't even read it; no check enclosed, so just throw it away.
They can question me if they want, but they will get answers they don't want to hear -- and that includes my personal commentary on anyone who would do the dirty work for this abomination of a 'democratic' country.
"I'm not disgusted at President Obama personally."
Well, Mr. Romero, it's time for you to be disgusted with the man as well. You think the man and his policies are not one and the same? Grow up! Get with it! Obama is a corrupt flunky of everything that is wrong with the United States.
EXACTLY !
OBAMA AND HIS POLICIES ARE ONE AND THE SAME.
why try to separate the man from his decisions? his clear preferences are tendencies are reflected in what he decides on and allows. that's simple enough.
does one separate a leopard from its stalking?
is a gazelle "separate" from its speed and high jumping?
is a bee "separate" from its behavior to build a hive and 'dance' to communicate to fellow bees?
does one "separate" obama from his decisions?
the ACLU is "disgusted?" they should bring HIM to court in international courts or some other country. ir DOESN'T Matter whether the USA "acknowledges" those as "legitimate" since US JUSTICE SYSTEM has been showing itself to be such a HIVE of KANGAROO COURTS anyway ....
even if it does no difference in USA actions and obama's....even the SYMBOLIC "act" of showing what a STAIN this obama and his policies are to humanity will at least put on record that some "organization" like the ACLU - an american one - did more than just be "disgusted". .,...and instead HOUND obama and american policies without let-up for the disgusting things that they are.
This is ridiculous.
When people say that something isn't personal, it means that the disagreement is due to disagreement over the actions, not on whether you like how that person speaks, or how that person looks, or how that person dresses.
"the ACLU is "disgusted?" they should bring HIM to court in international courts or some other country. ir DOESN'T Matter whether the USA "acknowledges" those as "legitimate" since US JUSTICE SYSTEM has been showing itself to be such a HIVE of KANGAROO COURTS anyway ...."
Idiocy. Courts in other countries do not take cases for which they have no jurisdiction over.
For that same reason, you do not see the Chinese government prosecuted in courts outside China.
Thankfully, you do not run the ACLU.
"even if it does no difference in USA actions and obama's....even the SYMBOLIC "act" of showing what a STAIN this obama and his policies are to humanity will at least put on record that some "organization" like the ACLU - an american one - did more than just be "disgusted". .,...and instead HOUND obama and american policies without let-up for the disgusting things that they are."
And what kind of hounding do you think is more effective? Hounding him over his policies, or simply just screaming in rage?
Obama is the PR FrontMan (shill) for the corporations who funded his campaign - it REALLY is just that simple. When you come to realise this - all the other twisted bullshit just begings to fall into place.
Defence of the corporations who own this country will ALWAYS be job #1... and BP (name-withstanding) is nothing more than Exxons stepsister.
If, by this point in history, you expect anything but LIES from Gov't spokespeople and the media whores who cover for them, you might as well put a plastic bag over your head and inhale deeply.
Bravo to Romero for speaking up. But this only makes me believe in a conspiracy of sorts even more. No one on the left really thinks of Obama as a liberal, let alone an effective one. And yet the right in lockstep hammer away at him for being extreme left. I don't blame the tea partiers for thinking that. They're stupid sheep mouthing what they've been told to mouth.
But what about those pulling their strings to get this "Obama is a leftie" meme out there? It's as if Obama really is their "manchurian candidate", and the way they hide that fact is by making it seem he's a leftie.
Well, Kane Jeeves, I'll also add this:
The "Obama can do no wrong" crowd are no better than the people on the Right who constantly spout the BS about Obama being a "Fabian Socialist", a Communist, or an extreme Lefty. In fact, the "Obama can do no wrong crowd", which many, if not most of my friends and neighbors are part of, are simply playing right smack into the hands of the Rightwing forces who're spewing out all that BS.
It isn't necessarily a conspiracy.
They are just engaging in basic hardline politics. To get a foot, you demand a yard. If you demand an inch, you get a centimetre. And over time, even if you only get a foot when you demand a yard, the discussion gets shifted towards your viewpoint.
I was personally disgusted with Obama long before he was president. His record on civil liberties is exactly what I expected it to be. Only a fool and a progressive would think a man like Obama would be any better than Bush. As a matter of fact, he might not even be as bad as I expected. Considering his similarity to dictators and fascists, I'm surprised we haven't become more like Nazi Germany but there's still time for that to happen.
A progressive? Please, a real progressive would NEVER be fooled by Obama. I could see through him the moment he changed his tune after that great speech in 2004. Anyone who was fooled by Obama, was not a true Progressive.
ahh another example of the usefulness of labels.
March of the Heartbroken Rubes. Not to worry, they'll make the same mistakes again shortly. "This time it'll be different! He loves me, he really does!"
Morons.
It was obvious from the get-go that Obama would sell the American people straight down the river. I got turned off to Obama due to his war votes and his vote for the FISA Bill, as well as his foreign policy pre-POTUS Election debate positions, because it was clear as the light of day where Obama's presidency was headed, even prior to becoming president. Plus his smug, preachy tone and his advice to adopt pets from a shelter also turned me off.
Romero's comments weren't scathing enough, imho. My opinions of Obama have been reinforeced by his extension of our present wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the disastrous "Obamacare" healthcare "reform" bill that was passed, that will still leave people in the lurch to die of pre-existing and/or treatable conditions because they won't want to use such an unaffordable health plan with no cost controls. The fact that Obama hijacked abortion rights to get this POS "HCR" bill passed is even more disgusting, and it has left women even more vulnerable to attacks on their reproductive rights. The disgraceful authorization of more off-shore drilling by Obama and Salazar was another thing that turned me off, especially due to Obama's supposed opposition to off-shore oil drilling, and the fact that he had the unmitigated gall to come out and say that oil rigs are generally safe and don't cause oil spills. What a bunch of crap! How the hell can Obama come on TV and say something like that when the last big oil rig explosion left eleven people dead, many more injured, and stuck the last nail in the Gulf's coffin, killing it forever, and destroying people's lives, livelihoods, health, welfare and well-being in the process? These politicians have a rude awakening in store for them if they think there won't be any repercussions down the road, or right now.
Frankly, as someone who refused to buy into Obama's phony, hyped-up "hopey-changey" campaign and did a write-in vote at the polls during the POTUS Election of 2008, I hope that more people see this slithering snake for who and what he really is and not vote him in for a second term, but I don't see much hope for an electorate who's constantly sucked in by charisma and pretty speeches and rhetoric.
I think the man's a disgrace. Let's vote for a third party!
What if Obama is not really in charge? What if the C.O.G. that was implemented on 9-11 is still in effect, and a Shadow Government is really running things, telling Obama what to do? Sound far-fetched? Well, why has a State of Emergency been quietly signed by the president every year since 9-11 then, including last September by Obama? Why won't the power structure tell even Congress whether constitutional government has been superseded or not - whether we're living under C.O.G. ?
What if Obama and Congress have been ordered to maintain absolute secrecy so as not to cause widespread unrest, so everyone will THINK democratic governance is going on, when really all decisions are being made from an undisclosed location underground? What if Dick Cheney is the real president?
http://georgewashington.blogspot.com/2008/02/has-government-already-implemented.html
http://www.darkpolitricks.com/2010/04/evidence-is-growing-continuity-of-government-plan-is-currently-in-effect/
This is how I see it. Doesn't matter who they put (notice PUT) in that position, they are only a figurehead and nothing more. They will do exactly as they are told. Only those who have surrendered their own will to that of this group of fascists, will hold the office of 'president' in the US.
Thankfully, I never drank "the change" kool-aid and, hence, have not had to suffer disappointment in this case.
If Cheney,or several Cheneys, or some unknown figures of comparable character and policies, were in control, why would they not ensure that only cooperative presidents got elected? As things stand, this could be done fairly handily by funding both "major" parties and blacking out coverage of other candidates.
Do we not have abundant and fairly straightforward evidence that this is exactly what happens?
If so, the sense in which 0bama is or is not "in control" resembles the control exercised by a CEO in a corporation. He serves the people who put up the money.
Don't get me wrong: a nation is not much like a corporation. Even the power structure differs in that some nations have more or less working constitutions and more or less viable democratic checks and balances, whereas corporations are despotic plutarchies. But the character of the executive in the American state seems to follow this fairly directly.
"several Cheneys"
what a horrible concept.
I shuddered when I read that.
-"Many analysts now regard it as unlikely that Guantanamo, which was supposed to close this past January under Obama's presidential order on the subject, will close this year."
Obamo has gone way past Guantanamo closing or not closing. He is now attempting to transfer nominal control of Bagram to the "sovereign" Afghan puppet government that America installed. Of course, the CIA will still be allowed to torture in Afghanistan's prisons, but now...
Obama: (shedding a tear) " Oh, I'd really like to pragmatically honour the laws and treaties against torture, but what can I do??? Bagram and the black torture sites are now on sovereign Afghan land. So gosh darn it, even though our troops and Blackwater are still there, this transfer of sovereignty makes all the supreme court judgements, against Bush and me, moot."
Did Obama say he wanted his new regime to be transparent? It certainly is. Who would have thought that he would have eclipsed Bush so early and so often in the "trampling on human rights dept"?
Pres. Obama is more corporate than Bush, more imperiallstic than Bush and more royalist than Bush. But since he is half-black and a Democrat he seems to be getting a free pass from progressives and liberals who were outraged by Bush corporatism, Bush imperialism and Bush royalism. Heck of a job, Democrats, liberals and progressives...
It's absolutely true.
I'm a black man who has always voted Democrat. I voted for Obama, but hell will freeze over before I vote for this Republican in liberal clothing again.
The US has two versions of the same corporate, right-wing party: Republicans and Democrats. On the campaign trail, Obama repudiated the policies of GWB, but in the white House he has embraced nearly every, single one of them.
President Obama has given civil rights a bad name. He has tainted the left, bastardizing progressive ideals based on social-equanimity and respect for human life.
It is abundantly apparent that he does not care about hard-working, everyday Americans--the underprivileged and the poor. And just like Bush, he has little respect for the law.
If Dr. King and Malcolm X were alive today, they would be giving President Obama a tongue-lashing every day of the week, and yet as we see with Zionist, US-Anglo-European Jews enabling the lawless regime of Israel, for the most part, we see, not all, but a whole lot of African-Americans silent on Obama's police state here in the US and global hegemony worldwide.
It's complete and utter bullshit. And as a black male who supported Obama, I want it known that I absolutely positively do not endorse his corporate cronyism (crimes?), or his (illegal?) war-mongering activities abroad.
Decades ago in the UK, people though that when Margaret Thatcher became Prime Minister, England would be a more humane place. But it became otherwise. As, under Thatcher's rule, more Irish were killed as a result of England's attempt to keep Northern Ireland under it's [protestant] rule. The press called Sinn Fein a terrorist group, but it was Sinn Fein who liberated Ireland from England.
In other words, being a woman or being black, does not preclude having the mentality of a common despot. And though, historically speaking, in most instances it is white men who are the greatest perpetrators of crimes against humanity, in the instance of Ireland's liberation, it was a white man--Gerry Adams--who was largely responsible for being on the right side of justice, fighting against a brutal onslaught, led by a female.
It's foul as hell, what Thatcher, Blair and Bush have done--what Obama is doing now.
TRUE justice knows no race, gender or color. Jimmy Carter, Michele Chen, Naomi Klein, Cornel West and others exemplify this.
On my personal blog, I have written two articles expressing my fury @ Team Obama--the lies, the hypocrisy, the absolute betrayal, AND sociopathic behavior:
http://maxeternity.blogspot.com/2010/03/obama-wife-beater.html
http://maxeternity.blogspot.com/2010/05/thoughts-on-president-obamas-marriage.html
Please. Don't speak for all of us. I consider myself liberal/progressive/whatever. I didn't vote for the man. I saw it coming.
Well, I was listening to Peter Dale Scott speak at the Understanding Deep Politics conference last month, and he brought up this whole C.O.G. (Continuity of Governance) issue. I was rather surprised to hear that even Representative DeFazio, a member of the Homeland Security Committee, cannot get a straight answer from the govt. as to whether we are in fact living under C.O.G. already or not. Scott thinks, and I agree, that this ought to be an issue where right and left can come together. Don't we have a right to know whether our constitution has been superseded or not? If in fact we are still in a State of Emergency since Sept. 11, and apparently we are, then why hasn't Congress had a single meeting to discuss the continuance of the State of Emergency, which is supposed to happen after six months?
We seem to have gotten to a state where secrecy is just accepted, for no reason. This is ultimately the nature of a society that has been taken over by the military. In military organizations, secrecy is assumed, it doesn't have to be justified. But we are SUPPOSED to be living in a democracy. We are SUPPOSED to be able to know whether our Constitutional rights are considered to exist anymore by our duly elected representatives.
We need to DEMAND answers from our Congress, write letters to our papers, do everything possible to publicize this C.O.G. business. That means everyone from ACLU to Judicial Watch, all across the spectrum. We need to restore constitutional governance, restore the Bill of Rights, restore Posse Comitatus, end the torture, end Extraordinary Rendition, end the siege mentality of this never-ending supposed "state of emergency."
"a real lack of understanding about the profound differences between these two presidents,"
one is white.
one is not.
end of difference.
That's it exactly.
Indeed.
A good start from Anthony Romero, but I'll take the ACLU seriously when they endorse a presidential candiate NOT invited to the corporate party televised debates.
Obama is trying to beat Bush at his own game and he is doing quite well.
Americans are conditioned from birth to demand results. Results are all that matter, doing your best is not good enough if the result is not winning, the best intentions in the world are nothing without the required results. So why shouldn't everyone be criticizing the president? He hasn't show them the results!
Americans are conditioned from birth to have results demanded of them.
"Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country."
What results?
Americans have traded homes, medical care, and time with families for cheap gizmos. I'll grant that my computer and online connection is worth something to me, but most of the rest of it just amounts to amulets to summon dreams of love and acceptance,
perhaps from someone who thought he or she demanded "results."