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Published on Thursday, June 18, 2009 by Democracy Now!
Despite Campaign Promises, President Obama Adopts President Bush’s Policy of Secrecy
In his first several months in office, Obama has embraced Bush administration justifications to keep secret key government information. Most recently, the Secret Service rejected requests from two organizations for public access to White House visitors logs. The logs document the West Wing meetings that have helped shape Obama's policies on banking regulation, environmental policy, economic recovery and foreign affairs. The group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington filed a lawsuit yesterday against the Obama administration, seeking the release of the visits by coal company executives to the White House.
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14 Comments so far
Show AllI has such high hopes for him but he's turning out to be a huge disappointment. I guess he's better than McCain would have been but he's not the change I was hoping for. In fact, he's not much of a change, at all. I hope he doesn't plan on getting re-elected.
I'm shocked, a Democrat adopts rigth wing policies? Wow, that has never happened in the past has it? (sorry for being sarcastic)
We just keep hoping that the corrupt system will offer us real choices. Although a huge dilemma, we must demand an overhaul in the entire elections system, voting system, campaign finance, and media stanglehold over the process.
Otherwise, we will have to be complacent with a D president that is slightly progressive on the outside, yet right of center on the inside. Politics is just a manipulative PR stunt for Obama and the D leadership
Since both sides of the aisle are owned, lock, stock and barrel, by the Oligarchy, what do you expect?
Even if Obama were an honest man and not a shill, and desired to open up the government, what would it reveal?
Decades of underhanded deals, sellouts, conflicts of interest, espionage and assassinations, overthrowing of governments, to be replaced by those we own; destruction of businesses for the gain of the powerful, buying and selling of representatives, the truth about 9-11, the truth about AIPAC and the PNAC.
That just scratches the surface. If the scales were ripped from our eyes, perhaps We the People would, in righteous anger, take back our country; and you know we are not going to see that!
Impeach Obama the undercover repug. I smelled a rat when he kept putting repugs on his payroll. Eric Holder has a responsibility to make him aheard by the law of the land. Yet he has been his Gonzo, Sitting in the seat as three other gonzos for George Bush. I havent seen any change from the former regime yet. Secret,secrets, secrets. All about hiding their corrupt sneaky doings. Obama and his regime has certainly become a deep, deep disappointment. His four years will be all for him. He has made it impossible for another black man to ever sit in that corrupt seat again.
A disappointment, yes, BUT, he has still only been there for six months. Perhaps things will change for the better in the end. I suspect that he is learning the 'reality' of the job, that it is much easier to quarterback from the sidelines than it is to be in the game. He does have to "go along to get along" with some issues, but my personal opinion is that those times should be issues of national security, and not issues of policy making. Keeping visitor logs secret does not SEEM to be necessary, but I can't say from here in Maine. I am willing to give him a year or so before casting stones his way.
Nobody, you conflate errors of omission, which can perhaps be justified by his short tenure, and errors of commission, which cannot. If you agree with his escalation of the Afghan war, adoption of the Bush plan for Iraq, continued illegal spying on Americans, revival of the military commissions, indefinite detention without trial, renunciation of the Geneva Conventions, praise for torturers and murderers as dedicated public servants and promises to protect them and keep them in their posts, refusal to appoint a special counsel for war crimes, massive subventions of taxpayer money to Wall Street campaign contributors, refusal to consider single-payer universal health coverage, support for DOMA, aggressive assertion of state secrets and executive privilege doctrines and support for the coal industry including mountaintop removal, you must have been very pleased with Bush. If not, your arguments are partisan special pleading and not principled.
DrBrian, I did not vote for the man and am not a Democrat. I do not believe in torture as a method of interrogation and DO want to get to the truth. IRAQ should be ended, quickly, I'm not as convinced about Afghanistan. BUT, I grew up in a political family and am aware that change is slow. The unintended consequences of demanding one course of action are often worse than the compromise. My basic point is that the PRESIDENT is not really the culprit here. We as citizens should be pressing CONGRESS to do it's job. Congress can certainly demand a 'truth commission' concerning the Bush years. The Congress has given up much of the power that was vested in it by the Constitution and has the responsibiliby to 'take it back'. The President only has as much power as the Constitution allows, UNLESS, we allow him to take more. We need more men like Ron Paul in my opinion, but the media tends to minimalize the honest ones. The chaos left by the last administration is mind boggling. Those willing to scape goat it into this presidents problems are short sighted and have short memories. I'm just saying that we need to give him a little time, not that we should sit by idly and do nothing. We as citizens DO need to make our wishes known, but to our elected representatives.
It is abundantly clear by now that Obama is a liar, pure and simple. He has gone back on too many campaign promises for the "he's too busy" excuse to hold even a drop of water. I think he was just the next anointed one, after Bush, to continue carrying out the imperialist agenda. People hate the republicans so it was time for a dem...back and forth between the two parties which are really one party, maintaining the illusion that this is a democracy and change can happen at the behest of the people. NOT.
Obama is a Republican.
Obama is NOT a Republican. Obama is USA'n, imperialist, aristocratic, bourgeois, corporatist, fascist, ..., as nearly always has been of the USA. Even President FDR was pro-Mussolini, etcetera; even while he proposed his "New Deal" plan for the U.S., based on what I've read from an apparently very knowledgeable person and essayist, anyway. I believe that person's surely right and that FDR planned for a real "New Deal", both, which'd mean that while he had a good idea and plan, he certainly wasn't perfect, which is not unusual for humans.
People faulting Republicans and not "Democrats" are escapists, foolers, tricksters, .... They don't speak the truth. I'm neither Republican nor "Dem.", and neither of their factions fool me. I'm also not Libertarian, whatever the hell that is, because they're shmucks too, imo. Nope, I'm me, and none of these jerks represent me. NONE!
I'll do my own f*cking thinking and choosing, regardless of whether you like it or not. You do not decide for me. I decide for me.
Obama's not Republican, because if he really was, then he'd mind the Republic of the USA, and he, like most presidents, don't give a damn about the Republic; not "Democrats" and not "Republicans", neither.
Obama's of the imperialists, aristocrats, corporatists, ... empire-ists.
Obama is a Republican.
oh really? tell that to the DLC!
Hear! Hear!
We seem to have two identical right wing parties. They take turns looting America.