Presidential Poison

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Originally Posted by Extra Stout

You're using weasel words. Obama directed Holder not to pursue prosecution against CIA operatives who carried out torture, while giving him discretion on whether or not to go after the lawyers. That's the plain face of what happened, and the President shared his decision with the public.

I guess since the President apparently decided that CIA operatives are above the law and the law doesn't apply to them, you should be pretty upset with him. I mean, yeah, maybe ultimately they would have a viable defense, since they got legal advice that what they were doing was OK, but why should the President get to make that call? The AG is accountable only to the Constitution, right? Just because Obama is the Chief Executive of the land doesn't mean he should make judgment calls about how to appropriate scarce resources among his subordinates!

And yeah, maybe prosecuting CIA operatives would have a chilling effect on CIA morale and hamper national security, but the President can't make judgment calls about competing priorities or undesirable precedents like that! Nobody is above the law!

Where is your consistency?

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My consitency is right here. I'm not sure where I displayed any opinion towards the President's actions concerning CIA operatives so I'm not sure why're you're acting as though I've contradicted myself.

It is not the President's place to make any of these decisions, the above included. Just because he made it and has reasoning for it doesn't mean he should have the right or ability to do so. The defense of following orders did not stand up for the Nazi's yet we see no problems in using it for ourselves.

There would undoubtbly be consequences for such prosecutions but that is something in the future we should think about before breaking the law, not afterwards. The law is not there to be followed only when it suits us and is convient.

And for you to claim I'm using weasle words then turn around and act like Obama did this because of "scarce resources" is incredibly not like you. It has nothing to do with the scarce resources of the Justice Deptarment. What, are they too busy with online gambling and drug prosecutions to actually do important work? Give me a break.

I understand the reasoning for Obama's decision and Holder has the right to presecute whomever he deems he should of course. But I Obama has overextended his power here and I've never said otherwise ES. Please don't act as if I have.

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Originally Posted by Wild Cobra

How many times must I say it. He will go down as one of the worse presidents in history.

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You can say it as many times as you want if it makes you feel better and considering the majority of Obama's history as president hasn't even occurred yet it is clear where you stand.

Obama will be judged historically as Bush will be, by how much he furthered the greatness of the state, and, of course, fit the political predilections of those sitting in judgment.