yep
He may prove the most disastrous president in our history in terms of civil liberties.
President Obama not only retained the controversial Bush policies, he expanded on them. The earliest, and most startling, move came quickly. Soon after his election, various military and political figures reported that Obama reportedly promised Bush officials in private that no one would be investigated or prosecuted for torture. In his first year, Obama made good on that promise, announcing that no CIA employee would be prosecuted for torture. Later, his administration refused to prosecute any of the Bush officials responsible for ordering or justifying the program and embraced the "just following orders" defense for other officials, the very defense rejected by the United States at the Nuremberg trials after World War II.
Obama failed to close Guantanamo Bay as promised. He continued warrantless surveillance and military tribunals that denied defendants basic rights. He asserted the right to kill U.S. citizens he views as terrorists. His administration has fought to block dozens of public-interest lawsuits challenging privacy violations and presidential abuses.
In time, the election of Barack Obama may stand as one of the single most devastating events in our history for civil liberties. Now the president has begun campaigning for a second term. He will again be selling himself more than his policies, but he is likely to find many civil libertarians who simply are not buying.
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Obama also gave us the phrase "post acquittal detention powers".
hope in one hand, in the other
one filled up faster
Didn't you vote for him?
it was clear well before election day (as well as very soon aftewards) that Obama is an establishmentarian par excellence. the telecom immunization bill and TARP alone pretty much sealed that in 2008.
RP was my guy in 2008.
Funny that the guys who are saying that Obama is behind the drive to detain Americans on US soil are also the same guys who supported torture of American prisoners in foreign prisons...its baloney....Obama's statement is that he will veto the bill as it stands now..
Dan, give me a break. Obama has been authoritarian as Bush and you know it.
That was Obama's position, now he has caved. Hence the criticism and condemnation from pretty much all corners, save for the most deluded Obamabots.
Today's Glenn Greenwald column has a pretty good rundown of the situation as it stands:
Condemnation of President Obama is intense, and growing, as a result of his announced intent to sign into law the indefinite detention bill embedded in the 2012 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). These denunciations come not only from the nation’s leading civil liberties and human rights groups, but also from the pro-Obama New York Times Editorial Page, which today has a scathing Editorial describing Obama’s stance as “a complete political cave-in, one that reinforces the impression of a fumbling presidency” and lamenting that “the bill has so many other objectionable aspects that we can’t go into them all,” as well as from vocal Obama supporters such as Andrew Sullivan, who wrote yesterday that this episode is “another sign that his campaign pledge to be vigilant about civil liberties in the war on terror was a lie.” In damage control mode, White-House-allied groups are now trying to ride to the rescue with attacks on the ACLU and dismissive belittling of the bill’s dangers.
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Greenwald is goofy on this one....
The debate right now is in the language in the bill....does 'required', as in the military is not 'required' to act mean that it is legal to act...
Who please?
Assassinating a US citizen shall be his most egregious offense.
But in all seriousness, most of his presidency has been about one-upping Dubya's inep ude. Unfortunately, in a bizarro world repeat of 2004 - the Republicans have demonstrated themselves incapable of finding anyone who can beat one of the worst presidents in history.
Obama has been completely hypocritical on his handling of the so-called war on terror. He's done numerous things that Bush did as president. Obama ed about how illegal and dangerous those things were but he supports them now as president. He supports drones killing U.S. citizens, he supports the Patriot Act, he supports Gitmo, etc...
Isn't he a lawyer? Whatever happened to due process? Didn't Tim McVeigh get it?
back when we treated terrorists like the common criminals they are, yes
Completely agree with the premise presented on this thread...
And what real alternative do we have? The GOP is going to nominate someone that will do the same things if not be worse with them. I certainly think McCain would have been worse (although perhaps not on the torture issue directly). Boutons is right. We're ed and we're un able.
Manny/boutons overdrive
blown tubes, fried speaker cone
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