I voted for Obama, but I have given up on him in regard to the Constitution
A friend of mine sent me this and I kinda agree with him. Your thoughts?
I voted for Obama, but I have given up on him in regard to the Constitution. He is a liar. He lied on FISA, promising to filibuster it before he voted FOR it, and since elected he has thrown every single Constitutional campaign promise under the bus, culminating in this most recent charade of show trials for Guantanamo terrorists.
As Glenn Greenwald succinctly puts it; Obama's new system, which he outlined in a speech as President and Holder is now implementing, guarantees that the government wins no matter what.
If the government can convict in civilian court, they go there for the publicity. If not, they go to a military conviction. If they cannot get a conviction there, they reserve the right to "preventively detain indefinitely" anybody, without a trial, without charges, forever.
You see, they have no evidence but somehow are magically certain that 75 people being held at Guantanamo are guilty. Why? Because they tortured confessions out of them.
On top of ALL that, Holder just said publicly that if KSM were somehow acquitted (nearly impossible since he freely and gleefully confessed on tape before ever being tortured) the government would HOLD HIM ANYWAY under the preventive detention program.
So this is our new justice system: No matter what evidence there is, even without any evidence at all, the result is that you stay in jail.
That is not justice. The trials, whether civilian or military, cannot change the outcome. The sentence of life imprisonment is already decided and no verdict can alter it. That is the definition of a show trial, one that is guaranteed to punish the person on trial.
It is against the Constitution, and against the basic principles of human rights everywhere. Bush, Cheney, and now Obama and Holder have turned America into a third world banana republic, replete with show trials and massive corruption, and a caste system in which the politicians and the wealthiest citizens get blatantly subservient and preferential treatment by government agencies, by the courts, by the police, and even by the citizens they are robbing.
I was fooled. Obama is no defender of the Constitution, he has actively continued and even extended the Constitutional breaches of Bush and Cheney, explicitly endorsed the Imperial Presidency they advocated, and now only pays lip service to his poor deluded supporters about how nobody is above the law.
I voted for Obama, but I have given up on him in regard to the Constitution. He is a liar. He lied on FISA, promising to filibuster it before he voted FOR it, and since elected he has thrown every single Constitutional campaign promise under the bus, culminating in this most recent charade of show trials for Guantanamo terrorists.
As Glenn Greenwald succinctly puts it; Obama's new system, which he outlined in a speech as President and Holder is now implementing, guarantees that the government wins no matter what.
If the government can convict in civilian court, they go there for the publicity. If not, they go to a military conviction. If they cannot get a conviction there, they reserve the right to "preventively detain indefinitely" anybody, without a trial, without charges, forever.
You see, they have no evidence but somehow are magically certain that 75 people being held at Guantanamo are guilty. Why? Because they tortured confessions out of them.
On top of ALL that, Holder just said publicly that if KSM were somehow acquitted (nearly impossible since he freely and gleefully confessed on tape before ever being tortured) the government would HOLD HIM ANYWAY under the preventive detention program.
So this is our new justice system: No matter what evidence there is, even without any evidence at all, the result is that you stay in jail.
That is not justice. The trials, whether civilian or military, cannot change the outcome. The sentence of life imprisonment is already decided and no verdict can alter it. That is the definition of a show trial, one that is guaranteed to punish the person on trial.
It is against the Constitution, and against the basic principles of human rights everywhere. Bush, Cheney, and now Obama and Holder have turned America into a third world banana republic, replete with show trials and massive corruption, and a caste system in which the politicians and the wealthiest citizens get blatantly subservient and preferential treatment by government agencies, by the courts, by the police, and even by the citizens they are robbing.
I was fooled. Obama is no defender of the Constitution, he has actively continued and even extended the Constitutional breaches of Bush and Cheney, explicitly endorsed the Imperial Presidency they advocated, and now only pays lip service to his poor deluded supporters about how nobody is above the law.
Tags: obama
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Reggie on -
Okay. Then go!
I guess I don't understand this perception of yours that we have already gone over the cliff. How terrible is your life right now? What exactly makes you think that all is forever ruined? Are you watching the news to get this sense of doom? Is there something going on in your personal life? Is your family starving? Is the government oppressing you? What's up? Spill the beans!
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Permalink Reply by Reggie on
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Ha! The closest you'll get to a populist candidate is Sarah Palin. And she would do no favors for the little people.
Good point about the Executive Branch never wanting to relinquish this power. Obama seemed, at first, to be the sort that would cast it aside. I am not sure now as I have not been following politics as closely as of late.
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Permalink Reply by Reggie on
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It seems obvious that many want Obama to fail and the U.S. to stumble even further merely to validate their own feelings on politics and their misperceptions of Obama, which are mostly created by a vociferous minority looking for followers to boost their ratings and book sales. If Obama succeeds, then they were wrong and they do not like admitting they are wrong to the point that they will delude themselves into thinking they were right in spite of evidence to the contrary.
What frustrates me is that those who seem the most passionate about politics also tend to be the people that are most ignorant or confused about it. But in their mind, they have it all figured out and it is very simple.
But, more to your point, I agree that Obama inherited an fine mess and any President would need more than a year to turn it around.
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Permalink Reply by Doug Reardon on -
It seems obvious to me that the ultra conservative position is where all those with paranoia find validation for their delusions. One should never forget that a significant portion of the population is mentally ill.
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Permalink Reply by Reggie on
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One should never forget that a significant portion of the population is mentally ill.
More evidence against design?
But yes, you are probably correct. Certainly the far right has no monopoly on the lunatics. Just a certain brand of lunatic, I suppose.
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Permalink Reply by Steve Randall on -
Unfortunately, I concur. Obama is a duplicitous fraud. I supported him and election night I cried for him. The bottom line is that anyone who votes for either a democrat or republican is simply voting for the status quo, e.g. the nurturing of our corporate, fascist, elitist government.
In Chris Hedges new book, Empire of Illusion he, depressingly, puts it best. To paraphrase him, our government is controlled by people who, for the most part, all went to the same schools (endowed by the multi-nationals), think the same way, can only indulge in reciprocal back scratching and are completely, incapable of righting our sinking ship of state.
Frankly, Ralph Nader, Noam Chomsky and others of their ilk, truly know the score.
IMO, the vapidness of the current health care debate and Mr. Obams's lack of leadership and support is strong evidence that our country no longer works. Imagine, they are, as I type this, debating a health care bill that rewards the entities that created the problem and, as usual, screws the middle class.
On yesterday's "The Ed Show" on MSNBC he showed videos of speeches the president has made in the last few months mouthing his insistence on a public option. Yet, it's well known, that before all the health care bullshit started, Mr. Obama cut deals with the health insurance companies, big Pharma, etc. The public option/single payer was never in play.
Frankly, my wife and I are currently researching joining the growing expat community. We would prefer to witness the inevitable decline of this empire of American exceptionalism from afar.
I'll end this diatribe by stating I believe that the die has been cast, we are beyond the fail safe point and most likely, generations following will probably never be able to achieve a lifestyle that my parents did (I'm 66) and that I've been able to.
We should, however, applaud Mr. Obama's Copenhagen achievement. He managed to wrangle a NON-BINDING agreement with the major players on climate change. Sarcasm intended.
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Permalink Reply by Nathan Hevenstone on -
I intend to join the expat community myself, but I have to make money and find a place to get my Music Business degree first.
I have to agree that this country's time is pretty much up. Between the failing political system and the fundies growing out of control, I really don't think the USA's gonna last much longer. It's a failed experiment, IMO.
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Permalink Reply by Nathan Hevenstone on
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Don't forget about the Dems and Repubs being corrupt bureaucrats who control our government. Don't forget that Wall Street has too much power. Don't forget the vocal fundies who are getting louder and louder and more and more powerful.
Yes, it's really that bad.
I swear to you, if our Founding Fathers could have seen the state of our country today, they might have had second thoughts about that revolution.
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Permalink Reply by Nathan Hevenstone on
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Well, okay, maybe I went a little too far with that, but I think they may have thought a lot longer and a lot harder about what kind of country they wanted built.
Like, for example, including a clause prohibiting the creation of Political Parties (George Washington was not the only one who warned against that).
They probably would have been quite a bit more specific with the whole separation of church and state thing (maybe even saying the government should be free of and free from religion).
They also probably would have taken a closer look at the second amendment and seen if they could make it clearer (even though, realistically, it's pretty clear... they meant a well-regulated militia can have guns, not Bubba John and his dog Moe).
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Permalink Reply by Reggie on
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Part of the strength of our country from the very inception has been the open political debate. The Founding Fathers did think very hard about what sort of country they wanted to build and they all had different ideas about it as a whole. They fought and argued to get their ideas put into place while their peers fought hard to keep these same ideas out and supplanted with their own.
The vagueness of some things is purposeful and lends a favorable atmosphere for a living document to breathe. It allows for future debate and adaptability. I agree with you regarding the Second Amendment and militias. But militias of the time were comprised of citizens who were using their own firearms, typically. So, Bubba John and his dog Moe would need to own these guns privately in order to be effective militiamen and militiadogs.
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Permalink Reply by Reggie on
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Change scares every generation and doom sayers predict ruinous tidings ad nauseam.
As you so rightly point out, doone, many Americans don't understand the "rise of the rest" or how the United States became such an unrivaled power over the last 60 years. Fluffy arguments of doom is the easiest explanation for our perceived fall, but it is not the correct one.
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Permalink Reply by Reggie on
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Well, that is scary, to say the least. But it shouldn't get Obama a free pass, either.
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