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Title: MR. OBAMA: RESIGN NOW
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URL Source: http://www.uexpress.com/tedrall/
Published: Jun 2, 2009
Author: Ted Rall
Post Date: 2009-06-02 15:54:31 by christine
Keywords: None
Views: 149
Comments: 11
With Democrats Like Him, Who Needs Dictators? MIAMI--We expected broken promises. But the gap between the soaring expectations that accompanied Barack Obama's inauguration and his wretched performance is the broadest such chasm in recent historical memory. This guy makes Bill Clinton look like a paragon of integrity and follow-through. From healthcare to torture to the economy to war, Obama has reneged on pledges real and implied. So timid and so owned is he that he trembles in fear of offending, of all things, the government of Turkey. Obama has officially reneged on his campaign promise to acknowledge the Armenian genocide. When a president doesn't have the 'nads to annoy the Turks, why does he bother to show up for work in the morning? Obama is useless. Worse than that, he's dangerous. Which is why, if he has any patriotism left after the thousands of meetings he has sat through with corporate contributors, blood-sucking lobbyists and corrupt politicians, he ought to step down now--before he drags us further into the abyss. I refer here to Obama's plan for "preventive detentions." If a cop or other government official thinks you might want to commit a crime someday, you could be held in "prolonged detention." Reports in U.S. state-controlled media imply that Obama's shocking new policy would only apply to Islamic terrorists (or, in this case, wannabe Islamic terrorists, and also kinda-sorta-maybe-thinking-about-terrorism dudes). As if that made it OK. In practice, Obama wants to let government goons snatch you, me and anyone else they deem annoying off the street. Preventive detention is the classic defining characteristic of a military dictatorship. Because dictatorial regimes rely on fear rather than consensus, their priority is self-preservation rather than improving their people's lives. They worry obsessively over the one thing they can't control, what Orwell called "thoughtcrime"--contempt for rulers that might someday translate to direct action. Locking up people who haven't done anything wrong is worse than un-American and a violent attack on the most basic principles of Western jurisprudence. It is contrary to the most essential notion of human decency. That anyone has ever been subjected to "preventive detention" is an outrage. That the President of the United States, a man who won an election because he promised to elevate our moral and political discourse, would even entertain such a revolting idea offends the idea of civilization itself. Obama is cute. He is charming. But there is something rotten inside him. Unlike the Republicans who backed Bush, I won't follow a terrible leader just because I voted for him. Obama has revealed himself. He is a monster, and he should remove himself from power. "Prolonged detention," reported The New York Times, would be inflicted upon "terrorism suspects who cannot be tried." "Cannot be tried." Interesting choice of words. Any "terrorism suspect" (can you be a suspect if you haven't been charged with a crime?) can be tried. Anyone can be tried for anything. At this writing, a Somali child is sitting in a prison in New York, charged with piracy in the Indian Ocean, where the U.S. has no jurisdiction. Anyone can be tried. Why is it, exactly, that some prisoners "cannot be tried"? The Old Grey Lady explains why Obama wants this "entirely new chapter in American law" in a boring little sentence buried a couple past the jump and a couple of hundred words down page A16: "Yet another question is what to do with the most problematic group of Guantánamo detainees: those who pose a national security threat but cannot be prosecuted, either for lack of evidence or because evidence is tainted." In democracies with functioning legal systems, it is assumed that people against whom there is a "lack of evidence" are innocent. They walk free. In countries where the rule of law prevails, in places blessedly free of fearful leaders whose only concern is staying in power, "tainted evidence" is no evidence at all. If you can't prove that a defendant committed a crime--an actual crime, not a thoughtcrime--in a fair trial, you release him and apologize to the judge and jury for wasting their time. It is amazing and incredible, after eight years of Bush's lawless behavior, to have to still have to explain these things. For that reason alone, Obama should resign.
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#1. To: christine (#0)
Excellent article.
Liberty is not a means to a higher political end. It is itself the highest political end. Law Enforcement Against Prohibition
Barky needs the Turks and the Iranians for the coming campaign. Didja get your draft card yet??
Join 2x4 Tuesdays & protect your RKBA. Yes, well. "We wrote the rules of evidence to set us free, not these terrorists!"
Just substitute the word "entropy" wherever liberals write "diversity" and everything makes sense.
Won't he at least arrest Bush and Cheney before he goes?
From the toilet bowl of 'candidates,' this turd was dipped out.
No. An ancient law. Royalty does not physically harm Royalty.
"Satan / Cheney in "08" He could make an exception, after all Elizabeth I chopped off Mary of Scotland's head..
This guy (Rall) was on Medved's radio program today. He seemed honest enough to call a spade a spade and claims to be progressive. I think he represents a lot of so-called liberals or "progressives" that are getting pissed off like many conservatives did with Bush. (Hopefully they won't be dumb enough to vote for Obama twice like so many republicrats did for Bush.) That is if we make it through one Obama term with 2 nickels to rub together. It'd be nice to see people revert to simply being Americans (if it's still legal). Party politics keeps people confined to limited choices.
Resolve to serve no more, and you are at once freed. I do not ask that you place hands upon the tyrant to topple him over, but simply that you support him no longer; then you will behold him, like a great Colossus whose pedestal has been pulled away, fall of his own weight and break in pieces. De La Boétie
Right you are. Generally, from my readings, royalty are quite reluctant to harm other royalty, because they know it may happen to them. Commoners however..........
"Satan / Cheney in "08" Yes, it's just like the bushes welcoming bentmember as a son, and a brother, and blackbush will soon enough join the circle of traitorous bastards. Of course the rulers take care of their own.
Lord Acton
#2. To: christine (#0)
With Democrats Like Him, Who Needs Dictators
#3. To: christine (#0)
So timid and so owned is he that he trembles in fear of offending, of all things, the government of Turkey.
www.righttokeepandbeararms.com
#4. To: christine (#0)
In democracies with functioning legal systems, it is assumed that people against whom there is a "lack of evidence" are innocent.
#5. To: christine (#0)
#6. To: christine, all (#0)
#7. To: IDon'tThinkSo (#5)
Won't he at least arrest Bush and Cheney before he goes?
#8. To: tom007 (#7)
#9. To: christine (#0)
#10. To: Lady X (#8)
#11. To: tom007, all (#10)
Generally, from my readings, royalty are quite reluctant to harm other royalty, because they know it may happen to them.
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