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Title: Obama: the more things "change"...
Source:
Washington Times
URL Source: http://www.washingtontimes.com/news ... feb/17/the-more-things-change/
Published: Feb 19, 2009
Author: Bruce Fein
Post Date: 2009-02-19 11:59:39 by Rupert_Pupkin
Keywords: Obama, Bush, Executive Power
Views: 243
Comments: 19
FEIN: The more things change Bruce Fein President Barack Obama's campaign theme should have been, "The more things change, the more they stay the same." The personality-driven media has juxtaposed Mr. Obama's pledge to clean the nation's Augean Stables of rich lobbyists and insiders who profited on special access to the corridors of power; and, his appointments or nominations of delinquent taxpayers to his Cabinet (with jurisdiction over the Internal Revenue Service), and appointment of a mega-lobbyist for a defense contractor as deputy secretary of defense. But Mr. Obama's more alarming betrayal concerns the imperial powers of his office, which he inherited from the Bush-Cheney duumvirate. He has either embraced or acquiesced in every one of their usurpations or abuses (some perpetrated with congressional collaboration). Then-Sen. Obama had assailed the Bush-Cheney invocation of the non-constitutional state secrets privilege to block litigation by victims of egregious constitutional violations seeking damages from the wrongdoers. The case of Binyam Mohammed, an Ethiopian native, is exemplary. He sued a subsidiary of Boeing for arranging flights to execute the Bush-Cheney "extraordinary rendition" program. It entails kidnapping terrorism suspects based on the president's say-so alone and transporting them to other countries for torture. Mr. Mohammed alleged that after his kidnap and transport to Morocco, "he was routinely beaten, suffering broken bones and, on occasion, loss of consciousness. His clothes were cut off with a scalpel and the same scalpel was then used to make incisions on his body, including his penis. A hot stinging liquid was then poured into open wounds on his penis where he had been cut. He was frequently threatened with rape, electrocution and death." United States laws make torture a criminal offense irrespective of the nationality of the violator or the place of the crime. Last week before the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, President Obama echoed the position of Bush-Cheney that the state secrets privilege required dismissal of Mr. Mohammed's suit. In other words, individual constitutional rights of the highest order should be sacrificed on the altar of national security. At the same time, Mr. Obama was deciding to defend the arch-defender of torture, former Deputy Assistant Attorney General John Yoo, from a suit brought by Jose Padilla. The complaint alleges that Mr. Yoo concocted the legal justification for detaining and harshly interrogating Padilla as an "enemy combatant" without accusation or trial. (The United States later recanted its enemy combatant allegation). Mr. Obama invoked the state secrets privilege a second time last week to block litigation challenging the legality of the Bush-Cheney "Terrorist Surveillance Program" (TSP) that he had assailed as a senator. For five years, the TSP targeted American citizens on American soil for electronic surveillance on the president's say-so alone to gather foreign intelligence in contravention of the warrant requirement of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). Intentional violations are federal felonies. Candidate Obama faulted the Bush-Cheney reign for tolerating or encouraging lawlessness. The president is obliged under the Constitution to take care that the laws are faithfully executed. Waterboarding has been prosecuted as torture since the Spanish-American War of 1898. Former Republican Secretary of Homeland Security Tom Ridge concurs that waterboarding is torture. Ditto for Attorney General Eric H. Holder. Former President Bush and Vice President Cheney have acknowledged their authorization for waterboarding at least three detainees. The United States torture prohibition makes no exceptions for times of war (although mistake of law is a defense). Mr. Obama, however, has virtually renounced faithfully enforcing the laws against torture (and the criminal prohibitions of FISA and kidnapping) as regards the former president and vice president. Mr. Obama's inaction is tantamount to a pardon, but which uncourageously evades the political accountability that President Gerald Ford accepted for pardoning former President Richard M. Nixon. Pardons, moreover, require the recipient's concession of criminal culpability, and prevent the violations from becoming legal precedents that would lie around like loaded weapons ready for use by any White House successor who claims an urgent need. Then-Sen. Obama descried the Bush-Cheney invocation of executive privilege to prevent former White House officials Karl Rove and Harriet Miers from even responding to congressional subpoenas for testimony about the firings of nine United States attorneys. That extravagant and unprecedented claim would have enabled President Nixon to muzzle his Watergate nemesis, former White House counsel John Dean, from testifying before the Senate Watergate Committee about Oval Office conversations implicating the president in obstruction of justice. Mr. Obama, however, is now hedging over whether to defend Mr. Rove's non-responsiveness to a new congressional subpoena. President Obama has left undisturbed the bulwark of other Bush-Cheney usurpations or constitutional excesses: the Military Commissions Act of 2006; the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act Amendments Act of 2008, which eviscerates the Fourth Amendment; the Status of Forces Agreement with Iraq concluded by Bush-Cheney as an executive agreement (despite its placement of U.S. troops under foreign command) to evade Senate scrutiny as a treaty requiring a two-thirds majority; and, President Bush's hundreds of signing statements. If the American people and Congress do not wake up from their Obama infatuation, presidential powers will soon be indistinguishable from King George III's that provoked the 1776 Declaration of Independence. Bruce Fein is a constitutional lawyer at Bruce Fein & Associates, Inc., and author of "Constitutional Peril: The Life and Death Struggle for our Constitution and Democracy."
Poster Comment: But Mr. Obama's more alarming betrayal concerns the imperial powers of his office, which he inherited from the Bush-Cheney duumvirate. He has either embraced or acquiesced in every one of their usurpations or abuses (some perpetrated with congressional collaboration). Both Bush supporters and Obama supporters are too stupid to see that their dear leaders are on the same side.
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#1. To: swarthyguy (#0)
Thanks for posting the link on the "Indict Bush" thread - it's a very good article that will unfortunately go unnoticed by both die-hard Bush and Obama supporters.
are in a Beyoncé.
Erectus Walks Amongst Us congress? LOL. they're fully awake. collaborators. there is no more separation of power. the 3 branches of government are one in reality.
Obama is just another hypocrite. Everyone with more than two brain cells to rub together should know that by now. If they don't there is not much hope for them.
Liberty is not a means to a higher political end. It is itself the highest political end. De nada. Fine, Gitmo closes, but the other prisons remain open, Bagram, Diego Garcia and others. And as for the rest, back to Clinton and BushOne - our torturing will be outsourced to the Egyptians, Moroccans and Jordanians. Obama has preserved the entire structure that Cheney created.
Banking was conceived in iniquity and was born in sin. The bankers own the earth. Take it away from them, but leave them the power to create money, and with the flick of the pen they will create enough deposits to buy it back again. However, take it away from them, and all the great fortunes like mine will disappear and they ought to disappear, for this would be a happier and better world to live in. But, if you wish to remain the slaves of bankers and pay the cost of your own slavery, let them continue to create money. ~~ And that is the sheer "beauty" of the American PoliticalEconomic system.
are in a Beyoncé. I'll volunteer to search her for 'em!
Success is relative. It is what we can make of the mess we have made of things. T. S. Eliot
Atta boy! Bomb bomb, bomb, bomb bomb Iran (and Egypt, Morocco and Jordan).?
Success is relative. It is what we can make of the mess we have made of things. T. S. Eliot
Why would we bomb the countries we send our prisoners too? And Iran, well, we've been hearing the rumormill about an attack on Iran for the past 5 years. So much for that. So you approve of Obama's pragmatic attitude. It shows that Bush and Cheney were on the correct track in ignoring certain provisions of the Geneva Conventions.
Yes, hopefully that idea died with the failure of the Admiral's son's big adventure.
Success is relative. It is what we can make of the mess we have made of things. T. S. Eliot
That's a pretty package indeed. But wear gloves.
Erectus Walks Amongst Us Maybe. But all bets are off when Iran explodes a nuke, lol!
Maybe. But all bets are off when Iran explodes a nuke, lol! You mean like Pakistan, India and Israel? Catch the next tornado to Oz.
Success is relative. It is what we can make of the mess we have made of things. T. S. Eliot
The countries you mention have not had the antagonistic relationship to the US that Iran has had for 3 decades now. And it's not those three countries that count - it's the Oil Sheikhdoms of the Gulf, our friends, our oil suppliers and BIG players in our financial systems. All Sunnis. Who view Iran as a mortal threat. And count on the US for protection. Whichever way it pans out, it's going to be interesting.
Antagonistic as in policing their border against infiltration of Al Qaeda when we were chasing them around Afghanistan, the only engagement in that area that made any sense at all? I pretty much concur with the rest of your post except if you think the Saudi Princes are more concerned with Shiites than radical Sunnis I think your whistling Dixie.
Success is relative. It is what we can make of the mess we have made of things. T. S. Eliot
WHISTLING DIXIE loudly. The radical Sunnis, Salafis, Wahhabs, are the creation of the Saudis, funded and theologically driven by the Monarchial/Clerical Saudi state. Yes, they are more concerned with Shia Iran than even Israel.
Perhaps. But, in my opinion the Princes are painted in a corner. To what extent they painted themselves in I do not know. That said, I believe they are hated by bin Laden and in fear of his tribe even more than the most fevered anti-terror Americans. In the long run I anticipate a wholesale panic (unless the Jihadist movement dies with bL) and an exodus from Arabia of the ruling body that will make the Vietnam egress look like a walk in the park.
Success is relative. It is what we can make of the mess we have made of things. T. S. Eliot
My money's on Pakistan being the next big thing. But, chaos in the Tragic Kingdom? Very, very appealing but probably unlikely. But one can always be an optimist and hope. Meanwhile, my popcorn and beer are ready.
#2. To: Rupert_Pupkin (#0)
the imperial powers
I will not go to Auschwitz. I have ordered the book. Da-do-run-run-run Da-do-run-run.
#3. To: Rupert_Pupkin (#0)
If the American people and Congress do not wake up from their Obama infatuation, presidential powers will soon be indistinguishable from King George III's that provoked the 1776 Declaration of Independence.
#4. To: Rupert_Pupkin (#0)
Lord Acton
#5. To: Rupert_Pupkin (#1)
Sir Josiah Stamp, in 1927 the 2nd richest man in England, and former head of The Bank of England
#6. To: Rupert_Pupkin (#0)
their dear leaders are on the same side.
#7. To: Prefrontal Vortex (#2)
(Edited)
the imperial powers
#8. To: swarthyguy (#5)
Fine, Gitmo closes, but the other prisons remain open, Bagram, Diego Garcia and others.
#9. To: iconoclast (#8)
#10. To: swarthyguy (#9)
And Iran, well, we've been hearing the rumormill about an attack on Iran for the past 5 years. So much for that.
#11. To: iconoclast (#7)
I'll volunteer to search her for 'em!
I will not go to Auschwitz. I have ordered the book. Da-do-run-run-run Da-do-run-run.
#12. To: iconoclast (#10)
that idea died
#13. To: swarthyguy (#12)
that idea died
#14. To: iconoclast (#13)
#15. To: swarthyguy (#14)
The countries you mention have not had the antagonistic relationship to the US that Iran has had ...
#16. To: iconoclast (#15)
if you think the Saudi Princes are more concerned with Shiites than radical Sunnis I think your whistling Dixie.
#17. To: Rupert_Pupkin (#1)
Here's a great graphic.....
#18. To: swarthyguy, All (#16)
.... they are more concerned with Shia Iran than even Israel.
#19. To: iconoclast (#18)
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