Barack Obama in August, 2007:
Barack Obama today? Read it and weep, Conflucians. From Raw Story (h/t commenter iloveny)
President Barack Obama invoked “state secrets” to prevent a court from reviewing the legality of the National Security Agency’s warantless wiretapping program, moving late Friday to have a lawsuit that challenged the program dismissed.
The move — which holds that information surrounding the massive eavesdropping program should be kept from the public because of its sensitivity — follows an earlier decision in March to block handover of documents relating to the Bush Administration’s decision to spy on a charity. The arguments also mirror the Bush Administration’s efforts to dismiss an earlier suit against AT&T.
The Friday brief involves a lawsuit filed by the civil liberties group Electronic Frontier Foundation, which is suing the NSA for the wiretapping program. The agency monitored the telephone calls and emails of thousands of people within the United States without a court’s approval in an effort to thwart terrorist attacks.
The Defendents in the suit the Obama Justice Department is trying to short circuit?
Vice President Dick Cheney, former Cheney chief of staff David Addington and former Bush Attorney General Alberto Gonzales.
According to Glenn Greenwald,
the Obama DOJ demanded dismissal of the entire lawsuit based on (1) its Bush-mimicking claim that the “state secrets” privilege bars any lawsuits against the Bush administration for illegal spying, and (2) a brand new “sovereign immunity” claim of breathtaking scope — never before advanced even by the Bush administration — that the Patriot Act bars any lawsuits of any kind for illegal government surveillance unless there is “willful disclosure” of the illegally intercepted communications.
In other words, beyond even the outrageously broad “state secrets” privilege invented by the Bush administration and now embraced fully by the Obama administration, the Obama DOJ has now invented a brand new claim of government immunity, one which literally asserts that the U.S. Government is free to intercept all of your communications (calls, emails and the like) and — even if what they’re doing is blatantly illegal and they know it’s illegal — you are barred from suing them unless they “willfully disclose” to the public what they have learned.
Have you got that all you Obots who claimed Obama would restore Constitutional protections? Greenwald again:
Everything for which Bush critics excoriated the Bush DOJ — using an absurdly broad rendition of “state secrets” to block entire lawsuits from proceeding even where they allege radical lawbreaking by the President and inventing new claims of absolute legal immunity — are now things the Obama DOJ has left no doubt it intends to embrace itself.
At this point, I can’t say I’m surprised. Obama has already signaled he will follow Bush policies on continuing “extraordinary rendition” and keeping the torture programs secret. He’s handing over the entire treasury to the banks and wants to “fix” social security and medicare just like Bush planned to do. Exactly what was that “change” we were supposed to believe in? It’s a real crying shame that we couldn’t elect a Democrat in 2008. Exactly how would McCain/Palin have been worse?
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Filed under: Barack Obama | Tagged: Barack Obama, civil liberties, Constitutional rights, FISA, Glenn Greenwald, Raw Story, state secrets, Warrantless Wiretapping |
The Confluence 
Barry’s only complaint about Bush’s power moves, was he wasn’t in the cat bird seat. Now that Barry is…. hey , no problem. The FISA vote settled where he would stand on this and much else for anyone willing to listen. Obots were soooo played
Yup. I didn’t expect this pathological narcissist to reject the “unitary executive” theory. We live in a dictatorship–well, oligarchy, I guess. The bankers are running the economy. Who is giving orders on the fake “war on terror” stuff? Is Cheney still in charge or what? He’s certainly out there talking.
But His Hopiness is a Democrat so it’s all good!
(slurps artificially flavored and colored sugar water)
“Yes we can” wiretap you secretly without a warrant.
Gives new meaning to: ‘Can you hear me NOW?’
YES WE CAN HEAR YOU EVEN WHEN YOU DON’T WE ARE LISTENING! (sorry but I am screaming at the screen, as this makes me soooo mad)
LOL
Now there’s a bumper sticker.
giggle
This is proof that anyone who voted for Obama is NOT a Democrat at heart.
Really, it is proof that those who voted for Obama were blockheads.
That too, leslie.
I had a feeling this was going to be the result when the Obama administration kept asking for extensions of time to reply. Of course, the FISA vote was a great predictor of future actions, IMO. I say we throw the whole lot of them out of office–congressmen/women, senators, and, of course, You-Know-Who (sort of like Voldemort in the Harry Potter series–I don’t even want to speak his name).
People who used You Know Who did so out of fear in the series. I do not fear Barack Obama, I loathe him.
True. I think most who used “You Know Who” in the Harry Potter books were afraid of Voldemort. Unfortunately, in addition to loathing him, I am also afraid of Obama, just as I was afraid of Bush and Cheney. I’ve seen the damage these people can do, and that’s what makes me afraid–as well as making me angry.
I am seriously wondering if we’ll still recognize America when Obama is through. It’s only been three months. There’s a long way to go.
Many months ago I stated that obama would make bush look like a boyscout. Anyone think the same now?
I realized he was a Bush clone way back in the beginning of 2008.
Hopenchange!
Let’s HOPE he CHANGEs??
BB — you are so on the mark! Obama is dismantling our whole system of govt and is getting away with it.
“sovereign immunity” are very scary words indeed… and to really freak everyone out — 2 congressional bills were introduced to give broad authority for a new cyberterrorism csar, yep Obama wants control over the internet! The language is broad indeed. You think that the Sept 15 electronic drawdown will be used as rationale for the passing of these bills? — you betcha!
Yes, I heard about that. I guess we’d better enjoy blogging while we still can.
Guess this is how Obama will silence his critics? The hits keep coming with this man. Wonder how long it will be before the “Bong Boyz” and the Kooks” realize they have been had?
Well, if we go missing, we may meet in person after all. 😯
Anyone familiar with morse code? We had better brush (BUSH UP) up on it:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morse_code
or we can whistle, because Senator Snowe is on the move:
http://maineowl.net/blog/item/296
“At a time when al-Qaida lurks in the shadows, making no distinction between combatants and noncombatants, between our battlefields and our backyards, we as lawmakers must act with firm resolve to ensure that the intelligence community possesses the tools and legal authority needed to prevent future terrorist attacks on our soil.”
What else isn’t the press covering these days?!?
Always with the Al-Qaida Bogey man!
Yup, anything to see what we are doing and they will let us know who they were watching long after we are gone.
Watch out for those Bogey Grannies.
Gangs of Old Ladies
. . . _ _ _ . . .
Obviously America has ‘upgraded’ to a Bush3.0 version. The only difference is that Bush probably said outright what his views were, while O says one thing and does a completely different one. Mmmh….obviously the US election system is not working perfectly – hence I suggest to move to an American Idol format for the next elections. The result can’t get worse, but the process could be more entertaining!
It was all tough talk, but we knew he didn’t have a track record and therefore knew he was not a Civil Liberties advocate. If you look at the tape, it is all ‘theatre’ acting and when questioned on his feet, by the grace of God he can’t give a straight policy based answer.
The question is, who was working this behind the scenes and who is telling TOTUS what to have him read? They threw a life long Democrat under the bus, with a track record, a commitment to Civil Rights, to Voting Rights, all for trying to make history, but there was some underlying reason too.
What is the lesson in the tough talk, if he never did anything about it and is now continuing the WARS and may even lead us into Pakistan? Supporting three wars, will lead to a greater burden on the economy and any hope of recovery. NO MORE WARS! SANCTIONS YES, Diplomacy YES, but his Yes We Can is NOW; ‘No We Can’t’. BUSH III was elected in 2008!
Well if this isn’t some kool-aid induced BS I haven’t read any. Mike Lux at OpenLeft is an absolute idiot, must be!
“… President Obama’s very identity makes it fundamental to progressive prospects for the future that he succeed. As a multi-cultural, African-American, son of an immigrant, and as the personification of hope for an idealistic young generation, if Obama fails, it hurts progressive hopes for decades if not generations to come, and likely engenders a dangerous right wing populism in response that will undoubtedly be tinged with racism and anti-immigrant fervor.
The good news is that President Obama has gone out on a boldly progressive course … “
Say what?
Oh for god’s sake–who associates the prep school arugala king with immigrants? Whole food nation only exists in the conceptual realm.
Mike Lux has never been worth reading, but my favorite from your quote has to be “son of an immigrant.” Since when has Obama suddenly become the son of an immigrant? Sounds like Lux became so tied up in his own dream-like description that he forgot the facts. But then facts never seem to bother the Obots.
Facts? They don’t need no stinking facts!
Lux is as bad as one of my all time favorite dumbass posts by Bowers, where he coined the Creative Class term. Reading over there is like watching kindergarteners on parade. Bunch of drooling trust fund babies who can’t quite get it going.
(squinting) I don’t think he was the son of an immigrant. Was he? (sincerely curious)
Shame on you Katiebird! Of course he is the son of an Immigrant. Mike Lux said so!….snark
I think he’s the son of a guy who went to school in the U.S.
the son of a bigomist who went to school here.
He’s the son of an exchange student who spent a couple of years here going to school. Funny, living near several colleges I know plenty of people with a parent from another country who lived here for a while, then returned home, and no one ever considered them immigrants in any way, shape, or form.
“…the son of an immigrant”?
Perhaps they meant his American MOTHER who DID immigrate to Indonesia with her husband Lolo Soertoro because she seemed to dislike the USA as much as her son does.
Or, she might have immigrated to Kenya, as they claim, and stayed there until she returned to Mercer Island but there is plenty of proof they forgot to scrub that both men, Obama and Soertoro returned to their native country of Kenya and Indonesia.
Sorry…I’ll go get a mop.
I’m still cleaning Beef fried rice off of my screen…My god are these people THAT stupid?
RD62: “…are these people THAT stupid?”
Yes.
This has been another edition of “Simple Answers”.
A boldly progressive course for himself, michele ,and his buddies. Not good news!!
I’m not surprised in the least.
We, the “Lunatic Fringe” as Marsh so lovingly called us, saw this coming! How’s that “change” working out for ya Mucus Morecheeto’s?
“Mucus Morecheeto’s”. 😆
I used “Markos Mo’Cheetos”, but I like RD’s better.
Clean-up in aisle 7:42 p.m., please.
Where?
I don’t see anything. But what’s that bad smell?
😈
Someone–bb?–is really fast on the trigger, thankfully.
Thank goodness, I thought you were referring to me. I was going to go have a cup of tea and cool down. 😯
I thought I stepped in it WV..LoL.
Not me. Must’ve been KB.
The first sign I saw that left me wondering if we had become a Banana Republic was on May 31st, 2008, when they systematically threw VOTING RIGHTS out the window and said they could do it!
So, you bitter knitters, go eat cake NOW and don’t forget to show up to do all the volunteer work too. All the while we America goes around the world giving lectures to people about respecting ONE PERSON ONE VOTE.
‘Exactly what was that “change” we were supposed to believe in?’
It was change for the worse (and hopin’ you wouldn’t notice anytime soon!).
We “changed” from the day shift prison guard to the night shift prison guard.
And the people who used to stand outside protesting are now applying for the night shift and asking for tear gas.
Yes, when they’re not contorting into pretzels (an outward manifestation of their mental contortions to justify Pebo’s true strategy).
I read the link to Greenwald; he seems seriously spooked by this.
Maybe they’d be able to understand the problem if we could explain it in a way they’d care about, it’s just a short step from illegally monitoring our coMmunication to spying on lupine Americans, something like that
Great post BB.
Yeah, SOD, but has Obama cancelled that executive order giving health care and pharmacy workers the right to refuse to care sinful women? Has he recommended any funds for stem cell research?
You do know I was being sarcastic right?
Yes, of course I knew that. ???
🙂
If they abrogated our civil liberties, it wouldn’t have been in such a hopey way.
And the soundtrack would have been a lot worse. Plus, cindy’s triceps are not all that.
I kind of like Palin’s soundtrack, but I’m old 🙂
LOL!
Another issue the media is ignoring…..
“As a candidate and a senator, Mr. Obama was a strong backer of whistleblower protections. But as president, he issued a signing statement reserving the right to keep whistleblowers from talking to Congress in cases where their communications would be unlawful or “otherwise confidential.” The White House says previous presidents have used similar language, but critics say Mr. Obama’s phrase — “otherwise confidential” — gives him broad authority.
“We see the ability of whistleblowers to bring forward misconducts or acts of corruption as an essential tenet to open government,” said Danielle Brian, executive director of the Project on Government Oversight, which joined other advocacy groups, including the American Civil Liberties Union, in writing Mr. Obama last week to demand an explanation.
‘ Senator Charles E. Grassley, Republican of Iowa, has also protested. “It makes you think the new era of transparency is over before it began,” Mr. Grassley said. ‘
Wow. It’s hard to keep up with the hypocracy.
Either Obama needs to retake Constitutional Law at Harvard because he obviously missed a lot or was taught poorly, or Harvard needs to recall his law degree.
Also, any students sitting in his class at U of Chicago need to sue the university for teaching malpractice.
How can some one do this who studied the Constitution unless they studied it and hated it?
Comment found over at TL:
Now that is creepy!
I read that comment at TL, but it was clearly snark. In other comments throughout the thread, that particular commenter seemed as disgusted as most of the others on that thread. Still, there are many Obots out there determined to support You-Know-Who regardless of his actions, and they’ll use any rationalization.
I didn’t take it as snark the first time I read it. As I go back and re-read it and the post that followed..all of them..it seems as though he was making a sarcastic remark.
Wow…there is alot of Kool-aid detoxing going on over at TL. can it be that they have been freed from the Dark side?
I remember when he voted for FISA and promised he’d take care of it when elected. I also remember K0 praising him for the “courage” of “standing up” to his base
Yes. Anyone should have known. Anyone not mired in their narcissistic fantasies of a vanity American Idol candidate pushed by the corporate media they used to claim to hate… should have known with FISA.
They should have fucking known when the corporate media who sold us Bush, the media that called Bush a post-partisan uniter, the same media they’d been railing against for 8 long years, started pushing him like he was the greatest thing evah.
BIG HUGE WAVING RED FLAG there, but no, they wanted him not because he would truly do what is good for our country, but because he made them feel hip and important. It was all about how they felt about themselves, though few of them will ever fucking admit it in this lifetime.
You are, unfortunately, spot on the to the power of spot on. It was always about *how they felt about themselves*. It’s increasingly clear that large swaths of BO supporters never cared about civil rights or the rule of law. They cared about the hip image in the mirror and the bumper sticker on the car. They were who they were waiting for and they fell for themselves.
You know, I’m looking at the comments on the GG piece and I’m worried that I can’t properly detect sarcasm anymore. It’s like everything has absurdity and mockery built in … I can’t tell anymore, since the defenses of this crap are so over the top, it’s hard to believe they’re real.
Yep. Obama sold the only thing he truly understands: Narcissism. Self-absorption and superficiality.
It’s just a shame that these navel gazing twits had to take the rest of us down the toilet with them.
Nor will they admit it in another lifetime! They all deserve to rot in hell for pushing this lap dog onto the American people!
wow…that didn’t work out so well.!
sorry about that folks..I don’t know what I did but it came out all garbled.
Hammer, nail, bang!
I was expecting that the Corporate Holodeck Media was working with the Elephascist Party [aka GOP] like they had been doing throughout the Clinton and Dubya Administrations, if not earlier.
Hence, I thought they were just pushing Obama because they wanted to sabotage the Democratic Party, and Plastic Jesus was the only one who could possibly keep Hillary, who I thought was the Democrats’ strongest candidate, from winning the nomination.
Then, once the Dems nominated PJ and it was too late to turn back, the CHM operatives would turn on PJ like the jackals they are, in favor of their old barbecue buddy McCain.
Instead, the jackal pack turned on McCain.
That’s when I realized the fix was in.
The Corporate Elite, who count the owners of the Corporate Media as members in good standing, actually wanted the Democrat this time.
Why? What could a Dem prez do for them that a GOP prez couldn’t do better?
Only one answer came to mind: Dubya, at the height of his power and popularity, with the full fawning support of the Corporate Holodeck Media, failed to hand Social Security over to the predators of Wall Street.
Only a treacherous Democrat could do that.
Hellloooo from Spammy!
As Bugs Bunny said at the end of that first cartoon where he met Marvin the Martian and they were all hanging off what was left of Luna:
“GET ME OUT OF HEEEERE!”
I met a couple of Frenchs today and they asked me if I was going to stay in the US if everything I had just told them was indeed going to be that bad.
The question stopped me in my tracks because for the first time in my life I had to THINK about the answer.
Today was a gloomy rainy day.
Will there be enough good judges to protect us? Will there be enough of us to fight before there is no more fight to have?
During the Great Depression, an awful lot of Brits who had immigrated to the US, went back to the UK..
First: as WMBC said, the media sold us Bush and sold us Obama (both establishment candidates).
I heard the Hollywood gang of luvvies as well as most of the young people telling me how great Obama is based upon the way he speaks. Obama is slick to say the least. A cult of personality indeed.
They will never admit they were wrong. As I tried to say in the comment above, I hope they all rot in hell for pushing this corporate lapdog on us!
I’ve been looking for the Town Hall where Sen. Clinton promised to bring those in the Bush Administration to justice.
Haven’t found it yet, but did find one of the ones where she gives a definite plan and timetable (sixty days, but she keeps her word) for starting troop withdrawal from Iraq:
http://its.sdsu.edu/streaming/player.php?id=20080201_HillaryClinton
There’s no playing “bi-partisan” here. She calls the Bush administration on a lot, including no bid contracts, cronyism, corruption and incompetence. And this quote is particularly foresighted, though she was obviously referring to Bush: “And how about this for a radical idea? What about appointing qualified people for the positions we ask them to hold?”
There’s plenty of passion and conviction, but not one teleprompter. I need to keep remembering the majority of Democrats -did- vote for her. It helps somewhat.
Hillary ripped into Bush at every damn rally, constantly, from the beginning. Obama never did. But the idiot bots kept screaming that she was Bush-lite? Please.
In the words of Maya Angelou: When they show you who they are, believe them.
The left blogosphere did exactly what Bush did with the war intelligence. They shaped the intelligence to fit what they wanted. They decided early on that the hip young black guy was way kewler than that old white lady – and then proceeded to convince themselves that he was a liberal and she was a flaming power-hungry neo-con.
You know, any good magician will tell you that very educated “thinking” people are much easier to do an illusion on. Good old beer-drinking Joe relies on his common sense.
I know she nailed Bush a lot, starting with that “the sound of the Republicans leaving” line (paraphrase) that was so funny. Didn’t realize it was every speech, though.
But you know those Obots: proof for her but not for him, track record for her, vague promises for him, etc. so it’s reflex by now to only cite where I can also site. That’s why I wanted to find the one that directly goes to what Ø just did.
I agree with you about the thinking people but am still dumbfounded by it. I watched *grownups* at the local U. go nuts over the guy, normally people who prided themselves on not riding popular waves. Though they were the same ones who were blind to the ubiquitous entrenched sexism there, too, so I shouldn’t have been so surprised.
Ridiculous headline of the day:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/30057314/?GT1=43001
I think the difference with Biden’s daughter and the coverage is that nobody is talking. Palin, Levi, and Bristol have been on different broadcasts or have done media interviews regarding the situation. Not to say that this is the kind of coverage that should be discussed on “grown up” shows but I believe that silence is golden in many respects.
I found it disgusting myself at how he was pressed to “discuss” how Plain “Knew” he was having sex. For criss-sakes, is nothing beyound these people?
RD62 = For criss-sakes, is nothing beyond these people?
Nope.
Nobody’s talking because nobody’s been asked. I’m sure whoever made the video would be happy to go on and talk about it, if asked. And if the story were being covered in all the popular media, biden would be under pressure to respond to it, as palin is. There’s no reason for anyone to talk about a story that’s being buried and nobody’s ever heard of.
You’re right. I had to do a search for it to even figure out what you folks were talking about.
Also, one story has to do with sex and the other with drugs. Sex sells. All these so-called progressive obots are really just a bunch of sexually repressed panty sniffers (h/t WMCB). And they have a massive hard on for SP.
sorry for butting in, but there is a great show on NOW at Puma United Radio — Betty Jean Kling interviewing Phyllis Chesler and Marcia Pappas on “Gender Apartheid in the Muslim World”
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/NO-WE-WONT/2009/04/07/FREE-US-NOW
fyi and thanks.
This world has gone nuts.
Because the little villager fratboys (young and old, male and female) that are the “base” of most of the media are nasty little panty-sniffers at heart.
That was funny….
… and painfully on the mark.
I was watching that also…I think I need a therapist now. I too found myself agreeing with that pig! LOL
SoD – Please hear my confession now! Some days, to save my downward spriraling depression about the Imposter President, I go on Hannity’s website!
OK, I’ve said it! A former Democrat, reading Hannity! I can’t believe I’m doing it!
Why are they talking about ANYONE’S kids?! As if there aren’t more important matters at hand!
I suspect it has to do with the “circuses” part of “bread and circuses.” The more desperate the political situation is, the more tawdry the “entertainment” becomes.
oh please, someone tell me the blinders are coming off on the internets.
In Turkey today President Obama declared we are “not at war with Islam”.
In other developments: Carefully avoiding the term “surge” the administration indicated they would not only continue Bush’s war on America and its constitution, but that an escalation of these efforts would be necessary to permanently consolidate the power of the Unitary Executive. Sources way too close to Dick Cheney’s undisclosed location reveal he is thankful that his life’s work will be preserved intact while he and Republican party enjoy a well deserved 4 year vacation.
Somehow related to this, is the story about a young danish dress-shop owner. She ordered 6 dresses from a Pakistani dressfactory at a value of $250. Long story, but CIA stopped the moneytransfer, and she is now alleged under suspicion for contact with terrorists.
The link is in Danish so I know it won’t be of much help. Sorry.
http://www.business.dk/article/20080615/finans/706150033/
Wait, is that CIA some Danish or international body, or is that our CIA? Either way it’s bad enough, but what authority does our CIA have to spy on citizens of other countries and interfere in their transactions? That’s insane.
She should just explain that she wasn’t buying dresses from pakistanis, she was buying arms from the Taliban obama loves so much. I’m sure that’s completely acceptable.
To answer my own question, the us has been monitoring the swift money transfer system since 2001. The eu didn’t find out we were spying on them until 06, but agreed to allow it to continue. How scary is that? Apparently we believe we have the right to monitor every transaction involving dollars, or in other words, please please, we beg you, change your reserve currency to dollars, rest of the world.
Amazing!!!!
The US CIA I’m afraid. See even my avatar is horrified!
(And if I only knew how, I would insert the smiley with the biiig eyes here.)
That avatar is adorable!
Hæ-hæ. Yeah, I’m getting kind of used to it 😉
What’s with the ProseBeforeHos at 11:13 above? Ugh.
First, I come across Bob Dylan weighing in on O. I couldn’t watch the vid, but I made myself read the transcript. Basically, O’s book is the reason Dylan supported him. The comments to the article also show how substance, a record, meant quite little to these people when faced by his pretty writing.
It’s in teh Times UK online site if you’re interested.
Second, I learn that House actor, the one who plays Kutner, worked in the campaign and was offered a job in the O admin. PR or something.
So sick of celebs. Will this nightmare ever end?
arkachips, I agree with you. I am tired of celebrity opinions.
I also have a low view of Mr. Dylan. These celebrities are known as “luvvies” or one who is in love with ornate speech, but little substance. Most of Hollywood is like that.
One falls in love with the way he talks and writes, but ignores the substance behind the words.
It could be worse, at least O didn’ t make Kutner Surgeon General.