And Obama’s “State Secrets” are a real doozie. Glenn Greenwald covered Obama’s assasination program against Anwar Awlaki. Apparently Obama is sentencing him to death without a trial, without due process and without even convicting him of any crimes, invoking “State Secrets” as a reason, which means
not only does the President have the right to sentence Americans to death with no due process or charges of any kind, but his decisions as to who will be killed and why he wants them dead are “state secrets,” and thus no court may adjudicate its legality.
This is so radical that even Bush supporter David Rivkin, one of the most far right, executive power loving lawyers in the country is disturbed.
The government’s increasing use of the state secrets doctrine to shield its actions from judicial review has been contentious. Some officials have argued that invoking it in the Awlaki matter, about which so much is already public, would risk a backlash. David Rivkin, a lawyer in the White House of President George H. W. Bush, echoed that concern.
“I’m a huge fan of executive power, but if someone came up to you and said the government wants to target you and you can’t even talk about it in court to try to stop it, that’s too harsh even for me,” he said.
And we thought Bush was scary?
Filed under: Worst President Ever | Tagged: civil liberties |
The Confluence 
not this scary!
I looked at the apologists reactions on this.
They now sound just like the freepers “It wouldn’t happen to me as I am no terrorist”
To which someone posted that other charming story of the day
http://cbs2chicago.com/local/fbi.terrorism.raids.2.1930188.html
what
The stuff we used to be afraid during W’s years….
It always seems to be getting worse, not better. A disturbing dynamic.
Ain’t that the truth. It’s bad enough now that I hesitate to even think what might be coming.
Did you see that one woman that got her personal papers rifled through by the folks at the airport security? They called her husband because they though she was draining the marital assets.
Now, you tell me what the TSA was doing in the middle of that?
http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/us/2010/09/25/bolduan.tsa.searches.cnn?hpt=C2
WTF?!
I guess they felt they should keep the little woman in line if she was running off with her husband’s money!! The family and the ACLU are suing.
Unbelievable.
Makes you wonder what kind of assholes they are hiring for the TSA. On second thought, it doesn’t, it tell you what they are hiring.
???
Funny how the so-called “Progressives and their Cheeto eating Blogger Boyz/Huff-n-Puff/My Daily Doormat/etc seem to find ever more creative ways to justify their Obama pschosis
oops…forgot the Y. 🙂
I like pschosis. It sounds like a really disgusting disease.
Ironically, a Republican Congress and their investigative powers, might actually go after Obama over this.
That’s a place they could prove to be very useful.
oh, yes, pray god they do go after this
This is a very important topic and I am glad to see this posting by littleisis
I agree
I’m not sure the Republicans want to limit executive power.
They want to limit HIS executive power.
Argues for divided government. No sycophantic Congresses who will approve any crap because the Presnit is their guy.
It isn’t illegal when their President does it.
The America we once knew is gone. We live in the equivalent of the USSR. I’m not joking or exaggerating.
Yesterday, the FBI raided the homes of peace activists in five states. I’m working on a post about it at the moment.
We literally live in a police state. Some people still feel a little free, because it hasn’t affected them yet. But we’re there.
I saw the article about that and posted it on twitter? WTF? How did this happen?
Fox was comparing the poverty rate today vs the 60s. Then they pointed out that the poor now could afford stuff like TVs and air conditioning which were out of reach in those days.
Bread and circuses
The ’60s? The ’60s were prosperous compared to now.
that’s a stupid thing to say … Every new technology is way too expensive when it’s first introduced. Once it’s mass produced, the prices become extremely cheap.
Also, most people buy this stuff at yard sales, when wealthier people upgrade and sell their old stuff much more cheaply on the secondhand market.
I don’t. I wish I knew how to find yard sales like that!
You don’t have good yard sales? My TV was wrecked by lightning and they don’t even sell analog TVs in stores anymore. Flatscreens are WAY more expensive, you used to be able to get an analog for $40 or $50. I’ve seen cheaper small flatscreens at yard sales and cheap analogs at junk shops, but I’m holding out for an old school console from a used appliance store. 🙂
But what I meant was, most people who can’t afford to buy retail don’t generally buy retail. People may say, “They’re on food stamps, but they have a DS,” or whatever, but if you look closely, it’s probably not a DS but a much older model that was bought secondhand, and even if it’s newer, it probably wasn’t bought new in the store last week but was acquired elsewhere, usually through a secondhand source.
I know. I had to buy a new TV a couple of years ago. I ended up buying a 20 inch flatscreen. That was the cheapest thing I could find. I’d like to know how to find good yard sales though. Do people advertise them on Craigslist or anything?
Look in your local papers, especially local papers of the burbs and further out.
Also the Pennysaver type papers they give away in the supermarket. I think craigslist has listings and try this too
http://garagesalefinder.com/shopper.php
Also, if you live in a walkable area and you need an appliance or something check on the day the city lets them go out without a permit. I used to have relatives in the Cambridge/Arlington area, and just walking around their neighborhoods where the developers were condoizing multi-families, they were putting out working and often practically new appliances like dishwashers. If I had any way of getting stuff home, I would’ve been set. 🙂
The Texas-Mexico border as been there for years–walls, areas along the Rio Grande off limits to civilians, ranchers having their dogs shot because some Border Patrol idiot thinks a an animal 40 feet away across a 20-foot-deep dry creekbed is an imminent danger to his delicate self, civilians shot at or narrowly missed by Border Patrol agents shooting at half-naked fleeing women. . .. And no redress for any of it, in court or out.
And no, I am not making any of that up.
The FBI has been hassling peace organizations for years, but this is the first time they’ve been completely out front about it, with the media covering it fully. This is a deliberate strategy to get us used to this kind of thing–to prepare us to accept more and more of it until we’re all under the boot.
And I know you’re not making it up. None of this is new. The Bush administration did all this stuff, but it was more covert. Obama is going full throttle and up front with the authoritarianism.
The USSR no longer exists. Literally. Do you think America will go the way of the USSR? literally? just askin…
Yes, I think we’re on the way. When the President claims the power to assassinate American citizens–secretly–with no due process, no charges, no opportunity for redress, what do you call it?
When the FBI is permitted to break down people’s doors, go through all their belongings, take their photos, computers, cell phones, seize their e-mail and facebook accounts, passports–all of this without probable cause or even saying what they are looking for? What do you call it?
The President has the power to break into any of our homes, take us away in the night and send us to countries where we will be tortured until we confess to whatever they want us to confess to. What do you call that?
Of course we may go the way of the USSR *literally* before we turn into the old Soviet Union or Nazi Germany. Our economy could easily collapse like the Soviet economy did and take our government down along with it. I don’t know what would happen then.
I’m leaning toward Glenn Beck’s Wymar Republic analogies.
We even have our own Siberia. It’s called Guantanamo. 😦
Don’t forget Bagram and the black holes. Lots more inmates in Bagram than Gitmo.
Supposedly they don’t torture anyone in Guantanmo anymore, but they still send people to countries that do torture.
Gtimo North
We’ve talked about this before, but I see shades of the Nixon years, only Nixon’s Republicans were much more liberal.
In the Nixon years, the Supreme Court didn’t decide that you can be called a terrorist if you send old clothes to Palesinians or some other group the government deems to be “terrorists.” We still had freedom of speech, and habeas corpus. We had a press that wasn’t completely consolidated and owned by 3 or 4 major corporations.
Sending old clothes is all one of the couples did who were raided in Chicago.
Nixon was like the head of the ACLU compared to BushBama.
I saw you were working on a post last night about that …I can’t believe what they do in the name of ‘terror’ any more … go check the link I just put up on the TSA in a comment above.
I was working on it, but then WordPress went down. I found out a lot more stuff today. It’s really hard to even think about what’s happening.
I just googled lawsuits ACLU TSA to try to find that link, and you’d be surprised what I found … all of this really worries me. Law enforcement is out of control. If I was Arab American, I would be very afraid.
All you need be is American. The hyphenated part in not required.
If you disagree with the U.S. war policies, you are now a “terrorist.”
http://news.antiwar.com/2010/09/24/fbi-launching-mass-raids-of-antiwar-activists-homes/
From the sounds of that Helen Thomas should be worried.
Yes, I read it.
in a related post, here’s marcy at emptywheel.
Obama Doesn’t Know Why the Fuck He’s Entitled to Kill Al-Awlaki, He Just Is, Damnit
odd how Obama ran on how bad that AUMF was and how he wouldn’t have supported it and now that’s the basis for this argument …
Reading Marcy’s take, it sounds like the whole argument is utter bullshit. But some judge will probably go along with it.
well, now that judge’s are picked more on litmus tests than law skills, I’d say it’s a crap shoot
wonder if Marcy is regretting her full-throated support of Obama during the primaries yet?
I’m sure not. She’ll just say how could anyone have known, and how Hillary would be the same. If you see what you have done and admit it, it might hurt.
Ha ha ha. Digby:
I expected it.
Can I get a loud conflucian we told you so!!?
You think she’ll wake up now?
nope
I don’t either.
I predict she will be “gobsmacked.” regularly about something pointed out on this site years ago .
I don’t think anyone expected & who could have known!!?
I wish I had a dollar every time that trotted out generally by our genius media…but you don’t get the $$$ for having a clue
If this doesn’t wake them up, obviously nothing will.
What Democratic constitutional scholar? We know they exist, but one’s termed out and the other had her nom stolen.
Right on!
Honk!
OT–
Brown is ahead of Whitman in latest poll.
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-poll-20100926,0,2807399.story
hope his lead continues… Whitman would be a disaster in this state.
Good news. Moonbeam all the way.
yea no matter how you look at it its not good
didn’t say something like he was going to give power back to the people. in08 oh wait i guess that was before he had the power . how things change
i guess it fair to say that BO has turned into the very thing he said was wrong with washinton.
yup
But didn’t EVERY hillary supporter say that would happen??
Very scary. And depressing. I’m wondering if the Supreme Court will rule on it. Will the ACLU continue to pursue the matter?
If it gets to supreme court, the Roberts judges and the Obama judges…..
(not encouraging to think about)
The Supreme Court ruling on it is what makes me really scared. I seriously doubt if Kagan will vote against what Obama wants.
From what I remember, Kagan likes executive power a lot. I did a post about it way back when she was nominated. Everyone was too busy arguing about whether she was a lesbian to notice her alarming stances on executive power and gay rights.
This is probably the entire reason she was chosen, he needed someone who’d be willing to rubberstamp his right to assassinate anyone he wants without having to give any reason, and someone who’d slide right through with no scrutiny. What a world.
and, perhaps, the reason more than any other that Obama’s multinational corporate stringpullers got him elected… to expand the powers of the executive.
Obama put the “arc of the moral universe” quote on a rug in the Oval Office…it’s perfect for him, since he walks all over that quote and what it means as if it were a doormat.
HONK!
HONK HONK!
good one
Lolsob
HONK!
What if they just round up all the people involved with the ACLU? And what if the media reported it as if they really were terrorists?
I wouldn’t be at all surprised if Congress decides to start holding secret votes on the grounds that if Obama doesn’t know how anyone specific voted, he’ll be less likely to target them with hit squads. We all know how pissy he gets when he’s crossed.
Does anyone know about LT. Col Anthony Shaffer’s memoir Able Danger and why the internet busy chit chatting about it. What was in it?