punditman says...Here's Keith Olbermann interviewing Jonathan Turley about the Obama administration's Department of Justice protecting former Bush administration officials like Attorney General Ashcroft against liability for their War on Terror abuses—such as arbitrary detention of Muslim immigrants. It gets worse: the present administration wants to enshrine in law their ability to do exactly the same things. In the words of Turley, "This precedent will bare a horrible fruit."
Showing posts with label civil liberties and Obama. Show all posts
Showing posts with label civil liberties and Obama. Show all posts
6/12/09
Obama’s Wrong Turn on Detention
punditman says...Obama has proposed some changes to the Guantánamo detainee situation. But some criminal trials along with some kinder, gentler military commision trials, along with continuing the Bush/Cheney policy of imprisonment-without-trial (within the confines of the US instead of Guantánamo Bay, for what that's worth ), are not exactly the sort of reversals of the Bush disasters that those who voted for him wanted. I think. Then again, how many Obama fans look past his nice sounding speeches? Punditman tries to. Peacenik tries to. Do you?
By Robyn Blumner
As he was taking leave of Louis XIV, the French commander Marechal Villars is believed to have said: "Defend me from my friends; I can defend myself from my enemies." This is how I feel right now about President Barack Obama. As Obama tries to clean up the Bush administration mess surrounding the terror suspects housed in Guantánamo, he is flirting with cementing in law some of the worst excesses of the Bush/Cheney regime.
The thought of this makes me weep into my Yes We Can coffee mug.
The betrayal came in Obama’s speech last month at the National Archives, generally a superb speech that reaffirmed his understanding that the Constitution and Bill of Rights contain our "most cherished values" and must never be set aside "for expedience’s sake."
Then he set about explaining why he plans to set them aside for expedience’s sake.
Keep Reading...
By Robyn Blumner
As he was taking leave of Louis XIV, the French commander Marechal Villars is believed to have said: "Defend me from my friends; I can defend myself from my enemies." This is how I feel right now about President Barack Obama. As Obama tries to clean up the Bush administration mess surrounding the terror suspects housed in Guantánamo, he is flirting with cementing in law some of the worst excesses of the Bush/Cheney regime.
The thought of this makes me weep into my Yes We Can coffee mug.
The betrayal came in Obama’s speech last month at the National Archives, generally a superb speech that reaffirmed his understanding that the Constitution and Bill of Rights contain our "most cherished values" and must never be set aside "for expedience’s sake."
Then he set about explaining why he plans to set them aside for expedience’s sake.
Keep Reading...
3/2/09
Civil Liberties under the Obama administration
punditman says...
I think it is safe to say that there was not only the hope—but also the assumption—that Obama would go about overturning eight years of Bush administration illegality.
Yet as Glen Greenwald, American Constitutional and civil rights litigator and Salon.com columnist says, the Obama Department of Justice is:
Greenwald spoke recently at the annual conference of the ACLU of Massachusetts regarding impediments to the restoration of civil liberties under the Obama administration. When you have half an hour, take the time to listen. It may change some of your assumptions:
MP3 here
I think it is safe to say that there was not only the hope—but also the assumption—that Obama would go about overturning eight years of Bush administration illegality.
Yet as Glen Greenwald, American Constitutional and civil rights litigator and Salon.com columnist says, the Obama Department of Justice is:
...not merely trying desperately to keep the Bush administration's spying activities secret, and not merely devoting itself with full force to preventing disclosure of relevant documents concerning this illegal program, but far worse, doing everything in its power even to prevent any judicial adjudication as to whether the Bush administration broke the law by spying on Americans without warrants.Indeed, it is starting to very much to look like business as usual in Washington on the Constitutional front.
Greenwald spoke recently at the annual conference of the ACLU of Massachusetts regarding impediments to the restoration of civil liberties under the Obama administration. When you have half an hour, take the time to listen. It may change some of your assumptions:
MP3 here
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