OBAMA 2012

The President of the United States is only running against one person next year – himself.  And while his leadership has been questioned, by Democrats, Republicans, people in between and people on the extremes, it is ultimately his own record which will determine whether or not he gets reelected in 2012.

Of late, there have been a good number of progressives disappointed in him for not being as progressive as they are: Lt. Dan Choi was irritated with the lack of movement on Don’t Ask Don’t Tell; Representative Kucinich is raising the question of impeachment over the United States’ bombardment of Libya; in these very pages, I myself have been disappointed at some of his administration’s actions over the past two years.

And of course, the birthers, the Teahadists, political opponents and haters-at-large who have been calling for his brown head, or his “most liberal” head, or his “fascist communist” head, have been calling for his removal, impeachment, assassination, etc. since before his election.  Unfortunately for them, their most likely candidate is a serial philanderer whose most recent political experience is resigning from Congress to yell from the sidelines instead of doing the work of the nation.

President Barack Obama hasn’t done all the things I wanted him to do when he was elected.  But he has done a lot of them. And he is guiding the country on the best path back from the brink President Bush abandoned us on.  That’s why the campaign begins now.

OBAMA 2012!

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• Top Dem rejects calls for Obama impeachment over Libya

The White Devils

The Honorable Elijah Muhammad used to lie and say that, “the White Man IS the devil.” He was wrong, and a bit of a devil himself by saying it. What he should have said was that we all have the capacity to be devil-ish, and we should guard against that in our thoughts, words and deeds.
Dick Cheney is bucking to make truth of the original statement. Yearning to be relevant, he is on the tv machine again saying that torture works, diplomacy is weak, and “we don’t have much to apologize for.” His ridiculous statements are asinine, but they are driven by the same malice and soul-sucking greed that drove him to approve those tactics when we invaded a sovereign country under his tenure. His exstence makes us less safe. He is that original snake, pleading reasonableness with a forked tongue.
Ms. California is also vying for the title. No matter how many pearls you put on a pig, it’s still a pig. And no matter how much you dress up hate and bigotry, how many pageant gowns and fake smiles and bikinis, her response about marriage being between a man and a woman (followed by a mealy-mouthed explanation) was Dick Cheney in drag.
When you spew hate, you are the devil. It doesn’t matter if you’re black or white.

No, Mr. President. I Won’t Look The Other Way

“In releasing these memos, it is our intention to assure those who carried out their duties relying in good faith upon legal advice from the Department of Justice that they will not be subject to prosecution.”

-President Barack Obama, April 16, 2009

I concur with President Obama most of the time.  But he’s wrong today, and he’s messing it up for everyone.  The memorandum from President Bush’s administration that he released today outline torture: the decision to authorize, the proscriptions and applications, the “limitations” and durations of.  To quote Howard Feinman, they are “a window into a heart of darkness.”

Part of my support for him until this time was the necessity for rectification, for redirection, for a return to the ideals that fundamentally support the United States of America.  And my support of him was based on the deeply held belief that CHANGE meant holding people responsible for the decisions they chose to make, the actions they chose to take, and the values that those actions expressed.

Releasing the memos with the right hand, and exonerating the torturers with the left hand while claiming that he is “looking forward not looking back” is an offense against those ideals which he has espoused almost as great as the former president claiming divine authority to invade Iraq.

No, Mr. President.  I won’t look the other way.

Frankly, I’m embarrassed that you are.  There are prosecutors in Spain who understand that the treatment of people in United States’ custody under the Bush Administration, under the purview of Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld and Alberto Gonzales and John Yi and George W. Bush, was torture and constituted criminal activity, if not crimes against humanity.

Forgive the profanity . . . it is the result of believing that truth, justice, honor, integrity and equality are not simply cool logos on t-shirts, but the reason that my ancestors fought, bled and died on these and other shores.  And those ideals were shat upon by the elected leader of this nation and his coterie for eight years.

I supported you, Mr. President, because I believed that you were intent upon restoring if not those perfected ideals, at least domestic and international responsibility to pursue those ideals.  Today’s duel decisions call into question that intent.  Not because it is simply a decision you’ve made that I disagree with.  I don’t believe that any president would make decisions I agree with 100% of the time unless I were elected to that office myself, which is obviously not the case.

Today’s decisions literally give cover to the prison guards, literally allow the torturers to continue on the payroll that I fund, and leave the ideals for which I struggle and teach each day laying on the floor of Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay with their heads bashed in, and leave me gasping for air wondering how to teach my children about justice, about morality, about right and wrong when one of the primary examples I use each day cowers behind rhetoric of progress while allowing regress to fester with impunity.

Loving my country and being a patriot means speaking truth to power, and yours is as has often been said, the most powerful office in the world.  We as a people cannot afford to simply look forward.  That is the ridiculous attitude that lets idiots claim racism no longer exists because you were elected.  Releasing the document which catalogues torture without holding the torturers accountable is moral cowardice, which means that they did the right thing if only because they got away with it.  You have become accomplice after the fact by your failure to hold them accountable.

It is important that we move forward, that we look to the future and the reconstruction of our nation.  But it is equally as important that those responsible for the current state of the union face the consequences of their actions.

No, Mr. President.  I won’t look the other way.

And neither should you.

Bush-era interrogation memo: No torture without ‘severe pain’ intent

Rights groups criticize CIA immunity on interrogations

Future of the U.S. depends on torture accountability

Memos reveal harsh CIA interrogation methods

President Obama’s Statement on the Memos

The Quick Fix

“President” Barack Obama is not a United States citizen. In a dual press conference with Prime Minister Gordon Brown yesterday at the G-20 in London, England, the usually eloquent leader of the free world let slip that he was, in fact, born in Kenya, and adopted by Ann Dunham when she married his father in Hawaii. Though the slip of the tongue was brief (he answered, “Yes . . . “ when asked by a British reporter if his birth certificate was indeed a forgery), Mr. Obama later acknowledged in an email sent to his Opportunity for America group that he is, indeed, merely a resident alien who’s application for citizenship was denied by the INS in 2003 due to his vocal opposition to the invasion of Iraq.

Senators John McCain (R-Arizona) and Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky) moved quickly to address the situation, in a hastily coordinated press conference this morning at 9am (ET). Both men, though, took waiting reporters by surprise. Building on his maverick reputation, Senator McCain announced a new bi-partisan bill to amend the “natural born clause” of the Constitution to allow for Mr. Obama’s continued service to the nation.
“I didn’t really like him, at first, but since we now agree that the fundamentals of the economy are strong, he’s been growing on me. And he’s trying a surge in Afghanistan like I called for in Iraq, so . . . it seems only right to support his presidency in a bi-partisan fashion.”
When asked why he was supporting the bill, Senator McConnell said, “Reid was going to do it, and John was going along, so . . . I’m just getting out there ahead of the curve.” With the numerical superiority enjoyed by the Democrats in both houses of Congress, the bill, nicknamed The Quick Fix, is expected to be voted on later in the afternoon on April 1, 2009.

Following the press conference, Vice-President Biden took the oath of office on the South Lawn of the White House, administered by Chief Justice Roberts. Both men used tele-prompters in order to avoid any constitutional questions. When asked for his comment, the forty-fifth president simply responded, “Mr. Obama will be back in the Oval Office by this time tomorrow, given how quickly my friend John has seen fit to move on The Quick Fix in the Senate. But I’m going to use Air Force One today, just because I can.”

President Biden and Dr. Biden will be moving into the White House after they return from stone cutting celebrations on Easter Island in South America. Mr. and Mrs. Obama, meanwhile, are trying to find a coach seat to return to the United States as soon as possible. There is no word, yet, on whether the couple and their two girls will remain in the Washington area until The Quick Fix is voted on, or whether they’ll retire to Chicago to wait out the storm.

As an ardent supporter of President Obama (yes, I’m still going to call him that because I know The Quick Fix will pass), I’m a little bothered by the fact that he lied about his birth. Just like I’m sure you’re a little bothered by the fact that today is April Fools:)

The End of Book 7

Voldemort had the grace to die at the end of the series.  Lee Atwater finally realized that playing with poison shrivels the soul. Dick Cheney, Tom Riddle’s older evil cousin, though, hasn’t learned either lesson, and is hoping for his own spin-off series to begin.  After wheeling in to the inauguration, and disrespecting President Obama by not standing when he was sworn in, the former vice president signaled his intent from the beginning of the new age.

Today, during an interview with Politico.com, Dick decided that he needed to re-write a little more history, and to spew more venom from his already foul visage.  His condescension reached to the oval office, perhaps not realizing that he no longer wields influence with those hallowed confines.

“And he asserted that President Obama will either backtrack on his stated intentions to end those policies or put the country at risk in ways more severe than most Americans — and, he charged, many members of Obama’s own team — understand.”

And he jumped on the magical history tour, reaching for the uniquely Bush-y false choice between maintaining our moral compass and defending the country that we cherish.  This addled thinking is partly responsible for the horrific decisions his administration made, and the large pile of crap they left stinking on the White House lawn for President Obama and Vice President Biden to clean up.

I really liked the Harry Potter series, because J.K. Rowling managed to write dark fiction with evil characters, who came back once twice or seven times, but were vanquished by well intentioned, morally guided characters who refused to succumb to the temptations of power or stoop to the level of their enemies.

Doesn’t Dick know the series is over?

Cheney warns of new attacks

Cheney: Lions, Tigers & Bears . . . oh my!

bushlit rolls downhill

The bushlit continues.  Despite being subpoenaed to testify before Congress, Karl Rove is still missing in action.  Just as the ex-president and vice-president asserted executive privilege, which for them is tantamount to the Fifth Amendment’s safeguard against self-incrimination, so to is this mastermind of maliciousness attempting to continue subverting the Constitution of the United States and dismissing a full branch of the government.

Representative John Conyers is doing the heavy lifting here, where President Obama should be, by pushing for an accounting of the nefarious acts of the bush administration.  He has introduced HR.104, which seeks to establish a National Commission on Presidential War Powers and Civil Liberties “to investigate issues ranging from detainee treatment to waterboarding to extraordinary rendition.”

what . . . me worry?

Now, while the ex-president might be able to assert in perpetuity that he doesn’t have to testify, his minions don’t have that luxury.  And while Rove is being summoned this time to testify merely about the improper firing of federal employees for political reasons, don’t be surprised when he gets Lee Harvey Oswalded by one of the administrations hacks because he knows too much.  Or do you think they trust him like Reagan trusted North?

The trail of bodies left by this administration is long, much as the holes they’ve left in the national character are deep.  I agree that we need to move forward, but we can’t know where we’re going until we know where we come from and where we’ve been.  Stay tuned.

Bush lawyer directs Rove not to talk to Congress

Sleeper Bill of the Month: Our Own Truth and Reconciliation

Senate bracing for ‘hard slog’ on stimulus bill

Learning the lessons of Augusto Pinochet

The Real Patriot Act

Thomas Paine wrote Common Sense, and Thomas Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence.  I reference these two patriots who not only questioned their government but advocated CHANGE because their example is timely.  Under the previous presidential administration, under a cloak of protecting US during the “war on terror,” speaking up was seen as an act of disloyalty.  To ask questions of the government was to be a coward, a communist, and told in no uncertain terms to pack up and leave the country.  The faux patriot act passed by the United States Congress at the insistence of the Bush Administration, which led to silence, spying on each other and citizens, repression of free speech, and questioning of loyalty reminisced of red scares and Joe McCarthy and Nazi Germany.

But the true act of patriotism, like the First Lady so eloquently put it, is to speak the truth about your country, even when it is critical, unpleasant or unpopular.  President Obama has already signed some ethics and transparency guidelines into law as executive orders.  He has already begun to open up the government to be accountable to the people whom it was created to serve.  Cornell West said earlier this year that if Obama won he would, “celebrate on November 4^th, and be questioning and critical of him on November 5^th.”

While I abhor Chris Wallace (this man actually questioned whether President Obama was president because the Chief Justice flubbed the Oath of Office), Sean Hannity, Bill O’Reilly, Anne Coulter, Greta Van Sustern, Rush Limbaugh and their ilk, there is a purpose to have a foil, to having an active and loyal opposition.

As an educated and informed electorate, working and supporting President Obama, Vice President Biden and our government as it pursues their policies and practices, it is not only our right but it is OUR RESPONSIBILITY to question, to ascertain, to learn what our government is doing.

That is a true Patriot Act.

Learning the Lessons of Augusto Pinochet

For many years, Augusto Pinochet was the king of all he surveyed.  A brutal tyrant and dictator, he enjoyed the support of the United States and Great Britain, having risen to power with the explicit backing and support of the Central Intelligence Agency as he “battled communism and socialism” in Chile.  On September 11, 1973, he led a military coup of the democratically elected president of Chile, assassinating him in the process of establishing a dictatorship that saw free markets run rampant, thousands of people tortured and murdered, and the world turning a blind eye.

Fast forward twenty-five years, after he’d left power and traveled the world out of medical necessity.  He was arrested in Great Britain on international human rights charges, and lived out his life like a hunted animal, chased from court to court for the sake of justice, for restitution of his crimes and the blood on his hands, for all of the disappeared and the maimed who live with his horrors to this day.

Then there is Manuel Noriega, currently sitting in a US prison as a prisoner of war after his conviction on drug charges.  His usefulness to the United States finished, he is wanted in France to stand trial for crimes under his regime in Panama and is fighting to be “returned to his homeland” to live in some type of luxury predicated on the theft of millions from the country while he was in power.

I hear many people in the United States calling for President-elect Obama to order an investigation into the actions of the Bush administration, even before he is sworn into office.  They’ve mistaken the concept of transparency for immediacy.  Without any authority to do so, they would like President-elect Obama and perhaps Attorney General-designate Holder to signal preemptively that the president and vice president among others will be investigated for the atrocities they’ve committed like Gitmo.  Obviously, though justifiably outraged, these people have never played poker.  The President-elect is not going to tip his hand, like Representative John Conyers has done.

Like Augusto Pinochet, President Bush is under the mistaken impression that simply because he says it is so, what he is doing and has done is legal, and worse, morally right.  He and Dick will undoubtedly end up like Pinochet, arrogant enough to sit in their opulence, their ill-gotten gains, believing that there will be no calling to account for their atrocious acts against humanity, from Iraq to Guantanamo Bay to the 9^th ward in New Orleans.  Like Noriega, they will one day be languishing in a cell with no light at the end of the tunnel but the door to another courtroom.

Pinochet died, hated, alone, a shell in which evil once took up residence, and fled once the shell was used.  George Bush, a C student at best, obviously didn’t learn that lesson.  Dick Cheney, a little more academic intelligence, but less moral sense, didn’t learn those lessons.

But they will.

Bush: I would have done some things differently

Courts try to decide what to do with Manuel Noriega

Detainee tortured, says US official

Bush: President’s priority is preventing attack

Arianna Huffington: Moving forward doesn’t mean you can’t also look back

Sleeper Bill of the Month: Our Own Truth and Reconciliation Commission

Bush to give farewell address

A bad habit

Cannibalism is a bad thing. Period. While I am a meat eater, I eat the meat of different animal species – not my own. I wish that the Democratic Party would follow my eating habits. It seems that with every electoral victory, Democratic elected officials begin carping about what Democratic elected officials are doing wrong.

Barack Obama won a historic election in November. Since then he has been working on appointing a team of leaders to help guide the United States and the world back on to firmer economic, political and social footing. But the Democratic Leadership seems intent on nitpicking him like they are field marshals for the Republican Party! They are literally trying to eat their own. He’s not even President yet, and with the current President working as hard as he can to make things difficult, President-elect Obama has to deal with the Democrats, too?

Here’s the list of cannibals:

Senator Harry Reid – “I don’t work for President Elect Obama, I work with him”

Senators Diane Feinstein and John D. Rockefeller – “Leon Panetta isn’t qualified.”

Representative John Conyers – “Obama should not nominate Sanjay Gupta.”

Senators John Kerry and Kent Conrad – “I’m not that excited about [Obama’s] tax proposals”

And these are just the quotes from this week! This bending over backwards to prove to Republicans how non-partisan and equally critical of their own that Democrats continue to do is ridiculous! Where was all this backbone from Reid and Feinstein on the invasion of Iraq? On FISA? During the Bush Administration? Don’t try to stand up straight and earn your bona fides by feasting on the decisions made by the Leader of the Democratic Party and the next President of the United States! You should have stood up during the last eight years! That would have been nice.

Next time they get hungry for someone to feast on, they should remember the Alaskan nightmare is never far away, or the reality of the situation could be much, much worse.

O-bummer

Key Democrats blast Obama stimulus plan

Do Congressional Dems need intervention?

Harry Reid: I don’t work for Obama

Obama calls for dramatic action

Obama appointee to face bruising confirmation fight

Panetta a surprise pick to run the CIA

Obama should not nominate Sanjay Gupta

Key Senate Democrats blast Obama’s tax proposals

Bush delivers final policy speech with few watching

It could be President McCain in 12 days

Obama names CIA, national intelligence directors

Consumer confidence called key to combating economic meltdown

The schedule of confirmation hearings

Update:  Now President-elect Obama is in on the feeding?

Am I a Republican now?

I think that President-elect Obama has a mandate from the people to get things going, both domestically and internationally, for the United States. That includes this whole stimulus package that congressional Democrats are trying to rush through to have ready when his pen is lifted at noon on January 20th, 2009.

But . . .

I also think that the proposal needs to be scrutinized, both by his team and by the American people. I think that the bill needs to be posted online, so that we can all read what is going in, and I think, in accordance with Vice President-elect Biden’s statements earlier that there shouldn’t be any earmarks attached to this package.
House Minority Leader John Boehner said the exact same things . . . does that mean I am a Republican now?

Obama to meet with lawmakers to discuss stimulus

Governors ask federal government for $1 trillion