On Civil Liberties, Comparing Obama With Bush Is Easy — And Mostly Wrong

[freshwest]

Last edited Wed Jul 10, 2013, 11:37 PM - Edit history (1)

June 14th, 2013 by Joe Conason



...Consider the single most important surveillance controversy of the Bush era, namely the warrantless wiretapping undertaken on the president’s orders. In December 2005, the New York Times revealed that Bush had authorized the NSA to monitor phone calls and emails originating in U.S. territory, without obtaining warrants as required by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, or FISA. (That’s why it was called “warrantless.”) For the first time since Watergate – and the intelligence reforms resulting from that true scandal — the U.S. government had eavesdropped on Americans’ conversations without seeking the permission of a judge.

Only months before, Bush had claimed publicly that he was a steward of civil liberties and that his agents always got a court order before implementing a wiretap. But his administration had been using warrantless wiretaps ever since the 9/11 attacks.

Those trespasses against liberty went considerably further than the collection of metadata by the NSA. No reports indicate that the Obama administration violated existing law to eavesdrop on any American — or listened to any calls without the sanction of the special FISA court.

Yet reaction to the recent stories about the NSA’s policies has been far more intense than eight years ago. Pundits and politicians have compared Obama unfavorably with Richard Nixon, berating him as a tyrannical betrayer of civil liberties. A few prominent Republicans even seem determined to ruin the NSA, solely because they wish to embarrass the president – a motive that other Republicans attribute to Snowden, whom they vilify as a traitor...

http://www.nationalmemo.com/on-civil-liberties-comparing-obama-with-bush-is-easy-and-mostly-wrong/

I haven't got time for this right now, but found it through one of my older websites. Whose motto is:

Why does the Republican Party zealously pursue policies so obviously counter to the best interests of ordinary Americans?

Since the New Deal, Republicans have been on the wrong side of every issue of concern to ordinary Americans; Social Security, the war in Vietnam, equal rights, civil liberties, church- state separation, consumer issues, public education, reproductive freedom, national health care, labor issues, gun policy, campaign-finance reform, the environment and tax fairness. No political party could remain so consistently wrong by accident.

The only rational conclusion is that, despite their cynical "family values" propaganda, the Republican Party is a criminal conspiracy to betray the interests of the American people in favor of plutocratic and corporate interests, and absolutist religious groups.

Why? Because they're:



Exposing the ugly truth about the Republican Party's diabolical plot to replace constitutional democracy with an oligarchic fascist theocracy...

It's the only rational explanation!

With which I agree, and thought the BOG might enjoy that little rant. And since my pal IrishAyes will send a hunting party to drag me back kicking and screaming if I leave DU, I promise to be back in just a little bit. LOL!

[Lady Freedom Returns]

1. That one sentence...

No reports indicate that the Obama administration violated existing law to eavesdrop on any American — or listened to any calls without the sanction of the special FISA court.

Good thing we have BOG, that sentence alone would start a riot in GD!

[freshwest]

5. Yes, their time travel skills are impressive. They'd say Obama should have gone back and...

Last edited Wed Apr 2, 2014, 10:29 PM - Edit history (1)

Eliminated all evil from before his birth in the Kenyan province of Hawaii.



But they do have a point about PBO and the alphabet agencies. Here's the proof. He's been one of them for many years...

Forget Kenya. Never mind the secret madrassas. The sinister, shocking truth about Barack Obama’s past lies not in east Africa, but in outer space. As a young man in the early 1980s, Obama was part of a secret CIA project to explore Mars. The future president teleported there, along with the future head of Darpa...

Obama wasn’t the only one making the otherworldly voyage. As “Barry Soetero,” the 19-year-old Obama was one of 10 youths selected to secretly teleport to and from Mars, forming a band of interplanetary Teen Titans. Regina Dugan, the director of Darpa, was another member. Between 1981 and 1983, Obama is supposed to have visited Mars twice, by way of a teleportation chamber called a “jump room.” Basiago, a fellow chrononaut, told the website Exopolitics that he saw Obama “walk back to the jump room from across the Martian terrain.” To acknowledge his comrade, Obama is said to have told Basiago, “'We’re here'” - apparently, “with some sense of fatalism.”

It is not known what exactly Obama did on Mars. (Socializing Martian health care, perhaps? Building a birth-certificate printing press?) His mission was a perilous one, according to Basiago and Stillings. The CIA wished to “establish a defense regime protecting the Earth from threats from space” as well as a legal claim to “territorial sovereignty,” making Obama something of a Martian conquistador. Presumably, Obama’s CIA handlers needed him to “acclimate Martian humanoids and animals to their presence” in order to secure the U.S.-Martian alliance. (We’ll bet you weren’t even aware of Martian animals.)

“Simply put, your task is to be seen and not eaten,” an elder chrononaut, retired Army Maj. Ed Dames, is alleged to have told a young Obama...


http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2012/01/obama-mars/

Personally, I think Danger Room is onto something with this story. It all makes perfect sense. And I appreciate Obama having our back against any extra-terrestrial menace. And I'm glad he didn't get eaten.

Unfortunately, the White House has denied this trip. But I don't believe them on this one. No, I believe this. Just because I just want to, and it fits in with my view of the cosmos.

No one can ever make me believe differently. So take that... Uh, anyone.

[JustAnotherGen]

10. n/t

[Cha]

2. Excellent find, fresh! Clear and Concise.

The National Memo's rant on gopropaganda is righteous! here's one of those absolutist religious zealots now..



http://theobamadiary.com/2013/07/07/chat-away-191/

BOG

[freshwest]

3. From an overgrown boy who has never... convinced a woman to bed him, no doubt. (Self-censored, LOL.)

How many amendments does this guy believe in, anyway?

Probably just the 2nd and the 10th...

None of the other amendments apply to his douchebaggery.

Sorry, GOP and Libertarian apologists, I'm with this guy:

[Cha]

4. That's a great graphic of the Prez..

online cheap pot shot shooters accuse him of that when it's they who should be taking PBO's advice.

[freshwest]

6. Yes, and as was posted in the BOG last year, they couldn't walk if they had a pair like PBO.

Sorry for the reference, but that's the refrain of the American Idol corps of online political warriors.

They miss this guy. And The Beloved Pair...

[sheshe2]

7. Brava, great OP freshwest!

Since the New Deal, Republicans have been on the wrong side of every issue of concern to ordinary Americans; Social Security, the war in Vietnam, equal rights, civil liberties, church- state separation, consumer issues, public education, reproductive freedom, national health care, labor issues, gun policy, campaign-finance reform, the environment and tax fairness. No political party could remain so consistently wrong by accident.

The only rational conclusion is that, despite their cynical "family values" propaganda, the Republican Party is a criminal conspiracy to betray the interests of the American people in favor of plutocratic and corporate interests, and absolutist religious groups.

Thank you!

[freshwest]

8. Compare it to the Democratic Party platform:

Democratic National Convention: The DNC Platform

Mayor Cory Booker Lays out Party Platform at the DNC

Elizabeth Warren's Full DNC Speech - Elections 2012

DNC 2012 - Sandra Fluke Address the DNC

DNC 2012 Includes Support For Gay Marriage

Democratic Party Platform from 2012 Democratic National Convention

The 2012 DNC Platform is available as a pdf at this link:

http://www.democrats.org/democratic-national-platform

[sheshe2]

9. Some of the text from Cory Bookers speech~

This platform is a clear choice between economic pathways: forward or back, inclusion or exclusion, grow together as a nation or be a country of savage disparities that favor the fortunate few over the greatest driving force of any economy—a large and robust middle class.

snip

We choose forward. We choose inclusion. We choose growing together. We choose American economic might and muscle, standing strong on the bedrock of the American ideal: a strong, empowered and ever-growing middle class. Our platform emphasizes that a vibrant, free and fair market is essential to economic growth.

snip

For President Obama, "home of the brave" are not just the last words of our national anthem, but also a call to action. This is why the president's policies and our platform include incentives to train and hire our troops returning home. Not only because of our moral responsibility, but because it makes for a stronger, more secure American economy.

snip

This is our platform. This is our American mission. These are the dreams of our fathers and mothers. This is the demand from the next generation, who call to our conscience in a chorus of conviction, in classrooms from north to south, from sea to shining sea, when they proudly proclaim with those sacred words from our most profound pledge, that we are a nation with liberty and justice for all.

Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0912/80687.html#ixzz2YPYpxyhK

It was an inspiring speech by Cory Booker.

Thanks freshwest~ I will book mark to watch the others.

[grantcart]

11. There are much much worse examples IMO

For example under Bush ICE was used to sweep Hispanic neighborhoods and target law abiding undocumented workers and forcibly repatriate them. Under Obama not only was ICE stopped from doing these kinds of sweeps they stopped repatriating law abiding undocumented workers altogether.