Politics and Media News from Carolyn - Orwell edition

Politics is no longer a matter of Lying vs. Truth but Which Lie Do You Like? - Joseph Cannon at Cannonfire

Politics and Media News

Obama on National Security: I Am Doing the Right Things; I Have Not Broken Campaign Promises (by Prof. Darren Hutchinson at Dissenting Justice)
Ironically, Obama, who ran as the antiwar candidate, is now the "war" president. He is the commander-in-chief in two ongoing offenses, including one in which he has authorized a "surge." As proof that his antiwar rhetoric is a distant memory, Obama has delivered a speech to justify his Bush-esque national security policy against liberal (and Cheney's) criticism in a building that houses the Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights, which rank among the most enduring of American symbols. This is a long road from the flag pin controversy...

Obama is, as Reverend Wright accurately stated during the campaign, a politician. All presidents before him were politicians as well. I was stunned that liberals refused to see this. So, to the formerly effusive and uncritical Left: I told you so.


RNC AD: Guantanamo - To close it? To close it not?

New GOP Ad Compares Threat Of Closing Guantanamo To Nuclear War (by Greg Sargent at The Plum Line)
The Republican National Committee has a new Web ad that appears to suggest that the stakes of the Guantanamo issue are as high as those of the Cold War nuke standoff...The ad references the famous 1964 "Daisy" ad that Lyndon Johnson ran against challenger Barry Goldwater, which featured a little girl plucking daisy petals while a voiceover counted down to a nuclear detonation...Dems...have fallen into the GOP's trap by letting them drive the Gitmo debate.
Those of us who voted for Goldwater (yes, it was a lifetime ago) used to say, "They told us if we voted for Goldwater there would be war, and I did, and there is."- Caro
You may not be surprised to learn that fear has won the Guantanamo battle:
Supermax Prisons in U.S. Already Hold Terrorists (Washington Post)
In news conferences, speeches and debates this week, lawmakers from both parties, as well as the director of the FBI, have sounded alarms about moving Guantanamo Bay detainees to federal prisons, where they could launch riots, hatch radical plots or somehow be released among the populace...But the apocalyptic rhetoric rarely addresses this: Thirty-three international terrorists, many with ties to al-Qaeda, reside in a single federal prison in Florence, Colo., with little public notice.
The apocalyptic rhetoric doesn't have to bear any relation to the real world, although it tends to be more effective when there is some tiny kernel of truth in it somewhere. The rhetoric is intentionally apocalyptic and would be just as loud if those spouting it were yelling the opposite of what they're screaming about today. In fact, tomorrow they may well be shrieking the exact opposite of what they're bawling today. Because the purpose is not to bring understanding, or to persuade, but to intimidate. The right wing has been doing it for a very long time and has been pretty successful up until they practically destroyed the country with their version of governing.- Caro
Obama's civil liberties speech (by Glenn Greenwald at Unclaimed Territory, Salon)
Obama's speech [Thursday] … was fairly representative of what Obama typically does: effectively defend some important ideals in a uniquely persuasive way and advocating some policies that promote those ideals (closing Guantanamo, banning torture tactics, limiting the state secrets privilege) while committing to many which plainly violate them (indefinite preventive detention schemes, military commissions, denial of habeas rights to Bagram abductees, concealing torture evidence, blocking judicial review on secrecy grounds). Like all political officials, Obama should be judged based on his actions and decisions, not his words and alleged intentions...

Judge Obama on his actions???What, WHAT, WHATTTT? Wow...I sure wish the Left had thought of that last year - JSOM

The Thought Crimes President (by Ian Welsh, thanks to Alegre)
People who have committed no crime which can be proved in a court of law, including the crime of conspiracy, will be held indefinitely without a trial. Note that Obama wants to use military commissions to try some detainees, which means that these detainees can’t be found guilty of anything even under military law. This is punishment for a thought crime...

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Carolyn Kay
MakeThemAccountable.com