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They look different and they seem to stand for different views.
They spoke from different places: one from the bowels of a think tank, the other with a facsimile Constitution as backdrop.
They seemed to accuse each other.
Bot those two are cousins and in the end, they both stand for the same things: the imperial presidency
Who said this
he was thinking about “the long game” — how to establish a legal system that would endure for future presidents.He raised the issue of preventive detention”
If you guessed Cheney, you were wrong.
If ever there was a snow job on the American people, these two fighting cousins delivered today.
One said: “We were right to do what we did”
The other said: “Let’s not look at what they did, who cares? We only look forward”
One said: “We did what we did because of the war on terror”
The other said: I’ll do what they did (imprison people indefinitely and keep military tribunals) because of the war on terror”
One said: “We kept you safe, so be grateful for what we did”
The other said:”Keeping you safe is the cover for doing what they did”
In the end what we are left with is more of the same. Concludes Glenn Greenwald
Ultimately, what I find most harmful about his embrace of things like preventive detention, concealment of torture evidence, opposition to investigations and the like is that these policies are now no longer just right-wing dogma but also the ideas that many defenders of his – Democrats, liberals, progressives — will defend as well. Even if it’s due to perceived political necessity, the more Obama embraces core Bush terrorism policies and assumptions — we’re fighting a “war on terror”; Presidents have the power to indefinitely and “preventatively” imprison people with no charges; we can create new due-process-abridging tribunals when it suits us; the ”Battlefield” is everywhere; we should conceal evidence when it will make us look bad — the more those premises are transformed from right-wing dogma into the prongs of bipartisan consensus, no longer just advocated by Bush followers but by many Obama defenders as well.
True. And makes me think is Cheney didn’t deliberaletly help make torture, permanent war a “centrist” issue by his bogus opposition. He simply played the Goldilocks game for the naive, making it appear that Obama’s transgressions are “just right”
Remember Valerie Plame? The one that Bushco didn’t betray since she wasn’t undercover, but if they did, they were right to do so? The one who led to the “16 words in the SOTU” on phony reasons to invade Iraq that poor W couldn’t revise? You’d think that the man who made a speech and allegedly declared the war in Iraq a “stupid war” would finally recognize those people and the service they provided for the truth.
But you would be wrong. Jr.jr strikes again.
Agreeing with the Bush administration, the Obama Justice Department argues the Wilsons have no legitimate grounds to sue. It is surprising that the first time the Obama administration has been required to take a public position on this matter, the administration is so closely aligning itself with the Bush administration’s views.
And it’s not just some idle opinion – they are actually opposing the request that the suit be reviewed by the SCOTUS. (since when is it even their job to interfere?)
And is this petty revenge for their support for Hillary of enthusiastic Jr.Jr identification? Discuss.
(Personally, I think Obama saw it as 2 birds, one stone deal)
Of course, few will get this little piece of news. B0bots will concentrate on the major CYA action where Obama
“huddles with civil rights groups” before his national security speech – giving his WORM in advance
According to an attendee, Obama expressed frustration with Congress’ decision to remove funding for the closure of the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay. The president declared that his hands were tied in some ways regarding the use of reformed military tribunals, though he pledged to try as many detainees as possible in Article III federal courts.
And as he BS’s them, Marc Ambinder tells us the real poop: Obama may make noise that he is frustraed by Congress but in reality he doesn’t even want to close Guantanamo – the whole thing was a ploy for the idiots out there (and I mean,those abroad, not the Bobots whom he takes for granted):
The shrewdness of Obama‘s executive order on day two cannot be denied, nor can its targeted audience – European and Arab governments, and the broader world – be ignored in the current debate. Gitmo was a “rallying cry” for Al Qaeda – that line’s for public consumption – and for anti-Americanism abroad, for European smugness, for exasperation with America by Moslems everywhere.
Now that they are appeased, he can proceed with Jr.jr business as usual. Brilliant!
Update
Th Plame/Wilson flip-flop caused an OBAMA SUCKS headline at the Orange Chetos (h/t Liberal Rapture)
A lot of headlines today seem to put the responsibility for (not) closing Guantanamo and Gitmo on the Democrats in Congress.
Here’s New York Times for instance
Democrats in Senate Block Money to Close Guantánamo
Only in the third paragraph do we find out – in passing, that
In recent days, Mr. Obama has faced growing demands from both parties, but particularly Republicans, to lay out a more detailed road map for closing the Guantánamo prison and to provide assurances that detainees would not end up on American soil, even in maximum security prisons.
And yet, the headlines have Democrats jeopardizing the closing of Guantanamo that Obama so wanted (that would be the same Obama who wants to keep some prisoners and have military tribunals)
Of course, now he appears like the good guy who tried, but the bad Democrats in Congress wouldn’t let him.
Here’s WaPo pushing this narrative
U.S. Senate Democrats on Tuesday moved to cut $80 million earmarked for closing the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay, a fresh setback for President Barack Obama’s efforts to move beyond the Bush administration’s anti-terror policies.
Only Dick Durbin apparently let the cat out of the bag
Did the administration put Democrats in an awkward position, asking for the money before setting out how it would be spent?
“Not at all,” said Reid.
“Yes,” his deputy, Sen. Dick Durbin replied to the same question.
Oops! It’s a good thing this nugget of information is wedged in a collection of 3 botched Reid statements with the one on Ted Kennedy’s health bound to catch the public’s attention.
here’s Durbin from the WaPo account:
“The feeling was at this point we were defending the unknown. We were being asked to defend a plan that hasn’t been announced,” said Richard Durbin, the No. 2 Senate Democrat.
This is a symptomatic one for the way Obama operates: he is the one reading the lofty speeches – the peons have to sweat working out the policy details. Whatever happened to teamwork?
Other than the introduction of TOTUS in the equation, is pretty much back to Jr times.
And, by throwing the democrats in Congress under the bus, some interesting shifts may occur next election – for all the reports of death of the GOP.
One more thing: Obama knows that he has the complicity of the media in this and knows exactly what he is doing. I am reminded of what he told bankers he met with prior to the bailout
The public isn’t buying that.” (i.e: my media won’t let them)
“My administration,” the president added, “is the only thing between you and the pitchforks.”
To which, I thought at the time: or, depending on the perspective, it was the bankers standing between the pitchforks and Obama. But the public needs to once again, look past the media noise…
Update
Marc Ambinder who has always been the voice of the Obama spinsters, comes with the latest:
Was it a setback? Only apparently. Obana reallt shrewdly played everyone
The shrewdness of Obama’s executive order on day two cannot be denied, nor can its targeted audience – European and Arab governments, and the broader world – be ignored in the current debate. Gitmo was a “rallying cry” for Al Qaeda – that line’s for public consumption – and for anti-Americanism abroad, for European smugness, for exasperation with America by Moslems everywhere.
Once we “fooled those people, we can go on with business as usual
The plain truth is that the administration fully expects to hold a number of detainees in indefinite custody within the United States. (Ironically, had Guantanamo not become a lightning rod for the world, it might have been the perfect place to build long-term detention facilities.)
See? And Congress takes the fall. Brilliant!
A this little bit of news brought to you by The Cable
Former U.S. President Bill Clinton will be named a U.N. special envoy on Haiti this week, sources close to the United Nations tell The Cable.
The article goes on with pertinent quotes from Clinton on Haiti as well as this tidbit:
Obviously, Clinton has good relations with the African-American community;
Reading it, I had to remember the ugly accusations flying around during the primary. The Obama campaign “you’re with us or you’re racist” had first unleashed on Bill Clinton…
I guess I’ll file this latest bit of news under “irony”
On a related note, The Confluence Morning news edition has a couple of links illustrating the vapors over the fact that Hillary seems to be too outspoken for some
Basically, Clinton has been boldly telling it like it is when normally in the diplomacy world unpleasant facts aren’t addressed with such candor. ”She’s saying the emperor has no clothes,
And that’s why we wanted HER!
The balloons barely popped in that self congratulatory party all Obama media fluffers had on Inauguration Day.
Now, there’s already blood in the water, Joshua Marshall catches fellow B0bot Maureen “Darcy” Dowd lifting entire paragraphs from his entry.
After comparing the two excerpts side by sde he concludesAll Dowd did was change “we were” to “the Bush crowd was”.
Now, I’m all for cutting & pasting. As a blogger I do it all the time, but I always give credit.
So, if this isn’t outright plagiarism by a top NY Times Editorialist, than I’m a happily married, straight man with 4 kids, 2 dogs, a lovely 2nd wife of 15 years with a girl half my age on the side.
Which I assure you all, I am not.
Oops
What’s MoDo to do now? According to Huffpo, issue a lame half-admission
Dowd claims that she never read his blog last week but was told the line by a friend of hers.
Ah, the “friend” excuse! So, now MoDo corrected her on line column, the plagiarism stil shinning in the print edition
Josh Marshall said in his blog: “More and more the timeline is raising the question of why, if the torture was to prevent terrorist attacks, it seemed to happen mainly during the period when we were looking for what was essentially political information to justify the invasion of Iraq.”
The funny fallout? The right is snickering at the idea that NY Times has “journalists” cribbing from “lefty” blogs called “Talking Points Memo”
In fact, the beauty of MoDo’s snafu is that not only does it show a major player in the media being led around by nutroots talking points, it involves her lifting stuff from a blog that’s actually called “Talking Points.” Glorious.
And who can blame them? The astroturfing and plagiarizing were pandemic in B0botland all through the campaign time. It’s just that the need for attention and is greater now and the nerves more frayed in Bobotland. Poor babies!
One of these days, they may have to even write about Obama’s conscience rule.(King Solomon decreed the embryo is to be cut in two)
Bobots might have to actually write in their own words…If you want to imagine how hard this can be for Modo, recall her past columns
Obama also allowed Hillary supporters to insert an absurd statement into the platform suggesting that media sexism spurred her loss and that “demeaning portrayals of women … dampen the dreams of our daughters.”
Poor MoDo! I think I’ll add this to my Schadenfreude list
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