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Again With the Military TribunalsPosted on May 14, 2009
Funny how declarations made in the heat of campaign season can be later forgotten by our nation’s elected officials. President Obama continued to do the reversal cha-cha late into the week with his decision to take up the very military tribunals he had sharply criticized before taking office.
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A Progressive Journal of News and Opinion. Editor, Robert Scheer. Publisher, Zuade Kaufman.
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By KDelphi, May 17 at 8:15 pm #
Folktruther—Just another damn Red…lol
Report thisBy ardee, May 17 at 9:46 am #
This morning I put on my turban and pulled out my crystal ball, just for kicks of course. The darn thing said that the 2012 election would alter the makeup of the Legislature to give the GOP a majority but keep Obama in office.
I threw the damn thing against the wall, not for its prophesy but for abstracting it from US political history. The more things change the more they remain the same.
Report thisBy Robert, May 16 at 2:07 pm #
NEWS YOU WON’T FIND ON CNN
Horrific New Torture Pictures Released
2 of 2
“MORE photographs have been leaked of Iraqi citizens tortured by US soldiers at the notorious Abu Ghraib prison on the outskirts of Baghdad.
Warning
The pictures below should only be viewed by a mature AUDIENCE”
Report thishttp://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article11930.htm
By herewegoagain, May 16 at 2:00 pm #
(Unregistered commenter)
jimfromthehills asks: “Is there anyone who can challenge Obama in the next presidential primary?”
Here’s the roadblock: most people still don’t realize yet there’s no difference between Obama and the neocons. And even those that do realize it make logic-defying statements like, “Yeah, but if we don’t elect Obama again, we could end up with a Republican president!”
Report thisBy Folktruther, May 15 at 11:35 pm #
Twin end of the same thought, two hearts beating as one.
Report thisBy KDelphi, May 15 at 5:53 pm #
I’m sitting her, with an , apaprently, very quizzical and, pained look on my face (my friend says so) as i read mlb’s post. I think, “I wish I was smarter or better educated, as to how to explain to this person, who seems to be well meaning, but, is actually helping the phony neo-liberals, yet seems totally unaware ......”
Then, Folktruther nails it. Thanks.
Report thisBy diamond, May 15 at 5:37 pm #
G.Anderson if Obama’s going to be a one term president, who are you going to replace him with. John McCain? Michael Steele, Sarah Palin or maybe JOE LIEBERMAN, the senator for Tel Aviv. Evidence obtained by torture will no longer be permissable in these trials and I think you’ll find that over 90% of these detainees will be found not guilty - that’s the number estimated to have been held who have no evidence against them whatsoever. Apart from the tortured evidence, that is, which will no longer be able to be used against them. Without it, most have no case to answer and will be freed but Obama’s a lawyer and he can’t just fling the gates of Guantanamo open and say ‘Run free my brothers’. No US president in his circumstances would do that. And don’t forget the circumstances are not of his choosing or his doing. He didn’t commit the crimes, that was Bush and Cheney and the rest of the ‘Mayberry Machiavellis’, but he has to deal with them. The truth about all of this is so shocking that they can’t let them go on trial in a normal court. Can you imagine what would be revealed to a gobsmacked world? The truth about 9/11 for example. It’s like pulling a thread. Pull the wrong one and the whole thing unravels. I would like to see them go on trial in a normal court but the CIA and the Pentagon will never allow it to happen because they can’t allow the truth to come out in open court. It would reveal them for the criminals they are. What’s come out so far is the tip of the iceberg.
Report thisBy Folktruther, May 15 at 5:33 pm #
Read mlb’s post. An obviously decent person completely clueless about power. This is the American people, who want to do the right thing but haven’t a clue about how power thinks and works.They are so easily manipulated because there has been no party or political organization that teaches them about power formulated from a people’s historical perspective.
But why can’t they simply be taught how power works, the way one is taught about how cars work, or ow human bodies work? Because there is no simplified theory developed from the population’s perspective formulated from the perspective of people values. Poltical science is formulated from the perspective of power, largely class-based power. It is evasive, intellectually dishonest, and irrelevent to the power interests of the population. And the American population, like mlb, will remain political dodos, easily manipulated by the mass media and Progressive cheerleaders.
An historical effort must be made to de-edducate the American people from the power delusions they identify with, which has been instilled by the American mainstream truth. Otherwise the mlbs of America will always by at the mercy of the mass media and the deceptive Progressive truthers.
The US has ideologically repressed in the mainstream truth rank and file marxism which contain the elements of such theory.Until this is remedied the American people will simply be mansipulated over and over again.
Report thisBy blogdog, May 15 at 4:01 pm #
RE: Maybe I’m clinging to foolish hope, but still, when I listen to Obama speak freely, I get the impression that he’s a good and very intelligent man.
Just as planned - the NWO agenda advances under Left Cover with Obama - perfect man for the job - the Brzezinski faction lead by Z-Big’s former office boy Gates have been running the Pentagon and the Global War Of Terror since the Iraq Study Group smack down of the NEO Cons, whose last grasping initiative was the Barksdale Nuke Black-OP, aborted by mutiny - Aug. 2007 - why they smack down - failure for utter stupidity - flunking Machiavaili 101 - don’t directly engage your enemies, set them to fighting among themselves.
Report thisBy mlb, May 15 at 12:24 pm #
“Figuring out” Obama has been an ongoing struggle for me. The theory that’s currently winning out in my head is that thanks to his willingness to listen and his desire to please, Obama allows himself to be talked into doing all sorts of things he wouldn’t have done had he relied on his own better judgment. He’s a pushover for intelligent people with bad or misguided intentions and he’s surrounded with them.
Maybe I’m clinging to foolish hope, but still, when I listen to Obama speak freely, I get the impression that he’s a good and very intelligent man. (The contrast with GWB could hardly be starker.) I hope that he’ll find a way to listen to others, but make decisions based on what his own heart and mind tell him. If he doesn’t, he’ll be a terrible president. Maybe if he keeps his eye on the bigger picture, on his place in history, it’ll pull him up and give him the strength to consistently do what’s right.
Report thisBy Jason!!, May 15 at 12:11 pm #
obama lied for votes. faux surprise.
as a constitutional lawyer, he knew this all along. its not a 180. The man is a liar and a fraud.
Report thisBy Thomas Mc, May 15 at 11:42 am #
Obama is an even bigger fraud than Bush was.
Report thisBy NYCartist, May 15 at 11:36 am #
You can’t say it better than Glenn Greenwald did on his column at Salon.com - his most recent posting.
Report thisBy jimfromthefoothills, May 15 at 11:31 am #
Has Obama done anything that Bush wouldn’t have done? Certainly not on Gitmo, torture or the financial scandal. I think I was sold a bill of goods although I don’t think Hillary would have been any different. I voted for Obama becauase I specifically thought that he would NOT be just like Hillary.
Is there anyone who can challenge Obama in the next presidential primary? It looks like this administration will continue to take orders from Cheny & Co.
Report thisBy Patrick, May 15 at 11:30 am #
(Unregistered commenter)
Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.
Report thisBy G.Anderson, May 15 at 11:07 am #
It looks more and more like Obama wants to be a one term president.
Report thisBy Tony Vodvarka, May 15 at 11:06 am #
(Unregistered commenter)
When will we be able to say out loud that power has passed from our visible, once constitutional, government to a financial/military mafia who arranges governments as it pleases, with the full cooperation of the corporate media, which it owns? Our plans to oppose this pox on our country will at least have a better grip on reality once we bite this bullet and cast off the pretense that we are participating citizens in a free republic.
Report thisTony Vodvarka
By NYCartist, May 15 at 11:01 am #
No change. Except, as some have noted, better PR.
Report thisBy BlueBerry Pick'n, May 15 at 10:32 am #
kkkreeeepy!
This isn’t getting BETTER, its just getting more convoluted
while the fascists just keep on keeping on with the kkkreepiest processes imaginable…
this isn’t REFORM, its just BETTER PR!
Amerikkka, you’re still scaring the Rest of the World… & not in a cozy, action-packed Mel Gibson ‘buddy movie’ kinda way…
Have you seen the new story about ‘military training’ for US Explorers youth?
kkkreeepy!
perspective, people.
Perspective.
The Jeff Farias Show: streams FREE & LIVE Mon-Fri, 6-9pmEST
FREE podcast
Report thisBy Jim Yell, May 15 at 10:19 am #
(Unregistered commenter)
The baby has been eaten by the bear, but the baby doesn’t know it was eaten by the bear.
Report thisBy ardee, May 15 at 5:47 am #
If there is a benefit to military tribunals it is in the secrecy surrounding the trial. If there is a down side to such proceedings it is in the secrecy surrounding the trials.
Our reputation in the world is at an all time low and such as this does not improve that image one iota. Perhaps many of these prisoners cannot be tried in open court because the fact that they were tortured would immediately taint all evidence. Or the fact that many are not guilty of anything at all is so obvious as to necessitate secret trials to avoid the embarrassment of admitting to having held an obviously innocent person for seven years .
Barack Obama is quite a dichotomy, isnt he?
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