KDelphi, you, I and Pilger see things one way and Outraged, who is an intelligent, decent person, sees them another.  Why?  I don’t think Pilger knows either, given his comment about understanding the media.  What is there to understand?  Obama says one thing and does the opposite.  What’s hard to understand about that?

You know that the Ameircan people, opinion-wise, are more like Outraged, so far, than like us.  but why?

Maybe its a matter of changing the whole population truth consensus and this takes more time than for individuals to change their opinion.  People may want to have the same opinons as thier friends and family and are reluctant to break sharply from them.  Do you suppose that’s part of it?

I dont get it either, Folk, but, for someone who supported Nader, how could Outraged not have had trouble with his populism?

Obama has not only deserted the “Left”, he has totally humiliated them whether they see it or not! He couldnt have done a better job if he just waved his middle finger everytime he has been asked about single payer health care reform, expanding the ‘war” illegally to Af-Pak, etc.

Here is a good viewpoint about what the “Left” sucking up to Obama is DOING but not WHY, exactly.

(John Pilagar on Democray Now, Monday)(The Paradoxical president or Stealth Bush)

“...All of this, it seams to me, has come together in the presidency of Barack Obama who is almost a creation of this media world. He promised some things, although most of them were more for us, and has delivered virtually the opposite. He started his own war in Pakistan. We see the events in Iran and Honduras in quiet subtlety, but very directly influenced in the time-honored way by the Obama administration. And yet the Obama administration is still given this extraordinary benefit of the doubt by people, who in my view are influenced by the mainstream media. It is a time when I think, where either we are going to begin to understand how the media really works, or we’re going to let that opportunity pass. Its almost a historic opportunity the we understand that the perception of our world is utterly distorted, most of the time through what are seen as credible sources of information…

He also discusses the MEDICARE FOR ALL that Outraged calls for, which Obama totally opposes! (at the site)

“...So what we will see as Obama has said, we will see American ground troops gradually withdrawn. But as they do so, the use of electronic weaponry and bombing will increase. Unless there is an understanding of this in this country, unless people stopped taking the pronouncements of governments at their word. When Obama went to Annapolis and said we’re getting out of Iraq and appeared to be giving a timetable, within a matter of weeks, I believe, General Casey contradicted him and said—we will probably be there for another 10 years. And other Pentagon generals put it even higher, 15 years….

..No mention is made of the enormous American army of mercenaries who are in all those theaters of war, and Special Forces. No mention is made of the special forces operation inside Iraq come inside—I beg your pardon, inside Iran. $400 million was allotted to that particular secret war by Bush, in one of his signing decrees, which money has gone to both the Kurdish and Baluchi separatist movements. The whole region is being crafted, if you like, for a very, very long American colonial presence. Eventually, it will not need a standing army there. That is the future in that part of the world, as I say, unless people become aware of that and start to bang on the doors of government, of Congress, and of power in this country to expose it”

It is worth watching (or reading, as I have to do) the entire thing…wathc it Outraged. Tell me what parts you disagree with, and, please find a better source than CNN.

Outraged has obviously swallowed the koolaid and I don’t understand why.  I she has, so have a considerable fraction of the American people.

As Glenn Greewald reported today on CommonDreams, Dod’s general counsel testified before congress that Obama could imprison the accused EVEN IF THEY WERE EXONERTED BY US COURT TRIAL.  They could be found innocent and Obama could imprison them anyway for the rest of the lives.  This is an EXPANSION of Bush’s despotism, as Greenwald says, legiitmated by Obama’s articlute and and star stature.

Do people not understand what despotism is?  I don’t get it.

I think before it is rejected outright it needs to be remembered this is all members of our Armed Forces receive, and has been for some time.  But… yes, I’d like to see more fairness, openness and JUSTICE. (for all involved)  It’s a start.

Other news, from CNN:

“In the past three months, the DOJ has announced investigations into Google’s (GOOG, Fortune 500) book search program and payments by brand-name drugmakers to companies that make generics.

In May, Christine Varney, assistant attorney general of the Justice Department’s antitrust division, laid out the Obama administration’s policy, saying the government agency would be “aggressively pursuing” monopoly and antitrust cases against dominant companies to “ensure the American consumer’s access to the best products at the lowest prices.”

http://money.cnn.com/2009/07/07/news/economy/antitrust_consumers/?postversion=2009070716

It seems the only “worrisome” voice regarding these measures are supposed “thinkers” at the Heritage Foundation.  I think these “thinkers” (at the Heritage Foundation) have some of those “destructive clumps” in their head.

More good news, from Consumer Reports:
“The White House today announced new food safety measures aimed at reducing salmonella and E. coli outbreaks, plus the creation of a new FDA deputy commissioner position to increase coordination of federal food safety activities.

“These new measures represent real progress towards improving the safety of food in the U.S.,” said Jean Halloran, the director of Consumers Union’s food safety campaign. “The creation of this new position means that, for the first time, there is a ‘go to’ person at the FDA whose sole responsibility is keeping food safe.”

http://blogs.consumerreports.org/safety/2009/07/white-house-brings-stronger-food-safety-measures-to-the-table.html

Stand up and stand together…. WE NEED SINGLE-PAYER!

Look at all the “qualifiers” here: “..he believed…”“..voluntary statements…”“..harsh interrogation tecqniques”..“regarded as hard facts”..

Can someone please define those terms? Obama just plain lied on this one…

“...While both the president’s proposal and the new legislation passed by the Senate Armed Services Committee would bar evidence obtained through torture or cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment, they would still allow for the admission of other “coerced evidence.” That means that forced confessions and hearsay evidence that would be barred from every U.S. courtroom and court-martial would still be admissible. By contrast, the Constitution, the Federal Rules of Evidence used in federal criminal courts, and rules for military courts-martial prohibit all evidence obtained by coercion. The Wall Street Journal and the New York Times reported last week that a recent undisclosed Justice Department Office of Legal Counsel opinion concluded that the use of coerced evidence in at least some military commission proceedings would be unconstitutional.”

” The military commissions are fatally flawed and no amount of tinkering will fix them,” Anders added. “The system is set up to ensure convictions, not give defendants an impartial hearing. When the military commissions stack the deck against a fair trial, how can we trust their outcomes?” 
http://www.aclu.org/safefree/general/40233prs20090707.html

Vice Admiral Bruce MacDonald, (Navy Judge Advocate Gen.) just said that we must apply a different standard ie “apply the rules of law of war” to detainees tried from GITMO.

He apparently does not care that many “enemy combatants” (sigh) were not even picked up anywhere near a battlefield situation….

He uses the example (the old war/fear mongering) of “If a soldier kicks in a door with a loaded gun pointed and obtains evidence, I’m afraid it wouldnt be allowed…”

Why are these military people unable to diffferentiate a battlefield situation (which would NOT honestly even include kicking a door in with a gun pointed anyway), and people already RESTRAINED and picked up as civilians? Because Bush and Congress allowed the unlawful “enemy combatant” crap to slide and Obama is doing the same.

If its battlefield, they are POWs! If not, they should be tried in civilian courts….we need to drop this new “status”...but, then the Geneva Conventions would apply , if we “admit” that we are
“at war”.

They all have their balls in a sling on this one and it is all their own fault.

He says now that “voluntary” is a law enforcement standard and not a law of war standard so “voluntariness” can “perhaps be waived”....oh what BULLSHITTT!!!

Obama is deluded and, as mentioned before, a liar.

While this statement on its face is more than correct, one should ask WHY IS A US PRESIDENT INJECTING HIMSELF INTO WHAT SHOULD BE A MATTER OF LAW?

It doesn’t matter what this dolt thinks. It matters what Holder and others will prosecute, according to the numerous laws against torture, both domestic and international.

It reminds me of his advice for “date night”. Just as irrelevent. Now go away, Barry and do YOUR job, not someone else’s.

Obama is turning into a bad joke.  What is not stated explicitly in the piece is that Obama is favoring military trials that can condemn prisoners to death, and Truthdig, faithful to US imperialism, sanitizes this exclusion. 

these prisoners have been systematically tortured and have no assurance at all that they won’t be systematically tortured again.  Any ‘voluntary’ comment they make is made under conditions of the threat of torture.  these prisoners of war are being tried under barbaric conditions, denied their Geneva Rights which is US law.  Many Americans have been so brutalized by the War on Terrorism that they don’t care, but many Americans still do.

Not least because if torture is legitimated, as the mainsteam media is doing, including truthdig, it will be inflicted systematically on Americans.  As well as lawless abudctions and lawless imprisonment.  Instead of merely funding informers to inform on Americans, the US power structure will pay bounties for Terrorists, as they are doing in the oil states. And the same ‘voluntary’ statements that Obama insists be used will be used against Americans.  And against demonstrations, which the military defines as ‘low level terrorism.”

If you think this is farfetched, understand that now that there are the names of over a milliion people on a no-fly’ list.  And there is now what the ACLU calles a ‘no constitution’ zone areound the perimiter of the US that ecompasses a three forths of the American population where you can be stopped, arrrested, and god knows what else with no charges being filed.  If they can torure prisoners of war against the laws and humanity developed over the centuries, they can torture Americans.  And they will.