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Showing Original Post only (View all)How Obama Became a Civil Libertarian's Nightmare: He Expanded Many Of Bush's Worst Policies [View all]
How Obama Became a Civil Libertarian's NightmareObama has expanded and fortified many of the Bush administration's worst policies.
by Steven Rosenfeld
April 18, 2012
When Barack Obama took office, he was the civil liberties communities great hope. Obama, a former constitutional law professor, pledged to shutter the military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and run a transparent and open government. But he has become a civil libertarians nightmare: a supposedly liberal president who instead has expanded and fortified many of the Bush administrations worst policies, lending bipartisan support for a more intrusive and authoritarian federal government.
President Obama now has power that Bush never had. Foremost is he can (and has) order the killing of U.S. citizens abroad who are deemed terrorists. Like Bush, he has asked the Justice Department to draft secret memos authorizing his actions without going before a federal court or disclosing them. Obama has continued indefinite detentions at Gitmo, but also brought the policy ashore by signing the National Defense Authorization Act of 2012, which authorizes the military to arrest and indefinitely detain anyone suspected of assisting terrorists, even citizens. That policy, codifying how the Bush treated Jose Padilla, a citizen who was arrested in a bomb plot after landing at a Chicago airport in 2002 and was transferred from civil to military custody, upends the 1878s Posse Comitatus Acts ban on domestic military deployment.
One of Bushs biggest civil liberties breaches, spying on virtually all Americans via their telecommunications starting in 2003, also has been expanded. Congress authorized the effort in 2006. Two years later, it granted legal immunity to the telecom firms helping Busha bill Obama voted for. The National Security Agency is now building its largest data processing center ever, which Wired.coms James Bamforth reports will go beyond the public Internet to grab data but also reach password-protected networks. The federal government continues to require that computer makers and big Web sites provide access for domestic surveillance purposes. More crucially, the NSA is increasingly relying on private firms to mine data, because, unlike the government, it does not need a search warrant. The Constitution only limits the government searches and seizures.
The governments endless wartime footing is also seen in its war on whistleblowers. Obama has continued cases brought by Bush, such as going after the "leaker" in the warrantless wiretapping story broken by the New York Times in 2005, as well as the WikiLeaks case, prosecution of Bradley Manning, and others for allegedly mishandling classified materials related to the war on terrorism. Its suppression of war-related information given to journalists extends overseas, where the State Department this month has blocked a visa for a Pakistani critic from speaking in the U.S. The White House also recently pressured Yemens leader to jail the reporter who exposed U.S. drone strikes. Meanwhile, the administration has stonewalled Freedom of Information Act requests, particularly the Justice Department, which has issued the secret wartime memos.
Read the full article at:
http://www.alternet.org/rights/155045/how_obama_became_a_civil_libertarian%27s_nightmare/?page=entire
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How Obama Became a Civil Libertarian's Nightmare: He Expanded Many Of Bush's Worst Policies [View all]
Better Believe It
Apr 2012
OP
"Failed to hold those responsible for past torture and other cruelty accountable; has blocked
Dragonfli
Apr 2012
#12
I think that is good advice, so please feel free to get over yourself as well
Dragonfli
Apr 2012
#18
The difference is, I stopped drinking kool-aid and started listening to my reason
Dragonfli
Apr 2012
#23
To be fair he did support all three of those things and rallied blue dog votes to help
Dragonfli
Apr 2012
#49
Understandable, the Republicans like to take credit for the balanced budget as well
Dragonfli
Apr 2012
#51
i missed it..some of us dont get here everyday..rec because the truth is good enough
xiamiam
Apr 2012
#8
tell me, do you ever post anything about Romney or is it just Obama you can't stand?
WI_DEM
Apr 2012
#17
No. He might build on Obama's actions just as Obama built on Dubya's.
Better Believe It
Apr 2012
#31
Sorry ProSense but picking up many Obama policies IS the same as picking up from Bush...
truebrit71
Apr 2012
#35
You're right. Obama might change, especially since he wouldn't be up for re-election in 2016.
Better Believe It
Apr 2012
#39
As an aside (not meant to distract from, or discourage an answer from the poster you replied to)
Dragonfli
Apr 2012
#41
I agree we have a better chance of convincing President Obama that is Constitution is worth
sabrina 1
Apr 2012
#33
Disposing of our civil liberties is for our own good. Didn't you get the memo from the DNC/RNC?
Tierra_y_Libertad
Apr 2012
#36
Kick, we need to make civil liberties a campaign issue if we are to influence our candidate
Dragonfli
Apr 2012
#37