Greenwald: Obama Embraces Bush Claims - 'President Has Unilateral/Unchallenged Power'

[kpete]

Greenwald reacts today:

Greenwald tells it like it is, once more
by RaulVB
Mon Mar 02, 2009 at 12:27:43 PM PST

.............................

"Here is the remarkable description of Obama's actions by The San Francisco Chronicle's Bob Egelko:

Feds defy judge's order in Islamic group case

A federal appeals court rejected the Obama administration's attempt Friday to stop a judge in San Francisco from reviewing a challenge to the wiretapping program ordered by former President George W. Bush.

Hours later, President Obama's Justice Department filed papers that appeared to defy the judge's order to allow lawyers for an Islamic organization to see a classified surveillance document at the heart of the case. The department said the judge had no power to enforce such an order."

Furthermore:

"According to Obama, only the President has the power to decide what is done with classified information, and neither courts nor Congress have any power at all to do anything but politely request that the President change his mind. Therefore, the President has the unilateral, unchallengeable power to prevent any judicial challenges to his actions by simply declaring that the relevant evidence is a secret and refusing to turn it over to a court, even if ordered to do so."

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/3/2/151014/1590/43/703731

[BuyingThyme]

1. kcik

[cui bono]

2. Wow! No criticism of this? It's okay if our guy does it???

No it's not okay.

"As Marcy Wheeler documents in detail, the Obama DOJ is now spouting the Cheney/Addington view of government in its purest and most radical expression. Citing lengthy excepts from the Obama DOJ's brief filed on Friday following its loss in the appeals court -- a brief that could easily have been written by John Yoo or David Addington in its distinctly un-American and anti-constitutional theories purporting to vest unchallengeable, unreviewable power in the President"

http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/

http://emptywheel.firedoglake.com/2009/02/27/obamas-response-to-the-al-haramain-smack-down-cheneyesque-reasoning/

Guess only Kucinich would really give up the Bush power grab once he had it. Hard to believe the silence on here.

[debbierlus]

3. Obama has fragmented the progressive movement - fractured it into pieces

I am very curious as to what Howard Dean will do with Democracy for America, now that he is back at it.

I am hoping third party. My money and energy go there from now on.

[Individualist]

4. First thing I thought of was this quote: "If the President does it, then it is not illegal."

[bvar22]

5. This is NOT OK.

I'm trying to calm down and compose a reasonable reply.

This certainly explains the reluctance of the Obama Administration to pursue any criminal wrongdoing by the Bush administration.

"If the President does it, then it is not illegal."---Dick Nixon

Absolute power....and all that stuff.


"There are forces within the Democratic Party who want us to sound like kinder, gentler Republicans. I want us to compete for that great mass of voters that want a party that will stand up for working Americans, family farmers, and people who haven't felt the benefits of the economic upturn."---Paul Wellstone

[BuyingThyme]

9. kcik

[ThomWV]

6. Kick

As almost always, I agree.

[Name removed]

7. Deleted sub-thread

Sub-thread removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Individualist]

8. K&R

[BuyingThyme]

10. kcik

[flyarm]

11. No surprize to me..none at all!! and people here and in the dem party were warned this day was

coming..too bad so many ignored the warnings!

Welcome to the new boos..the same as the old boss ..only worse.

eom

[chill_wind]

12. These are Bush DOJ lawyers--

at least 3 of them, including the lead lawyer. And they definitely appear to be scrambling to fix some messy Bush-era legal problems they've made for themselves. Including providing past judges certain "inaccuracies" .

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x5165901

[flyarm]

13. kept on duty by Obama..eom

[chill_wind]

14. And/or Holder. Their fate may be very short lived, though

when Judge Walker gets done with them. I read tomorrow he may rule.

[orleans]

15. ugh. fucking A..... n/t

[leftstreet]

16. K&R

[balantz]

17. Fuck That!

End the fascism!

[Solly Mack]

18. K&R

[chill_wind]

19. Marcy Wheeler corrects Greenwald and a couple others on the record

today. Since he cites her blog often, but somewhat selectively. She gets even more specific in post # 12.

http://emptywheel.firedoglake.com/2009/03/03/correcting-the-confused-al-haramain-reporting/

To my knowledge, her blog, with quite a bit of extra onboard talent, has been pretty much the ground-zero of digging and legal fact-finding on this story. Greenwald links to her blog fairly often. I like Greenwald a lot, and when he's right, he's right. But I don't like what he appears to be doing on this one.

[Generator]

20. I wish people here

had the outrage over this they do cheese sandwiches. Obama wants to keep the Bush precedent which inevitably will lead to a dictatorship someday. I hope it's not in any of our children's or grand children's lifetimes.