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jmondine Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue May-26-09 09:47 PM
Original message
The Sotomayor Distraction
Obama's announcement of his Supreme Court Justice pic couldn't have been more well timed. The Right, whose knives were all sharpened in preparation for going after Nancy Pelosi, suddenly have a new target, and are scrambling to find some ammunition to justify their obligatory opposition of anything Obama.

However, it's also well timed to distract his critics on the left from the justifiable outrage over "preventive incarceration". I'm not condemning him for the timing of this. He is, at the end of the day, a politician, and a shrewd one who knows how to play the game.

But it will only work if we let it. This is a perfect time for us to show our ability to simultaneously get his back while holding his feet to the fire.

I have complete faith that we're up to it.
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LAGC Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue May-26-09 09:48 PM
Response to Original message
1. Now's a good time to donate to the ACLU.
We need all the help we can get in confronting the danger from our "own" Administration on this issue...
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oldtime dfl_er Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue May-26-09 10:18 PM
Response to Reply #1
14. Great idea
I donate monthly but will send an extra bit this week.
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BlooInBloo Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue May-26-09 09:49 PM
Response to Original message
2. Clearly it's a Rovian plot.
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HughMoran Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue May-26-09 10:11 PM
Response to Reply #2
13. Roooooooove!!
He's like a zombie - he can't die because he was never alive!!!!!!
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bigwillq Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue May-26-09 09:51 PM
Response to Original message
3. And on the day of Prop 8 decision
Has the White House issued a statement yet? :shrug:

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NYC_SKP Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue May-26-09 09:53 PM
Response to Original message
4. The "preventive incarceration" meme is 100% pure Bullshit. So this is a good thing.
Even the ACLU backed off, so should we.
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EFerrari Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed May-27-09 03:04 AM
Response to Reply #4
18. Backlash grows against Obama's preventive detention proposal
Monday May 25, 2009 08:26 EDT
Backlash grows against Obama's preventive detention proposal

(updated below - Update II - Update III)

The backlash against President Obama's extraordinary proposal for indefinite "preventive detention" -- already widespread in the immediate aftermath of his speech -- continues to grow. On Friday, Sen. Russ Feingold sent a letter (.pdf) to Obama which, while praising some aspects of his speech, vowed to hold hearings on his detention proposal, and in the letter, Feingold rather emphatically highlighted the radical and dangerous aspects of Obama's approach:

My primary concern, however, relates to your reference to the possibility of indefinite detention without trial for certain detainees. While I appreciate your good faith desire to at least enact a statutory basis for such a regime, any system that permits the government to indefinitely detain individuals without charge or without a meaningful opportunity to have accusations against them adjudicated by an impartial arbiter violates basic American values and is likely unconstitutional.

snip

Feingold's last point -- that the more Obama embraces radical Bush/Cheney polices, the more entrenched they become as bipartisan consensus -- is critically important, and extends to other policies as well, from the use of state secrets to block judicial review of executive branch lawbreaking, the concealment of evidence of government crimes, the veneration of "looking-forward political harmony" over the rule of law in cases of extreme government lawbreaking, and the denial of habeas corpus rights to individuals we abduct and transport to a war zone (such as Bagram).

On Twitter on Friday, Rachel Maddow pointed to the civil liberties questionnaire from Charlie Savage which Obama answered during the Democratic primary and asked rhetorically: "This is the same guy now proposing 'prolonged detention' without trial?" The New York Times' William Glaberson wrote that Obama's detention policy "would be a departure from the way this country sees itself"; observed that "in some countries, it is called 'administrative detention,' a designation with a slightly totalitarian ring"; and quoted the Center for Constitutional Rights' Michael Ratner as pointing out that "holding detainees domestically under a new system of preventive detention would simply 'move Guantánamo to a new location and give it a new name.'" And on Meet the Press this Sunday, the same bizarre (though entirely understandable) pattern continued to assert itself whereby the hardest-core followers of George Bush can barely contain their admiration for Obama's "counter-terrorism" policies (National Review's Rich Lowry: "it's kind of a funny debate because Obama has embraced the essentials of the Bush counterterrorism program. I think that program worked, I think it's wise of him to do that and it, it reflects some admirable kind of flexibility and pragmatism").

http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2009/05/25/obama/index.html?source=rss&aim=/opinion/greenwald

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babylonsister Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue May-26-09 09:53 PM
Response to Original message
5. He's leaving soon for a trip overseas; that will be a
distraction. I think this president picked his new SCJ, and it's just about a done deal. He did due diligence, and I'm very happy with his choice. And Pelosi is/was in China, so no love there. Plus most of Congress is out of town on a 'recess'. I'm glad my prez is still working!
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DJ13 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue May-26-09 09:54 PM
Response to Original message
6. Maybe its just me, but Im *REALLY* tired of politics by distraction
No matter which party does it.

And Im tired of a complicit MSM that takes one story they know is a deliberate distraction and runs it 24/7 for a week or more.
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sandnsea Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue May-26-09 09:57 PM
Response to Original message
7. Yesterday it was a health care distraction
Today it's a Nancy Pelosi distraction.

I think DU is a distraction.
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jmondine Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed May-27-09 02:33 AM
Response to Reply #7
17. DU a distraction? How dare you... ooh, the Top Ten!
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mucifer Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue May-26-09 10:00 PM
Response to Original message
8. IMO the "distraction" thing isn't realistic. He is dealing with hundreds of issues
at once. His job is insane in what it entails. He must constantly keep moving to get things done. It's not "distraction".
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BlooInBloo Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue May-26-09 10:02 PM
Response to Reply #8
9. It's just the new shiny word People Who Very Strongly Dislike Obama have come up with...
and now they'll all start parroting it.
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tavalon Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue May-26-09 10:10 PM
Response to Reply #8
12. First and foremost, Obama is a politician and a damn good one at that
The timing is meant to be a distraction. He wouldn't be good at his job if he didn't know timing. I refuse to be distracted, though, because I'm good at what I do as a citizen. This nominee is great and should sail through the nomination process. I'm pleased with his pick but I won't ignore the mistakes Obama has made in the last two weeks.
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Hepburn Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue May-26-09 10:06 PM
Response to Original message
10. Why would the right go after her?
She was supported in the past by Jessie Helms and Rick Santorum when Baby Bush nominated her to the federal bench.

:shrug:

She is a conservatives dream from what I have been able to learn about her.

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jmondine Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed May-27-09 02:32 AM
Response to Reply #10
16. The right were going after Obama's nominee when she was nonexistent
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tavalon Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue May-26-09 10:06 PM
Response to Original message
11. Hi hubby
Let's make a donation to the ACLU. They are the good ones in this fight.
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mitchtv Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue May-26-09 11:03 PM
Response to Original message
15. Now if teh Gays will only shut up`
and go away. at least the TV coverage is minimal
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