Another bold action by the radical leftists of Team Obama

Summary: The rodeo clown show that is 21st century America provides us with entertainment of a sorts, mostly dark humor. Here’s today’s episode, as the radical leftists of Team Obama continue the work of the Bush Jr Administration.

Future historians will express astonishment at the successful effort by Republican leaders to convince their followers that Obama is a radical leftist.

Obama’s war policy is Bush’s (as is his Secretary of Defense). He’s even gone beyond Bush, authorizing assassination of US citizens.
Obama’s economic policies — stimulus programs and bank bailouts — continue those of the Bush administration.
His health care bill closely resembled that of Governor Romney (R-MA), which was modeled on principles developed by conservative think-tanks.

As for the radical legislation conservatives warned about:

Climate change (e.g., cap and trade) — dead from neglect (Obama’s Solicitor General even sided with “polluters” in an important court case)
Card-check legislation (no secret ballot for union certification elections) — dead from neglect

And today we see Obama’s policies about Executive secrecy. Just like Bush’s. It’s a small, even reasonable step viewed by itself. But the erosion of our rights is a one-way road, down which swe’ve taken many small steps during the past nine years. Here’s Glenn Greenwald’s summary:

In a 6-5 ruling issued this afternoon, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals handed the Obama administration a major victory in its efforts to shield Bush crimes from judicial review, when the court upheld the Obama DOJ’s argument that Bush’s rendition program, used to send victims to be tortured, are “state secrets” and its legality thus cannot be adjudicated by courts. The Obama DOJ had appealed to the full 9th Circuit from last year’s ruling by a 3-judge panel which rejected the “state secrets” argument and held that it cannot be used as a weapon to shield the Executive Branch from allegations in this case that it broke the law. I’ve written multiple times about this case, brought by torture/rendition victim Binyam Mohamed and several others against the Boeing subsidiary which, at the behest of the Bush administration, rendered them to be tortured.

The next post examines this case, providing damage assessment for those who care about such things as liberty.

For another perspective on this see “Is Obama’s Agenda Extreme?“, Bernard Finel (Assoc Prof, National War College), 4 September 2010

Posts about policies of the Obama Administration

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