Tainted Saints

“Thousands of Americans marched in Washington yesterday to demand a fulfillment of Obama’s long-stated and oft-repeated commitments on issues of gay equality, in what the NYT calls ”the largest demonstration for gay rights here in nearly a decade.”  That protest was preceded the day before by a virtual consensus 0f gay rights activists expressing extreme disappointment  and frustration with Obama’s speech to the Human Rights Campaign on Saturday night, where he merely repeated the same pledges he’s been making for two years with no added specificity or time commitment…”

Read more…

Yesterday, Joe Lieberman quietly added an amendment to the Homeland Security appropriations bill, with the tacit approval of the White House, that serves to “‘legalize suppression’ of evidence of American war crimes” by blocking the release of abuse photos:

“…our torture regime was systematic, pervasive, brutal, fatal, and — becuase it was the by-product of conscious policies set at the highest levels of government — common across America’s “War on Terror” detention regime.  These photographs would have documented those vital facts; combated the false denials from torture apologists; fueled the momentum for accountability; and revealed, in graphic and unavoidable terms, what was truly done by America’s government.  But a Democratic-led Congress, at the urging of a Democratic President, are now taking extraordinary steps — including an act of Congress which has no purpose other than to suppress evidence of America’s war crimes — to ensure that this evidence never sees the light of day.”

Frankly, I’d rather have an openly lawless President who makes little attempt to hide blatant violations of the Consititution, than a faux liberal President who gets away with the exact same shit and worse just because he’s more subtle about it, and he’s a Democrat (Bill Clinton flashback, anyone?)

“…the Obama administration has aggressively defended, justified and embraced the overwhelming bulk of Bush/Cheney Terrorism policies — the exact ones that caused liberals and Democrats to object so vehemently over the last eight years:  imprisonment with no trials, maintaining a legal black hole at Bagram, military commissions, renditions, warrantless eavesdropping, claims of state secrets to prevent judicial review of presidential lawbreaking, legal immunity for all but the lowest-level war criminals, abuse-guaranteeing Patriot Act powers, impenetrable walls of secrecy in the national security context.”

The fact that the Washington Post is aiding and abetting Obama is no different than what Judy Miller did for Bush at the New York Times.

http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2009/10/06/obama/

Take special note of the quote from The Washington Times  about Obama’s renewal of the 40-year agreement that “has allowed Israel to keep a nuclear arsenal without opening it to international inspections…”

http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2009/10/02/iran/index.html

http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2009/09/30/iran/index.html

Further evidence that her whiplash shift to the left was more opportunism than reality…

And Glenn Greenwald demonstrates yet again that he’s one of the few pundits who actually knows what the hell he’s talking about.

http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2009/09/29/iran/index.html