Obama and the government just keep sneaking things through. Very quietly doing and passing things with the help of their lapdogs in the press. When he was a candidate he was against torture but, now that he's in command and can use that power against his enemies, (real or perceived) it's just fine. He and his Supreme Court ruled that it's OK to torture and should be expected. It's also OK to disappear people, simply by declaring them non-persons. Bush started it and Obama is carrying it onward. This is power that should never have been put in the governments hands. If they can use against you, they will. Say the wrong thing, gather in the wrong place and espouse incorrect beliefs. It's all happened before.
via Wendy McElroy (with links)
via Wendy McElroy (with links)
We've been saying for over a year that Obama is no better than Bush. If you thought he was going to do something about torture or civil liberties, think again (hat tip to Naked Capitalism):
It happened earlier this week, in a discreet ruling that attracted almost no notice and took little time. ... After hearing passionate arguments from the Obama Administration, the Supreme Court acquiesced to the president's fervent request and, in a one-line ruling, let stand a lower court decision that declared torture an ordinary, expected consequence of military detention, while introducing a shocking new precedent for all future courts to follow: anyone who is arbitrarily declared a "suspected enemy combatant" by the president or his designated minions is no longer a "person." They will simply cease to exist as a legal entity. They will have no inherent rights, no human rights, no legal standing whatsoever -- save whatever modicum of process the government arbitrarily deigns to grant them from time to time, with its ever-shifting tribunals and show trials.
Yep. "Passionate arguments from the Obama administration," to allow them to continue to torture people, and to declare them un-persons. (Not even three-fifths of a person, a parallel some have noticed.)
All the Obamanauts had to do was argue the other way -- they didn't need to pass legislation, or issue an executive order, or bring a new court case. Just ask the Supremes to hear this case, and state their opinion that the lower court erred. Evidently that is too much to ask of the Anointed One, or as he should now be known, the Torturer-in-Chief.