Two things happened yesterday

[solarbird]

The Obama administration pulled off two things yesterday:

1. Handing over the Bush set of high-income tax breaks to the GOP (and calling his base "purists" and "sanctimonious" in a statement), and,

2. Getting the ACLU/CCR lawsuit against Mr. Obama's assassination programme thrown out of court, so Mr. Obama can order the killing of anyone, anywhere, at any time. No trial, no evidence, no recourse. Yes, that includes you, should this or a future executive decide that you are a "threat."

Guess which one has people pissed off.

Comments

[mojave-wolf.livejournal.com]

Well, I'm still extremely pissed off and horrified and many other things by the first, but wasn't about the second only because I didn't know about it. (and, thank you for being the first to inform me). Wow to the zero coverage there. Iz good we have such an outstanding press corps to keep us up to date on things and help us make informed decisions as a citizenry, yes?

I suspect most people aren't about the second due to not knowing about it, or in the cases of some more hawkish/right wing types, because of never ever hearing anything that might help them understand how this could ever be a problem to them, while hearing lots (if they hear anything) about how it's somehow stopping buildings full of people from being blown up again. ::rolls eyes::

On the positive side, this can be appealed. I suspect it will get more coverage from left wing bloggers as it moves its way up the ladder, and initially the actual Supreme Court will be in a harsh spotlight when it makes its decision. By that point maybe public opinion will hvae grown so heated over the myriad outrages of -- oh, okay, you're right. We're in trouble.

[partywhipple.livejournal.com]

Even my right leaning brain can't come up with a way this is acceptable. And I can come up with some pretty weak arguments!!

No one in the government, on either side, will actually do anything about it. They like their power and this, man, this is like the top of the power pyramid.

is there even a way for the powers that be to revoke a citizen's status as a citizen? I've never heard of it being pushed on someone (who wasn't proven to be an enemy agent planted here at least). I could imagine a process which would be LONG and TEDIOUS and INVOLVE A JURY in which an agency could sue a citizen and present overwhelming evidence to show they had announced themselves to be an enemy, refused to return to defend themselves, and should have their status revoked. But such a process would take very long and be very public. This is just... this. And they didn't even try anything like that. Not even a SHAM to placate us blood crazy conservatives. It's not that hard to keep the right happy when it comes to killing traitors! They didn't even TRY. GUH.

People are going to say this is like someone being on a wanted list here at home. Police, in the act of trying to arrest someone, are justified in responding to force(or the threat of force) with equal levels of force. But this not like that. The people who would carry out that order are NOT police officers and they are NOT going to even try and capture him. They MIGHT call in his location and try and bring the military to capture him if they are in a place where our troops have access. that is doubtful, though.

There's no justification for this.

[technoshaman.livejournal.com]

Yaknow what? At least they're upset. And unlike a lot of the mudslinging in 2004, they're upset for a valid reason. Maybe it's not the only reason to be upset. Gods know you in particular have a lot of valid reasons to be upset. But they're stirred up again. I'm not about to throw cold water on the fire just because it's six feet over from where I wanted it. I'm gonna see if I can get WARM! maybe see if I can find a little gasoline....

I have a rant coming on.

[lyonesse.livejournal.com]

well, the first one is a direct blow to poor people's pocketbooks -- some friends of mine (both parents working, one special-needs kid, both little kids in preschool) will owe another $800 or so. which they haven't got. so that is a lot more immediately painful than threat of assassination.

maybe we could get him to assassinate all the super-rich :/ at least the inheritance tax breaks are going away....

[llachglin.livejournal.com]

People should be pissed about both, but I completely understand why the first one gets more attention. It's something that's tangible to people, that directly affects them. It's a betrayal of the core constituency that put Obama into power. It's a sign of his utter political weakness and his preference for getting along over getting things done.

Assassination and torture doesn't register because it doesn't happen to Americans, or at least not "good" Americans. People can't relate to being victimized by the policies and so they rationalize that it's not happening to anyone else or is happening to people who deserve it. Arguments of principle don't register, even if they should.

But both policies suggest a similar dynamic: Obama is willing to sacrifice any principle or value in the quest for political compromise. He has no line that he will defend. And it's quite possible that in either or both of these cases it's not just weakness, but commitment to the contrary agenda. He certainly seems to spend more time attacking liberals and civil libertarians than in defending our interests.

[solarbird]

Oh, in the latter case - as with domestic spying and all his administration's defences of the worst of the Bush administration's abuses of power - it is absolutely "contrary agenda." Absolutely, completely, resolutely. It's one of the areas to which his administration has shown unflagging commitment. You want something he'll go to the wall to defend? This is one. So is protection of Mr. Bush's imprisonment and torture regime as - as Mr. Bush - put it - a matter of policy rather than law. If nothing else shows you where the political class's critical interests really lie, this should.

[frobzwiththingz.livejournal.com]

If were going to actually apply cold-hearted calculation here, the tax cuts will pretty clearly kill more people than the fascist mimicry.

But really, it's mostly because it isn't getting the press. Most of our and the worlds "press" has completely abdicated their job; why else would WikiLeaks need to exist?

I'm quite sure that Greenwald will (has?) report(ed?) it.

[solarbird]

Empires with governments with these kinds of powers generally end up killing a lot of people, and the more powers like this are held, the harder it becomes to change it. No power goes unabused, and this will be no exception. Rightists have been calling for the assassination of Wikileaks people for days and days now. Which Chief Executive do you think will be the first to just go ahead and do it - preferably before the target gets quite as much popular notice? This guarantees even worse behaviour out of the US, and when you're talking bad US behaviour, you're talking about a lot of potential for death.

I mean, sure, the US prefers to deal with protest through other means - cordoning, manipulation of the political system, preemptive arrest - currently. It's quieter and less messy. But this is a fantastically bad degridation in the list of available tools.

Not to mention that this is yet another in the list of old Soviet policy tools that the US has decided to adopt. That alone should set off about a zillion alarms. This isn't about principle, alone; it's also about what follows. In terms of tools available, there's really not much worse to get. This is fantastically bad.

[frobzwiththingz.livejournal.com]

I won't dispute anything you've said; I agree with all of it. I'm simply pointing out that the downstream economic effects will likely create orders of magnitude more death and suffering in the form of people who can't afford medical treatment, people who can't afford car repairs, people who can't afford heat in the winter in Maine or cooling in the heat waves in Chicago, people who decide that crime gangs are the only way to make money in the short term. You can come up with more.

[dianthus.livejournal.com]

This shit has produced actual tears from my eyes. I feel betrayed and scared.
But I fully understand why taxes get the press, and would, even if our media wasn't a scripted circus.

[stolen-tea.livejournal.com]

Americans are the Good Guys! Everything we do is Good by definition! We would never do anything Bad; if you think we did something Bad, you're wrong, and it probably means that you yourself are Bad! We can trust the people in power, because they are also Good Guys, just like us!

*sigh*

[mikec1157.livejournal.com]

...so, with #2 he can take care of the GOP?

...politics as a full contact sport...

[tahkhleet.livejournal.com]

...would be very bad. not only condoning killings for political expediency but using them on the other party is civil war pretty much o_O

but it's moot. Obama's a Republican sleep agent, obviously...