"Still, the rise of the obscenely overpaid executive has given us our own version of de Waal's socially disruptive game, undermining the cohesiveness that has always been America's great strength during crises. President Obama's recent blunt words about the trend appeal strongly to our inner primates, and his effort to stem the socially toxic trend toward economic inequality initiated during the Reagan administration represents a vitally important part of his agenda.A"

So why don't we kill them in the middle of the night ?

Than having your empty head up the ass of tv ....

Is having your head up the ass of the empty heads who produce trash tv.

Hitler killed 6 million as regards to race.

Stalin killed 60 million without regards to race.

And yet this evil man was our ally in WWII.

As far as I know, no country ever tried to intervene in Russia's internal affairs either during the war or afterwards to stop the killings.

Apparently Hitler's real sin was not killing millions of his fellow human beings but his strange propensity for invading other countries.

I'm sure the allies called cooperating with the evil tyrant Stalin against a common enemy a matter of pragmatism ......

pragmatism of the sort perhaps that Obama represents ?????

Quote :

In his press conference Monday night, Obama repeated his mantra that "nobody is above the law and if there are clear instances of wrongdoing, people should be prosecuted just like ordinary citizens. But generally speaking, I'm more interested in looking forward than I am in looking backwards." The principle once again is that Obama is for prosecuting Bush administration lawbreaking only when proof of such lawbreaking bonks him on the head. All the more reason to keep it out of sight, then.

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Suppose my sister was murdered ..........

And then, when asked if I wanted to find the murderer and see them punished, I said .......... "I'm more interested in looking forwards than backwards".???

And then suppose, I was actively involved in impeding investigations that might find the murderer ???

People would question my motives/sanity ...

I think Obama sees himself as a pragmatist ........ he sees achieving his agendas as more important ........ affecting more "good" for many as opposed to punishing a few ....

As far as Greenwald's question :

"Suppose there's a ruling from a federal court, upheld on appeal, that Bush broke the law -- the criminal law -- when spying on Americans without warrants. If you're Obama, what do you say when asked: "How can you possibly claim that nobody is above the law when your own DOJ refuses to do anything about a formal court ruling that Bush officials violated the criminal law in how they spied on Americans"?"

I don't think he wants to be placed into that position and that is why all the wrangling within the courts ....

In some way, Obama is going to have to renounce the "secrecy" powers of the "executive" presidency ...... otherwise, there are many who will distrust him.

Plus, compromising with evil has a way of returning to bite you in the ass.

The enemies of the people will be delivered into their hands.

Quote :

"The Bush administration succeeded in blocking all other judicial challenges to its illegal NSA eavesdropping with the Kafkaesque argument that ....."

I'd like to get my hands around that arrogant, cynical, spoiled frat boy's, sociopath's neck for 5 minutes. The earth would breathe a sigh of relief when his evil spirit was offered to the abyss.

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Quote :

""In his case, the Fourth Circuit's Court of Appeals last year largely upheld the power of the President to imprison legal residents (and even U.S. citizens) on U.S. soil in military prison with no criminal charges, and the U.S. Supreme Court had agreed to review that decision."

Which means we are no different than any other dictatorship or banana republic.

This illegal power is simply a threat to be held over the american people's head ...... a tool to be used against americans who intend to challenge the lawlessness and corruption of the government and its policies.

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Quote :

"Once they finally indicted Padilla, the Bush administration ran and argued that the indictment rendered the questions before the Court moot. The Supreme Court, in essence, agreed and refused to hear the appeal, thus leaving in place the Fourth Circuit's affirmation that the President has this power."

That the Bush administration would utter such nonsense is understandable, but the fact that the Supreme Court went along with it provides evidence of its lack of integrity and cowardice..... and by the way, President's should not be allowed to choose judges .....it violates the separation of powers.

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Who knows why Obama is doing this ???

Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely ???

He is afraid that he will get the "John Kennedy" treatment by certain powerful secretive elements of the govt ?? .... and by the way, I'd love to hear a president tell the american people that they are afraid of their own govt. .... they need to know.

We cannot know the reasons why, but we know it is wrong ......it totally castrates the balance of power intended by the Constitution and violates the civil rights of american citizens.

I seriously doubt that the Democrats are capable of liberal policies .... let alone progressive ones (and no, universal healthcare and such is not "progressive" ... every other industrialized nation has had these things for decades).

Ultimately, for the umpteenth time, I must lay this problem, along with all the transgressions of the Bush administration, at the feet of the american people.

They are willfully ignorant of what is occurring outside of tv land ...they seem to have no interests in protecting their own rights ...... they have been conditioned to accept the behavior of any govt or institutional power, no matter how unethical, unfair or oppressive.

I long to see a populace who is does not hesitate to use civil disobedience to show their intolerance of a govt who has betrayed them and sacrificed their interests.