One poster recently said it nicely: the American people by and large are a frightened bunch of easter rabits and will forgive any wrongdoing so long as they feel "protected." Obama must fear that his re-election chances would be destroyed, and his administration imperilled, by a terrorist attack. Therefore, any excess indulged in to prevent such an instance is justified. Secondarily, Obama believes in the system, not as we understand it, but as it is. He knows the dirty tricks and illegal ops that the government engages in, and he's OK with that up to a point. When he was out of power, that point was further to the Left or Libertarian side of the spectrum. Now that he has all the levers of power, and knows approximately how much of our mail, email, telephone conversations, etc. are being monitored (most if not all), and he benefits from all this knowledge and the power it brings, he's making his peace, again, with the system that has been so good to him and rewarded him with such great power. If you want a third factor, I'm sure the spooks have all kinds of nasty bits and bobs about him that they would be all too happy to leak to some Rethug Senator if Obama tries to upset the apple cart of state secrets. Those are more than enough reasons for a liekable "pragmatist" to tow the Military-Intelligence State's line.

President Obama's budget priorities were OK, his blank check to the finacial barons unconscionable, his lifting of the gag order laudable, his halting efforts on climate issues promising. But the President's primary responsibility is to "preserve, protect and defend the constitution of the United States", and in this all-important task he is proving at best wholy incompetent, at worst criminal. This is my beef with the current administration. Above all else, the President must stand for the constitutional order, and Obama wants the power of Louis XIV to spy on and lock people up on his say-so and keep them imprisoned under conditions kept secret, because of thier illegality, until hell freezes over. Nothing Obama does can readily compensate for such a vile defense of power and royal prerogative--a prerogative no president does or should enjoy.

but by the time that proof manifests itself we will be facing a global catastrophe. So they fiddle while Rome burns. They are like cancer patients who what to see a tumor bulging out of their body before they will accept any treatment for the ailment. On the Right, they just don't want to believe anything they don't want to believe. On the Left, you've got people like Alexander Cockburn who are still in pomo-land, believing that science is a coercive scam designed to force them to believe in some "truth" that scientists simply make up to get money and power for themselves. As an American with a job, my chances of surviving the troubles ahead are OK. For millions in the Third World, the actions of Bush, and perhaps Obama, are the death sentence.

Second, what "team" am I on, as I am no Republican and no Democrat. Third, the more "free" we've made the market since Reagan the more dominated we've been by the corporations you seem to decry here. How does your libertarian paradise deal with corporate power, plutocracy, or monopoly? To put it directly: how do you break the chains of corporate power without government interference in the holy market place and regulation? How do the rich not buy power and influence if they are not disallowed to do so by government laws and regulations? How do you check the greed and stupidity of the rich if you have no laws to police their activities? Get off your knees in front of the "genius" Ron Paul and think for yourself, for Christ's sake!

he is assuming you are guilty. He has no choice. You, as a citizen, have a right to take that temporary decision to trial, and you have the right to habeas corpus and bail, and banks effectively have these right, too. What Paul wants is for the cop NOT to stop you, because that cop is usurping your right to demand that you are innocent until proven guilty.

All law enforcement temporarily assumes that you are guilty in order to stop you from doing what you are doing, in order for a court to determine if what you did makes you guilty. This fact seems to have elluded Congressman Paul.

This morning I heard the President talk about passing a budget that will "get us back on the road to permanent prosperity." Bullshit, Barak, bulllllllllshittttt. We've been sold a fairy story called "the American Dream" wherein everyone lives like the Huxtables or the "kids" on Friends or The Real Housewives of Orange County and never gets sick while enjoying adolescent hijinks and multiple orgasms. We have been told by the politicians and the media for two generations to "have it all", never grow up, and indulge ourselves. Now nobody from the top down wants to tell us to grow up, produce more than we consume, and force the rich as well as the poor to share the pain and face reality. The era of "permanent prosperity" is over, and the piper must be paid. The creidt card companies made billions off of a population besotted by notions of wealth everlasting. May they suffer accordingly.

But the Obama Administration isn't going to use any nuclear weapons and neither is any other concievable administration. If Bush was restrained in using nukes after 9/11, you can all bet your bottom dollars that our current administration isn't going to use or threaten the use of nukes over a finacial dispute with China. And you can bet the Chinese know this, too.