Hope Gives Way to Nope

[unhappycamper]

Hope Gives Way to Nope
Joe Galloway | November 02, 2009

You may remember all those Obama campaign cheerleaders for change chanting, "Yes we can!" during last year's campaign events.

This year, in the 10th month of his presidency, it doesn't really seem that they can, or that he can. Nothing much has changed except the size of the federal budget deficit and the National Debt, both swelling and swollen by the humongous bailout of Wall Street and the big banking corporations.

Any hope that we'd witness and celebrate a return to the rule of law after the departure of George W. Bush and his unindicted co-conspirators has long gone a' glimmering. President Barack Obama would rather face an uncertain future than look back at an ugly past.

Never mind that this nation was founded on the concept that no man, however powerful, is above the law, not even a king.

The president-to-be promised a swift withdrawal from the Iraqi quicksand, but that hasn't come to pass, either. Instead, we witness a slow-mo' pullout that will sort of end things on the Bush administration's timetable of late 2011 for the last American combat troops to be gone, and God only knows when for the rest to leave. That's if the Iraqi parliament can pass a new election law in time for elections to be held on schedule in January.


Rest of article at: http://www.military.com/opinion/0,15202,204998,00.html?wh=news

[babylonsister]

1. When did Obama promise a swift withdrawal? I recall 2011 was mentioned.

Galloway is good, but he can't make up 'facts' to suit his article. :thumbsdown:

[emulatorloo]

2. "The road ahead will be long. Our climb will be steep. We may not get there in one year or even

one term. But, America, I have never been more hopeful than I am tonight that we will get there.

I promise you, we as a people will get there.

There will be setbacks and false starts. There are many who won't agree with every decision or policy I make as president. And we know the government can't solve every problem.

But I will always be honest with you about the challenges we face. I will listen to you, especially when we disagree. And, above all, I will ask you to join in the work of remaking this nation, the only way it's been done in America for 221 years -- block by block, brick by brick, calloused hand by calloused hand.

MORE AT LINK:

http://edition.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/11/04/obama.transcript

[unhappycamper]

3. Some of my hot buttons:

the Iraq occupation
the Afghanistan occupation
warrantless wiretapping
extraordinary rendition
Guantanamo
torture
out of control military budget

[emulatorloo]

4. He's ended torture, he's trying to close Guantanamo (congress not helping), and what was that

useless jet they got canceled.

Troops are being "drawn down" in Iraq, he is not rushing into anything with Afghanistan despite the shrieking wingnuts

The rest of the stuff on your list I haven't followed.

It is not as if nothing is being done.

[unhappycamper]

5. Well, the unfundered liability of Iraq is about $3.5 trillion.

No telling how much Afghanistan is going to cost.

Warrantless wiretapping is un-American and just plain wrong.

Kidnapping people and torturing them is against moral and Geneva conventions.

Habeus Corpus was 'invented' in 1215 and was revoked on September 29, 2006.

Both Guantanamo and torture speak for themselves.

The military budget for 2001 was around $280 billion dollars and the 2010 military budget is $686 billion (exclusive of the cost of the occupations) dollars.


on edit to add: Obama may have declared he ended torture, but how do we know? DoD and much of the government are * holdovers. Oh BTW, Article four of the Geneva conventions state:

Article 4

1. Each State Party shall ensure that all acts of torture are offences under its criminal law. The same shall apply to an attempt to commit torture and to an act by any person which constitutes complicity or participation in torture.
2. Each State Party shall make these offences punishable by appropriate penalties which take into account their grave nature.

[emulatorloo]

6. You keep implying Obama admin is still torturing. What is your proof. n/t

[unhappycamper]

7. What is your proof that he is not? n/t

[emulatorloo]

8. You are making the accusation, not me. The burden of proof is upon you n/t

[unhappycamper]

9. The proof is simple.

Let Amnesty International into Gitmo, Bagram and any of the identified CIA black prison sites. Saying you don't torture and actually not torturing are separate and distinct. Eight years of republicans have made me somewhat skeptic.

[spiritual_gunfighter]

11. Here is proof

Jeremy Scahill: “Little Known Military Thug Squad Still Brutalizing Prisoners at Gitmo Under Obama”


Jeremy Scahill reports the Obama administration is continuing to use a notorious military police unit at Guantanamo that regularly brutalizes unarmed prisoners, including gang-beating them, breaking their bones, gouging their eyes and dousing them with chemicals. This force, officially known as the Immediate Reaction Force, has been labeled the “Extreme Repression Force” by Guantanamo prisoners, and human rights lawyers call their actions illegal.


http://www.democracynow.org/2009/5/19/jeremy_scahill_little_known_military_thug

[emulatorloo]

12. The article mostly covers Bush Era time. Scahill claims they are "still in operation" but

doesn't appear to provide much support for the claim. Maybe he documents it elsewhere.

Claims something happened in Feb 09, again I cannot tell his sources. I will give him the benefit of the doubt, and assume he has documented his sources elsewhere. As you know Feb 09 was soon after Obama came into office. I suppose that is possible that it slipped thru the cracks early on after Obama gave the order.

[spiritual_gunfighter]

13. So you doubt Jeremy Scahill's reporting

One of the best progressive investigative reporter out there. Do you also doubt Democracy Now!? This was still going on in the Obama administration and as far as I have read even recently Scahill has said it continues. So much for your argument that Obama doesnt torture.

[natrat]

10. the best one is the trillions given to banks who in turn dont lend it

but buy commodities stocks foreign currencies, whatever they want, at firesale prices and watch as an increasingly worthless dollar pumps up the investments they made. And those investments don'thave much to do with american industry absent the auto bailouts. Democracy really is over

[ShortnFiery]

14. And President Obama just proclaimed that MORE TAX CUTS are just around the corner.

Oh goody goody gum-drops! :puke: