Original political cartoon by Michael Ramirez as seen on Real Clear Politics.
"FALSE PARADIGM" is added by Topher Morrison.
You ever wish political cartoons would be a little more balanced? Wish
they would stop browbeating a false paradigm while feigning comedy? Above is an original cartoon by Michael Ramirez. Below is my enhanced version.
As seen through the patented objectivity lens of Topher Morrison
Michelle Obama said she was for once in her adult life proud of her
country when support for her husband as President of the United States
reached a crescendo. Hope was returning to America. That idea has been
significantly called into question over the intervening years.
However, what occurred yesterday should make all Americans proud. Our
system, seemingly broken in countless ways – still works.
The controversial National Defense Authorization Act of 2012 (NDAA)
signed by Barack Obama, whose provisions (SEC. 1031 & 1032) give the
National Security Council and the U.S. government the power to detain
anyone deemed to be a “terrorist” indefinitely without charge or trial
anywhere in the world including U.S. citizens was struck down in federal
court on Wednesday by Judge Katherine Forest.
The ruling was due to a lawsuit brought about by titans in the civil
rights community. The plaintiffs in the case include scholars,
journalists and activists namely Noam Chomskey, Daniel Elseberg, Chris
Hedges, Naomi Wolf, and Cornel West.
NDAA was borne out of bipartisan effort with rabid support from Senators
John McCain (R-AZ), Lindsey Graham (R-SC), Carl Levin (D-MI) and Joseph
Lieberman (I-CT). Sen. Graham is probably the most vociferous
proponent literally screaming at his colleagues in the senate, “When
[terrorists] ask for their lawyer, you tell them ‘shut up’!”
Here Sen. Graham reiterates that National Security interests supersede
those rights and liberties ensconced in the bill of rights and
Constitution he is sworn to protect. “You are not to be given a lawyer
if our national security interests [a.k.a. National Security Council an
unelected body] dictate you are not to be given a lawyer.”
Judge Kathrine Forest of the southern district of New York evidently
disagrees with the senator. She struck down provisions 1031 & 1032
precisely because she feels they infringe on 1st and 5th Amendment
rights. Those Amendments guarantee freedom of speech and due process.
Why the law wasn’t also struck down on 6th Amendemnt grounds, right to
speedy trial and concepts of habeaus corpus, is unclear.
Sen. Lindsey Graham may see the entire world as a battlefield,
including the internet, but his legislation puts in jepordy nearly 800
years of common law respecting the individual rights against aggressive
encroachment by the state, whatever the excuse. The Magna Carta from
which our Constitution and bill of rights owes so much, signed in 1215,
says as much:
In clause 39 of the Magna Carta, John of England promised as follows:
“No free man shall be seized or imprisoned, or stripped
of his rights or possessions, or outlawed or exiled, or deprived of his
standing in any other way, nor will we proceed with force against him,
or send others to do so, except by the lawful judgment of his equals or
by the law of the land.”
Yesterday
Stephen Dinan of the Washington Times penned Congress
logs most futile legislative year on record in which he lambasts the
112th Congress for not doing much of anything.Looking at six specific
yardsticks: time spent in session, number of bills passed, number of floor
votes each chamber took, number of pages amassed in the Congressional Record,
number of conference reports, and finally number of bills signed into law by
the president Dinan surmised the 112th to be a next to useless
exercise in democracy.
Considering
the neck braking pace of legislative activity achieved under the Democratic 111th
Congress before the 2010 Republican landslide I’d say our country has been
through enough.Do we have such a
short memory?Moreover, isn’t
there a missing story here?Who
still believes Congress passes most of our laws?
The
Washington Times may have done their due diligence with regard to the
Congressional Record, however, they missed the glut of Government decrees found
in the Federal Register.This
tedious tome of over 200 volumes is the official law of the land and records
not only laws passed by Congress, but all executive orders and regulation
passed by the horde of administrative agencies whom enjoy freedom from the
deliberative process, public scrutiny and political logjam which impedes
Congressional activity.It is this
administrative law, which comprises most of the law in our country not those
passed by Congress.
The
Federal Register for example in a 12-month period, which ended in March of 2006
contained a breathtaking 77,537 pages including laws passed from over 319
independent and executive agencies!Barack Obama after the passage of ObamaCare tentatively created 159
new bureaucratic bodies ostensibly to encourage efficiency and cost
effectiveness in the new health care system.While it most assuredly with fail in this endeavor it will be able to pass laws as most other
agencies do with little impunity.
The
late libertarian economist William Niskanen, eulogized here,
was famous for coming out and celebrating the “Case for Divided Government” and
it is the 112th Congress, which proves his point.One-party governments of both political
persuasions spend three times as fast, per his calculations.We should be thankful for the
legislative breather, considering the national anxiety caused by the 111th
Congresses who wants a Do-Too-Much Congress again?
Barack
Obama having failed to convince the Iraqi government to keep U.S. forces in
Iraq pulled the majority of our troops out by Christmas of 2011, but he managed
a slim political victory by feigning to keep a popular campaign promise.Now that our troops have left its
obvious what our blood and treasure have purchased – an Iranian Super-state.
Iran
has been able to inject its proxies and influence at all levels of the Iraqi
government.Adding insult to
injury recent reports indicate Iran with be strengthening its military ties
with Iraq as well.It is no wonder
why Rick Perry in the last debate swore he’d reintroduce American forces
immediately.While its obvious
Perry understands what is happening he evidently forgets how we arrived at this
point.
George
W. Bush was fond of saying history would be his judge, but I doubt he thought
it would judge him so soon.His
ousting of Sunni Sadaam Hussein merely allowed the resurgence of Shia Iraq and
therefore the regional realignment in favor of Iran.What began as a search for WMDs, transformed to building a
strong and stable Iraq has all, but resulted in an open alliance with
Iran.All George W. Bush will be
remembered for besides abject failure will be reopening Iraqi oil, nationalized
since 1973, to private exploration and exploitation – even that is a tenuous
accomplishment.
Barrack
Obama’s copycat surge in Afgahnistan has similarly accomplished nothing.A recent
intelligence report surmises the situation in Afghanistan to have reached a
stalemate.The original task of
denying Al’Qaeda safe haven was accomplished long ago and no interim goal aside
from “winning the peace” was proffered in its place.The Taliban evidently is the lesser of two evils –
occupation or indigenous subjugation; the Afghan people evidently prefer the
latter.
NATO has botched the complicated
relationship with Pakistan so much so that it looks as if Pakistan might be
seeking security relationships elsewhere namely, China.Afghanistan meanwhile is mired in
corruption as was evidenced by the murder of President Hamid Karzai’s drug
running brother and in light of this the Taliban is being viewed in an
ironically positive light.Alas
this is the game we chose to enter.
The
War in Afghanistan is the longest in U.S. history and its time we asked the
Pentagon, our President and ourselves what we have accomplished.In light of yet another Abu Ghraib
style PR blunder this time at the hands of U.S. Marines, it is hard to see any
definitive success after 10 years of fighting.Osama Bin Laden is dead, we’ve spent trillions its time to
come home.
We all receive a lot of chain mail especially when people catch wind of what is most important to us. I want to start posting some of the best I receive each week on Sunday. So here it is, enjoy Purple Serf's - Sunday Mail Bag.
Don't take him back! He broke nearly every promise he every made to you America! He may be a good lookin', smooth talkin' long legged mac daddy, but you know he just playin' you!
Consider how Barack Obama has recently lambasted fiscal conservatives for using the debt ceiling as a political bludgeon. These are very different sentiments than he has previously espoused. Once upon a time you would have thought President Obama was a fiscal hawk!
“The fact that we are here today to debate raising America's debt limit is a sign of leadership failure. It is a sign that the US Government cannot pay its own bills. It is a sign that we now depend on ongoing financial assistance from foreign countries to finance our Government's reckless fiscal policies. Increasing America's debt weakens us domestically and internationally. Leadership means that, "the buck stops here.' Instead, Washington is shifting the burden of bad choices today onto the backs of our children and grandchildren. America has a debt problem and a failure of leadership. Americans deserve better.” -
-Senator Barack H. Obama, March 2006
Once upon a time Barack Obama was a lot of things to everyone. He promised restraint, transparency, but most of all change, yet he has proven as bellicose as the Bush administration, if not more. Barack Obama has now advanced America into Libya, Yemen, Pakistan and covertly in Iran. We are more deeply involved in Middle Eastern politics than ever. Obama double downed on Bush's torture gaffs and now tacitly supports extrajudicial killings of US citizens.
The virtual financial dictatorship of Ben Bernanke is more apparent than ever when it was shown that not only the biggest banks in America get bailed out, foreign banks were financed as well and behind our backs. This administration is more involved even in the shadows as the growing Fast and Furious scandal attests. Moreover, Obama has filled his cabinet with big business insiders, he has increased our nations profligate spending and he presides over unprecedented debt and persistent unemployment. We are more than ever one nation under Washington.
The Obama and Bush administrations aren't so different when it comes to growing government and refusing to acknowledge, in the words of the late Chalmers Johnson, "the sorrows of empire."
Columnist Glenn Greenwald Salon.comand MSNBC's The Last Word with Chris Hayes on Thursday admonished the American public for welcoming back Dick Cheney, vice-president to George W. Bush, into "polite society." Like President Bush months ago, Dick Cheney had no qualms with utilizing the enhanced interrogation method of waterboarding, considered torture by many, to extract information from high value detainees.
The current administration isn't blameless here either. The reason why Barack Obama would rather "look forward, not backward" when it comes to allegations of war crimes and torture is because with two examples of comparable characteristics analogies are easy to draw. Although Obama claimed to have rescinded Bush era interrogation policies, significant loopholes still exist.
