27 ms·

What freedoms has Obama stripped away?

jnbiche 11y ago
1. Freedom to life (claiming the government has the power to assassinate American citizens without judicial review, and actually performing some assassinations. Yes, the assholes killed were probably murdering terrorists, but depriving citizens of life without judicial review is not what our constitution permits). 2. Not only renewing, but greatly expanding the Patriot Act in 2011. You can look up the details online, but it's expanded coverage on business records in particular is pretty grim for any civil libertarian. This one hits just about every liberty enumerated in the Bill of Rights, except perhaps the 5th article. 3. Egregious persecution of American citizen whistleblowers, going so far as to force down the plane of a foreign head of state in their attempts to capture one whistleblower. 4. All the state surveillance of American citizens revealed by the Snowden whistleblowing, which is why it pissed them off so bad. 5. Continuing egregious violations against constitutional limits on unreasonable search and seizure, particularly with respect to federal "civil forfeiture", up 50%+ in money value in 2010, the last year for which I can find data [1]. If you really want, I'll continue, but I'll let others chip in. All this is pretty grim coming from a professor of constitutional law. It makes me wonder what he really believes/believed when he entered office. 1. http://www.drugwarfacts.org/cms/Forfeiture#sthash.G1c3wBkR.dpbs http://www.drugwarfacts.org/cms/Forfeiture#sthash.G1c3wBkR.d...
- venomsnake 11y ago
  This is the wrong topic - but a lot of last eight years' policies make a lot more sense if you view Obama as moderate republican (in the old timey sense of the world - probably mid 90s) when not talking about social issues. I am not sure if this is because both parties have drifted to the right economically and foreign affair wise, or it was just his world views from the beginning.
  - jnbiche 11y ago
    > if you view Obama as moderate republican I'd go even farther. Philosophically, his world views seems to be a variation of the neo-conservatism that people hated so much in Bush and Cheney. Who would've guessed in 2008? (a few people did, but very few). And that's little consolation to us civil libertarians now.
    - TillE 11y ago
      > Who would've guessed in 2008? (a few people did, but very few) Well, lots of people noticed that the hope-change rhetoric was almost entirely devoid of actual policy commitments. He also opposed same-sex marriage, sneered at atheists, etc. Anyone who expected a left-wing presidency was deluding themselves. But sure, he has also reversed course in a number of ways that probably surprised even the cynics. He talked a lot about transparency and shutting out lobbyists, then wound up doing the opposite.
  - mindslight 11y ago
    The last sixteen years' rhetoric and policies make a lot more sense if you simply view politicians from both parties as extreme authoritarians, just marketed to different tribes with differing aesthetics.
- mindslight 11y ago
  > All this is pretty grim coming from a professor of constitutional law. It makes me wonder what he really believes/believed when he entered office. I recall reading an article describing Obama's inheritance of Bush II's questionable programs. The concern wasn't so much that maybe torturing people (etc) were bad ideas, but how to reform the programs so that they were legitimate under the constitution. He essentially operates as a constitutional law black hat, searching for bugs which can be exploited to justify the tyrannical status quo.

1. Freedom to life (claiming the government has the power to assassinate American citizens without judicial review, and actually performing some assassinations. Yes, the assholes killed were probably murdering terrorists, but depriving citizens of life without judicial review is not what our constitution permits). 2. Not only renewing, but greatly expanding the Patriot Act in 2011. You can look up the details online, but it's expanded coverage on business records in particular is pretty grim for any civil libertarian. This one hits just about every liberty enumerated in the Bill of Rights, except perhaps the 5th article. 3. Egregious persecution of American citizen whistleblowers, going so far as to force down the plane of a foreign head of state in their attempts to capture one whistleblower. 4. All the state surveillance of American citizens revealed by the Snowden whistleblowing, which is why it pissed them off so bad. 5. Continuing egregious violations against constitutional limits on unreasonable search and seizure, particularly with respect to federal "civil forfeiture", up 50%+ in money value in 2010, the last year for which I can find data [1]. If you really want, I'll continue, but I'll let others chip in. All this is pretty grim coming from a professor of constitutional law. It makes me wonder what he really believes/believed when he entered office. 1. http://www.drugwarfacts.org/cms/Forfeiture#sthash.G1c3wBkR.dpbs http://www.drugwarfacts.org/cms/Forfeiture#sthash.G1c3wBkR.d...

venomsnake 11y ago
This is the wrong topic - but a lot of last eight years' policies make a lot more sense if you view Obama as moderate republican (in the old timey sense of the world - probably mid 90s) when not talking about social issues. I am not sure if this is because both parties have drifted to the right economically and foreign affair wise, or it was just his world views from the beginning.
- jnbiche 11y ago
  > if you view Obama as moderate republican I'd go even farther. Philosophically, his world views seems to be a variation of the neo-conservatism that people hated so much in Bush and Cheney. Who would've guessed in 2008? (a few people did, but very few). And that's little consolation to us civil libertarians now.
  - TillE 11y ago
    > Who would've guessed in 2008? (a few people did, but very few) Well, lots of people noticed that the hope-change rhetoric was almost entirely devoid of actual policy commitments. He also opposed same-sex marriage, sneered at atheists, etc. Anyone who expected a left-wing presidency was deluding themselves. But sure, he has also reversed course in a number of ways that probably surprised even the cynics. He talked a lot about transparency and shutting out lobbyists, then wound up doing the opposite.
- mindslight 11y ago
  The last sixteen years' rhetoric and policies make a lot more sense if you simply view politicians from both parties as extreme authoritarians, just marketed to different tribes with differing aesthetics.
mindslight 11y ago
> All this is pretty grim coming from a professor of constitutional law. It makes me wonder what he really believes/believed when he entered office. I recall reading an article describing Obama's inheritance of Bush II's questionable programs. The concern wasn't so much that maybe torturing people (etc) were bad ideas, but how to reform the programs so that they were legitimate under the constitution. He essentially operates as a constitutional law black hat, searching for bugs which can be exploited to justify the tyrannical status quo.