The Surreal World

Glenn Greenwald hears dogwhistles:

What Obama has specialized in from the beginning of his presidency is putting pretty packaging on ugly and discredited policies. The cosmopolitan, intellectualized flavor of his advocacy makes coastal elites and blue state progressives instinctively confident in the Goodness of whatever he’s selling, much as George W. Bush’s swaggering, evangelical cowboy routine did for red state conservatives.

Conor Friedersdorf sees the surrealism of it all:

Roughly five years ago, when he took over for George 2, he’d promised to change course in the conflict formerly known as the Global War on Terror, which he still wages against terrorists all over the globe. Vowing to stop torturing people, he made good on his pledge, waterboarding zero suspected terrorists, but killing thousands without capturing them. Having assured a reporter, “I reject the Bush Administration’s claim that the president has plenary authority under the Constitution to detain U.S. citizens without charges as unlawful enemy combatants,” he killed four U.S. citizens without charges. Insisting that “it is illegal and unwise for the President to disregard international human rights treaties … ratified by the U.S. Senate,” he disregarded the Convention Against Torture, an international human rights treaty ratified in 1994 by the U.S. Senate.

This is the sort of thing that makes me despair for the future of the Republic. It doesn’t matter what you do. It’s who you are and how you express yourself to your own partisans that matters.

You need only look to the Justice Department’s subpoenaeing of AP reporters’ phone regards for an illustration of just how detached from reality things are. The president disavowed all knowledge and called out for a media shield law. But it’s his own administration. He doesn’t need a media shield law. He could end the whole thing by executive order if he cared to.

6 comments… add one
  • Comrade Icepick Link

    He could end the whole thing by executive order if he cared to.

    Does he even need to issue an executive order? Couldn’t he pick up the phone at any time and get Holder on the phone and say “Stop that”? Couldn’t he bring it up in the next Cabinet meeting? Maybe put it on one of those “to-do” lists he mentions?

    But of course not. Not when he claims the IRS is an independent agency even when the IRS commissioner is meeting with White House staffers every week. Besides, why change a winning strategy? This, all of this, the harassment of reporters, the harassment of the President’s enemies (but not the country’s) b the IRS, assassinating American citizens, this is what the voters want.

  • jan Link

    A little deja vu.

  • Comrade Icepick Link

    Speaking of Presidential scandals, not only is the WH story that the IRS is an independent agency wrong and bullshit, the WH was more interested in what the IRS was doing than it was in how the various wars were going.

    But you know, things like the Obama Administration talking about the Koch brothers taxes, or the Obama campaign talking about Romney’s taxes, or the Obama Administration talking about how bad Romney donors were and then the IRS immediately auditing those same people, or organizations opposed to the President getting the third degree from the IRS AFTER various Democratic elected officials started calling for just such punishment, all of that is purely coincidental and has nothing to do with the Administrations intense interest in the IRS.

    As is the fact that IRS commissioner visited the White House over six times more often than the SecDef. Pure coincidence.

  • Maybe the president just found him a congenial companion. 😉

  • This is the sort of thing that makes me despair for the future of the Republic. It doesn’t matter what you do. It’s who you are and how you express yourself to your own partisans that matters.

    It is too bad Michael has basically taken his ball and gone home, as he is one of the more ardent defenders of Obama here. I think this comment is pretty damn good.

    You need only look to the Justice Department’s subpoenaeing of AP reporters’ phone regards for an illustration of just how detached from reality things are. The president disavowed all knowledge and called out for a media shield law. But it’s his own administration. He doesn’t need a media shield law. He could end the whole thing by executive order if he cared to.

    TL;DR version: He could stop it if he wanted too, since he isn’t he doesn’t want it too stop.

    Possible explanation as to why: He is maybe hoping the scandal will blow over and he and his administration can pick up where they left off.

    And keep this in mind: Once an administration/POTUS extends his power in some regard it is always there…for the next guy to use…the next guy might not be somebody you like too much.

    But these superior intellect progressives (by and large) just don’t seem to grasp this point.

    You are right to be fearful Dave.

  • jan Link

    When it suited the Obama administration leaks were plentiful and then pretty much ignored by them. One of their favorite reporters, David Sanger, seem to mysteriously have inside scoops causing even Diane Feinstein to question their origin, as they contained information she and her committee hadn’t been made privy to.

    Going back aways, there were the leaks relating to the doctor enabling the capture of OBL (now jailed, and remains so, for his cooperation with us), and revelations about the secret Stuxnet virus, which are sure to have blow-back type of ramifications . — only to mention a few. However, these apparently did not trigger the subpoena threshold, as they added points to the Obama Administration. However, it seems that when Obama’s glory was preempted by the AP printing something first, or when a news item may have been uncomplimentary to Obama’s foreign policy, it became a different story, and thus was imperative for the DOJ to reign in the powers of the press through it’s secret and intrusive investigations.

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