Posted on 05/29/2009 10:19:03 AM PDT by cycle of discernment
Ted Rall: Its increasingly evident that Obama should resign
May 28, 2009
by Ted Rall
We expected broken promises. But the gap between the soaring expectations that accompanied Barack Obama's inauguration and his wretched performance is the broadest such chasm in recent historical memory. This guy makes Bill Clinton look like a paragon of integrity and follow-through.
From healthcare to torture to the economy to war, Obama has reneged on pledges real and implied. So timid and so owned is he that he trembles in fear of offending, of all things, the government of Turkey. Obama has officially reneged on his campaign promise to acknowledge the Armenian genocide. When a president doesn't have the 'nads to annoy the Turks, why does he bother to show up for work in the morning?
Obama is useless. Worse than that, he's dangerous. Which is why, if he has any patriotism left after the thousands of meetings he has sat through with corporate contributors, blood-sucking lobbyists and corrupt politicians, he ought to step down now--before he drags us further into the abyss.
I refer here to Obama's plan for "preventive detentions." If a cop or other government official thinks you might want to commit a crime someday, you could be held in "prolonged detention." Reports in U.S. state-controlled media imply that Obama's shocking new policy would only apply to Islamic terrorists (or, in this case, wannabe Islamic terrorists, and also kinda-sorta-maybe-thinking-about-terrorism dudes). As if that made it OK.
In practice, Obama wants to let government goons snatch you, me and anyone else they deem annoying off the street. Preventive detention is the classic defining characteristic of a military dictatorship. Because dictatorial regimes rely on fear rather than consensus, their priority is self-preservation rather than improving their people's lives. They worry obsessively over the one thing they can't control, what Orwell called "thoughtcrime"--contempt for rulers that might someday translate to direct action.
Locking up people who haven't done anything wrong is worse than un-American and a violent attack on the most basic principles of Western jurisprudence. It is contrary to the most essential notion of human decency. That anyone has ever been subjected to "preventive detention" is an outrage. That the President of the United States, a man who won an election because he promised to elevate our moral and political discourse, would even entertain such a revolting idea offends the idea of civilization itself.
Obama is cute. He is charming. But there is something rotten inside him. Unlike the Republicans who backed Bush, I won't follow a terrible leader just because I voted for him. Obama has revealed himself. He is a monster, and he should remove himself from power.
"Prolonged detention," reported The New York Times, would be inflicted upon "terrorism suspects who cannot be tried."
"Cannot be tried." Interesting choice of words.
Any "terrorism suspect" (can you be a suspect if you haven't been charged with a crime?) can be tried. Anyone can be tried for anything. At this writing, a Somali child is sitting in a prison in New York, charged with piracy in the Indian Ocean, where the U.S. has no jurisdiction. Anyone can be tried. Why is it, exactly, that some prisoners "cannot be tried"?
The Old Grey Lady explains why Obama wants this "entirely new chapter in American law" in a boring little sentence buried a couple past the jump and a couple of hundred words down page A16: "Yet another question is what to do with the most problematic group of Guantánamo detainees: those who pose a national security threat but cannot be prosecuted, either for lack of evidence or because evidence is tainted."
In democracies with functioning legal systems, it is assumed that people against whom there is a "lack of evidence" are innocent. They walk free. In countries where the rule of law prevails, in places blessedly free of fearful leaders whose only concern is staying in power, "tainted evidence" is no evidence at all. If you can't prove that a defendant committed a crime--an actual crime, not a thoughtcrime--in a fair trial, you release him and apologize to the judge and jury for wasting their time.
It is amazing and incredible, after eight years of Bush's lawless behavior, to have to still have to explain these things. For that reason alone, Obama should resign.
© 2009 Ted Rall
Ted Rall is a columnist for Universal Press Syndicate and is the author of the new book "Silk Road to Ruin: Is Central Asia the New Middle East?," an in-depth prose and graphic novel analysis of America's next big foreign policy challenge.
i never ever foresaw the day when i would comprehend Ted Rall’s viewpoint, let alone agree with most of it.
...going out to check for flying pigs... brb
Rall is like Paul Craig Roberts. He will viciously attack whoever is in power. The problem is that what they write says a lot more about their own psychological issues than it does about whoever is in power.
So maybe Rall has a point about Obama on these issues, but I would give Rall’s opinion absolutely no weight on the matter. I would verify his claims from other sources first.
There’s a word for these kind of people- “Contrarian.”
“Ted Rall: Its increasingly evident that Obama should resign”
Yeah, that’s gonna happen. Real soon. In fact, any time now.
These clueless liberals are so.... clueless!
Denunciations from Marxists like Rall only benefit Obama.
Tell Rall that those whom Obama intends to use “pre-emptive detention” on are right wingers,
and he’ll be OK.
Either that or my coffee fermented into some sort of hallucinogen because I can not believe that ted rall of all people wrote that.
It breaks my heart that Ted Rall, this ultra-liberal, lying POS is disappointed.
The key there would be to look at Rall's opening complaint: Obama's unwillingness to "acknowledge the Armenian genocide."
Well, OK, it was genocide, and very few people would disagree with that.
The problem is that Mr. Rall's thinking stops there. Genocide is horrible and wrong and thus we must condemn it, even if it happened 80-90 years ago. The mindset seems to be that calling something "wrong" is enough -- that we need not think beyond that.
Like much of leftist rhetoric, his views are childish -- not necessarily wrong, but incomplete; lacking in both context and perspective.
In this particular instance, the problem is that this is not a matter of what "people" will do, it's a question of relations between to countries, in a world where actions must be balanced against their consequences. Where international relations are concerned, very few things can be considered as black and white. In the case of Turkey, we must balance "acknowledging genocide" against the very real negative strategic consequences of doing so.
What's really ironic is that Rall is upbraiding Obama because he said all the right childish things, but has failed to act childishly as well.
I would not call Obama a grown-up, by any stretch of the imagination. But I would say that Obama has been learning some pretty unpleasant lessons about the difference between saying and doing.
“He is a monster, and he should remove himself from power.”
On that, I agree with Ted, but for polar-opposite reasons.
LOL! This guy is just figuring this out? Anyone that would call their own potential grandchild, "a mistake", that should be aborted- is rotten inside.
Of course this guy Rall sees nothing wrong with that. It's just really funny to see a leftist come to the same conclusion as most conservatives- but for different reasons.
I’m no fan of 0bama, but it is nice seeing Ted Rall this worked up... =:-D
Popcorn!
Well-stated in a thread of good posts.
True. Somehow I don't see Biden bowing to any Muslim.
Why can't you? Rall is attacking Obama for being insufficiently far to the left.
I'm the sort of person who always looks for silver linings when the bad times strike. I'd hoped that one (admittedly picayune) good thing to come of Obama's election would be that maybe this very sick man could finally let go of his rage and his hate and learn to be happy and love life. Apparently not. Pity.
THAT kind of marionette show about foreign policy?
“Somehow I don’t see Biden bowing to any Muslim.”
I can easily see Biden inadvertenly offending Muslims, though.
If he p*sses them off enough, maybe they’ll discover his birth certificate . . . .
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.