What Glenn said

By Dave Anderson:

Glenn Greenwald comments on the latest civil liberties and constitutional atrocity put forward by the Obama Administration.  It is worse than "Just Trust Us:"

 In response to the lawsuit filed by Anwar Awlaki's father asking a court to enjoin the President from assassinating his son, a U.S. citizen, without any due process, the administration late last night,according to The Washington Post, filed a brief asking the court to dismiss the lawsuit without hearing the merits of the claims.  That's not surprising:  both the Bush and Obama administrations have repeatedly insisted that their secret conduct is legal but nonetheless urge courts not to even rule on its legality.  But what's most notable here is that one of the arguments the Obama DOJ raises to demand dismissal of this lawsuit is "state secrets":  in other words, not only does the President have the right to sentence Americans to death with no due process or charges of any kind, but his decisions as to who will be killed and why he wants them dead are "state secrets," and thus no court may adjudicate their legality.

Dirty fucking hippies are a core component of the Obama base.  DFHs are used to the Man beating down on dissent and DFHs for no good or legal reason.  We have recently seen Homeland Security funding and FBI surveillance used to track peaceful anti-war protests in Pittsburgh and increased surveillance on anti-Tea Party groups instead of groups that want "Second Amendment Solutions."

 The DFHs have a good memory and a long track record that causes us to blanche at the thought of just trusting anyone in government with increased and unaccountable law enforcement and coercive power.  The Bush-Cheney executive power grab was a major source of contention and opposition from the DFHs.  And it is still a major source of contention and opposition from DFHs when Obama does it.  James Joyner noted in March 2009 the DFHs are intellectually consistent:

Jules Crittenden is shocked that lefty firebrands Jane Hamsher and Glenn Greenwald have continued ranting and raving about injustice now that their guy is in charge over at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.


One possible explanation for this is that, rather than having simply been partisan hacks fomenting faux outrage at the Bush Administration, they�re intellectually honest ideologues who are genuinely motivated by principle and actually outraged when their government violates said principles.

From a DFH perspective, the situation has gotten worse under Obama compared to the Bush- Cheney torture regime. Now unencumbered executive torture is the 'moderate' and 'reasonable' position as non-judicial executions are the new frontier of 'seriousness.' We are granting the Presidency more power in this domain than even William the Conquerer possessed. And it is all in the name of security to uphold our Constitution.


No wonder the DFHs are unenthusiastic to vote this year.