Wednesday, September 05, 2012

Blah Blah Obama Blah Blah

Sincere question: am I the last person in America who gives a damn about civil liberties anymore? All the coverage I've seen regarding the ongoing Democratic convention focuses primarily on jobs and the economy -- "The economy is better now than it was four years ago. No, it isn't. Yes, it is. Well, it would've been worse without Obama." The cover story in this week's Economist discusses the Obama presidency to date, and with the exception of a brief throwaway mention about killing Bin Laden it, too, is economy-exclusive. Even Obama's Republican opponents focus their attacks on "The economy sucks plus OMG gays in the military," with a side order of "How DARE he not promise to give Israel all the financial or military support they want."

Am I the only one still bothered by the fact that Americans cannot travel within their own national borders without submitting to sexual molestation at the hands of a TSA flunky? Am I the only one who opposes the notion "American citizens can be imprisoned or even killed, solely on the president's say-so?" Am I the only one who remembers his broken promises to close Gitmo or tell the Department of Justice to stop prosecuting sick people who treat their symptoms with marijuana? The only one disturbed by the notion that a humiliating strip-and-spread 'em search may now be inflicted on anybody arrested even for the most minor of misdemeanors? The only one disturbed by the thought that the NSA effectively has carte blanche to listen in on our phone calls and read our emails without even bothering to get a search warrant? The only one appalled by the fact that he's more vociferous about punishing whistleblowers than Bush and Cheney were?

Apparently so. And the American left-wing -- traditional champions of the oppressed and the underdog, so long as they're being oppressed by a Republican -- ignores all this in favor of cooing "Ooh, Michelle is so stylish." Yeah, well, so was Eva Peron.

7 Comments:

Blogger BerserkRL said...

But Obama is the mystical incarnation of all of us! So whatever he does to us, we are really doing to ourselves.

11:14 AM  
Anonymous TedJ said...

I'm thinking of flying next time in blackface. And changing my name to Tobie. Jus' Tobie. Tobie be good. Tobie do whatever masah say.

Yaaza!

12:48 PM  
Anonymous Jay said...

When Obama left Bush's changes in place, he took the issue out of play. Our system doesn't have a way of dealing with issues that the two major parties agree on.

Of course, if he'd done anything to restore civil liberties, the Republicans would have thrown a fit that he was soft on terrorism.

Of course, that fit may not have been noticeably worse than the fit they threw anyway.

2:27 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

The problem is that no candidate on the national stage has been saying anything different on civil liberties, with the exception perhaps of Ron Paul.

America does not stand for personal freedom anymore, and the worst part is that people are so brainwashed that they don't even ask these questions.

I think freedom has been redefined as "freedom from crimes committed by people who don't work for the government."

6:14 PM  
Anonymous Jeff P. said...

Well, there's this: http://www.latimes.com/travel/deals/la-trb-tsa-drinks-screening-20120905,0,4003545.story
or:
http://www.jaunted.com/story/2012/9/5/145656/1863/travel/TSA+Pretty+Sure+You+Don't+Understand+How+Time+Works+or+What+Words+Mean
or:
http://amyalkon.mensnewsdaily.com/2012/08/21/dumb-enough-to-work-for-the-tsa-too-dumb-to-understand-satire/
or:
https://twitter.com/doctorow/statuses/243656656230178817
And that's 20 seconds of searching.

10:06 AM  
Blogger Jennifer Abel said...

When Obama left Bush's changes in place, he took the issue out of play. Our system doesn't have a way of dealing with issues that the two major parties agree on.

The two-party system is hopelessly calcified. "I'm going to punch you in the face and break your nose; do you want me to punch you on the left side, or your right? IT'S YOUR CIVIC RESPONSIBILITY TO CHOOSE."

10:49 AM  
Blogger Monkey said...

"Sincere question: am I the last person in America who gives a damn about civil liberties anymore?"

I don't think so, in a 2011 blog post title "Fuck you" I pretty much ran down EVERYTHING that was wrong with Obama, from the NDAA to the TSA xraytittiballgrab fiasco. The problem is while my hole in the wall blog doesn't get read much, and you DO have decent readership, it is FAR outstripped by the see no Obamaevil hear no Obamaevil speak no Obamaevil flacks in the mainscream media. That is where the majority of people still get their info, where issues like the NDAA are not covered and TSA molestation is justified as "making things safer", which when uttered by some male news anchor in a tie or female hottie newscaster, is taken for truth and never questioned.

I think it is a combination of misinformation, disinformation, and no information from the mainstream media, combined with political partisanship - both are fanning the flames burning the constitution.

9:40 AM  

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