Skip to content

Obama Continues Bush Practice of Shredding the Constitution

Obama Continues Bush Practice of Shredding the Constitution

September 7, 2011 SVadmin Comments 5 comments

From Chris Hedges, former New York Times Middle East Bureau Chief:

“Stopping Gadhafi forces from entering Benghazi six months ago, which I supported, was one thing. Embroiling ourselves in a civil war was another. And to do it Obama blithely shredded the Constitution and bypassed Congress in violation of the War Powers Resolution. Not that the rule of law matters much in Washington. The dark reasoning of George W. Bush’s administration was that the threat of terrorism and national security gave the executive branch the right to ignore all legal restraints. The Obama administration has made this disregard for law bipartisan. Obama assured us when this started that it was not about ‘regime change.’ But this promise proved as empty as the ones he made during his presidential campaign. He has ruthlessly prosecuted the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, where military planners speak of a continued U.S. presence for the next couple of decades. He has greatly expanded our proxy wars, which rely heavily on drone and missile attacks, as well as clandestine operations, in Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia and Libya. Add a few more countries and we will set the entire region alight.“

Read full article here.

Print Friendly, PDF & Email

Blog, Politics
Constitution, War

Post navigation

PREVIOUS
“Corralling Bike Fever in Nevada City”
NEXT
Citizen-Consciousness vs. Consumer-Consciousness: A Paradigm Shift

Join Our Mailing List

5 thoughts on “Obama Continues Bush Practice of Shredding the Constitution”

  1. gregzaller says:
    September 7, 2011 at 6:18 pm

    I was expecting to see the reasoning behind the assertion that Obama shredded the constitution. I might or might not agree with you then. I don’t know.

  2. Don Pelton says:
    September 7, 2011 at 10:03 pm

    ” … bypassed Congress in violation of the War Powers Resolution … ” etc.

    Feel free to read Hedges’ entire article, then agree or disagree with him.

  3. depelton says:
    September 7, 2011 at 10:45 pm

    “The ACLU on Obama and core liberties”
    http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/index.html

    Excerpts:

    ” … there is ample evidence that the Obama administration continues to use torture by proxy and rendition/CIA-black-sites by proxy as well)”

    ” … the ACLU emphasizes that this Obama fixation — wildly expanded programs of targeted killings even of U.S. citizens far from any battlefield — is as threatening to the rule of law, and at least as dangerous, as any policy implemented by Bush/Cheney.”

    “Using Patriot Act authority, the Bush Administration started — and the Obama Administration has continued — to conduct wholesale ‘preventive’ surveillance of innocent Americans without judicial review.”

  4. gregzaller says:
    September 8, 2011 at 10:49 am

    I did look at the article from the perspective of whether Obama shredded the constitution and was not satisfied that the assertion was justified.

    We would most probably agree that baseless claims are coming from every direction. Here’s an article supporting Obama’s position. http://www.politico.com/blogs/glennthrush/0611/Reid_backs_Obama_on_Libya_War_Powers_Act.html

    Was this a police action or a war, and was it a good decision in the long run? I don’t know.

  5. depelton says:
    September 8, 2011 at 11:14 am

    Thanks, Greg. That’s an interesting article from Politico. In fact, I picked up their widget and made it a part of my right-hand column, as you may notice.

    Regarding the constitutionality of the Libya war, I agree with Obama Version 2007, and disagree with Obama Version 2011:

    “The President does not have power under the Constitution to unilaterally authorize a military attack in a situation that does not involve stopping an actual or imminent threat to the nation” — candidate Barack Obama, December, 2007.

    And …

    “No more ignoring the law when it’s inconvenient. That is not who we are. . . . We will again set an example for the world that the law is not subject to the whims of stubborn rulers” — candidate Barack Obama, August 1, 2007.

    From “The illegal war in Libya“

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published.

DONATE TO THE FOOD BANK OF NEVADA COUNTY

(CLICK IMAGE)

DONATE TO NEVADA COUNTY RELIEF FUND (click image below)

Jack Kornfield: A Steady Heart in Time of Corona Virus (Part I)

Subscribe to Sierra Voices Journal

Erika Lewis, Shaye Cohn, Craig Flory – Got A Mind To Ramble

Tara Brach: A Steady Heart in Time of Corona Virus (Part II)

Recent Posts

  • How worried should you be about coronavirus variants? A virologist explains his concerns
  • Stumbling into War?
  • A new force of nature? The inside story of fresh evidence from Cern that’s exciting physicists – podcast
  • The Covid Warning Signal We’re Ignoring Could Be Disastrous
  • “This Little Light of Mine” (Good Medicine!)

Recent Comments

  • STASIA KENNEDY on Have You Done the “Great Thing” You Dreamed of Doing With Your Life?
  • Board of Supervisors Tables COVID-19 Resolution Widely Misunderstood By Nevada County Residents on Comments by Eric Robins to Board of Supervisors Concerning “Open Nevada County” Resolution
  • Douglas Keachie on The Most Urgent Issue in U.S. Politics is Not Biden or Trump, Not Who is President This Time
  • The Most Important Issue in US Politics is Not Biden or Trump, or Even Who is President This Time on How to stop an Insurrection Caucus: These reforms could reduce GOP extremism and save our democracy
  • (Posted by) Don Pelton on GOP Warns Dems About Court Packing (Cartoon)

Archives

  • April 2021
  • March 2021
  • February 2021
  • January 2021
  • December 2020
  • November 2020
  • October 2020
  • September 2020
  • August 2020
  • July 2020
  • June 2020
  • May 2020
  • April 2020
  • March 2020
  • February 2020
  • January 2020
  • November 2019
  • August 2019
  • July 2019
  • June 2019
  • May 2019
  • February 2019
  • January 2019
  • December 2018
  • November 2018
  • October 2018
  • July 2018
  • June 2018
  • April 2018
  • March 2018
  • February 2018
  • January 2018
  • October 2017
  • September 2017
  • August 2017
  • July 2017
  • June 2017
  • May 2017
  • March 2017
  • February 2017
  • January 2017
  • November 2016
  • October 2016
  • September 2016
  • August 2016
  • July 2016
  • June 2016
  • May 2016
  • April 2016
  • March 2016
  • February 2016
  • December 2015
  • June 2015
  • May 2015
  • April 2015
  • February 2015
  • January 2015
  • December 2014
  • November 2014
  • October 2014
  • September 2014
  • August 2014
  • July 2014
  • June 2014
  • May 2014
  • April 2014
  • March 2014
  • January 2014
  • November 2013
  • October 2013
  • September 2013
  • August 2013
  • July 2013
  • June 2013
  • May 2013
  • April 2013
  • March 2013
  • February 2013
  • January 2013
  • December 2012
  • November 2012
  • October 2012
  • September 2012
  • August 2012
  • July 2012
  • June 2012
  • May 2012
  • April 2012
  • March 2012
  • February 2012
  • January 2012
  • December 2011
  • November 2011
  • October 2011
  • September 2011
  • August 2011
  • July 2011
  • June 2011
  • May 2011
  • April 2011
  • March 2011
  • February 2011
  • January 2011
  • December 2010
  • November 2010
  • October 2010
  • September 2010
  • August 2010
  • July 2010
  • June 2010
  • May 2010
  • April 2010
  • March 2010
  • February 2010
  • January 2010
  • December 2009
  • November 2009
  • October 2009
  • September 2009
  • August 2009

Categories

  • Aging
  • Anti-Depressant
  • Articles
  • Atlas Obscura
  • Authoritarianism
  • Black Lives
  • Black Lives Matter
  • Blog
  • Buddhism
  • Buskers
  • Capitalism
  • Cartoon
  • China
  • Climate Change
  • Constitution
  • Corona Virus
  • Corruption
  • Cosmology
  • COVID-19
  • Democracy
  • Depression
  • Disenfranchisement
  • Economics
  • Education
  • Election Fraud
  • Environment
  • Extinction
  • Farming
  • Fascism
  • Filibuster
  • Fire!
  • Food Insecurity
  • Foreign Policy
  • Forest Management
  • Fracking
  • Gardening
  • Gender
  • Health Care
  • High Country News
  • History
  • Humor
  • Hunger
  • Ignorance
  • Immigration
  • Insects
  • Labor
  • Local
  • Masks
  • Medical Care
  • Men
  • Mental Health
  • Middle Class
  • Mining
  • MMT
  • Modern Monetary Theory
  • Music
  • Native Americans
  • New Cold War
  • Nutrition
  • Oligarchy
  • Pandemic
  • Parenting
  • Physics
  • Poetry
  • Police
  • Politics
  • Populism
  • Press
  • Race
  • Reviews
  • Revolution
  • Right-wing terrorism
  • Rise Gold
  • Rivers
  • Romance
  • Russiagate
  • Science
  • Summer
  • Technology
  • Trump Virus
  • Tuba Skinny
  • Tyranny
  • Uncategorized
  • Vaccine Refusal
  • Vaccine Safety
  • Voting
  • War
  • War on Government
  • Water
  • Watersheds
  • Wildfires
  • Winter
  • Work

Meta

  • Log in
  • Entries feed
  • Comments feed
  • WordPress.org
© 2021   All Rights Reserved.