Jan
04
2009
One month after Obama takes office, his administration owes a briefing to the Supreme Court on the subject of torture.
WASHINGTON — Just a month after President-elect Barack Obama takes office, he must tell the Supreme Court where he stands on one of the most aggressive legal claims made by the Bush administration — that the president may order the military to seize legal residents of the United States and hold them indefinitely without charging them with a crime.
The new administration’s brief, which is due Feb. 20, has the potential to hearten or infuriate Mr. Obama’s supporters, many of whom are looking to him for stark disavowals of the Bush administration’s legal positions on the detention and interrogation of so-called enemy combatants held at Navy facilities on the American mainland or at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.
I honestly feel quite torn on this issue. We never should have had this situation - but now that we do - how are we supposed to undo it without creating new, awful precedent, and without creating security vulnerabilities?
Perhaps the only way out of this is to apply Bob Cesca’s fear solution and just try them as best as possible in civilian courts. Our rule of law has to be more important than any one criminal - terrorist though he may be.
QT
Aug
07
2008
In an otherwise brilliant post, Bob Cesca nevertheless missed a key point. He quotes John McCain here:
“[Senator Obama is] claiming putting air in your tires is the equivalent of new offshore drilling,” McCain said. “That’s not an energy plan, my friends — that’s a public service announcement.”
Yes, it’s a lie. Yes, it’s ignorant. But most importantly, it’s disingenuous — deliberately ignorant with the intention to deceive. Not unlike FOX News Channel, Senator McCain is not just exploiting the ignorance of his supporters — he’s counting on it. He’s and his cynical strategists are counting on their own supporters to be unaware of the verifiable fact that if we maintain proper tire pressure, we would conserve more oil than would be attained with the McCain plan for offshore drilling. And he’s counting on his supporters to blindly ditto this line — a line that’s specifically designed to be easily repeated for the sake of painting Senator Obama as weak and ineffectual. Ironic, isn’t it.
In point of actual fact - Obama’s support of tire gauges IS a public service announcement - that’s the concession that McCain had to make since, after all, it’s true. The LIE is the idea that this is Sen. Obama’s plan. It is not. Obama gave a full detailed, multi-faceted plan and McCain refuses to acknowledge it or give it a fair debate.
That, my friends, is not a leader we can believe in.
QT
BTW - A link to Bob Cesca’s blog is to the left. He’s both brilliant and funny - so have a look-see. 
More on Barack Obama
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost
