Obama is disappointing his supporters
And the "messiah" continues to irritate his followers ... That should have been the headline for this story from Breitbart with regard to his appearance this morning on "This Week." Why? Because the KosKiddies are already whining about what was said. From Brietbart:
US President-elect Barack Obama said Sunday he was not ruling out possible prosecution for abuses committed under the George Bush administration, saying no one "is above the law".
"We're still evaluating how we're going to approach the whole issue of interrogations, detentions, and so forth," Obama said in an interview aired Sunday on ABC's This Week program when asked about alleged abuses under Bush.
"Obviously we're going to be looking at past practices and I don't believe that anybody is above the law," Obama said.
But Obama, who takes office on January 20, added that he wanted his administration to focus on tackling problems moving forward, rather than reviewing policies under his predecessor.
"My instinct is for us to focus on how do we make sure that moving forward we are doing the right thing," he said.
"That doesn't mean that if somebody has blatantly broken the law, that they are above the law. But my orientation's going to be to move forward."
Human rights and civil liberties groups have called for senior Bush administration officials to be prosecuted for a series of alleged abuses, from mishandling the conflict in Iraq to the illegal detention and torture of terrorist suspects and domestic spying.
In the interview, Obama criticized Vice President Dick Cheney for his public defense of "extraordinary" interrogation methods used against top terrorism suspects, including simulated drowning known as waterboarding.
"Vice President Cheney, I think, continues to defend what he calls extraordinary measures or procedures when it comes to interrogations and from my view waterboarding is torture," Obama said.
"I have said that under my administration we will not torture."
It's nice that in his view that waterboarding is torture, but it's not. It's not an illegal method of extracting information. The congress had a chance to do that, and they punted. They didn't outlaw it. There's also a little matter of culpability here. Before he proceeds with any sort of investigations he'd better see who's hands are dirtier on those alleged abuses. The Democrats had no problem jumping on board the "extraordinary methods" bandwagon. In fact, more than one asked if the interrogators were being harsh enough. Senator Rockefeller was one of those who questioned if enough was actually being done, and his version of calling attention to his own concerns were reflected in a letter he wrote, then stuck in a drawer.
As for the civil liberties groups that keep bringing up the terrorist surveillance program, may we suggest they get a lawyer to interpret this for them instead of them jumping to conclusions, please? The government has the authority to intercept foreign communications coming into the US, and under Article II, Section 2, the president has the authority to order the execution of electronic interception in the name of national security. This has been a power of the president going back to the 1960s when the Kennedy administration executed wiretaps against Dr. Martin Luther King. Nixon did it. Carter did it, Reagan did it, too, and so did Clinton. This isn't something that's new here, and they really need to get that through their thick skulls.
Now the KosKiddies are speculating that the reason why Obama is being evasive is because with President Bush in office, he could pardon those involved in all this illegal crap they allege he's committed. Problem is the president can't pardon himself. Sure, he could pardon Cheney, but Cheney hasn't been accused of a single crime. (Forget Plame, boys and girls, because he was cleared of those allegations.) We doubt Obama and his Justice department is going to do anything to those involved in these allegations because they'll find there's no evidence of wrongdoing.
This is just more rhetoric from Obama, and him stating he hasn't made a decision yet on this issue is a smart one. He can't come right out and say everyone involved is going down because most of those involved didn't do anything wrong. After all, if protecting the nation from another attack for seven years is a crime, that should be something that every president strives to accomplish.
Publius II
US President-elect Barack Obama said Sunday he was not ruling out possible prosecution for abuses committed under the George Bush administration, saying no one "is above the law".
"We're still evaluating how we're going to approach the whole issue of interrogations, detentions, and so forth," Obama said in an interview aired Sunday on ABC's This Week program when asked about alleged abuses under Bush.
"Obviously we're going to be looking at past practices and I don't believe that anybody is above the law," Obama said.
But Obama, who takes office on January 20, added that he wanted his administration to focus on tackling problems moving forward, rather than reviewing policies under his predecessor.
"My instinct is for us to focus on how do we make sure that moving forward we are doing the right thing," he said.
"That doesn't mean that if somebody has blatantly broken the law, that they are above the law. But my orientation's going to be to move forward."
Human rights and civil liberties groups have called for senior Bush administration officials to be prosecuted for a series of alleged abuses, from mishandling the conflict in Iraq to the illegal detention and torture of terrorist suspects and domestic spying.
In the interview, Obama criticized Vice President Dick Cheney for his public defense of "extraordinary" interrogation methods used against top terrorism suspects, including simulated drowning known as waterboarding.
"Vice President Cheney, I think, continues to defend what he calls extraordinary measures or procedures when it comes to interrogations and from my view waterboarding is torture," Obama said.
"I have said that under my administration we will not torture."
It's nice that in his view that waterboarding is torture, but it's not. It's not an illegal method of extracting information. The congress had a chance to do that, and they punted. They didn't outlaw it. There's also a little matter of culpability here. Before he proceeds with any sort of investigations he'd better see who's hands are dirtier on those alleged abuses. The Democrats had no problem jumping on board the "extraordinary methods" bandwagon. In fact, more than one asked if the interrogators were being harsh enough. Senator Rockefeller was one of those who questioned if enough was actually being done, and his version of calling attention to his own concerns were reflected in a letter he wrote, then stuck in a drawer.
As for the civil liberties groups that keep bringing up the terrorist surveillance program, may we suggest they get a lawyer to interpret this for them instead of them jumping to conclusions, please? The government has the authority to intercept foreign communications coming into the US, and under Article II, Section 2, the president has the authority to order the execution of electronic interception in the name of national security. This has been a power of the president going back to the 1960s when the Kennedy administration executed wiretaps against Dr. Martin Luther King. Nixon did it. Carter did it, Reagan did it, too, and so did Clinton. This isn't something that's new here, and they really need to get that through their thick skulls.
Now the KosKiddies are speculating that the reason why Obama is being evasive is because with President Bush in office, he could pardon those involved in all this illegal crap they allege he's committed. Problem is the president can't pardon himself. Sure, he could pardon Cheney, but Cheney hasn't been accused of a single crime. (Forget Plame, boys and girls, because he was cleared of those allegations.) We doubt Obama and his Justice department is going to do anything to those involved in these allegations because they'll find there's no evidence of wrongdoing.
This is just more rhetoric from Obama, and him stating he hasn't made a decision yet on this issue is a smart one. He can't come right out and say everyone involved is going down because most of those involved didn't do anything wrong. After all, if protecting the nation from another attack for seven years is a crime, that should be something that every president strives to accomplish.
Publius II
posted by Syd And Vaughn | 11:26 AM
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