{"id":363,"date":"2011-06-16T00:33:06","date_gmt":"2011-06-16T00:33:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/community\/diaryofawimpycatholic\/?p=363"},"modified":"2015-03-13T15:04:51","modified_gmt":"2015-03-13T21:04:51","slug":"barack-obama-bully-and-cad","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/diaryofawimpycatholic\/2011\/06\/barack-obama-bully-and-cad\/","title":{"rendered":"Barack Obama: Bully and Cad?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"\"<\/p>\n

Remember back when right-wing bloggers were terrifying each other, predicting that President Obama would build America\u2019s first gulag archipelago?<\/strong><\/a> (What\u2019s that? Ah. Sorry, Japanese-Americans. Make that America\u2019s second gulag archipelago.) Well, critics are making a case that his administration does, in fact, threaten Americans\u2019 traditional civil liberties. The twist: both the critics and the alleged victims are coming from the Left.<\/p>\n

Yahoo! News reports that \u201ca large group of noted whistleblowers\u201d including Pentagon Papers leak Daniel Ellsberg, has drafted a letter demanding that Obama be stripped of the \u201ctransparency award\u201d given him by five government agencies last March:<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

The group claims that petitioners have filed more Freedom of Information Act requests made during Obama\u2019s first term\u2013with fewer responses\u2013than have been logged in previous years; that the administration has squashed \u201clegal inquiries into secret illegalities more often than any predecessor\u201d and \u201camassed the worst record in U.S. history for persecuting, prosecuting and jailing government whistleblowers and truth-tellers,\u201d including WikiLeaks suspect Bradley Manning. The letter also notes that the White House has refused to make its visitor logs public, while overseeing a 15 percent spike last year in budgetary outlays for classifying secrets. The Obama administration has spent $10 billion in enforcing secrecy protocols, the letter notes\u2013the first time any White House has eclipsed that mark.\u201dObama\u2019s department of justice is twisting the 1917 Espionage Act to press criminal charges in five alleged instances of national security leaks,\u201d the letter reads, \u201cmore such prosecutions than have occurred in all previous administrations combined.\u201d<\/p>\n

The president \u201chas set a powerful and chilling example for potential whistleblowers through the abuse and torture of Bradley Manning.\u201d
\nAnd:<\/p>\n

President Obama has initiated a secret assassination programme, has publicly announced that he has given himself the power to include Americans on the list of people to be assassinated, and has attempted to assassinate at least one, Anwar al-Awlaki.<\/p>\n

President Obama has maintained the power to secretly kidnap, imprison, rendition, or torture, and he has formalised the power to lawlessly imprison in an executive order. This also means the power to secretly imprison. There are some 1,700 prisoners outside the rule of law in Bagram alone.<\/p>\n

The Obama administration is also busy going after reporters to discover their sources and convening grand juries in order to target journalists and news publishers.
\nOne such case\u2014the subpoena of author and former New York Times reporter James Risen involving a CIA leak\u2014is still pending.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The letter appears in the UK Guardian.<\/i> Read it here:<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Many of my conservative friends have asked, \u201cWhat\u2019s happened to the antiwar movement?\u201d \u2014 meaning, the whole thing was purely partisan from beginning to end. Nobody (with the possible, and rather risible, exception of Cindy Sheehan) really cared what the U.S. did to whom, or where, provided a member of the home team was calling the plays. Turns out that\u2019s not quite the case. Here, the dovish faction in the Church may actually be ahead of everyone. Back in May, when the larger part of the country was still celebrating bin Laden\u2019s death at the hands of U.S. Navy SEALs, the editors of America Magazine<\/i> ran this opinion piece:<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

T he violent death of the fanatic who orchestrated the deaths of thousands of others has raised a set of critical ethical questions. Was the raid on the Abbottabad hideaway that claimed Osama bin Laden\u2019s life an assassination? Or was the team of Navy Seals under instructions simply to apprehend Bin Laden, taking him alive, if possible, to be tried for the deadly terrorist acts he ordered? Or does it even matter whether the intent of the military team\u2014and the president who ordered them in\u2014was to kill or to capture?<\/p>\n

A case has been made for the outright assassination of Bin Laden, a man with the declared intention of pursuing his deadly jihad against the West, if only to spare other innocent lives and forestall future mayhem. Even if an exception is allowed for summary execution in the case of Bin Laden, an exception most Americans seem all too ready to grant, we might do well to ask whether making such exceptions has now become the rule. Once critical of the extrajudicial killings in the Latin American \u201cDirty Wars\u201d of the 1970s and \u201980s, Americans have lost their inhibitions when it comes to today\u2019s Islamic terrorists. The United States, which not so long ago condemned the targeted killing by Israelis of alleged terrorists, appears to have no qualms about itself calling down strikes against those regarded as hostile parties. In authorizing assassination attempts against suspected terrorist leaders, the United States is adopting the methods it finds so reprehensible in terrorist organizations.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

My take? Obama\u2019s conduct of the war hasn\u2019t likely won over any enemies, but it\u2019s likely cost him some friends. Blessed are the peacetime presidents.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Remember back when right-wing bloggers were terrifying each other, predicting that President Obama would build America\u2019s first gulag archipelago? (What\u2019s that? Ah. Sorry, Japanese-Americans. Make that America\u2019s second gulag archipelago.) Well, critics are making a case that his administration does, in fact, threaten Americans\u2019 traditional civil liberties. The twist: both the critics and the alleged […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":192,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[27,49,188,240],"class_list":["post-363","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-barack-obama","tag-catholicism","tag-politics","tag-war-on-terror"],"yoast_head":"\nBarack Obama: Bully and Cad?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Remember back when right-wing bloggers were terrifying each other, predicting that President Obama would build America's first gulag archipelago? (What's\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/diaryofawimpycatholic\/2011\/06\/barack-obama-bully-and-cad\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Barack Obama: Bully and Cad?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Remember back when right-wing bloggers were terrifying each other, predicting that President Obama would build America's first gulag archipelago? (What's\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/diaryofawimpycatholic\/2011\/06\/barack-obama-bully-and-cad\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Diary of a Wimpy Catholic\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-06-16T00:33:06+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2015-03-13T21:04:51+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/www.google.com\/url?source=imgres&ct=img&q=http:\/\/i.telegraph.co.uk\/multimedia\/archive\/01121\/obama-smoking-460_1121795c.jpg&sa=X&ei=E0_5TZLvGsHngQesieWODA&ved=0CAQQ8wc&usg=AFQjCNF4sIQ9iXQXmyu4291dSG0rb7nokw\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Max Lindenman\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Max Lindenman\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/diaryofawimpycatholic\/2011\/06\/barack-obama-bully-and-cad\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/diaryofawimpycatholic\/2011\/06\/barack-obama-bully-and-cad\/\",\"name\":\"Barack Obama: Bully and Cad?\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/diaryofawimpycatholic\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2011-06-16T00:33:06+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2015-03-13T21:04:51+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/diaryofawimpycatholic\/#\/schema\/person\/f28642d6ff756d058ed6ff35f876e355\"},\"description\":\"Remember back when right-wing bloggers were terrifying each other, predicting that President Obama would build America's first gulag archipelago? (What's\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/diaryofawimpycatholic\/2011\/06\/barack-obama-bully-and-cad\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/diaryofawimpycatholic\/2011\/06\/barack-obama-bully-and-cad\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/diaryofawimpycatholic\/2011\/06\/barack-obama-bully-and-cad\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/diaryofawimpycatholic\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Barack Obama: Bully and Cad?\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/diaryofawimpycatholic\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/diaryofawimpycatholic\/\",\"name\":\"Diary of a Wimpy Catholic\",\"description\":\"A Hedonist Contemplates Heaven\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/diaryofawimpycatholic\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/diaryofawimpycatholic\/#\/schema\/person\/f28642d6ff756d058ed6ff35f876e355\",\"name\":\"Max Lindenman\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/diaryofawimpycatholic\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/2823340b259acd6c04cbc8d94213ca58?s=96&d=mm&r=r\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/2823340b259acd6c04cbc8d94213ca58?s=96&d=mm&r=r\",\"caption\":\"Max Lindenman\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/diaryofawimpycatholic\/author\/maxlindenman\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Barack Obama: Bully and Cad?","description":"Remember back when right-wing bloggers were terrifying each other, predicting that President Obama would build America's first gulag archipelago? (What's","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/diaryofawimpycatholic\/2011\/06\/barack-obama-bully-and-cad\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Barack Obama: Bully and Cad?","og_description":"Remember back when right-wing bloggers were terrifying each other, predicting that President Obama would build America's first gulag archipelago? (What's","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/diaryofawimpycatholic\/2011\/06\/barack-obama-bully-and-cad\/","og_site_name":"Diary of a Wimpy Catholic","article_published_time":"2011-06-16T00:33:06+00:00","article_modified_time":"2015-03-13T21:04:51+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/www.google.com\/url?source=imgres&ct=img&q=http:\/\/i.telegraph.co.uk\/multimedia\/archive\/01121\/obama-smoking-460_1121795c.jpg&sa=X&ei=E0_5TZLvGsHngQesieWODA&ved=0CAQQ8wc&usg=AFQjCNF4sIQ9iXQXmyu4291dSG0rb7nokw"}],"author":"Max Lindenman","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Max Lindenman","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/diaryofawimpycatholic\/2011\/06\/barack-obama-bully-and-cad\/","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/diaryofawimpycatholic\/2011\/06\/barack-obama-bully-and-cad\/","name":"Barack Obama: Bully and Cad?","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/diaryofawimpycatholic\/#website"},"datePublished":"2011-06-16T00:33:06+00:00","dateModified":"2015-03-13T21:04:51+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/diaryofawimpycatholic\/#\/schema\/person\/f28642d6ff756d058ed6ff35f876e355"},"description":"Remember back when right-wing bloggers were terrifying each other, predicting that President Obama would build America's first gulag archipelago? (What's","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/diaryofawimpycatholic\/2011\/06\/barack-obama-bully-and-cad\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/diaryofawimpycatholic\/2011\/06\/barack-obama-bully-and-cad\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/diaryofawimpycatholic\/2011\/06\/barack-obama-bully-and-cad\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/diaryofawimpycatholic\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Barack Obama: Bully and Cad?"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/diaryofawimpycatholic\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/diaryofawimpycatholic\/","name":"Diary of a Wimpy Catholic","description":"A Hedonist Contemplates Heaven","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/diaryofawimpycatholic\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/diaryofawimpycatholic\/#\/schema\/person\/f28642d6ff756d058ed6ff35f876e355","name":"Max Lindenman","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/diaryofawimpycatholic\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/2823340b259acd6c04cbc8d94213ca58?s=96&d=mm&r=r","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/2823340b259acd6c04cbc8d94213ca58?s=96&d=mm&r=r","caption":"Max Lindenman"},"url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/diaryofawimpycatholic\/author\/maxlindenman\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/diaryofawimpycatholic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/363","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/diaryofawimpycatholic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/diaryofawimpycatholic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/diaryofawimpycatholic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/192"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/diaryofawimpycatholic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=363"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/diaryofawimpycatholic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/363\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/diaryofawimpycatholic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=363"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/diaryofawimpycatholic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=363"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/diaryofawimpycatholic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=363"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}