Obama’s Hypocrisy and Other High Crimes June 21, 2011 by Jeff Huber

Monday, June 20, 2011

“Let me be perfectly clear: I have taught the Constitution, I understand the Constitution, and I will obey the Constitution when I am President of the United States."

--Senator Barack Obama, Feb. 26, 2008

Irony, sentenced the death penalty and executed by lethal bull roar injections during the Bush/Cheney regime, continues to claw at its coffin lid.


The XJE2020 "Liberator"
Young Mr. Obama set a new benchmark in self-satirizing political posturing when he said in a speech last Thursday that he was copacetic about negotiating with the Taliban as long as they “renounce violence and accept the Afghan Constitution.” This eclipsed even the pot-and-kettle hypocrisy we witnessed when young Mr. Bush used to admonish lesser tinhorns for not obeying the “rule of law.”

Obama’s embrace of violence has been so stark I suspect that most of us are too numb to fully comprehend it. Bush was the first president to drive the country off a cliff in two optional and unwinnable wars. Obama has embarked us on yet a third imperial snipe hunt, and he’s done so in a way that makes Bush’s contempt for the Constitution seem as venial as snitching a couple of extra cookies from the jar.

Obama doesn’t want Congress to have any say so on whether or not he can commit forces to hostilities beyond 60 days as required of him by the War Powers Act of 1973, so he had some of the lawyers who work for him tell him the War Powers Act doesn't apply to Libya since all we're doing that's hostile, per se, is bombing some stuff with them predator drones so our troops aren’t subject to enemy fire.

By that benchmark, the destruction of Nagasaki and Hiroshima and Dresden in World War II, long after Japanese and German air defenses had been destroyed, didn’t amount to hostilities wither. If tomorrow we decide to level Iran or Yemen or whatever other little country we’re displeased with at the moment with intercontinental ballistic nuclear missiles, that won't amount to hostilities either.

Blowing a fistful of Muslim wedding chapels to kibbles with cruise missiles launched from naval combatants at sea doesn't amount to hostilities any more. When the Air Force brings its gizmologically supercalifrag Prompt Global Strike on line, presidents like Bombardier Barry will be able to make smithereens out of third world Palookavilles worldwide within an hour of pushing a button on his iPad, sort of the same way he signed the extension of the Patriot Act a few weeks ago and that won’t constitute hostilities. When the Navy gets its cockamamie UCAS aka Unmanned Combat Air System aka “killer drones,” presidents like Chicago Slim can order aircraft carrier strikes on the south side of Tripoli and kill all the civilians they want to and it won’t count as hostilities. And when the Army and Marines get their combat robots with cool names like “Swords” and “Warrior X700,” presidents like Barack “I won’t be like George W. Bush” Obama will be able to invade and occupy whole countries and even regions and that won’t constitute hostilities either.

It’s disconcerting to reflect that you bought the chump “change” slogan when you voted for Obama. It’s even more cognitively disturbing to accept that your choice in 2012 will be between him and a staunch ally of Tea Bag Barbie. But neither of those perceptive horrors holds a candle to the appalling realization that you agree wholeheartedly with something that came from the mouth of House Speaker Bill Boehner. Of the administrations claim that our gun-barrel polka in Libya doesn’t amount to hostilities, Pumpkin said, “it doesn't pass the straight-face test."

No, it doesn't. And yet it is with a straight face that Team O tells us why the boss rejected the advice of two top Pentagon and Justice Department lawyers when he decided to blow of Congress and its silly little concerns about the War Powers Act and separation of powers. As the administration’s spin physicians told Charlie Savage of the New York Times to tell us, Mr. Obama decided instead to follow the advice of the White House counsel that said our activities fell short of hostilities, and that under normal circumstances the White House counsel’s interpretation of the law (Savage’s words, my italics) is legally binding on the executive branch.

The top secret amendment to the Constitution that transfers judicial power from the judicial branch to the White House counsel must be the same amendment that allows FBI agents to ignore the Bill of Rights if, in their considered opinion, violating the first ten unclassified amendments is sanctioned by the broad guidelines of their bosses in the Justice Department.

Lord John Acton was divinely correct when he said that absolute power corrupts absolutely; he conspicuously did not add a codicil that said power only corrupts Republicans. Obama’s extra-constitutional hijinks overreach even those of Richard Nixon. Nixon was hounded out of office, in part because of a vibrant, healthy free press that duly performed its function as a fourth estate guarantor of our laws and freedoms. That free press is now the Big Brother Broadcasting System. Content-wise, the mainstream media and the rabid right tabloid outlets are virtually inseparable.

I never imagined I’d look back on the Nixon era and think Those were the good old days.

P.S. The recent un-sourced announcements about Obama moving closer to ending the Bananastan bungle is exactly the same pre-election trick Dick Nixon pulled regarding Vietnam, not once but twice.

Commander Jeff Huber, U.S. Navy (Retired) is author of the critically lauded novel Bathtub Admirals, a lampoon on America’s rise to global dominance.
at 8:39 PM
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7 comments:
Empire and Rebellion said...
There at least used to be breathing space between our wars. Now they just never stop.

Every Caesar has to start a war or three of his own just to man-up to the office, because otherwise he's not in the club.
9:21 PM
Jeff Huber said...
Yeah. Who wants to be a peacetime president any more?
9:13 AM
Trevor Kroger said...
Thank you. It can't be said enough that Obama's administration has been business as usual when it comes to the failed imperialism of the Bush years. And worst of all, legitimate criticism like this is constantly getting drowned out by nonsensical red-baiting and other craziness.
10:57 AM
Jeff Huber said...
Thanks for stopping by and for the vote of confidence, Trevor.

J
11:06 AM
nunya said...
Thank you for doing what you do sir :)
12:44 PM
jpwhite said...
Well, it should be no big mystery at this point why we're there:

Now, this troubled marriage and the promise of billions of barrels of oil have been dashed by the fighting and Gaddafi’s refusal to relinquish power. Much is at stake; oil industry executives say companies such as ConocoPhillips and Marathon have each invested about $700 million over the past six years. But the U.S. oil companies have been pushed to the sidelines, waiting for the conflict to end.

Conflict in Libya: U.S. oil companies sit on sidelines as Gaddafi maintains hold

In a pure coincidence, Gaddafi impeded U.S. oil interests before the war

If the BP thing in the Gulf of Mexico showed us nothing else, it proved beyond a shadow of a doubt who Mr. Change really works for. And I'm not sure just why we're supposed to be shocked at Obama's use of violence. He's a made man who does what the people who paid for his election want him to do.

If they need something blown up or a regime changed, he's on it. After all, human lives are inconsequential when the shareholders are on the line. Why anybody thought this guy would be more enlightened or humane than Bush jr. is a complete mystery to me.
3:19 PM
Jeff Huber said...
at the time it seemed almost certain that he would be more enlightened and humane than Boy George. I mean, how hard could that be?
3:25 PM