Monday, April 13, 2009

Audacity of Hope

I guess Obama was right when he named his book Audacity of Hope, it is audacious to hope to expect real change from within our political structure. I tried not to set my expectations for Obama too high, and I think I kept my hopes tempered with reality, but he has failed, miserably, at something that it didn't even occur to me e could fail at. He wanted to close Guantanamo, he was going to restore due process, Habeas Corpus and all that good stuff. Those were campaign promises that I really expected him to keep. Make this a country of laws again, but now he is making me question if even this relatively easy promise is not going to be kept. He is appealing a court ruling that says their must be judicial oversight for detained persons. Where did those damn activist judges get such an idea?

In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the state and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the assistance of counsel for his defense.

Maybe thats where.

He is also apparently trying to make it illegal to sue the government for illegally wiretapping, unless the government then makes the wiretapped info public, then you can sue. For some reason it seems to me that this issue was already settled... again by the founding fathers.

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

I don't think I'm asking to much for my president to fulfill his campaign promises (ok maybe that is too much), obey the law, and uphold his oath of office. His sworn duty is of course to uphold the constitution, right now I'm not impressed.

I should say that I wouldn't normally use Jesus General as a source, it is satire. But it was the first place I heard about this and now I'm doing some more searching. Washington Independent has some info, but it's tricky cause many on the left don't want to go after Obama yet while the right can't go after him for trying to continue with what the shrub started. But I've always been a particularly harsh critic towards those I like (higher expectations) so I feel no need to not take Obama to task for tis shit.

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