How is Barack Obama like George Bush? Let me count the ways ...

Here's one: A disgrace of historic proportions

... despite knowing how many people we are innocently imprisoning, the Obama administration continues to demand the power to imprison people with no judicial review: by indefinitely detaining them without charges, by insisting that Bagram detainees captured outside Afghanistan have no habeas rights, by refusing to release any Yemeni detainees at Guantanamo, including those whom the administration itself knows are being wrongfully detained. ...

And we call ourselves civilized? ...

... Most Americans like torture. They're entertained by it. But at least someone is making a record. Sometimes that's all you can do.

Bush/Cheney (among others) caused this. Obama (and many Dems) choose to continue it.

Those who torture should be prosecuted. Those who support torture should be treated with derision, demonized, ostracized.

But the United States of America led by that great hope, Barack Obama, does the opposite.

THIS is to be Obama's legacy? ...

From a most analytical being, Glenn Greenwald:

... this to what is taking place in the United States under Democratic Party rule. We get -- from the current Government -- presidential assassination programs, detention with no charges, senseless demands for further reductions of core rights when arrested, ongoing secret prisons filled with abuse, military commissions, warrantless surveillance of emails, and presidential secrecy claims to block courts from reviewing claims of government crimes. The Democratic-led Congress takes still new steps to block the closing of Guantanamo. Democratic leaders push for biometric, national ID cards. The most minimal surveillance safeguards are ignored. Even the miniscule limits on eavesdropping powers are transgressed. And from just this week: "Millions of Americans arrested for but not convicted of crimes will likely have their DNA forcibly extracted and added to a national database, according to a bill approved by the U.S. House of Representatives on Tuesday" ...

Why we despise them ...

Glenn Greenwald summarizes it so well:

It makes perfect sense that the country loathes the political establishment. Just look at its rancid fruits over the past decade: a devastating war justified by weapons that did not exist; a financial crisis that our Nation's Genuises failed to detect and which its elites caused with lawless and piggish greed; elections that seem increasingly irrelevant in terms of how the Government functions; grotesquely lavish rewards for the worst culprits juxtaposed with miserable unemployment and serious risks of having basic entitlements (Social Security) cut for ordinary Americans; and a Congress that continues to be owned, right out in the open, by the very interests that have caused so much damage. The political establishment is rotten to its core, and the only thing that's surprising is that the citizenry's contempt isn't even more intense than it is. ...

Then he slams the incompetence and utter decrepitude of the media:

... But precisely because that dynamic so clearly transcends Left/Right or Democratic/GOP dichotomies, little effort is expended to understand or explain it.

The media can't/won't attempt to understand the world they inhabit because it may not suit their little preprogrammed minds.

What do the do in all those journalism schools? Teach journalistic creationism?

And so who should that surprise? ...

Obama’s Drug Strategy All Talk, No Walk

"We are a nation of cover-up artists."

You can say that again ...

We are a nation of cover-up artists.

Like Republican, Like Democrat ...

It's a smelly political swamp we've allowed to stink up our country:

To say that "Democrats, including liberals, will accept and push whomever Obama picks," based on the rationale that "Clinton & Obama like and trust her, and most liberals (myself included) like and trust Clinton & Obama" -- even if they know nothing about her, even if she might move the Court to the Right -- seems to me to be an exact replica of what I described four years ago.

Delicate balance?

All the Joe Stack's vs The Powers That Be ...

But in a brilliant exercise in doublethink, people are led to hate and fear the deficit. That way, business’s cohorts in Washington may agree to cut benefits and entitlements like Social Security (but not bailouts).

At the same time, people should not oppose what is largely creating the deficit—the growing military budget and the hopelessly inefficient privatized healthcare system.

It is easy to ridicule how Joe Stack and others like him articulate their concerns, but it’s far more appropriate to understand what lies behind their perceptions and actions at a time when people with real grievances are being mobilized in ways that pose no slight danger to themselves and to others.

Obama, the smiling Bushie ...

Other than for the first few days in office, has Obama done anything worthwhile?

The Dow is swinging wildly–down as much as 980 points within the last hour–largely due to insecurity about the situation in Greece and shaky retail sales. And according to Brad DeLong, who is generally pretty tight with the White House, Obama will come out in opposition to Audit the Fed this afternoon.

At a time when confidence in the markets desperately needs shoring up, the President should be looking to instill confidence in investors by supporting accountability and transparency within the financial system — not acting to shield the banks. [link]

Obama has catered to thieves and liars. Obama has bowed down to moneyed interests. Is there a single principle that Obama has not betrayed?

Not only has he chosen to follow Bush's murdering steps, Obama now makes jokes about killing people, just like Bush. The similarities are adding up ...

I don't find that a Democrat who acts like a ReThug is any improvement over a ReThug.

Really, at least Bush could not destroy Social Security while he was in office. He must be laughing his guts out now that Obama plans to accomplish what Bush couldn't. As far as Social Security and Medicare we would have been better off with McCain as President and the Congress in Democratic hands. As it is Obama has ruined the chances of many Democrats. If one could conceive of the ReThugs having the smarts and/or Obama having the 'audacity' one could almost imagine Obama being a pre-planned Trojan Horse working for the Republican/Corporate Party.

Dems are just as smart at the Repugs ...

... which, in general, means they are amazingly dumb.

Giant Oil Spill Threatens Alternative Energy Legislation. Wait, What?

When Congress doesn't want to do something anything can be used as a reason.

My last shred of respect for Bill Clinton is now gone ...

... Bill Clinton spoke openly about the secret agreement he reached in 1997 with Newt Gingrich to take money out of Social Security and place it in private accounts — something Wall Street has been demanding in order to keep the bubble from bursting. ... [link]

At one time I thought Bill Clinton was a somewhat decent though shortsighted President. It appears, though, that he was as deceitful and deliberately destructive at Barack Obama but just lacked George Bush's he-man stomping shoes to smilingly walk behind [as Obama has chosen to do].

Digby gives up ...

... the authoritarian torturers win.