There are those who will be thinking right now. But he's only been in office since last Tuesday - give the guy a chance. Read the transcript of the inaugural speech one more time and, without the flags, the applause and the carefully crafted delivery, see what was really said. Look at the actions of his administration since taking office. Look at his voting record as a senator. Judge the man on his actions and stated goals not on the vacuous pandering to a nation that has been brought to its knees by the policies and decisions engineered by the same people who now occupy his administration. This being a time for hope does not mean it's a time for blind hope. Most importantly, remember that he has sworn to "preserve, protect and defend the constitution of the United States". Even if he had to do it twice.
From his Speech..
"At these moments, America has carried on not simply because of the skill or vision of those in high office, but because we, the people, have remained faithful to the ideals of our forebears and true to our founding documents. So it has been; so it must be with this generation of Americans."
The fourth Amendment of the Constitution states.
Last Thursday, the Obama administration requested U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker in the case of Al-Haramain v. Obama (07-cv-109-VRW) (MDL06-cv-1791-VRW) to reverse his decision to bring exculpatory evidence to bear. The latter is a leaked memo from the U.S. Treasury Department which was sent to the plaintiffs' lawyers. The memo would prove that the plaintiffs were subjected to unlawful eavesdropping.
In a separate filing, the administration's new Attorney General, Eric Holder, stated his intent to fight the Electronic Frontiers Foundation's court case to overturn the immunity of Telecoms companies to prosecution over their complicity in illegal wiretapping of American citizens. Obama had voted for this immunity legislation in July, 2008 which included legislation that resulted in the NSA targeting "U.S. journalists, all domestic communications of Americans, including, faxes, phone calls and network traffic."
The Obama administration clearly does not want any interference in the NSA's unbridled and unconstitutional surveillance of Americans and is happy to abrogate the Fourth Amendment.
From the Speech.
"As for our common defense, we reject as false the choice between our safety and our ideals. Our Founding Fathers -- (applause) -- our Founding Fathers, faced with perils that we can scarcely imagine, drafted a charter to assure the rule of law and the rights of man -- a charter expanded by the blood of generations. Those ideals still light the world, and we will not give them up for expedience sake."
Obama vigorously defended the Patriot Act which illustrated his "choice between safety and our ideals"
Speech continues..
"That we are in the midst of crisis is now well understood. Our nation is at war against a far-reaching network of violence and hatred. Our economy is badly weakened, a consequence of greed and irresponsibility on the part of some, but also our collective failure to make hard choices and prepare the nation for a new age."
The "far-reaching network of violence and hatred" has been created by his predecessors and is being brought to its next phase by him. The true definition of this network is U.S. imperial aggression throughout the Middle East and Asia. The illegal invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq, the support for murderous dictators from Pakistan to Chile, the meddling in the affairs of former satellites of Russia have rendered a body count that would bring a blush to the face of Pol Pot. It is not America that needs protection from the rest of the world, it is the rest of the world that needs protection from America.
The economic crisis cannot be blamed on the "greed and irresponsibility on the part of some", it was engineered to fail by the encouragement of rampant credit driven consumerism, a deliberately inflated housing bubble and the easing of legislation to protect against predatory lending. New York Governor, Elliot Spitzer was one brave man to stand up against this and paid the price. Remember, the Bailout Bill was pushed by Obama before he became President and his economic team includes the architects of policies and legislation that created the environment to enable Banks to swing open the doors of the casino known as Wall St..- Obama's biggest campaign contributors.
The "hard choices" to prepare the nation for a "New Age" - read "New World Order" - will have to be made by the very people who have just been robbed of trillions of dollars by their own government. Spending $150 million on the Inauguration didn't seem to be a hard choice for Obama. But, hey, we're all in this together.
Continuing the speech..
"Now, there are some who question the scale of our ambitions, who suggest that our system cannot tolerate too many big plans. Their memories are short, for they have forgotten what this country has already done, what free men and women can achieve when imagination is joined to common purpose, and necessity to courage. What the cynics fail to understand is that the ground has shifted beneath them, that the stale political arguments that have consumed us for so long no longer apply. "
Free Men and Women with "imagination joined to common purpose and necessity to courage" did indeed achieve real change in the past. The student and antiwar movement in the 60's succeeded in forcing their own government to finally stop murdering poor Asian people for corporate profit. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. founded a movement that brought equality in the eys of the law to Black Americans. But these achievements were against Government policies, not in partnership with them.
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