Ikarai wrote:so ready to leap in shouting "i told you so!" that you can't see any positive aspect to what is a massive, monumentally significant moment that is happening right now. even if it is only a symbol - and he is a symbol - the election of barack obama WILL change the world.
here we have a guy, a president who was a civil rights activist, a professor of constitutional law, a community worker, a democratic senator. a guy who clearly feels the weight of responsibility right now. can you imagine the compromises, the things he has had to do that perhaps he is not 100% comfortable with, to get where he is now, so he can have a chance to make a difference? No because all you see is your absolutist analysis. the fact is, someone like you will never get the chance to make a difference, and not least because all you do is piss and moan.
he is articulate, intelligent and perhaps most importantly, he listens. he is surrounding himself with a true cross section of your society from which he intends to find the best route. granted, he seems hesitant and perhaps a little intimidated but i challenge anyone to prove to me that he another fucking puppet like bush. his balls may steel up but the fact is, they haven't even gotten started yet. the reasonable choice is - the only choice right now is - let's wait and see.
He has now taken twice, because the first time they fucked it up, the oath to defend the CONSTITUTION. He had to say the Oath word for word for the same reason he has to protect the Constitution WORD FOR WORD. That reason, is because picking and choosing which standards to uphold is what gets us shit like the Patriot Act, the loss of Habeas Corpus, etc... Let's NOT wait, and say we did. If you don't stay on his every single move, every single day, we'll be begging the next President to prosecute his crimes. And yes, not fulfilling his oath is a fucking crime. So when he violated his own executive order, he committed an impeachable offense. He didn't sign a new executive order waving this guy, he wrote a note to the congress saying the guy gets a pass. That's nothing official, by any stretch. Rather than calling for his head on a stick, like I normally would(ask anyone who knows me, I hate both parties equally and I'm not some shill for the Republican Neo-Con's.), I simply pointed out his hypocrisy.
Right now, we're waiting on prosecutions that will never come because we "wait and give Bush a chance"
and "Wait for a Democratic Congress"
and then we "wait for Obama to prosecute"
Day 1 should have involved arrests. Why doesn't it? Simply put, if he holds Bush to those standards, he's going to be held to the same standards. If you would compromise on your values, they aren't your values. Plain and simple. He was elected because he said he could handle it. If it cannot handle it, if he cannot fight the power, so to speak... he should be removed from office via any legal means necessary. Failing to uphold the oath he took(twice) is a pretty damn good reason. And you don't need to wait and see if he will do it... he just did it. End of discussion in my estimation. And newsflash... I don't have to give any public official the benefit of the doubt. Quite the opposite. Our duty as American's is to give them no leeway. It's to punish them every time they get out of line, just like we would any one of our hired hands. Politicians deserve zero leeway, zero respect given for free. You earn respect in politics by doing the hard stuff, making the hard decisions... to quote your own buddy "even when it hurts"
In this case, there are any number of people who could have been named. That position dude would be taking is a position that more or less involves making sure Government defense contracts are fair... and a guy who worked until recently for a company that HAS THOSE CONTRACTS is not an objective party. Welcome to Bush 2.0. This is a post 9/11 level of Good Will Obama has here... squander away.
