Change

There's very little worth saying about the speech Dick Cheney delivered after Obama's. It's just the same recycled, extremist neoconservative pablum that drove the U.S. into the deep ditch in which it currently finds itself. The central Cheneyite claim -- they were right because they prevented another Terrorist attack on the Homeland -- is so patently ludicrous, since (a) they presided over 9/11; (b) the post-9/11 anthrax attacks happened "on their watch"; (c) Clinton "kept the country safe" for almost 8 years after the first World Trade Center attack (and, therefore, by Cheney's reasoning, Clinton's terrorism approach must have been optimal); and (d) it assumes without demonstrating that we're unable to defend ourselves unless we torture people, spy without warrants, and generally act like lawless, barbaric cretins.

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[E]ven as he paid repeated homage to "our values" and "our timeless ideals,” [in his speech, Obama] demanded the power (albeit with unspecified judicial and Congressional oversight) to keep people in prison with no charges or proof of any crime having been committed, all while emphasizing that this "war" will continue for at least ten years.

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The speech was fairly representative of what Obama typically does: effectively defend some important ideals in a uniquely persuasive way and advocating some policies that promote those ideals (closing Guantanamo, banning torture tactics, limiting the state secrets privilege) while committing to many which plainly violate them (indefinite preventive detention schemes, military commissions, denial of habeas rights to Bagram abductees, concealing torture evidence, blocking judicial review on secrecy grounds).

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The fact that it's all wrapped up in eloquent rhetoric about the rule of law, our Constitution and our "timeless values" -- and the fact that his understanding of those values is more evident than his predecessor's -- only heightens the concern.

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In other words, arguments and rhetoric that were once confined to Fox News/Bush-following precincts will now become mainstream Democratic argumentation in service of defending what Obama is doing. That's the most harmful part of this -- it trains the other half of the citizenry to now become fervent admirers and defenders of some rather extreme presidential "war powers."

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The fact that a Democratic President who ran on a platform of restoring Constitutional principles -- along with huge hordes of his supporters -- will now advocate creating and institutionalizing a system of indefinite detentions with no trial and no charges of lawbreaking (not only for current detainees but also future ones) is a pretty remarkable event.

  Glenn Greenwald

I must say that this Truth Commission thing that Obama seems to oppose, for which some of the top liberal bloggers are chastising him, concerns me as well. Maybe for different reasons than it concerns Obama. I’m not automatically all for it, because I don’t like the part where they offer immunity from prosecution to anyone who will testify to the commission. That seems to me to be something that should be a last resort used only in the course of a trial following a serious criminal investigation.

....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.