Well, it now appears we are at war for regime change after all. President Barack Obama joined British Prime Minister David Cameron and French President Nicolas Sarkozy in a rare article appearing in International Herald Tribune, Le Figaro, and Times of London to say that they will not accept anything less than changing the government in Libya. We are now officially parties in a civil war to overthrow a government — without a declaration of war from Congress.
The leaders stated that “it would be an unconscionable betrayal” not to force an outcome in the Libyan civil war. The betrayal for civil libertarians is Obama’s entering a third war in violation of the U.S. Constitution and adding to our already crushing debt to dictate who will lead another country.
We have now gone from preventing a massacre to enforcing a no fly zone to close combat support to regime change. Yet, the silence is deafening from Democratic leaders and most of the liberal base. It appears that an undeclared war by Bush is a intolerable outrage while an undeclared war by Obama is a pragmatic necessity.
Source: CNN
Are we sure this isn’t really Cheeeeeney in disguise?
As a libertarian Trump’s abuse of eminent domain laws in Atlantic City to seize property for parking garages for his casino’s makes me dislike for more than his obnoxious personality.
rafflaw,
I have a better chance at being elected president than Sanitarium does …
I have been putting a lot of thought into something though … I wonder if he’ll be campaigning with the miscarried fetus he keeps in a jar and scared the shit out of his live kids with … does he and his wife have clothes for it so it can be presented properly on the campaign trail? Inquiring minds want to know!!
Stamford,
You are right about Santorum. Today he went on record saying that the Ryan Budget should also include current Seniors on Medicare! He wants to screw current Medicare users along with the future ones! Such a Christian attitude.
SL,
I don’t think this qualifies as a hijacking.
More like a hilarious meander.
Well, since I’ve hijacked the thread to “people who have absolutely zero chance of becoming president”, I’d like to add this to the mix …
Friday, Apr 15, 2011 16:30 ET
Rick Santorum disowns campaign slogan when told a gay liberal poet came up with it
By Alex Pareene
Long-ago Sen. Rick Santorum is running for president, despite his “Google problem,” and fresh out of the gate he has already invited more mockery. His campaign website features the slogan, “Fighting to Make America America Again” (by which I think he means that America is not America when there’s a Muslim in charge).
As some liberals have noted, “Let America Be America Again” is the title of a poem by Langston Hughes, an avowed leftist who was probably gay. And the poem does not really reflect the Santorum agenda.
Because Santorum is not a very good politician, he allowed himself to be “tripped up” by a student who asked him about how his campaign slogan was written by a gay, black, pro-union leftist poet:
Santorum by and large stayed on message but was tripped up a bit when a student asked him if he knew that the choice of his slogan, “Fighting to make America America again,” was borrowed from the “pro-union poem by the gay poet Langston Hughes.”
“No I had nothing to do with that,” Santorum said. “I didn’t know that. And the folks who worked on that slogan for me didn’t inform me that it came from that, if it in fact came from that.”
The student, whose name was not immediately available, was referring to the poem “Let America Be America Again.” When asked a short time later what the campaign slogan meant to him, Santorum said, “well, I’m not too sure that’s my campaign slogan, I think it’s on a web site.”
It was also printed on the campaign literature handed out before the speech.
Oh, Rick. Immediately disowning your campaign slogan, and denying it’s even your slogan, because some kid said it’s similar to something a liberal poet wrote? It is going to be a long campaign. (But not for you, because you will not do very well and will drop out early.)
Obviously there is a difference between making America be America again and letting it, but Hughes’ poem actually serves as a sort of prebuttal to Santorum’s notion of restoring America to its mythical former glory. America was never America for plenty of Americans. (“There’s never been equality for me, / Nor freedom in this ‘homeland of the free.'”)
http://www.salon.com/news/rick_santorum/index.html?story=/politics/war_room/2011/04/15/santorum_hughes_slogan
Why do I get the feeling the next year and a half is going to be quite entertaining??
BIL,
“that does explain the hair thing on his head”
What IS that thing, anyway??
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_LFiUi_kP5kU/TVS69keB8LI/AAAAAAAAI5Y/Xx3nEzetr_k/s1600/donald-trump31.jpg
BIL,
LMAO!
This will be more appropriate come primary time … if he gets that far …
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k2kxlZDOHeQ&w=640&h=390]
You know, SL, that does explain the hair thing on his head.
SL,
ROFLOL
Yoo and Bybee should be serving the bar somewhere.
Pardon my typo.
Yoo and Bybee should be serving
thebar somewhere.Damn it. Still not quite right . . .
Yoo and Bybee should be serving
thebehind bars somewhere.There. That’s better.
BIL,
Did you catch the NY Daily News cover from April 12th?
http://s3.amazonaws.com/data.tumblr.com/tumblr_lji2tginQ81qas8z9o1_r3_1280.jpg?AWSAccessKeyId=AKIAJ6IHWSU3BX3X7X3Q&Expires=1302991457&Signature=WhCgGyvIwtzlFVWTT%2B4c0%2B2cyU4%3D
I thought the Yoo/Bybee memos were bad law and, even worse, were written in bad faith. The Obama presidency has not conferred any legitimacy on them.
The President’s actions are unconstitutional. They are not even debatably lawful. Congress won’t do anything about it because they prefer not to have to vote up or down on any issues which they will have to defend later on. They will assert limited oversight authority only when things go from bad to worse, which they absolutely will.
Jill,
As I have stated in the past, I am not backing Obama or avoiding any criticism of his actions, just the opposite. I merely mentioned that Congress has to act and they won’t. We have to either push the right buttons in Congress or get new people in there. That being said, I see noone on the horizon that is electable that will be better than Obama. Not a happy fact, just what I see. As an aside, I don’t think you have to worry about Trump. He will self destruct way before the primaries.
If anyone is worried about President Trump, they should be out protesting in the streets right now. Every unchecked executive power will pass to Trump in 2012 unless that unchecked executive power is checked, right now!
President Trump. What a perfectly horrifying idea. If that’s not a recipe for nuclear war, I’m not sure what is. To give you an idea of how opposed to Trump I am? I’d sooner cut off my own arm than vote for a Bush, but even that scumbag Jeb would be preferable to Trump. Actually, if either of them got close to the job, I’d soon be a Canadian or an ex-pat in whatever country would let me claim political asylum.
SL He has filed bankruptcy three times.
Swarthmore,
“They are running ads for Donald Trump.”
A guy who had to file for bankruptcy for his … casinos … how’s that for irony??
The congressional democrats are not going to impeach Obama. Forget it. The R’s might. If you look at the “impeach Obama” websites, they are very “red state” with libertarian leanings. They think that Paul Ryan does not go far enough in his cuts. They are running ads for Donald Trump.
rafflaw,
You’ve made my point for me. We don’t own Washington, the MIC and the Banksters do. Congress should have impeached Bush and defunded his wars. Now Congress should impeach Obama and defund his wars. We both know that will not occur because this country isn’t a country of law. Therefore, it is the job of the people to reclaim the rule of law. If we don’t do it, it will not happen. I suggest peaceful resistance, civil disobedience, whatever one can do that is within one’s circumstances (health, financially, family etc.)
What I find disturbing is exactly the issue JT raises here and often in his others posts: the willingness of so many Democrats under Obama to be exactly like Republicans under Bush. JT writes: “Yet, the silence is deafening from Democratic leaders and most of the liberal base. It appears that an undeclared war by Bush is a intolerable outrage while an undeclared war by Obama is a pragmatic necessity.”
Under Bush, Republicans accepted anything he did as O.K., to include torture, starting wars and murder. Of course, this was very wrong of them. Now it is the Democrats’ turn. Obama is committing torture and murder and starting wars. Democrats defend him, just as Republicans defended Bush. At some point, people will have to stand against “their” party. It must have been very difficult for many of the lawyers to write even the tepid letter they did protesting the treatment of Manning. These people believed in, campaigned for and were mentors to Obama, yet they felt strongly enough to stand up for what is right. How painful emotionally to do this, but how necessary. This is the necessary action for Congressional Democrats, who should not take impeachment off the table for political reasons (but who will). More importantly it is the necessary action of US citizens. We should not fail in this.