With four kids and a new puppy, I do not get to watch much television. This morning therefore I was probably one of the last to read this odd comment from President Barack Obama on Jay Leno last night:
“The odds of dying in a terrorist attack are a lot lower than they are of dying in a car accident, unfortunately.” It was clearly a slip of the tongue but for civil libertarians it was a signature moment since our burgeoning security state seems to be working desperately to keep fear alive. For many who have criticized the rise of the security state, it sounded like an authoritarian Freudian slip. The comment is particularly interesting in light of a recent poll showing Americans afraid more of their own government’s attack on privacy than terrorist attacks.
Despite new reports of additional massive warrantless surveillance programs, Obama continued the campaign of denial by his Administration and allies in Congress. He insisted “We don’t have a domestic spying program.” That is clearly untrue given the public acknowledgment of these programs but it does not seem to matter. As usual, Obama seems to be drawing a distinction between collecting such data on every citizen and actually using that surveillance. They only use the information in these massive databanks when they want to. It also does not seem to matter that the only serious questions on this issue for the president appear to be coming from a comedian.
On Snowden, Obama stated “We don’t know exactly what he did, except what he said on the Internet and it’s important for me not to judge.”
That is also likely to strike civil libertarians as a bit odd since this is the president that claims the right to kill any American citizen without a charge, let alone conviction, based on his own authority. He vaporized Anwar al-Aulaqi on this basis. His teenage son was killed later.
Of course this is just comedy . . . the show that is.
Just another Rose Garden Beer Fest … the more things change, the more they stay the same.
The Snowden situation has really rocked ’em.
Hmmm … so there’s an Executive order regarding whistleblowing procedures within the Intelligence Services.
Come on … just look at Executive orders 13440 and 13491 … they rain from heaven like pennys and are worth just about as much.
Not even I, a 68 year old grandmother in a small town outside of Cleveland, a liberal democrat with a soft spot for Intelligence officers, buy that one.
I suggest you do a bit of work on your delivery and then schedule a follow-up appearance on Letterman.
Obama canceled his meeting with Putin.
It was probably the shirtless photos Putin sent to Weiner.
Shirtless photos of Barry.
In that interview, Obama said
“But one of the things that I think is very important for me to speak out on is making sure that people are treated fairly and justly, because that’s what we stand for.”
Reading Between The Lines (TM) I think he was talking about GITMO again?
Y’know the place where maybe 20 out of what started as nearly 800 people 10 or so years ago might perhaps face some sort of charges in a military “court” – and where even people cleared for release are still kept and force-fed?
“And I believe that that’s a precept that’s not unique to America, that’s something that should apply everywhere.”
Yeah. Right.
http://thinkprogress.org/lgbt/2013/08/07/2425861/obama-russia-anti-gay/
Obama’s off the cuff statements are indeed revealing. I think C.N. Nevets comments were on point:
“I don’t dispute any of the criticism, but I think it’s more clunky speech than anything else. Pretty sure the thought process went like this:
/Okay, I need to make sure they understand that they aren’t all at risk of dying in a terrorist attack./”
With the nonsensical expansion of the “Intelligence” State, to fight a mythical “War on Terror”, a fine line must be walked to justify the excess, while not fully frightening the public into a state of paralysis by fear. He tried to walk it and he failed. The idea that this is a stupid man is ridiculous. however, I am coming more and more to the conclusion that the President is not a good manager of his administration and relies far too much on his advisers in various fields, whose advice is probably self-serving. JFK was very skeptical of his military and intelligence advisers probably because his father was a political insider and provided him insight as to how government really worked. One could say and I have, that it was this skepticism and the failure to go along with the CMIC that got him murdered.
““He’s a Liberty hater, a white people hater, a gun hater, and all you dumb f*ck liberals who follow this man are being misled.”
Liberty hater, yes. White people hater, no. Don’t you remember his adulation of the savvy white businessmen who are taking down the economy? Gun hater, no. We lead the world by several magnitudes in arms sales. Liberals can be dumb and misled just like any other person.
Can’t get anything to post. 150 human rights groups have called on Obama to stop pursuing Snowden. Obama, meanwhile has canceled talks with Putin over Snowden. (read in guardian)
What does Obama mean that he hasn’t said anything about Snowden?
“This is the stupidest man we’ve ever seen as President.”
American Patriot,
There is much to condemn Obama for but “stupidest President”, I think not. Remember you have G.W. Bush, Warren G. Harding and Gerald Ford to throw into the mix.
“He’s a Liberty hater, a white people hater, a gun hater, and all you dumb f*ck liberals who follow this man are being misled.”
Possibly you should call yourself “American Bigot”, or “American Racist”, which I assume would be more appropriate.
“More than 150 civil society organisations from around the globe are asking President Barack Obama to end the prosecution of Edward Snowden (Activists stage second national day of protest against NSA’s domestic spying, 4 August).
Human rights, digital rights and media freedom campaigners from the UK to Uruguay and from the US to Uganda have joined together to call on the US administration to acknowledge Snowden as a whistleblower. All of us ask that he is protected and not persecuted.
Snowden’s disclosures have triggered a much-needed public debate about mass surveillance online everywhere. Thanks to him, we have learned the extent to which our online lives are systematically monitored by governments, without transparency, accountability or safeguards from abuse.
Rather than address this gross abuse, the US government has chosen to shoot the messenger. It has revoked his passport and obstructed his search for asylum. European governments have been quick to help.”
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/aug/06/united-states-leave-edward-snowden-alone
Obviously, many people think Obama has spoken up about Snowden.
Nothing wrong with what President Obama said. It’s all in the reading between the lines we all seem to do.
Accident is a misnomer. should read “Crashes”
Unfortunately = **”thanks to those driving carelessly and irresponsibly, without any regard for innocent others” when I read that.
I kinda felt like it was indeed a terrorist attack 50 years ago when an auto driver ran me 10ft. off the road and hit me in my ditch head-on. OBTW, I was riding a motorcycle.
The local newspaper quoted the Sheriff “the cause was the inexperience of the motorcyclist”. No charge could be filed against HIS in-laws!
Some very wise elder told me “Serves you right for riding a motorcycle”.
Prospective Jurors got dismissed due to similar statements.
Need I tell you what his Lawyer and Insurance Co. did???
Now I must confess to being the luckiest guy I’ve ever met….I survived, sloughed off the injuries, did not go bankrupt and lived fairly well indeed ever after!
**Unfortunately, more people die from auto crashes………..
What do you Folks read between the lines???(96 oz coffee on board)
C. N. Nevets., That’s how I was reading it also, but it seemed from Mr. Turley’s post it was maybe Freudian. I’m tough on Obama but I think the slam is he is lost w/o his teleprompter, like Reagan was.
Reblogged this on Reality Check and commented:
Honestly, this man speaks when told to speak from notes written for him. When he goes on Jay Leno, he doesn’t have any helpers running his teleprompter (Oh, they are there, I was one of those people once for Presidents, I know what goes on behind the scenes) – but he has no CLUE what he is talking about or how to speak without help.
This is the stupidest man we’ve ever seen as President. He’s a lying criminal – because he hires criminals into the government. He’s a Liberty hater, a white people hater, a gun hater, and all you dumb fuck liberals who follow this man are being misled. You think there is a utopia in your future, but you’re wrong.
The only thing in your future are talking points and prison.
I don’t dispute any of the criticism, but I think it’s more clunky speech than anything else. Pretty sure the thought process went like this:
/Okay, I need to make sure they understand that they aren’t all at risk of dying in a terrorist attack./
“The odds of dying in a terrorist attack are a lot lower than they are of dying in a car accident –”
/Oh, shoot, that sounds like I’m making light of people dying in car accidents./
“– unfortunately.”
/There; now they know that I think it’s unfortunate that people die in car accidents. Nice save, Mr. President, nice save./
I think we are getting glimpses into th minds of our would be overlords and what I’m seeing scares the crap out of me. This statement does not make sense. It’s completely false for Obama to claim he has nothing to say about Snowden. He’s already grounded Morales plane, threatened every nation against giving him asylum and said Russia is engaging in cold war tactics by giving Snowden temporary asylum.
Here is what one of our would be deep state overlord has to say about the peons who oppose surveillance. It’s really something to behold and gets worse as it goes along. Here is an excerpt: “The former director of the National Security Agency and the CIA speculated on Tuesday that hackers and transparency groups were likely to respond with cyber-terror attacks if the United States government apprehends whistleblower Edward Snowden.
“If and when our government grabs Edward Snowden, and brings him back here to the United States for trial, what does this group do?” said retired air force general Michael Hayden, who from 1999 to 2009 ran the NSA and then the CIA, referring to “nihilists, anarchists, activists, Lulzsec,
Anonymous, twentysomethings who haven’t talked to the opposite sex in five or six years”.
“They may want to come after the US government, but frankly, you know, the dot-mil stuff is about the hardest target in the United States,” Hayden said, using a shorthand for US military networks. “So if they can’t create great harm to dot-mil, who are they going after? Who for them are the World Trade Centers? The World Trade Centers, as they were for al-Qaida.”
http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2013/aug/06/nsa-director-cyber-terrorism-snowden
But . . . but . . . but . . . wasn’t Obama advertised to us as The Great Orator?
It seems that lacking his Teleprompter, Obama often becomes incoherent and we cannot be sure what he means or meant to say.
On Snowden, Obama stated “We don’t know exactly what he did, except what he said on the Internet and it’s important for me not to judge.”
1. Come home Bradley ( Obama: “He broke the Law”) Manning
2. If it were not for Snowdon saying things on the Internet, the NSA would have absolutely no idea of what he did. They don’t do computer system forensics.
.
“The odds of dying in a terrorist attack are a lot lower than they are of dying in a car accident, unfortunately.”
Well, he *could* have meant that :
– an awful lot of people are dying in terrorist attacks on US soil on a daily basis
– even more are dying in car accidents – and that’s unfortunate, because that would mean a huge number of car accidents.
What we need are GPS trackers, motion sensors, microphones, cameras and black boxes in all vehicles.
What we clearly need is for the NSA, the CIA and FBI to join together will State and local law enforcement officials so we have enough manpower for each car driver to have a person walk in front of their vehicle with a red flag thus preventing accidents.
I don’t understand the quote. Is it merely using “unfortunately” poorly[no teleprompter]? Did he make a Freudian slip? Someone please break it down for me. I’m still on my first cup of coffee.
You don’t say…. And if it happens to you…. Then it’s real… Then again, is this justification for the illegal eavesdropping……
He kids, he kids.
Reblogged this on Brittius.com.