All-Purpose NuILX thread for American Politics

not particularly surprised, but i was kinda confused the whole time b/c it seemed like the portions Obama objected to weren't the ones the ACLU objected to, just the ones that limited his own power.

The Administration strongly objects to the military custody provision of section 1032, which would appear to mandate military custody for a certain class of terrorism suspects. This unnecessary, untested, and legally controversial restriction of the President's authority to defend
the Nation from terrorist threats would tie the hands of our intelligence and law enforcement professionals. Moreover, applying this military custody requirement to individuals inside the United States, as some Members of Congress have suggested is their intention, would raise
serious and unsettled legal questions and would be inconsistent with the fundamental American principle that our military does not patrol our streets.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/omb/legislative/sap/112/saps1867s_20111117.pdf

like, yes, the argument is that it would "challenge or constrain the President's critical authorities to collect intelligence, incapacitate dangerous terrorists, and protect the Nation" by ~requiring~ federal custody for american citizens for such and such

thereby overloading the system

again not that i'm buying this, just relaying what's in the public record

OH MY GOD

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OdiSwV6calw

this is deeply disturbing
"It's Christmas in America!"

^that's a newly released Herman Cain video, forgot to mention

i'm watching it on mute listening to gabba

I had no idea until yesterday that Bam was calling "game over" in Iraq this week, probably bcz no one thinks anything is over, including him.

lol Morbs

if there's one soldier left it's still a "war" amirite

are you also angry about WWII and the Korean War still going on

speaking of war, here's Turley's column about Obama's chilling civil liberties record. Glad it appeared in Obamaland's newspaper of record too.

And, no surprise, Obama will sign the Levin-McCain indefinite detention bill.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/dec/15/americans-face-guantanamo-detention-obama?CMP=twt_gu

sad that that column is totally hystrionic, obscures the legitimate points.

xp

The key paragraphs:

The Senate is expected to give final approval to the bill before the end of the week. It will then go to the president, who previously said he would block the legislation not on moral grounds but because it would "cause confusion" in the intelligence community and encroached on his own powers.

But on Wednesday the White House said Obama had lifted the threat of a veto after changes to the law giving the president greater discretion to prevent individuals from being handed to the military.

The veto threat wasn't to torpedo the bill -- it was to preserve executive control over incarceration.

And, no surprise, Obama will sign the Levin-McCain indefinite detention bill.

ugh this is really fucked up

the Korean War is, technically, still going on.

No Mo, the Iraq fuckup will just proceed with our diminishing presence a la Vietnam 1973-75.

Glad it appeared in Obamaland's newspaper of record too.

since when is the LA times Obamaland's paper

No Mo, the Iraq fuckup will just proceed with our diminishing presence a la Vietnam 1973-75.

dude this is bad how...? that's like best-case scenario! Vietnam is a now a functional state fyi. kinda doubt that's in the cards for Iraq.

Man I forgot he won the Nobel

that was so ridiculous

I was not making the analogy all the way, Shakes

I read about the Nobel in Obamaland's paper of record.

eternal and permanent lols for anybody who suggests voting Democrat in the next election after this fuckin Levin-McCain bill, like every last "oh but the alternative & real human costs of Republican rule" argument is a total joke now. indefinite detention without charge enshrined into law. eat shit for breakfast if you even try to persuade one person to reelect the guy who signed this into law. vote for him yourself if you must but be ashamed of that vote imo.

want my gf to get health insurance, sorry bro.

Sure, but find a Republican (other than Lol Paul) who would reverse it.

want my gf to get health insurance, sorry bro.

Do you live in a red district?

^key question^

If you live in a blue district, consider your last vote for Obama the encouragement – the gratitude – for endorsing affordable health care.

the omnibus spending bill that averts government shutdown also puts to rest an administration rule on energy efficiency lightbulbs

GRRRRRRR

i live in Tenn, so I won't be voting for this asshole.

but it's pretty clear every single viable GOP candidate would do/ be worse. it's really not even debatable. so if i lived in a swing state, i would probably vote for the asshole.

i feel like if you are concerned with effecting change on this issue w/ the least amount of on the ground work your best bet is to vote for obama and donate a lot of money to the ACLU

if you are more concerned w/ being able to remain rigid consistency btw yr beliefs and actions, i encourage you to not vote for obama and then "go off the grid" in some kind of cottage

If you want a single issue to turn you against Obama, I don't know why you would pick the one that affects a small handful of individuals who in all likelihood are "combatants," rather than one that affects millions like the various political choices being made about legislative priorities and the regulatory pipeline. Precedent and perhaps principle are certainly problems with things like this, but the biggest one under Bush was simply the all-around obtuse stupidity in application. While that certainly may not have been eliminated in less visible corners of the government, things have undeniably changed.

Yes, Obama is governing as far too much of a "moderate" (and in many respects at least temperamentally a "conservative," which he sort of warned us about with "no drama") from a policy standpoint. That may be suited to the country's desires, as well as the administration's desire to do more in a second term, but not exactly what the other side sought and sometimes did with far less of a mandate. But I see a health care bill and renewable energy standard and some financial reform efforts, and no welfare reform or don't ask don't tell or major troop presence in Iraq, so by some measures things are better than they've been in quite a long time.

http://img155.imageshack.us/img155/4228/picard2pf1.jpg

The Return of Nü-Gabbnebism

as well as the administration's desire to do more in a second term

this candle is still burnin i see

i think "just wait for the progressive second term!" is about as credible as "just wait for him to whip out martial law & strip us of our guns in the second term"

"rigid consistency"? having humane principles?

srsly, off to prison w/ Bam now. Impeach.

A nominal "police state" is apparently considered the price you pay to avoid a fifth Roberts on the court, an end to social security, and a "carbon bomb" of a trans-American pipeline. I prefer to avoid those things.

deck chairs

peanut gallery

you know the real C.K. Dexter was a lot more fun after Katherine Hepburn divorced him.

i was going to say something about how the universe/history/brahman/whatev never gives you what you really want, ever, but then this argument happened and i'm not so sure

and a "carbon bomb" of a trans-American pipeline

http://www.theonion.com/articles/report-global-warming-may-be-irreversible-by-2006,26808/

(from last week)

you (and the onion) are correct that it's almost certainly too late to avoid a century full of climate change-related calamities, morbs, but that doesn't mean that there aren't degrees of misery. exploiting every last drop of fossil fuels like an addict will put us into deeper circles of hell, so it's still very much worth fighting things like the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline.

degrees of misery

US politics in a nutshell

i should be an inspirational speaker for 7th graders:

"hey kids, it's true that you're in for decades of suffering! but only YOU can make the decisions that might slightly reduce the amount of suffering!"

now let's get out there and barely mitigate!!