“I think one of the enduring legacies of the Obama administration is that he has normalized assassination as a central component of U.S. national – it’s called national security policy –- he’s also sold the Bush/Cheney policies to liberals.”
Jeremy Scahill on Real Time with Bill Maher
When Obama tapped Jack Lew to become Treasury Secretary, and then reappointed Eric Holder as Attorney General, and then nominated Penny Pritzker to become Secretary of Commerce, I thought Progressives would finally admit that Obama – in a direct U-turn from his campaign promises – has finally stopped pretending to support Progressive values and is now openly moving to fill his administration with people who are favorable to Wall Street and corporate America.
But his supporters, for the most part, have been silent.
Now we learn this from NPR:
NPR has learned that former Justice Department official James B. Comey is in line to become President Obama's choice as the next FBI director, according to two sources familiar with the search.
Comey, 52, has an extensive track record at the highest levels of federal law enforcement. He served as the deputy attorney general — the second in command at Justice — in the George W. Bush administration, and as the top federal prosecutor for the Southern District of New York, where he filed charges against housewares maven Martha Stewart for lying about stock trades, among other notable cases.
Thanks to this administration, and the members of the Third Way, and the neo-liberals, and many members of the OFA, it now feels as if Progressives are supporting a de facto Republican administration. I think the most glaring problem presented by this administration has been the President’s decision to favor former Bush officials over traditional Democrats. And that extends to policies that were developed by G.W. Bush:
If Wall Street CEOs commit crimes, then we support them; if the President sides with the actions of the giant oil companies -- even though those policies hasten the destruction of our planet -- then we have no problem supporting our own downfall; if Obama sends a drone to kill American citizens without due process of law, then we have no problem supporting those actions, even though we screamed bloody murder when the same policies were enacted by Bush; if Obama is willing to protect big banks that illegally seize the homes of millions of innocent Americans, then why should we worry, and if Obama wants to fill his administration with Republicans, then how much harm can that do?
If there’s any bright spot in this nomination it is this:
In recent years, Comey has worked in the private sector, as general counsel at defense contractor Lockheed Martin and at Bridgewater Associates, a hedge fund, before leaving that post early this year to teach at Columbia Law School. Comey is a Republican, but he famously threatened to resign in the Bush years over a program that's been described as a form of warrantless wiretapping of Americans.
But that presents a conundrum since holding that position is in direct opposition to Obama’s policies on warrantless wiretapping (another Bush policy expanded by this president). Remember the new NSA facility that is being built in Colorado?
Under construction by contractors with top-secret clearances, the blandly named Utah Data Center is being built for the National Security Agency. A project of immense secrecy, it is the final piece in a complex puzzle assembled over the past decade. Its purpose: to intercept, decipher, analyze, and store vast swaths of the world’s communications as they zap down from satellites and zip through the underground and undersea cables of international, foreign, and domestic networks. The heavily fortified $2 billion center should be up and running in September 2013. Flowing through its servers and routers and stored in near-bottomless databases will be all forms of communication, including the complete contents of private emails, cell phone calls, and Google searches, as well as all sorts of personal data trails—parking receipts, travel itineraries, bookstore purchases, and other digital “pocket litter.” It is, in some measure, the realization of the “total information awareness” program created during the first term of the Bush administration—an effort that was killed by Congress in 2003 after it caused an outcry over its potential for invading Americans’ privacy.
From Stephen Pizzo
… Obama is re-trying his usual solution to sagging popularity; talking the talk while refusing to just freaking walking the walk.
(all emphasis mine)
I think Jeremy Scahill was correct:
“I think one of the enduring legacies of the Obama administration is that…he’s also sold the Bush/Cheney policies to liberals.”
http://www.youtube.com/...