Comments on: Obama and the spies http://donklephant.com/2008/12/05/obama-and-the-spies/ Big Teeth. Huge Ass. Surprisingly Reasonable. Mon, 23 Nov 2009 07:33:07 -0800 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 hourly 1 By: TerenceC http://donklephant.com/2008/12/05/obama-and-the-spies/comment-page-1/#comment-427492 TerenceC Fri, 05 Dec 2008 23:59:53 +0000 http://donklephant.com/?p=11687#comment-427492 If I was abetting man - wait a minute I am a betting man. I guaranty you that we will see the end of torture, rendition, secret prisons, and prisoner rights abuse. Surveillance was taking place long before it became popular as a cocktail topic so that will probably continue in some respect. Who knows what Obama will do, but I have a feeling that his approach to dealing with problems will be thought through with a solution and goal in mind. Cowboys from Texas, despite their charm, have never proven to be the sharpest knives in the drawer of politics. If I was abetting man – wait a minute I am a betting man. I guaranty you that we will see the end of torture, rendition, secret prisons, and prisoner rights abuse. Surveillance was taking place long before it became popular as a cocktail topic so that will probably continue in some respect. Who knows what Obama will do, but I have a feeling that his approach to dealing with problems will be thought through with a solution and goal in mind. Cowboys from Texas, despite their charm, have never proven to be the sharpest knives in the drawer of politics.

]]> By: Jimmy the Dhimmi http://donklephant.com/2008/12/05/obama-and-the-spies/comment-page-1/#comment-427338 Jimmy the Dhimmi Fri, 05 Dec 2008 15:24:21 +0000 http://donklephant.com/?p=11687#comment-427338 Be careful Terrence, my guess is you will not see an end to rendition or secret prisons, and you probably will not even see Obama persue habeus corpus rights for new terrorists caught going forward. You will still have telecom companies hand over phone records to be screened for phone numbers of suspected terrorists, and some kind of surveilence and intelligence gathering on citizens who may have called those numbers. But so what. As long as Obama is doing it, it will be OK. Its like the quarter-of-a-billion dollars Obama raised, mostly through large corporate donors, for his election campaign. You heard liberals and Democrats lead the charge in the past for campaign finance reform in order to to get money out of politics, but now crickets are chirping because Lord of Hopenchange is doing it, so its OK. Be careful Terrence, my guess is you will not see an end to rendition or secret prisons, and you probably will not even see Obama persue habeus corpus rights for new terrorists caught going forward. You will still have telecom companies hand over phone records to be screened for phone numbers of suspected terrorists, and some kind of surveilence and intelligence gathering on citizens who may have called those numbers.

But so what. As long as Obama is doing it, it will be OK. Its like the quarter-of-a-billion dollars Obama raised, mostly through large corporate donors, for his election campaign. You heard liberals and Democrats lead the charge in the past for campaign finance reform in order to to get money out of politics, but now crickets are chirping because Lord of Hopenchange is doing it, so its OK.

]]> By: TerenceC http://donklephant.com/2008/12/05/obama-and-the-spies/comment-page-1/#comment-427317 TerenceC Fri, 05 Dec 2008 09:38:21 +0000 http://donklephant.com/?p=11687#comment-427317 For years torture was an accepted practice within our intelligence agencies - it's clearly illegal and it was clearly ordered by Bush and Cheney. There is no precedence for the legal application of torture under any circumstances, but the dynamic duo clearly thought there was. Our intelligence agencies were at the vanguard for the application of these policies. In a world that deals with reality as it truly is Bush and Cheney would be prosecuted as war criminal. I doubt the Obama administration has the political "cajones" to persue these issues. However, it doesn't change the fact that many people currently in the management structure of our intelligence agencies were put in place specifically because they were "yes" men and women and allowed these crimes to occur. To assume that any of the people who have been associated with our nations intelligence circles in the last 5 to 6 years are "clean" is an inaccurate assumption. If it's Obamas intention to engage in a tribunal to uncover what actually occurred and under whose authority then it makes perfect sense that he wouldn't return the fox to the henhouse and that he keep his choice very private. Bush will probably issue some sort of blanket pardon for all these people - but it won't change the facts. For years torture was an accepted practice within our intelligence agencies – it’s clearly illegal and it was clearly ordered by Bush and Cheney. There is no precedence for the legal application of torture under any circumstances, but the dynamic duo clearly thought there was. Our intelligence agencies were at the vanguard for the application of these policies. In a world that deals with reality as it truly is Bush and Cheney would be prosecuted as war criminal. I doubt the Obama administration has the political “cajones” to persue these issues. However, it doesn’t change the fact that many people currently in the management structure of our intelligence agencies were put in place specifically because they were “yes” men and women and allowed these crimes to occur. To assume that any of the people who have been associated with our nations intelligence circles in the last 5 to 6 years are “clean” is an inaccurate assumption. If it’s Obamas intention to engage in a tribunal to uncover what actually occurred and under whose authority then it makes perfect sense that he wouldn’t return the fox to the henhouse and that he keep his choice very private. Bush will probably issue some sort of blanket pardon for all these people – but it won’t change the facts.

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