Heh.

[JackRiddler]

185. With regard to your statement: "Obama restored the checks and balances of the Constitution."

How? You might have a case for saying: He wanted to, he tried here and there. But please tell what checks and balances upset under Bush (or before) have been restored under Obama? Was there an end to any of the following: general warrantless surveillance of millions, the power of indefinite preemptive detention of suspects without legal counsel or informing their family, Guantanamo and secret prisons, presidential power to designate enemy combatants (under whatever label) who are fair game for assassination without trial, authority to assassinate foreign leaders, the concept that the whole world including the "homeland" is battlefield, the USA PATRIOT Act with its expansive definitions of "terrorism," the Homeland Security Department, militarization of police, use of military as police, vertical and horizontal integration of hundreds of state and local police agencies under federal supervision without independent let alone civilian oversight, plans for "Code Red" without the silly colors, harrassment of whistleblowers (Thomas Drake), unwarranted classification and over-classification of millions of documents, vast secret agencies that are unaccountable and barely overseen by another branch ("Top Secret" budget now up to 80 billion dollars), privatization of government security functions (two thirds of "Top Secret" budget now goes to private contractors), legal harrassment of voters off the rolls and use of felony as a means to suppress the vote? Some of these, it is true (like the last example) you can say Obama tried or is trying to change; some of these Bush "achievements" accomplished ad-hoc his administration has consciously consolidated or made worse (as with the just-signed Defense Authorization). But which of these has gotten better since 2009? What has actually changed in the law or in common government practice, that you can make the statement in the past tense: "Obama restored the checks and balances of the Constitution"? Please tell us.