How Obama Became a Civil Libertarian's Nightmare: He Expanded Many Of Bush's Worst Policies

[ProSense]

2. This was

posted already.

Here's my response: http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=585248

It's the typical strung together hyperbole.

President Obama now has power that Bush never had. Foremost is he can (and has) order the killing of U.S. citizens abroad who are deemed terrorists. Like Bush, he has asked the Justice Department to draft secret memos authorizing his actions without going before a federal court or disclosing them....One of Bush’s biggest civil liberties breaches, spying on virtually all Americans via their telecommunications starting in 2003, also has been expanded. Congress authorized the effort in 2006. Two years later, it granted legal immunity to the telecom firms helping Bush—a bill Obama voted for...How bad is it? Anthony Romero, the ACLU executive director, exclaimed in June 2010 that Obama “disgusted” him. Meanwhile, the most hawkish Bush administration officials have defended and praised Obama.

Yeah, dig up everything every said or reported, debunked or not, and throw in the word "nightmare," and voila!

Never mind that even the ACLU sees progress in many areas.

• Ordered an end to the use of torture and cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment, withdrew
  flawed legal analysis used to justify torture and applied the Army Field Manual on interrogations
  government wide.
  
• Abolished the CIA secret prisons.
  
• Says that “waterboarding is torture” and “contrary to America’s traditions… contrary to our ideals.”
  
• No reports of extraordinary rendition to torture or other cruelty under his administration.
  
• Failed to hold those responsible for past torture and other cruelty accountable; has blocked
  alleged victims of torture from having their day in court.

http://www.aclulibertywatch.org/ALWCandidateReportCard.pdf

Bush left a tremendous mess, and anyone who believes it's going to be easy to untangle it is kidding themselves. Look at Guantanamo.

Libertarians are the nightmare.