David Swanson: Obama Crowned Himself King on New Year’s Eve
(Brief Excerpt)
Obama Crowned Himself on New Year’s Eve
By: David Swanson
December 31, 2011
To prevent the U.S. government from behaving like a king, the drafters of the U.S. Constitution empowered an elected legislature to write every law, to declare every war, and to remove its executive from office. To further prevent the abuse of individuals’ rights, those authors wrote into the Constitution, even prior to the Bill of Rights, the right to habeas corpus and the right never to be punished for treason unless convicted in an open court on the testimony of at least two witnesses to an overt act of war or assistance of an enemy.
President Barack Obama waited until New Year’s Eve to take an action that I suspect he wanted his willfully deluded followers to have a good excuse not to notice. On that day, Obama issued an unconstitutional signing statement rewriting a law as he signed it into law, a practice that candidate Obama had rightly condemned. The law that Obama was signing was the most direct assault yet seen on the basic structure of self-governance and human rights that once made all the endless U.S. shouting of “We’re number one!” significantly less ludicrous. he National Defense Authorization Act is not a leap from democracy to tyranny, but it is another major step on a steady and accelerating decade-long march toward a police-and-war state.
President Obama has claimed the power to imprison people without a trial since his earliest months in office. He spoke in front of the Constitution in the National Archives while gutting our founding document in 2009. President Obama has claimed the power to torture “if needed,” issued an executive order claiming the power of imprisonment without trial, exercised that power on a massive scale at Bagram, and claimed and exercised the power to assassinate U.S. citizens. Obama routinely kills people with unmanned drones.
My chief regret is that we have not seen the major resistance we could have, and without any doubt would have, seen to this if only Obama were a Republican.
Please read the full article at:
http://my.firedoglake.com/davidswanson/2011/12/31/obama-crowned-himself-on-new-years-eve/
= new reply since forum marked as read
And a loft section by the crankshaft 
not interested . . . too many other substantive discussions, evaluations of the implications and meaning of the provisions out there to read to waste energy debating diatribes.
trash can 
King, eh? Well, I guess that means that single-payer healthcare is just around the corner. Way to inflate something to the breaking point, there, David. 
by David Swanson | Jul 28 2007 - 2:01pm |
It's remarkably common for a grandson to take up his grandfather's major project. This occurred to me when I read recently of Thor Heyerdahl's grandson taking up his mission to cross the Pacific on a raft. But what really struck me was the BBC story aired on July 23rd documenting President George W. Bush's grandfather's involvement in a 1933 plot to overthrow the U.S. government and install a fascist dictatorship. I knew the story, but had not considered the possibility that the grandson was trying to accomplish what his grandfather had failed to achieve.
Prescott Sheldon Bush (1895 to 1972) attended Yale University and joined the secret society known as Skull and Bones. Prescott is widely reported to have stolen the skull of Native American leader Geronimo. As far as I know, this has not actually been confirmed. In fact, Prescott seems to have had a habit of making things up. He sent letters home from World War I claiming he'd received medals for heroism. After the letters were printed in newspapers, he had to retract his claims.
If this does not yet sound like the life of a George W. Bush ancestor, try this on for size: Prescott Bush's early business efforts tended to fail. He married the daughter of a very rich man named George Herbert Walker (the guy with the compound at Kennebunkport, Maine, that now belongs to the Bush family, and the origin of Dubya's middle initial). Walker installed Prescott Bush as an executive in Thyssen and Flick. From then on, Prescott's business dealings went better, and he entered politics.
Now, the name Thyssen comes from a German named Fritz Thyssen, major financial backer of the rise of Adolph Hitler. Thyssen was referred to in the New York Herald-Tribune as "Hitler's Angel." During the 1930s and early 1940s, and even as late as 1951, Prescott Bush was involved in business dealings with Thyssen, and was inevitably aware of both Thyssen's political activities and the fact that the companies involved were financially benefiting the nation of Germany. In addition, the companies Prescott Bush profited from included one engaged in mining operations in Poland using slave labor from Auschwitz. Two former slave laborers have sued the U.S. government and the heirs of Prescott Bush for $40 billion.
DETAILS: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x1468311
LINK to BBC programme: http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/history/document/document_20070723.shtml
Like Danziger, I don't find the BFEE funny.
Sid
make you hysterical?
I guess you did miss something!
Good grief.
when Bush n Cheney laid the groundwork for this? 
"My chief regret is that we have not seen the major resistance we could have, and without any doubt would have, seen to this if only Obama were a Republican."
about George Bush Jr. crowning himself despot in 2000.
rocktivity
That explains it -- he used up the advance the publisher gave him for his next book, so he had to write one fast!
rocktivity
Dammit...I knew there was somethin' fishy about this Obama guy
This troll was treated to quite the warm welcome.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/1002101673
The jury voted 1 to 5 to KEEP IT!
http://www.democraticunderground.com/1002101673#post41
...and finally
http://www.democraticunderground.com/1002101673#post105
9 recs to boot!
Some have just slithered in under the radar much the same way..... and stayed. Believe it.
And surprise, surprise! See so many of the same names on both!!
