Imperial Presidency

Tax Money: One Man Shot a Million Photos of President George W. Bush

"The staff photographer for President Bush took a million photos. The President kept all of them. This week, the GWB Presidential library opens in Dallas. If someone wants to view a million photos of Bush, he can. I don’t know who goes to a Presidential library. There are 13 of these libraries. Bush’s cost $250 million. It has 15 acres of fake prairie. It has 227,000 square feet. To house what? They cost millions a year to run. They are built by private donors. No one knows who. No one knows why. What we do know is that taxpayers funded a full-time photographer who spent 8 years taking pictures of George W. Bush." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingTax Money: One Man Shot a Million Photos of President George W. Bush

Tax Money: One Man Shot a Million Photos of President George W. Bush

"The staff photographer for President Bush took a million photos. The President kept all of them. This week, the GWB Presidential library opens in Dallas. If someone wants to view a million photos of Bush, he can. I don’t know who goes to a Presidential library. There are 13 of these libraries. Bush’s cost $250 million. It has 15 acres of fake prairie. It has 227,000 square feet. To house what? They cost millions a year to run. They are built by private donors. No one knows who. No one knows why. What we do know is that taxpayers funded a full-time photographer who spent 8 years taking pictures of George W. Bush." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingTax Money: One Man Shot a Million Photos of President George W. Bush

Republican Lawmakers Urge Obama To Use ‘Combatant Status’ For Bombing Suspect

"Senator Lindsay Graham argues that because the public safety could be at risk (because there could be more bombs in place that could go off and/or more bombers who intend to kill still at large) that we do not read a terrorist suspect their Miranda rights (right to remain silent, etc.). The problem with this line of thinking is that we are assuming the ‘suspect’ is guilty without proof and so are denying him his rights based on the assumption that he is guilty until proven innocent. Senator Lindsay Graham wants to throw that American principle out the window and replace it with a fear driven, paranoia based legal system that does the opposite of what America stands for." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingRepublican Lawmakers Urge Obama To Use ‘Combatant Status’ For Bombing Suspect

Sore Loser

"Obummer hasn't let the fact that Congress stymied his evisceration of the Second Amendment to daunt him. 'Even without Congress,' this shameless dictator confessed [emphasis added], 'my administration will keep doing everything it can to protect more of our communities.' 'The Health and Human Services Department on Friday was beginning to ask for public comment on how the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, passed by Congress in 1996 and known as HIPAA, is preventing some states from reporting to the background check system and how to address the problem.' Obummer has vowed to 'fix' that 'problem.'" Continue reading →

Continue ReadingSore Loser

David Koresh’s Revenge: Waco and 20 Years of State Terror

"About once a day police kill an American, often a marginalized person like the homeless Kelly Thomas, beaten in July 2011 by five officers in Southern California, dying of complications five days later. Or they are veterans like Jose Guerena, at whom Tuscon police fired 71 rounds in the middle of the night in May 2011 – innocent of any crime, just in his own house at the wrong time. The state saves most of its killing for abroad, where killing is its very policy. And now, thanks to the war on terror, Obama calls America his battlefield and the world his jurisdiction. He has made it official doctrine that the president can order anyone’s death." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingDavid Koresh’s Revenge: Waco and 20 Years of State Terror

Boston Marathon Bomb Coverage Reveals Media Hypocrisy and Double Standards

"In the last decade, the U.S. has occupied Afghanistan and Iraq while bombing Yemen, Pakistan, Libya, and Somalia, imposed blockades and sanctions that prevent the poor and elderly in foreign countries from acquiring food and medicine, and yet one can spend a great deal of time searching in vain for any faces, names, or accounts of the victims from the American press. Apparently these acts aren't terrorism or mass murder, just 'foreign policy.' Why has the media covered this bombing with a fine-toothed comb, including bloody and grisly photos, yet it completely ignores the unspeakable violence when initiated by the state?" Continue reading →

Continue ReadingBoston Marathon Bomb Coverage Reveals Media Hypocrisy and Double Standards

ACLU Appeals Ruling Allowing Feds to Stay Mum on Drone Targeted Killings

"The American Civil Liberties Union today appealed a judge’s ruling allowing the President Barack Obama administration to keep mum on its legal basis for its drone targeted killing program, including information connected to the killing of Americans via drones. The appeal concerns an 'Alice in Wonderland' decision by U.S. District Court Judge Colleen McMahon of New York, who in January ruled that she was trapped in a 'paradoxical situation' of allowing the administration to claim it was legal to kill enemies outside traditional combat zones while keeping the legal rationale secret." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingACLU Appeals Ruling Allowing Feds to Stay Mum on Drone Targeted Killings

Helmut Kohl: ‘I acted like a dictator to bring in the euro’

"The Kohl administration actually donated funds to French politicians to influence French domestic opinion. And now it turns out that Kohl himself confesses he 'acted like a dictator' to ensure that Germany adopted the euro. Kohl explains that he acted like a dictator because he believes a centralized Europe with a single currency is the greatest hope for a peaceful Europe. Of course, there are plenty of questions about Europe's last two wars. If it is true, as history books now allege, that Adolf Hitler and National Socialism received a good deal of funding from American and British industrialists, then it would seem the historical recipe is incorrect." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingHelmut Kohl: ‘I acted like a dictator to bring in the euro’

Is the Boston Bombing the “Moral Equivalent” of Drone Strikes?

"While Obama demands justice in the Boston bombing, he is silent about his own role in setting off bombs in overseas countries. If the U.S. drones have killed about 4,700 people abroad, then we are talking about something that dwarfs the horror of what happened at Boston. I am not speaking of tit-for-tat. However, I am sure that the horror that people in Muslim countries experience at a drone strike is every bit as awful as what people experienced in Boston yesterday. I do not believe that we are free to denounce the evil at Boston and cheer on the evil our government perpetrates overseas. We must denounce both or risk being the worst hypocrites on the planet." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingIs the Boston Bombing the “Moral Equivalent” of Drone Strikes?

Filmmaker: Obama’s war on whistleblowers ‘a terrible disservice to democracy’

"Appearing on CNN Sunday, documentary filmmaker Robert Greenwald said that his latest film will highlight the Obama administration’s ongoing 'war' against people who reveal the government’s embarrassing and sometimes shocking secrets. 'War on Whistleblowers: Free Press and the National Security State' documents the Obama administration’s efforts to silence and retaliate against whistleblowers, and the effect that overreaching government secrecy has on journalism." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingFilmmaker: Obama’s war on whistleblowers ‘a terrible disservice to democracy’