Eric Holder’s Justice Department stood up in court today and said that it would continue the Bush policy of invoking state secrets to hide the reprehensible history of torture, rendition and the most grievous human rights violations committed by the American government. This is not change. This is definitely more of the same. Candidate Obama ran on a platform that would reform the abuse of state secrets, but President Obama’s Justice Department has disappointingly reneged on that important civil liberties issue. If this is a harbinger of things to come, it will be a long and arduous road to give us back an America we can be proud of again.
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That the Obama DOJ -- when faced with its first real test to determine what it intends to do in these areas (as opposed to engaging in symbolic rituals and issuing pretty words) -- explicitly adopts exactly the Bush position is about as inauspicious a start in these areas as one can imagine.
Apparently, I am not the only one the sees Obama not fulfilling his campaign promises. At least I don't have to bear the brunt of being a Democrat that has been lied to. I never voted for the man based on his promises anyway, because, to be perfectly honest, I had my doubts about his ability to actually deliver. I did, however, think he had a fighting chance if he actually believed his own rhetoric.
Apparently not. First the sucking up to the Republicans in the name of bipartisanship, the unanimous "nay" vote by the House Republicans despite the sucking up, the complete and utter failure of the Senate stimulus package, and now this -- standing firm on the Bush Administration's claim of "state secrets" defense.
This most certainly does not bode well for the America that many of us voted Obama into office to restore back to its rightful place in the world.
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