We're pretty much a dictatorship now

[Pompidou]

Let's say, the President wants you arrested without cause for as long as he wants - he can do it. That's not good enough for this President. He wants to ship you off to a black ops prison and slice your penis with razor blades and pour acids on the cuts. Easily done - the CIA will do anything if a lawyer rubber stamps it. Then you want to file suit. The world might find out that Mr. President is pretty much Kim Jong Il or Ahmadinajad in a different suit - that'd be inconvenient. "State secrets!" he proclaims, and everything that's ever happened to you disappears in the eyes of the law. Of course, a government lackey will get on a mic and assure the people, that despite how evil this might look, everything is okay. But, in the end, we still have an all powerful president who answers to noone. Here's the article. This turn of events wounds me greatly, because I didn't vote Obama to save the economy. The only reason he got my vote is to restore human rights to the American way. He's pretty much trashed them. Here's the article. My respect for the US government is pretty much rock bottom, unless some of you can convince me I'm an idiot, which is certainly possible, considering it's pretty late and I'm riled up about other issues too.

http://scienceblogs.com/dispatches/2010/09/appalling_9th_circuit_ruling_o.php

 

[Strid]

I don't buy this guys take one bit, and I'd boot Obama around a fuckin' block given the chance. When a guy like Obama bears fangs it'll be for a damn good reason, and most likely a reason the press, much less the public, will never, ever know about except notion that it happened. Lastly, it takes way more than that to reach a dictatorship. In order for this country to even come close, there would have to be another Civil War or everyone in politics finally got on the same fuckin' boat (never). There are other ways, obviously, but those are the most apparent to me at the time.

 

[Valandil]

While I don't agree that we're in a dictatorship, an oligarchy perhaps, but not a dictatorship, I find the whole concept of "state secrets" to be complete bullshit. If "we the people" are, in fact, the state, then ALL actions of the government should be a matter of public record, including espionage. Would this make the CIA's job a lot more difficult? Absolutely, but I don't see the trade of freedom for "security" to be an even trade at all.

 

[Pompidou]

Not a dictatorship I suppose - but we're certainly abandoning the concept of a balance of power in favor of an executive who can do anything he wants, and then claim state secrets to make the investigators go away. Remember Richard Nixon's famous quote: "It's not illegal if the President of the United States does it," at the apex of the Watergate scandal and interview with Robert Frost? It was unthinkable at the time, but now it's true. "State secrets" as a concept needs to be abandoned, and then investigations need to be continued into every instance of its use, and then the appropriate presidents and authority figures need to face the justice they were able to wave off with a flippant "State secrets! Can't touch me."

 

[Strid]

While I don't agree that we're in a dictatorship, an oligarchy perhaps, but not a dictatorship, I find the whole concept of "state secrets" to be complete bullshit. If "we the people" are, in fact, the state, then ALL actions of the government should be a matter of public record, including espionage. Would this make the CIA's job a lot more difficult? Absolutely, but I don't see the trade of freedom for "security" to be an even trade at all.

Probably the biggest reason why we've had 30-40k troops in the middle east all these years is because America can't fuckin' handle "State's Secrets". It use to not take an army to kill a few radicals.

 

[Romper]

This sounds more like a Totalitarian State rather than a Dictatorship.

 

[Halifirien]

we're certainly abandoning the concept of a balance of power in favor of an executive who can do anything he wants, and then claim state secrets to make the investigators go away.

This is why I laughed at all the government poobahs saying some idiot pastor burning Qurans would "endanger the troops." There was more than enough to piss off the Muslim world before that came along, and Obama is one of the last people who should be lecturing anyone on the topic. Sweeping war crimes under the rug and continuing the policies that enable them is not the way to win hearts and minds.