Krugman: "Obama Wasn't The One We've Been Waiting For"

Glenn Greenwald is also "thrilled" with ObamaRahma (5.00 / 3)

Glenn Greenwald quotes Charlie Savage from the New York Times and adds an explanation...

"The Obama administration has decided to continue to imprison without trials nearly 50 detainees at the Guantánamo Bay military prison in Cuba because a high-level task force has concluded that they are too difficult to prosecute but too dangerous to release, an administration official said on Thursday."

The Washington Post says that these decisions "represent the first time that the administration has clarified how many detainees it considers too dangerous to release but unprosecutable because officials fear trials could compromise intelligence-gathering and because detainees could challenge evidence obtained through coercion." Once that rationale is accepted, it necessarily applies not only to past detainees but future ones as well: the administration is claiming the power to imprison whomever it wants without charges whenever it believes that -- even in the face of the horrendously broad "material support for terrorism" laws the Congress has enacted -- it cannot prove in any tribunal that the individual has actually done anything wrong.

If there's one thing we've seen repeatedly all year long, it's that many Democrats simply do not believe in the axiom best expressed by The New York Times' Bob Herbert when he said that "Americans should recoil as one against the idea of preventive detention." As Herbert wrote: "policies that were wrong under George W. Bush are no less wrong because Barack Obama is in the White House."

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by: Jacob Freeze @ Thu Feb 04, 2010 at 06:24:06 AM CST

Hey did you see this: (0.00 / 0)

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by: mattes @ Thu Feb 04, 2010 at 11:44:57 AM CST

[ Parent ]

ops... (6.00 / 3)

Goldman Sachs Staff Buying Guns 'To Defend Themselves Against Public Uprising'

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/...

hahaha

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by: mattes @ Thu Feb 04, 2010 at 11:45:55 AM CST

[ Parent ]

Good catch! (5.00 / 1)

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by: Jacob Freeze @ Thu Feb 04, 2010 at 13:18:39 PM CST

[ Parent ]

Actually (5.00 / 1)

that report turned out to be very exaggerated.  Read an article about it a few days after the report first came out.  I did a quick search but couldn't find a link to the article I read. I think I posted it at cephaloblog somewhere.  If I find it I'll let you know.  

Every normal man must be tempted at times to spit on his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin to slit throats. -H. L. Mencken

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by: cometman @ Thu Feb 04, 2010 at 16:01:17 PM CST

[ Parent ]

Here you go (5.33 / 3)

From the WSJ:

New York police spokesman Paul J. Browne says that their records show only four Goldman employees have applied for gun permits in recent years - and the last application was made in 2003. That application, by the firm's head of security for a "carry permit", was granted. The only other employee granted a NYPD carry permit" is a building security guard. It was issued prior to 2003, said a police spokesman. Those applying for a permit must list their employer.

Two Goldman employees have residential permits, allowing them to have guns in their homes. The last of these permits was issued in 2001, Browne said. One of the permits was issued to a trader and the other was given to a graphic designer.

"We haven't seen a surge of applications of any kind for Goldman Sachs employees," said Browne.

Here's a rundown of the back and forth with this story.

Personally I can't imagine a bunch of aging white blueblood bankers doing anything with a firearm except shooting each other in the face.

If they want to shoot someone else, they probably have "the help" to do that for them.

Every normal man must be tempted at times to spit on his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin to slit throats. -H. L. Mencken

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by: cometman @ Thu Feb 04, 2010 at 16:15:41 PM CST

[ Parent ]

Ya...but it made a great headline!! (5.00 / 1)

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by: mattes @ Thu Feb 04, 2010 at 17:00:16 PM CST

[ Parent ]

Another "Browne"?? (0.00 / 0)

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by: mattes @ Thu Feb 04, 2010 at 17:01:56 PM CST

[ Parent ]

Stealthy permits (5.50 / 2)

From cometman's link...

This parallel system is the result of the intersection between the various "reserve" or "honorary" officer statutes which exist in every state, and a 2004 Federal law called the Law Enforcement Officers Safety Act. It's often referred to as the LEOSA, or even more commonly, HR218. In fact this parallel system was (intentionally or not) created by HR218, so it's necessary to understand this little-known law to understand the parallel permit system.

HR218 says that a law enforcement officer (as defined by the statute) can carry his gun in all 50 states and in DC, and generally is not bound by nutty state- level restrictions, like magazine capacity laws, hollow point ammo bans in NJ, that kind of thing.

Put HR218 together with all the states that have "reserve" officer programs, and you have a stealth permit-for-dollars system.

In short, what happens is this: a wealthy New Yorker, with a need to carry a gun in NY (and other states, such as when he visits NJ or DC, two places where permits are impossible) finds a financially-strapped small-town police department in some other state, like Alaska for example. The wealthy New Yorker buys the town's PD a new Crown Vic, or makes a donation of some kind.

The police chief then gives the wealthy New Yorker credentials as a "reserve" officer, which do not have any powers of arrest, or any duties, but do qualify as a "law enforcement officer" under HR218. (Remember, every state has various "reserve" officer statutes, and many states have no training requirements at all for those "reserve" officers.) At that point, the chief is happy to have a new Crown Vic, and the New Yorker is happy that he has a permit which lets him possess and carry in every state and exempts him from NY's asinine restrictions (magazine capacity and so on). And it's all "stealth": his reserve officer status is not a public record anywhere.

Given that many people can afford to donate a Crown Vic, but very few people have the VIP status and "juice" to get an official NYPD carry permit, and given that a NYPD permit is actually much more restricted than HR218-carry, you can imagine that the "official" permits in NY may be just the tip of the iceberg. The NYPD chief would have no way of knowing how many people are (legally) owning and carrying pistols in NYC using HR218. There is no central registry or database of such information. "Reserve" officer status is something which exists only in the private files of the issuing police department, which may well be a small town in Montana or Alaska or somewhere like that.

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by: Jacob Freeze @ Thu Feb 04, 2010 at 18:16:31 PM CST

[ Parent ]

The thing is (6.00 / 4)

I don't know why a wealthy New Yorker would go to all that trouble to get a gun permit.  If I were one of the richest guys in the world and wanted a gun and couldn't get a permit in my own state, I think I'd just start packing illegally and in the off chance I got caught I'd let my staff of shithead lawyers sort it out.

Anyhoo, regarding the subject of your post, the Obama administration is truly wretched.


Every normal man must be tempted at times to spit on his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin to slit throats. -H. L. Mencken

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by: cometman @ Thu Feb 04, 2010 at 18:26:14 PM CST

[ Parent ]

You may be right. (5.00 / 1)

But it's also true that $20K means less a whole lot of Manhattan bankers than $0.20 means to you and me, and getting caught with an illegal gun in NYC isn't exactly a walk-away for anybody.  

A good lawyer will probably beat jail time for you, but it's still a felony on your sheet, and an outright dismissal creates headlines and head-aches for the NYPD and city hall.

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by: Jacob Freeze @ Thu Feb 04, 2010 at 19:07:01 PM CST

[ Parent ]

It's probably the lawyer that arranged the reserve fake. (0.00 / 0)

"Our purpose is aligning culture to human nature."

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by: Ormond Otvos @ Thu Feb 04, 2010 at 23:37:20 PM CST

[ Parent ]

Free Basing Reality....The Obama Plan (0.00 / 0)

Some American will have to assassinated. That's just the way it is. This is the age of realism.

http://news.antiwar.com/2010/0...

You people need to get in line and get reality based...it's supposed to be real good ....free basing reality

Stu Piddy...a Free Range Human

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by: Stu Piddy @ Thu Feb 04, 2010 at 21:06:39 PM CST

[ Parent ]

Paul Krugman is a professional...he voted for Obama, not Nader or McKinney (6.00 / 1)

Well, Goddamit if Paul Krugman has had it with Obama so Have I!

Paul Krugman is a genius! He writes for the New York Times for Chrissakes. He must be smart or they wouldn't let him write for the largest newspaper in America.

You don't get to be a columnist in the New York Times unless you really know what your doing and talking about.

You will never find a columnist that says "I'm voting for Ralph Nader or Cynthia McKinney....they don't allow kooks at the NYTimes...you have to professional.

I don't know of any professional columnist at any paper who endorsed McKinney or Nader or anybody from the Green Party. That's cause these fellows are smart.

Krugman is a visionary he knew Obama would do the best he could.  

Stu Piddy...a Free Range Human

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by: Stu Piddy @ Thu Feb 04, 2010 at 20:52:39 PM CST

It seems that were getting more and more corporate politicians to run our country overall, (5.00 / 1)

and President Obama is no exception.

"It does not take a majority to prevail, but rather an irate, tireless minority, keen on setting brush fires of freedom in the minds of men." -- Samuel Adams (1722-1803)

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by: mplo @ Fri Feb 05, 2010 at 10:53:48 AM CST

there isn't anyone we've been waiting for (6.00 / 2)

Maybe we can control politicians, maybe we can't. But they're not going to save us.

That's why I posted an essay at DK awhile back called "He's Not Your Boyfriend." Not because the bloggers there generally comprise bad people, because they don't. But because there was far too much romanticizing of Barack Obama going on there, and it was a blog I had some history with at that time, and I felt some obligation to roil up the waters some.

I'm not a great blogger. People like thereisnospoon are great bloggers. He did a much better job a bit later down the line, with "No One Is Going To Save You Fools," or something like that...wonderful essay, and by dog everybody with half a brain said so, too. Think of that.

So, fuck all this business of waiting for people. We're the ones we've been waiting for. Sooner we get that straight the better.

"Some men rob you with a six-gun - others rob you with a fountain pen." - Woody Guthrie

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by: Miep @ Fri Feb 05, 2010 at 21:02:25 PM CST