I smell a real revolution brewing.

FUUUUUUUUUUUUCK!

*promote black asshole.

Promoting this video back to the front page; last published Saturday, May 23rd, 2009 2:40pm PDT - promote requested by gwiz665.

Don't blame me, I voted for the Republican the Democrats ran against this guy.

We should totally blame quantumushroom. I mean, he's the only Obama supporter on the sift, when you think about it...

Any government that would imprison someone for 10 years without a trial is digging its own grave in terms of blowback. Obama is almost as bad as the republicans. He's equivocating too much about unlawful detention.

*news
*law

Adding video to channels (Law, News) - requested by NetRunner.

Well we know he is lying, the question is when, and to whom.

I hope that he is lying to congress, taking this "we need a legal framework" line in order to implicate them in making decisions. At the moment congress is happy to say "no", but by forcing them to set a legal framework he can put himself back in the position of shutting them down, instead of the other way around.

I love how the "liberal media" is able to critique their "own" party. Doesn't help them win elections though.

Fuck you, Mr. President.

Boy, I'm sure glad I didn't vote for that guy, because I'd sure be feeling like a total asshat right now if I did.

Who did you vote for, blanky? McCain didn't even entertain the idea of doing it, and he's the only other guy that had a chance of winning. With Obama there was at least a shot that he'd be true to his word.

You vote the best as you can, and then you make a big fuss when the guy in power doesn't do what you want. That's every American's responsibility.

Write letters, people. It's Congress (even/especially the Dems in congress) that this crap is meant to appease.

I would just like to take this moment to remind everyone that they really should have voted for Ron Paul...

>_>

I voted for Ron Paul during the primaries and Bob Barr during the main election.

>.>

Shame, shame, shame. Even so, he remains the better choice between himself and McCain, but better than bad isn't inherently great. America had a great choice in Ron Paul, and they blew it.

Change we can believe in.

This is why I don't vote

yeah, indefinite detention for detainees that the Bush administration captured. This only applies to current prisoners.

How to shut down GITMO in 3 easy steps

1) send prisoners back to countries in which they were captured (i.e. not cuba), even if they were captured in the US.
2) have those countries prosecute based on laws in those countries. If guilty, likely death penalty, if not - it's those countries who let the people go.
3) spend time and money keeping track of anyone released, to see if they lead to other terrorist cells.

The point of saying "I will close Guantanamo Bay", Mr. President, was that it showed that you think the Constitution is important. More important than the potential crimes of future terrorists against Americans. You are not Jack Bauer, Mr. President, because he is a fictional character.

Richard Clark was exactly right about the war on terror - it's not just a war on the ground, it's a war of ideas. And we cannot win the war on terror without winning over the hearts and minds of muslim world. Every action we take, as a nation, that sends the message of "we can do whatever we want" or "we are better than you" gets immediately turned into terrorist propaganda that recruits more people and expands their funding base. We are NOT safer after invading Iraq. We are NOT safer for holding people indefinitely without trial.

And Obama doesn't want to prosecute previous administration because it's dangerous politically. Would also be expensive due to the appeals process, and would just be divisive among left and right wing people/states. Jesse Ventura would prosecute, because he doesn't care about getting reelected.

Still 1000x better than the last guy.

Only slightly surprised, especially in light of his recent back-pedaling. Glad I voted Green.

Unlike every other news source she runs the part where he discusses that he wants to do this legitimately. To me that sounds like he wants to keep some of them as prisoners of war, a perfectly legal way to detain them until the war ends. Detaining prisoners of war in war time is nothing new and certainly legal. If he does this to people who were simply 'picked up' and who could not be connected to direct conflict, that is where the legality comes into question.

Come on people, this guy spent time as a constitutional professor. He's not going to pull the same tricks as the last one. Lets way to see how this works out, and how he proposes to detain them within constitutional law before telling him 'fuck you.' ah?

Her whole 'minority report' fear mongering is not typical of her. Tisk tisk Rachel Maddow.

My guess is that he's trying to get a lot of stuff moving that requires bipartisan support, and knows that immediately going after members of the last administration would further polarize and galvanize the two parties. Meanwhile, Cheney is incriminating himself in the media more and more, so what's the harm of letting tricky Dick run his mouth for a while.

To me, this business about "indefinite detention" only means that they won't put hard dead-lines on releasing detainees. They've already said that they will be giving each individual a fair hearing, but I'm sure they just don't know how long that would take.

It's great how quick you guys are to say "Fuck you, Obama" when he's only been in office for 6 months. Yeah, he hasn't solved all the world's problems yet. What a despicable man!

FYI, here is the transcript of that portion of Obama's speech:

I want to be honest: this is the toughest issue we will face. We are going to exhaust every avenue that we have to prosecute those at Guantanamo who pose a danger to our country. But even when this process is complete, there may be a number of people who cannot be prosecuted for past crimes, but who nonetheless pose a threat to the security of the United States. Examples of that threat include people who have received extensive explosives training at al Qaeda training camps, commanded Taliban troops in battle, expressed their allegiance to Osama bin Laden, or otherwise made it clear that they want to kill Americans. These are people who, in effect, remain at war with the United States.

As I said, I am not going to release individuals who endanger the American people. Al Qaeda terrorists and their affiliates are at war with the United States, and those that we capture - like other prisoners of war - must be prevented from attacking us again. However, we must recognize that these detention policies cannot be unbounded. That is why my Administration has begun to reshape these standards to ensure they are in line with the rule of law. We must have clear, defensible and lawful standards for those who fall in this category. We must have fair procedures so that we don't make mistakes. We must have a thorough process of periodic review, so that any prolonged detention is carefully evaluated and justified.

I know that creating such a system poses unique challenges. Other countries have grappled with this question, and so must we. But I want to be very clear that our goal is to construct a legitimate legal framework for Guantanamo detainees - not to avoid one. In our constitutional system, prolonged detention should not be the decision of any one man. If and when we determine that the United States must hold individuals to keep them from carrying out an act of war, we will do so within a system that involves judicial and congressional oversight. And so going forward, my Administration will work with Congress to develop an appropriate legal regime so that our efforts are consistent with our values and our Constitution.

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