Jeb Bush Compliments Obama For Continuing And Expanding His Brother's War On Terror
from the HOT-THREE-WAY-SURVEILLANCE-ACTION! dept
I have already intimated to you the danger of parties in the state, with particular reference to the founding of them on geographical discriminations. Let me now take a more comprehensive view, and warn you in the most solemn manner against the baneful effects of the spirit of party, generally…Not for nothing did Washington warn against the formation of political parties. In this country, bipartisan support can occasionally still be found for the innovative or the innocuous, but for very little else. Not that the parties are really that different. A lot of partisan opposition is predicated on nothing more than the "wrong" party pushing the legislation. There are sharp divides in terms of social programs and issues, but when it comes to funding the military, intelligence agencies and law enforcement, there's very little difference between the Democrats and the Republicans.
The alternate domination of one faction over another, sharpened by the spirit of revenge, natural to party dissension, which in different ages and countries has perpetrated the most horrid enormities, is itself a frightful despotism. But this leads at length to a more formal and permanent despotism. The disorders and miseries, which result, gradually incline the minds of men to seek security and repose in the absolute power of an individual; and sooner or later the chief of some prevailing faction, more able or more fortunate than his competitors, turns this disposition to the purposes of his own elevation, on the ruins of Public Liberty…
It serves always to distract the Public Councils, and enfeeble the Public Administration. It agitates the Community with ill-founded jealousies and false alarms; kindles the animosity of one part against another, foments occasionally riot and insurrection. It opens the door to foreign influence and corruption, which find a facilitated access to the government itself through the channels of party passions. Thus the policy and the will of one country are subjected to the policy and will of another.
George Washington's Farewell Address, 1789
But the illusion of disparity still exists, even in these issues, and even when many on both sides are receiving similar funding from interested parties. So, it's a bit odd to hear a leading figure of one political party publicly praise the leader of another. Jeb Bush did just that, recently. He managed to toss President Obama a thumbs-up for one set of policy decisions.
Medved: If you were to look back at the last seven years, almost, what has been the best part of the Obama administration?Of course, he would say that. After all, Obama's approach to this area has been roughly the same as his brother's, George W. Bush. The 9/11 attacks opened the door for another endless war and all the government land grabs that went with it. Obama's tenure has only expanded on Bush's groundwork. There have been reforms mooted, but they're reforms Obama would never have considered if it hadn't been for Snowden's leaks. The reforms are mostly cosmetic and concentrate far too much on a program that even some intelligence officials have admitted is close to useless: the bulk phone metadata collections.
Jeb Bush: I would say the best part of the Obama administration would be his continuance of the protections of the homeland using the big metadata programs, the NSA being enhanced. Advancing this — even though he never defends it, even though he never openly admits it, there has been a continuation of a very important service, which is the first obligation, I think of our national government is to keep us safe. And the technologies that now can be applied to make that so, while protecting civil liberties are there. And he’s not abandoned them, even though there was some indication that he might.
As Glenn Greenwald points out at The Intercept, even the farthest right of the Republican party have had generally nice things to say about his foreign policy decisions, seeing as they're the sort of things you'd normally expect the more-hawkish Red Staters to deploy: extrajudicial drone killings, indefinite detention and other areas where civil liberties have taken a back seat to national security.
If there's any place our government remains (mostly) united, it's the War on Terror. Government figures love government power and nothing makes the State "healthier" than a good, long war. Jeb Bush's by-proxy approval of his brother's programs isn't going to hurt his presidential chances with much of the party faithful. He might steer those concerned by the unchecked growth of the surveillance state towards his competition, however, what with Rand Paul promising to kill off the NSA's domestic surveillance programs shortly after delivering his inaugural address -- a promise I like in principal but am much less enamored with in terms of practicality.
In short, Jeb Bush's compliments are nothing more than a government figure telling the world that he likes government power. And the more it gets, the happier he'll be.
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Filed Under: barack obama, jeb bush, metadata, patriot act, president obama, section 215, surveillance
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From the Desk of Mr Obvious
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Damned?
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Re: Damned?
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The War that wasn't
Since we have been tooling around with the "War on drugs" for so long with the judicial system eroding rights like they were made of spun sugar, the "War or Terror" just seemed too good to pass up.
A Boogeyman enemy to fight gives you all of the powers restricted to actual warfare, with none of the legal mumbo jumbo meant to protect "the innocent".
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Re: The War that wasn't
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Jeb arranged the pardon and residency in the US for Orlando Bosch with his dad. This after Bosch was responsible for bombings from South America to Florida to Canada, and even a car bombing in Washington DC. His "greatest hit" was bombing an airliner out of the sky, killing 73 people.
As Salon put it:
I was expecting that if America went full Honey Boo Boo and elected Jeb, the CIA would have an awkward time switching from torturing terror suspects to hiring them again.
And that when G.W.Bush declared "Make no distinction between the terrorists and those who harbour them", the next Bush family dinner was REAL quiet.
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Re:
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More Bad News
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Re: More Bad News
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united in war
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Re: united in war
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FTFY
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Believe it, it's gonna be a left field out of nowhere candidate from either party, but it's not Jeb vs Hillary. Even most Democrats want nothing of Hillary. The higher ups might use their media connections bringing more mud of the like of how she's too old or how her brain vessel clogging problem is too much of a risk in case she has something worse during her presidency etc. (I can see a...man...as old as Bush Sr be elected, cos he's male, but not a female, not in the US).
I stopped watching the fear porn that is CNN (we get it on basic cable in most of Canada, channel 27 if I remember) so of course we could see the disaster 5 hours away or 15 hours away, but for me it was 5, so a bit more traumatic (and my eyebrows were so raised by what I considered to be tons of illogical things going on the very day and Bremer showing up saying it's Bin Laden when both towers are still up...lol no way you fucking murderer). But I remember in 2005 some random interview of the Coop with Obama as he had been a senator maybe 7 months, it was during july 2005, and he was all like, "wanna try and be america's first black president? maybe?" and it felt pushed then I kinda knew the sElection had been made when he resurfaced in 2007 campainging like if he was JFK on steroids.
I bet somebody has noticed some kind of rising star in either party though, getting promotion for little reason etc.
I'm not American but I have American blood, my ancestor fled Lower Canada (Quebec) during the Patriots Revolt as the British Soldiers were massacring women and children (in Ontario too, but they don't learn about it, for some reason, forgetting they revolted for their own country as one with us, but nope, they gotta love the Queen). And so my great great grandfather's born in Salem, MA, he came back to his family in Canada when the treaties were made and zzzzzz I know you don't care but yeah, that's why I'm billingual in a city that's 99.9% french speaking among other things So I care about the US, I fish with Mainers who happen to speak french sometimes, the border's full of holes here, legal ones and illegal ones, the legal ones are open maybe 4 hours a day so it's hard to get in legally. But whatever, all I know is that the US (humanity?) keeps doing the wrong thing until it's got it's back against the wall.
Washington is right. Elect your representatives who are independents (and competent) who only work for you, the people in his/her riding.
That is all.
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I fervently hope this is what will happen. I agree that there's a decent chance. I am neither Democrat nor Republican, and I want both Clinton and Bush to stay as far from the White House as possible.
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Citation needed.
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Can either party put forth a credible candidate? I think not. Not in this political environment - they are all crazy, pick you r poison.
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He needs to STUDY the US Constitution, the contract that all who serve within the federal and state governments are under (state governments are ALSO under that state's Constitution).
The First and main duty of those that serve within our governments - state and federal - is to protect our FREEDOMS.
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National defense is an important part of protecting our freedoms, but if that is thought of as the only or most important part, that's a path that leads directly to the wholesale destruction of our freedoms.
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The Obama-Nibble Administration
I've said since before his (s)election, that Obama was and is a Ringer - a republican fascist in democrat's clothing - a bandit cattle rustler wearing a white hat and a sheriff's badge.
Getting a thumbs up from Um-Duh Bush for making the world a safer and more profitable place for billionaires, finally shows the world just who really appreciates all the shit Obama has heralded into reality, since Oprah got him his job.
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