Jeb Bush Compliments Obama For Continuing And Expanding His Brother's War On Terror

from the HOT-THREE-WAY-SURVEILLANCE-ACTION! dept

Thu, Apr 23rd 2015 1:44pm — Tim Cushing

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…

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

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.

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?

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.

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.

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

23 Comments

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MOB (profile), 23 Apr 2015 @ 2:14pm

From the Desk of Mr Obvious
Is there any better indication that you are doing something seriously wrong then to be praised by a Bush?
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Spaceman Spiff (profile), 23 Apr 2015 @ 2:16pm

Damned?
Talk about being damned with faint praise! That's like saying "Jack the Ripper helped reduce prostitution in London"...
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Anonymous Coward, 23 Apr 2015 @ 2:27pm

Re: Damned?
It's all about perspective isn't it.
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Anonymous Coward, 23 Apr 2015 @ 2:44pm

The War that wasn't
It is only a war when it comes to the Media. Wars have this pesky problem of having very specific sets of circumstances that allow for them to be declared in the first place and tend to put restrictions in place that would do things like end the war at some point.
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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Roger Strong (profile), 23 Apr 2015 @ 3:25pm

Wait... What?

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:
Indicted by the feds, Recarey fled the country — but not before Jeb placed a call on his behalf to his presidential dad’s health and human services secretary, Margaret Heckler. For serving as the flunky of a crook, he received a generous tip of $75,000 from Recarey, a mob associate. He performed a similar service, with more success, on behalf of the Cuban militant Orlando Bosch, for whom he sought a presidential pardon from his father. The boastful murderer of dozens of innocent people — and a prosecution target of the U.S. Justice Department — Bosch deserved a pardon about as much as the worst jihadi in Gitmo. But his sponsors were the same Cuban-Americans in Miami who had fostered Jeb’s real estate business there, so he ignored the Republican attorney general’s denunciation of Bosch as an “unreformed terrorist.”

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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cypherspace (profile), 23 Apr 2015 @ 3:49pm

More Bad News
And to and insult to injury, it appears several more candidates have voiced support for the drone program. Rand's lack of a hard condemnation is disappointing but not surprising.
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Anonymous Coward, 23 Apr 2015 @ 5:13pm

Even if I thought of voting for him before, I sure as hell won't now. Sorry, no one who thinks these programs are a good idea should be "leader of the 'free world'" ever.
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Brian Lawson, 23 Apr 2015 @ 6:23pm

united in war
If there's any place our government remains united, it's the War on Terror. Government figures love government power and nothing makes the State "healthier" than a good, long war.
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Anonymous Coward, 23 Apr 2015 @ 10:06pm

Who wants to live under constant terror attack? It may just be the least bad option.
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cypherspace (profile), 24 Apr 2015 @ 4:10am

Re:
NEWS FLASH: As an American you're more likely to be shot, or in a car accident, or any number of horrible things than be killed or maimed in a terrorist attack on US soil.
Who wants to live under constant surveillance in a police state? It may just be the least bad option.
FTFY
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Anonymous Coward, 24 Apr 2015 @ 7:46am

I think this guy will not be president, nor Hillary, the dirt on the Clintons is piling ever higher and well, Democrats will be all "HOW COULD YOU WANT ANOTHER BUSH?" naming all the bad things W and maybe some of Magog's did and throwing them in the mud, remembering how people were sick of Bush even before 9/11 and many many ways how much worse of a "leader" W was by being such a clown who can't public speak unlike Obomba.

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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John Fenderson (profile), 24 Apr 2015 @ 7:59am

Re:
"Believe it, it's gonna be a left field out of nowhere candidate from either party, but it's not Jeb vs Hillary"

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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Roger Strong (profile), 24 Apr 2015 @ 8:46am

Re:
during the Patriots Revolt as the British Soldiers were massacring women and children

Citation needed.
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Cal, 24 Apr 2015 @ 11:16am

" I think of our national government is to keep us safe."

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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John Fenderson (profile), 24 Apr 2015 @ 12:53pm

Re:
Thank you, Cal. This is 100% correct. The talking point about how the main job of the federal government is to keep us safe drives me crazy.

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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Anonymous Coward, 24 Apr 2015 @ 6:08pm

Re: The War that wasn't
That's right - it's only a war because the liberal media said so. Never mind the thousands who are mercilessly slaughtered for no apparent reason other than they have brown skin, dress differently and live on top of our oil.
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Anonymous Coward, 24 Apr 2015 @ 6:09pm

Re:
Never get fooled again
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Anonymous Coward, 24 Apr 2015 @ 6:10pm

Re: More Bad News
Rand flips and flops more than my sandals on a hot beach.
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Big Daddy Warbuck$, 24 Apr 2015 @ 6:11pm

Re: united in war
and it contribute$ to my bottom line
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Anonymous Coward, 24 Apr 2015 @ 6:14pm

Re: Re:
So, you do not consider the actions of some LEOs to be anything remotely similar to terrorism?
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Anonymous Coward, 24 Apr 2015 @ 6:18pm

Re:
The GOP clown car is full of credible candidates who are going to be contenders in the general election .... hahaha - that's a good one.

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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Anonymous Coward, 24 Apr 2015 @ 6:19pm

Re: Re:
And that is what they do best - destroy our freedoms.
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GEMont (profile), 25 Apr 2015 @ 4:41pm

The Obama-Nibble Administration
No surprise here.

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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