Mickey Walker

Obama Must Change Now

By Mickey Walker, September 6, 2009

Obama’s catching hell.  People throw stones at him from stone-age-cranium primordial places.  It’s all because he wings it these days instead of telling it like it is as he did when he first told us he was going to run for president.  He needs to talk straight with the American people now, more than ever and forget the fluff and trying to promote his image.  We like you. You are cool.  Get over that.  Image doesn’t cut any ice with Americans when the poll numbers continue to sink like a plane in a nose dive.  Those who oppose him continue to concoct lies to smear him while he is trying hard to bring national healthcare to all Americans.  But Obama promised a lot to get elected, and now he needs to deliver.  His obvious departures from his campaign promises is what is giving him so much trouble in getting programs through that he seeks to get passed, real programs like national healthcare, for the benefit of all Americans.  He needs to tell it like it is to the American people and begin to cast off the unlawful policies and hermaphrodite ploys at exploiting Executive Privilege promulgated by his predecessor George Bush. 

Obama ran on the platform of being open with the American people.  In a speech recently he said that in Guantanamo there was a need for a new kind of “legal system” with a “new set of rules of law separate from the Constitution.”  Say what?  So what’s wrong with the Constitution Pres?  Why must there be a different set of laws to handle the prisoners at Guantanamo or anywhere else for that matter?  Isn’t that cheating?  So what’s wrong with our laws here in the United States?  Obama said certain detainees might need to be detained for a “prolonged period” even though they had not been charged with a crime!!!  Even George Bush, big liar that he was, didn’t have the guts to go that far and talk such trash, but he probably wanted to.  Obama said that these were some serious bad guys down in Guantanamo who seek to harm Americans, and we needed to preempt any crimes they MIGHT commit by keeping them locked up in Guantanamo.  We couldn’t afford to let them go, he went on to say.  Say what?  Since when has American justice incarcerated people for future crimes they might commit but have not yet executed?  Doublespeak?  Well, Yeaayah. Obama squirmed on camera like a kid caught with his hand in the cookie jar.  You could see that he was embarrassed.  It is not worthy of our president to hack up the law like that.  Just because Bush trashed and burned many of our laws does not mean that Obama should continue in the dictatorial, crooked tradition of Junior Bush.  Besides, Obama said he would not succumb to the unlawful tactics of a rogue president such as George W. Bush, that he would change things if elected.  But apparently Obama has begun to succumb to the bad influences that cause a president to attempt to trash the Constitution.  I am totally aghast at his words.  Obama needs to change his tone right now and rethink his words and be true to his promises that got him elected.  Now.

Another disturbing departure from the list of solemn promises Obama made to the American people was that he would close down Guantanamo, the capitol of the world when it comes to water-boarding and torture.  It’s time he did that now.  Before the American people grow weary from the same old political campaign promises made and then broken.  It is paramount that he see these things now and that the American people are not going to stand for the same old Washington doublespeak.  For Obama to remain real, he must be true to himself and the platform promises upon which he ran.

Obama’s decision NOT to try to weaken or rescind the Patriot Act but to strengthen and enhance it made my jaw hit the table.  Warrantless wiretapping plus a renewed attempt to hold administration officials harmless in the interest of national security breaks it off in the American people.  I cannot believe I am hearing such worse-than-George Bush policies coming from the camp of President Obama. (Obama’s worse-than-Bush policies)

We all remember Obama’s flip-flopping on granting immunity to the Telecom companies that aided Bush in illegally wiretapping millions of innocent Americans.  First he was against granting immunity before doing exactly that, later. (Obama grants immunity to telecom companies) The question of law was pure and clear:  could anyone, including President Bush, conduct illegal and unlawful surveillance operations against private citizens, without just cause and without court orders granted by proper courts, e.g., FISA? Furthermore, could Bush enlist the Telecom companies to break the law in his behalf, to illegally provide him with data records from the phone companies, and have the companies be free from prosecution as accessories to the crime?  Forever?  Apparently so.  Many Americans said NO WAY.  But Obama made it so.  How did that happen?  It’s not that we had come to expect more from Obama; he promised us more.  Specifically, he ran on the unlawful activities of George W. Bush, and then he not only duplicated Bush’s illegal acts, but now he has added to them with vigor. 

For too long Bush played God with our sacred Bill of Rights.  One would think that Obama, who ran on bringing change to the corrupt White House criminals-in-charge, would deliver.  He has not.  He has emulated Bush in continuing to erode and cut away the basic rights of Americans given us under the Constitution.  When Bush did it, we did not condone it, but we could understand the deficiencies in Bush’s Billy Bob 92 IQ brain and bite our tongues while Pelosi decided to put Impeachment off the table.  But with Obama, we expected better.  And he gave his word. 

Obama needs to change his ways and act like the president he told us he would be if only we would trust him and grace him with our votes.  A crime is a crime, and we are fed up with an Executive who pardons Scooter Libby, then turns around and excuses the obvious crimes committed against innocent Americans by continuing Bush’s jaded wiretapping of private citizens without court authority or just cause to do so.  All those promises to NOT cater to lobbyists on somebody’s payroll, then he turns around and hires some of his very own.  In the following website, I am most interested in promises #5 and #11.  The first deals with his vowing NOT to hire former lobbyists to work in his administration.  And the second deals with the tragic “Signing Statements” that Bush used to circumvent and undermine our very Constitution that provides for separation of powers of the three branches of government.  Obama uses signing statements too.  I was crushed to hear this news. (Obama Promises Broken)

Obama cannot continue to operate in this reckless manner.  Because he behaves like George Bush in more than one instance in ignoring/defacing the Constitution instead of preserving and protecting it as he promised to do, Americans are confused.  Many say that Republicans and Democrats in government are just alike; that they want only what they can get out of government instead of serving the people.  Under fire now are their lucrative lifetime health plans they voted themselves while 47 million Americans have none.  Do we really believe that Congress truly wants all Americans to have health coverage to keep us safe and well over the long haul?  If so, then why are we one nation in many across the world that has no national healthcare plan?  I think if Obama would stand up for the American people and say, “We need a government-funded, single payer healthcare coverage right now for all Americans, many would cheer.  Instead he refers to the single payer system on the floor as a mere “sliver”, an insignificant feature of the plan on the floor of Congress.  That smells like a sellout.

I backed Obama with all my fiber all the way.  I voted for him, contributed to his campaign, and have defended him relentlessly thus far.  I will continue to do so,  hoping that he has found it necessary to make some political compromises to get done what he needs to in the bigger picture of things.  But it’s time for him to change his ways.  His handlers, if they cannot see what is happening in this phenomenon of approval shift in the polls, in the hearts of the people who believed in him, who elected him to do the specific jobs in restoring our faith, our hope and our Constitution, then Obama needs to fire them.  If he cannot change and be the man he said he was, the man who said he would bring change to Washington instead of compromising on the same old worn out inanities and lobbyist-driven policies, then I will change my views and support someone who will.  But not just yet.  There’s still time.  Let’s say that he got sidetracked.  I believe in him.  And I still have hope.  Don’t let us down, Barry.  You had our hearts from the beginning.   TPJmagazine

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