Who's Wearing a Pudding Face?

Environmentalism Under Obama

Though Obama talks approvingly about the environment, an examination of policy specifics reveals him to be measurably worse than eight years of the Bush administration.

For the first two years Obama led a massive expansion of nuclear energy and opened up to off shore drilling twice. Corn Ethanol and "clean coal" continue their renaissance. Mountain Top Removal continues unabated. DeChristopher, a whistle blower for an illegal sale of public lands to the fossil fuel industry, is being prosecuted by the Obama DOJ while everyone else who planned and executed the illegal action gets a pass. US Sovereignty was handed over to BP for the oil spill. Despite some small renewable energy investments such as a solar light for a bus station in Georgia, most of our tax money still goes to fossil fuels rather than renewable energy. This comes at a time when failure to adopt as other countries have already started to do - some for decades now - will have severe consequences due to both climate change and passing Peak Oil. (See here.)

Now - for the first time - the EPA proposes minor actions to limit blowing up mountains and other environmental disasters. When would any of them become effective? After Obama starts his next term! So we "have to" re-elect him and hope he will do better his second term since he has deliberately either done nothing or made things worse his first term. We are supposed to put on our "Pudding Face" and accept this? The democrats may find that their worse nightmare is having Obama re-elected and after driving America into the ground for 16 years (Bush terms 3 and 4) nobody will want to waste their votes with traditional parties leaving the NPA and Greens to lead.

See Is Bush a better environmentalist than Obama? and Obama gave US Sovereignty to BP and We See the Merging of the War on Science and the War on Whistleblowers and Tar Sands Action: “Fight, Fight Fight!” and Did Obama Order Tar Sands Protesters Jailed? and Concealed Weapons against the Environment (how congress - with no objection from Obama or the democrats - is working to undo all the progress we have made since Theodore Roosevelt formed our National Park System in the 19th century) and Federal Work Suspension of Leading Arctic Scientist Ended as Investigation of His Investigators Deepens and State Department Environmental Impact Study of Keystone XL Pipeline Released, Skids Greased for Approval and As U.S. Energy Companies Blow-Up Appalachian Mountaintops, the Nation's Lawmakers Yawn With Indifference and Virginia Kennedy (#4): An Open Letter to President Obama About the Tar Sands Arrests and President Obama and Governor Perry–Twins separated at birth? and A brief narrative of where humanity stands and Obama's EPA Once Again Disappoints Environmentalists and Climate Scientist investigated (again!), vindicated (again!) and Sun and Sanity and State Department concludes Keystone XL has ‘no significant impacts’ and Obama halts controversial EPA regulation and Broken Windows, Ozone, and Jobs and Obama’s Ozone Capitulation: Celebrated by Conservatives and Denounced by Liberals and Did the White House double-cross its supporters on the smog rule? and Kochtopus is big winner if Obama approves pipeline and the people lose and Greens Blast Obama’s Capitulation to GOP & Oil Lobbies on Tar Sands Pipeline, EPA Smog Regulations and Learning from the New Deal and 9 Nobel Laureates Urge Obama to Reject the Keystone XL Pipeline and Scientists: Bacteria spreading in warming oceans and Greens See Politics Trumping Science as EPA Delays Chemical Assessment and EPA seen likely to miss deadline for GHG utility rule and State Department Letting Keystone XL Contractor Manage Its Environmental Review and Scientists worried as Arctic has record ozone loss and Bill McKibben, Obama, and the Corruption of Big Oil and Greens: Obama campaign hire 'stinks' and Someone Got Rich and Someone Got Sick and Party of Pollution and Obama Witch Hunt Against Polar Bear Scientists Takes New Twist – 2nd Scientist Asked to Take Lie Detector Test and Obama Administration Caves to Industry Pressure and Fails Independent Livestock Producers with Watered-Down GIPSA Rule and Self-Styled Clean Energy President Embraces Future That’s Dirty, Dangerous, and Expensive.

Civil Rights Under Obama

In our history there have been times when civil rights have been suspended, such as the Civil War and World War II, but they have always been during the War only and some sort of due process remained. What we have now is a situation worse by both the length - over ten years - and extent of deprivation of constitutional rights. We should examine just some of the specifics.

• Wikipedia says, "Extraordinary rendition and irregular rendition describe the abduction and extrajudicial transfer of a person from one nation to another. "Torture by proxy" is used by some critics to describe situations in which the United States has transferred suspected terrorists to countries known to practice torture." This goes to our very soul as a country. Of course it has been shown that torture does not work, but it should be obvious to everybody that this is wrong. Bush started this and Obama openly continues it.
• Obama can give everyone in Gitmo their day in court. Restoring habeas corpus is totally at his discretion, and he has chosen not to.
• For over half of his first term in office Obama had defended the DOM in court.
• Guantanamo remains open.
• The Patriot Act was recently renewed for another four years with no significant objection from either republicans or democrats. This means 13 straight years of restricted Civil Rights through the suspension of the constitution. Both Bush and Obama have authorized spying and in some cases killing American citizens.
• Obama has been far more active than Bush in using the DOJ to imprison whistleblowers such as DeChristopher for exposing an illegal fossil fuel land grab, Manning for wikileaks exposing the lies of the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars, and Thomas Drake for exposing the dishonesty and corruption of the NSA.

If it was wrong under Bush, it is still wrong under Obama. See Criminalizing free speech and “Obama bans war criminals, except our own” and Did Obama Order Tar Sands Protesters Jailed? and Obama’s FBI Targets Ant iwar.com and Bush 2.0: 100 Ways Barack Obama Is Just Like George W. Bush and President Obama Has All The Legal Authority He Needs To Make Recess Appointments Right Now and Dept. of Interior Recommended Federal Charges vs. DADT Protesters – 3 Hours Before They Demonstrated and Torture Decriminalized: How the State Department Provides Space for the Culpables’ Book Tours and Department of Justice Files Writ of Mandamus Against Judge in Dan Choi Case and Department of “Justice”? and The ACLU on Obama and Core Liberties and BART Police Arrest Journalists, Cite KGO, KTVU at BART Protest. Homeland Security Present and Targeted Killing Program: America’s Shameful Response to 9/11 and DoD Persecutes Guantanamo Guard Who Talked About the Torture and Choi Legal Team Responds to DoJ Petition for Writ of Mandamus and Freedom Is Not Free at the State Department and Obama: A disaster for civil liberties and Free Speech and Civil Liberties in the PR Age of Obama and Obama DoJ Trying to Codify Lying to Judges Over FOIA-Requested Docs Now: WTF? and Obama Witch Hunt Against Polar Bear Scientists Takes New Twist – 2nd Scientist Asked to Take Lie Detector Test.

The solution is simple. Go back to the constitutional guarantees we had prior to 2001. Obama has maintained or expanded all civil rights violations Bush started. We should not ignore this and put on our "pudding face" just because he is a democrat.

Obama Expands War

Wars are not only expensive in lives and money. The longer they are the less effective they become. The two longest wars in the history of the United States - Vietnam and Afghanistan - have been our least successful. The more time that goes by (over ten years now for Afghanistan ) the more we become tolerant of corrupt dictators abusing their people because they are on "our" side and the more we use the false "sunk cost" argument that if we have sacrificed this much money and lives, we can't pull out now.

The most recent public comments which are verified by Wikileaks and reporters in the field are that there are not more than a few hundred Taliban in Afghanistan and much of their support comes from Pakistan which we have given billions of dollars to over the years. Wikileaks and on the ground correspondents also have documented the utter corruptness of both Iraq and Afghanistan on which we give even more of our national treasure to as well as the irreplaceable lives of our soldiers and sailors.

In the Naval War College two basic questions are "What is the threat?" and "What is the appropriate force or other means to handle the threat?" Our expenditure of money, lives, and wear and tear on the military is completely out of balance with a few hundred Taliban who get all their support from Pakistan. Also missing is a real (not pretend) exit plan. It is past time to take a hard skeptical look at our longest war - now longer than Vietnam.

We should ask ourselves bluntly if we are doing precisely what the terrorists want us to. In 2004 Osama bin Laden said frankly in a videotape their strategy was to “provoke and trap.” “All we have to do is…raise a piece of cloth on which is written ‘Al Qaeda” in order to make the generals race there, to cause America to suffer human, economic, and political losses.” (1)

We should do our homework first, know what the threat is, weigh options of using other countries and other means, and be very reluctant to enter any military conflict. Certainly we have an international interest, there are activities that only the United States can do, and nobody is advocating eliminating the military. But we are not all powerful and must consider our actions first. As Fareed Zakaria said, “Washington has to move out of the eighth century A.D. adjudicating claims between Sunnis and Shias in Baghdad, and move into the twenty-first century – to China, India, Brazil – where the future is being made.” (2)

Compare this with where we are under Obama. How many wars are we fighting now? With Bush it was fairly easy to tell. We were fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq though towards the end of his presidency it became obvious he was fighting in Pakistan as well. How many under Obama? In addition to Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, and Pakistan there are credible reports of military involvement in Somalia, Yemen, Sudan, Bahrain, and Syria. In addition the White House is outright lying about the extent of our involvement.(3) Shall we just put on our “Pudding Face” and say this is fine as long as it is a democrat and not a republican doing it? Is getting involved in the very serious business of starting a war right or wrong dependent solely on whether it is a republican or democrat who starts it? Obama and almost everyone in congress on both sides of the aisle cheerily put on their “Pudding Face” and act as if that is the sole criterion. If you do not want to put on a Pudding Face for war then perhaps the New Progressive Alliance is for you.

See Antiwar movement revitalized by Independents and third party groups and 360M lost to insurgents, criminals in Afghanistan and Iraq Withdrawal? Don't Take it to the Bank and Bush 2.0: 100 Ways Barack Obama Is Just Like George W. Bush and Ending Wars on Time Would Save $200 Billion, One-Sixth of Debt Reduction Goal (leaving open the question of how much we would save if we ended the wars early!) and Libya: 'Humanitarian' Snow Job and Libya: Never Believe It Till It's Officially Denied and Libya: Enough To Make You Cry and Is Washington Out of Gas? and How Washington Creates Global Instability and Freedom Is Not Free at the State Department and Obama waives penalties on countries that employ child soldiers – again! and Panetta: No clear plan on end to Libya mission and Is the National Security Complex Too Big to Fail?
TARPing War and Afghanistan to back Pakistan if wars with U.S.: Karzai and The Military Spending Fairy and U.S. General Fired for Criticizing Hamid Karzai and An All-American Nightmare: This Is What Defeat Looks Like.

1) Fareed Zakaria, “The Post-American World Release 2.0,” (W.W. Norton & Company, Inc., 2011), 269-270.
2) Fareed Zakaria, “The Post-American World Release 2.0,” (W.W. Norton & Company, Inc., 2011), 263.
3) See comments by Cherokee Girl and Vern under “The Many Facets of Spin” blog on this website for documentation.