http://dirtywars.org Saw the guy discuss his book and upcoming film on MSNBC this AM. Read the link. The short story is that he details a lot of things people hated about things the Bush administration did (rendition, torture, etc.) while those things went on during Clinton's administration (rendition started by Clinton) and have been greatly expanded by the Obama administration. No, this is not some right wing spin. The guy writes for the very left wing Nation Magazine.
FWIW, I think the guy seems like he did a really good job looking at things we have no clue are going on. Drone strikes in Somalia? Whoa. Drone strike killed an American citizen, we all know that. But two weeks later, a drone was sent to kill the guy's son, a child, also a US citizen.
I have come to accept that the democrats do a lot of bad things. But they at least do good things, unlike much of the republican party.
^^^ Is it possible that regardless of party, the guys we elect see all the intel, classified and otherwise, and choose these pursuits for good reason?
Over 50 years ago, the President told Americans everywhere the military industrial complex was deep into the process of overthrowing the government. In less than a decade it became obvious the coup had succeeded. Vote for the whichever puppet you adore, the puppeteer remains the same.
Is it possible that Woodrow Wilson got the ball rolling with our intervention in Europe's affairs? or that the Manhattan Project was the prototype of the military industrial complex? Or that Truman wanted to nuke Korea? It was all done before Ike even thought about running for president.
I ran across this in my morning reading: http://news.yahoo.com/obama-bush-di...--politics.html;_ylt=A2KJ3CdPu3dR3S4AfDPQtDMD WASHINGTON (AP) — Despite vast differences with President George W. Bush on ideology, style and temperament, President Barack Obama has stuck with Bush policies or aspirations on a number of fronts, from counterterrorism to immigration, from war strategy to the global fight against AIDS. Even on tax policy, where Bush advocated lower tax rates for all and Obama pushed for higher rates on the rich, Bush's tax cuts for the middle class not only have survived under Obama, they have become permanent. Obama inherited from his predecessor two military conflicts, a war on terror and a financial crisis. He also inherited, and in time embraced, the means with which to confront them. On Thursday, Obama will attend the dedication of Bush's presidential library in Texas, a tableau that will draw attention to two distinct men — a Republican and a Democrat from different ends of the political spectrum, political foils with polarized constituencies. Indeed, Obama ran for president in 2008 as the anti-Bush, critical of the war against Iraq and of the economic policies of the preceding eight years. But in his more than four years of governing, Obama has also adopted or let stand a series of Bush initiatives, illustrating how the policies of one administration can take hold and how the realities of governing often limit solutions. Bush's signature education plan, No Child Left Behind, remains the law of the land, though the Obama administration has granted states waivers to give them flexibility in meeting performance targets. A Bush Medicare prescription drug plan, criticized for its cost, is now popular with beneficiaries, and Obama has sought to improve it by providing relief for seniors with high bills. Obama continued the unpopular bank bailouts and expanded the auto industry rescue that Bush initiated in 2008. Bush authorized a military surge in Iraq in an effort to tame the conflict there. Obama completed the withdrawal of troops from Iraq but also authorized a military surge in Afghanistan before beginning a drawdown of troops that is expected to be completed at the end of 2014. "The responsibilities of office drive presidents toward pragmatism," said Joshua Bolten, a former Bush chief of staff. Where those policies are effective, he added, "the successor has good reason to adopt them." Obama, like Bush during his presidency, is seeking an overhaul of immigration laws that give 11 million immigrants in the U.S. illegally a chance to get on a path toward citizenship. Bush came up short in 2007, but Bolten believes that six years later the nation and its politicians are in a different place. "President Bush was just ahead of his time and his party in recognizing both the importance of reaching some sort of bipartisan accommodation and on what the elements of that might reasonably be," he said. Bruce Buchanan, a government professor at the University of Texas at Austin who specializes on the presidency, says it's not uncommon for presidents to hand off their agendas to another. Even measures or issues that were unpopular under one president can appear different with the passage of time and under the direction of a new occupant in the White House. "While the names of the problems are the same, the stage of development is usually very different and the public stance of the president dealing with them is often very different," he said. "You have to be sensitive to those things lest you create the false impression that they are mirror images of one another, which I don't think would be accurate." On no front are the similarities more striking than on counterterrorism. Obama did vow to end the harsh interrogation techniques such as waterboarding that had been employed during the Bush administration, and he issued an executive order upon becoming president declaring that the United States would not engage in torture. But other practices continued and, in some case, expanded under Obama. (more at the link)
