"Obama will surely pass President Richard Nixon as the worst president ever on issues of national security and press freedom."
Writing in The New York Times, James C. Goodale, one of the attorneys who represented the New York Times Co. in its legal battle with the Nixon Administration over the Pentagon Papers, says President Barack Obama is on track to "pass President Richard Nixon as the worst president ever on issues of national security and press freedom." He writes:
The government's subpoena of The Associated Press's phone records was bad enough. But the disclosure of the search warrant in the [Fox News reporter James] Rosen case shows President Obama has delved into territory never before reached by previous presidents….
Until President Obama came into office, no one thought talking or emailing was not protected by the First Amendment. President Obama wants to criminalize the reporting of national security information. This will stop reporters from asking for information that might be classified. Leaks will stop and so will the free flow of information to the public.
Read the whole thing here.
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"If your model of printing press was not available in 1776, it is not covered under 'freedom of the press'. Not to mention 'speech' is a subjective term..."
/prog
You left out the part where CU is wrong since corporations aren't people.
And you'll notice that "Congress shall make no law..." specifically mentions individual people, right? Well, in the prop version it certainly does!
As I was told just a couple of days ago, any attempts to compare the Ascended One to Nixon are ridiculous.
To which I replied, "Obama's the One!"
Well to be fair, Nixon never investigated tea party groups, nor did he seize email or cell phone records.
Well, obviously, these newfangled gizmos aren't covered under the first/fourth amendments...they hadn't even been invented when the BoR was written.
Yes, one must concede that he at least treated the Internet with benign neglect.
It is the duty of tolerant people to root out and punish intolerance. All Obama is doing is being tolerant.
This is unfair. Obama is just as outraged at the thuggish and facsistic behavior of his administration as you are. He's still waiting for the "Ones we've been waiting for."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=molWTfv8TYw
The comments on the NYT article don't disappoint.
Apparently any criticism of Obama automatically makes one a Rethuglican... and Bush did it too!
If Obama started ruling by decree, like Stalin, these people would be thrilled to join the Cheka.
it's for society's best interest!
I read the first one and it talked about how the press has been out to get the Obama administration from day one. It actually used the phrase "fair and balanced"! No joke. What planet do these people live on?
What planet do these people live on?
Akritiri ? Delta Quadrant planet with a fascist police state that maintained a prison satellite in 2373.
For you Star Trek nerds out there.
I was thinking Klendathu but that's my stock answer to that question.
Too buggy
That place crawls.
They think engaging in the Big Lie is cool and sophisticated.
When I took media law in journalism school
...
We know freedom of speech isn't absolute; along with shouting fire, etc...
What a surprise, journalism schools turn out idiots who don't understand the court cases they reference.
It's pretty close to absolute in this country when it comes to political speech. It's very difficult for the government to impose prior restraints on speech, and punishing it isn't much easier, barring a few established exceptions (e.g., defamation).
But what about speech we don't like? That's got to be illegal right?
Naturally, speech that makes us the slightest bit uncomfortable should be illegal, provided that we're mutual thinking people.
Thank God, I was afraid someone might say something offensive.
Your reference to a metaphysical entity may offend some Americans. Please report to the re-education center in your area.
Thank you for pointing out my mistakes to me comrade
along with shouting fire
Defective legal standard is defective.
Considering the Patriot Act was passed and signed into law years before Obama came into office, and considering that's what gave the Justice Dept. its power in this case - it would seem that Mr. Goodale has a short memory.
STOP HATING ON BARRY!
Sadly enough, that is the highest rated comment on that editorial.
Like, ya! They can't give him the powers and, like, not expect him to not use them! It's not his fault!
How many times now has Barry signed extensions of the Patriot Act? After actively campaigning for congress to re-new the act in whole, without any changes? Twice. That's two chances he had to veto the fucking thing and not only did he not, he actively supported its renewal. He can go fuck himself (by he I mean Barry and the bootlicking little shit in the NYT comments).
but.. but... BOOSH!
I love how they claim Bush did it too, yet fail to come up with anything Bush did that's really comparable to Benghazi, IRS scandal, AP and Fox, and Sebelius shakedown for Obamacare. But it doesn't matter, because BOOOSHHH!!!11!!
The thing is, Obama can do whatever he wants and he knows it. His legacy was secure from day one because he is the first black President. It's not necessarily a right or left thing - fifty years from now it will just be the consensus that Obama was a great man because it would be terribly convenient for him to be anything otherwise.
He doesn't rule by decree? I must have been asleep the day bombing Libya and Mali passed through Congress.
Will?
(classified) Leaks will stop
Sadly, that is the goal.
But it's okay because Bush did it too, right?
Oh wait, not even Bush did this. Since a tu quoque argument isn't even possible, I guess you've got nothing.
No, Bush actually LEAKED classified info - see Plame, Valerie.
Like I said, you've got nothing.
Holy Science! Valerie Plame had repeatedly "outed" her-fucking-self. Since she wasn't any kind of agent, secret or otherwise, it would be impossible for her non-secret status to be "leaked". She was nothing more than a bureaucrat who happened to work for the CIA.
Obama's Toilet Paper expanding the frontier of Peak Retard by the minute.
You're an idiot.
Valerie Plame was an undercover Iran nuke CIA agent before she was outed for political revenge - (husband Joe Wilson was the ambassador to Niger who pointed out the Bushpigs lie about yellowcake in the SOTU speech)
It's okay assfuck. Just because your savior is a worse president than Nixon (which makes him way worse than BOOOOSH, BTW) is no reason to to make up nonsense to defend him.
I still find your tu quoque arguments EXTREMELY credible.
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
And I was just about to write a post about how you have clearly never had an original thought. "Undercover Iran nuke CIA agent"?! 008, kind of thingy?
And people say we will never reach Peak Retard.
Needs some Christfag, shit-for-brains.
Didn't Novak break the story that the administration did out Plame who was a CIA operations officer at one time?
I remember reading that article but not the details.
What's the First Rule of Holes again?
Was this before or after Ronald Reagan, having pretended to be senile in order to trick his enemies, entered into an unholy alliance with the Lizard People from Zaphon 6 in order to get back at the foes he'd made during his presidency?
Plame was a covert CIA agent working on Iran's nuke program before the Bushpigs outed her.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/.....ayers.html
Bush outs'em, Obama kills'em.
Or have you forgotten about Brian Terry already, shrieky?
VP was outed by her husband and was the least secret agent ever, unless doing photo spreads in Vanity Fair qualifies as undercover.
While it is true no one reads Vanity Fair, it is hard to imagine how any thinking person could call someone who stated in an interview that they worked for the CIA a "secret agent".
Oh, "thinking person" would be key.
"Valerie Plame was an undercover Iran nuke CIA agent"
Must suck to be stuck at one of those reactors in Iran waiting for Israel to bomb her.
Ignorance.
An undercover CIA operative specializing in weapons of mass destruction, Plame was unmasked in July 2003 by columnist Robert D. Novak after her husband, Joseph Wilson, criticized President Bush for stating that former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein bought nuclear weapons-grade uranium in the African nation of Niger. The revelation set off an investigation into whether White House officials broke a 1982 law prohibiting the disclosure of the identities of covert CIA officers when they revealed Plame's status to Novak and other reporters.
Same link - WaPost.
I forgive you.
NEEDZ MOAR CHRISTFAG!!11BUSHPIGGG!!11!!!11
Valerie Plame was an undercover Iran nuke CIA agent
no
husband Joe Wilson was the ambassador to Niger
no
An undercover CIA operative specializing in weapons of mass destruction, Plame was unmasked in July 2003 by columnist Robert D. Novak after her husband, Joseph Wilson, criticized President Bush for stating that former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein bought nuclear weapons-grade uranium in the African nation of Niger. The revelation set off an investigation into whether White House officials broke a 1982 law prohibiting the disclosure of the identities of covert CIA officers when they revealed Plame's status to Novak and other reporters.
WaPost.
I know reality is not the strung suit of conservatives - but the evidence is 100% right.
IIRC the whole Plame affair happened because Joseph Wilson got political over Iraq, claiming that he went to Niger and confirmed (by asking someone over tea) that Iraq never sought uranium there. Much of Washington then said "Who is this bozo and why in the world would he have been sent on an intelligence mission?" The answer, which apparently was common knowledge in some circles, turned out to be that his wife worked for the CIA.
The Joe Wilson stunt was ridiculous. Iraq couldn't have made a Uranium bomb if we sent them a ship full of yellow cake. If Plame was really a "undercover Iran nuke CIA agent" she would've known that.
The Derpularity looms large.
it will consume us all!
"Bushpigs! YABBUT BUSH!!!"
No it isn't - the Administration only wants the unfavorable leaks to stop.
This won't stop leaks, but it will change who and what gets leaked.
Sources inside the Administration confirmed today that the President shot 60 under par at Augusta National, with 8 holes in one. Groundskeepers at the course are busy redoing the landscape to accommodate the flowers that bloomed spontaneously in the President's footsteps.
This is actually not sarcasm. As much as he plays I would believe a 65 or so. Shit, the man plays 36 holes every day at the nations best courses and with some really good 4somes.
If golf were osmosis, in which case imagine a round with Charles Barkley.
"Today President Obama won the Charlotte Hornets in a round of golf with Michael Jordan."
Jokes on him - the Hornets play in New Orleans now. Charlotte is the Bobcats. So he won a non-existant NBA franchise. That sly MJ.
Sort of:
http://basketball.about.com/b/.....licans.htm
And:
http://espn.go.com/nba/story/_.....ordan-says
Not anymore.
Drat.
See below.
or above.
Prof. Akston also said "60 under par". Not a 60, 60 less than par for the course.
A couple of times, the President had "two-holes-in-one", in which the ball bounced out of the first hole and rolled all the way down the next fairway and into the second hole.
I hadn't noticed that. A 60 under par would usually be impossible...Hmm...
Obama has already swept past Nixon as worst president of all time.
Nixon did not order the assassination of an American citizen without due process.
Nixon did not claim executive authority to arrest American citizens on American soil and hold them for eternity without access to legal representation or due process of any kind.
Nixon did bomb Cambodia, so that's merely a tie with Obama droning Pakistan.
Seriously, I vote for Zombie Nixon in a heartbeat to get Obama out of the White House asap.
No, Bender Nixon
But he would come in our houses at night and wreck-up the place!
You think Nixon was the worst president of all time? I can think of 2 or 3 off the top of my head which were worse.
Woodrow Wilson
FDR
LBJ
Jimmah Cahtah
Barack Obama: Dumber that Carter; Dirtier than Nixon.
Is that you, Glenn Beck?
BECKERHEAD!!11!!CHRISTFAG!!111!!
Aaannddd, once again, Shriek's parades his desire to peel off Glenn Beck's Mormon underwear with his teeth.
Augh! Thanks for that image... bleach, I need BLEACH, STAT!
"Bushpig! YABBUT BUSH!!!"
Andrew Jackson would like a word with you.
"Toward the aborigines of the country no one can indulge a more friendly feeling than myself, or would go further in attempting to reclaim them from their wandering habits and make them a happy, prosperous people."
Andrew Jackson - it was all about his good intentions.
Andrew Jackson was President of Australia, too?
Crikey!
Andrew Jackson - Cons: Virulent racist, murderer, possibly a bigamist, flouted the law.
Pros: Destroyed the Second Bank of the United States.
Bigamist! The heck you say!
Pro: Only President to completely pay off the national debt.
Carter was feeble, but under his presidency beer, trucking, and air travel were all deregulated. I cannot think of anything so useful taking place under the other dicks you mentioned.
Yeah, as president I don't think Carter was really terrible. Just weak and didn't get how things worked. Not saying he was good, but not particularly terrible. The rest I agree with. Especially Wilson and Jackson.
Carter really was the wrong man at the wrong time. If Ford had won, he'd have been just as likely to fall on his face dealing with the same things Carter did. Him winning in '76 likely cost the Dems the entire 80s decade in setting the political tone.
Carter was quite innocuous compared to Obama. That's an understatement.
Carter was like a sort of harmless goof, I don't think the guy had any bad intentions, he was just incompetent, his ideas sucked.
Obama, on the other hand, is a totally different story. Arrogant and hateful are the first 2 terms that come to mind.
Dumbya is easily worst POTUS ever - see the George Mason poll of historians.
61% had him worst - 30ish had him second to Buchanan.
Worse than James Buchanon?
Worse the Woodrow (the fascist) Wilson?
Bush isn't even the worst president of the 21st century.
The 20th century really did have some shitheads, didn't it? FDR, Nixon, LBJ, Bush II. And the 21st century has only had shitheads!
Wilson is top ten on every list - sorry.
They don't poll at Bob Jones U either (before you claim only liberal historians are polled).
Yeah, well we know that progressives like you have no problem with presidents who throw wartime dissenters in jail.
Dissent is the highest form of racism!
...expecially for a racist facist like Wilson.
Yeah, well we know that progressives like you have no problem with presidents who throw wartime dissenters in jail.
Consensus! Wilson must be great because a bunch of like-minded progressives said so! QED, bitchez!!
Or Roosevelt imprisoning Japanese Americans.
...and Italian-Americans.
Dunno why that keeps getting overlooked in Canada and USA. The Canadian government issues an official apology.
...and Italo-Canadians.
Why the fuck is it relevant if they put him top ten on some list that random ass historians compile? Woodrow Wilson created one of the world's first propaganda ministries, threw wartime dissenters in prison, passed the 1917 anti-espionage act that is still being used to attack free speech and got us into a war after campaigning on the fact that he kept us out of that same war.
In his defense, half of those things were done by his wife after Wilson essentially handed the duties of the president over to her.
The sick, hybrid being we call Woodrow Wilson/Edith Wilson is the worst president of all time.
Nope. FDR. Not even close.
He also created the Wartime Industries Board, which was pretty much straight out of the Fascist playbook.
This is the sort of man that Shreik - the Great Hero of Capitalism, One True Libertarian, and Heir of Hayek - defends. A warmongering, police-state creating fascist.
Why the fuck is it relevant if they put him top ten on some list that random ass historians compile?
It's a list compiled by HISTORIANS. TOP. MEN. Experts in HISTORICALNESSITUDE. TEH SCIENCE IZ SETTLED!!!1!!!!11!!! /the derpularity
And don't forget presiding over the creation of the Federal Reserve and the Income Tax.
Palin's Buttplug| 5.22.13 @ 11:11AM |#
"Wilson is top ten on every list - sorry."
You're right about being sorry. Or at least you should be.
Oh, and fuck you and your lists; the same ones would make no mention that FDR should have been indicted post-mortem for dereliction of duty.
What's so fucking special about Wilson? The 14 points? The failed league of nations?
I'm afraid his high ranking is classic group think at work. Fellow academics falling for the ideals and overlooking the actions.
Wilson is top ten on every list - sorry.
He sure is. Top Ten on the little Pluggertarian's list of Most Inspirational American Fascists.
If Buchanan's policies had been followed, perhaps 650,000 lives would have been saved and 4 million blacks eventually emancipated with some education and a whole lot less hate toward them.
Most polls rank Lincoln, Washington, FDR, Jefferson, Jackson, Wilson, and Truman at the top of the "best Presidents" list. Why should I give a shit? I don't share the political views of academic historians. Let's see. Lincoln - unconstitutional acts during Civil War; FDR - massive expansion of ineffective government programs; Jackson - warmonger; Wilson - got US in a war it didn't belong in, botched the peace accords. I don't think there is any such thing as a "good President".
But there are terrible ones. I'd generally rank them in order of the freedoms that they destroyed. It's hard to choose who's the worst, but the list of contenders has to include: Lincoln, FDR, Nixon, LBJ, GWB, Obama. I don't really care about the order.
If Civil Liberties is all that matters Carter is #1.
He is the most libertarian anyway (given all the deregulation he did).
I didn't say anything about Carter.
Also, I noticed that you didn't bother responding to my comment about political views. It's pretty easy to like people who share the same views as you. Academic historians tend to have a liberal viewpoint (don't even bother arguing that; it's an extremely well-known and researched point). So it's not at all surprising that they'd rank Presidents with whom they share a worldview.
Given that I think their worldview is patently absurd, why the hell should I care about their rankings?
For God's sake man, it's a TOP TEN list. You must agree or you're being unreasonable.
For God's sake man, it's a TOP TEN list.
Not only that a TOP TEN list compiled by TOP MEN. The science historical analysis is settled.
Well I agree that historians tend to have a liberal worldview as scientists, artists, and capitalists do too.
I will hang with that crowd over the Bible-beaters that make up the GOP any day.
And there we go again. "Team Red" and "Team Blue" over and over and over. "Team Red" is the Bible-beaters. "Team Blue" is the enlightened. You really can't think outside that paradigm, can you? I feel very sorry for you.
Being a scientist myself, I'll take issue with your claim. Academic scientists do tend to have a left-wing worldview. In industry, not so much. But the academe is the only thing that matters, right? You're probably right about artists. I'll also take issue with the capitalist comment. Crony capitalists, the ones who try to extract as many favors from government as possible, tend to be left-wing. Real capitalists, not so much. If you still can't tell the difference, there's no point in engaging you any longer.
You have to understand, crony capitalists are the only ones Shriek cares about. If you've gotten a hand out from Barack Obama, Shrike loves you.
If you are an entrepreneur who opened up a small business and is going to be crushed by Obamacare regulations, you can go fuck yourself.
I thought the stench of urine coming from his pants would have alerted you to this from the outset.
You have Smell-o-vision on your computer? No fair!
Well I agree that historians tend to have a liberal worldview as scientists, artists, and capitalists do too.
And do you routinely have conversations with yourself?
DJK, I earned a degree in History and have to concur with your point. I had two balanced political science teachers and one conservative - well, at least that's how I viewed him.
The rest. All liberal. But I must admit fair in their grading for the most part.
I tended to be a no-bull-shit type of writer and it got me high grades.
And who said I was restricting myself to civil liberties? I favor all liberties equally.
I would argue that FDR is worse than Wilson. His assistance allowed Stalin to murder millions. Assistance above and beyond that which was needed to defeat Hitler, I might add.
FDR's hatred for the upstart businessmen who supplanted the aristocratic landed gentry he was descended from was so great that he was willing to destroy freedom to get at them.
He also completely hung out to dry those U.S. citizens living in the Soviet Union who were imprisoned, tortured, and executed, because he didn't want to upset the Soviets.
His ambassador just spent all of his time partying with high ranking Soviets.
It's all detailed in The Forsaken
He is the original limousine liberal.
True story. Hell, Wilson even nearly stopped WWII from happening by lobbying for a just peace at Versailles. Too bad he was a terrible negotiator...
You forgot - Jefferson had the audacity to fall in love with his slave.
This is not proven. IIRC the DNA evidence only links Sally Hemmings' descendants to a male Jefferson, and Thomas had a rather dissolute brother.
I like to interpret those lists a little different. In a sense it is fair to call those assholes the greatest presidents. Not great in the sense that they did what was right and best for the country, but great in that they were in office in troubled times and did a lot of big stuff. Historians are going to have a lot more fun writing about big stuff than about presidents who got out of the way and didn't do much. So of course it is those presidents who make the list. The problem is that people think that "Great" means good, when it really just means big.
This. Historians like the big story just like journalists do.
Historians blame the "do nothing" Presidents for the problems "fixed" by the "Great Presidents".
Zeb, that's why Obama rammed Obamacare through. For his legacy I reckon.
I highly doubt he read that monstrosity.
You are talking about a discipline where nearly every American college has several members still devoted to Marxist analysis. Hard to take them seriously in any aggregate poll conducted to measure political opinion.
Meaningless. They gave high marks to Wilson and FDR, two of the biggest fascists to ever inhabit the office. The Gulf of Tonkin incident didn't seem to bother them either.
It's not meaningless. You just have to know how to interpret it. Their idea of greatest presidents lines up with your idea of biggest Fascists.
I remember skimming the opening of one of Caro's books on LBJ. His take was essentially that LBJ was an a-hole, abused the constitution, etc. BUT he did it for good reasons so it was OK.
Caro's been digging into LBJ's life for so long now that it's impossible for him to be objective about the man. He owes the bulk of his publishing career to LBJ.
DumbyaWoodrow Wilson is easily worst POTUS ever
FIFY, shrieky-boy.
Please--like anyone should take what a bunch of commie-sympathizing academics say seriously.
All that proves is that most historians are idiots blinded by partisanship, which we already knew.
FYI that poll was done in November of 2008. I suspect it has come down a bit as the crazy libtard rage against Bush has subsided.
You guys know he's going to get away with all of this, right? Once Obama nominally apologizes to the press, they will be happy to forgive because they just hate being in a fight with him, and really want to go back to the way things were.
And he promised he wouldn't do it again, and it was my fault, I just wasn't there enough for him...
Those damn republicans just get him so worked up.
Rethuglicans, get it right for god's sake.
The press has spent so much time claiming anyone who is critical of the President is partisan or bigoted, how can they now turn on him without themselves being partisan or bigoted?
And racist, don't forget racist.
Sounds like he's starting to lose the NYT (except for Krugman, who will never turn). This could get interesting. Going after the press was probably the dumbest thing they could have ever done.
Why does anyone here bother arguing with OBP? His only mission here is as an Obama apologist. He's not worth your time, any more than Tony is.
He offers those tantalizing little hints that he might be open to reason. Then completely reverses course. I fall for it every time. *tear*
He's just a troll.
And the rest of the time we all spend on here is very well spent?
Of course! I'm arguing with someone on another thread about the technical definition of "anarchy"! What else could I be doing? Working?!?!
Tony will at least occasionally say something somewhat cogent. I may not agree with him, but he at least appears to be capable of thinking a little bit. PB is just a huge fucking derpu-larity: a black hole of stupidity.
Citation needed.
no shit
There's some fairly decent give-and-take from him here:
http://reason.com/blog/2012/10.....st#comment
I would say that at least Tony occasionally says something that is not directly related to defending Obama.
BP is a one trick Pony. His only trick is, briefly remove head from Obamas ass, go to H&R and defend Obama, no matter how indefensible the situation is, leave and reinsert head in Obamas ass. That's his entire existence.
Not lately.