Obama returns Nobel Peace Prize

President Obama announced today that he's returning the Nobel Peace Prize. "It's just not fair for me to have this thing," the President said. "There's no way around the fact that our drone strikes end up killing civilians and now I have Dennis suing me for the Libya response. And for the record, that operation is not a war. It's a kinetic military action."

In related news, accused war criminal Henry Kissinger has decided to turn himself in. "I'm sick of carrying this guilt," the former Secretary of State said on Sunday. 

Obama vs. his lawyers on illegal Libya war

Charlie Savage reports that two lawyers on Obama's legal team disagreed with him and "believed that the United States military’s activities in the NATO-led air war amounted to 'hostilities.'"

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War Is Not The Answer - Vote Obama 2012

Obama's maintaining operations in Iraq, he expanded not only the campaign in Afghanistan but also the drone strikes in Pakistan that only make headlines on Al Jazeera. He slid those killing machines over to Yemen and now Kucinich (who apparently has nothing to lose) is suing him over the illegal war in Libya. Obama just really digs warfare and the curtailing of civil liberties that go along with that policy. His recent renewal of the PATRIOT Act highlights the difference between the Bush and Obama police states: progressives hate Republican police states. All of this makes me miss the days of Ashcroft and Gonzales, those villains! Yes, our Nobel laureate is one stellar politician who maintains a base of cult members driving around town with "War Is Not The Answer" stuck to their bumper right next to "Hope And Change" while their man is embedded in five wars.

Yesterday's drone attack in Yemen:
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the new FBI: more power, less oversight

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speaking of Tricky Dick...

Bush ordered the CIA to spy on Juan Cole.

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This reminds me of J. Edgar Hoover's spying on John Lennon & Martin Luther King.  Except that at least Lennon & MLK were celebrities who could influence people!  It's astonishing that the Bush White House would obsess about an obscure blogger with no fame; you'd think they had bigger fish to fry. -Andy K.

if Nixon were alive today

"Richard Nixon, if he were alive today, might take bittersweet satisfaction to know that he was not the last smart president to prolong unjustifiably a senseless, unwinnable war, at great cost in human life.  ... He would probably also feel vindicated (and envious) that ALL the crimes he committed against me–which forced his resignation facing impeachment–are now legal." - Daniel Ellsberg.
 

government's case against Thomas Drake is falling apart

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Libya vs. Bahrain

Tuesday at the White House, President Obama justified the illegal war in Libya by repeating the U.S. claim that our actions are "protecting the Libyan people from potential slaughter." Some slaughters are justifiable in the eyes of the U.S. government of course. Conventional wisdom places those our forces commit and those committed by our allies in a special category. The Bahrain monarchy's assault on Shiite pro-democracy protestors is one recent example of this double standard.

On the very same day Obama defended NATO's "humanitarian" intervention in Libya, he held a meeting at the White House with Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa - the Crown Prince of Bahrain. Bahraini troops recently attacked protesters in several villages. The monarch just lifted the country's three-month long emergency rule on June 1st and two days ago 23 doctors and 24 nurses who treated wounded anti-government protestors were charged "with attempting to topple the kingdom's monarchy." Human rights groups have pointed out that our close ally's move against the medical workers violates the Geneva Convention. Democracy Now! reported that the official White House statement regarding the meeting with the Crown Prince unsurprisingly failed to mention the government's recent harsh crackdown. Bahrain also happens to be the headquarters of the U.S. Navy's Fifth Fleet.

WikiLeaks: Haiti's U.S. problem

The Obama administration wanted to keep Haiti's minimum wage at 24 cents/hour.

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