Finally Some Transparentcy

I usually think that Code Pink is an extremist left- wing group  which goes too far with their thinking. I'm glad that the president of United States gave the representative from Code Pink a platform to state her views. It's a discussion, we need to hear. The exchange between President Obama and Medea Benjamin of Code Pink was the highlight of his important speech because it was a rare exercise of free speech. Usually, Ms Medea would not have made it past security, or she would have been escorted out before she could have uttered a word.

We went through the entire War of Iraq without being told what our core principles were in remaining in a country that did not possess WMD, pose a threat to us, or what our mission in  Afghanistan was about, after the initial attack.

I couldn't believe that a president of the United States would actually push back the authority Congress wants to give him with the Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF) to fight terrorists. President wants to take us on a path to end the so-called "War on Terror" which by definition is never ending. President Obama has already taken steps to end the war in Afghanistan and wants to take care of threats to the homeland with drone signature strikes signed off by Congress.

The president made another  plea for Congress to help him shut down Guantanamo Bay because it  should have never been erected in the first place. How can deficit hawks justify the near $1 million per detainee it costs to run that place? He wants the Department of Defense to designate a site on U.S. soil where we can hold military tribunals. The only reason we used Guantanamo Bay was to bypass the constitution. With the use of his executive orders, the president will  repeal the moratorium we had with Yemen and start making arrangements to send some detainees to that country. Will those detainees rejoin terrorist groups?  No one really knows the answer to that, but that comes up in our American criminal-justice  system all the time.

 Yes, we will continue to receive acts of terror like the one in London  the day before yesterday, but we will involve our local, state, and  Federal law enforcement and not necessarily use military force. That doesn't mean that we will ignore threats to our homeland from abroad but don't expect us to spend the next 20 years going after wannabe Al Qaeda.

We have a few detainees whom we cannot send back to any country because they were heavily involved in the initial attack upon our country and there's no reason to believe that they have given up their jihadist beliefs. We can't try them in federal court or put them up before a military tribunal because they have been tortured, and any type of justice has been compromised. We're left with the indefinite detention, but if we bring those people back to the United States, that distinction is unconstitutional. .

I was very critical of the Bush era policies on the war on terror, but I was equally angry because the Obama administration followed the same polices and sometimes went a step further. I was relieved when the president finally decided to end all those policies. "Obama argued that the time has come to redefine the kind of conflict that the United States is engaged in: "We must define the nature and scope of this struggle, or else it will define us."I also know that these steps will take a long time to implement and many Republicans will fight him tooth and nail, not only only because it's his idea but they think it's raising the white flag of surrender.

A local right-winger, Bruce Hultquist, is repeating the talking points that you can hear 24/7 on talk radio and Fox News.  It's as if Bruce had any hope at all, that an Obama administration would be honest or transparent. His mind was made up in 2008. He went a little off-script by blaming the president for the sex scandals in the military. He has to get together with another Republican letter writer because Jack Mullins didn't think there was a scandal, and if there was, the chain of command should never be superseded by Obama.

I'm in a generous mood, I will agree that the Department of Justice overreached in their relentless attempt to go after leaks. It now seems that  the Atty. General signed off on some of the outrageous methods that were used to go after the reporter's phone calls and emails. If he did,a resignation is in order.

Raymond Smith  thinks his "Strong Families of Victoria" was involved in what he calls  a "web of IRS malfeasance."Then he admits that he didn't file the proper form for three years.Raymond,before you leap,there's a difference between a 501(c ) (4 ) and a 501 (c ) (3 ). The ones in questions are the 501 (c ) (4 ) s but what's one digit when you can publicize your group and take a shot at the IRS,free of charge.