A Fundemental Failure of Leadership

The truest test of leadership is not what a leader does with the power given, but when and how he walks away from it.

Barack Obama has failed that test.

This is not a stumble but failure in epic proportions. It not merely embraced the Bush administration thrashing of the Constitution it has expanded upon it (h/t to Glenn Greenwald). You can't sue the King, which means that our new monarchs, the Presidential Imperators are immune from legal challenges. It is true that you can not sue the goverment unless it allows you to, with the exception of the goverment violation of the Constitution. Without this most obvious of exceptions citizens are left without legal recourse when the civil rights are violated, such as this one:

Amendment IV

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

This is no longer the case as Glenn Greenwald explains:

But the Obama DOJ demanded dismissal of the entire lawsuit based on (1) its Bush-mimicking claim that the "state secrets" privilege bars any lawsuits against the Bush administration for illegal spying, and (2) a brand new "sovereign immunity" claim of breathtaking scope -- never before advanced even by the Bush administration -- that the Patriot Act bars any lawsuits of any kind for illegal government surveillance unless there is "willful disclosure" of the illegally intercepted communications.

In other words, beyond even the outrageously broad "state secrets" privilege invented by the Bush administration and now embraced fully by the Obama administration, the Obama DOJ has now invented a brand new claim of government immunity, one which literally asserts that the U.S. Government is free to intercept all of your communications (calls, emails and the like) and -- even if what they're doing is blatantly illegal and they know it's illegal -- you are barred from suing them unless they "willfully disclose" to the public what they have learned.

And thanks to the retroactive immunity that Congress gifted on the telecoms, they are also beyond the reach of the courts. Until yesterday you could still blame Bush for making a mockery out of the Constitution in the name of safety. Today the ball is on Obama's court, no one else. This is what happens when the branches of goverment stop being co-equal, when the Congress abdicates it's responsibilities and the Court's fall silent.

Forget vague allusions to FEMA camps, socialism or even fascism, this is the real path tyranny. We are at the hands of "benevolent dictators" praying that we do not find ourselves in the wrong tribe or in the wrong place.

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