President Obama, Terrorists and Federal Courts

Dear Friends,

President Obama is considering reversing the decision to try 9-11 terrorist suspects in Federal Court which he promised as candidate Obama.  See the Washington Post article entitled "Obama advisors set to recomment military tribunals for alleged 9/11 plotters" (here) which was published earlier today.  The first paragraph of the article says it all:

President Obama's advisers are nearing a recommendation that Khalid Sheik Mohammed, the self-proclaimed mastermind of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, be prosecuted in a military tribunal, administration officials said, a step that would reverse Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr.'s plan to try him in civilian court in New York City

The Wall Street Journal just published an article entitled, "Obama Leans Toward Switch to Military Trials on 9/11" (here).  The first few paragraphs read:

The Obama administration now favors trying Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and other alleged Sept. 11, 2001, plotters in a military tribunal, officials said, yielding to opposition from Congress and local governments that was stymieing the Justice Department's plans for a civilian trial.

Members of Congress have moved to cut off funds for a civilian trial, while local governments have expressed reluctance to play host to such a trial. No decision has been reached, and a White House official said President Barack Obama wouldn't make his announcement for weeks as a review continues.

A reversal on the 9/11 trial would represent the latest backtracking on an issue that has bedeviled the Obama administration from nearly the outset. In his campaign, Mr. Obama asserted that Bush administration detention policies had damaged America's standing in the world. Two days after taking office, Mr. Obama signed an order pledging to close the Guantanamo Bay prison, where Mr. Mohammed is held, within a year.

President Obama claims to be a person of principle, but I fail to see where principle is entering into this decision.  Once again, President Obama is giving up on the principles that enticed us to support and vote for him in favor of some idea about bipartisanship.  It is unbelievable that someone as smart as President Obama has not learned by now that the Republicans will not do anything that he supports and will oppose anything that he is for.  The article continues to outline what is going on in the background.

The movement toward a military tribunal is still a gamble. White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel has been negotiating with Sen. Lindsey Graham (R., S.C.) to win his support for a 9/11 trial before a revamped military commission that would be more open and offer defendants more rights than the Bush administration had wanted, Mr. Graham and administration officials said.
In exchange, the White House hopes Mr. Graham will help win bipartisan support for the purchase of a nearly empty prison in Thomson, Ill., which would be converted to a federal "supermax" facility, with a military court administered by the Defense Department.
Cutting a deal with Mr. Graham not only would move a distracting political issue aside but could pay dividends down the road. Mr. Graham is involved in bipartisan negotiations on climate change and immigration as well.

Why am I not surprised that Rahm Emanuel is involved in this totally unprincipled move by the Obama Administration?  It is particularly appalling that it is being done in the desperate attempt to get some Republican support for something.

If President Obama and Rahm Emanuel think that cutting an unprincipled deal with Senator Graham will get rid of a distracting political issue, it is up to us to be sure that they know that they will create an even more distracting political issue if they backtrack on this important promise that candidate Obama made.

Please go to the ACLU website (here) to let President Obama know that moving back to military tribunals is unacceptable.

Thanks for reading and please comment,

The Unabashed Liberal

The Public Option and President Obama

Dear Friends,

I finally found a site that clearly lists the supporters of the Bennet letter to use reconciliation to get a Public Option in the Health Care bill.  It is in an article by Chris Bowers on Open Left (here).  According to Mr. Bowers there are now 35 Senators that have either signed the Bennet letter or have indicated their support for it.  Dare I believe that this essentially grass roots effort could actually work?

Well before you get too excited, President Obama is making it difficult to get the Public Option included in this bill.  The New York Times reports (here)

He told the liberals that a public option would never pass the Senate, but said he would be “personally committed” to pursuing it once the current bill became law, said Representative Raúl Grijalva, Democrat of Arizona and co-chairman of the Congressional Progressive Caucus. He asked centrists for support.

If the President is "personally committed" to a public option and if there are already 35 Senators that support putting the Public Option in through reconciliation, why doesn't the President work to get the 15 more Senators and his Vice President so that we can have some real competition?   If he is "personally committed" to it, and we are this close, he should fight for it.  That is leadership and that is change we can believe in.

Thanks for reading and please comment,

The Unabashed Liberal

Lt. Governor Bill Halter and President Obama

Dear Friends,

In a post yesterday, I wrote about President Obama's immediate endorsement of Senator Blanche Lincoln over her primary challenger, Lt. Governor Bill Halter apparently just because she is the incumbent.  Well apparently, the grass roots liberals in this country that helped President Obama get elected disagree with the President's position on this issue.  AFL-CIO unions have pledged $3 million to Mr. Halter.  MoveOn.org started out with a goal to raise $500,000 for Mr. Halter and in twelve hours surpassed that goal.  They increased the goal to $1 million and as of 9:51 pm central time tonight just about one day after they started, they have raised over $948,000 for Mr. Halter.  ActBlue has already raised over $160,000. 

Grassroots liberals are coming alive, and we need to.  We need to be sure that the Democratic Party and its leaders understand that they need us to win.  They need to understand that they will not get our enthusiastic support just because they may be better than the Republican or Tea Party alternative.  They need to understand that we will support challenges to incumbents who do not uphold the liberal values that the Democratic Party is suppose to support.  They need to understand that we really did want change we can believe in.

Do your part!!

Thanks for reading and please comment,

The Unabashed Liberal

Senator Klobuchar and the Public Option

Dear Friends,

In my February 23rd post entitled "The Public Option", I indicated that Senator Klobuchar had not signed Senator Bennet's (Democrat, Colorado) letter supporting enacting the Public Option as part of the reconciliation of the Health Care bill.  Technically, I was correct in that Senator Klobuchar has not signed the letter.  However, she did provide some support to the idea.  On February 17th in an article by Paul Schmelzer (here) it was reported that Senator Klobuchar lent her support to the idea.

Sen. Amy Klobuchar is joining the chorus of Democratic senators who support the use of reconciliation — a procedural tool that would allow a bill to pass with a simple majority vote, thereby circumventing filibuster attempts — to pass health care reform measures. In a statement prepared for the Minnesota Independent, Klobuchar indicated she essentially agreed with Sen. Al Franken and nine other senators (eight Democrats, plus Vermont independent Bernie Sanders), who signed a letter urging Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to use reconciliation to bring about a Senate vote.Klobuchar didn’t indicate she’d sign the letter, but said she supports “using reconciliation to pass the health reform bill with changes, such as getting rid of the Nebraska deal” — a reference to an addition to the bill to win conservative Nebraska Democrat Ben Nelson’s vote.
Klobuchar continued, indicating her support for the public option:

I would want to make sure that the bill contains the Medicare care cost reform measures included in the existing bill.  I am also supportive of the President’s efforts to forge a bipartisan agreement.  We must reduce health care costs for the people of this country.
I support the House bill version of the public option which is based on negotiated rates. I do not support a public option based on Medicare rates because it exacerbates geographic disparities that already hurt Minnesota.

One could read Senator Klobuchar's statement to mean that she supports using reconciliation to put the public option back in the Health Care bill.  One could also argue that if her position was that we should use reconciliation to put the public option back in the Health Care bill, she should sign the letter and actually take a stand.  I am afraid that Senator Klobuchar does not like to be out in front with a liberal position.

Thanks for reading and please comment,

The Unabashed Liberal

Senator Blanche Lincoln and President Obama

Dear Friends,

Today Democratic Lt. Governor Bill Halter of Arkansas announced that he would challenge Democratic Senator Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas for the Democratic nomination for Senate.  Senator Lincoln is one of the numerous Democratic Senators that do not seem to me to have many values that are related to the Democratic Party.  She is often referred to as a centrist Democrat by the media but don't let the media fool you.  She is a conservative.  You may remember she was one of the last Democratic Senators to agree to vote for the health care bill.  She was also a cosponsor of the bill to block the EPA from regulating greenhouse gasses.  The list goes on.  Her opponent is receiving support from MoveOn.org and has been endorsed by the AFL-CIO political committee.

So what does President Obama think about Senator Lincoln being challenged?  Is he letting the process proceed?  Is he supporting Mr. Halter?  Is he helping to bring change to Washington?  Or is he just supporting the incumbent again?  Here is the answer from Jane Hamsher at firedoglake.com:

Not a surprise, really that Obama is supporting Blanche Lincoln in her primary race against Bill Halter.  She is after all the incumbent:

White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs confirmed today that Obama will keep with his trend of supporting the sitting senator in party primaries, as he’s done with Sen. Arlen Specter over Rep. Joe Sestak in Pennsylvania and in supporting Sen. Michael Bennet in Colorado.
“We support Senator Lincoln as an incumbent senator,” Gibbs told reporters today during his daily briefing.

So how is that for change that is hard to take?

Thanks for reading and please comment,

The Unabashed Liberal

More Proof Republicans Don't Care

Dear Friends,

I try not to use this blog to rant about Republicans because I think it is important to focus on things that you may be able to influence.  I have a better chance of influencing Democrats or Independents than I do Republicans.  But the hypocrisy of the Republican politicians is more than I can take today.  Here are a few of the reasons.

As I mentioned in my prior post, Senator Bunning (Republican, Kentucky) is preventing the Senate from passing a bill which everybody acknowledges will pass that among other things extends unemployment benefits.  Here is a recent AP article by Stephen Ohlemacher.  The following are some excerpts:

Bunning, who is not seeking re-election, has single-handedly held up a bill since Thursday that would extend the programs for 30 days...

The bill would extend unemployment payments to laid-off workers and provide them with subsidies to help pay health premiums through the COBRA program. It would extend funding for highway projects and spare doctors from a 21 percent cut in Medicare payments. It would extend a small business loan program, the National Flood Insurance Program and the copyright license used by satellite television providers...

Jobless benefits suddenly ended for some laid-off workers, Medicare payments to doctors were delayed and 2,000 federal transportation workers were sent home Monday in a spending dispute tinged with election-year politics...

But in the meantime, 41 highway projects were to be shut down because federal inspectors were off the job, and the Obama administration ordered Medicare billing contractors not to pay any claims from doctors for the first 10 business days of March. Most laid-off workers receiving unemployment benefits won't be affected — unless the impasse drags on — but those seeking payment extensions won't be able to obtain them...

Senators said more than 1 million rural television viewers would not be able to watch local stations on their satellite systems without an extension.

Obviously, Senator Bunning does not care who gets hurt by his antics.  But what about the other Republican Senators.  The following is from the Huffington Post today (here):

Sen. Jon Kyl of Arizona, the Republican whip, argued that unemployment benefits dissuade people from job-hunting "because people are being paid even though they're not working."
Unemployment insurance "doesn't create new jobs. In fact, if anything, continuing to pay people unemployment compensation is a disincentive for them to seek new work," Kyl said during debate over whether unemployment insurance and other benefits that expired amid GOP objections Sunday should be extended.
"I'm sure most of them would like work and probably have tried to seek it, but you can't argue that it's a job enhancer. If anything, as I said, it's a disincentive. And the same thing with the COBRA extension and the other extensions here," said Kyl.

Of course Senator Kyl is wrong that unemployment benefits are not job creators.  The money paid to the unemployed is in most cases immediately spent and helps the economy and creates jobs.  But that aside, it is clear that the official Republican position is that they don't care about those among us that are the least fortunate.

And in my home state of Minnesota, Republican Presidential Candidate for 2012 and our sometime Governor vetoed a bill to reinstate funding for the General Assistance Medical Care.  The bill originally passed with some Republican support but no Republicans were willing to vote to override Governor Pawlenty's veto.  Here are some excerpts from a recent article by Pat Kessler on WCCO.com:

To help erase part of a multibillion-dollar deficit last year, Pawlenty ended funding for GAMC, which covers single adults who earn less than $8,000 a year and who are generally ineligible for Medicaid. Many on the program are homeless, mentally ill or drug-addicted. Some are veterans struggling with life after war...

Starting Monday, hospitals around the state started getting letters directing them to transfer patients off medical assistance. Hospital executives say it's going to cost taxpayers millions of more dollars because they will still be forced to treat poor people but won't be reimbursed for it...

The Minnesota House failed to override Gov. Tim Pawlenty's veto of a health care bill for the poor on Monday. The vote to override fell along party lines, with the majority Democrats falling four votes short of the 90 they needed.

Many religious groups have called this a moral issue and are calling out Governor Pawlenty who is a right wing Christian.  The article continues:

One Lutheran pastor criticized the Republican governor for quoting God in his campaign speeches but vetoing funds for the poor.

"Don't pass this off on God," said Rev. Grant Stevenson, pastor of St. Matthew's Lutheran Church in St. Paul. "That's no God we've ever heard of. And please stop lecturing us about God! It's offensive! You need to stop!"

So once again, the true Republican values are showing through but perhaps the best example is contained in the article:

One angry Republican accused Democrats of "trotting out the Bible" for convenience.
"Render under Caesar what is Caesar's and God, what is God's," said Rep. Tony Cornich, R-Good Thunder. "Well, excuse my language but we've been giving too damn much money to Caesar."

The time has come for us speak out and make it clear to the public what the Republicans really stand for.

Thanks for reading and please comment,

The Unabashed Liberal