The Many Faces of President Obama

Dear Friends,

After the last midterm elections when President Obama was free to do what he truly wanted to do, he began to do things that I thought were great, e.g. the climate change deal with China and his actions on immigration reform.  Unfortunately, it appears that he is unable to chart a clear course.

Yesterday, Jeffrey Sterling was convicted of violating the Espionage Act by disclosing a secret plan to damage the Iranian nuclear program by providing intentionally misleading documents to the Iranians.  On its face it seems like a rather strange idea and has been characterised as a poorly conceived and executed plan.  Mr. Sterling went first through the chain of command to object to the program and then according to prosecutors went to the press, James Risen in particular.  The prosecutors tried for years to force Mr. Risen to divulge his source, and he refused.

Eventually, right before Mr. Sterling's trial, Attorney General Holder dropped his attempt to get Mr. Risen to testify.  So here is the first reversal.  Under President Obama's watch, Mr. Holder and the Justice Department have been very aggressively attempting to force journalists to reveal their sources.  Now that Mr. Holder is considering his Justice Department legacy, he reversed course on demanding that Mr. Risen divulge his source.  That is a good thing.  However, the Justice Department continued to prosecute Mr. Sterling.

President Obama is all about prosecuting the people that are responsible for letting all of us know the terrible things that our government is doing in our names, including Chelsea Manning, Edward Snowden and John Kiriakou.  Chelsea Manning and John Kiriakou have both been convicted.  Edward Snowden will never be able to come home without being prosecuted.  These whistleblowers are prosecuted, but the people that committed the crimes that were disclosed by these whistleblowers and others have never been prosecuted - the people that ordered torture, the people that carried out torture, the people that lied about and covered up the torture, the people that destroyed evidence of torture, the people that hacked into the Senate staff computers over the torture investigation, the people that ordered, carried out and hid the illegal spying on Americans, etc., etc., etc.

On another front, a couple of days ago President Obama indicated he would seek further protection of the Arctic National Wildlife Reserve which would make it impossible to drill in this area.  That protection would be great.  Unfortunately since it requires Congressional approval, it will never happen so long as the Republicans control Congress.  In support of President Obama, one could argue that he was forcing the Republicans to demonstrate once again that they really do not care about the environment if there is money to be made by big companies.  I am afraid there is another reason.

Yesterday, President Obama indicated that he would permit drilling off virtually the entire Atlantic coast of the United States.  Big oil has been after this area for a long time, but has been unsuccessful at getting any administration to permit it.  The problem here is that President Obama does not need Congressional approval to open the Atlantic coast offshore area to drilling.  He can just do it.  So perhaps the more realistic, even if somewhat cynical, explanation for the ANWR move is to provide President Obama with cover to open up the Atlantic coast.  I can find no logic for denying drilling in ANWR and then permitting it off the Atlantic coast.

Someday President Obama has to make up his mind what he believes in, what he stands for, how he views the Constitution and for whom he is working.

Thanks for reading and please comment,
The Unabashed Liberal