Obama on Civil Liberties

This is a continuation from my post "Obama and Bush Hold Hands". Recently Salon, a liberal leaning media site by no means libertarian or conservative, criticized Obama for his failure in fulfilling his promises to be a President who protected peoples liberties.

The Salon article can be found here.The article is much better than mine, and I suggest you read it.

The article's overall summary is that "despite vows to increase transparency, the president has made the government ever more authoritarian and intrusive." How has Obama done this?

• Obama ordered the killing of an American citizen living abroad.
• Like Bush, Obama has the Justice Department create memos authorizing his actions without disclosing them or presenting it before Federal Court
• Has continued indefinite detentions at Guantanamo Bay
• Has authorized military to indefinitely detain a U.S. citizen anywhere in the world without due process
• Obama has expanded the telecommunication industry's spying on U.S. citizens including warrantless wiretapping.
• Granted legal immunity to telecom companies which supported Bush wiretapping. Obama voted for this bill to immunize the telecom companies.
• The NSA scours the internet for information on citizens
• Waging a war on whistleblowers, as can be seen by Bradley Manning's treatment.
• The Administration is blocking Freedom of Information Act requests.
• Failed as promised to make bills available to be viewed by the public for 48 hours before being signed into law. 

(all citations in the original article)

The list goes on, but these are some of the important points. What makes it so much more egregious though is that it was expected from Bush/the Cheney administration. yet President Obama was supposed to be the "choice" for "change," he was supposed to embody the democratic principle of the people choosing what they want. The people wanted their civil liberties back. Barack Obama was supposed to deliver that to us, as the opposite voice in the two party system we have. he did not. The political capital was there for him to grab and ride but instead he sent 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan as he accepted the Nobel Peace Prize. The Nobel Peace Prize was awarded because of his promises, it was a preemptive gift based on the expectation Obama would follow through. What is truly terrible about this development by Obama regarding civil liberties is represented beautifully by the quote below:

"We are witnessing the bipartisan normalization and legitimization of a national security state." 

Liberal Yale University law School Professor Jack Balkin.

However, this normalization and acceptance of the erosion of our liberties and the sanctity of the Bill of Rights has only been possible due to Obama having "successfully counted on the acquiescent silence of the liberals." I hope the trend will buckle, if not from the Democratic party, then perhaps from the soon to be co-opted republican party once libertarianism finally and fully plants its roots.