[The Center for Constitutional Rights has issued an alarming assesment of Obama's first hundred days, at <http://ccrjustice.org/100daysassessment>. It is abundantly clear that defending democratic liberties is completely in the interests of our class, so the following excerpts from the report may be of some interest to comrades.]
The First 100 Days of the Obama Administration: Small Glimmers of Hope, but Little Real Change
... despite several strong steps, the Obama presidency has failed to live up to its promises in many areas of critical importance, including human rights, torture, rendition, secrecy and surveillance.
In the 2008 elections, the people of the United States resoundingly rejected the Bush administration legacy of torture, warrantless surveillance and a seemingly endless expansion of executive power under the rubric of the “war on terror.” What remained to be seen, however, was the political willingness and commitment of the Obama administration to not only promise hope and change, but to take concrete action ....
In its first 100 days, the Obama administration has not lived up to its promises of hope and change....
... most public statements by President Obama and other administration officials have focused on “moving forwards” and avoiding “retribution.” The vast amount of public information pointing to criminal activity committed by high level government officials compels the Obama administration to fully and transparently investigate and hold those responsible accountable to the fullest extent of the law – not to put the issue aside....
... the persistence of Bush-era torture techniques added to the Army Field Manual in Appendix M, make ending torture an unfinished promise....
[On unlawful detention] ... an Obama administration detention policy that has, in practice, too frequently has resembled that of the Bush administration. In practice, the men at Guantánamo have remained imprisoned, often under inhumane conditions, and the Obama administration has defended in court the use of Bagram Air Force Base in Afghanistan as a new prison outside the reach of law....
... The Obama administration has been largely silent on the issue of preventive detention – particularly the existing domestic preventive detention regimes that have caused vast harm to many people who would never be charged at all or charge only with minor immigration violations without relation to criminal conduct. Preventive detention is a threat to due process, the rule of law and, most directly, to those targeted in “preventive” dragnets....
[On Federal prosecutions against animal rights' and environmental activists for "terrorism"] ...The escalation of “Green Scare” prosecutions in the first 100 days of the Obama administration demonstrate not only the need for action from the Obama administration but an end to complacency among activists about attacks on the right to dissent....
[And so on and so forth. The whole report deserves to be read, to appreciate how little Obama has done in defense of our much-assaulted, battered, constitutional rights. -- YM]
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