Change out my wizened, ancient ass!

Yesterday from CREW  — Citizens for Responsibility And Ethics In Washington — on the so-called Valerie Plame Wilson episode:

CREW learned today that the Obama administration is opposing our request that the Supreme Court reconsider the dismissal of the lawsuit, Wilson v. Libby, et al.
In that case, the district court had dismissed the claims of Joe and Valerie Wilson against former Vice President Dick Cheney, Karl Rove, Scooter Libby and Richard Armitage for their gross violations of the Wilsons’ constitutional rights.
Agreeing with the Bush administration, the Obama Justice Department argues the Wilsons have no legitimate grounds to sue.
It is surprising that the first time the Obama administration has been required to take a public position on this matter, the administration is so closely aligning itself with the Bush administration’s views.

(Illustration found here).

When Obama was elected last November, the whole affair was akin to a daydream.
After eighth years of a living nightmare, this was the kind of change the US could put its grip on and feel good about.
Alas, now nearly four months into his administration, Obama’s curtain has been parted and the wizard is exposed — Nothing really has changed.
Starting with his “business as usual” slection of his financial inner circle to continuing the foreign policy operations from up the ass of Dick Cheney, Obama has already proven he’s not the man of the vast-throngs that voted for him, but instead for the powermongers in DC.
Even in explaining his decision to close the notorious Guantanamo Bay was softened by his speech this morning:

After September 11, “faced with an uncertain threat, our government made a series of hasty decisions,” he said.
“I believe that many of these decisions were motivated by a sincere desire to protect the American people. But I also believe that all too often, our government made decisions based on fear rather than foresight; that all too often trimmed facts and evidence to fit ideological predispositions.”

Is he shitting us — ‘motivated by a sincere desire to protect the American people’ — ?
Cheney and Don Rumsfeld were so removed from any kind of sincerity the very thought makes one want to blow chunks.

Paul Craig Roberts via antiwar.com ties the whole bullshit together:

America has lost her soul, and so has her president.
A despairing country elected a president who promised change. Americans arrived from every state to witness in bitter cold Obama’s swearing-in ceremony.
The mall was packed in a way that it has never been for any other president.
The people’s good will toward Obama and the expectations they had for him were sufficient for Obama to end the gratuitous wars and enact major reforms.
But Obama has deserted the people for the interests. He is relying on his non-threatening demeanor and rhetoric to convince the people that change is underway.
The change that we are witnessing is in Obama, not in policies.
Obama is morphing into Dick Cheney.
…
Obama has defended the Bush/Cheney warrantless wiretapping program run by the National Security Agency and broadened the government’s legal argument that “sovereign immunity” protects government officials from prosecution and civil suits when they violate U.S. law and constitutional protections of citizens.
Obama’s Justice Department has taken up the defense of Donald Rumsfeld against a case brought by detainees whose rights Rumsfeld violated.
In a signing statement this month, Obama abandoned his promise to protect whistleblowers who give information of executive branch illegality to Congress.
…
Meanwhile, war with Iran remains a possibility, and at Washington’s insistence, NATO is conducting war games on former Soviet territory, thus laying the groundwork for future enrichment of the U.S. military/security complex. The steeply rising U.S. unemployment rate will provide the needed troops for Obama’s expanding wars.
Obama can give a great speech without mangling the language.
He can smile and make people believe his rhetoric.
The world, or much of it, seems to be content with the soft words that now drape Dick Cheney’s policies in pursuit of executive supremacy and U.S. hegemony.

No shit, Sherlock!
Change we can’t even believe in and there’s now nothing to do but watch.