I don’t hate government.
I don’t hate Obama per se.
I am against corruption.
I intensely hate lying.
I especially hate it when campaign promises are made with what I take to be sincerity and genuine caring, then are with cool dispassion and complete lack of remorse broken.
Having said that . . .
What happens when hope turns out to be hype?
Here is a sampling of the record of Obama and his administration since he took office:
- Carried out military interventionism in Libya without Congressional approval.
- Gave a no-bid contract to Halliburton cronies – just like Bush did.
- Has an administration full of lobbyists, after promising he wouldn’t have any.
- Has close ties to Wall Street, but pretends to support Main Street.
- Broke his promise to close Guantanamo Bay.
- Instigated conflict in Ukraine, then lied to the American public about it.
- Continues to support with aid and armaments extremist factions of al Qaeda terrorists in Syria.
- Supported the $700 billion TARP corporate-welfare bailout just like Bush.
- Waged the biggest war against medical marijuana of any president, which was the opposite of what he had promised.
- Nominated the six-time tax cheater and Wall Street insider, Timothy Geithner, to head the government agency that enforces the tax laws and oversees banking policy.
- Gave tax dollars to AIG executives, then pretended to be outraged about it.
- Expanded Bush’s unconstitutional government faith based programs.
- Supported Bush’s unconstitutional Patriot Act, signing NDAA into law New Years Eve 2011.
- Increased the national debt more in one term than Bush did in two, contrary to campaign pledges.
- Continues and defends Bush’s policy of unconstitutional, indefinite detention of U.S. citizens without filing any charges.
- Continues and defends Bush’s policy of unconstitutional, warrantless wiretapping.
- Has avoided prosecution of Wall Street criminals.
- Had four U.S. citizens killed without judicial process.
- Using drones has murdered over 2,000 people, at least a third of which are innocent civilians and include women and children.
- Illegally put thousands of guns into hands of criminals via Operation Fast and Furious.
- Falsely has claimed “This is the most transparent administration in history” when astute observers judge it to be the least.
- Had “off the record” meetings with lobbyists, against his promise to reduce the influence of lobbyists.
- Broke his promise to put health care negotiations on C-SPAN.
- Supported new bailouts for speculators who caused housing bubble.
- Used “off the books” funding for military interventionism, something he was extremely critical of during his first campaign.
- Falsely claimed he would wait five days before signing bills.
- Gave tax dollars to campaign contributors and lobbyists, and falsely claimed the money was for “green energy”.
- Rewarded his fundraisers by giving them federal jobs, after promising “the most sweeping ethics reform in history.”
- Falsely promised “stimulus” spending would be transparent.
- Promised relief from the onerous effects of GATT and NAFTA but now is secretly promoting TPP and TTIP, two of the worst trade agreements in history. TPP has been called NAFTA on steroids.
- Allows campaign contributors to give lobbyists access to the White House.
- Falsely has stated his campaigns were not funded by large donors.
- Approved giving 20 F-16 fighter jets to a Sharia dictatorship.
- Has Freedom of Information Act record worse than Bush’s.
- According to Ralph Nader, Obama is a “war criminal” who is “more aggressive, more illegal worldwide” than Bush.
- Nominated Jack Lew to be Secretary of the Treasury, a man who had participated in what Obama himself had called “the biggest tax scam on record.”
- Purchased 2,717 mine resistant armor protected vehicles for use on civilian streets in the U.S.
- Using the Espionage Act has persecuted numerous whistleblowers.
- Oversees and encourages the spying on U.S. citizens innocent of any crime as well as on foreign dignitaries, many of whom are our allies.
- In direct opposition to freedom of the press guaranteed in the Constitution, harasses and threatens journalists with prosecution.
If this were the record of a Republican __ a Romney or a McCain __ I would be angry and very frustrated, but it would hardly come as a surprise.
That this is the record of a man and a political party zealously promoting the appearance of progressive values, claiming with high rhetoric to have the welfare of the country and its people at heart, is infuriating. It is a callous and most certainly calculated betrayal.
We were told we were being given hope.
It turned out to be hype.
