::::::::
Will the real Barack Obama please stand up -- the inspiring leader who was elected on the platform of meaningful and constructive change? The president who was determined to introduce real transparency to American government? The prorgressive advocate for human rights?
Now, we have the re-defined Barack Obama, not re-defined for the better either. We have the president who denies the public the truth about abuses of detainees and others in Iraq and elsewhere by refusing to release any more actual photos. We have the president who endorses the continuation of Bush-era military tribunals of Guantanamo detainees, most of whom had the bad luck to be turned in for rewards offered by the CIA and other so-called intelligence agencies, but are unconnected to terrorism or any other crimes. We even have a president who appoints a former lawyer for one of our worst polluters, General Electric, to head the agency responsible for preventing further pollution and environmental degradation.
It is time for progressives and liberals to speak out against the policies of this new Barack Obama, which amount to betrayals of our trust. If we do not hang together, we will surely hang separately -- and so will America. Our president does not have carte blance to violate his own standards, and we need to tell him that we will not tolerate his violations of our own standards, either.
