"...it's not the training to be mean but the training to be kind that is used to keep us leashed best." ~ Black Dog Red

"In case you haven't recognized the trend: it proceeds action, dissent, speech." ~ davidly, on how wars get done

"...What sort of meager, unerotic existence must a man live to find himself moved to such ecstatic heights by the mundane sniping of a congressional budget fight. The fate of human existence does not hang in the balance. The gods are not arrayed on either side. Poseiden, earth-shaker, has regrettably set his sights on the poor fishermen of northern Japan and not on Washington, D.C. where his ire might do some good--I can think of no better spot for a little wetland reclamation project, if you know what I mean. The fight is neither revolution nor apocalypse; it is hardly even a fight. A lot of apparatchiks are moving a lot of phony numbers with more zeros than a century of soccer scores around, weaving a brittle chrysalis around a gross worm that, some time hence, will emerge, untransformed, still a worm." ~ IOZ

Apr 7, 2010

The Hopium King Has a Kill List

Hopey Changey wants it all:

"The Obama administration has taken the extraordinary step of authorizing the targeted killing of an American citizen..."

Ugh, the NYT.

I'm sure professional liberals will love it until they hate it, say, when the next assclown from the GOP gets a shot at the Principate.

5 comments:

fwoan said...

So we don't arrest and try citizens either? I thought the whole rational for not trying "terrorists" was that they were not citizens?

Jack Crow said...

I think right now it's a special case.

This guy (at least, based on the propaganda about him) seems pretty easy to dislike, especially if you buy into the whole "America is a force for good, people who fight Her are evil" fantasy.

He's "associated" with a host of Really Bad Guys (covering the entire decade of the Long War).

I think a lot of people will agree with the policy, because of the chosen target.

In the same way that people accept "free speech zones" because the folks penned in them are hooded, green haired oddballs carrying giant puppets and hand made signs.

A policy becomes palatable when the target is already an Other for whom their is little public witness.

That typed, I don't think we'll see a spate of arrogant, ballsy, public killings.

Barack Obama might have a field of sycophants, ready to defend his dear leaderishness - but at some point people would probably start objecting to his version of the Praetorian Guard tromping about the hinters and homeland snuffing out opponents.

That doesn't make this any more insidious. In fact, it's probably worse for liberty and association in the long run.

Armed with apathy and even public support, it'll become as accepted (if rare) as tribunals, indefinite incarceration, torture, free speech zones, prison rape and veal penning.

Respect,

Jack

Jack Crow said...

Ugh. I suck.

"any less insidious"

fwoan said...

As you hinted at in your post, I'm a little more concerned because of the precedent this is setting and less because of who it is. Yeah he's pretty identifiable as a "bad guy" only lacking a mechanical appendage and a cat he can ominously stroke, but again, ahhh!

p.s. thanks for the link on your sidebar, I gave you one on my site.

Jack Crow said...

fwoan,

I agree, heartily, that the precedent sucks. I'm just musing aloud about why I think Obama will get away with it.

And, de nada, on the link.