Habease whatnow?

My facebook friends made me so happy a few years ago when they were sending me invitations to join all sorts of groups about bringing back Habeas Corpus from the slavering jaws of the Bush administration. Then we elected Obama and everyone I know decided they didn't give a damn about torture, as long as the people were probably radical Islamists (nevermind that we tortured *children* at Gitmo), and as long as we had a smoothtalking guy trying to steer us out of an economic downturn (we can call it a depression, and I do, but make no mistake: any president, great or small, would have done most of what Obama is now doing in regards to the financial crisis. Herbert Hoover was a one-off, and we have too big and too advanced of a country to let our financial system just collapse without doing anything. I repeat, by hook or by crook, any new president would have eventually got us out of this crisis, so put away the pink sunglasses).

Do you guys still care about Habeas Corpus?

Because Obama does not. In a speech couched in all the trappings of glorifying the Rule Of Law, Obama announced his intentions to go Bush one more with regard to the, perhaps permanent, illegal detention of prisoners without trial.

Is it hip to hate our rights now? Is will.i.am going to come out with a sweeping youtube hit about how little we need to have rights when our president is so cool and suave?

I tread a fine line here. I was as much for Obama as anyone, and perhaps the loudest advocate in my circle of friends. With a motto like 'no better friend, no worse enemy,' perhaps I should have been a marine, but there's no shame in waking up now. Obama isn't who we thought he was. We gave him a mandate which he is now using to beat us.

In a political system based so much on opinion polls, we still have some power long after the final vote has been cast. Obama certainly seems as impeachable as Bush, perhaps more so because he has added new crimes to the ones he is now retroactively pardoning his previous administration for, but that's not even what I'm calling for. If some Republicans get their hackles up enough to attempt such a thing, I'd be the first one to switch my political allegiance. But that is still not what I am saying.

I'm saying: don't like the guy. Show it if you take an opinion poll. Talk to other people about what you think he is doing. Mobilize the grand army of opinion against his actions and prove that we don't deserve exactly what is happening to us. Yes we can. Show Obama that, naive we may be, but we aren't equal parts forgiving. Yes we can. Assure him that if he wants his second term, he's got to make a change. Yes we can. For all his moral and ethical faults, Obama cares about what you think of him. Make him afraid that you've turned against him. Yes we can.

But in the unlikely story that is America, there has never been
anything false about hope. For when we have faced down impossible
odds; when we've been told that we're not ready, or that we shouldn't
try, or that we can't, generations of Americans have responded with a
simple creed that sums up the spirit of a people.

Yes we can.

He made us believe it once. Let us prove him right beyond his wildest expectations and deepest, darkest nightmares. Yes we can. Remember that on November 4th we were all patriots with a goal in mind, and that we are still a long way from realizing it. Yes we can.

Let's make him regret ever showing us the power of those three simple words: Yes we can.