Motion (Tangerine Dream-like full album)

 

Amber Road – full album (if Tangerine Dream scored Interstellar)

Mercury - full album (Tangerine Dream meets Pink Floyd and Boards of Canada)

Focus, Flow, Escape - 4 Hours of Guitar & Synth Ambient

Obama Has Vindicated the Heinous Bush/Cheney Policies

Aside from the repressiveness of the policies themselves, there are three highly significant and enduring harms from Obama's behavior.

First, it creates the impression that Republicans were right all along in the Bush-era War on Terror debates and Democratic critics were wrong. The same theme is constantly sounded by conservatives who point out Obama's continuation of these policies: that he criticized those policies as a candidate out of ignorance and partisan advantage, but once he became President, he realized they were right as a result of accessing the relevant classified information and needing to keep the country safe from the Terrorist threat. (snip)

Second, Obama has single-handedly eliminated virtually all mainstream debate over these War on Terror policies. At least during the Bush years, we had one party which steadfastly supported them but one party which claimed (albeit not very persuasively) to vehemently oppose them. At least there was a pretense of vigorous debate over their legality, morality, efficacy, and compatibility with our national values.

Those debates are no more. Even the hardest-core right-wing polemicists -- Gen. Hayden, the Heritage Foundation, Dick Cheney -- now praise Obama's actions in these areas. Opposition from national Democrats has faded away to almost complete nonexistence now that it's a Democratic President doing these things. What was once viewed as the signature of Bush/Cheney radicalism is now official, bipartisan Washington consensus: the policies equally of both parties and all Serious people. Thanks to Barack Obama, this architecture is firmly embedded in place and invulnerable to meaningful political challenge.

Third, Obama's embrace of these policies has completely rehabilitated the reputations and standing of the Bush officials responsible for them. (snip)

Obama has won the War on Terror debate -- for the American Right. And as Dick Cheney's interview last night demonstrates, they're every bit as appreciative as they should be.

Depressing!

Steny Hoyer's Turnabout on Guantanamo

Uggh:

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, today:

Gitmo shut-down not a priority, top Dem says

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer acknowledged Tuesday that closing down the Guantanamo Bay prison is not a top priority for congressional Democrats.

In response to a question from a reporter about where shutting down Gitmo stands, Hoyer said, "I think that's not an item, as you point out, of real current discussion. There's some very big issues confronting us - dealing with growing the economy and Iraq and Afghanistan."

Hoyer added, "I think you're not going to see it discussed very broadly in the near term."

How can it be that it's not a priority to end something which -- as Hoyer put it in 2007 -- "threatens the safety of U.S. citizens and military personnel detained abroad"? Why would Democrats like Hoyer be so willing to jeopardize the safety of American citizens and the lives of Our Troops abroad by de-prioritizing something which (at least if the 2007 Hoyer was to be believed) directly threatens them? Also, we had wars in Afghanistan and Iraq in 2007 along with a whole variety of other problems -- if those issues now justify de-prioritizing the closing of Guantanamo, why wasn't that also true in 2007 when Hoyer (and most other Democrats ) were vocally demanding that Bush close the camp?

This, needless to say, is par for the course: policies which establishment Democrats pretended to vehemently oppose when out of power magically transformed into policies they embrace when in power. Ironically, in response to the 2007 Hoyer letter, a Bush spokesperson "said the letter was received and noted that Bush has said he wants to close Guantanamo. 'A number of steps need to take place before that can happen, and we're continuing to work on those,' she said." Sound familiar?

Catering to the Evil Status Quo When They Don't Have To

Obama blatantly supports "centrist" Rethuglican-lite candidate Blanche Lincoln, despite putative desire to have more liberal Democratic senators.

And still worth pointing out how Obama has completely blocked any justice for Bush administration war-crimes, and is certainly involved in his own war-crimes in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

In a Worse Place with Obama

Depressing:

...we've seen the powers of the president expand, with the Obama administration asserting the right to assassinate American citizens without any due process or finding of guilt whatsoever.

From a civil libertarian point of view, we're in a much worse place than we were during the Bush administration, when Democrats were willing to oppose Bush's expansive claims of executive authority. Now we have only muted criticism from Democratic legislators and hysterical cries from Republicans that Obama isn't going far enough.

Dems and the Health Care Reform "Public Option"

This is very reminiscent of Lucy, Charlie Brown and the football-- i.e. the Dems are using the public option as a scam to lure liberals into supporting HCR-- but have long ago promised secretly not to enact it.