Obama-Biden administration

page type::article thing type::US presidential administration

negative actions

 * continued and escalated Bush's policy of elevating presidential power
 * refused to prosecute Bush administration officials who authorized torture (as required by UN Convention Against Torture, to which the US is a signatory)
 * supported the most broad interpretation of the State Secrets Privilege in every legal challenge to the executive branch
 * attacks on the free press
 * 2013-05-13
 * Phone Records of Journalists Seized by U.S.
 * Gov’t Secretly Obtained AP Phone Records In Probe
 * 2013-05-15 Chris Hedges: Monitoring of AP Phones a "Terrifying" Step in State Assault on Press Freedom
 * 2013-05-22 No Oversight in Seizure of AP Phone Records "I had asked in the immediate aftermath whether the DOJ had gotten a judicial subpoena or merely used an administrative one; the answer is the latter, which means no oversight at all from a judge. And Verizon turned those records over immediately..."
 * 2013-10-11 New Report Finds Obama’s Policies Threaten an Independent Press
 * promised increased transparency, but has generally worked against it
 * 2009-03-12 Obama Administration Declares Proposed IP Treaty a National Security Secret
 * 2011-04-28 Obama Administration punishes reporter for using multimedia
 * 2012-07-31 The Most Transparent Administration in History Strikes Again "A court has allowed them to continue to pretend that documents that were already made public are still so secret that they are not subject to the Freedom of Information Act."
 * 2012-11-14 Obama: Transparently Disappointing
 * 2013-05-13 Most Transparent Administration in History Releases Completely Redacted Document About Text Snooping
 * promised to protect whistleblowers, but instead has vigorously prosecuted them while letting perpetrators go free
 * 2012-09-05 Obama DOJ: No Justice for Torture Victims
 * 2012-09-06 Only Whistleblowers Held Accountable for Torture
 * 2013-01-22 Obama Continues Anti-Whistleblower Crusade
 * persecution of Manning, now in solitary confinement
 * persecution of Julian Assange
 * refuses to prosecute torturers (also see above links)
 * 2012-09-04 Obama’s Defense Of The Torture Murderers
 * fought for executive authority to detain indefinitely
 * 2012-09-11 Judge Smacks Down Obama on Gitmo Access "...A Reagan-appointed judge ... has issued a ruling ... hammering the Obama DOJ for seeking to deny attorneys representing Gitmo detainees access to their clients."
 * 2012-09-19 Obama Fights for Executive Authority to Detain Indefinitely
 * cracked down on medical marijuana providers, even those in full compliance with state law
 * 2012-05-01 Obama’s Medical Marijuana Doubletalk
 * 2012-07-12 Justice Department Seeks To Close World's Largest Medical Marijuana Shop
 * 2013-05-13 Marijuana Shop Owners Paying Taxes In Cash Because Banks Can’t Take Their Money
 * continued or expanded Bush's policies in the war on terror, including torture and warrantless domestic spying
 * 2012-04-20 Obama Betrays Promises on Drugs. Again.
 * 2012-04-24 Bush, Obama and the National Surveillance State
 * 2012-04-27 Obama’s Astonishing Chutzpah "President Obama, who has maintained and even expanded the federal government's illegal surveillance program and steadfastly refused to hold anyone accountable for torture, actually issued an executive order allowing the U.S. to sanction "foreign nationals" who do the same thing he is guilty of doing..."
 * 2012-05-07 Former Gitmo Prosecutor Hammers Obama, Holder
 * continues to promote abstinence-based education
 * 2012-05-04 Obama Administration Still Funding Ignorance Only Sex Ed
 * has ordered the killing of American citizens without due process
 * generally has a very bad record on upholding civil liberties (in some ways, worse than Bush), despite his background as a constitutional scholar and his pledge to uphold the rule of law
 * 2012-04-26 Obama’s Terrible Record on Civil Liberties

manufactroversies
The following are attempts by various anti-Obama factions (mainly the Republicans) to drum up scandals and draw attention away from the various genuine abuses listed above. At their most serious, they represent possible incompetence at some level of the administration.
 * 2013:
 * IRS targeting Tea Party groups (who generally are anti-IRS) for investigation
 * 2012:
 * 2012 Benghazi attack
 * Operation Fast and Furious
 * 2008-?:
 * Barack Obama/birth certificate

Reference

 * Politifact
 * Obama file
 * promises kept
 * promises broken
 * compromises
 * 2013-06-27 Obama Fact Sheet:: Since Becoming President, Barack Obama Has... It’s All Here!

to file

 * 2012-09-13 Obama's Unconstitutional NDAA 'Detained Indefinitely' by Court Ruling
 * 2013-03-24 Debunking Almost Every Republican Lie Against President Obama
 * 2013-05-28 Obama’s Pretty Words "If he had actually given a damn about the rule of law, he would have prosecuted Bush administration officials that authorized torture. Doing so is required by the UN Convention Against Torture, which is the law of the land in this country. If he gave a damn about the rule of law, he would have stopped using the broad version of the State Secrets Privilege in every single legal challenge to the executive branch. He hasn’t just failed to support the rule of law, he has intentionally and flagrantly destroyed any possibility of its application."
 * 2013-08-23 The Manning Verdict and the Rule of Law "...the executive branch under both Bush and Obama has become, for all practical purposes, lawless. It has succeeded in subverting the Bill of Rights, the rule of law, the separation of powers, our treaty obligations and the rights of all of us. More importantly, it has succeeded in making itself immune to all legal challenge. We may exchange presidents every few years, but the branch they lead is now, for all practical purposes, an institution without boundaries on what it may do to us."