Medea Benjamin, Code Pink's Founder known for breaking through political wordplay and exposing corruption face-to-face with plain English, attended Obama's speech yesterday; part of a PR-campaign to attempt regaining some public trust. She did not allow his obfuscation of reality to go unnoticed.
While speaking as though a platform of remote-control-murder of untried SUSPECTS (including Americans) is somehow a legal or legitimate framework, Barrack Obama was interrupted with a direct confrontation from Benjamin, who reminded him that bombing 16 year old American non-combatants is never legal. For those unfamiliar with the story, American Imam (with dual citizenship in Yemen) Anwar Al-Awlaki was murdered by drone strike in late 2011 - without charges, without trial. At the time, his American son, Abdulrhaman Al-Awlaki was just 15 years old. The Obama administration waited 2 weeks for the Denver born boy to turn 16 before remotely murdering him as well. These Americans were murdered without due process, by drone-strike, at the order of the Dictatorial President of the United States.
Benjamin called out Obama's obvious hypocrisies in a speech where he, on the one hand claimed no executive power to close Gitmo - though he signed the Executive Order to do so in 2009 and simply never saw it through - and on the other hand claims the personal authority to murder Americans and others without official charge or trial.
The corporate-state U.S. media purposely confuses the public by deceptive framing of language. Polls which ask if Americans support "drone-strikes against terrorists abroad" are deceptive in their nature. This framing leads the respondent to the assumption that it's "terrorists" that are being killed around the world by U.S. weaponry. Terrorists are the significant MINORITY (about 2%) of those being killed by U.S. robot wars. Remote-control-murder is more cowardly than suicide bombings; There is simply no honor in dropping bombs from robots while sitting in an air-conditioned operation center nowhere near a battlefield. Especially when the majority of deaths caused by these real-life video games (or real death may be a more appropriate term) are innocent civilians - men, women, and children. Our actions as a nation, define our Way of Life. Is this a Way of Life worth fighting for? Terrorizing the innocent people of nations which have posed no threat to us; Is this kind of cowardly remote-control-murder of innocents worth defending? If we were legitimately fighting terrorism, how does being terrorists help such a supposed purpose?
Bravery is going to a country regularly ravaged by these terroristic robot attacks, in solidarity with a people who never know when the next U.S. bomb is going to kill them, their neighbors, their loved ones - all within nations that are clearly not at war with the United States. Occupy Ithaca's own James Ricks joined other Ithacan's and Americans in a convey led by Medea Benjamin and Code Pink this past October, to show support for Pakistani sovereignty - and to bring greater attention to the illegal drone-wars being waged by a U.S. government out of control. Claiming that a U.S. president - or government - is above national or international law is simply historically, grossly inaccurate at best. 'Malevolently deceptive' may be a better term, considering the long list of Constitutional & International Law violations that regularly end in the bloodshed of innocents by this, and the previous U.S. administration.
"I love my country. I love the rule of Law... Abide by the rule of law - You're a Constitutional lawyer!" was about the last statement heard by Medea Benjamin as she was removed from the auditorium. Having thoroughly forced the light of truth into the face of a U.S. president whose "kill list" includes American citizens and whose signing pen regularly acts against all rule of law and basic Human Rights - at home and abroad - we salute you, Medea Benjamin! Keep fighting the good fight. Keep holding lying, cheating, murderous bastards up to the light. Keep exposing those who claim violent and invasive authority which is clearly, well outside of the law. We'd like to remind the reader that no law may violate the Human Rights protections of the U.S. Constitution - regardless of which corporate-party's figurehead likes to think they are above it. The Constitution is the supreme law of the United States. Politicians can write, vote on, and sign any silly thing they like. It is simply not legal if it violates the Constitution. Claiming the authority to overrule our basic right to be confronted by an accusing party in a court of law, that we may be officially charged with a crime and that the State be forced to prove their claims - rather than being assassinated or indefinitely imprisoned by the stroke of a president's pen - is overtly dictatorial. Don't let their consolidated corporate-media make you believe otherwise. Crimes committed by government officials are crimes. Your basic Human Rights are intact and protected by the U.S. Constitution. Don't let them confuse you or buy your compliance with their fear-mongering. National Security only exists when the rights of the people are protected! Never surrender them.
Never forget too, that these current politicians - most all of them - have already agreed to allow for assassinations of American citizens - without charge, without trial, without concern for the actual rule of law, but with a total disregard for Human Rights. The corporations that bankroll their campaigns, own the media. Remember that the next time you're illogically removing your flip-flops at the airport, or the next time a high-school graduate in a blue shirt views your loved ones naked before allowing them to visit grandma. Fear is a strange motivator. All of these 'Way of Life' factors mentioned, have been accepted by a public scared to death by a corporate-state-media, meanwhile with or without these intrusions into our lives - so-called 'security measures' which have effectively destroyed our formerly free society - we are significantly more likely to be struck by lightening or drown in a puddle than to die of anything related to terrorism. This is as true today as it was before 2001. The only real statistical change is the amount of U.S. government intrusion into foreign lands and into private lives and property here at home. The facts don't lie. Politicians do.
