How can you support Obama when he...

Obama Scandals list 1. Reneged on pledge to filibuster FISA Amendments Act (July 2008) 2. Lobbied for $700 billion Paulson TARP bank bailout 3. Pushed for no sanctions against Lieberman despite his support for John McCain 4. Nominated healthcare company lobbyist Tom Daschle as Secretary of HHS 5. Had neoliberal Robert Rubin as his chief economics adviser 6. Then had the equally neoliberal Larry Summers assume this role 7. Chose the failing upwards Timothy Geithner to head Treasury 8. AIG bonuses and money to Goldman under Obama 9. Doubling down in Afghanistan 10. Delay and reduction of withdrawal from Iraq 11. Moving Guantanamo activities to Bagram 12. Military commissions for some detainees 13. Support for indefinite detention 14. Refusal to release torture photos under FOIA 15. Refusal to investigate and prosecute Bush era criminality 16. Geithner’s DOA economic rescue programs: the PPIP and TALF 17. Minimal help for homeowners and no cramdowns 18. Treatment of Chrysler and GM with bankrupcy compared to bank no fail “stress tests” 19. Kabuki of TARP repayment by banks while still dependent on government credit lines 20. Extra-Constitutional use of the Fed by the Executive for fiscal policy 21. Credit Card bill without usury caps and with 9 month delay for other reforms 22. Business friendly Mary Schapiro named to head SEC 23. Gary Gensler who helped deregulate derivatives named to head CFTC 24. $787 billion stimulus: too little, too late, poorly structured 25. Use of financial crisis to attack Social Security and Medicare 26. The great healthcare non-debate 27. Continued use of state secrets argument in ongoing Bush era cases 28. Use of signing statements, including one to punish whistleblowers 29. Vetting process problems, especially tax related ones 30. Leaving Dawn Johnsen’s nomination to head OLC twisting in the wind 31. Eric Holder, failure to reform DOJ, not removing worst of Bush USAs 32. Failure to move against new oil bubble 33. Retention of Bush Defense team: Gates, Patraeus, and Odierno 34. Continued missile strikes inside Pakistan 35. Keeping Bush’s domestic spying programs and adding a new one, cybersecurity 36. Choice of Elena Kagan who favors expansive Presidential powers as Sollicitor General, her subsequent nomination to the Supreme Court 37. Leaving EFCA (to help counter anti-union companies) to wither in Congress 38. Welcoming Arlen Specter who brings nothing to the Democrats into the party 39. Weak ineffective proposals for financial reform 40. Obama wanted John Brennan at CIA but settled for making him his counter- terrorism adviser 41. Chas Freeman with broader Mideast perspective done in by AIPAC 42. Dennis Blair made DNI; failed to act to stop atrocities in East Timor 43. Choice of McChrystal involved in torture in Iraq to head Afghanistan command 44. Obama threat to suspend intelligence cooperation with UK over Binyam Mohamed case 45. Efforts to keep Bush and Obama White House logs secret 46. Playing games with “Don’t ask, don’t tell” 47. Filing a brief to overturn Jackson (access to lawyer) in the Montejo case 48. Not withdrawing Bush brief in Osborne DNA case 49. Egregious brief in challenge to Defense of Marriage Act 50. The Supplemental which made Iraq and Afghanistan Democratic wars 51. Choice of Rahm Emanuel as the President’s Chief of Staff 52. Choice of Dennis Ross as Iran envoy and then his move to the White House 53. Politically embarrassing processes to fill Obama and Clinton’s Senate seats 54. Choice of Bill Richardson, then Judd Gregg to head Commerce Department 55. Reneging on pledge to re-negotiate NAFTA 56. Obama’s throwing his pastor Jeremiah Wright to the curb, then reaching out to religious conservative Rick Warren 57. Continued challenges to habeas corpus petitions over indefinite detention, the Janko case 58. The Obama White House website 59. Continuing an ineffective program that Iran can exploit politically 60. Going slow on climate change when there is no time to 61. Not withdrawing a Bush-era amicus brief in the Ricci v. DeStefano reverse discrimination case and supporting a rollback of Title VII 62. Appointment of a CIA General Counsel who doesn’t know if waterboarding is torture 63. Appointment of a DNI General Counsel who doesn’t know if waterboarding is torture 64. CIA delay in a FOIA request concerning torture 65. The influence of Goldman Sachs in the Obama Administration 66. Attempt to keep secret the Cheney interview on the Plame affair 67. Mountaintop removal under Obama 68. Attempt to restrict Congressional notification on intelligence matters 69. Opposition to a second stimulus 70. Another egregious attempt to fight a habeas corpus petition in the Jawad case 71. Continuing charter schools and standardized tests 72. Holder’s decision to support a weak, narrow review of torture 73. Re-appointment of Ben Bernanke as Fed Chairman 74. Continuing renditions 75. Politically dubious company was used to vet reporters in Afghanistan 76. Judge vetoes a too weak SEC plea bargain with Bank of America 77. Justice’s argument for making Bagram a new Guantanamo, the al Maqaleh case 78. Defense to turn over databases to poorly controlled fusion centers 79. Obama changes but keeps Bush’s Star Wars program 80. Failure to win an Israeli freeze on settlements 81. White House refuses to back its own staffer environmentalist Van Jones 82. Politicized US Attorney in the Siegelman case cleared by Office of Special Counsel 83. Criticism of Iranian nuclear program; support of Israeli nuclear weapons 84. Support for a weakened reporter’s shield law 85. Use of the Zazi case to retain broad Patriot Act surveillance provisions 86. Wilner v. NSA, continuing the coverup of warrantless surveillance of communications between attorneys and detainees 87. Attempt to spike the Goldstone report on Israeli-Hamas war crimes in Gaza 88. Slowness in filling federal judgeships 89. Inadequate aid to overwhelmed state budgets 90. Attempting to dodge the Supreme Court deciding whether innocent Guantanamo detainees can be resettled in the US 91. Allowing drilling in the waters off the north coast of Alaska 92. Keeping detainee accounts of CIA torture secret 93. Current FBI manual allows for widespread domestic spying 94. Securitization invalidates most foreclosures 95. Geithner wanting unlimited powers to save large banks 96. Another state secrets defense to conceal domestic spying 97. Circuit Court dismissal of Maher Arar suit 98. Weakening Sarbanes-Oxley and calling it financial reform 99. Unemployment 100. Inspector General for Fannie and Freddie ousted for investigating fraud 101. Gaming courts to convict Guantanamo detainees 102. White House counsel removed for his principled stands on torture and Guantanamo 103. US seizes mosques claiming Iranian connection 104. Howard Dean removed as head of the DNC 105. Scientist with close ties to Monsanto put in charge of all governmental agricultural research 106. Pesticide lobbyist nominated as Chief Agricultural Negotiator for trade 107. Effort to let some government contractors avoid paying taxes 108. A bad US Attorney nomination for Northern Iowa 109. Hunger in America 110. The breast cancer recommendations fiasco 111. Ongoing confusion and disorganization in the military commissions process 112. Phillip Carter another official in closing Guantanamo resigns 113. Refusal to sign anti-land mine treaty 114. The Ghizzawi case and the legal limbo of “cleared for release” 115. Black prisons at Balad and Bagram 116. Delay in declassifying historic documents 117. Max Baucus’ conflicts of interest in healthcare and with his girlfriend 118. Major security breach at a White House party and a ridiculous assertion of “executive privilege” 119. Dana “Pig Missile” Perino nominated to the Broadcasting Board of Governors 120. Cass Sunstein, an anti-regulator in a regulatory position 121. Warrantless for profit electronic surveillance by telecoms and search engines 122. The government sides with torture lawyer John Yoo and attacks Bevins actions again 123. The TSA publishes its security manual online 124. Toxic legal arguments in al Zahrani v. Rumsfeld, yet another Bevins action 125. The Nobel Peace Prize and a neocon acceptance speech 126. Blackwater’s involvement in military and CIA assassination and drone programs 127. Congressional Research Service censorship in the firing of Morris Davis 128. AIG writes off $25 billion in debt and sticks taxpayers with the bill 129. The Administration plays hardball to kill an amendment that would lower drug costs 130. A poorly considered blank check to Fannie and Freddie 131. Continuing a Bush botch in the Nisoor Square massacre case 132. Jonathan Gruber, a major defender of Obamacare was also a paid consultant for it 133. A Geithner related cover up of the AIG at par payments on swaps 134. Adoption of stealth signing statements 135. al Bihani, more bad legal reasoning in another Guantanamo habeas case 136. Cutting Medicare and Social Security by deficit commission proposed 137. A 3 year non-freeze budget freeze proposed 138. NASA flights privatized 139. OPR report on Yoo and Bybee watered down and its relation to the Padilla case 140. Government targeting of US citizens for assassination 141. Abuse of informants by ICE agents 142. Obama leaves Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board empty 143. Obama backs firing of teachers in Rhode Island 144. Irish human rights advocate Edward Horgan has US visa pulled 145. Threatened veto of 2010 Intelligence Authorization Act over Congressional notifications 146. Obama Administration intimidation of whistleblowing site: wikileaks 147. Fish and Wildlife Service continues to ignore science on endangered species 148. Senate vacation more important than jobless benefits 149. Government seeks to compel turnover of emails without a warrant 150. Obama goes after an NSA whistleblower: the Thomas Drake case 151. Obama goes after a CIA whistleblower: the James Risen case 152. Weakening Miranda rights in national security cases 153. Advocating the privatizing of public housing 154. Another step in making Bagram the new Guantanamo, the al Maqaleh case, the appeals court edition 155. Massey mining disaster, 29 die because of corporate greed and poor regulation 156. Obama proposal for a line item veto 157. A military commander allowed to use military forces for intelligence operations without Presidential approval 158. Political pandering in sending 1200 National Guardsmen to the Southwest border 159. A sad record on resisting Guantanamo habeas petitions 160. Israel attacks an aid convoy for Gaza; Obama punts 161. A further erosion of Miranda: Berghius v. Thompkins 162. Naming James Clapper, a Bush appointee, to be the next DNI 163. DOJ seeks to protect Vatican in sex abuse scandal 164. Yahya Wehelie, an American exiled without charge 165. Failure to replace National Labor Relations Board members means hundreds of decisions must be reviewed 166. SCOTUS opts for overly broad definition of material support to terrorist groups 167. Speaker Pelosi backstabs Social Security 168. Complaints by government scientists of political interference at Bush era levels 169. Flip flop on free trade agreement with Colombia 170. SEC declares major victory but lets Goldman off easy 171. Private contracting of intelligence continues under Obama 172. Two Guantanamo prisoners to be deported back to Algeria against their will 173. The Shirley Sherrod affair: trumped up charges of racism and a bungled response 174. Whitewash report on Bush era US Attorney firings 175. Despite its record, Blackwater still gets big US government contracts 176. Wikileaks releases government files showing Pakistan involvement with Taliban and admission that things are going poorly in Afghanistan 177. Obama seeks to get access to everyone’s web histories without a court order 178. Teacher funding sacrificed to keep Education Secretary Arne Duncan happy 179. State’s top Iran hand resigns over Obama’s Iran policy 180. Citizens United: validation of unlimited corporate political funding 181. Push to expand US arms sales around the world 182. Project Vigilant, Infragard and “volunteer” corporate spying for the government 183. Obama’s approval hits Bush levels in Arab world 184. Effort to pre-empt state environmental lawsuits involving green house gases 185. Justice’s Anti-trust division asleep at the wheel 186. Kagan’s recusals render her even more ineffective on the Supreme Court 187. Poverty level highest since 1994 188. Courts run interference for corporate violators of international law 189. Warren named to set up but not to run Consumer Financial Protection Board 190. Chief economic adviser Larry Summers leaves; Obama looks for someone even more pro-business to replace him 191. DOJ IG report goes soft on Bush era surveillance against peace groups and other activists; meanwhile the Obama Administration conducts raids against similar groups 192. Move to put backdoors in the internet to facilitate spying and more requirements on banks on international money transfers of any size 193. HHS Secretary Sebelius delays for at least two years required insurance coverage for contraception 194. Americans on Medicaid increased to 48.5 million in 2009 195. Big home lenders suspend foreclosures as their documentation gets challenged in court 196. HR 3808, a bill passed by Congress, to facilitate the acceptance of false documentation by banks in foreclosure proceedings 197. ICE raids and deportations increase under Obama 198. Social Security COLA frozen for second straight year; no action taken 199. Waivers for military aid to countries with child soldiers 200. Big and deserved losses in the 2010 elections 201. 42 million Americans on food stamps at the end of FY 2010 202. No indictments for those involved in the CIA destruction of the torture tapes 203. The Bowles-Simpson Cat Food Commission proposals 204. $3 billion in aid for Israel for a 90 day settlement freeze 205. No change in Democratic Congressional leadership after 2010 election disaster 206. Forced proselytizing still prevalent at US Air Force Academy 207. TSA harassment and violation of the 4th Amendment 208. More TSA idiocy: full body scans and invasive pat downs 209. The response to the 2009 coup in Honduras 210. Use of diplomatic personnel to spy at the UN 211. Fed proposes rule change to Truth in Lending Act to protect bank fraud 212. FCC head Genachowski takes an axe to net neutrality 213. Lieberman and Amazon.com seek to censor wikileaks 214. Pressuring the Spanish government into dropping torture prosecutions against 6 high level Bush officials 215. Neoliberal free trade deal with South Korea at a time of high unemployment 216. Hamfisted banning access to wikileaks by government departments 217. Massive screwup in printing $100 bills 218. Extending tax cuts for the rich in a poor compromise on jobless benefits 219. Dancing boys of Afghanistan paid for by US contractor Dyncorp 220. EPA backtracks on smog standards 221. Former OMB director Peter Orszag goes to Citigroup 222. Obama breaks the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty to supply Israel with nuclear fuel 223. DREAM Act for children of illegal immigrants done in by Senate Democrats 224. DOJ drops investigations of corrupt members of Congress 225. The FBI’s Guardian database, another useless, intrusive surveillance program 226. Pentagon weakens rules on contractor conflicts of interest 227. Investigation by state Attorney Generals into foreclosuregate: no criminal charges 228. Obama names Mr. NAFTA Bill Daley as his new Chief of Staff 229. Obama names neoliberal free trader Gene Sperling to replace Larry Summers 230. Executive Order to make regulations more business-friendly 231. Gulet Mohamed: Detention and torture of US citizens by proxy 232. Nelson v. NASA: government can demand intrusive, unnecessary information about its employees 233. Choice of GE’s outsourcing CEO Jeffrey Immelt as Obama’s Jobs Czar 234. Failure to weaken or eliminate the filibuster 235. Corporate targeting of Wikileaks and liberal organizations 236. Reaction to the popular revolution in Egypt 237. HHS Secretary Sebelius helps states cut Medicaid rolls and funding 238. Petraeus accuses parents not US attacks for burns to children in Afghanistan 239. US general in Afghanistan sets up illegal propaganda program targeting Americans 240. Obama plans to devastate small block grants program for the poor 241. Silence on the Wisconsin labor protests 242. Former Senator Christopher Dodd quickly becomes lobbyist after promising not to 243. Obama reinstitutes sham review tribunals at Guantanamo 244. DOJ colludes with Bush era official Scott Bloch to keep him out of jail 245. The treatment of Bradley Manning 246. State Department spokesman PJ Crowley forced to resign over Manning comments 247. Massive conflicts of interest in David Stevens at HUD and soon to be head of main lobbying group for the mortgage industry 248. Mild reaction to bloody anti-democratic repression in Bahrain and Yemen 249. Torture psychologist appointed to White House task force 250. FBI program which allows them to investigate anyone doesn’t work (surprise) 251. In his Libya war, Obama has completed the unconstitutional process of Presidents’ usurpation of Congress’ power to make war 252. Obama accepts award for transparency in secret 253. Democrats create PACs to receive unlimited contributions from anonymous donors 254. 2011 government shutdown threat as Shock Doctrine 254. The 2011 “great” biprtisan budget deal 255. The OCC deal to cover for banks in foreclosuregate 256. Reshuffling neocons at DOD and the CIA 257. Leak of Detainee Assessments shines light on the weakness of cases against many Guantanamo inmates 258. Geithner shields foreign exchange derivatives from Dodd-Frank regulation 259. Crazy new application for some US passports 260. DOJ wants SCOTUS to allow for GPS tracking without a warrant 261. An industry stacked panel to study fracking 262. SCOTUS attacks small claim class actions 263. SCOTUS okays fraud in financial presentations 264. SCOTUS attacks large class actions and Title VII 265. DOJ’s non-investigation of torture produces few results 266. Department of State threatens participants of Gaza flotilla with terrorism charges 267. Detainees now held on ships to avoid judicial scrutiny 268. CIA operating a black site prison in Somalia 269. SCOTUS and DC Appeals Court torpedoing detainee habeas petitions 270. SCOTUS greatly expands warrantless searches; Obama DOJ approves 271. Tapping the Strategic Petroleum Reserve after the 2011 spike in gasoline prices 272. Christine Varney, head of DOJ Anti-Trust Division, goes to law firm that had case before her 273. Senseless 2011 debt ceiling crisis, budget cutting, and attacks on Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid 274. TSA closes US airspace to Mexican human rights activist 275. DHS guts its unit monitoring right wing terrorism in US 276. “Recovery” benefited corporations, not workers 277. Harassment of a government scientist Charles Monett because his work clashes with drilling in the Arctic 278. African Americans and Hispanic wealth took hardest hit from financial crises 279. Cass Sunstein sitting on labor rules to protect child workers 280. Oil leasing in Gulf resumes 281. Administration pressures NY AG Schneiderman to go along with bogus mortgage settlement 282. DOJ dumps responsibility for its bungled gun running sting on handy US Attorney 283. US ranks 41st in the world in infant mortality 284. White House engages in selective prosecution of Dan Choi over DADT protest 285. COBRA extension ditched 286. Obama spikes EPA ozone limits 287. 2011 Obama fictional jobs plan 288. Contractors cost twice as much as unionized federal workers doing the same work 289. New EPA greenhouse gas limits also being drawn out 290. CFTC proposes ineffectual limits on commodity speculation 291. State Department targets career officer Peter Van Buren for writing critical book 292. Secret Law and the OLC legal justification for killing a US citizen abroad 293. US incomes fall more after recession than during it 294. Another Afghanistan fail: torture rampant in Afghan prisons 295. Bank of America dumps derivative exposure on to the FDIC with Fed approval 296. New rule to legitimize government lying in response to FOIA requests 297. Cronyism and the Keystone XL pipeline 298. Despite pledge, Obama still taking money from lobbyists 299. Secure Communities and deportation as a business 300. The Occupy movement and the attacks upon it 301. DOJ prosecuting financial fraud at the lowest rate in 20 years 302. US stops funding of UNESCO 303. 42% of Americans living paycheck to paycheck 304. The Post Office facing cuts because of unnecessary prefunding mandates