Franklin's Focus 6/13/10

Obama's Glaring Inhumanity

A stunning number of innocent men, plus one innocent teenager, were
imprisoned in GITMO. Obama's followers waited impatiently for Obama to
pardon these innocent men plus one young boy. They waited and waited
and waited. Not one pardon of innocent GITMO prisoners was forthcoming
from the Oval Office. Obama thusly let it be known he would not be
issuing pardons to anybody, not even to innocent people who were
wrongly imprisoned by members of the Bush administration. Nor is he
going to eliminate GITMO as he had promised.

Obama is a supremely duplicitous man. When the president of Malawi
approved of the imprisonment of two gay men for getting married, Obama
decided it was time to throw a flower to the American gay and lesbian
community. He publicly denounced Malawi for its actions. When the
president of Malawi pardoned the two men, Obama offered effusive praise.

This is typical Obama. He himself would not have issued a pardon had
he been president of Malawi. I say that because Obama quite possibly
will never be issuing pardons no matter how many appeals cross his
desk. My guess is he either does not want to offend his right-wing
spiritual brothers, or he is afraid of the heat he would take from
Republicans in Congress.

Here's a stat that tells the true story regarding Obama and his
attitude toward innocents who have been rotting in prisons for decades
for crimes they did not commit. Since the day he entered the Oval
Office, he has 'carefully' studied 2,482 appeals according to the
White House. Many of those appeals are heartbreaking. Such states as
Texas have improperly arrested, tried, and imprisoned a substantial
number of innocent blacks. None of these victims of twisted Texas
justice has been pardoned by Obama. Mind you, the president cannot
declare a convicted person innocent, but he can at least pardon him or
her with respect to the remaining years of an unjust sentence.

This pardon power of the American presidency is a humanitarian feature
of the Constitution. It recognizes that the imprisonment and execution
of innocent people is not a rarity in America. As previously noted
here, a recent study showed that out of 31 prisoners on death row in
Illinois, 15 were shown to be innocent. Of course, if the president
does not possess any humanitarian qualities whatsoever, he is not
likely to use his pardon power. Consider that corrupt presidents such
as Clinton have arrogantly abused this power rather than using it for
humanitarian reasons, and we know that Obama admires the Clintons.

As a footnote, considering that Clinton is the most violent and
corrupt politician in the history of Amerika, it is easy to understand
why Obama gravitates toward the Clintons. Clinton was a de facto
member of the Dixie Mafia, the John Gotti New York Mafia family, and
the Carlos Marcello New Orleans Mafia. Let's say Gotti, Marcello, and
the governor of Arkansas were business partners in guns and dope.
Here's a real cute example: Clinton and Gotti were partners in a
deadly vaccine scam that killed 5,000 Canadian children. Obama's
criminal ties were never that expansive. He was merely a business
associate of the Chicago crime family who made millions for the family.

Not in the past hundred years of presidential history has an American
president failed to issue one single pardon during the first year of
presidency! Obama seems headed that way. To study and reject 2,482
appeals demonstrates a complete disinterest in using the power of the
president to remedy injustice. Obama has never displayed any
humanitarian or decent impulses when coming face to face with
injustices such as the Wall Street taking of homes from low income
blacks who had been criminally taken in by crooked home loan officers,
or the massive unemployment of blue collar workers in such places as
Detroit. This lack of any empathy is a common feature of authoritarian
personalities.

I was hoping he would pardon Leonard Peltier, a former leader of the
American Indian Movement during the 60s. When an FBI agent was killed
in a shootout, the FBI never was able to identify the shooter who
killed the FBI agent (in self defense). Accordingly, Hoover decided to
frame a leader of AIM, a group violently hated by the neofascist
Hoover, who had managed to hire assassins for the killing of the
entire leadership of AIM, except for Peltier, who had slipped the
noose. The FBI, under orders from Hoover, decided to crudely frame
Peltier. That removed the last leader of AIM. Millions of Americans
know he is innocent. Pardoning him, although it would not erase the
conviction, would free Peltier for what days he has left on this
earth. He is an old man who was raped by his government. He is way
overdue for a pardon. Instead he will probably die in prison, thusly
etching a permanent horror into the annals of American history.

Peltier, who is an extraordinary man, has rotted away in a prison
since the 60s when he was framed. He is there partly because he is a
man of color and partly because he fought for the rights of Native
Americans. I thought a president who is at least half black might be
merciful and pardon Peltier. Obama must have some knowledge of the
existence of racist persecutions in American history, although none
has touched him. I guess I had only a weak hope that freeing Peltier
might happen. It just would not be consonant with the morbidly
diseased character of Obama.

Perhaps I'm jumping the gun. Perhaps Obama's political advisors will
suggest he improve his pardoning record which stands at zip. He might
do a few pardons for appearances. If he does, it will be only for
political reasons. My guess is such a pardon would not be for a poor
Texas black. In any case, Obama has already established an ugly record
with a very long a period sans a single pardon. That's 2,482 appeals
tossed in the trash can. Think about what probably went into the
writing of those pleas. Think of the family spouses, children and
friends of wrongly convicted persons waiting and waiting for a
response from the president they probably voted for.

Today's Quote

'Constitutions are utterly worthless to restrain the tyranny of
governments, unless it be understood that the people will by force
compel the government to keep within constitutional limits.
Practically speaking, no government knows any limits to its power
except the endurance of the people.'

Lysander Spoooner

One of my favorite quotes.

The Bush-Cheney administration proved Spooner's dictum. Of course,
most Americans do not know the facts surrounding 9/11. If they did,
they might agree with Spooner.

Warmest regards,
Richard