A Perspective on Obama signing the NDAA

[sarahbeez]

People are freaking the fuck out and attributing this to some desire on Obama's part to create an Orwellian police state.  I found this Tumblr post to be helpful for understanding how Congress backed the Pres into a corner:

More behind the cut

Comments

[baked_goldfish]

and ensure that he could never close Guantanamo

And the thing about this is Obama even stepped in and finagled a lesser restriction on closing Guantanamo. The original bill permanently restricted funding, and the administration worked it down to a temporary 1-year restriction.

Defense spending bills are the go-to for two things: huge amounts of spending (a lot of it quite valid and I'm not saying that it's automatically awful, but some of it is ridiculous), and shit like this.

[sarahbeez]

Yep. It's a fucked up system, and one that creates a no-win situation for whoever has to be faced with sign/veto.

[baked_goldfish]

It's true. I'll admit that a part of me that wishes he had just vetoed it anyway, but that's the same part that really likes The West Wing, you know? In my fantasy world, there's no negative reaction to it, but in reality, where the right owns so much of the press and the rest of the press is too weak to combat lies, he gets strung up as the guy who hates troops while everyone forgets about NDAA entirely.

[sarahbeez]

Yep, exactly. I think there's a good case that he could have refused to sign (as opposed to veto) and I wish he had. But I don't think he killed the bill of rights or whatever the internet children are peddling right now.

[baked_goldfish]

From what I've read after last night, it sounds like it's questionable whether he would have been able to attach a signing statement to the bill had he vetoed it? But IANAL, so my understanding of that particular bit may be rather shallow.