A Machiavellian Prince

Dear Mr. President,

You have a long history of lying. Your 2008 campaign was based on lies and false promises so it’s no wonder many of us didn’t believe your assurances on the NDAA of 2012. It’s a classic example of the way you prevaricate, shift positions and speak with forked tongue. After first vowing to veto that Constitution-gutting act that allows indefinite incarceration of anyone anywhere (including American citizens), you signed it in the dead of night on New Year’s Eve when everyone was celebrating and then assured the public that you would never, not ever, use it. I said at the time that the signing statement your supporters touted wouldn’t even make good toilet paper; it was too slick. Americans have a short attention span however, and the initial hullabaloo died down but some recognized the danger and brought a suit against it and this week, when Judge Forrest ruled the law unconstitutional, (In)Justice and Defense Department lawyers filed a motion to stay the injunction, pleading that it was “an unprecedented trespass on the power of the president and the legislature that by its very nature was doing irreparable harm.” Excuse me, Mr. President, but that legislation you signed is what’s doing irreparable harm. It violates the 1^st, 5^th and 6^th Amendments, wiping out in one stroke of your pen the protection we had against tyrants and a police state. This law allows you to name anyone you decide supports any organization you deem a terrorist organization and have them incarcerated indefinitely by the military without trial or legal recourse. Any president not bent on tyranny, any president truly committed to upholding the Constitution would have denounced and vetoed that act. But you are a dangerous man who works in secret behind closed doors and calls black white and up down. You want that legislation and there’s no doubt in my mind you intend to use it. How can you not believe this of a president who wages wars of aggression, orders summary executions, kills civilians without remorse, refuses to hold war criminals accountable, and continues illegal spying on citizens, renditions to torture, and indefinite detention of prisoners in Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay? You have way too much power already, Mr. President, and your tilt toward tyranny and oppression is far too apparent and scary to let you amass even more. You are a ruthless and unprincipled man without conscience, without morals and without scruples. You are a Machiavellian prince.