Not the civil liberties President

While I often think liberals expect too much, too soon from Obama, I admit when it comes to his approach on civil liberties, I'm just as disgusted as the ACLU. That was the one area I thought he would take back the Bush era excesses and instead he's really been even worse than Bush in some ways.

MoJo has a list of ten points of bitter disappointment. These two are especially striking.

His Justice Department has mounted a wide-ranging investigation of the Guantanamo defense bar. That investigation is reportedly led by Patrick Fitzgerald, the US attorney that some civil liberties activists wanted to investigate the Bush administration's torture and detention policies.

He has launched an all-out war on national security whistleblowers and leakers.

I expected a constitutional attorney would not do these things, particularly since he made so many references to being a nation of laws during the campaign.

[More posts daily at The Detroit News]