Obama Poses, Medea Exposes At National "Defense" U.

Source: AlterNet  Medea, surrounded by Secret Service and security after being removed from the room,

"President Obama interrupts Medea Benjamin" was one of many, many headlines reporting on the CODEPINK co-founder's disruption of yet another insincere speech by the orator-in-chief.

Empty promises go a long way when issuing forth from a tall, good-looking, articulate man. Who doesn't want to believe him when he promises -- again -- to close down the empire's most notorious concentration camp? Or when he claims that new rules on how to deploy aerial bombing of civilians using drones are to keep you and your family safer?

Unlike the governor of my state, Medea can get her points made without name calling, insults or empty promises. The format she used was posing a series of questions to the president, whom she recognizes as the head spokesman for the global oligarchs that own and operate our government. Listen to how much truth she packs into 27 seconds in this clip:



In case the video is not working for you, here is some of what she said:

Can you tell the Muslim people that their lives are as precious as our lives? Can you take the drones out of the hands of the CIA? Can you stop the signature strikes that are killing people on the basis of suspicious activities? Will you apologize to the thousands of Muslims that you have killed? Will you compensate the innocent family victims? That will make us safer. (Emphasis mine.)

(AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta) Victims of drone strikes under Obama.

Medea said afterwards that she was gratified to have made it in to hear the speech, to which she had been properly invited, and to have not been arrested for speaking out  --- as she has been numerous times in congressional hearings. She said she appreciated living in a country where you could gainsay the president and not find yourself in jail for a year, being tortured.

Clearly Obama was gratified by the opportunity for some liberal posturing, especially considering that he had just made a speech pretending that the executive branch of government makes, administers, and ajudicates the law on matters such as indefinite detention and assassinations. It is important for his liberal defenders to be able to pretend that he respects the Constitution, even while he shreds it by punishing whistleblowers at a rates that leaves all other U.S. presidents in the dust.

Guantánamo inmates -- who have been in prison for multiple years, some more than a decade, and tortured by force-feeding, sleep deprivation and other methods -- reportedly watched on television while Obama talked the talk but Medea called on him to walk the walk.

CODEPINK co-founder Diane Wilson has been on a water only hunger strike in solidarity with Guantánamo prisoners. She was arrested earlier this month for locking herself to the White House fence, trying to get Obama's attention. Teamwork!