It looks more and more like rather than "hope and change", the final legacy of the Obama administration will be the final slide of the U.S. into an imperial presidency, where the man or woman in the White House wields unaccountable life-and-death power over the people of the world. Glenn Greenwald reports: Obama moves to make the War on Terror permanent
What has been created here - permanently institutionalized - is a highly secretive executive branch agency that simultaneously engages in two functions: (1) it collects and analyzes massive amounts of surveillance data about all Americans without any judicial review let alone search warrants, and (2) creates and implements a "matrix" that determines the "disposition" of suspects, up to and including execution, without a whiff of due process or oversight. It is simultaneously a surveillance state and a secretive, unaccountable judicial body that analyzes who you are and then decrees what should be done with you, how you should be "disposed" of, beyond the reach of any minimal accountability or transparency.
A friend asked if this was worth voting for the Greens rather than Obama, even in a swing state. My answer: a vote for the lesser of two evils is still a vote for evil. Would you vote for Stalin over Hitler? It's time (well past time!) to abandon hope in the Democrats.
If you believe that, on balance, Obama is working evil -- not just making mistakes or being an imperfect candidate, but is actively leading the country in an immoral, wicked direction -- I don't see how you can endorse that with your vote, no matter where you live. If this issue costs Obama the election, then the Democrats will have to run someone less evil in 2016; if it doesn't, then murder as usual will probably continue.