The imperial presidencies of Obama and Bush! Father knows worst!

As if the thought of going to the dentist office the first thing on a Monday morning isn't enough for me to get into a fetal position under the sheets, I have to figure out how to calm myself down after reading the following three commentaries on the Nobel Peace Prize recipient, President Obama, and his zealous use of drones to kill.

Slate has a detailed interactive map:

Since Obama took office, media outlets have reported more than 300 drone strikes in Pakistan targeting al-Qaeda or the Taliban, outnumbering the Bush administration’s drone strikes five to one. Supporters say the strikes are an efficient way to kill militants, while critics say the strikes kill too many civilians, spur terrorist recruitment, shirk judicial oversight, and represent an abuse of presidential power. This map, which is based on data from the New America Foundation, displays the location and kill count of reported drone strikes since 2004 and shows that Obama has greatly extended the drone program.

 From the other side of the planet, this op-ed in The Hindu comments on the "imperial presidency":

Having criticised the Bush administration for the secret practices of surveillance, interrogation and detention, Mr. Obama has dramatically expanded the practice of secretly putting people on kill lists. Drone warfare greatly stretches the boundaries of the imperial presidency. It has expanded presidential power enormously relative to Congressional checks and judicial oversight.

It also raises the question: is the extrajudicial of killing foreigners (and Americans living abroad) following a bureaucratic determination, as Obama is doing, more or less frightening and morally condemnable than capturing them and sending them to detention and torture in Guantánamo Bay, as Mr. Bush did and Mr. Obama condemned? As with other administrations in most countries around the world, the government forgets or chooses to ignore that the expanded, unchecked power will be available to subsequent administrations. 

Finally, from Glenn Greenwald:

the American media has been repeatedly and willingly coopted in the Obama administration’s propagandistic abuse of its secrecy powers, with a focus on the recent high-profile, Obama-flattering national security scoops from The New York Times.

Oh well; if only I had paid attention to how ignorance is bliss!