President Obama: The First 100 Days

Bush had that meeting where he told everyone that he wanted to invade Iraq to please his pappy and that they had better start working on an excuse.

Not to forget that he apparently called Israelian Premier Ehud Olmert, Palestinensian President Mahmud Abbas, Jordian King Abdullah and Egypts President Hosni Mubarak today to push for peace talks. On his first day. Not a smal feat in my eyes. Granted it is more symbolic rather than substantial I guess but it shows a great shift in paradigm by this administration.

Now the icing on the cake would be the capturing of bin Laden in the next 24 hours. I guess Limbaugh and the likes would shoot themselves.

That is a huge first day for any president. Anyone know if administration made the order to close Gitmo in a year public?

From here:

Well, you missed the most important thing he did today, which was cracking down on lobbyists.

That was seriously impressive, he forbid gift giving by lobbyists, and imposed a series of criteria which will make them far less useful tools for the manipulation of the system.

That is very very very low on the long list of shit that needs to get done. Thankfully, the cabinet knows that better than you.

Who said anything about priorities? But since many media outlets have been reducing the complex issue of internal and global security on capturing this chimera rather than talking about politics it would be great to get this obstacle out of the way. Hence the mentioning of Limbaugh rather than any politician. So please spare me your faux snark.

Reading your post, you referred to Bin Laden's capture as "icing on the cake", the cake being the "great shift in paradigm by this administration". Hopefully you can see where it does not compute.

I can accept that reading given my apparent bad wording. However I hope you can see the refined point in the context of my post above as well.

That I do, now. Let's drink to Obama's health.

Cheers then!

No raises for staff making over 100K? Well, I'm glad I didn't apply! :-)

On Bush's first day he blocked federal foreign aid to groups that offered counseling or assistance to women to obtain abortions.

And now we have Secretary Clinton.

I was gonna make this thread when I saw this helpful page from the BBC website.

Great start by Obama, even surprised his idolising fans I bet. Guantanamo seems like it will take time and effort, but hopefully within two years (or by this time next year?) it will be over with.

The problem with closing Guantanamo is you still have to do something with the people there. Which more then likely will mean declaring them POW and bringing them to the US.

Check the back of next months Techie of Fortune, I'm sure there's some far-flung banana republic that could use some mercenary IT assistance.

Funnily enough, I could have sworn I heard that tackling this is on Obama's agenda for day 2.

I don't see how this is in any way more problematic than Gitmo. What, we recognize militant Islam as an enemy actor? The disclosure of 'secret evidence?' These assholes have nowhere else to go. Either America admits that a number, possibly a majority, of these people were swept up in an indiscriminate move (and now they are probably radicalized), or they are bad dudes, and the evidence is there.

In the first instance, you make the guys wards of the state, and keep a very close eye on them. If they contact any terror networks or terror contacts, we know about it. Point: Us. If they don't: sorry. Go about your business.

In the second: there has to be evidence. Terror networks are not mysterious shadows. They almost always touch on common actors, with common organizational connections. Self-started terrorists aren't worth the time or effort, because they cannot do very much (right now, at least, God help us). If we haven't discerned any evidence by now, what with the billions spent on our intelligence services and the torture and the years behind bars, you throw them back to the first category. And follow them closely. There are really no other alternatives, other than Gitmo till they die.

Seriously.

Some people have postulated that these prisoners would be moved to Federal prisons in the States like the Supermax in Colorado where Gotti died or Leavenworth.

What I wonder is with closing down Gitmo and suspension of the tribunals what will be the legal solution? Federal indictments in open court with the detainees given due process? Are we going to see a move away from enemy combatants to criminal prosecutions?

The wife (the scum sucking lawyer that she is) says their status as enemy combatants, even with the closing of Gitmo and the suspension of the tribunals, leaves everything in some sort of quasi-legal limbo. They're not POW's and they're not criminals in the eyes of the law.

Hotdamn. Apparently he will not only close Gitmo but the "secret" CIA detention camps as well. While closing Gitmo might have been viewed as a publicity stunt to ease the minds of the electorate and the world, this actually seems like a sure sign that he is dead serious about this matter.

I applaud you Mr. President.

I saw yesterday, couldn't find the link, but Obama issued an edict to his people that he expected all FOIA requests to be completed, and in reasonable time. He did this to prove his point that the administration was dead serious about the transparency of the inner workings of the government.

Obama closes Guantanamo and officially bans torture ...

Which, of course, means that every prisoner there will be released onto YOUR STREET!!!

fixed for ya.

In all seriousness, I love how he's just motoring through stuff and getting it DONE.

After the first 100 days, he's gonna kick back, grab a beer and go, 'Wow. I don't understand what people we're bitching about. This shit is easy!' And take the next three years off.

I would say he should turn the camera after signing that executive order and say. "It's good to be the king."

The Freepers are losing their minds over the no jacket photo.

My God, I should spend some time with the Freepers every day. It's beautiful.

OW MY BRAIN

WHY DID I CLICK THAT

Now you know why I was reading their inauguration thread. Between the doom, the gloom, the not-so-thinly-veiled racism, and the general psychosis, it was pretty amusing.

That being said, I think that the neoconservatives/conservatives are just going to get worse and worse. On another forum I frequent, they're absolutely losing it and throwing as many jabs and making up as much shit as possible.

Wow. I guess with a base having such a distorted view of reality Palin is a shoe-in for the nomination then?

Stop teasing, Jake. Link this shit.

It's an invite-only training forum, unfortunately. :/

That is just hilarious. Half of them are so dumb they even suck at being racist.

Some cute cut-and-pasted nuggets:

RE: The cost of the inauguration and their assertion that voting for Obama due to him being black was racist:

I honestly have no idea what the hell they're trying to say...

All I've got is noise. Just pure nonsensical noise.

Right now, I'm both entertained and infuriated by the reaction taking place among the Right. After the election, I deleted a couple of extremely conservative people from my friend list on Facebook, but I checked up on both of them to see how they were handing things now that we are officially ensconced in the Obama era. One of them has her status set to:

I knew she was a bit of a zealot, but I had no idea she was a bigot as well. Another one is "scared and sad," and is praying for our nation. Both gals are in their early 20s. All I can do is shake my head.

On the other hand, how awesome is it to see Obama just roll up his sleeves and wade right in, getting shit done like it ain't no thang? I'm elated about that.

Okay, the doll looks nothing like him. But him pulling a gun and holding a sword is hilarious.

I Must get one of those.

I was wondering what the Arcade Fire was doing now that their Obama dreams came true:

http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/articl...obama-staffers

Now comes the mad-dash to change avatars...

Well, he is getting things started. But the 120 days is better than just stopping it, because it shows a cautious intelligent approach that recognizes how difficult the task actually is.

Some of the prisoners at Gitmo are quite dangerous, but putting them on trial quickly would reduce the possibility of conviction, thereby screwing the pooch. Some of them need to get trials ASAP because they are either in the wrong place or sufficient evidence exists to lock them up forever. The former are the problem, and they need to determine a solution that maintains security while adhering to the moral expectations of the law.

I agree that the crackdown on lobbyists is the biggest thing on day one. That isn't getting a ton of airtime, but I can guarantee many members of Congress (from both parties) just shit a brick. And he made that change on his biggest day, so they are pretty much up the creek. He won't always have this approval rating, so do the unpopular stuff (with politicians) while he has the pimp hand.

I'm black and conservative not hard right, center right for the most part and voted for Obama. The conversatives I know or talked to are happy with most of the decisions he's making in the white house. They didn't vote for him but don't see him as a far left zealot like some people do.

So I am surprised that Repubs are acting this way.

If this helps any
In New York considered Right Wing
In Las Vegas considered Liberal

what

Sorry rush typing at work.

In New York I am considered to be Right Wing
In more conservative states I am considered to be Far Left

Gotcha.

Obama's first meal on Airforce One The video is in the middle a bit down. I didn't realize that A1 gets a new pilot when a new President is elected.