The First 100 Days

[Tatertots]

and:

A second executive order formally bans torture by requiring that the Army field manual be used as the guide for terror interrogations. The order essentially ends the Bush administration's CIA program of enhanced interrogation methods.

Nice.

[Nubbins]

Even fisting?

[nacho]

Fisting is what you do when you're in love.

[Cassander]

but make sure you talk about it first, along with your dreams.

[monkey!]

Generally, go Obama.

The public could do with more transparency.

However, transparency can easily be used to cover non-transparency in other places.

[fajwat]

Every day the front page of Wapo has been heaven.  Fucking heaven.  I am overcome every morning. 

President Obama yesterday eliminated the most controversial tools employed by his predecessor against terrorism suspects. With the stroke of his pen, he effectively declared an end to the "war on terror," as President George W. Bush had defined it, signaling to the world that the reach of the U.S. government in battling its enemies will not be limitless.

While Obama says he has no plans to diminish counterterrorism operations abroad, the notion that a president can circumvent long-standing U.S. laws simply by declaring war was halted by executive order in the Oval Office.

Key components of the secret structure developed under Bush are being swept away: The military's Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, facility, where the rights of habeas corpus and due process had been denied detainees, will close, and the CIA is now prohibited from maintaining its own overseas prisons. And in a broad swipe at the Bush administration's lawyers, Obama nullified every legal order and opinion on interrogations issued by any lawyer in the executive branch after Sept. 11, 2001.

...

[Nubbins]

Obama nullified every legal order and opinion on interrogations issued by any lawyer in the executive branch after Sept. 11, 2001.

holy shit

[nacho]

Oh, yeah, the Post is having a great time.  Love their headlines now:

Bush's 'War' On Terror Comes to a Sudden End

(The headline for what was quoted above.)

I also love that he's steamrolling through Congress...and they're letting him!


http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/01/23/AR2009012300438.html?hpid=topnews

President Obama said today that efforts to pass a massive new economic stimulus package by mid-February are "on target," despite Republican lawmakers' objections to some elements of the plan.

[nacho]

Of course, then there's this:

http://iht.com/articles/2009/01/23/mideast/detainee.1-414168.php

The emergence of a former Guantánamo Bay detainee as the deputy leader of Al Qaeda's Yemeni branch has underscored the potential complications in carrying out the executive order that President Barack Obama signed that the detention center be shut down within a year.

[monkey!]

Good stuff, Obama!

Wait... he's black?

[fajwat]

Of course, then there's this:

http://iht.com/articles/2009/01/23/mideast/detainee.1-414168.php

The emergence of a former Guantánamo Bay detainee as the deputy leader of Al Qaeda's Yemeni branch has underscored the potential complications in carrying out the executive order that President Barack Obama signed that the detention center be shut down within a year.

I suppose that it's a too late to avoid habeus corpus and "fair and speedy trial" and other constitutional challenges if we moved them to US jails and courts.  I'm sure the ACLU and DOJ and others are looking into options which maximize safety, morality and compatibility with the constitution.  I hope we find something good.  If we were sure how to best shut it down today, I'd be screaming for it.

End of the day, it can't be perfect.  It'll probably have to be less perfect than the justice system which let OJ Simpson free.

[monkey!]

OJ was innocent!

Remember the glove?

[Sirharles]

I also love that he's steamrolling through Congress...and they're letting him!

Need I say more

[nacho]

Oh!  Sirharles is terirble.

This is nice:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7851038.stm

Mr Obama ordered the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to begin work on granting California and 13 other states an exemption from the federal Clear Air Act.

This would allow them to set their own standards on exhaust emissions and fuel efficiency, US media has reported aides to President Obama as saying.

California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger had asked Mr Obama to reverse the Bush administration's insistence on a single, national standard.

California wants a 30% reduction in motor vehicle greenhouse gas emissions by 2016, achieved by improving fuel efficiency standards.

President Obama also expected to order the transportation department to come up with new short-term rules on how carmakers can improve fuel efficiency.

A 2007 law required that new cars and trucks produced by 2020 obtain 35 miles per gallon of fuel (about 15km/litre).

Deadline change

However, Mr Bush did not put in place the regulations to enable the law to be carried out.

The new rules Mr Obama wants put in place would mean the new standard is reached by 2011, the New York Times said.

[nacho]

And...some fallout:

The Vatican has condemned President Obama's move to restore US funding for family planning clinics abroad that give advice on or carry out abortions.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7849600.stm