"WHEN FASCISM COMES TO AMERICA IT WILL BE WRAPPED IN THE FLAG
AND CARRYING A CROSS." -SINCLAIR LEWIS

Friday, January 23, 2009

Hitting The Ground Running

How much vacation time do you think this guy is going to be taking?

Barack Obama will have spent his first several days in office issuing a series of executive orders which, some quibbling and important caveats and reservations aside, meet or actually exceed even the most optimistic expectations of civil libertarians for what he could or would do quickly -- everything from ordering the closing of Guantanamo to suspending military commissions to compelling CIA interrogators to adhere to the Army Field Manual to banning CIA "black sites" and, perhaps most encouragingly (in my view): severely restricting his own power and the power of former Presidents to withhold documents and other information on the basis of secrecy, which was the prime corrosive agent, the main enabler, of the Bush era.
Gitmo closing? Check. Torture banned? Check. Executive transparency increased? Check. So, what's next?

5 comments:

Trashman said...

Socialism. Check.

Van Zan said...

Maybe it will be countermeasures to excessive corporate greed and impropriety (also known as "communism" to fat cat ugly twerps with big cigars and a cabinet full of tax dodge schemes).

Oh and sub-item: Ensuring those CIA black sites stay closed for business without any loopholes of convenient proxies doing the dirty business instead of hands-on CIA reps? Hopefully the transparency will assist with that.

JBW said...

Great argument, Trash: did you think of that one all by yourself?

Anonymous said...

But, I thought Obama was moving to the right and pissing off all the people on the left. That's what I read.

Of course, I don't know what is left-wing about due process and fair trials. I guess it just depends on whether the source is to the right of Pinochet.

Joe "Truth 101" Kelly said...

Typical blind right wing response from Trashman. He's in good idiot company though. I remember a Brittny Spears interview. She was aked about President Bush. She said we should just trust him and follow him because he is our leader. I applaud President Obama for giving our government back to us.