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Obama, Day 1
Linc
Site ownerDetroit Moderator
- Pay freeze on top officials
- Stricter, meaningful ethics rules
- Reversed Bush's Freedom of Information Act policies (i.e. reverted to more open policies)
- Suspended Guantanamo tribunals
- Suspended any "pending" Bush policies like looser emissions standards that hadn't taken effect yet
- Called leaders of Egypt, Jordan, Israel, and Palestine
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Comments
Oh, and he broke a Bush cardinal rule yesterday... "Jackets required in Oval Office." Barack was seen in just shirt and tie and hos jacket draped over a chair. ;D
Palzang
If he manages to get across the idea that the rights in the Bill of Rights are aspirations which require us to work towards them "with malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right".
Jason: Although the current economic situation may have had some of its origins in the US, I agree with our Prime Minister (a rare event) that the solutions must come from concerted effort. We have allowed the creation of a sort of "super-nation" which is the globalised banking industry. National frontiers and regulation can be avoided, leading, initially, to great profits and even greater unrealistic objectives. Even nmore than after 9/11, the world needs to pull together. As an ex-oarsman who clearly remembers the pain of learning to row in an eight, I think there is a serious risk of our getting soaked and having to swim to the shore.
Take another peek at Day One, Hour One:
http://gigapan.org/viewGigapanFullscreen.php?auth=033ef14483ee899496648c2b4b06233c
This is not a picture of "God's Frozen People." They may be in 33 degree weather, but they look pretty happy to me.
The good news is that, regardless of what any Justice Dept. Lawyer might say, the torture was ordered to end after Abu Ghraib, and only interrogation as found in official manuals is allowed, and will remain that way.
And if any more higher ranking officers try to ok torture (outside of the one and only context I mentioned several months ago) again, I will beat some sense into them out of frustration for having to sit through the same briefing four times in a year.
I couldn't agree more, Bushi. This is a perfect example of the legal dictum that "justice delayed is justice denied". The detainees deserve:
* immediate relocation to better quarters and conditions;
* access to independent legal representation;
* their day in court.
I admit that I have a rather old-fashioned view of the importance of due process and the protection of the legal system. There is a wonderful exchange between Thomas More and Roper in Robert Bolt's A Man For All Seasons which has stayed with me over the years:
Of all the nations which have cried "Liberty", the US has most clearly asserted the vital importance of due process and has appealed, over and again, to the principles of justice. It is heart-breaking that, from time to time, as in the Civil War, those who have been called to defend that liberty and justice, have betrayed and suspended them.
I think there should be no rejoicing when Gitmo closes but, rather, a solemn, national act of atonement and reconciliation - by ourselves in Europe together with our brother and sisters in the US.