Day one, Obama calls for open government
Obama, keeping it real, as promised!
UPDATE: the memo is already posted on the whitehouse.gov site for anyone to review! How refreshing!
During this, his first day in office, President Obama called for open government, and issued a memorandum which spells out to approach the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) “with a clear presumption: in the face of doubt, openness prevails.” This presumption of openness is in direct contrast with limits the Bush administration put in place, a fact driven home by the last line of the memo:
Sec. 6. Revocation. Executive Order 13233 of November 1, 2001, is revoked..
Now we’re talking! More of the memo reads:
All agencies should adopt a presumption in favor of disclosure, in order to renew their commitment to the principles embodied in FOIA, and to usher in a new era of open Government. The presumption of disclosure should be applied to all decisions involving FOIA. The presumption of disclosure also means that agencies should take affirmative steps to make information public. They should not wait for specific requests from the public. All agencies should use modern technology to inform citizens about what is known and done by their Government. Disclosure should be timely.
But wait, there’s more… (more…)
01-20-2009 – new day rising
“As for our common defense, we reject as false the choice between our safety and our ideals. Our founding fathers, faced with perils we can scarcely imagine, drafted a charter to assure the rule of law and the rights of man, a charter expanded by the blood of generations. Those ideals still light the world, and we will not give them up for expedience’s sake.”
Barack Obama, Washington DC, 20 January, 2009
Obama to take a stand on detainee rights early
Ali al-Marri is being held in a Navy brig in South Carolina
Late next month we’ll know where Obama stands on one of the most contentious actions of Bush; that the US can indefinitely detain anyone deemed a ‘terrorist’ without charge. He’ll make his thoughts known in a brief due February 20th which will address the specific case of a student from Qatari, who has been held on our mainland since December 2001. “Just a month after President-elect Barack Obama takes office, he must tell the Supreme Court where he stands on one of the most aggressive legal claims made by the Bush administration — that the president may order the military to seize legal residents of the United States and hold them indefinitely without charging them with a crime. The new administration’s brief, which is due Feb. 20, has the potential to hearten or infuriate Mr. Obama’s supporters, many of whom are looking to him for stark disavowals of the Bush administration’s legal positions on the detention and interrogation of so-called enemy combatants held at Navy facilities on the American mainland or at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. During the campaign, Mr. Obama made broad statements criticizing the Bush administration’s assertions of executive power. But now he must address a specific case, that of Ali al-Marri, a Qatari student who was arrested in Peoria, Ill., in December 2001. The Bush administration says Mr. Marri is a sleeper agent for Al Qaeda, and it is holding him without charges at the Navy brig in Charleston, S.C. He is the only person currently held as an enemy combatant on the mainland, but the legal principles established in his case are likely to affect the roughly 250 prisoners at Guantánamo.” This seems pretty cut and dry to me, we have rights in this country and Bush ignored them; it’s time for Obama to make a clean break and stand up for what this country was founded on.
Volunteering for change
Barack Obama FTW!
This afternoon I volunteered at the local field office in South St. Louis for Barack Obama. When I got there there was a flurry of activity, and I could tell people were there because they wanted to be. As we waited for others to show up to get started, I saw a pile of boxes; they had just gotten in a huge shipment of yard signs, after being back ordered for weeks. I think I built at least 50 of those in the half hour I worked on them, but then Laura came around with our assignment, “Who wants to knock on doors?” I likely had a look of shock on my face, but still manged to say, “Great!”. After all, even though I hate people coming to my door, and wasn’t looking forward to being on the other side, what place did I have to complain? This is for something much bigger than that. Fortunately the paperwork was really well organized, with the map and route all planned out. I was paired up with another volunteer and we hit the road. The canvasing went really well, most were very polite, regardless if they Obama supports or not (most were). One thing about the neighborhood, it’s only about 15 minutes South of me, but there were absolutely no political signs anywhere, and it wasn’t the kind of neighborhood that wouldn’t allow them, so it was very strange. Most in my area are pretty outgoing about showing their affiliation and staying educated about the days events, I had the feeling things were different which made me all the more retisent to do a good job. We walked the streets for a few hours and got more comfortable with the idea of banging on people’s doors as time went along. I think the fact that our contry is in such a crossroads made it much eaiser for me to participate, and I’m really glad I got to do it. Now it’s time to regroup and map out more time to help out at headquarters. If anyone is hesitant about doing something like this, try it, I don’t think you’ll regret it. Leave a message for me if you have any questions, or search for your local field office and volunteer – we’re 40 days out – it’s time for action.
McCain’s acceptance speech echos Bush’s
Why McCain would be another 4 years of the same
This is glorious, The Daily Show obliterates McCain’s acceptance speech by interspersing clips of Dubya’s acceptance speech. It’s funny that much of it is the same – WORD FOR WORD! So I guess that’s the change they keep talking about. Damn McCain, you crazy Mavrick! (sic)
John McSame – why M.c.Cain would be 4 more years of the same
UPDATE: months after confusing Iran and Iraq, (multiple – times), M.c.Cain continues to try to upstage Bush’s famous canon of mis-spoken quotes by stating that Putin is President of Germany.
Say what you want about Barack Obama’s ‘change’ message, just know if you go with J.o.hn M.c.Cain you’re saying yes to four more years of Bush style politics. While he’s still hawking that ‘maverick’ tag, don’t believe the hype, instead, let’s look at some statements by the senator. Recently M.c.Cain perked my interest when he came out in favor of FISA, warrantless wiretapping/eavesdropping and executive power. Funny thing is, he had the exact opposite opinion on these topics when he was asked in December 2007!
On Wednesday, I documented J.o.hn M.c.Cain’s complete reversal of views — in the last six months alone — on FISA, warrantless eavesdropping and executive power. M.c.Cain’s diametrically opposite views were contained in a questionnaire M.c.Cain completed for The Boston Globe last December (wherein he rejected many of the Bush/Cheney theories of presidential omnipotence and warrantless eavesdropping) and then a statement M.c.Cain issued this week to National Review (wherein he embraced those same theories in order to persuade the Right that he approves of and would continue Bush’s lawless surveillance policies).
Another source states more of what transcribed at the National Review:
A top adviser to Senator J.o.hn M.c.Cain says Mr. M.c.Cain believes that President Bush’s program of wiretapping without warrants was lawful, a position that appears to bring him into closer alignment with the sweeping theories of executive authority pushed by the Bush administration legal team.
In a letter posted online by National Review this week, the adviser, Douglas Holtz-Eakin, said Mr. M.c.Cain believed that the Constitution gave Mr. Bush the power to authorize the National Security Agency to monitor Americans’ international phone calls and e-mail without warrants, despite a 1978 federal statute that required court oversight of surveillance…
Man stabs brother-in-law over political argument
I’m all for having opinions, but if a simple disagreement turns to violence, someone must be watching too much tv. The apparent argument was over a Hillary Clinton-Barack Obama argument! “…Jose Antonio Ortiz, a Clinton supporter, allegedly stabbed his brother-in-law Sean Shurelds in the stomach after they argued over the race for nomination. Shurelds, 41, an Obama supporter, told Ortiz his candidate was “trashing” Clinton, in reference to a string of recent victories by the Illinois senator in preliminary voting in various states. According to the police report, Ortiz replied that “Obama was not a realist” before the argument, in the kitchen of a Pennsylvania home, turned physical. After some mutual choking and punching, the 28-year-old allegedly stabbed Shurelds in the stomach. He has been charged with aggravated assault, among other charges, while Shurelds was flown to a nearby hospital, where he was admitted in critical condition.“ Uggg…so I assume Jose will be voting by ‘absentee’ ballot this year.
It’s time to lose the faith talk in politics
We’ve got to find a way to take the conservative symbolic message of faith talk out of American politics. First let me state what I believe in as far as religion; I believe religion is a very personal thing, and I feel it should be that way for everyone. This goes a long way in understanding my disdain for so called ‘faith-based politics’, examples of which have been in abundance this campaign season. Now, before you jump on me, I am talking about ‘both’ (anyone find a viable 3rd party candidate that can raise 100 bazillion dollars to go the dance? I wish we could…but that’s another post 
) parties, Democrats and Republicans. When you hear any of them kowtowing to the evangelicals (who have been the sweet target these past few months), you know they’re deliberately targeting those people, and those people only. The fact that so many have been called out to ‘prove’ their conviction is the true one, and in line with the vote heavy evangelicals, is a sad commentary on how people vote.
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The premature crowning of Hillary
Hillary is being crowned the ‘come from behind kid’ after ‘winning’ the New Hampshire primary; but this appears to be nothing but spin. First of all the results, Hillary took 39% of the popular vote to Barack ’s 37%, so Hillary wins, right? Not exactly, if you look at the delegate count you’ll see a different picture. Remember, people can win the popular vote and loose the election (Gore). From the article/discussion on CNN’s Political Ticker you’ll see the results: (more…)
Hi, I'm fak3r and I've been online for over 15 years, blogging for 10. I work with open source software, various hardware and whatever else that I can hack on. I enjoy learning by doing, painting infrequently and listening to more music than the law allows. Feel free to follow me and comment on my thoughts and ideas; we're all in it together kid.
Twenty-six Lies About H.R. 3200
Sep 09, 2009 | Categories: commentary, featured, headline, parenting, politics | Tags: barack obama, health, politics | View Comments