For the first time in a while, I listened to Rush for a while yesterday while driving to another town. One of the things that caught my ear was when he said that Obama had given a speech and sounded like Ronald Reagan. I thought that was interesting because I heard Obama speak the other day and I thought he sounded like Reagan in that speech.
But the problem is he sounds like Reagan and talks about uniting the country, but many of his actions so far at that of a liberal. There is so much pork and special interest payoffs in this economic stimulus package.

And Obama is trying to micromanage the financial sector now that tax money has gone to bail those people out. Just because we have a stake in the game now does not mean we get to tell the companies how to run their day to day operations. He had Citigroup cancel their corporate jet purchase because they took TARP money. What he did not know was that the order was placed over two years ago and the new jet was going to replace 2 older less efficient jets. So they were doing what he wants by going with a greener fleet, but then he stopped them. And it is going to cost $2 to $4 million to cancel the order. This is what happens when reactionary politicians start micromanging things like wars and companies.

Labels: Economy, Obama, politics

Maybe I am in a bad mood or something. Or maybe I am getting tired of being bombarded by the hype every single day about how Obama is going to save the world. He gave an interview to an Arabic Network and said "My job to the Muslim world is to communicate that the Americans are not your enemy, we sometimes make mistakes. We have not been perfect."
Now I am pretty sure that W. said pretty much the same thing many times, but the way it is reported now is that it is somehow different.

Obama also said, "We cannot tell either the Israelis or the Palestinians what's best for them. They're going to have to make some decisions. But I do believe that the moment is ripe for both sides to realize that the path that they are on is one that is not going to result in prosperity and security for their people," he said.

Obama added: "There are Israelis who recognize that it is important to achieve peace. They will be willing to make sacrifices if the time is appropriate and if there is serious partnership on the other side."

These statements are not even news. Does he not know that the Peace process for Israel and the Palestinians has been going on for years and that it was on a pretty good track until the Terrorist organization Hamas seized control of Gaza in a violent overthrow of the Palenstinian Authority. Hamas is not a "serious partnership on the other side" to use Obama's own words.

It is just amazing that this guy is talking for the United States and he does not even know what he is talking about.

I really wanted to believe he was up for the task as president but between what he has done about changing the automobile mileage standards from implementation in 2020 to 2011 in the midst of a recession and now what he is saying about the middle east, I am not sure if he is.

Labels: middle east, Obama

I read this on Yahoo News today and it looks like things are going down about like I expected. This is the type of "Feel Good" proclamations that the Democratic party is famous for. They have a big press conference and announce that they are closing Gitmo and not going to allow torture but behind the scenes things are really not much different.

Why the Gitmo policies may not change

Here are a few of the delays, caveats and loopholes that could limit the impact of Obama’s orders:

1. Everyone has to follow the Army Field Manual—for now…

Obama’s executive order on interrogations says all agencies of the government have to follow the Army Field Manual when interrogating detainees, meaning the CIA can no longer used so-called enhanced interrogation techniques, which have included waterboarding, the use of dogs in questioning, and stripping prisoners.

However, the order also created an interagency commission which will have six months to examine whether to create “additional or different guidance” for non-military agencies such as the CIA.

2. Obama ordered a 30-day review of Guantanamo conditions—by the man currently responsible for Guantanamo.

Waxman pointed out that adhering to the Geneva Condition is “already the law,” and deemed that section of the order “bizarre.”

3. Obama vowed no torture on his watch, but force-feeding and solitary confinement apparently continue at Guantanamo for now.

It’s possible that the 30-day referral to Gates is simply an effort to buy the Obama team time to deal with two Guantanamo practices that some consider torture, or at least inhumane: force feeding and isolation of prisoners. According to detainee lawyers, about two dozen inmates who refuse to eat as a form of protest are currently being force fed, and about 140 are in some form of solitary confinement.

The Bush administration has argued that the feeding is humane and that the solitary, at least as practiced now, is not the kind of total isolation that amounts to torture. “There’s an important distinction to be made between isolation and separation” from other prisoners,” Waxman said.

As far as we know, the force feeding and solitary practices continued onto Obama’s watch.

4. The vast majority of detainees in American custody may see no benefit from Obama’s orders

While Obama ordered a case-by-case review of the 245 prisoners held at Guantanamo, the 600 prisoners held in indefinite American custody in Afghanistan and roughly 20,000 in Iraq won’t get such attention.

5. The orders downplay the possibility that some prisoners might be set free in America.

Obama ordered that when Guantanamo closes, any remaining inmates “be returned to their home country, released, transferred to a third country, or transferred to another United States detention facility in a manner consistent with law and the national security and foreign policy interests of the United States.” But Obama’s wordsmiths seem to have deliberately trimmed out any explicit mention of the explosive possibility of freeing prisoners on American soil.

6. Military commissions are shut down…. for now

One of the attention grabbing provisions of Obama’s orders calls for military tribunals at Guantanamo to be “halted.” But the Obama administration is not ruling out returning to some sort of military forum to deal with some of the prisoners.

And this one. Just release them and everything will be fine. If we are just nice to the world the world will be nice to us. Sure they will.

Report: Ex-Gitmo detainee joins al-Qaida in Yemen

CAIRO, Egypt – A Saudi man released from Guantanamo after spending nearly six years inside the U.S. prison camp is now the No. 2 of Yemen's al-Qaida branch, according to a purported Internet statement from the terror network.

Labels: Gitmo, Obama, politics, torture