96 Days of Obama Open Thread
As we approach April 26, the historic 96th day of Obama's presidency, we here at Troubletown want to hear from you. How's he doing? What were his brilliant moves, what were his bozo moments? How's he holding up? Is he living up to your expectations?
All the other news agencies and blogs will be covering the first 100 days, but we're always one step ahead of the pack. So please confine your comments to things that happened in Obama's first 96 days.
Everyone who leaves a comment will be entered in a drawing to win an original Obama sketch from the shaky pen of Lloyd Dangle!
posted by Lloyd Dangle at
6:39 AM
17 Comments:
What is it with your obsession with 96 days? Something about numbers divisible by 2 or what?
Everyone knows that a President's agenda and legacy are defined by the first 93 days. 93, Dangle.
He smiles too much.
Wise guy, eh? Not to be disrespectful, but yesterday's AP photo of Obama, Berlusconi, and Medvedev looked like the three stooges.
http://news.yahoo.com/nphotos/G-20-Summit-Russian-President-Dmitry-Medvedev-G20-summit/ss/events/bs/032809g20summit/im:/090402/photos_bs_afp/762775560ce24ac175a14078cdbbbedc/
Unlike some, I admire his masterful use of TelePrompTers.
It's kind of hard to make fun of Barack Obama. Let's face it, the guy is cool. You're just not gonna see him stumbling around like Gerald Ford. He doesn't have a ski-jump nose like Nixon, and he isn't really evil,like Cheney/Bush. I suppose you could recycle a bunch of Bill Clinton jokes, like Letterman does.
Since Lloyd's from Michigan (you didn't know? I tell everybody, everybody, esp. college students), he of all people has the right to base a comic on the lyrics to the song "96 Tears". Put a pair of sunglasses on Barack so he looks like ?, sorta. And Geitner's certainly a Mysterian, isn't he? "Too many bailouts, for one bank, to be hiding..." etc. You gonna cry, cry cry cry now.
His job is comparable to the twelve labors of Hercules.
He has to succeed.
Nothing's scarier than a completely broke, demoralized nation with the most powerful weapons stash in the world.
As soon as he fired all his financial advisors, he'll be fine.
Expensive learning curve, though.
An ongoing highlight is that Obama’s head actually seems connected to his heart. This is invaluable.
Another is his having the nerve to hold a town meeting at Strasbourg and actually come off well. W. would've been diced into sauerkraut in the fine Alsatian tradition. How nice for Americans to be able to travel to Old Europe again without having to be quite so mortified and apologetic the whole damn time.
Only low points were the presidential oath flubbaballoo (not his fault!) and the Special Olympics crack. He might have known it’s never okay for politicians to make fun of retarded people. I want him to be funny, just not that kind of funny.
He’s maybe a *tiny* bit less electrifying than hoped, but still adore him.
So far...
I disapproved of every choice and declaration made by George W. Bush with a mere five exceptions (that I know of). He was wrong ALL the time.
Obama has tossed out about 90% of what Bush fucked up. That leaves 10% of Bush's decisions, so far, INTACT. And I cannot condone leaving that many wrong decisions intact. Glenn Greenwald is helpful.
Obama is deserving of having his feet held to the fire. He is continuing to hide the Bush torture memos and bomb civilians in Pakistan. His economic solutions are anything but.
However, he kicks McCain/Palin's asses all over D.C., and there are not many persons I would wish in his office rather than him. As FDR said, let's MAKE him do the right thing.
--Daddy-O
I think he's doing pretty good. But my standards have been lowered to almost nothing.
Is that supposed to be a Jew next to that monkey on your ad for "Offendo"? I'm putting you on the ADL's "Will Call" list, pal.
MTK here, to state that Jason Rosencrantz's piece called "Continuities" at his blog ... is pretty good on this question - he describes clearly that ...
"So far, there are at least 6 legal cases in which Obama's Department of Justice has embraced Bush's positions on civil liberties and executive power:
1. I have already posted on Mohamed v. Jeppesen Dataplan, where Obama's DOJ sought to use the "state secrets privilege" to block (alleged) victims of rendition and torture from suing the transport company used by the CIA.
2. The Obama DOJ again invoked the state secrets privilege in the case of Al-Haramain v. Obama, this time in order to block a judicial ruling on Bush's illegal surveillance program.
After this argument was rejected by the court Obama appealed again - this time embracing Cheney / Addington theories of executive power and asserting that no court can challenge the President's decision to withhold classified documents.
Here is Glenn Greenwald's exegesis:
In the context in which Obama is now invoking this theory, think about what it means: if, as happened here, the President breaks the law, then he can just label the relevant evidence "classified" and refuse to turn it over to a court which is attempting to rule on the legality of the President's actions. Once the President decrees that a court is barred from reviewing the relevant evidence because the President claims it is "classified," that's the end of that.
In both of the above cases, Obama adopted the Bush innovation of using the state secrets privilege to throw out entire lawsuits, rather than just sensitive pieces of evidence.
3. In the case of Al-Marri v. Spagone, Obama's DOJ successfully blocked a Supreme Court ruling on the legality of Bush's practice of detaining U.S. residents as "enemy combatants" indefinitely without charges or trial.
They blocked the ruling by finally bringing criminal charges against Al-Marri, and then convincing the Supreme Court that the questions regarding the legality of his 6 year detention were thereby rendered moot.
On the positive side, Al-Marri is finally getting his day in court. Here is a video update from Al-Marri's lawyer.
4. On top of all of this, last month Obama sided with Bush in asserting that "enemy combatants" held at Bagram Airfield in Afghanistan have no rights to challenge their detention in U.S. courts.
This means that Obama's promise to close Guantanamo becomes almost irrlelevant, since detainees can now just be taken to Bagram for indefinite, extralegal detention. About 600 prisoners are now held at Bagram, and it is about to undergo a $60 million expansion. Bagram threatens to become Obama's Guantanamo.
5. Then there is the email case, where Obama's DOJ is siding with the fomer administration in "trying to kill a lawsuit that seeks to recover what could be millions of missing White House e-mails."
6. And finally the DNA case, where Obama's DOJ "turned down a request... to disavow a Bush Administration stance on prisoner's access to DNA evidence in postconviction proceedings."
yahoobie ... new boss same as the old boss in some ways, hunh? and none of this would we have ever even remotely considered before those planes hit those towers.
A great moment; when he slapped down that ridiculous reporter with "It took a couple of days because I like to know what I am talking about before I speak."
Game over, media punks!
He's getting the cosmetic stuff done, but the for the real meat-and-potatoes work - prosecuting torturers and returning the U.S. to the rule of law, preventing Wall St from looting the Treasury, preventing complete economic collapse - he's received a solid "F". He's been a good, solid, moderate Republican, just as I suspected he would be.
Of course, my wingnut former high school friends on FB are complaining about all the the "ums" and "uhs" during his pressers: "It's SO annoying!" I don't even know where to go with that.
He got a dog. That's not easy.
Same old bus... just a different driver. I must admit it IS nice to have an eloquent, gracious and literate guy behind the wheel compared to the last bumbling, stuttering moron, but still... where he's driving us, we've got no choice.
We have a winner! It's Donald who said that Obama's job is comparable to the twelve labors of Hercules. I don't have any more than that to go on, so Donald, if you're out there send me your address. You're the winner of the 96 Days of Obama Sketch!
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