In his first week as the 44th president of the United States, Barack Obama has so far failed to disappoint, making several important executive orders. Here's some of the highlights:Obama Seeks Halt to Legal Proceedings at Guantanamo
President Obama freezes WH staff salaries
Obama signs the orders closing Guantanamo prison
Obama Reaffirms FP Campaign Pledges
Obama Overturns Bush Records Secrecy Order
By far a very eventful week! Hopefully the rest of his first hundred days are as constructive in fixing the mistakes of the last regime. My favorite act by far, and also the most unexpected, I think is the over-turning of the secrecy order. No one but the president himself should ever have the authority to claim executive privilege. On top of all that he also re-took the oath of office to shut up people like the ever douchey Chris Wallace. Stay classy fox!
7 comments:
how did you find out about all of these things separately and I watch the news ever day and haven't heard any of this.
I am pleased to see some actions being made to overturn old washington but I am dissapointed that since he won the election has not even pretended to have a gauge of when we are getting out of Iraq. No general date, nothing. Now that doesnt bother me as long as we do get out of Iraq at some point soon, but if we just keep fighting this war for the next 4 years while Obama makes up excuses as to why we cant pull out than Obama will just turn into another Clinton, and Ill have to say I told ya so.
As for freezing the WH staff salaries, doesnt that sound a little socialist to you? hehe
I dont watch the news on tv, I read crooksandliars.com every day though and get emails from various progressive groups like the aclu.
I assume when you watch the news you're watching one particular channel and though they might cover some they're not gonna cover all of whats going on. thats my guess as to why you havent heard. well that and most news sources are owned by douchebags who are more interested in entertaining people for ratings than actual reporting. my fav example of this is cnn with their "hologram" reporting: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=thOxW19vsTg
so unnecessary! and not even a real hologram because wolf blitzer can't see her in 3d in the studio.
I will be seriously surprised if it takes more than a year for us to leave iraq. i bet he'll announce his plans in the coming weeks and at the latest in the first 100 days. what i would actually be worried about is not so much iraq as afganistan and pakistan. especially since there was a missile strike in pakistan near the afgan border this past evening: http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/asiapcf/01/23/pakistan.missile/
You're worried about socialism and you're talking about salaries! Forget salaries aren't you concerned that pretty soon in this new socialist state we're all gonna have to wear the same red hat and sweater vest every day? I heard they're gonna start making them in China soon and ship them out in the first 100 days.
are the red hats and vests fashionable?
Well at first they look kinda tacky but after a couple months of being broken in in the forced labor camps they look ok. hehe
I guess I could be down that, especially if the girls are forced to wear cute matching skirts. Plus Id like to be one of the "in crowd" that gets the extra rations.
Thanks for the post. Funny enough, this stuff wasn't news for myself. I think I fall in the same category as Ron in that I get a lot of news from the net. But I also hear many of these stories on the radio, specifically, NPR.
I find it fascinating that you pointed out the salary freeze. I was very excited by that.
Here's why, government aids get paid by tax dollars. People are buying less and earning less. Because of that, less money is going back to the government in the form of taxes. If what does make it back doesn't get put into the many programs and jobs that the government already funds then they will have to make even more cut backs.
Already, this last December, many people in wall street (not that I feel sorry for them) didn't get bonuses. Due to the economic climate, many looked down on anyone taking a bonus. Those bonuses are kind of part the their salary. Granted, they should be a bonus and not a necessity, but I'm sure many of those that work in wall street factor it in as part of their finances.
I'm not sure what the news on TV is saying, but a lot of the news that I read keeps talking about layoffs, closures, people loosing homes...
And yet many government workers aren't feeling it as much. There's a huge amount of job security and many benefits to being a government worker.
Should they get paid less? Maybe. Should they suffer or be blamed for everything going on? Nope. But they should be held accountable for their part in wrecking the economy. And to be clear I'm referring to those in Washington because plenty of people paid by the government are feeling the crunch.
But back to tax dollars. To me, people should be able to get by on 100K. Should that be permanent? Hell no. But at a time when we need as much money as possible funneling back into the system I don't think people in Washington should be paid more.
Yeah, it comes off a little socialist. I'm not sure if that's necessarily bad or good. But I do know it makes sense. It also give me the comfort of knowing that Washington is aware of just how crazy things are getting.
On a personal note. I've had to sit through MANY uncomfortable meetings now. I'm also hearing about them everywhere. There was a story on the radio of a woman who had to fire part of her staff AS Obama was being inaugurated. I think it quite fair that people making over 100K in washington get to experience that deep sinking feeling during an uncomfortable meeting. I know I'm not alone. I don't think it should be that uncomfortable either. Which is why I felt that the freeze on salaries over 100K was a solid move in these economic times.
And if I have to wear a red hat and coat. I'm going to make damn sure I wear blue underwear! With a smiley face right in the center....
And I over heard that Obama was having his administration draw plans to leave Iraq by 2010.
Allow me to eat some words. Looks like wallstreet did issue bonuses...around 18 billion worth!
I really hope these big wall street executives are held accountable in the future.
I don't think that would detract from the point above. Perhaps Washington needs to feel the wrath of this economic backlash before wall street starts complying.
Well..anyways, I do remember hearing reports on how people were looking down upon bonuses, guess it just wasn't a lot. Well, to really see if there was an impact I would need to look up how much was spent in bonuses on the previous year...
So there you go...I eat my words =) Mmmmm, humble pie...
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