Saturday, January 24, 2009

Obama’s First 100 Hours: A Clean Break From Bush. At 4 pm ET today, it will mark exactly 100 hours since Barack Obama became the 44th President of the United States. The first week on the job has been a very busy one for the new White House, as the Obama administration has worked quickly to repair the damage done under the last eight years of President Bush. As President Obama indicated in his inauguration speech, he is seeking to chart a new way forward in domestic and foreign policy. Obama has made a clean break from the Bush legacy in his early going, undertaking a number of actions that the former President would never have considered. ThinkProgress has compiled a report documenting Obama’s record so far: REGULATIONS The Bush Record: In his final months, the Bush administration issued a series of “midnight regulations” that gutted safeguards protecting health, safety, the environment, and the public’s general welfare. Obama’s Clean Break: Hours after his inauguration, Obama ordered a freeze on new regulations at all government agencies and departments and the withdrawal of all final or proposed regulations not yet published in the Federal Register. IRAQ The Bush Record: After using false intelligence to launch the war, Bush “surged” 30,000 troops to Iraq in 2007 and vetoed all attempts to end the war. Obama’s Clean Break: Two days into his presidency, Obama called on U.S. military leaders to start to plan for a responsible withdrawal. DIPLOMACY The Bush Record: In his first term, Bush — in contrast to President Bill Clinton — “generally avoided robust efforts” to resolve the Middle East conflict. Bush demeaned diplomacy with “terrorists and radicals,” likening it to the “appeasement” of Nazi Germany. Obama’s Clean Break: Secretary of State Hillary Clinton rejected the “rigid ideology” of Bush and pledged to exercise “smart power.” Stressing diplomacy, Obama and Clinton “appointed high-level emissaries to handle the Arab-Israeli issue and Pakistan and Afghanistan.” TORTURE The Bush Record: Torture began with the drafting of a secret legal memo holding that Bush could authorize interrogators to violate anti-torture laws. Bush’s senior-most officials approved torture that, in some cases, lead to death. Obama’s Clean Break: Obama signed executive orders ending the CIA’s secret prisons and ending torture by requiring interrogations to abide by the Army Field Manual. More »« Less [Think Progress] 12:56:31 PM    comment []

House Stimulus Bill (FULL TEXT) The 647-page House stimulus package scored the coveted designation of H.R. 1, which the Speaker reserves for her highest legislative or symbolic priority. The bill is a combination of legislation that moved this week through the Ways and Means, Energy and Commerce and Appropriations Committees. It is scheduled to be introduced Monday. Below is a copy, first obtained by the Huffington Post (we've uploaded the pdf <a href="http://big.assets.huffingtonpost.com/HR1.pdf";>here) and since posted on the House Rules Committee <a href="http://www.rules.house.gov/";>website. Please take a look through the bill and <a href="mailto:submissions+stimulus@huffingtonpost.com";>let us know if you find anything noteworthy or surprising. Specifically, search for anything a little out of the ordinary, such as the section on page 14 that makes sure no money goes directly to Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich. That provision was introduced earlier as an amendment and it has made it into the final bill. Or read through the oversight sections and the authority (and money) given to Government Accountability Office. Is it real oversight or are there wide loopholes? John Maynard Keynes famously said that burying bottles of cash under ground would be a suitable -- if not ideal -- way of reducing unemployment. One person's bottle-burying earmark is another's job-creation project. "If the Treasury were to fill old bottles with banknotes, bury them at suitable depths in disused coalmines which are then filled up to the surface with town rubbish, and leave it to private enterprise on well-tried principles of laissez faire to dig the notes up again . . . there need be no more unemployment," Keynes wrote in his work The General Theory. "It would indeed be more sensible to build houses and the like; but if there are political and practical difficulties in the way of this, the above would be better than nothing." Is this stimulus burying bottles of cash? Or building houses and the like? Again, send your thoughts and finds to <a href="mailto:submissions+stimulus@huffingtonpost.com";>submissions+stimulus@huffingtonpost.com. Click on the magnifying glass or full screen buttons to see a larger version <object id="_ds_3779438" name="_ds_3779438" width="550" height="450" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" data="http://viewer.docstoc.com/";> <a href="http://www.docstoc.com/docs/3779438/HR-1-House-Stimulus-Package";>H.R. 1: House Stimulus Package - <a href="http://www.docstoc.com/";>Free Legal Forms PS: Don't have time to read all 647 pages? Shame, shame. Still, this bill is mostly a combination of bills moved through three major committees. Summaries of each section can be found <a href="http://big.assets.huffingtonpost.com/appropssummary.pdf";>here, <a href="http://big.assets.huffingtonpost.com/ECSummary.pdf";>here and <a href="http://waysandmeans.house.gov/MoreInfo.asp?section=50";>here. Read more: Stimulus Bill Congress, Economic Stimulus, Stimulus Bill, Stimulus Spending, Obama Stimulus Plan, House Stimulus Bill, Stimulus Plan Text, Stimulus Text, Stimulus Draft, Pdf of Stimulus, Politics News - The Huffington Post News Team [Huffpolitics on The Huffington Post] 12:55:48 PM    comment []

How the Press, the Pentagon, and Even Human Rights Groups Sold Us an Army Field Manual that (Still) Sanctions Torture. With the Army Field Manual likely to become the new standard for interrogation, the truth behind it is more crucial than ever. [AlterNet.org] 12:50:13 PM    comment []

Tackling the Big Issues. From Gitmo to Midnight Regulations, and everything in between, President Obama has a busy first week in office. Plus: everyone's trying to write a book, but not everyone deserves to be an author...why tanning beds won't cure SAD...Hummers aren't just bad for the environment, they're bad for your driving record...and find out why "paper or plastic" might not be a question at your local grocery store. It's Friday, January 23rd, and MicCheck's going to go hug trees. [Mic Check] 12:45:14 PM    comment []

© Copyright 2009 Patricia Thurston. Last update: 2/6/09; 7:21:46 PM.