Dear Sir:
Congratulations on becoming the 44th President of the USA. That you made it this far is a testament to your preparedness and hard work. Thank you for that. The historical relevance of this day is almost too much to take. My neighbors are joyful for they now have a President that looks like them. I take pride in helping bring that reality to them by working and voting for you in the primary and the general election.
The one thing I would like to ask for you to try and accomplish is that if you could see your way clear to over turn all the “presidential signings” that have been put into place by your predecessor we would all be much relieved. I believe that would go a long way in restoring the US’s rightful place in the world.
Like I said, it is only one thing but for me it is a mighty big thing.
Good luck and best wishes Mr. President!
Horsedooty!
The BackChannel Blog 
Morning peeps! Amen doots, if Obama accomplished nothing else in his first 100 days that would enough!
New White House site slams Bush
Under the “agenda” portion of the site regarding Katrina, it reads: “President Obama will keep the broken promises made by President Bush to rebuild New Orleans and the Gulf Coast. He and Vice President Biden will take steps to ensure that the federal government will never again allow such catastrophic failures in emergency planning and response to occur.”
“President Obama swiftly responded to Hurricane Katrina,” the statement on the site continues. “Citing the Bush Administration’s ‘unconscionable ineptitude’ in responding to Hurricane Katrina, then-Senator Obama introduced legislation requiring disaster planners to take into account the specific needs of low-income hurricane victims.”
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0109/17700.html
That’d be a helluva good start Doots.
In First Family, a Nation’s Many Faces
Very good horsedooty! Each day the letters keep getting better.
Nicely said, Doots. That is a tall order for the first one hundred days but let’s hope he can accomplish it.
Interesting NYT link Brian. Multi-culturalism is in these days.
I heard that no one was arrested during the inauguration. Imagine that. Two million people and not one arrest.
Of course, I wouldn’t have minded if they arrested Cheney 😉
It sure is dnd, even my family has a couple of asian imports, of course when one of them married an evangelical christian it raised quite a few eye brows!
Doots,
I am glad you brought the signing up in your letter. So many times those “presidential signings”, get over shadowed by the more mainstream issues that people understand first hand and talk about regularly.
I don’t even know how many of these presidential signings Bush did, but I know they stepped all over the constitution and seemed, at least to me, to be an abuse of power.
not one arrest…wow…that is very impressive.
Here is the complete list of Bush’s signing statements.
http://www.coherentbabble.com/signingstatements/TOCindex.htm
did everyone enjoy that singing of “He’s Got The Whole World In His Hands” like I did? Those kids can really sing.
If we can expect more singing like that in the next 4 years, for me, it almost makes electing President Obama even more worthwhile.
Doots,
I’d like to see Obama make Willie Nelson America’s Poet Laureate. Who’s with me?
Peggy Noonan on the inauguration:
http://www.peggynoonan.com/
count me in dnd
count me in too!
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/01/21/inaugural-crowd-repudiate_n_159653.html
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/01/21/inaugural-crowd-repudiate_n_159653.html
Not sure whether to laugh or cry at that video. It’s hard to believe we have such ignorant lunatics running around our streets. On the other hand, the crowd reaction was excellent. It is good to see people stand up and challenge the bigots.
Yep!
“God Hates Obama.” That Westboro bunch should read the New Testament. The Christian God is a one of love. And if God hates Obama, why did he allow him to be elected to the most powerful nation on earth? They’re gonna be in for a big surprise when they meet their maker.
Wow. Obama tells senior staffers: pay freeze, ethics code, openness with the press, and no gifts from lobbyists. He’s not wasting any time with the change thing.
Very impressive indeed dnd!
Morning everyone and good morning Doots!!!
Thats what I want too!
Now that was one scary video……Westburo Baptist needs to have something like a huge lightening bolt come down and flatton the chursh in fire…..lol
…..Hear me Lord?
Nanny,
Thanks for that list of “presidential signing statements”. There are so many more then I ever expected.
http://www.geoeye.com/CorpSite/gallery/image-viewer.aspx?m=l&iid=220&gid=1
UB, Have you started reading them yet? It’s the proof positive that Bush had no respect for Congress or the law.
McCain pushed for earlier voting for SoS. I guess it’s suppose to happen at 4:30pm EST. Welcome back to the John McCain we once knew. Keep it up.
awright Doots! Excellent point re the presidential signings.
Under new management!
Larry McMurtry interview, from Houston Chronicle (which had NO banner web headlines about former prez GWB, and only one tiny tangentially-Bush related story, proving we are in a new era):
Q: What will you talk about at Rice [University]?
A: The end of the culture of the book. I’m pessimistic. Mainly it’s the flow of people into my bookshop in Archer City. They’re almost always people over 40.
I don’t see kids, and I don’t see kids reading. I think little kids love to have stories read to them, but when they get to 10 or 11 or 12, they run into this tsunami of technology: iPod, iPhone, Blackberries.
They don’t resist it, and it’s normal that they wouldn’t; it’s their culture. I’m not so sure they ever come back to reading. Some will, but most won’t.
Q: Does that portend disaster for our culture?
A: It portends difficulty. I don’t know about disaster.
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/hotstories/6221607.html
hillary confirmed
Great. Put her on a plane to the Middle East to knock heads.
HD and Nanny. Thanks for today’s post. While I want BHO’s lawyers to go through the multitude of bill signings to weed out non-compliance and anti-constitutional precedents, it will be interesting to see if BHO will also use the bill signings to say what he will or won’t do re: the legislation. The constitution spells out how a president who dislikes all or some minor part should use the veto and not this new signing concept. I believe Bush’s lawyers told him that he didn’t have to veto anything, just use a signing commentary. Bush had only two vetoes in his eight years in the WH. We’ll see if BHO uses the Bush precedent to enhance executive powers. Let’s hope not!
It was tragedy today that Holder’s nomination will be held up for at least one week over his role in presidential pardons under Clinton. His role was very minor as a deputy AG and was mostly pro forma.
I’m much more concerned about the Gaithner’s nomination. If a Secretary of the Treasury can’t keep track of his own financial doings, how can we expect him to keep track of the entire Treasury department. Then, of course, there is “nanny-gate” and other “minor” infractions that held up and caused those nominations to be rescinded. BHO should be looking around for another nominee, including Robert Reich or the Republican Sheila Bair of the FDIC, an intelligent and finance savy person who has a reputation of wanting to help people caught in the mortgage meltdowns. She even wrote a paper two years or so ago warning of this impending disaster, which, of course, was ignored.
What’s the status on the Sec of the Interior? Attorney General?
Caroline Kennedy has withdrawn from consideration for the vacant Senate seat in New York, according to a person told of her decision.
Hillary was sworn in as SOS,
The administration also planned to name former Senate Democratic leader George J. Mitchell as Clinton’s special envoy for the Middle East. Dennis Ross, a longtime U.S. negotiator, was also expected to advise Clinton on Mideast policy, according to officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly about the move.
She was sworn in as the nation’s 67th secretary of state in her office in the Russell Senate Office Building. Attending the private ceremony was her husband, former President Bill Clinton, and her Senate staff. According to her office, she used the Bible that belonged to her late father. To assume the position, she submitted her resignation as senator in twin letters to Vice President Joe Biden, as president of the Senate, and New York Gov. David Paterson.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/01/21/hillary-clinton-confirmed_n_159812.html
http://www.state.gov/
I hope that’s not true nanny, too bad if it is.
It’s on MSNBC now. But she hasn’t confirmed it. I, also, hope it isn’t correct. It would be wonderful to have her as our senator.
yep yep
AP reporting Obama retook the oath.
US abortion debate altered by Obama presidency
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/A/ABORTION_NEW_LANDSCAPE?SITE=AZPHG&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT
Progress Cited in ‘No Kill’ Goal for Animals
http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/01/21/progress-cited-in-no-kill-goal-for-animals/
Maybe Obama will issue an executive order reversing one of GWB’s first executive orders banning US funding to foreign NGO giving advice to young women on the alternatives to an unwanted pregnancy. I hope so.
I’m pretty sure that’s in the works already eprof, from something I read yesterday but don’t recall the source.
In the morning, before having coffee at the White House, soon-to-be first lady Michelle Obama handed Laura Bush a present. Inside, was a leather-bound journal inscribed with a quote from western fiction writer Louis L’Amour: “There will come a time when you believe everything is finished. Yet that will be the beginning.” Also in the gift box was a pen engraved with Tuesday’s date, for Mrs. Bush to begin her memoirs, according to Mrs. Obama’s spokeswoman Katie McCormick Lelyveld.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132×8121250
Well, Keith’s #3 last night blew my mind. I wonder if he’s going to get hushed.
In an exclusive interview tonight on Countdown a former NSA analyst Russell Tice says that the agency under the Bush administration secretly collected communications data on civilians, including journalists.
So far, only on Media Bistro….
http://www.mediabistro.com/fishbowlDC/television/nsa_spied_on_journalists_106514.asp
I hope someone listens to this guy. Morning Joe Isn’t. They’re still on whether torture is waterboarding and Joe EXPLODED this morning……
Oh and Good morning. I can’t sleep……sigh
TIme to buy a handheld fan ;0)
TICE: Well, there’s sort of two avenues to look at this. What I just mentioned was sort of the low-tech dragnet look at this. The things that I specifically were involved with were more on the high-tech side. And try to envision, you know, the dragnets are out there, collecting all the fish and then ferreting out what they may. And my technical angle was to try to harpoon fish from an airplane kind of thing. So it’s two separate worlds.
But in the world that I was in, as to not harpoon the wrong people in some — in one of the operations that I was in, we looked at organizations just supposedly so that we would not target them. So that we knew where they were, so as not to have a problem with them.
Now, what I was finding out, though, is that the collection on those organizations was 24/7, and you know, 365 days a year, and it made no sense. And that’s — I started to investigate that. That’s about the time when they came after me, to fire me. But an organization that was collected on were U.S. news organizations and reporters and journalists
Well….there’s so much to take in, I think a video of Segment #3 should be and probably will be put up today sometime.
The way inwhich the material on this was buried and or hidden from Congress by the Agencies…..
LOL I cannot believe that this was being hidden from Congress and in front of their “LEGAL” eagles.
No wonder Congress looked so stupid to us. They legally could not do anything because they had no facts legally……
SO Bottom line for me? lol all the time on Crawfordslist (NOT TM) that Anon-p, myself and others would write stuff like
“I know they watching and I don’t care, arrest me”. If we made a “Tag Word or Tag Line”, it was being picked up and we WERE being watched.
Because as Tice stated, They were SWEEPING the net through our information systems and anylists were sifting…
Ok….finished now…..or not
Sorry…Don’t care about Caroline right now. I care about this revelation.
Here is is finally….. #3
http://rochesterpopulist.wordpress.com/2009/01/22/keith-olbermann-and-russell-tice-on-bush-spying-on-journalists/
Morning Sheila. I agree wholeheartedly with you on this. It’s astounding news. The big question for me is, “What are we going to do about it?”
Morning nanny. Just listening to it again.
I believe that Olbermann has started it. I think its actually going to take someone of his calibur to help us right now.
Most Americans are thinking about their finanacial welfare and that of the country’s.
Olberman is going to have to start the drum beat.
I’m glad I wasn’t the only one reshocked last night. As I lay in my bed this morning sleepless, Olbermann was on again.
I just could not go back to sleep after listening to this again.
I mean, if someone Evil actually took over in the future, really horrible things could happen.
NO MATURE what the Robot Right says, there are no safe guards for US going on right now. NO habius corpus, no protection against our right to privacy.
I mean I don’t mind amendments during WAR. I DO MIND taking all of it away and then letting some AGENCY run rampent over it.
{{Breathing Hard}} Going back to reading a newspaper. lol
Hopefully others will pick up the story and run with it. But how the hell did we get to this? Where were the so-called investigative journalists? Where was Congress? Where the fuck was the oversight???? Why haven’t we heard this before? Like you, I have believed we were being spied on for a long time now. I remember a friend sending me an email with what were believed to be phrases that would set off the alarms for the spy devices, phrases like burning bush, dead bush, fertilizer, poison, etc. Most were gardening terms and phrases. The idea was to use these words and phrases in all our emails in order to overwhelm NSA filters. For awhile, all my emails had some mention of burning bushes and ant poison. Don’t know if it did anything or not, but it convinced my hubby that I was about to earn a one way ticket to GITMO.
Ok….looks like the world of media is waking up and the Olbermann exclusive is spreading. NOT to the major news outlets…..
lol I did the same thing and then cyber-like yelled at them to arrest me. lol
What this means is, at some time we have been highlighted and there is a file on us probably.
They are watching us. I’m used to it, being connected to the military for so long.
They monitored my everyword and any given moments and I actually knew when they were tapping my phone conversations. I and others also knew when the mics would go up as we were leaving our command and monitor out conversations coming out of the command.
BUT this is different. We are not a part of some sensitive operation
Washington State’s Jobless rate has just jumped to 7.1…….1 more full point and we have hit post 9/11 rates. Harsh for the region.
Bush must be held to account for his illegal actions. IMO, what he has done is worse than anything Nixon ever did.
The housekeeper here who has not been in touch with what is going on? She said yesterday that she felt bad for how Bush was treated leaving the other day.
She said, “He tried to keep us safe”. Thats all she could come up with and I wasn’t into trying to make her see the truth. Because she just hadn’t paid attention.
She is a large chunk of this country
“Joe EXPLODED” Really? That would have been worth watching. 😉
Unfortunately, a large chunk of this country is too ignorant to know what has been happening under George Bush,.Such people piss me off. But the ones that scare me are the ones who know and either don’t care or actually approve of what Bush has done.
yes it would have been. I must have missed that segment. DAMN!
dnd….It was totally Pompus and completely FAR ROBOT RIGHT. No one could get a word in for the whole segment. It was over the top 😉
…and of course, it was about waterboarding and how Obama will let it go and then we will be unsafe…..
sigh…..
“He tried to keep us safe”
I think that’s probably true. Problem is that he didn’t try very hard. His bumbling incompetence resulted in a shredded Constitution.
Someone like Joe Scarborough can’t quite understand that we can keep ourselves safe without shredding our long held beliefs.
Scarborough deals in gossip, innuendo and phony “facts” to support his ideology. Decent guests, when they can get a word in edgewise.
The Press Corp is really MAD that they didn’t get to cover the Oath being redone.
This is the first “Trip” of the administration. They didn’t even send for my old group, White House TV to film.
This is just Gibb’s misunderstanding, but its a case of “History” not being covered. The White House could have fed to the press…. lol oh well, crawl before you walk and walk before you run. 🙂
YES DND, I heard some obvious lies coming out of his mouth in order to sway his arguement!!!
His guest for the discussion maybe got three words.
It’s called situational ethics. Right and wrong for people like JS and Bush are determined by expedience not by morality or even legality. That’s why they can so easily trash the Constitution whenever they feel they need to for some “higher cause” such as keeping us safe.
As you may have noticed, I have the following on all my emails:
Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.”-BENJAMIN FRANKLIN
Liberty can not be preserved without general knowledge among people.”
(August 1765) John Adams
Both of those quotes seem to fit well with what we are discussing today.
And you quote two of my favorite founding fathers. The other one is of course, Jefferson. I’d have layed at Jefferson’s feet lol 😉
I wonder if retaking the oath was a mistake. It implies the first one didn’t take. That means that even though he was the President, every thing he did until last night didn’t count, according to Article II, Section 1, last paragraph.
Obama’s a Constitutional scholar and Roberts has probably read it a time or two, so unless they decided the first one didn’t take, why do it?
I heard that the Press Room said, they were watchful of the BS the Right Wingers were saying about Obama not being legit.
So they decided to be careful with this bunch rather than ignore them. They are obviously tired of the Birth Certificate.
I loved when Zbig told Scarborough he was “Stunningly superficial,” which he is.
Apparently a lot of other people do, judging by the number of posts of that segment on youtube. In case you missed it:
I’d love it if more guests called him on his b.s.
It’s a mistake to ever try to placate the radical right wing crazies because it is an impossible task. No matter what you do or how much you give them, it is never enough. They will neither accept what you give nor cease their endless demands for more.
I meant to add:
So, it is best to simply ignore them.
Believe me when I say, this is a Robert Gibbs gaff. He’s going to pay today…… poor dear. 😆
On facebook right now, lol Half of the Press Corp is eating this up.
Obama may be transparent, but the “New Crew” is not used to the Press Corps “Ps & Q’s.
They will be up to speed because of this gaff. Nothing like trial by fire
Shelia,
Wordpress ate my last two posts (one was basically a repost).
Could you release one and toss the other? Thanks.
Morning all. Heading back to Virginia today (I think) and back to MSNBC access.
Good for Keith O.
Think we are going to see a LOT of astounding (to those who slept through the Bush-Cheney admin) news come out over the next year.
Done dnd!
And dnd, I agree! I mean….he loses his temper like a spoiled child, if you don’t concur. Thats no way to conduct an interview or discussion
So pleased for Clinton!!!
I am enjoying her cheerleading this morning.
Top of the day peeps. Smart of the prez and vp to make a visit to foggy bottom later today.
NEW THREAD