I Still Hope He Succeeds.

The General in charge of Afghanistan was pulled, before his tour is over, and replaced with a General from Special Ops. Signaling a change in direction in that "arena" though the US drone bombings and civilian deaths in Afghanistan and Pakistan are more of the same. War as an answer (even part of the answer) is more of the same. Military commissions at Guantanamo Bay, even though they are not your failure's military commissions, sound a heckuva lot like more of the same, as well. The President's reticence in overturning "don't ask, don't tell" has been disheartening to say the least, though there is talk that a new "LGBT" policy is "imminent". I am still holding out hope on Obama's policies on torture. Stopping the practice, and disallowing testimony from torture in trial (or military commission) are both changes, but the hesitation in prosecuting? My hope is he's holding out for the big fish. The "following orders" defense the CIA got away with, unlike the abu ghraib soldiers, is offensive. Non-prosecution of lawyers who twisted Our Law to rationalize using methods we executed japanese soldiers for is unacceptable. Speaker of the House Pelosi recently stirred up a hornets nest saying Federal spies mislead Congress, something officials on both sides have said. What if her "cover her own aft" defense was really bait to get republicants to use the word "investigation". I am a hopeful man. On war, Obama has never been a pacifist. He was against the war in Iraq before it started, like the millions of us who marched against it. But he was "not anti-war, just anti dumb wars". To some of us, all war is dumb, but alas, Congressman Kucinich did not win.

On most other policy fronts foreign and domestic, President Obama has changed the direction of the past 8+ years. His recently announced program for increased gas mileage (CAFE standards) and reduced emissions from US autos is a long awaited revelation. Some argue that the Obama administration is still for big business, because they're trying to save the banking industry by flooding it with Our capital, but his budget definitely tips Our coffers away from the top 1% to the majority of the remaining 99%. Banks are pretty integral to Our economy too, as is the auto industry. The regulation rhetoric is certainly a welcome change from the "ownership society". A "Guantanamo Bay Detainee", charged with the '98 embessey bombings, is actually facing trial in an American Court. Could this be a return to the rule of law in America? Congress's not funding the closing of the detention center, one can only hope, is to stall so the President and the Justice Department can continue to figure out what to do with the detainees. Mr. President, Our "super max" maximum security prisons (and I'm not proud of this) can hold anyone and anything. They are a lot stronger and more secure than the chain link fence that's holding Our suspects in Castro's Cuba.

So, yeah President Obama is doing things I don't agree with. He hasn't changed everything. The flag still has the same unlucky number of stripes. The White House is still painted white. It doesn't help that the majority of the current toothless (another word comes to mind) Congress is still bought and paid for by coal, pharmaceutical, insurance, and "energy" companies, to name a few. It's hard to say and to hear, with unemployment still increasing (albeit at a slower rate), but I do believe We are proceeding in a better direction than We have been in recent times, at least as it pertains to the President of the United States. Did you see him at Notre Dame? Or speaking about National Security and Guantanamo?

The administration's drug czar talking about doing away with "the War on Drugs", the unprecedented amount of press conferences, the new and improved foreign diplomacy (Now with Respect!), the de"sloganizing" of politics, the organic garden in the back yard, getting Us out of dick, bush and rummy's religious war in Iraq. These are changes in direction. The Obama administration has done a lot in their first four months. Not to keep comparing them, but it wasn't until after the tragedy that took place eight months into their watch that failure 43 and boss dick really got anything done. The issues and policies where the President and I differ are by no means insignificant, but in the "big picture"? Barack Obama continues to have my support. I still Hope He Succeeds.

I think one of the biggest mistakes that is made in Washington is this notion you have to dumb things down for the public.
-President Barack Obama

More on the man who lied, and continues to lie and use fear to convince the world he cares. The man who pushed (through waterboarding) for an al qaeda-iraq link, who "simply stated" there was "NO DOUBT" about Iraq's WMDs, who said years ago that Iraqi insurgents were "in their last throes", who gave a company, that was still paying his severance, plenty of no bid contracts. The only former executive brancher, I can remember, to come out full blast against a new executive mere months after being wheeled out of the Inauguration versus The President of the United States on National Security, torture, and how the United States should treat its prisoners of war later.

Is dick speaking out to pre-emptively mount his defense?

P.S. Good Police work FBI on the Bronx synagogue bombing plot. No torture necessary.