Obama's First Day!

From all indications even after being out at various inaugural balls until after 1 a.m., newly sworn in President Obama was hard at work on his first day in office.


During that day he established January 20,2009 as a National Day of Renewal and Reconcilliation.

NOW, THEREFORE, I, BARACK OBAMA, President of the United States of America, by the authority vested in me by the Constitution and laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim January 20, 2009, a National Day of Renewal and Reconciliation, and call upon all of our citizens to serve one another and the common purpose of remaking this Nation for our new century.

Obama also signed an executive order establishing strict ethics regarding all Administration personnel, banning them from lobbying after leaving their posts, accepting gifts, and freezing the pay of those making over $100,000 (including himself)

Talk about "Taking One for the Team".
Following the cease-fire instituted by Isreal in Gaza just prior to his inaugural, President Obama phoned the leaders of Israel, Jordan and the Palestinian authority to begin the peace process. He also selected Senator George Mitchell - who helped end the conflict in Northern Ireland with the Belfast Accords - as a special envoy to the middle-east.

Anyone who can solve the problems in Northern Ireland and get the IRA to disarm, can provide a great deal of help for Gaza.

Obama also signed an Executive Order to expedite the processing of Presidential Records and FOIA requests, like those that ACLU has used to under hundreds of cases of Torture. This of course, has already sent the Right-Wing into a Panic. Particularly Rush Limbaugh who has already declared "I hope Obama fails".

LIMBAUGH: What I’m afraid of is that what Obama did with this executive order is actually make it easier for the media to go get Bush documents. Because you know Pelosi and some of the guys over in congress are talking about war crimes trials and charges and so forth. […]

What I’m afraid of is what Obama’s done here is made the gathering of the information for this kind of stuff– This is not American. This is not America. This is not what America does. We don’t– This is Banana Republic kind of stuff.

Not so much for the "renewing" is he?

Elsewhere under the "not exactly Reconciled" column the nitwits on Fox News doubted that Obama actually is the President because Chief Justice John Roberts misread the oath of Office during the Inauguration.



Chris Wallace is the Fox brain donor who actually asked President Clinton why he didn't do anything about the U.S.S. Cole bombing? (Answer: Because the CIA and FBI couldn't agree on who did it! You wouldn't want an American President to use half-baked information and go attack the wrong people would ya, Chris? That would've Sucked!!! I'm so glad that didn't happen, whew..)

Ok, let's go over the 20th Amendment again - shall we?

The terms of the President and Vice President shall end at noon on the 20th day of January, and the terms of Senators and Representatives at noon on the 3d day of January, of the years in which such terms would have ended if this article had not been ratified; and the terms of their successors shall then begin.

You get that Chris?

After a one day delay caused by Sen John Cornyn of Texas, Hillary Clinton was confirmed by the Senate, sworn in as Secretary of State and is now on the job.



Senator Cornyn also managed to stall the confirmation of Attorney General Eric Holder in an effort to get Holder to commit to NOT prosecuting former Bush Officials for War Crimes.

“It could well be there will be a request to delay the markup for a week so those questions can be asked and answered,” Cornyn said. “Part of my concern relates to his statements at the hearing with regard to torture and what his intentions are toward our intelligence personnel who were operating in good faith based on their understanding of what the law was.”

Well, Senator if I remember the Nuremberg Trials correctly "I was just following orders" really wasn't an adequate defense. No one is required to carry out an illegal or immoral order. On Bush's watch more than 40 detainees died in custody as a result of abuse during interrogation.

NEW YORK - The American Civil Liberties Union today made public an analysis of new and previously released autopsy and death reports of detainees held in U.S. facilities in Iraq and Afghanistan, many of whom died while being interrogated. The documents show that detainees were hooded, gagged, strangled, beaten with blunt objects, subjected to sleep deprivation and to hot and cold environmental conditions.

""There is no question that U.S. interrogations have resulted in deaths"" said Anthony D. Romero, Executive Director of the ACLU. ""High-ranking officials who knew about the torture and sat on their hands and those who created and endorsed these policies must be held accountable. America must stop putting its head in the sand and deal with the torture scandal that has rocked our military.""

That's 40 War Crimes, all punishable by DEATH, resulting from techniques specifically authorized by George W. Bush and Donald Rumsfeld.

Meanwhile Senator Carl Levin feels that Holder should appoint a Special Prosecutor to look into these issues.

LEVIN: We’re going to try to complete this investigation, at least on the DoD side, Ok. But on the intelligence, the CIA side, that’s going to be up to the Intelligence Committe. I know I suggested to Eric Holder, who will be the next Attorney General despite the delay that took place today, that he select some people or hire an outside person whose got real credibility, perhaps a retired federal judge, to take all the available information, and there’s reams of it.

Former U.S. Attorney David Iglesias (who had been mysteriously fired by the Bush Administration for reason no one could explain even under oath) has been chosen to handle Gitmo Prosecutions.



Obama Orders the closure of the Guantanamo Bay Detention Facility, he also signed an order requiring all interrogations to follow the Army Field manual (which prohibits torture), setup an task force to determine the dispensation of current detainees.



Yet another bold step away from the long national nightmare that was the Bush era.

Meanwhile in Texas, the still unemployed former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales shed a tear, while his fellow Bushian former FEMA director Joe llbaugh lamented on how the former President - was just so misunderstood.



Yeah, I guess we all just don't understand how we lost $2.5 Trillion Dollars, 5 Million Jobs and 10,000 American Lives (from 9-11, Katrina and Iraq) on George Bush's watch. We should all really be thankfull...

Now that he's GONE!

Vyan