General chat on Obama transition

[PhoenixIreland]

In the spirit of this thread:

http://www.politics.ie/us-presidenti...-election.html

There were some things I wanted to mention that don't warrent a thread by themselves.

First we'll start with some humor, except the man in question was apparently serious.
A Georgia congressman is worried Obama is going to set up a marxist dictatorship because he talked about "a civilian force doing some national security tasks", turns out Obama meant a force modeled on the army engineering corps for reconstruction tasks, not a paramilitary force, but his quotes are funny anyway:

"I'm just trying to bring attention to the fact that we may _ may not, I hope not _ but we may have a problem with that type of philosophy of radical socialism or Marxism."

"That's exactly what Hitler did in Nazi Germany and it's exactly what the Soviet Union did," Broun said. "When he's proposing to have a national security force that's answering to him, that is as strong as the U.S. military, he's showing me signs of being Marxist."

I told you McCain-Palins insane rethoric would sir up paranoia that would last into his presidency.

Secondly, he seems to want to keep many of Bush's more controversial intelifence techniques like certan types of survalance.

Thirdly, he's going to move fast to close Gunantanmo Bay and have the inmates brought to trial, but will need a new court to do that considering all the calssified material that would have to be entered as evidence, he won't be using the military commissions (they're nothing more than drumhead trials) in fact he voted against the act that created them.

Fouth, he's leaning towards keeping Gates in his job as secretary of defence until he can find a permanent replacement.

Fifth, he's planning a new Bin Laden hunt

Sixth the (misleadingly named) secret service codenames, which are not secret they're just to ease communication, are out:

Barack: Renegade
Michelle: Renaissance
Malia: Radiance
Sasha: Rosebud

Biden: Celtic
Jill: Capri


Seven, a Penagon advisory board has, surprisingly, told the new President he has to cut the defence budget that it's not sustainable and clogged with waste, such as old weapons systems that are totally useless

Eight, his first approval rating is out, it's 68% (people who approve of the decisions he's made so far)

Nine, after his meeting with Bush yesterday he had some sort of secret meeting with somone, nobody knows who, at a fire station on the airport tarmac

Ten. and finally his transition team is revieiwing 100s of Bush executive orders with a view to rescinding them in his first few days, including the ban on aid agencies the US funds from discussion abortion, stem cell research bans etc

[Big Bobo]

Right I have no idea what that's all about.

Anyway I'm delighted people are calling Obama a marxist. Of course it isn't true but at least it's got people wondering what marxism actually is. Surely if the Republicans despise it it can't be that bad!


Also the uncritical support given to Obama by the majority of the irish media is incredible. The Sunday Tribune even used the word revolution and others talked about the real end of slavery. The fact is Obama comes from one of the two corporate parties that can possibly get a president elected. To even get the nomination of the democratic or republican parties you have to be a sell out and loyal servant of the corporations. I feel sorry for all the black people who think he's actually going to increase their standards of living. Poverty will still remain rampant in the US with most trying to struggle by working 2 or even 3 minimum wage jobs.

[PhoenixIreland]

Right I have no idea what that's all about.

Anyway I'm delighted people are calling Obama a marxist. Of course it isn't true but at least it's got people wondering what marxism actually is. Surely if the Republicans despise it it can't be that bad!


Also the uncritical support given to Obama by the majority of the irish media is incredible. The Sunday Tribune even used the word revolution and others talked about the real end of slavery. The fact is Obama comes from one of the two corporate parties that can possibly get a president elected. To even get the nomination of the democratic or republican parties you have to be a sell out and loyal servant of the corporations. I feel sorry for all the black people who think he's actually going to increase their standards of living. Poverty will still remain rampant in the US with most trying to struggle by working 2 or even 3 minimum wage jobs.

You should just cut and paste the same reply to every thread, because in general, the post never varies, unless you can cite something from his transition so far to prove this stuff, stop spamming the thread.

[Big Bobo]

You should just cut and paste the same reply to every thread, because in general, the post never varies, unless you can cite something from his transition so far to prove this stuff, stop spamming the thread.

So you've been suckered into the Obama "revolution" too then?

[Munion]

Anyway I'm delighted people are calling Obama a marxist. Of course it isn't true but at least it's got people wondering what marxism actually is. Surely if the Republicans despise it it can't be that bad!

It's meant as an insult, you could replace Marxist with twat and you'd have fulfilled the same objective.

[H.R. Haldeman]

I think we might need a General POTUS thread in January too. Bagsie starting that!

On your points PI:


1. Nuts. But as I keep saying, the GOP will root out the Bush/Palin faction and get some Cameronesque type in who talks like normal people and is a Euro style centre-rightist. It is their only hope. This Bobby Jindal guy won't be the one I don't think, despite all the buzz about him, although an Afro-American running against an Asian-American in '12 would be pretty hilarious.


2. The Dems never had a problem with the surveillance programmes per se, it was the way it was done and the circumvention of existing laws.


3. Good for him, but what a Godawful mess Gitmo is. And eternal, eternal shame on Bush for simply letting the clock run down on it so he could just hand the mess over to someone else. If I were BO, I'd try to offer the Gitmo prisoners the sweetest deal I could - give them a tonne of money and residency in the US and get down on your knees and beg them not to dirty-bomb the US to oblivion. These guys entered Gitmo as low-level nothings, but may leave it embittered semi-martyrs. I'd hate the idea of them heading back to Pakistan or Afghanistan with a bellyful of hate and high credibility.


4. Gates would be a great call and I think he'll do it too. The perfect fig leaf, cause when the pull-out happens, Gates can say (and it will be the truth) that it was always going to happen sometime in 2009/10/11 anyway. The pull out plans are already a fait accompli as far as I can see.


5. lol


6. My God they must be the cutest kids ever. If Santa came to a politician and was asked for the perfect family, he'd get those children and that wife. A handsome, handsome family.


7. A known known I guess.


8. This is why he'd do well to duck out of view now for 2 months...the last thing he wants is accountability with no power. That's disaster for a politician.


9. This was about the aliens in Area 51.


10. The broo-haha about overturning Exec Orders is bizarre. So, a new President changes policies!! Shock horror! Such nonsense, especially considering no Prez signed as many EOs as GWB. EOs basically sum up his Presidency....selfish and solitary.

[Big Bobo]

It's meant as an insult, you could replace Marxist with twat and you'd have fulfilled the same objective.

Of course it's meant as an insult. But when the neo-cons feel threatened enough to "insult" you then you must be doing something right!

[East Coast Elitist]

Ten. and finally his transition team is revieiwing 100s of Bush executive orders with a view to rescinding them in his first few days, including the ban on aid agencies the US funds from discussion abortion, stem cell research bans etc

This would be a great way to start the new administration, as it was the first order Bush signed in 2001. However, I hope Obama is careful not to overuse the executive order process and let Congress deal with as much of Bush's messes as possible. I know executive orders are cleaner and quicker, but a major concern of the new administration has to be restoring the constitutional framework of the government that the Bush administration destroyed.

Here's the presidential transition website:

Change.gov

[Bruce Grimshaw]

My guess is that Obama will produce a fancy document called something like, "The problems we face," which will basically portray an extremely negative take of the state of the Union before he takes over. Thus there will be a clear 'things can only get better' theme, which rightly or wrongly will give the Obama administration the ability to blame everything, even their own mistakes on what went before

[PhoenixIreland]

Thanks ECE I meant to mention the website and forgot, he seems to actually be serious about the open govt thing and using the net as a new way to communicate.

Theres also a story "50 things to know about the new president", it seems he's a weird hybrid, and I don't mean just racially, seems to have a cool guy/nerd mishmash going on, check out some stuff from the list:

Barack Obama: The 50 facts you might not know - Telegraph