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And
so The “Change” Begins Finally,
we have change in Washington, D. C. Entering
into this year with the words of my father, “Obama is our new president,
and we need to give him a chance,” I am trying to do just that.
The problem for me, though, is that as much as I would like to
believe we are going to get something we can believe in with President
Obama, I know Senator Obama’s voting record.
So the question on the table is, will we see change we can believe
in, or will it be a replay of the Democratic victory of Congress in 2006?
That remains to be seen. Obama
began in a positive light by signing an executive order to close
Guantanamo Bay within a year. He also signed an Executive Order regarding guidelines for
hiring lobbyists for his administration.
Now, THAT is change we can believe in, for sure!
But what about his actions surrounding both of these highly
anticipated Executive Orders? While
Obama has rejected the Bush administration’s torture tactics, the
taxpayers are paying government lawyers to defend Torture Memo draftsman
John Woo. WE are also paying
to defend Donald Rumsfeld, John Ashcroft, and Paul Wolfowitz, among
others. While it is legal for
our government to defend its present and former employees, the federal law
governing that does not apply if said representation is in direct conflict
with the interests of the United States.
So…is torture in the interest of the United States or not?
Obama can legally reverse that Bush administration stance and save
the taxpayers having to defend them.
Will he consider it? Will
that become change we can believe in?
Ok,
those may argue, Guantanamo Bay is closing, so why continue on and on
about it? A recent study
found that inmates there WERE treated humanely…so, is waterboarding
torture or not? I know we
heard from Eric Holder that he believes it is.
So how can this Pentagon Report be accurate?
A Defense Department Review did the investigation, so was it an
unbiased review? Plus, what
will happen to the inmates still there?
There is a report of 17 inmates from China who have been there, for
seven years. It has been
found that their incarceration there is “grossly unfair,” yet the
United States says “it has no power to order their release.”
They cannot be sent back to China and the Untied States will not
let them immigrate to our country. What
will happen? And
what about the strict guidelines for hiring lobbyists?
President Obama stipulated certain rules for hiring former
lobbyists, including that they cannot have served as a lobbyist within two
years for rules of law that might come under their particular job
description. Yet within two
weeks of taking office, he has put several former lobbyists in his
Cabinet. Geithner appointed
Mark Patterson, former Goldman Sachs lobbyist, as Deputy Secretary of the
Treasury. Department of
Agriculture Secretary Thomas Vilsack was, as recently as a year ago, a
lobbyist for the National Teacher’s Association.
Deputy Defense Secretary William J Lynn III was, within the past
two years, a lobbyist for defense contractor Raytheon.
Deputy Director of Health and Human Services William Corr was,
within the past two years, an anti-tobacco lobbyist.
And there are more… Some
would argue that, out of the thousands of jobs needing to be filled, a
handful of lobbyists can’t hurt anything, but that is just giving leeway
to a rule that Obama, himself, specified.
Why make rules you cannot hope to keep?
In doing so, aren’t you inviting ridicule?
Is this the type of change we are looking for? Within
his first week, President Obama gave orders for a drone attack against
Palestine. Yes, he was after
al-Qaeda members, and the reports say the attack took out a handful.
The first article, however, said that out of fifteen killed, seven
were operatives, five were civilian adults and three were children.
That is eight killed as “collateral damage.”
Then came an article that reported twenty-two deaths.
Either way, the collateral damage for that video game-style attack
was astronomical. And, since
the strike was conducted from an “operations room” in the United
States, only the relatives were left to mourn the civilian casualties.
Why, with all the technology we have today, can we not prevent such
percentages of collateral damage? And…this
little aggression was started by the Bush administration…no change… Let’s
consider the nomination and subsequent approval of Timothy Geithner for
Secretary of Treasury. Now, I
do not miss Henry Paulson, but Geithner brought baggage.
The man that will oversee the Internal Revenue Service forgot to
pay taxes. He misunderstood
the law. If he can’t
understand it, how can we? Add
to that, the IMF gave him the money to pay the taxes…unlike the rest of
us who must find ways to come up with the money to pay ours.
AND, Geithner had a housekeeper that became an illegal immigrant
while in his employ. How many
business owners have Immigrations and Customs Enforcement raided and
harassed because they hired an illegal?
What kinds of fines have they had to pay?
What about Geithner…we know he supposedly paid fines for back
taxes, but what about having an illegal in his employ?
Did he pay any fines? Was
he harassed? As
for other appointments, Obama has had no less than four nominees withdraw
their names for appointments, two of which had tax issues and one of which
had ethics issues. These are
people Obama and advisors are trying to choose to hold offices that will
affect us all. As
far as ethics issues go, Senator Roland Burris comes to mind.
His appointment to fill Obama’s seat in the Senate was the
undoing of Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich.
If you remember, he was impeached and is standing trial for seeking
bribes, among other things…and Burris himself, is now under
investigation for charges of perjury. While this has little to do with Obama himself, it is that
atmosphere in which Obama has previously served. Blagojevich and Rahm Emanuel, Obama’s Chief of Staff, were
contemporaries, as Emanuel sent suggestions for Vicki Jarrett to replace
Obama in the Senate. And
what about the Stimulus plan, the new Bank Bailout plan, and the thought
that there will be a need for even more “stimulus?”
In the business world in which most of us reside, when a business
is mis-managed and cannot pay it’s bills, it is liquidated, not given
more and more money. Yet the
Bush administration passed, with the help of a Democratically-led
Congress, a $700 billion bailout plan for Wall Street and Business.
This didn’t represent the people.
The Bush administration bailed out banks, insurance giants and home
lenders, deeming them too big to fail, and taking controlling interests in
some. The Democratic
Congress, while complaining about the expenditures of the Bush bailout,
voted for them, and when Obama was elected President, went on to write
their own bloated spending legislation (lovingly called a “stimulus
plan”) to the tune of $787 billion, much of which is sheer nonsense.
Where is the change there? This is just the tip of
the spending iceberg for this Congress.
As Congress (remember, Democratically-led) complains about the lack
of “oversight” and details of Bush’s bailout, (which, remember,
Geithner helped draft) they had a hand in the lack of oversight.
Add to that, Geithner recently rolled out his estimated $1 trillion
plan for a new bailout, minus details…but, of course, Geithner is too
important, so maybe some believe that he knows what he is doing. Investor and Financial
commentator Jim Rogers has other thoughts.
He points out that Geithner was head of the Federal Reserve in New
York, the very “entity” that should have been supervising Wall Street,
and he missed it…the biggest financial crisis this country has seen in
decades.
Endnotes: Guantanamo detainees treated humanely, Pentagon report says http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/02/23/pentagon.gitmo/
New
Guantanamo Bay Challenge for President Obama
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NdAt1GcIs6E Obama's Prisoner Dilemma: Reject Torture, Defend Torturers http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2009/02/analysis-dilemm.html
'Obama trying to whitewash Gitmo disaster' http://www.presstv.ir/Detail.aspx?id=83623§ionid=3510203
Ex-Goldman
lobbyist now Geithner's right-hand man
Obama finds room for Lobbyists http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0109/18128.html
Obama Cabinet http://www.whitehouse.gov/administration/cabinet/#
Obama’s Pledge to Reform Ethics Faces an Early Test http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/03/us/politics/03lobby.html?_r=2&hp
President
Obama 'orders Pakistan drone attacks'
Obama airstrikes kill 22 in Pakistan Obama
Continues Drone Strikes in Pakistan, Civilian Deaths
Crisis may force Geithner's approval
Illinois Gov. Quinn Calls on Burris to Resign http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123515088979434483.html
Emanuel talked directly to gov: source
Jim Rogers - Bloomberg Interview (February 11, 2009) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dTQ4zVWt1wQ&feature=channel_page
Late Change in Course Hobbled Rollout of Geithner's Bank Plan LINK
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