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...And on the downside
Feb. 3rd, 2009 08:17 pmWhen I first learned about the following, I wanted to post it but couldn't get up the motivation. But I've got no excuse tonight: plenty of free time, and my new "Resolutionator" program is telling me it's time for my weekly post. So here goes:
President Obama still won't restore the Fourth Amendment. He filed a statement agreeing with Bush on the supposed need to prevent a court case on warrantless wiretapping from even going forward. His attorney general, Eric Holder, issued a statement in support of the retroactive immunity granted last summer to telecom companies who assisted with Bush's illegal wiretapping programs. Then-Senator Obama opposed that provision of the FISA extension bill, but voted for it anyway with the provision intact. A vocal group of activists who supported Obama despite that lapse are trying to get him to change his mind, but aside from the liquefied-coal issue (and even this was phrased as a "clarification" of his position), we've seen no other indication that Obama is more willing to admit when he was wrong than any other politician.
To add injury to insult, tonight I learned that intelligence officials think that under Obama's new policies, we'll be sending even more terrorism suspects to various countries where they may be tortured, just to "get them off the streets."
In other horrible (but in this case at least slightly amusing) news: GM and Chrysler, two of the automakers who recently begged for and received tens of billions from the federal government, just don't seem to understand their end of the bargain. They're continuing to fight new California laws that might incentivize the goal they claim to have embraced: building greener, more efficient vehicles--which, incidentally, might just bring them enough new customers to keep them afloat, especially when (not if) gas prices start soaring again.
President Obama still won't restore the Fourth Amendment. He filed a statement agreeing with Bush on the supposed need to prevent a court case on warrantless wiretapping from even going forward. His attorney general, Eric Holder, issued a statement in support of the retroactive immunity granted last summer to telecom companies who assisted with Bush's illegal wiretapping programs. Then-Senator Obama opposed that provision of the FISA extension bill, but voted for it anyway with the provision intact. A vocal group of activists who supported Obama despite that lapse are trying to get him to change his mind, but aside from the liquefied-coal issue (and even this was phrased as a "clarification" of his position), we've seen no other indication that Obama is more willing to admit when he was wrong than any other politician.
To add injury to insult, tonight I learned that intelligence officials think that under Obama's new policies, we'll be sending even more terrorism suspects to various countries where they may be tortured, just to "get them off the streets."
In other horrible (but in this case at least slightly amusing) news: GM and Chrysler, two of the automakers who recently begged for and received tens of billions from the federal government, just don't seem to understand their end of the bargain. They're continuing to fight new California laws that might incentivize the goal they claim to have embraced: building greener, more efficient vehicles--which, incidentally, might just bring them enough new customers to keep them afloat, especially when (not if) gas prices start soaring again.
