Obama to Close Gitmo

From CNN.com

Obama to order Guantanamo Bay prison closed
By Ed Henry
CNN Senior White House Correspondent

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- President-elect Barack Obama plans to order the closing of the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay as early as his first week in office to show a break from the Bush administration's approach to the war on terror, according to two officials close to the transition.

One of the officials said it would be in keeping with Obama's campaign promise to shut down the prison through executive order, a move which was also pushed by last year's Republican presidential nominee, Sen. John McCain, R-Arizona.

"The president-elect has repeatedly said the legal framework at Gitmo has failed to successfully and swiftly prosecute terrorists," said one of the officials close to the transition, who was not authorized to speak publicly about private deliberations.

Such a move would reassure those concerned after Obama's recent public comments suggested he may not immediately shut the prison down.

"It is more difficult than I think a lot of people realize and we are going to get it done, but part of the challenge that you have is that you have a bunch of folks that have been detained, many of whom who may be very dangerous who have not been put on trial or have not gone through some adjudication," Obama said on ABC's "This Week" on Sunday when asked whether he would close the prison in his first 100 days.

Obama also said he was trying to develop a process that "adheres to rule of law" but "doesn't result in releasing people who are intent on blowing us up."

"I think it's going to take some time and our legal teams are working in consultation with our national security apparatus as we speak, to help design exactly what we need to do," Obama said.

"But I don't want to be ambiguous about this. We are going to close Guantanamo and we are going to make sure that the procedures we set up are ones that abide by our Constitution," he said.

Rest of article at link above.

Good.

What happened there made me be ashamed to be an American. I had always believed, on some level, we were BETTER than what happend at Gitmo.

President-Elect Obama's Speech: American Recovery and Reinvestment

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Media Alert: The Obamas

The President-Elect and the Future First Lady have done an interview with CNN's Suzanne Malveaux. It will air tonight and Sunday at 8 p.m. EST

President-Elect Obama's Holiday Youtube Address

President-Elect Obama's Weekly Youtube Address

President-Elect Obama's Weekly Youtube Address

Color me skeptical on this man. Considering that Bloomberg is gentrifying everything, and throwing out working class and middle class people from New York so that they can't afford to live there, I'm skeptical on this choice.

The President-Elect's Weekly Youtube Address

Uncle Clarence Strikes Again

The Sambo on the Supreme Court never fails to disappoint

....in a highly unusual move, U.S Associate Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas has asked his colleagues of the court to consider a lawsuit filed, that questions Barack Obama's citizenship.

David Souter rejected the petition but now the court has scheduled a December 5th conference just before thw Electoral College meeting slated for Dec 15th.

This in reference to the nuts challenging Obama's position as President-elect, because they don't believe he's a 'natural born citizen'.

Here's a post over at Jack and Jill Politics on the subject.


Uncle Clarence never fails to show his self-hating self.

Media Alert

On Newsstands December 12th, Alternating Covers of the Obamas:


On Newsstands December 9th:

(I like this cover far more than the Essence cover. It looks almost timeless…historical. Ebony, whatever your criticism of the inside of the magazine, has consistently presented the Black community looking its best)

President-Elect Obama's Pre-Thanksgiving Visit to St. Columbanus Catholic School

On Chicago's South Side:

President-Elect Obama's Thanksgiving Address

President-Elect Obama's Weekly Youtube Address

President-Elect Obama Raised Half a BILLION Dollars Online

So says this story in the Washington Post.

The Clickocracy
Obama Raised Half a Billion Online
By Jose Antonio Vargas

Barack Obama raised half a billion dollars online in his 21-month campaign for the White House, dramatically ushering in a new digital era in presidential fundraising.

In an exclusive interview with The Post, members of the vaunted Triple O, Obama's online operation, broke down the numbers: 3 million donors made a total of 6.5 million donations online adding up to more than $500 million. Of those 6.5 million donations, 6 million were in increments of $100 or less. The average online donation was $80, and the average Obama donor gave more than once.

"You looked at the money being raised online in the same way that you looked at the crowds who came to the rallies," Joe Rospars, the 27-year-old director of Obama's new-media department, told The Post. "You were constantly surprised at the number of people who were coming out to see him," and, when it came to online donations, "people exceeded our expectations as to what they were willing to do."

Obama also raised millions from traditional campaign bundlers -- rich, well-connected fundraisers -- but the bulk of the more than $600 million that Obama raised throughout the campaign was through the Internet, aides said. (Some of those bundlers, of course, also arranged for donations to be made online, so there is some overlap.)

In September, his single biggest month of fundraising, Obama amassed more than 65 percent of his record-shattering haul -- $100 million of the $150 million -- from online donations, aides said. After Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin dismissed the value of community organizing in her acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention on Sept. 3 -- "I guess a small-town mayor is sort of like a community organizer, except that you have actual responsibilities," she said to applause -- Obama raised $10 million within 24 hours.

Read the rest of the article at the link above. The article also contains information about how the Obama campaign used social networking in the campaign. How the revolutionary phonebanking program helped the campaign. I have said for awhile that the Obama Campaign would be one to be studied for years to come, and this article just makes one stand back and go: DAYUM.

Not bad for a ' Community Organizer'.

LOL

President-Elect Obama Discusses Economy in First Weekly Video Address

President-Elect Barack Obama Resigns from the U.S. Senate

Effective Sunday.


Via Press Release:

"It has been one of the highest honors and privileges of my life to have served the people of Illinois in the United States Senate. In a state that represents the crossroads of a nation, I have met so many men and women who’ve taken different journeys, but hold common hopes for their children’s future. It is these Illinois families and their stories that will stay with me as I leave the United States Senate and begin the hard task of fulfilling the simple hopes and common dreams of all Americans as our nation’s next President," said President-elect Barack Obama.

Obama to Create White House Office of Urban Policy

From ABC.com

Obama to Create White House Office of Urban Policy
November 12, 2008 8:59 AM

On National Public Radio's "All Things Considered" yesterday, longtime Obama family friend and Obama-Biden Transition Team co-chair Valerie Jarrett said that the President-elect would, as pledged during the campaign, create an Office of Urban Policy.

Jarrett said the office would "have a comprehensive approach to our urban development," who will be an "advocate for cities" within the White House, taking "all the variety of different federal programs and help target them in a logical and systematic way."

"For those of us who have worked in city governments across the country, we recognize how invaluable that person will be," she says.

Obama discussed this idea in June in a speech before the U.S. Conference of Mayors in Miami.

"Yes we need to fight poverty," he said. "Yes, we need to fight crime. Yes, we need to strengthen our cities. But we also need to stop seeing our cities as the problem and start seeing them as the solution. Because strong cities are the building blocks of strong regions, and strong regions are essential for a strong America. That is the new metropolitan reality and we need a new strategy that reflects it – a strategy that’s about South Florida as much as Miami; that’s about Mesa and Scottsdale as much as Phoenix; that’s about Stamford and Northern New Jersey as much as New York City. As President, I’ll work with you to develop this kind of strategy and I’ll appoint the first White House Director of Urban Policy to help make it a reality."

The thing is, he gets this from living in a city, working in a city, and not hating people who live in cities. He also won't be locked into doing things that have been tried and failed before. He actually cares about those ' Anti-American' parts of the country.

Do you believe we'd be hearing about ' Urban Policy' from a McCain Administration? Hell no.

Who you elect does determine what is simply discussed as issues for the country.

The Obamas Come To The White House

Unexpected Moments

From the comments:

Myth


I think the full impact and significance of Barack's ascension to power will hit African Americans at different points and at different times. It was early on for me when I could first realize the possiblity and all that our people have gone through. I think there will be other times though, maybe as Donna Brazile says when he walks down those steps to take the oath or maybe one day on a news clip when his standing in a tuxedo for a state dinner with dignitaries. There will be many times that chills will go through our bodies at the site of something we never thought we would see and for many the emotion will overcome us and for others it'll just be muming under our breaths the words "unbelievable'. But the next four years will be good for the souls of black folk. And for those of us truly committed to going the distance with Barack in the good and bad times, we'll make our way to the 'tv to support him as we will this afternoon for the press conference. Unless he really does something to disappoint, he will have the unfaltering loyalty of African Americans throughout this whole ride. This is a once in a lifetime chance for most of us to take this journey. Now it will be nice if others come after this trail he blazed, but I do believe we will follow him as though its our one and only shot. He will be appreciative.

I've been thinking about some of 'those moments'.

My list so far:
1.Michelle holding the Bible on January 20, 2009.
2. The first time Michelle enters the White House as First Lady (no, we won't be able to see that)
3. When they meet the fully assembled White House staff (no, we won't be able to see that)
4. The first time he boards AIR FORCE ONE
5. The first State Dinner (I'll be glued to C-Span. I hope Leticia Baldridge is still alive and is the usual C-Span guest)
6. State of the Union, 2009. I'm going to be chilled twice:

MADAM SPEAKER, THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES
(to be honest, I'm still not used to ' Madam Speaker'. So, the combo of that and 'The President of the United States' - damn)

7. Black History Month at The White House, February 2009
8. President Obama and Mrs. Obama at Buckingham Palace
9. President Obama and Mrs. Obama on an official overseas trip to Africa
10. President Obama's first G8 Summit
11. The HGTV Special, Christmas at the White House

Anyone want to share what they think will be their ' unexpected moments'?