The First Hundred Days of the Obama Administration

[Cadaverous Pallor]

Ok, the other threads are pretty jacked up with side conversations, so I figured I'd start a new one about what President Obama is actually doing.

Yesterday, he froze salaries for top staff members and directed information agencies to err on the side of transparency instead of secrecy. My favorite part was regarding ethics:

Obama's new lobbying rules will ban aides from trying to influence the administration when they leave his staff. Those already hired will be banned from working on matters they have previously lobbied on, or to approach agencies that they once targeted.

The rules also ban lobbyists from giving gifts of any size to any member of his administration. It wasn't immediately clear whether the ban would include the traditional "previous relationships" clause, allowing gifts from friends or associates with which an employee comes in with strong ties.

The new rules also stipulate that anyone who leaves his administration cannot try to influence former friends and colleagues for at least two years. Obama is requiring all staff to attend to an ethics briefing like one he said he attended last week.

Obama called the rules tighter "than under any other administration in history." They followed pledges during his campaign to be strict about the influence of lobbyists in his White House.

"The new rules on lobbying alone, no matter how tough, are not enough to fix a broken system in Washington," he said. "That's why I'm also setting rules that govern not just lobbyists but all those who have been selected to serve in my administration."

Today, Obama ordered the Gitmo and the secret CIA prisons to close. He set up a commission to figure out what to do with the prisoners as well as future prisoners of this kind. He ordered the military to stick to the book and not torture, and he's creating a Mideast envoy position so we can deal with that region better.

So far, so good.

[Andrew]

Tuesday: Obama halts all regulations pending review -- AP

WASHINGTON (AP) — One of President Barack Obama's first acts Tuesday was to put the brakes on all pending regulations that the Bush administration tried to push through in its waning days.
The order went out shortly after Obama was inaugurated president, in a memorandum signed by new White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel.
Former President George W. Bush's administration moved into overdrive in the last year or so on a host of new regulatory proposals. Now the Obama administration will review everything that is still pending.
In doing so, the Obama administration is taking a page out of Bush's playbook from 2001.

[Moonliner]

Originally Posted by Cadaverous Pallor

Today, Obama ordered the Gitmo and the secret CIA prisons to close. He set up a commission to figure out what to do with the prisoners as well as future prisoners of this kind. He ordered the military to stick to the book and not torture, and he's creating a Mideast envoy position so we can deal with that region better.

A good step. I'll be interested to see what ideas the commission comes up with for the prisoners. It's a bit of a sticky wicket.

[Ghoulish Delight]

I don't know. The whole closing Gitmo thing is such a bogus symbolic move. I mean, I agree with the impetus behind the symbolic move, and if closing it gets the ball rolling for fixing what actually needs to be fixed fine, but if closing it is just going to waste time and resources on a symbolic move instead of using our energy to creating proper prisoner procedures and oversight, it's a fail.

I'd rather see Gitmo open with humanely treated prisoners than see Gitmo closed with tortured prisoners elsewhere.

[Alex]

Those already hired will be banned from working on matters they have previously lobbied on, or to approach agencies that they once targeted.

This is a stupid rule, in my opinion. Like it or not, lobbyists are experts in an area. If you simply don't want former lobbyists say so. Though I don't agree with the general branding of lobbyists as a dirty thing.

Kind of like saying we're going to hire thoracic surgeons but they won't be allowed to hold scalpels.

And it is disingenuous. They'll hire people who are policy experts in an area but either have never been overtly active in pursuing policy or were merely the people who hired the lobbyists to do their bidding. The CEO of United Airlines could be named to run the FAA but the United Airlines lobbyist couldn't be hired to work on a commission on modernizing the air traffic control system? Stupid.

[Betty]

It seems very exciting to me. At no other time in my life can I remember ever thinking "yay" about a new president doing things in the first few days in office.

About not accepting gifts, it's amazing it's taken this long to get something like that done. I can't accept gifts in my line of work. I must turn everything over to the boss who then decides to keep it or give it back. It keeps me from giving preference to certain vendors over anything other then what it should be based on.

It seems like common sense that those making laws and governing shoudln't be playing favorites.

[Snowflake]

Originally Posted by Betty

It seems like common sense that those making laws and governing shoudln't be playing favorites.

This I think should also be a rule of thumb for our diplomatic corps. Like having an Ambassador in the Middle East who speaks Arabic and/or Farsi (etc.). Just having someone who speaks the language might do wonders for diplomacy, it's a sign of respect. In this day and climate, an Ambassadorship should not be a reward because you're a big donor etc.

[Cadaverous Pallor]

Originally Posted by Ghoulish Delight

I don't know. The whole closing Gitmo thing is such a bogus symbolic move. I mean, I agree with the impetus behind the symbolic move, and if closing it gets the ball rolling for fixing what actually needs to be fixed fine, but if closing it is just going to waste time and resources on a symbolic move instead of using our energy to creating proper prisoner procedures and oversight, it's a fail.

I'd rather see Gitmo open with humanely treated prisoners than see Gitmo closed with tortured prisoners elsewhere.

I think that Gitmo, like Abu Ghraib, has its own messed up culture that needed to be dismantled publicly. I do agree that it is in part symbolic, and that it makes more a good headline than a lasting step, but we need both symbols and action, and we're getting both. If they back down on the follow up, then I'd be pissed.

Originally Posted by Alex

This is a stupid rule, in my opinion. Like it or not, lobbyists are experts in an area. If you simply don't want former lobbyists say so. Though I don't agree with the general branding of lobbyists as a dirty thing.

I think lobbying is a dirty profession that needs to be outlawed, and I hope that one day we will look back in horror that such a concept ever existed. Gifts for elected officials - wrong, wrong, wrong.


I mentioned the Mideast envoy. There's another one being added for the Pakistan/Afghanistan situation.

[Alex]

Originally Posted by Cadaverous Pallor

I think lobbying is a dirty profession that needs to be outlawed, and I hope that one day we will look back in horror that such a concept ever existed.

I don't see why. It is inherent in the system unless you want to somehow separate government from contact with the people it governs.

You do realize that our Mideast envoy is just a lobbyist from our government trying to elicit specific responses from other governments. I'm looking upon it with horror that this concept exists.

[Not Afraid]

Obama allowed to keep BlackBerry


Barack Obama is an avid user of his BlackBerry

Barack Obama is to keep his BlackBerry, becoming the first US president to have access to e-mail in the White House.


























The first! WTF!?!?!