First 30 days

Obama's First 30 days. You decide his grade.1. Close GITMO within one year. PROBLEM: Obama made this executive order giving into politics instead of using smart policy. Obama ordered the prison closed, but failed to produce a plan as to where the enemy combatants kept at GITMO will be sent, what kind of trials they will face, what they will be defined as (enemy combatants, POWs, People from distant lands that tried to kill soldiers but now get the rights of a US citizen), and what we are going to do with future detainees. However, Obama did leave a loophole, indicating that he would keep part of GITMO open for the "worst of the worst". I think Bush called them the "worst of the worst" once, except he wasn't THEIR President, so everyone was up in arms over it.2. Pass the largest transfer of power to the Government from the Private sector in a 780 Billion Dollar "stimulus" bill. PROBLEM: The bill contains over 65% NEW GOVERNMENT SPENDING, and less than 35% "Tax cuts". Not to mention that for individuals making less than 75,000 per year, the "tax cut" will be a $13.00 per paycheck credit, not really a tax cut. Also, his "tax cuts" are not for 95% of Americans, as he claimed during his candidacy. The bill contains pork projects galore, and a Democratic Wish List, but nothing to really stimulate the economy. The CONGRESSIONAL BUDGET OFFICE, indicated that the stimulus bill may meet short time job goals in the first year, but will fail to meet goals after that point, and will actually decrease the Gross Domestic Product, one of the primary indicators in a recession, more than if we would have done NOTHING! Smart move, I don't think so. In addition to all of this, the PROMISE that Obama made to let the public view any emergency or high level bill for five days prior to voting NEVER HAPPENED. In fact, the 1,073 page bill was not even read by 95% in congress and the senate, and was not even viewable in the final version until after it was passed. By the way, Obama said we were in dire straights, and had to vote on the bill RIGHT AWAY. Then, after it passed Congress on Friday, he decided to take a long weekend back in Chicago, only to take up the bill on Tuesday at a photo op in Denver, CO. Nice one. And finally, Obama's own cabinet comes out and states that they cannot say if it will really create any jobs or not. Well played3. Stop the military tribunal for Abu al-Nashiri, the mastermind behind the USS COLE bombing that killed 17 American sailors off the coast of Yemen. After Obama ordered the suspension, Military Judge James Pohl refused the President's order, until another judge, prodded by Obama indicated that the charges would be dropped without prejudice. That's what we should do, let them all go, too bad over 60 of the released detainees have already been killed or captured once again fighting American troops for the second time.4. Obama promises to take on Pakistan during the campaign, indicating that Pakistan was the primary problem around Afghanistan. Pakistan has now declared Sharia, or Islamic Law, in the North tribal regions, giving in to Taliban requests. What have we heard from President Obama on the matter....NOTHING5. TARP II and the SECOND STIMULUS PACKAGE have been brought up by Press Secretary Robert Gibbs, indicating that more money will have to be thrown into the Troubled Assets Relief Program, which failed once under the Bush Administration, and will fail again. And how much more money do we want to add to the newly added 1 Trillion dollars debt. Well, it turns out that with the continued stimulus spending, the total will be 3.3 Trillion dollars, after the 787 Billion dollars in interest is added on (because we are borrowing money that doesn't exist) in addition to the inflation that will occur due to the printing of more money. This could end up costing taxpayers 46,700 per household in taxes over ten years. That makes the 13.00 per two weeks look pretty small, don't you think?6. Cabinet Members....don't get me started. Obama proclaimed to be the transparency king, and wanted to get rid of the status quo. Then he started picking cabinet members-Tom Daschle, Health and Human Services, Failed to pay $130,00 in taxes-Timothy Geithner, Treasury Secretary (head of IRS), failed to pay $40,000 in taxes-Bill Richardson, Commerce Secretary, withdrew name after investigation into awarding state contracts through pay for play- Judd Gregg withdraws Commerce Secretary position, after indicating that Obama had no interest in reaching across the aisle, and Gregg had fundamental and sincere differences in fiscal responsibility than what was included in the Stimulus billLet's just keep all the normal problems in the cabinet, not paying federal taxes? Why not run the IRS?7. Obama put the "Buy American" clause in the new Stimulus bill. After the European Union threatened a trade war, Obama removed the clause.8. Bush had received downright hatred from the left for using Predator drones to attack high value targets in Pakistan and along the Afghanistan border. Obama criticized the use of the drones, and said that all they do is kill innocent women and children. Then in the first ten days, the Obama administration launches 30 strikes into Pakistan.9. First major FEMA response.....nowhere to be found. As Obama was posing for cameras, tauting his "bi-partisan" stimulus package, an ice-storm rocked the lower midwest, killing 42 people, and leaving over 1 million without electricity in tempatures from 5 to 20 degrees. Oklahoma to West Virginia was affected, and it was Five days before the first FEMA assistance was available. Even though Katrina was a debacle, the Gulf coast was actually declared a disaster area two days prior to the storm hitting. The ice storm swept the country Jan 30...the declaration by Obama was on Feb. 5th. Now Kanye, Does Obama hate white people??10. Big campaign promise to get votes, Obama promised to give $3,000 tax credits to businesses for every job they create, or worker they hire. Then that was thrown out the window with the new stimulus plan. But he did add in 500 to 1000 dollar tax credits for people in the United States illegally, who don't pay taxes in the first place. Well done.Enough bitchin' for tonight. I am tired.