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So while I am all for supporting and celebrating our new President I feel it is our responsibility to not let that grow into a blindness. We need to see the good and the bad. And while I have pointed out the good things Obama has done for our freedom so far I have to question this one:

(via Wired) The incoming Obama administration will vigorously defend congressional legislation immunizing U.S. telecommunication companies from lawsuits about their participation in the Bush administration’s domestic spy program.

“The duty of the Justice Department is to defend statutes that have been passed by Congress,” Holder told Sen. Orin Hatch (R-Utah), who asked whether the Obama administration would continue the legal fight to uphold the legislation that the Electronic Frontier Foundation is seeking to overturn.

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And then we have this one: The Obama administration fell in line with the Bush administration Thursday when it urged a federal judge to set aside a ruling in a closely watched spy case weighing whether a U.S. president may bypass Congress and establish a program of eavesdropping on Americans without warrants.

In a filing in San Francisco federal court, President Barack Obama adopted the same position as his predecessor. With just hours left in office, President George W. Bush late Monday asked U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker to stay enforcement of an important Jan. 5 ruling admitting key evidence into the case.

Thursday’s filing by the Obama administration marked the first time it officially lodged a court document in the lawsuit asking the courts to rule on the constitutionality of the Bush administration’s warrantless-eavesdropping program. The former president approved the wiretaps in the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks.

“The Government’s position remains that this case should be stayed,” the Obama administration wrote in a filing that for the first time made clear the new president was on board with the Bush administration’s reasoning in this case.

The government wants to appeal Walker’s decision to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco, a legal maneuver requiring Judge Walker’s approval. A hearing in Walker’s courtroom is set for Friday.

The legal brouhaha concerns Walker’s decision to admit as evidence a classified document allegedly showing that two American lawyers for a now-defunct Saudi charity were electronically eavesdropped on without warrants by the Bush administration in 2004.

The lawyers — Wendell Belew and Asim Ghafoo — sued the Bush administration after the U.S. Treasury Department accidentally released the Top Secret memo to them. At one point, the courts had ordered the document, which has never been made public, returned and removed from the case.

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So what the fuck, guys? He made the right moves with Gitmo, wanted transparent Government and made steps toward it but then falls down on this? It makes me wonder, it makes me want to look closer and it makes me, frankly, think that while some things have gotten better we are going to have to look closer than ever to keep an eye on the ones that have not.

(via the LA Times) School can expel lesbian students, court rules.

An appeals panel finds California Lutheran High School in Riverside County is not a business and therefore doesn’t have to comply with a state law barring discrimination based on sexual orientation.

Reporting from San Francisco — After a Lutheran school expelled two 16-year-old girls for having “a bond of intimacy” that was “characteristic of a lesbian relationship,” the girls sued, contending the school had violated a state anti-discrimination law.

In response to that suit, an appeals court decided this week that the private religious school was not a business and therefore did not have to comply with a state law that prohibits businesses from discriminating. A lawyer for the girls said Tuesday that he would ask the California Supreme Court to overturn the unanimous ruling by a three-judge panel of the 4th District Court of Appeal.
The appeals court called its decision “narrow,” but lawyers on both sides of the case said it would protect private religious schools across California from such discrimination suits.

Kirk D. Hanson, who represented the girls, said the “very troubling” ruling would permit private schools to discriminate against anyone, as long as the schools used their religious beliefs as justification.

“It is almost like it could roll back 20 to 30 years of progress we have made in this area,” said the San Diego attorney. “Basically, this decision gives private schools the license to discriminate.”
John McKay, who represented the Riverside County-based California Lutheran High School, said the ruling correctly acknowledged that the school’s purpose was to “teach Christian values in a Christian setting pursuant to a Christian code of conduct.”

The girls were expelled in their junior year for “conducting themselves in a manner consistent with being lesbians,” said McKay, who added that the girls never disclosed their sexual orientation during the litigation. Hanson said the girls had been “best friends” and, citing their privacy, declined to discuss their sexual orientation. They are now in college, he said.

The dispute started when a student at the school told a teacher in 2005 that one of the girls had said she loved the other. The student advised the teacher to look at the girls’ MySpace pages. One of the girls was identified as bisexual on her MySpace page, the other’s page said she was “not sure” of her sexual orientation.

McKay said the website also contained a photograph of the girls hugging.

According to the principal, who called each girl out of class separately, both admitted they had hugged and kissed each other and told other students they were lesbians. The girls said they admitted only that they loved each other as friends.

The principal “just looked at me like I was a disease and I was so wrong,” one of the girls later said. They were identified in the legal proceedings only as Jane Doe and Mary Roe.

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The school also did not break the law when it disclosed the girls’ “suspected sexual orientation” to their parents, the court said. The parents, “in light of their right to control their children’s upbringing and education, had a right to know why” they were being expelled, the court said.

Hanson said the entire episode was “very traumatic” and “humiliating” for the girls.

Shannon Price Minter, legal director of the National Center for Lesbian Rights, said the ruling was based on “the particular circumstances of this school.”

“Labeling a young person or telling her she is ’sinful’ can be psychologically devastating,” Minter said. “Regardless of one’s religious beliefs, all adults have a responsibility to treat young people with compassion and respect.”

School officials could not be reached for comment.

Timothy J. Tracey, litigation counsel for the Center for Law & Religious Freedom, said the ruling “preserves the right of Christian schools in California to make admission and discipline decisions consistent with their religious beliefs.”

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All right! Are you sick to your stomach yet? Because I sure am. I am not saying they are not within their legal rights here, I mean I guess I can kinda see it, but this is why I fear and despise government funding of religious schools and institutions.

Because the fact is if this school gets a single cent of Government money than we are helping to fund this sort of hate. We are. You and me. No getting around that. These poor girls were grilled, outed and humiliated. I’m sure that won’t leave any mental scars. Nope, none at all!

McKay said the website also contained a photograph of the girls hugging.

NOT HUGGING! Dear lord, no! I mean this whole thing is a case of fear and narrow-mindedness managing to win the day. The case is old, yeah, but the appeal failed. That’s just it. Yes, these girls are in college now and this case is over – but that doesn’t mean it won’t happen again, or hasn’t.

What. The. Fuck.

Don’t let this sick, twisted thing go quietly back into the night.

Please.

(Cuts from a Washington Post article, without comment) ‘War’ On Terror Comes to a Sudden End

President Obama yesterday eliminated the most controversial tools employed by his predecessor against terrorism suspects. With the stroke of his pen, he effectively declared an end to the “war on terror,” as President George W. Bush had defined it, signaling to the world that the reach of the U.S. government in battling its enemies will not be limitless.

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Key components of the secret structure developed under Bush are being swept away: The military’s Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, facility, where the rights of habeas corpus and due process had been denied detainees, will close, and the CIA is now prohibited from maintaining its own overseas prisons. And in a broad swipe at the Bush administration’s lawyers, Obama nullified every legal order and opinion on interrogations issued by any lawyer in the executive branch after Sept. 11, 2001.

(via TPM) Remarks By The President Welcoming Senior Staff And Cabinet Secretaries – 1/21/09

I will comment in italics. Just putting out bits of this but it is worth going to read all of it.

During this period of economic emergency, families are tightening their belts, and so should Washington. And that’s why I’m instituting a pay freeze on the salaries of my senior White House staff. Some of the people in this room will be affected by the pay freeze, and I want you to know that I appreciate your willingness to agree to it, recognizing that it’s what’s required of you at this moment.

No it isn’t perfect, but it is nice ot see him taking a step. If more companies took steps like that with CEOs they could afford to save more jobs overall.

As I often said during the campaign, we need to make the White House the people’s house. And we need to close the revolving door that lets lobbyists come into government freely, and lets them use their time in public service as a way to promote their own interests over the interests of the American people when they leave.
So today we are taking a major step towards fulfilling this campaign promise. The executive order on ethics I will sign shortly represents a clean break from business as usual. As of today, lobbyists will be subject to stricter limits than under any other administration in history. If you are a lobbyist entering my administration, you will not be able to work on matters you lobbied on, or in the agencies you lobbied during the previous two years. When you leave government, you will not be able to lobby my administration for as long as I am President. And there will be a ban on gifts by lobbyists to anyone serving in the administration, as well.

Some serious, hard written, lobbyist rules. They’re interesting as hell and the sort of thing that make you wonder why this is the first time anyone has put them into effect.

The directives I am giving my administration today on how to interpret the Freedom of Information Act will do just that. For a long time now, there’s been too much secrecy in this city. The old rules said that if there was a defensible argument for not disclosing something to the American people, then it should not be disclosed. That era is now over. Starting today, every agency and department should know that this administration stands on the side not of those who seek to withhold information but those who seek to make it known.

To be sure, issues like personal privacy and national security must be treated with the care they demand. But
the mere fact that you have the legal power to keep something secret does not mean you should always use it. The Freedom of Information Act is perhaps the most powerful instrument we have for making our government honest and transparent, and of holding it accountable. And I expect members of my administration not simply to live up to the letter but also the spirit of this law.

I will also hold myself as President to a new standard of openness. Going forward, anytime the American people want to know something that I or a former President wants to withhold, we will have to consult with the Attorney General and the White House Counsel, whose business it is to ensure compliance with the rule of law. Information will not be withheld just because I say so. It will be withheld because a separate authority believes my request is well grounded in the Constitution.

Let me say it as simply as I can: Transparency and the rule of law will be the touchstones of this presidency.

Well it’s about fucking time, isn’t it? Now sure, you can be all paranoid and say he is saying this stuff because it makes it eaiser to hide the real crap if he seems to be all transparent but … well after a while you start to stretch. Ya know?

And then at the end they swear in the Senior Staff. I include it for the laugh:

THE VICE PRESIDENT: Am I doing this again?
THE PRESIDENT: For the senior staff.
THE VICE PRESIDENT: For the senior staff, all right.
THE PRESIDENT: Yes. A number of Cabinet members have already –
THE VICE PRESIDENT: My memory is not as good as Justice Roberts, Chief Justice Roberts. (Laughter.) Okay, no, I — this is the list. Do you have a copy of the oath? Which senior staff are we doing?
THE PRESIDENT: A whole bunch of senior staff.
THE VICE PRESIDENT: Okay. All of the senior staff –
THE PRESIDENT: Rise.
THE VICE PRESIDENT: — please rise. I will say “aye,” and then you repeat your name.
THE PRESIDENT: Marvin, button up your coat. (Laughter.)

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Add that to his moves toward Gitmo today and I’d say he’s had one fuck of a Day One, wouldn’t you?

So our President managed to pose for the photo of his career. Taken from Whitehouse.gov itself this is a pic of Bush with members of the Arizona State University Men’s and Women’s Track Team Wednesday, on Nov. 12, 2008.

Wait, is that Bush throwing the shocker? No way! It can’t be?! Let’s blow it up and find out!

Well. There’s the shock and here is my awe. Yeah, Az State uses that hand sign from re-shocker days and they don’t seem to care. But come on! COME ON!

Two in Iraq, one in Afghanistan, yo. Represent.

So President Elect Obama met with President Bush today. The AP took a picture. I saw the picture. I could not leave well enough alone. So I give you the more politically minded one and the more … lowbrow version. Because I couldn’t decide which I liked more, at the end of the day:

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I’ve had enough. I have had it up to here. I tried to play it the right way, I did. I would rationally and carefully try to explain the issue. I would refuse to sink and play by the terms of the opposition. I was a good guy, for the most part. Now? Mmm. Fuck that.

You want a fight? Fine, let’s lay out some damned ground rules here. Come on! It’ll be fun!

You want to tell me who I can and can’t marry? You want to have say over whom my friends and loved ones can fall in love with and share their lives with?

You sure about that? Let’s take a look.

First a bit of rational thought for you: If marriage is a religious thing and not a state sanctioned and defined object then why do you care? Oh wait, that’s because it isn’t. At all. See, when I can go before a judge and get legally married, not “civil unioned” note but married – with a certificate and everything – it means your precious little deity ain’t in the room.

So if you don’t like it then ban it in your churches. But that is the only place you get to say no to things. See, it’s a secular country. Sorry but it is. “One Nation under God” – not until the 50’s it wasn’t. This place wasn’t founded on that. Oh sure God got some lip service in the Constitution, but so did a separation of church and state. So pick it. In or out, motherfuckers. In or out.

But regardless, you want to push forward with this! You want to demand your so-called right to use your religion as a battering ram into my home. Into my family affairs. Then I call fair play!

You have to play by every other religions rules as well. So we all go Kosher. All of us. Yup. We all also give up medical care. It goes against what Christian Scientists believe in after all, right? It’s only fair and right.

You want to deny rights based on religion then so will I. I will pick whatever religion I feel like at the time, though. Because they each have as much bearing on you as yours does on mine. See, isn’t that equality?

So you get to ban gay marriage and I get to deny you penicillin! Now we’re getting somewhere! I can feel the fairness spreading out and touching each of us in our very hearts!

Look, you want to deny me your Heaven? Go for it! You want to tell me I’m a sinner, a heathen and a bad, bad man? Hallelujah and pass the ammo! But I am going to fight just as hard against your rights.

Come on. Social chicken. Wanna see if I flinch? Bitch, I’ve played chicken with busses going 40 m.p.h. on NY City streets and won. Bring it. Bring your lies, your hate, your unconscionable intolerance and moral sickness and I will wipe my ass with each one and thank you and ask for more.

Because you’ll get worse.

You want a war? Fine! Let’s play it your way! You want to protest and hold signs and tell us how we’re going to hell? Let’s see how you like it when we protest your churches and ceremonies. Let’s find out. I’m game.

Because I’m sick of this. I am sick and truly fucking tired of each and every one of you who can’t see your way to respecting your fellow humans enough to grant them the same rights you do simply because they don’t think your invisible man’s paperback is all that smooth.

Get over your self-importance and do the right thing. Or else. No more chances, no more Mr. Nice Guy, no more understanding. You started this bullshit fight. Don’t be surprised when you get punched in the face.

Are we clear?

Still no internet at home. Maybe tonight. Who knows anymore.
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It’s interesting. The last election and even before that people who say that whomever won had “a mandate from the people.” Winning by one point, or even five points is not a mandate. It’s winning, sure! It is not, though, a mandate.

If this election comes even close to the current predictions we’re about to show people what the meaning of mandate truly is.
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Politics is my sport (along with hockey) and I am very upset that I might have no internets tonight. I have to go to dinner with an old and true friend but when I get home I would like to be able to catch a BBC feed along with feeds from CNN, ABC, FOX, CBS, and everywhere else I can grab data from. People call things and they don’t always match and I like to ride the line on those calls.

Damn it.

They’re making me miss my World Series here. Boo.
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So looking at the pics yesterday… well I posted it in a thread somewhere but here it is by itself: