no wonder the world cheered an obama presidency...
Posted by anthony at November 10, 2008 07:34 AMClosing Guantanamo is the easy part. What to do with the current occupants is the tricky part.
Posted by manapp99 at November 10, 2008 07:42 AMWhat to do with the current occupants is the tricky part.
I say we put them in charge of the 'pukes Obama sends to the GOP re-education camps we've been hearing so much about. Divine justice, bitches!
Posted by iamcoyote at November 10, 2008 08:14 AMI am SO grateful to be living in a civilized country again! I love being able to respect my country and my president. Thank you, Barack Obama! May God bless you!
Posted by fgm at November 10, 2008 08:25 AMWhat to do with the current occupants is the tricky part.
Do you mean the ones who were sold to us by people in their own countries for a hefty bounty? You know, the ones walking down the street one day and suddenly they were being held in a shipping crate for the Americans? I know...fuck em. If they didn't do anything they wouldn't be there. Besides, they're just towel heads. Who cares? No need for evidence, a judge or a jury to figure it out or send them home.
I am SO grateful to be living in a civilized country again!
Yep! I'm looking forward to the day when I can be proud to be an American and not try and explain Busch when I'm traveling.
Posted by phidipides at November 10, 2008 08:37 AMWe finally got it right. The tremendous positive reaction all over the world for Obama Presidency is comforting. I hope Obama makes good use of this goodwill. Remember we had similar goodwill after 9/11 that was wasted by GW.
The Republican right wing will never accept this CHANGE. Rush has already started the attack calling Obama 'Chicago Thug". I hope the moderate Republicans who rejected the right wing ideology in this election would show courage to speakout against these fear monger right wingers.
Posted by suresh at November 10, 2008 08:41 AMFar be it from me to defend the Bush judiciary, but I do feel constrained to recall that the Supreme Court voted consistently against Bushco on every illegal Guantanamo scheme Cheney came up with. They refused to go along with the lawbreaking plan.
Yes, the votes were 5-4, with Kennedy the deciding vote. Still, the constitution was preserved by a hair.
It was essential to get lawyers back in the WH again---both Obama and Biden are lawyers---that's one reason that so many people feel relief after the lawbreaking "MBA Regime", which McFool would have replaced with (another) lawbreaking regime led by an dumb Annapolis washout and his TV journalist Nazi sidekick.
The law will again be followed by the executive branch, although Bushco has royally fucked up the detainee situation, likely beyond redemption.
Posted by euzoius at November 10, 2008 08:45 AMAlthough I am inclined to agree with Coyote (above), and would love to see detainees in charge of Bush and Chaney for the foreseeable future, once again we must settle with being happy that these bastards are no longer in charge. On second thought, if we could somehow include Joe "fuck you" Scarborough into the mix I would be inclined to change my mind. No just kidding, this entire fiasco has been ill conceived and carried out. The answer is, based on the Constitution, these people need to be in the Justice System.
Give these people lawyers and let them go through the justice system. If the Govt has evidence, let them present it in a court of law, otherwise, send them the hell home. Hooray for common sense and good judgment, hooray for our side.
Posted by angryman at November 10, 2008 09:41 AMClosing Guantanamo is the easy part. What to do with the current occupants is the tricky part.
What's great about "smart government" is the right wing nuts don't understand there's not going to be a "tricky part".
Posted by Seven of Six at November 10, 2008 10:18 AMWhat to do with the current occupants is the tricky part.
Laurence Tribe is heading a transition team trying to figure out that very question. One thing for certain is that any trials will be held on U.S. soil, under the U.S. Constitution. There has been some discussion of whether special courts will be set up -- following a precedent with German saboteurs in WW2 -- but nothing final. The best news is that while they will clearly shut down Gitmo, they are following a deliberate process for determining the best set of legal actions to take.
This is why electing a constitutional law professor is a precious element for the country that was far too often overlooked in the campaign.
Only too true. Clinton and W. Bush each placed only 2 justices on to the Supreme Court, which means 5 of the justices have been their over 16 years. All told, 6 or 7 could retire during this coming term.
Listening to Obama talk about the Constitution, justices, and the Supreme Court it is clear to me that his first priority is a world class legal mind, and beyond that his primary criterion will be weeding out the ideologues.
Which means that if Obama does appoint 6 or 7 justices the Supreme Court will emerge from the intellectual doldrums of the past 40-odd years and enter something like a renniessance period. It would be nice to see no more intellectual lightweights like Rehnquist, O'Connor, Thomas, Roberts, Souter, and Kennedy. And the end of ideologues like Scalia, Alito, and yes even Ginsberg and Breyer.
Stevens and Ginsburg will likely retire and be replaced by Obama.
No conservative Repubs will retire, they will try to wait for the next "conservative" president. Thomas has said he will "never" retire and will sit there until he dies to decide cases against lib'ruls and punish the nation for his confirmation humiliation. He's got another 20 years in him.
Roberts and Alito will be there for 25 more years, at least. There won't be massive changes on the Roberts Court.
Posted by euzoius at November 10, 2008 01:06 PMOk...are we talking just the prison or the entire base?
Closing the entire base and giving it back to Cuba....now there is change!!. Closing Guantanomo base would go a great way in improving relations with Cuba but also with the rest of Latin America.
So lets see how far we're willing to take this!
Posted by Parallax at November 10, 2008 05:12 PMI'm not all that enthusiastic about the idea of lawyers in government. Trained lawyers know how to fool all the people some of the time. Tony Blair is a lawyer. When a BBC documentary accused the government of distorting the intelligence evidence in order to justify joining the invasion of Iraq, there was a legal case which was won by the government, and resulted in great damage to the BBC. Unfortunately one of the journalists involved had himself slightly "massaged" the facts in favour of his case. Lawyer Blair used the standard trick of getting the enquiry to focus on this one item, and thus discrediting the whole BBC case. Pretty well everyone now knows the Blair government HAD misled us, but after that enquiry, it was BBC people who had to resign, not Blair and Co. I'd like to think Obama and his people would not misuse their legal skills, but lawyers as a class - I don't trust 'em!
Posted by Colin at November 11, 2008 03:37 AMParallax,
closing the prison you numb nuts!
That is serious change.
Posted by midwestdem at November 11, 2008 06:28 PM