"HK" wrote in message
m...
Eisboch wrote:

"HK" wrote in message
m...
So far, President Obama

► Ordered the closing of the Bush-Cheney torture facility at Guantanamo
Bay, Cuba.

► Ordered the closing of the Bush-Cheney overseas Gulags (so-called
"black sites").

► Banned the use of torture.

► Suspended Military tribunals of foreign detainees.

► Orders the withdraw of combat forces from Iraq by August 2010, with
the residual force, between 35,000 to 50,000 leaving by December 2011.

► Passes $787 BILLION Jobs-Stimulus bill.

► Signed $32.8 billion bill for the State Children's Health Insurance
Program, known as SCHIP, extending health care to 4 million uninsured
children. A bill vetoed various times by Bush.

► Told AFL-CIO union leaders in a videotaped address that the Employee
Free Choice Act WILL PASS, pledging his administration’s FULL support.

► Overturned Bush administration's limits on embryonic stem cell
research.

► Budgets $634 billion over 10 years as a down payment on health care
insurance.

► Cancels government contract with Blackwater Mercenaries.

► Voids George W. Bush’s so-called "signing statements".

► Addressing Turkey's Grand National Assembly, President Obama states
the United States "is not and never will be at war with Islam."
Signaling a thaw, the story is carried on the front page of Tehran’s
daily newspapers.

► Begins changing of U.S. policy towards Cuba.

► Announced the US will engage in direct group talks with Iran aimed at
ending Tehran's nuclear program, marking another shift from former
Bush's policy.

► Signed Lilly Ledbetter Act, making it easier for women and others to
sue for pay discrimination, even if the discrimination has prevailed for
years, even decades.

► Cancelled Bush decision to allow oil-shale development on federal land
in Colorado, Utah and Wyoming.

► Cancelled Bush decision allowing oil and gas drilling in parcels near
national parks in Utah.

► Started a $75 billion plan to help 9 million struggling homeowners
avoid foreclosure, offering refinanced mortgages or modified loans with
lower monthly payments.

► Announces plans to drastically cut the world's nuclear arsenal.

► Began negotiations to reduce nuclear arms with Russia.

► Persuades G-20 to open $1.4 trillion fund to restore international
credit.

► EPA moves, for the first time, to regulate carbon dioxide and other
greenhouse gases that scientists blame for the warming of the planet.



(Partial list swiped from KOS)



Is this good or bad?

Many will see this list as a glowing list of positive accomplishments.
Others will view it with grave concern.
Some will pick and choose.
Right now the country, as a whole, is equally divided in terms of whether
we are going in the right direction or not.

Eisboch


We supported and voted for Obama, and think the list is pretty good so
far, with a lot left to do. One would expect those whose candidates lost
to be less happy with some of what is on the list.

Equally divided as to right direction is a great improvement over the last
year of the Bush Administration, and the number of those who believe we
are moving in the right direction is rising.


I don't think too many people are displeased or disapprove of Obama. He
enjoys a very high approval rating.
However, it's *him* that is approved of. He has a great personality, sense
of humor and acts "presidential".
The concerns aren't with him as a person. The concerns are the policies and
economic programs his administration is pursuing with the support of a
Democratically controlled Congress. That's what concerns me anyway. We
simply can't afford it.

Eisboch