Eisboch wrote:

"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


I can understand your concerns. They concern me, too. The problem is, to
me a least, that the last president too long ignored the real needs of
this country while pumping billions and trillions into wasteful
expenditures that fueled warmongering.

The GOP seems unable to find a reasonable and responsible direction and
become the loyal opposition with plans and programs of its own to help
solve the horrific problems we have. Saying NO to just about everything,
chasing out elected Republican officials, and name-calling the two
Republican Senators from Maine makes me wonder if the GOP cares about
anything real.