Month: January 2009

MotherJones Blog: Obama to Bush: I Can Release Your Records. Don’t Like It? Sue.

On his first day in office, President Obama put former president Bush on notice. His administration just released an executive order that will make it difficult for Bush to shield his White House records–and those of former Vice President Dick Cheney–from public scrutiny by invoking the doctrine of executive privilege. Shortly after taking office, Bush handed down his own executive order, amending the Presidential Records Act to give current and past presidents, along with their heirs, veto power over the release of presidential records, which are considered the property of the American people.

Seriously? This stuff was just laying around out there? Oye.

Earliest weapons-grade plutonium found in US dump – tech – 21 January 2009 – New Scientist

An old glass jar inside a beaten up old safe at the bottom of a waste pit may seem an unlikely place to find a pivotal piece of 20th century history. But that’s just where the first batch of weapons-grade plutonium ever made has been found – abandoned at the world’s oldest nuclear processing site.

…nothing like the old boss. Thank goodness.

Judge Suspends Guantanamo Case at Obama’s Request – washingtonpost.com

In one of its first actions, the Obama administration instructed military prosecutors late Tuesday to seek a 120-day suspension of legal proceedings involving detainees at the naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba — a clear break with the approach of the outgoing Bush administration.

These are so cool!

And how wrong is it that when I first saw this photo, my initial thought was, “Free at last…free at last”?