This is brilliant news. Obama promised it on the campaign trail but it’s good to see it happen. This does not mean that all the people in the prison will just be turfed out the gates. Nor should it. It means that those that have charges to answer will be tried in proper courts with proper evidence. Guantanamo Bay, or what has gone on there, rather than the physical place, is a stain on the ideals that the USA used to stand for. Proper due process of the inmates will go a long way to restoring the reputation of the USA.
US President Barack Obama has ordered the Guantanamo Bay prison camp to be closed within one year.
Like a lot of other people I was really happy to see Barack Obama get elected the 44th President of the USA. I’ve been following Obama’s speeches and policy positions for the last 6 months or so and had come to the conclusion that he would be a breath of fresh air for the USA and the wider world. Hopefully he will be able to manoeuvre as he wants in the current economic crisis, and that he gets the full 2 terms. Heck I hope he is so successful that there is a popular uprising to set aside the 22nd Amendment to the US Constitution that limits Presidents to 2 terms.
Looks like my Electoral College vote prediction was right on the mark 🙂 That prediction was built on the excellent information posted on the 538 site in the weeks running up the to the election.
Apple comes out publicly to oppose the Proposition 8 vote in California on November 4th. Prop 8 seeks to overturn the Californian Supreme Court ruling on same sex partnerships.
Apple donates $100,000 to fight Prop. 8Apple said it views Proposition 8 as a civil rights issue, not a political one and as such, is donating $100,000 to defeat the measure, it announced today. Prop. 8 is aimed at defining marriage as only between a man and a woman and preventing same-sex marriages.”Apple was among the first California companies to offer equal rights and benefits to our employees’ same-sex partners, and we strongly believe that a person’s fundamental rights – including the right to marry – should not be affected by their sexual orientation,” the company said on its website today.
Larry David is cracking up waiting for the USA election to happen –
I can’t take much more of this. Two weeks to go, and I’m at the end of my rope. I can’t work. I can eat, but mostly standing up. I’m anxious all the time and taking it out on my ex-wife, which, ironically, I’m finding enjoyable. This is like waiting for the results of a biopsy. Actually, it’s worse. Biopsies only take a few days, maybe a week at the most, and if the biopsy comes back positive, there’s still a potential cure. With this, there’s no cure. The result is final. Like death.
Just finished reading Barack Obama’s The Audacity of Hope. It is a very good book indeed. I read it in print form (on the Sony Reader) and as an Audio book. Skipping between the formats depending on what I was doing. The audio book version is read by Obama. He could have a good career as a voice actor in 8 years after his Presidency 🙂
The book itself is a very good manifesto for a fair and tolerant society. Parts of it moved me close to tears, whilst other parts made me laugh out loud. Not at the ideas but rather at the prose and the turn of phrase used. The only part of the book I disagree with is the chapter on Faith. Obama is a Christian and he outlines why he took this path after a wide ranging exposure to many religious, spiritual and secular ideas in his youth. Whist I can understand at the intellectual level his decision to be baptised as a Christian, I find myself disappointed that he did. I’m perfectly willing to admit that this is my bias and prejudice showing through. With that bias fully acknowledged, It has to be said that Obama presents a good case for why secularists should not expect people of faith to park their beliefs at the door. He also points out however that the religious cannot base their argument on recourse to God’s Will or scripture and expect to carry the argument. Arguments in a democracy have to be open and acceptable to all members of the society, whether religious or not. UPDATE: See video below in which Obama talks about this subject. This is much like the text in the book. This book is highly recommended. Either in print or audio book form.
The world will be a shinier place on 5th November 2008 if Barack Obama is the President Elect of the USA.
A new Conservative Humanist Association has been formed for atheist and humanist Conservatives. That’d include me then 🙂 Just renewed my membership of the Conservative Party by joining the Northern Ireland Conservatives. If you want to see normal UK politics operating in Northern Ireland, and if you have Conservative leanings, then join up. If you don’t have conservative leanings then join on of the other UK wide parties NI sections.
From the Mudflats Blog in Alaska. Heartening news of an anti Palin rally in Anchorage. Quote from the site:
Never, have I seen anything like it in my 17 and a half years living in Anchorage. The organizers had someone walk the rally with a counter, and they clicked off well over 1400 people (not including the 90 counter-demonstrators). This was the biggest political rally ever, in the history of the state. I was absolutely stunned. The second most amazing thing is how many people honked and gave the thumbs up as they drove by. And even those that didn’t honk looked wide-eyed and awe-struck at the huge crowd that was growing by the minute. This just doesn’t happen here.