The same people are in the background of Obama's administration as in Bush's. Hell Gates is still the Secretary of War..I mean Defense. That should never have been changed. War is Peace; freedom is slavery; ignorance is strength; I keep forgetting. I digress. In a revolution, all the cronies of the previous leader are taken out and shot, so that no vestige of the previous administration remain; "sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof". I'm not saying to shoot everyone from Bush's administration(prosecution would be fine). But, keeping them on board just prolongs that administration. Like the quote says, Obama is bringing enough problems with him. Of course, it is widely known that no matter who runs for President, NO MATTER WHICH PARTY, the real power never leaves Washington, stretches from one administration to the next, and cannot be voted out. That power is us. We allow all of this to happen. There can't be a civil war on every issue, so there are always at least 49% disgruntled citizens, and everybody reaps the benefits of corporate greed one way or another, as we all, too suffer from it. If that purported "saviour" of Amerika Ralph Nader were elected, there would be no REAL change. That would be only one man. He didn't make the laws and he wouldn't make the laws. That branch is always going to be Congress, and that branch will always be controlled by corporations with our aquiesence or at least 51% of us.

as suggested several weeks ago, barackstar, be careful of the slippery slopes of deception. now, you find yourself on them, sliding out of control on your skinny but, while those you've surrounded yourself with stand back in the corners, hands over their mouths, snickering.

where are your leadership skills and your intellect when you're beginning to need them most? either enjoy that all too quick ride to the bottom of the hill, or apply the brakes before it's too late.

The indefinite holding of prisoners without trial or with a kangaroo trial will not go down well in European countries that were occupied by Nazi Germany during WW2. Among the countries that were part of the "Axis" during that war there will be revulsion at least in Germany, Italy, and Spain. I am not so sure of Austria, Hungary, and Romania. Middle- and South American countries which have recently merged from rule by dictators will be appalled because that was exactly what their vile rulers did.
Within a short time much of the international adulation of "JFK-reborn" and good-will for our country will evaporate. "Mending fences" by only painting over rotten planks is stupid.

I think the real problem with Guantanamo is not so much that the US government is trying to punish terrorist there. It is that the US govt is doing so OUTSIDE the framework of the legal system, with innocents being interred alongside the guilty with no legal basis to distinguish between the two.

So now we keep human beings in jail forever because of" sensitive issues of national security that cannot be revealed." Give me a break, who gets to determine the sensitivity? The government, of course. We certainly do live in an Orwellian time and it is getting worse by the day.

BS! If we can't try them in a public and accountable process, then we can never know, even vaguely, whether they are/were "terrorists" or "too dangerous" to release.

Anyway, what a steaming load of crap. The US justice system has put untold numbers of gangland murderers on the street in exchange for incriminating evidence against "leaders", "King-pins", etc. We've been dong this for decades.

Further, using their completely unConstitutional and utterly ineffective process, the military has already released two Guantanamo prisoners who turned around and waged war on the US upon their release. We know this because our soldiers killed them in battle after their release. So much for a "thorough" prisoner vetting process. Others who are still there (and at Bagram), are just unfortunates who were in the wrong place at the wrong time and have given up 7 years of their lives for nothing more than making Bush, Cheney and now Obama look "tough".

People, tell President Obama your views and your sentiments. He has to battle the establishment and he needs every last one of us behind him to counter the enormous tsunami of the old darkness Bush and partners brought in. This is one of the most difficult presidencies if not the most difficult presidency since the Civil War. Let's work for a new and better United States and help our man, Obama. United, we will help Obama usher in an era we will be proud to call our country once again.

Another hundred days of torture and crimes against humanity? All of the Bush/Cheney hostages should have been pardened and released in our new president's first heartbeat. What is it that attracts our government to sadistic atrocities and international criminality? AIPAC?

Remember, as you read of the necessity of holding people indefinitely without trial because they represent a "danger," the concentration camps built by KBR. We, too, who write and demonstrate in protest of abhorent government policies may someday find ourselves spending the remainder of our lives looking out through razor wire, or through a hood because we, too, represent a "danger" to the government. The danger of freedom of speech and freedom of conscience which is becoming increasingly abhorrent to the government.

To those who say, "It can't happen here," look about you. It already has.