Obama: more of the same

[illusionofjoy]

Ted Rall and I are similar in regards to the fact that we are both liberals willing to be critical of the President regardless of party affiliation. This week's column reaffirms that his sacred cow slaughterhouse (and I use the term sacred cow for Obama because some people are still drinking the god damn Kool-Aide) is still open for business:

Obama's inaugural address may have promised to "reject as false the choice between our safety and our ideals," but—in all the ways that matter—he's keeping all of Bush's outrageous policies in place. Sure, he talks a good game about "moving forward." But nothing has really changed. From reading your e-mails to asserting the right to assassinate American citizens to bailing out companies whose executives pay themselves big bonuses, Obama's changes are nothing but toothless rhetoric.

Closing Gitmo, reported The New York Times, was merely "a move that seemed intended to symbolically separate the new administration from Bush detention policies. But in a much anticipated court filing, the Justice Department argued that the president has the authority to detain terrorism suspects there without criminal charges, much as the Bush administration had asserted. It provided a broad definition of those who can be held, which was not significantly different from the one used by the Bush administration."

Where's the change?