Obama to Meet with Terrorism Victims and Families

By GottaLaff

Compassionate progressivism:

President Obama will gather tomorrow with victims and families of the 9/11 terrorist attacks and U.S.S. Cole bombing for a face-to-face meeting as his administration struggles to decide how to handle detainees at Guatanamo Bay, Cuba, several of those invited said.

The previously undisclosed meeting at the White House tomorrow afternoon will give the new president a chance to explain his decision to close the controversial prison facility where the U.S. has placed many suspected terrorists since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. [...]

One 9/11 activist, who declined to be identified talking about the meeting, said "fireworks" are likely at the gathering because it will include both relatives who oppose and those who support Obama's plan to close Guantanamo Bay. "There's been some noise that some families don't like the idea and others do, so this is a chance to discuss that," the activist said. [...]

Jim Riches, a retired New York firefighter whose son, Jimmy Riches, died in the 9-11 attacks, said in an interview Thursday that he wants to hear directly from President Obama what the government intends to do with the prisoners.

"I want to know, are they going to drop the charges? Are they going to try them in another court?" he said. "I want to let them know that these men are dangerous."

Riches praised Obama for agreeing to a meeting so soon after taking office. [...]

The administration may want to impress on families that they are not dropping charges against alleged terrorists, including Khalid Sheik Mohammed, the self-proclaimed mastermind of the 9/11 attacks who is facing capital charges in Guantanamo, and that he and others will be brought to justice. [...]

The president may also want to explain some possible alternative to military commissions, including moving proceedings to federal court or military courts martial.

Whether the families agree with his decisions or not, it's impressive that President Obama is meeting with them after only two and a half weeks in office, and oh yeah... there's that whole listening thing. That was about to become a lost art.

Obama Expected to Drop Business Tax Credit

By GottaLaff

He listens. He responds:

On the stimulus, as a show of good faith as negotiations unfold, Obama is expected to drop his least popular proposal, a $3,000 tax credit for companies to create new jobs. Many Democrats have criticized the incentive, touted by Obama on the campaign trail, as ripe for abuse and of dubious merit.

"We've always said we're open to other ideas. This was never set in stone," said a senior Obama adviser of the tax proposal and Obama's stimulus proposals in general.

When Little Georgie Bush used to say he "listened", he really meant he would sit impatiently with his blankie and rock back and forth sucking his thumb, drooling, and dozing off during important meetings.

When P.E. Obama listens, he mulls, he evaluates, he analyzes, he uses his powers of forethought, and then he responds. All without a blankie.

UPDATE: Krugman's ideas. He's a good person for Obama to be listening to.

Last week President-elect Barack Obama was asked to respond to critics who say that his stimulus plan won’t do enough to help the economy. Mr. Obama answered that he wants to hear ideas about “how to spend money efficiently and effectively to jump-start the economy.”

O.K., I’ll bite — although as I’ll explain shortly, the “jump-start” metaphor is part of the problem.

First, Mr. Obama should scrap his proposal for $150 billion in business tax cuts, which would do little to help the economy. Ideally he’d scrap the proposed $150 billion payroll tax cut as well, though I’m aware that it was a campaign promise.

Follow the link for more.