Today, the world is a slightly better place

I'm still keeping up on the news, and despite several Republican attempts at revisionist history (e.g. "Bush defeated the Taliban/Al Queda" which still hasn't happened, the economy problems started before Bush, blah blah) I see the mess beginning to be straightened out.  Apparently President Obama was shocked to find out that he had the authority to declare American citizens as enemy combatants, and could indefinitely detain them and deprive them of their civil rights without due process.  Yep.  Apparently the damage done to the Constitution didn't just apply to Iraqis. 

I got a slight chuckle when I heard there's a movement in Canada to have George Bush detained on suspicion of torture (which shouldn't be too hard to prove), where he is headed now to give his first post-presidential speech.  I believe that it will be an American first to have a president arrested for war crimes.  As embarrassing as it would be for the country, it would still be good to see.  One can hope...

I like President Obama.  I think he's shown moral fibre in his first couple of months as President which has been sorely lacking in America's leadership for a very long time (e.g. more than eight years).  It saddens me to see Republicans still playing politics.  The Democrats do too, but Obama seems (so far) to be above it.  The fact that he's a Democrat seems almost incidental to him.  He's out to repair the damage of eight years of Sith rule. 

I don't hate all Republicans because of Bush, nor do I like all Democrats because of Obama.  I wonder how people justify what happened to themselves solely because they call themselves "Republican".  I wonder how many people no longer call themselves "Republican" because they couldn't.  That's the danger of being a party-liner.  I'm neither Republican nor Democrat.  Neither Conservative nor Liberal (well, maybe just a bit Liberal).  This gives me the ability to be a bit more objective about politics.  I didn't like what I saw and I didn't have to rationalize it.  I like what I'm seeing now and I can be confident I'm not rationalizing.

I wish he weren't a Democrat, but if he weren't he wouldn't have been elected.  It still bothers me to see our government stuck in the grip of these two massive political parties that for the most part seem interested in nothing but bickering.  I think there's light at the end of the tunnel, though.