Must reads

From the ACLU’s Blog of Rights: Heads: Detention, Tails: Detention

This plan, if carried out, would give President Obama the dubious distinction of being the first president in our nation�s history to seek congressional codification of an expansive system of preventive detention. Perhaps even more telling, however, the plan amounts to a plea for Congress to enshrine into law, perhaps with some as-of-yet-undefined oversight, the power that President Bush asserted without any statutory support.

From I See Invisible People: A Justice for All?

I�ve been watching the brouhaha over Sonia Sottomayor with a little bit of caution and a great deal of cynicism. Yes, she�s a woman. Yes, she�s Hispanic. I got that part. Now tell me where she stands on Roe v. Wade and the Lily Ledbetter case.

Liberal women are being patted on the head by the Obama administration and told to relax and trust him. Sorry, dude. Your track record doesn�t merit that kind of faith. Barely 100 days into his administration, Obama is backtracking on too many issues for me to give him the benefit of the doubt on this.

And Glenn Greenwald: Obama’s support for the new Graham-Lieberman secrecy law

It was one thing when President Obama reversed himself last month by announcing that he would appeal the Second Circuit’s ruling that the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) compelled disclosure of various photographs of detainee abuse sought by the ACLU. Agree or disagree with Obama’s decision, at least the basic legal framework of transparency was being respected, since Obama’s actions amounted to nothing more than a request that the Supreme Court review whether the mandates of FOIA actually required disclosure in this case. But now — obviously anticipating that the Government is likely to lose in court again (.pdf) — Obama wants Congress to change FOIA by retroactively narrowing its disclosure requirements, prevent a legal ruling by the courts, and vest himself with brand new secrecy powers under the law which, just as a factual matter, not even George Bush sought for himself.

The White House is actively supporting a new bill jointly sponsored by Sens. Lindsey Graham and Joe Lieberman — called The Detainee Photographic Records Protection Act of 2009 — that literally has no purpose other than to allow the government to suppress any “photograph taken between September 11, 2001 and January 22, 2009 relating to the treatment of individuals engaged, captured, or detained after September 11, 2001, by the Armed Forces of the United States in operations outside of the United States.”

But lest one think my entire view of Mr. Obama is negative, I do think he has some charm, and I think Michelle Obama’s dress is smashing.

�I am taking my wife to New York City,� the president said in the statement, �because I promised her during the campaign that I would take her to a Broadway show after it was all finished.�

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