Maldives New President Sure Can Cut Back!

So the new President of the Maldives seems like a cool guy to me. Maybe a little bit TOO much "for the people/anti-establishment" then I'm used to seeing in heads of state, but you have to hand it to the man, he really knows how to keep a budget! The BBC has the full article here, but here's the bare facts for those of you on the go:
* The new President Mohamed Nasheed used to be a political activist, and was actually sentenced to prison 20 years ago by the very man he beat out in the election. (Yes, his predecessor was in power for 30 years.)
* The private yacht of the president is going to be auctioned off, possibly on Ebay.
* As for the President's private island: But the new administration wants to open everything up. There's already talk of turning Arah into a marine research facility or even a writer's retreat.
* He isn't staying in the Presidential palace as he finds it "too big", so there are suggestions of turning it into a museum or the country's first university!
* And best of all: "When we started this administration, the presidency was costing more than $150m (£105m) a year," he said. "This is something we simply can't afford. We've brought it down to $4m." "

Now there's some inspiration for Obama on running to help out the US economy!
Yeah I know, it's wishful thinking, but a girl can dream right? Oh yeah, did I mention that they're thinking of turning the president's private island into a writer's retreat? Sweet...

So much for "transparency"

This just in from Politico:
Obama's promise of openness and transpency from the White House is already being called into question as Obama did all this:
*shut down his predecessor’s system for reviewing regulations
*realigned and expanded two key White House policymaking bodies
*extended economic sanctions against parties to the conflict in the African nation of Cote D’Ivoire.
without the White House Press Corps ever mentioning it. Politico explains that this was because

...they were never announced by the White House Press Office and were never placed on the White House web site.

When Politico inquired about some documents that were missing from the White House website, spokesman Ben LaBolt apparently said that “It was a simple oversight,”.

I'm not saying that the things Obama did that were never released to the Press were bad, or shady, I just feel that a man who ran his campaign on a promise of openness needs to be extremely careful about keeping that promise. I don't think people would really make a big deal out of this if he hadn't made so many promises. He set himself up for this criticism, though I'm glad there is this criticism, as it should keep the administration in check and constantly on their toes.

President Obama's Actions in Office (so far)

Obama has officially been inaugurated!

At what is being reported as the most attended Presidential Inauguration ever, (he beat out LBJ who previously held the title, and beat out Clinton by 1 million), D.C. Mayor is saying that 1.8 million people were on the Mall attending the event, "The National Parks Service estimates Tuesday’s crowd to be the largest ever at the Mall", according to Politico.

There was of course the now famous slip up by Roberts about the placement of the word "faithfully" within the oath. In case you somehow missed it, here's a video:

Later that night Politico is reporting that President Obama retook the oath in the Map Room of the White House. This has spurned what I believe is a spurious debate over the authenticity of the orders Obama signed before retaking the oath. If you want to to read the article go here, but I think they're just looking for hairs to split and SOMETHING to talk about.
One of his first executive orders as President was to put a pay freeze on all White House staff who make more than $100,000/yr, which is roughly 100 people. He is quoted by MSNBC as saying "Families are tightening their belts, and so should Washington...". And in an effort to create transparency within the government,

Obama said he would change the way the federal government interprets the Freedom of Information Act. He said he was directing agencies that vet requests for information to err on the side of making information public — not to look for reasons to legally withhold it — an alteration to the traditional standard of evaluation. - once again according to MSNBC

Newsweek is also reporting what I find to be fantastic news:

In the first sign of friction within his new administration, President Obama overruled the pleas of senior U.S. intelligence officials and signed a new executive order that bars the CIA from using harsh interrogation methods beyond those permitted by the U.S. military.

Yay!! The US will no longer be breaking international law, at least on the torture front. This same directive also includes an order to close Guantanamo, something many people have been looking forward to. Though it's a bit up in the air over where all these detainees will go until their cases can be sorted out, it has even been suggested Camp Pendleton here in our own Southern California. In other news the Guardian is reporting that a town in Vermont has indicted Bush and Cheney for "crimes against our Constitution", though it is unlikely this will get much done.
Another exciting turn of events that has international lawyers pleased, though lawyers in general confused about the future of the detainess, Obama has also ordered the closing of Gitmo. You can read the full article here at Al Jazeera.

I know that there have been many more things in the news as of late, but this is just a quick update of things that I think are very important to not just the US, but the world.

And in a last bit of humor, Fox news has a report of an Indonesian man is becoming quite famous because he looks a lot like President Obama. See for yourself:


That's all for now!