Job number one: Justice.

[angrycarpenter]

President Obama must walk through the front doors of the dept. of Justice and say "If you were appointed by Bush or if you were hired by an appointee, gather your things, go out to your car and drive to the office of a good lawyer."

The purge of the Justice Department must be complete and ruthless. No mercy or second chances for the people who destroyed our ability to hold our leaders accountable. Make sure these people are frozen out of government service for the rest of their lives.

The only way out, sing like a canary.

Job two, NSA.

Job three, Homeland security.

President Obama must restore our faith in government very early. He must remove these abuses of our rights and privacy first thing. The temptation to use them will be very great. He must remove these tools of evil before anyone in his administration even has a chance to dirty their hands with them.


Our government must be as transparent as glass. All of the veils of secrecy will be just laying there waiting to be raised again, we must not allow them to exist even one day after inauguration.

[malaise]

1. Yes he can

[Glorfindel]

2. I agree with you 100%...

no Bush vipers should be allowed to lurk in the government at any level, ready to spring and spread their poison at the earliest opportunity. Not even low-level appointees in obscure positions at the Commerce, Agriculture, or Labor departments should be retained.

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

3. I spoke about this with a lawyer friend.

His, and surprisingly, most lawyers rage over what has been done at the DOJ burns blue-hot to my lesser white-hot. An impartial and non-politicized DOJ was the holiest of holies to most ethical lawyers. While it would be nice to clean those people out, it won't be that easy. The maladministration knew what it was playing at and a lot of those jobs have civil service and other federal protections, protections designed exactly to stop what the maladministration was so successful at: politicization of the DOJ.

A "root and branch" cleanup is going to be harder and rerquire much more planning and strategy than just a Gary Cooper figure walking down Main Street at high noon.

Remember: what they did was the result of years of planning and strategic court decisions by toady Federalist Society judges.

[angrycarpenter]

5. I knew there had to be a catch

Now is the time for bold action. I hope with all my heart that there is a plan in the works to clean out the nest of vipers at Justice. I think that what has been done there has damaged our nation's reputation more than anything.

[midnight]

4. Yes.......

[Kip Humphrey]

6. Don't forget the Dept. of Interior (the first Bush purge), Defence Dept., CIA, and the State Dept..

[angrycarpenter]

7. SIGH

Sometimes I think that eight years is to short a period of time. How can this mess ever be cleaned up?