Smiley Face

Lead sentence from the lead story on GMA this morning:

So much of this week is about the complete and immediate obliteration of Bush White House values.

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"WhiteHouse.gov will be a central part of President Obama's pledge to make his the most transparent and accountable administration in American history."

In contrast to the Bush administration, which has fought tooth and nail against watchdog groups trying to force the preservation of its records, the new administration is already showing a remarkable willingness to comply with federal record-keeping laws. . . .

Speaking of Google ratings, Jason Kottke points to the new website's robots.txt file, which tells search engines what parts of the site to include in results, as "a small and nerdy measure of the huge change in the executive branch of the US government today." The Bush administration's version of the robots.txt file had 2400 lines of code for what it didn't want people finding on Google. The Obama administration has one.

Change You Can Click On

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. . . What was intriguing was how Obama characterized the fight against terrorism. He said, "The message we are sending around the world is the United States intends to prosecute the ongoing struggle against violence and terrorism" vigilantly, effectively, and "in a manner consistent with our values and ideals." Notably, he did not use the term "war on terror." And moments later, he proclaimed, "We intend to win this fight and we're going to win it on our terms." Again, no "war."

Is this a purposeful shift in rhetoric? Has Obama decided to drop the war on terrorism metaphor that the Bush-Cheney administration used extensively? . . .

Has Obama Ended the "War on Terror"?