Green Means Go--Send the 'Doe

Many Americans opened their emails today with a message directly from the president. However, it wasn't an invitation to the White House for a state dinner or recognition for being an outstanding US citizen. Instead, it was the official announcement of the beginning of his 2012 Presidential Re-Election Campaign.

The announcement comes amid a budget stalemate in Congress and a new militant initiative in Libya atop all of the country's other "issues". However, the President Obama quickly clarified that these situations would remain his top priority. So, why did his announcement come at a time when a clear Republican slate has yet to manifest itself? The O'Jays put it best--Money, Money. Money, Money...Mo-ney! Today gave the green light for supporters to allow the $doe$ to start pouring in.


From CNN:

Candidate Obama turned heads -- and established early on that he would be a serious fundraiser -- by raising a whopping $59 million during the first half of 2007. His campaign surely wants to at least match that level again.

The president's re-election team has been asking campaign bundlers to gather $350,000 each, no easy task since campaign finance laws limit gifts to $2,500 per donor. However, following the recent Supreme Court ruling, corporations and political action committees have virtually no limits in spending on noncandidate, issue-oriented campaigning this election season.

Two sources tell CNN that the campaign team hopes that in total, its bundlers will raise $500 million, leaving the campaign to raise another $500 million and amass a record-breaking $1 billion war chest.

According to these sources, the president has made calls to top donors, and conference calls are planned this week to supporters and key Democratic groups.

President Obama is no dummy--he knows how to raise the money. His record-breaking 2008 Presidential Campaign raised nearly $750 million. The goal for 2012: $1 billion! Piece of cake?!

More Days for Guantanamo Bay

Don't expect to see the prison camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba closed anytime soon. Despite his plan to shut down the prison completely, President Obama decided today that the doors to the prison would remain open and military trials could resume. In lieu of the shut down, the Administration promises changes to the treatment of detainees, including evaluations every three year to determine the detainees' threat to the States as well as more strict torture bans. 
From the Times:

Administration officials insisted that Mr. Obama had not retreated from his pledge to close Guantánamo Bay, despite difficulties in transferring prisoners or trying them in federal courts. It has released detainees to their home countries and to other countries ranging from Germany to Palau, and a senior official said that process would continue.

“We’ve done a lot of leg work in the service of closing Guantánamo Bay,” said a senior official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the administration’s internal deliberations.

The new procedures for military commissions guarantee detainees access to a legal representative as well as access to broader range of classified information, which the detainee’s representative can use to argue his client’s case before the review board.

The administration also said it would ask for Senate approval to sign on to two additional protocols of the Geneva Conventions governing humane treatment and fair trials for prisoners held in wartime. “We have raised the bar in terms of the kind of treatment we’re committed to providing,” said another administration official.

Since the beginning of the Obama administration, the Defense Department has transferred 67 detainees from Guantánamo Bay to 24 different destinations, including the transfer of 40 detainees to third countries, according to government figures. But the active status of Al Qaeda’s affiliate in Yemen, the home of the largest remaining group of detainees, has dissuaded the administration from sending prisoners there. And most countries have agreed to accept only tiny numbers of Guantánamo detainees.

Today’s total of 172 detainees is down from 242 when Mr. Obama entered office. About 500 detainees were released by the Bush administration.