1. Close the American military prison at Guantanamo Bay: In one of his first acts as president,
said that he was "hopeful" that the White House would meet that deadline. Several legal and logistical questions remained to be answered, however, including the fate of the remaining detainees.
2. Pull all troops out of Iraq: In February,
a large number of troops were pulled out of the country, a move that was understated here in the U.S., but was met by dancing in the streets in some parts of Iraq. At the time of the withdrawal,
a recent interview with CBS' "60 Minutes," General Stanley McChrystal, America's top commander in Afghanistan, said that things had become "a little worse" than he had originally anticipated in Afghanistan, adding that "the breadth of the violence, the geographic spread of violence, is a little more than I would have gathered." Wednesday marks the eighth anniversary of the U.S.-led invasion, and last Sunday saw the deadliest single battle for American soldiers in Afghanistan since 2001. The administration is currently divided over how to change course in Afghanistan, weighing McChrystal's request for 40,000 more troops against other options.
4. Reform the nation's health care system: This year's
health care reform debate has been one of the more contentious debates in American history. Originally,
the Senate Finance Committee finally released its mammoth health care bill, setting the stage for an even more intense national debate with a floor vote potentially coming as early as the middle of this week.
5. Cut down on global warming: Prior to the onset of the raucous health care reform debate, the centerpiece of the Administration's efforts to stem the increase of global warming, the
Cap and Trade bill, was on the legislative fast-track. However, over the weekend
Carol Browner, Obama's global warming czar, said that
announced that he would have an immigration bill in Congress by the end of the year, though it likely wouldn't be voted on until 2010. Saying that "demagogues" who "suggest that any form of pathway for legalization for those who are already in the United States is unacceptable" would attempt to obstruct his efforts, the president added, "Am I going to be able to snap my fingers and get this done? No."
7. Changing the military's policies on gay soldiers: In his first week in the
Oval Office,
James Jones reiterated Obama's commitment to fulfilling this campaign promise, but added that the president has "a lot on his plate" and would get around to addressing the issue at the "right time."
8. Placing limits on executive powers: In the early days of his presidency,
Salon's Glenn Greenwald noting in April that the White House had "explicitly claimed to possess the very presidential powers that Bush critics spent years condemning as radical, lawless and authoritarian."
9. Prosecute those who facilitate torture: In April, President Obama announced that his Administration
announcing the appointment of a special prosecutor to investigate whether or not the interrogations of suspected terrorists broke any laws.
So, taking all of this into consideration, are
SNL's satirical criticisms of President Obama's do-nothingness valid? Probably not, mainly because, as illustrated by the old adage about how one shouldn't watch sausage or legislation get made, the process of "change" and getting anything done in Washington is a long and messy one, and Obama is merely nine months into his term as president. But that doesn't mean that
Saturday's SNL skit was humorless, which, for once, it most definitely was not.
-- Brett Michael Dykes is a contributor to the Yahoo! News Blog.
link:http://news.yahoo.com/s/ynews/ynews_pl942