UK has list of potential terrorist schoolchildren, as reported by teachers

The first commenter on this article on boingboing says it best: WTF?

Obama doesn't actually think listening to citizens' suggestions is a good idea

So much for new thinking and new ideas. From Politico:

In this moment of national economic crisis, the top four questions under the heading of “Financial security” concerned marijuana; on the budget, people voted up questions about marijuana to positions 1-4; marijuana was in the first and third positions under “jobs”; people boosted a plug for legalizing marijuana to No. 2 under “health care reform.” And questions about decriminalizing pot occupied spots 1 and 2 under “green jobs and energy.”

After taking questions lower on the list, Obama addressed the pot issue head-on, noting the huge number of questions about marijuana legalization and remarking with a chuckle, “I don't know what that says about the online audience."

"The answer is no, I don't think that is a good strategy to grow our economy," he said, as the audience in the room applauded and joined him in a laugh.

I guess we're not going to see any drug / prison policy changes until 2016 (or later).

Obama administration doesn't actually want to take away AIG bonuses

Only now, after the anger over the AIG bonuses has reached a boil, has Obama indicated that the bailout money allocated to AIG executives' bonuses should be retracted. Funny, since it was his administration that, as Glenn Greenwald expertly points out, moved to include those bonus-saving provisions in the bailout legislation in the first place! To add insult to injury, the administration, with the help of others, is trying to pin blame on Sen. Chris Dodd, who initially OPPOSED those same provisions in the law. Score another 'say one thing and do another' point for Obama.

Obama administration doesn't actually think using state secrets privilege to hide torture practices is a bad idea

Pop quiz: if a president's justice department were to invoke the state secrets privilege from letting evidence be admitted into a case about torturing of potential terrorist suspects that the US government detained (and shipped off to other countries to be tortured, etc. etc.), which president would you associate that with?

a) Bush
b) Obama
c) All of the above

The correct answer is C
Looks like all that talk of transparency was all for naught. Will the American people ever really find out what horrors the government has been perpetrating for the past decade? Not while Obama is in office, it seems.

Obama administration doesn't actually believe infinite detention of enemy combatants is a bad idea

In a great post with a great title, Change = Same, Darren Lenard Hutchinson expertly shows that the change in detention policies viz. terrorism between the Bush and Obama administrations is a distinction without a difference. Sad, really, to see that a president that positioned himself as the anti-Bush to reveal himself as the second coming of Bush.

Obama administration doesn't actually think the omnipresent, everlasting war on terror is a bad idea

In fact, they quite support it. For the sad truth, one only needs to read Turley's post Top Obama Aides Embrace Bush's War on Terror Rhetoric and Enemy Combatant Policy. Harvard Law Dean Elena Kagan, Obama’s Solicitor General nominee, believes that we are both 1) at war and 2) the whole world is part of our 'battlefield.' Disgusting (and, as we might note, quite antithetical to any kind of 'change').

Obama administration doesn't actually like restraints on presidential power

From Turley:

Literally days after proclaiming that change had come to “signing statements” with a new policy, President Obama has issued a very Bush-like signing statement with his signing of the appropriations bill. The signing statement reserves the right to treat literally dozens of provisions as presumptively unconstitutional.
...
That particular provision is troubling to me as a constitutional matter. The Framers expressly gave Congress the power of the purse as a check and balance on executive authority. The use of appropriations to restrict “foreign entanglements” and “adventures” was well-accepted. This has a true Bush-like quality as a signing statement.

Looks like not much has changed from the past administration to this one...

Obama administration doesn't actually like transparency

In a 180 from his professed love of transparency (as embodied in his executive order), Obama is now claiming 'national security' reasons for rejecting a FOIA request to release details about a new secret, international copyright treaty. Looks like this administration's love of secrecy is not so different from the past's. And reading the list of people who are allowed to view this treaty reads like a who's who of Big Media and their lobbyists.