All hail the new god-king!

It didn't take long. On his second full day in office, President Barack Obama signed an executive order that will close the United States' detention facility at Guantanamo Bay within one year. He also set the wheels in motion to suspend the war crimes trials of Gitmo detainees, outraging the families of 9/11 victims. Further, Obama's order will limit methods available to the CIA and military personnel as regards interrogation of prisoners, and will cease the operations of clandestine foreign prisons.

While some might argue that this was in deference to his party's far-left contingent (he had promised to do so during the 2008 campaign), it hardly matters whether these were political or ideological decisions. It is done. Those unsavory institutions that we must bear because our enemies are infinitely more barbaric than we are will be done away with in the name of warm fuzziness.

And the American people will pay the price, rest assured – regardless of whether or not it is directly at the hands of poorly prosecuted terrorists.

Barack Obama has been in office less than two weeks, yet he has already taken steps to implement some of the most frightening and potentially dangerous measures his detractors pointed to during the 2008 campaign. It is as though our new president believes his time is short for some reason; thus, he must act quickly.

On Jan. 23, it was widely reported that Obama had admonished invertebrate GOP leaders that "You can't just listen to Rush Limbaugh and get things done," during their visit to the White House to discuss his proposed $825 billion economic stimulus package. This is generally considered – given the president's stated intentions during the campaign – to be the prelude to an all-out war on conservative media outlets and personalities.

That a sitting president would attack a private citizen on a point directly concerning the First Amendment should have caused such an uproar in the press as to shift the Earth's axis. Yet, what's the news story? Limbaugh's response. In fact, the upshot appears to have originated in some sci-fi parallel universe where everything contradicts reason: On Wednesday, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee launched an online petition to express outrage toward comments made by the radio host vis-à-vis Obama's statement.

The mind reels …

Through his Jan. 26 interview on the Dubai-based Al-Arabiya network, our new god-king smooched the buttocks of the radical Muslim world, declaring that "all too often the United States starts by dictating" in matters affecting the Middle East. Arguably, this was one of the most unintelligent things an American president could do pertaining to foreign policy. As if in response – and perhaps it was – Iran's president and resident proto-human Mahmoud Ahmadinejad called for "profound changes" in U.S. foreign policy, including giving up support for Israel.

It is probable that Obama and those Americans with skim milk coursing through their veins believe that this "lion lying down with the lamb" (to fornicate, perhaps) will somehow facilitate easier and more agreeable dealings with the international community. History and the past actions of Democrat administrations that focused on appeasement suggest otherwise.

All in all, if this is indicative of Obama's performance thus far, one shudders to see what he will implement within the first highly scrutinized 100 days of his presidency, and even more so during its entire course.

Former Guantanamo prisoner of war Abdallah Ali al-Ajmi was released to his country of origin (Kuwait) in 2005. In April 2008, he blew himself up in an attack that killed a dozen people in Iraq. This week, two former Gitmo detainees appeared on Arabic television, declaring that their imprisonment had strengthened and galvanized their convictions.

In the case of Gitmo, it is likely that detainees captured in Iraq and Afghanistan will be brought stateside. Given Obama's policy to date, there really doesn't seem to be anywhere else to put them. This is madness, of course, but at this juncture the horse has already left the barn. Should the entire nation oppose this, we'll hear none of it from the press. No – this smoothie could order Jews back into ovens and make it all appear as inoffensive business-as-usual.

As this columnist has stated, American voters have been playing the Republican and Democratic parties against each other like a bitter teen manipulating divorced parents. What they don't comprehend is that the "parent" they've chosen as their benefactor for this round is manifestly insane. They have no compunction as regards endangering the safety of their children or borderline abuse. Who knows? They might even lose it and murder the kids in the middle of the night to show the other parent they mean business.

Perhaps I was one of those who foolishly held out hope that Obama, like most presidents, would only give their fringe supporters so much, that despite his fringe record, he was at least sane enough not to burn the asylum down around the rest of the lunatics.

Bad call, I guess.