Here are some short reactions to the first three items in TPMDC Saturday Roundup- May 9, 2009, 1:06PM.

Obama Calls For Credit Card Reforms:  "There is no time for delay," said Obama. "We need a durable and successful flow of credit in our economy, but we can't tolerate profits that depend upon misleading working families. Those days are over."

We don't need a durable system, that is what conservatives want -- a lasting status quo in which the powerful retain power. 

Credit does not flow, but debt can be transferable; Obama is misframing.  Credit is the sound basis for debt, it resides in individual honor and in recourse (collateral, whether real or ideal).  (The other basis is faith.)  Non-cyclical debt is unsound and/or dishonorable.

Agreed that profits based on deception are problematic and reforms are past due. However:  Obama is using systematically deceptive language to try to develop profits, and probably not with intentional irony.  It is one thing to study Orwell, another to be a student of Orwell.

GOP YouTube Address Blasts Obama On Gitmo  "Closing our terrorist-detention facility with no backup plan is one campaign promise that can't hold up to national security realities," said Bond. "While the President has made closing Guantanamo Bay a priority, the highest priority must be keeping America safe."

The highest priority, if there is such a thing, must be keeping America sound.  This Republican meme has got to be challenged effectively.  On the one hand they make safety sacred, but then they turn around and do unsafe stuff as well as telling us the Constitution is sacred.  Go figure.  "provide for the common defense" does not mean "ruin America for the illusion of safety", and it's not the highest priority anyway.

I agree that closing Gitmo without a plan would be a mistake.  That said, it's not unreasonable to PLAN NOW  to close Gitmo as a prison soon without having all the details fleshed out.  Not only should this be obvious but look at how Repos supported Bush and his adventurous flagrant abuses of power without an exit strategy or even a plan beyond the simple-minded "Get Saddam" or "Kill bin Laden".

The larger question:  If the US is going to continue to have "detainees" or prisoners who don't fit neatly into the ordinary criminal justice system, why not rehabilitate Gitmo's image and reality?  That Abu Ghraib was closed does not mean Gitmo must close.  Gitmo qua prison started out honorably under Lehnert.  Examine the costs and benefits carefully, don't bow to momentary public aversions.  Or better yet, think big:  Close Gitmo ENTIRELY (that would probably really bug the right wing!).

Obama Attending White House Correspondents' Dinner
President Obama and the First Lady will be attending tonight's annual White House Correspondents' Dinner, essentially a comedy roast with the President himself as the guest of "honor."

There is that word 'honor' again!  Medium-rare, roasted or not.