(updated below w/transcript)

My guest on Salon Radio today is Anthony Romero, the Executive Director of the ACLU, which recently released a detailed plan for the restoration of core liberties in America under an Obama administration.  We discuss the most important priorities for civil libertarians in reversing the anti-constitutional abuses of the past, as well as strategies for holding Obama to his campaign pledges for doing so.

Along those lines, the ACLU has a full-page ad in this morning's New York Times (.pdf) urging Obama to close Guantanamo on Day One.  And the website of ACLU and Brave New Films for urging the closing of Guantanamo is here.  I discuss with Romero the following issues:

• whether, in light of how executive power has so wildly expanded, it is counter-productive to urge Obama to use unilaterally issued Executive Orders, rather than Congressional acts, as the instrument to achieve these changes (a topic I'll return to in the next couple of days as signs emerge that Executive Orders will be used by the Obama administration to effectuate numerous policy changes that seem to be within the province of Congress);
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• various objections to closing Guantanamo and the legal and logistical difficulties in doing so;
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• the ACLU's view of media consolidation, free debate and the Fairness Doctrine;
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• the investigation and prosecution of crimes committed by Bush officials, including policy and legal issues relating to potentially forthcoming pardons; and,
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• public campaigns, including those sponsored by the ACLU, to elevate civil liberties issues on the Obama agenda and maintain pressure on him to act in these areas.

The discussion was roughly 30 minutes and can be heard by clicking PLAY on the recorder below. A transcript will be posted shortly.

UPDATE:  The transcript is here.