"You'd better get this straight. Wise up before it's too late." -- Sister Sledge

Might be the start of a downward spiral....

of course i'm not satisfied that the kangeroo 'security' courts will continue, nor have i heard anything about those detainees who won't be accepted back into the home nations or sent there are extreme risk to themselves. but i'll take this tiny drop in the glass of justice as at least one good thing. closing gitmo is an important signal to the rest of the world that we're at least considering ramping down our torture-industrial complex. we'll see what else he's willing to do.

unquestionably correct that he won't live up to his promise to close Guantanamo prison?

Sounds to me like they're figuring out what to do for / with the persons being detained there. Some of whom may actually (gasp!!) NOT be innocents -- and all of whom, based on reading the report, are either going to be released or going to actually get a day in court.

How is this not an improvement over rotting out there with no hope of resolution, a la Bu$hco or a McPalin administration?

See for example this graf from the rest of the cited story:

Obama has been critical of that process and his legal advisers said finding an alternative will be a top priority. One of those advisers, Harvard law professor Laurence Tribe, acknowledges that bringing detainees to the U.S. would be controversial but said it could be accomplished.

"I think the answer is going to be, they can be as securely guarded on U.S. soil as anywhere else," Tribe said. "We can't put people in a dungeon forever without processing whether they deserve to be there."

It kinda looks to me like Obama is taking the time to figure out a solution that actually works. Frustrating as that may be to watch and wait upon, it may be the best way to obtain justice.

Whatever Obama decides, he should move quickly, Tribe said.

"In reality and symbolically, the idea that we have people in legal black holes is an extremely serious black mark," Tribe said. "It has to be dealt with."

My understanding is that Lawrence Tribe is a respected legal voice in the nation. Is that not so?

Some of the detainees have been refused return by either their countries of origin or the countries where they were captured (maybe both, the story isn't perfectly clear on that, particularly in re: the Yemeni detainees). It may take awhile to find a destination for their repatriation.
It sounds, though, as if an effort is being explored / will be undertaken to find a solution.

That is definitely a mentionable improvement, though, yes, it's a major disappointment that there will still be kangaroo courts under an Obama administration.

But read the verb tenses -- it's all what Obama should do, and how important it is to do it.

I could write just about the same thing, that doesn't mean Obama will do it. Is this what hope is? Read action on Obama's part based on someone else's opinion of what his actions should be? What happened to the 'but verify' part?

There's a difference between being glad for incremental improvements (but verify) when there's a reasonable expection of continued improvement in the same vein, versus being grateful for crumbs or half-measures (just enough to muffle the critics). It would not surprise me if where that line is doesn't turn out to be a repeated debate over the next 4 years.