Obama to name pro-union Rep. Hilda Solis to Labor post

Posted by Irati on December 31, 2008 under News | Be the First to Comment

www.latimes.com

By Peter Nicholas
December 19, 2008

Bush Has Some Advice for Obama

Posted by Irati on under Articles | Be the First to Comment

voices.washingtonpost.com

Posted at 6:17 PM ET on Dec 18, 2008

By Dan Eggen
President Bush dispensed a few words of advice to his successor today, urging President-elect Barack Obama to foster robust debate inside the White House and to keep on top of “the bureaucracy” to make sure policies are implemented.

“Creating tension is good for decision-making, so long as it doesn’t become destructive,” Bush said during a question-and-answer session at the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative think tank in Washington. “…I also like the idea of people being able to walk into the Oval office and [say], ‘Have you thought of this?’ Or, ‘The debate is headed this way, I’d like you to consider this.’”

Although Bush has been criticized for allegedly relying on a small group of like-minded advisers, he characterized himself as encouraging an open-door policy in the Oval Office. He also appeared to suggest that career federal employees had undermined some of his policies — though he didn’t provide specifics.

“Make sure information gets into the Oval Office on a timely basis so that when you find bureaucracies delaying policy, then you do something about it,” Bush said when asked for his advice to future presidents. “The best bureaucratic move, if people disagree with policy, is just to delay and hope the president isn’t paying attention.”

Bush also vowed to maintain a low profile once he leaves the White House on Jan. 20. “We’re not going to tell President-elect Obama how to run his administration, nor will I spend a lot of time second-guessing him,” Bush said. “I believe once the president gets off the stage, you get off the stage and let the next man do the job.”

Bush has made a point of pushing for a smooth transition of power between his administration and the next, and experts from both parties seem to agree that the process has gone remarkably well. The White House announced this week that Bush will host a lunch with Obama and the three living U.S. presidents — including Bush’s father — next month.

In a separate interview with CNN today, Bush suggested — perhaps with a hint of envy — that Obama may be in a position to push a broad agenda given Democratic control of Washington. “Maybe he won’t have to deal with quite as contentious issues as I did, or maybe he will, who knows,” Bush said. “He came in with a strong vote and he’s got good majorities in the House and Senate, and maybe he’ll get some things done.”

Obama’s Invocation Choice

Posted by Irati on under Articles | Be the First to Comment

www.nytimes.com

To the Editor:

Re “Obama Selects California Evangelist for Invocation at His Inauguration” (news article, Dec. 18):

How ironic that, in the name of inclusiveness, President-elect Barack Obama has invited the Rev. Rick Warren of the Saddleback Church to offer the invocation at his inauguration. According to the church Web site, gays and lesbians can attend services but are excluded from church membership.

The inaugural invocation is offered on behalf of all Americans. President-elect Obama should have given this honor to a religious leader who welcomes all Americans equally into the house of worship, no matter how God made them.

Ellen Hershey
Albany, Calif., Dec. 18, 2008

•

To the Editor:

Barack Obama’s choice of the Rev. Rick Warren to deliver the invocation at the presidential inauguration is as if Lyndon B. Johnson had selected a pastoral proponent of racial segregation to deliver the invocation in 1965.

The struggle for gay rights is the civil rights movement of this generation, and Mr. Warren, a vocal opponent of same-sex marriage, is a regressive defender of continued inequality.

President-elect Obama’s decision is not a laudable exercise of political compromise; it is a reprehensible act of moral appeasement.

David R. Dow
Houston, Dec. 18, 2008

Obama Names Insider to Commodities Post

Posted by Irati on under Articles | Be the First to Comment

www.nytimes.com

WASHINGTON — Nine years ago, Gary Gensler played a central role in fending off tough regulation for exotic financial instruments for hedging against risk. On Thursday, President-elect Barack Obama picked him for a central role in cleaning up the wreckage that some of those instruments caused.

Mr. Obama named Mr. Gensler, a former Treasury official under President Clinton, to take over a seemingly obscure backwater of regulation, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.

But the commission, which regulates the exchanges that trade futures contracts for products as varied as oil, wheat and instruments for betting on interest rates, will be a major battleground over reining in the trillion-dollar markets for credit-default swaps and other “derivative” financial instruments that greatly aggravated the damage caused by the subprime mortgage meltdown.

In 1999, Mr. Gensler worked alongside Robert E. Rubin, then the Treasury secretary under President Clinton, and Alan Greenspan, then the chairman of the Federal Reserve, to block proposals by the commission to regulate the new instruments.

In the past year, as the mortgage crisis metastasized into a collapse of the broader financial system, instruments like credit-default swaps and so-called synthetic collateralized debt obligations produced hundreds of billions of dollars of losses that have forced the federal government to bail out the financial industry at a possible cost to taxpayers that could reach trillions of dollars.

Mr. Obama has vowed to reverse the deregulatory stance of the Bush administration and overhaul the entire system of financial supervision. Though Mr. Obama’s team has not mapped a specific plan, advisers on his transition team said reining in derivatives would be one of the biggest and most complicated parts of that effort.

Advisers to Mr. Obama said Mr. Gensler, 51, would bring immense expertise to the challenge and said it would be a mistake to think that he would oppose tough regulation just because he did so in the 1990s.

Mr. Gensler, who became a partner at Goldman Sachs at the age of 30, is a staunch Democrat who was a top adviser to Paul S. Sarbanes, then a senator, in drafting the Sarbanes-Oxley law in 2002. That law, which provoked howls of protest from business groups at the time and in the years since, imposed strict rules and oversight of corporate accounting after the bookkeeping scandals at companies like Enron and Worldcom.

“They were absolutely intent on writing a tough bill,” said Michael Paese, who was a senior counsel to Democrats on the House Financial Services Committee at the time and is now a lobbyist for the securities industry.

Other Democratic staff members on the Senate Banking Committee said Mr. Sarbanes and Mr. Gensler had been so worried about diluting the proposed regulations that they excluded Harvey L. Pitt, Mr. Bush’s chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, during most of their work to draft the legislation.

At the heart of the coming political battle are credit-default swaps, which are essentially insurance contracts to protect investors if a particular bond defaults. They were used to insure hundreds of billions of dollars worth of securities backed by subprime mortgages, but they also became a huge speculative tool in their own right.

As the subprime mortgage market reached a frenzied peak from 2005 through the summer of 2007, Wall Street firms used the swaps to create vast numbers of synthetic collateralized debt obligations, which were securities that modeled the performance of pools that contained real mortgage-backed securities.

When default rates on subprime mortgages soared in 2007, companies that had written credit-default swaps were potentially on the hook for hundreds of billions of dollars.

Mr. Gensler could not be reached for comment about how his views about financial regulation have evolved.

Obama picks leave openings for the GOP

Posted by Irati on under News | Be the First to Comment

www.usatoday.com

Updated 12/18/2008 11:28 PM

Obama’s incoming administration would open vacancies in seven states, more than each of the past two presidents. His picks could put a Republican in the Arizona governor’s seat and create other competitive races in the elections in 2010, including in his home state of Illinois.

“It’s a tremendous opportunity for both the party and for the state,” Sean McCaffrey, executive director of the Arizona Republican Party, said of the governor’s seat in his state.

Secretary of State Jan Brewer, a Republican, would become the chief executive if Democratic Gov. Janet Napolitano is confirmed as Homeland Security secretary. “We’ve been jokingly calling her the governor-in-waiting,” McCaffrey said of Brewer.

Brewer has not said whether she would seek her own four-year term in 2010, but like other fill-ins, she would enjoy the fundraising and organizational advantages of incumbency if she did.

Obama has rapidly named his Cabinet and many top agency positions this month before the inauguration Jan. 20. Five of his picks are governors or members of Congress — all Democrats — who have time left in their terms.

If confirmed, New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton will serve as secretary of State, and Sen. Ken Salazar of Colorado will lead the Department of Interior. In addition to Napolitano, Obama tapped Gov. Bill Richardson of New Mexico to lead the Commerce Department. The Associated Press reported Thursday that Obama will announce Rep. Hilda Solis, D-Calif., to head the Department of Labor.

Colorado voters elected Salazar to the Senate in 2004, and they chose Democrat Mark Udall to fill the state’s other Senate seat this year. Colorado’s Democratic governor, Bill Ritter, will name a replacement to serve out Salazar’s term through 2010.

His replacement would have the power of incumbency, but registered Republicans slightly outnumber Democrats in Colorado, according to state data from October. The seat could become competitive, said Jennifer Duffy, a senior editor who monitors the Senate for the non-partisan Cook Political Report.

“I don’t think Colorado has turned solidly blue,” she said. “It just adds a degree of uncertainty.”

Delaware and Illinois must pick replacements to fill Obama’s and Vice President-elect Joe Biden’s Senate seats. That process was complicated in Illinois after Gov. Rod Blagojevich was arrested by federal authorities for allegedly trying to auction the seat off.

Leaders of both political parties have called for a special election to fill the seat. Blagojevich would presumably have named a Democrat, but a special election would give whichever party wins the power of incumbency.

President Bush named two sitting Republican governors to early positions in his administration: New Jersey’s Christine Todd Whitman to the Environmental Protection Agency and Wisconsin’s Tommy Thompson to the Department of Health and Human Services. Both states chose Democratic governors in the next election.

After the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, Bush named Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Ridge, a Republican, to lead the Office of Homeland Security, which later became a Cabinet-level department. The governor’s seat also went to a Democrat in the next election.

President Bill Clinton picked one senator, Democrat Lloyd Bentsen of Texas, and two Democratic members of the House for his first Cabinet in 1993. He also chose Al Gore, then a Democratic senator from Tennessee, as his running mate. Democrats lost the seats held by Bentsen and Gore in subsequent elections.

Brookings Institution presidential scholar Stephen Hess said it is common for presidents to pick elected officials, who often have broad expertise in many areas of government. Governors, he said, have the added experience of having managed large bureaucracies.

Each “can be considered the best person available,” he said. “But it does put in play some interesting state political situations.”

Alaska Checking E-Mailed Slurs About Obama

Posted by Irati on under Articles, News | Be the First to Comment

www.nytimes.com

Alaska officials are investigating e-mail messages that included racist jokes about President-elect Barack Obama and were circulated on state government accounts by state employees.

Officials say that the messages apparently originated in a private account but that about 10 state employees appear to have “taken action” on them, like forwarding them to others.

Bill McAllister, a spokesman for Gov. Sarah Palin, said Thursday that none of the 10 employees worked in the governor’s office and that to his knowledge no one in the office had received any of the messages, which, he said, Ms. Palin condemns.

“They violate state policy — at least that’s the prima facie view of things,” Mr. McAllister said in a telephone interview. “They’re not state business, and obviously they are offensive, and clearly she doesn’t support that. And she does not support racism, and she does not support attacks on the president-elect.”

The messages were first reported by The Associated Press, which did not say how it had learned of them. The news agency said it had obtained five messages with racist comments, including one that summarized the significance of Mr. Obama’s election victory as “another black family living in government housing.”

Annette Kreitzer, the state commissioner of administration, told The A.P. that the employees who forwarded the messages could be reprimanded but that it was unlikely they would be dismissed. Ms. Kreitzer did not immediately respond Thursday to requests for an interview.

Obama still mum on Blagojevich scandal

Posted by Irati on under News | Be the First to Comment

www.suntimes.com

President-elect Barack Obama said today he wants a U.S. Department of the Interior that “cleans up its act” and continued his silence on whether his chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, spoke with anyone in the office of embattled Gov. Rod Blagojevich to push longtime Obama friend Valerie Jarrett or anyone else to replace Obama in the U.S. Senate.

Obama’s comments at a news conference in Chicago came as he introduced Sen. Ken Salazar (D-Colo.) as his choice for interior secretary and former Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack as his pick for agriculture secretary.

“It’s a little bit frustrating,” Obama said of U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald’s request that he not release until next week a report his office has compiled of contacts between his office and Blagojevich’s. “There’s been a lot of speculation in the press I would love to correct immediately. We are abiding by the request of the U.S. Attorney’s office, but it’s not going to be that long. By next week, you guys will have the answers to all your questions.”

As Obama spoke, Emanuel stood against a wall smiling and holding his chin, exchanging an occasional comment with Obama senior adviser David Axelrod.

Blagojevich has been charged with trying to sell the Senate seat Obama has given up.

Obama cited a New York Times editorial on the influence of business on the Interior Department under President Bush to argue that Salazar must make big changes in the agency.

“I also want an Interior Department that, very frankly, cleans up its act, because there have been too many problems and too much emphasis on big-time lobbyists in Washington and not much emphasis on what’s good for the American people,” Obama said. “Over the last eight years, I think we’ve had an interior Department that was deeply troubled … [and] has been seen as an appendage of commerical interests as opposed to a place where the values and interest of the American people are heard.”

Those commerical interests should be “just one group among many” who have a voice in setting policy at the department that leases out vast stretches of the West for oil and gas exploration,” Obama said.

Salazar, appearing in his trademark Stetson hat and bolo tie at Chicago’s Drake Hotel, talked about his deep American roots and his family that has farmed the same Colorado land for five generations.

“My story in America began more than 400 years ago, when my ancestors settled the city of Sante Fe, New Mexico,” Salazar said. “They named that city the City of Holy Faith. As my family struggled for survival across 12 generations in both of those states, their faith and humanity was something that kept them sustained over the years, and it was a bedrock that made them what they are today. Today, as I stand here, I see their faith. I see their faith shining brightly on Barack Obama.”

Hispanic groups that supported Obama have agitated for a second cabinet spot for themselves in addition to New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, Obama’s choice for commerce secretary.

Vilsack, who ran for president himself and then supported Hillary Clinton, reportedly thought he was out of contention. Obama said those reports were “misinformed.”

Obama praised Vilsack for his knowledge of agriculture and willingness to embrace new ideas about it.

Obama defends inaugural invitation to Warren

Posted by Irati on under News | Be the First to Comment

www.usatoday.com

Updated 12/23/2008 11:19 PM

The choice of Warren, founder of a Southern California megachurch and best-selling author of The Purpose Driven Life, has riled some gay and lesbian advocates, liberal groups and religious leaders because he opposes gay marriage and abortion rights and has expressed what they say are extreme views on the issues.

At a news conference in Chicago, Obama called himself a “fierce advocate for equality for gay and lesbian Americans” and said he will remain so as president. But he said it’s important for people who disagree on social issues to work together.

“We’re not going to agree on every single issue, but what we have to do is be able to create an atmosphere … where we can disagree without being disagreeable and then focus on those things that we hold in common as Americans,” Obama said.

He noted that Joseph Lowery, the dean of the civil rights movement and co-founder of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, will deliver the benediction on Jan. 20.

Lowery, who has spoken out in favor of gay clergy, has “deeply contrasting views to Rick Warren on a whole host of issues,” Obama said.

Eddie Glaude, a professor of religion and African-American studies at Princeton University, calls Obama’s selection of Warren a “sign of how shrewd he is.”

By choosing Warren and Lowery as the religious bookends to the inaugural ceremony, “he’s reaching across a wide swath of the American religious community,” Glaude says.

“During the course of the entire inaugural festivities, there are going to be a wide range of viewpoints that are presented,” said Obama, who appeared with Republican presidential nominee Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., at a campaign forum at Warren’s Saddleback Church. “And that’s how it should be because that’s what America is about. That’s part of the magic of this country — that we are diverse and noisy and opinionated.”

Kristin Cole, a spokeswoman for Warren, said he had no comment.

Kathryn Kolbert of the liberal People for the American Way said it’s a “good thing” for Obama to reach out to Warren and others with conservative views on social issues. “But that’s different from giving him a seat of honor at one of the most historic events of the century,” she said.

Warren has equated abortion to the Holocaust and earlier this year, he angered gay and lesbian groups by supporting California’s Proposition 8, a ballot measure banning gay marriage that was approved by voters. “In the aftermath of Prop 8, it feels even more insensitive and politically inappropriate,” said Joe Solmonese, head of the Human Rights Campaign, a gay rights group.

Washington, D.C.’s Episcopal Bishop John Bryson Chane, head of Washington National Cathedral, said Warren deserves praise for his efforts on behalf of people with AIDS, the poor in Africa and global warming.

But Chane said Thursday he was “profoundly disappointed” in Obama’s decision to make Warren part of the inaugural ceremony.

“I appreciate that there is political advantage in elevating the relatively moderate Mr. Warren above some of his brethren on the religious right,” Chane said. But Obama’s selection of Warren “confers legitimacy on attitudes that are deeply contrary to the all-inclusive love of God.”

Obama overlooks Northwest in Cabinet choices

Posted by Irati on under Articles | Be the First to Comment

seattlepi.nwsource.com

By JOEL CONNELLY
P-I COLUMNIST

Obama and the Transparency Trap

Posted by Irati on under Articles | Be the First to Comment

voices.washingtonpost.com

One of the most common — and popular — mantras during the campaign of President-elect Barack Obama was the call for more transparency in government — an obvious rejection of the secrecy that often shrouded the administration of President George W. Bush.

And yet, that call for transparency often ran directly into a careful husbanding of information by Obama’s inner circle that was, well, Bush-like in its intensity.

Mark Leibovich, a Fix friend and reporter for the New York Times, addressed this seeming paradox in a must-read profile of incoming White House spokesman Robert Gibbs.

Writes Leibovich:

“Obama insiders tend to shudder at any parallels to George W. Bush, but many reporters and rivals have noted the ‘Bush-like’ tendencies the Obama campaign demonstrated in its ability to control information. The comparison is generally meant as a compliment (albeit a grudging one) by members of the press and expressed enviously by veterans of other campaigns. [Obama campaign manager David] Plouffe himself admitted to me that the Obama campaign subscribed to the ‘Bush model’ of communications discipline. Asked if Obama himself spoke of the ‘Bush model,’ Plouffe told me he did.”

There is one important area where Obama and Bush differ on the issue — in the court of public opinion. In a recent national poll conducted by the Post/ABC, two-thirds of the sample said that Obama was “honest and trustworthy” while just 22 percent said he was not. Those numbers compare very favorably with Bush of whom, in a January 2007 Post/ABC survey, 40 percent said he was “honest and trustworthy” while 57 percent said he was not.

Not only are voters willing to give Obama the benefit of the doubt on the transparency issue but he has also drawn praise in many circles for the number (12) of press conferences he has held and questions (51) he has taken since winning the presidency. (Thanks to the Washington Times’ Christine Bellantoni for keeping the numbers.)

But, according to his critics, Obama has also been less than transparent in at least two instances already during the transition to the presidency.

The first came during his fifth press conference when Peter Baker of the New York Times asked Obama to explain the evolution of his thoughts about Hillary Rodham Clinton’s foreign policy experience from the primary season to now. Obama dismissed the question as an example of the media having “fun” but was blasted for the dodge by CNN’s Campbell Brown among others.

Then, on Tuesday, Obama cut short a question by the Chicago Tribune’s John McCormick about the ongoing scandal surrounding Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich and the involvement, if any, of allies to the former Illinois senator. (Matt Drudge spent most of Wednesday linking to this YouTube clip of the exchange.)

Republicans, not surprisingly, pounced. “Considering Barack Obama’s promises of transparency and new politics, so far his less-than-forthcoming handling of the scandal in Illinois is disappointing,” said Republican National Comnittee spokesman Alex Conant. “Obama has failed to answer many basic questions about the Blagojevich scandal. This a case where the American people will find out if Obama’s campaign rhetoric is met with action or if it’s just words.”

Is there a disconnect between Obama’s rhetoric on transparency and the real-life examples we have to date?

That depends on where you stand.

Anita Dunn, a former senior adviser to Obama’s campaign, argued to Leibovich that the media fundamentally misunderstand what transparency means.

“Sometimes the press corps thinks transparency and openness should be defined as carrying out all of our internal deliberations on the Web so they could watch,” Dunn told Leibo. “But in fact, transparency and openness is about the process of how government is run. It’s not necessarily about who might be mad at whom on a different day.”

But, with a pledge to be the most open and transparent government in the history of American politics, Obama has set a higher bar for himself — and for the media.

Combine that with the fact that the press remains scalded by the criticism that they did not question President George W. Bush closely enough and you can expect a day in, day out battle between the media and Obama’s aides over how much (or little) they are revealing and why.

By Chris Cillizza |  December 18, 2008; 2:58 PM ET

Obama promises details of aides’ contacts with Blagojevich next week

Posted by Irati on under He Say, News | Be the First to Comment

www.latimes.com

Obama frustrated, Supreme Court dismissive, Blagojevich runs

Posted by Irati on under Articles | Be the First to Comment

latimesblogs.latimes.com

Where’s Illinois’ embattled governor running to?

Today’s Illinois corruption capsule:

The Illinois Supreme Court chucked out — with no comment — the state attorney general’s effort to have embattled Gov. Rod Blagojevich suspended from duties in general, particularly naming a replacement to Barack Obama’s vacant Senate seat.

Atty. Gen. Lisa Madigan had sought the long-shot legal bid while the state Legislature’s time-consuming impeachment process grinds on under the leadership of her father, House Speaker Mike Madigan.

Republicans are also seeking to have expensive but air-clearing special statewide primary and general Senate elections by April because that way they have a chance of winning. The Democrats tend to frown on that idea and like the notion of Lt. Gov. Pat Quinn automatically succeeding Blagojevich and naming the replacement. You’ll never guess which party Quinn belongs to.

At another one of his Cabinet-naming news conferences in Chicago, President-elect Obama, a one-time political ally of the governor’s with a common (now imprisoned) fundraiser in Antoin “Tony” Rezko, said he found it really “frustrating” to be unable to list and explain his office’s legitimate contacts with the governor, who’s accused of trying to sell the seat. Obama says the U.S. attorney has asked him to delay the release.

As foreseen by The Ticket last week, the contact list will now not be released until next week at the earliest. That’s when, oh, gee, look, Obama will be out of camera range in Hawaii on vacation and unavailable for questions for 10 days while the world focuses on the holidays and maybe stops wondering what Obama’s new chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, and/or possibly others were talking about with Blagojevich.

The governor in this Tribune video (top) also appears to be running off.  However, he’s just jogging through Chicago’s snowy streets, which he says he does daily to clear his head.

– Andrew Malcolm

Posted on December 17, 2008

Obama focuses on alternative energy, environment

Posted by Irati on under Articles | Be the First to Comment

uk.reuters.com

Wed Dec 17, 2008 1:57pm GMT

By Deborah Charles

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Insisting on the need to develop new forms of energy, U.S. President-elect Barack Obama on Monday chose as his energy secretary a Nobel physics laureate who is a major promoter of alternative fuels.

Obama named Steven Chu, the winner of the 1997 Nobel Prize in physics who was an early advocate for finding scientific solutions to climate change, to head the Energy Department.

Chu will work closely with former Environmental Protection Agency head Carol Browner, whom Obama named to a new post that will coordinate White House policy on energy and climate change.

“In the 21st century, we know that the future of our economy and national security is inextricably linked with one challenge: energy,” Obama told a news conference. “All of us know the problems that are rooted in our addiction to foreign oil. It constrains our economy, shifts wealth to hostile regimes and leaves us dependent on unstable regions.”

“To control our own destiny, America must develop new forms of energy and new ways of using it. And this is not a challenge for government alone — it’s a challenge for all of us.”

Obama also named Lisa Jackson, former head of the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, to run the Environmental Protection Agency. He named Nancy Sutley, a deputy mayor of Los Angeles, to head the White House Council on Environmental Quality.

To round out his energy and environment team, Obama will name Colorado Democratic Sen. Ken Salazar, a former environmental lawyer, as secretary of the interior, transition aides and Democratic sources said. The Department of the Interior leases public lands for oil and gas drilling.

Obama said he would officially announce his choice for the Interior department later this week.

The president-elect will hold a meeting of his key economic team on Tuesday. Transition officials would give no details but said the meeting would include nominees for all the top financial posts including the Treasury Department, National Economic Council and the Office of Management and Budget.

Obama’s energy and environmental team will play a major role in his quest to revive the U.S. economy by boosting renewable energy use and creating millions of “green” jobs that will ease America’s reliance to foreign oil.

The president-elect, who takes office on January 20, pointed out that other U.S. presidents over the past three decades had pledged to make America less dependent on foreign energy supplies.

“THIS TIME WE CANNOT FAIL”

“This time has to be different. This time we cannot fail, nor can we be lulled into complacency simply because the price at the pump has for now gone down from $4 a gallon,” he said.

Obama’s choices were applauded by environmentalists who said they showed he was serious about combating global warming and about moving toward more “green” jobs.

Obama’s energy and environment team will also be charged with developing policies to reduce carbon emissions blamed for global warming.

He said his nomination of Chu should send a signal his administration will “value science.”

“We will make decisions based on the facts, and we understand that facts demand bold action,” Obama added.

The Bush administration has had a rocky relationship with the scientific community and was at times accused by critics of ignoring scientific evidence in its efforts to make political points on issues such as global warming.

Obama, who has begun to lay out plans for a massive recovery plan to stimulate the economy and create about 2.5 million jobs, said many of them should be “green” jobs.

“We can create millions of jobs, starting with a 21st century economic recovery plan that puts Americans to work building wind farms, solar panels, and fuel-efficient cars.”

Obama has set a goal of making public buildings more efficient, modernizing the electricity grid and reducing greenhouse gas emissions while preserving national resources.

He refused to answer directly a reporter’s question on whether he would reinstate the presidential ban on offshore drilling, which President George W. Bush recently revoked.

Also on Monday, Obama had a 5 1/2 hour meeting with his national security team, discussing a range of international challenges for the Obama administration, including the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Obama will hold another news conference on Tuesday to announce he has chosen Chicago superintendent of schools Arne Duncan to be his nominee for secretary of education, a senior Democrat said on Monday.

Duncan has seven years experience as chief executive of Chicago’s public school system, the third largest in the country, and has earned a reputation for addressing issues such as how to raise teacher quality and transform weak schools.

Tuesday’s news conference will be held at 11:45 a.m. EST (1645 GMT) at an elementary school he and Duncan visited together in October 2005.

(Additional reporting by Tom Doggett and Ayesha Rascoe; Editing by Peter Cooney and Todd Eastham)

Latin America leaders tell Obama to end Cuba embargo

Posted by Irati on under Articles | Be the First to Comment

www.washingtonpost.com

Reuters
Wednesday, December 17, 2008; 8:41 PM

COSTA DO SAUIPE, Brazil (Reuters) - Latin American leaders called on President-elect Barack Obama on Wednesday to lift the 46-year-old U.S. embargo against Cuba as soon as he takes office.

The leaders of 33 Latin American and Caribbean nations said the unilateral enforcement of sanctions was “unacceptable” and said Washington must comply with U.N. resolutions condemning the embargo imposed against Cuba at the height of the Cold War in 1962.

Meeting in northeastern Brazil, they demanded the immediate lifting of measures taken in the last five years by President George W. Bush to toughen the embargo against Cuba, where Fidel Castro seized power in a 1959 revolution.

Obama, who takes office on January 20, is expected to lift measures restricting cash remittances and travel to Cuba by Cubans living in the United States. But he has said will keep the embargo to encourage democratic change in the one-party state.

Cuba has won more friends in Latin America in recent years as center-left and socialist presidents have been elected and U.S. influence has declined sharply.

Showing their greater independence from the United States, the region’s leaders welcomed Cuba into the so-called Rio Group of Latin American and Caribbean countries

Cuban President Raul Castro, who took over earlier this year after his brother Fidel Castro fell ill, was feted by fellow leftists at the summit meeting here.

The Latin American leaders also pressed for a bigger say in world affairs, saying the global economic crisis was not of their making but was undermining their countries’ stability.

They were fiercely critical of rich countries as the source of the crisis which has slowed growth in the region as commodity prices fall and foreign capital dries up.

Ecuador last week defaulted on its foreign debt, sparking fears of other defaults. Venezuela may have to slash spending if oil prices remain low, and other countries will face cash squeezes as mining and agricultural exports fall in value.

“We have an important part to play in building a new international economic and political architecture,” said Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, the summit host.

‘WORRIED’

“I’m worried. Every day the risk premium of my country rises and in the United States it’s zero. Something is wrong,” Lula added.

Obama Pick to Lead SEC Is Veteran Wall St. Regulator

Posted by Irati on under Articles | Be the First to Comment

www.washingtonpost.com

Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, December 18, 2008

President-elect Barack Obama has chosen a veteran regulator to head the Securities and Exchange Commission, the beleaguered agency that has been pilloried by lawmakers for failing to prevent the global financial meltdown, senior Democratic officials said yesterday.

The selection of Mary L. Schapiro, who would be the first woman to chair the SEC on more than an interim basis, follows a series of high-profile controversies that have raised doubts about its competence as the chief enforcer of Wall Street under the leadership of its current chairman, Christopher Cox. The SEC’s failure to detect Bernard L. Madoff’s alleged $50 billion Ponzi scheme before it was revealed last week has prompted even Cox himself to question the agency’s performance.

Schapiro, a Wall Street regulator for 20 years with a reputation for tenacity, is likely to push the SEC to become more aggressive in policing the financial industry and advocating the agency’s interests as lawmakers push for an overhaul of the financial regulatory structure, according to former officials and colleagues.

“If there is anybody who is going to reinvigorate the SEC, it is Mary,” said David M. Becker, a former general counsel at the agency. “I have no doubt that with her leading the SEC, it will show its teeth whenever necessary.”

Schapiro, 53, has a history of attracting support from Republicans and Democrats. President Ronald Reagan appointed her as a commissioner at the SEC, where she served for six years and eventually was named acting chair by President Bill Clinton. He later made her the chief of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.

The fact that she has led both agencies could make it easier for the Obama administration to merge the functions of the two agencies as part of a broad regulatory overhaul expected next year. Key regulators and lawmakers have advocated such a move, arguing that the bifurcation of duties created a gap in oversight that contributed to the financial crisis.

Schapiro, whose selection will be announced today in Chicago, heads the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, Wall Street’s self-regulator known as FINRA. She has worked for the non-governmental group since 1996.

She is likely to face questions during her confirmation hearing about why her organization did not catch the alleged Ponzi scheme run by Madoff. She oversees firms like his.

Rep. Spencer Bachus (Ala.), the top Republican on the House Financial Services Committee, issued a letter yesterday calling for separate hearings “to specifically examine the adequacy of the SEC’s and FINRA’s examination programs.” Such a hearing could put Schapiro on public display among the current cast of regulators even as the incoming administration is presenting her as an agent for change at the SEC.

Several critics of the SEC said yesterday that Schapiro would be an ideal choice who could reverse what they see as the agency’s failure to adequately prevent abuses on Wall Street.

“She believes in a vigorous enforcement program and is just the right person to revitalize the Commission,” Joel Seligman, an SEC historian, wrote in an e-mail.

In a speech in October, Schapiro said she has pushed for nearly 15 years for more oversight of credit default swaps, a complex and virtually unregulated financial instrument that played a role in the financial collapse.

“Clearly, our regulatory system failed to compensate for the failures of market discipline and failed to appreciate the interdependencies of financial institutions and the risks they shared,” she said. “The system did not allow regulators to stay ahead of this crisis and prevent it from ever occurring.”

Staff writers Binyamin Appelbaum, Philip Rucker and Anne E. Kornblut and staff researcher Madonna Lebling contributed to this report.

Stimulus plan could shape course of Barack Obama’s presidency

Posted by Irati on under News | Be the First to Comment

www.latimes.com

By Peter Nicholas
December 18, 2008

Russia Plans to Test Obama, U.S. Diplomat Says

Posted by Irati on under News | Be the First to Comment

www.nytimes.com

WASHINGTON (Reuters) — Russia has become more rigid in dealing with the United States on issues like the Bush administration’s plans for a missile shield in Europe, and it looks ready to test the administration of President-elect Barack Obama, a senior American diplomat said Wednesday.

The diplomat, John Rood, under secretary of state for arms control and international security, said that talks in Moscow this week had failed to narrow differences between Russia and the United States on the missile shield plan and suggested that Russia was pausing to take stock of the Obama team.

“They have paused with the election of a new administration in the United States, and they are looking carefully at the position of the new team,” Mr. Rood told reporters.

“My assessment is that the Russians intend to test the mettle of the new administration and the new president,” he said.

Russia’s stance on the missile shield and other issues was less flexible, Mr. Rood said, than it had been in previous talks.

Russia rejects the American position that it needs to place interceptor missiles in Poland and a radar system in the Czech Republic to shield Europe and the United States from potential missile strikes from Iran.

Russia says the project is intended to undermine Russia as well, and it has threatened to place missiles in its western enclave of Kaliningrad, near Poland.

Mr. Obama, who is to be sworn in as president on Jan. 20, has said he will make sure any missile defense system has been demonstrated to work before permitting its deployment.

Russia, whose brief war with Georgia in August sent relations with the United States to the lowest level since the end of the cold war, has tried to strike a generally positive tone on Mr. Obama since his election last month.

Prime Minister Vladimir V. Putin of Russia said this month that the United States would quickly feel a change in attitude from Moscow if the new president altered American policies toward Russia.

Obama Selects Saddleback Founder for Invocation

Posted by Irati on under News | Be the First to Comment

www.nytimes.com

Barack Obama has selected the Rev. Rick Warren, the evangelical pastor and author of “The Purpose Driven Life,” to deliver the invocation at his inauguration, a role that positions Mr. Warren to succeed Billy Graham as the nation’s pre-eminent minister and reflects the generational changes in the evangelical Christian movement.

In a departure from past inaugurations, which usually feature operatic soloists, Aretha Franklin will perform. A quartet that includes Itzhak Perlman and Yo-Yo Ma will play a piece composed for the inauguration by John Williams, whose “Patriot” resounded during Mr. Obama’s election night celebration in Grant Park in Chicago.

Mr. Obama’s inauguration program, for Jan. 20, was announced Wednesday by the Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Celebrations.

Inauguration programs follow a traditional outline but also allow a president-elect to put his stamp on the proceedings and set the tone for his administration.

The choice of Mr. Warren, pastor of a megachurch in Orange County, Calif., is an olive branch to conservative Christian evangelicals. Mr. Warren is an outspoken opponent of abortion and same-sex marriage — litmus-test issues for Christian conservatives. In fact, his selection set off a round of criticism by gay rights groups angered by his support for California’s ban on same-sex marriages.

But Mr. Warren has also been one of the most prominent evangelical leaders calling for Christians to expand their agenda and confront global problems like poverty, AIDS, climate change and genocide in Darfur.

Mr. Warren flaunted his clout this year when he managed to draw both John McCain and Barack Obama to his Saddleback Church for a forum in which he interviewed them on stage about faith issues. He has sometimes angered the older generation of conservative evangelical leaders aligned with the Republican Party, as when he invited Mr. Obama to speak about AIDS at an earlier event at his church.

Following Mr. Warren will be Ms. Franklin, who grew up singing gospel music before turning to soul and pop. She sang at Bill Clinton’s inauguration concert in 1993 (“Someday We’ll All Be Free” and “Respect”) but not at the inauguration ceremony itself.

Next, Vice President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. will be sworn in by Justice John Paul Stevens.

Then the new work by Mr. Williams will be played by a classical devotee’s fantasy quartet: Mr. Perlman on violin, Mr. Ma on cello, Gabriela Montero on piano and Anthony McGill on clarinet.

Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. will administer the oath of office to Mr. Obama, who will then deliver his inaugural address.

A poetry reading will follow by Elizabeth Alexander, who teaches African-American studies at Yale and is only the fourth poet to read at an inauguration. (The others were Robert Frost in 1961, Maya Angelou in 1993, and Miller Williams in 1997.)

Mr. Obama has asked the Rev. Dr. Joseph E. Lowery, co-founder with the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, to deliver the benediction.

The ceremony will close with the Sea Chanters of the United States Navy Band singing the National Anthem.

Laurie Goodstein contributed reporting.

Obama, Duncan take elementary questions

Posted by Irati on December 30, 2008 under Articles | Be the First to Comment

www.chicagotribune.com

By John McCormick |Tribune reporter

December 17, 2008

After naming Chicago public schools chief Arne Duncan as his pick for education secretary Tuesday and answering four questions from reporters, it was time for Barack Obama to face the real grilling.

Waiting in the second-floor library at Dodge Renaissance Academy on the West Side were about a dozen eager elementary students with questions for the president-elect.

Obama was joined by Duncan and Vice President-elect Joe Biden. All three had their suit coats off as the future president answered about 10 questions on everything from the White House to Iraq to what it is like to be on TV.

On a serious note, Obama told the students he is considering whether the federal government should push for longer school days and longer school years to better compete globally.

Another student talked about a cousin serving in Iraq, prompting Obama to say he hopes to have most of the fighting troops back in “about a year and a half.”

Obama also joked about how Biden had recently gotten a new dog, and that he planned to do the same for his own daughters.

Obama said he would be coming back to Chicago “often” and explained that his future full-time home has many rooms, including a “pretty nice office” that is oval.

Obama picks Vilsack as Agriculture secretary

Posted by Irati on under News | Be the First to Comment

www.latimes.com

By John McCormick and Mike Dorning
December 17, 2008

But after Obama won the Democratic nomination, Vilsack campaigned for his general election effort in Iowa and other states.

Vilsack would be the fourth high-level appointment of a former presidential campaign rival to Obama’s team, following Clinton for secretary of State, Delaware Sen. Joe Biden for vice president and New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson for Commerce secretary.

“He knows production agriculture, and he knows the changes we need to ensure its profitability and future, including for young and beginning farmers and ranchers,” Sen. Tom Harkin, an Iowa Democrat who chairs the Senate Agriculture Committee, said in a statement.

Iowa’s Republican senator also endorsed the selection.

“He has a firsthand look at the role of agriculture in our global economy,” Sen. Charles E. Grassley said in a statement. “I’m happy for him, happy for Iowa, and this is welcome news for agriculture.”

A former mayor and state legislator from Mount Pleasant, Iowa, Vilsack campaigned for president himself, but dropped out of the race in February 2007 after just 86 days of campaigning.

While running for president, he took an unusual position for a farm-state official, arguing to cut subsidies for agricultural commodity crops and channel the money toward improving environmental practices. He has argued that agricultural policy should focus on production of renewable energy. He also wrote newspaper articles before the election in support of Obama’s energy policies.

In an essay published in October, he urged greater investment in cellulosic ethanol, bio-fuel production plants and wind farms, and advocated “carbon credits” for farmers whose production reduces greenhouse gases associated with global warming.

Some advocates of organic food, meanwhile, have criticized Vilsack as being too supportive of biotechnology company efforts to market genetically modified foods.

In 1998, Vilsack was elected Iowa’s first Democratic governor in 32 years. He won reelection in 2002 but did not run a third time, keeping a term-limit promise he had made.

A native of Pittsburgh, he was one of three finalists to be Sen. John F. Kerry’s running mate in 2004.

mccormickj@tribune.com

mdorning@tribune.com