President-elect Barack Obama, who vowed during his campaign that lobbyists “won’t find a job in my White House,” said through a spokesman yesterday that he would allow lobbyists on his transition team as long as they work on issues unrelated to their earlier jobs. Obama’s transition chief laid out ethics rules – which also bar [...]
Posts Tagged ‘barack obama’
In key states, Latino vote fueled Obama’s victory
Latinos are hailed as a key voting bloc, even though they show their power at the polls only sporadically. When they turned out in record numbers to vote for Democrat Barack Obama, they not only erased recent gains by Republicans but shattered the myth of a black-Latino divide. Amid worries about home foreclosures and economic [...]
Universal Civil Service: is it that bad?
Rep. Rahm Emanuel of Illinois, President-Elect Barack Obama’s choice for chief of staff in his incoming administration, is co-author of a book, The Plan: Big Ideas for America, that calls for, among other things, compulsory service for all Americans ages 18 to 25. Emanuel and co-author Bruce Reed insist “this is not a draft,” but [...]
Some sanity on the election
Some 95 per cent of black voters backed the black guy against McCain, the white Republican. In the Democratic primaries it had been much the same, with as many as 90 per cent backing Obama against Hillary Clinton, the white Democrat. (If you’re looking for a racist vote, start here.) Two-thirds of Latino and Asian [...]
"Hope" and "Change" — not so much, actually
At the quarter point in the transition process, Obama has surrounded himself with a cadre of seasoned political operatives and Clinton administration veterans known more for their expertise than ideology. Beltway savvy and centrist policy chops have, so far, trumped partisanship. { snip } But the selection of so many centrist insiders has skeptics wondering [...]
First political purges for Obama
Before Hillary Clinton has been formally offered the job as Secretary of State, a purge of Barack Obama’s top foreign policy team has begun. The advisers who helped trash the former First Lady’s foreign policy credentials on the campaign trail are being brutally shunted aside, as the price of her accepting the job of being [...]
The Clinton economy was luck not logic
While much of the damage inflicted on Citigroup and the broader economy was caused by errant, high-octane trading and lax oversight, critics say, blame also reaches into the highest levels at the bank. Earlier this year, the Federal Reserve took the bank to task for poor oversight and risk controls in a report it sent [...]
Obama’s new AG wants more Marijuana penalties
U.S. Attorney Eric H. Holder Jr. said in an interview that he is considering not only prosecuting more marijuana cases but also asking the D.C. Council to enact stiffer penalties for the sale and use of marijuana. “We have too long taken the view that what we would term to be minor crimes are not [...]
You can’t have anything to defend yourselves against us
President-elect Barack Obama’s transition team is asking potential appointees detailed questions about gun ownership, and firearms advocates aren’t happy about it. { snip } Tucked in at the end of the questionnaire and listed under “Miscellaneous,” it reads: “Do you or any members of your immediate family own a gun? If so, provide complete ownership [...]
Al-Qaeda insults Obama, American racial pretense
I don’t agree with what they’re doing, but I’ve always thought Osama bin Laden and Ayman Al-Zawahiri were intelligent people. (I do agree that the Middle East should rule itself, although I am a supporter of Israel.) Al-Qaida’s No. 2 leader used a racial epithet to insult Barack Obama in a message posted Wednesday, describing [...]
