Obama Administration

By Star-Bulletin

Demonstrators protesting Israel’s bombardment of the Gaza Strip tried to get President-elect Barack Obama’s attention this morning in Kailua.

About six demonstrators assembled near the security checkpoint fronting the entrance to the $9 million rental home where Obama and his family are staying. Some carried signs urging Obama to address U.S. foreign policy when he takes office.

Ann Wright, a retired Army colonel, wore a T-shirt that read: “We will not be silent” and carried a sign that read: “Change U.S. foreign policy. Yes we can.”

Wright, 62, of Honolulu, said the demonstrators represented various groups, including her organization Veterans for Peace.

Other signs read “War is Terror” and “Free Palestine.”

“From the people who put you in office”
By Mike Ferner

Determined to keep President-elect Barack Obama true to his promise of change, peace and economic justice activists kick off an 18-day outdoor vigil January 1, four blocks from the Illinois Senator’s home in Chicago.

Camp Hope, headquartered in the Windy City’s Drexel Square Park, seeks to have Obama swiftly enact eight initiatives on issues he supported during his campaign.

A Thursday, 1:00 pm news conference will feature ministers, a Chicago City Alderman, a 25 year-old father facing deportation after living in the U.S. for 17 years and the mother of Tomas Young, a paraplegic Iraq war veteran featured in the movie, “Body of War.”

Change.org, which is not Obama's, seems to be producing similar results to Change.gov which is. I got this Email today from Change.org:

Hello David,

We wanted to let you know that the first round of voting for the Ideas for Change in America competition will end this Wednesday, December 31 at midnight Pacific Time.

You have voted for the following ideas:

* Appoint Secretary of Peace in Department of Peace and Non-Violence (currently in 1st place in the Other category)
* Appoint a Special Prosecutor for the Crimes of the Bush Administration (currently in 1st place in the Government Reform category)

You can also see all the ideas you have voted for by clicking the following link:

http://www.change.org/ideas/your_ideas

President-Elect Obama's website asked for questions. People submitted and voted on questions, and finishing in sixth place was this one:

"Will you appoint a Special Prosecutor - ideally Patrick Fitzgerald - to independently investigate the gravest crimes of the Bush Administration, including torture and warrantless wiretapping?"
Bob Fertik, New York City

Now round two begins, and we'd appreciate your voting for this question:

"Do you believe the pardon power extends to allowing a president to authorize a crime and then pardon his subordinate? Are you aware that the Geneva Conventions and the Convention Against Torture commit the United States to prosecuting violators?"
David Swanson, Charlottesville VA

Please go here, and...

1. Sign in. Click to sign into the Change.gov website. It's just one easy step. You won't need to check your Email, and you'll be returned to the screen you were on.

2. Search. On the Open-for-Questions page type or paste into the search box these words:
pardon power

3. Vote. That should bring up the right question which you can then vote for by clicking on the check mark.
Please do it now!

Note to the confused: Yes, I've squeezed two questions into one, and the answers we'd like to them are "no" and "yes." That should not give you any difficulty in voting the two questions together up the list by clicking the check mark. You're not answering them yes or no but voting them up to where the president elect has to read them. Thanks!!

UPDATE 1: Please also vote for this question:
"Will you appoint a Special Prosecutor - ideally Patrick Fitzgerald - to independently investigate the gravest crimes of the Bush Administration, including torture and warrantless wiretapping?"
-Bob Fertik, New York City

New Note to the further confused: We appreciate the efforts of everyone who has copied the above questions word-for-word and reposted them as new questions, but this is actually counterproductive. Instead, please find the questions posted by David Swanson and Bob Fertik and click the check mark. That's our best shot at moving those questions up the list. Thanks!

UPDATE 2: Please also vote for this question:
"* President-Elect Obama, you were elected in large part because of your promise to end the War in Iraq. Will you sit down with leaders of the peace movement to talk about bringing our troops home? Sincerely, PeaceVoter"
CODEPINK Women for Peace, Anywhere, USA

Rev. Rick Warren's Invocation | Jerry's Place

When I first heard that President-elect Obama invited Rev. Warren to give the invocation for the Inauguration, I was saddened. There are so many other pastors to whom he could have turned, Rev. Jim Wallis, Rev. Jesse Jackson, a Catholic bishop, or a Rabbi. Why the pastor who rigged the debate between the two nominees for President? Why the pastor who supported California Prop 8 and verbally beats up on some folks he disagrees with? At least, the pastor giving the benediction, Rev. Joseph Lowrey, is going to get the last word.

By Jason Leopold, The Public Record

Barack Obama's decision to have the evangelical megachurch leader Rick Warren conduct the invocation at next month's presidential inauguration proves that fundamentalist Christians still wield enormous power within the federal government and will likely continue to be a dominating force under an Obama administration.

Nowhere is this more apparent than in the U.S. military where for the past several years, in apparent violation of the Establishment Clause of the U.S. Constitution, chaplains have openly proselytized to thousands of active-duty soldiers and, in some cases, have tried to convert Iraqis and Afghans to Christianity.

Rick Warren is an insulting choice
Preacher Rick Warren's views are simply too extreme for Obama's supporters.
By Katha Pollitt | LATimes.com

To understand how angry and disappointed many Democrats are that Barack Obama has invited evangelical preacher Rick Warren to give the invocation at his inaugural, imagine if a President-elect John McCain had offered this unique honor to the Rev. Al Sharpton -- or the Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr. I know, it's hard to picture: John McCain would never do that in a million years. Republicans respect their base even when, as in McCain's case, it doesn't really return the favor.

by Linda Milazzo

For years since the United States invaded Iraq, I've witnessed countless photo and video images of innocent civilians - men, women, teens and children - being rudely and aggressively threatened by hired uniformed militants (mostly men), wielding guns. I've seen these images from Iraq, Afghanistan, Somalia, Haiti, Palestine, and more. Whether they be armed American military threatening Iraqis, armed Israeli soldiers threatening Palestinians, or armed Ethiopian troops threatening Somalis, the images have always disturbed me. There's an inherent injustice to such blatant imbalance of power. An injustice I suffered recently myself.

The oddity here is that unlike those less fortunate innocents in war zones who faced the guns of hired aggressors, I was not in a war zone when I faced mine. I wasn't even in a high crime zone. I was in a gentle middle class suburb, where my aggressor, an armed Brinks, Inc. security guard, was in full combat-mode performing his non war-zone duty. My aggressor more typified the machismo of a Blackwater guard than the demeanor of community-minded Brinks, when he flailed his loaded gun at me, as though he'd done it often before. My armed Brinks aggressor was not merely disrespectful. He was downright hostile and dangerous. He treated me as his enemy and freely showed me his force.

Here's how it happened:

Obama v. Richard Falk on Israel and Occupied Palestine
by Stephen Lendman

Obama leaves no ambiguity where he stands. From public statements, campaign pledges, policy advisors, and war cabinet selections, his positions affirm:

• one-sided pro-Israeli zealotry;
• continued Palestinian oppression;
• no end to the Iraq war and occupation;
• possibly attacking Iran and/or allying with Israel to do it;
• pursuing an imperial agenda; targeting Pakistan, Russia and other countries;
• expanding the size of the military; increasing expenditures for it; and
• providing Israel annually with billions of dollars; the latest weapons and technology; the same zero interest rate loans Wall Street gets; liberal debt forgiveness; virtually anything Israel requests on the pretext of security, to wage aggressive war, or expand its illegal settlements; and
• acquiescing and remaining silent after Israel insulted a high UN official by harassing and detaining him, then expelling him from the country.

Biden on prosecuting Bush officials for torture: ‘I think we should be looking forwards, not backwards.’
Think Progress

On ABC’s This Week, host George Stephanopoulos asked Vice President-elect Joe Biden whether high-level Bush administration officials should be prosecuted for prisoner abuse. “The questions of whether or not a criminal act has been committed…is something the Justice Department decides,” Biden responded. “That’s a decision I’d look to the Justice Department to make.” While stating he was “not ruling it in and not ruling it out,” Biden underscored that he and Obama are are “focusing on the future.” “I think we should be looking forward, not backwards,” he argued.

A Not-So-Modest To-Do List for Obama's First Term | Lexis, Nexus, Solar Plexus

Here's a not-so-modest list of actions that should be taken by Obama in his first term in order to right the ship of state and return the United States to the path of a true democratic republic – of the people, by the people and for the people. This is by no means complete or comprehensive; nor are the items listed by priority or expediency.

1. End the illegal war in Iraq and remove all US personnel and contractors other than those necessary for manning and securing the US embassy at levels consistent with other embassies in the Middle-east.

2. End the illegal war in Afghanistan and remove all US personnel and contractors other than those necessary for manning and securing the US embassy at levels consistent with other embassies in the Western Asia.

Tomgram: Ira Chernus, What the President-Elect Should Be Reading | TomDispatch.com

Obama's New Appointments
by Stephen Lendman

The beat goes on. As with his economic and security appointments, Obama again disappointed but didn't surprise. Without exception, his team assures business as usual, a near-seamless transition from George Bush, and not "change to believe in." His latest choices raise more cause for concern and with good reason.

By Lori Lipman Brown, Director, Secular Coalition for America

The Obama administration invites Americans to tell them "what America can be, where President-Elect Obama should lead this country [and] where to start." Obama's choice of Rev. Rick Warren, who has stated that an atheist could not be a good President, to perform the opening invocation at his inauguration ceremony is not a good start for building inclusion and respect with the nontheistic community.

Make your voice heard here!

The Secular Coalition for America has sent a letter to the Obama administration expressing our disappointment with his indifference to nontheistic and secular-minded Americans. We urge you to send your own letter to the Obama administration telling them that a good start would be to include nontheistic viewpoints in the inauguration or at the very least, not to embrace speakers who have disparaged us.

Make your voice heard here!

Generals Propose a Timetable for Iraq
By ELISABETH BUMILLER and THOM SHANKER, NY Times

WASHINGTON — A new military plan for troop withdrawals from Iraq that was described in broad terms this week to President-elect Barack Obama falls short of the 16-month timetable Mr. Obama outlined during his election campaign, United States military officials said Wednesday.

The plan was proposed by the top American commanders responsible for Iraq, Gen. David H. Petraeus and Gen. Ray Odierno, and it represents their first recommendation on troop withdrawals under an Obama presidency. While Mr. Obama has said he will seek advice from his commanders, their resistance to a faster drawdown could present the new president with a tough political choice between overruling his generals or backing away from his goal.

By Dave Lindorff

A month before he takes office, it has become the conventional wisdom in our conventional media that Barack “No Drama” Obama will not seek or even allow any prosecution of Bush administration officials for crimes committed over the past eight years—not even for authorizing and promoting the illegal use of torture on captives of America’s wars on Iraq, Afghanistan and “terror.”

The More Things Change, Etc.: Obama Emulated Bush Press Tactics
Media Bistro

Over at Politico Michael Calderone got his hands on an advance copy of this Sunday's NYT Magazine which features a profile of Barack Obama's incoming press secretary Robert Gibbs by Mark Leibovich. The piece also talks about the campaign's four letter word strategy when it came to the press: Bush. It's not new news that more than once over the campaign season journalists commented and complained about the Obama camp's strict press access and control over his message, so perhaps this excerpt pulled by Calderone shouldn't come as a total surprise.

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.

Great Trauma As a Great Teacher: Peering Into the New Year
By Bernard Weiner, The Crisis Papers

Psychiatrists will attest that it is during emotional depression that great strides can be made in radical alteration of behavior and philosophy. Trauma, in other words, can be a great teacher. Everything is stirred-up, topsy-turvy, and thus can rise to the surface and become manifest and workable. In such a tumultuous time, clinical depression can be, and must be, dealt with creatively.

The Imperial Transition: 44, The Prequel
By Tom Engelhardt | TomDispatch.com

Did you know that the IBM Center for the Business of Government hosts a "Presidential Transition" blog; that the Council on Foreign Relations has its own "Transition Blog: The New Administration"; and that the American University School of Communication has a "Transition Tracker" website? The National Journal offers its online readers a comprehensive "Lost in Transition" site to help them "navigate the presidential handover," including a "short list," offering not only the president-elect's key recent appointments, but also a series of not-so-short lists of those still believed to be in contention for as-yet-unfilled jobs. Think of all this as Entertainment Weekly married to People Magazine for post-election political junkies.

UN Pick Rice: Another Wrong-on-Iraq Nominee
By John Nichols | The Nation | Submitted by Michael Munk | www.MichaelMunk.com

On the outside chance that anyone thought that Dr. Susan Rice might be the exception to the rule of wrong-thinking that characterizes Barack Obama's foreign-policy team, well, think again.

Obama's nominee to serve as the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, had this to say February, 2003, after then-Secretary of State Colin Powell made a wholly absurd presentation a plenary session of the United Nations Security Council regarding the supposed threat posed by those Iraqi imaginary weapons of mass destruction.

Obama's War Cabinet
by Stephen Lendman

December 1 brought more disappointment but no surprises. Obama's national security appointees (like all his earlier ones) aren't "change to believe in" or what people expected for their votes. They're recycled establishment figures. Their agenda is business as usual, and they'll continue the same failed Bush administration policies at home and abroad. Washington's criminal class is bipartisan. Obama was chosen to lead it and is assembling a rogue team that's little different from the one it's replacing.

For "security", it means:

• maintaining the "strongest military on the planet" and do it by outspending all other countries combined;
• continued foreign wars;
• possibly another against Iran;
• permanent occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan - directly and with proxy forces; Obama saying he'll withdraw all US forces from Iraq in 16 months (around mid-2010) is false and misleading;
  

Transcript here.

By Dave Lindorff

When Iraqi journalist Muntadar al-Zaidi heaved his two shoes at the head of President George W. Bush during a press conference in Baghdad, he did something that the White House press corps should have done years ago.

http://www.virginia-organizing.org

On Thursday, December 4, Valerie Jarrett, known as President-elect Barack Obama's closest advisor, took time from a long list of tasks to speak to a crowd that filled the massive ballroom of the Washington Hilton. "You are the experts," Jarrett told her listeners. "We want you to work with us, to advise us, to counsel us."

Jarrett wasn't talking to high-priced lobbyists or automobile or bank executives. She was talking to working families, immigrants, low-income individuals, people struggling against injustice — all 2,500 of them actively involved in community organizations in 36 states, including the Virginia Organizing Project. T-shirts and caps were emblazoned with the slogans and names of groups in all kinds of communities, but even more of them wore red caps and sweatshirts with the slogan of the day, Realizing the Promise.

By Ray McGovern, www.consortiumnews.com

You’ve got to hand it to them. Torture aficionados at the White House and CIA have conned key congressional leaders into insisting not only that torture-lite would be a swell idea, but advocating that the overseers of torture be kept on.

From change-you-can-believe-in, we seem to be slipping back to fear-you-can-trade-on.

Silvestre Reyes, D-Texas, chair of the House Intelligence Committee, has publicly warned those in charge of the administration transition that “continuity is going to be pivotal in keeping us safe and secure.”

Thus, he argues, Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell and CIA Director Michael Hayden should stay in their posts.

If that were not enough, Reyes told Congress Daily’s Chris Strohm that he [Reyes] had advised the Obama team that some parts of what Strohm referred to as “CIA’s controversial alternative interrogation program” should be allowed to continue.

President Elect Obama's official website is Change.gov, not to be confused with Change.org. At Change.gov, Obama is asking you to ask him questions about policies that are important to you. This new feature can be found here.

We would like to encourage you to vote in support of a particular question that has already been asked, so that it rises to the top of the list and stays there, this question:

"Will you appoint a Special Prosecutor - ideally Patrick Fitzgerald - to independently investigate the gravest crimes of the Bush Administration, including torture and warrantless wiretapping?"
Bob Fertik, New York City

Here's how:

1. Sign in. Click to sign into the Change.gov website. It's just one easy step. You won't need to check your Email, and you'll be returned to the screen you were on.

2. Search. On the Open-for-Questions page type or paste into the search box these words: special prosecutor independently

3. Vote. That should bring up the right question which you can then vote for by clicking on the check mark.

Please do it now!

By Dave Lindorff

` We workers of America, white collar, pink collar, blue collar, and no collar at all, have just gotten a wonderful example of the power of having a union. It’s an example that should have every unorganized employee in America looking for a union organizer.

With the recession deepening, it’s clear that major layoffs are in store, and that employers are going to be putting the squeeze on employees, even if they don’t drop them. Individually, workers have little leverage in such a situation.

Leading African American Think Tank to Host Public Policy Forum

Washington, D.C. – The Center for African American Policy (CAAP) at the University of Denver (www.blackpolicy.org) announces a special 90-minute gathering of leading Black scholars in Washington, D.C. at the new National Press Club Library Lounge, Wednesday, December 10, 2008 at 12:00pm. The National Press Club is located at 529 14th Street, NW.