Obama Administration

This is from Steve Hildebrand:

This is not a time for the left wing of our Party to draw conclusions about the Cabinet and White House appointments that President-Elect Obama is making.

So, you're not even going to deny that these are a bunch of right-wingers? You're going to ask that people shut off their brains and mouths and simply obey?

Some believe the appointments generally aren't progressive enough. Having worked with former Senator Obama for the last two years, I can tell you, that isn't the way he thinks and it's not likely the way he will lead.

He won't care if anyone is progressive? Well, no kidding. But why put that in a message to progressives, as yours was titled, except to spit in the faces of the people who elected your boss. Yes, us, the majority of Americans.

Now THIS I can believe in. Remember Reagan bursting on the scene by firing workers for striking. How about workers sitting in for their rights and a president elect supporting them? What other nonviolent actions for justice will this new president support?

Obama defends Republic Windows and Doors workers
BY ABDON PALLASCH, Chicago Sun-Times

President-elect Barack Obama put himself on the side of the workers at the Republic Windows and Doors factory Sunday:

“When it comes to the situation here in Chicago with the workers who are asking for their benefits and payments they have earned, I think they are absolutely right,” Obama said Sunday at a news conference announcing his new Veterans Affairs director. “What’s happening to them is reflective of what’s happening across this economy.

Open for video.

By ANN SANNER, AP

CHICAGO (AP) — President-elect Barack Obama said Saturday that he wants to revive the economy and create jobs by upgrading roads, schools and energy efficiency in a public-works program whose scale has been unseen since construction of the interstate highway system in the 1950s.

He offered no price estimate for the grand plan, how the money might be divided or the effect on the country's financial health at a time of burgeoning deficits.

The ideas were outlined in the weekly radio address the day after the government reported that employers cut 533,000 jobs in November, the most in 34 years. They are part of a vision for a massive economy recovery plan Obama wants Congress to pass and have waiting on his desk when he takes office Jan. 20.

Here's a NY Times headline: "General Critical of Iraq War Is Pick for V.A. Chief." But Shinseki didn't say he opposed aggressive war, he said to use a lot more troops.

From Bob Fertik:

President-elect Obama wants Americans to tell him our priorities at Change.gov, so we submitted this. Please vote for this by clicking the vote tally. (It will prompt you to login).

Appoint a Special Prosecutor for the Crimes of the Bush Administration

President-elect Obama recently said, "if I found out that there were high officials who knowingly, consciously broke existing laws, engaged in coverups of those crimes with knowledge forefront, then I think a basic principle of our Constitution is nobody above the law."

Those were among the topics on December 3rd when I (David Swanson) joined a panel of guests on PressTV's "American Dream". Also on the panel was Edward Peck, a former ambassador who has opposed militarism and who inspired a now well-known sermon by Jeremiah Wright. I interviewed Peck in October on The People Speak Radio. Joining us was David Pollock, a senior fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy where Dennis Ross is a consultant (whom Pollock told me off the air he's certain will end up with a key foreign policy position in the Obama administration). Skillfully moderating this rather divided panel was Elliott Francis, whose job was made harder by on air phone calls from guests with passionate opinions and in some cases truly crazy hateful anti-semitism. Nonetheless we managed a rich and civil discussion, even on the topic of Israel. Here's the video. (It's the December 3rd show, which I'm hoping they'll post soon.)

By Dave Lindorff

One impact of this deepening recession which is largely hidden because it is spread out and distributed across the land is a wave of budget crises swamping nearly every state government and every municipal government in the country.

State governments, according to the Center for Budget Priorities, are facing a $77-billion revenue shortfall for the 2009 fiscal year. Municipal governments are probably facing a total revenue shortfall of even more than that—perhaps closer to $100 billion. New York City, for example, is reportedly facing a budget shortfall of $1.5 billion over the next two years and Philadelphia, the nation’s fifth largest city, a shortfall of $1 billion over the next five years.

It gets worse.

By Amy Goodman, truthdig

President-elect Barack Obama introduced his principal national-security Cabinet selections to the world Monday and left no doubt that he intends to start his administration on a war footing. Perhaps the least well known among them is retired Marine Gen. James Jones, Obama’s pick for national security adviser. The position is crucial—think of the power that Henry Kissinger wielded in Richard Nixon’s White House. A look into who James Jones is sheds a little light on the Obama campaign’s promise of “Change We Can Believe In.”

Dear President-Elect Obama:

We the undersigned, members and supporters of the Global Network, write to congratulate you on your recent election as President of the U.S. We want to help you in every way possible to promote peace around the world so that our national resources could be used for the tremendous needs we have here at home like health care, education, job creation, dealing with climate change and more.

We specifically write to urge you to reject the Bush administration plan to deploy "missile defense" interceptors in Poland and a Star Wars radar system in the Czech Republic. We know you are aware of Russia's deep concern that these deployments are really aimed at them in spite of Pentagon assurances they are only directed at Iran.

Telecom immunity was just the start. Now Obama has betrayed his word on undoing Bush's tax cuts for the super wealthy and on passing a windfall profits tax on oil companies: MORE HERE. How solid is that 16-month withdrawal from Iraq feeling?

If this were a just society, rather than looking at another year or two in the president's cabinet, Robert Gates would be well into serving a long stretch for war crimes and lying to Congress. READ WHY.

By Mary Ellen O'Connell, Chicago Tribune

When President-elect Barack Obama announced his new economic policy team, commentators quickly pointed out that the team included many old hands, names from the Clinton era, some even involved in major decisions linked to the current economic crisis. Where, they asked, was the change Obama promised?

With respect to the unprecedented challenges of the economy, it may make sense to bring in experienced people, with name recognition, sending a message of calm, expertise and experience. At least there is a rationale for doing so.

Gates softens opposition to 16-month Iraq timetable
By AFP

US Defense Secretary Robert Gates Tuesday softened his opposition to a 16-month timetable for the withdrawal of US forces from Iraq advocated by president-elect Barack Obama.

"I am less concerned about that timetable," he told a news conference at the Pentagon a day after Obama announced Gates had agreed to stay on as defense secretary in a Democratic administration.

Gates emphasized that a status of forces agreement reached with Iraq already calls for the withdrawal of all US troops by the end of 2011.

While Obama had repeated his desire to get US combat troops out within 16 months, "he also said that he wanted to have a responsible drawdown. And he also said that he was prepared to listen to his commanders," Gates said.

PDF here.

World Organization for Human Rights USA
2029 P Street NW, Suite 301, Washington, DC 20036
Phone: (202) 296-5702 Fax: (202) 296-5704
www.humanrightsusa.org

December 2, 2008

The Honorable Barack Obama
President-elect of the United States
1800 F Street NW
Washington, DC 20405
Fax: (202) 228-5417

Presidential Transition Office
Kluczynski Federal Building
230 S. Dearborn Street, 38th Floor
Chicago, IL 60604

Re: Accountability for Torture and Other Violations
of U.S. and International Law

Dear President-elect Obama:

Congratulations on your historic election to become the 44th President of the United States. Americans have expressed their overwhelming confidence in your ability to lead our country to realizing its full potential.

By David Swanson

I know, I know, Bush liberated the Iraqis. But when will we liberate them from Bush's liberation? Well, ideally, the American people will rise up tomorrow and force Congress to cease funding the occupation and to vote an immediate and complete withdrawal with a veto-overriding supermajority, not to mention impeaching Bush and Cheney. I raise that possibility not so much because I've been drinking as because long-term movements for systemic reform require awareness of what we're missing. If we ever replace a Congress dominated by money, media, and parties with one loyal to us the people, it will be because we tragically realize what so very easily could have been.

By Stephen Zunes, AlterNet

For those hoping for a dramatic change in U.S. foreign policy under an Obama administration -- particularly regarding human rights, international law, and respect for international institutions -- the appointment of Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State is a bitter disappointment. Indeed, Senator Clinton has more often than not sided with the Bush administration against fellow Democrats on key issues regarding America’s international legal obligations, particularly international humanitarian law.

This will be particularly disappointing for those in the international community who were so positive about Obama’s election as president. The selection of Hillary Clinton, at best, represents a return to the policies of her husband’s administration.

By Katrina vanden Heuvel, The Nation
http://alternet.org/story/109298/

Barack Obama not only had the good judgment to oppose the war in Iraq but , as he told us earlier this year, "I want to end the mindset that got us into war." So it is troubling that a man of such good judgment has asked Robert Gates to stay on as Secretary of Defense -- and assembled a national security team of such narrow bandwidth. It is true that President Obama will set the policy. But this team makes it more difficult to seize the extraordinary opportunity Obama's election has offered to reengage the world and reset America's priorities. Maybe being right about the greatest foreign policy disaster in U.S. history doesn't mean much inside the Beltway? How else to explain that not a single top member of Obama's foreign policy/national security team opposed the war -- or the dubious claims leading up to it?

The absence of a solid anti-war voice on Obama's national security team means that US foreign policy isn't going to change
By Jeremy Scahill, guardian.co.uk

Barack Obama has assembled a team of rivals to implement his foreign policy. But while pundits and journalists speculate endlessly on the potential for drama with Hillary Clinton at the state department and Bill Clinton's network of shady funders, the real rivalry that will play out goes virtually unmentioned. The main battles will not be between Obama's staff, but rather against those who actually want a change in US foreign policy, not just a staff change in the war room.

Members of Military Families Speak Out greeted the announcement of the composition of President-Elect Barack Obama's national security team with concern, and reiterated their call for the Obama administration to bring an immediate end to the war in . The announcement that Robert Gates will continue to serve as Secretary of Defense raised particular concern among members of the organization.

Keri Wheelwright, a member of Military Families Speak Out from Fountain Hills, AZ

By Steve Weissman, t r u t h o u t

The best military advice I know supposedly comes from a subordinate of Napoleon at a time that the French emperor was facing difficulties with his ill-fated military occupation of Egypt. "One can do anything with bayonets, Sire, except sit on them." If only Gen. Jim Jones, the new National Security adviser, had the wisdom to give President-elect Barack Obama the same advice about the already planned escalation of forces in Afghanistan. But don't count on it. From all available evidence, the good general has already urged Obama to dig the United States even deeper into a far-off land that Alexander the Great, the British raj and 150,000 Soviets troops all came to know as "the graveyard of empires." Read the rest.

By Lisa Pease, Consortium News

It’s good to see President-elect Barack Obama studying history. How wonderful to have a President who actually reads book such as Doris Kearns Goodwin’s A Team of Rivals about Abraham Lincoln’s inclusion of political opponents in his war-time Cabinet.

But there’s another “team of rivals” in more recent history that proved disastrous for a President's goals.
If there’s one book Obama should read before he sets any more appointments in stone, it would be James Douglass’s remarkable book JFK and the Unspeakable.

Douglass outlines in clear form how a generous-minded President Kennedy brought his rivals into his inner circle, only to find them banding together against him and working against his stated goals.

Bush Aides Rush to Enact a Safety Rule Obama Opposes
by Robert Pear | NYTimes.com

The Labor Department is racing to complete a new rule, strenuously opposed by President-elect Barack Obama, that would make it much harder for the government to regulate toxic substances and hazardous chemicals to which workers are exposed on the job.

The rule, which has strong support from business groups, says that in assessing the risk from a particular substance, federal agencies should gather and analyze “industry-by-industry evidence” of employees’ exposure to it during their working lives. The proposal would, in many cases, add a step to the lengthy process of developing standards to protect workers’ health.

By Robert Parry, Consortium News

Surprisingly this Thanksgiving, the Washington Establishment had a lot to give thanks for. And its chief mouthpiece – the Washington Post’s neoconservative editorial page – was glowing over its good fortune in the three-plus weeks since Barack Obama's election.

On Friday, the Post’s lead editorial thanked President-elect Obama for settling on insider favorites for key jobs, especially officials with long records of promoting the neocon foreign policy agenda.

In Post speak, Obama “has so far placed an admirable emphasis on proven competence over personal loyalty or political purity.”

By Gareth Porter, IPS

WASHINGTON, 27 Nov (IPS) - The decision by President-elect Barack Obama to keep Robert M. Gates on as defence secretary has touched off a debate over whether Obama can pursue his commitment to rapid withdrawal from Iraq even though Gates has defended George W. Bush's surge policy and opposed Obama's 16-month timetable for withdrawal.

Obama did not explicitly address Iraq at a press conference Wednesday, saying only that he would 'provide a vision' on foreign policy and 'make sure that my team is implementing' it. The appointments, which will be formally announced Monday, are expected to include Gates and Gen. James Jones as national security advisor, who has also been critical of Obama's withdrawal timetable.

Some legal scholars believe appointing Clinton to State would be unconstitutional
By Ron Brynaert, Raw Story

While the appointment of Senator Hillary Clinton to Secretary of State appears to be an all but done deal, there are some legal scholars who believe that the move would be unconstitutional.

"Why? Because the Constitution forbids the appointment of members of Congress to administration jobs if the salary of the job they'd take was raised while they were in Congress," NBC's Pete Williams reports.

Raise your hand if you voted for this.