Obama selects Summers to lead National Economic Council, Gibbs as press secretary
Obama selects Summers to lead National Economic Council, Gibbs as press secretary
ABC News reports that President-elect Obama “has decided to name former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers the director of the National Economic Council, essentially the president’s senior economic adviser.” Also today, Obama named his campaign spokesperson Robert Gibbs as White House press secretary and Ellen Moran of Emily’s List as communications director.
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Freedom’s Watch attacks Democratic Senate candidate whose daughter was kidnapped as being soft on crime.
Freedom’s Watch attacks Democratic Senate candidate whose daughter was kidnapped as being soft on crime.
Yesterday, the struggling Freedom’s Watch released an attack ad against Georgia’s Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Jim Martin, saying that he “failed to look out for Georgia’s families.” “First he actually helped block stiffer penalties for drunk drivers,” warns the voice in the ad, which echoes previous GOP ads. “And then, Martin voted against tougher sentences for domestic abuse.” Watch it:
Martin’s daughter was kidnapped when she was eight years old. In a new ad, he states, “You never forget the horror of coming face-to-face with violent crime. … I never forgot the way she trembled when she faced her kidnapper in court. That’s why I fought so hard to crack down on violent crime.” Watch it:
In fact, Martin’s tough-on-crime record has been praised by people such as former senator Zell Miller, who is now backing Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R-GA) in the state’s tough run-off election. [Atlanta Journal-Constitution, 2/21/97]
Chambliss Skips Vote On Unemployment Benefits While Giving A Campaign Speech On Unemployment
Chambliss Skips Vote On Unemployment Benefits While Giving A Campaign Speech On Unemployment
On Thursday, Georgia’s Department of Labor announced that the state’s unemployment levels rose to 7 percent in October, the highest in 16 years; approximately 43,093 unemployed Georgians are looking for work. That same day, Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R-GA), who is locked in a tough run-off election battle with Democrat Jim Martin, gave a campaign speech on the state’s economic troubles:
It’s imperative that we continue down the road of putting liquidity, integrity and confidence back in the financial marketplace so that we can see the credit market free up and people having the ability to borrow money to to operate and expand their businesses.
However, Chambliss was so busy campaigning that day that he actually skipped the Senate’s vote on the Unemployment Compensation Extension Act of 2008, which extended unemployment benefits “by 13 weeks in states with an unemployment rate of at least 6 percent.” Chambliss was one of just four senators to miss the vote. WCTV reported that Chambliss later sent out a press released praising “the passage of the law and [said he] hopes it will help laid-off workers get by while seeking a new job.”
Yesterday, WXIA in Atlanta said that Chambliss claimed he would have voted for the bill anyway. Watch WXIA’s report:
Chambliss has been pulling in a parade of high-profile conservatives to campaign for him at the last minute, including Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney, and next week, former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani.
California unemployment rate jumps to 8.2 percent, third highest in U.S.
California unemployment rate jumps to 8.2 percent, third highest in U.S.
The LA Times reports that California’s unemployment rate soared to a 14-year high in October, hitting 8.2%. The most populous state “shed 26,400 people from its payroll last month, raising the total number of lost jobs to 101,300 since October 2007.” Analysts predict “the situation is about to get worse.” The state’s rate ranks third in the U.S., exceeded only by those of Michigan and Rhode Island, at 9.3% each.
Jindal in Iowa this weekend.
Jindal in Iowa this weekend.
Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal (R) traveled Friday to Iowa, “a state that is pivotal to a presidential campaign, in a trip that has heightened speculation that [he] is planning a presidential bid in 2012.” Jindal tamped down the speculation, stating, “I’m not running for president.” The highlight of Jindal’s visit will be tonight’s keynote address at a “Celebrating the Family” banquet hosted by the Iowa Family Policy Center, a conservative Christian group that promotes issues important to social conservatives such as home-schooling and opposition to abortion and same-sex marriage:
The center is a nonprofit organization that says it is dedicated to family values. The center’s president, Chuck Hurley, backed former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee in the recent presidential race. Hurley’s ties to religious conservatives are credited with helping Huckabee win the Iowa caucus in January.
“I think the American people are tired of campaigns. They’ve had enough. We haven’t even sworn in our next president,” Jindal said.
Top scientist says Bush’s ‘burrowing’ of political appointees will ‘leave wreckage behind.’
Top scientist says Bush’s ‘burrowing’ of political appointees will ‘leave wreckage behind.’
Yesterday, the president of the nation’s largest general science organization railed against efforts by the Bush administration to give political appointees “permanent federal jobs with responsibility for making or administering scientific policies, saying the result would be ‘to leave wreckage behind.’” James McCarthy, who heads the American Association for the Advancement of Science, called the “burrowing” of people without scientific backgrounds into science-related jobs “ludicrous“:
“It’s ludicrous to have people who do not have a scientific background, who are not trained and skilled in the ways of science, make decisions that involve resources, that involve facilities in the scientific infrastructure,” said James McCarthy, a Harvard University oceanographer who is president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. “You’d just like to think people have more respect for the institution of government than to leave wreckage behind with these appointments.”
McCarthy particularly questioned the qualifications of Todd Harding and Jeffrey T. Salmon, who received civil service positions at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the Energy Department’s Office of Science, respectively.
REPORT: Bush’s Backward Sprint To The Finish
REPORT: Bush’s Backward Sprint To The Finish
In its “sprint to the finish,” the Bush administration is working tirelessly to enact or alter a wide array of federal regulations that would weaken government rules protecting consumers, workers, and the environment.
As Rep. Nick Rahall (D-WV), chairman of the House Natural Resources Committee, told the Wall Street Journal, “This administration will stop at nothing to jam through as many reckless proposals as they can before the clock runs out.”
The Wonk Room and ThinkProgress are keeping a close eye on Bush’s Backward Sprint to the Finish, and have compiled a document to keep tabs on both the proposed and already enacted changes. Here are some examples:
Cutting back Medicaid: New rules “narrowed the scope of services that can be provided to poor people under Medicaid’s outpatient hospital benefit.”
Allowing mining near the Grand Canyon: A proposed rule by the Bureau of Land Management would prevent Congress from ordering emergency withdrawal of federal land from mining claims. The House Natural Resources Committee “issued such a withdrawal order in June for about 1 million acres near the Grand Canyon.”
Allowing more emissions from power plants:: The Environmental Protection Agency is “finalizing new air-quality rules that would make it easier to build coal-fired power plants, oil refineries and other major polluters near national parks and wilderness areas” by weakening the Clean Air Act.
Click here to download a pdf of the report.
Let us know in the comments if you come across any more last-minute regulatory changes during Bush’s final days in office.
GM execs give up some private jets after embarassing hearing.
GM execs give up some private jets after embarassing hearing.
Earlier this week, Big Three automaker CEOs were ridiculed by members of Congress for taking private jets to Washington to plea for a federal bailout. Today, ABC reports that GM is putting two of its five corporate jets out of service allegedy “in response to the planes not being used” and not a reaction to the harsh treatment from Congress. Watch Rep. Gary Ackerman (D-NY) criticize the auto execs:
Despite the downsizing, GM CEO Richard Wagoner “will still fly private for all business and personal travel” for “security reasons,” ABC notes.
Reports: Clinton accepts Secretary of State nomination; Geithner and Richardson also likely cabinet choices.
Reports: Clinton accepts Secretary of State nomination; Geithner and Richardson also likely cabinet choices.
The New York Times reports that Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY) “has decided to give up her Senate seat and accept the position of secretary of state.” According to MSNBC, it is “also expected Monday” that New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson will be named Commerce Secretary,” and New York Fed President Tim Geithner is expected to be announced as Treasury Secretary, “barring last minute changes.”
AP suspends use of Army photos after digital alterations.
AP suspends use of Army photos after digital alterations.
The U.S. Army recently released a photograph of four-star Gen. Ann Dunwoody, showing her in front of an American flag. However, it has now been revealed that the picture was digitally altered. In the original photo, Dunwoody was sitting at a desk:
The Army insists that it broke no guidelines by altering the picture, but the Associated Press has a “zero-tolerance policy of adding or subtracting actual content from an image” and has suspended use of Defense Department photos. Last month, the Army also doctored photos of two soldiers who had died in Iraq on Sept. 14. In the two pictures, only the names, ranks, faces, and coloration changed:
Rove Claims Stock Market Is Dropping Because Obama Hasn’t Named His Treasury Secretary Yet
Rove Claims Stock Market Is Dropping Because Obama Hasn’t Named His Treasury Secretary Yet
Yesterday, stocks plunged for the second straight day, bringing “the Dow’s two-day drop to 873 points, or 10.6 percent, its worst two-day percentage loss since October 1987.” On Fox News last night, former Bush adviser Karl Rove tried to pin the blame for the drop on President-elect Barack Obama.
Though he admitted that there had been bad economic news yesterday, Rove questioned “how much of it is the news of the day.” “I mean, how much of it is that, and how much of it is the market saying, You know what? The economy is not in a good place and we’re looking at the future, and how much confidence should we have in the team that’s coming to make the economy better any time soon?,” said Rove.
He then suggested that the problem was that Obama hadn’t named his Treasury Secretary yet:
ROVE: Well, I got to tell you, I’m a little bit surprised. If the number one issue facing the country is the economy, then it strikes me the new administration, the president-elect, would be putting a lot of emphasis on getting a Treasury secretary and an economic team in place in order to signal to the country what he’s going to do.
But instead, we’ve seen a leak about the secretary of state. We’ve seen pretty serious rumors about who’s going to be attorney general, pretty serious rumors about who’s going to be head of HHS, Health and Human Services, who’s going to be Homeland Security counsel — Homeland Security department chief.
Watch it:
Though some economic analysts believe it would be helpful for Obama to name his econ team, it is laughable for Rove to blame the market’s problems on Obama. Indeed, the market is much more likely reacting to yesterday’s “grim economic data,” which included “a 16-year high in weekly unemployment claims and the failure of Congress to reach a deal to help U.S. automakers.”
Rove says the market is “trying to look four months, six months, a year in advance.” That may be so, but anyone hedging their bets is probably much more concerned about the economic outlook released by the Fed on Wednesday — warning “that a recession believed already to be underway could last until mid-2009 or later” — than who Obama picks to head the Treasury Department.
Transcript: More »
O’Reilly: Internet has a well-known liberal bias.
O’Reilly: Internet has a well-known liberal bias.
Summoning the mythical boogeyman of the Fairness Doctrine — which would require broadcasters to provide a variety of political views on publicly-owned airwaves — Fox News host Bill O’Reilly warned last night that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi “wants total control” over radio airwaves and would seek to reinstate the policy. He claimed that the media features far more liberal voices than conservative, citing newspapers, NPR, and…the Internet:
O’REILLY: A good case can be made there are more liberal voices in the media than conservative voices. The newspaper industry is certainly left. So is the Internet. NBC News almost completely liberal. So is PBS, so is NPR.
Watch it:
Just seconds later, O’Reilly contradicted his fearmongering: “The good news is the Fairness Doctrine will never happen.”
Proposed SOFA Agreement Requires Congressional Approval Because It Contains Treaty Commitment
Proposed SOFA Agreement Requires Congressional Approval Because It Contains Treaty Commitment
Our guest blogger is Peter Juul, a Research Associate at the Center for American Progress Action Fund.
In Iraq, the proposed Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) with the United States is generating a heated and near-violent debate in parliament. But here in the United States, the Bush administration has kept a tight lid on the contents of the agreement.
The Bush administration argues that the SOFA is an “executive agreement” that, unlike treaties or other international agreements, does not require congressional approval. Only after the agreement passed the Iraqi cabinet last weekend did the Bush administration deign to give lawmakers a closed-door briefing on it. As Rep. William Delahunt (D-MA), who has held a number of hearings on the subject of a U.S.-Iraq security agreement, noted in an opening statement on Wednesday:
… there has been no meaningful consultation with Congress during the negotiation of this agreement. And the American people have been kept completely in the dark.
Even now the National Security Council has requested that we do not show this document to our witnesses or release it to the public…
Now that’s incredible – meantime, the Iraqi government has posted this document on its media website, so that anybody who can read Arabic can take part in the discussion.
Oona Hathaway, a legal scholar and one of Delahunt’s witnesses, argues that the SOFA the administration has negotiated – at least its Arabic translation – amounts to a new authorization to use military force, and that it therefore requires congressional approval. Delahunt similarly believes that the SOFA requires congressional approval, and President-elect Barack Obama made pledges during the campaign to a similar effect.
Beyond the domestic legal authority issues pointed out at Delahunt’s hearing, there appears to be language in the SOFA that refers to a U.S. security guarantee toward Iraq:
In the event of any external or internal threat or aggression against Iraq that would violate its sovereignty, political independence, or territorial integrity, waters, airspace, its democratic system or its elected institutions, and upon request by the Government of Iraq, the Parties shall immediately initiate strategic deliberations and, as may be mutually agreed, the United States shall take appropriate measures, including diplomatic, economic, or military measures, or any other measure, to deter such a threat.
This language suggests that the SOFA is, in fact, a treaty committing the United States to act in the defense of Iraq if its security is threatened. Even if it does not rise to the level of a firm security guarantee, the SOFA’s language is close enough to a treaty that Congress should have a say in it.
As we noted a month ago, there has been too little debate on the proposed security agreement between the United States and Iraq. This lack of debate is due largely to the incredible secrecy with which the Bush administration has conducted SOFA negotiations with the Iraqi government, while a necessary focus on the crashing economy here at home has distracted Congress. But Congress cannot let the Bush administration push forward a far-reaching agreement without having giving its own constitutionally-mandated input.
Wal-Mart CEO Lee Scott retiring.
Wal-Mart CEO Lee Scott retiring.
Wal-Mart Chief Executive Officer Lee Scott will retire effective Feb. 1, 2009. He will be replaced by Mike Duke, who currently heads the company’s international operations. While Wal-Mart has made constructive efforts to tackle the health care crisis and establish more environmentally-friendly business practices under Scott’s tenure, it has also worked tirelessly to erode workers’ rights. Wal-Mart Watch released this statement today:
Wal-Mart’s announcement today of Mike Duke as the new Chief Executive Officer must be viewed in the context of the recent election. It represents an opportunity for Wal-Mart to change from the low-wage, low-benefit business model to one that will be more appealing to an Obama administration.
Maddow Fails To Question Huckabee On His Recent Anti-Gay Statements; Update: Maddow Responds
Maddow Fails To Question Huckabee On His Recent Anti-Gay Statements; Update: Maddow Responds
Since Prop. 8’s passage in California, which revoked same-sex couples’ right to marry, MSNBC host Rachel Maddow has been a powerful outspoken advocate of the rights of gay citizens. “The amendment does not just prohibit gay rights. It takes away rights previously enjoyed,” she said. She has also called the vote a “rebuke to the incumbent rights of gay couples.” Watch a mashup:
However, last night, Maddow was notably silent on the issue of gay rights when interviewing former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee. On Tuesday, Huckabee had insisted that gay rights and civil rights were totally different because gay rights activists’ “skulls” weren’t getting “cracked.” On Wednesday morning, Huckabee claimed that Prop. 8 “did not prohibit” gay marriage; it “simply affirmed that which already has and forever has existed,” he said.
During the seven-minute interview last night, however, Maddow never forced Huckabee to defend these claims. Instead, Maddow repeatedly asked him about his future presidential plans and speculated about the influence of the Christian Right in the GOP. Watch it:
Huckabee has equated homosexuality with bestiality and necrophilia, said that people have the “choice” to act gay, and actively pushed to criminalize sodomy, ban gay couples from adopting, and exclude gay partners from spousal survival benefits. Huckabee’s views on gay rights are extreme, and deserve to be questioned.
I weighed whether or not to ask him about his anti-gay views, but I really don't care about them very much. Huckabee is a doctrinaire anti-gay theocratic social conservative whose views are well-known and heartfelt. I also probably wouldn't bother asking Sarah Palin about her anti-gay views if I had the opportunity to interview her -- it's just not the most interesting or newsworthy (or ridiculous) thing about either of them.
Shiite protesters burn Bush effigy in Baghdad square to protest security pact.
Shiite protesters burn Bush effigy in Baghdad square to protest security pact.
The AP reports that Shiite protesters “stomped on and burned an effigy of President George W. Bush in the same central Baghdad square where Iraqis beat a toppled statue of Saddam Hussein with their sandals five years earlier.” Shiites were protesting the proposed U.S.-Iraqi security pact because it would allow American troops to remain in their country for three more years. A Friday prayer sermon written by Muqtada Al-Sadr was read by his representative, Sheik Abdul Hadi al-Mohammadawi:
“The government must know that it is the people who help it in the good and the bad times. If it throws the occupier out all the Iraqi people will stand by it,” the sermon read, using common rhetoric for the United States.
Cheney-inspired bullet-proof jackets on sale.
Cheney-inspired bullet-proof jackets on sale.
Miguel Caballero, “a Colombian tailor who has made a fortune from selling bullet-proof fashion to presidents, oligarchs, celebrities,” is marketing a new line of stylish bullet-proof jackets. The jackets are apparently inspired by Vice President Dick Cheney’s now-famous shooting accident:
“This is a new market for us. Dick Cheney has helped raise awareness of accidents,” said Carolina Fernandez, a marketing director.
The Guardian’s Rory Carroll tested out the new product, bravely allowing himself to get shot by a .38 pistol at point-blank range while wearing the jacket. Surviving to write about the incident, Carroll reports, “It felt like a light tap.” Watch it here.
ThinkFast: November 21, 2008
ThinkFast: November 21, 2008
President-elect Obama will reportedly nominate Hillary Clinton as his secretary of state after Thanksgiving and may tap ret. Gen. Jim Jones as his National Security Adviser. Obama is “getting foreign policy advice from an unlikely source: Republican Brent Scowcroft, who was national security adviser in the first Bush administration.”
Obama will not immediately move to repeal the U.S. military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy which bans openly gay individuals from serving. Obama reportedly “first wants to confer with the Joint Chiefs of Staff and his new political appointees at the Pentagon to reach a consensus and then present legislation to Congress.”
Attorney General Michael Mukasey collapsed last night while speaking at the Federalist Society’s annual gathering. Mukasey, who spent the night in the hospital for observation, is alert and “in good spirits,” according to a Justice Department spokesperson. An individual who witnessed Mukasey’s collapse said he was “visibly shaking and perhaps slurring his words before he fell to the floor.”
Big Oil is “firing up” its efforts to push for more domestic oil development. The American Petroleum Institute is “preparing a multimillion-dollar campaign” that will include an education program called American’s Energy Forum and “a wide array of advertising and lobbying efforts on Capitol Hill.”
The Bush administration is finalizing changes to the Endangered Species Act ensuring that agencies would not have to take global warming into account when assessing risks to plants and animals. John Kostyak of the National Wildlife Federation said the rule, for example, would “block federal officials from considering a carbon cap” to preserve polar bear’s habitat. More »
State Dept: Bush’s Record On ‘Pushing For Human Rights’ Is As Good As Any Other President Or Country
State Dept: Bush’s Record On ‘Pushing For Human Rights’ Is As Good As Any Other President Or Country
Today, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice met with Libyan leader Moamer Gadhafi’s son, Seif al-Islam. In a press briefing yesterday leading up to the meeting, reporters pressed State Dept. spokesperson Sean McCormack on whether Rice would urge Libya to release Libyan activist Fathi al-Jahmi, a political prisoner who is gravely ill.
McCormack offered a defensive response: “I have to make it very clear we are concerned not only about Mr. al-Jahmi’s case, but other human rights cases around the world.” McCormack also claimed that President Bush’s human rights record could perhaps be the best in American history:
McCORMACK: And — and one thing I do take exception to is the idea that somehow we are not attentive to pushing the issue of human rights, whether it’s in Libya or any place else around the world. I don’t think — I would put the record of this administration up against any American administration or any other government around the world in terms of promoting universal human rights and pushing for human rights.
Watch it (around 8:20):
Under the Bush administration, the world has witnessed torture, rendition, and the revocation of habeas corpus rights. Amnesty International’s 2008 report rips the United States’s human rights record, citing the following Bush policies:
– Indefinite military detention
– Torture of detainees
– Imprisoning soldiers refusing to serve in Iraq on grounds of conscience.
– Government response to Hurricane Katrina
In 2005, the Center on Democratic Performance at Binghamton University gave Bush a “D” on human rights. The “D” grade was down from a “C” in 2004, due to “reports on the use of political detention without trial, torture of political detainees, and the use of secret detention of political prisoners.” Bush’s record is nothing to be proud of.
Fox News chief Roger Ailes signs up for five more years.
Fox News chief Roger Ailes signs up for five more years.
Rupert Murdoch’announced today that Fox News’s top executive, Roger Ailes, has signed a five year contract extension with News Corp. “Roger has done a remarkable job building FOX News into a force in journalism and built a great asset for News Corporation,” said Murdoch in a statement. Ailes said that he looks “forward to carrying out Mr. Murdoch’s legendary vision in the future.”
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