:: Bush43 to give farewell speech during primetime on Thursday night.
Um, I personally have no need to watch him say goodbye. I can't imagine that most of us have.
“WASHINGTON — President George W. Bush will give a farewell address to the nation Thursday night, billed by the administration as a chance to reflect on his tenure and welcome Barack Obama without fighting old battles one last time.
Bush will deliver the speech, expected to run 10 to 15 minutes, from the ornate East Room of the White House. He will have a small audience of people in the room, chosen for their stories of personal courage.”Source: AP
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:: Roland Burris to be seated as the junior senator from Illinois.
Senate Dems said that they expect to seat Burris this week.
“"He is now the senator-designate from Illinois and, as such, will be accorded all the rights and privileges of a senator-elect," Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois said in a joint statement.”Source: HUFFPOST
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:: Paterson's senate selection process may violate state law.
His refusal to release the names of those under consideration, or to release the blank questionnaires which he provided for the candidates to respond to, appears to violate New York's freedom of information laws.
“"The process is confidential," is the stock answer from his office. Keeping the questions posed to Senate hopefuls secret appears to violate the state's post-Watergate freedom of information laws, according to Robert Freeman, executive director of the state Committee on Open Government, the state agency that regulates enforcement of the good-government laws.”Source: HUFFPOST
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:: Obama to sign executive order to begin the process of closing Gitmo during his first week in office.
When Obama talked with George Stephanopolous on Sunday, he did say that it would be a challenge to get it closed within his first 100 days, primarily because of the task of determining the fate of the approximately 250 prisoners who are still being held there. But, signing that order would sure be a great start!
“WASHINGTON — Advisers to President-elect Barack Obama say one of his first duties in office will be to order the closing of the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay. That executive order is expected during Obama's first week on the job _ and possibly on his first day, according to two transition team advisers.
Obama's order will direct his administration to figure out what to do with the estimated 250 al-Qaida and Taliban suspects and potential witnesses who are being held at Guantanamo.”Source: HUFFPOST
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:: Top economist provides Obama with some free advice on the stimulus plan.
Last week, Obama made it clear that he was open to ideas re the stimulus plan. In fact, he specifically named Nobel prize-winning economist, and NYT columnist (and my fave economist), Paul Krugman, as someone to whose ideas he was open.
“Last week, Barack Obama let it be known that when it came to formulating a stimulus bill, all ideas were welcome -- whether they came from the bowels of conservative fiscal philosophy or New York Times columnist Paul Krugman.
"I want this to work," said the president-elect. "This is not an intellectual exercise, and there's no pride of authorship. If somebody has an idea for a tax cut that's better than we've proposed, then we'll embrace it... If Paul Krugman has a good idea, in terms of how to spend money efficiently and effectively to jump-start the economy, then we're going to do it."”Source: HUFFPOST
Today, Krugman responded to Obama's call for advice, and posted his(Krugman's) ideas on his NYT blog.
“Mainly, though, Mr. Obama needs to make his plan bigger. To see why, consider a new report from his own economic team.
On Saturday, Christina Romer, the future head of the Council of Economic Advisers, and Jared Bernstein, who will be the vice president’s chief economist, released estimates of what the Obama economic plan would accomplish. Their report is reasonable and intellectually honest, which is a welcome change from the fuzzy math of the last eight years.
But the report also makes it clear that the plan falls well short of what the economy needs."”Source: NYT
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:: Obama's SEC pick, Mary L. Schapiro, is the defendent in two lawsuits over a merger from which she appeared to benefit financially.
This could be a deal-breaker, but I feel it's pretty likely that the transition team was aware of this. If not, they need to review their vetting process.
“WASHINGTON — Mary L. Schapiro, who appears this week at a confirmation hearing on her selection to head the Securities and Exchange Commission, has been accused in two lawsuits of making misleading statements to quickly complete a merger of regulatory organizations after which she received a 57 percent raise in her pay.”Source: NYT
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:: Norm Coleman and Al Franken find something to agree about in their support of Israel.
The Odd Couple for 2009.
“The show of unity seemed a bit odd for Coleman, the Republican incumbent, and his Democratic foe, Franken. The two are engaged in a bitter recount battle for a Senate seat that has winnowed down to several hundred votes, and is now being contested by Coleman in court. The two appeared cordial at the rally Sunday, but kept their distance.”Source: The Minneapolis Star Tribune
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:: Clinton cramming for her confirmation hearings tomorrow. Clinton is expected to be speedily confirmed, but there are some potential problems that she will have to deal with in the hearings tomorrow. .
“Nobody’s fonder of huddling secretly with a close-knit, tight-lipped clutch of advisers than Hillary Clinton. And she’s been huddling plenty in recent days, gaming out defenses to possible attacks against her husband while synchronizing her policy positions with Obama to avoid embarrassing public disagreements on Iraq, Iran and Israel.”Source: POLITICO
Image via Wikimedia Commons.
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:: Bush43, and Obama, working cooperatively re the remaining $350 billion in TARP funds.
The request is likely to come today, and a vote in Congress will probably occur this week.
“WASHINGTON — President George W. Bush is letting President-elect Barack Obama dictate when to seek access to the remaining $350 billion in financial sector rescue funds and said Monday that his successor had yet to ask for the bailout money.”Source: HUFFPOST
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:: Gene Robinson, an openly gay, Episcopal Bishop, to give an invocation at a kick-off event to the inauguration, on Sunday, January 18.
The event is to be held at the Lincoln Memorial. PE Obama, this does not make up for your invitation to Rick Warren, a man who is a bigot, and excludes. Inclusion should be the rule of the day, and should apply to all of your choices.
“New Hampshire Episcopal Bishop Gene Robinson, a vocal gay rights leader, will open President-elect Barack Obama's inauguration with a prayer on Sunday's kick-off event at the Lincoln Memorial.”Source: HUFFPOST
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