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President-elect Barack Obama spent a private Christmas Day with family and close friends, continuing a vacation that has been remarkable for how low-key he and aides have kept it.
Obama, wife Michelle and their two young daughters opened presents at their rented vacation home and planned a dinner of turkey and ham, according to aides. He planned no public events, and aides said they did not expect to release any further details.
The Obamas arrived in Honolulu on Saturday with four aides, his Secret Service detail and a small group of journalists. Since then, he has been largely sequestered at the beachfront estate.
With less a month before Obama takes office on Jan. 20, he is taking every step possible to make sure this holiday is as private as possible — something he bemoaned while walking to a driving range last Sunday.
“OK, guys,” Obama said, recognizing the photographers snapping pictures. “Come on. … How many shots do you need?”
It was one of only a handful of trips Obama and his motorcade have taken. He and Michelle Obama have visited Marine Corps Base Hawaii for daily morning workouts. Twice, he and friends have played a round of golf. He attended a private memorial service for his grandmother on Tuesday and scattered her ashes into the Pacific Ocean.
And that’s been it.
While the Democratic president-elect vacations in his native Hawaii through the New Year, he and his aides have taken careful steps to minimize his profile. He has no public schedule while vacationing, although he remains involved in transition plans and has received intelligence briefings.
While Obama’s aides have taken steps to keep the vacation low-profile, he hasn’t been entirely successful. Photographers captured images of him scattering his grandmother’s ashes from a rock ledge on Tuesday while the press corps waited in a bus. Another photographer captured the future first family — including a shirtless Obama — in the backyard.
The Secret Service has blocked the street where he is staying, citing security concerns. A few cars a day have rolled into the dead-end street, but they did not get past the checkpoint. And a few neighbors who tried to walk past the house on Christmas Day were rebuffed by agents.
One man left with an aide a Christmas card addressed to the Obama family. It featured a palm tree with the word “peace” written on it.
Source: http://latestobamanews.com/2008/12/25/obamas-keep-low-profile-on-christmas-in-hawaii/
So far, four out of five Americans support President-Elect Barack Obama and his transition team, meaning the scandal in Illinois is having little to no effect on Obama’s popularity. Eighty-two percent of those questioned in a new CNN/Opinion Research Corporation poll released Wednesday morning approve of the way the Obama is handling his presidential transition. That’s up 3 points from when we asked this question at the beginning of December. Fifteen percent of those surveyed disapprove of the way Obama’s handling his transition, down 3 points from our last poll.
Source: http://www.nicksloan.com/2008/12/82.html
President-elect Barack Obama, wishing the nation a happy, yet sober New Year, honored the service of the U.S. military and asked Americans to help pull the country out of recession.
Obama, 47, in his weekly radio address, also said the holiday season should be a time to “renew a sense of common purpose and shared citizenship,” which will be a guiding principle of his administration.
“As we count the higher blessings of faith and family, we know that millions of Americans don’t have a job, many more are struggling to pay the bills or stay in their homes,” Obama said in the radio address, scheduled for broadcast Dec. 27 at 11:06 a.m. New York time.
Now, we must all do our part to serve one another; to seek new ideas and new innovation; and to start a new chapter for our great country,â€
Americans are celebrating the holidays during the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. A Commerce Department report yesterday showed the economy shrank in the third quarter at a 0.5 percent annual pace, after a growth rate of 2.8 percent in the previous quarter. Jobless claims rose to a 26-year high, according to a Commerce Department report today, signaling that consumer spending will keep sliding into 2009.
Employers cut 533,000 workers from payrolls in November, the most in three decades, and the unemployment rate jumped to 6.7 percent, the highest level since 1993.
First Priority
Obama has said his first priority as president is an economic recovery plan with goals of job creation and planning for the future with investments in infrastructure and health care. He has asked his economic advisers to draft a proposal, designed to create or save 3 million jobs over two years, by the time he returns from his Hawaii vacation on Jan. 2.
“If the American people come together and put their shoulder to the wheel of history, then I know that we can put our people back to work and point our country in a new direction,” Obama said. “That is how we will see ourselves through this time of crisis and reach the promise of a brighter day.”
Obama also asked Americans to keep the country’s troops, including the 143,000 in Iraq and 31,000 in Afghanistan, and military families in their thoughts and prayers to offer “full support in the weeks and months to come.”
“Many troops are serving their second, third or even fourth tour of duty,” Obama said. “This holiday season, their families celebrate with a joy that is muted knowing that a loved one is absent and sometimes in danger.”
Vacation in Hawaii
Obama, on a 12-day vacation with family and friends, began Christmas Eve with a workout at a Marine Corps Base at Kaneohe Bay on the island of Oahu. Obama greeted a crowd of about 60 people gathered in the parking lot.
Obama wished the group “Mele Kalikimaka,” Hawaiian for “Merry Christmas,” and asked the children in the crowd if they had their Christmas lists ready. He played golf later in the day.
Yesterday Obama honored his maternal grandmother, Madelyn Dunham, who died at age 86 on the eve of last month’s presidential election after a battle with cancer. Obama and his half-sister, Maya Soetoro-Ng, scattered Dunham’s ashes in the ocean following a memorial service.
Source: http://latestobamanews.com/2008/12/25/obama-honors-military-asks-americans-to-help-economy/
CHICAGO, IL — In the immediate aftermath of the US Presidential Election, Chicago White Sox general manager Kenny Williams invited President-Elect Barack Obama to throw out the first pitch of the team’s 2009 season; more than a month later, the Chicago Cubs have answered with their own political celebrity, announcing today that Republican Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin will do the honors on the North Side.
“We are very excited to have a national celebrity like Mrs. Palin join us for our April 13th home opener against the Colorado Rockies,” said current Cubs President Crane Kenny. “Especially in light of the White Sox extending an offer to President-Elect Obama, we thought it was important to move quickly and find someone who symbolizes what we’re about as a team the way Obama’s no-nonsense politics relate to the White Sox’s blue-collar style.”
Apparently Cubs management thought that Palin — perhaps most accurately described as the Paris Hilton of politics — is an appropriate representative of North Side baseball. Fans of the team are split on the issue.
“I don’t know what to think,” said 29-year-old Page Chase-Lattimer, a self-professed lifelong Cubs fan from Kenilworth who now lives in Lincoln Park. “On one hand she’s pretty hot, and obviously I think she’s a good politician who would have made a great vice president. On the other hand, though, can she throw a baseball? I mean, I’d hate to see a jinx put on the season by a bad first pitch on Opening Day.”
Katy Anderson, a Wrigleyville resident who says she grew up a Brewers fan but now roots for the Cubs, was far more excited about the news, saying that she “was already planning to go to the game, but now there’s just no question. I love that the Cubs are choosing a strong woman who is a great role model to start the season off for them. It just really shows why the Cubs are so awesome, because it’s not like they’re so worried about winning or losing that they can’t remember important things, like gender equality. I also really like those Mai-Tais they have.”
Palin was unable to attend the press conference announcing her role for the Cubs due to obligations in her job as Governor of Alaska, but did express excitement for the opportunity when by phone.
“I’m just really excited to be a part of a historic team celebrating their history,” Palin told SSNN. “For 100 years now, the Cubs have been a great example of how you don’t necessarily have to come out on top to be important, and that’s a message that is really comforting to me right now.
“I mean, if the Cubs can keep being in the limelight year after year despite the fact that they never ever win, then I have to believe my career can survive an embarrassing loss in a presidential election.”
Source: http://www.serioussportsnewsnetwork.com/2008/12/obama-to-throw-out-first-pitch-at-sox-opener-cubs-get-sarah-palin.html
Today, in his regular blog “Animals & Politics,” my colleague Michael Markarian posted a blog well worth reading about today’s announcement by President-elect Barack Obama on his latest cabinet selections: former Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack for Agriculture Secretary and current U.S. Sen. Ken Salazar from Colorado for Interior Secretary. I join in Mike’s congratulations to both men on their selections, and say that we very much look forward to working with them.
Vilsack was a top choice by The HSUS for the post, and we believe he has the smarts and experience to bring this agency into the 21st century and to confront the enormous challenges that his predecessors have largely sidestepped. But it will be a tough job, and he’ll have to steel his spine for the job ahead. Vilsack clearly has the mettle to do this; as Iowa Governor, he vetoed a bill to allow the shooting of mourning doves—an act that has saved more than a million doves from target shooting in the years since and cut against the conventional wisdom about disappointing and defying the NRA and the gun lobby. USDA is a dinosaur, with animal welfare programs an odd fit within an agency that has as its core mission the promotion of agriculture, including the production of animals for meat, egg, and dairy products. USDA leaders, acting in concert with a variety of industries, have largely viewed animals as commodities, rather than living, feeling individuals, and their policies and enforcement actions have reflected that worldview and consistently fallen short of a responsible standard of conduct for years.
As columnist Nicholas Kristoff wrote last week in The New York Times, the agency should be renamed the Department of Food, and move beyond its traditionally narrow focus as a promoter of agribusiness. It needs to elevate food safety, animal protection, environmental protection, and local, sustainable and organic agriculture, and think about serving 300 million American consumers, rather than just the small number of people involved in corporate agribusiness. Social critic Michael Pollan and others have been making the same points during the past few months.
Our nation needs farmers and a thriving rural economy, and preserving that lifestyle and livelihood is vitally important. But farmers, and the sophisticated ones certainly know this, operate within a society with evolving attitudes toward agriculture, as the passage of Proposition 2 in California indicates. A good yield is not enough—agriculture must pay attention to the wishes of consumers and the norms in society that reflect a concern for the care of animals, the environment, wholesome food, and protection of family farms. The Farm Bill, in its future iterations, should provide farmers with incentives to produce in a way that promotes animal welfare, land preservation, food safety, and nutrition, instead of building the legislation around providing subsidies principally for five major commodities, with most of the money going to producers making more than $250,000 a year. Vilsack will also play a big role in energy policy, since animal agriculture is such an enormous contributor to greenhouse gas emissions, as well as both a major consumer and producer of energy.
We pledge to work with him, all the while advocating to advance the broad mission of The HSUS.
Sen. Salazar is a widely respected figure in the Senate, built partly on his years of experience as a conservative Democrat with a reputation for reaching out to Republicans. He was not a top choice at Interior for animal advocates, the environmental community, or other significant stakeholders and for that reason alone, his was a surprise choice. As Markarian writes in his blog, Salazar has a mixed record on our issues and, to some degree, on environmental protection. But I think he’ll find that strong, progressive action at an agency that’s been riddled with corruption and has demonstrated unhindered obedience to the desires of industry during the Bush era will earn him and President-elect Obama the loyalty of the majority of the American public. Americans treasure wildlife and the 700 million acres of public lands. It’s an awesome responsibility, and we hope that Salazar will provide inspired leadership worthy of the vision that President-elect Obama has set forth in his policy statements and speeches.
Here is Markarian’s blog, as well.
Obama’s Animal Welfare Team
President-elect Barack Obama announced two more Cabinet appointments today—perhaps the two most eagerly awaited appointments for animal advocates because of their relevance to the protection of domestic animals and wildlife. We congratulate former Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack, the next Secretary of Agriculture, and U.S. Sen. Ken Salazar of Colorado, the next Secretary of the Interior, who were both named earlier today. We also congratulate Lisa Jackson, whose appointment was formally announced earlier in the week to head the Environmental Protection Agency. These three members of Obama’s team together will impact the lives of hundreds of millions of animals.
Vilsack has a solid record on animal protection, and he was the top choice of HSUS and HSLF to lead the USDA, the agency that oversees our federal laws on animal welfare, humane slaughter and transport, horse protection, animal fighting, and others. Nearly 90,000 animal advocates contacted the transition team through our website, expressing how important it was to pick an animal-friendly Agriculture Secretary and recommending Vilsack as an excellent choice. The Obama Administration listened to your views, and this appointment demonstrates what an important voice animal advocates can have as a political constituency.
As governor of Iowa, Vilsack advocated for bills to toughen the state’s penalties for animal fighting, and now he will lead the agency charged with enforcing the federal law to break up dogfighting and cockfighting rings. He stood up to the puppy mill industry and vetoed a bill in 2006 that would have weakened protections for pets by reclassifying dogs as “farm products.” He also exhibited tremendous fortitude and adherence to principle when he vetoed legislation in 2001 that would have allowed the sport hunting of mourning doves for the first time in decades. Standing up to the NRA and the gun lobby in a big hunting state, he said at the time:
The majority of Iowans do not support changing the current law to legalize dove hunting. My office has received contact from thousands of concerned Iowans regarding this issue, and my conclusion is that this policy is not right for our state at this time.
Vilsack recognized the importance of protecting animals from cruelty and abuse, and the importance of public involvement in the decision-making process. He’ll need that same principled leadership in enforcing the Humane Methods of Slaughter Act, the Animal Welfare Act, the Horse Protection Act, and other federal laws. We look forward to working with him to elevate animal protection, food safety,and protection of the environment at USDA, which has consistently subverted these important considerations and sided time and again with the knee-jerk positions of agribusiness. He’ll have a big role to play in how our nation confronts puppy mills, factory farming, predator control, the use of animals in research and testing, and other practices and industries that have compromised animal welfare.
Salazar was a surprise choice for Interior, and wasn’t one of the names pushed by animal advocates. His record on animal issues in the U.S. Senate has been mixed, scoring 0 on the Humane Scorecard for the 109th Congress, and 50 percent in the 110th Congress. He voted against legislation to ban horse slaughter in 2005, but in the current session he co-sponsored legislation to strengthen the penalties for animal fighting and signed onto a letter requesting increased funds for the adequate enforcement of animal welfare laws. He has received relatively high marks on environmental issues from the League of Conservation Voters, scoring 78 percent in the 109th Congress and 85 percent in the 110th Congress.But, again, as with animal advocates, Salazar was not on the list of preferred candidates for the environmental community. The President-elect passed over more strongly recommended candidates such as Reps. Raúl Grijalva and Jay Inslee.
As Interior chief, Salazar will oversee the enforcement of wildlife protection laws such as the Endangered Species Act and the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, and will have authority for wildlife management practices on millions of acres of federal lands in national parks, national wildlife refuges, and Bureau of Land Management properties. We look forward to working with him, too, and addressing the major wildlife policy issues such as protecting threatened polar bears and other species from the impacts of global warming, deploying immunocontraceptive technology to manage wild horses and burros humanely on the range, and addressing the animal welfare and public safety risks of the exotic pet trade.
Jackson led the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, and was a leading animal advocate in the state. She rejected attempts by the NRA, Safari Club, and other trophy hunting groups to initiate a hunting season on New Jersey’s small population of black bears, and she instead implemented a comprehensive program to solve bear conflicts with humane methods such as trash management and public education. We are pleased to have such an innovative leader at the helm of EPA, and we hope to work with her on continued efforts to prioritize the use of alternatives to animals in toxicity testing, to ensure strong penalties for pollution from factory farms and dismantle the Bush Administration’s corporate giveaway that exempts them from having to report their massive toxic emissions.
President-elect Obama has pledged to make progress for animal welfare and environmental stewardship, and we hope these appointees will prove to be an excellent team to help him meet these crucial goals. We congratulate the nominees, and look forward to working with the new Administration to confront the major challenges facing animals and the environment.
Source: http://hsus.typepad.com/wayne/2008/12/obama-cabinet.html
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