Obama Wants To Keep BlackBerry: I Dont Want to Lose Touch

President-elect Barack Obama and the love of his life, a BlackBerry.

US President-elect Barack Obama says that he is attempting to find a way of keeping access to his BlackBerry device after he was told he could not use the popular wireless emailing device due to a legal requirment for all transactions to be put stored for later use on the public record.

In an interview with ABC's Barbara Walters, Obama talked about the importance of breaking through the isolation faced by the president, reports said.

"Well, I'm, I'm negotiating to figure out how can I get information from outside of the 10 or 12 people who surround my office in the White House," Obama says in the interview. "Because, one of the worst things I think that could happen to a president is losing touch with what people are going through day to day."

Obama's personal BlackBerry has been his constant companion for years and especially on the campaign trail in 2007 and 2008, that kept him "plugged in" to the world outside just his inner circle.

President Bush was apparently very upset when he discovered he could no longer email when he gained office in January 2001. Some arguments have been made that the use of devices where Presidents can talk to others on the outside may help in the decision making process and make for good leadership.

There is also the argument that Obama's BlackBerry could be hacked by foreign intelligence agencies or other undesirables that could be a national security threat.

Then again, aruges the Chicago Tribune, why doesn't he just use an iPhone instead....

As of September 2008, there were some 19 million subscribers to the BlackBerry brand.

Obama's Half Trillion Dollar 2-Year Economic Plan

US $500 billion seems to be the ball park figure being thrown around for President-elect Barack Obama's economic plan that he wants enacted by the end of January, sources say.

The 2 year plan aims at creating or saving around 2.5 million US jobs, and looks to invest in technologies, transport and energy saving seems that will "pay for themselves" in the long term.

Some Democratic lawmakers put the figure as high as $700 billion, but others say that's unlikely.

"We have to make sure that the stimulus is significant enough that it really gives a jolt to the economy, that it is putting people back to work, that it is making investments, that it is restoring some confidence in the business community that, in fact, their products and services are going to have customers," Obama said Monday as he announced his economic team.

Declining repeatedly to estimate the cost of the plan, Obama said, "It's going to be costly."

Via: AP

Christina D. Romer: Obama White House Council of Economic Advisers Head

Christina D. Romer, seen in 1994. President-elect Barack Obama chief economic advisor.

Barack Obama has chosen Christina Romer, an economics professor at University of Califonia, Berkele to be his chief of the all important White House Council of Economic Advisers.

Christina Romer seems to be an excellent choice for the post. Her biography says that she is an expert in "the effects of fiscal policy; identification of monetary shocks; the determinants of American macroeconomic policy; changes in short-run fluctuations over the 20th century; causes of the Great Depression."

Romer seems ideally suited to the challanged the US economy and global economic system faces in the midst of one of the worst financial and economic challenges of the modern era.

Christina Romner UCLA, Berkely Curriculum Vitae :

Christina Romer is the Class of 1957-Garff B. Wilson Professor of Economics. She joined the Berkeley faculty in 1988 and was promoted to full professor in 1993. Professor Romer is co-director of the Program in Monetary Economics at the National Bureau of Economic Research, and is a member of the NBER Business Cycle Dating Committee.

She is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and recipient of the Distinguished Teaching Award at the University of California, Berkeley. She has received a John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship, the National Science Foundation Presidential Young Investigator Award, and an Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellowship.

She has served as vice president and a member of the executive committee of the American Economic Association. Prior to her appointment at Berkeley, she was an assistant professor of economics and public affairs at Princeton University from 1985-1988. She received her Ph.D. from M.I.T. in 1985.

Romer's most recent economics paper at UCLA focuses on governments tax policies and their macroeconomic effects in fiscal shocks. She will no doubt be vital in creating the new Obama tax plan that will see tax increases for the top 5% of earners and tax cuts for the majority of US workers.

Change.Gov : Barack Obama First Internet Address to US.

President-elect Barack Obama first ever weekly internet-radio address to the American people.

US President-elect Barack Obama has outlined his plans for America in an unprecedented address using YouTube, outside of the traditional use of the radio waves for a weekly Democratic party address to the nation.

In the video uploaded to YouTube late on Friday the 22nd of November, Obama outlined his plans for the creation of 2.5 million jobs by January 2011, exactly two years after he is expected to take office as President.

We'll be working out the details in the weeks ahead, but it will be a two-year, nationwide effort to jump start job creation in America and lay the foundation for a strong and growing economy," Obama said in his weekly Internet/radio address.

His announcement came two days after government data showed that new jobless claims had surged to a 16-year high, in a new sign that the world's largest economy appeared to be sliding into a deep recession, press reported.

Obama is also expected to officially announce his entire cabinet within the week. Obama is set to introduce Senator Hillary Clinton as his Secretary of State, and as we predicted Timothy Geithner as Secretary of Treasury.

Obama has also launched a website set to keep Americans up to speed with the President-elects administration, Change.gov.

Full 'weekly' Barack Obama Internet and radio address:

New York Senator Bill Clinton

Could Slick Will become Senator Bill Clinton of New York?

New York Senator Bill Clinton?

If Hillary Clinton is eventually announced as Barack Obama's Secretary of State as most now presume will happen, who will fill Clinton's Senate seat for the State of New York?

Some media are insinuating that former President Bill Clinton may be interested in heading to the US Capitol.

Slick Will was seen yesterday massaging the shoulders of the New York Governor Paterson at a ceremony in the state.

Says one observer in the New York Post, "The Clinton's acted as if they were entitled to the White House. Maybe they feel the same way toward that Senate seat."

New York Senator Bill Clinton?

Penny Pritzker for Commerce Secretary as Obama Makes More Cabinet Picks

Penny Pritzker, Chicago Billionaire set to become President-elect Obama's Secretary of Commerce.

Penny Pritzker, Chicago Billionaire and founder of Hyatt Hotel chains, is expected to be officially chosen as Barack Obama's Commerce Secretary in his new administration.

CNN quoted reliable sources as saying the Obama transition team was set to announce Penny Pritzker, who ran Obamas camping finance committee, to be selected for the plum job of running the American government's Commerce department.

Obama also announced that Tom Daschle would be Health Secretary in the Obama President-elect cabinet is set to see an aggressive push to overhaul the US health care system.

Obama's pick for Secretary of Homeland Security is expected to be Arizona Democratic Governor Janet Napolitano, CNN reported citing multiple Democratic sources close to the transition.

Barack Obama-Kim Jong Il Meeting Could Be On Cards

During his Predisential campaign Barack Obama said he would sit down without preconditions during the first year of his administration with leaders of several nations whose governments have been at odds with the United States, including North Korea.

The South Korean President, Lee Myung-bak, said in an interview at the G20 financial crisis Summit in Washington DC that he would welcome such a move by the US President-elect.

"Barack Obama and Joe Biden will not take any options off the table, but they will emphasize first and foremost the power of American diplomacy and make clear the substantial benefits to Iran and North Korea of abandoning their dangerous nuclear programs while simultaneously conveying the enormous costs to them should they fail to do so," according to the Web site.

Via:CNN

Obama Will Shut Down Gitmo

Barack Obama has vowed to close down the notorious prison at Guintanamo Bay, Cuba.

President-elect Obama says he will shut down the "war on terror" internment camp at Guantanamo Bay and rebuild "America's moral stature in the world" during a major interview aired on Sunday.

"I have said repeatedly that I intend to close Guantanamo, and I will follow through on that," the Democrat, who takes office on January 20, told 60 Minutes.
"I have said repeatedly that America doesn't torture. And I'm going to make sure that we don't torture. Those are part and parcel of an effort to regain America's moral stature in the world,"

Hillary Clinton Secretary of State ?

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.....?

Hillary Clinton Secretary of State...That's the rumour doing the rounds as Hillary Clinton lands in Chicago for what appears to be a secret meeting with Barack Obama on the possibility of a position in the new Obama Whithouse cabinet.

Former Democratic Presidential nominee John Kerry and New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson were thought to have been the front runners for the powerful and influential position of United States Secretary of State in an Obama Administration.

If it was confirmed that Hillary Clinton was to be Obama's Secretary of State questions would be asked if a deal was done between Clinton and Barack Obama during the Democratic primaries that Hillary could get a spot in an Obama Whitehouse if he were to win.

"Very serious" discussion is being given to the given to the possibility says ABC news. The leaking of that information may be the Obama camp preparing the US public for just a possibility in the coming days and weeks.

Asked if Hillary Clinton would consider the secretary of state job, a former official in President Clinton’s administration said, "I think so. What would you rather do -- be senator or secretary of state?"
Asked about the reports on the Cabinet post and another report that Hillary Clinton went to Obama’s home base of Chicago today, senior Hillary Clinton adviser Philippe Reines said, "Any speculation about cabinet or other administration appointments is really for President-elect Obama's transition team to address."

Hillary Clinton is due to arrive in Chicago and her staff said that there would be no public appearances by the Senator of New York and former Presidential candidate. That news fueled speculation that Obama and Clinton were meeting and Barack Obama would ask Hillary to serve in his cabinet.

Bush Asks Clinton How to Handle Obama

Outgoing President George W. Bush has revealed that he reached out to former President Bill Clinton for advise on how to handle his meeting with incoming US President Barack Obama.

In an interview with CNN, Bush said that he rang Bill Clinton the day before Obama and his wife arrived at the White house for ideas on guidance on handling the new kid on the block.

"'Bill, I'm getting ready to meet with the new president and I remember how gracious you were to me. And I hope I can be as gracious to president-elect Obama as you were to me,"' Bush told CNN today in a description of the call.

"To the extent that he asked my advice and he may want to ask it again, and the best way to make sure he feels comfortable asking it again is for me not to tell you in the first place what I advised him," he said.

Bush also said one of his biggest regrets as President was the infamous "mission accomplished" banner

"I regret saying some thing I shouldn't have said, like dead of alive....I was trying to convey a message and I probably should have conveyed it more artfully"

"I regret that that sign (Mission Accomplished) was there," Bush said.

Obama Presidency Will Do More to Get Bin Laden

Barack Obama will take aggressive steps in Afghanistan sure to please US military commanders, the Washington Post says.

The strategies speculated to be a strong part of any Obama foreign policy will be of a wider scope that the current Bush Administration attitude toward Afghanistan, with a greater emphasis of killing and capturing Osama bin Laden.

An Obama administration is set to dramatically increase US troop numbers in the war torn nation, employ new strategies that will target talks with elements of the Taliban, other groups, and countries like Iran, with a less ideological approach as seen by the Bush Administration.

From the Washington Post:

Obama advisers and a number of senior military strategists both before and since last Tuesday's election reveal a shared sense that the Afghan effort under the Bush administration has been hampered by ideological and diplomatic constraints and an unrealistic commitment to the goal of building a modern democracy -- rather than a stable nation that rejects al-Qaeda and Islamist extremism and does not threaten U.S. interests. None of those who discussed the subject would speak on the record, citing sensitivities surrounding the presidential transition and the war itself.

"Renegade" (Barack), "Renaissance" (Michelle), "Radiance" (Malia) and "Rosebud" (Sasha).

"Renegade" (Barack), "Renaissance" (Michelle), "Radiance" (Malia) and "Rosebud" (Sasha).

These are the United States secret service code names for the all important members of the First Family.

The Obama family code names will be used by the Secret Service at all times to identify Barack, Michelle, Malia and Sasha whenever communicting. The names were drawn up by the White House Communications Agency.

Rahmbo: Obama Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel

Rahm Emanuel, Barack Obamas newly named Presidential Chief of Staff is as partisan and ruthless as they come. He even once joked that the literal translation of his first name was "Go screw yourself."

Emanuel, who earned the nickname of Rahmbo for his past outbursts and hard line attitude to people, has some interesting story's to tell, one of which involves a famous 1990's Clinton campaign moment when he famously Stood up at a Little Rock, Arkansan restaurant.

At "the end of a Clinton campaign, Emanuel expressed dismay with Democrats he felt had betrayed the team. He picked up a steak knife and shouted "Dead!" as he spiked the knife into the table. Shouting the names of other disfavored Democrats one by one, he stabbed the table shouting, "Dead! Dead! Dead!"

But when Rahmbo accepted the position of Whitehouse Chief of Staff by his new boss' he had more of a re-conciliatory tone toward Washington politics.

"I want to say a special word about my Republican colleagues, who serve with dignity, decency and a deep sense of patriotism," Emanuel wrote. "We often disagree, but I respect their motives. Now is a time for unity, and Mr. President-elect, I will do everything in my power to help you stitch together the frayed fabric of our politics, and help summon Americans of both parties to unite in common purpose."

Barack Obama Behind the Scenes on Election Night 2008

Some intimate and revealing photos have just been released of Barack Obama and his family on election night 2008. 85 pictures from official Obama 2008 campaign photographer David Katz have been released of Flikr.

The historical photos show Obama with his family at his Chicago hotel room watching the voter returns on NBC television. Katz follows Obama as the the night goes on, capturing his running mate Senator Joe Biden and wife Jill talk walking into the room, presumably just after he is announced winner at 11pmET US. The also show moments at Grant Park behind the scenes, the speech itself, and just after it.