WEEK IN REVIEW: MAR 2-6

Much has transpired over the past two days but I won't get into it yet. Unfortunately, we've been too busy to post the most recent week in review well and on time, but here goes nothing...

The big story in the first days of March was healthcare, an area that needs a whole lot of work. There is no good reason for the all the problems plaguing the medical system in the US. Pharmaceutical and insurance companies continue to rake in billions at the expense of all the rest of us (including many doctors). Unless Obama's healthcare agenda reverses this trend, it will only make matters worse, especially since there is no money to spend. Whatever his plan may be, it will not be easy to fix the problem.

Here's a brief rundown of some things that happened in week nine... 

MONDAY:
 - Obama announced Kathleen Sebelius - a former insurance executive - as his latest pick for Secretary of Health and Human Services. There are still many posts left to fill...

TUESDAY:
 - The President of the United States met with the British Prime Minster... no big deal.
 - Meanwhile, members of Congress debated Obama's massive budget on Captiol Hill
 - In other news the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for Sudanese president Omar Al Bashir. In ambiguously supporting the ICC decision, The president seems to be suggesting that he values justice over peace. If only that were something that applied in other hot zones.

WEDNESDAY:
 - Obama announced plans to overhaul the way that contracts are managed and awarded. While this may seem like bad news for big firms with well-to-do shareholders, it is probably little more than a publicity stunt. 
 - In the evening he hosted members of Congress at the White House in hopes of convincing them to back his budget plans.

THURSDAY:
 - A mass of people attended the White House Forum on Health Reform that lasted all afternoon despite the fact that there is still nobody in charge of that department. Nevertheless, President Obama called for a comprehensive overhaul of the healthcare system (his reforms could cost US taxpayers $2.5 trillion while still leaving over 45 million uninsured) 
 - VP Biden spoke to the AFL-CIO Executive Council in Miami – he reitetreated the WH position that “a strong middle class needs a strong labor movement.” Considering most middle-class workers in the US are not members of any unions, he is probably wrong.
 - While participating in some positive charity work, FLOTUS Michelle Obama had a rather bizarre phot-op at a homeless shelter. 
 - US District Judge James Robertson threw out a lawsuit questioning Obama’s citizenship. He ordered the prosecution to to show why it hadn't violated court rules barring frivolous cases and why the plaintiff' should not have to pay Obama's attorney for wasting his time. Amen to that! Still no news on the other case I keep yapping about.

FRIDAY:
 - Obama spoke at a graduation ceremony for police recruits in Ohio where he sought to justify his gigantic spending bill.
 - Barack toughened his stance on whaling, a move that is sure to upset some people in Japan. I'm not fan of animal cruelty, but I've heard that whale meat is absolutely delicious. 
 - The president announced plans for some more foreign policy appointments... More on this later.
 - Right before the weekend, the White House signaled that limits on stem-cell research would be lifted (more on that some other time).

WEEK IN REVIEW: FEB 23-27

President Obama started his eighth week in office with a promise to cut the national deficit in half by the end of his first term. Considering the massive spending package he recently signed into law, that may seem a little too optimistic. With time it is becoming ever more clear that despite the dire economic situation we are currently in, our new president intends to spend money we don't have in hopes of making things better. By the end of the week, Barack made his intention to raise the deficit abundantly clear. 

The media highlight of the week was a toss up between an appearance at a Washington Wizards game, and his first 'State of the Union' type speech. It was typical Obama... flourishing rhetoric reminiscent of his campaign days. Unfortunately, the address was quite weak on substance as the Associated Press dutifully pointed out. In many ways, the Republican response was stronger (from a political perspective). While the president sounded more optimistic in discussing what lies ahead, he delivered a laundry list of promises he is unlikely to deliver on them all.

It's too early to pass judgment on the Obama administration's handling of the economic situation, but if his budget proposal is any sign of things to come, there may be real cause for concern. Unsurprisingly, they want to spend a lot of money. Hopes that the stimulus and bailout packages will increase economic growth are probably misplaced. Republicans are gearing up for a fight, and in his weekly video address Obama affirmed his commitment to fight back. There are no real causes for optimism at the time being when it comes to the economy. 

In other news this week, VP Joe Biden presided over the first meeting of the Middle Class Task Force in Philadelphia - the focus was on green jobs. We'll see what actually happens (and how much it costs), but at least the administration appears to be moving in the right direction when it comes to the environment.

Obama laid out his plans for Iraq at Camp Lejeune; among other things, he decided to give the military a little more time to get the job done, electing for a 19 month timeline as opposed to the 16 months he promised while campaign. No big deal really... unless 19 becomes 24 or more. Whatever the case, the military will have its hands full in Afghanistan. It's a rocky road...

WEEK IN REVIEW: FEB 17-20

Another relatively uneventful week... which culminated with Mr. O's 30th day on the job. As numerous observers have remarked, it almost seems as though he is back on the campaign trail trying to muster support. It's worth mentioning that after a month, he still does not have a Secretary of Commerce or a Secretary of Health and Human Services - that is inexcusable. For those who needed it, we were reminded how far we still have to go before overcoming racism. Things haven't been going to well for him lately... no wonder Junius has been so silent!

As in any week, there were a few notable occurrences. Here are some of them:

• With great fanfare, President Obama And Vice President Biden travelled to Denver and signed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (aka the 'stimulus' plan). Many people are calling it all a big waste of money which incidentally we don't have. With so much money already going to the people who need it least, Obama sought to reiterate his commitment to those really suffering from the mortgage crisis. For the fourth consecutive week, his video address was dedicated to the economic situation (and the politics behind it). Let's see what happens next...
  
• Obama took his first trip abroad... traveling all the way to Canada. Even in his 'foreign policy' Barack is going to great lengths to prove his commitment to the domestic agenda - Canada and the US are the word's largest trading partners.
  
• Hillary Clinton took her first official trip as Secretary of State. The main purpose of her trip was essentially to beg for help. Too bad we couldn't send someone more likable...
  
• Unsurprisingly, Obama approved a request by the Secretary of Defense for an additional 17,000 troops in Afghanistan. There will be more of them... and more suicide bombings. Of course, US jets continue to make life miserable for Afghanis. 
  
• The White House reminded us all that things haven't really changed that much when it comes to (the lack of) transparency of questionable policies on national security.
  

WEEK IN REVIEW: FEB 9-13

In his third full week as president, it seemed as though all Barack Obama's attention was focused on the worsening economic crisis. 37 million viewers tuned into his first primetime press conference where he hoped to drive his message home. It was more exciting than most of his previous appearances as president, but the bar was set pretty low.

There were several other television appearances throughout the week. He smiled for cameras from Indiana to Florida as he sought to reiterate his resolve to the American people. (He also traveled to Illinois to address the workers who help maintain the brutal occupation of Palestinians in the West Bank.)

Fortunately for Obama, his people run Congress - it mattered not that every Republican in the House of Representatives voted against the bill. Things in the Senate were a little more interesting... the vote was held open for over five hours as a handful of staffers waited for Senator Brown to return from his mother's wake to seal the deal.

Understandably, a big deal was made of Lincoln's bicentennial. Obama took to the cameras again and delivered another one of his speeches.

The biggest hit he took came from Republican Senator Judd Gregg who withdrew from consideration for Secretary of Commerce, citing "irresolvable conflicts" with Obama and his polices. Although Bill Richardson stepped away because of a scandal, Gregg left for political reasons further damaging the president's efforts at bi-partisanship. Even if he is planning to exit on a high note, the significance of Gregg's withdrawal should not be underestimated - it served as a rallying point for Republicans and fiscal conservatives of all stripes.

Not much happened on the foreign policy front... The White House must have watched the outcome of the Israeli elections with apprehension... Richard Holbrooke traveled around Afghanistan where he was greeted by a series of suicide bombings... Pakistan also remained in the adminstration's crosshairs... Later in the week, rumors emerged of potential Russian cooperation on the much disputed missile defense shield...

On the national security front, the adminstration began a sweeping cybersecurity review. True to form, the Democrats are getting their hands dirty in all facets of government... I'm not hopeful about this stimulus, especially considering the money needed to pay for it is not available. Either Obama and the nation will emerge victorious when it's all said and done, or his party will screw things up so badly that voters will turn to their other alternative which is equally bad.

We need real change we can believe in...

WEEK IN REVIEW: FEB 2-6

Without a doubt, the honeymoon is over...
President Obama's third week in office seemed to have been his worst yet. He had been hoping to push his monstrous stimulus package through Congress. There was some 'progress' early on, but after a very long Friday, the Senate adjourned after having accomplished nothing of any real significance. It seems there is no shortage of problems with the proposed legislation; it is a weak attempt at a quick fix with potentially devastating long-term consequences. Barack stepped up the rhetoric in an effort to get the bill approved. Something is likely to pass next week... then we can start looking into the issues affecting its implementation.

But concerns over the ECONOMY were not limited to the stimulus bill:

• Obama is going to need all the help he can get, and on Friday he named an economic advisory panel to do just that. Another speech...
• In a move that received mixed reviews, the president announced that executives whose companies are receiving federal aid will have their salaries capped at $500,000. Personally, I think that figure is a little bit high... and undeserved (to say the least).
• Perhaps the most disappointing act pertaining to the economy was the executive order backing the use of union labor for all large-scale federal construction projects. It's worth noting that over 80% of construction workers are not unionized... but I guess that doesn't matter to a Democratic politician who received over a billion dollars in campaign contributions from labor unions. It's also worth pointing out that this was a resurrection of an order from the Clinton administration that W had scrapped.

There were several other important developments that are not directly related to the economy and the current financial crisis:

• Bad HUMAN RESOURCES continued to plague Obama's growing administration. The latest casualties were the nominees for Secretary of Health and Human Services as well as Chief Performance Officer. It wasn't Tom Daschle's bad taste in glasses that cost him the job but his failure to properly pay his taxes; the same was true for Nancy Killefer. The president did the very least he could do by admitting he made a mistake. It seems as though we have yet to see the end of this drama - Obama's pick for Secretary of Labor, Hilda Solis is now under scrutiny as well. On the more promising side of things, the new nominee for Secretary of Commerce is a Republican; he replaces another one of Obama's picks who was forced to keep it moving...
• There was marginal progress on the HEALTHCARE front despite the Daschle setback. After the House approved the legislation, President Obama signed a new bill that extends health insurance coverage to millions of children from low-income families. This was an initiative W shot down at least twice during his eight years in office. In some other good news, the president tried to hold the miserable FDA accountable for failing to do its job.
  
• One of the issues that needs serious attention is EDUCATION. Obama must have had that in mind when he and his wife visited a DC charter school where they read to a second grade class. The president had a lot of good things to say about charter schools during the campaign so his choice of venue was not surprising, nor were his remarks when it was all said and done. Maybe next time the Obamas can go to a rundown DC public school where learning (and teaching) is a real challenge. Unfortunately, it seems that education is not a real priority for the US government.
• RELIGION continued to play a central role in the life and times of our new president. Thursday February 5th started with a National Prayer Service where the despicable Tony Blair delivered the keynote address. President Obama also spoke and explained what he hoped to achieve in establishing the White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships (a remixed version of W's Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives). Later on in the day he announced that the department would be headed by Joshua DuBois, a 26 year old pastor who found his calling after the murder of Amadou Diallo. As a 17-year old freshman in college, he stood in front of the MLK monument in Boston for 41 hours - one hour for each bullet. He seems like a good guy...
• Attention shifted to the SUPREME COURT early in the week when Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg disclosed her treatment for pancreatic cancer. Her openness was exemplary, but she plans to return to the bench in a couple weeks. Even if she does end up stepping down, the court's makeup would not change much - she is one of the most liberal of the justices and it is highly unlikely that Obama would appoint another Clarence Thomas.
• FOREIGN POLICY & NATIONAL SECURITY remained high on the new administration's list of priorities. After the Department of Defense finally dropped charges against the alleged mastermind of the USS Cole bombing - bringing the department in compliance with Obama's executive order calling on all proceedings at GITMO to be suspended - he met with family members of the attack and 9/11 to assure them that his administration had only pushed pause on prosecuting the bad guys. In an effort to maximize maneuverability, officials also announced that two different withdrawal plans were being considered for Iraq. Of course, the new quagmire is likely to be in Afghanistan (and Pakistan).
• Finally, in a bit of good news for the ENVIRONMENT (and US consumers), the president ordered the Department of Energy to set new effiency standards for most household appliances.
  

WEEK IN REVIEW: JAN 26-30

The first full week of the Obama administration was a bit bipolar - the president had some important victories, as well as a few surprising stumbling blocks. Here's a rundown of the biggest stories in the past five days:

PROGRESS:

• As expected, President Obama's stimulus plan, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act passed the House of Representatives on Wednesday. However, it received not a single Republican vote, despite the fact that the president watered it down to bring at least some of the Republican caucus on board. Their opposition shouldn’t surprise anyone - any stimulus that does pass is not going to end the recession; the best it can hope to do is keep unemployment lower than it otherwise might be. But of course, if it passes no one will ever know what would have happened without the stimulus - they'll just know unemployment was still high. So the Republicans can make plenty of noise about opposing a "useless" stimulus. A great political move, if an unprincipled one.

• Another legislative victory for liberals came with the president’s signing of the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act. The law overturned the Supreme Court's 2007 decision in Ledbetter v. Goodyear, which held that a pay discrimination claim based on sex must be brought within 180 days of the first discriminatory payment. Ledbetter, who only became aware of the discrimination years later, argued that each paycheck constituted a new discriminatory act re-triggering the 180-day period for filing of a suit. The Act made her claim law.

• On the financial front, President Obama also suggested decisive government action was on its way. On the one hand, he chastised Wall Street upon reports that $18.4 billion in bonuses were distributed to executives in 2008. On the other, the White House gave indications of several courses of action it might pursue to break the credit crisis, among them the creation of a so-called "bad bank" to buy up risky bank assets, prop up balance sheets and get banks lending again.

• The president's Middle East Envoy, George Mitchell, is wrapping up a several-stop trip through the Middle East this weekend. Mitchell, who played an instrumental role in negotiating peace in Northern Ireland years ago, is feeling out the parties in the region to gauge the feasibility of restarting the peace process. There has been little said about Gaza lately, however (other than the spat at Davos between Israeli President Shimon Peres and Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan), and it's unlikely Obama will get anywhere by simply delegating the peace process to Mitchell and staying on the sidelines.

• In a fascinating move, President Obama appears interested in appointing Republican Senator Judd Gregg of New Hampshire as his Commerce Secretary. Because New Hampshire has a Democratic governor, this raises the question of whether the Democrats might get their filibuster-proof 60 vote majority in the Senate after all. It's unlikely that Gregg would take the job without assurances that his successor will be a Republican, though.

• Finally, President Obama has brought change to the White House already: he held a bipartisan cocktail party there earlier this week. Former President Bush was not a drinker (excluding the first four decades of his life), and we saw how that worked out for inter-party relations in D.C. Perhaps a little social lubricant might get the gears of government working again.

SETBACKS

• President Bush has managed to strike back from the political grave! Most people breathed a sigh of relief when Inauguration Day arrived and Bush did not issue a blanket pardon to members of his administration for any alleged violations of law. However, it seems that he extended letters to many members of his staff, including Karl Rove, which purport to grant "absolute immunity," forever in perpetuity, against congressional subpoenas. The legality/constitutionality of this move is anyone's guess, and John Conyers is far from finished with his hunting of Bush administration officials, so you can bet you will see a lawsuit sometime soon about whether the president's executive privilege can justify a move like this.

• Obama has butted heads with the judiciary for the first time in his tenure (okay, technically the judge is not a member of the judicial branch since the Guantanamo court is a creature of statute, but still). The chief judge of the war crimes court at Guantanamo rejected the president's call for prosecutions there to be halted. The degree of independence these military commissions have is still up in the air, so look for more news on who will get their way in this fight.

• Finally, one more bit of irritating news for the president: his half-brother, George Obama, was arrested in Kenya on marijuana possession charges. Sadly, it looks like Obama's ancestral home has the same silly drug laws as nation he now leads.

WEEK IN REVIEW: JAN 21-23

President Barack Hussein Obama's first three days on the job were filled with excitement (at least the first two). Regrettably, Hillary Clinton and Timothy Geithner went through their confirmations with little problems. But it was their boss who was making the big headlines. He ordered the closure of Guantanamo and made headway and a handful of domestic issues. There were also signals of the new adminstration's future dealings abroad, some good some bad.

Wednesday, January 21st was Obama's first full day as President of the United States. As expected, it was rather eventful...

• The first family's morning was consumed by a long National Prayer Service. God bless the USA!
  
• There was a promise of "an unprecedented level of openness in government." The newly elected president announced that all pay raises would be frozen for anyone making above $100,000 a year (nobody was even on the payroll before Tuesday).
• Obama's first action of any consequence was the signing of an ethics act that placed numerous limitations on lobbyists and government officials.
  
• He ordered the suspension of all legal proceedings in Guantanamo and his aides circulated a draft executive order calling for the detention center in Cuba to be shut down.
• He called Ehud Olmert and Mahmoud Abbas to express his "commitment to active engagement in pursuit of Arab-Israeli peace from the beginning of his term."
• The president hosted an open house for some special guests.
• He also held productive meetings with economic advisers and military officials.
• The day ended with him re-taking the presidential oath that the Supreme Court Justice had so unceremoniously screwed up the day before.

Thursday, January 22nd was a day for more promises to be fulfilled (to a certain extent). Once again, members of the press had their hands full. As his cabinet picks continued to make headway in their confirmations, President Obama made two important appointments:

1. George Mitchell was made Special Envoy to the Middle East. He is of Irish-Lebanese descent and his accomplishments include the well received Mitchell Report on the second intifada, and a lasting peace deal in Northern Ireland. It was a relatively good move (much better than a Dennis Ross).
2. Richard Holbrooke was named Special Envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan. He has earned the nickname the bulldozer, and he has a past checkered with red flags. His appointment is not a good sign for any meaningful peace in that region.

• What made the most headlines were the three executive orders the president signed, effectively ending all the previous administration's policies in the so-called war on terror:

1. Regarding Guantanamo Bay - the ultimate goal is the closure of the detention center within a year. The order establishes a review process with the goal of relocating the detainees before closing the facility. It also requires that conditions of confinement at Guantanamo comply with Geneva conventions and other international laws until the prison camp is shut down.
2. Regarding detention policies - a special task force, co-chaired by Eric Holder and Robert Gates will reconsider policy options for apprehension, detention, trial, transfer, and release of detainees. The task force must submit its report to the president within 180 days.
3. Regarding interrogation policies - all interrogations of detainees are required to follow the Army Field Manual guidelines (e.g. no more waterboarding). The CIA is ordered to close all overseas detention facilities and it is prohibited from operating them in the future. A special task force will conduct a review of interrogation policies. It will do the same for extraordinary rendition, although the process will continue for the time being.

• Obama also ordered the Justice Department to review the case of the only 'enemy combatant' currently being held in the US.
  

Friday, January 23rd was far less eventful. Not much came out of the White House -I guess they were winding down for the weekend...

• The executive and legislative branches came together to work on an (expensive) remedy to the current financial crisis.
• The president returned phonecalls from Canadian PM Stephen Harper, Saudi King Abdullah (who he asked to combat arms smuggling to Gaza), British PM Gordon Brown and UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon.
• To the dismay of pro-life nutbags protesting the day before, Obama lifted a ban on US funding for international groups that perform abortions or provide related services.
• The big news of the day came from Pakistan where two US drones killed at least 20 people, at least half of them civilians. Clearly Obama was unfazed by the flack he took for promising to strike freely in Pakistan during the campaign. At least he's showing he has some foreign policy convictions, even if they're dangerously flawed.
  

But overall, it was a good week - our new president delivered - at least on the surface. Yes, Guantanamo will soon be a thing of the past, but detainees there are still being force fed and mistreated (the press left on January 21). CIA prisons are supposed to be shut down, but what will be the fate of those already in detention? The Mitchell pick was not bad, but Obama continues to walk the same line with Israel. What are the chances he will let Mitchell do his 'dirty' work for him? Holbrooke will definitely do his dirty work. Friday's attack on Pakistan could be a sign of bad things to come.

What we've seen in these first few days has been good, but there is a long way to go. Actions speak louder than words, and the world will be watching to see what Barack actually does. So far so good (except for Pakistan, and the persistent misportrayal of the Arab-Israeli conflict). If he can keep up the pace, I will be pleasantly surprised... I'm not expecting that.