POSITION: CO-CHAIR, PRESIDENT'S COUNCIL OF ADVISORS ON SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY (PCAST)
APPOINTEE: Harold E. Varmus
BIRTH DATE: December 18, 1939 in Oceanside, NY
EDUCATION:
B.A. in English Literature ; Amherst College
Graduate degree in English; Harvard
M.D., Columbia College of Physicians and Surgeons
FAMILY: Wife Constance Casey; sons Jacob and Christopher
Continue reading "Change Watch Backgrounder: Dr. Harold Varmus" »
POSITION: DEPUTY DIRECTOR for THE FDA
NOMINEE: Joshua Sharfstein
Born: 1970
Occupation: Commissioner of Health for the City of Baltimore, Maryland
Education: Harvard College, 1991; Harvard Medical School 1996; Residency in pediatrics at Boston City Hospital and Boston Medical Center; completed a special pediatrics fellowship with Boston University
Continue reading "Change Watch Backgrounder: Dr. Joshua Sharfstein" »
POSITION: ADMINISTRATOR, FOOD AND DRUG ADMINISTRATION
NOMINEE: Dr. Margaret A. Hamburg
BIRTH DATE: 1955
EDUCATION: She earned her M.D. from Harvard Medical School, and completed her training at the New York Hospital/Cornell University Medical Center.
FAMILY: Husband: Peter Fitzhugh Brown; two children
Continue reading "Change Watch Backgrounder: Dr. Margaret Hamburg" »
What's in store for the Obama administration? FRC has been keeping track of the President's nominees with detailed backgrounders. Here's the list to date:
Additionally, you can go to FRC Action's web site to read more about the Obama Administration.
POSITION: SECRETARY OF COMMERCE
NOMINEE: Gary F. Locke
BIRTH DATE: January 21, 1950 in Seattle, WA
EDUCATION: Bachelor's degree in Political Science 1972, Yale University
J.D. 1975, Boston University School of Law
FAMILY: Wife Mona Lee; three children, Emily, Dylan, and Madeline
POSITION: DIRECTOR, DOMESTIC POLICY COUNCIL
NOMINEE: Melody Barnes
BIRTH DATE: April 29, 1964 in Richmond, VA
EDUCATION:
Bachelor's degree with honors in History 1986, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill
J.D. 1989, University of Michigan Law School
Continue reading "Change Watch Backgrounder: Melody Barnes" »
POSITION: DIRECTOR, OFFICE OF MANAGEMENT and BUDGET
NOMINEE: Peter R. Orszag
BIRTH DATE: December 16, 1968 in Boston, MA
EDUCATION:
A.B. summa cum laude in Economics 1991, Princeton University
M.Sc. in Economics 1992, London School of Economics
Ph.D, in Economics 1997, London School of Economics
FAMILY: Divorced, lives with his two children, Leila and Joshua
Continue reading "Change Watch Backgrounder: Peter Orszag" »
POSITION: SECRETARY OF TRANSPORTATION
NOMINEE: Ray LaHood
BIRTH DATE: December 6, 1945 in Peoria, IL
EDUCATION: B.S. in Education 1971, Bradley University, Peoria, IL
FAMILY: Wife Kathy; four children: Darin, Amy, Sam, and Sarah
FRC SCORECARD:
110th Congress: 64%
Lifetime Average: 78%
POSITION: HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES SECRETARY
NOMINEE: Kathleen Sebelius
Born: Cincinnati, Ohio, May 15, 1948
Family: Husband, K. Gary Sebelius, and two sons.
Occupation: 44th Governor of Kansas
Education: B.A. Trinity Washington University, Master of Public Administration degree from the University of Kansas.
Work history: Jan 2003-present, Governor of Kansas (term-limited, term ends Jan 2011)
1994-2002, Kansas Insurance Commissioner
1987-1994, Member of the Kansas House of Representatives
1977-1987, Director of the Kansas Trial Lawyers Association
1975-1977, Aide with the Kansas Department of Corrections
Continue reading "Change Watch Backgrounder: Kathleen Sebelius" »
POSITION: WHITE HOUSE COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR
NOMINEE: Ellen Moran
Born: May 1, 1966, in Troy, N.Y., and grew up in Amherst, Mass.
Occupation: Prior to joining White House staff, Moran was executive director of EMILY's List, where she oversaw the national staff and charted the overall strategic direction of the organization to provide financial assistance to female candidates in the Democratic Party who take liberal pro-choice political stances.
Education: B.A. in political science and English literature from Wheaton College.
Clinton White House: Helped plan both Clinton inaugurals, a staunch advocate for Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton through the entire primary season, shifting her support to Mr. Obama only after Mrs. Clinton conceded the Democratic presidential nomination in June, 2009.
POSITION: SURGEON GENERAL
NOMINEE: Sanjay Gupta
BIRTH DATE: October 23, 1969 in Novi, MI
EDUCATION:
M.D. 1992, University of Michigan Medical School
B.A. in Medical Sciences, University of Michigan
(Interflex 6-year program, combining pre-medical and medical school, accepted directly from high school)
FAMILY: Married to Rebecca Olson Gupta; two daughters: Sage & Skye
Continue reading "Change Watch Backgrounder: Sanjay Gupta" »
POSITION: ADMINISTRATOR, NATIONAL OCEANIC and ATMOSPHERIC ADMINISTRATION
NOMINEE: Jane Lubchenco
BIRTH DATE: December 4, 1947 in Denver, CO
EDUCATION:
Ph.D. in Marine Ecology 1975, Harvard
M.S. in Zoology 1971. University of Washington
B.A. in Biology 1969, Colorado College
FAMILY: Husband: Bruce Menge; two sons
Continue reading "Change Watch Backgrounder: Jane Lubchenco" »
POSITION: ASSISTANT TO THE PRESIDENT FOR ENERGY & CLIMATE CHANGE
(Energy and Environment Czar, new position created by President Obama to coordinate energy and climate policy regulations)
NOMINEE: Carol M. Browner
BIRTH DATE: December 16, 1955 in Miami, FL
EDUCATION:
B.A. in English 1977, University of Florida, Gainesville
J.D. 1979; University of Florida College of Law
Continue reading "Change Watch Backgrounder: Carol Browner" »
POSITION: ADMINISTRATOR, ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY
NOMINEE: Lisa P. Jackson
BIRTH DATE: February 8, 1962 in Philadelphia, PA; adopted a few weeks later and raised in New Orleans, LA
EDUCATION:
Master's in Chemical Engineering 1986, Princeton
Bachelor's Chemical Engineering summa cum laude 1983, Tulane
Continue reading "Change Watch Backgrounder: Lisa Jackson" »
POSTION: SOLICITOR GENERAL
NOMINEE: Elena Kagan
Born: April 28, 1960
Occupation: Dean of Harvard Law School and Charles Hamilton Houston Professor of Law at Harvard University.
Education: BA summa cum laude, Princeton University, 1981; MPhil, Worchester College, Oxford, 1983; JD magna cum laude, Harvard Law School, 1986
Clinton White House: 1995-1996 associate counsel to the President; 1997-1999 deputy assistant to the President for Domestic Policy; 1997-1999 deputy director Domestic Policy Council.
NOTE: From 1986 to 1987 Ms. Dean Kagan served as a judicial clerk for Judge Abner Mikva on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. From 1987-1988 she also served as a judicial clerk for Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall. Dean Kagan briefly served as a staff member for Michael Dukakis's presidential campaign. During the summer of 1993 she served as Special Counsel to the Senate Judiciary Committee to work on the confirmation of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
HOMOSEXUAL ISSUES
Gays in the Military
"Last year candidate Barack Obama repeatedly opined that students should have military service opportunities on campus. However, President Obama's nominee for solicitor general, Harvard Law School Dean Elena Kagan, believes the military should be barred from campus. In fact, she fought all the way to the United States Supreme Court, trampling on students' constitutional rights all the way there, in order to deny qualified students the opportunity to serve our country . . . Kagan's staunch ideological opposition to the military and providing qualified students the opportunity to serve puts her well outside of the mainstream. Even Bill Clinton, who dodged a military draft during Vietnam, signed the law Kagan opposes, the Solomon amendment, with overwhelming congressional and public support.
Solomon, simply put, seeks to facilitate voluntary military service by asking colleges and universities to allow students to meet with military recruiters on campus and to participate in the Reserve Officers' Training Corps (ROTC). Schools whose policies or practices obstruct students from taking part are ineligible for federal funding.
Yet, Kagan, who has categorized the law as "immoral" at a 2003 Harvard student forum, argued in support of the position of the Forum for Academic and Institutional Rights, the so-called FAIR coalition, claiming elite schools have a right to taxpayer largesse while simultaneously barring the military - a radical view the Supreme Court unanimously struck down . . . Yet, leftwing views like Kagan's still disparage the sacrifices our military makes and cause real, quantifiable harm to students and to our nation at taxpayer expense. According to Harvard's annual financial statements, the school received $473 million of our hard-earned dollars during the 2003-4 school year, while FAIR, with Kagan's help, won an injunction against the military in the Third Circuit. Harvard took another $511 million during the following school year and, for 2005-6, $517 million more as the Supreme Court heard and rejected FAIR's claims.
Even Ruth Bader Ginsberg, a former American Civil Liberties Union lawyer and centerpiece of the liberals' high court coalition, couldn't find a way to justify these spurious, anti-student claims and recognized Congress' ability to condition taxpayer spending." Flagg Youngblood, "Solicitor General Flimflam," The Washington Times, January 30, 2009.
Hate Crimes
Believes courts should support hate crime laws and that when reviewing regulations of speech, courts could "evaluate motive directly, they could remove the lion's share of the First Amendment's doctrinal clutter." Elena Kagan, Private Speech, Public Purpose: The Role of Government Motive in First Amendment Doctrine, 63 U. Chi. L. Rev. 413, 516 (1996).
"In her 1993 University of Chicago Law Review piece, she wrote that proposed regulations on hate speech and pornography failed to adhere to the fundamental First Amendment principle of viewpoint neutrality - that the government cannot favor certain private speakers or viewpoints over others. Her 1996 article on government motive in First Amendment cases has been cited more than 115 times - an enviably high number for a secondary source. In that article she declares that "the application of First Amendment law is best understood and most readily explained as a kind of motive-hunting." David Hudson, Jr., "Solicitor-general nominee: impressive First Amendment resume," FirstAmendmentcenter.org.
On Questioning of Presidential Nominees
"Kagan herself has called for the Senate to use confirmation hearings "to engage nominees in meaningful discussion of legal issues." In her 1995 review (62 U. Chi. L. Rev. 919) of Stephen L. Carter's The Confirmation Mess, Kagan argues that the "critical inquiry" that the Senate should conduct on a Supreme Court nominee "concerns the votes she would cast, the perspective she would add (or augment), and the direction in which she would move the institution." Kagan draws as "the fundamental lesson of the Bork hearings ... the essential rightness-the legitimacy and the desirability-of exploring a Supreme Court nominee's set of constitutional views and commitments."
Although Carter's book and Kagan's review focus heavily on Supreme Court nominees, they also address DOJ nominations (especially Clinton's 1993 nomination, subsequently withdrawn, of Lani Guinier to be AAG for Civil Rights), and Kagan's view of the Senate's role applies fully to those (and other executive-branch) nominations. That, of course, is hardly surprising, as the case for careful scrutiny of the legal views of DOJ nominees, even if combined with greater deference to the president, seems widely accepted." Ed Whelan, "Obama's SG Pick Elena Kagan," NRO's The Corner, January 7, 2009.
MISCELLANEOUS
Despite being asked to be America's Solicitor General, who argues cases before the Supreme Court, Ms. Kagan has never argued before the Supreme Court. In fact, she has never litigated a case to verdict or trial.
POSITION: Director of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs
(a.k.a. Regulatory Czar)
NOMINEE: Cass R. Sunstein
BIRTH DATE: September 21, 1954
EDUCATION:
J.D., magna cum laude, 1978, Harvard Law School
B.A., 1975, Harvard
FAMILY: Wife- Samantha Power, Professor of Public Policy, Harvard; Daughter, Ellyn, from previous marriage to Lisa Ruddick
EXPERIENCE:
Fall 2008-present, Director of Program on Risk Regulation, Harvard Law School
1992, elected member of Academy of Arts & Sciences
1990 elected member of the American Law Institute
1987, 2005, 2007, Visiting professor, Harvard Law School
Fall 1986, Samuel Rubin Visiting Professor of Law at Columbia Law School
1983-2008, Professor of Political Science, University of Chicago
1981-2008, Professor of Law, University of Chicago Law School
1980-1981, Attorney-advisor, Office of Legal Counsel, Department of Justice
1979-1980, law clerk for Justice Thurgood Marshall of the Supreme Court
1978-1979, law clerk for Justice Benjamin Kaplan of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court
Author of numerous books and articles regarding law and society, including the regulation of risk, the nature of rights, judicial decision-making, and numerous features of administrative, environmental, constitutional doctrine, and the relationship between law and human behavior.
ON END OF LIFE ISSUES and RATIONING HEALTH CARE
"I urge that the government should indeed focus on life-years rather than lives. A program that saves young people produces more welfare than one that saves old people."
[Source]
ON ABORTION
"I don't think it should [be overruled]."
(from interview, talking about Roe v. Wade)
[Source]
"Well, we don't want to fall in the trap of reading the Constitution to do whatever is good. This is the activist fallacy..."
[Source]
ON CLONING
"The right to research," says Cass Sunstein..."Is a frontier issue and interesting and not yet resolved.'' He argues that ''this is not an outlandish constitutional claim.''
[Source]
"Many of the arguments for banning both forms of cloning are based on ignorance, myths, and speculation."
Retrieved January 30, 2009 from:
[Source]
ON GLOBAL WARMING
"Might well inflict catastrophic losses"
"Of course, any such projections involve a lot of guesswork, and reasonable people can differ. If global warming turns out to be either abrupt or greater than anticipated, it might well inflict catastrophic losses, leading to extremely serious problems for the United States and China alike."
[Source]
ON GAY MARRIAGE
"The prohibition on same-sex marriage turns gays and lesbians into second-class citizens"
[Source]
POLITICAL DONATIONS
Cass Sunstein
$500, Obama, Barack (D), 10/18/07
$2,300, Clinton, Hillary (D), 7/27/08
$1,000, Obama, Barack (D), 10/31/08
Position: Secretary of Defense
NOMINEE: Robert Michael Gates
BIRTHDATE: Born: September 25, 1943 (age 65)
PERSONAL INFORMATION: Boy Scout & Eagle Scout; (Former president of the National Eagle Scout Association), 2007: Time Magazine named Gates as one of the most influential people,
2008: Named one of America's Best Leaders by U.S. News & World Report
Political party: Independent/ Republican
EDUCATION: Georgetown University (Ph.D. Russian and Soviet History), Indiana University (M.A. History), College of William & Mary (B.A. European History)
FAMILY: Spouse Becky Gates (Married 1966); Two Children: Bradley & Eleanor
FRC SCORECARD: N/A
EXPERIENCE:
1966: Recruited by the Central Intelligence Agency as a graduate student at Indiana University
1967-1969: Intelligence Officer, United States Air Force
1969: Central Intelligence Agency
1974: White House National Security Council (President Ford)
1979: Central Intelligence Agency: Director of the Strategic Evaluation Center
1981: Central Intelligence Agency: Director of the DCI/DDCI Executive Staff
1982: Deputy Director Central Intelligence Agency (President Reagan)
1989: National Security Advisor to the President (President George H.W. Bush)
1991: Director of Central Intelligence Agency (President George H.W. Bush)
1993-1999: Lecture Circuit
1999-2001: Interim Dean of the George Bush School of Government & Public Service at Texas A & M University
2002-2006: President of Texas A & M University
December 18, 2006: 22nd Secretary of Defense
BOOK: 1996, Gates' autobiography, From the Shadows: The Ultimate Insider's Story of Five Presidents and How They Won the Cold War.
AWARDS/DECORATIONS:
National Intelligence Distinguished Service Medal (2 awards)
Distinguished Intelligence Medal (3 awards)
Distinguished Eagle Scout Award
Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from College of William and Mary
College of William and Mary Alumni Association - Alumni Medallion
Corps of Cadets Hall of Honor (First Non-Corps Honoree) - Texas A&M University
George Bush Award (2007) - George Bush Presidential Library Foundation
COMMENTS/NOTES HOMOSEXUALS IN THE MILITARY
Secretary Gates has not expressed a personal opinion on President Obama's proposal to repeal the law which excludes homosexuals from the military. In March 2007, Marine Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, sparked controversy by telling the Chicago Tribune, "I believe that homosexual acts between individuals are immoral and that we should not condone immoral acts. I do not believe that the armed forces of the United States are well served by saying through our policies that it's OK to be immoral in any way." Gates responded in an interview on the Pentagon Channel, saying, "Now look, you know I think personal opinion really doesn't have a place here. What's important is that we have a law, a statute that governs 'don't ask, don't tell' . . . That's the policy of this department, and it's my responsibility to execute that policy as effectively as we can. As long as the law is what it is, that's what we'll do." [Source]
According to National Public Radio, "Senior Pentagon officials privately said the defense secretary summoned Pace to his office after the comments came to light, and demanded he put out a statement." Pace did so, stating, "In expressing my support for the current policy, I also offered some personal opinions about moral conduct. I should have focused more on my support of the policy and less on my personal moral view." Three months later, Gates announced he was replacing Gen. Pace as chairman of the Joint Chiefs rather than renominating him, expressing concern about a "divisive ordeal" that would have focused on the "past rather than the future." [Source]
In the spring of 2008, it was reported by Politico that "House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was forced to intervene with Defense Secretary Robert Gates in order to get Democratic Rep. Tammy Baldwin's domestic partner on a military flight for a congressional fact-finding trip to Europe. . . Under House guidelines, members of Congress may take their spouses with them on military flights," but "military officials were apparently unwilling to consider Azar a 'spouse.'" A Pentagon spokesman insisted that the travel rules are set by the House, not the Pentagon, and that the decision to waive the normal spousal requirement rested with Pelosi, not Gates: "Secretary Gates honored a request from Speaker Pelosi to make an exception to the House rules."
Secretary Gates was also the named defendant in a court case seeking to overturn the law barring homosexuals from the military, but the Department of Justice actually handled the case in court. On June 9, 2008, the First Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the current law in Cook v. Gates. [Source]
POSITION: DEPUTY ATTORNEY GENERAL
NOMINEE: David Ogden
Born: November 12, 1953
Family: Wife, Anne Harkavy, and three children.
Occupation: partner at the Washington, D.C. firm Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr, co-running the firm's Government and Regulatory Litigation Practice Group.
Education: B.A. summa cum laude from the University of Pennsylvania, 1976; J.D. magna cum laude in 1981 from Harvard Law School
Clinton White House: 1994-1995, Deputy General Counsel and the Legal Counsel for the United States Department of Defense; 1995 - 1997, Associate Deputy Attorney General in the United States Department of Justice; 1997 - 1998, Counselor to the United States Attorney General; 1998 - 1999, chief of staff to the United States Attorney General; 1999 - 2000, Acting Assistant Attorney General; 2000 - 2001, Assistant Attorney General in charge of the Civil Division in the United States Department of Justice.
On Abortion
In a brief for the American Psychological Association in Planned Parenthood v. Casey, he wrote: "Abortion rarely causes or exacerbates psychological or emotional problems. When women do experience regret, depression, or guilt, such feelings are mild and diminish rapidly without adversely affecting general functioning. The few women who do experience negative psychological responses after abortion appear to be those with preexisting emotional problems ...."
Ogden also wrote: "In sum, it is grossly misleading to tell a woman that abortion imposes possible detrimental psychological effects when the risks are negligible in most cases, when the evidence shows that she is more likely to experience feelings of relief and happiness, and when child-birth and child-rearing or adoption may pose concomitant (if not greater) risks or adverse psychological effects ...."
[Source]
Opposed Parental Notification by 14-year olds
In Hartigan v. Zbaraz, 484 U.S. 171 (1987), Ogden co-authored a brief for the American Psychological Association arguing that parental notification was an unconstitutional burden on 14-year old adolescent girls seeking an abortion. Excerpts:
"There is no question that the right to secure an abortion is fundamental." (p. 10).
"By any objective standard, therefore, the decision to abort is one that a reasonable person, including a reasonable adolescent, could make." (p. 11).
"[E]mpirical studies have found few differences between minors aged 14-18 and adults in their understanding of information and their ability to think of options and consequences when asked to consider treatment-related decisions. These unvarying and highly significant findings indicate that with respect to the capacity to understand and reason logically, there is no qualitative or quantitative difference between minors in mid-adolescence, i.e., about 14-15 years of age, and adults." (p. 18).
[Source]
Miscellaneous Abortion filings
In Rust v. Sullivan, 500 U.S. 173 (1990), Ogden served as counsel to People for the American Way, the National Education Association, and others supporting petitioner's claim that abortion is a method of family planning that should be eligible for federal funding.
In Scheidler v. National Organization for Women, 537 U.S. 393 (2003), Ogden co-authored the brief for the respondent NOW and several abortion clinics. They sought permanent injunctive relief under RICO, which was originally aimed at fighting organized mob crime, against pro-life protestors from Operation Rescue and the Pro-Life Action League. Available on WestLaw as 2002 WL 31154781.
See also Gonzales v. Oregon, 546 U.S. 243 (2006), where Ogden served as counsel of record on behalf of law professors filing an amicus brief supporting Oregon's Death with Dignity Act and opposing the Ashcroft Directive barring assisted suicide. Available on LexisNexis as 2004 U.S. Briefs 623.
On Homosexuality
In Lawrence v. Texas, 539 U.S. 558 (2003), Ogden served as counsel of record for the American Psychological Association, American Psychiatric Association, and the National Association of Social Workers filing an amicus brief in support of the defendants.
"Of course, families headed by gay couples may encounter particular issues and challenges, much as families of racial and ethnic minority group members, low-income families, and single-parent families do." (p. 21).
"Although a shift in public opinion concerning homosexuality occurred in the 1990s, hostility towards gay men and lesbians remains common in contemporary American society. Prejudice against bisexuals appears to exist at comparable levels. Discrimination against gay people in employment and housing also appears to remain widespread. The severity of this anti-gay prejudice is reflected in the consistently high rate of anti-gay harassment and violence in American society." (p. 23-24). [Source]
On Gays in the Military
In Watkins v. United States Army, 875 F.2d 699 (9th Cir. 1989), Ogden filed an amicus brief on behalf of the American Psychological Association. In it, APA argued "(8) prejudice against lesbians and gay men in the Army is likely to be reduced by encouraging contact between homosexuals and heterosexuals; and (9) there was no rational basis for the Army's exclusion of gay people."
[Source]
On Strict Scrutiny for Gay Rights Claims
In an article for the APA, Ogden called for "strict scrutiny" of claims by homosexual persons. American Psychologist, Vol. 46, No. 9, p. 950-956 (September 1991).
[Source]
Pornography and Obscenity
Opposed the Children's Internet Protection Act of 2000
In United States v. American Library Association, Ogden served as counsel of record for an amicus brief filed on behalf of fifteen library directors in support of the Association.
"As a condition of receiving federal funds, Congress has - with the Children's Internet Protection Act ... - insisted that public libraries affirmatively censor constitutionally-protected material. By demanding that libraries be censors and devote resources - not to facilitating - but to interfering with patrons' pursuit of information and ideas, Congress has subverted the role of librarians and public libraries and violated the First Amendment rights of library patrons." (p. 3).
CIPA "impairs the ability of librarians to aid patrons seeking information." (p. 11).
[Source]
Challenged the Child Protection and Obscenity Enforcement Act
Ogden represented several communications trade associations challenging provisions of the Child Protection and Obscenity Enforcement Act of 1988. He convinced the court that requiring producers of pornographic materials to personally verify that models were over age 18 at the time the materials were made would "burden too heavily and infringe too deeply on the right to produce First Amendment protected material." American Library Association v. Thornburgh, 713 F.Supp. 469, 477 (D.D.C. 1989).
Representation of Pornographers
Ogden represented Playboy Enterprises, among others, seeking an order forcing the Library of Congress to use taxpayer funds to print Playboy Magazine's articles in Braille against the express wishes of Congress. American Council for the Blind v. Boorstin, 644 F.Supp. 811 (1986). Ogden represented Playboy Enterprises seeking an injunction against the inclusion of Playboy in a list of pornographic magazines that would potentially be included in the Meese Commission report. Playboy Enterprises, Inc. v. Meese, 746 F.Supp. 154 (D.D.C. 1990). Ogden represented a mail-order pornography distributor with a nation-wide business who complained of an allegedly unconstitutional multi-district prosecution strategy by the Department of Justice. P.HE., Inc., v. United States Department of Justice, 743 F.Supp. 15 (D.D.C. 1990) and United States v. P.H.E., Inc., 965 F.2d 848 (10th Cir. 1992).
Ogden has filed numerous amicus briefs in pornography and obscenity cases before the Supreme Court of the United States, including Knox v. United States, 510 U.S. 375 (1993) (on behalf of the ACLU and others); Fort Wayne Books, Inc. v. Indiana, 489 U.S. 46 (1989) (on behalf of mail-order pornography distributor P.H.E., Inc.); Virginia v. American Booksellers Association, 484 U.S. 383 (1988) (on behalf of the Freedom to Read Foundation); Pope v. Illinois, 481 U.S. 497 (1987) (on behalf of the ACLU and P.H.E., Inc.). See also Meese v. Keene, 481 U.S. 465 (1987) (on behalf of Playboy Enterprises, Inc., and the American Booksellers Association).
On Judicial Activism
"Sen. Sessions: I was concerned about your comments on judicial activism or the meaning of our Constitution and how it ought to be interpreted in an article you wrote back in July 1986 concerning the Bowers case in Georgia . . .
'Constitutional interpretation cannot be limited to ascertain the way a particular law would have been viewed by the Framers. While constitutional principles do not change, the society and individuals in whom they are applied do, and our knowledge about that society and those individuals improves with time.'
Then you noted the changing social context is as much a part of the constitutional issues to be decided as the statute itself because to ignore it is to fail in the court's basic task, adapting the great outlines of the Constitution to the particular problems of each generation, and then you went on to make some other comments." Hearing before the Committee on the Judiciary, 106th Congress August 4, 1999.
[Source]
Tobacco Litigation
Was a major player in the Clinton Administration's efforts to profit from the numerous court cases against tobacco companies and releasing a statement on the day the suit was announced [Source]. He also testified before Congress in 2001 stating he believed the government had a strong case because of the tobacco industry's "long-standing conspiracy to defraud the American public."
[Source]
During the campaign there was a lot of talk from the Obama campaign that he would usher in a new era of open and honest government. In fact on the ethics page of his website there is this little tidbit:
Sunlight Before Signing: Too often bills are rushed through Congress and to the president before the public has the opportunity to review them. As president, Obama will not sign any non-emergency bill without giving the American public an opportunity to review and comment on the White House website for five days.
I searched the White House website and there was no five day "waiting period" before President Obama signed the legislation into law, and certainly no explanation that this trial lawyers' dream of a bill is "emergency" legislation.
There is a section of the White House website on the bill that asks for comments - but I am told by people in the White House it did not go up till two hours AFTER the bill was signed!
POSITION: SCIENCE ADVISOR
AND Director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy
AND Co-Chair of the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST)
NOMINEE: John Holdren
BIRTH DATE: March 1, 1944 Sewickley, PA, grew up in San Mateo, CA
EDUCATION:
Ph.D. in aeronautics/astronautics and theoretical plasma physics 1970, Stanford University
M.S. in aeronautics & astronautics 1966, MIT
B.S. in aeronautics & astronautics 1965, MIT
FAMILY: Wife Dr. Cheryl E. Holdren, a biologist; two children and four grandchildren
FRC SCORECARD: NA
EXPERIENCE:
June 2005-present Director, Woods Hole Research Center, Falmouth, MA
1996-present Harvard University
1973-present University of California-Berkeley
1972-1973 California Institute of Technology
1970-1973, 1973-present as consultant, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
1969-1970 Stanford University
1966-1967 Lockheed Missiles and Space Company, Sunnyvale, California
Brief Professional CV at Harvard
And Woods Hole Research Center
American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)
1994-2001 Member of Clinton's President's Committee of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST)
Member National Academy of Sciences
Member National Academy of Engineering
ON EMBRYONIC STEM CELL EXPERIMENTATION and CLONING
"AAAS worked to increase support for the Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act, too, by issuing a statement decrying the President's second veto of the initiative, which had twice passed in the House and Senate, with votes from Republicans and Democrats alike. Association staff later teamed up with stem cell pioneer James Thomson to publish an op-ed that appeared in the Washington Post and at least nine other newspapers."
Welcome Letter from John Holdren, AAAS Chair & Alan Leshner, AAAS CEO; AAAS 2007 annual report
[Source]
Holdren's views on another controversy, embryonic stem cell research, also are likely to run contrary to those of Bush, who has restricted U.S. funding to minimize the number of embryos destroyed to create new colonies of cells.
Holdren has already said he thinks the research should advance without the funding restrictions, said David Baltimore, the 1975 Nobel Prize winner who is now a biology professor at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.
[Source]
"The President has again vetoed the Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act, which would expand federal support for embryonic stem cell research. AAAS, the world's largest general scientific society, stands with a broad coalition of Americans spanning all parties and faiths that supports this bill.
The scientific consensus is that embryonic stem cell research is an extremely promising approach to developing more effective treatments for devastating conditions like diabetes, spinal cord injuries, and Parkinson's disease. The bill would mandate that such research be allowed to compete for federal funding while following strict ethical guidelines.
The Executive Order is not a substitute for the Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act. The new approaches addressed by the order are still in the early stages of development and appear to already be eligible for NIH funding. AAAS strongly believes that it is only through federal support of diverse avenues of stem cell research, including especially embryonic stem cell research, that we may better understand the potential value and limitations of each approach.
During his tenure the President has acknowledged that it is a critical time for the American scientific enterprise, therefore it is disappointing that he has chosen to maintain restrictions on such a promising area of research. AAAS will continue to support the interests of scientists and patients in fostering medical progress."
AAAS statement, 20 June 2007
AAAS supports human experimental cloning
"We believe that cloning for research purposes, where stem cells are extracted for further study, holds great promise for contributing to human health and dignity by developing effective treatments or cures for people whose daily lives are challenged by serious diseases and injuries that cause great suffering and premature death. On the other hand, AAAS has endorsed a legal ban on efforts to clone human embryos for reproduction."
AAAS statement on March 7, 2005:
Other AAAS Policy Statements
ON GLOBAL WARMING/CLIMATE CHANGE
"The extent of unfounded skepticism about the disruption of global climate by human-produced greenhouse gases is not just regrettable, it is dangerous."
[Source]
"Global warming is a misnomer. It implies something gradual, something uniform, something quite possibly benign, and what we're experiencing is none of those," Holdren said a year ago in a speech at Harvard. "There is already widespread harm ... occurring from climate change. This is not just a problem for our children and our grandchildren."
[Source]
Advised Al Gore on the documentary "An Inconvenient Truth."
[Source]
Dr. Holdren's resistance to dissenting views was also on display earlier this year in an article asserting that climate skeptics are "dangerous."
[Source]
MISCELLANEOUS
"In 1980 Dr. Holdren helped select five metals - chrome, copper, nickel, tin and tungsten - and joined Dr. Ehrlich and Dr. Harte in betting $1,000 that those metals would be more expensive ten years later. They turned out to be wrong on all five metals, and had to pay up when the bet came due in 1990."
[Source]
A John Holdren Reader (selected slides, videos, & writings by Holdren)
[Source]
In 1995 he accepted the Nobel Peace Prize on behalf of the Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs, for which he served as chair of the executive committee from 1987 to 1997.
Some consider Holdren to be intolerant of dissenting viewpoints.
[Source]
We have a new contender for my favorite Congressman of the 111th Congress, not sure if this is in time for Wesley Snipes though (my new nominee for Treasury Secretary):
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: January 27, 2009
New Bill Would Eliminate All IRS Penalties and Interest for U.S. Citizens
Congressman John Carter to introduce "Rangel Rule" Legislation Wednesday
(Washington, DC) - U.S. Rep. John Carter (R-TX) will introduce new legislation tomorrow to eliminate all penalty and interest charges by the Internal Revenue Service against U.S. citizens. The bill is designed to provide the same treatment for all U.S. taxpayers owing back taxes as that enjoyed by House Ways and Means Chairman Charles Rangel (D-NY).
POSITION: DEPUTY SECRETARY OF STATE
NOMINEE: James Steinberg
Born: May 7, 1953.
Family: Wife, Sherburne B. Abbott, and two children.
Work history: A clerk to a federal judge; an aide to Senator Edward M. Kennedy on the Senate Armed Services Committee; and an analyst at the RAND Corporation in California. He held several top national security positions in the Clinton administration, including State Department chief of staff and director of the department's policy planning staff. Until 2005, he was vice president and director of foreign policy studies at the Brookings Institution in Washington. He is now dean of the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas but has remained at the center of the Democratic Party's shadow foreign policy establishment. NY Times bio
Education: J.D., Yale Law School, 1978; B.A., Harvard University (Phi Beta Kappa and John Harvard Scholar), 1973
Clinton White House: From December 1996 to August 2000, he served as deputy national security advisor to President Bill Clinton. During that period he also served as the president's personal representative ("Sherpa") to the 1998 and 1999 G-8 summits. Prior to becoming deputy national security advisor, he served as chief of staff of the U.S. State Department and director of the State Department's policy planning staff (1994-1996), and as deputy assistant secretary for analysis in the Bureau of Intelligence and Research (1993-1994).
Abortion
"James B. Steinberg, President Obama's nominee to be the next Deputy Secretary of State, claimed in written testimony to the Foreign Relations Committee that Congress cannot constitutionally restrict taxpayer funding to perform or promote abortions. Mr. Steinberg stated that the Mexico City policy, which bars taxpayer funding of abortions overseas, 'is an unnecessary restriction that, if applied to organizations based in this country, would be an unconstitutional limitation on free speech.'
Steinberg's opinion is in direct contradiction to the U.S. Supreme Court, which has already definitively decided the matter in Rust v. Sullivan in 1991. The court's majority opinion concluded: 'The Government has no constitutional duty to subsidize an activity merely because it is constitutionally protected, and may validly choose to allocate public funds for medical services relating to childbirth but not to abortion.'
Steinberg's statement was made in response to a question about President Obama's efforts to repeal the 'Mexico City policy,' which bars organizations that receive funding from the State Department to agree to 'neither perform nor actively promote abortion as a method of family planning in other nations.'" Senator Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.) blog, referring to written questions he submitted to the nominee.
[Source]
On the Bush Doctrine of Preventive Force
"Preventive military force has a role in managing today's security challenges. Understanding that role is step one; establishing agreed standards for its use is step two; and implanting these standards in an effective institution is the third step. The Bush administration got the first step right, and the logic of its arguments builds toward the second. But it has gotten step three wrong. Unilateralism is not the only alternative to the Security Council. Regional organizations and a new coalition of democratic states offer ways to legitimize the use of force when the council fails to meet its responsibilities." James Steinberg and Ivo Daalder, "Preventive War, A Useful Tool." Los Angeles Times, December 4, 2005.
Helped Craft Obama Doctrine On Negotiating with Hostile Countries
"Advisers to Sen. Obama play down charges from conservatives that there is a downside risk if U.S. efforts to engage Iran fail to halt Tehran's nuclear program immediately. They stress that any overtures would be made only after extensive deliberations inside Washington, as well as with U.S. allies. But they said such an initiative would unify the international community on Iran, while shifting the blame for any failure to resolve the nuclear issue squarely onto Tehran. 'There are no guarantees diplomacy will succeed, but you also know that if it doesn't you've strengthened your hands with other people,' said Mr. Steinberg, who served as deputy national-security adviser from 1996 to 2000." Jay Solomon, "Obama's Mideast experts Emphasize talks," Wall Street Journal, June 16, 2008.
On Nuclear Weapons, Guantanamo and the International Criminal Court
"On the military side, Washington must begin devaluing nuclear weapons. The United States can't uninvent them, and will need some nuclear capability for the foreseeable future. But if we want Iran and North Korea to give them up and for China and Russia to limit their arsenals and prevent proliferation, we must take steps of our own: canceling new weapons programs - like the nuclear bunker buster, ratifying the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty and mounting a massive global campaign to secure loose nukes and nuclear materials. Finally, don't hesitate to stand up for our values: democracy, the rule of law and human rights. But remember that the best way to get others to share them is by example, not coercion. Close Guantanamo. Join the International Criminal Court." James Steinberg, "Enough: Americans Should Lead by Example, and start by closing Guantanamo Bay," Newsweek. January 1, 2008.
Miscellaneous
A voracious reader, fly fisherman, runner and workaholic who often rises before dawn to run several miles before getting to the office. He has several marathons under his belt. Was struck by a car while running in Los Angeles but has recovered from his injuries. NY Times bio
POSITION: SECRETARY OF ENERGY
NOMINEE: Steven Chu
BIRTH DATE: February 28, 1948, St. Louis, MO
EDUCATION: AB in Math and BS in Physics 1970, U Rochester
Ph.D. in Physics 1976, UC-Berkeley
Postdoctoral fellow UC-Berkeley 1976-1978
FAMILY: Wife, Jean Chu, two grown sons, Geoffrey and Michael, by a previous marriage
FRC SCORECARD: NA
EXPERIENCE:
Director, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Aug 2004-Jan 2009
Professor of Atomic Physics and Biological Physics, UC-Berkeley, 2004-2009
Nobel Prize in Physics, 1997, co-winner, "for development of methods to cool and trap atoms with laser light"
Member of the National Academy of Sciences, elected 1993
Professor of Physics and Applied Physics, Stanford University, 1987-2008
Head of Quantum Electronic Dept., AT&T Bell Labs, 1983-1987
Technical Staff, AT&T Bell Labs, 1978-1983
STATEMENTS ON GLOBAL WARMING:
In speeches to organizations around the globe, Chu has delivered a consistent message. "Stronger storms, shrinking glaciers and winter snowpack, prolonged droughts and rising sea levels are raising the specter of global food and water shortages. The ominous signs of climate change we see today are a warning of dire economic and social consequences for us all, but especially for the poor of the world," Chu has said. "The path to finding solutions is to bring together the finest, most passionate minds to work on the problem in a coordinated effort, and to give these researchers the resources commensurate with the challenge."
[Source]
Chu, in a prepared statement, called the challenges of climate change "a growing and pressing problem" And he said that continuing dependence on oil represents a threat to the U.S. economy and security.
[Source]
On Gas Prices
Mr. Chu has called for gradually ramping up gasoline taxes over 15 years to coax consumers into buying more-efficient cars and living in neighborhoods closer to work.
'Somehow we have to figure out how to boost the price of gasoline to the levels in Europe,' Mr. Chu, who directs the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in California, said in an interview with The Wall Street Journal in September."
On Alternative Energy Sources
Coal
"What about other energy sources? Big Coal won't be very happy if Dr. Chu gets confirmed as head of the DOE-he's really, really not a big fan. "Coal is my worst nightmare," he said repeatedly in a speech earlier this year outlining his lab's alternative-energy approaches.
If coal is to stay part of the world's energy mix, he says, clean-coal technologies must be developed. But he's not very optimistic: "It's not guaranteed we have a solution for coal," he concluded, given the sheer scope of the challenge of economically storing billions of tons of carbon dioxide emissions underground.
Nuclear Power
Worried about radioactivity? Coal's still your bogeyman. Dr. Chu says a typical coal plant emits 100 times more radiation than a nuclear plant, given the flyash emissions of radioactive particles.
That doesn't mean nuclear power is much better. "The waste and proliferation issues [surrounding nuclear power] still haven't been completely solved," he said. A big part of the Department of Energy's job is to oversee nuclear weapons and waste storage. And the Obama campaign made clear that increased reliance on nuclear power will require finding a "safe" way to dispose of radioactive waste.
Renewable Energy
How about renewable energy? Dr. Chu already had a taste of Washington power-brokering, in a briefing with current Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman and Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson. He pitched them on the idea of an interstate electricity transmission system to be paid for by ratepayers. That would solve one of the biggest hurdles to wide-spread adoption of clean energy like wind and solar power.
[Source]
POSITION: SECRETARY OF AGRICULTURE
NOMINEE: Thomas J. Vilsack
BIRTH DATE: December 12, 1950 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
EDUCATION:
Bachelor's degree 1972, Hamilton College in New York
J.D. 1975, Albany Law School
FAMILY: Wife Christie Vilsack; two sons, Jess and Doug
FRC SCORECARD: NA
EXPERIENCE:
Of Counsel, Des Moines office of Minneapolis-based law firm Dorsey & Whitney, May 1, 2007
Candidate for President, Nov 30, 2006-Feb 23, 2007
Governor of Iowa, 1998-2005
Iowa State Senate in 1992
Mayor of Mount Pleasant, Iowa in 1987
ON ABORTION
"A Catholic who supports abortion rights"
"I oppose abortion, personally. I don't like abortion. I believe life does begin at conception."
[source]
Vilsack vetoed a waiting period for abortions and signed a health insurance regulation law without the right to sue he had sought.
[source]
ON CLONING AND STEM CELLS
"Several years ago we limited medical research involving nuclear cell transplants [cloning] at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics. At the time we never dreamt that new treatments dependent upon such transplants would be developed so quickly. Well, they have been, and as a result we should revisit our ban on nuclear cell transplants. We should remove the restrictions and allow life saving treatments to be administered to Iowans here in Iowa rather than forcing them to leave our state."
From 2006 state of the state address
[source]
[NOTE: there have been no treatments developed from nuclear transplant cloning, or from embryonic stem cells; no stem cells have even been obtained from nuclear transfer cloned human embryos.]
"Scientists should pursue embryonic stem cell research"
"New discoveries require us to think differently and approach things differently," Vilsack said. "Several years ago we placed on a ban on certain types of medical research involving nuclear cell transplants because we never dreamt the treatments resulting from that research would develop so quickly into life-saving treatments, but they have."
[source]
[NOTE: no treatments have been developed using embryonic stem cells, and no clinical trials have yet been approved by the FDA or any foreign regulatory body.]
[Update: the FDA has now approved Geron to begin experiments on patients using embryonic stem cells, starting in the summer of 2009.]
ON HOMOSEXUAL SPECIAL RIGHTS and SAME-SEX MARRIAGE
In April 2000, the legislature repealed Vilsack's order banning discrimination in state employment against gays lesbians, and transexuals; Vilsack vetoed that and in the fall 22 legislators sued, charging he exceeded his powers-a state judge declared Vilsack's order invalid.
[source]
"I don't think you necessarily have to redefine marriage to do it. A civil union set of rights would honor that," Vilsack said. "Marriage is already defined and we don't need to change it."
[source]
The Constitution should not be amended to define marriage as a union between one man and one woman.
[source]
Hosted Governor's Conference on LGBT Youth. (Feb 2006)
[source]
ON GLOBAL WARMING
"... We've been ignoring global warming. We've been saying it's not a problem or, ... we don't think it's scientifically proven. Well, the reality is, the rest of the world knows it's a problem and we can't provide any moral leadership until we recognize it's a problem."
[source]
The government should regulate greenhouse-gas emissions.
[source]
MISCELLANEOUS
Vilsack was abandoned at birth and placed in a Roman Catholic orphanage. He was adopted in 1951 by Bud and Dolly Vilsack, who raised him in the Roman Catholic faith.
In 2005, Vilsack established Heartland PAC, a political action committee aimed at electing Democratic Governors. In the first report, he raised over half a million dollars.
If you have been reading Tony's Daily Updates then you know we have been less then happy that the U.S. Senate Republicans have for the most part been making themselves comfortable to be in the Minority for a looong time. They have largely been silent on a number of President Obama's more controversial nominees, ensuring that the millions of American citizens they represent also have no voice in the U.S. Senate. For those displaced citizens a new website now gives everyone a chance to vote for who will be the White House Farmer
You Can Vote For White House FarmerMADISON, Wis. (AP) - Wisconsin has three residents in the running so far to be recommended as the White House farmer, if President Obama decides to create that position.
Several groups are behind the campaign to have the Obama family plant an organic garden on the White House grounds for use by the first family and also for food pantries that could use some of the produce.
Plans call for the nominees submitted as of January 31st to be narrowed to the top three vote-getters, who will be recommended to the president for the job.
Wisconsin residents among the 20 people nominated include Claire Strader of TroyCommunity Farm at Troy Gardens in Madison, Dela Ends of Scotch Hill Farm near Brodhead and Steve Haak of the Haak Family Farms in Belleville.
On the Net: www.whitehousefarmer.com
Copyright 2009 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.
Since the position does not actually exist maybe you might just want to make your voice heard on what kind of dog the Obama's should get.
If President Obama needs someone to train the new dog on how to roll over, I know quite a few Senators who can help.
POSTION: TREASURY SECRETARY
NOMINEE: Timothy Geithner
Born: Brooklyn, New York, August 18, 1961.
Family: Wife, Carole M. Sonnenfeld, and two children.
Occupation: Partner 9th president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. In that role he also serves as Vice Chairman of the Federal Open Market Committee
Education: M.A. in international economics and East Asian studies from Johns Hopkins University's School of Advanced International Studies in 1985
Clinton White House: Geithner joined the Department of Treasury in 1988 and worked in three administrations for five Secretaries of the Treasury in a variety of positions. He was deputy assistant secretary for international monetary and financial policy (1995-1996), senior deputy assistant secretary for international affairs (1996-1997), assistant secretary for international affairs (1997-1998). He was Under Secretary of the Treasury for International Affairs (1998-2001) under Treasury Secretaries Robert Rubin and Lawrence Summers. In 2002 he left the Treasury to join the Council on Foreign Relations as a Senior Fellow in the International Economics department. At the International Monetary Fund he was director of the Policy Development and Review Department (2001-2003)
NOTE: "An examination of the record of IMF and World Bank performance in developing countries shows that, far from being the solution to global economic instability and poverty, these two international institutions are a major problem. For one thing, their lending practice deters growth because the money they loan removes incentives for governments to advance economic freedom, and breeds corruption. For these reasons, the vast majority of recipient countries have been unable to develop fully after depending on these institutions for over 40 years." Ana I. Eiras, "IMF and World Bank Intervention: A Problem, Not a Solution." Heritage Foundation. September 17, 2003.
On the 2001 and 2003 Tax Cuts
Nominee Geithner has little published on his view of how the tax cuts during President George W. Bush's Administration helped the economy or if they should be repealed. During the campaign, candidate Obama vowed to repeal the popular tax cuts - though it appears that might now be delayed:
"Aides to President-elect Barack Obama suggested on Sunday that he wouldn't immediately implement a pledged rollback of tax cuts for the top tier of American income earners, because of the worsening economic outlook. . . During an appearance on NBC's "Meet the Press," Obama economic adviser William Daley suggested that the incoming administration would reconsider whether to quickly increase taxes for Americans earning more than $250,000 per year. . . David Axelrod, an Obama political strategist who was recently named as one of the president-elect's senior White House advisers, also suggested during an appearance on "Fox News Sunday" that Obama was considering delaying the tax increase, but he did not elaborate.
In that appearance, and another on ABC's "This Week," Axelrod publicly confirmed that Geithner was slated to head the Treasury Department, pending formal nomination and approval by the Senate. . . Axelrod declined to answer questions about Geithner's role in some recent policy decisions made during the financial crisis, including one not to provide federal aid to Lehman Brothers. He said Geithner has served as "an early warning system in terms of the need for greater regulation, and has been ahead of the curve on a lot of these issues." Cam Simpson, "Obama Aides Suggest Rollback of Bush Tax Cuts Could Be Delayed," Wall Street Journal, November 23, 2008.
On the Current Financial Crisis and Financial Bailouts
"Timothy Geithner, 47, has had a seat at the table since the credit crisis erupted in August 2007 and eventually sparked the deep economic downturn the nation is facing now. As a result, at least until his confirmation hearing, he'll be criticized for having a major role in a government response that hasn't always instilled confidence in financial markets - even if it prevented a wider financial meltdown. As the Fed's man on Wall Street, Mr. Geithner was a key architect of the $30 billion bailout to prevent the bankruptcy of Bear Stearns Cos., leading to charges the government was stoking moral hazard. He shaped the Fed's lifeline to investment banks that followed, and was among the officials involved in assessing the implications of the troubles around Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Lehman Brothers Holdings, American International Group and numerous other firms (from Wachovia to Citigroup) that have come under market pressure." WSJ Blog, Who is Timothy Geithner? November 21, 2008.
Personal Tax Negligence
"Obama said Wednesday that the disclosures that Geithner had failed to pay $34,000 in taxes between 2001 and 2004 were embarrassing, but added that Geithner's "innocent mistake" shouldn't keep him from taking the helm of the new administration's urgent efforts to revive the economy. Several Republicans agreed that Geithner would get Senate approval and said their party had little appetite for a partisan fight at a precarious time for the economy." Associated Press, "Geithner slowed, not stopped by tax problems," January 15, 2009.
"I have a new story on what is, for some senators at least, the most frustrating thing about Treasury Secretary-designate Timothy Geithner's tax problem: Geithner can't explain why he did it. Members of the Senate Finance Committee know Geithner failed to pay self-employment taxes during his time at the International Monetary Fund. They know the IMF had repeatedly informed Geithner, as it had all its employees, of his obligation to pay that tax. They know Geithner signed documents saying he would pay the tax. And they know Geithner accepted IMF reimbursement for Social Security and Medicare taxes that he had not, in fact, paid. Geithner paid part of his obligation after a 2006 Internal Revenue Service audit, and the rest of it after he was nominated to become treasury secretary. In all, he paid $42,702 in back taxes and interest. But why did Geithner, who had been a high-ranking official at the Treasury Department before joining IMF and would go on to head the New York Fed, make those mistakes? Senators got a chance to ask him in person last Tuesday after committee leadership broke the news to them in a hastily-called meeting . . ."Since their meeting with Geithner was the first time that most senators had heard of the problem, their questions were not terribly detailed; several of the queries were along the lines of "What were you thinking?" And Geithner's answers were not terribly satisfying. "He can't offer a specific reason," says another source familiar with what went on at the meeting. "He doesn't really have an answer. He just didn't know." Byron York, Geithner Can't Explain His Failure to Pay Taxes, NRO The Corner, January 19, 2009.
Miscellaneous
If successfully confirmed by the U.S. Senate and if Chairman of the Ways and Means Committee Charlie Rangel (D-NY) refuses to step aside, that would mean the two people most responsible for crafting U.S. tax policy will both be admitted tax cheats, both claiming "lack of knowledge of the law" as an excuse. [source]
As a fellow lefty it is easy to see how this comment could be taken out of context - though in truth with the current President could it be a sign of things to come?
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- As his first official action after being sworn in, President Barack Obama signed three documents Tuesday, including a proclamation declaring a day of national renewal and reconciliation.
"I'm a lefty. Get used to it," Obama quipped as he signed his name. "I was told not to swipe the pen."
The past three presidents signed similar reconciliation proclamations upon being sworn in.
POSTION: 44th President of the United States of America
NOMINEE: Barack Obama
Born: Honolulu, Hawaii (yes that IS part of the United States), August 4, 1961
Family: Wife, Michelle, and two children.
Occupation: 44th President of the United States, January 20, 2009; U.S. Senator for the state of Illinois, January, 2005 - November, 2008; Illinois State Senator, January, 1997 - November, 2004
Education: Juris Doctor from Harvard Law School magna cum laude 1991
SANCTITY OF HUMAN LIFE
On Roe v. Wade and promoting abortion
"Throughout my career, I've been a consistent and strong supporter of reproductive justice, and have consistently had a 100% pro-choice rating with Planned Parenthood and NARAL Pro-Choice America. When South Dakota passed a law banning all abortions in a direct effort to have Roe overruled, I was the only candidate for President to raise money to help the citizens of South Dakota repeal that law. When anti-choice protesters blocked the opening of an Illinois Planned Parenthood clinic in a community where affordable health care is in short supply, I was the only candidate for President who spoke out against it. And I will continue to defend this right by passing the Freedom of Choice Act as president." Obama Statement on 35th Anniversary of Roe v. Wade Decision, January 22, 2008.
Supports forcing private insurers and using federal taxpayer money to pay for abortion"Senator Obama believes that reproductive health care is basic health care. His health care plan will create a new public plan, which will provide coverage of all essential medical services. Reproductive health care is an essential service - just like mental health care and disease management and other preventive services under his plan. And private insurers that want to participate will have to treat reproductive care in the same way." Sen. Barack Obama's RH Issues Questionnaire, December, 2007.
Parental Consent on issues of abortion
Opposes , also supports giving the sometime abortifacient, Plan B, to young girls. SOURCE Sen. Barack Obama's RH Issues Questionnaire, December, 2007.
Voted against stopping ne'er-do-well adults taking minors across state lines for an abortion:
S.Amdt 4335 to S.Con.Res. 70, Roll Call 08-S71, March 13, 2008.
Voted against parental notification of minors who get out-of-state abortions:
S.403, Child Interstate Abortion Notification Act, Roll Call 06-216, July 25, 2006.
On taxpayer funding
Voted for increasing taxpayer funding for destructive embryonic stem cell experimentation: S.5/H.R. 3, Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act, Roll Call 07-127, April 11, 2007.
Voted for increasing funding to Planned Parenthood and similar clinics by $100 million: S.Amdt. 244 to S.Con.Res 18, Appropriation to expand access to preventive health care services, Roll Call 05-75, March 17, 2005.
Opposes Hyde Amendment
(a provision barring the use of federal funds to pay for abortions)
"Obama does not support the Hyde amendment. He believes that the federal government should not use its dollars to intrude on a poor woman's decision whether to carry to term or to terminate her pregnancy and selectively withhold benefits because she seeks to exercise her right of reproductive choice in a manner the government disfavors." Sen. Barack Obama's RH Issues Questionnaire, December, 2007.
Opposes federal support for pregnancy care centers
Sen. Barack Obama's RH Issues Questionnaire, December, 2007.
Supports full funding for the United Nations Family Planning Fund (UNFPA)
(Evidence shows UNFPA subsidizes coercive abortions)
S. Amdt. 2708 to H.R. 2764, Roll Call 07-320, September 6, 2007
Supports subsidizing international abortion agencies
S.Amdt. 2719 to H.R. 2764, Roll Call 07-319, September 6, 2007
NOTE: Senator Obama co-sponsored the Freedom of Choice Act (FOCA) in the 109th and 110th Congresses and vowed to an audience at a Planned Parenthood rally that passing FOCA would be the first thing he would do as President (SOURCE.) FOCA would overturn hundreds of state laws on the books that limit abortion. (SOURCE.)
MARRIAGE AND HOMOSEXUAL AGENDA
Voted against the Marriage Protection Amendment: S.J.Res. 1, Roll Call 06-163, June 7, 2006.
Opposes the Defense of Marriage Act:
"Well, it is my strong belief that the government has to treat all citizens equally. I come from that, in part, out of personal experience. When you're a black guy named Barack Obama, you know what it's like to be on the outside. And so my concern is continually to make sure that the rights that are conferred by the state are equal for all people. That's why I opposed DOMA in 2006 when I ran for the United States Senate." Transcript of LOGO debate on August 9, 2007.
Voted in favor of the Federal Hate Crimes Act: Thought crimes amendment to the Department of Defense Authorization that would establish federal "hate crimes" for certain violent acts based on the actual or perceived race, religion, disability, gender identity or sexual orientation of any person. S. Amdt. 3035, Roll Call No. 07-350, September 27, 2007.
For allowing gays in the military:
"Senator Barack Obama pledges to end Don't Ask Don't Tell - and to help reinstate gays and lesbians kicked out of the military due to this policy" HRC Backstory
Supports special rights for homosexuals
Obama believes the Employment Non-Discrimination Act should be expanded to include sexual orientation and gender identity. Obama sponsored legislation in the Illinois State Senate that would ban employment discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation.
Obama '08 Campaign Flyer.
ON JUDICIAL LITMUS TESTS
"(J)udicial philosophy should be weighted more seriously than such evaluations. We need somebody who's got the heart, the empathy, to recognize what it's like to be a young teenage mom. The empathy to understand what it's like to be poor, or African-American, or gay, or disabled, or old. And that's the criteria by which I'm going to be selecting my judges." Obama on Judges, Supreme Court, MSNBC, July 17, 2007.
Voted against confirming Samuel Alito (January, 2006) and John Roberts (September, 2005) for the Supreme Court.
MISCELLANOUS
Pro-Abortion payback?
Dawn Johnsen, former NARAL legal director, nominee for Assistant Attorney General for the Office of the Legal Counsel.
Ellen Moran, named White House communications director. Emily's List is a national political action committee that only supports female candidates who favor taxpayer funded abortions and oppose a partial-birth abortion ban.
Melody Barnes, former Emily's List board member, named director of the Domestic Policy Council.
Thomas Perrelli, the lawyer who represented Terri Schiavo's husband Michael in his efforts to starve his wife to death, as associate attorney general.
POSTION: Vice President of the United States of America
NOMINEE: Joseph Biden
Born: Scranton, PA, November 20, 1942
Family: Wife, Jill Tract Jacobs, and four children.
Occupation: Vice President of the United States January 20, 2009; U.S. Senator for the state of Delaware, January 3, 1973 - January 15, 2009
Education: Juris Doctor from Syracuse University College of Law in 1968
Chairmanships in Congress: Foreign Relations: January 2007-2009/June, 2001 - January, 2003/January 3, 2001 - January 20, 2001. Judiciary: January, 1987 - January, 1995.
SANCTITY OF HUMAN LIFE
On Roe v. Wade
"I strongly support Roe v. Wade. . . That's why I led the fight to defeat Bork, Roberts Alito, and Thomas." 2007 South Carolina Democratic primary debate, MSNBC April 26, 2007.
On protecting the unborn child or minors in cases of abortion
Voted against defining the unborn child as eligible for SCHIP: Amends the definition of the term "targeted low-income child" to provide that such term includes the period from conception to birth, for eligibility for child health assistance. S.Amdt. to S.ConRes.70, Senator Allard Amendment, Roll Call 08-S81, March 14, 2008.
Voted against stopping ne'er-do-well adults taking minors across state lines for an abortion: S.Amdt 4335 to S.Con.Res. 70, Roll Call 08-S71, March 13, 2008.
Voted against parental notification of minors who get out-of-state abortions: S.403, Child Interstate Abortion Notification Act, Roll Call 06-216, July 25, 2006.
Voted against the Unborn Victims of Violence Act: Bill makes it a criminal offense to harm or kill a fetus during the commission of a violent crime. S.1019/H.R. 1997, Unborn Victims of Violence Act, Roll Call 04-63, March 25, 2004.
Voted for the Partial Birth Abortion Ban: S. 1692, Partial Birth Abortion Ban, Roll Call 99-340, October 21, 1999 (He did not vote on the one that became law in the 108th Congress.)
On taxpayer funding
Voted for increasing taxpayer funding for destructive embryonic stem cell experimentation: S.5/H.R. 3, Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act, Roll Call 07-127, April 11, 2007.
Voted for increasing funding to Planned Parenthood and similar clinics by $100 million: S.Amdt. 244 to S.Con.Res 18, Appropriation to expand access to preventive health care services, Roll Call 05-75, March 17, 2005.
Voted for taxpayer funding of abortions on military bases: S. 2549, Roll Call 00-134, June 20, 2000.
Voted against banning human cloning: Motion to proceed for S. 1601, Roll Call 98-10, February 11, 1998.
NOTE: Senator Biden co-sponsored the Freedom of Choice Act (FOCA) in the 102nd and 103rd Congresses but has not since. FOCA would overturn hundreds of state laws on the books that limit abortion.
MARRIAGE AND HOMOSEXUAL AGENDA
Voted against the Marriage Protection Amendment: S.J.Res. 1, Roll Call 06-163, June 7, 2006.
Vote for the Defense of Marriage Act: H.R. 3396, Roll Call 96-280, September 10, 1996.
Voted in favor of the Federal Hate Crimes Act: Thought crimes amendment to the Department of Defense Authorization that would establish federal "hate crimes" for certain violent acts based on the actual or perceived race, religion, disability, gender identity or sexual orientation of any person. S. Amdt. 3035, Roll Call No. 07-350, September 27, 2007.
For allowing gays in the military: 2007 Dem. debate at Saint Anselm College June 3, 2007.
ON JUDICIAL LITMUS TESTS
"When I got to the United States Senate and went on the Judiciary Committee as a young lawyer, I was of the view ... that the only thing that mattered was whether or not a nominee appointed, suggested by the president had a judicial temperament, had not committed a crime of moral turpitude, and was - had been a good student. ... [I]t took about five years for me to realize that the ideology of that judge makes a big difference. That's why I led the fight against Judge Bork." Vice presidential debate between Democratic Senator Joe Biden and Republican Governor Sarah Palin. The debate was moderated by Gwen Ifill of PBS at Washington University in Saint Louis, Missouri.
Voted against confirming Samuel Alito (January, 2006), John Roberts (September, 2005) and Clarence Thomas (October, 1991) for the Supreme Court.
MISCELLANOUS
Voted against confirming Samuel Alito (January, 2006), John Roberts (September, 2005) and Clarence Thomas (October, 1991) for the Supreme Court.
100% in the Planned Parenthood Scorecard for the 109th Congress.
78% in the Human Rights Campaign Scorecard for the 109th Congress.
0% in the FRCAction Scorecard for the 110th Congress.
Was named a Face for the Future by Time magazine in his freshman senatorial year - in 1974
Joe Biden's Greatest Hits
The vice president-elect has a reputation for being a lightning rod for controversy due to his penchant of speaking before thinking
His campaign imploded when he was caught plagiarizing from British Labour Party head Neil Kinnock. Rhetorical Question by Michael Crowley, New Republic, October 22, 2001
"I mean, you got the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy, I mean, that's a storybook, man." Senator Joe Biden on Senator Barack Obama
In a June 2006 appearance in New Hampshire, the senator commented on the growth of the Indian-American population in Delaware by saying, "You cannot go into a 7-11 or a Dunkin' Donuts unless you have a slight Indian accent. Oh, I'm not joking." SOURCE
"Better than everybody else. You don't know my state. My state was a slave state. My state is a border state. My state is the eighth largest black population in the country. My state is anything from a northeast liberal state," Biden describing how a Northern liberal could compete in the South.
"I have a record. The good news and the bad news is that I have a record. I have a bad reputation of saying what I think, but I'm going to continue to do that." Sept. 24, 2007, appearing on The View.
On Rudy Giuliani: "Probably the most underqualified man since George Bush to seek the presidency... There's only three things he mentions in a sentence: a noun, and a verb and 9/11." Oct. 30, 2007, at a Democratic debate.
Senator Biden on Senator Obama's foreign policy experience:
"If the Democrats think we're going to be able to nominate someone who can win without that person being able to table unimpeachable credentials on national security and foreign policy, I think we're making a tragic mistake."
"It's a well-intentioned notion he has, but it's a very naïve way of thinking (sending troops into Pakistan) how you're going to conduct foreign policy. Having talking points on foreign policy doesn't get you there."
"I think he can be ready, but right now I don't believe he is. The presidency is not something that lends itself to on-the-job training." SOURCE
POSITION: PRESS SECRETARY
NOMINEE: Robert Gibbs
Born: March 29, 1971 in Auburn, Alabama
Occupation: Political consultant, most recently the communications director for Senator Barack Obama and Obama's 2008 presidential campaign
Family: Married, one child
Education: B.A., North Carolina State University (majored in political science), graduated cum laude
Career: Robert Gibbs has spent his career working as a communications specialist in the campaigns of various politicians. Prior to becoming involved in Obama's presidential campaign, he served as the communications director for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee. He served as the campaign spokesman for Fritz Hollings in 1998 and was the press secretary for Representative Bob Etheridge. He was John Kerry's press secretary during his 2004 presidential campaign. He has worked with Obama since 2004.
On Homosexual "Marriage"
"One of the sponsors of the bill (Illinois Non-Discrimination Bill Senate Bill 2597, formally SB 101, which would give special rights in housing, employment and public accommodations on the basis of one's sexual orientation.) is Keyes' opponent Obama.
Robert Gibbs, spokesman for Obama, said Obama is against discrimination.
While Obama supports laws that guarantee basic rights to same sex couples, including recognition of domestic partnerships, Obama opposes gay marriage.
'Our position on gay marriage is the same position held by John McCain and Dick Cheney, who are opposed to gay marriage, but are also opposed to a constitutional amendment that is unnecessary,' Gibbs said." [source (from Senator Obama's Senate campaign in 2006)]
On Homosexuals in the Military
"In a response to a question on the Web site Change.gov asking whether Obama would get rid of the 'don't ask, don't tell' policy, Obama spokesman Robert Gibbs said: 'You don't hear politicians give a one-word answer much. But it's yes.'
Gibbs on Wednesday expanded on his answer, saying, 'There are many challenges facing our nation now and the president-elect is focused first and foremost on jump-starting this economy. So not everything will get done in the beginning but he's committed to following through" with ending the policy against being openly gay in the military.'" [source]
Quotes about Gibbs:
"He's the last person Barack talks to when he's thinking about how to handle reporters' questions," says Linda Douglass, a campaign spokeswoman. "We call him the Barack Whisperer. He completely understands his thinking and knows how Barack wants to come across.'" [source]
"Robert is the guy I want in the foxhole with me during incoming fire...If I'm wrong, he challenges me. He's not intimidated by me." - Barack Obama [source]
"His aggressive communication skills; while close to Mr. Obama, Mr. Gibbs does not always share his boss's steady temperament, and this has caused dust-ups during the presidential campaign. Mr. Gibbs's friends say he is working at being calm under pressure, a vital skill for a press secretary who stands at the White House podium as the face of the administration." - [source]
Quotes by Gibbs:
"I've always wanted to be in a position where as a staffer I could always speak freely and in an unvarnished way with whoever I was working for...I don't think you serve somebody well if you don't feel like you can."
- On his reputation as one of the few people who can challenge Obama [source]
"It was requisitioned for a higher purpose. I have never gotten that back and I never had the illusion that I would."- On the light blue tie hijacked by Obama for his 2004 convention speech. [source]
Are you looking to see politicians stand up for what they believe in? Then I suggest you rent "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington." Otherwise here is an updated schedule for hearings and votes next week on HRH 
President-elect Barack Obama's nominations. To watch the hearings as they are happening tune into the Committee websites or CSPAN.org
Timothy F. Geithner, nominee for Secretary of the Treasury
Hearing date: January 21st, 2009
10:00 A.M.
Location: Senate Finance Committee
Ray LaHood, nominee for Secretary of Transportation
Hearing date: January 21st, 2009
2:00 P.M.
Location: Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee
Scheduled committee vote on Susan Rice, nominee for Ambassador to the United Nations
Vote date: January 23rd, 2009
2:30 P.M.
Location: Senate Foreign Relations Committee
James B. Steinberg, nominee for Deputy Secretary of the Department of State;
Jacob J. Lew, nominee for Deputy Secretary for Management and Resources of the Department of State
Hearing date: January 24th, 2009
2:30 P.M.
Location: Senate Foreign Relations Committee
POSTION: Assistant Attorney General, Office of Legal Counsel
NOMINEE: Dawn Johnsen
Education: summa cum laude B.A. in economics and political science, Yale, 1983; J.D. Yale, 1986, Article & Book Review Editor, Yale Law Journal
Family: N/A
Experience: law professor, Indiana University School of Law-Bloomington, 1998-present; Acting Assistant Attorney General, Office of Legal Counsel, United States Department
of Justice, Washington, D.C., 1997-1998; Deputy Assistant Attorney General, 1993-1996; Legal Director, National Abortion & Reproductive Rights Action League (currently
NARAL Pro-Choice America), Washington, D.C., 1988-1993; Law Clerk to the Honorable Richard D. Cudahy, United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, Chicago, Illinois, 1986-1987
Clinton White House: From 1993 to 1998 she worked in the Office of Legal Counsel (OLC), including a stint as Acting Assistant Attorney General heading the OLC
Obama Campaign: After election, named to Obama transition's Department of Justice Review Team.
Affiliations: American Constitution Society for Law and Policy, National Board Member; National Co-Chair of Project on The Constitution in the 21st Century; Co-Chair of Separation of Powers/Federalism Issue Group. NOTE: This group is the relatively new Leftist answer to the Federalist Society.
From her article on fetal rights:
"In recent years, however, courts and state legislatures have increasingly granted fetuses rights traditionally enjoyed by persons. Some of these recent 'fetal rights' differ radically from the initial legal recognition of the fetus in that they view the fetus as an entity independent from the pregnant woman with interests that are potentially hostile to hers." D. Johnsen, "The Creation of Fetal Rights:...", 95 YALE L.J. 599 (1986).
"Until recently, the law did not recognize the existence of the fetus except for a few very specific purposes." D. Johnsen, "The Creation of Fetal Rights:...", 95 YALE L.J. at 601.
"In thus treating the fetus, courts have glossed over crucial differences between fetuses and persons, and have lost sight of the interests that narrow legal recognition of the fetus traditionally has attempted to protect. They have ignored alternatives to equating the fetus with a person that would have more appropriately served their goals." D. Johnsen, "The Creation of Fetal Rights:...", 95 YALE L.J. at 610.
Granting rights to fetuses in a manner that conflicts with women's autonomy reinforces the tradition of disadvantaging women on the basis of their reproductive capability. By subjecting women's decisions and actions during pregnancy to judicial review, the state simultaneously questions women's abilities and seizes women's rights to make decisions essential to [*625] their very personhood. The rationale behind using fetal rights laws to control the actions of women during pregnancy is strikingly similar to that used in the past to exclude women from the paid labor force and to confine them to the "private" sphere.
D. Johnsen, "The Creation of Fetal Rights:...", 95 YALE L.J. at 624-25.
On Alito Hearings:
We have squandered a rare opportunity for public education. The Senate's focus on the formal status of Roe, while understandable, masks the extent to which the court has already gutted the right to choose and what the confirmation of Alito most immediately would mean for reproductive liberty.
D. Johnsen, Slate, "The Outer Shell: The hollowing out of Roe v. Wade," Jan. 25, 2006.
On Reducing the Number of Abortions:
My point was that the kind of legislative initiatives that come out of the "Republican coalition" you were discussing does not actually accomplish a reduction in abortions. (And that the primary prochoice organizations do work hard toward that goal.) That may also well reveal that some (not all) such political forces are more interested in objectives other than reducing the number of abortions. Among them may be controlling the nature and understanding of motherhood and diminishing women's equality and sexual freedom (and even where those are not objectives, they may provide strong influences). For the many who sincerely would like to reduce the number of abortions, that desire provides the basis for education about the true effects of the legislation and the possibility for instead forging common ground policies that promote pregnancy prevention and healthy childbearing.
D. Johnsen, Slate, "Reducing Abortions," March 22, 2008.
In his book, Bearing Right, William Saletan notes that in the late 1980s, Dawn Johnsen and Marcy Wilder, top lawyers at NARAL, "drew a hard line on parental involvement" in abortion decisions. Saletan quotes an internal NARAL memo by Johnsen and Wilder: "In practice, both consent and notification laws amount to a parental veto power over a minor's decision to an abortion. Do not, as part of an affirmative legislative strategy, introduce even a liberalized version of a parental consent or notification law."
William Saletan, Bearing Right, p. 289 (Memo, Dawn Johnsen and Marcy Wilder to NARAL Staff and Consultatns, "Pro-Choice Legislative Strategy for Minor's Access to Abortion Services," 9/5/89).
POSTION:U.S AMBASSADOR TO THE UNITED NATIONS
NOMINEE: Susan Rice
Born: Washington, DC. November 17, 1964
Family: Husband, Ian O. Cameron, and two children.
Occupation: Senior Fellow, Foreign Policy, Global Economy and Development at the Brookings Institute
Education: D.Phil. (1990), M.Phil. (1988), Oxford University; B.A., Stanford University, 1986
Clinton White House: Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs (1997-2001); Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for African Affairs, the National Security Council, the White House (1995-1997); Director for International Organizations and Peacekeeping, National Security Council (1993-1995)
Abortion
"Various interest groups and lawmakers issued statements today reacting to Barack Obama's six-person national security team. Three advocacy groups for women weighed in positively on the three female nominees: Sen. Hillary Clinton, Dr. Susan Rice and AZ Gov. Janet Napolitano: Planned Parenthood's Cecile Richards, National Organization for Women president Kim Gandy and Emily's List's Ellen Malcolm."
"Throughout her extensive career in international affairs, Susan Rice has consistently affirmed the responsibility to address the burdens of poverty around the globe and their impact on global health. In addition, she understands the important role the United Nations plays in promoting and protecting women's health around the world, especially in developing countries. Susan Rice is a passionate and committed advocate for poor women and families around the world. We expect that she will work effectively with other countries to fulfill the UN's development agenda, including the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) on maternal health, gender equality and AIDS reduction." - Planned Parenthood's Cecile Richards.
"Reproductive health (abortion) is clearly and openly mentioned in the MDGs as a critical component of improving maternal health globally. The fifth of eight Millennium Development Goals is to improve maternal health. Two targets make up that goal: reduce by 3/4 the maternal mortality rate; and, according to the United Nations site about the MDG campaign, 'achieve universal access to reproductive health care.' This target clearly states, 'an unmet need for family planning undermines achievement of several other goals.'" [source]
Genocide
"At an interagency teleconference in late April, Susan Rice, a rising star on the NSC who worked under Richard Clarke, stunned a few of the officials present when she asked, 'If we use the word 'genocide' and are seen as doing nothing, what will be the effect on the November [congressional] election?' Lieutenant Colonel Tony Marley remembers the incredulity of his colleagues at the State Department. 'We could believe that people would wonder that,' he says, 'but not that they would actually voice it.' Rice does not recall the incident but concedes, 'If I said it, it was completely inappropriate, as well as irrelevant.'" Power, Samantha. "Bystanders to Genocide." The Atlantic September 2001.
"History demonstrates that there is one language Khartoum understands: the credible threat or use of force. After Sept. 11, 2001, when President Bush issued a warning to states that harbor terrorists, Sudan -- recalling the 1998 U.S. airstrike on Khartoum -- suddenly began cooperating on counterterrorism. It's time to get tough with Sudan again . . .After swift diplomatic consultations, the United States should press for a U.N. resolution that issues Sudan an ultimatum: accept unconditional deployment of the U.N. force within one week or face military consequences. The resolution would authorize enforcement by U.N. member states, collectively or individually. International military pressure would continue until Sudan relented. . . If the United States fails to gain U.N. support, we should act without it. Impossible? No, the United States acted without U.N. blessing in 1999 in Kosovo to confront a lesser humanitarian crisis (perhaps 10,000 killed) and a more formidable adversary." Rice, Susan, Lake, Anthony and Payne, Donald. "We Saved Europeans. Why Not Africans?" The Washington Post. October 2, 2006.
On Senator Hillary Clinton (D-NY), nominee for Secretary of State, her potential counterpart at the State Department
"On MSNBC's "Tucker" yesterday, one of Sen. Barack Obama's top foreign policy aides, former assistant secretary of state for African Affairs Susan Rice, said of Clinton's 3 am phone call TV ad, 'Clinton hasn't had to answer the phone at three o'clock in the morning and yet she attacked Barack Obama for not being ready. They're both not ready to have that 3 am phone call.'" [source]
Miscellaneous
"During Bill Clinton's second term, Rice played a major role in the decision to refuse Sudan's offer to hand over Bin Laden. According to Richard Miniter, author of Losing bin Laden, Rice persuaded Sandy Berger to turn Sudan down because she doubted its credibility and was offended by its human rights violations. But our ambassador to Sudan argued far more sensibly for calling Khartoum's 'bluff.' Mansoor Ijaz, who was involved in the negotiations with Sudan provides the same account. No doubt, Rice will urge Obama (in the unlikely event he needs urging) to rush into talks with Iran and Syria notwithstanding any reservations about their credibility and human rights records, on the theory of 'why not; how can it hurt?' But when offered the opportunity to take out the world's leading terrorist -- as opposed to appeasing rogue terrorist supporting states -- Rice drew the line." [source]
Here are coronation hearing dates for some of President-elect Obama's nominees. For more details such as times please go here. To watch the hearings as they are happening tune into CSPAN.org
Tom Daschle, nominee for Secretary of Health and Human Services
Hearing date: January 8th, 2009
Location: Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee
Hilda L. Solis, nominee for Secretary of Labor
Hearing date: January 9th, 2009
Location: Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee
Hillary Rodham Clinton, nominee for Secretary of State
Hearing date: January 13th, 2009
Location: Senate Foreign Relations Committee
Steven Chu, nominee for Secretary of Energy
Hearing date: January 13th, 2009
Location: Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee
Arne Duncan, nominee for Secretary of Education
Hearing date: January 13th, 2009
Location: Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee
Peter R. Orszag, nominee for Director of the Office of Management and Budget;
Robert L. Nabors II, nominee for Deputy Director of the Office of Management and Budget.
Hearing date: January 13th, 2009
Location: Senate Budget Committee
Shaun Donovan, nominee for Secretary of Housing and Urban Development
Hearing date: January 13th, 2009
Location: Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee
Thomas J. Vilsack, nominee for Secretary of Agriculture.
Hearing date: January 14th, 2009
Location: Senate Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry Committee
Lisa P. Jackson nominee for Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency; Nancy Helen Sutley, nominee for Chairman of the Council on Environmental Quality. Hearing date: January 14th, 2009
Location: Senate Environment and Public Works Committee
Eric Shinseki, nominee for Secretary of Veterans Affairs
Hearing date: January 14th, 2009
Location: Senate Veterans Affairs Committee
Peter R. Orszag, nominee for Director of the Office of Management and Budget;
Robert L. Nabors II, nominee for Deputy Director of the Office of Management and Budget.
Hearing date: January 14th, 2009
Location: Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee
Ken Salazar, nominee for Secretary of the Interior.
Hearing date: January 15th, 2009
Location: Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee
Susan E. Rice, nominee for Representative to the United Nations
Hearing date: January 15th, 2009
Location: Senate Foreign Relations Committee
Eric H. Holder, nominee for Attorney General of the United States
Hearing date: January 15th, 2009
Location: Senate Judiciary Committee
Mary Schapiro, nominee for Chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission; Christina Romer, nominee for Chair of the Council of Economic Advisors;
Austan Goolsbee and Cecilia Rouse, nominees to be Members of the Council of Economic Advisors;
and Daniel Tarullo, nominee to be a Member of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System.
Hearing date: January 15th, 2009
Location: Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee
Janet A. Napolitano, nominee for Secretary of Homeland Security
Hearing date: January 15th, 2009
Location: Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee
ARNE DUNCAN
POSITION: Secretary of Education
BIRTH DATE: Nov. 6, 1964
EDUCATION: Magna Cum Laude, Harvard University, Sociology Degree, 1987
FAMILY: Wife, Karen (Australian-American) and two children.
EXPERIENCE: Arne Duncan was born and raised in the Hyde Park, Chicago area. He attended University of Chicago Laboratory Schools. He was accepted to Harvard University, where he was co-captain of Harvard's basketball team and was named a first team Academic All-American. Mr. Duncan played professional basketball in Australia after graduation from 1987-1991, where he also worked with children who were wards of the state.
Duncan moved back to Chicago in 1992 and directed the Ariel Education Initiative, a program to enhance educational opportunities for students on Chicago's South Side. In 1998, he began working for the Chicago Public Schools and in 2001, Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley named Duncan as the Chief Executive Officer.
[source]
No Child Left Behind
Duncan has called for more flexibility in the No Child Left Behind school accountability law, but does not intend to scrap the initiative entirely.
[source]
Gay High School
Arne Duncan approved a proposed gay-friendly Chicago Social Justice High School - Pride Campus. The school would have been committed to affirming homosexuality in adolescents, have been publicly subsidized and included homosexuality-affirming curricula.
[source]
Comprehensive Sex Education & Playboy
Chicago Public Schools adopted a comprehensive sex education curricula called passed the Family Life and Comprehensive Sexual Health Education policy in 2006, under Arne Duncan's leadership. The policy was crafted in coordination with the Illinois Caucus for Adolescent Health, according to the Windy City Times, a pro-homosexual website.
The Illinois Caucus for Adolescent Health, a leading group promoting comprehensive sex education, held its Spring 2006 fundraiser at the Playboy mansion.
"Comprehensive sex education" is education-speak for sex education curricula that, among other things, teach students subversive views of sexual conduct, abortion, and homosexuality. Here are some of the topics covered in typical comprehensive sex ed curricula:
[source]
Chicago Annenberg Challenge (CAC)
Duncan worked in promoting the Annenberg Challenge, a radical education group formerly run by Barack Obama and Bill Ayers. The CAC's agenda flowed from Mr. Ayers's educational philosophy, which called for infusing students and their parents with a radical political commitment, and which downplayed achievement tests in favor of activism.
Charter and Failing Schools
Duncan has earned praises from some quarters for his support of charter schools, his willingness to close failing schools, his support for greater student accountability, and his promotion of merit pay for teachers.
[source]
Record of Success
During Duncan's tenure at Chicago Public Schools, the system spent the second highest amount per individual student in the nation yet only showed a very small improvement improved test scores.
[source]
POSTION: ASSOCIATE ATTORNEY GENERAL
NOMINEE: Thomas J. Perrelli
Born: March 12, 1966
Occupation: Managing Partner of Jenner & Block's Washington, DC office.
Education: graduated from Harvard Law School, magna cum laude, in 1991
Clinton White House: In 1997, served as counsel to Attorney General Janet Reno. He subsequently rose to Deputy Assistant Attorney General, supervising the Federal Programs Branch of the Civil Division, which represents virtually every federal agency in complex civil litigation. Perrelli also supervised the Justice Department's Tobacco Litigation Team in its litigation against the major cigarette manufacturers.
End of Life issues
"An attorney who won an award for representing Terri Schiavo's husband Michael in his efforts to kill his disabled wife is now an advisor to the transition team of incoming president Barack Obama.
Thomas Perrelli, who raised over $500,000 for the pro-abortion presidential candidate and is the managing partner of a Washington law firm, Jenner & Block LLP, is helping advise Obama on putting together a Justice Department team.
However, Perrelli provided Michael Schiavo with legal advice during his response to the Congressional bill that President Bush signed allowing the Schindler family to take their lawsuit seeking to prevent Terri's euthanasia death from state to federal courts.
Perrelli led the Jenner & Block team that developed the legal briefs opposing appeals for Michael and he ultimately received the Albert E. Jenner, Jr. Pro Bono Award in October 2006 for representing Terri's former husband at no cost.
On Michael's legal team, Perrelli worked with infamous pro-euthanasia attorney George Felos as well as lawyers from the Florida chapter of the ACLU."
[source]
Redistricting
Background: "The 2010 midterm elections and the resulting battles over redistricting will shape the future of both political parties. A case challenging the constitutionality of the Voting Rights Act (VRA) is being offered to the Supreme Court, highlighting these political stakes. And President-elect Barack Obama's Justice Department is about to take center stage in this fight. The Constitution requires legislative districts be redrawn after each decennial national census. The 2010 midterm elections will determine the makeup of all 50 state legislatures. With few exceptions, these legislatures will then draw new lines of all congressional districts, as well as many state legislative districts, for the 2012 election and beyond. A major factor in this redistricting is the Voting Rights Act. A number of VRA's provisions apply nationwide, originally designed to protect the right of African Americans to vote. But another provision of the law has been challenged in a case that has now been offered to the U.S. Supreme Court. Section Five of the VRA requires certain jurisdictions with a history of egregious racism to go through a special process before they can make any changes affecting voting. Under Section Five, these jurisdictions must get pre-clearance from the U.S. Justice Department before they can redistrict or make any other changes to their election laws or procedures, or get a three-judge panel of the federal district court in D.C. to sign off on the jurisdiction's plan. The law requires the Justice Department or the federal court to determine whether the changes would have either the purpose or the effect of abridging the right to vote." Blackwell, Ken. "Obama Justice." Washington Times Dec. 31, 2008.
"Mr. Perrelli, a former Justice Department official and Harvard Law School classmate of Mr. Obama's, helped raise $500,000 for the president-elect's campaign, has worked as an attorney for the recording industry, which has significant business before the Justice Department, and represented Democratic lawmakers and voters involved in politically charged redistricting cases, an issue certain to rise again with the 2010 census." Dinan, Stephen. "Obama's Justice Picks Draws Ire of Pro-lifers." Jan. 6, 2009.
Miscellaneous
Close friendship with President-elect Obama
"At Harvard, (Cassandra) Butts was moot court partners with Perrelli, who first met Obama at the dinner party and served as his managing editor on the Harvard Law Review. Perrelli, a Washington lawyer who had never been a fundraiser, would go on to collect more than $500,000 for Obama's presidential campaign. He is now part of the Department of Justice transition team.
'We have all been friends together, and we found a common enterprise through Barack,' Perrelli said. Perrelli occupied seat 151 of professor Laurence Tribe's constitutional law class in the fall 1989 semester - just a few feet away from Obama (seat 26) and two others who would prove vital to his ambitions: Julius Genachowski (93) and Michael Froman (103)."
[source]
POSITION: UNITED STATES SECRETARY OF HOMELAND SECURITY
NOMINEE: Janet Napolitano
Born: New York City, November 29, 1957
Occupation: Governor of Arizona - elected in 2002 and again in 2006
Education: Santa Clara University and law degree from University of Virginia
Political Career: While a partner in the Phoenix law firm Lewis and Roca LLP, Napolitano served as attorney for Anita Hill when Hill testified against the Supreme Court nomination of Clarence Thomas. Appointed by President Bill Clinton as U.S. Attorney for the District of Arizona, she then ran for and won the position of Arizona Attorney General in 1998 where she focused on consumer protection issues and general law enforcement.
Abortion: "I am committed to women's reproductive rights. Current protections must not be eroded, and we must continue to fight to provide Arizona women with the support they need in making decisions about their own bodies. Thus, I am pro-choice."
Campaign web site, www.GoJanet.org , "Issues" Sep 9, 2002
Napolitano vetoed every piece of abortion legislation that came across her desk - seven pro-life measures in total including a partial-birth abortion ban as well as a bill to strengthen parental consent requirements. She refused to sign measures to make sure taxpayer funds do not pay for abortions for state workers. As Governor she vetoed a bill that would allow women to know that an unborn baby will feel pain during an abortion procedure. She vetoed a bill in 2004 that would have allowed women to receive information about abortion's risk and alternatives that abortion businesses sometimes withhold from women considering abortions. In addition, she vetoed a measure that would have protected pro-life pharmacists from being forced to dispense drugs that could cause abortions.
Appointment of Judges: "Governor Napolitano defends appointment of judges even though the system never throws anyone out." "Governor Napolitano is quoted in the Yellow Sheet defending the system of merit selection in Arizona's larger counties, which allows the governor to appoint judges instead of requiring them to run for election. They are only required to run for re-election, but it's impossible to vote them out at that point since they have no name recognition from having never run a real campaign."...."It is impossible to get rid of bad judges with merit selection, and the governor is able to appoint her political flacks like former legislator Bill Brotherton who has little relevant legal experience; his background consists mainly of Democrat political activism. Three of Napolitano's 15 or so judicial appointments have been gay, considering this (20%) is significantly higher than the proportion of gays in the general population, it is clear that Napolitano is able to pursue her own political agenda in the appointment of judges. Instead of getting judgeships based on real merit, political leftists are able to get judgeships based on their leftwing ideological connections to Napolitano." [source]
Napolitano's Appointees: As Governor, Janet Napolitano has embedded pro-gay rights and pro-abortion activists throughout her administration. One example is Bryan Howard, who was appointed as a member of the governor's Commission on the Health Status of Women and Families. The Planned Parenthood Federation of America awarded Howard their highest honor for leadership for his role as CEO of Planned Parenthood of Arizona. In his acceptance speech, he said the following: "I am proud of what I have accomplished and how we've accomplished it. I am proud that more mothers and babies survive the perils of pregnancy. I am proud that more families celebrate a new addition rather than regret it. And I am proud we are helping more young people to experience their sexuality in a healthy, thoughtful way, whether they are gay, straight, bisexual or transgendered." According to the Planned Parenthood account, Howard's "advocacy on behalf of reproductive rights has led to significant progress for women and families in Arizona, including Governor Janet Napolitano's rejection of federal abstinence-only funding." [source]
Law enforcement: As Secretary of Homeland Security the Governor's future performance can best be judged by her record on the issue of immigration in a border state. She used her veto power on some key bills to cut benefits for and the flow of illegal aliens into the state. Some of those bills included one denying in-state tuition and day care for illegal aliens and one allowing local authorities to enforce immigration law. She vetoed a bill making English the official state language. She went directly up against Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio's successful border operations and developed a new task force headed by the Department of Public Safety concentrating on illegal felons with outstanding warrants. Her mantra in dealing with the illegal immigration problems in her border state has been, "Security and immigration are the federal government's responsibility."
'While she has complied with allowing the border fence to be built, she has been unenthusiastic about its success. Last year, Ms. Napolitano reached a deal with Mr. Chertoff to make driver's licenses more secure under a federal program known as REAL ID, but in June she signed a bill refusing to put the standards in place, calling the program an unfinanced federal mandate. She was a vocal critic when Congress failed to pass legislation last year revamping immigration law and has also backed proposals favored by some immigrant advocacy groups, including a temporary worker program and 'a strict and stringent pathway to citizenship' for illegal immigrants already here that would include learning English and paying fines. But last year she also signed into law sanctions against employers who knowingly hire illegal workers and later complained when the Bush administration withdrew the bulk of the National Guard from the Mexican border earlier this year, as it had planned." Randal C. Archibold, New York Times, November 20, 2008
Defending Marriage: Gov. Janet Napolitano of Arizona announced her opposition this week to a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage, according to The Arizona Republic. While Napolitano made it clear that she believes marriage is a union between a man and a woman, she is not in favor of the proposal and finds it unnecessary at this time. Napolitano said, "I don't think the constitutional amendment is necessary. The voters of Arizona will have a chance to decide this. Personally, I'm going to oppose it. We already have a statute that defines marriage. The courts have already said the statute is constitutional(The Advocate) ."
Miscellaneous: In 1991, Janet Napolitano, then a well-regarded partner in the law firm of Lewis & Roca, LLP, served as the attorney for law professor Anita Hill when Hill testified against U.S. Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas. USLiberals.com
What's in store for the Obama administration? FRC has been keeping track of the president-elect's nominees with detailed backgrounders. Here's the list to date:
There will be more backgrounders to come after the new year. Stay tuned to this spot for more additions.
POSITION: CHIEF OF STAFF
BIRTH DATE: November 29, 1959
EDUCATION: Emanuel graduated from Sarah Lawrence College in 1981, and received a Master's Degree in Speech and Communication from Northwestern University in 1985.
FAMILY: Wife, Amy Rule; Three children: Zachariah Emanuel, Ilana Emanuel, Leah Emanuel
EXPERIENCE: Rep. Rahm Emanuel is currently the White House Chief-of-Staff designate. He has been a member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Illinois's 5th District since January 3, 2003. At the beginning of his second term, Emanuel received an assignment to serve on the House Ways and Means Committee, which oversees taxes, trade, Social Security, and Medicare issues. Additionally, Emanuel was appointed by then House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi to serve as Chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee in 2005 and later as chairman of the House Democratic Caucus in 2007.
Emanuel began his career with the consumer rights organization Illinois Public Action. He worked on Democrat Paul Simon's 1984 election to the U.S. Senate and in 1989 served as a senior advisor and chief fundraiser for Richard M. Daley. Emanuel served as a senior advisor to President Bill Clinton from 1993 to 1998, after directing Clinton's campaign finance committee. In the White House, Emanuel was initially Assistant to the President for Political Affairs and then Senior Advisor to the President for Policy and Strategy.
After leaving the White House in 1998, Emanuel served as a managing director at Wasserstein Perella (now Dresdner Kleinwort), where he worked until 2002. During that time, in 2000, Emanuel was named to the Board of Directors of the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation ("Freddie Mac") by then President Bill Clinton.
Abortion Record
Taxpayer Funded Abortion: Emanuel supports taxpayer funded abortion and co-sponsored a bill that ensured access and taxpayer funding for abortion and abortion providers like Planned Parenthood. Prevention First Act. H.R.819; http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d110:HR00819:@@@P
Partial-Birth Abortion: Emanuel voted more than once against the ban on Partial-Birth Abortion, despite the bill having an exception to save the mother's life. Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act, H.R. 760, June 4, 2003, http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2003/roll242.xml; S3, Oct. 3, 2003, http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2003/roll530.xml.
Parental Notification: Emanuel supports allowing teenagers to be transported across state lines to obtain an abortion without a parent's (or guardian's) knowledge. He voted against the Child Interstate Abortion Notification Act on two occasions. The bill would have restricted the interstate transport of minors for the purpose of obtaining an abortion, if by doing so the minor would be evading a home-state parental notice or consent law. H R 748, April 27, 2005, http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2005/roll144.xml; S 403, Sept. 26, 2006, http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2006/roll479.xml.
Human Embryonic Stem-Cell Research: Emanuel voted twice to expand federal funding of human embryonic stem-cell research by amending the Public Health Service Act. Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act of 2007, H.R. 3, Jan. 11, 2007, http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2007/roll020.xml; Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act of 2005, H.R. 810, May 24, 2005, http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2005/roll204.xml
Human Cloning: Emanuel voted against a ban on cloning human beings and supported an amendment to allow human cloning for reproduction and medical research. H.R. 534 (H AMEND 5), Feb. 27, 2003, http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2003/roll039.xml.
Unborn Victims: Emanuel voted against the Unborn Victims of Violence Act (Laci and Conner's Law), which proposed to make it an added criminal offense for someone to injure or kill a child in the womb while carrying out a crime against a pregnant woman. H.R. 1997, Feb. 26, 2004, http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2004/roll031.xml.
Emanuel received a 100% rating from the National Abortion Rights Action League (NARAL). http://www.prochoiceamerica.org/assets/files/final-2007-voting-record.pdf
Homosexuality
Homosexual Marriage: Emanuel twice voted against a U.S. constitutional amendment defining marriage as one-man-one-woman. H.J. Res. 88, July 18, 2006, http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2006/roll378.xml; H.J.Res.106, Sep 30, 2004, http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2004/roll484.xml
Sexual Orientation Special Rights: Emanuel voted to add sexual orientation to U.S. civil rights law protecting against discrimination based on sex, race and religion. The Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) would make it unlawful to discriminate against an individual on the basis of actual or perceived sexual orientation, including actions based on the actual or perceived sexual orientation of a person with whom the individual associates or has associated. H.R. 3685, Nov. 13, 2007, http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2007/roll1057.xml.
Same-sex Benefits: Emanuel co-sponsored the Domestic Partnership Benefits and Obligations Act of 2007, which would extend benefits to domestic partners of Federal employees. H.R. 4838, http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d110:HR04838:@@@P
Emanuel received a 100% vote rating from the pro-homosexual Human Rights Campaign. http://www.hrc.org/documents/Congress_Scorecard-110th.pdf
Taxes
Marriage Tax Penalty: Emanuel voted against the bill that would have permanently removed the Marriage Tax Penalty from the federal income tax code. The bill would have amended the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to permanently extend the marriage penalty relief provided under the Economic Growth and Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2001. H.R. 4181, April 28, 2004, http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2004/roll138.xml.
Immigration
Driver's Licenses: Emanuel voted against the Real ID Act, which set minimal security requirements for state driver's licenses and identification cards. H.R. 418, Feb. 19, 2005, http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2005/roll031.xml.
Illegal Aliens: Emanuel voted against the Undocumented Immigrant Emergency Medical Assistance, which would have required hospitals to report (to the federal government) illegal aliens who receive emergency medical treatment. H.R. 3722, May 18, 2004, http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2004/roll182.xml.
It appears that some of former President Bill Clinton's donors to his foundation are raising some eyebrows on how it will affect his wife's new role as President-elect Obama's Secretary of State. According to the AP:
Saudi Arabia and other foreign governments gave at least $46 million, while corporate donors included the Blackwater security firm that protects U.S. diplomats in Iraq . . .The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia gave $10 million to $25 million to the foundation, and other government donors included Norway, Kuwait, Qatar, Brunei, Oman, Italy and Jamaica. The Dutch national lottery gave $5 million to $10 million . . .
The list also underscores ties between the Clintons and India, a connection that could complicate diplomatic perceptions of whether Hillary Clinton can be a neutral broker between India and neighboring Pakistan in a region where Obama will face an early test of his foreign policy leadership.
Amar Singh, a donor in the $1 million to $5 million category, is an Indian politician who played host to Bill Clinton on a visit to India in 2005 and met Hillary Clinton in New York in September to discuss an India-U.S. civil nuclear agreement.
Two other Indian interests gave between $500,000 and $1 million each.
Kuwait, Qatar, Brunei and Oman gave $1 million to $5 million each.
Saudi businessman Nasser Al-Rashid gave $1 million to $5 million.
Friends of Saudi Arabia and the Dubai Foundation each gave $1 million to $5 million, as did the Taiwan Economic and Cultural Office.
China Overseas Real Estate Development and the U.S. Islamic World Conference each gave $250,000 to $500,000.
No. 97 on the Forbes billionaire list, Ethiopian-Saudi business tycoon Sheikh Mohammed H. Al-Amoudi.
Issam Fares, a former deputy prime minister of Lebanon.
Lukas Lundin, chairman of oil, gas and mining businesses including Tanganyika Oil Company Ltd., an international oil and gas exploration and production company with interests in Syria, and Vostok Nafta Investment Ltd., an investment company that focuses on Russia and other former Soviet republics.
For a complete list of Clinton Foundation contributors:http://www.clintonfoundation.org/contributors
POSITION: UNITED STATES SECRETARY OF STATE
NOMINEE: Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.)
Born: October 26, 1947
Family: Husband - 42nd President of the United States Bill Clinton; daughter, Chelsea Clinton
Occupation: Senator from the State of New York
Education: undergraduate degree from Wellesley College; J.D., Yale Law School '73
Political Career: Following law school Hillary Clinton was a Congressional legal counsel in the Nixon impeachment trials. Married Bill Clinton in Arkansas in 1975 and became the First Lady of the State of Arkansas when her husband was elected Governor. She was named the first female partner at the Rose Law Firm in 1979. She was active in a number of organizations regarding child welfare and sat on the board of Wal-Mart and several other corporations. When her husband became President, she used her role as First Lady to launch her own initiative, the Clinton health care plan, which failed to gain approval from the Congress in 1994, 1997, and 1999. She was the only First Lady to be subpoenaed, testifying before a federal grand jury as a consequence of the Whitewater controversy in 1996. She was elected as a U.S. senator from New York State in 2000 and was re-elected in 2006. She ran for President in 2008. [source]
Life Issues: On all issues of life, Planned Parenthood has its team in place with President Obama at the top and Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State. Hillary Clinton is pro-abortion on all fronts. She will be influential in forcing Freedom of Choice Act (FOCA) legislation that will, with a stroke of the President's pen, turn back all progress in protecting innocent life that has been made over the past 36 years since Roe v Wade. Sen. Clinton has been an original cosponsor of FOCA in the past two years. Addressing the international women's conferences in Cairo she established her position on abortion as a "basic right" in 1994. Five years later she addressed an international conference called Cairo Plus Five at The Hague and reaffirmed this position, as well as her support for restoration of U.S. tax support for the United Nations Population Fund. Clinton has stated her opposition to forced abortion and use of family planning and contends that the UNFPA, which has been barred from U.S. support because of a Presidential finding of participation in China's forced one-child policy, is cooperating with Chinese officials on voluntary measures and deserves support.
The current Bush administration has made certain that U.S. foreign assistance, through the Mexico City Policy, does not encourage abortion and abortion referral as an American export. This policy is certain to change under an Obama-Clinton foreign policy regime. Adrienne Germain, president of the International Women's Health Coalition, says, "Without spending a penny more, the new administration can do an enormous amount just by standing strong for the human rights of women and for the kinds of actions that are not simply needed but that countries time and time again - since the Universal Declaration on Human Rights - have agreed to," We can expect to see abortion policy advanced as a "human right" following the swearing in of Barack Obama and confirmation of Secretary of State Clinton. "The rights approach has not been reflected in [Bush administration] policy," says Jamila Taylor from the Center for Health and Gender Equity. "Do it from a human rights perspective, not even just a reproductive rights perspective. 'Human rights' runs the gamut of issues - access to education, income generation - all the things that make women vulnerable or empowered around the world." Taylor and Germain will play major roles with the State Department under Hillary Clinton and they are prepared to use all international documents in the promotion of abortion. The Secretary of State can set administration policy on HIV/AIDS and the office of the Coordinator on AIDS is situated in the State Department, meaning the Secretary of State could push the office to make gender concerns a priority in PEPFAR funding. [source]
Senator Clinton voted twice in Congress against the ban on Partial-Birth Abortion. She led the fight along with Senator Patty Murray (D-Wash.) to force the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to allow abortifacients to be sold in pharmacies without a doctor's prescription. She also supported legislation to give teens access to "emergency contraceptives." Clinton supports expansion of the current federal policy so that more lines of stem cells can be experimented upon, namely those derived from the killing of human embryos. [source]
Human Sexuality & Marriage: Sen. Clinton is supported by homosexual organizations like the Human Rights Campaign. She steps away from saying she supports gay marriage but uses the term "civil unions with fully equality of benefits." "I believe in full equality of benefits, nothing left out. From my perspective there is a great likelihood of us getting to that point in civil unions or domestic partnerships and that is my very considered opinion." [source]
Clinton voted against the Federal Marriage Amendment and she supports the repeal of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" and supports allowing gays and lesbians to serve openly in the military, which would require amending the Uniform Code of Military Justice that establishes penalties for certain sexual acts outside marriage. "It hurts all our troops, and this, to me, is a matter of national security," she said to a group of HRC supporters. Clinton has said she would work to pass a federal law outlawing employment discrimination based on sexual orientation and she would work to extend benefits to the partners of federal employees. [source] She supports and co-sponsored legislation to expand Medicaid benefits to the special class of HIV-positive homosexuals and she supports "hate crime" (thought crime) legislation. Clinton supports gay adoption. [source]
Judges/Constitution: Senator Clinton in railing against the Roberts Court asserted the need for a closer tie between Congress and the courts. In an address to the American Constitution Society in New York on February 27, 2004 she said, "I believe it is time for Congress to reassert itself, and I am pleased to report that Senator Ted Kennedy and I this week introduced a bill called 'FAIRNESS: The Civil Rights Act of 2004.' It is an effort to realign the balance between Congress and the courts by responding to recent decisions that have unduly narrowed existing laws. The bill restores the ability of individuals to seek relief from discriminatory practices in federally funded programs..." Clearly the bill is intended to impose legislative power over them when they construe a law more narrowly than some in Congress prefer. She stood in strong opposition to numerous Bush cabinet and court appointees. [source]
Religious Freedom: While Senator Clinton supported the Workplace Religious Freedom Act (which was written to protect civil rights laws and require employers to make "reasonable accommodations" for their employees to practice their faith in the work environment), she supports ENDA (the Employment Non-Discrimination Act) which would force certain religious entities to hire and promote individuals irrespective of their adherence to the moral tenets of the employer.
Health Care: This is an area in which Senator Clinton plays out all her issues regarding abortion. In 1993 her health plan included RU-486 and widely available abortion. In response to the plan as a clear conduit for expanded abortion, Senator Dan Coats (R-Ind.) attached an amendment to the bill allowing for a "conscience exemption" in which doctors and hospitals would not be forced to perform abortions. One of President Bill Clinton's first acts in office was to push the RU-486 abortion pill regimen to market through an expedited FDA approval process that was criticized by pro-lifers as too quick for the safety of the women who would take the pill. Injuries and even deaths have resulted from hemorrhage, septic infection and other problems due to or masked by the drug's action.
On the fourth day of the Clinton presidency, January 23, 1993, the 20th anniversary of Roe v Wade, Bill Clinton signed a series of executive orders undoing the policies of the Reagan era relating to abortion. This was done at the advice of his wife. In her view, the milestone anniversary of Roe v Wade was the perfect opportunity to move the new presidency on course in terms of "women's rights" and signal that what she termed "the religious right" had lost its dominance regarding abortion policy. [source]
In the year 2009 it is clear that in her new and even more powerful position as Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton will deal the country similar if not identical setbacks for the sanctity of innocent human life.
Position: White House Counsel
NOMINEE: Gregory Bestor Craig
Born: Norfolk, Va., March 4, 1945
Family: Wife, Derry Noyes, and five children.
Occupation: Partner in the Washington, D.C., law firm Williams & Connelly
Education: A.B. Harvard College, J.D. Yale Law School
Senate Work: Senior Advisor on Defense, Foreign Policy and National Security to Senator Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) for 1984-1988
Clinton White House: Director of Policy Planning, State Department, 1997-1998; special coordinator to monitor China's suppression of Tibetan culture and religion, 1998; Assistant to the President and Special Counsel 1998-1999 (impeachment team "quarterback")
Famous Clients: John J. Kearney (FBI agent accused of illegal wiretapping during the investigation of the Weathermen terrorists), 1977; Richard Helms (CIA Director accused of perjury before the Senate concerning General Pinochet's 1973 coup in Chile), 1977 (with Edward Bennett Williams); John Hinckley, Jr. (attempted murder of President Reagan), 1981; Sen. Edward Kennedy (testimony relating to the rape trial of his nephew, William Kennedy Smith), 1991; Juan Miguel Gonzalez (custody battle over his asylum-seeking son, Elian), 1998; Kofi Annan (Volcker Committee investigations over Oil-for-Food), 2004; Gonzálo Sánchez de Lozada (former leftist President of Bolivia, accused of involvement in the killing of 67 further left-wing protestors in 2003), 2008.
Testimony: "He has the ability to look at issues from a different perspective and he's very pragmatic and very smart." - Madeleine Albright
"There's no one I'd rather be with in a crisis. He's just wonderful and very comforting, no matter how tough the problems you're dealing with. He never kind of loses it. He's so rational, says what he has to say very clearly, and he's always on your side." - Ethel Kennedy
Nicaraguan Communism
While serving as Senator Ted Kennedy's Senior Advisor, Craig orchestrated hearings about alleged human rights abuses by the American-backed Nicaraguan rebels, the Contras. During these hearings he brought a number of communist Sandinista sympathizers to testify before Congress. Their politically motivated accounts of the situation in Nicaragua brought significant bad press to the freedom fighters, thus complicating stated administration policy on Nicaragua. Following the hearing, however, after having been criticized in The New Republic for aiding communists, Craig expressed regret, insisting that he did not realize how biased his witnesses were. He subsequently traveled to Nicaragua himself and criticized the manifest human rights abuses of the Sandinista government. [source]
Elian Gonzalez
While technically not a government employee at the time-having returned to his partnership at Williams & Connelly-Craig played a decidedly active role in the entire Elian Gonzalez affair, ostensibly representing his father, Juan, who was under the control of Fidel Castro and his aides. From an article in National Review:
Accounts of pre-raid negotiations between Elian's Miami relatives and the Justice Department suggest that Reno wasn't trying to bring peace to the warring Gonzalez family so much as taking orders straight from Craig. It appears that the Miami Gonzalezes had agreed to transfer custody of Elian to his father, as long as they could live with the boy and his father in an environment free of U.S. and Cuban officials. These negotiations dragged on through Good Friday and into the next morning, with Craig reviewing documents in his office past 2:00 A.M. - and ultimately vetoing the proposed settlement.
Craig had been pushing the government to take Elian from his relatives "immediately" for some time prior to the raid. For his efforts Craig was paid $100,000 through a "voluntary fund" set up by the United Methodist Board of Church and Society and administered by the National Council of Churches.
Clinton Impeachment
Part of why Craig's time at State was unremarkable was his short tenure, since he had to leave that position to head Bill Clinton's impeachment defense team. It is worth noting that Craig was originally cool to the idea. The Washington Post reported at the time:
"I hope you won't think it amiss if I tell you I'm not enthusiastic," [Craig] recalls telling John Podesta, then deputy White House chief of staff, when Podesta asked him in early September to consider leading Clinton's defense team in the impeachment inquiry. "John said, 'Well, just think about it.' So I kept thinking about it -- and my enthusiasm didn't grow."
Even after meeting with Clinton, Craig was not sold on the idea:
"[Clinton] was in great pain," Craig recalls. "He was, I think, profoundly troubled at his own failures, at his own shortcomings, and really at a loss about what to do, how to handle it. And I told him he really needed to talk about it. And he asked for my help. And I said I've got to talk to my wife."
Nevertheless, Craig did take the job, and by all accounts performed competently.
POSTION: ATTORNEY GENERAL
NOMINEE: Eric Holder, Jr.
Born: New York City, Jan. 21, 1951.
Family: Wife, Dr. Sharon Malone, and three children.
Occupation: Partner in the Washington, D.C., law firm Covington & Burling
Education: Doctorate from Columbia Law School in 1976
Judicial appointment: President Reagan nominated Holder for associate judge of the Superior Court of the District of Columbia in 1988; served five years.
Clinton White House: Nominated by President Clinton in 1993 for U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, a position he held for four years; appointed Clinton's deputy attorney general in 1997.
Hate Crimes
"Deputy Attorney General Eric Holder testified in support of the legislation, indicating that it would strengthen federal-state law enforcement capabilities without encroaching upon state responsibilities. He also denied the claim, made by some federal officials in the past, that the federal law enforcement agencies would be overwhelmed if the bill were passed to include new hate crime categories prohibiting bias crimes based sex, sexual orientation and disability." NOW website, June 7, 1999
Prosecution of Porn Peddlers
"Some civil libertarians worry that Eric Holder will be inclined to continue the Bush administration's crusade against pornography. They cite a June 1998 memo in which he told U.S. attorneys that obscenity prosecutions should focus on "cases involving large-scale distributors who realize substantial income from multistate operations and cases in which there is evidence of organized crime involvement" but added that "cases involving relatively small distributors can have a deterrent effect." The Clinton administration's actual track record in this area, however, consisted almost entirely of cases involving child pornography. "We continue to make these [child porn] cases a priority," Holder says in the memo. Social conservatives often complained that the Clinton administration was not interested in taking on pornography made by and for consenting adults. We probably can look forward to hearing such complaints again under the Obama administration." [source]
Elian Gonzalez Fiasco
"Mr. Holder said his agents were heavily armed when they entered the house because they had 'intelligence that the possibility existed there were guns in the house. We had to make sure our people were protected and they were in a position to protect people within the house. I don't know if there were any guns in the house. I don't know if they found any guns. We had to deal, however, with the intelligence we had that we got from local sources and make sure everybody was adequately protected.' Apparently no guns were found." (Jerry Seper and Clarence Williams, "Holder Defends Sudden Raid For Elian," The Washington Times, 4/24/00)
Bill Clinton's Presidential Pardons
Holder played a major role in the decision to grant clemency to 16 former members of the Puerto Rican terrorist group the Armed Forces Of National Liberation (FALN). "Holder . . .has played major roles in the probe of Democratic funny-money in the 1996 elections, the Sexgate scandal and the recommendation to President Clinton on whether to free FALN terrorists from jail. A list of FALN documents withheld from Congress shows that many memos on the FALN clemency decision went directly to Holder, while Reno's role was minimal." (Brian Blomquist, "Ailing Reno Yielding Reins Of Justice," New York Post, 12/15/99)
"As deputy attorney general under President Clinton, Mr. Holder reviewed the last-minute pardon of fugitive financier Marc Rich." (Jim McElhatton, "GOP Hits Another Obama Adviser," The Washington Times, 6/13/08)
Second Amendment
As Deputy Attorney General, Holder was a strong supporter of restrictive gun control. He advocated federal licensing of handgun owners, a three day waiting period on handgun sales, rationing handgun sales to no more than one per month, banning possession of handguns and so-called 'assault weapons' (cosmetically incorrect guns) by anyone under age of 21, a gun show restriction bill that would have given the federal government the power to shut down all gun shows, national gun registration, and mandatory prison sentences for trivial offenses (e.g., giving your son an heirloom handgun for Christmas, if he were two weeks shy of his 21st birthday). He also promoted the factoid that 'Every day that goes by, about 12, 13 more children in this country die from gun violence'--a statistic is true only if one counts 18-year-old gangsters who shoot each other as 'children.' (Sources: Holder testimony before House Judiciary Committee, Subcommitee on Crime, May 27, 1999; Holder Weekly Briefing, May 20, 2000.) After the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the D.C. handgun ban and self-defense ban were unconstitutional in 2007, Holder complained that the decision "opens the door to more people having more access to guns and putting guns on the streets." [source]
US Attorney Mixed Record?
"Eric Holder gets good national press, but some of those who know something about his activities in DC know better. As a lackluster local US Attorney, he not only sat on information concerning police and water department corruption, his staff regularly signed off on excessive police overtime to keep cops friendly to the prosecutors. Holder was also instrumental in getting law changes that made jury trials more difficult for certain defendants." - Progressive Review, 1998
One of Holder's predecessors, Joseph DiGenova, says, "When you have corruption staring you in the face, and you fail to act, you should resign. You can't worry about judgeships or your next job. And this from former city auditor Otis Troupe: "For years, in audit after audit, and in newspaper article after newspaper articles, we have established fact patterns that constitute crimes. And in all but a handful of case, nobody did anything in the prosecutor's office." - Progressive Review, 1997
As US Attorney, Eric Holder was the guy who indicted Dan Rostenkowsi and was responsible for his eventual conviction.
Waco
There have been questions about his role in the Justice Department's conduct in Waco: "The federal prosecutor who raised questions about a possible Justice Department cover-up in the Waco standoff was abruptly removed from the case along with his boss, according to a court filing made public Tuesday.
Deputy Attorney General Eric Holder recused U.S. Attorney James W. Blagg in San Antonio and assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Johnston in Waco, Texas, from any further dealings in criminal or civil proceedings related to the siege.
Holder appointed the U.S. attorney in a neighboring district as a "special attorney to the U.S. attorney general." Michelle Mittelstadt, September 14, 1999, Associated Press,
Miscellaneous
His firm, Covington and Burling, lobbies for the NFL and was a major player in the passage of the Internet Gambling bill. Eric Holder did not play any part in those negotiations.
SECRETARY OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES
NOMINEE: Thomas Daschle
BIRTH DATE: Dec. 9, 1947
EDUCATION: B.A. in political science, South Dakota State University, 1969.
FAMILY: Wife, Linda Hall Daschle; three children from a previous marriage.
FRC SCORECARD: 107th Second Session: 22%, 108th First Session: 14%, 108th Second Session: 17%
EXPERIENCE: distinguished senior fellow, Center for American Progress; special public policy adviser, Alston & Bird; Senate minority leader, 2003-2005; Senate majority leader, 2001-2003; Senate minority leader, 1995-2001; U.S. Senate, 1987-2005; U.S. House of Representatives, 1979-1986; aide to Sen. James Abourezk, 1972-77; representative for financial investment firm; intelligence officer, U.S. Air Force, 1969-72.
HEALTH CARE EXPERIENCE: Co-wrote one book and a few papers on the subject while with the liberal organization Center for American Progress.
Comments on Health Care
"Many believe wrongly that we have the best health system in the world . . . One of the most urgent priorities in this nation is making its health system accessible and affordable for all." Daschle. Thomas, Paying "More but Getting Less: Myths and the Global Case for U.S. Health Reform," Center for American Progress, November 2005.
"Daschle's solution lies in the Federal Reserve Board, which has overseen the equally complicated financial system with great success. A Fed-like health board would offer a public framework within which a private health-care system can operate more effectively and efficiently . . . Daschle argues that this independent board would create a single standard of care and exert tremendous influence on every other provider and payer, even those in the private sector." Excerpt: "Critical: What We Can Do About the Health-Care Crisis," by Senator Tom Daschle with Scott S. Greenberger and Jeanne M. Lambrew, February, 2008
"For the most part, Daschle's views on health-care policy are predictable for a Democratic politician with long service in the Congress . . . the toolbox he is looking through is the same one other Democrats are also reaching for: mandates on individuals and businesses to buy or offer coverage; new government-run insurance options for the under-65 population; a national governmental agency offering anyone who wants it to sign up for insurance outside of work; large new subsidy programs; and much more government involvement in determining what is and is not effective medical care . . . Daschle is no free-market reformer. He believes the solution is to entrust government-run health care to people more trustworthy than HHS bureaucrats or elected members of Congress . . . In Daschle's vision, such a board would be charged with making the big and controversial decisions - like what should or should not be covered by insurance plans - without having to answer to the public. Of course, this would be a nightmare scenario for those fearful of government intrusion into the practice of medicine. Once up and running, such a Board would inevitably accrue more power and authority, becoming the choke point for all crucial decisions. And the public would have little recourse to ever undo it." Capretta, James, "Daschle's Health-Care Plan," National Review, August 27, 2008.
Pro-Life Record
Taxpayer funding of abortions: June 20, 2000, voted for taxpayer funded abortions on military bases
[Source]
Parental rights/Morning after pill: Voted against a Helm's Amendment in 2000 that would have prevented taxpayers paying for the morning after pill being distributed to school girls.
[Source]
Roe v. Wade:
March 12, 2003, voted for a Senate resolution endorsing Roe v. Wade.
[Source]
Partial Birth Abortion: July 25, 2002, Senator Daschle, as Majority Leader, was key on blocking the Partial Birth Abortion Ban coming to a vote in the Senate that year, despite voicing support for the legislation. "(A)bortion rights advocates are counting on the majority leader, Senator Tom Daschle, Democrat of South Dakota, to prevent a bill from coming to the floor. 'The Senate is our firewall,' one abortion rights supporter said." Hulse, Carl, "An Abortion Bill Passes, But to an Uncertain Fate," New York Times, July 25, 2002.
Unborn Victims of Violence: March 25, 2004, voted for an alternative to the Unborn Victims Bill, the measure that provides protection and justice for women and children like Laci and Conner Peterson who are victims of violence that would have been far weaker. The measure Daschle backed would deny that the baby had suffered any injuries or death in such an attack.
[Source]
Tax and Reporting Problems
"Make no mistake, tax cheaters cheat us all, and the IRS should enforce our laws to the letter." Sen. Tom Daschle, Congressional Record, May 7, 1998, p. S4507.
According to the lead article in today's Washington Post, Tom Daschle 'waited nearly a month after being nominated to be secretary of health and human services before informing Barack Obama that he had not paid years of back taxes for the use of a car and driver provided by a wealthy New York investor.' If President Obama were really serious about ending business as usual, he would immediately withdraw the nomination of someone who was cheating big-time on his taxes and who didn't level with Obama about the problem at the outset. [Source] Of course, if he were really serious about ending business as usual, he would never have selected for a major Cabinet position a former senator of no discernible talent who, while he was a senator, enabled his wife to leverage his status to become a super-lobbyist and who on leaving the Senate cashed in his access to his former colleagues for millions of dollars a year." Ed Whelan, "Limousine Liberal," NRO The Corner, February 1, 2009.
Miscellaneous
Senator Daschle supported expanding taxpayer funding of embryonic stem cell experimentation as U.S. Senator. [Source]
Senator Daschle was "disowned" by his Catholic bishop due to his strong anti-abortion stance.
"The Senate minority leader and the highest ranking Democrat in Washington has been sent a letter by his home diocese of Sioux Falls, sources in South Dakota have told The Weekly Standard, directing him to remove from his congressional biography and campaign documents all references to his standing as a member of the Catholic Church." Bottom, J., "Tom Daschle's Duty to Be Morally Coherent," The Weekly Standard, April 17, 2003.
The Washington Post reports today that the very impressive e-mail and cell phone number lists that Obama's political campaign amassed will now be moving over to the White House to be used as an action arm of the Administration to get those who supported Obama during the campaign to defend his policy decisions. Any potential legality aside I am worried how a President could very easily misuse this technology. Candidate Obama used this technology to try to shut down media outlets that gave a voice to any dissenters and also used it to falsely malign two writers, Stanley Kurtz and David Freddoso.
The Post article states that the Obama transition team is already using the list to tackle probably the biggest "change" that the Obama Administration is preparing for - some form of universal healthcare. President-elect Obama's choice for HHS Secretary, former Senator Tom Daschle (D-SD), has already had a conference call with 1,000 of the people from the list and also has "met with more than 100 insiders," though the only two groups the article names are supporters of taxpayer funded abortions, AARP and Families USA.
Mr. Daschle also praises the suggestions from the taxpayer funded transition site Obama's campaign have set up for comments, "'We want to make sure you understand how important those comments and your contributions are,' Daschle says into the camera. 'Already we've begun to follow through with some of the ideas.' Daschle praises the suggestion of creating a 'Health Corps' of volunteers, modeled after President John F. Kennedy's Peace Corps."
Actually, someone else thought the Health Corps idea was so great that it was created 35 years ago.
Daschle then closes with a quote reassuring people that facts won't matter as much as anecdotes - so keep those stories coming in!
Stay tuned for more on the incoming HHS Secretary...
