All Posts Tagged With: "transition"

President-elect Barack Obama today announced a bold initiative to save or create 2.5 million jobs in the next two years.

In his weekly address, President-elect Obama announced that he has directed his economic team to formulate an Economic Recovery Plan — a two-year, nationwide initiative that will strengthen our economy and put millions of Americans to work rebuilding our crumbling roads and bridges, modernizing our schools, and securing our clean energy future.

*

*
*

For more information, visit change.gov.

Newsweek’s Michael Isikoff reports on Obama’s selection to head the Justice Department:

President-elect Obama has decided to tap Eric Holder as his attorney general, putting the veteran Washington lawyer in place to become the first African-American to head the Justice Department, according to two legal sources close to the presidential transition.

[...]

A New York City native who graduated from Columbia University and Columbia Law School, Holder spent years as a federal prosecutor—a job in which he earned a reputation as tough and aggressive foe of public corruption. After serving in the pubic integrity section of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division and later a District of Columbia Superior Court judge, Holder was named by President Clinton as U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia. He became deputy attorney general in 1997 under Janet Reno and was viewed as a centrist on most law enforcement issues, though he has sharply criticized the secrecy and the expansive views of executive power advanced by the Bush Justice Department.

President-elect Barack Obama met with Senator John McCain at his transition headquarters in Chicago today. They issued this joint statement afterward.

“At this defining moment in history, we believe that Americans of all parties want and need their leaders to come together and change the bad habits of Washington so that we can solve the common and urgent challenges of our time. It is in this spirit that we had a productive conversation today about the need to launch a new era of reform where we take on government waste and bitter partisanship in Washington in order to restore trust in government, and bring back prosperity and opportunity for every hardworking American family. We hope to work together in the days and months ahead on critical challenges like solving our financial crisis, creating a new energy economy, and protecting our nation’s security.”

Scott Louis Weber, the former Senior Counselor to the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, warns that our nation is in a very vulnerable state at the moment that terrorists could exploit with maximum impact:

The United States finds itself in an unprecedented vulnerable state as it welcomes a new president and rescues a battered economy. The downturn in the economy has gutted markets worldwide, fanning the already rising flames of anti-American sentiment. Our economy is reeling; creating a fertile ground for a terrorist attack and history demonstrates that terrorists view periods of transition as optimal times for attack. Now is not the time for corporate America to let down her guard.

The presidential transition will be a major undertaking that will last many months as President-elect Obama brings new people on board. This transition will likely be the most important in our lifetime. Simply put: we are teetering on the edge of a national security precipice and cannot, under any circumstance, move in the wrong direction.

In 2004, ten backpack bombs exploded in Madrid on a crowded train three days before a national election for prime minister. Just days after Britain elected Prime Minister Gordon Brown in 2007, terrorist tried to attack London’s nightclub district and the Glasgow airport. Terrorists attacked the World Trade Center during presidential transition periods — the 1993 bombing took place five weeks after President Clinton’s first inauguration and FBI Director Mueller had been on the job just one week when the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks took place.

In addition to the inherent vulnerability that comes during a changing of the guard, the United States is trying to deal with staggering economic challenges — to the great pleasure of our enemies. Adam Gadahn, an American who heads Al-Qaeda’s propaganda machine, was silent for ten months before he released a video in early October wherein he discussed America’s economic problems with apparent glee. “The looming meltdown [is] threatening the crusaders economic system,” Gadahn said. The United States is “facing a crushing defeat,” he said.

[...]

America’s current economic climate, the imminent administration change and the passage of time since 9/11 present the perfect storm for terrorists. All the more reason for companies to invest in security in order to heed the lessons learned throughout history. When it comes to security, smart companies work with, but do not rely upon the government. As distressing as it would be to be remembered as one of the companies that failed during these tumultuous economic times, it would pale by comparison if your company fell victim to a terrorist attack — especially when the writing is so visibly on the wall.

Josh Marshall has uncovered the president-elect’s radical agenda:

As you may know the Obama’s transition has now set up change.gov as the new transition website. And as TPM Reader SB points out there’s already signs of the radicalism McCain and Palin warned the country about.

I’ve clipped out this section of their organization chart of the US government, which you can find linked on this page.

And as you can see, not only has the president been demoted to a position under the constitution. But the vice-president (as shown by the red arrow) has had his own fourth branch revoked and been reassigned to the executive branch …