NewsTrust - Obama Administration - Most Trusted Stories

Closing Guantánamo: Will Europeans take detainees?

Fri, 23 Jan 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Christian Science Monitor - By Robert Marquand - Jan. 23 (News Analysis) - On no single issue has Europe been more in disagreement with America than the Guantánamo detention center. The camp was a focus of anti-US protest here, synonymous with the image of a bullying world power using torture to obtain confessions from terror suspects. The European Union collectively called for closing "Gitmo." Now, Barack Obama, who is deeply admired in Europe, has ordered Gitmo trials to be halted, and signed an executive order Thursday to close Guantánamo within a year. It sounds like Europe's dream scenario. Yet European states are not rushing to take detainees, a step considered essential to closing the camps.

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Getting There from Here: How should Obama reform health care?

Sun, 25 Jan 2009 00:00:00 -0800

New Yorker - By Atul Gawande - Jan. 25 (Opinion) - In every industrialized nation, the movement to reform health care has begun with stories about cruelty. The Canadians had stories like the 1946 Toronto Globe and Mail report of a woman in labor who was refused help by three successive physicians, apparently because of her inability to pay. In Australia, a 1954 letter published in the Sydney Morning Herald sought help for a young woman who had lung disease. She couldn’t afford to refill her oxygen tank, and had been forced to ration her intake “to a point where she is on the borderline of death.” In Britain, George Bernard Shaw was at a London hospital visiting an eminent physician when an assistant came in to report that a sick man had arrived requesting treatment. “Is he worth it?” the physician asked. It was the normality of the question that shocked Shaw and prompted his scathing and influential 1906 play, “The Doctor’s Dilemma.” The British health system, he charged, was “a conspiracy to exploit popular credulity and human suffering.”

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The Triumph of Blue Patriotism

Wed, 21 Jan 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Washington Independent - By Jefferson Morley - Jan. 21 (Opinion) - When Barack Obama took the stage at the We Are One concert at the Lincoln Memorial on Sunday, he signaled not only the arrival of a new administration to Washington but the arrival of a patriotism that looks new but isn’t.

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Obama to Shut Guantánamo Site and C.I.A. Prisons

Thu, 22 Jan 2009 00:00:00 -0800

New York Times - By Mark Mazzetti, William Glaberson - Jan. 22 (News Report) - President Obama is expected to sign executive orders Thursday directing the Central Intelligence Agency to shut what remains of its network of secret prisons and ordering the closing of the Guantánamo detention camp within a year, government officials said.

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Obama Is Sworn In as the 44th President

Tue, 20 Jan 2009 00:00:00 -0800

New York Times - By Carl Hulse - Jan. 20 (News Report) - Barack Hussein Obama became the 44th president of the United States Tuesday, and called on Americans to join him in confronting what he described as an economic crisis caused by greed but also “our collective failure to make hard choices.” “Today I say to you that the challenges we face are real,” Mr. Obama said in his inaugural address minutes after he took the oath of office on the same bible used by Abraham Lincoln at his first inaugural in 1861. “They are serious and they are many. They will not be met easily or in a short span of time. But know this, America — they will be met.” Mr. Obama, the first African American to serve as president, spoke to a sea of cheering people, hundreds of thousands of Americans packed on the National Mall from the Capitol to beyond the Washington monument. The multitude was filled with black Americans and Mr. Obama’s triumph was a special and emotional moment for them.

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Historical Mystery of Bush's Presidency

Thu, 22 Jan 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Consortium News - By Robert Parry - Jan. 22 (Opinion) - beyond the issue of accountability for lawbreaking, there is another even more daunting challenge, how to replace the political and media institutions that aided and abetted the Bush administration’s assault on the nation’s constitutional principles and on reason itself. After all, one can only solve the mystery of how George W. Bush became President -- and inflicted so much damage -- by taking into account the collaboration of Washington's political and media Establishments.

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New team moves to undo last-minute rule changes

Thu, 22 Jan 2009 00:00:00 -0800

The Guardian - By Suzanne Goldenberg - Jan. 22 (Investigative Report) - Barack Obama has moved swiftly to freeze a number of regulations introduced during George Bush's last days in office that strip away protection for workers and the environment.

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Obama has the courage of a great leader

Mon, 19 Jan 2009 00:00:00 -0800

The Times - By William Rees-Mogg - Jan. 19 (Opinion) - The great American presidents have emerged from the great challenges. The greatest president of the 20th century was Franklin Roosevelt who had to overcome the challenges of the Great Depression and the Second World War. The greatest president of the 19th century was Abraham Lincoln, who had to meet the challenge of the Civil War. The presidency of Barack Obama will also be shaped by the challenges he faces; he has to overcome the depression that began in 2007. He also has to create a foreign policy that will restore international confidence in the United States. Mr Obama has taken Roosevelt and Lincoln as his chief role models, and it is the image of Lincoln he has chosen to emphasise as he prepares for his inauguration. The first black president naturally feels kinship with the president who abolished slavery. Mr Obama has formed his Cabinet on Lincoln's principles, appointing the strongest individuals, whether or not they agree with each other and whether or not they have been his rivals for the presidency. Mr Obama is said to have been reading Team of Rivals, an excellent book on Lincoln's choice of colleagues written by the Pulitzer prizewinner Doris Kearns Goodwin.

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Obama acts on Guantanamo trials

Wed, 21 Jan 2009 00:00:00 -0800

BBC News - Jan. 21 (News Report) - Barack Obama has requested the suspension of all military tribunals at Guantanamo Bay, in his first major act as the new US president.

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Crimson Tide

Thu, 22 Jan 2009 00:00:00 -0800

New Republic - By Noam Scheiber - Jan. 22 (Special Report) - If a transition tells you something about a president's style--if not his chances of success--then Bill Clinton and Barack Obama could hardly be more different.

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Lawmakers & Lobbyists Celebrate Inauguration

Wed, 21 Jan 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Washington Independent - By Lindsay Beyerstein - Jan. 21 (Special Report) - Despite Obama’s efforts, inaugural festivities still represent a giant loophole in lobbying rules that have grown progressively stricter in recent years. Whether it’s the high-dollar fundraisers underwriting the official inaugural program, or the corporations and lobbyists throwing lavish parties to woo legislators and government officials, influence appears to come with a price tag.

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'Why Can't Guantanamo's Inmates Stay in America?'

Thu, 22 Jan 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Der Spiegel - Jan. 22 (News Analysis) - Since December, when President-elect Obama extened an olive branch to irritated European allies and asked them to absorb some of these prisoners -- on the condition that America would, too -- a debate has simmered in Germany. Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said in January that Munich might be a reasonable place for 17 Chinese Uighur minority prisoners to settle, since Munich has the largest Chinese Muslim community outside China. But a conservative rival, Interior Minister Wolfgang Schäuble, says the prisoners are America's problem -- any Guantanamo inmates who can't go home "out of human rights considerations" will simply "need to remain in the United States."

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Nationalization Gets a New, Serious Look

Mon, 26 Jan 2009 00:00:00 -0800

New York Times - By David E. Sanger - Jan. 26 (News Analysis) - “Well, whatever you want to call it,” said Ms. Pelosi, Democrat of California. “If we are strengthening them, then the American people should get some of the upside of that strengthening. Some people call that nationalization. “I’m not talking about total ownership,” she quickly cautioned — stopping herself by posing a question: “Would we have ever thought we would see the day when we’d be using that terminology? ‘Nationalization of the banks?’ ” So far, President Obama’s top aides have steered clear of the word entirely....

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Bush's Faith-Based Gravy Train

Mon, 26 Jan 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Consortium News - By Howard Bess - Jan. 26 (Opinion) - . By regulation, the Bush administration has removed requirements for professional qualifications for employees who act as therapists and counselors. Restrictions against discrimination in hiring have been removed. Jews, Muslims and gay persons are victims of harsh hiring discrimination. Many faith-based grant recipients are openly using religious conversion as a tool of therapy.

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Out of Africa

Fri, 23 Jan 2009 00:00:00 -0800

New Republic - By Carl Gershman, Maina Kiai - Jan. 23 (Special Report) - Obama's rise to the presidency is a vindication of this vision of post- racialism, and the impact it has had on American democracy illuminates an even more profound observation Mboya offered, almost in passing, about race in America. Commenting on the gains that blacks had made in Africa and elsewhere in the 1960s, he wrote that American society had "been forced to undergo a genuine social revolution in response to the black struggle." This was true as far as it went--the black struggle was, indeed, the spark that ignited a broader social revolution. But it was able to do so in the same way the anti- slavery movement had transformed America a century earlier--by mobilizing social forces to address what Gunnar Myrdal called "the American dilemma," the contradiction between the American creed of equality for all and the unequal condition of American blacks. Obama built upon that legacy, using the vision of an America overcoming racial division to inspire a movement to broaden and deepen our democracy.

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Transition Holds Clues to How Obama Will Govern

Tue, 20 Jan 2009 00:00:00 -0800

New York Times - By Peter Baker - Jan. 20 (News Report) - On the day before moving into the nation's most storied house, Barack Obama visited a shelter for teenagers with no home.? With sleeves rolled up, he spent a few minutes painting for the benefit of the cameras that trail him everywhere now. Cara Fuller, a shelter worker, asked if he was sweating. “Nah, I don’t sweat,” he told her. “You ever see me sweat?” Not yet. But then again, it is still early. Mr. Obama arrives at the presidency Tuesday after a transition that betrayed little if any perspiration and no hint of nervousness. Throughout the 77 days since his election, he has been a font of cool confidence, never too hot, never too cold, seemingly undaunted by the magnitude of troubles awaiting him and unbothered by the few setbacks that have tripped him up.

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Obama's War - Fearing Another Quagmire in Afghanistan

Sun, 25 Jan 2009 00:00:00 -0800

New York Times - By Helene Cooper - Jan. 25 (Opinion) - Can President Obama succeed in that long-lamented “graveyard of empires” — a place that has crushed foreign occupiers for more than 2,000 years? Ever since the Bush administration diverted its attention — and resources — to the war in Iraq from the war in Afghanistan, military planners and foreign policy experts have bemoaned the dearth of troops to keep that country from sliding back into Taliban control. And in that time, the insurgency blossomed, as Taliban militants took advantage of huge swaths of territory, particularly in the south, that NATO troops weren’t able to fill.

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A Smarter Stimulus

Mon, 26 Jan 2009 00:00:00 -0800

New Yorker - By James Surowiecki - Jan. 26 (Opinion) - Cutting taxes is usually a surefire political winner. Yet Barack Obama’s plan to include more than a hundred billion dollars in individual tax rebates in his stimulus package has earned him criticism from both ends of the political spectrum. Critics in his own party think the rebate, which Obama wants to distribute by reducing people’s withholding payments, will be too small to make a difference—the equivalent of an extra forty dollars or so a month. Naysayers from the right maintain that, because the tax rebate is a onetime event rather than a permanent reduction in tax rates, it will have only a negligible effect. Skeptics on both sides worry that most people will save the rebate rather than spend it.

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Obama’s Partisan, Profane Confidant Reins It In

Sun, 25 Jan 2009 00:00:00 -0800

New York Times - By Mark Leibovich - Jan. 25 (News Report) - Early this month, Barack Obama was meeting with the House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, and other lawmakers when Rahm Emanuel, his chief of staff, began nervously cracking a knuckle. Mr. Obama then turned to complain to Mr. Emanuel about his noisy habit. At which point, Mr. Emanuel held the offending knuckle up to Mr. Obama’s left ear and, like an annoying little brother, snapped off a few special cracks. The episode, confirmed by Mr. Emanuel’s office, underscores some essential truths about Mr. Emanuel: He is brash, has a deep comfort level with his new boss, and has been ever-present at Mr. Obama’s side of late, in meetings, on podiums and in photographs.

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Will Obama keep Britain at bay?

Wed, 21 Jan 2009 00:00:00 -0800

The Guardian - By Simon Tisdall - Jan. 21 (Opinion) - While Obama undoubtedly shares many of Britain's policy aspirations, there are signs he may be less eager to afford Brown a special hearing than was Bush to Blair. For a start, Bush had few real friends in Europe. Inclusive, multilateralist Obama – "no country left behind" – is everybody's best new pal. Europe's leaders are currently queuing to catch reflected glory.

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Obama’s Agenda: the Middle East, Economy and Ethics

Thu, 22 Jan 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Washington Post - By Michael D. Shear, William Branigin - Jan. 22 (Special Report) - President Obama launched immediately into the grim reality of his new job today, placing calls to the leaders of Middle Eastern countries and preparing for his first presidential briefings on the economy and Iraq this afternoon.

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2 U.S. Airstrikes Offer a Concrete Sign of Obama's Pakistan Policy

Sat, 24 Jan 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Washington Post - By R. Jeffrey Smith, Candace Rondeauxm, Joby Warrick - Jan. 24 (News Report) - Two remote U.S. missile strikes that killed at least 20 people at suspected terrorist hideouts in northwestern Pakistan yesterday offered the first tangible sign of President Obama's commitment to sustained military pressure on the terrorist groups there, even though Pakistanis broadly oppose such unilateral U.S. actions.

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Obama: Highest Initial Approval For Elected President?

Mon, 19 Jan 2009 00:00:00 -0800

FiveThirtyEight - By Nate Silver - Jan. 19 (Poll) - Barack Obama's favorability ratings have continued to improve as we approach Tuesday's inauguration. But how do they compare to those of his predecessors? The two highest initial, post-inauguration approval ratings as measured by Gallup belong to presidents who took over for others whose terms ended prematurely. About 86 percent of Americans approved of Harry Truman when he took over for FDR. And 77 percent approved Lyndon Johnson when he took over for JFK. The highest initial approval rating for a newly elected president, on the other hand, appears to belong to Kennedy, whom Gallup pegged at 72 percent approval shortly after his inauguration in 1961.

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In Obama's Moment, Many in Crowd Feel Echoes of Their Own Stories

Wed, 21 Jan 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Washington Post - By David Maraniss - Jan. 21 (Opinion) - In taking the oath of office as the first African American president in the nation's nearly 233 years, one man reached a singular achievement. But at four minutes after noon yesterday, Barack Hussein Obama was inevitably transformed -- no matter what happens during his administration -- from an individual, a politician, to an icon and a symbol. Here was history at its most sweeping and yet intimate.

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Google ready to pursue its agenda in Washington

Sat, 24 Jan 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Los Angeles Times - By Jim Puzzanghera, Jessica Guynn - Jan. 24 (Special Report) - Its employees supported Obama and four Googlers served on his transition team. Now the Internet giant hopes to win support for so-called network neutrality and expanding high-speed Internet access.

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