STAFFING
- May, 2009 - President Obama has appointed Van Jones as the Green Jobs Czar and Adviser. Van Jones officially joined Obama's administration in May. However many are calling for Jones's resignation accusing him of being a "marxist" and "racist" among other things.
F: During Obama's campaign he asked the American people to judge him based on the people he surrounds himself with. But here, there is no denying that Obama has appointed a radical controversial figure to his administration. Some of Jones actions and statements include:
- Signing an online petition in 2004 calling for an investigation into the possibility that the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon were an inside job. Stating people within the Bush administration may indeed have deliberately allowed 9/11 to happen, perhaps as a pretext for war.
-.Calling Republicans "assholes" publicly
- Stating "The white polluters and the white environmentalists are essentially steering poison into the people of color communities."
- Stating in 2005 (re the acquittal of Rodney King's "assailants" in 1992) "I was a rowdy nationalist on April 28th, and then the verdicts came down on April 29th," "By August, I was a communist."
- Also stating "the incident deepened my disaffection with the system and accelerated my political radicalization"
- After being arrested for protesting the Rodney King court case he stated "I met all these young radical people of color -- I mean really radical, communists and anarchists. And it was like, 'This is what I need to be a part of,'"
- He got involved with Standing Together to Organize a Revolutionary Movement (STORM), a group explicitly committed to revolutionary Markist politics whose points of unity were revolutionary democracy, revolutionary feminism, revolutionary internationalism, the central role of the working class, urban Marxism, and Third World Communism.
- Jones actively began protesting "alleged police brutality".
- In 2005 Jones co-founded ColorOfChange.org "to strengthen Black America's political voice. Our goal is to empower our members—Black Americans and our allies—to make government more responsive to the concerns of Black Americans and to bring about positive political and social change for everyone."
On Sept 3, 2009 Van Jones stepped down and resigned. This continues the long list of Obama appointees who have had to resign due to questionable behavior.
- August 26, 2009 - President Obama gave Ben Bernanke a second term as Federal Reserve chairman. Bernanke is credited with turning the economy away from its deepest and longest recession since the 1930s. Many on Wall Street and in academic circles had viewed Bernanke as the best choice to tackle continued high unemployment, fight off any threat of inflation and take on the next set of risky, difficult decisions.
A: Obama played it safe and smart with this decision. First appointed chairman by George W Bush in early 2006, Bernanke has been widely praised by economists, and his reappointment was generally expected. Obama understood that changing Federal Reserve chairmen at this stage in both the economic recovery and in the midst of ongoing financial rescue efforts would have added uncertainty and would have been disruptive to markets. Obama followed a pattern established by the past four presidents in reappointing Fed chiefs who had been in place when they took office.
- March 31, 2009 - President Obama's nominee for Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius recently corrected three years of tax returns and paid more than $7,000 in back taxes after finding "unintentional errors". She claimed they involved charitable contributions, the sale of a home and business expenses
F: The trend continues. Amazingly, once again, another one of Obama's high level nominees has problems with filing their taxes. This is the sixth high level nominee in total. Obama must do a better job in choosing his cabinet members. This only hurts his presidency.
- March 2, 2009 - President Obama's appointee for US Trade Representative, Ron Kirk, has problems with taxes. He owes an estimated $10,000 in back taxes from his handling of speaking fees that he donated to his alma mater, and for his deduction of the full cost of season tickets to the Dallas Mavericks professional basketball team.The former mayor of Dallas has agreed to pay these back taxes. He is still expected to be approved by congress
F: Yet another Obama appointee has tax problems. This has certainly become a trend and quite embarrassing for Obama. If anything else, it shows he does not have the experience or judgment in picking the right person to fill his cabinet positions.
- Feb 4, 2009 - President Obama had asked retired Marine Gen. Anthony Zinni to be U.S. ambassador to Iraq but then suddenly withdrew the appointment without explanation. Gen Zinni stated "I started making arrangements" but became concerned when he heard nothing further from the State Department or White House. He called Gen. Jones Monday night and was told that Christopher Hill, the outgoing assistant secretary of State for East Asia, was getting the job. Gen. Zinni said no explanation was given. "That kind of bothered me," he said. "I was told that I had it."
A, D: Two fold rating. First Obama gets an A for making the right decision on picking an experienced and qualified person for the job. However, it was handled poorly when Gen. Zinn was not told why and when a change of heart took place. Having a change of heart is not the issue. The problem is that when Obama changed his decision Gen Zinni was not approached or confronted in an upfront and direct manner.
- Feb 3, 2009 - President Obama's nomination for Attorney General, Eric Holder, has been approved by Congress and sworn in as the first black Attorney General in American history. Eric Holder is a former prosecutor, federal judge and No. 2 official during the Clinton administration. Holder does come with controversy as he was the key figure in the clemency process in Clinton's pardoning of billionaire fugitive criminal Marc Rich
B: This is a good decision by Barack Obama for his Democratic party. Holder comes with experience and makes history (along with Obama) with his new position. Considering blacks are only 13% of the American population, it is quite impressive America has witnessed it's first black president, first black attorney general and first black chairman of the Republican National Committee (Michael Steele) all within a few weeks. This comes after a Bush administration who appointed more blacks to his cabinet than any other president in American history
- Feb 3, 2009 - President Barack Obama nominated Republican Sen. Judd Gregg from New Hampshire to head the Commerce Department as Commerce Secretary. Gregg is a third-term Republican known for being fiscally conservative. Gregg will be the third Republican to join Obama's Cabinet, following Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood
A: With these moves of nominating three different Republicans to his cabinet, Obama has backed up his bipartisan talk with real action. He has put politics aside and country first by making a decision, in what he feels, is best for America by choosing the best person qualified for the job
-Feb 3, 2009 - President Obama's pick for Chief Performance Officer, Nancy Killefer (executive with consulting giant McKinsey & Co) withdraws her candidacy due tax problems . She is the third Obama nominee to have tax issues and the second to withdraw her candidacy. She withdrew stating "come to realize in the current environment that my personal tax issue of D.C. unemployment tax could be used to create exactly the kind of distraction and delay"
F: The Obama staffing have more tax problems. Now the third Obama nominee to have issues paying their taxes, this is embarrassing and troubling for President Obama.
- Jan 30, 2009 - President Obama's pick for Health and Human services secretary, Tom Daschle, failed to pay more than $128,000 in taxes. Daschle recently filed amended tax returns to report $128,203 in back taxes and $11,964 in interest. The amended returns reflect additional income for consulting work, the use of a car service and reduced deductions for charitable contributions. Feb 3, 2009 Daschle withdrew from his nomination stating he was too much of a distraction for Obama
D- : Another one of Obama's administration picks has problems with paying taxes. This seems to becoming a pattern.
- Jan 26, 2009 - President Obama's nomination for U.S. Secretary of Treasury, Timothy Geithner is approved by congress. Although Timothy Geithner, coming over from working as the President of The Federal Reserve Bank of NY, has the credentials, he is a controversial pick. Geithner was exposed for not paying $35,000 in self-employment taxes for several years. In addition he played roles in the AIG , Bear Stern and Citigroup bailouts which most Americans
D- : Simply put, Obama has chosen a candidate who did not (initially) pay taxes to be in charge of the U.S. Treasury which overlooks the country's finance and monetary matters. How can someone manage the country's finances when they had problems managing their own?
- Jan 26, 2009 - To date at least a dozen former lobbyists have been appointed top jobs in President Obama's administration. A list of these people are
-Eric Holder, attorney general nominee, was registered to lobby for Global Crossing Co.
-Michael Strautmanis, chief of staff to the president’s assistant for intergovernmental relations, lobbied for the American Association of Justice from 2001 until 2005
-Tom Vilsack, secretary of agriculture nominee, was registered to lobby as on behalf of the National Education Association.
-William Lynn, deputy defense secretary nominee, was registered to lobby for defense contractor Raytheon.
-Patrick Gaspard, White House political affairs director, was a lobbyist for the Service Employees International Union
-William Corr, deputy health and human services secretary nominee, was registered to lobby for the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids.
-David Hayes, deputy interior secretary nominee, was registered to lobby until 2006 for clients, including the regional utility San Diego Gas & Electric.
-Mark Patterson, chief of staff to Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, was registered to lobby Goldman Sachs.
-Ron Klain, chief of staff to Vice President Joe Biden, was registered to lobby for Coalition for Asbestos Resolution, U.S. Airways, Airborne Express and drug-maker ImClone.
-Mona Sutphen, deputy White House chief of staff, was registered to lobby for Angliss International in 2003.
-Melody Barnes, domestic policy council director, lobbied for the American Civil Liberties Union, the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, the American Constitution Society and the Center for Reproductive Rights.
-Cecilia Munoz, White House director of intergovernmental affairs, was a lobbyist for the National Council of La Raza, a Hispanic advocacy group.
F: President Obama promised during his campaign that lobbyists "won't find a job in my White House."
- Jan 6, 2009 - President Obama's choice for commer secretary, New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, withdraws as pressure of a federal investigation into how his political donors landed a lucrative transportation contract. Richardson stated "I have concluded that the ongoing investigation also would have forced an untenable delay in the confirmation process," Richardson said in a statement. Richardson has not been implicated personally
C: There are two points to this. First, in fairness to Obama, Richardson seemed like the right choice as commerce secretary for Obama's cabinet. He comes with experience and is one of the stars in the Democratic party. However, this withdrawal by Richardson will later show that Obama is either not having much luck or does not have the right judgement when picking cabinet nominess. Richardson will be the first of 4 nominess who withdraws from Obama's cabinet staff within just a few weeks.
- Dec 1, 2008 - President Obama picks Hillary R. Clinton for Secretary of State
A: Three reasons why this is a good pick. First, Hillary Clinton has over 2 decades of experience meeting with foreign leaders as First Lady and NY senator. Second, picking Hillary Clinton after such a long, hard-fought, heated and sometimes dirty campaign against each other, shows Obama's loyalty to his Democratic party by not letting any grudges cloud his judgment in making the right choice for his party. Third, Hillary supports very similar policies as Barack including a closely matching voting record as senator
F: During Obama's campaign he asked the American people to judge him based on the people he surrounds himself with. But here, there is no denying that Obama has appointed a radical controversial figure to his administration. Some of Jones actions and statements include:
- Signing an online petition in 2004 calling for an investigation into the possibility that the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon were an inside job. Stating people within the Bush administration may indeed have deliberately allowed 9/11 to happen, perhaps as a pretext for war.
-.Calling Republicans "assholes" publicly
- Stating "The white polluters and the white environmentalists are essentially steering poison into the people of color communities."
- Stating in 2005 (re the acquittal of Rodney King's "assailants" in 1992) "I was a rowdy nationalist on April 28th, and then the verdicts came down on April 29th," "By August, I was a communist."
- Also stating "the incident deepened my disaffection with the system and accelerated my political radicalization"
- After being arrested for protesting the Rodney King court case he stated "I met all these young radical people of color -- I mean really radical, communists and anarchists. And it was like, 'This is what I need to be a part of,'"
- He got involved with Standing Together to Organize a Revolutionary Movement (STORM), a group explicitly committed to revolutionary Markist politics whose points of unity were revolutionary democracy, revolutionary feminism, revolutionary internationalism, the central role of the working class, urban Marxism, and Third World Communism.
- Jones actively began protesting "alleged police brutality".
- In 2005 Jones co-founded ColorOfChange.org "to strengthen Black America's political voice. Our goal is to empower our members—Black Americans and our allies—to make government more responsive to the concerns of Black Americans and to bring about positive political and social change for everyone."
On Sept 3, 2009 Van Jones stepped down and resigned. This continues the long list of Obama appointees who have had to resign due to questionable behavior.
- August 26, 2009 - President Obama gave Ben Bernanke a second term as Federal Reserve chairman. Bernanke is credited with turning the economy away from its deepest and longest recession since the 1930s. Many on Wall Street and in academic circles had viewed Bernanke as the best choice to tackle continued high unemployment, fight off any threat of inflation and take on the next set of risky, difficult decisions.
A: Obama played it safe and smart with this decision. First appointed chairman by George W Bush in early 2006, Bernanke has been widely praised by economists, and his reappointment was generally expected. Obama understood that changing Federal Reserve chairmen at this stage in both the economic recovery and in the midst of ongoing financial rescue efforts would have added uncertainty and would have been disruptive to markets. Obama followed a pattern established by the past four presidents in reappointing Fed chiefs who had been in place when they took office.
- March 31, 2009 - President Obama's nominee for Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius recently corrected three years of tax returns and paid more than $7,000 in back taxes after finding "unintentional errors". She claimed they involved charitable contributions, the sale of a home and business expenses
F: The trend continues. Amazingly, once again, another one of Obama's high level nominees has problems with filing their taxes. This is the sixth high level nominee in total. Obama must do a better job in choosing his cabinet members. This only hurts his presidency.
- March 2, 2009 - President Obama's appointee for US Trade Representative, Ron Kirk, has problems with taxes. He owes an estimated $10,000 in back taxes from his handling of speaking fees that he donated to his alma mater, and for his deduction of the full cost of season tickets to the Dallas Mavericks professional basketball team.The former mayor of Dallas has agreed to pay these back taxes. He is still expected to be approved by congress
F: Yet another Obama appointee has tax problems. This has certainly become a trend and quite embarrassing for Obama. If anything else, it shows he does not have the experience or judgment in picking the right person to fill his cabinet positions.
- Feb 4, 2009 - President Obama had asked retired Marine Gen. Anthony Zinni to be U.S. ambassador to Iraq but then suddenly withdrew the appointment without explanation. Gen Zinni stated "I started making arrangements" but became concerned when he heard nothing further from the State Department or White House. He called Gen. Jones Monday night and was told that Christopher Hill, the outgoing assistant secretary of State for East Asia, was getting the job. Gen. Zinni said no explanation was given. "That kind of bothered me," he said. "I was told that I had it."
A, D: Two fold rating. First Obama gets an A for making the right decision on picking an experienced and qualified person for the job. However, it was handled poorly when Gen. Zinn was not told why and when a change of heart took place. Having a change of heart is not the issue. The problem is that when Obama changed his decision Gen Zinni was not approached or confronted in an upfront and direct manner.
- Feb 3, 2009 - President Obama's nomination for Attorney General, Eric Holder, has been approved by Congress and sworn in as the first black Attorney General in American history. Eric Holder is a former prosecutor, federal judge and No. 2 official during the Clinton administration. Holder does come with controversy as he was the key figure in the clemency process in Clinton's pardoning of billionaire fugitive criminal Marc Rich
B: This is a good decision by Barack Obama for his Democratic party. Holder comes with experience and makes history (along with Obama) with his new position. Considering blacks are only 13% of the American population, it is quite impressive America has witnessed it's first black president, first black attorney general and first black chairman of the Republican National Committee (Michael Steele) all within a few weeks. This comes after a Bush administration who appointed more blacks to his cabinet than any other president in American history
- Feb 3, 2009 - President Barack Obama nominated Republican Sen. Judd Gregg from New Hampshire to head the Commerce Department as Commerce Secretary. Gregg is a third-term Republican known for being fiscally conservative. Gregg will be the third Republican to join Obama's Cabinet, following Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood
A: With these moves of nominating three different Republicans to his cabinet, Obama has backed up his bipartisan talk with real action. He has put politics aside and country first by making a decision, in what he feels, is best for America by choosing the best person qualified for the job
-Feb 3, 2009 - President Obama's pick for Chief Performance Officer, Nancy Killefer (executive with consulting giant McKinsey & Co) withdraws her candidacy due tax problems . She is the third Obama nominee to have tax issues and the second to withdraw her candidacy. She withdrew stating "come to realize in the current environment that my personal tax issue of D.C. unemployment tax could be used to create exactly the kind of distraction and delay"
F: The Obama staffing have more tax problems. Now the third Obama nominee to have issues paying their taxes, this is embarrassing and troubling for President Obama.
- Jan 30, 2009 - President Obama's pick for Health and Human services secretary, Tom Daschle, failed to pay more than $128,000 in taxes. Daschle recently filed amended tax returns to report $128,203 in back taxes and $11,964 in interest. The amended returns reflect additional income for consulting work, the use of a car service and reduced deductions for charitable contributions. Feb 3, 2009 Daschle withdrew from his nomination stating he was too much of a distraction for Obama
D- : Another one of Obama's administration picks has problems with paying taxes. This seems to becoming a pattern.
- Jan 26, 2009 - President Obama's nomination for U.S. Secretary of Treasury, Timothy Geithner is approved by congress. Although Timothy Geithner, coming over from working as the President of The Federal Reserve Bank of NY, has the credentials, he is a controversial pick. Geithner was exposed for not paying $35,000 in self-employment taxes for several years. In addition he played roles in the AIG , Bear Stern and Citigroup bailouts which most Americans
D- : Simply put, Obama has chosen a candidate who did not (initially) pay taxes to be in charge of the U.S. Treasury which overlooks the country's finance and monetary matters. How can someone manage the country's finances when they had problems managing their own?
- Jan 26, 2009 - To date at least a dozen former lobbyists have been appointed top jobs in President Obama's administration. A list of these people are
-Eric Holder, attorney general nominee, was registered to lobby for Global Crossing Co.
-Michael Strautmanis, chief of staff to the president’s assistant for intergovernmental relations, lobbied for the American Association of Justice from 2001 until 2005
-Tom Vilsack, secretary of agriculture nominee, was registered to lobby as on behalf of the National Education Association.
-William Lynn, deputy defense secretary nominee, was registered to lobby for defense contractor Raytheon.
-Patrick Gaspard, White House political affairs director, was a lobbyist for the Service Employees International Union
-William Corr, deputy health and human services secretary nominee, was registered to lobby for the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids.
-David Hayes, deputy interior secretary nominee, was registered to lobby until 2006 for clients, including the regional utility San Diego Gas & Electric.
-Mark Patterson, chief of staff to Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, was registered to lobby Goldman Sachs.
-Ron Klain, chief of staff to Vice President Joe Biden, was registered to lobby for Coalition for Asbestos Resolution, U.S. Airways, Airborne Express and drug-maker ImClone.
-Mona Sutphen, deputy White House chief of staff, was registered to lobby for Angliss International in 2003.
-Melody Barnes, domestic policy council director, lobbied for the American Civil Liberties Union, the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, the American Constitution Society and the Center for Reproductive Rights.
-Cecilia Munoz, White House director of intergovernmental affairs, was a lobbyist for the National Council of La Raza, a Hispanic advocacy group.
F: President Obama promised during his campaign that lobbyists "won't find a job in my White House."
- Jan 6, 2009 - President Obama's choice for commer secretary, New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, withdraws as pressure of a federal investigation into how his political donors landed a lucrative transportation contract. Richardson stated "I have concluded that the ongoing investigation also would have forced an untenable delay in the confirmation process," Richardson said in a statement. Richardson has not been implicated personally
C: There are two points to this. First, in fairness to Obama, Richardson seemed like the right choice as commerce secretary for Obama's cabinet. He comes with experience and is one of the stars in the Democratic party. However, this withdrawal by Richardson will later show that Obama is either not having much luck or does not have the right judgement when picking cabinet nominess. Richardson will be the first of 4 nominess who withdraws from Obama's cabinet staff within just a few weeks.
- Dec 1, 2008 - President Obama picks Hillary R. Clinton for Secretary of State
A: Three reasons why this is a good pick. First, Hillary Clinton has over 2 decades of experience meeting with foreign leaders as First Lady and NY senator. Second, picking Hillary Clinton after such a long, hard-fought, heated and sometimes dirty campaign against each other, shows Obama's loyalty to his Democratic party by not letting any grudges cloud his judgment in making the right choice for his party. Third, Hillary supports very similar policies as Barack including a closely matching voting record as senator
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