Posted by Katherine |
Friday, January 9th, 2009
Yesterday, in his first big policy speech since November 4th, Obama waded in forcefully on the economy, pressing Congress to hop to it on economic-stimulus legislation.
The context is grim. The holiday shopping season was dismal-to-possibly-bankrupting for many retailers. Obama will inherit a record-breaking $1.2 trillion budget deficit for the year ...
Posted in pictures, words | No Comments »
Posted by Katherine |
Friday, January 9th, 2009
Celebrity and transition-team gossip overlapped this week. Obama, it appears, offered the Surgeon General post to media-savvy neurosurgeon Sanjay Gupta. There seems to be some dissent within the public-health community over this pick, and some commentators (like Paul Krugman) are disappointed. But if in fact it's true that Obama wants ...
Posted in pictures | No Comments »
Posted by Katherine |
Thursday, January 8th, 2009
[thephotoholic / Flickr]
Obama fleshed out his Justice Department team on Monday: David Ogden for deputy AG, Elena Kagan for solicitor general, Thomas Perrelli for associate AG, and Dawn Johnsen for head of OLC. They suggest a sharp turn away from President Bush's view of executive power and the kinds of ...
Posted in words | 2 Comments »
Posted by Katherine |
Tuesday, December 30th, 2008
A Message for Obama
[ideonexus / Flickr]
Before the holidays, Obama picked his science and science-related team. The nominees include Tom Vilsack for Agriculture, Steven Chu for Energy, Ken Salazar for Interior, Jane Lubchenco for NOAA, and Lisa Jackson for EPA. Also John Holdren, Harold Varmus, Eric Lander, and Carol Browner as ...
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Posted by Katherine |
Monday, December 29th, 2008
[mtfrazier / Flickr]
There's actually a blog dedicated to the Obama-and-food niche. It's called Obama Foodorama: A Daily Diary of The Obama Foodscape, One Byte At A Time. So when Obama visited the mess hall at Marine Corps Base Hawaii during Christmas dinner, Obama Foodorama "parsed" the significance and tried to ...
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Posted by Katherine |
Tuesday, December 23rd, 2008
From Flickr to you: this Christmas Obama ornamentation. (There don't seem to be any Obama-Hanukkah pictures... yet.)
Cory Doctorow is a freelance writer who knows or works on just about every corner of the web. (You've heard of BoingBoing? He's a co-editor.) He spotted this Shepard Fairey parody poster in London ...
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Posted by Katherine |
Monday, December 22nd, 2008
[This post is part of a Message for Obama series.]
It's the season for wishes (from citizens) and gift giving (by Obama). Certain demanding people aren't just asking for stocking stuffers. They'd like the big toys, gift wrapped, thank you very much. Something like freedom from fear. Or no regrets for ...
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Posted by Katherine |
Friday, December 19th, 2008
Pastor Rick Warren -- a vocal opponent of homosexuality and gay marriage -- will be giving the invocation on January 20th. For many on the left: not a popular move by their man Barack.
Thirty-year-old trevorkiel is an Obama devotee willing to grant the president-elect lots of wiggle room. But not ...
Posted in videos, words | 2 Comments »
Posted by Katherine |
Friday, December 19th, 2008
Building up education [kokeshi / Flickr]
Obama announced this week that he'd picked Arne Duncan as Secretary of Education. The battle over education policy seems to be fought between two main camps: accountability/achievement and unions/funding. The president-elect apparently kept a toe in each one during the campaign, and conventional wisdom says ...
Posted in words | No Comments »
Posted by Katherine |
Tuesday, December 16th, 2008
[This post is part of a Message for Obama series.]
Judging by the Messages for Obama, Campaign '08 and Obama's victory elicited feelings of patriotism in a whole new group of Americans.
Praecepitum (aka Leah) is inspired by superheroes, Greek sculpture, and mythology -- and now, apparently, by the president-elect:
[praecepitum / Flickr]
Surely ...
Posted in pictures | 1 Comment »
Posted by Katherine |
Thursday, December 11th, 2008
[This post is part of a Message for Obama series.]
Some of the Message for Obama pictures get really really specific: Please visit Gaza. Forget about the puppy talk, get a chicken for the White House! Please don't take my "assault weapon." Please do support science. Never stop podcasting. And, of ...
Posted in pictures | 2 Comments »
Posted by Katherine |
Wednesday, December 10th, 2008
Thirteen-year-old Page Traeger is a student in San Jose who likes William Steig, going to the beach, and Led Zeppelin. She also confesses an addiction to photography; she takes her camera everywhere and says, "It it like my child." This picture marks her reaction to November 4th. And yes, ...
Posted in pictures | 3 Comments »
Posted by Katherine |
Tuesday, December 9th, 2008
[woodleywonderworks / Flickr]
Over the weekend, Obama outlined his vision for a large, job-boosting investment in public infrastructure.
Andrew Samwick is a Dartmouth economics prof who studies retirement and was chief economist of the President's Council of Economic Advisors in 2003-2004. He likes Obama's plan even though he doesn't see job creation ...
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Posted by Katherine |
Monday, December 8th, 2008
The Big Three must be perking up a bit at the now-promising bailout rumblings. [Update 9 Dec 08: I should have noted that Obama supports the loan and will inherit the Detroit problem come January.]
Pat McDermott (aka coolgeek2751) calls himself a "rock climbing jazz piano playing programmer." He's pretty fervently ...
Posted in videos | 1 Comment »
Posted by Katherine |
Thursday, December 4th, 2008
Active-duty Marine Jayel Aheram (a ballotvoxregular featured here) took this photo a few days ago. It shows an artist named TAG posing with her portrait of Obama, another tribute to Shepard Fairey's poster. She made it by kissing the canvas repeatedly -- a six-hour labor of love.
[Jayel Aheram / Flickr]
To ...
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Posted by Katherine |
Thursday, December 4th, 2008
Just before Thanksgiving, Obama nominated almost-40-year-old Peter Orszag as Director of the Office of Management and Budget.
Jason Burwen, for one, is "stoked" about this "best decision *evar*." Jason is finishing up a master's degree in public policy at Berkeley, and he'd be totally chuffed to get a job working for ...
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Posted by Katherine |
Thursday, December 4th, 2008
[scriptingnews / Flickr]
On Monday, Obama introduced his national security nominees. These include a Republican (Robert Gates) and a retired Marine general (James Jones) whose politics are opaque -- as well as Democrats like Susan Rice and Eric Holder. The early reactions from the blogosphere were largely positive, even from some ...
Posted in words | 2 Comments »
Posted by Katherine |
Saturday, November 29th, 2008
On the economy front, this week brought the Citigroup bailout and the addition of Paul Volker and Austan Goolsbee to Obama's new Economic Recovery Advisory Board. Meanwhile, across America, people and businesses are cinching their belts.
Adrian Lai in NYC spotted this "Recession Sale" on the streets of the Big Apple:
[thedrun ...
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Posted by Katherine |
Sunday, November 23rd, 2008
[This post is part of a Message for Obama series.]
There's a strong thread of volunteerism running through the Message for Obama photographs. Some Americans, possibly inspired by working in Obama's citizen corps during the campaign, are actively ready to serve their country. They want Barack to ask a lot of ...
Posted in pictures | 4 Comments »
Posted by Katherine |
Sunday, November 23rd, 2008
[This post is part of a Message for Obama series.]
It's not all a love-in in Message-for-Obama-land. Some people are telling Barack they didn't vote for him and are downright scared.
JamieFace claims her "only passion" is photography, but she seemed pretty enthusiastic about John McCain, too. She doesn't like Obama, ...
Posted in pictures | No Comments »
