Words from Obama - Daily Updates

[Kalyan]

Obama disagrees with high court on child rape case

CHICAGO (AP) — Democrat Barack Obama said Wednesday he disagrees with the Supreme Court's decision outlawing executions of people who rape children, a crime he said states have the right to consider for capital punishment.

"I have said repeatedly that I think that the death penalty should be applied in very narrow circumstances for the most egregious of crimes," Obama said at a news conference. "I think that the rape of a small child, 6 or 8 years old, is a heinous crime and if a state makes a decision that under narrow, limited, well-defined circumstances the death penalty is at least potentially applicable, that that does not violate our Constitution."

The court's 5-4 decision Wednesday struck down a Louisiana law that allows capital punishment for people convicted of raping children under 12, saying it violates the Constitution's ban on cruel and unusual punishment.

The ruling spares the only people in the U.S. under sentence of death for that crime - two Louisiana men convicted of raping girls 5 and 8. It also invalidates laws on the books in five other states that allowed executions for child rape that does not result in the death of the victim.

Obama, the likely Democratic presidential nominee, said that had the court "said we want to constrain the abilities of states to do this to make sure that it's done in a careful and appropriate way, that would have been one thing. But it basically had a blanket prohibition and I disagree with that decision."

Obama has two daughters, ages 7 and 9.

He has long supported the death penalty while criticizing the way it is sometimes applied.

As an Illinois legislator, he helped rewrite the state's death penalty system to guard against innocent people being sentenced to die. The new safeguards included requiring police to videotape interrogations and giving the state Supreme Court more power to overturn unjust decisions.

He also opposed legislation making it easier to impose the death penalty for murders committed as part of gang activity. Obama argued the language was too vague and could be abused by authorities.

But Obama has never rejected the death penalty entirely. He supported death sentences for killing volunteers in community policing programs and for particularly cruel murders of elderly people.

"While the evidence tells me that the death penalty does little to deter crime, I believe there are some crimes - mass murder, the rape and murder of a child - so heinous, so beyond the pale, that the community is justified in expressing the full measure of its outrage by meting out the ultimate punishment," he wrote in his book "The Audacity of Hope."

In 1988, a question about rape and capital punishment tripped up Democratic presidential nominee Michael Dukakis.

Dukakis was asked during a nationally televised debate with Republican George H. W. Bush whether he'd still oppose the death penalty if his wife were raped and murdered.

His unemotional, dispassionate answer was ridiculed, and gave Republicans more material to paint him as an emotionless liberal.

At the news conference Wednesday, Obama answered questions on a number of topics, including a compromise eavesdropping bill the Senate was preparing to consider. He said he supports the bill, which would establish new rules to govern when the National Security Agency, CIA, FBI or others can tap American phone and computer lines.

The bill also effectively gives legal immunity to telecommunications companies that helped the government eavesdrop on calls and e-mails for years after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, without the approval of a special, secret court.

Obama, who opposed an earlier version of the bill, said he supports the compromise partly because it would prohibit presidents from superseding surveillance rules in the future.

[sajiv]

Barack Obama Life History

Barack Obama was born in Hawaii on August 4, 1961, to Barack Obama, Sr. and Ann Dunham. His parents met while attending the University of Hawaii, where his father was enrolled as a foreign student. His mother was from heartland-of-the-U.S. Kansas, and his father from Kenya. Barack's parents eventually divorced, and after his mother remarried, he lived in Indonesia for a time before returning to Hawaii to live with his grandparents. He later moved to New York, where he graduated from Columbia University in 1983.



True to the values of empathy and service that his mother instilled in him, Barack put law school on hold after college and moved to Chicago, where he became a community organizer with a church-based group that was dedicated to improving living conditions in poor neighborhoods. For example, helping poor people work with service agencies to get their plumbing and heating fixed and to find jobs for unemployed. It was here that he realized it would take changes in our laws and politics to truly improve the lives of the people in these impoverished neighborhoods. A little known but impressive fact is that when Barack applied to Harvard Law School, he did not even indicate his race on his Harvard application.

Barack earned his law degree from Harvard in 1991, where he became the first African-American president of the Harvard Law Review. He then returned to Chicago to practice as a civil rights lawyer and teach constitutional law. His advocacy work led him to run for the Illinois State Senate, where he served for eight years beginning in 1996. While in the Illinois State Senate, Barack served as chairman of the Public Health and Welfare Committee. In 2004, well into his U.S. Senate campaign, Barack wrote and delivered the keynote address at the 2004 Democratic National Convention in Boston, and became a rising star in U.S. politics. A few months later, he was elected to the U.S. Senate with a landslide 70% of the vote. Four months into his senate career, Time magazine named him "one of the world's most influential people," calling him "one of the most admired politicians in America." Barack formally announced his candidacy for the 2008 presidential election in Springfield, Illinois on February 10, 2007.

Barack is also an accomplished author. His 1995 book, Dreams from My Father, is a memoir of his youth and early career. The book was reprinted in 2004 with a new preface and an annex containing the text of his 2004 Democratic Convention keynote speech. The audio book edition earned Barack the 2006 Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word Album.

In December 2004, Barack signed a contract to write three more books. The first, The Audacity of Hope, was published in October 2006. The book has remained at or near the top of the New York Times Best Seller list since its publication. It was also the theme of his 2004 keynote address. The second book will be a children's book to be co-written with his wife Michelle and their two daughters, with profits going to charity. The content of the third book has yet to be announced.

In August 2008, Barack was nominated by the Democratic party as their candidate to be President of the United States. Barack selected long-time and well-respected U.S. Senator Joe Biden as his running mate.

[nandagopal]

Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama made a strong anti-outsourcing pitch during his acceptance speech on his candidature.

"I will stop giving tax breaks to corporations that ship jobs overseas, and I will start giving them to companies that create good jobs right here in America", he said during the speech.

Obama is often playing the anti-outsourcing card since he entered the presidential race. Earlier he had said that while the US cannot "shy away" from globalisation it would have to take measures to ensure that jobs are not shipped overseas.

Unfazed by his remarks on outsourcing, industry body Nasscom said, Indian software exports are unlikely to be affected by this as offshoring is a key economic decision for US companies. "US companies are facing shortage of talent to drive the growth. It is in their interests," said Som Mittal, President, Nasscom.

[sajiv]

Obama says India will be top priority

Chicago: A stronger relationship and a close strategic partnership with India will be a "top priority" of a Barack Obama administration, the Democratic presidential candidate has said.

"The U.S. should be working with India on a range of critical issues from preventing terrorism to promoting peace and stability in Asia," Senator Obama said in an exclusive interview to IANS on Wednesday. "Joe Biden and I will make building a stronger relationship, including a close strategic partnership, with India a top priority."

On his agenda for working with New Delhi, he said: "I also believe India is a natural strategic partner for America in the 21st century and that the U.S. should be working with India on a range of critical issues from preventing terrorism to promoting peace and stability in Asia."In the interview, Mr. Obama elaborated on a range of issues, from comprehensive immigration reforms and making globalisation and trade work for American workers, to seeking the active participation of the Indian American community in the process of change that he has advocated.

He said he would support "comprehensive immigration reform," including the H-1B visa programme "to attract some of the world's most talented people to America."Mr. Obama explained that he wanted to end abuses of the H1-B visas that are used by highly qualified specialists to work in the U.S. He added that he would make "immigrant workers less dependent on their employers for their right to stay in the country, and would hold accountable employers who abuse the system and their workers."

The administration, he said, would seek to strengthen ties with the "vibrant" Indian American community and encourage their "active engagement... in making the change we seek." He asserted that the Democratic nomination was running on the manifesto of "inclusiveness, optimism and hope" that would translate into a "progressive presidency."

On the contentious topics of outsourcing and globalisation, he said: "We know that we cannot and should not put up walls around our economy." Acknowledging that global competition "is a fact that cannot be reversed," Mr. Obama added: "But we must find a way to make globalisation and trade work for American workers."Mr. Obama has deep roots in Chicago, having started his career as a community organiser in the city. From his days as an Illinois Senator, he has had strong links with the city's growing Indian American community.

[sajiv]

Obama maintains edge in Ohio 

Political pundits are still focussed on Ohio even if the Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama gets close to a ten-point lead in the state which has 20 electoral votes and is seen as a must-win for Senator John McCain to make difference in the November 4 showdown.

Inspite of being aware of the odds in the Buckeye state, the McCain camp is still hopeful as at least two polls are showing a tight race in the final polls.A new poll conducted by Marist College Institute for Public Opinion gives Democrat Barack Obama a slight edge over his Republican rival, receiving the support of 46 per cent of registered voters in Ohio compared to 43 per cent for McCain.

Two weeks ago, the Marist poll had shown Obama leading 49 per cent among likely voters to McCains 45 per cent.The new poll announced on Wednesday indicates that likely voters who are undecided yet leaning towards a candidate also tend to favour Obama, giving him 48 per cent of support to McCains 45 per cent of support.

Furthermore independent voters in Ohio also now give the edge to Obama -- half of the independents favoured Obama while 41 per cent say they are backing McCain.The poll has also found that Senator Obama has a strong lead in Pennsylvania, receiving support of 52 per cent of voters compared to McCains 39 per cent.Similarly, a Quinnipiac University poll released yesterday showed Obama still holding advantage in Ohio, albeit, a tighter one. The poll found that Obama leads 51-42 per cent compared to 52-38 per cent on October 23.

[sajiv]

California Indians strongly back Obama 

Indian Americans in California are the strongest Asian supporters of Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama with about two-thirds backing him as against a little over half nationally, according to a new survey.

Voting Indians in California, which has more Asian-Americans than any other state, are the strongest supporters of Obama, preferring him by 62 per cent to just 12 per cent who favour McCain, with 25 per cent still undecided, it says. Nationally, 53 per cent of Indians favour Obama.

On the other end of the spectrum in California were Vietnamese Americans, who favour McCain by 52 per cent to 21 per cent. Asian Americans in California favour Obama by 42 per cent to 24 per cent.Part of the National Asian American Survey (NAAS), described as the most comprehensive survey of Asian-American political views ever, with 4,394 people surveyed by phone between August 18 and September 26, the poll covered 1,891 Californians, including 229 Indian Americans.

Asian Americans are twice as likely to be Democrat as Republican (33 per cent to 16 per cent), with Indians by far the most Democratic (50 per cent versus just 7 per cent Republicans, 13 per cent Independent and 30 per cent Non-partisan), it said.

[sajiv]

Obama extends Diwali greetings 

Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama has wished "Hindus, Sikhs, Jains and their friends" around the world "a joyous Diwali" with a promise that if elected he would "work to renew America's moral leadership" in the world.

"Americans, despite our varied backgrounds, believe that all people are created equal, and that each person should be free to practice or not practice religion as they choose," he said in message of Diwali greetings.But, "these beliefs have faced challenges at home and abroad throughout history, but they are the beliefs our nation was founded on, and we always return to them," said Obama, who is leading in most polls nationally over Republican rival John McCain.

"If I'm elected President of the United States, I will work to renew America 's moral leadership in the world," said Obama adding, "This is our time to create change, and I believe that we can and must continue the fight against ignorance and intolerance."I hope you enjoy your celebration and renew your commitment to overcoming ignorance. I wish you all the best for a joyous Diwali," said Obama.

In a "Dear Friends" message to the Indian community he said: "Thank you for the opportunity to share a few thoughts with you as we near the night of Diwali. In the coming days, Hindus, Sikhs, Jains and their friends of all faiths will gather across America and around the world to celebrate the Festival of Lights."Much has happened in the world since the last Diwali, and this is a wonderful opportunity to reflect on the year past and rededicate ourselves to spreading peace and tolerance in the coming year."

Obama recalled that last year he "wrote that Diwali's celebration of the triumph of illumination over ignorance had a special meaning for me. At that time, travelling across America and meeting people of every spiritual and ethnic background showed me that there's much more that unites us than divides us.""Now, one year later, I believe this even more strongly," he added.

[sajiv]

Technology Voter Guide 2008 - Barack Obama

In the last few days before November 4, taxes and the economy have become the most pressing topics of the 2008 presidential campaign.But knowing where the candidates stand on high-tech topics like digital copyright, surveillance, and Internet regulation can be revealing, which is why we've put together this 2008 Technology Voters' Guide.

Included are answers to questions we asked presidential candidates. We received replies from Republican Sen. John McCain, Democratic Sen. Barack Obama, Libertarian candidate Bob Barr, and independent candidate Ralph Nader.

[sajiv]

We have a righteous wind at our back, says Obama

WASHINGTON: In the U.S. presidential contest's final frenzied weekend, Senator Barack Obama promised to heal America's political divisions while rival John McCain fought to hold on to Republican States and pledged to score a historic upset.For Mr. Obama, it was a time for soaring rhetoric and forays deep into Republican territory, buoyed by record campaign donations and encouraging poll numbers. "We have a righteous wind at our back," he said on Saturday of his bid to become the first African-American President.

For Mr. McCain, the weekend was his last chance to persuade voters to defy the polls and sweep him into office. "We're a few points down but we're coming back," he told supporters in Virginia. "I'm not afraid of the fight, I'm ready for it and you're going to fight with me," he added.

Mr. Obama on Saturday campaigned in Nevada, Colorado and Missouri, all states that voted for President George W. Bush four years ago. Both candidates were backed by supporters manning phone banks, handing out brochures and spinning journalists as the campaigns made their final push in a race that carried a price tag estimated at $2 billion. Mr. McCain's hopes hinged on winning all or nearly all the states that carried Mr. Bush to victory in 2004, and possibly carrying Pennsylvania to give him a margin for error in America's state-by-state system of choosing a President. Mr. Obama sought to saddle Mr. McCain with the record of President George W. Bush. Vice-President Dick Cheney said on Saturday the U.S. "cannot afford the high tax liberalism of Barack Obama and Joe Biden" and supported Mr. McCain.

Mr. Obama pounced on the remark in Pueblo, Colorado, where he said Mr. McCain had earned the endorsement through support of White House social and economic policies, seeking to appeal to American voters anxious about the teetering U.S. economy. In an awkward moment for Mr. McCain's running-mate Sarah Palin, she was hoodwinked by a Canadian comedian posing as French President Nicolas Sarkozy into saying that "maybe in 8 years" she will be President.

[sajiv]

India Inc worried over Obama's outsourcing stand

New Delhi: Barack Obama's stand on outsourcing may have given a few worry lines to India's BPO sector, but the industry is still hoping for the best, that the new American President will mean better trade ties.Obama had said, "Unlike John McCain I will stop giving tax breaks to companies who shift jobs overseas and will start giving it to companies who create good jobs in America."

Now that Obama is all set to move into the White House, is the Indian tech community a worried lot?

Director and Head of Administration in Infosys, TV Mohandas Pai said, "There could be a marginal shift in the sense that he has promised that he will give tax breaks for jobs in the US which is a natural thing to do. At best you can have a marginal impact."India gets more than 60 per cent of its outsourcing work from the world's biggest economy. In the run-up to the US presidential election, the $64-billion Indian outsourcing industry has been a little jittery over Obama's emphasis on retaining American jobs.

The industry's worries were understandable in these times of a US slowdown, which has seen many Americans losing their jobs. Yes, there are uncertainties, but industry experts say India and the US can complement each other.Joint CEO of Wipro, Girish Paranjpe, said, "If US does much matter on innovative products in high tech products that's where they should try to create jobs and similarly India's much better at services, much better in certain areas of software that's would be the focus."

Industry body NASSCOM was among the first to congratulate Obama on his historic victory. NASSCOM hopes Obama will take the Indo-US ties forward.Chairman of NASSCOM Ganesh Natarajan said, "India is already seen as a good partner for America. I think he (Obama) will take this an opportunity and not a defeatish approach. We will see tremendous opportunity."

[sajiv]

Obama names tech execs to transition team

President-elect Barack Obama has named tech executives from Google.org and IAC to his transition team, according to reports.

Google.org's Sonal Shah and Julius Genchowski, a former IAC executive who also served as chief counsel to former Democratic FCC Chairman Reed Hundt, have both been named to the team, according to news reports.Genachowski is a co-founder and managing director of Rock Creek Ventures, and is a founding partner of LaunchBox Digital, an early-stage investment firm based in Washington, D.C.

He attended law school with Obama, and helped stress the importance of high-tech issues in the campaign, the Washington Post reported.Shah, who works for Google's philanthropy division Google.org, formerly served as a vice president at Goldman Sachs.Obama's team is also reported to be readying a new Web site for the transition, www.change.gov, which, according to news reports will launch today.

[sajiv]

Republican pundit pushes Obama as open source

Obama said his campaign began with a simple idea: "Change begins from the bottom up." That's not the way the U.S. government works. The seminal essay--this is a little wonk-speak here--in computer software architecture is called The Cathedral and the Bazaar. And the cathedral is the old way of doing things. It's the way Microsoft builds software. We're going to do it our way, worship at our church or you don't get to do it at all.

But the open-source movement in computer engineering is people get together from all over the world and build computer software bottom-up. Is Barack Obama going to be the old top-down industrial-age cathedral leader, or is he going to be the fellow we heard tonight, this new generation of leadership that is very bottom-up for the communications age?

It's an open question as to whether Obama will actually live up to his hype, and Castellanos', but I agree that Obama's groundswell approach to leadership, along with his call for help from the masses to construct the government they desire, is very open source.

[sajiv]

Obama & India

It is amusing to see the overwhelming support Mr. Obama has received from Indians, when actually his policies are not necessarily India-friendly.At a time when Indian professionals in the U.S. are losing their jobs and returning home, what will happen after Mr. Obama walks into the White House is anybody's guess. His views on outsourcing, and the H1 and L1 visa schemes have raised several questions.

Nandhini Narayanan ,Chennai

************************************************************

Some aspects of Mr. Obama's India policy, particularly on Kashmir, are disturbing from the Indian point of view. He has spoken of fiscal disincentives to curb outsourcing.

More ominously, he has spoken of appointing a special envoy to resolve the Kashmir issue. For a decade now, the Kashmir issue has ceased to bother Washington. By resurrecting it, Mr. Obama is doing nobody a favour. He has been elected by his people to solve America's problems. Let his country remain his primary focus.

J.S. Acharya,Hyderabad

************************************************************
There is fear among IT firms that Mr. Obama may withdraw tax breaks to companies that resort to outsourcing. The U.S. accounts for more than 40 per cent of our IT sector revenues. One wonders how serious he is on the vital issue that has wider ramifications for our economy.

V.R. Ravikumar,Chennai

************************************************************
From the day the electoral process started, Mr. Obama looked a winner. It will be interesting to watch how the President-elect deals with the economic crisis and tackles the scourge of terrorism.As far as India is concerned, it does not matter who is in power, Democrats or Republicans — they are like Tweedledum and Tweedledee.

H.P. Murali,Bangalore

************************************************************
I have seen nine U.S. administrations. Despite emotional inaugural speeches by Presidents, there has been no shift in the country's foreign policy, which is basically aimed at protecting American capital at the expense of other countries.

I wish Mr. Obama gives up the aggressive interventionist policy in Iraq and Afghanistan, and cooperates with the international community to address environmental issues and nuclear non-proliferation.

K.N. Rajan,New Delhi

[dwarakesh]

Obama's anti-BPO talk is rhetoric- US companies

At a time when Indian IT-BPO companies are watching US President-elect Barack Obama's moves on the outsourcing front, the American companies themselves feel that most of the anti-offshoring talk is pure rhetoric.

A report published in the Economic Times quotes the CEO of a US-based firm as saying that most American companies use the outsourcing model to survive in an era where costs are a crucial factor for acceptability in the market.

The paper quoted GlobalLogic CEO Peter Harrison as saying that people were just overreacting as while parts of the outsourcing industry may have funneled jobs out of the country, most companies have actually added jobs as a result of this trend.

He further clarified that for companies like GlobalLogic that works in the outsourced product development domain, the impact of any tightening of H-1B visa norms will have limited impact as only less than five per cent of their work is done on site.

The report further added that of the top 500 American software companies, more than half use the offshore model to stay competitive. So, when Obama talks about creating jobs in the US, it is not about stopping outsourcing but creating jobs in new areas like green energy.

[sajiv]

Obama's victory seen as 'beginning of new world'

Washington: People around the world rejoiced Barack Obama's victory on Tuesday, even as workers at a pan-Arab news channel went around the newsroom congratulating each other as if Obama were their president-elect, and Kenya, the birthplace of Obama's father declared Thursday, Nov 6 as a holiday.

According to a Fox News report, Obama's election set off international celebrations and ignited fervor for the US that has been unseen since the 9/11 attacks. To some observers, the international reaction has elevated America's president-elect to an unparalleled post: President of the world, added the report. In Indonesia, children danced at the school Obama attended when he was a young boy, embracing him as much for what he represents abroad as for the policies he advocates at home.

The report said that America's popularity abroad waned dramatically during the Bush administration, and some voters expressed hopes that in electing Obama they could restore the country's image. The wave of good feelings since Tuesday night suggests that even before taking office, Obama has made substantial inroads.

"This may be the beginning of a new world. It marks the end of old elites and opens the door for new approaches worldwide," an Israeli man in his mid-50s said in Tel Aviv."The standing of everybody in the world is going to be affected by what President Obama does or doesn't do," said Mead, noting that all eyes will be looking to the new president for a way out of the global financial crisis.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, in a historic break from tradition, congratulated Obama Thursday, Nov 6 for his win. This was the first time when an Iranian leader had welcomed an incoming US President since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

[sajiv]

Obama given classified briefing on national security 

Two days after his historic victory, Barack Obama has been given a classified briefing on the national security by Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell and top CIA officials.The drill, which should now become a daily affair, will prepare Obama for the full-blown intelligence briefings when he is the President.

The highlight of those briefings after 20 January 2009 would be a daily Top Secret report that White House spokesman Ari Fleischer described in 2002 as "the most highly sensitized classified document in the government."

The President's Daily Brief (PDB) constitutes a highly classified summary of the most important and timely intelligence relating to US's national defence and foreign policy priorities. Put together overnight from a variety of sources by dedicated 30 odd CIA officers, the brief is hand-tailored to the President's personal needs. He controls its distribution among his top aides.So secretive is the PDB that it is not moved along normal intelligence channels. It is delivered directly to White House each morning by CIA officers, who pick up the previous issue when they go back. The only file of the PDBs is kept in the office of the CIA Director. Little wonder than that Vice President Dick Chenney should have called the PDBs "the family jewels".

Because of the obvious immense historical value they carry, dated PDBs have long sought to be declassified. However, to the historians' dismay, the CIA has adopted a strict no review, no release policy when it comes to their best reports. Their stance has even had the backing of the courts.Of the thousands of the PDBs in existence, only a handful in a truncated form are in public domain. There is perhaps nothing of direct interest to the Indians in them, except a reference to Jawaharlal Nehru's illness in The President's Intelligence Checklist, as the PDB was then called, dated 20 June 1962.

The only time a sitting President made public his daily brief was in 2004, when George Bush was pressurised into authorising then CIA Director to release part of a 1998 PDB. It was tantalizingly titled "Bin Laden preparing to hijack US aircraft and other attacks".

[sajiv]

Mahatma Gandhi inspires Obama 

Barack Obama, who scripted history on Wednesday by getting elected as the first black President of the United States, has always seen Mahatma Gandhi as an inspiration who reminds him about the "real message of life".

Obama also flaunts his love to the apostle of peace by having a portrait of Mahatma at his Senate Office.The Democrat, who favours US having close links with India, has told an Indian magazine that he was "fortunate" to have close Indian-American friends and recalled about the rural development work his mother did in the country.

Through the power of his example and his own unshakable spirit, Gandhi inspired a people to resist oppression, sparking a revolution that freed a nation from colonial rule, the Democratic Presidential-elect had said."Gandhi's significance is universal. Countless people around the world have been touched by his spirit and example. His victory in turn inspired a generation of young Americans to peacefully wipe out a system of overt oppression that had endured for a century.

"And more recently led to velvet revolutions in Eastern Europe and extinguished apartheid in South Africa," the 47-year-old Senator from Illinois had said in his message on October 2, birth anniversary of Gandhi.

[sajiv]

Obama's CTO -Watch out for the turf wars

Google CEO Eric Schmidt is out of the running for the chief technology officer (CTO) position that the Obama administration is planning to create. In an interview with CNBC's Jim Cramer, Schmidt said, "I love working at Google and I'm very happy to stay at Google, so the answer is no." Schmidt will remain a close adviser to President-elect Barack Obama, but his first call to duty is Google.

Based on the job description below, it could be difficult to find a worthy candidate from the private sector willing to take on a task of such enormous scope in an environment known to chew up and spit out White House policy czars.

Obama will appoint the nation's first Chief Technology Officer (CTO) to ensure that our government and all its agencies have the right infrastructure, policies and services for the 21st century. The CTO will ensure the safety of our networks and will lead an interagency effort, working with chief technology and chief information officers of each of the federal agencies, to ensure that they use best-in-class technologies and share best practices.

The Obama administration's CTO job could be one of those bureaucratic positions that ends up consumed by turf wars rather than making real progress against initiatives. CNET News' Stephanie Condon noted the overlaps, which could turn into conflicts, between a White House CTO and CTOs working in various agencies:

The jurisdiction of a CTO could overlap with other agencies or executive positions in areas such as innovation policy, cybersecurity, or intellectual property enforcement. To avoid those overlaps, the Obama team will have to decide, for instance, whether the CTO would focus on goals like making agencies more efficient or take on a broader agenda such as dictating policy.

Just creating and implementing a coherent technology plan and policy for the numerous agencies under the Department of Homeland Security is an incredibly daunting task for a CTO. The DHS Directorate of Science and Technology, for example, has a budget of $830 million. It has 250 projects in process and 50 percent of them are expected to fail, according to Jay Cohen, Under Secretary for Science and Technology for the DHS.

[sajiv]

Iran slams Obama's tough language on nuke policy

Tehran: Iran criticized Barack Obama for the first time on Saturday, with the country's parliament speaker saying the world doesn't need cosmetic changes in American foreign policy but fundamental ones.The criticism followed Obama's remarks in Chicago on Friday that it was "unacceptable" for Tehran to develop nuclear weapons and that he would mount an international effort to prevent it.

Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani said Obama was going in the wrong direction with such comments."Obama can understand that strategic changes in (American) policy are required, not just cosmetic changes," Larijani told state television.

Iranians initially welcomed Obama's victory in the U.S. presidential elections as a triumph over the unpopular policies of President George W. Bush.Hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad congratulated Obama on his win on Thursday — the first time an Iranian leader has offered such wishes to a U.S. president-elect since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

Asked about Iran at his first news conference on Friday, Obama said he will move deliberately on how to respond to Iran and what the response might be, but that he won't do it in a "knee-jerk fashion.""This is a step in the wrong direction," said Larijani. "If Americans want to change their situation in the region, they need to send good signals."

Meanwhile, Iran's state radio said that Obama's call on Friday on international pressure to prevent the Persian country from developing nuclear arms was a mere replay of Bush's hard-line stance toward Tehran.The radio said the call will cast doubt and disappoint Iranian expectations of changes in U.S. foreign policy with the new administration.

The radio commentary said it was still too early to judge what Obama will do, but warned that the new president "will betray the vote of the American people if he fails to bring back rationalism to the White House."

The United States and some of its allies accuse Iran of seeking to build a nuclear weapon — a claim Iran denies. Tehran insists it has the right under the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty to develop reactor fuel using uranium enrichment.

[sajiv]

Agendas vanish from Obama's transition Web site

President-elect Barack Obama launched a Web site with detailed information about his plans for technology, Iraq, and health care policies.

The "agenda" Web pages on Change.gov seem to have mysteriously disappeared on Sunday. By Monday morning, they were replaced with a vague statement saying that Obama and running mate Joe Biden have a "comprehensive and detailed agenda" that will "bring about the kind of change America needs," with the individual pages deleted entirely.

A version of the now-deleted homeland security agenda recovered from the cache feature of Microsoft's Live Search is far more detailed, promising to convene a nuclear terrorism summit, declare the Internet "a strategic asset," and establish a $2 billion fund to "counter al-Qaeda propaganda." Those happen to be identical to the promises that candidate Obama made earlier this year; they have not been deleted from the campaign Web site.

I've posted mirror images of the vanished homeland security section, the technology section, and the newsroom section listing the different topics on the right side of the page.Dan Pfeiffer, Obama's transition communications director, would not say what was going on or whether the deletion meant that some of the campaign promises would be dropped. He sent CNET News a one-line e-mail message saying: "That section of the Web site is being retooled."

This isn't the first time that vanishing or altered documents on a presidential Web site have been noticed: President Bush got some unwelcome attention for this last year. The White House's Web team also rewrote the May 2003 caption showing Bush on the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier after the Iraq occupation proved more problematic than expected (see before and after).The ephemeral nature of Web publishing does raise some serious issues: if a president-elect circulates a physical press release promising to do something, and then changes his mind, there's a paper trail. That doesn't exist when files are added to a Web site and then quietly removed over a weekend.

The Library of Congress and other institutions, including the California Digital Library and the Government Printing Office, are trying to remedy this by doing an "end of term" crawl. That means they're regularly crawling and archiving all .gov domains that are considered "government sites," including Change.gov. The crawl started in September and will continue through February 2009.The project has a varying crawl schedule, so it may not have collected the agenda pages on Change.gov, Abbie Grotke, a digital media project coordinator on the Web capture team in the Library of Congress' office of strategic initiatives, said on Monday.

The Change.gov site has been added to the list of sites to be crawled as part of the Library's Election Archives project--a separate effort. Gina Jones, also part of the Library's office of strategic initiatives, said that since it's a new site, it hasn't been collected yet.

[sajiv]

Obama tried to call me up - Manmohan

A day after 'no-call' from US President-elect Obama to Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was burning up both national and international political circles, PM himself on Monday, Nov 10 doused water to the raging fire.

''Infact Mr Obama tried to contact me last Saturday, Nov 8 but as I was travelling to Gulf countries, he could not establish contact,'' he told reporters on board special aircraft during his return from three-day visit to Gulf countries. The Prime Minister said that reports that Mr Obama did not contact him were not true. ''Mr Obama wanted to talk to me,'' Dr Singh said. As the Prime Minister was flying to Oman and Qatar, and the time was too short, the contact could not be established between each other.

Dr Singh said even before Mr Obama was elected, he had got a warm letter from him and he had also responded.The Prime Minister had also send the message of condolence when his grandmother died recently.Dr Singh emphatically said that India's relations with the US would become stronger than before under Mr Obama.

[sajiv]

Obama's 100-day plan 

All eyes are on Obama's transition to power and how he and his team will find some quick answers for the economic crisis.

The President-elect is out with a 100 day plan to fix the economy, something last seen only when Franklin D Roosevelt came up with such a resurrection package for the US during the Great Depression.Experts are calling this Obama's Roosevelt Moment. Even as Obama prepares for a special meeting with George Bush at the White House, he and his team are now on record to bring forth some economic changes.Obama has promised a $65 billion package that brings health insurance for all and some of the money for this will be catered for by pulling back massive tax cuts given off by the Bush era.

Indian companies may see a silver lining in this as the President Elect is keen on sourcing cheaper medicines from companies and countries that are approved by the US FDA. Meanwhile, Obama's Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel is on record saying Obama plans to keep the promise of tax hike for those earning more than $250,000 a year.Also on Obama's agenda in the next 100 days is a revamp of the energy policy and overhauling of the public education system and a bailout for the US's large auto industry.

G20 Report: Washington's going to be a busy place with all heads of state coming in, and hoping that the meeting will result in some consensus on dealing with the economic crisis.The meeting of the G8 of finance ministers in Sao Paulo has set the agenda and has called for more action including more and aggressive rate cuts.

As per the G8, the upcoming G20 needs to come up with a solution to crisis as some of the bailout packages in US, Europe have failed to re-establish credit lines.G20 leaders are also backing a move to increasing voting power of developing nations who may be in a position to balance some of the crisis in the developed world.

[sajiv]

Outsourcing to India, China not reversible - Obama

Washington: The presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama says he would make the US economy strong and competitive again by expanding opportunity outward rather than clamping down on outsourcing to countries like India and China.

"Revolutions in communication and technology have sent jobs wherever there's an internet connection; that have forced children in Raleigh and Boston to compete for those jobs with children in Bangalore and Beijing," he said outlining his vision of the economy in a speech Monday.

"We live in a more competitive world, and that is a fact that cannot be reversed," Obama acknowledged as he kicked off his presidential election campaign in Raleigh, North Carolina by accusing his Republican rival John McCain of essentially endorsing President George Bush's flawed policies.

[sajiv]

Obama, Bush discuss power handover

NEW ENTRANT: U.S. President George W. Bush and First Lady Laura Bush greet President-elect Barack Obama and his wife Michelle on Monday at the South Portico of the White House in Washington.

Washington: When the 43rd U.S. President met the man who will be the 44th at the White House on Monday, both made an effort to ensure it would look more cordial than their first encounter. On that meeting four years ago, the two did not get on. Matters were not helped at the start when a presidential aide squirted sanitiser on George Bush's hands before they shook.

This time, there was no sanitiser and no sign of the condescension that U.S. President-elect Barack Obama complained about after that first meeting with President Bush. Mr. Obama and his wife, Michelle, climbed out of their limousine to be greeted by the president and first lady, Laura Bush. Mr. and Mr. Bush shook hands, and then Mr. Obama added an extra touch of warmth, patting the President's shoulder.

The two walked down the colonnade to the Oval Office to discuss the handover of power.Their wives headed off to look at the living quarters, including the bedrooms that the Bush daughters, Barbara and Jenna, had occupied. The talks between Mr. Obama and Mr. Bush were private, but White House Press Secretary Dana Perino said they were expected to discuss the economic crisis, foreign affairs and what it means to be a President."It's a small club," she said. But the talks were less significant than the picture that will go round the world of Mr. Obama in the White House as the first African-American President-elect. Mr. Obama knows the White House, completed in 1800, was built by slaves and staffed by them until 1850.

Like other African-Americans, he can list all the slights and snubs in the years that followed.The public row that followed in 1901 when the African-American leader, Booker T. Washington, was invited to a private dinner at the White House by President Theodore Roosevelt, an unsavoury incident that Mr. Obama's Republican rival, John McCain, referred to in a gracious concession speech last week. And there was the lack of invitations to African-Americans to social occasions until after the World War-II.

Mr. Obama has spoken of the potency of the image of his daughters, Malia and Sasha, careering round the White House or playing on the lawn. Against that background, the tensions between Mr. Obama and Mr. Bush are insignificant. Mr. Obama, as a Democrat opposed to the Iraq war, Guantanamo and a host of other Bush policies, was never going to be a soul-mate of the President's.And he relayed that in his book, "Audacity of Hope," telling how awkward his first meeting with Mr. Bush had been.

Ms. Perino insisted the relationship between the two was now good."President Bush has been involved in politics since the mid-60s, when he watched his father run for Congress. Their whole political life has been about a rough and tumble campaign," she said, adding: "This President was not involved in the [2008] campaign, we studiously stayed out of it, even when it was very hard for us sometimes to let attacks go unanswered."She did not specify whether the attacks that Mr. Bush found hard to leave unanswered had been from Mr. Obama or from Mr. McCain.Mr. Bush's diary is becoming lighter and lighter. If not for the economic crisis in mid-September, he would have been almost invisible. Unlike previous Presidents who have sought to remain in the public office, he appears to be heading for retirement at his Texas ranch.

[sajiv]

US-India strategic relationship very important: Obama

New Delhi: The new US administration would like to work with India on all global issues, US president-elect Barack Obama said in an early morning phone call to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Wednesday.While Manmohan Singh said Obama's victory was a source of inspiration for oppressed people, the US President-to-be praised his contribution to India's progress, first as a Finance Minister and now as Prime Minister, said an official in the Prime Minister's Office (PMO).

"The US-India strategic relationship is a very important partnership," an official quoted Obama as saying. "The new administration wants to work with India on all global issues," Obama added in his phone call.Manmohan Singh, according to the PMO official, said India-US relations were very good but "we couldn't be satisfied with the status quo". He also wished Obama success in dealing with the new challenges that he faces and invited him and his wife Michelle to visit India.

What the CIA should tell Obama on Kashmir
Just a day earlier, while returning from a two nation visit to the Gulf, Manmohan Singh had said that Obama had wanted to talk to him a couple of days earlier but could not establish contact since he was travelling.Soon after his victory, Obama had called 15 world leaders, including Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari.

[dwarakesh]

Obama plans universal internet access

Wading through US president-elect Barack Obama's technology plans, it looks like there will be changes in the country's attitude to the internet.

If the plan goes through unchanged, then all Americans would have broadband internet access, and there will be better defences against cybercriminals and greater access to government services.

The great unwashed will be able to question members of the president's cabinet or track every penny of the US budget.

Obama has also said he wants to put Youtube-like videos of government meetings online, and has proposed a Google-like database of grants and contracts, so people can see where their money is going. Cabinet members will have to hold regular online town hall meetings, where they would field questions from the internet audience.

All good stuff, but to do it Obama needs to spend a lot of cash, probably in the form of tax and loan incentives to spur construction of broadband networks. Cash used to subsidise telephone service in rural areas will also be used to build high-speed internet lines that could also carry phone traffic.

However, there will be much resistance from rural phone companies, which don't like the idea of cheap competition entering their niche markets. Obama also faces a fight on a proposal to reallocate licensed radio and television frequencies to create wireless broadband networks, which was another one of his big ideas.

And there are other questions that Obama has not answered.  During the campaign, he was a  staunch supporter of "net neutrality" - the idea that internet providers should be barred by law from discriminating against particular kinds of data.  However, mention of the term has been dropped from his website.  There are some fears that such a law would enable the FCC to start regulating the broadband marketplace, including broadband speech. The FCC has been itching for the sort of powers it had to fine broadcasters for swearing or running films with nudity in them.

Another thing that is missing is any commitment to prevent internet snooping.  Obama's vice president Joe Biden was a keen supporter of giving the security services any powers they wanted to snoop on users.

Biden has also been a strong advocate for the music and film industry, and is likely to want to see some form of laws enacted against p2p pirates.

[sajiv]

Obama's transition team to get secret info from Bush

US President-elect Barack Obama's transition team will demand access and details from what many regard as the most secretive White House ever from Monday, Nov 14. "By the end of the week, we'll announce agency review teams that will complete a thorough review of more than 100 departments, agencies and commissions of the United States government, as well as of the White House," Obama's transition boss John Podesta declared. He also said the members of those teams would all be announced online soon.Podesta said the goal was to give incoming honchos the details they need to start making "strategic" decisions even before the inauguration and then to launch "signature policy initiatives" soon thereafter.

Podesta added that he's had "excellent cooperation" from White House chief of staff Josh Bolten."When we have a disagreement, we know how to pick up a phone and talk to one another," he said.In another contrast to the current administration, Team Obama said it was banning federal lobbyists from contributing to the transition and would likely do the same for the inauguration.Podesta said the tab for gearing up to take over will cost about 12 million dollars, with 5.2 million dollars coming from the Treasury.

In spite of the already emerging contrasts, Bush remained positive in his assessment of Obama - particularly the President-elect's devotion to daughters Malia, 10, and Sasha, 7."Clearly this guy is going to bring a great sense of family to the White House. And I hope Laura and I did the same thing," Bush told CNN."But I believe he will. And I know his girls are on his mind, and he wants to make sure that first and foremost, he's a good dad. And I think it's going to be an important part of his presidency."

[sajiv]

Obama to deliver weekly address via YouTube

For the first time ever, the president's weekly address to the nation will be delivered via video as well as radio.President-elect Barack Obama,the Washington Post reported, will begin by taping this week's Democratic address at his transition office in Chicago on Friday, and the video will be posted on Saturday to Obama's transition site, Change.gov, via YouTube. Other members of the Obama administration will post online videos as well.

On Thursday evening, Obama's transition team co-chair Valerie Jarrett posted a YouTube video, shown below, to the site explaining the lobbying restrictions for Obama's transition team.The tradition of the president addressing the public directly via radio dates back to President Franklin Roosevelt's "fireside chats" in the 1930s. Archived audio recordings of all of President George Bush's weekly radio addresses can be found at the White House Web site.

Delivering the radio addresses via online video is a logical step for the first president elected in the era of YouTube. The Obama campaign uploaded more than 1,800 videos to its YouTube page.

[sajiv]

Obama wins 1 of Nebraska's electoral votes

OMAHA, Neb. – President-elect Barack Obama won one of Nebraska's electoral votes, the first time in history that the state has split its votes and the first time in 44 years that it had given a vote to a Democrat.After remaining ballots were counted Friday, Obama had a 3,325-vote lead over Republican John McCain in unofficial results for the 2nd Congressional District. Nebraska and Maine are the two states that divide their electoral votes by congressional districts.

Obama, who won the White House last week, has 365 electoral votes to McCain's 162. Missouri, with 11 electoral votes, is still too close to call. Election officials in that state have until Tuesday to finish counting.The last Democrat to win Nebraska was Lyndon B. Johnson, who carried the state in 1964.A 1991 state law allows Nebraska to divide its five electoral votes. Two go to the statewide winner and one is awarded from each of the state's three congressional districts.

McCain comfortably won the electoral votes tied to the 1st and 3rd Congressional Districts. He also won the statewide race with about 57 percent of the vote in preliminary returns.Obama aggressively sought the one electoral vote. He opened three campaign offices in the district and had 16 paid staff during the campaign.As of Friday's unofficial results for the district, Obama has a total of 138,892 votes and McCain 135,567 votes. The Obama lead of 3,325 is far higher than the recount threshold of about 1,389, or 1 percent of Obama's total.

[sajiv]

Indians hope to bring change to Obama White House

MUMBAI: The history-making Obama campaign has captivated millions all over the world. Indians are clearly not immune to the charisma of the one-time Senator from Illinois. In a somewhat unexpected development, Indians in considerable numbers have been volunteering to serve in an Obama administration.

Mahesh Nair (name changed) was fired up when he heard Barack Obama say, "Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time." He knew, at once, that Obama was the kind of person he wanted to work for. Mahesh is now one among many Indians who are ready to work for Obama and have submitted applications
through his official website: change.gov.

US President-elect Obama launched the website immediately after winning the race and since then has seen its popularity surge with each passing day. And Indians are contributing to it in huge numbers. Outside the US, the website is registering the second-highest number of hits from India, with Germany occupying the top slot.

According to web information company Alexa, nearly 65% of the traffic on change.gov is from within the US. Germany accounts for 8% while India occupies the second slot with a share of more than 3%.While the number may appear minuscule, it is important to note that India has managed to stay ahead of countries like the UK, Canada, Australia and China."I think Obama has managed to do something that even Indian political leaders would have failed to do," says Mr Nair who works with an online portal and has applied for a job in the FCC department that defines policies for technology, internet and wireless. "While many of my colleagues have applied for jobs, no one wants to disturb the bosses by talking about it openly," he adds.

People wishing to work for the Obama-Biden administration have to send a request through the website after which a 14-page document is mailed to them. Applicants have to submit their personal details apart from information on prior media/public speaking/political experience, desired position in the administration and three references.Applicants can choose from a number of departments, including justice, transportation and veteran affairs. One can also include his preference for working in non-profit organisations.

[sajiv]

Obama transition team names FCC review leaders

President-elect Brack Obama's transition team on Friday announced who will lead the transition project's review of the Federal Communications Commission, the office of the United States Trade Representative, and a number of other agencies, departments, and executive offices.

The new team members will review the agencies and offices to aid the new administration in its planning decisions. Obama's transition group first announced the formation of the teams on Wednesday.Susan Crawford, a communications law and Internet law professor at the University of Michigan, is a leader of the FCC review team. Crawford was until recently on the ICANN board of directors. Ken Werbach, an assistant professor of legal studies and business ethics at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School, is the other FCC review team lead. Werbach organizes the annual Supernova technology conference and formerly served as counsel for new technology policy at the FCC.

Jim Kohlenberger, who served as senior domestic policy adviser to Vice President Al Gore and helped pass the Telecommunications Act of 1996, is a leader of the National Science Foundation review team. He is executive director of the Voice on the Net Coalition, which represents the voice over IP industry, and is a senior fellow at the Benton Foundation, which aims to ensure media and telecommunications serve democracy.

Henry Rivera, who represents the telecommunications sector for the firm Wiley Rein, is the other National Science Foundation review team leader. Rivera served as an FCC commissioner and is a past president of the Federal Communications Bar Association.Anna Gomez, vice president of government affairs for Sprint Nextel, is a leader of the United States Trade Representative review team. Gomez served as senior legal adviser to FCC Chairman Bill Kennard and held a number of other positions in the FCC, including chief of the network services division. She also briefly served as counsel to the Senate Commerce Committee's telecommunications subcommittee.

Peter Cowhey, the other leader of the United States Trade Representative review team, served as chief of the FCC's international bureau and is now associate vice chancellor and dean of the school of international relations and pacific studies at the University of California, San Diego.Christopher Putala, who will lead the reviewal of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, previously served as senior staff to Vice President-elect Joe Biden on the Senate Judiciary Committee. Putala was executive vice president for public policy at EarthLink, an Internet service provider, from 2005 to 2007, and was vice president for congressional relations at CTIA, the wireless trade association.

A number of other advisers named Friday have experience or expertise in telecommunications and other technology sectors. For instance, Susan Ness, who leads the Federal Trade Commission review team, is a former FCC commissioner. Gloria Parker, who is leading the National Archives and Records Administration review team, was the Department of Housing and Urban Development's first chief information officer and is a director at the Computer Sciences Corporation.

[sajiv]

Obama not attending G20 summit

The G20 leaders have come from all over the world to work together to prevent future meltdowns and their host, US President George Bush is probably the weakest participant at the table.George Bush is a lame duck president with just two months left in office. His successor Barack Obama is not even attending the summit saying America has only one president at a time.

"He just does not have enough time left in office to make any large commitment on anything far reaching since he will not be the one implementing this so just as Obama has a responsibility not to interfere with president Bush who is still the president," said Kim Holmes, VP, Foreign and Defense Policy Studies, The Heritage Foundation.

"President Bush has a responsibility not to tie the hands of the next president with any large initiative," he added.
Moreover, the outgoing president and the president-elect don't agree on every thing.Obama wants to introduce another stimulus package, but Bush opposes it.Bush is pushing for promises of free trade at the summit. Obama has been skeptical of some of the free trade agreements Bush supports.But participating nations, including India, hope Obama's absence from this stage is not going to render the host nation, America, helpless to make commitments to help resolve the global crisis.

"Obama has said that at any given time the US only has one President but I am assuming that the president administration is consulting closely with the transition team," said Montek Singh Ahluwalia, deputy chairman, Planning Commission."I think the issues that are being talked about of global prosperity and stability are not issues where there will be big differences between the present and the future administration," he added.

President Bush has called for this unprecedented summit to try and rescue the failing global economy and avoid leaving a yet messier legacy.At a time when markets need signals and actions that are credible, with a lame duck president at the helm at the Summit on financial markets, the one thing that is in short supply is credibility.

[sajiv]

Obama ropes in fourth Indian into transition team

Washington: Indian-American management expert Anjan Mukherjee has been roped in by US President-elect Barack Obama into his transition team, the fourth person from the community to be part of the 15-member high-profile group.

Mukherjee, a managing director of Corporate Private Equity Group at Blackstone, has been appointed as one of the team leads in Economics and International Trade.

His appointment has been the latest one as three other Indian-Americans - Sonal Shah, Preeta Bansal and Nicholas Rathod - have already been inducted into Obama's team.
We got America back by electing Obama: Rushdie

Mukherjee has been involved in the execution of a number of investments in a wide range of industries.

He has received a BA from Harvard University where he graduated magna cum laude as a Harry S Truman Scholar and an MBA from Harvard Business school.

Before joining Blackstone, he worked with Thomas H Lee Company and Morgan Stanley & Co.

He has also worked at the Department of Education (in the Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education) as well as the Brookings Institution.

Hillary Clinton, new US secretary of state?

Obama is the first African-American to win the US presidential elections. He will take over as the 44th president of the US on January 20, 2009.

The Indian-American community overwhelmingly supported Obama in the November 4 elections and are said to have voted for him by more than a two to one margin.

[sajiv]

Obama Has More Threats Than Other Presidents-Elect

Threats against a new president historically spike right after an election, but from Maine to Idaho law enforcement officials are seeing more against Barack Obama than ever before. The Secret Service would not comment or provide the number of cases they are investigating. But since the Nov. 4 election, law enforcement officials have seen more potentially threatening writings, Internet postings and other activity directed at Obama than has been seen with any past president-elect, said officials aware of the situation who spoke on condition of anonymity because the issue of a president's security is so sensitive.

Earlier this week, the Secret Service looked into the case of a sign posted on a tree in Vay, Idaho, with Obama's name and the offer of a "free public hanging." In North Carolina, civil rights officials complained of threatening racist graffiti targeting Obama found in a tunnel near the North Carolina State University campus.

And in a Maine convenience store, an Associated Press reporter saw a sign inviting customers to join a betting pool on when Obama might fall victim to an assassin. The sign solicited $1 entries into "The Osama Obama Shotgun Pool," saying the money would go to the person picking the date closest to when Obama was attacked. "Let's hope we have a winner," said the sign, since taken down.

In the security world, anything "new" can trigger hostility, said Joseph Funk, a former Secret Service agent-turned security consultant who oversaw a private protection detail for Obama before the Secret Service began guarding the candidate in early 2007.

Obama, of course, will be the country's first black president, and Funk said that new element, not just race itself, is probably responsible for a spike in anti-Obama postings and activity. "Anytime you're going to have something that's new, you're going to have increased chatter," he said.

The Secret Service also has cautioned the public not to assume that any threats against Obama are due to racism.

[sajiv]

Obama committed to green energy, auto bailout

The anxious auto and clean-energy industries have received positive signals from President-elect Barack Obama in the past two days.

In an interview with 60 Minutes broadcast on Sunday, Obama said he intends to pursue a government stimulus package that includes investments to promote clean technologies, even though oil prices have fallen dramatically during 2008.

Interviewer Steve Kroft asked whether cutting oil imports was less important now that the price of oil has plummeted from $147 a gallon earlier this year to under $60.

Obama: It's more important. It may be a little harder politically, but it's more important.
Kroft: Why?

Obama: Well, because this has been our pattern. We go from shock to trance. You know, oil prices go up, gas prices at the pump go up, everybody goes into a flurry of activity. And then the prices go back down and suddenly we act like it's not important, and we start, you know filling up our SUVs again.

    And, as a consequence, we never make any progress. It's part of the addiction, all right. That has to be broken. Now is the time to break it.

Obama said a consensus exists among policymakers that a stimulus package is required to prop up the deteriorating economy.Addressing the question of a bailout for cash-strapped U.S. automakers, Obama said that giving them government money with conditions is the best policy.

He said that allowing the U.S. automakers to collapse would be a disaster but that handing them a blank check won't solve the problem. Instead, he said that the various stakeholders need to come up with a plan for a "sustainable auto industry." From the interview:

So my hope is that over the course of the next week, between the White House and Congress, the discussions are shaped around providing assistance but making sure that that assistance is conditioned on labor, management, suppliers, lenders, all the stakeholders coming together with a plan (for) what does a sustainable U.S. auto industry look like? So that we are creating a bridge loan to somewhere as opposed to a bridge loan to nowhere."

Meanwhile, in his weekly radio address on Saturday that was broadcast as a video online, Obama reaffirmed his plans for long-term investments on green energy.

"It means investing $150 billion to build an American green-energy economy that will create 5 million new jobs while freeing our nation from the tyranny of foreign oil and saving our planet for our children," Obama said.

Energy and environmental policy were certainly not the top topic of the president-elect's public statements, given the pressing nature of the economic crisis and executing the transition between administrations.

But Obama's recent statements, as well as those from his advisers, indicate that energy remains a high priority. The idea is that an energy policy focused on clean technologies can address environmental problems while stimulating the economy.

"The president-elect will move quickly on climate change," Jason Grumet, a high-level Obama campaign's lead energy and environment adviser, told a conference on carbon trading last week.

In addition to spending on energy infrastructure, Obama's energy plan calls for incentives for energy efficiency, a national renewable energy mandate for utilities, a low-carbon biofuels standard, and a cap-and-trade system for reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

[ganeshbala]

President-elect Barack Obama is set to wean himself off his BlackBerry addiction, according to new reports, due to the potential threat of hackers. This is in addition to the requirements of the Presidential Records Act - which mean all of Obama's correspondence is placed on public record.

With all this in mind, it seems that Obama is going to have to significantly change his tech habits after taking office on 20 January next year, with no more of those early hours Blackberry emails.

[sajiv]

Obamas' on their personal transition

The Obamas' are looking forward to their stay at the White House 65 days from now, and do hope that the transition at the personal level will be smooth for them and their daughters 10-year-old Malia and 7-year-old Sasha.

They will be the youngest first family to move into the White House since the Kennedys did in 1960. Talking to Steve Kroft in CBS 60 minutes, the Obamas' said the idea they would be the 44th President of the United States and the next First Lady was yet to sink in, but added that the election more than anything had shown them what a great country they were living in. Both said that the day Barack was declared elected, was a day of huge emotion and significance as far as American history was concerned.

There's no doubt that there was a sense of emotion that I could see in people's faces and in my mother-in-law's face. You know, I mean, you think about Michelle's mom, who grew up on the west and south sides of Chicago, who worked so hard to help Michelle get to where she is, her brother to be successful. She was sitting next to me, actually, as we were watching returns. And she's like my grandmother was, sort of a no-fuss type of person. And suddenly she just kind of reached out and she started holding my hand, you know, kind of squeezing it. And you had this sense of, 'Well, what's she thinking?' For a black woman who grew up in the 50s, you know, in a segregated Chicago, to watch her daughter become First Lady of the United States. I think there was that sense across the country. And not unique to African-Americans. I think that," said Obama.

"I think people felt that it was a sign of the enormous progress that we've made in the core decency and generosity of the American people," he added.

Michelle said that when she took the two girls to school the next day, she could not help envisioning "the girls running into their rooms and, you know, running down the hall and with a dog."

"And, you know, you start picturing your life there. And our hope is that the White House will feel open and fun and full of life and energy, and sleepovers," she added.

ichelle further told CBS interviewer Steve Kroft that the family was going about their personal transition in a sort of a slow and deliberate way.

"The interesting part about this year is that it is slowly transitioned us into this. So today doesn't feel as normal as it did yesterday. If we had compared it to the January before he announced, it would seem truly odd. But we have gradually, you know, had more and more changes. And I think, for us, that's helped us get adjusted to do it. So today isn't a shock," she said.

Interjecting, Barack said: "One of the great joys of this campaign is the seeing how the girls have adjusted to this thing. They have stayed their normal, cheerful, happy, courteous, curious selves. And that was one of my biggest worries. And remains one of my biggest worries. You know, when we think about, I know Michelle and I have talked about this a lot. How do we just maintain that precious normalcy in our two girls? And, you know, 'cause right now they're not self-conscious. They're. you know, they don't have an attitude."

"And I think one of our highest priorities, over the next four years, is retaining that. If at the end of four years, just from a personal standpoint, we can say they are who they are. They remain the great joys that they are. And this hasn't, you know, created a whole bunch of problems for them. Then I think we're gonna feel pretty good," he added.

Asked how their lives had changed in the last ten to twelve days, they both said there was now more calm and back to routine approach.

Obama, however, said there were still some things that they we're not adjusted to like not being able to go for a walk to which Michelle replied that she was not much of a walker any way and didn't miss it.When Michelle asked Barack whether he wanted to go for a walk, he said he'd love to take her for a walk, but she said she wouldn't go.

Obama said that the loss of anonymity would take some time getting used, he wasn't complaining because that's what he and his family signed up for two years ago."One of the challenges I think that we're going to be wrestling with is how to stay pretty normal,." he said.

[sajiv]

Obamas' on their personal transition

Chicago: The Obamas' are looking forward to their stay at the White House 65 days from now, and do hope that the transition at the personal level will be smooth for them and their daughters 10-year-old Malia and 7-year-old Sasha.

They will be the youngest first family to move into the White House since the Kennedys did in 1960. Talking to Steve Kroft in CBS 60 minutes, the Obamas' said the idea they would be the 44th President of the United States and the next First Lady was yet to sink in, but added that the election more than anything had shown them what a great country they were living in. Both said that the day Barack was declared elected, was a day of huge emotion and significance as far as American history was concerned.

"There's no doubt that there was a sense of emotion that I could see in people's faces and in my mother-in-law's face. You know, I mean, you think about Michelle's mom, who grew up on the west and south sides of Chicago, who worked so hard to help Michelle get to where she is, her brother to be successful. She was sitting next to me, actually, as we were watching returns. And she's like my grandmother was, sort of a no-fuss type of person. And suddenly she just kind of reached out and she started holding my hand, you know, kind of squeezing it. And you had this sense of, 'Well, what's she thinking?' For a black woman who grew up in the 50s, you know, in a segregated Chicago, to watch her daughter become First Lady of the United States. I think there was that sense across the country. And not unique to African-Americans. I think that," said Obama.

"I think people felt that it was a sign of the enormous progress that we've made in the core decency and generosity of the American people," he added.

Michelle said that when she took the two girls to school the next day, she could not help envisioning "the girls running into their rooms and, you know, running down the hall and with a dog."

"And, you know, you start picturing your life there. And our hope is that the White House will feel open and fun and full of life and energy, and sleepovers," she added.

ichelle further told CBS interviewer Steve Kroft that the family was going about their personal transition in a sort of a slow and deliberate way.

"The interesting part about this year is that it is slowly transitioned us into this. So today doesn't feel as normal as it did yesterday. If we had compared it to the January before he announced, it would seem truly odd. But we have gradually, you know, had more and more changes. And I think, for us, that's helped us get adjusted to do it. So today isn't a shock," she said.

Interjecting, Barack said: "One of the great joys of this campaign is the seeing how the girls have adjusted to this thing. They have stayed their normal, cheerful, happy, courteous, curious selves. And that was one of my biggest worries. And remains one of my biggest worries. You know, when we think about, I know Michelle and I have talked about this a lot. How do we just maintain that precious normalcy in our two girls? And, you know, 'cause right now they're not self-conscious. They're. you know, they don't have an attitude."

"And I think one of our highest priorities, over the next four years, is retaining that. If at the end of four years, just from a personal standpoint, we can say they are who they are. They remain the great joys that they are. And this hasn't, you know, created a whole bunch of problems for them. Then I think we're gonna feel pretty good," he added.

Asked how their lives had changed in the last ten to twelve days, they both said there was now more calm and back to routine approach.Obama, however, said there were still some things that they we're not adjusted to like not being able to go for a walk to which Michelle replied that she was not much of a walker any way and didn't miss it.

When Michelle asked Barack whether he wanted to go for a walk, he said he'd love to take her for a walk, but she said she wouldn't go.Obama said that the loss of anonymity would take some time getting used, he wasn't complaining because that's what he and his family signed up for two years ago."One of the challenges I think that we're going to be wrestling with is how to stay pretty normal,." he said.

[sajiv]

US security, economy my top priority - Obama

Barack Obama, the US President-elect said on Sunday, Nov 16 that the security of the United States and getting the country's economy back on track would command his attention on a priority basis once he assumes office on January 20, 2009.

Obama told to CBS channel in his first television interview, since his historic election victory that he has spent the days since the Nov 4 election doing 'whatever it takes' to stabilize the economy, restore consumer confidence and create jobs to getting sound health care and energy policies through Congress. He also said he will work with his security team and the military to draw down US troops in Iraq, shore up Afghanistan and "stamp out al Qaeda once and for all."

Obama said that selecting his national security team is a top priority.

"I think it's important to get a national security team in place because transition periods are potentially times of vulnerability to a terrorist attack," Obama told CBS'' '60 Minutes' in an interview broadcast.

"We want to make sure that there is as seamless a transition on national security as possible."As far as the current Wall Street meltdown was concerned, Obama claimed that the American economy would have deteriorated even more without the 700 billion dollar bailout package, adding that there was a need to "restore a sense of balance."

"There's no doubt that we have not been able yet to reset the confidence in the financial markets and in the consumer markets and among businesses that allow the economy to move forward in a strong way. And my job as president is going to be to make sure that we restore that confidence," Fox News quoted him, as saying during the interview.Obama has an ambitious list of campaign promises that will require cooperation and approval from Capitol Hill, and in that context, his team of advisers is packed with people with lots of legislative experience, which he himself lacks.

Obama resigned his Illinois Senate seat Sunday, Nov 16 after occupying it for just under four years, half of which he spent out on the presidential campaign trail.During the campaign, Obama had Pete Rouse as his Senate chief of staff to take care of his business on Capitol Hill. On Sunday, Obama named Rouse to be a senior adviser in his White House. Rouse has 24 years of experience as a top Senate aide.

His chief of staff Rahm Emanuel, combines the Chicago roots and the legislative connections. Obama has picked Mona Sutphen and Jim Messina as his deputy chiefs of staff. Messina has served as chief of staff for three different lawmakers and has a vast network of relationships to show for it.

Philip Schiliro, who has more than 25 years experience working for Congress, is Obama''s liaison to Capitol Hill.

In the CBS interview, Obama also said Americans shouldn''t worry about the federal deficit for the next couple of years."The most important thing is that we avoid a deepening recession," he said.He also pitched for help for the auto industry.Obama also confirmed that he intends to close the Guantanamo Bay detention centre.

Obama said that capturing or killing al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden would be a critical aspect of stamping out the terror network once and for all."He (bin Laden) is not just a symbol, he's also the operational leader of an organization that is planning attacks against US targets," Obama said.

[dhilipkumar]

Obama on outsourcing

Obama wants to end tax breaks for companies that ship US jobs overseas. Says his tech paper, "An Obama administration will foster home-grown innovation and ensure that we can retain and grow high-paying jobs in fast-growing sectors in the sciences and technology rather than exporting those jobs to lower cost labor markets abroad. As offshoring becomes more of a long-term workforce management strategy and less of a perceived short-term cost savings, it presents a significant challenge to young people growing up in America's historically low-income and working-class communities."

Interestingly, in a recent interview when asked about contentious issues of outsourcing and globalisation, Obama said, "We know that we cannot and should not put up walls around our economy."

Acknowledging that global competition is a fact that cannot be reversed, Obama said, "But we must find a way to make globalisation and trade work for American workers.

[sajiv]

Obama an 'International President' for Muslims

Prof John Esposito, a leading US expert on Islam, has reportedly said that the US President-elect Barack Obama has been welcomed worldover as an 'internationalist President', contrary to George W Bush who, according to him, is often regarded as a 'swaggering Texas cowboy'.

Esposito said that Obama's foreign policy will be expected to be all the things that many in the Muslim world saw as lacking in the Bush administration, which was viewed as "neo-colonial, unilateral, arrogant, militant and interventionist". "An Obama administration will be expected to be multilateral, favouring diplomacy over military threats and intervention, and avoiding what many believe was a neo-colonialist American foreign policy whose verbal commitment to democracy promotion and human rights was hypocritical. Obama's administration cannot, like Bush's, fail to 'walk the way it talks'," the Daily Times quoted him as saying.

Esposito further said that the Bush administration continued to look the other way in its relations with authoritarian Muslim allies. "It refused to accept the election of Hamas, and while it condemned Hizbollah, it sat on the sidelines as Israel carpet-bombed Lebanon, destroying much of its infrastructure in a war whose victims were overwhelmingly civilians," he said and added: "Many Muslims today expect Obama to live up to the principles of self-determination, justice and human rights that they associate with America and break with the Bush administration's double standard in not promoting democracy and human rights in the Middle East."

"Esposito points out that most Muslims, like Westerners, are deeply concerned about religious extremism and terrorism, considering that the majority of attacks and victims have been in the Muslim world. For most Muslims, who admire the West's freedoms, technologies, and rule of law, the major issues are respect for Islam and Muslims. Many will be looking for an American administration that emphasises diplomacy and dialogue," he concluded.

[Admin(Portal)]

Lets wait and see what does Obama Government means the Globalisation. 

[sajiv]

India would be better off with Obama

NEW DELHI: Delhiites have great expectations from United States President-elect Barack Obama, especially on how he would manage America's relations with the rest of the world, reveals a new survey of public opinion here in the Capital.

According to the survey focusing on "General Indian Economic Environment and American Presidential Election", conducted by the market research services division of Shyam Vyas MARC Pvt. Ltd., a whopping 96 per cent of the respondents believed Mr. Obama's election would translate into a substantive change in American policies towards the rest of the world – for the better.

As many as 94 per cent of the respondents said they believed Mr. Obama would manage to rebuild world opinion in favour of America as a land of hope and justice.

A wide-ranging questionnaire was administered to 650 individuals across Delhi, and 500 responses were selected at random for analysis.

According to the survey report, most Delhiites (76 per cent) said they would have voted for Mr. Obama if they were asked to cast their ballot in the US Presidential election. As many as 64 per cent Delhiites said they believed India would be better off with Mr. Obama than John McCain as the leader of the most powerful country.

A high 72 per cent of the respondents approved of the controversial Indo-US civil nuclear deal, while 24 per cent expressed uncertainty over the agreement.

Asked if they approved of the United Progressive Alliance Government's handling of economic matters, the response was mixed. While 36 per cent of the respondents gave their approval to the Centre's economic affairs handling, as many said they were "uncertain", while 28 per cent disapproved of the manner in which the ruling dispensation had gone about handling economic matters.

[sajiv]

CHICAGO (Reuters) - U.S. President-elect Barack Obama's transition team is not exploring a prepackaged bankruptcy plan for U.S. automakers, officials from Obama's team said on Friday.

Bloomberg News reported that Obama's transition group was exploring the option.

"That's not true," said Tommy Vietor, a spokesman for Obama's White House transition team.

Bloomberg reported that Obama's team was considering a swift prepackaged bankruptcy for automakers as an answer to the financial woes of the sector, citing a person familiar with the matter.

According to the report, Obama's team has already contacted at least one bankruptcy law firm to say that Daniel Tarullo, who heads Obama's economic policy working group, would call to discuss the workings of a so-called "prepack."

Two officials within the Obama team said the report was false.

U.S. lawmakers on Thursday asked General Motors Corp, Ford Motor Co and Chrysler LLC to provide a business survival plan in exchange for their support of up to $25 billion in loans.

[sajiv]

Obama ignores 'secular' group complaints, promotes Sonal Shah

WASHINGTON: US President-elect Barack Obama on Wednesday named
Indian-American policy wonk Sonal Shah as a leader of a key policy working
group,ignoring charges from the so-called leftist-secular Indian groups in the
U.S about her alleged links with radical Hindu groups.

Shah is one of nine leaders who will head seven Policy Working Groups
tasked with ''developing priority policy proposals and plans from the
Obama Campaign for action during the Obama-Biden Administration, '' the
transition team announced on Wednesday.

Shah will co-chair the Technology, Innovation and Government Reform
panel along with Julius Genachowski and Blair Levin.

Other panels, all of which will be headed by a single person, are as
follows: Economic: Daniel K. Tarullo,
Education: Linda Darling-Hammond, Energy and Environment: Carol M.
Browner, Health Care: Senator Tom Daschle, Immigration: T. Alexander
Aleinikoff, Mariano-Florentino (Tino) Cuéllar National Security: James
B. Steinberg, Dr. Susan E. Rice.

Some of these positions could conceivably lead to appointments in the
administration. For instance, Daschle is now strongly tipped to be the
health secretary. On Wednesday, the Obama transition team also
formally announced several other White House positions, including
David Axelrod as Senior Advisor to the President, Lisa Brown as Staff
Secretary, Greg Craig as White House Counsel, and Chris Lu as Cabinet
Secretary.

In naming Shah to head a policy group, the President-elect has
seemingly snubbed Leftist activists in the U.S who loudly protested
her inclusion in the Obama transition team last week, ostensibly
because of her family's connections in India to the RSS and the VHP.

Shah responded with a statement that her ''personal politics have
nothing in common with the views espoused by VHP, RSS, or any such
organization, '' and she has always ''condemned any politics of
division, of ethnic or religious hatred, of violence and intimidation
as a political tool.''

In its press release about the new policy planning panels, the
transition team referred to Shah's work as the co-founder of
Indicorps, a U.S.-based non-profit organization offering one-year
fellowships Indian-Americans to work on development projects in India,
which Leftist groups had viewed suspiciously.

The transition team also cited her work at the Center for American
Progress on trade, outsourcing and post conflict issues and the Center
for Global Development on development policy issues.

Sonal Shah currently heads Google.org's global development efforts and
is on temporary on leave from that job to help with the transition.
Prior to joining Google, she was Vice President at Goldman, Sachs and
Co. developing and implementing the firm's environmental policy.

She also worked at the Department of Treasury from 1995-2002 on
various economic issues and regions of the world, including Bosnia,
Kosovo, the Asian crisis and sub-Saharan Africa, and at the National
Security Council

[sajiv]

Nobody's safe: Obama's phone account info breached

New York: US President-elect Barack Obama's personal cell phone account has been unauthorisedly accessed by some employees of Verizon Wireless, the company said.

Verizon Wireless, which is the Number 2 cell phone service provider in terms of number of subscribers, has apologised for the breach and put all those employees who unauthorisedly accessed the personal cell phone account of Obama, on immediate leave.

"We apologise to President-elect Obama and will work to keep the trust our customers place in us every day," the company President and CEO Lowell McAdam said in a statement issued late on Thursday.

"This week we learned that a number of Verizon Wireless employees have, without authorisation, accessed and viewed President-elect Barack Obama's personal cell phone account," the statement said.

The account, however, has been inactive for several months, Verizon Wireless said adding that the cell phone instrument on the account was a simple voice flip-phone, not a BlackBerry or other smart phone designed for e-mail or other data services.

"All employees who have accessed the account - whether authorised or not - have been put on immediate leave, with pay. As the circumstances of each individual employee's access to the account are determined, the company will take appropriate actions," it said.

"Employees with legitimate business needs for access will be returned to their positions, while employees who have accessed the account improperly and without legitimate business justification will face appropriate disciplinary action," Verizon Wireless said.

There was no immediate reaction from the office of the President-elect.

[sajiv]

Obama's cell phone records breached

WASHINGTON: Records from a mobile phone used by U.S. President-elect Barack Obama were improperly accessed, apparently by employees of the cell phone company, his transition team has said.

[sajiv]

Mandela to Obama

From Parks to King and from
When Rosa Parks refused to give up her bus seat to a white man 40 years ago she made history. Her arrest and trial, a 381-day Montgomery bus boycott, and finally, the US Supreme Court's ruling in November 1956 that segregation on transportation is unconstitutional, paved the way for the civil rights movement. And in a sense for Barack Hussein Obama's victory in the US presidential race.

Significant win
No one can deny that becoming the President of the world's current superpower is a huge accomplishment. But this year's President-elect stands out for wholly different reasons. Barack Obama is America's first African-American President. Why is this so significant? To understand this, we need to understand the deeper issues behind Obama's election — such as the history of apartheid, and all its racial connotations.

The word apartheid has its origins from apartness (in Afrikaans and Dutch). It was a system of legal racial segregation that was enforced for the first time by the National Party of South Africa between 1948-94. The practice had its roots in the history of colonisation and settlement in South Africa, and classified inhabitants and visitors into racial groups (black, white, Indian or Asian).

The blacks were especially targeted under this system. Their rights to voting were restricted; their system of education was meant to raise them as a labour class and their rights to citizenship were stripped from them. It was a turbulent time for all black people, till the world united against the ugly system of apartheid.

Civil Rights Movement
In America, Martin Luther King Jr, a 'black' clergyman and activist was a well-known leader in America's civil rights movement. Referred to as a human rights icon, it was the day after King made his famous "I have a dream" speech ("...I have a dream that my four children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the colour of their skin but by the content of their character..."), that he was assassinated.

In Africa, Nelson Mandela spent nearly 27 years in prison for his struggle against apartheid, becoming an international symbol of freedom and equality. His fight earned him several awards, the most notable being the Nobel Peace Prize in 1993. He went on to become the first black President of South Africa — the first to be elected in a democratic manner. With figures like Martin Luther King Jr and Mandela himself as inspiration, Barack Obama's character is a blend of Africa's desire to prove itself and America's innate liberty to do so. Son of Barack Hussein Obama Sr of Kenya and Ann Dunham of America, Obama was born in August 1961. His parents divorced three years later and it was then that his mother married again — this time to an Indonesian.

Formative years
Obama received his schooling in Jakarta and Honolulu, going on to do his higher studies from Columbia University and Harvard Law School. After that, it was nothing but an uphill climb. Obama worked at several jobs, including lecturer of constitutional law at the University of Chicago, before being elected to the Illinois Senate in 1996. He ran for the US Senate in mid-2002, winning a seat in 2005. This in itself was a historic moment, as he was only the fifth African-American to have achieved this. In 2007, he announced his candidature for the President of the United States, and now, in 2008, history has truly been made.

From Rosa Parks, to Martin Luther King to Mandela and now Obama — the world has come a long way. An e-mail doing the rounds during the US election campaign aptly summed it up: "Rosa sat so Martin could walk. Martin walked so Obama could run. Obama ran so our children could fly."

[sajiv]

Obama plans to create 2.5 million jobs

Washington : In an effort to give a push to the sagging US economy, President-elect Barack Obama has instructed his key advisers to prepare a plan to create 2.5 million jobs in the next two years.

Addressing the nation in his weekly Democratic address, Obama advocated 'swift and bold' action to revive the US economy and prevent it from further collapse.

"These aren't just steps to pull ourselves out of this immediate crisis; these are the long-term investments in our economic future that have been ignored for far too long," Obama said.

He termed the economic recovery plan, being developed by his staff, as 'big enough to meet the challenges we face' and 'lay the foundation for a strong and growing economy'.

The two-year stimulus plan aims to create 2.5 million jobs by January 2011, with Obama looking to get it through the US Congress as quickly as possible.

Admitting that a Congressional approval for his broad economic plan will not be easy, he sought the support of lawmakers irrespective of their parties to get it through.

"I will need and seek support from Republicans and Democrats, and I'll be welcome to ideas and suggestions from both sides of the aisle," he said.

"But what is not negotiable is the need for immediate action," he maintained.

The news of Timothy Geithner, the President of the New York Federal Reserve, being Obama's apparent choice for Treasury secretary, sent the US stock market soaring on Friday.

The number of Americans on the unemployment rolls surged to the highest in 16 years, up more than 540,000, the Labour Department said on Thursday.

Acknowledging that the country is facing an economic crisis of 'historic proportions', Obama cautioned that there are 'no quick or easy fixes to this crisis, which has been many years in the making, and it's likely to get worse before it gets better'.

[sajiv]

Obama picks Geithner as treasury secretary

Barack Obama picked Timothy Geithner, head of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, to be his treasury secretary, with Lawrence Summers getting a senior White House role, a Democratic aide said.

Summers, former President Bill Clinton's last Treasury chief, would be positioned to succeed Ben S Bernanke as Fed chairman in 2010. Obama is likely to announce his economic team on November 24, the aide said on condition of anonymity. Geithner is a veteran who has helped lead the effort to end the deepest financial crisis in seven decades and at the same time has spent most of his career outside the public eye. The top task of the new team will be assembling Obama's pledged stimulus package to buttress an economy that may be in its worst recession in a quarter century.

Obama is assembling "very strong people, very qualified people," said Allen Sinai, chief economist at Decision Economics in New York. "But the reality of the problems of the economy, the financial markets, our banking system both domestically and globally, and the long list of problems we have to deal with as a society, that is very daunting."

Geithner, 47, has helped oversee some of the biggest decisions so far in the crisis, as head of the US central bank's main liaison with Wall Street. Those include the government's takeover of American International Group Inc., the Fed's Bear Stearns Cos. rescue, and decision to let Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. fail in September.

Both Geithner and Summers are veterans of managing financial turmoil, working together on the Asian financial crisis of 1997-98 and staving off a Mexican default earlier that decade. Even with that background, Geithner would be taking on an unfamiliar role: the government's chief economic spokesman.

"He certainly has relevant experience," said Alex Pollock, resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington and former president of the Chicago Federal Home Loan Bank. "The whole public part of the job, the political part of Treasury secretary, will, I expect, be a challenge."

Investors gave Obama's pick a vote of confidence, sending the US stock market's benchmark index rallying from an 11-year low. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index jumped 6.3% to 800.03 at the close in New York. The gauge is still heading for its biggest annual decline since 1931.