Spring Break
OBAMA'S DAY ONE
New admin. off to quick start
Associated Press
Issue date: 1/22/09 Section: News
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He also froze salaries for top White House staff members, placed phone calls to Mideast leaders and had aides circulate a draft executive order that would close the detention center at Guantanamo Bay within a year.
"The way to make government responsible is to hold it accountable," Obama said as he unveiled ethics rules that he portrayed as the fulfillment of a major campaign promise. He said the action was necessary "to help restore that faith in government without which we cannot deliver the changes we were sent here to make."
Devoting swift attention to the Mideast turmoil, Obama prepared to name George Mitchell, the former Senate Democratic leader, a special envoy to the region.
In his phone calls to Israeli, Palestinian, Egyptian and Jordanian leaders, Obama emphasized that he would work to consolidate the cease-fire between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, said the new White House press secretary, Robert Gibbs.
Gibbs said Obama expressed "his commitment to active engagement in pursuit of Arab-Israeli peace from the beginning of his term."
The enormity of Obama's challenge on the economy was evident in the mixed messages coming from Capitol Hill.
Rep. David Obey, chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, expressed doubt that the currently planned $825 billion economic stimulus package would be enough, calling the proposal "no silver bullet." At the same time, House Republicans requested a meeting with Obama to air their worries that the plan was too big.
A multi-denominational prayer service at Washington National Cathedral and an open house at the presidential mansion were also on the schedule of the 44th president, taking office on a promise to fix the battered economy and withdraw U.S. troops from the unpopular war in Iraq on a 16-month timetable.
At the open house, Obama and his wife, Michelle, shook hands with a line of guests streaming through the Blue Room, some of them moved to tears by the experience.
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Oh Tham Eng
posted 1/22/09 @ 9:00 AM MST
PRESIDENT OBAMA'S INAUGURATION SPEECH WAS INSPIRING, BUT NOT STRATOSPHERIC
Hi Americans!
I am so pleased I had drafted an inaugural speech for President-elect Obama---to let him know what a good inaugural speech should be like (if he wasn't clear about it); or if he was clear about it, he should make sure that his actual speech must include the following features, viz:
a. (Continued…)
Oh Tham Eng
posted 1/22/09 @ 9:02 AM MST
"A NEW DECLARATION OF FREEDOM THROUGH A PROPHET'S PRAYER"---an inaugural speech Mr Oh Tham Eng had drafted for President Obama:
My beloved fellow Americans!
Eleven scores or more years ago, our forefathers gave off their sweat, their tears, their blood and their precious lives to build for us this great nation of America. (Continued…)
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