Spokesman dodges question after order caps aides' salary
Posted: January 22, 2009
5:22 pm Eastern
By Jerome R. Corsi
© 2009 WorldNetDaily
 President Obama |
At his first White House press briefing, Press Secretary Robert Gibbs today dodged a question about whether Obama and Biden intended to "lead by example" by volunteering to reduce their own salaries.
Gibbs replied that the president's $400,000 salary and the vice president's $227,300 pay are set by law and cannot be modified by a presidential executive order.
The U.S. Constitution, in Article II, Section 1, stipulates that the president's salary cannot be decreased or increased during his term.
But nothing prevents a president from voluntarily forgoing compensation. John F. Kennedy, an heir to his father's massive fortune, and Herbert Hoover chose not to receive a presidential salary during their terms.
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Obama revokes President George Bush Jnr's November 2001 Executive Order which makes presidential records secret for up to twelve years after leaving office
Stephanopoulos Cried On Inauguration Day
Ali Wentworth (wife of ABC News' George Stephanopoulos) on "Oprah":
We watched everything and George was still doing all the anchoring for ABC and as soon Beyonce said "At Last..." George called me at home and he went, "Honey?" and I said "I know!" and we both started crying.
BAILOUT MONEY CREATING JOBS ???????
Larry King on Barack Obama: “Black is in…my eight-year-old son wishes he was black.”
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DON'T BE ECONOMIC GIRLIE MEN
(Getty Images)
Ten days remain before California will begin defaulting on its obligations.
California is in crisis. Lawmakers can’t agree on how to balance the budget. And the truth is that there is no easy solution. Painful decisions will have to be made. And no matter what politicians decide, it is clear that the good times are over for the Golden State.
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When FBI Director Robert Mueller realized that George Bush Jnr, Michael Mukasey and Mossad's Michael Chertoff were trying to fit him up for a fall on the torture issue, he fought back. His carefully constructed FBI sting revealed massive financial misconduct and criminal activity by Henry Paulson and Stuart Levey. The Bush Administration’s blackmail of Bank of America is taking centre stage in the criminal investigations now under way. And it has emerged that massive cash bribes were paid by AIG to Bush White House officials to expedite AIG's taxpayer-funded bailout.
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PREVIOUS BLOG - MUST SEE http://actionsbyt.blogspot.com/2009/01/wrath-of-g-d-is-now-upon-america.html
GUN RIGHTS - PATRIOTS AWAKE NOW
http://foundingfather1776.wordpress.com/2009/01/15/patriots-awake/
FLASHLIGHT FORUM
http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb/
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4:23 pm Eastern
© 2009 WorldNetDaily
Barack Obama has retaken the oath of office that was administered by U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts at the ceremonial inauguration yesterday.
Legal experts had suggested the move because of the multiple stumbles and flubs at the original event.
Obama ended up transposing the word "faithfully" during his inauguration in Washington. When he should have said he would "faithfully execute the office of president of the United States," he instead said he will "execute the office of president of the United States faithfully."
WND previously reported on the flub, and the following video reveals the circumstances:
Roberts began administering the oath by stating the president-elect's name, but Obama cut him off before he could finish.
"I Barack …" Obama eagerly chimed in before Roberts could complete the first sentence.
Obama then allowed Roberts to continue.
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NO BIBLE USED AT OBAMA RE-SWEAR
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THE MANNING REPORTWednesday, January 21, 2009
Obama has been in power only one day and they are already playing games with the Supreme Court
Obama has been in power only one day. Suddenly today my case has disappeared from the docket. The case was not dismissed. It is supposed to be heard on the 23rd of January. Each and every American Citizen needs to call the Supreme court and demand decency from these Justices. They have violated all principles of judicial integrity and ethics by inviting Obama and Biden to the closed door meeting only a few days before the hearing. They have inaugurated him in from of millions of people, when 3 days after the inauguration they are supposed to hear my case, where I state that Obama is not eligible for presidency and never was eligible. They were supposed to recuse themselves from the inauguration. What is going on? Is Chicago mafia influencing the Supreme Court? If we don't have integrity with our elected officials and the whole system is corrupt, then it is time to revolt and change the system.........................................................................................................................................................................
Obama inauguration: Words of history ... crafted by 27-year-old in Starbucks
• Chief speechwriter known as president's mind reader
• Young aide studied past inaugural orations
- The Guardian, Tuesday 20 January 2009
- Article history
Jon Favreau, head speech writer for US Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama. Photograph: Emmanuel Dunand/AFP/Getty Images
When Barack Obama steps up to the podium to deliver his inaugural address, one man standing anonymously in the crowd will be paying especially close attention. With his cropped hair, five o'clock shadow and boyish face, he might look out of place among the dignitaries, though as co-author of the speech this man has more claim than most to be a witness to this moment of history.
Jon Favreau, 27, is, as Obama himself puts it, the president's mind reader. He is the youngest chief speechwriter on record in the White House, and, despite such youth, was at the centre of discussions of the content of today's speech, one which has so much riding on it.
For a politician whose rise to prominence was largely built upon his powers as an orator, Obama is well versed in the arts of speech-making. But today's effort will tower over all previous ones.
It is not just that Obama has set an extremely high bar by invoking the inaugural speeches of Abraham Lincoln as his inspiration - admitting to feeling "intimidated" when he read them. It is also that, as he begins his term with the US in an economic crisis and two wars, he knows he needs to kick start his presidency with a soaring rhetoric that both moves and motivates the American people.
The tone of the speech could be decisive in determining how the public responds to his first 100 days, as Franklin Roosevelt's famous line "the only thing we have to fear is fear itself" helped to determine his.
Obama aides have let it be known that a key theme will be restoring responsibility - both in terms of accountability in Washington and the responsibility of ordinary people to get involved. Rahm Emanuel, Obama's chief of staff, talks of a "culture of responsibility" that would "not just be asked of the American people; its leaders must also lead by example."
In composing the high notes of the speech, Obama has leant on Favreau, whom he discovered almost by chance four years ago when the younger man was working on John Kerry's failed presidential bid. "Favs" has since studied Obama's speech patterns and cadences with the intensity of a stalker. He memorised the 2004 speech to the Democratic national convention which first brought Obama into the limelight. He is said to carry Obama's autobiography, Dreams From My Father, wherever he goes. As a result, last November when Favreau sat down to write the first draft of the inaugural address, he could conjure up his master's voice as if an accomplished impersonator.
That skill had been put to almost daily use in the 18 months of brutal campaigning on the presidential trail. Favreau would be up most nights until 3am, honing the next day's stump speeches in a caffeine haze of espressos and Red Bull energy drinks, taking breaks to play the video game Rock Band. He coined a phrase for this late-night deadline surfing: "crashing".
He crashed his way through all Obama's most memorable speeches. He wrote the draft of one that helped to turn Iowa for Obama while closeted in a coffee shop in Des Moines. For the presidential election, he wrote two speeches: one for a victory, one for defeat. When the result came through, he emailed his best friend: "Dude, we won. Oh my God."
The tension between such youthful outbursts and his onerous role has sometimes cost the 27-year-old. In December, pictures of him and a friend mocking a cardboard cut-out of Hillary Clinton at a party, Favreau's hand on her breast, were posted on Facebook to his huge embarrassment.
Obama is an accomplished writer in his own right, and the process of drafting with his mind reader is collaborative. The inaugural speech has shuttled between them four or five times, following an initial hour-long meeting in which the president-elect spoke about his vision for the address, and Favreau took notes on his computer.
Favreau then went away and spent weeks on research. His team interviewed historians and speech writers, studied periods of crisis, and listened to past inaugural orations. When ready, he took up residence in Starbucks in Washington and wrote the first draft. The end result will be uttered on the steps of the Capitol.
Obama's mind reader has crashed his way through yet another deadline.......................................................................................................................................................................
Obama to shut secret CIA prisons
President Barack Obama is expected on Thursday to sign "several" executive orders that alter the Central Intelligence Agency's protocol for detaining suspects and interrogating them, several US newspapers reported Thursday.The move will also end the practice of secret CIA prisons -- but an Obama spokesman told the New York Times that this won't prevent the CIA from capturing suspects and holding them in temporary detention -- leaving CIA policy slightly open-ended.
Obama is also to sign an executive order to close within a year the US "war on terror" prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, a White House official confirmed earlier.
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