tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-64674666753139798282024-03-05T16:23:03.386-08:00The Obama FilesA record of Obama's first term in officeUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger65125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6467466675313979828.post-55222506402945209482010-06-16T02:26:00.000-07:002010-06-16T02:30:28.247-07:00Oil spill: Obama to 'make BP pay'Extract from BBC News Online, 16 June 2010Mr Obama said he would meet company executives later and tell them that they must set up a fund to compensate those affected by the spill. He described the spill as an assault on the shores and citizens of the US that tested the limits of human technology. And he said it demonstrated the need to end the US "addiction" to fossil fuels.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6467466675313979828.post-18163863777184925292010-06-10T07:05:00.000-07:002010-06-10T07:09:52.317-07:00'Kick-ass' Obama attacks BP chiefs HaywardFrom The Times, UK, 10 June 2010Giles Whittell in Washington, Jacqui Goddard in Miami BP may have hoped yesterday to boast of its first real progress in containing the leaking well at the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico. Instead, it faced a harsh personal attack on its chief executive from President Obama and a devastating new report that called the company a “recurring environmental criminal”Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6467466675313979828.post-43567303035515865972010-04-16T01:35:00.000-07:002010-04-16T01:42:22.343-07:00Obama extends hospital visitation rights to same-sex partners of gaysExtract from the Washington Post, 16 April 2010By Michael D. ShearPresident Obama mandated Thursday that nearly all hospitals extend visitation rights to the partners of gay men and lesbians and respect patients' choices about who may make critical health-care decisions for them, perhaps the most significant step so far in his efforts to expand the rights of gay Americans.The president directed Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6467466675313979828.post-72500109311556425022010-03-24T01:06:00.000-07:002010-03-24T01:10:32.519-07:00Israeli settlements: strong words from Hillary ClintonBBC News Online, 22 March 2010US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has called on Israel to make "difficult but necessary choices" if it wants a peace agreement with the Palestinians.Mrs Clinton warned that the status quo was "unsustainable" in a speech to a pro-Israel lobby group. Her comments come amid a dispute between the US and Israel over plans for 1,600 new homes in East Jerusalem. On Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6467466675313979828.post-43078633549086508532010-03-22T02:34:00.001-07:002010-03-23T01:33:38.678-07:00"A new presidency for Obama"The House of Representatives approves the healthcare reform bill, something the Democrats had been trying to do since 1945 and that took centre stage in the White House agenda.From El Pais, Spain, 22/03/2010Antonio Caño, WashingtonThe acting leader of the House, David Obey, banged the gavel at 22.45 (03.45 CET) to announce that the Healthcare Reform Bill of the United States had been approved Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6467466675313979828.post-81272734685524700542010-03-22T02:09:00.000-07:002010-03-22T02:14:58.001-07:00US House passes key healthcare reform billExtract from BBC News Online, 22 March 2009The US House of Representatives has narrowly voted to pass a landmark healthcare reform bill at the heart of President Barack Obama's agenda.The bill was passed by 219 votes to 212, with no Republican backing, after hours of fierce argument and debate. It extends coverage to 32 million more Americans, and marks the biggest change to the US healthcare Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6467466675313979828.post-83904978803426407172010-03-14T17:52:00.000-07:002010-03-24T01:11:07.622-07:00Obama aide condemns 'destructive' Israeli homes planFrom BBC News Online, 14 March 2009 Israel's announcement of plans to build 1,600 homes for Jews in East Jerusalem was "destructive" to peace efforts, a top aide to Barack Obama says.David Axelrod said the move, which overshadowed a visit to Israel by US Vice-President Joe Biden, was also an "insult" to the United States. Israel's prime minister has tried to play down the unusually bitter Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6467466675313979828.post-3198232921787838462010-02-25T13:14:00.000-08:002010-02-25T13:17:43.659-08:00Barack Obama lays out case for health reform in live debateThe Independent (UK), 25 February 2010President Barack Obama both wooed and blasted Republicans who have impeded his health care plan in an extraordinary live TV summit today. He called the meeting with the aim of breaking a partisan deadlock over his top domestic priority. And with the unprecedented, day-long policy debate available from start to finish to a divided public, Mr Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6467466675313979828.post-474035541920824662010-01-28T01:39:00.000-08:002010-01-28T01:44:19.005-08:00Analysis: Barack Obama the underdogExtract from The Times (UK), 28 January 2010By Giles Whittell in Washington Barack Obama has had to come down from the Olympian heights to recast himself as a street fighter, even an underdog - and he did it well. His political task last night was to gloss over a thin record of accomplishment and chart a course towards midterm elections in November that a deeply demoralised Democratic partyUnknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6467466675313979828.post-55946799214599636042010-01-28T00:58:00.000-08:002010-01-28T01:02:39.290-08:00Obama's State of the Union speechExtract from BBC News OnlineUS President Barack Obama has said in his first State of the Union address that creating jobs must be the nation's number one focus.Mr Obama accepted Americans were "hurting" and that his election pledge of change had not come quickly enough. He defended his healthcare reform efforts and bank bailout policy, but said there would be a spending freeze from 2011 to tackleUnknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6467466675313979828.post-10857908972531229682010-01-24T01:20:00.000-08:002010-01-28T01:23:57.188-08:00Obama announces dramatic crackdown on Wall Street banksObama's 'new Glass-Steagall Act' will prevent banks with customer deposits taking risky investment betsExtract from the Guardian (UK), 21 January 2010by Jill TreanorPresident Barack Obama today declared his intent to take on Wall Street by announcing plans for stringent rules on the banking sector that prompted comparisons with the draconian regulations introduced after the Great Depression.In Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6467466675313979828.post-80948960949339116002010-01-22T22:35:00.000-08:002010-01-22T22:44:14.491-08:00What a week this anniversaryMark Mardell, BBC News Online, 22 January 2010 What a week. This anniversary of the president's year in office was always going to be a time for reflection. The victory of Scott Brown in Republican-resistant Massachusetts turned it into a time for urgent reassessment for the president's party. The word "pivotal" has been used a fair bit. That's right. After twelve months the President has Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6467466675313979828.post-30511635717687144142010-01-20T02:25:00.000-08:002010-01-20T02:28:33.024-08:00Republicans take Ted Kennedy's seat in dramatic upsetDemocrats lose Senate seat in Massachusetts, throwing Obama's health reform plan into doubtFrom the Guardian, UK- Ewen MacAskill, 20 January 2009The Republicans have produced one of the biggest political upsets of recent US history by winning Ted Kennedy's Senate seat in Massachusetts, traditionally one of the safest Democratic states in the country.The victory against the odds came on the eve ofUnknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6467466675313979828.post-87966661997598574902009-12-20T07:12:00.000-08:002009-12-20T07:17:10.523-08:00Senate healthcare bill set to pass by ChristmasDemocrats' compromise on abortion with Nebraska's Ben Nelson gives them the 60 votes to fight off GOP filibusters. Obama calls it 'a major step forward for the American people.'Extract from the Los Angeles Times, 20 December 2009By Noam N. Levey and Janet HookReporting from Washington - After a dramatic month of sometimes round-the-clock negotiating and deal-making, Senate Democrats came togetherUnknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6467466675313979828.post-51685074132137483572009-12-20T07:06:00.000-08:002009-12-20T07:10:12.681-08:00Joss Garman: Copenhagen - Historic failure that will live in infamyFrom the Independent, UK, 20 December 2009The most progressive US president in a generation comes to the most important international meeting since the Second World War and delivers a speech so devoid of substance that he might as well have made it on speaker-phone from a beach in Hawaii. His aides argue in private that he had no choice, such is the opposition on Capitol Hill to any action that Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6467466675313979828.post-26899930956539183682009-11-08T04:10:00.001-08:002009-11-08T04:14:15.656-08:00Abortion was at the heart of wranglingExtract from The New York Times, Sun 8 Nov 2009By David Herszenhorn and Jackie CalmesWASHINGTON — It was late Friday night and lawmakers were stalling for time. In a committee room, they yammered away, delaying a procedural vote on the historic health care legislation. Down one floor, in her office, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi desperately tried to deal with an issue that has bedeviled Democrats Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6467466675313979828.post-68771192029153673902009-11-08T03:56:00.001-08:002009-11-08T04:00:02.019-08:00US House backs healthcare reformsFrom BBC News Online, 8 Nov 2009The US House of Representatives has backed a healthcare bill in a step towards reforms promised by President Obama, despite strong opposition.Passed in a narrow 220-215 vote, the bill aims to extend coverage to 36 million more Americans and provide affordable healthcare to 96%. The Senate now has to pass its own bill and the two must then be reconciled before the Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6467466675313979828.post-59812502746501912502009-10-11T05:56:00.000-07:002009-10-11T05:59:24.674-07:00Obama earns plaudits from the LGBT communityFrom El Pais, Spain, 11 October 2009US President and Peace Nobel Prize Barack Obama, tried on Saturday (Sunday at dawn in Europe) to reassure the LGBT community with an impassioned defence of his commitment for equality. "My commitment with you is unswerving, do not doubt the advances that we're going to make, I'm here with you in that fight", Obama reassured during a speech at the Human Rights Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6467466675313979828.post-44913166259963999772009-10-11T05:09:00.000-07:002009-10-11T05:14:51.030-07:00"Change we can't believe in"Extracts from Mehdi Hasan's article from the New Statesman (UK), Oct 8 2009."Barack Obama promised a sharp break from the Bush era, yet he seems to have stepped into the shoes of his disgraced predecessor. As the anniversary of his election approaches, Mehdi Hasan investigates what went wrong"."The distance between Obama and Bush on a host of policies is not as great as many people might hope or Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6467466675313979828.post-39471523813557921852009-10-09T02:30:00.000-07:002009-10-09T02:33:22.733-07:00Obama wins 2009 Nobel Peace PrizeFrom BBC News Online, 9 October 2009US President Barack Obama has won the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize.The Nobel Committee said he was awarded it for "his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and co-operation between peoples". The committee highlighted Mr Obama's efforts to strengthen international bodies and promote nuclear disarmament. There were a record 205 nominations for Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6467466675313979828.post-51948331991643842462009-09-17T08:04:00.000-07:002009-09-17T08:07:44.282-07:00US missile rethink a huge shiftFrom BBC News, 17 Sep 2009By Paul Reynolds, World Affairs Correspondent"A US decision to drop plans to base an anti-ballistic missile defence system in Poland and the Czech Republic would be a huge shift in American foreign and defence policy by the Obama administration.The decision was reported in the Wall Street Journal and official word is expected during the day. ImplicationsThe implications Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6467466675313979828.post-42303469606499661542009-09-10T01:53:00.000-07:002009-09-10T02:01:25.750-07:00Obama's healthcare speech in the Congress"We are the only democracy on Earth that allows such hardship for millions of its people".From BBC News Online, 10 Sep 2009"Madame Speaker, Vice President Biden, members of Congress, and the American people:When I spoke here last winter, this nation was facing the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. We were losing an average of 700,000 jobs per month, credit was frozen, and our Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6467466675313979828.post-73016718142964686562009-09-09T05:34:00.000-07:002009-09-09T05:37:31.031-07:00Barack Obama's battle to save US health care reformExtract from an article by Toby Harnden in the Telegraph UK, 9 Sep 2009The speech to Congress is seen as so important that it could make or break his presidency.With Mr Obama's poll numbers slipping and public support for his health care overhaul eroding almost by the day, Senator Max Baucus, a fellow Democrat, drew up a compromise plan designed to appeal to centrists across the political Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6467466675313979828.post-45707603710240408482009-08-16T02:33:00.000-07:002009-08-16T02:38:21.523-07:00Obama invokes grandmother's death in health care debateArticle from Japan Today, 16 August 2009GRAND JUNCTION, Colorado — President Barack Obama has made it clear that his efforts to reform the U.S. health care system have meaning to him personally. On Saturday, Obama invoked his own anguish over the death of a loved one as he challenged the notion that Democratic efforts to overhaul the nation’s health care would include “death panels” that Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6467466675313979828.post-90696096452494696782009-08-16T02:27:00.000-07:002009-09-12T03:45:04.324-07:00Obama attacks insurance premiumsExtract from BBC News, 16 August 2009US President Barack Obama has stepped up his drive for healthcare reform, attacking excessive premiums charged by insurance companies. Speaking in Colorado, Mr Obama said that under his plan companies would not be allowed to charge exorbitant fees nor place arbitrary limits on coverage. Mr Obama is making a Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0