Barack Obama spent his first Christmas as President where he spent his last one -- on the Hawaiian island of Oahu.
Most of the nation spent the holiday with a blanket of snow, but the warm weather wasn't the only thing that stood out about the First Family's vacation:
It was much colder back east when the Obamas left for their Christmas vacation in Hawaii.
The Obamas greet well-wishers at the airport on Christmas Eve.
Well-wishers greet the Obamas on Christmas Eve.
The Obamas arrive in Hawaii on Christmas Eve.
Neighbors offer to let the first daughters borrow their bikes while in Hawaii for Christmas.
The Obamas share a laugh with marines during Christmas dinner at Anderson Hall on Marine Corps Base Hawaii.
The Biden family holiday card is out and should be hitting mailboxes in the next few days.
http://www.politico.com/click/stories/0912/biden_christmas_card.html
The White House has released new photos of First Dog Bo Obama getting to know the West Wing. By the looks of things, the doggie seems to be bringing the nation's powerbrokers to heel. All photos were taken by White House Photographer Pete Souza.
White House Deputy Director of Oval Office Operations Brian Mosteller, maybe not so much a dog person, attempts to protect his shoes as he plays with Bo Obama in the Cabinet Room at the White House on April 21.
President Barack Obama plays with the first dog Bo on April 20 on the South Lawn of the White House.
Bo Obama heads into the Oval Office on April 15 for a strategic meeting with the president and his top advisers about treats.
Bo Obama takes the president for a walk on April 14 through the private residence of the White House.
For extensive coverage of Bo, click here.
See more photos from the White House's official Flickr page here.
http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://weblogs.baltimoresun.com/features/mutts/blog/bo_obama_white_house3.jpg&imgrefurl=http://weblogs.baltimoresun.com/features/mutts/blog/2009/04/bo_obama_photos.html&h=333&w=500&sz=106&tbnid=cTCN0mG5isIWmM:&tbnh=87&tbnw=130&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dbo%2Bobama&hl=en&usg=__OflHMwO6hmqwRhjvYswAK_NrEbk=&ei=55E2S5P1JZP-4Aba_uXKCw&sa=X&oi=image_result&resnum=4&ct=image&ved=0CBYQ9QEwAw
The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) provided approximately $100 billion to the U.S. Department of Education (ED) with the initial goal of delivering emergency education funding to states. Immediately after President Obama signed ARRA into law on February 17, 2009, ED acted swiftly to provide a large portion of these funds to states in response to drastic budget shortfalls. Over $67 billion in formula grants were awarded as of September 30, 2009.
The largest portion of ARRA funds, $35.4 billion, was delivered through the State Fiscal Stabilization Fund (SFSF). In addition, $12.6 billion in ARRA funding was added to Title I, IDEA, and other formula grant programs, and $8.7 billion was allocated for Student Financial Assistance (Pell Grants and Federal Work Study).
As part of the unprecedented transparency requirements of ARRA, the first quarterly public accounting of all expenditures to date was posted by the Recovery, Accountability, and Transparency Board on October 30, 2009. The data, now available on www.recovery.gov, indicate that approximately 400,000 jobs have been retained or created through ED grants. Of these jobs, 325,000 are specifically education jobs, with the remaining portion attributable to more general public service positions. It reveals that the rapid distribution of this funding helped states fill significant education budget gaps in order to avert layoffs of personnel in school districts and universities across the nation.
This report describes each of the ARRA education grants and their allocations. It also has a profile of each state that summarizes any restoration of education budgets by ARRA funds, and compiles all reported information regarding the state's use of ARRA funds per program. Lastly, this report explains the next phase of ARRA education grants and ED's ongoing efforts to regularly reach out to applicants and stakeholders to provide as much information as possible on the criteria, requirements, and process for each of the grants.
http://www.ed.gov/policy/gen/leg/recovery/spending/impact.html
Read report: http://www.ed.gov/policy/gen/leg/recovery/spending/arra-program-summary.pdf
Emily Huff, of Kane'ohe, waits on top of her car on Kalaheo Avenue in Kailua. She waited in traffic for President Obama and his family to arrive.
Sasha Obama and her sister, Malia Obama, play together at the beachfront home in Kailua. President Barack Obama, his wife, Michelle, and daughters Sasha and Malia arrived in Hawai'i this afternoon for the holidays.
Malia Obama takes a walk at beachfront home in Kailua. President Barack Obama, his wife, Michelle, and daughters Sasha and Malia arrived in Hawai'i this afternoon for the holidays.
Wink Arnott, of Kailua, waves the American flag on Kalaheo Avenue in Kailua. He was waiting for President Obama and his family to arrive.
Sasha Obama, a friend and Malia Obama play together at the beachfront home in Kailua. President Barack Obama, his wife, Michelle, and daughters Sasha and Malia arrived in Hawai'i this afternoon for the holidays.
A member of the motorcade flashes a shaka sign on Kalaheo Avenue in Kailua.
Honolulu Police Department's motorcycle police officers drive on Kalaheo Avenue in Kailua with President Obama's motorcade.
Sasha Obama plays at the beachfront home in Kailua. President Barack Obama, his wife, Michelle, and daughters Sasha and Malia arrived in Hawai'i this afternoon for the holidays.
Mary Anne Cavasso, of Lanikai, waves the American flag to greet Obama on Kalaheo Avenue in Kailua.
Sasha Obama (right) climbs a tree and plays with other children at the beachfront home in Kailua. President Barack Obama, his wife, Michelle, and daughters Sasha and Malia arrived in Hawai'i this afternoon for the holidays.
http://www.honoluluadvertiser.com/apps/pbcs.dll/gallery?Site=M1&Date=20091224&Category=NEWS01&ArtNo=912250801&Ref=PH&Params=Itemnr=1#gallerytop
President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama enter to greet marines during Christmas dinner at Anderson Hall on Marine Corps Base Hawaii in Kailua, Hawaii Friday, Dec. 25, 2009. The Obamas are in Hawaii for the holidays.
President Barack Obama shakes hands with a man as he and first lady Michelle Obama greet marines during Christmas dinner at Anderson Hall on Marine Corps Base Hawaii in Kailua, Hawaii Friday, Dec. 25, 2009. The Obamas are in Hawaii for the holidays.
Certainly gone is the excitement that ushered in the last decade in 2000, but many of the dark clouds that came with 2009 are clearing, too.
The new year has the potential to be a time of regrouping with moderate changes in the way we live, dress, eat, work and are entertained. Some predictions:
http://www.gainesville.com/article/20091223/ARTICLES/912239937/1004
VPOTUS and wife Jill Biden made an unannounced to the Walter Reed Army Medical Center on Christmas day, where they helped serve food and spent time thanking patients and their families, according to an updated daily guidance issued by the White House after the event. Previous guidances had said the Bidens had no public schedule for the day. The White House also released two photos from the event on its Flickr stream.
Christmas came early for journalists this year. Thank you, Tareq and Michaele Salahi, for being the gift that keeps on giving.
The gate-crashers who upstaged President Obama and first lady Michelle Obama at the administration's first White House state dinner turned out not to be mere garden-variety poseurs. They are world-class poseurs, apparently -- dedicated and energetic limelight-seekers who spent the past several years tracing an incandescent arc through high society in the horse-country piedmont west of Washington, leaving behind a richly marked trail of litigation.
According to The Post, the Salahis have been sued by caterers, chauffeurs, contractors, a fancy hair salon and more than a dozen other parties. Their story seems to be a Gatsbyesque tale of personal reinvention. Tareq imagined himself as a polo-playing aristocrat who hung around with Prince Charles. Michaele attended a reunion of Washington Redskins cheerleaders, although there is no record of her being a member of the squad. And both of them, of course, wanted to be stars of a TV reality show.
It's not just that they're such good copy, though. The Christmas gift that I so treasure is being able to think about something so fundamentally unimportant as the antics of the Salahis. Last Christmas, it was not so.
Then, we were staring into the economic abyss. The global financial system had come close to utter collapse, and at year's end it was far from certain that a series of desperate and unprecedented interventions by the federal government would turn things around. Real estate prices seemed to have no floor. Credit, a necessary lubricant of the economy, had ceased to flow. There was the very real possibility that what was obviously a severe recession would reach an awful tipping point -- that a second Great Depression could take hold.
Today, with unemployment at 10 percent, hardly anyone is thrilled with the state of the economy. But all the depression talk has ended, and the economy is growing again -- slowly, yes, but perceptibly. There is widespread consensus that the worst is over.
This turnaround has come at great cost. At least 7 million jobs have been lost, and unemployment may not have peaked. There are cities, especially in the Midwest, that were left utterly bereft by the bankruptcy and restructuring of General Motors, once the mightiest auto company in the world. A messy, pork-filled stimulus package has helped balloon the federal budget deficit to record levels. The government and the Federal Reserve have shoveled money into the financial system with a bulldozer, effectively rewarding the irresponsible bankers whose recklessness and greed caused the crisis in the first place. But now, at least, we're able to think about how to remedy the remedies.
Since last Christmas, our government has begun to tackle huge, structural problems that had long gone unaddressed: health care, climate change and education. To state the obvious, not everyone agrees with Obama's proposed solutions. But it's promising that the nation is so passionately engaged in debate about wonkish policy initiatives -- public option vs. Medicare buy-in, carbon tax vs. cap-and-trade. This nation is at its best when it's going somewhere and doing something, not when it's standing still.
On Christmas Day 2008, much of the rest of the world saw U.S. foreign policy as bellicose and dangerous. Today, the United States is celebrated for having rejoined the community of nations by rejecting torture, respecting the Geneva Conventions and embracing international institutions. When Obama went rogue at the Copenhagen summit and cut a side deal, at least he worked in concert with other major powers -- China, India, Brazil and South Africa. He didn't sit home and thumb his nose at the idea of nations working together as stewards of the planet.
The difference a year makes isn't all about Obama, though. It has become trendy to say that Congress is hopelessly dysfunctional, but the House and Senate did step up to grapple with these big issues. Congressional leaders saw that the safe course -- do nothing -- was not an option.
Last Christmas our troops were mired in two faraway wars, and this is still true today. Obama's withdrawal of combat forces from Iraq should be a comfort, especially to overburdened military families. His escalation of the war in Afghanistan, I fear, has the potential to cast a pall over Christmas 2010. When a story like the Salahis comes around next year, I hope we're able to smile.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/12/24/AR2009122401537.html
Video: http://www.politico.com/singletitlevideo.html?bcpid=19407224001&bctid=58735547001
Video- Obama's Hawaii White House Link
VIDEO: 28 Seconds of Notable Moments During Health Care Vote Link
Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LQGdnybSMiY&feature=player_embedded
During Thursday's vote Senate vote, Majority Leader Reid could be heard voting 'no' before correcting his vote to 'aye.'
Smiley face.
Sen. Byrd from West Virginia remembered his former colleague Ted Kennedy.
"This is for my friend Ted Kennedy: Aye!"Tears.
Obama is "utterly unpretentious, assumption of power hasn't phased him" Link
Indulge me while I tell you a story — a near-future version of Charles Dickens’s “A Christmas Carol.” It begins with sad news: young Timothy Cratchit, a k a Tiny Tim, is sick. And his treatment will cost far more than his parents can pay out of pocket.
Fortunately, our story is set in 2014, and the Cratchits have health insurance. Not from their employer: Ebenezer Scrooge doesn’t do employee benefits. And just a few years earlier they wouldn’t have been able to buy insurance on their own because Tiny Tim has a pre-existing condition, and, anyway, the premiums would have been out of their reach.
But reform legislation enacted in 2010 banned insurance discrimination on the basis of medical history and also created a system of subsidies to help families pay for coverage. Even so, insurance doesn’t come cheap — but the Cratchits do have it, and they’re grateful. God bless us, everyone.
O.K., that was fiction, but there will be millions of real stories like that in the years to come. Imperfect as it is, the legislation that passed the Senate on Thursday and will probably, in a slightly modified version, soon become law will make America a much better country.
So why are so many people complaining? There are three main groups of critics.
First, there’s the crazy right, the tea party and death panel people — a lunatic fringe that is no longer a fringe but has moved into the heart of the Republican Party. In the past, there was a general understanding, a sort of implicit clause in the rules of American politics, that major parties would at least pretend to distance themselves from irrational extremists. But those rules are no longer operative. No, Virginia, at this point there is no sanity clause.
A second strand of opposition comes from what I think of as the Bah Humbug caucus: fiscal scolds who routinely issue sententious warnings about rising debt. By rights, this caucus should find much to like in the Senate health bill, which the Congressional Budget Office says would reduce the deficit, and which — in the judgment of leading health economists — does far more to control costs than anyone has attempted in the past.
But, with few exceptions, the fiscal scolds have had nothing good to say about the bill. And in the process they have revealed that their alleged concern about deficits is, well, humbug. As Slate’s Daniel Gross says, what really motivates them is “the haunting fear that someone, somewhere, is receiving social insurance.”
Finally, there has been opposition from some progressives who are unhappy with the bill’s limitations. Some would settle for nothing less than a full, Medicare-type, single-payer system. Others had their hearts set on the creation of a public option to compete with private insurers. And there are complaints that the subsidies are inadequate, that many families will still have trouble paying for medical care.
Unlike the tea partiers and the humbuggers, disappointed progressives have valid complaints. But those complaints don’t add up to a reason to reject the bill. Yes, it’s a hackneyed phrase, but politics is the art of the possible.
The truth is that there isn’t a Congressional majority in favor of anything like single-payer. There is a narrow majority in favor of a plan with a moderately strong public option. The House has passed such a plan. But given the way the Senate rules work, it takes 60 votes to do almost anything. And that fact, combined with total Republican opposition, has placed sharp limits on what can be enacted.
If progressives want more, they’ll have to make changing those Senate rules a priority. They’ll also have to work long term on electing a more progressive Congress. But, meanwhile, the bill the Senate has just passed, with a few tweaks — I’d especially like to move the start date up from 2014, if that’s at all possible — is more or less what the Democratic leadership can get.
And for all its flaws and limitations, it’s a great achievement. It will provide real, concrete help to tens of millions of Americans and greater security to everyone. And it establishes the principle — even if it falls somewhat short in practice — that all Americans are entitled to essential health care.
Many people deserve credit for this moment. What really made it possible was the remarkable emergence of universal health care as a core principle during the Democratic primaries of 2007-2008 — an emergence that, in turn, owed a lot to progressive activism. (For what it’s worth, the reform that’s being passed is closer to Hillary Clinton’s plan than to President Obama’s). This made health reform a must-win for the next president. And it’s actually happening.
So progressives shouldn’t stop complaining, but they should congratulate themselves on what is, in the end, a big win for them — and for America.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/25/opinion/25krugman.html?_r=3&th&emc=th
The Presidential motorcade takes President Obama to a morning workout at Marine Corps Base Hawaii.
On the first morning of their 10-day Christmas vacation in Hawaii, President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama traveled less than three miles from their rented Kailua Beach residence to Marine Corps Base Hawaii for a 30-minute workout.
The president concluded his workout, which was not open to the news media, departed his residence at 6:45 a.m. and retuned home before 8 a.m.
Here is the report from the news pool reporter, who today is Alana Semuels of the Los Angeles Times:
There was no rest for the Obamas on the first day of vacation. The motorcade containing the President and First Lady left Kailua in the dark at 6:40 a.m., passing through quiet and wet streets as a light drizzle stopped and started.
Five minutes later, the motorcade arrived at Marine Corps Base Hawaii and the Obamas entered the gym to work out at about 6:50. The press did not see the Obamas exiting or entering the gym. The base has schools, barracks and a McDonalds that was open Christmas morning.
The motorcade left the base at 7:34 am to gray skies and some drizzle. It passed over a canal where four Secret Service agents sat in a boat in the rain, and returned to the quiet Kailua neighborhood, where the house at the end of the street is decorated with some very bright and extensive holiday lights.
Here is a second report from Semuels:
Some details from the White House about the First Family's Christmas Day: the Obamas will eat roast beef, potatoes and other traditional dishes for Christmas. The President and the First Lady didn't exchange gifts with each other this year but are exchanging gifts with daughters Sasha and Malia, as well as Obama's sister Maya Soetero-Ng and her husband Konrad Ng and their children. Before their visit to Hawaii, Sasha and Malia revealed they had gotten their father a sports-related gift.
The annual family talent show won't happen until later in the trip.
It's still gray in Kailua, but the sun looks like it's trying to push through this Christmas morning.
http://www.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/20091225/BREAKING01/91225009#pluckcomments
http://www.starbulletin.com/news/obama/20091225_Quiet_Christmas_Day_for_Obamas_in_Hawaii.html
ESSENTIAL READING: The Honolulu Advertiser goes all Vineyard Gazettey in a comprehensive look at the First Family's Hawaii vacation.
