What You Need to Know: 01.21.09

Obama’s Agenda: the Middle East, Economy and Ethics
“President Obama launched immediately into the grim reality of his new job today, placing calls to the leaders of Middle Eastern countries and preparing for his first presidential briefings on the economy and Iraq this afternoon.

He later signed a series of executive orders to implement new ethics rules for his administration in keeping with a campaign promise to bring greater transparency to the White House. And he declared “a new era of openness” in government.”

Obama Orders Halt to Prosecutions at Guantánamo
“In the first hours of his presidency, President Obama directed an immediate halt to the Bush administration’s military commissions system for prosecuting detainees at the detention center at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.

Notice of the decision came in a legal filing in Guantánamo by military prosecutors just before midnight Tuesday. The decision, which had been expected as part of Mr. Obama’s pledge to close the detention camp, was described as a pause in all war-crimes proceedings there so that the new administration can evaluate how to proceed with prosecutions.”

In First Family, a Nation’s Many Faces
“When President Barack Obama was sworn in on Tuesday, he was surrounded by an extended clan that would have shocked past generations of Americans and instantly redrew the image of a first family for future ones.

As they convened to take their family’s final step in its journey from Africa and into the White House, the group seemed as if it had stepped out of the pages of Mr. Obama’s memoir — no longer the disparate kin of a young man wondering how he fit in, but the embodiment of a new president’s promise of change.”

Geithner calls for tougher bailout terms
“Treasury Secretary-designate Tim Geithner called for bold action to blunt the economic downturn and promised to tighten the terms for companies getting federal financial help.

Geithner, appearing at his confirmation hearing Wednesday, also apologized to the Senate Finance Committee for his past underpayment of taxes, but assured senators that the missteps were unintentional.”

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Rock the Vote Bio: Rock the Vote was founded in 1990 to organize artists and fight against censorship of musicians. Since then we've evolved to focus on empowering young people to get involved in the political process. We use pop culture, peer-to-peer organizing, and the latest technology to raise visibility of politics and demystify the process of registering to vote. @rockthevote Email the author at: blog(at)rockthevote.com

This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 21st, 2009 at 4:39 pm and is filed under what you need to know. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.