Barack Obama administration and cabinet

Summary (posts follow):

Just some of the members of the Barack Obama cabinet and other administration employees, mostly from an immigration-related standpoint. There's a running list of those appointed here.

Last modified Jan 13, 2009

Discussed in (click each link for the full post):

Thomas Saenz: new president of MALDEF (Villaraigosa, Obama's DOJ, support for illegal immigration) - 7/16/2009

Thomas Saenz - current chief counsel to Los Angeles City mayor Antonio Villaraigosa - has been selected to be the new president and general counsel of the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF). He was under consideration to head the civil rights division of the Department of Justice until that was withdrawn due perhaps to him and his affiliations being a bit too on the extre...

Louis Caldera loses job over Air Force One photo op - 5/08/2009

Louis Caldera - now the former director of the White House Military Office - has been fired or quit over the recent flap where one of the Air Force One planes - together with two F-16s - buzzed New York City in an apparent "photo op" (link). It's somewhat difficult to believe that Obama or his top aides knew about and approved the incident, but it might be possible especially if the...

Cass Sunstein, Obama "regulatory czar", proposed "fairness doctrine" for internet - 4/28/2009

From this: Barack Obama's nominee for "regulatory czar" (Cass Sunstein) has advocated a "Fairness Doctrine" for the Internet that would require opposing opinions be linked and also has suggested angry e-mails should be prevented from being sent by technology that would require a 24-hour cooling off period... Sunstein first proposed the notion of imposing mandatory "el...

As flu pandemic threatens, Obama admin still doesn't have HHS Sec'y, Surgeon General, FDA head - 4/27/2009

From this: The Obama administration declared a “public health emergency” Sunday to confront the swine flu - but is heading into its first medical outbreak without a secretary of Health and Human Services or appointees in any of the department’s 19 key posts. President Barack Obama has not yet chosen a surgeon general or the head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. His choice t...

John Trasvina of MALDEF named to Obama administration (HUD assistant secretary) - 3/29/2009

John Trasvina - president of the strongly pro-illegal immigration group MALDEF - has been nominated to the Obama administration. His title is "Assistant Secretary for Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity, Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)". This follows the de-appointment of his co-worker Thomas Saenz to another post. There's more on the FHEO office here: hud.gov/offic...

Obama sought advice from Cecilia Munoz, urged her to join his administration (Deb Price/Detroit News puffball piece) - 3/16/2009

Deb Price of the Detroit News offers "Obama turns to Mich. native" about Cecilia Munoz, a former official with the far-left, illegal immigration-supporting, extremist-funding National Council of La Raza (link). The article is a complete, Soviet-level puff piece and completely fails to note the questionable activities of her former organization. And, bearing in mind that what people say m...

Cecilia Munoz gets lobbyist waiver to work in Obama administration - 3/11/2009

The Barack Obama administration has a strict rule against lobbyists working in his administration. Of course, exceptions can be made if there's a "public interest" (link): The waivers were provided for Jocelyn Frye, director of policy and projects in the Office of the First Lady, and Cecilia Munoz, director of intergovernmental affairs in the executive office of the president... Bef...

Your Monsanto, Tom Vilsack, GMO food assignment - 3/07/2009

I'm not up-to-date on farming matters and I let McDonald's handle the food side of things. So, I'm turning making some sense of the issue of GMO food and seeds ("genetically-modified organism") over to you, especially as regards the links between Monsanto Corporation - one of the leading promoters of GMO seeds - and our new Secretary of the Department of Agriculture, Tom V...

Charles Freeman on board of Chinese government oil company - 2/27/2009

Barack Obama has selected Charles Freeman (aka "Chas Freeman") to head the National Intelligence Council ("NIC"). Since 2004, Freeman has served on the board of the China National Offshore Oil Corporation ("CNOOC"). That company is 75% owned by the Chinese government, and in 2005 they tried to buy Unocal with an $18.5 billion all-cash offer. Details here.

Thomas Saenz of MALDEF is new DOJ civil rights division chief (Villaraigosa) - 2/24/2009

Per the Los Angeles Daily Journal (reblogged by the WSJ here), the new head of the civil rights division at the Department of Justice is Thomas Saenz. For about a dozen years, Saenz worked as an attorney for the far-left, illegal immigration-supporting Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF), and lately he was of counsel to the far-left, illegal immigration-supporting mayor of...

DHS Dep. Asst. Sec'y for Policy is from CAP, United Nations, Ted Kennedy office (Esther Olavarria) - 2/23/2009

Janet Napolitano has selected Esther Olavarria as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Policy in the Department of Homeland Security. And, she's from the Center for American Progress, called around here the "think tank that can't think straight". CAP supports illegal immigration and defines opposition to massive illegal activity as "xenophobia"; see the link for more on the...

Thomas Perez to head Citizenship and Immigration Services? (close with Casa de Maryland) - 2/20/2009

According to this, the new pick for Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) is Thomas E. Perez, currently Labor Secretary of Maryland. In April 2007, he "joined students in Annapolis to urge approval of a bill granting in-state tuition rates to undocumented immigrants" (link). And from this: Perez, a former Clinton Administration official and currently Maryland’s Secretary of Labo...

Obama Faith-Based Initiative includes secular "community organizations" (+ illegal immigration supporters Jim Wallis, David Saperstein) - 2/07/2009

On Feb. 5, Barack Obama issued an Executive Order [1] making changes to George W Bush's 2001 Order which established the "White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives". That's now the "White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships", and per the press release [2]: [It] will be a resource for nonprofits and community organizations, both...

Obama "Director of Citizen Participation" is from Google (Katie Jacobs Stanton) - 1/29/2009

Per this, Barack Obama has named former Google product manager Katie Jacobs Stanton to be his "Director of Citizen Participation". Neither I nor that site know exactly what she'll be doing, but note that Obama has previously conducted scams called "The Citizen's Briefing Book" and "Open for Questions". At least the second used a Google tool called Moderator,...

DHS Deputy Secretary was top United Nations official (Jane Holl Lute) - 1/25/2009

From this: A top United Nations official who once served on the White House National Security Council has been picked for deputy secretary of the Homeland Security Department, a move that would place two women at the top of the department for the first time. President Barack Obama's nomination of Jane Holl Lute, a retired Army major who worked on the NSC under President Bill Clinton, was an...

Obama Office of Public Liaison: let's ask them tough questions - 1/20/2009

Whitehouse dot gov has a new Office of Public Liaison & Intergovernmental Affairs (OPL-IGA) which is Barack Obama's gatekeepers to hoi polloi. They're going to be soliciting input from the citizens, and I urge everyone to give them more input than they can manage by asking them tough questions. It's not clear from their page (whitehouse.gov/administration/eop/opl) how exactl...

Whitehouse.gov omits Blagojevich link from Michael Strautmanis biography - 1/20/2009

The all new whitehouse dot gov has a new Office of Public Liaison & Intergovernmental Affairs, the new president's gatekeepers to hoi polloi. That office's "Chief of Staff to the Assistant to the President for Intergovernmental Relations and Public Liaison" is Michael Strautmanis, a long-time Obama associate who also used to work for Rod Blagojevich. Oddly enough, that ...

Jeanne Lambrew lies about uninsured (deputy director of Obama Office of Health Reform) - 1/13/2009

Jeanne Lambrew - University of Texas professor, former Bill Clinton aide, and a Senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress - has been named the deputy director of the Office of Health Reform for the upcoming Obama administration (link). Her biography is at [1]. She contributed a chapter [2] to the just-released book "Change for America: A Progressive Blueprint for the 44th President&...

Let's review "Change for America: A Progressive Blueprint for the 44th President" - 1/13/2009

Mark Green [1] and the Center for American Progress Action Fund have teamed up to release the new book "Change for America: A Progressive Blueprint for the 44th President" See the rave reviews from such notables as Bill Clinton and Nancy Pelosi here, just don't buy it. Instead, please go to a library or otherwise obtain a copy and let's all point out all the many things that ar...

Obama "Energy Czar" Carol Browner's membership in Socialist panel scrubbed from website, Wikipedia - 1/10/2009

Up until the past few days, the website of Socialist International - the main, worldwide socialist organization - listed Carol Browner - Barack Obama's choice to be Assistant to the President for Energy and Climate Change aka "Energy Czar" - as a member of their Commission for a Sustainable World Society (CSWS) group. Now, however, her membership in that group has been scrubbed from...

How close was Leon Panetta to the Institute for Policy Studies? - 1/07/2009

Leon Panetta - Barack Obama's choice to be director of the CIA - supposedly had/has links to or perhaps even membership in the radical Institute for Policy Studies, an alleged Communist front organization. However, a search fails to turn up much beyond noise. If anyone has credible information - such as with contemporaneous news reports or IPS literature - please leave a comment. More on IPS ...

Bill Richardson withdraws as Commerce Secretary - 1/04/2009

MSNBC and the Associated Press are reporting that Bill Richardson is withdrawing his nomination to be secretary of the Department of Commerce (link). The reason is an on-going investigation into his links to a company that did business with New Mexico: "Let me say unequivocally that I and my Administration have acted properly in all matters and that this investigation will bear out that fact....

NYT editorial hopeful about Obama immigration picks; Bush "terrorized", "hunted down" illegal aliens - 12/26/2008

As their Christmas gift to the world, the New York Times offered the editorial "Getting Immigration Right" (link). As with all their other editorials on this topic, it's wrong, beginning with their sleazy inability to admit that they and George W Bush are on the same side: This is why it is so important to reverse the Bush administration’s immigration tactics, which for years have...

Lubchenco, Lysenko: Hope Yen/AP on Obama's science picks and politicization - 12/20/2008

The aptly-named Hope Yen of the Associated Press offers an article about recent science-related Barack Obama appointments. She shows us what she at least really thinks about the politicization of science: she supports it, just as long as the politics are the right kind. In fact, either she or an AP editor re-wrote a later version of the article to delete a questionable phrase; see the two editions...

Ron Kirk, Obama's U.S. Trade Representive? (supported "NAFTA freeway") - 12/19/2008

Barack Obama is apparently considering naming former Dallas mayor Ron Kirk as U.S. Trade Representative. Kirk is a strong NAFTA booster while Obama has only pretended not to be one. During the campaign, Obama played a cute game: pretending to want to "renegotiate" NAFTA, only to later admit that he'd been misleading. With Kirk, at least what they want to do is a bit more out in the ...

Hilda Solis named Obama's Labor Secretary - 12/18/2008

Sources say that Barack Obama has named U.S. Representative Hilda Solis to be his Secretary of the Department of Labor: Solis, who is the daughter of Mexican and Nicaraguan immigrants, has been the only member of Congress of Central American descent. She just won a fifth term representing heavily Hispanic portions of eastern Los Angeles County and east LA... Andy Stern, president of the 1.9-millio...

Obama names Tom Vilsack Agriculture Secretary - 12/17/2008

Barack Obama has named former Iowa governor Tom Vilsack to be his Secretary of the Department of Agriculture. Vilsack is a strong supporter of illegal immigration, who went as far as joining with the Mexican government-linked Peter Schey to speak out against the Swift Packing raid in order to reduce employer enforcement and push for comprehensive immigration reform. In his new position, expect him...

Ken Salazar as Interior Secretary - 12/16/2008

Democratic sources are telling the Denver Post that Barack Obama is going to name Colorado Senator Ken Salazar as his secretary of the Department of the Interior. This makes four Hispanic nominees - two to the cabinet - so far, and as we know there are groups keeping score. The Salazar confirmation is subject to him passing a background check; one wonders if that's why Raul Grijalva wasn'...

Western Growers promoted Napolitano as DHS secretary - 12/11/2008

Back on November 20, 2008, Western Growers issued this press release: Western Growers President and CEO Tom Nassif sent a letter to President-elect Barack Obama today commending him on his election victory and encouraging him to choose Arizona Governor Janet Napolitano to serve in his administration as Secretary of Department of Homeland Security. ...Indeed, over the years, Western Growers, whos...

Xavier Becerra: new U.S. Trade Representative? (meets Obama in Chicago) update: declines the offer - 12/04/2008

Andrea Mitchell says that Representative Xavier Becerra - Democrat representing Los Angeles - is in Chicago to meet with Barack Obama over the possibility of become U.S. Trade Representative: Becerra voted for NAFTA in 1993, a vote he later said he regretted because of the lack of labor protections. He also supported China's World Trade Organization membership in 2000, and last year he push...

Bill Richardson named Commerce Secretary - 12/03/2008

Barack Obama has named Bill Richardson as Secretary of the Department of Commerce. From this:: [After the announcement, Richardson] addressed a news conference in Chicago in English and in Spanish, saying Obama has a vision he thinks will revitalize the American economy and restore the country's position of respect around the world. In addition, Richardson said, "It will be a great ...

Louis Caldera: Obama's White House Military Office director (CFR, fmr CA Assemblyman; immigration?) - 12/02/2008

Another Clinton retread has joined the Barack Obama administration. This time it's Louis E. Caldera, who's been named director of the White House Military Office. Per this, that "oversees all White House military operations, including Air Force One, Camp David and presidential trips overseas". He's also a "son of Mexican immigrants"; whether they were legal immig...

Janet Napolitano's immigration stance criticized (she doesn't really oppose illegal immigration) - 12/01/2008

From this: Far from being a border hawk, Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano frequently blocked efforts to curb illegal immigration, say enforcement advocates concerned about her expected nomination to be the Homeland Security secretary under President Barack Obama. In July 2007, Napolitano signed what she called the toughest employer sanctions law in the country. During her first term, she establi...

Is Obama's "Civilian National Security Force" just a nation-remaking diplomatic corps? - 12/01/2008

In a July, 2008 speech, Barack Obama proposed the creation of a "civilian national security force" that would be "just as powerful, just as strong, just as well funded" as the U.S. military. However, there wasn't anything at his site about that, but "A Handpicked Team for a Sweeping Shift in Foreign Policy" by David Sanger of the New York Times (link) might have ...

Obama makes NCLR's Cecilia Munoz director of intergovernmental affairs - 11/27/2008

The extremist-funding National Council of La Raza now has someone else "on the inside": their senior vice president Cecilia Munoz has been named as the White House director of intergovernmental affairs. At least in the current administration, that office "serves as the President's liaison to state, local, and tribal governments" (whitehouse.gov/government/off-descrp.html)....

Raul Grijalva considered for Interior Secretary in Obama administration (Juliet Eilperin/WaPo) - 11/23/2008

Juliet Eilperin of the Washington Post informs us (link) the Democratic U.S. Representative Raul Grijalva is in the running to be Secretary of the Department of the Interior. See the link for much more on him, including the fact that he's a strong supporter of illegal immigration and a proud former member of the racial separatist group MEChA. Needless to say, Eilperin doesn't tell her re...

Janet Napolitano to head Department of Homeland Security (?) - 11/20/2008

According to the Politico (link), Arizona governor Janet Napolitano is going to be selected to head up Obama's Department of Homeland Security. Summary: she will be like Michael Chertoff without the buffoonery, like Julie Myers without the nepotism charge, and like both of them in allowing illegal immigration to continue. She'll probably also be like Chertoff and the other Bush administr...

Obama cabinet might include Democrat titans: Gore, Napolitano, Vilsack, Howard Dean, Caroline Kennedy... - 11/11/2008

The Barack Obama cabinet might include such Democratic Party titans as Al Gore, Arizona governor Janet Napolitano, former Iowa governor Tom Vilsack, Caroline Kennedy, Howard Dean, Bill Richardson, John Kerry, and many more truly titanic names. This link has a "transition flowchart", a PDF showing some potential picks and all of them are truly great figures who will help the Repu... er, I...

"Latinos push for Cabinet posts": NCLR, MALDEF, NALEO trying to embed supporters in Obama administration - 11/07/2008

... two Latinos to be named to an Obama Cabinet — meeting the standard set by President-elect Bill Clinton in 1992 — but preferred three. Of course, they also wanted sub-Cabinet-level posts. Then, she says that Latinos pushed Obama over the top; I'll wait for a reliable source. ...Cecilia Munoz, vice president of National Council of La Raza, said, “It’s a foregone conclusion that we sh...

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