Klieg Lights Obama!

Bush talked about the Klieg Lights today in his final White House speech. What are Klieg Lights? Bush said about Klieg Lights today:
“He’ll make the decisions he thinks (are) necessary. When I get out of here, I’m getting off the stage. I believe there ought to be one person in the Klieg lights at a time and I’ve had my time in the Klieg lights.”
A Klieg light is used predominately in movies through a carbon arc. The movie lighting was named for its inventor John H. Kliegl and brother Anton Tiberius Kliegl.
However, today Klieg lights are illuminated through the use of a tungsten-halogen filament.
The most popular purpose sometimes for Kliegs is to convert a location from day to night. The lights were first used in 1911.

Read more...

Barack Obama Visits Military Base on Christmas

Barack Obama visited military families while they ate Christmas Day dinner, thanking them for their service and posing for pictures.

Obama on Thursday visited Marine Corps Base Hawaii near his rented vacation home and briefly chatted with enlisted members who ate turkey, ham and roast beef. He didn't make formal remarks or speak to reporters during the stop, one of the few public sightings of the president-elect on what aides call a private family vacation.

"Hey," Obama said as he walked into the mess hall wearing a short-sleeved shirt and slacks. "Just wanted to say 'hi.'"

Obama lingered a few minutes at each table as the Marines and sailors and their families stood to greet their next commander in chief. At other tables, the visitors ate candied sweet potatoes with marshmallow topping, mashed potatoes and simmered corn and broccoli.

"What part of Indiana?" he asked one person. To another: "This is the East Coast table, huh?"

Obama and his family planned to spend their Christmas holiday mostly out of sight, an accomplishment given his two-year, high-profile marathon to win the presidency.

Obama, wife Michelle and their two young daughters opened presents earlier Thursday and planned their own dinner of turkey and ham, according to aides. They did not release any other details.

The Obamas arrived in Honolulu on Saturday with four aides, his Secret Service detail and a small group of journalists. Since then, he has been largely sequestered at the beachfront estate.

With less a month before Obama takes office on Jan. 20, he is taking every step possible to make sure this holiday is as private as possible — something he bemoaned while walking to a driving range last Sunday.

"OK, guys," Obama said, recognizing the photographers snapping pictures. "Come on. ... How many shots do you need?"

That was one of only a handful of trips Obama and his motorcade have taken. He and Michelle Obama have visited Marine Corps Base Hawaii for daily morning workouts. Twice, he and friends have played a round of golf. He attended a private memorial service for his grandmother on Tuesday and scattered her ashes into the Pacific Ocean.

And that's been it.

While the Democratic president-elect vacations in his native Hawaii through the New Year, he and his aides have taken careful steps to minimize his profile. He has no public schedule while vacationing, although he remains involved in transition plans and has received intelligence briefings.

While Obama's aides have taken steps to keep the vacation low-profile, he hasn't been entirely successful. Photographers captured images of him scattering his grandmother's ashes from a rock ledge on Tuesday while the press corps waited in a bus. Another photographer captured the future first family — including a shirtless Obama — in the backyard.

The Secret Service has blocked the street where he is staying, citing security concerns. A few cars a day have rolled into the dead-end street, but they did not get past the checkpoint. And a few neighbors who tried to walk past the house on Christmas Day were rebuffed by agents.

One man left with an aide a Christmas card addressed to the Obama family. It featured a palm tree with the word "peace" written on it.

Read more...

Obama To List Inaugural Donations Online

President-elect Barack Obama has already raised at least $10 million from 243 contributors for his inauguration and related activities, his inaugural committee revealed today.

The disclosure came as Obama’s inaugural staff launched a new Web-based public database of all donors, in yet another step towards upholding Obama’s pledge to run a transparent presidential transition.

The database allows users to search all donations of more than $200 to the inaugural committee, which aides promise will be posted within 48 hours of receipt.

The Web site also includes listings of all the committee’s bundlers – individuals who gather money from friends and colleagues to give to the inauguration.

The “guidelines we’ve released today set a new standard for openness for a Presidential Inaugural Committee,” John W. Rogers, Jr., Co-Chair of the 2009 Presidential Inaugural Committee, said in a release. “This tool demonstrates the new administration’s commitment to changing business-as-usual in Washington, DC.”

Read more...

Obama Taps Shaun Donovan As HUD Secretary

President-elect Barack Obama has named New York City housing official Shaun Donovan as his secretary of Housing and Urban Development, turning to a former Clinton administration official to help fight the impact of foreclosures in distressed cities.

Obama made the announcement in his weekly radio address on Saturday. He praised Donovan's role in helping create the largest municipal housing plan in the country. As commissioner of New York City's Department of Housing Preservation and Development, Donovan managed a $7.5 billion plan that put a half-million New Yorkers in affordable housing.

Read more...

President-elect Obama expected to select Nobel physicist Steven Chu as Energy secretary

Obama is also poised to pick Lisa Jackson as head of the EPA, and Carol Browner, a former EPA official, as a high-level coordinator on energy issues. Environmental groups praise the appointments.

Reporting from Washington -- President-elect Barack Obama will tap Nobel Prize-winning physicist Steven Chu as his Energy secretary and former New Jersey environmental protection commissioner Lisa Jackson as head of the Environmental Protection Agency, a senior Democrat said Wednesday.

In addition, Carol Browner, a former EPA administrator, will serve as a high-level coordinator on energy issues, reporting to the president.

The three incoming officials will help form the backbone of a team responsible for carrying out what Obama has repeatedly indicated will be an ambitious environmental agenda. They will be joined by Nancy Sutley, the Los Angeles deputy mayor whom Obama plans to name as the head of the White House Council on Environmental Quality, and a still-to-be-named Interior secretary.

The three newly designated officials bring experience working on climate change. Chu is the director of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, a government research lab in California that under his tenure has focused on alternative energy research and has pushed efforts to boost energy efficiency in buildings.

The son of Chinese immigrants, Chu won the Nobel for "development of methods to cool and trap atoms with laser light."

Jackson worked 16 years at the EPA before joining New Jersey's Department of Environmental Protection, which she was chosen to run in 2006. She also served on the board of the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, a cap-and-trade effort among northeastern states.

After Obama won the presidential election last month, he chose Jackson to advise him on energy and natural resource issues during the transition period.

Browner headed the EPA under President Clinton from 1993 to 2001, making her the agency's longest-serving director. She is a principal at the Albright Group, an investment advisory firm that focuses on emerging markets, and is leading Obama's energy and environment transition team. She also sits on the boards of the National Audubon Society and the Alliance for Climate Protection, among other environmental groups.

Environmentalists praised Obama's choices and said they underscored his commitment to fast action on renewable fuel development and carbon emissions reduction.

"These are. . . . wins for the environment," said Frances Beinecke, president of the National Resources Defense Council. She said the creation of a Browner's position "clearly demonstrates that leadership is going to come from the White House" on alternative energy.

A leading oil industry group offered no criticism of the appointments.

"We look forward to working with all the Obama appointees to come up with a comprehensive, fact-based and realistic energy policy that will benefit the American people," said Karen Matusic, a spokeswoman for the American Petroleum Institute.

The massive economic stimulus package Obama is preparing probably will include major investments in alternative energy development.

The president-elect met with former Vice President Al Gore this week to discuss climate change and declared afterward: "The time for denial is over. We all believe what the scientists have been telling us for years now, that this is a matter of urgency and national security, and it has to be dealt with in a serious way. That is what I intend my administration to do."

Today, Obama is expected to formally introduce former Sen. Tom Daschle (D-S.D.) as his nominee for Health and Human Services secretary, a Democratic official confirmed. the president-elect will also introduce other members of his healthcare team at a Chicago press conference.

Read more...