The Kremlin announced Tuesday that Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has submitted an amendment to extend the presidential term from four to six years. News agencies speculate that Medvedev’s move might allow former leader, Vladimir Putin, to seek the seat ahead of scheduled 2012 elections. As the law stands now, a president can serve two back-to-back four-year terms but then must step down. However, the law does not prohibit him from running again after that. Why change the law? In it’s statement, the Kremlin says Establishing a longer term of office for the President with respect to State Duma deputies speaks…
Yearly Archives: 2008
Rawhide. Eagle. Tumbler. And now Renegade. That last one is President-elect Barack Obama’s Secret Service code name, the Chicago Tribune said yesterday. The Secret Service has used code names to describe the officials, family members and other notable figures they are assigned to protect since President Truman was dubbed General. Sometimes they make sense — President Reagan was Rawhide, probably because he was sometimes described as a cowboy, and Pope John Paul II was Halo. Eagle, President Clinton’s code name, is OK, if somewhat generic for a president.
Today we honor the service of the nearly 24 million military veterans living in the U.S. As such, we thought we’d share with you some facts about these brave men and women courtesy of the Census Bureau. •1.8 million veterans are women •2.4 million are black, 1.1 million are Hispanic, 278,000 are Asian, 165,000 are American Indian or Alaska natives, 27,000 are native Hawaiians or Pacific Islanders and 18.7 million are white. •9.3 million are older than 65 and 1.9 million are younger than 35. •2.9 million served in World War II, 3 million served in Korea, 7.9 million served…
A new Capitol Visitor Center. The center opened for media tours today, giving reporters and photographers their first chance to see the space that will soon greet every visitor to the Capitol. The space is located underground on the east front of the Capitol, but soaring skylights give you close up views of the Capitol dome, making you hardly feel like you’re in a basement or bunker. The CVC, which opens to the public Dec. 2, has been decades in the making. Like any government project, it took years to get underway, with construction starting six years ago. The initial…
I’m at an event on economic stimulus and financial regulation sponsored by the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget. The group is projecting a staggering $1 trillion deficit for fiscal year 2009, driven largely by the cost of reviving the slumping economy: bailouts for financial firms, diminished tax returns and an economic stimulus package. The irony is that, while government spending as a whole is skyrocketing, individual agency budgets may not see that much of an increase. That’s because much of the new spending is either handed out directly in a stimulus package — to states, businesses and taxpayers —…
As if the fact the General Services Administration is supplying 120,000 square feet of office space to house the Obama transition team isn’t evidence enough of the scale of the event, FedLine has more numbers for you to chew on. The office space is outfitted with enough desks, computers, telephones, chairs and assorted other office supplies to support 500 people, said Gail Lovelace, GSA’s chief human capital officer, who is overseeing the transition. And Congress has appropriated $5.3 million to pay for it all. Lovelace said the exact location of the office is still being kept under wraps because the…
With his approval ratings at historic lows and the nation’s focus shifting to the incoming Obama administration, President Bush has a tough time garnering much attention these days. But hundreds of career and political employees who work at the Executive Office of the President gave Bush a rousing reception yesterday on the South Lawn of the White House. Flanked by his Cabinet and joined by First Lady Laura Bush, Vice President Cheney and Cheney’s wife Lynne, Bush congratulated Barack Obama for winning the election and urged federal employees to make the transition to a new administration as smooth as possible. Joking about his graying hair and First…
President-elect Barack Obama just held his first news conference, and I was struck by how much attention is focused on him — and how little on President Bush. Obama had to remind reporters a half-dozen times that “I am not the president until Jan. 20.” Any sitting president is a lame duck between the election and the inauguration, but it seems Bush has become especially marginalized. How does this impact your agency? Do you feel like the focus on the next administration means a lack of direction at the end of this administration?
Sen. Robert Byrd, D-W.Va., announced this afternoon he’s stepping down as chairman of the powerful Senate Appropriations Committee, effective Jan. 6, 2009. But Byrd, who’s never know for his succinctness, started out his statement with a little (unintentional?) humor. To everything there is a season and a time for every purpose under heaven.†Which, of course, is a verse from Ecclesiastes from the Bible. But it’s also a lyric from the famous song by the sixties group The Byrds. The Byrds? Sen. Byrd? Oh, we’re just cracking ourselves up here. But seriously folks, Byrd’s expected to take on an honorary…
Congress’ watchdog arm, the Government Accountability Office, put out a list today of the 13 most urgent issues facing President-elect Barack Obama and the incoming Congress. The list includes such no-brainers as the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, oversight of the financial market, and protecting the homeland. But it also includes a few head-scratchers — transitioning to digital television and carrying out the 2010 Census, to name two — that are even more curious when you consider what didn’t make GAO’s cut. Things like securing energy independence, reforming Medicare and Social Security, and providing health care to all Americans. So what gives? Chris…