KAILUA, Hawaii (Reuters) - U.S. President-elect Barack Obama received a rousing homecoming on Saturday when he and his family jetted to his birthplace of Hawaii for a 12-day vacation, his first visit since winning the U.S. presidential election in November.
 
Obama left behind Chicago’s slushy, snow-covered streets and semi-frozen Lake Michigan for the balmy tropical weather of Hawaii.
 
The president-elect was accompanied by his wife, Michelle, and daughters, Malia and Sasha. Aides say they will be joined later on the holiday by close Chicago friends Valerie Jarrett, Martin Nesbitt, Eric Whitaker and their families.
 
Obama last visited Hawaii in October, making a 23-hour stopover in the midst of the election campaign to see his ailing grandmother, Madelyn Payne Dunham, 86, who did not live to see her grandson elected the United States’ first African American president. She died two days before the election.
 
Obama is due to attend a private memorial service for her sometime next week, an aide said.
 
People lined the streets and some motorists left their vehicles to wave, cheer and take photographs as Obama’s motorcade traveled from Honolulu airport to the upscale suburb of Kailua, where the president-elect is renting a house for the holidays.
 
In his memoir “Dreams From My Father”, Obama wrote evocatively about the islands where he was born and largely raised, calling it “this chain of emerald rock.”
 
“Even now, with the state’s population quadrupled, with Waikiki jammed wall-to-wall with fast-food emporiums and pornographic video stores and subdivisions marching relentlessly into every fold of green hill, I can retrace the first steps I took as a child and be stunned by the beauty of the islands,” he wrote.
 
With the president-elect still to appoint a new intelligence director and head of the CIA, it will not be all play during the family vacation. Aides said he would be working and receiving his daily intelligence briefing.
 
The holiday will not be interrupted, however, by the release of an internal report detailing contacts his aides had with Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, who has been charged with trying to sell Obama’s Senate seat, among other alleged crimes.
   
An aide told journalists traveling with Obama that the president-elect did not plan to hold a news conference to release the report, which the aide said could be expected before Christmas Day.

President George W. Bush threw a lifeline to the U.S. auto industry Friday.
 
The president announced a $17.4 billion government loan program for two ailing U.S. carmakers and gave them until March 31 to prove they can become viable.
 
“There’s too great a risk that bankruptcy now would lead to a disorderly liquidation of American auto companies,” Bush said in an address from the White House.
 
“My economic advisers believe that such a collapse would deal an unacceptably painful blow to hardworking Americans far beyond the auto industry.”
 
The U.S. stock markets opened higher on the news. Some of Bush’s fellow Republicans in Congress, who helped kill a recent bailout effort there, expressed frustration.
 
Rep. Tom Price of Georgia said it was “deeply disappointing that the administration has chosen to use taxpayer dollars to delay the inevitable need to fundamentally restructure these companies.”
 
The Bush announcement came as President-elect Barack Obama was getting ready for his fifth news conference in as many days.
 
The Democratic president-elect is expected to announce his picks for labor secretary, transportion secretary and U.S. trade representative at the 2:15 p.m. EST conference.
 
Retiring Illinois Rep. Ray LaHood, a Republican, is being tapped as the transportation secretary. Former Dallas Mayor Ron Kirk, a partner at a Houston law firm, is the trade representative, and California Rep. Hilda Solis is the labor secretary choice.
 
Morning television focused on the severe weather across parts of the country and the death of Mark Felt, the former FBI official who was the mysterious “Deep Throat” source for Washington Post reporters during the Watergate investigation.
 
Felt, the No. 2 official at the FBI at the time, provided guidance to reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein as they pieced together the scandal that ultimatedly prompted the resignation of President Richard Nixon.
 
Felt, who was 95, kept his role in the story a secret for 30 years, finally making his part known in a 2005 Vanity Fair article written by his family lawyer. The New York Times called him “the most famous anonymous source in American history.”

Meanwhile, Bush attended the unveiling of his portrait at the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery.

“I suspected there would be a good-size crowd,” he said, “once the word got out about my hanging.”

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Photo credit: Reuters/Jim Young (Bush at unveiling of his portrait at National Portrait Gallery); Reuters/Lou Dematteis (Felt at his home in 2005)

President-elect Barack Obama is seeking peace at his inauguration, but gay and lesbians see his choice of pastor as a nakedly political continuation of war.

“It is important for America to come together, even though we may have disagreements on certain social issues,” the prez-elect said, defending his choice of Saddleback Church Pastor Rick Warren — a same-sex marriage opponent. Obama said he personally would continue be a fierce advocate for equality for gay and lesbian Americans.

Equality California chief Geoff Kors said the decision amounted to choosing someone who ‘declared war on one minority community’.

Warren’s evangelical ministry is known more for its focus on social issues than many other evangelical pastors seen as strong political conservatives.

He calls his grand plan PEACE: Promote reconciliation, Equip leaders, Assist the poor, Care for the sick, Educate the next generation.

So is it war or peace?

Obama says the expression of diverse views was the spirit of his campaign that he hopes to carry over to his administration, starting on Jan 20 with his inauguration, where others who disagree with Pastor Warren will also speak.

“And that’s how it should be, because that’s what America is about,” Obama told reporters. “That’s part of the magic of this country – that we are diverse and noisy and opinionated.” 

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Photo credit: Reuters/Chip East (Pastor Rick Warren speaks at Clinton Global Initiative in New York on Sept. 26, 2008)

WASHINGTON - The economy is in tatters and job losses abound, but there are pay raises to be had in these trying times.

You just have to get elected.

Joe Biden, who will become vice president on Jan. 20, will receive a salary of $227,300 — $6,200 more than predecessor Dick Cheney. Close behind is House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who will get a $6,100 jump to $223,500.  

Senators and members of Congress will get a $4,700 increase, bringing their salaries up to $174,000. House and Senate leaders’ salaries will rise to $193,400 from $188,100.

President George W. Bush issued an executive order on Thursday to provide the annual cost-of-living increase.  ”Every year the president issues this in December or January and it takes place in the first applicable pay period after Jan. 1,” White House spokesman Carlton Carroll said.

The government increases pale compared with huge year-end Wall Street bonuses that can rocket the recipient into the millionaire category.

WASHINGTON - Women are set to make history next month in the 220-year-old U.S. Senate.

For the first time since the Senate opened its doors in 1789, a pair of female lawmakers are in line to lead one of the chamber’s full committees.

Democratic Sen. Mary Landrieu of Louisiana is set to chair the Small Business Committee and Sen. Olympia Snowe of Maine is positioned to serve as the panel’s top Republican.

“It is a distinguished honor to join Senator Landrieu during this historic moment that will further empower women to pursue leadership roles within our country,” Snowe said.

To be sure, men dominate the Senate and American politics. But women have made big and high-profile gains in recent years.

At least 16 women will be U.S. senators next year, perhaps 17 depending on who succeeds Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York.

Clinton, who barely lost the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination, will surrender her Senate seat after her anticipated confirmation next month as Barack Obama’s secretary of state.

Among the contenders to replace Clinton is another woman, Caroline Kennedy, daughter of former President John F. Kennedy and a niece of Sen. Edward Ted Kennedy.

REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque (women U.S. senators in January 2007)

REUTERS/Brian Snyder (Caroline Kennedy Schlossberg listens at a Harvard event)

WASHINGTON - Rock bands Pearl Jam and R.E.M., the founder of Craigslist, consumer activists and others who backed Barack Obama’s technology-fueled presidential win told the Illinois Democrat on Thursday that they expect him to return the favor.

They were among more than 100 organizations that sent a letter to Obama, who takes office Jan. 20, urging him to lift “the stranglehold industry lobbyists have had on communications policy, and put the public’s priorities first.”

Citing Obama’s words back to him in bullet points, the letter reminded the president-elect of his campaign support for net neutrality, universal broadband and other web-friendly positions. It referred to an Obama speech at Google headquarters where he vowed to “take a back seat to no one in my commitment to net neutrality.”

The fight over so-called net neutrality pits Google and Microsoft against AT&T and some Internet service providers, which want more flexibility to control web traffic by setting higher prices for certain content.

Obama has yet to choose nominees to lead the Federal Communications Commission, which sets telecom policy, or the Federal Trade Commission, which is charged with consumer protection.

Obama’s promise to create a new chief technology officer for the U.S. government is also eagerly awaited by groups that signed the letter. “We look forward to working with the leaders you will appoint,” it said.

The letter was organized by the media advocacy group Free Press and signers included Craigslist founder Craig Newmark; labor group Service Employees International Union; think tank New America Foundation; Consumers Union; American Library Association; National Organization for Women and activist group Moveon.org.

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- Photo credit: Reuters/Mario Anzuoni (Eddie Vedder of Pearl Jam performs in July.)

Don’t look for Condoleezza Rice to get all sentimental about waving goodbye to Washington after the Bush administration leaves office on Jan. 20.

It’s no secret that the Secretary of State plans to go back to California. But will she miss life in the U.S. capital?

“No,” Rice said, laughing, in a CNN interview.

She has been a top adviser to President George W. Bush for eight years — first as national security adviser before moving to the State Department in 2005.

Before joining the Bush administration, Rice was provost at Stanford University in Palo Alto, California, and she’s ready to return to the Golden State.

“It’s not that I haven’t loved being here,” Rice said, referring to Washington.

“But the truth of the matter is, from the first time that my family crossed the Kansas border into Colorado when I was six, I knew I should live west of the Mississippi,” said Rice, who was born in Birmingham, Alabama. “I just love the West. It’s open and it’s different and it’s entrepreneurial.”

Rice said she is fond of some of the cities in the East but ”really, really loves being West.”

WASHINGTON - The Bush dynasty in Washington may not be over just yet.

Even as President George W. Bush is packing his bags to head to Texas after eight years in the White House, he is stirring up a little political curiosity about his “little” brother Jeb possibly running for the U.S. Senate seat in Florida.

In an interview with the blog RealClearPolitics published this week, President Bush was asked if Jeb Bush, the former governor of Florida, would be part of comeback by Republicans in 2010 after a drubbing in the last two congressional elections.

“He would be an awesome U.S. senator,” Bush replied. The seat up in 2010 is being vacated by Republican Sen. Mel Martinez who decided earlier this month not to run for another term.

Political analysts expect the Florida race to be one of the most competitive and he would join a few other potential family dynasty extensions if Caroline Kennedy is picked for the New York Senate seat Hillary Clinton is vacating soon, and then runs in 2010, and if Vice President-elect Joe Biden’s son Beau runs for his father’s seat.

Jeb Bush is considering a run but is not expected to make a decision before the end of the year. Pushed about whether Republicans need him in the race, the president of course threw his support to his sibling.

“I think the party would benefit a lot by having Jeb Bush in the U.S. Senate,” Bush said. “I think Florida would benefit a lot. I think the country would benefit a lot. And I think the Republican Party would benefit a lot. He is a proven leader who, when given responsibilities, succeeded.”

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- Photo credit: Reuters/Kevin Lamarque (The Bush men together after christening an aircraft carrier named after President George H.W. Bush in 2006.)

President-elect Barack Obama is almost done with his first chore.

Obama, who takes office on Jan. 20, holds a news conference in Chicago on Wednesday to announce he has picked former Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack to head the agriculture department and Colorado Sen. Ken Salazar as interior secretary.

With those selections, Obama moves closer to filling the last of the Cabinet posts in his administration, with nominees for transportation, labor and U.S. Trade Representative still to be named. 

It is a rapid pace for the next president, who has moved faster than his recent predecessors in making Cabinet selections. He hoped to have most of them out of the way before he heads to Hawaii on vacation at the end of the week. 

Detroit’s Big Three automakers hope Bush administration officials move as fast, as they wait for word on a bailout that could keep them solvent. 

Senior Democratic lawmakers said on Monday they expected action from the Bush administration as early as Wednesday on financing that would likely take the stricken companies through early 2009. 

But the administration said on Tuesday a decision was not imminent. The Senate failed last week to approve a $14 billion bailout package for Detroit, leaving the Bush administration as the only option for immediate help.

The network morning news shows were filled with talk about the cold and wintry weather hitting large stretches of the country and the resolution in Florida of one of Americas’s best-known unsolved crimes –  the kidnap and killing 27 years ago of Adam Walsh, the 6-year-old son of John Walsh, who led a movement to protect children from predators and became a leading voice for missing children.  Florida police announced the killer was Ottis Toole, a longtime suspect who died in prison in 1996.

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REUTERS/Kimberly White (former Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack)

REUTERS/Larry Downing (Colorado Sen. Ken Salazar)

REUTERS/Chip East (Snow in New York City)

If you thought that shoe-throwing episode in Baghdad was odd, you’re not alone — President George W. Bush thought so too.
 
“It has got to be one of the most weird moments of my presidency,” he told CNN in an interview Tuesday. “Here I am getting ready to answer questions from a free press in a democratic Iraq and a guy stands up and throws a shoe.”
 
What was going through his mind? Not much it seems.
 
“I didn’t have much time to reflect on anything. I was ducking and dodging,” Bush said.
 
Throwing shoes at someone is considered a supreme insult in Iraq, a shoe being considered dirty. People whacked Saddam Hussein’s statue in Baghdad with shoes after it was toppled during the U.S. invasion.
 
Bush says he doesn’t harbor any anger toward the Iraqi TV journalist Muntazer al-Zaidi for attacking him. Al-Zaidi has been cheered by some in the Arab world for his action, but he faces potential criminal charges in Baghdad.
 
“I’m not even sure what his status is,” Bush said. “They shouldn’t overreact.”
 
Bush told CNN the most important decision he made during his presidency was “sending troops into harm’s way,” and not once but twice — in Iraq and Afghanistan.
 
“The reason it’s the most important is because it’s the most consequential,” he said
 
“It is a decision that no president should ever take lightly and every president should take a lot of time thinking about it because lives will be lost,” Bush added.
 
Asked if he ever revisited the decision, Bush said he sometimes thought about it but usually “with a concern about whether or not we would succeed.”
 
“In Iraq, I was deeply concerned about whether or not we would succeed,” he said, adding that was especially true in 2006. “A lot of people in Washington were saying, let’s get out now. And I obviously chose not to do that.  But, that was a very difficult period.”
 
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Photo credit: Reuters/Reuters TV (Bush ducks a shoe during a news conference in Baghdad Dec. 14)