The President-elect also named Karen Mills as Administrator of the Small Business Administration and former Mayor Ron Kirk as United States Trade Representative.

Hilda has always been an advocate for everyday people. When she received an award several years ago, she said, “Fighting for what is just is not always popular, but it is necessary.” And that is exactly what she has done throughout her career, blazing new trails every step of the way. Whether it’s creating green jobs that pay well and can’t be outsourced or expanding access to affordable health care or raising the minimum wage in California, Hilda has been a champion of our middle class. And I know that Hilda will show the same kind of leadership as Secretary of Labor that she showed in California and on the Education and Labor Committee by protecting workers’ rights – from organizing to collective bargaining, from keeping our workplaces safe to making our unions strong. [...]

Few understand our infrastructure challenge better than the outstanding public servant I am asking to lead the Department of Transportation – Ray LaHood. As a Congressman from Illinois, Ray served six years on the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, leading efforts to modernize our aviation system by renewing our aging airports and ensuring that air traffic controllers were using cutting edge technology. Throughout his career, Ray has fought to improve mass transit and invest in our highways. But he has not only helped rebuild our landscape, he has helped beautify it by creating opportunities for bikers and runners to enjoy our great outdoors. When I began this appointment process, I said I was committed to finding the best person for the job, regardless of party. Ray’s appointment reflects that bipartisan spirit – a spirit we need to reclaim in this country to make progress for the American people.

Congress wanted to guarantee that the $700 billion financial bailout would limit the eye-popping pay of Wall Street executives, so lawmakers included a mechanism for reviewing executive compensation and penalizing firms that break the rules.

But at the last minute, the Bush administration insisted on a one-sentence change to the provision, congressional aides said. The change stipulated that the penalty would apply only to firms that received bailout funds by selling troubled assets to the government in an auction, which was the way the Treasury Department had said it planned to use the money.

Now, however, the small change looks more like a giant loophole, according to lawmakers and legal experts. In a reversal, the Bush administration has not used auctions for any of the $335 billion committed so far from the rescue package, nor does it plan to use them in the future. Lawmakers and legal experts say the change has effectively repealed the only enforcement mechanism in the law dealing with lavish pay for top executives.

The nation’s employers shed 533,000 jobs in November, the 11th consecutive monthly decline, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Friday. Not since December 1974, toward the end of a severe recession, have so many jobs disappeared in a single month, and the current recession appears to be just gathering steam. [...]

The unemployment rate rose to 6.7 percent, up just two-tenths of a percentage point from October, but six-tenths over the last three months. More significantly, the unemployment rate does not include all those too discouraged to look for work any longer or those working fewer hours than they would like. That “underutilization” rate, as the bureau calls it, rose to a record 12.5 percent in November, up 1.5 percentage points since September.

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Governor Richardson was re-elected to a second term in 2006. He previously served as a member of the House of Representatives for fifteen years, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations and as Secretary of Energy during the Clinton administration.

Check out pictures from this historic announcement.

Washington Post reports:

"Immediately after I become president, I'm going to confront this economic crisis head on by taking all necessary steps to ease the credit crisis, help hardworking families and restore growth and prosperity," Obama said in Chicago. [...]

Obama spoke after he and Vice President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. met in Chicago with a team of 17 economic advisers who are helping to plan the transition to an Obama administration. The advisers, including current and former government officials, business executives and university professors, convened amid more dismal news on the state of the U.S. economy.

I believe that Obama's inspirational leadership, contemplative nature and well-reasoned, forward-looking policies offer our troubled nation a real opportunity to face and overcome its many challenges at home and abroad.

On an array of domestic issues, including health care, education, tax policy, the environment and alternative energy sources, Obama promises a clean break from the recent past and tangible hope for a return to fiscal responsibility, economic security and true environmental stewardship, all of which are essential to restoring our greatness. Now, Obama must be aware of the hopes that he has raised through his discussion of these issues. Many people will rightly take his words as his commitment and will judge him accordingly.

On the international front, his thoughtful and responsible approach to extricating our troops from Iraq, reallocating our finite resources elsewhere in the war on terrorism, and reviving effective use of our diplomatic corps all warrant our support. To be successful in these endeavors, Obama must be an active student of history. In attempting to bring peace to the Middle East, for example, he should recognize that the United States has played a role in the region since Franklin Roosevelt went to Saudi Arabia to meet with King Abdul-Aziz. Obama must appreciate that he is not writing on an empty page and will need to be sensitive to that which has come before him.

Obama represents the better choice to successfully address the issues that dramatically affect the health and well-being of our nation today. The fact that he is also a black American adds special significance for me as someone who was witness to and participated in at least a part of the past century's discourse on civil rights.

Mathias served in the House of Representatives from 1961 until 1969 when he was elected to the U.S. Senate and served until 1987.

Notable for their absence were two people who were close advisers in the early phases of Mr. McCain’s campaign: former Senator Phil Gramm and Carly Fiorina, the former chief executive of Hewlett-Packard. Both have been shunted off to Siberia, not because of policy disagreements but as the result of gaffes that reflected badly on the Republican candidate.

Mr. Gramm, now a banker, was the co-chairman of Mr. McCain’s campaign and an early favorite to be Secretary of the Treasury in a McCain Administration until July, when he told The Washington Times that Americans are “a nation of whiners” and the country was experiencing a recession that was “mental” rather than real.

Ms. Fiorina got herself into hot water in September, after saying that none of the four candidates on the two national tickets have the experience required to run a large company like hers.

If a recent poll of economists conducted by the British magazine The Economist is to be believed, many more professionals in the field favor Senator Barack Obama and his team than Mr. McCain. Of the participants in Monday morning’s event, only one can be described as a heavyweight economist: John B. Taylor, a professor at Stanford University who was Under Secretary of the Treasury for international affairs during the first administration of George W. Bush and has also worked for the Council of Economic Advisers and the Congressional Budget Office.

Pressler, who said that in addition to casting an absentee ballot for Obama he'd donated $500 to the Illinois senator's campaign, cited the Democrat's response to the financial crisis as the primary reason for his decision.

"I just got the feeling that Obama will be able to handle this financial crisis better, and I like his financial team of [former Treasury Secretary Robert] Rubin and [former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul] Volcker better," he said. By contrast, John McCain's "handling of the financial crisis made me feel nervous."

The former senator added that he hoped the next president would help place restraints on executive pay, and said: "I don't think [McCain] will take action in that area, or he's as likely to."

Pressler joins a continuously growing and long list of Republicans to support Senator Barack Obama.

STUDENT: I still don't see how that's fair...aren't we getting closer and closer to Socialism and stuff...?

MCCAIN: Look, here's what I really believe: That when you are, when you reach a certain level of comfort, there's nothing wrong with paying somewhat more. But at the same time it shouldn't be totally out of proportion.

Watch the full clip:

Middle-class tax cuts -- exactly what Senator Barack Obama is proposing and John McCain continues to distort. Get the facts and find out what kind of tax cut you would get under the Obama plan.

In recent weeks, Senator Obama has stressed his targeted tax cuts for 95 percent of hard-working Americans, and independent studies continue to show that the middle class would benefit more from Obama's plan. The Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, says Senator Obama's plan is better for the middle-class. Not convinced yet? Try this.

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