Across the country and even in other parts of the world, Americans gathered to watch one of the biggest sports moments of the year: the Super Bowl. Among those watching the American football championship game was President Obama, who invited some members of Congress both Democrats and Republicans to watch the big game at the White House.

Football fans watching the pre-game show saw NBCs live interview with Obama, who discussed serious topics like the economy and the war in Iraq, but also used the time to talk about football.

I think the Steelers are gonna eke it out in a close one, Obama said of the Pittsburgh team who faced the Arizona Cardinals. The president was right: With less than a minute in the game, the Steelers scored a game-winning touchdown. That was good news for the president, who had publicly stated he was rooting for the Steelers. The teams owner campaigned for Obama during 2008.

President Barack Obama, left, arrives in the East Room of the White House in Washington, Friday, Jan. 30, 2009, to sign a series of executive orders regarding the Middle Class Working Families Task Force. Standing from right are: National Economic Council Director Lawrence Summers; Domestic Policy Council head Melody Barnes; Education Secretary Arne Duncan; Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan; Budget Director Peter Orszag; and Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack.

On his tenth day in office President Obama will sign the Lilly Ledbetter Bill on pay equity. He will be joined by Michelle Obama who will give her first public speech as First Lady at a reception following the signing.

Earlier this morning, the first couple made a surprise visit to the Bethesda, Md. campus of Sidwell Friends School where their daughter Mailia,7, attends.

This afternoon the president will receive his daily and economic briefings before a meeting with senior advisors in the Oval Office. President Obama will also hold a meeting with Vice President Biden and Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner this afternoon before meeting with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. All of these meetings will take place in the Oval Office. Here is what is on tap, from the White House press office.

President Barack Obama responded Thursday to a front page story in the New York Times which reported that Wall Street handed out $18.4 billion in bonuses for the year, calling the payments “outrageous”

From the AP:

President Barack Obama issued a withering critique Thursday of Wall Street corporate behavior, calling it “the height of irresponsibility” for employees to be paid more than $18 billion in bonuses last year while their crumbling financial sector received a bailout from taxpayers. “It is shameful,” Obama said from the Oval Office. “And part of what we’re going to need is for the folks on Wall Street who are asking for help to show some restraint, and show some discipline, and show some sense of responsibility.”

The president’s comments, made with new Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner at his side, came in swift response to a report that employees of the New York financial world garnered an estimated $18.4 billion in bonuses last year. The figure, from the New York state comptroller, drew prominent news coverage.

From the Times’ article on Wall Street bonuses:

Despite crippling losses, multibillion-dollar bailouts and the passing of some of the most prominent names in the business, employees at financial companies in New York, the now-diminished world capital of capital, collected an estimated $18.4 billion in bonuses for the year.

That was the sixth-largest haul on record, according to a report released Wednesday by the New York State comptroller.

While the payouts paled next to the riches of recent years, Wall Street workers still took home about as much as they did in 2004, when the Dow Jones industrial average was flying above 10,000, on its way to a record high.

Some bankers took home millions last year even as their employers lost billions.

From the New York Times

By almost any measure, 2008 was a complete disaster for Wall Street except, that is, when the bonuses arrived.

Despite crippling losses, multibillion-dollar bailouts and the passing of some of the most prominent names in the business, employees at financial companies in New York, the now-diminished world capital of capital, collected an estimated $18.4 billion in bonuses for the year.

That was the sixth-largest haul on record, according to a report released Wednesday by the New York State comptroller.

While the payouts paled next to the riches of recent years, Wall Street workers still took home about as much as they did in 2004, when the Dow Jones industrial average was flying above 10,000, on its way to a record high.

Some bankers took home millions last year even as their employers lost billions.

The comptrollers estimate, a closely watched guidepost of the annual December-January bonus season, is based largely on personal income tax collections. It excludes stock option awards that could push the figures even higher.

The state comptroller, Thomas P. DiNapoli, said it was unclear if banks had used taxpayer money for the bonuses, a possibility that strikes corporate governance experts, and indeed many ordinary Americans, as outrageous. He urged the Obama administration to examine the issue closely.

The issue of transparency is a significant one, and there needs to be an accounting about whether there was any taxpayer money used to pay bonuses or to pay for corporate jets or dividends or anything else, Mr. DiNapoli said in an interview.

Granted, New Yorks bankers and brokers are far poorer than they were in 2006, when record deals, and the record profits they generated, ushered in an era of Wall Street hyperwealth. All told, bonuses fell 44 percent last year, from $32.9 billion in 2007, the largest decline in dollar terms on record.

But the size of that downturn partly reflected the lofty heights to which bonuses had soared during the bull market. At many banks, those payouts were based on profits that turned out to be ephemeral. Throughout the financial industry, years of earnings have vanished in the flames of the credit crisis.

According to Mr. DiNapoli, the brokerage units of New York financial companies lost more than $35 billion in 2008, triple their losses in 2007. The pain is unlikely to end there, and Wall Street is betting that the Obama administration will move swiftly to buy some of banks troubled assets to encourage reluctant banks to make loans.

Many corporate governance experts, investors and lawmakers question why financial companies that have accepted taxpayer money paid any bonuses at all. Financial industry executives argue that they need to pay their best workers well in order to keep them, but with many banks cutting jobs, job options are dwindling, even for stars.

Lucian A. Bebchuk, a professor at Harvard Law School and expert on executive compensation, called the 2008 bonus figure disconcerting. Bonuses, he said, are meant to reward good performance and retain employees. But Wall Street disbursed billions despite staggering losses and a shrinking job market.

This was neither the sixth-best year in terms of aggregate profits, nor was it the sixth-most-difficult year in terms of retaining employees, Professor Bebchuk said.

Echoing Mr. DiNapoli, Professor Bebchuk said he was concerned that banks might be using taxpayer money to subsidize bonuses or dividends to stockholders. What the government has been trying to do is shore up capital, and any diversion of capital out of banks, whether in the form of dividends or large payments to employees, really undermines what we are trying to do, he said.

Jesse M. Brill, a lawyer and expert on executive compensation, said government bailout programs like the Troubled Asset Relief Program, or TARP, should be made more transparent.

We are all flying in the dark, Mr. Brill said. Companies can simply say they are trying to do their best to comply with compensation limits without providing any of the details that the public is entitled to.

Bonuses paid by one troubled Wall Street firm, Merrill Lynch, have come under particular scrutiny during the last week.

Andrew M. Cuomo, the New York attorney general, has issued subpoenas to John A. Thain, Merrills former chief executive, and to an executive at Bank of America, which recently acquired Merrill, asking for information about Merrills decision to pay $4 billion to $5 billion in bonuses despite new, gaping losses that forced Bank of America to seek a second financial lifeline from Washington.

A Treasury department official said that in the coming weeks, the department would take action to further ensure taxpayer money is not used to pay bonuses.

Even though Wall Street spent billions on bonuses, New York firms squeezed rank-and-file executives harder than many companies in other fields. Outside the financial industry, many corporate executives received fatter bonuses in 2008, even as the economy lost 2.6 million jobs. According to data from Equilar, a compensation research firm, the average performance-based bonuses for top executives, other than the chief executive, at 132 companies with revenues of more than $1 billion increased by 14 percent, to $265,594, in the 2008 fiscal year.

For New York State and New York City, however, the leaner times on Wall Street will hurt, Mr. DiNapoli said.

Mr. DiNapoli said the average Wall Street bonus declined 36.7 percent, to $112,000. That is smaller than the overall 44 percent decline because the money was spread among a smaller pool following thousands of job losses.

The comptroller said the reduction in bonuses would cost New York State nearly $1 billion in income tax revenue and cost New York City $275 million.

According to The NY Post, President Obama is greasing the voting process a bit with some libations at the White House for lawmakers who are considering his stimulus bill.

WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama has invited Republican and Democratic lawmakers for drinks at the White House as they consider his economic recovery bill that still faces opposition.

White House aides say about two dozen key members of Congress were invited to the Executive Mansion Wednesday evening. The guest list includes six House Democrats, six House Republicans and five senators from each party.

The New York Times has more about the gathering:

One day after President Obama visited Capitol Hill, he is returning the favor by being host to about two dozen Democrats and Republicans on his turf. The event, scheduled to begin at 7:30 p.m., is the first-of-a-kind gathering in the new administration and the latest sign that Mr. Obama is attempting to build relationships with Congress.

The bipartisan affair is set to come shortly after the House considers the president’s economic stimulus bill. The roll call vote could make for some interesting conversation, particularly if the bulk of Republicans oppose the proposal as planned.

The reception will take place in the Red, Blue and Green rooms of the executive mansion.

Earlier in the day, the President expressed confidence that the bill would pass.

Looking beyond expected House approval of an $816 billion economic stimulus plan, President Barack Obama said Wednesday the nation is at a “perilous moment” requiring swift and decisive action…

During his talk and in the earlier Roosevelt Room session with business CEOs, Obama said the people running the companies that are the engine of the American economy are behind him. Asked at one point if he was confident of getting Republican support, he replied only: “I’m confident we’re going to get it passed.”

The Senate on Monday confirmed Timothy Geithner as Treasury secretary, brushing aside a tax controversy to install a key member of President Obamas Cabinet.

Senators voted 60-34 to approve Geithner, who revealed earlier this month that he failed to pay $34,000 in unpaid taxes from 2001 to 2004. Geithner has since paid off the tax debt and interest.

Republicans who crossed the aisle to support Geithners nomination included Sens. Bob Corker (Tenn.), John Cornyn (Texas), Mike Crapo (Idaho), John Ensign (Nev.), Lindsey Graham (S.C.), Judd Gregg (N.H.), Orrin Hatch (Utah), Richard Shelby (Ala.), Olympia Snowe (Maine) and George Voinovich (Ohio).

Democrats who bucked their party to oppose the nomination included Sens. Robert Byrd (W.Va.), Russ Feingold (Wis.) and Tom Harkin (Iowa). Sen. Bernie Sanders (Vt.), an independent who caucuses with Democrats, also opposed the nomination.

Sens. Kit Bond (R-Mo.), Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) and Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) missed the vote.

Democrats urged Geithners approval on grounds that the Treasury Department is in urgent need of immediate leadership and his tax delinquency had been adequately explained and corrected.

Its never not important, no matter if the economy is in crisis or not, Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) said. But the thing is, hes explained it.

The GOP was split between those who said Geithner performed poorly at a Finance Committee hearing last week Minority Whip Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.) called Geithners explanations implausible and those who lauded his background.

The position is important, but hes not the only person who can do the job, Kyl told The Hill. There are a lot of smart people who can do this job. And from a credibility standpoint, the person thats enforcing the IRS laws probably should not be somebody who has questions about his own income tax.

But even aside from that, I just dont think he was candid with me or the committee, and its not a good way to start out, with a feeling that theres a lack of candor from your nominee.

Some Republicans, such as Sen. Jim Bunning (Ky.), criticized Geithners record as president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and said the tax issue shows his judgment hasnt improved.

His failure to pay his own Social Security and Medicare taxes, despite clear evidence he knew he owed the taxes, reflects negligence or worse toward the law he will be responsible for enforcing, Bunning said.

The Republican split was evident after Geithners 18-5 Finance Committee approval vote last week.

Republicans who backed Geithner said that it was not worth blocking the nomination over the tax controversy and that his background was otherwise solid. Particularly strong support came from Hatch, who said the Senate has a duty to confirm nominees unless they are grossly incompetent or corrupt.

Hatch also said conservatives should be rejoicing at Geithners selection.

For my fellow conservatives who are very upset and up in arms about this, you are not going to get a better person for this job than Mr. Geithner, Hatch said. You better be darn happy the president has been willing to go to somebody who is a lot less ideological than any of us ever expected in this very, very important position.

President Obama is scheduled to visit the Pentagon tomorrow afternoon, where he is to meet with Defense Secretary Robert Gates and other military leaders about his plans to withdraw combat troops from Iraq while beefing up the U.S. military presence in Afghanistan.

Obama has called for the withdrawal of U.S. combat troops from Iraq within 16 months, a mission he conveyed to military leaders during a White House meeting last Wednesday, one day after taking office. Meanwhile, U.S. military commanders in Afghanistan have called for 30,000 more U.S. troops to be sent there to help stabilize a situation that Obama has described as “perilous.”

The visit to the Pentagon will be Obama’s first since taking office. The president made the State Department his first Cabinet department stop last Thursday, underscoring his administration’s stated intention of emphasizing diplomacy in foreign relations.

“That process that started at the beginning of this administration continues tomorrow at the Pentagon,” said White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs. “I think they’ll talk about a number of issues. Obviously, one of them will be Iraq and Afghanistan.”

President Obama, on his sixth day in office, called for direct “direct diplomacy” with Iran:

President Barack Obama’s administration will engage in “direct diplomacy” with Iran, the newly installed U.S. ambassador to the United Nations said Monday.

Not since before the 1979 Iranian revolution are U.S. officials believed to have conducted wide-ranging direct diplomacy with Iranian officials. But U.S. Ambassador Susan Rice warned that Iran must meet U.N. Security Council demands to suspend uranium enrichment before any talks on its nuclear program.

“The dialogue and diplomacy must go hand in hand with a very firm message from the United States and the international community that Iran needs to meet its obligations as defined by the Security Council. And its continuing refusal to do so will only cause pressure to increase,” she told reporters during a brief question-and-answer session.

On Monday night Obama gave his first formal interview as president to Arabic news network Al Arabiya, in which he reassured the Muslim world that “Americans are not your enemy.” As HuffPost’s Sam Stein reported:

Much of the interview was spent defining the new approach that the United States would implement in that region: respectfulness over divisiveness, listening over dictating, engagement over militarism. But the president drew the line when it came to terrorist organizations.

“Their ideas are bankrupt,” he told host Hisham Melhem, when asked to respond to recent audio clips from al Qaida leadership calling him various epithets. “There’s no actions that they’ve taken that say a child in the Muslim world is getting a better education because of them, or has better health care because of them.”

Obama also announced that his special envoy to the Middle East, George Mitchell, is departing on his first peace mission to help solidify a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas:

Obama spoke Monday in the Cabinet room, flanked by the newly named envoy, former Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell, and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton.

As he dispatched his new envoy, Obama said he did not expect immediate success from Mitchell’s mission. But he said he hoped this early dialogue from his administration would help open the way for an Israeli-Palestinian peace.

White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs also held a presser, discussing Obama’s foreign policy announcements and further developments on the creation of a stimulus package. Gibbs also admitted that the White House email system had broken.

President Obama on January 25th, his fifth day in office, received strong signals from leading Republican politicians and intellectuals that they would oppose his stimulus package as it is currently written.

House Minority Leader John Boehner and Senator John McCain voiced their opposition to the current stimulus plan on the Sunday morning talk shows.

Think Progress compiled a video of prominent conservative intellectuals Bill Kristol and Charles Krauthammer slamming the bailout as well. Watch the video below.

The other big news that emerged from Obama’s fifth day in office was his intention to reverse a Bush environmental policy that barred California from setting its own fuel-efficiency standards:

The attention to energy comes as Obama heads into his first full week as president, with an agenda dominated by economic woes and a push to get a huge stimulus plan through Congress.

In one key move, Obama is aiming to let California and other states set their own tailpipe emission standards _ without having to get a waiver from the Environmental Protection Administration, as has been the case. The policy change would furnish another alternative for reducing greenhouse gases, principally carbon dioxide, which contribute to global warming. It also would reverse a Bush era policy that put up legal obstacles to California’s go-it-alone stance.

And in another policy change, Obama is likely to order the Transportation Department to enact short-term rules on how automakers can improve the fuel efficiency of their new models.

President Bush was given an Iraqi-journalist-style sendoff on his last full day in office Monday, as tourists and demonstrators lobbed shoes, pumps, boots, sandals and Crocs from Pennsylvania Avenue onto the White House lawn.

Before launching the operation live, the shoe-chuckers took target practice in Dupont Circle on a 20-foot-tall blow up doll of the outgoing president, decked out in the flight suit he wore aboard the “Mission Accomplished” aircraft carrier.

Unlike Muntazer al-Zaidi, the Iraqi reporter who inspired the protest, none of the shoe-throwers in the group were arrested. (Later that day, reports NBC, one man was arrested for chucking a shoe at the White House.)

Marching down Connecticut Avenue with handfuls of footwear, the group of about a hundred was on the receiving end of enthusiastic honks, thumbs-up and waves from people in the street.

The reception was almost as warm from the people guarding the White House.

“Don’t hit me!” one officer behind the White House fence joked as shoes rained around him.

Tracey Primavera, a shoe-lobber from Provincetown, Massachusetts, shouted at the guard that she had a pump that would look nice on him.

“I tried that. It didn’t look good on me,” yelled back the officer. Primavera tossed him the pump anyway.

Tourists on Pennsylvania Avenue picked up shoes and lobbed them at the White House as well. “A lot of random people joined in,” noted one organizer, David Swanson. “Everybody wanted to be photographed with an “Arrest Bush” sign.

The tourists also joined a spontaneous chorus that formed. On the night of the election, thousands of people swarmed the White House and sang the old sports classic, “Hey, Hey, Hey, Goodbye.” The song made a reappearance Monday, as did a number of tunes apparently written for the occasion, with lyrics such as “Hang down your head, George Bush/Hang down your head in shame,” and “Take him to the Hague” — the latter sung to the tune of “Working on the Railroad.”

The target practice on the giant Bush doll began around 11:00 in the morning and was still going five hours later, as thousands of people walking through the circle stopped to pick up a shoe and wing it at the outgoing president. Some threw fastballs like al-Zaidi. Others tied several together in an attempt to land them on Bush’s long Pinocchio-esque nose. Children took part. (”Okay. One more shoe, kids,” said one parent.) Some folks simply walked up to the doll and kicked it in the shins. It fell over at one point and people rushed it, beating it with shoes.

Still others, like al-Zaidi, missed.

“Ah! I missed!” yelled Sharon Kerr, in town from Austin, Texas, after chucking wide of her presidential mark. She said that she felt a little like the Iraqi reporter for missing. But she noted in his defense, “He had people blocking him.”

Kerr began to leave the circle but stopped. “I’m gonna go one more time. I’m gonna nail him this time,” she said before winding up and striking him cleanly in the belt.

Cheryl Upshaw, in from Atlanta and sporting a full-length fur coat, hit the Bush doll high on the shoulder. “I was really trying to aim for his heart,” said Upshaw, a registered nurse who owns a home healthcare agency. The throw was cathartic, she said, and it seemed to relieve some of her anger.

“It’s not that I hate him,” she clarified. “I don’t hate him personally. I hate what he has done to this country.”

Medea Benjamin, a cofounder of the antiwar group CODEPINK, said the protest was a way to “get the Bush era out of your intestines.”

“I was a little reluctant because I want to be in a positive mood,” she said. “I don’t want to be seen as doing something violent. The shoe-throwing is borderline, but the intent is to insult, not to hurt. There’s a fine line.”

Once all the shoes had been tossed onto the White House lawn, the officers collected them and piled them into the back of a small truck. “The next person who throws them gets arrested,” said one, though the entire pile had already been thrown.

As the protesters headed back toward Dupont Circle, a Secret Service agent left them with a parting observation.

“You all won,” he said.