Sunday, November 30, 2008

Swiss appear to be approving heroin program

Sent from Express News
BERN, Switzerland - A pioneering Swiss program to give addicts government-authorized heroin was overwhelmingly approved Sunday, according to projections that showed voters simultaneously rejecting the decriminalization of marijuana.

Projections based on initial voting results indicated that 69 percent of voters approved making the heroin program permanent. It has been credited with reducing crime and improving the health and daily lives of addicts since it began 14 years ago.
By BALZ BRUPPACHER Associated Press Writer

Official: MSNBC pundit may seek Pa. Senate seat

Sent from Express News
HARRISBURG, Pa. - A Pennsylvania Democratic party leader says MSNBC pundit Chris Matthews may be considering a run for U.S. Senate in 2010.

The Patriot-News of Harrisburg reports Matthews met with state party leaders this past week in Washington to discuss a possible bid to unseat Republican Sen. Arlen Specter.
The Associated Press

Officials: Obama set to introduce Clinton Monday

Sent from Express News
A deal with Bill Clinton over his post-White House work helped clear the way for Hillary Rodham Clinton to join President-elect Barack Obama's national security team as secretary of state, reshaping a once-bitter rivalry into a high-profile strategic and diplomatic union.

Obama was to be joined by the New York senator at a Chicago news conference Monday, Democratic officials said, where he also planned to announce that Defense Secretary Robert Gates would remain in his job for a year or more and that retired Marine General James M. Jones would serve as national security adviser.
By BETH FOUHY Associated Press Writer

Saturday, November 29, 2008

After absentee ballot loss, Franken eyes options

Sent from Express News
ST. PAUL, Minn. - Minnesota's U.S. Senate showdown is veering down a path toward the courts and possibly the Senate itself after a panel's ruling on rejected absentee ballots dealt a blow to Democrat Al Franken's chances.

For the first time, his campaign on Wednesday openly discussed mounting challenges after the hand recount involving Franken and Republican Sen. Norm Coleman concludes. That includes the possibility of drawing the Senate into the fracas.

By BRIAN BAKST Associated Press Writer

Candidates crowd field for Emanuel replacement

All eyes turn to GT12 Central's 'hood...

Sent from Express News
CHICAGO - Clout-heavy Chicago politicians are lining up to replace U.S. Rep. Rahm Emanuel, prompting some experts to wonder if the local Democratic party will split on whom to anoint as his successor.

The strength of the contenders may make it tough for Democrats to unite behind one candidate for the congressional seat. Also in question is whether Mayor Richard Daley will name a favorite.

Emanuel, 48, has accepted the job as chief of staff to President-elect Barack Obama and is expected to step down soon, leaving two years on his second term with more than 180 days before the next election. Under Illinois law, that means a special election will be held to replace him.

In a city where Democrats rule, the party stamp of approval usually assures a candidate's victory. Emanuel was the Democrats' endorsed candidate when he ran for his seat as representative of the 5th district on Chicago's far northwest side. So was the person Emanuel replaced, now-Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich.

But it's possible that the next person won't be endorsed by the party, said University of Illinois-Chicago political science professor and former city alderman Dick Simpson.

The contenders for Emanuel's seat include many with strong claims to the district - which may result in a divided vote that gives no one a majority or an endorsement, Simpson said. Daley may not endorse a candidate for fear of alienating others who want the spot, attorney and columnist Russ Stewart said.

Candidates include 38th Ward Alderman Thomas Allen, 47th Ward Alderman Gene Schulter, Cook County Commissioner Mike Quigley and state Reps. John Fritchey and Nancy Kaszak.

"The endorsement is critical. If you have an open primary with no endorsement and warring fiefdoms, the candidate with the broadest appeal is going to win," Stewart said. In Chicago, he said, it's rare for an election to play out without the Democratic Party or Daley tipping the scales.

Emanuel's office has not returned phone messages seeking comment on when he might resign.

City authorities would like the special primary and general election to correspond with suburban elections already planned for February and April and have sent Blagojevich a written plea to that effect, said Jim Allen, spokesman for the Chicago Board of Elections.

"That would minimize costs and minimize voter confusion," he said.

Blagojevich's office said Thursday they received the request but had no other comment.

By RUPA SHENOY Associated Press Writer

AP poll: Few Obama, McCain backers were unwavering

Sent from Express News
WASHINGTON - Inch by inch, voter by voter, Barack Obama and John McCain labored for more than a year to lock down supporters and woo defectors. It turns out, though, that the nation's voters were a lot more fickle than commonly expected, and far more prone to switch allegiances.

An Associated Press-Yahoo News poll that tracked the same group of about 2,000 adults throughout the long campaign reveals a lively churning beneath the surface as people shifted their loyalties - some more than once.

Count Republican Kelly Townsend of Abilene, Texas, among them.

Townsend, 50, saw McCain as a "good person," and supported him early on. But eventually she abandoned the Arizona senator in favor of Obama.

As for McCain, she concluded, "I just think he's hot-tempered and a little bit of a warmonger."

Over the long haul, 17 percent of those who eventually voted for Obama had expressed support for McCain at least once in a series of 10 AP-Yahoo News polls conducted since November 2007, before the party primaries began. And 11 percent of McCain's eventual supporters had backed Obama at least once.

Conventional political wisdom says it can be pretty much taken for granted that most voters lean sharply left or right and commit to one candidate early on, and the real campaign fight is over a small slice of undecided voters in the middle.

But like much of the conventional wisdom in this anything-but-typical election year, that may be wrong. Election polls that showed only gradual shifts in support for Obama and McCain were masking a much more volatile electorate. Few voters made unwavering, long-term commitments to either candidate.

"In fact, things are a lot less locked down than they might appear in public," said Bill McInturff, who was McCain's campaign pollster. "And it's why you don't stop campaigning."

Just 28 percent of those saying they voted for Democrat Obama, and 27 percent saying they backed Republican McCain on Election Day, said they would vote for that party's candidate in all 10 AP-Yahoo News polls.

And just half of those surveyed supported their ultimate choice unwaveringly in AP-Yahoo News polls since June, when both parties' nominees were known. Just six in 10 of both Obama's and McCain's voters backed their contender in those surveys without exception since September, when the general election campaign began in earnest.

That's a contrast with most public opinion surveys. They showed Obama with a modest lead for much of the summer, McCain taking a slight edge after the two party conventions, then Obama building a telling advantage into the fall as the economic situation spiraled downward.

Those abandoning one candidate were often canceled out by others gravitating to him, resulting in little net change in the candidates' overall support. Yet the frenetic, beneath-the-radar movement helps explain why the two political parties spent hundreds of millions of dollars this year. They needed to constantly woo new supporters while keeping those they thought they already had from defecting.

Stephen Ansolabehere, a Harvard University political scientist who has studied voting behavior, said such movement has been especially pronounced lately. He cited Republican defections because of unhappiness with President George W. Bush and the war in Iraq, uncertainty over which party could best address the economic meltdown and this year's influx of young and other first-time voters.

"Right now there are a lot of voters who are kind of up for grabs on a long-term basis, not just for a short-term campaign," he said.

Party labels, as always, had strong sway over how people voted, according to the AP-Yahoo News polls, conducted by Knowledge Networks. About three quarters of those calling themselves Democrats in November 2007 ended up voting for Obama, and about the same number in the GOP a year ago ultimately backed McCain.

"I felt he probably experienced the things I had, he had probably the loyalty to the country I feel," Jim Miller, 60, of Silverton, Ore., a consistently loyal Republican, said of fellow Vietnam veteran McCain.

Yet only 46 percent of those identifying themselves as Democrats last November - and the same share of Republicans - stayed with their party in all 10 AP-Yahoo News surveys. Looked at another way, only four in 10 McCain voters called themselves Republicans every time while about the same number of Obama voters were unflinching Democrats.

"We were ready for change, obviously. He was the one who most looked like he'd do something for us," said consistent Obama supporter Don Metzger, 43, of Sacramento, Calif.

Obama's advantage in siphoning away votes from his rival was especially noteworthy in the campaign's final months.

Nine percent of those saying in June that they supported McCain ended up voting for Obama. Only about half that many - 4 percent - of Obama's June backers eventually voted for McCain.

It was similar in September. Just two months from Election Day, 7 percent of those saying they preferred McCain ended up voting for Obama. McCain won just 2 percent of the votes of those who said in September they backed Obama, according to the polls.

"At first I was like, Obama, Obama. I was sure I was going to vote for him," said Carole Scoville, 27, of Pleasant Grove, Utah. She said she eventually voted for the Republican after she questioned the costs of Obama's campaign promises and received e-mails about him, which included false rumors that Obama is Muslim.

Joel Benenson, Obama's chief pollster, questioned the AP polls' accuracy. He said his surveys showed less volatility than usual among voters because of the campaign's high visibility and unusual length.

The AP survey also showed:

-Only one in five who in November 2007 considered themselves independents stayed that way in all 10 AP-Yahoo news surveys. Those who were independents in that first survey ended up on Election Day dividing about evenly between the two candidates: 45 percent for McCain, 42 percent for Obama.

-Three-quarters of those who said in January or April that they wanted Hillary Rodham Clinton to win the Democratic nomination voted for Obama.

-Of those who voted on Election Day, 46 percent said in October they had been contacted and urged to vote by one or both campaigns. Those contacted voted 52 percent to 45 percent for Obama, and those not contacted voted 50 percent to 46 percent for Obama - virtually no difference.

The AP-Yahoo News poll was conducted 10 times from November 2007 through Election Day, and involved interviews with about 2,000 adults in each survey. The margin of sampling error each time was between plus or minus 2 percentage points and 3 percentage points.

The Election Day survey involved interviews with 1,989 adults and had a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 2.2 points.

The poll was conducted over the Internet by Knowledge Networks, which initially contacted people using traditional telephone polling methods and followed with online interviews. People chosen for the study who had no Internet access were given it for free.

---

Associated Press Director of Surveys Trevor Tompson, News Survey Specialist Dennis Junius and writer Christine Simmons contributed to this report.

---

By ALAN FRAM Associated Press Writer

Wednesday, November 26, 2008

Yes.

Richard Rodriquez, gay, catholic, hispanic, conservative:

... The most radical people in the Roman Catholic Church are women. They're challenging everything from the priesthood to the male God to what it means to be married. I don't expect to see gay marriage enter these conservative institutions in my lifetime. But I do see change.

I belong to a Catholic parish in San Francisco, where my partner and I are acknowledged by the other people in the parish as a couple. We take communion together, the priests know who we are, they're supportive of who we are, and what we are, and they see us in various roles -- giving eulogies to dead friends but also helping to baptize little babies. We're very much a part of that community. That's why I'm not prepared to lose it because some archbishop in Colorado or cardinal in Los Angeles is behind Proposition 8. It is not my church that they're talking about, it's not even my experience of love.



Mr JK thinks you should read the article, and I do too.

Geniuses


Andrew is collecting brilliant predictions from the last twelve or so months:

"When he is forced to fight, Sen. Obama's inexperience shows. His record, slight as it is, is tough to defend. He's got a glass jaw, and he will fall into the trap of identity politics. In fact, he already has. The "could we beat Obama?" conversation is purely academic. It's over. The Clintons have defeated him already, because he is leaving South Carolina as "the black candidate." He won't win another state. Even worse, in November Hillary will carry 90 percent of the black vote, despite their cynical, race-based campaign against the first viable black presidential candidate," - Michael Graham, January 26, 2008, revealing why NRO had such a good year.



"Barack Obama is on his way to a McGovern candidacy," - Victor Davis Hanson, National Review, March 29, 2008.



I cannot imagine America electing a president during a time of war who is not at his center fundamentally American in his thinking and values. The right knows Obama is unelectable except against Attila the Hun," - Mark Penn, March 19, 2007.


And, GT12's favorite:



I think his 15 minutes as a serious contender for the presidency are about up.
- Kathryn-Jean Lopez, National Review Online chief idiot and Sarah Palin supporter, on Barack Obama, November 4, 2007.

And Speaking Of Bravery ...

Geez, I hate citing Glenn Greenwald. Not because of what he says (he's brilliant) but he's says so much and never stops updating and he's not real good with the quicky quote and he's a little clumsy style-wise and and ...

Anyway.

We have a lot of free time this week. Go Visit Glenn over at Salon where he's dealing with the Media's complicity in maintaining support for torture.

Because the big media claimed to use a calculus that equates any assessment of objective fact as 'subjective', they have for the last 8 years simply been stenographers for Bush/Cheney Orwellisms (think Judy Miller):
"war crimes" were transformed into "policy disputes" between hawkish defenders of the country and shrill, soft-on-terror liberals. "Torture" became "enhanced interrogation techniques which critics call torture." And, most of all, flagrant lawbreaking -- doing X when the law says: "X is a felony" -- became acting "pursuant to robust theories of executive power" or "expansive interpretations of statutes and treaties" or, at worst, "in circumvention of legal frameworks."

Maybe We Should See This


I bought 'The Mayor of Castro Street' right after Unabridged books stocked it.


I attended the world premier of 'The Times of Harvey Milk' the documentary based on the book.




For those of you not acquainted with Milk and his story I may have insist that you see this movie.


I can vouch for the book, having read it 4 or five times. In the early days of Reagan it was great to read a book that made me want to march in the streets. Harvey showed me that fear is a problem only if you let it influence how you lead your life. I learned to make fear somebody else's problem. Or nobody's; It didn't matter as long as it was not stopping me.


Seems like the type book Howard Dean or Barack Obama might have taken some notes from.


This is a season of hope.

In A Nutshell

MSNBC's Chiron sums up where we're at:

Pictures To Be Thankful For



A great collection of shots from the Campaign can be found at the Boston Globe's site here.


Spend some time revelling.

Tuesday, November 25, 2008

Ambivalence


You have to admit, based on the type of photos I see accompanying articles about the MN recount, that the liberal blogoshpere is not exactly 'in-the-tank' for Franken.


And neither are we. There are more than enough desperate R's (Snowe, Collins, Voinovich, Specter, hell, Coleman) in the Senate to get us to any veto-proof majority we need.

Blog Power

Not necessarily this one but ...
First this from the NYTimes 'Caucus' Blog:

John O. Brennan, a C.I.A. veteran whom many believed would be the spy agency’s next director, on Tuesday withdrew his name from consideration for a top job in the Obama administration amid concerns he was intimately linked to controversial C.I.A. programs authorized by President Bush.

In a letter to President-elect Barack Obama, Mr. Brennan said he did not want these concerns to be a “distraction” for the incoming administration. At the same time, he vigorously defended his C.I.A. record and called himself a “strong opponent” of the harsh interrogation methods the agency has used in recent years, including waterboarding.

The letter came as a surprise to many intelligence experts and even some lawmakers, and some questioned whether Mr. Brennan had been forced to withdraw his name by senior members of Mr. Obama’s transition team who were concerned about Mr. Brennan’s association with Bush administration policies.



Then this analysis
The opposition to Mr. Brennan had been largely confined to liberal blogs, and there was not an expectation he would face a particularly difficult confirmation process. Still, the episode shows that the C.I.A.’s secret detention program remains a particularly incendiary issue for the Democratic base, making it difficult for Mr. Obama to select someone for a top intelligence post who has played any role in the agency’s campaign against Al Qaeda since the Sept. 11 attacks.


Also noted here
Glenn Greenwald highlighted Brennan's "lengthy, empathic statements" that made clear he "defended 'enhanced interrogation techniques' and rendition -- grounds enough for making him unacceptable for any top intelligence post -- to say nothing of his strident advocacy for warrantless eavesdropping and telecom amnesty."
As for the broader context, Brennan's withdrawal appears to be the direct result of blog coverage. For those who believe bloggers' concerns are inconsequential, this is clear evidence to the contrary

A good sign.

A Farewell Glance

'Cause, I finally believe, she's history...

Negotiations to put Beatles on iTunes stalled

Sent from Express News
LONDON - Paul McCartney says negotiations on a long-awaited deal to make the Beatles' catalog available on the online music service iTunes have stalled.

"The last word I got back was it's stalled at the whole moment, the whole process," the former Beatle said Monday. "I really hope it will happen because I think it should."

The Associated Press

Government plans new credit, mortgage programs

Sent from Express News
WASHINGTON - The government introduced a pair of new programs Tuesday that will provide $800 billion to help unfreeze the market for consumer debt and to make mortgage loans cheaper and more available.

The new programs from the Federal Reserve and Treasury Department are the latest effort to provides billions in government support to get the U.S. financial system back to more normal operations and keep the country from sliding into a deep and prolonged recession.

By JEANNINE AVERSA AP Economics Writer

Obama using bully pulpit to tackle economy

Sent from Express News
CHICAGO - Pushing the calendar, and maybe his luck, President-elect Barack Obama is urging rapid approval of a massive economic stimulus package meant to calm turbulent financial markets.

He will not be president for another eight weeks, and the politically safer route might be to lie low as President George W. Bush finishes his rocky term. But in announcing his economic team Monday at a White House-style news conference, Obama has chosen to use the bully pulpit even before he assumes the office, gambling that he can soften the economy's fall while he continues to fill out the rest of his cabinet.

By BETH FOUHY Associated Press Writer

Foes of stem cell research now face tough battle

Sent from Express News
WASHINGTON - When the Bush presidency ends, opponents of embryonic stem cell research will face a new political reality that many feel powerless to stop.

President-elect Barack Obama is expected to lift restrictions on federal money for such research. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., also has expressed interest in going ahead with legislation in the first 100 days of the new Congress if it still is necessary to set up a regulatory framework.

By KEVIN FREKING Associated Press Writer

Saturday, November 22, 2008

How Did We Forget To Do This?

So much has happened!

We just finished the New Yorker Election issue (Hey! Conde Nast! could have come any later?) and it got us to thinking about Barry's speech on election night. So we went to GT12 and found that it wasn't there...

WTF?

Well here it is. And follow these links to some great great writing here, here, and definitely here

Friday, November 21, 2008

Maybe She IS Related to Michael...

Sarah Palin is just one never-ending Monty Python Sketch ...

This is the UNCENSORED version that MSNBC was too 'polite' to show

Dr Pepper to deliver on its free-soda promise

Sent from Express News
LOS ANGELES - Dr Pepper is making good on its promise of free soda now that the release of Guns N' Roses' "Chinese Democracy" is a reality.

The soft-drink maker said in March that it would give a free soda to everyone in America if the album dropped in 2008. "Chinese Democracy," infamously delayed since recording began in 1994, goes on sale Sunday.

The Associated Press

Disputed Senate ballots hold key to Minn. win

Sent from Express News
MINNEAPOLIS - A recount watchdog for Norm Coleman flagged a ballot because the voter put a check next to Al Franken's name instead of blacking in the oval. A Franken monitor challenged an apparent vote for Coleman because Franken's name was also marked. And representatives of both men invoked challenges because of marks elsewhere on the ballot that could make them identifiable.

The pile of disputed ballots in Minnesota's U.S. Senate race is growing at a pace sure to dwarf the 215-vote margin prior to the recount, making it tough to tell whether Coleman, the Republican incumbent, or Franken, his Democratic challenger, is gaining an edge as the recount progresses.

By PATRICK CONDON Associated Press Writer

Aides: Obama plans to nominate Clinton

We're fine with this.

Sent from Express News
WASHINGTON - President-elect Barack Obama plans to nominate Hillary Rodham Clinton as secretary of state after Thanksgiving, a new milestone for the former first lady and a convergence of two political forces who fought hard for the presidency.

One week after the former primary rivals met secretly to discuss the idea of Clinton becoming the nation's top diplomat, an Obama adviser said Thursday that the two sides were moving quickly toward making it a reality, barring any unforeseen problems.

By NEDRA PICKLER Associated Press Writer

Wednesday, November 19, 2008

What She's Reading?

Larry Sabato looks at the numbers that support Kathleen's screed (below).

No Shit

Ex(?)- National Review writer Kathleen Parker gets herself banned from every right wing gathering for the rest of her life


[T]he evangelical, right-wing, oogedy-boogedy branch of the GOP is what ails the erstwhile conservative party and will continue to afflict and marginalize its constituents if reckoning doesn't soon cometh.

Simply put: Armband religion is killing the Republican Party. And, the truth -- as long as we're setting ourselves free -- is that if one were to eavesdrop on private conversations among the party intelligentsia, one would hear precisely that.

The choir has become absurdly off-key, and many Republicans know it.
But they need those votes! So it has been for the Grand Old Party since the 1980s or so, as it has become increasingly beholden to an element that used to be relegated to wooden crates on street corners.

Which is to say, the GOP has surrendered its high ground to its lowest brows. In the process, the party has alienated its non-base constituents, including other people of faith (those who prefer a more private approach to worship), as well as secularists and conservative-leaning Democrats who otherwise might be tempted to cross the aisle.

Here's the deal, 'pubbies: Howard Dean was right.

It isn't that culture doesn't matter. It does. But preaching to the choir produces no converts. And shifting demographics suggest that the Republican Party -- and conservatism with it -- eventually will die out unless religion is returned to the privacy of one's heart where it belongs.

Lawyer: Michael Jackson may be too sick to travel

Sent from Express News
LONDON - Michael Jackson might be too sick to travel to London to testify in a suit claiming he owes an Arab sheik $7 million, the pop star's attorney said Tuesday.

Jackson is seeking to give his testimony by video link from the United States.

By RAPHAEL G. SATTER Associated Press Writer

Cheney, Gonzales indicted in South Texas county

Sent from Express News
McALLEN, Texas - Vice President Dick Cheney and former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales have been indicted on state charges involving federal prisons in a South Texas county that has been a source of bizarre legal and political battles under the outgoing prosecutor.

The indictment returned Monday has not yet been signed by the presiding judge, and no action can be taken until that happens.

By CHRISTOPHER SHERMAN Associated Press Writer

Consumers may get ray of good news: lower prices

Sent from Express News
WASHINGTON - American consumers hit by a seemingly endless stream of bad news, from vanishing jobs to shrinking retirement accounts, may be in for a small dose of relief: lower prices at stores.

The Consumer Price Index, the country's most closely watched inflation gauge, probably will show a dip of 0.5 percent in October, after being flat in September, when that report is released Wednesday, according to economists' forecasts.

By JEANNINE AVERSA AP Economics Writer

Ted Stevens' defeat in Alaska marks end of an era

Sent from Express News
ANCHORAGE, Alaska - Sen. Ted Stevens' election defeat marks the end of an era in which he held a commanding place in Alaska politics while wielding power on some of the most influential committees in Congress.

It also moves Senate Democrats within two seats of a filibuster-proof 60-vote majority and gives President-elect Barack Obama a stronger hand when he assumes office on Jan. 20.

By MICHAEL R. BLOOD Associated Press Writer

All eyes on Minnesota's US Senate seat recount

Sent from Express News
ST. PAUL, Minn. - The largest-ever recount in Minnesota history has more than just voters in the state biting their nails.

An army of election workers was to begin a statewide recount Wednesday of more than 2.9 million ballots to determine a winner between Republican Sen. Norm Coleman and Democrat Al Franken.

By BRIAN BAKST and PATRICK CONDON Associated Press Writers

Obama snags Hill insider for White House team

Sent from Express News
WASHINGTON - Phil Schiliro has spent his entire working life in Congress, doing every imaginable job from drafting arcane legislation to running for a seat himself. Steeped in the culture and traditions of Capitol Hill, Schiliro seemed to be one of those people who'd never leave voluntarily - he'd have to be carted out.

But President-elect Barack Obama changed all that when he snagged Schiliro to be his White House liaison to Congress. Now Schiliro, 52, is tasked with being the bridge between the new president and the lawmakers who have the power to make or break his agenda.

By JULIE HIRSCHFELD DAVIS Associated Press Writer

Could Iowa conservatives undermine GOP in 2012?

Sent from Express News
DES MOINES, Iowa - Possible Republican presidential candidates already are making Iowa a winter destination four years before the leadoff caucuses, but some wonder if the state Republican Party's drift to the right could hurt its influence in choosing a nominee capable of winning back the White House.

Weeks after voters elected Barack Obama president and increased Democratic majorities in Congress, social conservatives in Iowa who have a huge influence in state politics have indicated they won't back down. That has some Iowa Republicans worried the party is adopting too narrow a focus.

By MIKE GLOVER Associated Press Writer

Ted Stevens' defeat in Alaska marks end of an era

Sent from Express News
ANCHORAGE, Alaska - Sen. Ted Stevens' election defeat marks the end of an era in which he held a commanding place in Alaska politics while wielding power on some of the most influential committees in Congress.

It also moves Senate Democrats within two seats of a filibuster-proof 60-vote majority and gives President-elect Barack Obama a stronger hand when he assumes office on Jan. 20.

By MICHAEL R. BLOOD Associated Press Writer

Obama to usher in major shift in trade policy

Sent from Express News
WASHINGTON - The election of Barack Obama has delivered a decisive victory to "fair traders," mainly Democrats and their allies who for years have contended that the free-trade policies of past administrations were recipes for American job losses and environmental degradation.

Obama's win marks the first time in modern American history "that a candidate advocating a shift in our trade policies in a decisively pro-worker, pro-consumer, pro-environment direction has been elected president," Public Citizen's Global Trade Watch, an advocacy group that is critical of free trade agreements, said in a report.

By JIM ABRAMS Associated Press Writer

Tuesday, November 18, 2008


Oh, I How I Hate The High Moral Ground

Gee, this Obama Presidency is going to be trying as he drags us all toward sainthood.

TPM

It's Official: Lieberman Keeps Homeland Security Chairmanship

Senator Harry Reid just spoke to reporters after the private caucus meeting with Dems over Joe Lieberman's fate, and he confirmed it: Lieberman will not be stripped
of his Homeland Security chairmanship, because the "vast majority" of the Democratic caucus wants him to stay.

"This was not a time for retribution," Reid said, adding that "we're moving forward."

Lieberman was removed from the Environment and Public Works Committee, a largely meaningless punishment since it's a topic (unlike Homeland Security) on which he has no differences with Dems.


Hat Tip: Mr G. Baker

Could You At Least Just Get The Word Right?

Moron, please.




"[T]here is a gay and secular fascism in this country that wants to impose its will on the rest of us"


Wiki:

Fascism is a totalitarian nationalist ideology[1][2] that seeks to form a mass movement of militants who are willing to engage in violence against their political opponents and groups or individuals that the movement deems to be enemies.[3] Fascism opposes the political ideologies of communism, liberalism and conservatism as well as political concepts and systems such as democracy, individualism, materialism, pacifism, and pluralism.[4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12] Some fascists see themselves as advocating a third position alternative to both capitalism and communism.

Various scholars attribute different characteristics to fascism, but the following elements are usually seen as its integral parts: nationalism (including collectivism and populism based on nationalist values); Third Position (including class collaboration, corporatism, economic planning, mixed economy, national socialism, national syndicalism, protectionism,); totalitarianism (including dictatorship, indoctrination, major social interventionism, and statism); and militarism.[13][14]

Authoritarianism:

Theodore M. Vestal of Oklahoma State University has written that
authoritarianism is characterized by:

Highly concentrated and centralized power structures," in which political power is generated and maintained by a "repressive system that excludes potential challengers" and uses political parties and mass organizations to "mobilize people around the goals of the government";The following principles: "1) rule of men, not rule of law; 2) rigged elections; 3) all important political decisions made by unelected officials behind closed doors;4) a bureaucracy operated quite independently of rules, the supervision of elected officials, or concerns of the constituencies they purportedly serve; 5) the informal and unregulated exercise of political power";

Leadership that is "self-appointed and even if elected cannot be displaced by citizens' free choice among competitors"

No guarantee of civil liberties or tolerance for meaningful opposition;

Weakening of civil society: "No freedom to create a broad range of groups, organizations, and political parties to compete for power or question the decisions of rulers," with instead an "attempt to impose controls on virtually all elements of society";[1]

Political stability maintained by "control over and support of the military to provide security to the system and control of society; 2) a pervasive bureaucracy staffed by the regime; 3) control of internal opposition and dissent; 4) creation of allegiance through various means of socialization."


Monday, November 17, 2008

Obama staff combines DC with Chicago

Sent from Express News
WASHINGTON - President-elect Barack Obama is forming a White House leadership team that combines experienced Washington insiders who can help build a bridge with Congress and trusted associates who share his Chicago roots.

The West Wing appointments that Obama has announced in recent days stand in contrast to those of George W. Bush, who relied heavily on fellow Texans for top posts. They had virtually no experience dealing with Congress, nor did the former Texas governor who was their boss.
By NEDRA PICKLER Associated Press Writer

Sunday, November 16, 2008

Fort Worth is 4th Episcopal diocese to break away

Sent from Express News
NEW YORK - The theologically conservative Diocese of Fort Worth voted Saturday to split from the liberal-leaning Episcopal Church, the fourth traditional diocese to do so in a long-running debate over the Bible, gay relationships and other issues.

About 80 percent of clergy and parishioners in the Texas diocese supported the break in a series of votes at a diocesan convention.
By RACHEL ZOLL AP Religion Writer

Gay advocates protest marriage ban across nation

Sent from Express News
BOSTON - Gay rights supporters waving rainbow colors marched, chanted and danced in cities coast to coast Saturday to protest the vote that banned gay marriage in California and to urge supporters not to quit the fight for the right to wed.

Crowds gathered near public buildings in cities large and small, including Boston, San Francisco, Chicago and Fargo, to vent their frustrations, celebrate gay relationships and renew calls for change.

"Civil marriages are a civil right, and we're going to keep fighting until we get the rights we deserve as American citizens," said Karen Amico, one of several hundred protesters in Philadelphia, holding up a sign reading "Don't Spread H8".

"We are the American family, we live next door to you, we teach your children, we take care of your elderly," said Heather Baker a special education teacher from Boston who addressed the crowd at Boston's City Hall Plaza. "We need equal rights across the country."

Connecticut, which began same-sex weddings this past week, and Massachusetts are the only two states that allow gay marriage. The other 48 states do not, and 30 of them have taken the extra step of approving constitutional amendments. A few states allow civil unions or domestic partnerships that grant some rights of marriage.

Protests following the vote on Proposition 8 in California, which defined marriage as between a man and a woman, have sometimes been angry and even violent, and demonstrators have targeted faiths that supported the ban, including the Mormon church.

However, representatives of Join the Impact, which organized Saturday's demonstrations, asked supporters to be respectful and refrain from attacking other groups during the rallies.

Seattle blogger Amy Balliett, who started the planning for the protests when she set up a Web page three days after the California vote, said persuasion is impossible without civility.

"If we can move anybody past anger and have a respectful conversation, then you can plant the seed of change," she said.

Balliett said supporters in 300 cities in the U.S. and other countries were holding marches, and she estimated 1 million people would participate, based on responses at the Web sites her group set up.

"We need to show the world when one thing happens to one of us, it happens to all of us," she said.

The protests were widely reported to be peaceful, and the mood in Boston was generally upbeat, with attendees dancing to the song "Respect." Signs cast the fight for gay marriage as the new civil rights movement, including one that read "Gay is the new black."

But anger over the ban and its backers was evident at the protests.

One sign in Chicago, where several thousand people gathered, read: "Catholic Fascists Stay Out of Politics."

"I just found out that my state doesn't really think I'm a person," said Rose Aplustill, 21, a Boston University student from Los Osos, Calif., who was one of thousands at the Boston rally.

In San Francisco, demonstrators took shots at some religious groups that supported the ban, including a sign aimed at the Mormon church and its abandoned practice of polygamy that read: "You have three wives; I want one husband."

Chris Norberg, who married his partner in June, also referred to the racial divisions that arose after exit polls found that majorities of blacks and Hispanics supported the constitutional ban on same-sex marriage.

"They voted against us," Norberg said.

In Salt Lake City, where demonstrators gathered just blocks from the headquarters of the Mormon church, one sign pictured the city's temple with a line adapted from former Republican vice president candidate Sarah Palin: "I can see discrimination from my house."

More than 500 demonstrators in Washington marched from the U.S. Capitol through the city carrying signs and chanting "One, two, three, four, love is what we're fighting for!"

A public plaza at the foot of New York's Brooklyn Bridge was packed by a cheering crowd of thousands, including people who waved rainbow flags and wore pink buttons that said "I do."

Protests were low-key in North Dakota, where people lined a bridge in Fargo carrying signs and flags.

Mike Bernard, who was in the crowd of hundreds at City Hall in Baltimore, said Proposition 8 could end up being a good thing for gay rights advocates.

"It was a swift kick in the rear end," he said.

In Los Angeles, protesters gathered near City Hall before marching through downtown. Police said 10,000 to 12,000 people demonstrated.

Supporters of traditional marriage said the rallies may have generated publicity but ultimately made no difference.

"They had everything in the world going for them this year, and they couldn't win," said Frank Schubert, co-manager of the Yes on 8 campaign in California. "I don't think they're going to be any more successful in 2010 or 2012."

In Chicago, Keith Smith, 42, a postal worker, and his partner, Terry Romo, 34, a Wal-Mart store manager, had photos of a commitment ceremony they held, though gay marriage is not legal in Illinois.

"We're not going to wait for no law," Smith said. "But time's going to be on our side and it's going to change."

---

Contributing to this report were Associated Press writers Rupa Shenoy in Chicago, Adam Goldman in New York, JoAnn Loviglio in Philadelphia, Sarah Brumfield in Baltimore, Linda Ashton in Salt Lake City, Blake Nicholson in Bismarck, N.D., Tom Verdin in Sacramento, Calif., and Kamala Lane in Washington.

By JAY LINDSAY Associated Press Writer

Husband's foreign deals may pose issue for Clinton

Sent from Express News
WASHINGTON - Former President Bill Clinton's globe-trotting business deals and fundraising for his foundation sometimes put his activities abroad at odds with Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton and could cause complications if President-elect Barack Obama picks her to be secretary of state.

During her own White House campaign, the New York senator criticized China for its crackdown on protesters in Tibet and urged President George W. Bush to skip the Olympics in Beijing. Her campaign was embarrassed by reports that her husband's foundation had raised money from a Chinese Internet company that posted an online government "Most Wanted" notice seeking information on Tibetan human-rights activists that may have been involved in the demonstrations.
By SHARON THEIMER Associated Press Writer

Obama weighs Clinton, Richardson as sec. of state

Sent from Express News
WASHINGTON - President-elect Barack Obama is interviewing some of his one-time political opponents as he ponders building his own "team of rivals" to help him run the country.

Primary election foes Hillary Rodham Clinton and Bill Richardson both have been interviewed for secretary of state, according to several Democratic officials who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the secret meetings.

Obama met with Richardson late Friday afternoon, a day after conferring one-on-one with Clinton at his Chicago office, the officials said. He plans to meet there Monday with his Republican opponent, John McCain, but advisers to both of the general election candidates say they don't expect Obama to consider McCain for an administration job.

The meeting with Clinton excited a burst of speculation that Obama would transform the former first lady and fierce campaign foe into one of his top Cabinet officials and the nation's chief diplomatic voice. But where the New York senator stands in contention for the post came into question as other Democrats, also speaking on condition of anonymity about the private discussions, said Richardson was brought in as well.

It's far from clear how interested Clinton would be in the secretary of state job. She would face a Senate confirmation hearing that would certainly probe her husband's financial dealings - something the Clintons refused to disclose in the presidential campaign.

But remaining in the Senate may not be Clinton's first choice, either, since she is a junior senator without prospects for a leadership position or committee chairmanship anytime soon.

Being secretary of state could give Clinton a platform for another run at the presidency in eight years. Obama could also get assurances from her that she wouldn't challenge him in four years.

Richardson is the governor of New Mexico and has an extensive foreign policy resume. He was President Bill Clinton's ambassador to the United Nations and has conducted freelance diplomacy for the U.S. in such hot spots as Sudan and North Korea.

The two are not the only candidates Obama has talked to about the job, Democrats said. One senior Obama adviser said the president-elect has given no evidence whom he is favoring for the post. Obama asked Clinton directly whether she would be interested in the job, said one Democrat, who cautioned that it was no indication that he was leaning toward her.

Obama was deciding on his presidential staff as well, naming longtime friend Valerie Jarrett as a White House senior adviser. Jarrett met Obama when she hired his wife for a job in the Chicago mayor's office years ago and has been close to the couple since.

Obama was silent and out of sight in Chicago. Clinton addressed a transit conference in her home state and said emphatically, "I'm not going to speculate or address anything about the president-elect's incoming administration, and I'm going to respect his process."

Obama's aides say he would like to have McCain as a partner with him on legislation they both have advocated, such as climate change, government reform, immigration and a ban on torture.

All this fits with an idea that Obama often talked about on the campaign trail, as he praised the presidency of Abraham Lincoln as described by presidential historian Doris Kearns Goodwin in her book "Team of Rivals."

Lincoln appointed three of his rivals for the Republican nomination to his Cabinet. Obama turned to one rival for vice president, Delaware Sen. Joe Biden.

Obama said at one point: "Lincoln basically pulled in all the people who had been running against him into his Cabinet because whatever personal feelings there were, the issue was: How can we get this country through this time of crisis?"

---

Associated Press writers David Espo, Jim Kuhnhenn and Liz Sidoti in Washington contributed to this report.

By NEDRA PICKLER Associated Press Writer

Obama has more threats than other presidents-elect

Sent from Express News
WASHINGTON - Threats against a new president historically spike right after an election, but from Maine to Idaho law enforcement officials are seeing more against Barack Obama than ever before. The Secret Service would not comment or provide the number of cases they are investigating. But since the Nov. 4 election, law enforcement officials have seen more potentially threatening writings, Internet postings and other activity directed at Obama than has been seen with any past president-elect, said officials aware of the situation who spoke on condition of anonymity because the issue of a president's security is so sensitive.

Earlier this week, the Secret Service looked into the case of a sign posted on a tree in Vay, Idaho, with Obama's name and the offer of a "free public hanging." In North Carolina, civil rights officials complained of threatening racist graffiti targeting Obama found in a tunnel near the North Carolina State University campus.
By EILEEN SULLIVAN Associated Press Writer

Obama election spurs race crimes around country

I suppose we need to get this out of our system.

Sent from Express News
Cross burnings. Schoolchildren chanting "Assassinate Obama." Black figures hung from nooses. Racial epithets scrawled on homes and cars.

Incidents around the country referring to President-elect Barack Obama are dampening the postelection glow of racial progress and harmony, highlighting the stubborn racism that remains in America.

From California to Maine, police have documented a range of alleged crimes, from vandalism and vague threats to at least one physical attack. Insults and taunts have been delivered by adults, college students and second-graders.

There have been "hundreds" of incidents since the election, many more than usual, said Mark Potok, director of the Intelligence Project at the Southern Poverty Law Center, which monitors hate crimes.

One was in Snellville, Ga., where Denene Millner said a boy on the school bus told her 9-year-old daughter the day after the election: "I hope Obama gets assassinated." That night, someone trashed her sister-in-law's front lawn, mangled the Obama lawn signs, and left two pizza boxes filled with human feces outside the front door, Millner said.

She described her emotions as a combination of anger and fear.

"I can't say that every white person in Snellville is evil and anti-Obama and willing to desecrate my property because one or two idiots did it," said Millner, who is black. "But it definitely makes you look a little different at the people who you live with, and makes you wonder what they're capable of and what they're really thinking."

Potok, who is white, said he believes there is "a large subset of white people in this country who feel that they are losing everything they know, that the country their forefathers built has somehow been stolen from them."

Grant Griffin, a 46-year-old white Georgia native, expressed similar sentiments: "I believe our nation is ruined and has been for several decades and the election of Obama is merely the culmination of the change.

"If you had real change it would involve all the members of (Obama's) church being deported," he said.

Change in whatever form does not come easy, and a black president is "the most profound change in the field of race this country has experienced since the Civil War," said William Ferris, senior associate director of the Center for the Study of the American South at the University of North Carolina. "It's shaking the foundations on which the country has existed for centuries."

"Someone once said racism is like cancer," Ferris said. "It's never totally wiped out, it's in remission."

If so, America's remission lasted until the morning of Nov. 5.

The day after the vote hailed as a sign of a nation changed, black high school student Barbara Tyler of Marietta, Ga., said she heard hateful Obama comments from white students, and that teachers cut off discussion about Obama's victory.

Tyler spoke at a press conference by the Georgia chapter of the NAACP calling for a town hall meeting to address complaints from across the state about hostility and resentment. Another student, from a Covington middle school, said he was suspended for wearing an Obama shirt to school Nov. 5 after the principal told students not to wear political paraphernalia.

The student's mother, Eshe Riviears, said the principal told her: "Whether you like it or not, we're in the South, and there are a lot of people who are not happy with this decision."

Other incidents include:

-Four North Carolina State University students admitted writing anti-Obama comments in a tunnel designated for free speech expression, including one that said: "Let's shoot that (N-word) in the head." Obama has received more threats than any other president-elect, authorities say.

-At Standish, Maine, a sign inside the Oak Hill General Store read: "Osama Obama Shotgun Pool." Customers could sign up to bet $1 on a date when Obama would be killed. "Stabbing, shooting, roadside bombs, they all count," the sign said. At the bottom of the marker board was written "Let's hope someone wins."

-Racist graffiti was found in places including New York's Long Island, where two dozen cars were spray-painted; Kilgore, Texas, where the local high school and skate park were defaced; and the Los Angeles area, where swastikas, racial slurs and "Go Back To Africa" were spray painted on sidewalks, houses and cars.

-Second- and third-grade students on a school bus in Rexburg, Idaho, chanted "assassinate Obama," a district official said.

-University of Alabama professor Marsha L. Houston said a poster of the Obama family was ripped off her office door. A replacement poster was defaced with a death threat and a racial slur. "It seems the election brought the racist rats out of the woodwork," Houston said.

-Black figures were hanged by nooses from trees on Mount Desert Island, Maine, the Bangor Daily News reported. The president of Baylor University in Waco, Texas said a rope found hanging from a campus tree was apparently an abandoned swing and not a noose.

-Crosses were burned in yards of Obama supporters in Hardwick, N.J., and Apolacan Township, Pa.

-A black teenager in New York City said he was attacked with a bat on election night by four white men who shouted 'Obama.'

-In the Pittsburgh suburb of Forest Hills, a black man said he found a note with a racial slur on his car windshield, saying "now that you voted for Obama, just watch out for your house."

Emotions are often raw after a hard-fought political campaign, but now those on the losing side have an easy target for their anger.

"The principle is very simple," said BJ Gallagher, a sociologist and co-author of the diversity book "A Peacock in the Land of Penguins." "If I can't hurt the person I'm angry at, then I'll vent my anger on a substitute, i.e., someone of the same race."

"We saw the same thing happen after the 9-11 attacks, as a wave of anti-Muslim violence swept the country. We saw it happen after the Rodney King verdict, when Los Angeles blacks erupted in rage at the injustice perpetrated by 'the white man.'"

"It's as stupid and ineffectual as kicking your dog when you've had a bad day at the office," Gallagher said. "But it happens a lot."

---

Associated Press writers Errin Haines, Jerry Harkavy, Jay Reeves, Johnny Clark and researcher Rhonda Shafner contributed to this report.

By JESSE WASHINGTON AP National Writer

Friday, November 14, 2008

Career Over

Sweet Jesus she is lame. Her 'rescue the shards of my reputation' campaign is in, well, tatters.

Her peers (Republican governors) think that she's an idiot and a narcissistic tool. See, Republicans can get things right.

Here's why she didn't have a press conference during the campaign:



And here's why there won't be another campaign:

Sink Hole

A song for the people too small to get bailouts ... and one way to deal with it.

God bless the Drive-By Truckers




Like to invite him for some pot roast beef and mashed potatoes and sweet tea

follow it up with some banana pudding and a walk around the farm

Show him the view from McGee Town Hill

Let him stand in my shoes and see how it feels

to lose the last thing on earth that’s real

I’d rather lose my legs and arms

Bury his body in the old sink hole

Bury his body in the old sink hole

Bury his body in the old sink hole under cold November sky

Then damned if I wouldn’t go to church on Sunday

Damned if I wouldn’t go to church on Sunday

Damned if I wouldn’t go to church on Sunday and look the Preacher in the eye.

One More Time Into The Breach Boys!


Tomorrow, a virally-generated national day of protest across America is taking shape to protest the attack on the core civil rights of a small minority in California. It's a protest to demand equal treatment under the law for gay couples. It's a radical demand for a traditional institution and also a protest against those who seek to impose religious restrictions on civil law. It is a defense of both religious freedom and the freedom of those whom many (but not all) religions condemn.



City: Chicago


Time: 12:30 p.m.


info: info@glap8.orghttp://www.glap8.org/


Federal Building: Corner of Adams and Dearborn Streets, Downtown Chicago.

Black Man Takes Pat Buchanan's Country From Him

Can we send the culture warrior away now ...

Watch his head explode !

Is This A Joke?

Visit this site here ...

and then leave us a note weighing in on whether you think the site is Serious or Satire....

We just don't know...

Embrace The Disease

Two Years Ago one guy (at least) saw it and was scorned by Fox and the truly insane Larry Kudlow.

Watch, really. You get to see what an idiot Ben Stein is too!


And check out who Laffer is (if you don't know)here

He's also a co-author of this tool's book:

Emphasis on the Lipstick

The First Appearance of Sarah Palin in the Press. She's never had a problem with deceit.

From the Anchorage Daily News, April 3, 1996:

Sarah Palin, a commercial fisherman from Wasilla, told her husband on Tuesday she was driving to Anchorage to shop at Costco. Instead, she headed straight for Ivana. And there, at J.C. Penney's cosmetic department, was Ivana, the former Mrs. Donald Trump, sitting at a table next to a photograph of herself. She wore a light-colored pantsuit and pink fingernail polish. Her blonde hair was coiffed in a bouffant French twist.

''We want to see Ivana,'' said Palin, who admittedly smells like salmon for a large part of the summer, ''because we are so desperate in Alaska for any semblance of glamour and culture.''

Dan Savage Kicks Tony Perkins Ass

Must See TV

Thursday, November 13, 2008

Mitch Mitchell, drummer for Hendrix, found dead

Sent from Express News
PORTLAND, Ore. - Mitch Mitchell, drummer for the legendary Jimi Hendrix Experience of the 1960s and the group's last surviving member, was found dead in his hotel room early Wednesday. He was 61.

Mitchell was a powerful force on the Hendrix band's 1967 debut album "Are You Experienced?" as well as the trio's albums "Electric Ladyland" and "Axis: Bold As Love." He had an explosive drumming style that can be heard in hard-charging songs such as "Fire" and "Manic Depression."
By MARY HUDETZ Associated Press Writer

Doctors say marrow transplant may have cured AIDS

Sent from Express News
BERLIN - An American man who suffered from AIDS appears to have been cured of the disease 20 months after receiving a targeted bone marrow transplant normally used to fight leukemia, his doctors said.

While researchers - and the doctors themselves - caution that the case might be no more than a fluke, others say it may inspire a greater interest in gene therapy to fight the disease that claims 2 million lives each year. The virus has infected 33 million people worldwide.
By PATRICK McGROARTY Associated Press Writer

Tuesday, November 11, 2008

Why We Should Support Palin For Pres in '12 Primaries

Pat Buchanan destroyed GHW Bush's chances for re-election with this speech.

It is pure Palin, with the addition of actual literacy:







The Root Of All Evil - On PBS Tonight

A bio of the most loathesome of the loathesome ... Karl Rove's mentor, Lee Atwater


In 1989, Lee Atwater was a political rock star. After masterminding George H.W. Bush’s presidential victory over Michael Dukakis, the colorful, blues guitar-playing Atwater was relishing his new role as chairman of the Republican National Committee as he redefined the role of the political operative.

Two years later, the political strategist would be dead from a brain tumor at the age of 41, cast aside by the Washington power players he’d helped create, and wracked with remorse for the tactics he'd employed in his political ascent.

In Boogie Man: The Lee Atwater Story, airing Tuesday, Nov. 11, 2008, from 9 to 10:30 P.M. ET on PBS (check local listings), producer Stefan Forbes reveals new information about the meteoric rise and tragic demise of a man both admired and reviled for the controversial, sometimes racially-charged political tactics that helped elect George H.W. Bush president and inspired protégés such as Karl Rove. Through a wealth of compelling, never-before-seen footage and photos as well as interviews with boyhood friends, elite Republican strategists and political adversaries, the documentary examines Atwater’s impact on the way modern political campaigns are waged.

“[Lee Atwater] mattered in American politics,” Newsweek political writer Howard Fineman says, “because of the man he got elected, because of the party he shaped. He was very important not only to George H.W.’s victory, but to his son’s victory.”



Jon Stewart, Lily Tomlin honor George Carlin

Sent from Express News
WASHINGTON - The late comedian George Carlin - famous for those "Seven Words You Can Never Say on TV" - was honored Monday with the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor, the only award he saw as a legitimate comedy prize.

Jon Stewart, Lily Tomlin, Joan Rivers and others saluted Carlin at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts for inspiring their own comedy, and they took up his cause of pushing the boundaries of free speech.
By BRETT ZONGKER Associated Press Writer

Citigroup to help at-risk borrowers stay in homes

Sent from Express News
NEW YORK - Citigroup says it is imposing a moratorium on most foreclosures as part of a series of initiatives aimed at helping at-risk borrowers remain in their homes - making Citi the latest big bank to announce sweeping efforts to try to curtail losses from souring mortgages.

Citi said late Monday it won't initiate a foreclosure or complete a foreclosure sale on any eligible borrower who seeks to stay in a home if it is the borrower's principal residence, the homeowner is working in good faith with Citi and has sufficient income to make affordable mortgage payments.
By SARA LEPRO AP Business Writer

Bush handing over power to Obama with grace

Sent from Express News
WASHINGTON - No matter how people remember President Bush's time in office, let there be no doubt about how he wants to end it: gracefully.

Never mind that Democrat Barack Obama spent all that time deriding Bush for "failed policies," or mocking him for hiding in an "undisclosed location" because he was too unpopular to show up with his party's own candidate, John McCain. This is transition time. Outgoing presidents support the new guy.
By BEN FELLER Associated Press Writer

Monday, November 10, 2008

Cops have tough time finding sober driver for boy

Well, if you'd ever been to Schererville then you might understand....

Sent from Express News
SCHERERVILLE, Ind. - Indiana state police said that after a mother was arrested for drunken driving, the three relatives who came to pick up her 1-year-old son also had all been drinking. A state trooper stopped a minivan for speeding early Saturday on U.S. 30 in Schererville in northwestern Indiana. He arrested the 24-year-old woman on a drunken driving charges.

The boy's father arrived later to pick him up, but officers determined he was intoxicated and also arrested him on a drunken driving charge.

Police said the boy's grandparents then arrived. Both of them also had been drinking, state police said, but the grandmother who was driving was not over the legal limit, so officers escorted them home with the child.

The Associated Press

To The Moon

Kristof notes another sea-change, the one we've been waiting for:

The second most remarkable thing about [Obama's] election is that American voters have just picked a president who is an open, out-of-the-closet, practicing intellectual.

... We can’t solve our educational challenges when, according to polls, Americans are approximately as likely to believe in flying saucers as in evolution, and when one-fifth of Americans believe that the sun orbits the Earth.

... President Bush ... adopted anti-intellectualism as administration policy, repeatedly rejecting expertise (from Middle East experts, climate scientists and reproductive health specialists). Mr. Bush is smart in the sense of remembering facts and faces, yet I can’t think of anybody I’ve ever interviewed who appeared so uninterested in ideas.

Barry And Rahm Go Way Back

Another Must Read

Ryna Lizza goes deep into the campaign ...

Favorite selections (i.e. points that support what GT12 has said for the last two years):

On October 10, 2007, less than three months before the Iowa caucuses, Axelrod, Grisolano, Benenson, and other members of Obama’s “message team” distilled several weeks’ worth of polling and internal debate into a twelve-page memo that laid out Obama’s strategy for the weeks leading up to the Iowa caucuses. “The fundamental idea behind this race from the start has been that this is a ‘change’ election, and that has proven out,” the memo said. .... in voters’ minds, Clinton “embodies trench warfare vs. Republicans, and is consumed with beating them rather than unifying the country,” and that “she prides herself on working the system, not changing it.” Obama raised all these issues with some delicacy; he framed the choice as “calculation” versus “conviction,” and was careful not to use Clinton’s name. But the campaign wanted to be sure that reporters got the message. “We also can’t drive the contrasts so subtly or obtusely that the press doesn’t write about them and the voters don’t understand that we’re talking about HRC,” the memo advised Obama.


....

Obama said that he liked being surrounded by people who expressed strong opinions, but he also said, “I think that I’m a better speechwriter than my speechwriters. I know more about policies on any particular issue than my policy directors. And I’ll tell you right now that I’m gonna think I’m a better political director than my political director.” After Obama’s first debate with McCain, on September 26th, Gaspard sent him an e-mail. “You are more clutch than Michael Jordan,” he wrote. Obama replied, “Just give me the ball.”

....

when Obama learned that he had lost the New Hampshire primary. After that, he told his longtime friend and adviser Valerie Jarrett, “This will turn out to have been a good thing.” Jarrett told me, “You would think you would have a lot of other things to say before you might get to that.” Favreau said, “His demeanor when he won the Iowa caucuses and his demeanor when he lost New Hampshire were not much different.”

The Best Wrap-Up

Frank Rich Sums it all up it The Must Read of the week-end ... Specially helpful resource for those of you who will be spending the holidays with Republican Relatives who will want to remind you that the U.S. "is still a 'center-right' country":

It Still Felt Good the Morning After

... So let’s be blunt. Almost every assumption about America that was taken as a given by our political culture on Tuesday morning was proved wrong by Tuesday night.

The most conspicuous clichés to fall, of course, were the were the twin suppositions that a decisive number of white Americans wouldn’t vote for a black presidential candidate — and that they were lying to pollsters about their rampant racism. But the polls were accurate. There was no “Bradley effect.” A higher percentage of white men voted for Obama than any Democrat since Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton included.

Obama also won all four of those hunting-and-Hillary-loving Rust Belt states that became 2008’s obsession among slumming upper-middle-class white journalists ...

And what about all those terrified Jews who reportedly abandoned their progressive heritage to buy into the smears libeling Obama as an Israel-hating terrorist? Obama drew a larger percentage of Jews nationally (78) than Kerry had (74) and — mazel tov, Sarah Silverman! — won Florida.

... a black presidential candidate won Latinos — the fastest-growing demographic in the electorate — 67 percent to 31 (up from Kerry’s 53-to-44 edge and Gore’s 62-to-35).

[younger voters] turned up in larger numbers than in 2004, and their disproportionate Democratic margin made a serious difference, as did their hard work on the ground. [suggesting that the GOP is one election away from losing an entire genteration - GT12]

... Palin’s appeal wasn’t overestimated only because of her kitschy “American Idol” star quality. Her fierce embrace of the old Karl Rove wedge politics, the divisive pitting of the “real America” against the secular “other” America, was also regarded as a sure-fire winner. The second most persistent assumption by both pundits and the McCain campaign this year — after the likely triumph of racism — was that the culture war battlegrounds from 2000 and 2004 would remain intact.

the North Carolina county where Palin expressed her delight at being in the “real America” went for Obama by more than 18 percentage points.

What we started to remember the morning after Election Day was what we had forgotten over the past eight years, as our abusive relationship with the Bush administration and its press enablers dragged on: That’s not who we are.

South African musical legend Miriam Makeba dies

Sent from Express News
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa - Miriam Makeba, the South African singer who wooed the world with her sultry voice but was banned from her own country for more than 30 years under apartheid, died after collapsing on stage in Italy. She was 76.

In her dazzling career, Makeba performed with musical legends from around the world - jazz maestros Nina Simone and Dizzy Gillespie, Harry Belafonte, Paul Simon - and sang for world leaders such as John F. Kennedy and Nelson Mandela.
By CELEAN JACOBSON Associated Press Writer

Music headphones can interfere with heart devices

Sent from Express News
NEW ORLEANS - Have a pacemaker or an implanted defibrillator? Don't keep your iPod earbuds in your shirt pocket or draped around your neck - even when they're disconnected. A study finds that some headphones can interfere with heart devices if held very close to them.

They might even prevent a defibrillator from delivering a lifesaving shock, say doctors who tested them.
By MARILYNN MARCHIONE AP Medical Writer

Obama to use executive orders for immediate impact

Sent from Express News
WASHINGTON - President-elect Obama plans to use his executive powers to make an immediate impact when he takes office, perhaps reversing Bush administration policies on stem cell research and domestic drilling for oil and natural gas.

John Podesta, Obama's transition chief, said Sunday Obama is reviewing President Bush's executive orders on those issues and others as he works to undo policies enacted during eight years of Republican rule. He said the president can use such orders to move quickly on his own.
By STEPHEN OHLEMACHER Associated Press Writer

Obama planning US trials for Guantanamo detainees

Sent from Express News
WASHINGTON - President-elect Obama's advisers are quietly crafting a proposal to ship dozens, if not hundreds, of imprisoned terrorism suspects to the United States to face criminal trials, a plan that would make good on his promise to close the Guantanamo Bay prison but could require creation of a controversial new system of justice.

During his campaign, Obama described Guantanamo as a "sad chapter in American history" and has said generally that the U.S. legal system is equipped to handle the detainees. But he has offered few details on what he planned to do once the facility is closed.
By MATT APUZZO and LARA JAKES JORDAN Associated Press Writers

In key states, Latino vote fueled Obama's victory

Sent from Express News
DENVER - Latinos are hailed as a key voting bloc, even though they show their power at the polls only sporadically. When they turned out in record numbers to vote for Democrat Barack Obama, they not only erased recent gains by Republicans but shattered the myth of a black-Latino divide.

Amid worries about home foreclosures and economic recession and driven by an unprecedented get-out-the-vote effort and the acidic debate over illegal immigration, Latinos helped Democrats flip the battleground states of Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico and Florida.
By IVAN MORENO Associated Press Writer

GOP a dying breed in New England

Sent from Express News
HARTFORD, Conn. - A generation ago the Republican Party was the dominant political force in New England, populating the region's congressional delegations with moderates like Connecticut's Lowell P. Weicker Jr. and Rhode Island's John Chafee.

But today's GOP, led by a more socially conservative wing of the party, is finding votes harder to come by.
By SUSAN HAIGH Associated Press Writer

Saturday, November 08, 2008

HBO buys Obama documentary for spring

Sent from Express News
NEW YORK - HBO has bought the U.S. rights to a behind-the-scenes documentary on Barack Obama's presidential campaign from actor Edward Norton's production company.

Filming will continue through the president-elect's inauguration, with the premiere expected sometime in the spring, the network said Friday. HBO reportedly paid at least $1 million to show the still-untitled film.
The Associated Press

Small Oregon city elects transgender mayor

Sent from Express News
SILVERTON, Ore. - Plenty of politicians reinvent themselves, but few do it quite like Mayor-elect Stu Rasmussen.

Rasmussen has been a fixture in Silverton politics for more than 20 years, and had twice before been mayor of the small city 45 miles south of Portland. Those terms, however, were before his breast implants and before the once-discreet crossdresser started wearing dresses and 3-inch heels in public.
The Associated Press

Obama offers Poland no commitment on missile plan

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CHICAGO - President-elect Obama has spoken to the president of Poland about relations between the two countries but didn't make a commitment on the multibillion-dollar missile defense program undertaken by the Bush administration, an Obama aide said Saturday.

That contrasts with a statement by Polish President Lech Kaczynski, who said Obama told him the missile defense project would continue.
The Associated Press

Obama election a roadmap for Democratic majority

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WASHINGTON - Barack Obama's big victory could provide Democrats with a road map for an even bigger electoral majority in the future - something that seemed implausible just four years ago.

Obama won in the suburbs of key states, expanded Democratic majorities in big cities and made inroads into rural areas that had been off-limits to Democrats in recent presidential elections. He also proved that a black presidential candidate could make Democratic gains in some of the whitest counties in the nation - even though in much of the Deep South, his race still appeared to turn voters away.
By STEPHEN OHLEMACHER Associated Press Writer

Most Minn. Senate 'undervotes' are from Obama turf

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ST. PAUL, Minn. - An Associated Press analysis of votes in the tight, still-to-be decided race for a U.S. Senate seat in Minnesota shows that most ballots lacking a recorded choice in the election were cast in counties won by Democrat Barack Obama.

The finding could have implications for Republican Sen. Norm Coleman and Democrat Al Franken, who are headed for a recount separated by the thinnest of margins - a couple of hundred votes, or about 0.01 percent.
By BRIAN BAKST Associated Press Writer

GOP maintains grip on South, but at what cost?

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WASHINGTON - Tuesday's elections leave little doubt that the Republicans' Nixon-era strategy to win over white Southerners has been a resounding success. But have they lost the rest of the country along the way?

For all the talk of President-elect Obama's inroads in "New South" states like Virginia and North Carolina, the numbers in the Deep South are stark. Some 90 percent of white voters supported Republican John McCain in Alabama and Mississippi, according to Associated Press exit polls. In South Carolina, Louisiana, Georgia and Texas, it was about 75 percent or more.

Three of the Republicans' four congressional pickups came in the region, which remains dark red from Charleston, S.C., to Dallas.

"The South ought to tell the Republican Party to hold its primaries down here because we're the only region of the country that Republicans can count on," said Bernie Pinsonat, a Louisiana pollster. "It's the only base left."

To many Republicans, the lopsided Southern victories have come at the expense of other regions.

Forty years ago, Republicans under Richard Nixon decided that national success required breaking up the Democratic dominance in the South. They did so by employing a "Southern strategy" of appealing to white resentment over desegregation and later by highlighting liberal Democratic positions on social and welfare issues.

Today, conservative positions on gun rights, abortion and gay marriage are staples of the Republican platform, as well as a disdain for any tax increases and unyielding support for the war in Iraq.

But if these hard-line conservative positions sell in the Deep South, they appear to have alienated voters elsewhere, if the past two elections are any indication.

According to exit polls, the South was the only region in the country where the share of voters identifying as Republicans was still about the same as the Democratic share. Elsewhere, Republicans were far outnumbered.

After Tuesday, New England will no longer have a single Republican House member. The GOP lost three more Senate seats in the West, and Obama won landslides across the Pacific Northwest and the Northeast.

"I think you can count every Republican from Pennsylvania north on one or two hands," said Charlie Bass, a former Republican congressman from New Hampshire who lost his seat in the last Democratic wave of 2006.

Bass, who now heads the moderate Republican Main Street Partnership, said Southerners and other conservatives who control the party have continued pushing it to the right because it suits their constituents. But the party risks losing national relevance if it doesn't broaden its message, he said.

Cultural issues should be a part of the agenda, he said, but "just don't make it the only reason why you're going to Washington. We don't have to vote on abortion some 80 times a year as we did under (former Republican Majority Leader) Dick Armey."

Bass also said the party must show more of an interest in policy issues like health care, budget deficits and the environment. He said he cringed when he heard the now-familiar GOP chant of "Drill, baby, drill."

"I don't necessarily think offshore drilling is a bad idea, but it isn't just drill, drill, drill," he said. And "low taxes are great, but what about deficits?"

"The Republicans need to understand that even if they win every seat in the South, they won't be in the majority," Bass said.

Congressional Republicans already have begun shaking up their leadership team, and party elders began holding meetings shortly after the election to discuss their next steps.

Calls for change could be heightened this year after Obama shook up the electoral map by winning even the Southern border states of Virginia and North Carolina, and congressional Democrats picked up a handful of seats in several Southern states, including one in Alabama.

Rep. Jack Kingston, a conservative Republican from Georgia, said the party might need to be more careful about putting divisive social issues at the top of its platform. But signaling the internal struggles the party will face in the coming months, he cautioned against pulling back from GOP ideology just because of two bad elections.

"The reality is no party in power during an unpopular war or a bad economy has done well, so I don't know that flailing yourself to death is going to make any difference," Kingston said. "In 2006, the war was very unpopular, and how could you screw up the economy worse than Bush and (Treasury Secretary Henry) Paulson have done in the last six months? So to me, we don't need to ... say, 'Oh, because of this we have to abandon social issues.'"

By BEN EVANS Associated Press Writer