Selected News For Week Nov 8 - Nov 14

107 Responses to “Selected News For Week Nov 8 - Nov 14”

1. BillK

   November 8, 2008 at 2:31 am

   Really? It’s not a civil rights issue? Shocking!

   From the Los Angeles Times:

   Gays, blacks divided on Proposition 8

   For many African Americans, it’s not a civil rights issue.

   By Cara Mia DiMassa and Jessica Garrison

   For Trebor Healey, a 46-year-old gay man from Glendora, Tuesday’s election was bittersweet.

   He was thrilled that the nation elected its first African American president. But he was disappointed that black voters, traditionally among the most reliably liberal in the state, voted overwhelmingly to ban same-sex marriage.

   He understands that there are differences between the civil rights battles of blacks and gays: For one thing, he notes, gay people have a much easier time blending in. Still, he says, he thinks it’s sad that “people do not equate one civil rights struggle with another.”

   Many black voters didn’t see it that way.

   “I was born black. I can’t change that,” said Culver City resident Bilson Davis, 57, who voted for Proposition 8. “They weren’t born gay; they chose it,” he added, reflecting a commonly held belief that many researchers dispute.

   Although many of the state’s black political leaders spoke out against Proposition 8, an exit poll of California voters showed that black voters favored the measure by a ratio of more than 2 to 1. Not only was the black vote weighted heavily in favor of Proposition 8, but black turnout — spurred by Barack Obama’s historic campaign for president — was unusually large, with African Americans making up roughly 10% of the state electorate.

   The exit poll didn’t ask voters why they voted the way they did. But Madison Shockley, pastor of Pilgrim United Church of Christ in Carlsbad and among the roughly one-third of blacks who opposed Proposition 8, said the vote was understandable. “Black folks go to church, probably more than the Caucasian population, and the churches they go to tend to be very traditional.”

   Los Angeles resident Christopher Hill, 50, said he was motivated by religion in supporting Proposition 8. Civil rights, he said, “are about getting a job, employment.”

   Gay marriage, he said, is not: “It’s an abomination against God.”

   One complicating factor was that both sides in the campaign had plausible reason to claim Obama’s support. The president-elect strongly stated his opposition to the proposition, calling it “divisive and discriminatory.”

   But he has also said in public speeches that he opposes same-sex marriage. In the days leading up to the election, some Democrats received “robo-calls” on their cellphones containing an excerpt from such a speech.

   “Here is Barack Obama in his own words on the definition of marriage,” the call began.

   Then the voice of Obama speaking to a crowd comes on: “I believe marriage is a union between a man and a woman. Now, for me as a Christian, it is also a sacred union. God is in the mix.”

   A narrator then urged a yes vote on Proposition 8.

   California Democratic Party consultant Roger Salazar was among the recipients of the call.

   “They saw the Obama tide coming and they were trying to capitalize on it,” Salazar said, adding that the call was “manipulative and deceitful,” given the candidate’s stated opposition to the amendment.

   Still, those efforts, combined with a push by dozens of African American ministers and commercials and mailers arguing that children would be subjected to a pro-gay curriculum should the measure pass, had an effect on voters like Pasadena resident Doris Tucker.

   Tucker, who is African American, said she voted for “all the good things,” especially Obama and Proposition 8. “I don’t think it’s right,” Tucker said of gay marriage. “They shouldn’t let it go on.” …

   http://www.latimes.com/news/lo.....1616.story

   This one will be fun to watch.

   You’ll also notice that “many researchers say” is apparently now the journalistic standard for whether something is true, whether it be anthropogenic Global Warming or whether homosexuality is a chosen behavior.

   Reply
2. BillK

   November 8, 2008 at 2:42 am

   Finally, Sarah stands up for herself.

   From the Los Angeles Times:

   Sarah Palin fires back at ‘jerks’

   The governor and her aides dispute claims about her foreign-policy knowledge and $150,000-plus wardrobe.

   By Seema Mehta and Maeve Reston

   Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin swung back hard Friday against aides to John McCain who have criticized her foreign policy knowledge and pricey wardrobe purchases, calling them “jerks” who were too cowardly to speak publicly.

   The former Republican vice presidential nominee told reporters in Anchorage that a recent Fox News report — which cited unnamed campaign sources as saying she did not know Africa was a continent and could not name the countries involved in the North American Free Trade Agreement — was false, and that her comments were taken out of context.

   <b.”That’s cruel. It’s mean-spirited. It’s immature. It’s unprofessional, and those guys are jerks if they came away with it, taking things out of context, and then tried to spread something on national news. It’s not fair and not right,” Palin told CNN in an interview.

   Palin’s fierce defense was part of a broader push-back Friday by her loyal aides as she resumes her duties as governor and tries to repair some of the damage done in the rough-and-tumble of the campaign. Although Palin has brushed off questions about whether she will run for president in 2012, her supporters are eager to correct what they see as unfair attacks.

   And McCain himself has privately expressed sadness and displeasure over former staffers’ emerging criticism of his running mate, an aide said.

   Since the Arizona senator’s defeat Tuesday in the presidential election, some of his aides have said that as much as $30,000 in clothing was purchased for Palin after the Republican convention in September. That would be on top of the $150,000 in wardrobe purchases made for the Palins by the Republican National Committee, which were reported in September and October Federal Election Commission filings.

   The aides — who spoke on condition of anonymity while discussing the campaign’s inner workings — asserted that some members of Palin’s traveling staff charged clothing for the nominee and her family on their personal credit cards and submitted reimbursement requests to the RNC.

   The campaign has said that at least a third of the $150,000 in purchases — which included a $75,063 spree at Neiman Marcus and a $49,426 trip to Saks Fifth Avenue — were returned.

   In a phone interview Friday, McCain foreign policy advisor Randy Scheunemann, who prepared Palin for her debate with Democratic vice presidential candidate Joe Biden, bristled at the charges that Palin lacked a basic understanding of Africa and NAFTA. He too said that the reports were inaccurate.

   “The real Sarah Palin is not the caricature put out by these dishonest leakers,” Scheunemann said. “The reality is she is a tough, capable, knowledgeable and focused politician. . . . Whoever these people are and whatever position they had in the campaign, they certainly never had John McCain’s best interests at heart.” …

   http://www.latimes.com/news/po.....9123.story

   Truly, this is the real Sarah Palin and I’m amazed it was published at all:

   As for the clothing, Stapleton said, the campaign brought in a New York stylist and gave her a “blank check” to outfit Palin during the convention — a characterization disputed by McCain aides, who say the stylist was authorized to purchase just six outfits.

   Palin “had no idea” about the amounts being spent on her clothing, Stapleton said. “She was sequestered in the hotel, and the only time she was allowed to leave was to watch Sen. McCain speak and to give her own speech.”

   When the stylist appeared with bags of garments, Stapleton said, Palin showed displeasure — and was stunned by the $3,500 price tag for one jacket.

   “She said, ‘No, no, no, no, no. I would never wear this at home, I would never wear this outside of home. This is too much, this isn’t me,‘ ” Stapleton said.

   Campaign officials told Palin she should wear the jacket, Stapleton said, and eventually the governor relented. Palin never saw a price tag after that, Stapleton said.

   Several Palin aides said that the governor may have requested certain clothing items be purchased after the convention, but that she never told staffers to put them on their personal credit cards.

   Tracey Schmitt, who served as Palin’s traveling press secretary, said, “Any purchases that were made by campaign aides have been or will be reimbursed.”

   In response to allegations that as much as $40,000 was spent outfitting the governor’s husband, Todd Palin, Stapleton said: “Two people were told to go clean up Todd . . . so he could look the part. They went and purchased . . . two suits. I’m not sure two suits add up to $40,000.”

   Palin had asked that any clothing that did not belong to the family be removed from the campaign plane in Phoenix before she left for Alaska on Wednesday. But it never was, and when the Palins landed in Anchorage, 14 suitcases were brought to their house. Half belonged to Palin and her family. The remainder were full of the purchased clothing, paperwork and other items.

   Aides were at the Palins’ Wasilla home Friday sorting through the luggage, and will return any clothing and accessories that don’t belong to them to the RNC, Stapleton said: “All of it is going back.”

   Palin made that clear in her interviews Friday. “The RNC purchased clothes. Those are the RNC’s clothes, they’re not my clothes; I never forced anybody to buy any,” she told CNN. “I never asked for anything more than a Diet Dr Pepper once in a while.”

   Brava, Sarah. Brava.

   “I never asked for anything more than a Diet Dr Pepper once in a while.”

   We love her even more.

   Reply
3. BillK

   November 8, 2008 at 2:59 am

   From the Los Angeles Times:

   Election over, Jeremiah Wright is talking again, now on media and Obama

   By Andrew Malcolm

   Here’s a name from the not-so-dim past:

   The retired Rev. Jeremiah Wright, whose incendiary video sermons caused such a furor last winter/spring when his parishioner of 20 years, Barack Obama, said he’d missed the bad ones and could no more disown his pastor than his own family.

   But then Obama did a few weeks later.

   Anyway, in a sermon in Connecticut last night, according to another video just below, Wright suggested that he was a pawn of the media to get at Obama, which sounds kind of like what Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin was saying about the media attacking Sen. John McCain through her.

   So that can’t be right.

   http://latimesblogs.latimes.co.....right.html

   Here’s a link to the video:

   http://www.latimes.com/video/?.....Id=3111717

   Reply
4. Liberals Make Great Speedbumps

   November 8, 2008 at 3:07 am

   BillK,

   I e-mailed Gov. Palin today thanking her for the grace and eloquence she showed under conditions I wouldn’t have been able to myself. How she weathered such unjustified personal attacks so gracefully was incredibly impressive to me. The woman has class.

   I hope that she has learned well and puts those lessons to good use in 2012

   Reply
5. BillK

   November 8, 2008 at 7:07 am

   LMGS, I should do that as well.

   I know it’s the circles I travel in, but every single person I’ve talked to who isn’t a rabid Democrat simply loved Palin and there isn’t one of them that wasn’t energized by her and her presence.

   I only wish I had had the chance to meet her on the campaign trail.

   Reply
6. Diane

   November 8, 2008 at 7:30 am

   From the Chicago Sun-Times:

   Hiring Emanuel shows Obama’s hand

   If you hire a shark, does that make you a shark? If you send in an enforcer, are you, de facto, an enforcer, too?

   President-elect Barack Obama, practitioner of consensus and preacher of civility, made a singular statement by choosing Rep. Rahm Emanuel as his chief of staff, the first hire of the new administration.

   “Brilliant, hardworking, in some ways he may be a good yin to Obama’s yang. But I was very surprised because he has a very different personality type from those around Obama,” longtime Chicago political consultant Kitty Kurth said by phone Thursday.

   “I had first met Rahm after the ‘88 presidential campaign, on Mayor Daley’s ‘89 mayoral race. He was always brilliant but a complete hardball player. The first six or seven times I met him, he never remembered who I was. . . . I never had anything he needed, so he didn’t need to know who I was.”

   There are a million stories about the 49-year-old, profane, pirouetting, ballet-trained Emanuel.

   Whether it’s ripping up contributions of political donors who lacked the good survival sense to write a bigger check, or mailing a dead fish to express his extreme displeasure or repeatedly stabbing a steak knife into a table to punctuate a list of Democratic politicians he was putting on a “dead” list, Rahm Emanuel mastered hardball long before Chris Matthews peddled it on TV.

   Would Emanuel be displeased by the above description?

   Nope. He revels in the legend.

   http://tinyurl.com/5d9c9j

   I can’t tell from the article whether the author is admiring or appalled, but either way it seems we’re in for an interesting four years with the Uniter in office.

   Reply
7. sheehanjihad

   November 8, 2008 at 7:41 am

   Palin was a rock in the face of the most appalling character assasination by the media, by the democrat party, by the left, but most of all, by her own party. She showed such grace and unflappable stoicism in the face of the senseless and sophomoric attacks that I was, and still am impressed with her courage under fire.

   She represents what the GOP should be….and thus their fear of her. Too many entrenched weakling spineless bureaucrats quake in their shoes at the prospect of having to actually stand for something other than their own jobs…..so they snarl and lash out like the dogs in the manger that they are.

   The good side of this is that Sarah Palin is fully aware of who her enemies are, fully aware of the lengths that groups including her own party with go to to discredit her, fully aware of what she can expect if she decides to run in 2012. They all are exposed.

   That, plus the fact that all of the dirt that could possibly be used against her has been thrown, and it didnt stick to her. They have pretty much used up all of their ammunition to use against her should she decide to challenge the very system that seeks to destroy her out of their own petty fears.

   Note to Sarah Palin: Run in 2012. Hand pick your staff. Do what you do best. Be yourself. You will win.

   Note to anyone running for office in the future: Do NOT hire or have on your staff ANYONE who worked on the McCain campaign. Not even as a volunteer. They only want a job, and your interests will not be served. They have no honor.

   They are just like the RNC and the GOP….. They are self serving weakling cowards, and loyal only to who has the money to buy their loyalty. Discard these ineffective failures if you seek a victory.

   Reply
8. BillK

   November 8, 2008 at 7:56 am

   Shocking!

   From a sympathetic AP:

   Islamists Post Internet Video Urging Obama to Abandon War on Terror

   BAGHDAD — Two Iraqi insurgent groups called on President-elect Barack Obama to withdraw U.S. troops from Iraq and abandon the war on terror, an Internet monitoring service reported Friday.

   Abu Omar al-Baghdadi, self-styled head of the Al Qaeda front group the Islamic State of Iraq, said in a speech posted on an extremist Web site that it would be better “for you and us” to “withdraw your forces,” according to the SITE Intelligence Group that monitors militant Web sites.

   You do not interfere in the affairs of our countries,” he continued in an apparent reference to Muslim dominated nations. “We, in turn, will not prevent commerce with you, whether it is in oil or otherwise.”

   Al-Baghdadi blamed the global financial crisis on the wars “launched in Muslim countries” and said he was issuing the call on behalf of “my brothers in Iraq, Afghanistan, Somalia, and Chechnya,” SITE said.

   The U.S. military says al-Baghdadi is an actor who provides a voice for Al Qaeda in Iraq propaganda.

   In a separate statement, the Mujahedeen Army, a Sunni insurgent group, urged Obama to withdraw U.S. troops from Iraq or face “days that will be more difficult than the nightmare experienced by his predecessor.” …

   http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,448904,00.html

   Let the uh, “testing” begin.

   Reply
9. Liberals Make Great Speedbumps

   November 8, 2008 at 8:23 am

   “urged Obama to withdraw U.S. troops from Iraq or face “days that will be more difficult than the nightmare experienced by his predecessor.”

   The only nightmare GWB experienced was from the traitors on all sides in THIS country. I would say judging by the results in Iraq, the way your ass has been handed to you at every turn Moohamad boy, you are the one who experienced the nightmare.

   Reply
10. sheehanjihad

    November 8, 2008 at 8:34 am

    Note to terrrorists: we are already experiencing a nightmare thank you. Now go put on your vest, walk to the nearest mosque, gather everyone around you, and do what you do best. Die.

    Reply
11. curvyred

    November 8, 2008 at 11:24 am

    http://www.foxnews.com/printer.....ba,00.html

    [B]Shall we work on stimulating Cuba’s economy?[/B]

    “Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama on Tuesday called the Bush administration’s decision to tighten restrictions on relatives of Cubans who want to visit the island or send money home strategic blunders and promised to reverse the measures if elected.

    The Illinois senator leapt into the long-running and often bruising debate over U.S.-Cuba policy with an op-ed piece published in The Miami Herald.

    “The primary means we have of encouraging positive change in Cuba today is to help the Cuban people become less dependent on the Castro regime in fundamental ways,” Obama wrote.

    “Unfortunately, the Bush administration has made grand gestures to that end while strategically blundering when it comes to actually advancing the cause of freedom and democracy in Cuba,” he added.

    He said that was true of the travel and money restrictions imposed in 2004, adding that the move isolated those on the island from “the transformative message carried there by Cuban Americans.” He promised to grant Cuban exiles unrestricted rights to visit their families and to send remittances home.”

    Reply
12. curvyred

    November 8, 2008 at 12:30 pm

    “Hawaii officials to count Obama grandmother’s absentee ballot”

    “An absentee ballot filled out by Barack Obama’s grandmother, who died on the eve of the US election, is to be counted in Hawaii, according to election officials.

    Madelyn Dunham, who was 86 when she died of cancer on Sunday, had sent an absentee ballot because of her declining health.

    It arrived at the elections office on October 27, and went on to be processed like any other absentee vote.

    Although the law would normally require that an absentee ballot cast by someone who dies before election day to be discarded, Kevin Cronin, the Hawaii elections chief, confirmed that it would still be counted, as the elections office did not receive a list of deceased residents - which included Dunham’s name - from the state department of health before Tuesday.”

    http://www.guardian.co.uk/worl.....rackobama2

    Reply
13. SG

    November 8, 2008 at 1:19 pm

    Funny, we have heard all about Obama’s grandmother’s vote — but nary a peep about her funeral, or whether the President Select will attend the event.

    Reply
14. curvyred

    November 8, 2008 at 1:26 pm

    SG,

    I had the same thought today. I wonder if he will attend?

    I guess deceased people (no disrespect intended) really can vote in hawaii;

    “Kevin Cronin, the Hawaii elections chief, confirmed that it would still be counted, as the elections office did not receive a list of deceased residents - which included Dunham’s name - from the state department of health before Tuesday.”

    Reply
15. texaspsue

    November 8, 2008 at 1:50 pm

    Hey Liberals Make Great Speedbumps, what is the e-mail address? The only address I found said that you couldn’t put political info/messages on it.

    SG,curvyred
    I was also wondering that same thought.. DID they have a funeral service?

    Reply
16. SG

    November 8, 2008 at 3:14 pm

    Well, it looks like there have been reports about Obama’s grandmother’s funeral and I just missed them.

    From the Associated Press

    Obama to honor late grandmother during December visit to Hawaii
    
    By HERBERT A. SAMPLE
    Thursday November 6, 2008

    President-elect Barack Obama will visit Hawai’i in December to honor his grandmother “Toot,” who died two nights before the election, and to relax with his family before he takes the reins of the federal government in January.

    Campaign officials will not specify when Obama will arrive. He, his wife Michelle and his two daughters have vacationed in Hawai’i during the winter holidays in recent years…

    Obama planned to stay home in Chicago this weekend, with a blackout on news announcements so that he and his staff can rest after a grueling campaign and the rush of their victory Tuesday night.

    No plans for Dunham’s funeral or memorial service have been announced.

    It is not uncommon for funerals to be held more than a week after the death of a Hawai’i resident because of the time it takes for loved ones to fly to the Islands, said Jerry Andrade, funeral home manager of Borthwick Mortuary, which is handling Dunham’s arrangements.

    He added that visitation and funeral services tend to be larger affairs in Hawai’i than in the rest of the United States because residents here often have large families and collections of friends.

    “Everybody is so close here. Everyone is related to each other,” he said…

    http://tinyurl.com/6cgjwe

    Maybe it’s just me. But doesn’t it seem like the media always find an excuse for Obama?

    He is delaying her funeral until December. But we are assured that everybody in Hawaii does that.

    Sure they do.

    Reply
17. SG

    November 8, 2008 at 4:19 pm

    Sorry for deleting your comment, NBTD. But I just don’t want to give the WBC any publicity whatsoever.

    It’s all they want. That, and the lawsuits.

    Reply
18. jobeth

    November 8, 2008 at 4:59 pm

    First there are strange methods for O’s birth in Hawaii and now there are strange customs for his grandmother’s funeral. Seems to be a lack of the normal paper trails the rest of us leave. Me thinks somethin’ smells fishy. But then Hawaii is surrounded by fish. Just me thinkin’ again.

    Reply
19. texaspsue

    November 8, 2008 at 9:01 pm

    From the Bulletin:

    Farewell To Sweetness & Light

    By James G. Wiles, For The Bulletin

    Well, that didn’t take long. Fresh from his election victory on a platform of being a uniter, not a divider, President-elect Barack Obama has just made his first presidential appointment. Guess who? Chicago Congressman Rahm Emanuel as his White House chief of staff.

    Goodbye, sweetness and light. Mr. Emanuel, not to put too fine a point on it, is a thug, straight out of Tough Jews, the fine book by Rich Cohen which I used to give to clients. Before making a fortune as an investment banker (funny how national politics pays off that way) and entering Congress to represent the poor and the downtrodden, Mr. Emanuel was Bill Clinton’s political director in the White House. As such, he was a personal practicioner of the “politics of personal destruction,” so decried, so unconvincingly, by Hillary Rodham Clinton.

    In the Clintons’ successful defense of President Clinton’s impeachment trial for perjury and obstruction of justice (a majority of the Senate voted to convict, but not the Constitutionally-required two-thirds), Mr. Emanuel was part of the pack. Opponents were investigated, attacked, blackmailed or exposed. Among the casualties of the Clintons’ smash-mouth defense were Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich and his successor as Speaker, William Livingston.

    Starting January 20, smash-mouth is back in the White House, this time acting on behalf of the Archangel Barack. Truly, it is a time of renewals…

    Given his role in the Clinton Machine - and his support of Hillary in the primaries, Rahm Emanuel’s pick by Sen. Barack Obama might appear at first blush to be surprising. But Mr. Emanuel has long been comfortable moving between two worlds.

    An Israeli citizen until he was 18 years old, he broke with other leading Democrats to vote for the Iraq War. His father was a member of the Irgun, the Jewish underground organization led by Menachem Begin which the British condemned as terrorists.During the 1991 Gulf War, Mr. Emanuel was a civilian volunteer in the Israeli Defense Forces.

    Again, while supporting Hillary Clinton for president, Mr. Emanuel remained in good standing with Chicago’s Daley Machine. Yet, as I wrote earlier this year, the Democratic primary season featured a contest between the Daleys and Kennedys on one side and the Clintons on the other. Mr. Emanuel’s appointment as White House chief of staff shows effective he was in keeping one foot in each camp.

    Then again, maybe the incoming administration is just going to be all Chicago, all the time.

    The article goes on to suggest what steps the Republicans should take now.

    And now, a thought experiment: what would Rahm Emanuel do if he had Congressman John Boehner’s job as House Minority Leader?

    That’s easy. Put as many long-range torpedoes into the water aimed at Senator Obama’s ship of state before Republicans lose control of the Executive Branch as possible. Here are a few:

    *Appoint U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois Patrick Fitzpatrick as a special prosecutor so he can pursue his investigation of Tony Rezko and his corrupt dealings with Illinois’s governor and other creatures and spoilsmen of the Daley Machine. This will make it politically difficult for a President Obama to pardon Mr. Rezko and impossible for him to terminate Mr. Fitzpatrick as a federal officer come January 21 as a way of de-railing this investigation.

    * Appoint a special prosecutor to investigate ACORN’s voter registration methods and its dealings with the Obama campaign.

    * Appoint a special prosecutor to investigate the Obama campaign’s on-line fundraising operation, including its disabling of the credit card security software on its on-line donations system. File a complaint with the Federal Election Commission regarding same.

    * Appoint a bipartisan (love that word!) presidential commission to review the candidates’ fundraising in this election cycle and to recommend changes in federal election laws.

    File ethics complaints against Sen. Chris Dodd and Congressman Barney Frank for their relationship with Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and Countrywide Mortgage.

    Be it noted that, in his day, this is probably what Newt Gingrich would have done, too. It was then-Congressman Gingrich’s persistent filing of ethics complaints against then-House Speaker Jim Wright, D Texas, which eventually brought Speaker Wright down and made possible the Republicans’ re-taking of Congress in 1994 on the platform of the Contract with America.

    http://tinyurl.com/6rv4dz

    I agree with the article. Come on Republicans. It’s now or never. You know what they say, “no guts no glory”.

    The headline is curious though. What’s up with that? Gosh SG, the name of your website is a common expression in the media these days. LOL

    Leave Sweetness and Light alone. :-)

    Reply
20. sheehanjihad

    November 8, 2008 at 9:07 pm

    Republican party? We dont have no Republican party.

    Reply
21. texaspsue

    November 8, 2008 at 9:18 pm

    You’ve got a point there SJ. But, if you wear a hat it won’t show. ;-) (Sorry, I couldn’t resist.)

    What was I thinking? I guess it’s the optimist in me. Conservatives really have a long row to hoe don’t they? Sigh.

    Reply
22. sheehanjihad

    November 8, 2008 at 9:51 pm

    Conservatives need a party who will represent them. That is what we lack. Actually, that’s what I meant Tex….get my “point”? lol

    Reply
23. texaspsue

    November 8, 2008 at 10:07 pm

    “Conservatives need a party who will represent them.”

    I’ve noticed that all of the Conservative sites are pondering the “What do we do now?” question. John @ Powerlineblog suggests, “Conservatives should stop talking about media bias and start founding (or buying) some newspapers of our own. Of course, until that happens we’ll probably still complain about bias from time to time. PAUL adds: Or constantly, in my case.”

    Well I say time’s a wasting. Somebody needs to step up to the plate and sort these things out. (Whoa, I just noticed, I’m a walking cliche today.) Rumor has it that Newt Gingrich wants to be RNC Chairman. I don’t have a take on Newt quite yet. Do you know if he is inclusive or divisive within the Party?

    Touche SJ… LOL…..you bad.

    Reply
24. Liberals Make Great Speedbumps

    November 8, 2008 at 11:18 pm

    texaspsue,

    The one I used was governor@alaska.gov. I don’t know if she’ll see it or not but I hope some of her staff will at least tell her that there are a lot of people out here who care about her and are proud of her.

    Reply
25. BillK

    November 9, 2008 at 5:53 am

    Hmmm, new tack - if you don’t like the election results, don’t pay taxes.

    From a supportive AP:

    Hollywood joins the furor over gay marriage ban

    LOS ANGELES (AP) - Thousands of protesters are angry about California’s ban on gay marriage - and so are the stars.

    Many celebrities grieved the passing of Proposition 8 in California this week. Some - such as Wanda Sykes, Rose McGowen and Lance Bass - attended a Wednesday protest criticizing the state’s gay marriage ban. Others - like Ellen DeGeneres, Rosie O’Donnell, Samantha Ronson and Melissa Etheridge - vented their frustrations online, on TV, and onstage.

    Blocks away from the Thursday rally of more than 2,000 gay-rights advocates outside the gates of a Mormon temple, several stars - including James Cromwell, Patricia Clarkson, Anjelica Huston and Sean Penn - said they supported the protesters while walking the red carpet at the BAFTA L.A. Brittania Awards at Hyatt Regency Century Plaza Hotel.

    “I think it might be an idea to go out and join them shortly,” Penn said. “It was a shameful decision that was made.”

    Etheridge, who exchanged vows with her longtime partner in a 2003 ceremony, declared she wouldn’t pay her taxes in a blog entry posted Thursday on TheDailyBeast.com. The gay Oscar- and Grammy-winning singer-songwriter said without the right to marry in California, she didn’t think she should have to pay taxes because “I am not a full citizen.“

    “I don’t mean to get too personal here,” Etheridge wrote. “But there is a lot I can do with the extra half a million dollars that I will be keeping instead of handing it over to the state of California. Oh, and I am sure Ellen will be a little excited to keep her bazillion bucks that she pays in taxes, too.” …

    http://www.9news.com/life/ente.....;catid=343

    OK, friends, what are the odds Etheridge will be arrested, charged or even fined for non-payment of her taxes?

    Yep - zero.

    Whereas you or I would have liens attached so fast it would break the sound barrier.

    Reply
26. texaspsue

    November 10, 2008 at 12:47 am

    Video of the day:

    http://minx.cc/?post=277772

    (AceofSpades)

    What’s creepy is how excited the BO people were at his arrest.

    Reply
27. BillK

    November 10, 2008 at 7:37 am

    Seriously, this takes the cake.

    Without ideology, what is the GOP?

    From the Los Angeles Times:

    Schwarzenegger urges GOP to move beyond ideology

    The governor says it is important for his party to regroup and support spending on programs Americans want.

    By Michael Rothfeld

    Reporting from Sacramento — In the wake of crushing defeats for Republicans in last week’s national elections, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said Sunday that his party should regroup by moving away from some of its core conservative principles and embracing spending on programs that Americans want.

    “I think the important thing for the Republican Party is now to also look at other issues that are very important for this country and not to get stuck in ideology,” the governor said in an interview broadcast on CNN. “Let’s go and talk about healthcare reform. Let’s go and… fund programs if they’re necessary programs and not get stuck just on the fiscal responsibility.”

    Schwarzenegger, a social moderate, long ago earned the enmity of many California Republicans who believe he abandoned some of the fiscally conservative views he espoused when running for office five years ago. They cite, for instance, his failed plan to dramatically expand health insurance in the state.

    Last week, Schwarzenegger further angered Republicans by proposing a statewide sales-tax increase to balance the budget.

    But the governor has not previously been so openly critical of the approach of the conservative bloc that dominates his party on the national level. He said that Republicans had “a very good party” and that he had no plans to leave it because he agrees with the GOP’s push to reduce restrictions on business and remain tough on crime.

    Schwarzenegger said, however, that the GOP should support greater investment to build roads and fix schools and fund other “things that the American people want to have done.”

    Republicans should not “always just say, ‘This is spending. We can’t do that,’ ” the governor said. “No, don’t get stuck with that. We have heard that dialogue. Let’s move on.”

    Schwarzenegger told CNN’s John King that he believed Sen. John McCain would have won the presidency if not for the plunging stock market in the days leading up to the Nov. 4 election.

    The governor deflected a question about whether McCain had displayed bad judgment in selecting Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska as his running mate. …

    http://www.latimes.com/news/lo.....6979.story

    So, in essence, the GOP should be… Democrats.

    Got it.

    Seriously, in case you need it again in big letters:

    In the wake of crushing defeats for Republicans in last week’s national elections, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said Sunday that his party should regroup by moving away from some of its core conservative principles and embracing spending on programs that Americans want.

    Many Americans already believe there’s no real difference between the parties; Ahnold wants to make that the truth.

    Reply
28. BillK

    November 10, 2008 at 7:44 am

    From the Los Angeles Times:

    The law and Prop. 8

    California’s Supreme Court will have to untangle two important legal questions.

    By Goodwin Liu

    Is Proposition 8 the last word on same-sex marriage in California? A debate that started this year in the state Supreme Court met its latest verdict at the ballot box Tuesday. But in the coming months, the issue will be back in front of the court, which has to sort through two important legal questions.

    Proposition 8 adds a provision to the California Constitution that says: “Only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California,” effectively overruling the court’s May 15 decision allowing same-sex couples to wed. After the initiative passed, its opponents filed a legal challenge, claiming Proposition 8 should be invalidated because it was not enacted under the proper procedures for changing the state Constitution.

    They have a good argument, but one that faces difficult precedents.

    Article 18 of the state Constitution provides that the document can be changed by amendment or by revision. An amendment may be enacted by initiative with a majority vote, whereas a revision must first be passed by two-thirds of the Legislature before being submitted to the voters. (California’s Legislature has voted twice in recent years to legalize same-sex marriage, but the governor vetoed it.)

    Does Proposition 8 qualify as a revision? Under the case law, it’s a revision only if it “substantially alters the basic governmental framework set forth in our Constitution.” Proposition 8 does exactly that, its opponents say, by eliminating a fundamental right for a specific group, and by limiting the judiciary’s constitutional role in enforcing equal protection and privacy guarantees.

    Historically, however, the court has taken a narrow view of what kind of measure “substantially alters the basic governmental framework.” For example, neither Proposition 13, which capped property tax rates, nor Proposition 140, which imposed legislative term limits, were held to be a revision of the Constitution despite their far-reaching transformation of state government. Moreover, a 1972 initiative that reinstated the death penalty after the court had declared it cruel and unusual punishment was also deemed an amendment, not a revision, even though it directly limited the judiciary’s power to declare fundamental rights.

    Nevertheless, there are good reasons for the California Supreme Court to rethink its jurisprudence in this area. Even if Proposition 8 does not “substantially alter the basic governmental framework,” there is no question that it targets a historically vulnerable group and eliminates a very important right. Changing the Constitution — the state’s paramount law — in such a momentous way arguably calls for deliberative rather than direct democracy. Indeed, as early as the nation’s founding, our constitutional tradition has favored representative democracy over simple majority rule when it comes to deciding minority rights.

    http://www.latimes.com/news/op.....3332.story

    Or, per usual, voters are smart when they vote for Obama but don’t have two brain cells to rub together when they vote of Prop. 8.

    Remember, only liberal votes count.

    Reply
29. BillK

    November 10, 2008 at 7:54 am

    Time to bash Rush again.

    From the Los Angeles Times:

    Right-wing media feeds its post-election anger

    Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity dive shamelessly in, talking about the ‘Obama recession’ and other partisan lines.

    By James Rainey

    You have to give Rush Limbaugh a perverse kind of credit. At least when he is demonizing Barack Obama, fabricating Obama policies, blaming Obama for single-handedly causing the recession and the stock market crash, he doesn’t pretend to be fair.

    Opening his first post-election rant against the president-elect, Limbaugh launched in with a certain relish. “The game,” he told his radio listeners, “has begun.”

    Sean Hannity, on the other hand, insisted on feigning a post-election detente, telling his Fox News television audience last week, “I want Barack Obama to succeed.”

    Didn’t he think anyone would notice that, just a moment later, he was back parroting the failed campaign argument that Obama is a “mystery”?

    “I fear [this] is the guy that has these radical associations 20 years ago,” Hannity added, an odd way of demonstrating support for the new commander in chief.

    A healthy skepticism is not only the media’s right but its obligation. Indeed, commentators at many mainstream outlets — including the Los Angeles Times, Washington Post and Wall Street Journal — have already argued that Obama’s best bet to succeed will be if he hews to a centrist path.

    But many on the losing end of last week’s election want to hold on to their anger. And there are those in the media — led by the likes of Limbaugh and Hannity — only too ready to feed that animus, along with their own ratings.

    “The Obama recession is in full swing, ladies and gentlemen,” Limbaugh told his radio audience of 15 million to 20 million on Thursday. “Stocks are dying, which is a precursor of things to come. This is an Obama recession. Might turn into a depression.”

    Apparently the tanking of the real estate market, record losses in the auto industry, and massive failures in the banking and investment industry have very little to do with our problems. The economic system is collapsing, Rush wants us to know, because it anticipates the tax increases Obama has pledged on capital gains and for the highest income earners.

    But maybe that shouldn’t be so surprising, because radio’s Biggest Big Man also assures us that the Democrat welcomes “economic chaos” because it gives him “greater opportunity for expanded government.” In a time when the nation calls out for cool leadership and rational discussion, Limbaugh stirs the caldron, a tendency he proved in a particularly grotesque way last week when he accused Obama’s party of plotting a government takeover of 401(k) retirement plans.

    “They’re going to take your 401(k), put it in the Social Security trust fund, whatever the hell that is,” Limbaugh woofed. “Trust fund, my rear end.”

    A slight problem with Limbaugh’s report: Obama and the Democrats have proposed no such thing.

    The proposal, in fact, emanated from a single economist, one of many experts testifying to a congressional committee.

    The president-elect has thus far shown as much interest in taking over your 401(k) as he has in moving the capital to Nairobi. (If you look hard, you might find that one somewhere out there in the blogosphere, too.)

    To broadcast such a report — so drained of context as to constitute a lie — would be a shameless act at any time. But Limbaugh needlessly stirred the fears of the millions he holds in his thrall — making the 401(k) thievery sound like nearly a done deal. Shameless.

    Hannity and Limbaugh filleted Obama’s selection as chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, in a way that exposed their partisan gamesmanship.

    Mainstream newspapers have filed plenty of unflinching accounts of Emanuel’s tough, occasionally ruthless tactics as a Democratic congressional leader and onetime operative in the Clinton White House. That assessment of bare-knuckle partisanship Hannity seized on. But it wouldn’t do to report another aspect of Emanuel’s record — his Clintonesque bent for the political center.

    So the Fox-man simply created a new persona for Emanuel as, you guessed it, “one of the hardest left-wing radicals on the left.”

    Ever open-minded, Hannity concluded, “I think they’re going to overreach, and I think we’re going to see the person that I think Barack Obama is. I think he is hard, hard left.”

    Then, I kid you not, Hannity ended with this pledge: “We’ll see. We’ll give him an opportunity.”

    Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham apparently didn’t get the memo requiring Obama’s opponents to sink immediately and mindlessly into rank partisanship.

    The South Carolina senator, one of Sen. John McCain’s closest allies in his bid for the presidency, praised Obama’s selection of Emanuel as “a wise choice.” He added that the new chief of staff could be a tough partisan, but was also “honest, direct and candid” and willing to “work to find common ground where it exists.”

    http://www.latimes.com/news/po.....6330.story

    Funny though, where are all the court cases challenging the election results as would be the case if McCain had won?

    Where are the protesters, ala Prop. 8?

    Nowhere? Hmmm.

    I’m sure they’d have taken their pen in hand to chastise S&L as well if they knew this site even existed.

    Note this piece is in the LA Times’ news section and is not marked or treated as an editorial.

    Just plain old unbiased political news.

    Just remember everything you read here is a lie because of our seething anger.

    The same “right wing anger” CNN ran a story on last week and Rush discussed on Friday, proving once again the LA Times can’t even report new “news” - all they can do is recite the latest talking points from the DNC and the rest of the MSM.

    Reply
30. BillK

    November 10, 2008 at 3:22 pm

    A New York advertising agency takes credit for Florida’s Obama vote.

    From Television Week:

    ‘Great Schlep’ Proved Power of Participation

    By Daisy Whitney

    Comedian Sarah Silverman’s “The Great Schlep” video, which urged young voters to schlep to Florida to convince their Jewish grandparents to vote for Barack Obama for president, earned more than 15 million views online. The video is an example of a new trend in “participation advertising,” said David Droga, creative chairman of New York advertising firm Droga5, during a keynote session at the CTAM Summit in Boston today.

    Droga5 created “The Great Schlep” campaign that consisted of a Web site, Facebook application and the popular video fronted by Ms. Silverman, also the star of the famous viral video “I’m F—king Matt Damon” earlier this year.

    “We didn’t win the election for Obama,” Mr. Droga said. “We just helped him not lose. Fifteen million people watched the video, 1.5 million downloaded talking points and 25,000 signed up for the schlep. This is a participation medium.”

    He added, “It’s our responsibility to stretch the canvas about how to have a dialogue and be transparent and emotional with our content. The days of being able to go through the motions and create advertising and bombard the consumer is over.”

    http://www.tvweek.com/news/200.....r_of_p.php

    Reflecting once again how sad it is that many youth apparently base their voting decisions on what they find humorous on YouTube.

    Ironic that the generation that proudly boasts they are immune from advertising is… influenced by an ad campaign created by a New York advertising agency.

    Reply
31. BillK

    November 10, 2008 at 4:34 pm

    Whoopsie!

    Scarborough Says a Naughty Word on MSNBC

    By Michele Greppi

    MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” anchor Joe Scarborough dropped the f-bomb Monday, provoking a round of stunned you-can’t-say-thats from his on-air coterie.

    Speaking from Washington, D.C., Mr. Scarborough was talking about President-elect Obama’s inner circle when he said, “These are good, steady, decent men who don’t go around flipping people off or saying ‘f–k you’ at the top of their lungs.”

    He first protested that he was just retelling a story told a short time before by Jay Carney, the Time magazine deputy bureau chief in Washington who was appearing on the show.

    “I didn’t use the word,” protested Mr. Carney.

    “Ommm, honey,” “Scarborough” sidekick Mika Brzezinski said.

    Once he was finally convinced that Mr. Carney’s use of the word had been off-air, whereas his was not, Mr. Scarborough offered “great apologies if I said the word, instead of the letter. My wife is going to kill me when I get home.”

    “I’m going to go get some soap,” he said.

    After a commercial break, Mr. Scarborough said his apology was aimed at the children he sometimes hears are in his audience and their mothers, but “adults” should get over it.

    “Joe made a mistake this morning and apologized to his viewers immediately,” read a statement issued later by MSNBC. “As he noted, the language he used was completely inappropriate.”

    An MSNBC spokesman said there is no delay on the news channel’s live programming.

    http://www.tvweek.com/news/200.....ty_wor.php

    Well, as long as he apologized…

    Reply
32. texaspsue

    November 10, 2008 at 5:11 pm

    From FoxNews:

    Obama Planning U.S. Trials for Guantanamo Detainees
    The president-elect’s advisers quietly craft a proposal to ship dozens, if not hundreds, of imprisoned terrorism suspects to the United States to face criminal trials

    WASHINGTON — President-elect Obama’s advisers are crafting plans to close the Guantanamo Bay prison and prosecute terrorism suspects in the U.S., a plan that the Bush administration said Monday was easier said than done.

    Under the plan being crafted inside Obama’s camp, some detainees would be released and others would be charged in U.S. courts, where they would receive constitutional rights and open trials. But, underscoring the difficult decisions Obama must make to fulfill his pledge of shutting down Guantanamo, the plan could require the creation of a new legal system to handle the classified information inherent in some of the most sensitive cases.

    Many of the about 250 Guantanamo detainees are cleared for release, but the Bush administration has not been to find a country willing to take them.

    Advisers participating directly in the planning spoke on condition of anonymity because the plans aren’t final.

    The plan being developed by Obama’s team has been championed by legal scholars from both political parties. But as details surfaced Monday, it drew criticism from Democrats who oppose creating a new legal system and from Republicans who oppose bringing terrorism suspects to the U.S. mainland.

    The move would mark a sharp change from the Bush administration, which established military tribunals to prosecute detainees at the Navy base in Cuba and strongly opposes bringing prisoners to the United States. At the White House, spokeswoman Dana Perino said Monday that President Bush has faced many challenges in trying to close the prison.

    “We’ve tried very hard to explain to people how complicated it is. When you pick up people off the battlefield that have a terrorist background, it’s not just so easy to let them go,” Perino said. “These issues are complicated, and we have put forward a process that we think would work in order to put them on trial through military tribunals.”

    But Obama has been critical of that process and his legal advisers said finding an alternative will be a top priority. One of those advisers, Harvard law professor Laurence Tribe, acknowledges that bringing detainees to the U.S. would be controversial but said it could be accomplished.

    “I think the answer is going to be, they can be as securely guarded on U.S. soil as anywhere else,” Tribe said. “We can’t put people in a dungeon forever without processing whether they deserve to be there.”

    The tougher challenge will be allaying fears by Democrats who believe the Bush administration’s military commissions were a farce and dislike the idea of giving detainees anything less than the full constitutional rights normally enjoyed by everyone on U.S. soil.

    “I think that creating a new alternative court system in response to the abject failure of Guantanamo would be a profound mistake,” Jonathan Hafetz, an American Civil Liberties Union attorney who represents detainees, said Monday. “We do not need a new court system. The last eight years are a testament to the problems of trying to create new systems.”

    Senate Judiciary Committee member John Cornyn, R-Texas, said it would be a “colossal mistake to treat terrorism as a mere crime.”

    http://elections.foxnews.com/2.....detainees/

    I guess we all saw this coming, but, I am still going to vent. What part of “terrorists” don’t they understand? The thugs were trying to kill our Troops on the battlefield. Now, we are suppose to bring them to the USA and treat them with kid gloves? Other Countries won’t even take these creeps. Sheesh!

    (Just thought I’d mention, thank God we were able to get Sen. Cornyn reelected here in Texas.)

    Reply
33. JohnMG

    November 10, 2008 at 5:47 pm

    I have a solution.

    Let every bleeding-heart, liberal, democrat, son-of-a-bitch (I know, I’m being redundant) pushing for the kid-glove treatment for these terrorist vermin, provide food, shelter, and 24-hour security within their own home at their own expense. No special security forces to protect them or their family. Nothing! If the a**hole cuts somebody’s throat in their sleep…….well, maybe they were just misunderstood, and someone should have sat down and talked with them.

    For the rest of us sane people, I say permanently tattoo “terrorist” all over their body, especially across the forehead, turn them loose among the general population, and declare open-season on the lot of ‘em. Better yet, pay a bounty for each and every one of these jerk-wads.

    Obama’s plans are insanity. I wonder how many doubters out there will still not concede that he’s a closet-islamist

    Reply
34. BillK

    November 11, 2008 at 1:50 am

    From the AP:

    Palin blames Bush policies for GOP defeat

    By Gene Johnson

    WASILLA, Alaska (AP) — Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, amid speculation she’ll run for president in four years, blamed Bush administration policies for the defeat last week of the GOP ticket and prayed she wouldn’t miss “an open door” for her next political opportunity.

    “I’m like, OK, God, if there is an open door for me somewhere, this is what I always pray, I’m like, don’t let me miss the open door,” Palin said in an interview with Fox News on Monday. “And if there is an open door in ‘12 or four years later, and if it is something that is going to be good for my family, for my state, for my nation, an opportunity for me, then I’ll plow through that door.”

    In a wide-ranging interview with Fox’s Greta Van Susteren, Palin says she neither wanted nor asked for the $150,000-plus wardrobe the Republican Party bankrolled, and thought the issue was an odd one at the end of the campaign, considering “what is going on in the world today.”

    “I did not order the clothes. Did not ask for the clothes,” Palin said. “I would have been happy to have worn my own clothes from Day One. But that is kind of an odd issue, an odd campaign issue as things were wrapping up there as to who ordered what and who demanded what.”

    “It’s amazing that we did as well as we did,” Palin, who was Sen. John McCain’s running mate, said of the election in a separate interview with the Anchorage Daily News.

    “I think the Republican ticket represented too much of the status quo, too much of what had gone on in these last eight years, that Americans were kind of shaking their heads like going, wait a minute, how did we run up a $10 trillion debt in a Republican administration? How have there been blunders with war strategy under a Republican administration? If we’re talking change, we want to get far away from what it was that the present administration represented and that is to a great degree what the Republican Party at the time had been representing,” Palin said in a story published Sunday.

    Palin has scheduled a series of national interviews this week with Fox, NBC’s “Today” show and CNN. She also plans to attend the Republican Governors Association conference in Florida this week.

    Palin has been mentioned as a possible presidential candidate in 2012. She also could seek re-election in 2010 or challenge Sen. Lisa Murkowski. Still uncertain is the fate of Sen. Ted Stevens, who is leading in his bid for another term but could be ousted by the Senate for his conviction on seven felony counts of failing to report more than $250,000 in gifts, mostly renovations on his home. If Stevens loses his seat, Palin could run for it in a special election.

    Palin and McCain’s campaign faced a storm of criticism over the tens of thousands of dollars spent at such high-end stores as Saks Fifth Avenue and Neiman Marcus to dress the nominee. Republican National Committee lawyers are still trying to determine exactly what clothing was bought for Palin, what was returned and what has become of the rest.

    Her father, Chuck Heath, said Palin spent part of the weekend going through her clothing to determine what belongs to the Republican Party.

    “She was just frantically … trying to sort stuff out,” Heath said. “That’s the problem, you know, the kids lose underwear, and everything has to be accounted for. Nothing goes right back to normal,”

    Palin’s father said his daughter told him the only clothing or accessories she personally had purchased in the past four months was a pair of shoes.

    RNC lawyers have been discussing with Palin whether what’s left of the clothing and accessories purchased for her on the campaign trail will go to charity, back to stores or be paid for by Palin, a McCain-Palin campaign official said Friday, speaking on condition of anonymity because the campaign hadn’t authorized comment.

    The McCain-Palin campaign said about a third of the clothing was returned immediately because it was the wrong size, or for other reasons. However, other purchases apparently were made after that, the campaign official said.

    In Wasilla, her hometown backers welcomed her, putting aside their disappointment over her unsuccessful bid.

    Jessica Steele can’t wait to see what Sarah Palin does next - not with her political career, but with her hair.

    “That’s something I want to talk to her about: What’s our vision for her hair?” says Steele, proprietor of the Beehive Beauty Shop and keeper of the governor’s up-do since 2002. “I can’t wait to see her and say, ‘OK, I’ve got you alone for three hours. Just relax, and how are you, really?’” …

    http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/P/PALIN

    She’s absolutely correct, of course, and is one of the very few elected GOP officials to recognize it.

    Seriously, how can you not love this woman and how can what she has to say not give you some glimmer of hope for the future?

    Yet the MSM pushes Ahnold as the future of the GOP; we know why.

    The question is, who is the future, and if it’s Ahnold, where do conservatives go next?

    Reply
35. BillK

    November 11, 2008 at 1:53 am

    Democrats prove again they’re anti-free enterprise:

    Senator asks sites not to sell inaugural tickets

    By Erica Werner

    WASHINGTON (AP) — The senator overseeing Barack Obama’s swearing-in ceremony said Monday she’s writing to Internet sites like eBay asking them not to sell scalped inauguration tickets. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., also said she’s crafting a bill that would make a federal crime of selling tickets to the historic event Jan. 20.

    Feinstein, who chairs the Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies, said she foresees overwhelming demand for the 240,000 available tickets and has heard reports they may be sold for as much as $40,000 online.

    The tickets are supposed to be free to the public and distributed through congressional offices.

    Lawmakers’ offices won’t get the tickets until shortly before the inauguration, to try to prevent scalping. In-person pickup will be required

    “These tickets are given for free to people. This is a major civic event of the time, and no one pays for their tickets, and we believe no one should be required to pay for their tickets,” Feinstein said in an interview.

    Besides eBay, Feinstein aides said they are looking at writing to Craig’s List and possibly other sites. An eBay spokeswoman, Nichola Sharpe, said the company was in discussions with the Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies but couldn’t comment until an outcome was reached.

    Feinstein said she was readying legislation for Congress’ lame duck session, which begins next week, to make scalping the tickets a misdemeanor punishable by a yet-to-be-determined fine.

    She said her own Senate office received 8,000 ticket requests the first day after the election.

    Demand was overwhelming supply all over the Capitol. Sen. Jim Webb, D-Va., had received more than 15,000 ticket requests as of Monday morning, and his spokeswoman said they only expected to have about 500 tickets to give out, though allocations have yet to be made.

    Feinstein said she’s also concerned about security for the event, which will occur outside the Capitol with crowds likely spilling over the National Mall.

    “I am very concerned that this be as secure as is humanly possible. It’s a difficult area to secure and we need to give it special attention and that is in the process of being done,” she said. Feinstein said she was “of course” concerned that Obama would be a particular target as the nation’s first black president.

    “We’re going to do everything we can to see that he is fully protected,” she said. Feinstein will be attending a security briefing Wednesday with the U.S. Capitol Police, the Secret Service and the Armed Forces Inaugural Committee.

    Aides couldn’t estimate how many people would likely come to Washington, D.C., on top of those with tickets.

    “If you don’t have a place to stay I think you ought to reconsider coming. It is very cold that time of the year and it’s going to be very difficult to get around,” Feinstein said. …

    http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/s.....ON_TICKETS

    So that’s what’s big on Feinstein’s agenda - making sales of inauguration tickets a federal crime.

    Nice to know the Senate doesn’t have anything else on their agenda through the end of the year.

    Reply
36. BillK

    November 11, 2008 at 2:10 am

    From the Washington Post:

    Obama Positioned to Quickly Reverse Bush Actions

    Stem Cell, Climate Rules Among Targets of President-Elect’s Team

    By Ceci Connolly and R. Jeffrey Smith

    Transition advisers to President-elect Barack Obama have compiled a list of about 200 Bush administration actions and executive orders that could be swiftly undone to reverse White House policies on climate change, stem cell research, reproductive rights and other issues, according to congressional Democrats, campaign aides and experts working with the transition team.…

    http://www.washingtonpost.com/.....01856.html

    Once again, just to prove the maturity of the left:

    The team is now consulting with liberal advocacy groups, Capitol Hill staffers and potential agency chiefs to prioritize those they regard as the most onerous or ideologically offensive, said a top transition official who was not permitted to speak on the record about the inner workings of the transition.

    In case anyone has forgotten (DeGette of course doesn’t care - not when more fetuses can be aborted) there has never been a single successful trial of anything related to embryonic stem cells; while adult stem cells, which have shown promise in clinical trials, are suffering from lack of funding because there’s no hidden agenda in them.

    Meanwhile, all Planned Parenthood can think is “ka-ching!”

    Ah yes, let the “healing” from the divisive election begin.

    That way we can really stick it to Republicans come January.

    [Moved to its own thread.]

    Reply
37. BillK

    November 11, 2008 at 2:27 am

    I wish them luck against the evil corporations.

    From the (Madison) Wisconsin State Journal:

    Alice.com will take on Wal-Mart

    By