Good News re: Nat'l Security Team

(via Yglesias) If this NYT report is true, then Obama's picks make a lot more sense ... and in a good way:

Yet all three of his choices — Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton as the rival turned secretary of state; Gen. James L. Jones, the former NATO commander, as national security adviser, and Robert M. Gates, the current and future defense secretary — have embraced a sweeping shift of priorities and resources in the national security arena.

The shift would create a greatly expanded corps of diplomats and aid workers that, in the vision of the incoming Obama administration, would be engaged in projects around the world aimed at preventing conflicts and rebuilding failed states. However, it is unclear whether the financing would be shifted from the Pentagon; Mr. Obama has also committed to increasing the number of American combat troops.Whether they can make the change — one that Mr. Obama started talking about in the summer of 2007, when his candidacy was a long shot at best — “will be the great foreign policy experiment of the Obama presidency,” one of his senior advisers said recently.

The adviser, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly, said the three have all embraced “a rebalancing of America’s national security portfolio” after a huge investment in new combat capabilities during the Bush years.

Chomsky on Obama

(via EH) Here is a transcript of a Noam Chomsky speech. Really interesting. He's not to impressed with Obama's election or his cabinet appointments ... of course he sets pretty "high" standards (if that's the right way to put it). Thought provoking though - especially the remarks on how Haiti and Bolivia exercise a more pure democracy than we do on occasion.

I always love hearing his point of view but I think he's operating from a few false presumptions: Namely that Obama has a mandate from the liberals. Obama won w/ a coalition and wasn't elected by Chomsky's brand of Boston Bubble liberalism - so there's not the same sort of mandate as there was in Bolivia when the government threatened to cut off indigenous drinking water supplies. Similarly, there's not a mandate to fill his administration with anti-war types because there simply weren't too many origninal Iraq war critics in the first place. Does Noam expect Obama, Feingold, Chris Matthews, and Phil Donahue to run the whole country by themselves?

Aside from that, his critique of Commercial Advertising-Run campaigns and of his Economic advisor's complicity in the financial crisis are well taken.

Good News From Iraq

READ today's Tom Friedman column. He reports on an emerging independent judiciary in Iraq. That, combined with the treaty to remove troops by 2011 and lessening violence, means that there's still a chance - a chance - that Iraq could become an example to the Arab world after all.

Outsourcing Local News

You may have heard about the Pasadena newspaper that outsourced it's local reporting - hired people in India to write about city council meetings, local schools, etc. for about $7.50/1,000 words. Maureen Dowd checks in on the publisher to see how they're doing and it sounds like they're doing pretty well. I think it's sad and hope that this isn't the inevitable future.

Then, you wonder how a "reporter" who writes emails like this can write for a local newspaper:

“I try to do my best, which need not necessarily be correct always,” she wrote back. “Regarding Rose Bowl, my first thought was it was related to some food event but then found that is related to Sports field.”

A Busy 11th Hour

While W. is in the locker room with the towel around his neck taking off his hightops, the rest of his Administration is busy quietly pushing through a long-sought conservative agenda through executive branch regulations. The Washington Post reports on the 61 new regulations the Bush Administration has published in the last month.

Some of the rules benefit key industries that have long had the administration's ear, such as oil and gas companies, banks and farms. Others impose counterterrorism security requirements on importers and private aircraft owners.

In the environmental area, the latest rules indicate that the Bush administration wants to lend a final assist to industries that feel burdened by looming pollution controls or wilderness-protection laws. A rule approved by the White House three days after the presidential election, for example, would ease constraints on environmentally damaging oil shale development throughout the West, despite objections from Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter (D) and a majority of the state's congressional delegation.

Administrative rule making is a long and painful process, so changing these regs is a tall order. Unfortunately, W. is damaging even as a "lame duck."

We will do whatever it takes," said Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), the Environment and Public Works Committee chairman. "We're all over this. We've been waiting to pass on the information" to Obama's transition team.

But hey - the good news is that not all of the regs good the green light:

Not every draft regulation got approved. On Nov. 19, the OMB ordered the Energy Department to kill new regulations that would have forced the federal government to buy more-energy-efficient lights, appliances, and heating and cooling systems.
[...] The White House also ordered the Environmental Protection Agency to withdraw a new regulation mandating that truck manufacturers install equipment to monitor vehicle pollution.

Why Johnny Won't Hunt

Field & Stream has an interesting article on the decline of hunting. If we were an animal species - we'd be on the endangered list:

Hunting's vital signs continue the steady decline that began in the 1970s, according to a wave of research released this year. A new U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service survey shows that our total numbers are down: just 12.5 million, dropping half a million in the last five years alone. Our average age is up: 24 percent of us are over 55, whereas only 12 percent of us are under 25. Recruitment is failing: 38 percent fewer newcomers joined our ranks in the last 15 years. And the proportion of Americans who hunt has dropped to 3 percent, a figure guaranteed to shrink as the general population continues to expand.

The article goes on to argue that this is really harmful to the conservation movement. I don't think that's quite right - although hunters and other sportsmen are great supporters of public lands conservation, there is a growing number of non-hunters who are also supporters. I get the feeling that even if the hunting numbers decline there may still be an increased interest in conservation and environmental issues due to increasing non-hunter outdoorsmen and outdoor enthusiasts. Now, that's reassuring for our public lands - but it's still not reassuring for the future of the hunting tradition and I think their diagnosis of where the problems are is spot on. So - take a kid hunting.

The Economist reports on the same.

Newsweek makes fun of all the new hunting gadgets.

The First Black First Lady

Newsweek had a nice article on what Michelle Obama, as First Lady, means to the black community, and to the historical notions of black-ness, etc. Worth a read.

Where to Put the Stimulus

(via VH1) Here is a chart from the Economic Policy Institute on where you can get the most bang-for-your-buck with an economic stimulus package.

That's a Big Chunk of Change

From David Brooks' column today:

If you add up just the funds that have already been committed, you get a figure, according to Jim Bianco of Bianco Research, that is larger in today’s dollars than the costs of the Marshall Plan, the Louisiana Purchase, the New Deal, the Korean War, Vietnam and the S.&L. crisis combined.

Wow. Think about that.

Brooks Swoons

Read it:

Believe me, I’m trying not to join in the vast, heaving O-phoria now sweeping the coastal haute bourgeoisie. But the personnel decisions have been superb. The events of the past two weeks should be reassuring to anybody who feared that Obama would veer to the left or would suffer self-inflicted wounds because of his inexperience. He’s off to a start that nearly justifies the hype.

If It's Not April Fools ....

Then It's definitely Thanksgiving. (via KKP) The Huffington Post reports that Ann Coulter broker her jaw and it's now wired shut! Awesome.

Take the HOV

(via Medium) I love it. I know it's symbolic, but still - the millionaire beggars should at least pretend to be in-touch with the taxpayers' they're panhandling.

AUTOS: Big Three CEOs may carpool to D.C. (Tuesday, November 25, 2008)

The CEOs of Detroit's Big Three automakers may return to Washington, D.C., via carpool, after being skewered for taking separate corporate jets last week to Capitol Hill to ask for a $25 billion government bailout.

The three CEOs, General Motors Corp.'s Rick Wagoner, Chrysler LLC's Robert Nardelli and Ford Motor Co.'s Alan Mulally, spent the weekend e-mailing and discussing setting up a giant caravan for the Washington trip after the CEO of Dura Automotive Systems, a parts maker, suggested it so that Congress can see the many people who depend on the auto industry for their livelihoods.

The automakers have been lobbying Congress for the loan to help them survive the worst auto industry sales in a quarter century. But after their first hearing, Congress abandoned the vote and criticized the CEOS for lavish corporate travel and poor business plans.

The automakers will submit restructuring plans that Congress demanded by Dec. 2 (Tom Krisher, AP/Houston Chronicle, Nov. 25). -- HDM

Smoke Rings

Ol' Mississippi teaches me something new all the time. I always thought that when you smoked a brisket, the smoke-ring was caused by the amount of smoke making its way into the meat. Turns out I'm wrong:

Note the pink "smoke ring". The smoke doesn't actually turn the meat pink. The ring is the result of the meat being cooked at a low temp in a closed environment. The fire emits gasses that dissolve in the moisture on the surface of the meat. New compounds are created which are similar to the nitrates that are added to deli meat to keep them pink.

Colmes Leaves Hannity

Alan Colmes is leaving Fox's Hannity and Colmes. It doesn't sound like they can find a generic dorky liberal to make Hannity look like the Homecoming King - so they may not even replace him. Also - it's the #2 news show behind O'Reilly ....

Summers AND Geithner

Noam Schieber has a good post over at TNR on why the Summers/Geithner pairing was improbable - yet perfect.

The Quality of Obama's Picks

Yglesias is picking up on a Bruce Bartlett comment on how Obama's cabinet picks show how bad - and how political - Bush's picks were:

Does anyone even know that the Bush National Economic Council is run by a guy named Keith Hennessey? And if ever there was a time for an administration’s key economic advisers to become known by the general public, you’d think this would be it. But instead, he’s an unknown. And he’s an unknown in part because he’s a nobody. Before he ran the NEC, he was the deputy. Before that, he was on Trent Lott’s staff. He has a master’s degree and it’s not in economics. The stature gap with a Lawrence Summers is enormous.

Black Wednesday

...is what I've heard it called. (via Jbigglesworth) The Onion does a great job of capturing what it's like at the bar the night before Thanksgiving in your hometown. This was Kam's for the townies.

The End of Wall Street

MUST READ: (via DGP) Conde Nast has a really good article by the author of Liar's Poker on the End of Wall Street. The author chronicles the players who saw the financial house of cards built on CDS, sub-prime loans, CDO's, and complicit credit rating agencies - and made money by selling short ... and in an odd way, kept the whole monster going. Is so complicated - but not so complicated that you'd think Wall Street CEO's would have been able to see the calamity that was to come.

In Defense of "Card Check"

(via Yglesias) The Employee Free Choice Act has gotten a lot of play this election year. All the Republicans think that this is a top priority for the Dems (maybe it is). I never really did understand the workings of it - and there's a lot of partisan ads out there tossing out one-sided information. The prevailing anti-union ad shows how employees will be coerced into joining the union. Well, here's what looks like a good explanation for why that's not exactly right.

On a related note - with a bailout of the Big 3 looming, the debate about the utility of unions is once again a sub-plot. A lot of Big Business pundits blame the unions for destroying Detroit by pointing to the sucess of foreign car makers in Right To Work (aka: non-union) states like Mississippi.

Another Reason to Drink Kombucha

(via Cody) Friday's Talk of the Nation on NPR had a segment on the Bacteria living in the human gut. This is really fascinating - we have several pounds of live bacteria in our digestive system that help us fight disease, digest food, and facilitate health. It's important to eat food that contains live bacteria to maintain the "culture" in our intestines. That's the main reason I drink Kombucha.

A Food Policy I Disagree With

Paul Collier, an Oxford economist, has an article in Foreign Affairs on global food prices and the effect on the poor - especially in Africa. I disagree with practically everything in it (except for eliminating ethanol subsidies). The piece represents a view perfectly opposite to mine (I'm what he'd call a "romantic"). In short, he thinks corporate agribusiness and genetically modified foods are the answer to everything. I appreciate his emphasis on poor Africans and think his solutions may just be desperate measures for desperate times - but his article totally ignores environmental problems, soil health, unintended consequences of GM food, and doesn't explain how the poor peasants will earn a living if agribusiness jumps in and takes over the countryside and there are no jobs in the city.

I'm with Michael Pollan on this whole issue.

Madame Secretary

John Heilemann has an insightful article on what the Hillary appointment reveals about Obama - and how it could play out.

A Spider In Lieu of Pay

(via Syd O) This is really funny.

The Palin Turkey Massacre

(via Steeef) This video you have to watch. You didn't think that Sarah Palin's press conferences could get any worse, right? Well, here she "pardons" a Thanksgiving Day Turkey in Alaska - then gives a short presser. The problem is that she does it right in front of where they're killing all the turkeys!

Health Care is Coming Together

(via Yglesias) The Washington Post reports:

The health insurance industry said Wednesday that it would support a health care overhaul requiring insurers to accept all customers, regardless of illness or disability. But in return, the industry said, Congress should require all Americans to have coverage.
The proposals, put forward by the insurers’ two main trade associations, have the potential to reshape and advance the debate over universal health insurance just as President-elect Barack Obama prepares to take office.

Matt comments:

Of course this does raise the question of whether Team Obama had a cunningly brilliant plan or sort of just happened to stumble into a tactically beneficial situation. The latter seems most likely, but really nobody ever accomplished anything major without benefiting from a lot of good luck along the way.

God Bless the 3rd Branch

I just have to say that I have been very pleased with the judiciary's handling of President Bush's executive power-grab. Judge Leon - a Bush appointee and Iran-Contra lawyer for Cheney - ordered 5 prisoners released from Gitmo today. This has been just the latest victory for the rule of law against legally-tenuous arguments adopted by the Administration. Outside of a few early decisions out of the DC Circuit early in the War on Terror, judges of all political stripes and rank have been uncommonly unified in finding Bush's policies unconstitutional. Here, here for judicial independence.

Waxman Wins

Waxman takes the chair of the Energy and Commerce committee. I'm happy about this. Not that Dingell was evil - just that he was beholden to Detroit. Here's what the Congress Daily has to say:

Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., has ousted Rep. John Dingell, D-Mich., as chairman of the Energy and Commerce Committee. The House Democratic Caucus ousted Dingell on a secret-ballot vote, following a tight Steering Committee vote Wednesday. The unofficial tally was 137-122. The vote weakens the seniority system and signals the rise of California liberals who backed Waxman. It also strengthens House Speaker Pelosi, who stayed neutral but whose allies supported Waxman's bid. The result gives Waxman, an environmentalist, a key role in shaping legislation on climate change, energy, healthcare and other priorities of President-elect Obama. Dingell will stay on as chairman emeritus.

After the Imperial Presidency

A good NYT Magazine story from a few weeks back on the waning power of the Senate in the face of increasing Presidential power. Its a good recap of all the liberties Bush and Cheney have taken with Executive power and profiles a lot of influential Senators that got rolled over in the process. The piece also points out some reasons why the Senate is less effective than it was years ago (more expensive re-elections, shorter workweeks, less cross-isle friendships, increased partisianship after the Lewinsky scandal, etc.).

Obama: Heretic

Ross Douthat alerted me to the debate going on in some circles over whether Obama is a Christian. The basis of this debate is an in-depth interview he gave in 2004 during his Senate run - posted here on Beliefnet. Now, I can't read hearts - and I take Obama at his word when he says he's a Christian ... furthermore, there shouldn't be a religious test for public office. That said, Obama seems to be a little light on his theology: he doesn't seem to (1) recognize the divinity of Christ ... Jesus is just a good, historical, teacher; (2) understand sin ... it's not an affront to God but just being "out of alignment with [Obama's] values", and (3) believe in an afterlife ... if there is one, it can be earned.

I've thought for some time that Obama - as a kid with a mixed identity (see Dreams of My Father), who looked black, and admired the civil rights movement - was drawn to the black church as a source of identity - by focusing on the social gospel - fit nicely with his political views. This isn't to disparage his choice, I just think it explains where his religious focus is: he doesn't focus too much on theology, but instead on justice, community, and the tolerant aspects of the faith.

Notwithstanding his theology (at least the theology depicted in the interview), I think Obama speaks about his faith better than most politicians - inclusive, uplifting, authoritatively, etc. Also, he is honest about his doubts and where he wrestles with faith. In fact, the "heretical" views in the interview all hit on the genuinally difficult theological questions of Christianity. So, in that regard, it's better to struggle with these connundra than pretend that they're easy questions all should adopt (like some politicians we know).

The Streak Ends

Missouri is called (finally) for McCain. He wins by 4,000 votes. That leaves Obama with 365 electoral votes.

House Leadership Update

Henry Waxman just won a steering committee vote to replace John Dingell (Michigan) as chairman of the Energy and Commerce committee. It's still not formal yet, but this is good news for the environment because Dingell has always protected Detroit's interests when global warming, fuel efficiency standards, and other progressive legislation came through his committee.

Also, John Boehner won re-election as the GOP Majority Leader. This is surprising. Since losing seats in '06 and '08 I expected the GOP to at least put a different face on their caucus. Not to mention the fact that Boehner's not that impressive of a leader (see: financial meltdown), nor is he the sort of person you'd expect to spearhead a GOP comeback.

UPDATE: TNR has a good post on why Boehner is actually the most clever politician in Washington. Really interesting.

One by one, he masterfully co-opted or defused his rivals in the conservative faction. Rising star Eric Cantor, the guy who could have most easily toppled Boehner this year, was given the number-two job of whip, currently held by Roy Blunt, who's graciously giving way to Cantor. ("Blunt fell on his sword for Boehner," says one GOP aide.) Right-wing power broker Mike Pence, who ran against Boehner for leader in 2006, was gently lured into the fold when Boehner let him take the lead on the House GOP's big August pro-drilling push and then effusively praised him for it. ("I'm starting to understand why [the House GOP conference] went with John Boehner," Pence gushed in return after the episode.)

And then, using the newly loyal Pence, Boehner outmaneuvered one more potential enemy, conservative upstart Jeb Hensarling of Texas. After the November 4 bloodbath, Boehner called Pence and asked him to run for conference chair, a leadership role that one of Boehner's allies had suddenly and mysteriously vacated - the very post Hensarling had been planning to run for. Pence and Hensarling have the same power base, and with Pence in the ring, Hensarling had to give up his bid. Checkmate!

Also - Eric Cantor took over as GOP Whip (after Blunt stepped down).

Do You BBQ?

A sweet article in the New Yorker on Snow's BBQ in Lexington, TX - voted the best Texas Barbecue by the Texas Monthly.

In fact, I’ve heard it argued that, absent some slippage in management, a barbecue restaurant can only get better over time: many Texas barbecue fanatics have a strong belief in the beneficial properties of accumulated grease.

As a longtime editor, though, he knew a Cinderella story when he saw one. It wasn’t just that Snow’s had been unknown to a Texas barbecue fancy that is notably mobile. Snow’s proprietor, Kerry Bexley, was a former rodeo clown who worked as a blending-facility operator at a coal mine. Snow’s pit master, Tootsie Tomanetz, was a woman in her early seventies who worked as the custodian of the middle school in Giddings, Texas—the Lee County seat, eighteen miles to the south. After five years of operating Snow’s, both of them still had their day jobs. Also, Snow’s was open only on Saturday mornings, from eight until the meat ran out.

What Is A Liberal Foreign Policy?

That's the question they're asking over on the Council on Foreign Relation's blog. Peter Beinart starts off the conversation thread by wondering what are the bare essentials of a liberal foreign policy (international law? promotion of democracy? opposing preventive war? anti-imperialist?) and wants to know what it means for the 21st Century.

You Don't Need a Weather Man To Know Which Way the Wind Blows

Bill Ayers - the distinguished UIC professor - and ex-"terrorist" was on Fresh Air today. Listen here. He's been making rounds since the election ...

UPDATE: James Fallows thinks this is an excellent example of what a fantastic interviewer Terri Gross is.

Eric Holder as Obama's AG

Newsweek reports that Obama has picked his Attorney General. You lawyers may have seen that Holder was the first candidate mentioned in the ABA Magazine's piece on the lawyers who had a good chance to run the Obama administration.

Real Men Get Hot Flashes

This NYT article on the emasculating side effects of prostate cancer was really new to me - and well written.

The Ex-Middle Class

From David Brooks today:

In this recession, maybe even more than other ones, the last ones to join the middle class will be the first ones out. And it won’t only be material deprivations that bites. It will be the loss of a social identity, the loss of social networks, the loss of the little status symbols that suggest an elevated place in the social order. These reversals are bound to produce alienation and a political response. If you want to know where the next big social movements will come from, I’d say the formerly middle class.

I Never Picked Cotton ...

... but I did pick a President. (via JBigglesworth) Here's a cool map, showing all the heaviest cotton producing counties in the South in 1860 went for Obama in 2008. Yes, the correlation has to do with slaves and the black vote.

Toon

(via Syd O)

Clock is Ticking

(via Marinade) You may have heard about the "safe-haven" law in Nebraska - a law that allowed parents to drop of endangered children at hospitals without being charged with abandonment. Unfortunately, the legislators forgot to insert an age limit, so to take advantage of the loophole, there's been a rush by many parents to drop off their teenagers before the legislature can change the law.

Shows What I Know

The Huffington Post reports that Obama offered HRC the Sec. of St. job yesterday and she asked for some time to consider it. I heard Andrea Mitchell talking about it on Hardball today - her argument in favor of Obama picking her is 1) it eliminates a rival in the Senate and hug your enemies closer 2) she's got an independent persona and familiar face in the world 3) she's a little right of Obama which could give him cover, and 4) Obama admires Lincoln's Team of Rivals and wants to surround himself with opposing views.

The down side? 1) Obama thinks she was wrong on the biggest foreign policy decision she had to make (Iraq) and asked "what 'foreign policy experience' she [was] talking about" 2) she's better at HHS, education, etc., and 3) what's Biden going to do? 4) will she get to pick her deputies 5) if you want a Team of Rivals, why not Hagel, Powell, etc....

Well, I Just Ruined My Chances

(via Yglesias) Obama's vetting process for Administration jobs is the most thorough (invasive) ever!

The questionnaire includes 63 requests for personal and professional records, some covering applicants’ spouses and grown children as well, that are forcing job-seekers to rummage from basements to attics, in shoe boxes, diaries and computer archives to document both their achievements and missteps.

Only the smallest details are excluded; traffic tickets carrying fines of less than $50 need not be reported, the application says. Applicants are asked whether they or anyone in their family owns a gun. They must include any e-mail that might embarrass the president-elect, along with any blog posts and links to their Facebook pages.

The application also asks applicants to “please list all aliases or ‘handles’ you have used to communicate on the Internet.”

Is This "Shocking" to You?

(via Magic Shell)

The Economy, The Bailout, TNR and the NYT

David Brooks comes out against the Big 3 bailout. I'm torn and under-informed. On one hand Detroit deserves what it's getting, the decades of gas guzzlers and lobbying against any CAFE standard increases (not to mention seat belts, catalytic converters, etc.) shows the short-sightedness of their business plan and shouldn't be rewarded. On the other hand, are they really too big to fail? Are we sure they'll survive bankruptcy? Can't they sell off some lesser brands (Pontiac, etc.) to get them through? I guess if the airline industry can survive bankruptcy, so can Detroit. Let's use the money for something else

If ever the market has rendered a just verdict, it is the one rendered on G.M. and Chrysler. These companies are not innocent victims of this crisis. To read the expert literature on these companies is to read a long litany of miscalculation. Some experts mention the management blunders, some the union contracts and the legacy costs, some the years of poor car design and some the entrenched corporate cultures.

Paul Krugman makes the case for bold economic spending by the Obama Administration - desperate times make for desperate measures. Once we get through this we can go back to balancing the books.

UPDATE: Ok, so now I read Jonathan Cohn's TNR argument in favor of the Big 3 bailout. Essentially he claims that Detroit was already modernizing their business model and making great improvements until the economic crisis occured - therefore, Detroit's reputation is worse than they're actual operations. Furthermore, because they can't cut off creditors (who supply autoparts) they couldn't file for Chapter 11 and continue working - instead they'd end up in Chapter 7 Bankruptcy: liquidation ... causing, at worse, a 1/2 million jobs to disappear (which is the total unemployment as of today). Also, GM is pushing the Volt plug-in car ... something that Japan doesn't even offer, so we'd push that technology back even further.

HRC for SecSt?

Do you really think Hillary Clinton will be tapped as Secretary of State? I have thought for a while that she would be a good Senate Majority Leader - she's been a pretty darn good senator, and is really good on domestic policy and has a lot of legislative talent to offer, so Secretary of State seems a little odd to me. The other names I've heard tossed around: Richardson, Kerry, etc. would seem like a much more natural pick, and I wonder how it'll look if she's passed over - especially after it leaked that she wasn't even vetted for veep.

A New Liberal Order

Peter Beinart has a good article in Time discussing how Grant Park - from the '68 DNC to Obama's victory speech - is a microcosm for the Fall and Rise of Liberalism. I think his "Freedom/Order" dynamic is really interesting and I hadn't heard the ebb and flow of political history and the cultural/economic wars explained through that lens before.

Is it Religion? Free Speech?

Here's SCOTUSblog's take on the oral arguments from Pleasant Grove. I'm not an expert by any means - but know a decent amount about this area of law, and the case confused the hell out of me. What is it: speech? religion? public forum? curator? At least the Justices are struggling with the same problem.

Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Jr., told [counsel]: “You’re really just picking your poison, aren’t you? I mean, the more you say that the monument is Government speech, to get out of the Free Speech Clause, the more it seems to me you’re walking into a trap under the Establishment Clause.”

Sell It Off to Raise Money?

That's the provoking thought Ross Douthat brings up. Look at how much land the Feds own out west. Provoking - but stupid.

The Federal Government owns more than half of Oregon, Utah, Nevada, Idaho and Alaska and it owns nearly half of California, Arizona, New Mexico and Wyoming. See the map for more. It is time for a sale. Selling even some western land could raise hundreds of billions of dollars - perhaps trillions of dollars - for the Federal government at a time when the funds are badly needed and no one want to raise taxes.

Lord Willin' and the Creek Don't Rise

The Atlantic has as short post on, contrary to the view that only Appalachia and the Deep South were solidly for McCain, there are still a lot of Obama Rednecks.

Evolution?

(via JBigglesworth)

Bill Maher

... man I hate this guy. The Atlantic has an interesting article on the comedic influence of atheists, using Religulous as a jumping off point. I read it. Don't feel like you have to. But some might find it amusing.

But Gas is so Cheap!

(via Syd O) The EIA just put out a report that doesn't sound good. If we're going to go out and find those big oil fields, we better find 4 of them as big as Saudi Arabia! Otherwise we can just wait the several thousand/million years until the earth can grind carbon matter into more oil.

Fresh sources of oil equivalent to the output of four Saudi Arabias will have to be found simply to maintain present levels of supply by 2030, one of the world's leading energy experts has said.

One for All

I'm not a serious blogger. But I do like Rachel Maddow sticking up for them.

Be Like LeBron

(via Stilt) LeBron James dunked from the free throw line ... in a REAL game!

Oskee-Wow-Wow

(via Syd O) The Chief is back! Sort of - a student group held tryouts, bought replica regalia, and will hold it's own Chief performance independent of the University.

Today in SCOTUS

Today the Supreme Court is hearing oral arguments in Pleasant Grove, UT v. Summun - an interesting Free Speech case on whether the Government can accept religious monuments (10 Commandments) into the public square while rejecting others (the 7 aphorisms).

Also, today the Supreme Court issued an opinion in Winter v. NRDC - upholding the Navy's right to use sonar in training activities even though the sonar may harm whales.

The First Mac President

Reformist Conservatives

David Brooks describes the battle lines that have been drawn between Traditional GOPers and Reformist GOPers. He predicts that the Traditionalists have the upper hand now because all the moderates were swept from office and the Traditionalists still control all the GOP think tanks and institutions. He's on the mark ... this is the debate going on between conservatives that started with the Palin pick and has metastisized after the election.

On a related note, Michael Crowley has a piece in TNR on John Podesta's Center for American Progress and how it has become an institution of democratic policies - and will probably be a springboard to the Obama Administration. I bet Brooks would agree that the GOP needs their own Podesta.

Conservatives on Board

(via Auntie) This is really amazing: so many Republicans are publicly throwing their support behind Obama - and sincerely it sounds. I hope this lasts past Jan. 20th. Here's Bill Frist, writing for CNN, explaining why it's good to have Senators in the White House ... finally:

Both of our new leaders are creatures of this body [the Senate], a body that our founding fathers deliberately elevated to one of deliberation and discussion and unlimited debate and enhanced minority power.

Yup

Kristol's Puppy Love

(via Halperin) Bill Kristol today shows a little love for Obama ... wow! Aside from the fact that he still thinks this is a "center-right nation" (This angers me! On Nov. 3rd Obama was a socialist, but he won on Nov. 4th because he's center-right?!) ... in spite of that typical argument, Kristol seems to be realistic about how the Obama administration could be really successful.

Gitmo

(via AP) Time prints:

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.

This is good. The Gitmo situation is so messed up - just read a few posts on SCOTUSblog if you don't believe me. I'm glad Obama's moving on this.

At the White House

Obama and Bush met today. Bush's disapproval rating is at 78% ... Obama's approval rate is at 68%

More Food Policy

Michael Pollan (author of Omnivore's Dilemma) on Fresh Air, discussing the policies proposed in his NYT Magazine article I posted a month ago.

Read Your Krugman

Here's your chance. Don't be like FDR, Obama, be bolder!!

And as far as how you accomplish it politically: here's how. As Yglesias sums it up:

Congressional leaders should completely ignore Bush, and without seeking his input or approval write and pass a stimulus package that, among other things, includes a generous amount of aid to state and local governments to forestall the need for cutbacks on their end. Second, you hope enough members of congress vote for it to override a veto. If that does work, then third you hope the president signs it. If that doesn’t work, then the president-elect promises to sign a repassed version of the law with equivalent state and local aid as soon as he takes office. Since state and local officials will know the money is coming one way or another, they can start doing their budget planning as if Bush had signed the bill even if he vetoes it.

And a Windfall on the Side

Does anyone understand this? The Washington Post reports that the Treasury repealed an old tax shelter law to give banks a huge windfall at the same time that Congress was considering the bailout. But that's all I get.

Jump Start the Economy

(via VH1) Robert Reich (maybe a cabinet post?) lays out the argument against Neo-Hooversim (the idea that you have to cut spending during a recession) and in favor of a big government infrastructure program to expand our economic capacity and in turn move us out of this recession.

A Look Back

Ryan Lizza has a good piece in the New Yorker looking at the inside strategy of the Obama campaign. A good read.

Election Night

Obama's Flickr cite has posted pictures from the candidate, his wife, and campaign watching the returns. Some cool shots.

Noonan

A very nice perspective (as always) from Peggy Noonan commenting on Obama's election. She's definitely in the same vein as Brooks, Chris Buckley, Andrew Sullivan, etc., republicans who are drawn to Obama - and are just hoping he's not a socialist (I think they'll be satisfied). It's really nice to hear the "thinking elite" of the GOP as open as they are to the President-elect.

Brooks

David Brooks today envisions an Obama administration that he could live with - and actually wish for. I agree with him and from what I read the priorities (economy, then tax cuts to middle class, then energy) he lays out are in the order John Podesta, Rahm Emmanuel and the rest of the transition team are already thinking about. When Brooks talks about the "long-term" goals I'm on board too ... but expect that those initiatives (health care, etc.) will become more problematic because that's where the partisan divide really exists. In any event, I think Obama is going to start out rebuilding trust in gov't by taking baby steps ... build it from the ground up, and then start making moves. So - his first 100 days are really important!

Nuptuals!

Just to prove this blog isn't always serious: Hugh Hefner's ex-girlfriend, Kendra, (of Girls Next Door "fame") is getting married to an Eagles WR.

We Are All Georgians

The NYT reports that, surprise, the Georgians weren't exactly acting in self-defense.

Newly available accounts by independent military observers of the beginning of the war between Georgia and Russia this summer call into question the longstanding Georgian assertion that it was acting defensively against separatist and Russian aggression.

Instead, the accounts suggest that Georgia’s inexperienced military attacked the isolated separatist capital of Tskhinvali on Aug. 7 with indiscriminate artillery and rocket fire, exposing civilians, Russian peacekeepers and unarmed monitors to harm.

The accounts are neither fully conclusive nor broad enough to settle the many lingering disputes over blame in a war that hardened relations between the Kremlin and the West. But they raise questions about the accuracy and honesty of Georgia’s insistence that its shelling of Tskhinvali, the capital of the breakaway region of South Ossetia, was a precise operation. Georgia has variously defended the shelling as necessary to stop heavy Ossetian shelling of Georgian villages, bring order to the region or counter a Russian invasion.

7 Words You Can't Say On Television

Steve Pinker talks about the linguistics of profanity as FCC v. Fox Television was argued before the Supreme Court on Tuesday.

MSNBC

(via TNR's list of 30 influential people in an Obama Administration)

30. Phil Griffin
President, MSNBC
He's the man who unleashed Olbermann and Maddow-and made MSNBC msnbc the left's answer to Fox. It's been ratings gold, but the Obama administration poses a slew of knotty dilemmas: Will Olbermann and Maddow defend the administration against its critics? Or will they fulminate when it inevitably disappoints Obama's lefty fans? By all accounts Griffin, recently described as a "hippie," isn't exactly a disciplinarian. Olbermann once declared, "Phil thinks he's my boss."

I agree - this will be interesting. Obviously, the reason MSNBC has become such an outlet for unabashed liberals is because W. is our President. I'm curious to see if it becomes a cheerleader for the new administration. My hunch is that it won't. Foremost, Obama's more pragmatic and centrist than people give him credit for, and he's likely to annoy the lefties (see Maddow's interview with Obama last week where she couldn't get him to bash Republicans) - therefore I suspect that there will be ample opportunity for Maddow and Olbermann to criticize Obama. Although I doubt he'll ever be the "worst person in the world".

View This

Check out this Map from the NYT today - it shows the enormous shift to the left in voters over '04 - it's enormous. I couldn't gank the picture from the website, so you'll have to follow the link.

The Importance of Gut Bacteria

This NPR piece was really interesting. We have no idea how much the little living bacteria in our digestive system affect our health, weight, and nutrition. Another reason to drink Kombucha!

Toons

Art Imitates Life Imitates Art

(via Yglesias) For any West Wing fans:

• 1998: Josh Lyman is modeled after Rahm Emanuel.
• 2004: Matt Santos is modeled after Barack Obama
• 2006: Matt Santos wins the presidency, and appoints Josh Lyman his Chief of Staff
• 2008: Barack Obama wins the presidency, and appoints Rahm his Chief of Staff.

Corrupting Power

Read this short essay on how politics and power. Really good insights from the Pres. of Czechoslovakia given in 1991. We need humble people in power - those who can discern when they are starting to be corrupted ...

Begrudging Congrats

Ross has a nice post explaining his (conservative) feelings on Obama's win. I'll take it:

So I was disappointed in Barack Obama, but I also realize that his campaign wasn't addressed to me: It was addressed to the constituents of a potential center-left majority, and that's the majority he won tonight. Whether this majority holds together will depend on how he governs, but for the moment he has achieved something that no Democratic politician has achieved in a generation: He's carved out a mandate to take America at least some distance in a leftward direction, and he has left the conservative opposition demoralized, disorganized, and arguably self-destructing. Obviously, this achievement was made possible by the blunders of his predecessor, the floundering of the McCain campaign, and the good fortune of running against the incumbent party during the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. But great politicians are almost always lucky politicians, and Obama's good fortune does not diminish the magnitude of his triumph tonight, and the credit that he and his campaign deserve for the race they've run.

A Family Comes Full Circle

(via Stag) Peggy Wallace Kennedy is an unlikely Obama supporter - and her father, George Wallace, may well have joined her if he was around.

YES we DID!

How great was that? Comments to follow ...

Go VOTE!!

And get your friends out to vote also!

Check out what W. will do on his way out of office .... according to the NYT

Noonan Confronts the Nat'l Review

MUST READ: NRO finally gets to pick a bone with Peggy Noonan ... and she responds beautifully. She is so smart and so well spoken. I always enjoy reading her thoughts. She's backing up her break from Bush and her criticism of McCain, but it sounds like she'll still vote for him? (3 decisive reasons?). Also, when people talk about conservative it all sounds good in theory ... but then I lose it when they get to the specifics of what "saving" our country in the next 20 years looks lik.

A Real Hockey Mom

(via Mom) MUST SEE: This is really funny! A real hockey mom takes aim Sarah Palin Evita style.

Lost Horizon

Ross Douthat is a young conservative who co-wrote the Grand New Party - a book about how the Republicans can actually make their party work in the 21st Century. David Brooks loved the book, and Ross is pretty sensible. His post today is worth a read - he's really disappointed in the McCain (prospective loss) because he sees W. and McPain as a real lost opportunity to deal with the GOP's challenges in the global world. I think his mood is interesting.

This is by no means a new insight, but it's one that's been brought home to me by the looming end of the Bush Era and the struggles of the McCain campaign. Conservatism in the United States faces a series of extremely knotty problems at the moment. How do you restrain the welfare state at a time when the entitlements we have are broadly popular, and yet their design puts them on a glide path to insolvency? How do you respond to the socioeconomic trends - wage stagnation, social immobility, rising health care costs, family breakdown, and so forth - that are slowly undermining support for the Reaganite model of low-tax capitalism? How do you sell socially-conservative ideas to a moderate middle that often perceives social conservatism as intolerant? How do you transform an increasingly white party with a history of benefiting from racially-charged issues into a party that can win majorities in an increasingly multiracial America? etc.

Right! Not sure how the GOP as it currently stands could possibly handle these forces. But maybe I should read his book to find out what he proposes.

The Dying Midwest

(via Syd O) A pretty provocative article on how the Midwest (especially rural midwest) will become obsolete in a globalized economy unless some serious thought is put into the future - and reasonable policies are put into play.

Col. Daniels

Fans of the Wire - check this out. He should have just stuck to TV ... and not politics or music!

E.J.'s Gushing

And I couldn't agree more.

The Cell Phone Gap

Nate Silver at TNR has some interesting thoughts:

The polls in the Cingular-y orange color include cellphones in their samples; the polls in gray do not. The cellphone polls have Obama ahead by an average of 9.4 points; the landline-only polls, 5.1 points.

I did a radio hit the other afternoon with Mark DeCamillo of California's vaunted Field Poll, which does include cellphones in their samples. He suggested to me that it was much easier to get the cooperation of cellphone users on the weekend than during the week. How come? Because most cellphone plans include free weekend minutes. Conversely, one might expect that young people are particularly difficult to reach on their landlines over the weekend, since they tend to be away from home more (especially on a weekend when some nontrivial number of them are out volunteering for Obama). So, while I haven't tried to verify this, it wouldn't surprise me if the "cellphone gap" expands over the weekend, and contracts during the week.

Sen. Norm Coleman

If you haven't been following the MN senate race between Norm Coleman and Al Franken, here's a cheat-sheet on the Coleman scandals that are popping up. Note: I'm not involved in any of them :)

2 Factors

I'm still cautiously optimistic about Tuesday for 2 reasons. First - Obama has multiple paths to victory, whereas McCain only has one route and everything has to go perfect. Second - I still feel that the turn out will be higher than the "likely voters" (those that have previously voted), and almost all of the new voters have been brought in by democrats - I think there are a million more Dems registered in Pennsylvania than Republicans - and should be enough to overcome any "Bradley effect."

Guess Who's Coming to Dinner

Frank Rich has a great column today reminding us that Sidney Poitier's '67 "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner" wasn't all that long ago (the year of Loving v. VA in fact) and has a lot to say about America's reaction to Barack Obama: about how far we've come and about how many things are the still same.

Rich weaves a great retrospective of the Obama campaign's smarts and strength as he explains how we've gotten Obama wrong before - and will continue to have some learning to do.

SNL - Olbermann

I thought McCain was pretty good on SNL last night - although he makes the weirdest faces! Do you see all the goofy looks and grins and thumbs up he throws out? Even though, he was pretty likable and seemed to be the old John McCain we all liked.

MUST SEE: But what stole the show was Ben Affleck playing Keith Olbermann on Countdown. That skit was hilarious and spot-on ... it caught all of his conceit and purple prose and angst. For all who hate to love him and love to hate him, take a look.

But Did She Take the Call Without Pre-Conditions?

(via Marinade) In case you haven't heard - some French-Canadian comedian called Sarah Palin and pretended to be President Sarkozy. Here it is. She still stays on message - but gets taken to the woodshed ... she misses all the ques that this isn't a President she's talking to.