Well, Consider This

Obama is a genius, everyone knows this by now. His inner circle have proven authority of their particular job skills. He'll always keep them close and they won't have to be reminded what loyalty looks like. They already are. His appointments are real, except for the fact that his sensory interests are as keen as an eagle. Don't misundersstand Obama, he knows exactly what he has to do and it will get done. We should all know by now, how he moves. Everytime time we think you've figured him out, he steps over your whole plan. Yes, we need a president who has proven and gathered the group that can continue to prove his worth. The Obama Persidency will be the most exciting in years, we'll all learn from this. Obama has taken on the biggest task in this world at the time and he took it on after he took it from everyone else. He was the underdog, not taken seriously and ignored by the big names as a waste of their time. Go look to them now.

Saturday Sartorialist

Because sometimes you just need eye candy.

The Brothas, On the Street, NYC. Click to enlarge.

Consumer Spending

What did you buy in October. I think I filled the gas tank once. I didn't buy a vehicle. Food. That's it.

For me at least, October was a month when the world sort of stood still. I didn't buy much of anything but food. It's the November-December-January numbers that are going to tell us whether we're facing a consumer spending decline or a consumer spending collapse.

Watchdog Woman

Apparently the appointment of Elizabeth Warren to the bailout oversight committee is a very big deal. At least Krugman thinks so.

Stock Stock Market Shots

Brokers with hands on their faces. Yes, someone created a blog for this.
I find them so you don't have to.

Lest We Forget

Maureen Dowd and Dick Cavett have each chosen the following as respresentative of, as Cavett puts it, someone who seems to have no first language:

My concern has been the atrocities there in Darfur and the relevance to me with that issue as we spoke about Africa and some of the countries there that were kind of the people succumbing to the dictators and the corruption of some collapsed governments on the continent, the relevance was Alaska’s investment in Darfur with some of our permanent fund dollars.

Oh, Hell, Nothing's Going On That Any Outsider Knows About

As you know, today is Friday, and Hillary Clinton's been to Chicago, and Barack Obama's transition team is in Chicago, and so everyone who's got an ankle or an elbow in the newshole is straight up speculatin' that Hillary's poised to be named as the next Secretary of State. This gives everyone a chance to drop the name of Doris Kearns Goodwin's Team Of Rivals like they were the first to think of it, then immediately pivot and fret over the possibility of Clinton being nothing but a dollop of underminer sauce on the promised Hope and Change Hoagie.
It's all frightfully interesting for a few minutes, but if there's any news organization that's just caught the gollydarned vapors over it, it's ABC News' The Note, who do what they do best: take the day's conventional wisdom and dress it up with fluttery melodrama and overheated pretentiousness.

Hillary for Secretary of State

It's more than just speculation, it's an official leak rumor.

ACTION ALERT: Dump Joe

Democrats in the Senate are still milling around, not really deciding what to do about Joe Lieberman's vile involvement with the McCain campaign, his threat to go all GOP on their asses, and whether to leave him in charge of the Homeland Security Committee.
Some of us out in the 'sphere have no doubt. Dump him. Sign petition here to send your senators a message.

Glass Ceiling Cont'd

WASHINGTON— Call it breaking the brass ceiling. Ann E. Dunwoody, after 33 years in the Army, ascended Friday to a peak never before reached by a woman in the U.S. military: four-star general. At an emotional promotion ceremony, Dunwoody looked back on her years in uniform and said it was a credit to the Army _ and a great surprise to her _ that she would make history in a male-dominated military.

Need A Job?

I'd like to be a telecommuter processing media inquiries and job applications.
To apply, go here.

First Prize: Shiniest Object On The Web

All the criminals, every one of them. Or mostly, anyway. It's not like I fact check or anything.

More Stimulus, More, More

Okay, so today the Kennedy staffers on health care and others had a big meeting with labor and lobby groups ("advocates"). And because they unaccountably find it hard to spend all $300 billion of the proposed stimulus package, they're open to the idea of plugging in $150 billion worth of health care reform, which a lot of economists (okay, some) have advocated along with infrastructure spending and unemployment increases.
This is possibly a good idea, twice the bang for the buck, I guess. Be ready for email campaigns.

Damn That No Drama!

Nothing happening this week unless you find the national Republican Governors' Conference compelling. Or maybe the fact that Joe and Jill had lunch with Dick and Lynn and apparently escaped alive. Word is Darth prefers the tender flesh of infants.
Damn you, No Drama. Am I going to have to go scrounging up shiny objects that are non-political?

Supplements The Experts Take

A multi, of course, and D, and, and...what, no flax? Should I throw it away?

Coal Plants So-o-o Last Millennium

In a move that signals the start of the our clean energy future, the Environmental Protection Agency’s Environmental Appeals Board (EAB) ruled today EPA had no valid reason for refusing to limit from new coal-fired power plants the carbon dioxide emissions that cause global warming. The decision means that all new and proposed coal plants nationwide must go back and address their carbon dioxide emissions.

“Today’s decision opens the way for meaningful action to fight global warming and is a major step in bringing about a clean energy economy,” said Joanne Spalding, Sierra Club Senior Attorney who argued the case. “This is one more sign that we must begin repowering, refueling and rebuilding America.”

“The EAB rejected every Bush Administration excuse for failing to regulate the largest source of greenhouse gases in the United States. This decision gives the Obama Administration a clean slate to begin building our clean energy economy for the 21st century,” continued Spalding

The decision follows a 2007 Supreme Court ruling recognizing carbon dioxide, the principle source of global warming, is a pollutant under the federal Clean Air Act.

“Coal plants emit 30% of our nation’s global warming pollution. Building new coal plants without controlling their carbon emissions could wipe out all of the other efforts being undertaken by cities, states and communities across the country,” said Bruce Nilles, Director of the Sierra Club’s National Coal Campaign. “Everyone has a role to play and it’s time that the coal industry did its part and started living up to its clean coal rhetoric.”

The Sierra Club went before the Environmental Appeals Board in May of 2008 to request that the air permit for Deseret Power Electric Cooperative’s proposed waste coal-fired power plant be overturned because it failed to require any controls on carbon dioxide pollution. Deseret Power’s 110 MW Bonanza plant would have emitted 3.37 million tons of carbon dioxide each year.

“Instead of pouring good money after bad trying to fix old coal technology, investors should be looking to wind, solar and energy efficiency technologies that are going to power the economy, create jobs, and help the climate recover,” said Nilles.

To get background information and see how the case unfolded visit www.sierraclub.org/coal/plantlist.asp

A copy of the decision can be found here: http://yosemite.epa.gov/...

ACTION ALERT: Global Warming

Tell your rep to support Rep. Waxman's challenge of the "Congressman from General Motors" and former global warming denier Rep. Dingell as chairman of the relevant House Committee.

Credo sent me this and I'm passing it along to you.
Dear Friend,

Global climate change is perhaps the greatest challenge of our generation. What we do (or don't do) affects not only our nation, but the world. You might thank that, with a new president poised to take office, we're in a great position to take serious action to address climate change. Unfortunately, a grizzled legislator named John Dingell, known as the "Congressman from General Motors," is standing in our way.

The most important pieces of legislation addressing climate change must pass through the House Energy and Commerce Committee. As chair of that committee, Congressman Dingell has exerted his power time and again to kill bills that could roll back global warming. Dingell has lined his campaign war chest with millions of dollars of contributions from electric, oil and coal companies. His wife (and potential successor to his Congressional seat) is a senior executive at General Motors. What's more, until recently, he wouldn't even admit that climate change was a real threat.

I just signed a petition calling on my member of Congress to vote for Congressman Henry Waxman (a staunch environmentalist) to replace Dingell as the Energy and Commerce Chair -- I hope you will too.

Please have a look and take action.



Thanks!

Miriam Mekeba: That Voice, That Reportoire

She has died a 76. I haven't heard her in years, but I used to listen to her daily.






I should have continued to listen to her. I listened to this the day I got married.

Smartest Woman On Television

Rachel Maddow!

The Economy Is The Question

...and the answer is...wait for it...wait for it....$600-700 billion in federal spending on infrastructure.
But you knew that, right? This concise essay is from Robert Reich, who is one of the transition advisors.