Slots Are Reportedly Filling Up Fast

Obama campaign political director Mark Gaspard will reportedly be his White House political director.
Here's a quote I like:

Of his job interview with the Illinois Senator, Gaspard recalled Obama saying: "I think that I'm a better speechwriter than my speechwriters. I know more about policies on any particular issue than my policy directors. And I'll tell you right now that I'm gonna think I'm a better political director than my political director."

Taplin's Most Recent Big Idea

Here’s how the Democrats get everyone hopeful over Christmas (enough to spend a little money at the mall). Barack and Joe should hold a press conference on Tuesday of next week, just before folks get on an airplane for Thanksgiving. With Pelosi and Reed at their side, they should announce with that they will convene the new session of Congress on January 3, 2009 to begin debating the Rebuild America Act of 2009. The bill will allow the government to invest $500 Billion in 2009 into infrastructure projects which would be funded half as block grants to the states on a per capita basis and half to large federal projects like rebuilding the high voltage electricity grid. Obama and the Congressional leaders would commit to have the bill passed by Inauguration Day and that Barack would sign it as he walks into the Oval Office for the first time as President, on the afternoon of January 20th. Republicans who oppose it over Christmas, would do so at their own peril.

The Top 25

unanswered science questions.

People Really Do Live Like This

(It's John Paulson, not Hank, although they could be related. Brothers? Cousins?)
Paulson & Co. can surely afford the luxury. The $36.1 billion hedge fund famously racked up billions of dollars in profit by betting against subprime mortgages. And a thick handout to investors at the dinner detailed just how well the firm has been doing. While the Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index plunged nearly 17 percent in October, the Paulson Advantage fund gained nearly 3.5 percent.

And always will.

Test Yourself

You think you're so smart, take the civic literacy test and find out that you know more than average Americans, elected officials, college seniors and their instructors. Or not.
Or maybe you're just really good at multiple choice tests.
Yes, I got 94 percent right.

One More Sarah

from Carol J.
Subject: Stunning Break with Last Eight Years


November 17, 2008
Stunning Break with Last Eight Years.

In the first two weeks since the election, President-elect Barack Obama has broken with a tradition established over the past eight years through his controversial use of complete sentences, political observers say.

Millions of Americans who watched Mr. Obama's appearance on CBS' "Sixty Minutes" on Sunday witnessed the president-elect's unorthodox verbal tick, which had Mr. Obama employing grammatically correct sentences virtually every time he opened his mouth.

But Mr. Obama's decision to use complete sentences in his public pronouncements carries with it certain risks, since after the last eight years many Americans may find his odd speaking style jarring.

According to presidential historian Davis Logsdon of the University of Minnesota, some Americans might find it "alienating" to have a President who speaks English as if it were his first language.

"Every time Obama opens his mouth, his subjects and verbs are in agreement," says Mr. Logsdon.  "If he keeps it up, he is running the risk of sounding like an elitist."

The historian said that if Mr. Obama insists on using complete sentences in his speeches, the public may find itself saying, "Okay, subject, predicate, subject predicate - we get it, stop showing off."

The President-elect's stubborn insistence on using complete sentences has already attracted a rebuke from one of his harshest critics, Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska.

"Talking with complete sentences there and also too talking in a way that ordinary Americans like Joe the Plumber and Tito the Builder can't really do there, I think needing to do that isn't tapping into what Americans are needing also," she said.

ACTION ALERT: You Knew It Wasn't Over, Right?

Because that's what he's been saying since he first announced. It isn't about him, it's about us.
There is going to be an ongoing effort from the White House to keep the more than 3 million who donated to him and/or signed on at his Web site, involved as each change is approached and Rahm told us earlier what they are: health care, energy, education, financial stability and war on terror or whatever we'll be calling.
And there's probably a meeting somewhere near you. Look here and just plug in your zip and click search.

Things You May Not Know About The Web

and may not want to know, for that matter. Hot Chicks With Douchebags, for instance.

Um, About All These New Rules

coming out in the final days of this administration.
Apparently it's going to be pretty hard to change them after Jan. 20.

Whether it’s relaxing pollution control standards for power plants or allowing loaded weapons into national parks, the Bush Administration is scrambling to approve or change as many federal rules as it can before it hands off power to President-elect Barack Obama. This surge of “midnight regulations” presents a thorny question for the next administration: What can it do to void rules it thinks should be undone?

An Obama spokesman told ProPublica that the transition team can’t comment on the new administration’s strategy yet. However, John Podesta, a leading member of the transition team, has said Obama will use his “executive authority without waiting for congressional action” to reverse many of Bush’s policies.

But that authority has its limits.

And yeah, Clinton did it, too.
The whole read is fairly short, and very wonkish.

My Man Crush

is and always has been...Rahm!
Especially when he's promising things I want.

Priceless

Our New Attorney General

had this to say in a speech last Friday:

Eric H. Holder Jr., Deputy Attorney General during the Clinton administration, asserted in a speech to the American Constitution Society (ACS) that the United States must reverse “the disastrous course” set by the Bush administration in the struggle against terrorism by closing the detention center at Guantanamo Bay, declaring without qualification that the U.S. does not torture people, ending the practice of transferring individuals involuntarily to countries that engage in torture and ceasing warrantless domestic surveillance.

“Our needlessly abusive and unlawful practices in the ‘War on Terror' have diminished our standing in the world community and made us less, rather than more, safe,” Holder told a packed room at the ACS 2008 Convention on Friday evening. “For the sake of our safety and security, and because it is the right thing to do, the next president must move immediately to reclaim America's standing in the world as a nation that cherishes and protects individual freedom and basic human rights.”

Today's Obama Impression

Everybody Loves Lists

My favorite, so far, at this site is 25 Pieces of Free and Open Software for Macs.
And the subhed is "all your list are belong to us." If you don't know lolcat, you need to go back to intertubes school.

Body Builders: Female

 

There's a book and a video. 

Best Commercial Evah?

get John West Salmon in HD on sph3re.tv"