From Salon.com comes the word that:
With growing talk in Washington that President Bush may be considering an unprecedented “blanket pardon” for people involved in his administration’s brutal interrogation policies, advisors to Barack Obama are pressing ahead with plans for a nonpartisan commission to investigate alleged abuses under Bush.
To be honest, I’m a bit surprised.
This rumor has been out there for a couple of days …
….and it seems to be gaining some traction.
Update X 3 (props to trustno1): Obama “officialy” offers position to Hillary?
President-elect Barack Obama offered Sen. Hillary Clinton the position of Secretary of State during their meeting Thursday in Chicago, according to two senior Democratic officials. She requested time to consider the offer, the officials said.
Spiff says (if the rumors are true) :
These are serious and difficult times–the usual rules may not apply.
There is a window of opportunity here where the world is unsettled.
The USA can play a huge role in reshaping things at a global level.
Shaping them in a way advantageous to the US and positive for the world.
This IS a defining moment in history.
This is NOT the time for payback and political posturing.
We need to bring all the heavy hitters into the game now and put them into play.
Love or hate her–Hillary is a player.
I say bring her on .
I’m back to writing…
in my mysterious and sexy way.
What are you listening to?
Any advice on new bands or older ones you’d like to share?
What song are you digging the most this week?
Stop lurking and post damn it.
I gotta recharge my Ipod.
Or so you’d think from listening to them. Amazing the sort of power a man can hold without even having assumed the Presidency! Here’s a couple examples just to spruce up your morning:
– Drudge reject Bretibart goes all Post hoc ergo propter hoc and claims that since stocks are down 1200 points since Obama’s election… it’s almost as though institutional investors don’t believe his ideas will work. Conveniently ignoring the 4600 point slide, of course, since the day Bush took office- no, sir, eight years of failed economic policy, and an economy on which an entire two-thirds of it’s net worth is based on service/consumption industries? Nah. Totally blameless.
– David French at NRO relates a story of his little girl, who cries “Daddy, I heard that Barack Obama wants to bring all the troops home from Iraq, and that we might lose the war.” I understand, however, he left out the part in the article where she also says “Daddy, I also heard that he wants to restore the capital gains tax to pre-1990 levels, and that his universal health care plan is tantamount to socialism.”
Ahh, the next four years are gonna be lots of fun!
Fresh in from the Washington Post today, we have news that Bobby Jindal, the Republican Governor of Louisiana, was never seriously vetted for the Vice President position. Yes, I know, you’re thinking “What, as opposed to Sarah Palin?” Apparently, however, this was done at his request.
… therefore, PUMA is a political force to be reckoned with.
No, really. You’ll forgive me for not linking to the Den of Cognitive Dissonance, but our good friends at PUMA PAC found a “brilliant” article from Dick Morris to justify this incredible flight of fancy. You remember Dick Morris, right? The guy who posited, three weeks before the election, that the electoral college map looked like this:
Sometimes, cognitive dissonance can be so bad it hurts. From Powerline’s John Hinderaker:
Obama thinks he is a good talker, but he is often undisciplined when he speaks. He needs to understand that as President, his words will be scrutinized and will have impact whether he intends it or not. In this regard, President Bush is an excellent model; Obama should take a lesson from his example. Bush never gets sloppy when he is speaking publicly.
He chooses his words with care and precision, which is why his style sometimes seems halting. In the eight years he has been President, it is remarkable how few gaffes or verbal blunders he has committed. If Obama doesn’t raise his standards, he will exceed Bush’s total before he is inaugurated.
Of course, the Author’s not been noted as a neutral sane observer of these situations, as demonstrated by:
It must be very strange to be President Bush. A man of extraordinary vision and brilliance approaching to genius, he can’t get anyone to notice. He is like a great painter or musician who is ahead of his time, and who unveils one masterpiece after another to a reception that, when not bored, is hostile.
Yes, that’s exactly right. Bush is like Leonardo-friggin’-Da Vinci.
Please take a moment to sign this petition to help Vote Vets encourage President Elect Barack Obama to find a role in his administration for veterans Tammy Duckworth and Max Cleland.
Nate Silver just posted his analysis of the California exit polls and voting patterns on proposition 8. Like all reason-minded people, he cautioned against blaming any racial group for passage of the controversial amendment.
Certainly, the No on 8 folks might have done a better job of outreach to California’s black and Latino communities. But the notion that Prop 8 passed because of the Obama turnout surge is silly. Exit polls suggest that first-time voters — the vast majority of whom were driven to turn out by Obama (he won 83 percent [!] of their votes) — voted against Prop 8 by a 62-38 margin. More experienced voters voted for the measure 56-44, however, providing for its passage.
However, there is something notable about this post. It’s what he didn’t say.
I write with certain trepidation, not wishing to offend or set off any new divisive debate. To be quite clear, I 100% support the right of all Americans to civil unions and to protection from any discrimination based on their private lives. And few things would make me happier than to see this country move beyond discrimination of all kinds against the LGBT community.
My arguments are with the assumptions being drawn from the passage of Prop 8. I also see problems as an organizer with the fight to date for GLBT rights, both in the methods and message.
As someone not directly effected by the loss and half a continent away from the Prop 8 campaign, I toss out observations perhaps of limited value. More than anything, I hope to start a productive discussion and accept I may well be shown to be dead wrong.
