Ya know, he DOES look like the kind of guy who volunteered to take names in class...

Rahm Emanuel Passed Along Names to Blago for Obama

According to the Wall Street Journal, Mr. Obama's incoming White House chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, contacted Mr. Blagojevich and his staff at least five times after Election Day, and produced a slate of suggested replacements for Mr. Obama's vacated Senate seat. Mr. Emanuel also spoke about four times to Blagojevich chief of staff John Harris to discuss the Senate seat.

Read more here.

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She Works Hard for the Money...

CNN "Student News" is pushing kids to lobby for a government salary for Michelle Obama

. . .according to Redstate.com. Read about it here.




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Maybe we can get Bobby Brown to write some Kwanzaa carols...

Kwanzaa Created by a Rapist and Torturer?

Newsbusters has the story here.

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Hair Stylist Obviously Not Being One of Them...

"I know Maggie Thatcher. The two women have a lot in common."

Conservative Snobs Are Wrong About Palin
Writes John O'Sullivan at the Wall Street Journal today.

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Change we can believe in!

Red States to Gain, Blue States to Lose in Next Census Count

National Journal has the story:

Newly released Census Bureau population estimates show that as many as 13 House seats may shift across the country following the official 2010 Census, according to an analysis by the Washington-based Election Data Services…
The shift of as many as 13 seats for the scheduled 2012 reapportionment is based on several projections by Election Data Services that assume a continuation of current trends, though at various paces. The contrasts between what EDS president Kimball Brace terms “long-term,” “mid-term,” and “short-term” shifts are based on the current recession, the housing market downturn and related factors…
Under Brace’s “short-term” model, 12 districts would shift among 19 states. The winners would be: four to Texas, two to Arizona, and one each to Florida, Georgia, Nevada, Oregon, South Carolina and Utah. Those districts would come from the following states: two from Ohio, and one each from Illinois, Iowa, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania.
Brace’s more robust “mid-term” model would add one district to North Carolina and remove it from California — which has gained at least one district in every decennial reapportionment since it joined the Union in 1850.
Obviously the shift is not exclusively from Blue to Red, but I count a shift of +8 or +9 electoral votes from reliably blue to reliably red states (counting North Carolina, Texas, Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Nevada, South Carolina and Utah as reliably red). That wouldn’t have been enough to put John McCain in the White House, but it may help the GOP in 2012.


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The Rapier at Work?

Obama Intelligence Pick Torpedoed By Bloggers

President-elect Barack Obama has shown almost perfect pitch in crafting his new administration, aptly choosing old hands instead of fresh faces and bringing in the experience he lacks.

But there is one glaring void. Obama has yet to name key intelligence officials to manage the war against terrorism.

And one of the central reasons he hasn't come forward with a pick for one of the top jobs is because he's running into pressure from an unexpected source -- left-wing bloggers.

John Brennan, Obama's chief intelligence adviser and anticipated CIA chief, was recently forced to withdraw his name. There was no drumbeat of opposition to Brennan from the front pages or on cable. Rather, the pick was torpedoed by the blogosphere.

"Apparently there is a lot of pressure on the Obama team from a blog saying that Brennan couldn't be made the director of the CIA because he was involved in torture and renditions, which he wasn't," said Mark Lowenthal, former assistant CIA director.

The turn of events only emphasizes the influence of the Internet on the operation of a president-elect whose campaign was powered in large part by the Web.

"Blogs do have significant influence," said blogger Glenn Greenwald, one of those critical of Brennan. "I think the Obama team would be foolish if they just ignored what happened on blogs, and I know for a fact that there are people high up in the Obama campaign and now the transition team who read blogs regularly."

As a result, say knowledgeable sources, the Obama transition team pushed Brennan to withdraw his name. "Their knees buckled," one intelligence veteran said.

Brennan once served as George Tenet's chief of staff and later took an administrative role at the CIA, before moving on to what became the National Counterterrorism Center.

Greenwald and other bloggers blamed Brennan, though, for condoning harsh interrogation methods, as well as rendition -- the practice of capturing terrorists, like 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, and taking them to the U.S. or other countries for interrogation and imprisonment.

But many say Brennan had no control over those policies.

"This is one of those Washington drive-by shootings that we have from time to time where someone is near a policy issue that's controversial and is dragged down by the conventional wisdom," said Douglas Paal, former CIA senior analyst.

Brennan did say rendition was a vital tool -- after all, without it, Khalid Sheik Mohammed and others might still be free.

But when he withdrew his name from consideration, he wrote a letter to the president-elect, obtained by FOX News, in which he described himself as a Bush critic on many fronts.

"It has been immaterial to the critics that I have been a strong opponent of many of the policies of the Bush administration such as the preemptive war in Iraq and coercive interrogation tactics, to include waterboarding," Brennan wrote in the Nov. 25 missive.

And Brennan said that as a result of his opposition to Bush policies, he was "twice considered for more senior-level positions in the current administration only to be rebuffed by the White House."

In that sense, it would seem Brennan was the perfect man for a job with Obama -- but not good enough for the critics.

Greenwald said Brennan's support for rendition and "all of the other enhanced interrogation techniques beyond waterboarding" makes him "unqualified" for the job.

Intelligence veterans, however, say that sets an impossible standard.

"If you were involved in a senior position in the intelligence community during the war on terror, you can't be nominated for another senior position," Lowenthal said.

Fox News
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The Kennedy Mystique Finally Explained Through Science...

Regular Drinking Women See Male Faces As More Symmetric

Even when sober women who drink more are less able to detect male facial asymmetry.

Researchers found that women who drink even moderately develop a reduced ability to rate attractiveness in male faces, even when they are sober.

Those who drank were less able to detect male facial symmetry, a marker of attractiveness and good genes which is thought to play an important role in the choice of a partner.

The report can be found here.




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Why don't they turn that machine a little. Perhaps it would explain a few things...

Fox News says that President Bush has had an MRI because of pain he's experiencing in his shoulder. Hmmm.

The article is can be found at this location.





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100% Vacation for a 5% Pay Cut? Where Do I Sign Up?

Chrysler workers will be paid 95% of salary while factories are closed during the holidays.


It's no secret that Chrysler is in the fight of its life, and the Auburn Hills automaker is pulling out all the stops to keep the lights on -- even if it means closing the doors. Chrysler is shuttering all of its plants for one month, beginning December 19. In a short release to the media, Chrysler blamed the continued credit crunch as the main reason for the shutdown, and is trying to better-align its vehicle stock with customer demand. Dealers have notified the Pentastar that they've got plenty of perspective buyers, but an astonishing 20-25% of customers are unable to obtain financing. Ouch. On the bright side, Chrysler plant workers will have a really, really long Christmas break at 95% pay, which can't be too horrible.

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Add a Ross Perot Country Drawl and They'll Buy Anything You're Selling

T. Boone Pickens is scamming the taxpayers. Read about it at this link.






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But the workers get a month off without pay this Christmas!

Bailed-Out Executives Got $1.6 Billion In 2007

Huffington Post has the details of the pay these scumbags got here.

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iPods = iTax

NY Gov. David Paterson takes aim at digital downloads.

Governor's list for Santa includes 88 new fees and taxes, including levies for beer, wine, cigars and massages.
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Christopher Hitchens: De-invite Rick Warren from Inauguration

At Slate, Hitchens describes the Saddleback sophist as a bigoted, vulgar huckster.

Hitchens: "A president may by all means use his office to gain re-election, to shore up his existing base, or to attract a new one. But the day of his inauguration is not one of the days on which he should be doing that. It is an event that belongs principally to the voters and to their descendants, who are called to see that a long tradition of peaceful transition is cheerfully upheld, even in those years when the outcome is disputed. I would myself say that it doesn't need a clerical invocation at all, since, to borrow Lincoln's observation about Gettysburg, it has already been consecrated. But if we must have an officiating priest, let it be some dignified old hypocrite with no factional allegiance and not a tree-shaking huckster and publicity seeker who believes that millions of his fellow citizens are hellbound because they do not meet his own low and vulgar standards."
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Next: Prone Jesse Jackson

Artist Completes Nude Gov. Blago Painting


Mired in a scandal that could strip him of his pride, his job and the misperception that anyone shares his enthusiasm for his hair, Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich has now also been stripped of his clothes.

A nude portrait of the governor, by artist Bruce Elliott, is nearly complete and will hang on the wall of Elliott's wife's bar, the Old Town Ale House, next to his infamous depiction of a naked Sarah Palin. It is the next installment in what Elliott loosely calls his "nude governor series."

Elliott cites many sources of inspiration for the painting, which shows the governor, who was arrested last week on corruption charges, preparing for a potential first day of incarceration. Among them: the extent of the governor's alleged misdeeds and the artist's desire to respond to criticism from Republicans and women about the Palin portrait by painting a Democrat in the buff.

"I was stunned when I found out what that criminal complaint [outlined]," Elliott said as he examined the painting in his Old Town studio. "Hopefully, someone is going to find this irreverent."

Irreverent hardly begins to describe it. The scene imagines Blagojevich handcuffed and wearing an orange jumpsuit pulled down to his knees.

Among the onlookers is a guard, with a look of grim determination, pulling on a rubber glove.

The painting, which is taking Elliott a little over a week to finish, is titled: "The Cavity Search."



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At least he speaks more carefully than he shoots...

Cheney: I told Leahy to ‘f*ck’ himself because ‘I thought he merited it.’

This morning on Fox News Sunday, host Chris Wallace asked Vice President Cheney about his now infamous June 2004 exchange with Sen. Pat Leahy (D-VT), when he told Leahy to “f*ck yourself.” Cheney confirmed that he used the obscenity, saying, “I thought he merited it at the time”:

WALLACE: Did you tell Senator Leahy, “bleep yourself”?

CHENEY: I did.

WALLACE: Any qualms, second thoughts, or embarrassment?

CHENEY: No, I thought he merited it at the time and we’ve since patched over that wound.

Later in the program, Weekly Standard Editor Bill Kristol remarked that he thought Cheney’s comments represented “a beautiful statement, really, of justice.” “Dick Cheney is going out defending justice in the end,” Kristol concluded.

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