Archive for posts ‘around the blogosphere’

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Capital Crime Scene

 

  • Obama transition spokeswoman Stephanie Cutter says no Cabinet nominations will be named this week. If anyone says otherwise, Rahm Emanuel will beat them with a dead fish.* Too bad. We could use a new Treasury Secretary–see below. (Reuters)
  • So while we were all focused on the $700 billion bailout package, the Treasury Department slipped the banks a secret windfall of $140 billion in tax breaks. Like most of what the Bush Administration has done in the past eight years, this was porbably illegal. Meanwhile, the Fed has loaned almost $2 trillion of your money and refuses to say where the money went. Man, I can’t wait to kick these crooks out of Washington on January 20. (Washington Post/Bloomberg)
  • Howard Dean is upholding his one-term pledge and will step down as DNC chairman. Hopefully this isn’t the end of 50-state strategy because, y’know, it worked. Claire McCaskill’s name is being floated around as a possible replacement, which I’ll support as long as she can keep her Senate seat at the same time. (Huffington Post)
  • Speaking of DNC chairs, former DNC chair Terry McAuliffe has filed papers to run for Governor of Virginia in 2009. (Tim Kaine is limited to one term.) There are already two declared Democratic candidates, so this is going to get interesting. (CNN)
* See here for the reason behind the increasing frequency of dead fish jokes.
(Image from Balloon Juice)

11/10/08 12:57 pm | Comments disabled. | Permalink | Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

Late Night Around the Blogosphere

It’s Sunday night or Monday morning, depending on what time zone you’re in. What did you miss while you were sleeping?

  • Remember that time when everyone said nominating a black guy was a mistake because Hispanics would never vote for him? Or when people said putting money into Republican strongholds like Virginia and North Carolina was a waste of resources? jdawg1077 takes us back to all the things the pundits got wrong about the 2008 elections. (DailyKos)
  • And while I’m over at DKos, JeffLieber posts his conversation with his six year-old daughter about California’s Prop 8. Turns out gay marriage really is hard to explain to a child, when it’s banned. (DailyKos)
  • Meanwhile, for those who are still dealing with how Prop 8 affects them, Melissa Etheridge has a suggestion: if the state of California isn’t going to treat her like a first-class citizen, she’s not paying her first-class taxes. Doesn’t sounds like a bad idea to me. (The Daily Beast)
  • So remember all that “change” stuff that Barack Obama’s been talking about for the past couple years? Well, it’s finally coming and… let’s just say you might want to keep track of your guns, flags, and daughters. (23/6)
  • The RNC and McCain campaign contacted 30 million voters directly (including with robocalls) before the election. Team Obama contacted 68 million. I guess that kinda explains why this whole election thing turned out the way it did. (Marc Ambinder)

11/9/08 11:45 pm | Comments disabled. | Permalink | Tags: , , , , , ,

Break’s Over

Barack Obama gets down to governing.
  • President-Elect Obama is wasting no time getting in getting to work. First up, reversing the Bush Administration’s war on science. His transition team is putting together a long list of regulations and executive orders on climate change, stem cells, reproductive health, and other issues that Obama can rescind after taking office. Thank God. It’s good ot have a pesident who believes in science again. (Washington Post)
  • More than half of Americans said they closely followed Obama’s press conference yesterday, and 52% say his remarks set the right tone. Voters are fairly confident that he can handle the economic crisis. Over a quarter of the GOP can’t figure out of if they love him or hate him. (Rasmussen)
  • Speaking of the GOP, Sen. Jon Kyl (R-AZ) is threatening to filibuster judicial nominations that have not been named for Supreme Court seats that are not vacant. Kyl doesn’t think that judges should make the rulings based on “the factors in each case”…um, what? What the heck are they supposed to base their decisions on then? Oh, and because this is a Republican that we’re talking about, it goes without saying that three years ago when the Republicans contolled the White House and the Senate, Kyl strenuously opposed the filibuster of judicial nominees. My, how times change. (Phoenix Business Journal/PBS)
  • If Kyl gets his way, though, it might get a little bit easier to overcome that filibuster. Sen. Ted Stevens leads in Alaska, but Nate Silver isn’t ready to count Democratic challenger Mark Begich out yet. According to Silver, most of the ballots remaining to be counted are early and absentee ballots in which Begich currently leads. Does anyone know what Nate Silver is going to do after this election is totally over? The man is a genius. (FiveThirtyEight)
  • Also, Harry Reid is getting ready to cut up to two Republican seats in each Senate committee to reflect the increased Democratic majority. Hopefully this will prevent a lot of Obama’s intiatives from getting stuck in committee. Back to work. (The Hill)

11/9/08 9:02 am | Comments disabled. | Permalink | Tags: , , , , , , ,

Lunchtime Update!

It’s 43 degrees in St. Louis and I’m staying inside as long as possible. Check out all the cool stuff I found on the ‘tubes!

  • In the Virginia 5th, Democrat Tom Periello declared victory yesterday with a 750 vote lead over incumbent Virgil Goode. Goode attained national noteriety two years ago when he condemned newly-elected Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN), a Muslim, for choosing to take the oath of office on Thomas Jefferson’s Qur’an. Needless to say, Goode will not be missed. (Roll Call/The Nation)
  • There’s a rumor floating around that the DNC’s “50 State Strategy” organizers will be fired at the end of the month. The 50 state strategy was repsonsible for the Obama campaign’s decision to put resources in ridiculous places like Virginia, North Carolina, Nevada, and… wait a minute. The DNC is going to get rid of the 50 state strategy because it won? If this rumor is true, it is so something the Democratic Party would do. (Firedoglake)
  • Metro is asking the Treasury Department for a $400 million bailout. It seems that Metro hired AIG to insure all of its loans, but thanks to AIG’s EPIC FAIL the banks are asking Metro for all their money back. As someone who rides the Metro, I can guarantee that the entire federal government will shut down if it can’t operate. (WTOP)
  • President-Elect Obama held his first post-election press conference today, fielding questions on critical issues like fixing the economy, who will be in his cabinet, and what kind of dog he’s going to buy for his daughters. No, that last one’s not a joke. (Chicago Sun-Times)

11/8/08 11:26 am | Comments disabled. | Permalink | Tags: , , , , ,

Thursday Morning In the Blogosphere

Good morning! It’s Thursday, November 6 in the United States of Obamerica. Here’s what you’re missing if you don’t read blogs as obsessively as I do:

  • In response to the passage of Mormon-funded Prop 8, JeffLieber has a modest proposal for a new California proposition that would eliminate Joseph Smith and other non-traditional prophets. (DailyKos)
  • Sarah Palin didn’t know what countries are in NAFTA, thought Africa was a country, and didn’t let her staff prepare her for the Katie Couric interview. How do I know it’s all true? It’s being reported by FOX News. (Wonkette)
  • McCain aides said yesterday that senior adviser Randy Scheunemann was fired for spreading stories about other aides’ mishandling of Sarah Palin. Today, Scheunemann says he wasn’t fired but did have his phone confiscated and email account shut down. And they put him in a soundproof glass box for the last week of the campaign. If someone puts all of McCain’s staff on an island, turns on a camera, and calls it “Survivor: McCain HQ,” it would be the greatest show in television history. (CNN Political Ticker)
  • In  Virginia’s 5th Congresional District, Democrat Tom Periello leads incumbent jerk Virgil Goode but 31 votes. That’s definitely mandatory recount territory. Here’s hoping Tom can pull it off. (Virginia State Board of Elections)
  • Greg Sargent wonders why all the major media outlets that reported Rahm Emanuel had accepted the job of White House Chief of Staff and then had to retract it didn’t just call Emanuel’s office first. This is an excelent question. (TPM Election Central)

11/6/08 9:06 am | Comments disabled. | Permalink | Tags: , ,

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