Well, I know that Barack Obama painted a room (blue) in a teen shelter for his National Day of Service service. What did the Chimperor do? Did he pardon somebody for his service?
Oh, here it is: he made phone calls all around the world.
Monday, January 19, 2009
What's Up?
The wife of Vice President-elect Joe Biden let it slip to Oprah Winfrey Monday that her husband had a pick of two jobs in the Obama administration.Jill Biden said President-elect Barack Obama gave Biden the choice of being secretary of state or vice president. The vice president-elect tried to hush his wife as soon as the words came out of her mouth, with a loud "shhh!" that sent the audience into laughter.
The vice president-elect said he only accepted Obama's offer to be his running mate after talking it over with "Jilly," his pet name for his wife. Mrs. Biden said she told him vice president would be better for the family.
Joe Biden's office just put out this statement, doing some quick messaging/damage-control on Jill Biden's declaration today on the Oprah Winfrey show about how Joe was offered either the Vice Presidency or Secretary of State:"Like anyone who followed the presidential campaign this summer, Dr. Jill Biden knew there was a chance that President-elect Obama might ask her husband to serve in some capacity and that, given his background, the positions of Vice President and Secretary of State were possibilities. Dr. Biden's point to Oprah today was that being Vice President would be a better fit for their family because they would get to see him more and get to participate in serving more. To be clear, President-elect Obama offered Vice President-elect Biden one job only -- to be his running mate. And the Vice President-elect was thrilled to accept the offer."
....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.
Better Hurry
HBO is going over Youtube with a fine tooth comb and having all clips of the event pulled under copyright claims. Want to see the special moment where an 89 year old Pete Seeger sang This Land Is Your Land on the footsteps of the Lincoln Memorial? Tough luck.
They pulled the John Mellencamp and Stevie Wonder videos I had linked in my earlier post already. The Obama speech is still there. Maybe it's just the music performances they're wiping. You can still see the whole thing at HBO.com
Mistake In Scheduling
Why We MUST Investigate & Prosecute
Glenn Greenwald spells it out as to leave no doubt that the new administration is bound by duty and law to prosecute the Bush Administration for the practice of torture. And that will be their big test as to whether they will uphold the law. Of course, Bush could thwart even an attempt to do so with one act before he leaves. (I doubt he'll need to.)
Inauguration Celebration Kick-Off
Update: 6:30pm - links fixed.
Did you get to see the National Mall inaugural celebration “We Are One” yesterday? If not, HBO has it up online here: http://www.hbo.com/weareone/. (Unfortunately, I didn’t see a way to make it full screen.)
It seemed like a Christmas special. Nice music by the military bands. And it seemed like a great time was had by all. The crowd pretty much covered the mall area, and they seemed to be singing and “dancing” throughout. But how creepy that they thought they needed to put a Downs Syndrome kid (who was sleeping through most of it) on the stage behind Obama for the cameras . Does Sarah Palin really have that much influence over the rest of our lives now?
Bettye LaVette and Jon Bon Jovi did a great duet of “A Change Is Gonna Come”. James Taylor with “Shower the People You Love” wasn’t quite on his game, but I always like James Taylor, and John Legend, who sang with him, did a really nice job.
John Mellencamp (just when did he drop the Cougar?) seriously got down. And Garth Brooks?! Now he had the whole mall rockin’ (and Obama himself singing along). He took off his cowboy hat to salute Barack Obama, and at the end of his number, he said, “God bless America. God bless the world. Love one another.” I wonder how many rednecks are burning his albums.
Big Fat Stevie Wonder had the Obamas on their feet. They must really like him, because I think he’s lost what he used to have, and he didn’t even do his number by himself.
U2 performed a couple of songs, one with very interesting lyrics which they said Obama chose to put on some album (sorry, I didn’t quite get that) – City of Blinding Lights - and between songs said that this wasn’t just an American dream, “It’s an Irish dream, a European dream, an African dream, an Israeli dream…..[pause just long enough to make you have to hear it, Mr. Obama, and World]….and a Palestinian dream.” Way to go, U2.
All-in-all, I liked everybody, with the notable exceptions of Renee Fleming (hell, even Gerry and the Pacemakers would have been better, IMHO), and the trio of Herbie Hancock, Will.I.Am and Sheryl Crow. I expected much better from them.
I would have put dear old Pete Seeger along with his grandson and Bruce Springsteen as the last number for the evening with “This Land Is Your Land” (George Lucas in the audience singing along), but they kept that spot for “America the Beautiful” sung by everybody who performed anything in the show, led by Beyonce, who, sadly, did not do the single ladies dance.
When Obama gave his short speech near the end, he was standing directly beneath the Lincoln Memorial statue. Does Mr. Lincoln always wear such a startled expression? Obama asked us to recognize ourselves in one another in order to right things. Wise and sound advice.
Or, if you don’t want to (or can’t) watch the whole celebration, then you can click the embeds in this post for (poor quality) YouTube videos, and then at least click on over to Rising Hegemon* where Attaturk says, “…how nice to see Pete Seeger out there with the boss singing a Woody Guthrie song the GOP would like to have banned for all time,” and see the video of the penultimate number of the evening.
....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.
*Since HBO has sucked up the rights to show these clips, I think I should point out that these guys restored some of the "radical verses" for this performance:
In the squares of the city, in the shadow of the steeple,
By the relief office, I seen my people;
As they stood there hungry, I stood there whistling
This land was made for you and me.
There was a big high wall there that tried to stop me;
A great big sign there said private property;
But on the other side it didn't say nothing;
That side was made for you and me.
Update: TPM seems to have kept the video.
P.S. I almost forgot - tucked into the noble sentiments from dead presidents portion of the show where actors and actresses got their little spots was a Ronald Reagan quote. I can't recall which poor actress had to deliver it with a straight face, but the quote was about all men being equal. I'm sorry, but Ronald Reagan talking about all men being his brother just rings exceptionally hollow. That was obviously back in the day when the GOP was still trying to pretend. That they have even managed to get Ronald Reagan thought of as one of our great presidents is a testimony to the lack of reflection or intelligent analysis on the part of our citizenry. I guess the show's producers were trying to stay in keeping with Obama's promise to reach across the aisle. Very risky business that. From what I've seen, when a Democrat reaches across the aisle, the Republican cuts off his hand and pawns his rings.
...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.
Saturday, January 17, 2009
8 Years in 8 Minutes
And Now That He's Going...
I'm sure we'll have lots of stories. Like this one from a gay boy's visits to the White House as a friend of not-Jenna, describing the George you just knew was there 9/11, and always.
....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.
Rebirth of a Nation
Once again, we have the opportunity to throw out the king and turn to a president.
Is This Going to Be a Problem?
This week, at his confirmation hearing, Eric H. Holder Jr., the attorney general-designate, did not hesitate to express a clear view. He noted that waterboarding had been used to torment prisoners during the Inquisition, by the Japanese in World War II and in Cambodia under the Khmer Rouge.“We prosecuted our own soldiers for using it in Vietnam,” Mr. Holder said. “Waterboarding is torture
[...]
Yet his statement, amounting to an admission that the United States may have committed war crimes, opens the door to an unpredictable train of legal and political consequences. It could potentially require a full-scale legal investigation, complicate prosecutions of individuals suspected of committing terrorism and mire the new administration in just the kind of backward look that Mr. Obama has said he would like to avoid.Mr. Holder’s statement came just two days after the Defense Department official in charge of military commissions at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, said in an interview with The Washington Post that she had refused to permit a trial for one detainee there, Mohammed al-Qahtani, because she believed he had been tortured.
Together the statements, from a current and an incoming legal official, cover both the Central Intelligence Agency, which has acknowledged waterboarding three captured operatives of Al Qaeda, and the military’s detention program.
[...]
Two obvious obstacles stand in the way of a prosecution: legal opinions from the Justice Department that declared even the harshest interrogation methods to be legal, and a provision in the Military Commissions Act of 2006 that grants strong legal protections to government employees who relied on such legal advice in counterterrorism programs.
And a third obstacle: Obama’s recent remarks that he wants to look forward and not back.
And a fourth obstacle: Only a handful of people who could bring about an investigation want one.
Still, Jennifer Daskal, senior counterterrorism counsel at Human Rights Watch, said, “It would be contrary to the principles of the criminal justice system for the attorney general to say he believes a very serious crime has been committed and then to do nothing about it.”
Well, those were principles of the criminal justice system before the Bush Admin.
....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.
Update:
At any rate, I don't think anybody in the Bush Administration or the CIA need lose any sleep over their criminal activities:
At his confirmation hearing, Mr. Holder was asked by Senator Orrin G. Hatch, Republican of Utah, whether he would pursue a criminal investigation of the interrogation programs.Mr. Holder hedged his response, saying, “Senator, no one’s above the law, and we will follow the evidence, the facts, the law, and let that take us where it should.”
But he added, quoting Mr. Obama, that “we don’t want to criminalize policy differences” and finally pleaded for time to study the matter.
“One of the things I think I’m going to have to do,” Mr. Holder said, “is to become more familiar with what happened that led to the implementation of these policies.”
After which time, he will undoubtedly find that there were "extenuating circumstances" and everything is okay. Move along.
Dare We Hope?
Will the Obama Administration's pick of Janet Napolitano for Homeland Security bring a little common sense to the table?
U.S. Homeland Security Secretary-designate Janet Napolitano promised at her confirmation hearing on Thursday to step up pressure on companies that hire illegal immigrants, and key senators said they would move to approve her nomination swiftly."You have to deal with illegal immigration from the demand side, as well as the supply side" by working with the Justice Department to prosecute companies that hire illegal workers, the Arizona governor said.
[...]
Napolitano, 51, was roundly praised by members of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, who said they would move to confirm her as soon as possible after Democratic President-elect Barack Obama takes office on January 20.
Napolitano has criticized the federal program to build a fence along the border with Mexico. "I don't think I would be giving good advice to the committee if I said that's the best way to protect our border," she said at her confirmation hearing.
....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.
I'd Like to Say I Can't Believe It
But I can.
“It’s a never-ending sinkhole of taxpayer money into major financial institutions without [attaching] some major strings,” Allen Sinai, chief global economist at Decision Economics, a private consulting firm, told lawmakers on the Senate Budget Committee Thursday. “[TARP] is the status quo,” he added later. “I wouldn’t support that.”Sinai’s comments came just hours before the Senate voted to release the second half of the $700 billion Wall Street bailout with virtually no restriction on how it’s spent. The count was 52 to 42, with five Republicans supporting the release and eight Democrats, along with Independent Sen. Bernie Sanders (Vt.), opposing it. [Emphasis mine.]
Isn’t the lack of oversight what they’ve been whining about and why they are upset with what happened to the first half of the bailout money? Christ on a cracker.
Sen. Mark Udall (D-Col.), who voted against TARP as a House member last year, said he supported the release of the second $350 billion “because I am confident that President-elect Obama will use the money in a way that will stabilize our financial system and strengthen our economy.”
Confidence is great. But, Senator D-umbbell, President-elect Obama isn’t the one who will be using the money. President Bush-the-Lesser used the money to have banks issue loans to bail out the mortgage crisis, and what did they do with it? They bought other banks and gave their executives huge bonuses.
Christ on a cracker.
House Democrats weren’t in such a trusting mood. This week party leaders debated legislation to restrict Obama’s bailout spending. Sponsored by Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.), who chairs the House Financial Services Committee, the proposal would rein in executive compensation and shareholder dividends under TARP; direct at least $40 billion toward foreclosure mitigation; and force the bailed-out banks to detail their spending plans. House Democratic leaders said the bill would place important checks on how the White House will administer TARP spending.
Well, I should think.
The Senate, however, has no plans to take up the Frank bill — or anything similar. Instead, Democratic leaders in the upper chamber are ready to take Obama’s economic team at its word.
And I seem to remember Obama saying something to the effect that unchecked executive power is okay as long as the executive is someone good and responsible like himself.
....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.
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