"Mary Beth Maxwell, Labor Secretary?"

The Wall Street Journal reports on Obama's possible pick for Labor Secretary, Mary Beth Maxwell: For the rainbow cabinet of the nation's first African American president, Mary Beth Maxwell is the perfect labor secretary you've probably never heard of: a gay woman, community organizer and labor leader with an adopted African American son.....

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Put Up Or Shut Up - A Call to Conservative Arms

A CNNMoney.com article reports that Obama's "Making Work Pay" payroll tax credit could put as much as $1000 in your pocket. How many GOP voters, Obama haters, and racists will be sending theirs back?

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Alabama Town To Have ‘Obama’ Holiday

A small central Alabama county where Barack Obama received more than 70 percent of the vote on Election Day has created an annual holiday in honor of the president-elect.

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After Sharp Words on C.I.A., Obama Faces a Delicate Task

The president-elect must take charge of the agency in what is proving to be one of the more treacherous patches of the transition.

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Entertaining Take on Obama's Preference for No "Girly" Dogs

Hey, the Pres-elect wants a big, rambunctious "man's" kind of dog. Anything wrong with that? Wash Post columnist doesn't think so -- on the other hand....

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Getting a grip on Python: Six ways to learn online

Google's new App Engine uses Python as its primary programming language. Ars goes in search of the best Python programming resources on the web.

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Ford: CEO will work for $1 to get bailout

Ford Motor Co. will tell Congress that it plans to return to a pretax profit or break even in 2011 when the Detroit Three automakers' CEOs appear before lawmakers this week to request $25 billion in government loans.

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Inside The World Of Nude Modeling

Rex Troxell has this dream. "I can't get my clothes off," he says. "You're trying to get them off, and you can't." For most of us, being unable to get naked in public is hardly a nightmare. But Troxell is an art model. And posing in the nude, something he has done for 30 years, is key to bringing home a paycheck.

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Georgia Senate Race: Saxby Chambiss Defeats Jim Martin - So What!

This just in: incumbent Georgia Senator Saxby Chambiss defeated Democratic Challenger Jim Martin in the runoff for the seat that, if Martin won, would have placed the Democrats just one-more seat win from a 60-seat fillibuster-proof majority.


So what.  


So much has been made of a race in a state that (was stupid enough) to vote for Senator John McCain over now-President Elect Barack Obama that what was forgotten is that technically, with Independent Senator Joe Liberman having made a deal with the Democrats in the Senate and saved by Obama, the Dems are really just one seat from such power, not two.   If Norm Coleman loses to Al Franken in Minnesota, it's just one away from full power.  


But that written, Obama already has his Senate power in place. With Senators Clinton and Biden at Secretary of State and Vice President, Obama has smartly moved to set in place people who have had great relationships and cultivated power in the Senate to move legislation.   Moreover, Biden is a great friend to Senator John McCain, and Obama has planned to keep Republicans like Bob Gates in place as Defense Secretary.


So my question is, on what vote will such a Republican Democratic split come into play?  The Economy? Even the most conservative economists agree America needs a large stimulus package, so the normal liberal / conservative economic argument has been jettisoned by a plainly terrible American economy.   


What's the magic issue?  I can't see it.   It's not there.  


Obama was right not to make a trip to Georgia.  Let's face it, given that states seemingly intractable conservatism, it would have taken a "Barack Obama-esque" candidate to pull voters in the runoff election and Jim Martin was just not that compelling person.  That's not a knock against the man, but more of a blunt read on what kind of political formula was needed to win.  


Obama doesn't lose a thing and Chambiss may find this new Senate tougher sledding than the old one if he tries to pull a minority challenge to the Obama plan.    


Uh, did I write "may" -- change that to "will."  

FISA Needed To Counter American Hate Groups

In his video "Obama = The Black Bush " YouTuber Phil De Franco showed that he does not understand what The Foreign Intelligence Surveilence Act is or why then-Senator Obama backed it. The new FISA has a court that determines the use of wiretaps, and not a chief executive. FISA is needed to counter and monitor the American hate groups currently active and in some cases growing in numbers of members. They are the main doers of domestic terrorism.

Obama To Introduce Gov. Bill Richardson As Commerce Secretary Wednesday

According to Politico.com, President-Elect Barack Obama will introduce New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson as his Commerce Secretary Wednesday at 11:40 PM  EST.

"Meet The Press" Mean-Sprited David Gregory Not In Sprit of Tim Russert

I just saw the headline reporting that MSNBC's David Gregory was selected to be the next host of "Meet The Press ". Congratulations to Mr. Gregory, but he's not a person in the sprit of the late Tim Russert.


Every time I see Gregory I think of this Jossip headline:


"David Gregory Mouthed Off To A Waitress, Got Scolded by Tim Russert"


If you don't know that story, Gregory scolded a waitress while he and Russert were having dinner in Washington D.C., and in turn, Russert hollered at Gregory for his behavior. Jossip reports that MSNBC asked Gregory to work on changing his behavior, but it's fair to ask in the wake of Russert's untimely passing, has Gregory really changed?  (What about Chris Matthews, for that matter?  He was also featured as ill-tempered in the Jossip post.  But he's got his own show, Hardball and was not considered for "Meet The Press".) 


Russert was known far and wide as a caring, nice person who did not try to demonize people, even as he was asking his guests tough questions. But contrast, Gregory can still come off a bit rough. I can't see him as doing well in this role. Gregory is not in the modl of either Russert or the legendary Tom Brokaw who I've had the pleasure of meeting at the Democratic National Convention.


I can't help but wonder what Russert is thinking, but my guess is he has more faith in Gregory than I do.