Stumbling around…

(Reuters) - President-elect Barack Obama on Monday named his national security team, nominating five people including former rival Hillary Clinton and Defense Secretary Robert Gates, to key positions.

Clinton campaigned hard for Obama after her primary loss and has said she is unlikely to run for president again. She told reporters she decided to take on the secretary of state job because she felt she could best serve the country there.

President Bush has been rather irrelevant for the better part of the last year. The country is over and done with him and IMHO he will go down as the worst president in American history. Bush and Nero have much in common. They both fiddled as their empires went down. President Bush could have cut spending, he could have avoided launching a useless war, he could have run roughshod over Wall Street so risky mortgages weren’t bundled into investment vehicles and sold to investors backed by nonexistent insurance. But he did not. Here we are, and will be paying for his feckless leadership.

“Understanding Information Media in the Age of Neoliberalism:The Contributions of Herbert Schiller. By Mark Hudson”

”En utförsäljning! Ett väpnat rån!”De mest elaka tungorna hävdar att detta egentligen nog är det verkliga motivet bakom. De pekar på att de största vinnarna i sammanhanget är de privata tv-kanalerna och inte minst TF1.Det sistnämnda, Frankrikes största tv-bolag, ägs av gruppen Bouygues, som i sin tur ägs av Martin Bouygues, som är en av Nicolas Sarkozys nära vänner.Och det är dit de flesta av annonsörerna som utestängs från France Télévision, snart förväntas vända sig.Dessutom får de privata bolagen mer plats för reklam, eftersom det ska bli tillåtet med två reklamavbrott i en film, och inte ett som i dag.

Among the issues: Why would Obama choose someone he repeatedly criticized for voting for the U.S. invasion of Iraq to be the face of his administration’s foreign policy? Why would he abrogate his famous “no drama” policy and embrace Clintonian theatrics?And why would Clinton subordinate her strong personality and views to be a global ambassador for Obama? Throughout the campaign, she insisted he didn’t have the experience to be president and dismissed his willingness to meet with rogue leaders as “irresponsible and frankly naive.”Obama’s advisers said the matter is simple: The strengths Clinton would bring to the job would outweigh the drawbacks.

Statesmanship had been the most important tool in a president’s toolbox until Cheney and Rumsfeld moved into the West Wing. During Bush’s administration, the Department of Defense, war and war profiteering eclipsed any real hope for diplomatic solutions. Perhaps Mrs. Clinton will right the ship and make it once again possible that America’s diplomatic voice is clear and convincing, backed up by power of America’s military only on a truly as-needed basis.

“Elections have consequences,”

(Steve Spencer is the Chair of the Rio de Janeiro Chapter Committee of Democrats Abroad - Brazil, Executive Director of the Brazilian Public Radio Association, and an Ohio voter)

Obama

DagensPS.se – Tvingas säga upp sig - för att klara ekonomin

Regeringen har skärpt reglerna för ersättning till deltidsarbetslösa. Detta för att ställa kvar på arbetsgivarna att erbjuda heltid. Staten uppmanar anställda att kräva heltid eller söka sig till ett annat jobb. Gun Jensen säger till Metro att hon vill jobba men tvingas gå ut i arbetslöshet om reglerna inte ändras. 

“Annars förlorar jag tusenlappar varje månad”, säger Gun som berättar att hon inte har någon möjlighet att få heltidsanställning på sin arbetsplats.

Gun Jensen, som har sökt många heltidsjobb utan framgång, säger att deltidslönen motsvarar under 9.000 kronor efter skatt. Full a-kassa ger henne uppemot 11.000 kronor.

Mats Lederhausen formerly ran McDonald’s Sweden. He now works out of corporate headquarters in Oakbrook, Ill., where, as executive vice president for global strategy and business development, he argues that doing good is good business. “Smarter employees, smarter investors, and smarter customers–all choices being equal–are going to invest their time, energy, and money with companies that they trust and that they know do better things,” he declares. “We want the world to be a better place because of McDonald’s.”

But what about the food? Does selling burgers and fries make the world a better place, with obesity and heart disease near epidemic? Not according to Paul Hawken, founder of Smith & Hawken and author of two books on sustainability. “The question we have to ask,” Hawken says, “is, What is enough for McDonald’s? Does McDonald’s want to see the rest of the world drink the equivalent of 597 cans of soda pop a year, as do Americans? Do they think every third global meal should be comprised of greasy meat, fries, and caramelized sugar?”

Some people have gone so far as to say that McDonald’s would truly be socially responsible only by shutting down. “That really pisses me off, quite frankly,” Lederhausen replies. “You don’t attract 46 million customers daily by happenstance. You do it because you fill a need that is pretty strong and because your products are pretty damn good. I’m not saying there aren’t a lot of things we can do better. But, I mean, give us a break. We deserve a break today!”

He has a point. McDonald’s employs 1.5 million people worldwide. It offers healthy choices on the menu, and not just in Sweden. Its restaurants are no more guilty of selling fat than the earnest do-gooders at Ben & Jerry’s. But corporate social responsibility isn’t simple. In environmental terms, soy is a much more efficient way to make protein than beef–as the people at DuPont, who are big into soy, like to point out. Can selling burgers and soy both be socially responsible? Who gets to decide?

1) Country first. 2) Maverick. 3) Don’t listen to those ridiculous, un-American, liberal, intellectual, coastal elites. 4) Barack Obama is a superficial celebrity. 5) Tested. 6) Change. 7) Obama is a dangerous unknown quantity. Obama is a socialist.

“I am not going to give a time certain because I think what we have to do is evaluate all those who are still being held in Gitmo,” he said. “We have to put in place appropriate plans to make sure they are tried, convicted and punished to the full extent of the law, and that’s going to require, I think, a review of the existing cases, which I have not had the opportunity to do.”

“I think the Republican ticket represented too much of the status quo, too much of what had gone on in these last eight years, that Americans were kind of shaking their heads like going, wait a minute, how did we run up a $10 trillion debt in a Republican administration?”

Bush and Obama held a private meeting in the Oval Office, while the first lady gave incoming first lady Michelle Obama a tour of the residence.

I en intervju i helgen sade John Podesta, chef för Obamas övergångskansli, att den nye presidenten planerar att riva upp några av Bushs så kallade exekutiva order, beslut som inte kräver kongressens godkännande.

Podesta nämnde två specifika exekutiva order som snabbt kan komma att avvecklas efter Obamas tillträde: dels Bushs hårda begränsning av federala anslag till stamcellsforskning, dels beslutet att öppna stora naturskyddade områden i södra Utah för exploatering av olje- och naturgasfyndigheter.

Under helgen har Obamas medarbetare, däribland stabschefen Rahm Emanuel, framträtt flitigt i tv-kanalernas nyhetsmagasin för att “sälja in” det stimulanspaket för ekonomin som har blivit en prioriterad uppgift för den demokratiska majoriteten i kongressen. Medarbetarna har också klargjort att Obama kommer att dra tillbaka president Bushs skattesänkningar för hushåll med en årsinkomst på mer än 250.000 dollar (1,9 miljoner kronor).

She previously worked as a fund-raiser for McCain’s rival, Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, who bowed out of the presidential race on February 7.

Olbermann chided Brown for mistakenly claiming that the last time the same party controlled the White House, the Senate and the House was under Jimmy Carter.

The story of missing 15-year-old Brandon Crisp, however, who ran away from home after his dad took away his Microsoft Xbox console, shows how video games can become far more than playtime possessions. In some cases, they end up intertwined with a teenager’s sense of self, particularly when fed by a larger online community.

Note: Moronic conclusion and article about an extreme kid and case

Schmidt said the plan requires $4.5 trillion in spending to pull it off, but it’ll pay for itself with $5.5 trillion in savings. “With this plan, it’s cheaper to fix global warming than it is to ignore it,” Schmidt said.

On Tuesday, just two weeks before Election Day on November 4, Schmidt will join Sen. Obama at an event in Florida to moderate a panel on the economy, The Wall Street Journal reported Monday. Schmidt has unofficially been advising the Obama campaign on technology and energy matters.

Comment Central - Times Online - WBLG: Sarah Palin didn’t know Africa was a continent

Karl Rove

• Official: Spain denies asylum to Omar bin Laden
• Spain did not give a reason for turning down the asylum appeal

Speaking from the White House, Bush said the people had chosen a president “whose journey represents a triumph of the American story.”He said: “It will be a stirring sight to watch President Obama, his wife, Michelle and their beautiful girls step through the doors of the White House.”I know millions of Americans will be overcome with pride at this inspiring moment that so many have waited for for so long.”

What Obama win means in Iraq 2:58CNN’s Phil Black reports from Iraq on the reaction to Barack Obama’s election win.

Commentators and ordinary citizens agree that by choosing an African-American for president, America will be preaching the same brands of democracy and freedom it lives at home.Now that the first test is over, on to the burning issues and the inheritance that Barack Obama receives from his predecessor. In one analyst’s words: “Obama has bought what Bush broke.”

She brought energy, popularity but ultimately became a drag on McCain

Palin contemplates future

http://edition.cnn.com/video/#/video/politics/2008/11/05/bash.palin.int.cnn

Kenya declares natl. holiday 1:43Barack Obama’s African family celebrates his victory. CNN’s Nkepile Mabuse reports.

Yusuf Islam, som bytte namn när han blev muslim

The Parliament dismissed the official, Ali Kordan, the interior minister, after he admitted to faking his university degree and tried to bribe members of Parliament not to impeach him.

“It’s got a lot of parallels to 1992, in the sense that the economy is in trouble and all that,” Bill Clinton said. “But the difference is that it’s coming after eight years, six of which had the Republicans in control of both the White House and the Congress.”

predicting the Illinois senator will take the White House in an Electoral College landslide, winning 338 votes to John McCain’s 200. That would be the largest Electoral College victory since 1996, when Bill Clinton defeated Bob Dole in a 379-159 rout.

These were prophetic words. The financial crisis has well and truly exposed Brown as a ditherer, incapable of making decisions under pressure.

what I see around me today is far too much finger-pointing complacency, where people agree that the situation is perilous but see the problem as entirely “over there,” as someone else’s doing or responsibility. When you believe only others are the problem, you absolve yourself from the responsibility to do something fundamentally new to solve the challenges we face. And that attitude is the essence of complacency, a deadly complacency that can exist even in the eye of a storm.

Politicians on both sides have been equally culpable in defining the American Dream in material terms, in encouraging Americans to live beyond their means in its pursuit, and then putting in place policies that enable them to do so. Hardly any politician has had the courage to call for restraint.

Open Letter From Jay-Z, Mary J. Blige, Kevin Liles and Diddy

“With only 7 days left before we vote for change, let’s hold ourselves accountable and responsible”

Looks like the long-friendly relationship between John McCain and David Letterman is on the skids. The late-night comedian was none too pleased that the Republican presidential nominee bailed on an appearance Wednesday on the “Late Show” so he could return to Washington to deal with the economic crisis, particularly since he found time to give an interview to CBS News anchor Katie Couric along the way.

FCC Investigating TV Commentators Who Were Allegedly Paid to Present Views on Military Issues

Slovenia said on Monday it could block negotiations on several accords which Croatia needs approved for EU accession unless Zagreb removes documentation its says prejudges a border dispute.

Ministers want Croatia to co-operate fully with The Hague tribunal by handing over Gen Ante Gotovina.

LONG SENTENCE UNLIKELYHe faces up to five years in prison on each of the seven counts. Under federal sentencing guidelines he would likely receive much less prison time or only probation.