Instead of State, why not give Hillary Justice? Let her get after the real evildoers (heh).

And when an opening comes up, send her to the Supremes.

I like it as much as Rush and Sean will hate it!

When will Barack's radio address appear on YouTube?

Speaking of ugly economic news, consumer spending completely collapsed last month.

Not completely. Video games sales were up 18%.

People flocked to buy video games in October despite a drop in consumer confidence to a historic low, spending $1.31 billion in U.S. retail stores on hardware, software and accessories.

That's a gain of 18 percent from the same month a year ago, according to data from market researcher NPD Group.

"I haven't the foggiest idea why Barbara Walters would find Rush Limbaugh 'fascinating.'"

professional courtesy? one big mouth to another?

Has anyone gotten a response from their senators about the Lieberman situation? Neither Boxer nor Feinstein have responded. Feinstein, always the benign, nodding grandmother, will of course forgive him and let him keep his powerful toys. But Boxer - I would expect a statement from her.

Rachel's analysis was so bold and clearly honest it almost made me cry.

We live with such cynicism these days--Senators and other politicians making concessions here and there naturally--they are weary and just trying to make it through another day.

But that's why we need the intelligent and bold and hopeful (read not naive) Maddow's of the world--to show us that there are critical differences here--that with the likes of Lieberman, a line is crossed and it must be
stated clearly and plainly as such.

I believe that as an Independent, Sanders, like Lieberman, doesn't get to vote on the caucus's organizing relsoution. I was surprised to see he voiced his position publicly.

Rush Loombowel is "fascinating" the way that accidents or freaks are fascinating (I guess he's both.)

PS: When he was getting trouble (that he wormed out of likely with political help) for his Oxycontin prescription abuse, I came up with a joke:

Multiple choice.
Rush's favorite dope is:

A. Oxycontin

B. His biggest fan

C. Himself

D. George W Bush

Instead of State, why not give Hillary Justice? Let her get after the real evildoers (heh). And when an opening comes up, send her to the Supremes. Posted by: GOPnot4me

This is a good idea as her first work in Washington was the Watergate investigations. It has a nice symmetry.

I thought Rachel Maddow's analysis/astute observation yesterday (what, discuss with no 'pre-conditions' Gasp!) of how the best way to diffuse or embrace (if you will) an 'enemy' is to deflate your own cartoonish evil image was brilliant...yes, indeed--I think this is the direction Pres. Elect Obama is headed--to debunk all of that B.S. and turn it on it's head.

It's the same idea with Rush Limbaugh and others--if you don't give the enemy energy, they naturally just sort of deflate...How can you have a war, when you've congratulated and saluted your opponents, when you've walked off the battlefield?

This of course requires a larger commitment to larger goals--you know, things like:

No Drama and
even that thing called
Peace

A lot of attention's been devoted in the last 24 hours to an EPA ruling that said that the EPA does have the discretion to regulate CO2 emissions from power plants. This has the potential to be a key decision turning off the nations carbon dioxide spigot and getting serious about climate change. Who's defending the polluters? Bracewell and Giuliani -- Rudy's firm.

Yesterday was nice, but today was yet another ugly day on Wall Street, with the Dow closing down over 330 points.
Now that Paulson has done a 180 on all of those toxic assets that had to be bought up immediately or else, I suspect that Wall Street has lost confidence in him in particular and the Bush team in general. Bush seems to have retired on the job. It's going to be a long few weeks until Obama's inauguration.

"Along" is right. Sanders has no official vote on the Lieberman issue.

If he thinks he does, it's just one more example of a not quite fully informed Member of Congress.

"Jen F" -- Feinstein = "Sen. Betty Crocker."

"Petorado," yes, the ruling was important. The EPA's advisory council said Denver regional needed to do CO2 control assessment and didn't. However, Denver regional was OKed by the advisory group on not looking for more alternatives.

Flip side? Another case of an Indian reservation getting promised jobs and income that might not have panned out, will now be told 'blame the enviros.' More at my blog.

Has anyone gotten a response from their senators about the Lieberman situation? Neither Boxer nor Feinstein have responded.

I haven't heard back from them either, but Feinstein's office is always slow. Hopefully they're getting enough of an earful that they'll at least consider voting against him.

“South Vietnam probably can never even survive anyway,� President Richard Nixon told National Security Adviser Henry Kissinger on August 3, 1972, by which time he had spent nearly four full years telling the American people the opposite. “I’m just being perfectly candid.�

Nixon had publicly promised to bring the troops home from Vietnam only when the South could defend and govern itself, but he privately recognized that that it probably never would be able to. He could have withdrawn the troops when he first realized this. And gone down in history as a president who lost a war. And gone down to defeat in the 1972 election.

Instead, Nixon secretly timed military withdrawal from Vietnam to the election, bringing enough troops home to bolster his claim that his training program for the South Vietnamese military was succeeding, while leaving enough there (until the politically opportune moment) to conceal that it wasn’t. And he secretly proposed a “decent interval� exit, letting Hanoi know via triangular diplomacy that he would not intervene if it overthrew the Saigon government after he got out -- as long as the Communists waited about 18 months. Enough time so that Saigon’s fall looked like Saigon’s fault, not Nixon’s.

Episode five of Fatal Politics: The Nixon Tapes, Vietnam & the Biggest Republican Landslide: Decent Interval II shows how Nixon’s secret diplomatic strategy began to bear fruit in 1972. The Chinese accepted the “decent interval� concept, then urged it on the North Vietnamese. The last US combat troops came home. Nixon rode sky high in the polls.

Almost twenty thousand American soldiers had died during his presidency (one-third of all who died in our longest war). They had been told they were fighting for South Vietnam’s independence and freedom, not for a decent interval before North Vietnam won. “We’ve got to find some formula that holds the thing together a year or two,� Kissinger told Nixon. “After a year, Mr. President, Vietnam will be a backwater. If we settle it, say, this October, by January ’74 no one will give a damn.�

Link to Decent Interval II: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JQ3LIqzR6-Q

"Along" is right. Sanders has no official vote on the Lieberman issue.
If he thinks he does, it's just one more example of a not quite fully informed Member of Congress. -- Socratic Gadfly, @19:01

Versus this, from the TPM ElectionCentral posting that Steve Benen referenced:

"Sanders is technically an independent, but because he organizes with the Democrats he is still eligible to vote in the Dem leadership elections -- and he'll be voting against Joe for that chairmanship."

Perhaps the Dem caucus has made an exception for Sanders? Who has been way more dependable as Dem/Independent, than Joe has been as Independent/Dem?

I haven't the foggiest idea why Barbara Walters would find Rush Limbaugh "fascinating."

For me, Barbara Walters for decades is one of the last to think about fascinations. Walters doesn’t think them, she lives them. The reality has surfaced that Walters is like the same make and model of the Rush Limbaugh types. What really is his or her media suppressed life? Both of them likely have scrumptious details and stories beyond our imaginations. Walters lately talked about only one affair, yet likely has been greasing the groins of Republican political suaveness for the longest time. All the while delivering pure poison, with a smile, very similar to Andrea Mitchell, to an electorate that never realizes what hits them.

It’s only my opinion and perception through the years. So don’t get riled and go nuts on me.

One of the best, especially after finding that Andrea Mitchell is “thee wife� of former Chairman of the Federal Reserve for what it seems like forever. It’s absolutely baffling that after Allen Greenspan hands off the Chairmanship, that leadership role in trillion dollar deals go from free market to free fall, America all of a sudden is in an economic crisis fiasco never before charted. It is serious, but for me it such a joke and so funny that these characters are getting away with this stuff. Allen Greenspan reminds of a Woody Allen type. It would economic justice if Woody Allen was cast in a political movie staring in the role as Allen Greenspan continuously weaseling out of all his decades of screwed up deals. For me it would be a box office block buster.

Barbara Walters has been inhabitating a dessicated husk of celebrity for so long that even the followers her style made possible -- Diane Sawyer most prominently -- are old hat.

She was window dressing for Hugh Downs before she became bigger news than her subjects. Her sycophantic brand of journalism helped along the media's slide to its present low station. For her it was always notoriety, never critical thinking.

Of course she finds Limbaugh fascinating. And I bet she studies Madonna for tips on remaining relevant, too.

Barbara has always enjoyed flirting with the dark, psychopathic side of American politics. She was good buds with Roy Cohn and used to date the old war criminal Henry Kissinger back in his salad days. Limbaugh is her type.

Obama's weekly radio address aka "fireside chats" will have a new spin. He's truly thinking of the millions of young voters who supported him.

"LIEBERMAN WALKING"

Speaking of ugly economic news, consumer spending completely collapsed last month.

Not completely. Video games sales were up 18%.

The movie industry had good years during the Great Depression.

I wondered why Barbara Walters would find Limbaugh fascinating as well - but then I realized I was thinking of the *first* definition of the word. I think she obviously means the second...

fascinate v 1: cause to be interested or curious [syn: intrigue] 2: to render motionless, as with a fixed stare or by arousing terror or awe.

Maybe Limbaugh is kicking off a notoriety tour to find out how the public reacts to him, so he can decide whether to run for political office.

Apparently, Hillary's not the only one talking with Obama about the Sec of State position... Via TPM:
http://kob.com/article/stories/S662623.shtml?cat=520

I don't get either of the SoS talks.

I think Biden would be opposed to Richardson, and why would Obama look at Hillary when he nixed her for Veep? And, where does it lead her politically?

I believe that as an Independent, Sanders, like Lieberman, doesn't get to vote on the caucus's organizing relsoution. I was surprised to see he voiced his position publicly.

What is the basis of this? Bernie is part of the caucus. Why wouldn't we get to vote? That doesn't make any sense.

"I haven't the foggiest idea why Barbara Walters would find Rush Limbaugh 'fascinating.'"

Because it would lower the tone of the discourse I won't suggest it's because of his big cigar. I prefer to think that it's his pathology she finds fascinating.