What's up with all the buzz that insists "liberals" are upset with Obama's choices thus far?

I for one AM NOT at all upsst!

Obama has a CLEAR method to his madness and I remain drunk in love with his combined intellect, vision and discipline.

Look out..the best is yet to come. Yes, it will be messy and take a bit of time..but hey...with a White House full of kids and culture and science--who could dream of anything more?

This is what I call Nirvana. Call me crazy.

Auto Czar? Why...?
Is the manual one on the fritz?

All these modern conveniences...

They really should name it "Car Czar"

Big mistake by the WH and Hadley - they've now made it legitimate for the NYTimes to open up their cookie jar in defence of their allegations.

Should be fun to watch/read.

As a resident of Vito Fossella's district, may I say, "Woohoo!!" We will have a Democratic congressman for the first time in memory. Thank you, "Vino" Fossella, for being such a colossal hypocrite and all-around screw-up. And thank God you didn't kill anybody in your drunken shenanigans.

You might find this rather hard to believe---but Christmas just called.

Yeah---I'm still trying to wrap my brain around the idea that a major Judeo-Christian holiday has the ability to pick up the receiver, push some buttons, and call me on the telephone. But that's all besides the point of this post, because Christmas wanted me to tell y'all that it has met with all the other holidays---Kwanzaa, Ramadan, Beltane, Mother's Day; all of 'em. Even the ones we don't think about any more.

They've reached a unanimous political consensus---and have declared total war on Bill O'Reilly....

"The Tribune Co. filed for bankruptcy today, drowning in $13 billion in debt. It's the first major media conglomerate to seek bankruptcy protection since newspaper circulation began a precipitous decline. The company owns multiple newspapers and television stations, including the Los Angeles Times and Chicago Tribune."

As an Angeleno, I can only hope they sell the Times to local investors who will rehire its writing staff and resurrect it's local focus. Tribune basically eviscerated the daily.

I talked to Steve Hildebrand and wrote a piece about it at The Huffington Post.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/lee-stranahan/attacks-on-hildebrand-are_b_149409.html

While the president has repeatedly acknowledged the mistakes in the pre-war intelligence, there is no support for the Times's claim that the president and his national security team 'knew or should have known [the intelligence] to be faulty' ..." Hadley said

Well, except everything the UN inspectors were announcing to the world at that time was completely at odds with the White House's "intelligence".

Note to Hadley: without WMD and delivery means, Iraq never was a threat to the USA. And you all either knew or should have known they had no significant WMD.

I call bullshit on Krugman.

Here's his quote, as reported:

"It will do so because of the geographical forces that me and my colleagues have discussed," the Princeton University professor and New York Times columnist told reporters in Stockholm. "It is no longer sustained by the current economy."

As for his attempted spin, everybody knows the U.S. auto industry is more tightly concentrated than the Japanese Big Three, and where in the U.S. it's concentrated.

So, Krugs, did somebody lean on you, or what? If so, who?

Ted Kennedy, say it ain't so!

Well, one less fat liberal I guess.

there is no support for the Times's claim that the president and his national security team 'knew or should have known [the intelligence] to be faulty'

I think what Hadley is trying to say is that the actual intelligence wasn't really faulty, the president and his national security team just lied about it.

The White House truncated the intelligence report to Congress over the aluminum tubes.

For the first time, the Pulitzer Prizes will accept submissions from online-only news outlets, but require that they be 'text-based' submissions from news organizations that are updated at least weekly and include original reporting

Good to hear! Josh Marshall and the crew at TPM should be in line for some long deserved recognition for the original reporting that they do.

Good to hear! Josh Marshall and the crew at TPM jonas

And Nate Silver, even if he misses the Franken/Coleman final count by 5 or 6 votes.

Remember the September shooting in Baghdad's Nisoor Square? Five Blackwater security guards are now facing criminal charges.

Wasn't it the White House that formed a small team of researchers to sift through and cherry pick intelligence at the Pentagon?
Wasn't one of their biggest sources of information (code named "screwball") that they relied heavily on for WMD intelligence widely considered unreliable by the intelligence community?
Didn't the White House downplay and refute experts at the Atomic Energy Commission that said the aluminum tubes couldn't be used for nuclear enrichment?

Bush and Rove you sorry-assed UNPATRIOTIC COWARDS. Don't you dare try to rewrite history or blame this on anybody else. You can't choose to only look at the smidgen of evidence that supported your agenda and then act surprised when that evidence wasn't valid.

I would say own your mistakes like men, but since you aren't men, just shut the f*ck up ant stop trying to bullshit your way out of trouble like 5 year olds.

Wealthcare.

Iraq War.

Afghanistan.

That's where the money went.

Look at the spike in oil prices.

2008.

The year Wealthcare was created (protecting the wealth of the few at the expense of the many..for a government for the rich and nothing but the rich so help us god).

God Bush America.

(and he did)

Bush said his administration has been "ambitious in vision, bold in action and firm in purpose"...

Denial is never just a river in Egypt....

Buggy whips...

The Tribune Co. filed for bankruptcy today, drowning in $13 billion in debt...

How come newspaper execs aren't flying into Washington asking for loans to stay afloat too?

And Nate Silver, even if he misses the Franken/Coleman final count by 5 or 6 votes.

Steve Benen! Steve Benen!

If you need a new definition of "chutzpah"...

http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/12/reid_cuomo_blast_merrill_ceos.php

Eyez, @21:14,
To qualify for the Pulitzer, you have to do some original reporting, which Steve does not do. He may not sleep more than 5 hrs for every 24 and he may skip his meals (or eat while typing), but he still has only one body to call is own (as far as I know)

Maybe we don't need an auto czar, but how about a manufacturing czar? The Czar of Actually Building Something in the USA? We really do have to build things here, we can't be a nation of only service industry employees and seasonal retail help.

"I think what Hadley is trying to say is that the actual intelligence wasn't really faulty, the president and his national security team just lied about it."

Agreed, AJB. They lied us into an illegal and immoral invasion of a country that was absolutely no threat to us, and now they're lying about the lies. Metalies, if you will.

The one thing Hadley has going for him now is that no one with an IQ over 30 pays any attention to what he says anymore.

I definitely think its possible that the auto industry in this country will shift away from Detroit and the big three. There are already a number of small companies springing up that are moving forward on newer technology while the big three languish. Awhile back on NPR I heard a story (i forget who was interviewed), but he made the point that we will probably see several different alternative fuel cars that fit different people's needs rather than one size fits all like the gas engine has been. I don't think the big three could survive in that climate. We may see a number of smaller "boutique" car companies instead.

I also read something interesting in one of the auto magazines a year or so ago. They were talking about GM's problems and made the point that there is only one thing GM can do to save its self. Chevrolet has to produce a mid sized family sedan that's absolutely the best car on the market in its class. It has to be original from the ground up with no outsourced parts or technology from Toyota. The article said GM is capable, but refuses to give up its disastrous business model of cobbeling together its cars from their parts bin. They said if GM did that they could begin to address their other problems in a realistic way.