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Daily Cartoon
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Bruce Plante Tulsa World Nov 12, 2008
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The momification of Michelle Obama
The next first lady is an accomplished lawyer. But with the media focused on her clothes and family, Bamalot is starting to look a lot like Camelot.
By Rebecca Traister
Nov. 12, 2008
Oh, what a week, what happiness, what kvelling joy: In January, Barack Obama will become president of the United States, and along with our first black president, we will also get our first black first family. A troop -- perhaps three generations! -- of powerful broads. Plus a puppy of as-yet-indeterminate provenance! A family so young and beautiful that they took our breath away when they strode onstage in Grant Park on Nov. 4, looking at once completely different from any presidential pack this country has ever known, and like the single most sparkling, shiny embodiment of the American dream ever to park a U-Haul outside the executive residence.
Read More Here: http://www.salon.com/mwt/feature/2008/11/12/michelle_obama/
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In poll, African-Americans say election a 'dream come true'
By Paul Steinhauser
CNN Deputy Political Director

A woman is overcome on November 4 after hearing that Barack Obama had been elected president.
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- For most African-Americans, the election of Barack Obama as president was a dream come true that they didn't think they would see in their lifetime, a national poll released Tuesday suggests.
Eighty percent of African-Americans questioned in a CNN/Opinion Research Corp. survey said that Obama's election was a dream come true, and 71 percent said they never thought a black candidate for president would get elected in their lifetime.
The poll reflects anecdotal evidence that surfaced across the country last week as soon as Obama's projected win was announced.
"It's history," said iReporter Tave Johnson, who spent Election Night at the Grant Park Obama rally in Chicago, Illinois. "I'm half-black and half-white. I talked to my grandparents today, and they told me this is historic. To be honest ... I never would have guessed it would happen."
Among white Americans, only 28 percent said Obama's victory in the race for the White House was a dream come true, with the vast majority, 70 percent, saying it was not.
Read More Here: http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/11/11/obama.poll/index.html?eref=rss_topstories
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Clinton Honors Rev. Butts at Waldorf Gala

Marking the end of an 18-month bicentennial celebration, the Abyssinian Development Corporation—the economic offshoot of the Harlem Baptist church—flaunted the church’s national network and influence Monday night at a white tie gala at the Waldorf-Astoria.
Monday evening’s gathering drew a guest list reflective of the longtime marriage Abyssinian has overseen between faith and other fields. Guests at the Waldorf’s grand ballroom ranged from grassroots organizers and pastors to celebrities such as actress Cicely Tyson, who emceed, Senator Hillary Clinton (D-NY, and former president Bill Clinton.
A presence in New York’s black religious community since 1808—and in Harlem since 1938—the Abyssinian Baptist Church has grown from modest beginnings to a city- and nationwide agent of social justice and development. Despite tensions with its surrounding neighborhood, the church has seen its programs expanded to a corporate and political level under Rev. Calvin Butts III, the pastor for the last 19 years.
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Gun sales surge after Obama's election
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Bernie Conatser has never seen business this good.
The owner of a gun shop in the Washington suburb of Manassas, Virginia, Conatser said sales have doubled or tripled since this time last year.
On Saturday, he said, he did as much business as he would normally do in a week.
"I have been in business for 12 years, and I was here for Y2K, September 11, Katrina," Conatser said, as a steady stream of customers browsed what remained of his stock. "And all of those were big events, and we did notice a spike in business, but nothing on the order of what we are seeing right now."
Weapons dealers in much of the United States are reporting sharply higher sales since Barack Obama won the presidency a week ago.
Buyers and sellers attribute the surge to worries that Obama and a Democratic-controlled Congress will move to restrict firearm ownership, despite the insistence of campaign aides that the president-elect supports gun rights and considers the issue a low priority.
Read More and Watch Video Here: http://www.cnn.com/2008/CRIME/11/11/obama.gun.sales/index.html?iref=mpstoryview
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U.N.: Congo troops raping, pillaging in villages
Secretary-general calls for immediate cease-fire to end refugee suffering
UNITED NATIONS - Hundreds of Congolese soldiers have rampaged through several villages in eastern Congo, the U.N. said Tuesday, alleging that the soldiers were raping women and pillaging homes as they pulled back ahead of a feared rebel advance.
U.N. peacekeeping spokesman Col. Jean-Paul Dietrich said the army troops had reportedly raped civilians near the town of Kanyabayonga in overnight violence that lasted into Tuesday morning. Kanyabayonga is 60 miles north of the provincial capital, Goma.
Dietrich said 700 to 800 Congolese soldiers fled Kanyabayonga and went on a rampage through several villages to the north.
Read More Here: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/27665245/
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Police: Woman slain as she tried to leave KKK rite
COVINGTON, La. – After a Ku Klux Klan initiation at a Louisiana campsite went awry, authorities said, a recruit who tried to back out was shot dead. The body of the woman, who traveled from Oklahoma, was dumped on a rural roadside and covered with brush. Her belongings were set aflame.
But the cover-up was stillborn: The body was found Monday, a day after the shooting. By Tuesday, a local Klan leader sat in jail on a second-degree murder charge, and seven others were charged with trying to help conceal the crime.
"The IQ level of this group is not impressive, to be kind," St. Tammany Parish Sheriff Jack Strain said Tuesday.
The woman, whose identity was not released, was recruited over the Internet to participate in the ritual and then return to her home state to find other members for the white supremacist group, Strain said.
It wasn't clear what rites awaited her at the campsite, but authorities believe the initiation had begun by the time the shooting happened. Strain said the group's leader, Raymond "Chuck" Foster, 44, shot and killed her Sunday night after a fight broke out when she asked to be taken back to town.
Read More Here: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081112/ap_on_re_us/klan_slaying
Watch Video Here: http://www.wafb.com/Global/story.asp?S=9331679
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No. 2 Klan group on trial in Ky. teen's beating
By BRETT BARROUQUERE
Associated Press Writer
DAWSON SPRINGS, Ky. (AP) -- The 28-acre compound that the nation's second-largest Ku Klux Klan outfit calls home features a high gate with armed guards, a stage for the group's annual gatherings and an open field for burning crosses.
The Southern Poverty Law Center wants to take it all away.
On these tranquil grounds amid western Kentucky's low, rolling hills, the Imperial Klans of America incited members to severely beat a Latino teen at a county fair, the civil rights group contends in a lawsuit. The center hopes its case will bankrupt this Klan group, a tactic the center has used to decimate other racist organizations.
Jury selection begins Wednesday in Meade County, about 40 miles south of Louisville and 120 miles from the compound.
"We want to put a stop to this kind of violence," said Richard Cohen, president of the center, which is suing on behalf of the victim. "They issue thinly veiled calls to violence."
The Meade County Sheriff's Office has added patrols and some security at the courthouse but is not expecting trouble, said Deputy Sheriff Dan McCubbin.
The case stems from a 2006 attack on Jordan Gruver that left the teen with two cracked ribs, a broken left forearm, cuts and bruises. The center claims Jarred Hensley of Cincinnati and Andrew Watkins of Louisville were recruiting on behalf of the Klan at the Meade County fair, about two hours east of their headquarters, and attacked Gruver because he is Latino.
Watch Video and Read More Here: http://www.fox41.com/
And Here: http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/K/KLAN_SUED?SITE=AZPHG&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT
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O the Plumber
Obama was once a member of "The Lawn Rangers" who performed highly sophisticated semi-synchronized maneuvers with lawnmowers, brooms, and toilet plungers

In his blog today, Dave Barry writes that Barack Obama was once a member of the "Lawn Rangers," a group of guys who wowed the Midwest corn-festival circuit with their synchronized mowing maneuvers, broom tossing and plunger wagging (see above).
Writes Barry:
As you may know, I am a veteran member of the world-famous Lawn Rangers precision lawnmower drill team, whose members march every year at the Broom Corn festival in Arcola, Ill., as well as various other events, depending on how drunk they are scheduling... The Lawn Rangers perform highly sophisticated semi-synchronized maneuvers with lawnmowers, brooms, and toilet plungers. Membership in this crack unit is a great honor, bestowed only on whoever shows up very few people.
Today I received an email from Lawn Rangers co-founder Pat Monahan, with a photograph taken in 2003 when the Rangers marched in the Chicago St. Patrick's Day parade. Joining them on this occasion was an up-and-coming Illinois state senator, seen here participating in the rigorous rookie-training program..
Obama seems into it, but not that into it.
Note the belt-clipped cell phone, the Obama campaign sign, the sweater vest-and-slacks combo, and his refusal to don one of those sheeny seafoam graduation gowns.
Plus he's bogarting the other guy's plunger.
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McCain says Palin didn't hurt presidential bid
By MICHAEL R. BLOOD
Associated Press Writer
LOS ANGELES (AP) -- In his first interview since conceding the presidential election, John McCain said Tuesday that Sarah Palin did not damage his presidential bid and he dismissed anonymous criticism aimed at her following their crushing defeat.
"I'm so proud of her and I'm very grateful she agreed to run with me. She inspired people, she still does," McCain told Jay Leno during a "Tonight Show" interview taped for broadcast Tuesday night. "I couldn't be happier with Sarah Palin."
In an interview that mingled flashes of humor with political analysis, McCain did little to deflect responsibility from himself. He alluded to the difficult political environment for Republicans nationwide and conceded, "I could tell you a lot of things that we may have made mistakes on." He never listed them.
"So, that's the way it is," he added.
Watch Video Here: http://www.nbc.com/The_Tonight_Show_with_Jay_Leno/video/clips/john-mccain/826021/
Read More Here: http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/M/MCCAIN_LENO?SITE=HIHAD&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT
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Return of the Snake wearing Lipstick

In an interview with CNN's Wolf Blitzer, Sarah Palin says she's ready to work with President Barack Obama -- but she just can't let Bill Ayers go.
Watch Video Here: http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/politics/2008/11/12/tsr.sot.palin.help.obama.cnn
Read More Here: http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/11/12/palin/index.html
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Obama ethics code limits lobbyists
By NEDRA PICKLER
WASHINGTON (AP) — President-elect Obama, who campaigned against lobbyists' influence, on Tuesday opened the door for them to work for him if they sign an ethics code that restricts their role in and out of government.
Lobbyists can work for Obama's transition if they stop their advocacy efforts and avoid working in any field that they lobbied on in the last year. They also must pledge not to lobby the Obama administration on the same matters they focused on during the transition for a year after leaving Obama's service.
The ethics policy allows Obama to hire any of the some 22,000 federally registered lobbyists who could be valuable assets because of their government experience, even though Obama railed against their influence on the campaign trail.
Obama transition co-chair John Podesta announced the lobbyist policy at the first news conference in the transition headquarters briefing room, set up with a backdrop of a White House-like blue curtain and U.S. flags. Interest in the Obama plans are high — the briefing room is much larger than at the White House, and media from around the world packed it to standing-room only even though no cameras were allowed.
Podesta said the transition will have a budget of $12 million. Taxpayers pick up $5.2 million, and Podesta said the rest would be raised from individuals with a $5,000 per-person contribution limit. He said lobbyists, corporations and political action committees will be banned from donating.
Read More Here: http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5iGTYocUxXc5448mOvsqLKQgBV9iQD94D1CI00
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$40,000 Inauguration Hotel Packages
Reported by: Kelly Groft Last Update: 7:06 am |
We've been telling you how finding a room for the Inauguration is nearly impossible. Hotels in Washington, D.C. are booked and hotels in Baltimore are starting to book up.
But there are some hotel rooms, if you have money to spend.
Here is what people are paying to get a room in D.C.
At the sold out Hay Adams Hotel on Lafayette Square, right across from the White House, people are paying a minimum of $949 a night with a four night stay required.
The hotel is booked.
Also booked the Four Seasons in Georgetown, which has a Royal Suite for $15,000 a night.
If you have a lot of extra money $25,000 at the Hyatt Regency Hotel on Capitol Hill can get you four nights in the grand Presidential Suite, with limo service, a day at the spa and a private butler. There are also 2 tickets to the Inaugural parade and designer gloves and scarves.
Then there is the $40,000 "Eco-Inaugural" package
at the Fairmont Hotel in Foggy Bottom. The four-night extravaganza includes the exclusive use of a Lexus hybrid vehicle, with a driver, his and her organic spa treatments with a massage and manicures.
Business is even booming at RV Parks and campgrounds in the area. One campground in College Park says 100 of its 300 sites have been reserved for $55 a night.
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Aides: Obama suggested more help for auto industry
By JENNIFER LOVEN
WASHINGTON (AP) - President-elect Obama suggested to President Bush that the administration immediately help struggling U.S. automakers, aides to the Democrat say, in the first face-to-face meeting the pair had since Obama's election victory. Obama's aides said the president-elect on Monday brought up the issue with Bush and discussed with him the need for urgent action. The Illinois senator's spokesman, Robert Gibbs, said only that the talks during Obama's first post-election victory to the White House were mostly "about the broad health of the industry" and were not just limited to any one of the three largest car makers.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid asked the administration over the weekend to consider expanding the $700 billion bailout for financial firms to include car companies. At a news conference last Friday, Obama said he hoped the Bush administration would "do everything it can to accelerate the retooling assistance that Congress has already enacted." He also said that helping the auto industry was a high priority for his transition team.
Read More Here: http://apnews.myway.com/article/20081111/D94CODTO1.html
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Drug costs for seniors growing
By
Julie Appleby, USA TODAY
Elderly and disabled people in Medicare prescription drug plans with the largest enrollments will pay 43% more on average in monthly premiums next year than when the drug program began in 2006, and some enrollees will see increases of as much as 329%, two analyses show.
The rising costs "are wreaking havoc on seniors' wallets and are simply not sustainable in the long run," says Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., who chairs the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.
Overall, the Medicare drug program is costing taxpayers less than originally estimated. The government's drug spending on the program fell by 12% to $44 billion in the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30, largely from the widespread use of low-cost generic drugs. The government pays part of the drugs' costs for seniors and helps subsidize premiums for low-income people.
Still, seniors have seen their actual expenses for premiums and drug co-payments go up each year. Insurers have raised prices for many reasons, including increases to cover higher drug costs and more prescriptions filled.
Read More Here: http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2008-11-11-drugcosts_N.htm?loc=interstitialskip
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NY Students Prohibited From Wearing Scarves
Orange Co. HS Principal Bans Neckwear After Interpreting Teen's Scarf As 'Gang Paraphernalia'
MONTGOMERY, N.Y. (CBS) ― Some Orange County high school students are sticking their necks out to defy authority after the school board set a ban on scarves when a boy wore a scarf that was interpreted as a form of "gang paraphernalia."
It seems like a ridiculous ruling with winter weather around the corner, but Valley Central High School aren't kidding around. No neckwear, period.
Senior Brittney Michelle Smith told CBS 2 she's one of several students who was disciplined for refusing to remove her scarf at the Montgomery school.
"I'm going to college to be a state trooper, so I don't want anything to do with gangs! It's fashion and to keep warm," she said.
It all began last Thursday when a student wore a scarf to school. An administrator looked at the scarf and decided it was some kind of show of support for gangs.
Students say the boy denied supporting gangs.
Watch Video and Read More Here: http://wcbstv.com/local/valley.central.scarves.2.861854.html
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Fat Kids Found to Have Arteries of 45-Year-Olds
NEW ORLEANS — Obese children as young as 10 had the arteries of 45-year-olds and other heart abnormalities that greatly raise their risk of heart disease, say doctors who used ultrasound tests to take a peek inside.
"As the old saying goes, you're as old as your arteries are," said Dr. Geetha Raghuveer of Children's Hospital in Kansas City, who led one of the studies. "This is a wake-up call."
The studies were reported Tuesday at an American Heart Association conference.
About a third of American children are overweight and one-fifth are obese. Many parents think that "baby fat" will melt away as kids get older. But research increasingly shows that fat kids become fat adults, with higher risks for many health problems.
"Obesity is not benign in children and adolescents," said Dr. Robert Eckel, a former heart association president and cardiologist at the University of Colorado-Denver. It is why the American Academy of Pediatrics recently recommended cholesterol-lowering drugs for some kids, he noted.
Raghuveer wanted to see if early signs of damage could be documented. She and colleagues used painless ultrasound tests to measure the thickness of the wall of a major neck artery in 70 children, ages 10 to 16. Almost all had abnormal cholesterol and many were obese.
No one knows how thick a 10-year-old's artery should be, since they're not regularly checked for signs of heart disease, so researchers used tables for 45-year-olds, who often do get such exams.
Read More Here: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,450547,00.html
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Why Do Kids Kill?
8-Year-Old's Killing Spree Raises Questions About Why Children Murder
By RUSSELL GOLDMAN
Nov. 12, 2008

Nicholas Browning, top center, was accused of killing his parents and his two brothers. Other children who have been accused of killing include Lionel Tate, top left; Washington, D.C., sniper Lee Malvo, 17, top right; 12-year-old Nathaniel Abraham, accused of shooting a stranger in Michigan; and Florida brothers Derek and Alex King, ages 13 and 14 at the time of their trial, who were tried as adults and convicted of beating their father to death.

(ABC News Photo Illustration)
Investigators are still piecing together exactly what took place in an eastern Arizona home, where an 8-year-old boy allegedly shot and killed his father and another man, systematically reloading a rifle and firing at close range.
Details from the St. Johns crime scene are scant, and with a court-imposed gag order, little new information is likely to come out unless the boy is tried for the two counts of murder on which he has been charged.
Police initially suspected the boy had been physically or sexually abused, but before the gag order was imposed Monday, investigators said they had found no evidence of trauma.
"That's what makes this so troubling," Roy Melnick, chief of police in St. Johns, told the New York Times Tuesday.
Experts familiar with parental murders by young children, but not involved in this case, said abuse is almost always a factor in such crimes.
Read More Here: http://abcnews.go.com/US/story?id=6233064&page=1
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Council ranks term 'British' with 'negroes' and bans it in case it upsets Scots, Welsh and minorities
By Neil Sears
The word ‘British’ can be as offensive as ‘negro’ and ‘half-caste’, according to a race relations body.
The publicly-funded organisation’s views have been adopted by Caerphilly council in South Wales for a leaflet advising staff on how to deal with the public.
In a section on what words or phrases not to use to avoid causing offence, the leaflet solemnly informs the council’s 9,000 workers: ‘The idea of “British” implies a false sense of unity – many Scots, Welsh and Irish resist being called British and the land denoted by the term contains a wide variety of cultures, languages and religions.’

Caerphilly, where council workers have been warned not to use the term 'British' for fear of offending ethnic minorities
Read More Here: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1084738/Council-ranks-term-British-negroes-bans-case-upsets-Scots-Welsh-minorities.html
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S.C. Most Violent State, FBI Says
GREENVILLE, S.C. -- Despite the fact that the murder rate in Greenville County has held steady in recent years, the violent crime outlook for much of the state is not nearly that good.
The FBI reported Monday that the state of South Carolina has the highest per capita rate of violent crime in the country.
Greenville County Sheriff Steve Loftis said, "I don't want people in Greenville County to be afraid when they hear stats like that."
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Loftis did say, "We have seen some spikes in violent crime. Last quarter, armed robbery went up to 115. But we've cleared 58 percent of those."
He said many criminals are blaming the current economic situation for their choices.
Watch Video Here: http://www.wyff4.com/news/17949907/detail.html?rss=gs&psp=news
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Pennsylvania teacher's aide said Obama would be shot
David Edwards and Muriel Kane
The mother of a sixteen-year-old student in the Allison Park suburb of Pittsburgh was shocked when her daughter repeated disparaging remarks made about Barack Obama by a teacher's aide at her vocational high school.
"One of the teacher's aides ... said that Obama was going to be shot and killed," Mara Gilligan told KDKA News. "And that our flag is going to be the KFC [Kentucky Fried Chicken] flag and that the new national anthem will be 'Moving On Up' -- and that all my daughter's beliefs were wrong and her children's lives were going to be ruined because Obama was elected."
Gilligan, who is white, said that her biracial daughter took the comments personally. "Being biracial, she was overjoyed that someone of color was elected, and she was so happy and excited to come to school. And for this teacher to yell these things at her and her fellow classmates was just unbelievable."
A teacher at the A.W. Beattie Career Center who overheard the comments filed a complaint with the principal, and Gilligan has since received an email from the administrative director saying the aide would be suspended and disciplined. However, the school would not comment to KDKA on the story.
"You don't have to yell at other people, especially our youth that are excited about the election," Gilligan concluded. "I mean, anybody should want that to happen, especially a teacher, and for you to destroy that joy that they have because of an election is terrible."
Southwestern Pennsylvania was repeatedly cited during the presidential campaign as a stronghold of racist attitudes, and even Rep. John Murtha, who represents a district east of Pittsburgh, aroused controversy when he referred to many of his own constituents as racists.
Two organizations which have been described as explicitly racist appear to be located in Allison Park, where the incident occurred -- the American National Union, which has its mailing address there, and a chapter of the Citizens Councils of America.
The KDKA News story is available here.
Watch Video Here: http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Pennsylvania_teachers_aide_said_Obama_would_1111.html
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Senate to introduce measure to require health insurance for all Americans
WASHINGTON — Without waiting for President-elect Barack Obama, Senator Max Baucus, the chairman of the Finance Committee, will unveil a detailed blueprint on Wednesday to guarantee health insurance for all Americans by facilitating sales of private insurance, expanding Medicaid and Medicare, and requiring most employers to provide or pay for health benefits.
Aides to Mr. Obama said they welcomed the Congressional efforts, had encouraged Congress to take the lead and still considered health care a top priority, despite the urgent need to address huge problems afflicting the economy.
The plan proposed by Mr. Baucus, Democrat of Montana, would eventually require everyone to have health insurance coverage, with federal subsidies for those who could not otherwise afford it.
Read More Here: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/12/washington/12health.html?_r=2&oref=slogin&oref=slogin
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Schumer and Durbin Want Lieberman Stripped of Homeland Security
Newsweek's Howard Fineman on Keith Olbermann:
[Obama's] going to leave it up to a vote I think. What my sources tell me is that there's likely to be a vote next Tuesday. The Senate Democrats will caucus when they come back for the lame duck session. They'll all go into a room, Joe Lieberman will make his case for maintaining his chairmanship of the Homeland Security Committee, then there will be a secret ballot vote.
Obama's opinion is sort of on record via Harry Reid, and we'll see how it goes.
Interestingly, people like Dick Durbin who is the first Democrat in the Senate -- the first Senator, and from Illinois, to support Barack Obama -- is really loaded for bear about Lieberman, he wants to kick Lieberman off that Chairmanship. Chuck Schumer, the head of the Campaign Committee likewise.
So it could be a very close vote, and it'll be left to the secret ballot of the Senators. You've got Evan Bayh and you've got Chris Dodd who are supporting Lieberman, but there are a lot of other people who are still angry at him for the very comments you were talking about just a little while ago.
One point I think needs to be made. This isn't about Joe Lieberman maintaining membership in a country club as a matter of feel-good "bipartisanship." There's actually a job that needs doing here, and when Chris Dodd and Evan Bayh say that they want Lieberman to retain his chairmanship, they are saying that the extraordinary waste, graft, greed and cronyism that have built the Department of Homeland Security to a bloated, ineffectual taxpayer-funded behemoth under Joe Lieberman is just fine.
Read More Here: http://www.thenation.com/blogs/passingthrough/382698
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I'm not a Republican (or a conservative), so I won't be surprised if the Grand Old Party ignores my advice. However, a well-functioning democracy requires at least two counterbalancing political parties able to compete with each other for the hearts and minds of the masses. Tuesday's election results show that one party -- the Republicans -- may be lurching toward irrelevancy and national oblivion. The Republicans have been brutalized in the last two national election cycles and, if the reporting on party machinations is correct, seems determined to repeat the mistakes that have led it to significant electoral defeats. If the Republicans double down on the kinds of conservative-led simple-minded, narrow-issue, intellectual hatred that has led the party to great success during the last generation or so, then it will become a largely impotent regional party teetering on oblivion. The party must take three steps to avoid going the way of the Whigs.
Read More Here: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/michael-fauntroy-phd/hey-republicans-dont-doub_b_143095.html
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LYNN ELBER | November 12, 2008 07:19 AM EST |
LOS ANGELES — When Bill Cosby entered the polling booth in his neighborhood last week, he carried with him photographs of his late parents and Jimmy, the kid brother who died in childhood.
"I pulled out the pictures, pulled the curtain shut. And I said, `You guys are gonna vote.' And they did, on one piece of paper," Cosby said.
He couldn't resist delivering a punch line for fellow voters in Shelburne Falls, Mass. _ "I yelled out, `How do you spell plumber?'" _ even as he exulted in casting his ballot for the first African-American president.
There's an argument circulating that "The Cosby Show" laid the groundwork for President-elect Barack Obama by presenting an appealing black family, the Huxtables, to young TV viewers who grew up equipped to thwart stereotypes and barriers.
Writer Alisa Valdes-Rodriguez called her theory "the Huxtable effect," a counter to the so-called Bradley effect (named for failed black California gubernatorial hopeful Tom Bradley) of possible hidden racism among white voters.
Read More Here: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/11/12/cosby-talks-huxtable-effe_n_143192.html
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Idaho students chant 'assassinate Obama' on school bus
David Edwards and Muriel Kane
Published: Wednesday November 12, 2008
Madison County, Idaho was once dubbed "the reddest place in America" by Salon, but that didn't make it any less shocking when elementary school children started chanting "assassinate Obama on the school bus.
Matthew Whoolery told KIKD News he found out about the chanting from his second and third graders, who had no idea what the word "assassinate" meant.
Read More and Watch Video Here: http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Idaho_students_chant_assassinate_Obama_on_1112.html
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