Thursday, November 20, 2008

I Read The News Today, Oh Boy: November 20, 2008

Life: Sightseers hanging out of the windows in the crown of the Statue of Liberty w. the NJ shore in the bkgd., 1951, Photographer Margaret Bourke-White

If I were President, I'd reopen the head of the Statue of Liberty to tourists as a symbol of change and a salute to freedom.


David Brauer at the Minnesota Post says Al Franken netted 43 votes yesterday, the first day of the Minnesota Senate race recount. [If you want to play Recount along at home, Minnesota Public Radio has pictures of 11 challenged ballots; you can vote who you think should have gotten the vote (if anyone) and see how others voted on the same ballot. It's interesting.]

In the other outstanding Senate seat, the odious Saxby Chambliss maintains his lead over Democrat Jim Martin. Time for Obama to weigh in; he should be using his email list to fundraise, and voters in Georgia should be told to go to the polls for Martin because "Obama Sent Me".

In one of the last three Congressional races yet to be decided, Republican Steve Stivers lead of 149 votes over Democrat Mary Jo Kilroy could be erased, as a federal judge rules that 27,000 provisional ballots must be counted. (As you can imagine, Democrat Kilroy brought suit, and Republican Stivers was arguing against counting the votes.)

The indefatigable Henry Waxman (CA), has succeeded in his bid to take the chair of the Energy and Commerce Committee from 82-year-old John Dingell of Michigan, who has been in Congress longer than I have been alive (since 1955). Waxman is a bulldog who will put the environment ahead of the auto industry, reversing the committee's priorities under Dingell. Who should replace Waxman on the Oversight Committee? Emptywheel recommends Elijah Cummings (MD) or Dennis Kucinich (OH).

John Kerry will become Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee (the committee he testified to against the Vietnam War in 1971) when Joe Biden resigns from the Senate. Kerry has an ambitious agenda according to the Boston Globe.

Arizona governor Janet Napolitano will be named Secretary of Homeland Security. John McCain must be happy to hear this news, as polls show she would beat him if both run for his Arizona Senate seat in 2010.

The economy sucks roundup: Unemployment claims hit 16-year high; stock markets fell to new lows; home starts the lowest since records started being kept over 50 years ago; Congress is delaying the vote on the auto industry bailout. The Bush Economy continues to implode.

Economic glimmer of hope news: The price of a barrel of oil drops below $50 for the first time since 2005; Congress will extend unemployment benefits, and even dumbfuck Bush will sign the bill.

A federal judge has ordered the release of five Algerian men who have been held unlawfully in Guantanamo Bay for seven (7) years. Bush's illegal torture chamber is the greatest shame of his eight shameful years in office.

Barely political and a huge time-waster: Super Obama World, where a Super Mario-like Obama collects American flag points and has to watch out for lipsticked pigs.

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