Obama's Weekly Web Address

It's the economy, stupid.

Obama's Holiday Message

Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night!

Obama's Weekly Web/Radio Address

Over the past few weeks, Vice President-Elect Biden and I have announced some of the leaders who will advise us as we seek to meet America’s twenty-first century challenges, from strengthening our security, to rebuilding our economy, to preserving our planet for our children and grandchildren. Today, I am pleased to announce members of my science and technology team whose work will be critical to these efforts.

Whether it’s the science to slow global warming; the technology to protect our troops and confront bioterror and weapons of mass destruction; the research to find life-saving cures; or the innovations to remake our industries and create twenty-first century jobs – today, more than ever before, science holds the key to our survival as a planet and our security and prosperity as a nation. It’s time we once again put science at the top of our agenda and worked to restore America’s place as the world leader in science and technology.

Right now, in labs, classrooms and companies across America, our leading minds are hard at work chasing the next big idea, on the cusp of breakthroughs that could revolutionize our lives. But history tells us that they can’t do it alone. From landing on the moon, to sequencing the human genome, to inventing the Internet, America has been the first to cross that new frontier because we had leaders who paved the way: leaders like President Kennedy, who inspired us to push the boundaries of the known world and achieve the impossible; leaders who not only invested in our scientists, but who respected the integrity of the scientific process.

Because the truth is that promoting science isn’t just about providing resources – it’s about protecting free and open inquiry. It’s about ensuring that facts and evidence are never twisted or obscured by politics or ideology. It’s about listening to what our scientists have to say, even when it’s inconvenient – especially when it’s inconvenient. Because the highest purpose of science is the search for knowledge, truth and a greater understanding of the world around us. That will be my goal as President of the United States – and I could not have a better team to guide me in this work.

Dr. John Holdren has agreed to serve as Assistant to the President for Science and Technology and Director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. John is a professor and Director of the Program on Science, Technology, and Public Policy at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, as well as President and Director of the Woods Hole Research Center. A physicist renowned for his work on climate and energy, he’s received numerous honors and awards for his contributions and has been one of the most passionate and persistent voices of our time about the growing threat of climate change. I look forward to his wise counsel in the years ahead.

John will also serve as a Co-Chair of the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology – or PCAST – as will Dr. Harold Varmus and Dr. Eric Lander. Together, they will work to remake PCAST into a vigorous external advisory council that will shape my thinking on scientific aspects of my policy priorities.

Dr. Varmus is no stranger to this work. He is not just a path-breaking scientist, having won a Nobel Prize for his research on the causes of cancer – he also served as Director of the National Institutes of Health during the Clinton Administration. I am grateful he has answered the call to serve once again.

Dr. Eric Lander is the Founding Director of the Broad Institute at MIT and Harvard and was one of the driving forces behind mapping the human genome – one of the greatest scientific achievements in history. I know he will be a powerful voice in my Administration as we seek to find the causes and cures of our most devastating diseases.

Finally, Dr. Jane Lubchenco has accepted my nomination as the Administrator of NOAA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which is devoted to conserving our marine and coastal resources and monitoring our weather. As an internationally known environmental scientist, ecologist and former President of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, Jane has advised the President and Congress on scientific matters, and I am confident she will provide passionate and dedicated leadership at NOAA.

Working with these leaders, we will seek to draw on the power of science to both meet our challenges across the globe and revitalize our economy here at home. And I’ll be speaking more after the New Year about how my Administration will engage leaders in the technology community and harness technology and innovation to create jobs, enhance America’s competitiveness and advance our national priorities.

I am confident that if we recommit ourselves to discovery; if we support science education to create the next generation of scientists and engineers right here in America; if we have the vision to believe and invest in things unseen, then we can lead the world into a new future of peace and prosperity.

Thank you, and happy holidays everybody.

Franken Takes Lead in Minnesota Senate Race

Up by 266 votes as of 3:20 p.m. EST.

You can watch live streaming video of the Minnesota State Canvassing Board on the Minneapolis Star-Tribune website. Whoops, as I type this Franken's lead went to 267.

Al's a real liberal. I will celebrate when he is sworn in.

I Thought The XFL Folded

He Hate Me chosen to give invocation at Obama inauguration.

WTF?

Megachurch minister/thief Rick Warren is a hateful bigot who is anti-stem-cell-research, anti-choice, anti-abortion, anti-gay, anti-gay marriage, and basically a big dope. He's gone on Fox Noise in the last month to apologize for the Bush torture regime and to proclaim that Jesus was pro-assassination. Basically he is Jerry Falwell in a fat suit. He's Rupert Murdoch's pastor, for crying out loud. He's a hater.

Obama can throw him bones for the rest of his life and that faker isn't going to change one position. Naive and deeply disappointing decision by Obama. It is a gratituous insult to all of Obama's supporters who support gay rights.

I'll turn my back when he speaks.

Ice Storm Cleanup

Photographs from 1980

Barack Obama, or one of the Jackson 5?
Compare and contrast:

Time Photo Gallery: Obama: The College Years

A 1980 photo shoot reveals a playful side of the President-elect
Photographs by Lisa Jack

Time Out Chicago: What would Nixon do?

Rod Blagoyevich photographed while getting Richard M. Nixon's autograph

Duck Duck Bush

Duck Duck Bush

Go throw things at the Chimperor.

I Could Watch This Over and Over and Over

One Year Ago

Reuters: Democratic presidential candidate Senator Barack Obama holds a baby during a campaign rally stop in Independence, Iowa, December 15, 2007.

Obama's Weekly Web/Radio Address

Ice Storm Photos

 

Pine tree boughs after landing on my neighbor's roof and fence

 

The pine covered with ice

 

The decimated pine after the sun came out

 

An icy tree

More Ice Storm Videos

From the Worcester Telegram

Princeton, Mass., from the Metrowest News

Driving through Holden


Acton

Gardner

A Modest Proposal

From John Cole:

A Bailout Plan the GOP Can Support

We need to invade Michigan and rebuild the state from the ground up. We will be greeted as liberators, we have clear supply lines, and we can easily rebuild the auto industry with the kind of money we spend on other countries we invade. Hell, our new Secretary of State, Hillary of Clinton, spent the better part of the past year fighting for the rights of average folks from Michigan, so think of the good will we have with the public. This is very doable. Just tell Congress we will give KBR no-bid contracts to fix Detroit.

Our Amazing Ice Storm

In Worcester, a mess

Boston Globe Photo Gallery: Ice storm slams region

I am one of the few people in my town today with power as 350,000 in Massachusetts lost power last night in a huge ice storm. My friend L has a tree limb on her car and the windshield is smashed; her boyfriend's car's rear windshield got taken out by a limb, too. They couldn't even get to the cars to remove the limbs because of downed power lines. My next door neighbor had a tree limb fall on his roof. It sounded like a shooting gallery this morning with all the limbs breaking off and crashing with all their ice to the ground. I drove in to the Craft Center in Worcester late this afternoon and had to take 4 detours to navigate the mile between my house and Route 190. Saw cars without windows sitting in driveways, trees in front yards, and tree lined roads that looked like they had been decorated with boughs of evergreen from all the cleaned-up branches stacked in the ditches. Plus limbs are still falling off the trees as you drive along the roads, and random tree branches stick out into roadways, so it's quite scary out there. Power will not be restored completely until next week. The grocery stores and gas stations are all closed.

Video of a branch snapping while filming a TV interview:

Good News in Minnesota

From an email from the Franken campaign:

The state canvassing board has soundly rejected the Coleman campaign's attempt to disenfranchise 133 voters in Minneapolis whose ballots were lost during the recount, unanimously deciding to count those votes. In addition, they urged Minnesota's 87 counties to identify, open, and count absentee ballots that were wrongly rejected.

This is a huge win for us, because our position has always been the simple principle that every lawful vote should be counted.

TPM: Franken Gets Big Win At Canvass Board

Al Franken's chances of winning the Minnesota recount may have just gone up astronomically.

The state canvassing board just voted unanimously that absentee ballots that were initially rejected because of clerical errors -- and the current estimate from the hearing is that there could be nearly 1,600 of them, based on some extrapolation -- should be counted, probably the single biggest issue that the Franken campaign has been hammering ever since this recount began, and which really seemed up in the air going into this hearing.

The board can't directly order the county officials to do the counting, only making a formal request to go back and count the votes and then submit amended totals. But many counties have already begun or finished the process of sorting the rejected absentees at the board's request, and board members did castigate any election officials who wouldn't do so, with some of them even leaving open the option of seeking a court order if necessary.

Because of all that, it seems very likely that the vast majority of these ballots will be counted before this is over -- and it could possibly seal the deal for Franken.

Count Every Vote in Minnesota

Great video from the Al Franken campaign:

In the closest Senate race in Minnesota history, every vote should be counted fairly.

But there are Minnesotans who had their votes thrown out, even though they did nothing wrong.

They voted absentee, but their ballots were improperly rejected because of someone elses mistake.

And in the closest Senate race in Minnesota history, their votes remain uncounted.

Participatory Democracy

Obama's transition site, Change.gov, has a new section for submitting questions to the administration and voting on the questions submitted by others. Check it out:

Open for Questions

The #1 question currently is:

"What will you do to establish transparency and safeguards against waste with the rest of the Wall Street bailout money?"
Diane, New Jersy

Tthe Blagojevich Indictment

My friend J who lives in Chicago points out that corruption in the Illinois Governor's mansion is the rule rather than the exception:

I believe the national incarceration rate in the United States is something like 1%. Compare to Illinois governors since 1961:

Otto Kerner (1961 to 1968). Go to jail? YES

Sam Shapiro (1968-1969). Go to jail? No.

Richard Ogilvie (1969 to 1973) Go to jail? No

Dan Walker (1973 to 1977) Go to jail? YES

James Thompson (1977 to 1991) Go to jail? No

James Edgar (1991 to 1999) Go to jail? No

George Ryan (1999 to 2003) Go to jail? YES

Rod Blagojevich (2003 to present) Go to Jail? NOT YET

In any event, if you are in Springfield, Illinois and see the governor's mansion, I would suggest walking on the other side of the street.

We Love Lists

My #1 Video of the Campaign

Time: Top Ten Campaign Video Moments

A weird list. The Palin-Couric interviews get #1, that's justifiable, but "Joe Biden's One-Word Debate Answer" and Hillary Clinton's "Soprano's Video" beating will.i.am's "Yes We Can" video is ridiculous.

My top five:

1. John McCain "The Fundamentals of Our Economy Are Strong" (see above)
2. will.i.am "Yes We Can"
3. Tina Fey "I Can See Russia From My House"
4. Sarah Palin "In What Respect, Charlie?"
5. Sarah Palin "Putin Rears His Head"