Obama

Why Cynics Are Wrong -- In These Times

Posted by Damianmann from In These Times

Days before the election, Noam Chomsky told progressives that they should vote for Obama, but without illusions. I fully share Chomsky's doubts about the real consequences of Obama's victory: From a pragmatic-realistic perspective, it is quite possible that Obama will just do some minor face-lifting improvements, turning out to be "Bush with a human face." He will pursue the same basic politics in a more attractive mode and thus effectively even strengthen U.S. hegemony, which has been severely damaged by the catastrophe of the Bush years.

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Janet Napolitano, Homeland Security Secretary?

Posted by Jeff from Huffington Post

CNN is reporting Wednesday night that Obama has chosen Arizona Governor Janet Napolitano to become secretary of the Department of Homeland Security.

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Nate Silver Cussed Out By Angry Wingnut

Posted by Jeff from Wonkette

Wow! One might have guessed, given his charmingly nerdsome appearance and general blinky “how do I translate from numbers into English?” mannerisms that Nate Silver would be somewhat conflict averse. But no man he BRINGS IT. He interviewed some guy who commissioned a Zogby poll that proved, factually, that Obama voters are all a bunch of ignorant black Muslims. There’s even a YouTube to prove it! Anyhow Silver called up this very shirty gentleman John Ziegler to discuss his survey methods. Ziegler called him a pinhead and said many hilariously nasty things.

NS: What was the right answer to that [Palin] question?
JZ: The technically accurate question [sic] is that none of the four people said that, but we counted it as correct if they said Sarah Palin.

NS: Why would you commission a survey question with no correct response?
JZ: The purpose of the question, you pinhead, was we wanted to determine the Tina Fey Effect.

[...]

NS: Would you consider yourself well-informed?
JZ: I’d consider myself extremely well-informed.

NS: Who are the two senators from South Dakota?
JZ: Thune and, uh, Johnson.

NS: Very good. South Carolina?
JZ: Go **** yourself. I’m done with this interview if you’re going to ask me stupid questions like that. Obviously I know who Lindsay Graham is.

NS: Well, since you’re running a website calling people misinformed, I’d like to see if — there are certain things you’ve said that I would consider misinformed.
JZ: Misinformed? You’re a piece of work! You are never going to have the guts to post a representative transcript on your website! I thought you actually ran a legitimate website!

NS: Thank you, have a good day.
JZ: Go **** yourself.

The whole transcript is available here.

An Interview with John Ziegler on the Zogby “Push Poll” [FiveThirtyEight.com]

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Obama advisers: Bush era war criminals will walk

Posted by Jeff from Rawstory

Even as President-elect Obama vowed "to regain America's moral stature in the world" during Sunday's 60 Minutes appearance, two of his senior advisers confessed there is no intent to pursue those in the Bush administration who engaged in torture, a war crime. Human Rights Watch, a non-profit watchdog group, is

the President-elect for fast action on the abuses of the Bush era.

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Will Obama be forced to unplug his BlackBerry?

Posted by newscloud2 from Seattle Times

Sorry, Mr. President. Please surrender your BlackBerry. Those are words President-elect Obama is dreading but expecting to hear, friends and advisers say, when he takes office Jan. 20.

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Barack Obama's Late Grandmother, Madelyn Dunham, Remembered

Posted by newscloud2 from Huffington Post

Neither Obama nor his sister, Maya Soetoro-Ng, attended. A private family ceremony is likely to be held sometime next month when Obama is expected to visit the islands. "It broke his heart not to be here," said Emme Tomimbang, a friend of Obama's and the service's master of ceremonies. "Even though Barack and Maya couldn't be here physically, they were here in spirit. In fact, they both helped put this together."

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Rahm Emanuel apologizes for father's disparaging remarks about Arabs - Haaretz - Israel News

Posted by Jeff from Haaretz

U.S. President-elect Barack Obama's chief of staff Rahm Emanuel apologized to an Arab-American group on Thursday for comments disparaging Arabs made by his father. The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee sent a letter to Emanuel calling on him to distance himself from remarks made by the elder Emanuel in an interview with an Israeli newspaper following his son's appointment last week.

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