×
- As expected, the president-elect has named Hilda Solis for Labor, Ray LaHood for Transportation, and Ron Kirk for U.S. Trade Representative. Karen Mills was also named as head of the Small Business Administration and the rumor mill has either Julius Genachowski or Blair Levin as the next FCC chair.
- Unsurprisingly, Rod Blagojevich is determined to fight to prove his innocence, proclaiming at his first press conference since his arrest that "I will fight, I will fight, I will fight, till I take my very last breath. I have done nothing wrong."
- Al Franken has taken the lead in the never ending Minnesota ballot recount, leading by as much as 250 votes by one tally, and Norm Coleman is heading back to court to argue that duplicate ballots had been counted. See also, "The Worst Ballot Challenge of All."
- You'd think that the prospect of lying to Congress about matters of national security would carry such serious consequences that no one would jeopardize their freedom, livelihood, or careers by doing so. Well, you'd be wrong. It also would have been nice to include the word "criminal" in this list of single words the public used to describe the 43rd president, although I can't complain about the highest-rated word.
- Standing tall with the world's finest theocracies, the United States declined to sign a UN declaration calling for the worldwide decriminalization of homosexuality, despite it being signed by "all 27 European Union members, as well as Japan, Australia, Mexico and three dozen other countries." Jonathan Stein looks at the U.S. official reasoning (problems with state-federal jurisdiction) and remarks: "Sure. Why would we sign an internationally supported declaration in favor of human rights? It would keep local landlords and private employers from discriminating. We can't have that!"
- Amidst all the attention (and scorn) being heaped on Rick Warren, Ben Smith points to the oddity of the other inaugural preacher being practically Warren's opposite on matters of tolerance. Meanwhile, Pew gathers the data on the religious makeup of the American public, and how that is represented in Congress.
- James Vega writes at the Democratic Strategist on the folly of mistaking "the surge" for military strategy and Thomas Edsall considers the long Republican purgatory.
--Mori Dinauer
