1883 - The first American cross-country championships were held, sponsored by the New York Athletic Club.
1947 - "Meet the Press" was first seen in the local Washington, D.C. market.
COINCIDENCE? I THINK NOT!
We oppose the reactionary policies of the U.S. government but we do not oppose the American people. We want to have many good friends in the United States.
--- Kim Jong Il
From the Church of Ineffable Stupidity:
a) George A. Bush Invites President-Elect Obama to White House to train him in which reactionary policies to follow.
Oh goodie. Maybe Dick Cheney will spread his wisdom and insights that have served this nation so well for the last 8 years.
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b) Reuters reporter seriously bit in White House this morning.
The Reuters reporter assigned to the White House Press Corpse was taken to the hospital. Early reports that Dick Cheney bit him proved to be incorrect. Barney, the presidential dawg, was the culprit. An emergency pardon to the canine was allegedly issued by the president as he smirked at the blood stains.
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c) Israel's foreign minister lectures Obama on proper Iranian etiquette. Bombing's OK. Talking is not.
"We live in a neighbourhood in which sometimes dialogue -- in a situation where you have brought sanctions, and you then shift to dialogue -- is liable to be interpreted as weakness," Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni said, asked on Israel Radio about policy change toward Tehran in an Obama administration.
Her remarks sounded the first note of dissonance with Obama by a senior member of the Israeli government since the Democrat's sweeping victory over Republican candidate John McCain in the U.S. presidential election on Tuesday.
Asked if she supported any U.S. dialogue with Iran, Livni replied: "The answer is no."
http://www.reuters.com/...
Look, Israel. Either you play by the rules, obey international laws, and let loose the thousands of people held without charges, AND stop evicting Palestinians from their homes and building illegal settlements, OR, you risk the support of the US. You are on notice with this new administration. We support you, we protect you, we share intel with you. But you have to start behaving in a civilized fashion with respect to Palestinians. Period. It really is that simple.
In unrelated news, AIPAC leaders are scrambling to regain at least some access to Democratic leaders and newly elected reps and senators. After betting most of their chips on the religious reich-based GOP, wholeheartedly supporting Cheney's war mongering, and pushing the US to expand the Iraq occupation eastward, AIPAC is the biggest loser in Tuesday's election. No longer can these raving loonies impact US-Israel relationships as they have in the past 20 years. AIPAC is looking to Joe Lieberman to aid them in their time of need.
d) Joe Lieberman to be taken to senatorial woodshed, stripped of all "D" power and committees, sometime this morning.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, reading the electoral tea leaves, seeing complaints from senators and voters alike, is having a private meeting with rogue senator Joe Lieberman. Lieberman, who previously sold his soul to AIPAC, and has added John McCain, and today's GOP to the list, will end up without any voice in the Democratic party. Republicans, seeing an untrustworthy, opportunist, self-agrandizing turncoat, want nothing more to do with him.
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e) Obama received his first double secret NSA/CIA/State briefing this morning. He immediately called on his staff to organize an emergency economic meeting with his top advisers, followed by a press conference tomorrow morning.
In unrelated news, the sharp tongue'd and sharp elbowed Rahm Emanual, a former Clinton White House fixture, former DLC member, and former AIPAC supporter, accepted the position of Obama's Chief of Staff.
Emanual is enough of a pro to not let his prior DLC and AIPAC mistakes ruin it for him. In many ways, he is the perfect choice to make sure that Obama's policies become fact, not fiction.
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f) some prose on the civil war about to start in the GOP.
Americans are upset. Tired. Frustrated. Angry. Uninsured. Suffering. Financially stressed. And they just saw their government, their pro-business, anti-consumer, pro-deregulation, government take an additional $700 BILLION in tax dollars and hand it over to the same greedy financiers who created their own mess. (AND paid themselves BILLIONS in faux profit-based bonuses. Let's not even touch the government teat sucking AIG maroons and their travel plans)
When every expert (who is not a paid political adviser for the GOP) agrees that more regulation is needed for the finance industry, when the greed and frauds perpetrated by pols and their favored donors are the norm, not the exception, and when every single promise made by tax-cutting, anti-regulation forces turned out to be a lie, it is not surprising to see a change in the nation's mood.
Center-right? America? No longer. Not when 52% of all voters elected for the most liberal senator in the country as their president.
http://www.capitolhillblue.com/...
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"There was never a good war or a bad peace."
Benjamin Franklin