Bush aides push for rules to hamper worker health protections

Public health officials worry the decreased protections will result in additional, unnecessary deaths.

TYT: Joe The Plumber Will NOT Go Away

This week on NOW on PBS, economist Robert Kuttner states what should be (but unfortunately isn't) conventional wisdom: that it's more important to get this economy going again than it is to manage the federal budget deficit downwards.

Did You Know?
By Dorsey Shaw
This viral video is all about the exponential growth of available information in our society and what effects it might have on our future. Everyone should watch it once. Created by Karl Fisch

MUMBAI SIEGE ENDS... WHO WAS BEHIND ATTACKS?

Obama Answers Liberal Critics on Personnel Choices

Change From the Top
by Kathleen Parker
Yes, the cabinet names are familiar. Still, Obama may be the departure he promised.

The media myth: Detroit’s $70-an-hour autoworker

By Eric Boehlert

Question: Is the press just being sloppy on this issue of supposedly pampered autoworkers, or are there other elements in play?

Tutu, Obama and the Middle East

By Amy Goodman
As President-elect Barack Obama focuses on the meltdown of the U.S. economy, another fire is burning: the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Gazans despair over blockade

"People in Gaza are waiting in lines for almost everything, and that's if they're lucky enough to find something to wait for," says Bassam Nasser, 39.

Bush’s Hoover Impression Flirts With Depression
By Marie Cocco —
At the earliest, it is likely to be at least February or March before the first dollar of an Obama recovery plan is felt. This is a national disgrace.

Obama the Realist
By E.J. Dionne —
In electing Barack Obama, the country traded the foreign policy of the second President Bush for the foreign policy of the first President Bush.

Obama’s Shrewd Choices
By Joe Conason —
Barack Obama’s appointees will implement the Obama program, not only because that is what he tells them to do but because that is what they have come to believe is best for the country.

I'm grateful for Barack Obama

My sappy Thanksgiving post got more serious as I watched the Mumbai tragedy unfold.
by Joan Walsh

*
*
*
*
*

Sophisticated Attacks, but Al Qaeda Link Disputed

By MARK McDONALD and ALAN COWELL
Experts said that they had never heard of the group that claimed responsibility for the Mumbai attacks and that it was probably not a cell or group linked to Al Qaeda.

DOZENS KILLED IN MUMBAI ATTACKS... AMERICANS, BRITONS TARGETED... HOSTAGES

The Crisis & What to Do About It

By George Soros

The salient feature of the current financial crisis is that it was not caused by some external shock like OPEC raising the price of oil or a particular country or financial institution defaulting. The crisis was generated by the financial system itself.

Who's afraid of Obama overreaching?

The president-elect shouldn't squander his mandate reassuring conservatives about his economic plan. The real danger is in underreaching.
by Joan Walsh

Obama's E-Team
By E.J. Dionne —
Obama’s selection of a team of highly skilled pragmatists has already been described as a move to the political center, but Obama advisers and longtime acquaintances say that this is a misreading of the incoming president and his approach.

Daily Show: Sarah Palin's Greatest Hits

The Daily Show With Jon StewartM - Th 11p / 10c

The Daily Show's Best Sarah Palin Moments

Barack Obama Interview
John McCain Interview

Sarah Palin Video
Funny Election Video

Who will Bush pardon next?

On Monday, President Bush pardoned 14 people. But there were some big names missing from the list -- as the Associated Press pointed out, Michael Milken, former Rep. Duke Cunningham (R-Calif.) and former Gov. Edwin W. Edwards (D-La.) are among those who haven't yet gotten the presidential pardon they're seeking. And Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Calif.) is angry that former Border Patrol Agents Jose Compean and Ignacio Ramos are not on the list, though -- as I showed in an article last year -- because of the way their case has been twisted by right-wing media, the argument on their behalf is decidedly less convincing than Rohrabacher says.

So here's the question for you: Who do you think Bush will pardon next? Will Milken get the nod, or will the politics of the current economic situation prevent that? What about Cunningham and Edwards? And will he, as some have speculated he might, issue pre-emptive pardons? If so, to whom? Let us know in comments.

― Alex Koppelman

A Message From the White House Chief of Staff-Designate

Let's Be Clear About Obama

by Katrina vanden Heuvel:

Progressives need to be as clear-eyed, tough and pragmatic about Obama as he is about us.

Gavin Newsom explains court challenge to Prop 8
By David Sunday

California courts agreed to hear a challenge to Proposition 8 which banned same-sex marriage. The question before the court asks if Proposition 8 is an amendment to California's Constitution or a revision. San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom told CNN's Anderson Cooper that if Proposition 8 is a revision to the Constitution it would mean that the courts no longer had a role in determining if the rights of minorities had been violated.

"Should we go in front of the voters every time there is an adjudication in the courts that we don't like and submit the rights of minorities to the whims of the majority, based upon the morality of the day?" asked Newsom. "That's what's happened here in California."

I mean, this is an interesting point. Look, if we were having this conversation in 1967, we would have had a U.S. Supreme Court, the loving court, that unanimously decided to get rid of all of those laws in the remaining 16 states that denied interracial marriage. If we had gone to the voters, almost every public opinion poll showed that the overwhelming majority of voters would have overturned that court decision.

Newsom argued, "Well, what's next? I mean, now, if this is the basis of principle, what other rights should we take away? And is the court powerless in each and every case when the voters by a majority decide to change the constitution, again based upon the issue of the day?"

CNN transcripts

Legacy of Mystery

Forget hanging chads, 9/11, and those missing W.M.D.’s. A massive new conspiracy book proves that the original unanswerable question is still the juiciest: who shot J.F.K.?
by Rob Sheffield

Obama focuses with economy in free fall
President-elect steps up efforts to let public know what his plans are.

Why Obama Can Keep Gates

By Joe Conason
As Barack Obama makes his way through the transition to power, he is learning the steps of an old dance. Having promised change, he now surrounds himself with experience.

A Letter to My Brother Newt Gingrich
by Candace Gingrich
This is a movement of the people that you most fear. It's a movement of progress -- and your words only show how truly desperate you are to maintain control of a world that is changing before your very eyes.

Progressive complaints about Obama's appointments

The new President's positioning in the center-right of the Democratic Party isn't surprising. It's what he repeatedly made clear he intended to do.
by Glenn Greenwald

The Butler sees a new White House
For more than three decades, Eugene Allen worked in the White House, a black man unknown to the headlines.

by Will Haygood

The Dynamic Duo
How Geithner will work with Summers, and why he's an even better pick than you think.
by Noam Scheiber

Your Weekly Address from the President-elect

Get Over It, Clinton Haters

Obama's choice of rival Hillary Clinton for secretary of state shows his political wisdom. And the vetting suggests the Clintons -- surprise! -- have little to hide.
By Joe Conason

Clinton Decides to Accept Post at State Dept., Confidants Say
By PETER BAKER

Hillary Rodham Clinton will give up her Senate seat and accept the nomination for secretary of state after talks with President-elect Barack Obama about her role, two confidants said.

Key Committee Pick Signals Obama-Pelosi Direction

Waxman gets Commerce chair, amid signs of focus on healthcare, environment, consumer protection.

by John Nichols

Wakamatsu named Mariners manager

Former A's bench coach becomes first Asian-American skipper in bigs
By Doug Miller

An unpardonable use of power
If President Bush cares about his place in history, he should think twice before issuing pardons that call his judgment, and the integrity of the rule of law, into question.
By Sen. Russ Feingold

Conservative Columnist: "Religion Is Killing The Republican Party"

Matt Taibbi: A Requiem for John McCain
The Republican candidate ran one of the most incompetent campaigns of modern times - and smashed the GOP to pieces.

Holder Seen as Justice Choice as Obama Forms Team
By ERIC LICHTBLAU and JOHN M. BRODER
Barack Obama’s transition team has signaled to Eric H. Holder Jr. that he will be chosen as attorney general, but no final decision has been made, people involved in the process said.

Should Obama Chase Osama?

On Sunday the president-elect told "60 Minutes" he wants to capture or kill bin Laden. Is he setting himself up for failure?
By Juan Cole

Conservative Identity Crisis
By E.J. Dionne —
There is a second transition under way over which President-elect Barack Obama has no control—the transition of conservatives to minority status. How they do this will have a powerful impact on the new presidency.

A Wal-mart Christmas for a Wal-mart Country
By Marie Cocco —
The giant discounter is the only store where hard-squeezed consumers can afford to buy anything, and so it has kept posting sales gains amid the retail bloodbath

The Moose Stops Here

By FRANK RICH
ELECTION junkies in acute withdrawal need suffer no longer. Though the exciting Obama-McCain race is over, the cockfight among the losers has only just begun. The conservative crackup may be ugly, but as entertainment, it’s two thumbs up!

Paul Krugman Schools George Will on The Great Depression

On ABC's This Week, conservative pundit George Will took up the case against Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal, arguing that it sent confusing signals to capitalists (who apparently might otherwise have pursued lucrative deals in the 1930s market place) and turned a depression into the Great Depression.

Thankfully, Nobel laureate Paul Krugman was around to remind Will of some history -- that the economy improved after the New Deal, and that it was FDR's attempt to balance the budget in 1937 (a move favored now by many conservatives) that then cut into that progress.

Watch:

Obama on 60 Minutes

Watch CBS Videos Online
Part II

Watch CBS Videos Online
Part III

Watch CBS Videos Online

GOP not playing "Minnesota Nice" with Franken

Republicans have flooded the airwaves with baseless propaganda to discredit the Coleman-Franken recount in advance.
By Joe Conason

The Newest GOP Myth: We've Drifted From Our Priniciples
by David Corn
In the aftermath of a decisive defeat, Republicans and conservatives are nursing their wounds and wondering what went wrong. Many have come up with an easy answer: the GOP has drifted from its core principles; consequently, the voters have handed it the pink slip.
But is the drift more to blame than the principles?

The Wild Wordsmith of Wasilla

by Dick Cavett

What will ambitious politicos learn from this? That frayed syntax, bungled grammar and run-on sentences that ramble on long after thought has given out completely are a candidate’s valuable traits?

Your Weekly Address from the President-Elect

Bush sets free-trade trap for Obama

The outgoing president wants to spur Democratic infighting by attaching an agreement with Colombia to the economic stimulus package. Obama should say, "no deal."
By David Sirota

This Week in Science
by DarkSyde
Planned Parenthood has a blog and they're understandably pissed off at the Bush-Cheney-Palin-McCain axis of evil and ignorance for, well, for a shitload of reasons as you can imagine. The most recent being as the economy crumbles, families are evicted from foreclosed homes, two unresolved trillion dollar wars rage, and the ranks of the unemployed balloon, the Nutjob-in-Chief has his priorities in order: denying healthcare to women by redefining birth control as abortion.

Last surviving member of the Jimi Hendrix Experience, drummer Mitch Mitchell, dies.

Who's afraid of a Filibuster?
by Joe Conason
Is there enough muscle behind a filibuster threat to block Mr. Obama’s mandate?
The short answer is no.

How do you solve a problem like Joe Lieberman?

A great debate between Rachel Maddow and Evan Bayh lays out the stakes, for both sides.
by Joan Walsh

Bob Cesca: What Doesn't Kill The Far-Right Only Makes Them Crazier
Since their thumpin' last week, the far-right has pushed the crazy to eleven and snapped the knob clean off -- an opening salvo of twisted hackery portending an insane four-to-eight years of attacks on the Obama administration

Goodbye and Good Riddance

by Paul Waldman

After eight years of President Bush, we almost don't know how to function without him -- almost. But before we move on, we should pause to remember just what we're leaving behind.

Let Us Now Praise Howard Dean

by John Nichols

With that 50-state strategy, his full embrace of netroots activism and, above all, his refusal to pull punches, Dean made being a Democrat mean something. That turned out to be the cure for what ailed a party that has benefited immeasurably from the doctor's able treatment of its condition.

Beyond The Fat Cats

By BOB HERBERT
The most important thing the Democrats and President-elect Obama can do with regard to the economy is bring back a sense of fairness and equity.

The GOP's last chance: Become Democrats

With all trends running against them, Republicans' only hope is to reinvent themselves as pragmatists. That, or nominate Sarah Palin and go out in a blaze of glory.
By Gary Kamiya

America The Liberal

by John B. Judis

The Democratic majority: It emerged!

Boogie Man: The Lee Atwater Story
Airs on PBS, Tuesday, Nov. 11 9pm

*************************2012?

How did that realignment work out for you, Republicans?

Five years ago, overweening conservatives predicted they would dominate the future. Goodbye to all that -- for now.
By Joe Conason