►Condi RIce and Hillary Clinton to have dinner tonight at Rice's Watergate apartment.
“NBC News reports that the current Secretary of State is having her successor over for dinner: Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will host Hillary Clinton tonight for dinner at Rice's Watergate apartment, State Department transition sources tell NBC News.”
................................................................................................................
►President-elect Obama's choice of an education secretary will very likely displease one faction or the other.
Two competing factions, the "reformers", and the teacher's unions, have different ideas as to who it should be, and there doesn't seem to be an actual candidate who can bridge that divide.One person does come close, Chicago schools superintendent, Arne Duncan.
“Can Obama make both sides happy? Not likely, said Republican Sen. Richard Burr of North Carolina.”
One candidate might fit the bill _ Chicago schools chief Arne Duncan, who has spent seven years running the country's third-largest school district.
Duncan is friendly with the president-elect, playing pickup basketball as well as touring schools with the former Illinois senator and fellow Harvard alumnus. Duncan visited Washington last week, stopping for coffee with outgoing Education Secretary Margaret Spellings, but he said the visit was purely social and had nothing to do with the Obama transition.
Like Obama, Duncan has straddled both education factions, signing manifestos from each side earlier this year.
The reform group likes Duncan's work in Chicago, where he has focused on improving struggling schools, closing those that fail and getting better teachers.
And unlike Klein or Washington schools chief Michelle Rhee, Duncan has managed to avoid alienating the teachers' unions.
"Arne Duncan actually reaches out and tries to do things in a collaborative way," said Randi Weingarten, head of the 1.4 million-member American Federation of Teachers.”
Huffington Post
................................................................................................................
►As expected, the Supreme Court today turned down the challenge to Obama's status as a natural-born citizen.
The court made no comment. Bolding is mine.
“The court did not comment on its order Monday rejecting the call by Leo Donofrio of East Brunswick, N.J., to intervene in the presidential election. Donofrio says that since Obama had dual nationality at birth _ his mother was American and his Kenyan father at the time was a British subject _ he cannot possibly be a "natural born citizen," one of the requirements the Constitution lists for eligibility to be president.
Donofrio also contends that two other candidates, Republican John McCain and Socialist Workers candidate Roger Calero, also are not natural-born citizens and thus ineligible to be president.”
................................................................................................................
►Increasing pressure for Rick Wagoner, GM CEO and Chairman, to resign, as Obama announces support for short-term bailout package, and Congress gets closer to signing said package.
“NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- President-elect Barack Obama announced support Sunday for a short-term government bailout of the nation's carmakers that is tied to industry restructuring, and he accused auto executives of a persistent "head-in-the sand approach" to long-festering problems.
In an appearance on NBC's "Meet the Press" and later at a news conference, Obama at one point suggested some executives should lose their jobs.”
“As recently as Thursday, neither Pelosi nor Reid would commit to holding the vote the automakers say they need in the coming two weeks.
But the leaders decided Friday to plan for a vote in the wake of the government's grim employment report, which showed that the economy lost 533,000 jobs in November, and the better reception the automakers' CEOs received on Capitol Hill at hearings on Thursday and Friday.”
“DETROIT -- General Motors Corp. Chairman and Chief Executive Rick Wagoner is coming under increasing pressure from outside the company to resign as part of any broad bailout of the auto maker by the federal government.
On Sunday, Sen. Christopher Dodd (D., Conn.), a supporter of emergency loans for Detroit, suggested Mr. Wagoner should go if the government follows through and provides billions of dollars to help the auto giant restructure and return to profitability.”
................................................................................................................
►Op-ed:"Why Somalia Matters", on Vanity Fair.
In a comparison to Afghanistan, VF writer, Aidan Hartley explains why Somalia requires our attention. A must read.
“Aside from the humanitarian suffering—thousands killed in Mogadishu’s fighting this past year, four million hungry—it is time we woke up to what else is unfolding in Somalia. The world allowed Afghanistan to fester in brutal isolation until 2001, and look what came to pass. In Somalia, organized crime and Islamist extremism have been incubating for years. Now they threaten to metastasize globally, Afghanistan-style. George W. Bush’s policies in Africa’s Horn have been disastrous. But events on the ground provide the U.S. president-elect, Barack Obama, with fresh opportunities.”
................................................................................................................
►Biden to roll back Cheney's twisted/unconstitutional version of the role of a vice president.
“Dialing back his predecessor’s expansive view of the office, Vice President-elect Joe Biden plans on “restoring the Office of the Vice President to its historical role” as adviser to the president and tie-breaker in the Senate, an aide to Biden said Saturday.
The declaration results from an attention-getting article coming from the Las Vegas Sun, which is reporting Sunday in a story by Washington Bureau reporter Lisa Mascaro that the new Congress “will reassert its constitutional independence from the White House by barring the vice president from joining in internal Senate deliberations, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said in an interview with the Sun.”
“The move is intended to restore checks and balances to a system that tilted heavily toward the White House in the Bush presidency,” Mascaro writes. “By giving Vice President Dick Cheney regular access to Senate Republican caucuses, at times with White House advisers in tow, party unity became more important to many Republicans than upholding their responsibilities to provide legislative oversight of the executive, experts say.””
................................................................................................................
►Timing of international climate talks in Poland means US delegates still report to Bush, and will not be able to have an impact by bringing forth Obama views.
“Barack Obama's pledge to make the United States a leader in confronting global warming raised hopes that his election would rapidly end the long impasse in international negotiations over climate change, but the timing of the presidential transition has severely dimmed those expectations as the current round of talks comes to a head this week in Poland..”
:: World Unites For Climate Talks - Telegraph - UK
................................................................................................................
►Those of you who think that lame duck, Bush 43, is doing nothing during his last days in office, have a look at the lengthy list of his "midnight" regulations. He has been very busy indeed.
................................................................................................................
►Sudan is bracing for a magnitudinal shift in US policy.
Think Darfur. They have reason for concern.
“"Compared to the Republicans, the Democrats, I think they are hawks," said Ghazi Suleiman, a human rights lawyer and member of the Southern People's Liberation Movement, which has a fragile power-sharing agreement with the ruling party. "I know Obama's appointees. And I know their policy towards Sudan. Everybody here knows it. The policy is very aggressive and very harsh. I think we really will miss the judgments of George W. Bush."”
:: Obama Team Seen as Tough on Darfur - Washington Post
:: Obama Receives Advice on Genocide Threats - Washington Post
RELATED POSTS
>Loser George W. Bush Absent From Office During His Presidency
>A final tally from the RNC on Palin's campaign spending.
>A former US interrogator claims that US torture policy has led to more deaths than 9/11.
>Collectibles: Mashup of Palin Clips on The Daily Show
>It's Torture, Not "Coercion" and Euphemisms are Unacceptable
>Palin Still Matters
