America's first transgender mayor

From ABC News:

The first time Stu Rasmussen was elected mayor of Silverton, Ore., he wore shirts and pants. This time around, after a landslide victory, he will be stepping into office donning a dress and makeup.

Rasmussen was recently elected as America's first transgender mayor.

Rasmussen told "Good Morning America" that the town went through the transition with him.

"Obviously, it was shocking to them," he said. "We all kind of went through it together. It was pretty obvious I was making a change, it had to happen in my head. They were ready before I was."

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Bush trims health care for poor

This is why we sent the bastards packing. They really are disgusting and selfish people in the Republican party.

In the first of an expected avalanche of post-election regulations, the Bush administration on Friday narrowed the scope of services that can be provided to poor people under Medicaid’s outpatient hospital benefit.

Public hospitals and state officials immediately protested the action, saying it would reduce Medicaid payments to many hospitals at a time of growing need.

The new rule conflicts with efforts by Congressional leaders and governors to increase federal aid to the states for Medicaid as part of a new economic action plan.

President-elect Barack Obama has endorsed those efforts. At a news conference on Friday, he said that legislation to stimulate the economy should include “assistance to state and local governments” so they would not have to lay off workers or increase taxes.

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Take a Bow, America

Bob Herbert:

The markets are battered and job losses are skyrocketing, but even in the midst of a national economic crisis, we should not lose sight of the profound significance of this week and what it tells us about the continuing promise of America.

Voters said no to incompetence and divisiveness and elbowed their way past the blight of racism that has been such a barrier to progress for so long. Barack Obama won the state of North Carolina, for crying out loud.

The nation deserves to take a bow. This is not the same place it used to be.

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Nate Silver: Uncounted Votes May Push Begich Past Stevens

Nate says it ain't over in Alaska:

Although Ted Stevens currently holds a lead of approximately 3,200 votes in ballots counted to date in Alaska's senate contest, there is good reason to believe that the ballots yet to be counted -- the vast majority of which are early and absentee ballots -- will allow Mark Begich to mitigate his disadvantage with Stevens and quite possibly pull ahead of him.

The reasoning behind this is simple: some early ballots have been processed, and among those ballots Begich substantially leads Stevens. A tally of Alaska's 40 house districts as taken from Alaska's Division of Elections webpage suggests that Begich has won about 61% of the early ballots counted so far, as compared with 48% of ballots cast on Election Day itself.

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Obama win triggers run on guns in many stores

These people need to seriously get a life:

Sales of rifles, pistols and ammo are surging in parts of the United States, as many gun owners fear President-elect Barack Obama's administration may seek to tighten ownership of certain weapons.

"The day after the election, I had many more calls than usual from people looking for semi-automatic rifles," said David Greenberg, the owner of the Second Amendment Family Gun Shop, in Bisbee, Arizona, who sold out of AR-15 rifles in recent days.

"There seems to be a fear they will be banned, and it's fairly likely," he added. "Obama and Biden are driven to eliminate firearms from the face of the country."

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FOX didn't get to ask Obama a question at the presser

God this is going to be a fun four years.

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Sheeeeees baaaaaack! Lady Lynn de Redneck attacks McCain campaign for criticizing Sarah Palin

Seems that Her Royal Highness Lady Lynn de Rothschild just can't make up her mind these days. First she's for Hillary, then for McCain, and now she's a big Palin supporter. It's almost as if every time the political winds change, Lady de Redneck switches to the current frontrunner (Palin being the putative frontrunner for 2012). How interesting. And how sad. Maybe Lady Lynn can form a new party with Joe Lieberman and keep each other company in obscurity. Read More......

Make that 365 electoral votes for the winner

Obama won an electoral vote in Nebraska. Only Maine and Nebraska apportion electoral votes by Congressional District. And, this is the first time it's happened. Read More......

Protest in Chicago tonight against Dobson and Prop 8

From my friend Wayne Besen:

James Dobson's Induction Into the Radio Hall of Fame Is Outrageous and Offensive

Contact: Wayne Besen, Wbesen@truthwinsout.org.

CHICAGO - Focus on the Family's James Dobson spent $800,000 on Proposition 8 to stop gay people form marrying in California. Tonight, this dangerous ideologue will be inducted into the Museum of Broadcast Communication's Radio Hall of Fame in Chicago.

He will be met with a protest from outraged gay organizations at 5:30 PM this evening, November 8, outside of the Renaissance Chicago Hotel, 1 W. Wacker Drive (corner of Wacker & State).

"It is mind-blowing, that the Radio Hall of Fame would honor a primary leader of Proposition 8," said Wayne Besen, Executive Director of Truth Wins Out. "Dobson put his Media Empire and vast amounts of money into the service of denying equal marriage rights for same-sex couples. And, the Radio Hall of Fame reacts disgracefully by giving this demagogue a trophy."

"If Dobson had helped organize and fund a campaign to take away African American voting rights, he would be properly shunned as a hater,'" said Bob Schwartz of the Gay Liberation Network. "However, because the Museum of Broadcast Communications has chosen instead to honor Dobson, they apparently think it's okay to promote those who publicly organize discrimination against gays."

It is ironic that the Museum will be honoring a promoter of hate like Dobson, while at the same time many mourn the recent passing of journalistic legend Studs Turkel, whom the Museum never got around to honoring.

The campaign against the honoring of Dobson was initiated by the Gay Liberation Network (www.GayLiberation.net) and Truth Wins Out (www.TruthWinsOut.com and www.DumpDobson.com), and endorsed by dozens of groups and individuals signing on to a series of full-page protest signature advertisements.

DUMP DOBSON.com

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Franken down by only 221 votes in Minnesota Senate race.

Incumbent Senator Norm Coleman's lead has shrunk to 221 votes as the towns and cities report final numbers. From the Star-Tribune:

A tiny town in the Democratic stronghold of Minnesota's Iron Range emerged Friday as the latest battleground over the state's disputed U.S. Senate race.

Democrat Al Franken gained 100 votes there between election night and when results were officially tallied on Thursday.

Adding to the intrigue -- and suspicion in Sen. Norm Coleman's camp: The time stamp on the official tape printed out by a ballot machine in the precinct in question carried a date of Nov. 2, two days before the election.

Election officials in Mountain Iron, Minn., and St. Louis County said Friday they are confident the final vote totals were correct. They chalked up the time-stamp discrepancy to a voting machine whose clock may have been improperly set or been running low on batteries.

In the midst of the unresolved election -- the tightest U.S. Senate race in Minnesota history, with a recount in the offing -- the Mountain Iron confusion is the latest wrinkle. The difference between Coleman and Franken, which stood at 725 votes in Coleman's favor Wednesday morning, has changed several times since then as county officials have checked results, and was 221 by Friday evening.

David Brauer, who writes Braublog at MinnPost.com, talked to the folks in Mountain Iron. No surprise, but there's not the drama and "intrigue" the Coleman campaign would like to insinuate. Braublog also has a widget that's tracking the vote, too.

The Associated Press reports most of the "undervotes" are from areas of the state where Obama won. ("Undervotes" are on ballots where there is clear choice for president but apparently no vote recorded for the Senate race):

An Associated Press analysis of votes in the tight, still-to-be decided race for a U.S. Senate seat in Minnesota shows that most ballots lacking a recorded choice in the election were cast in counties won by Democrat Barack Obama.

The finding could have implications for Republican Sen. Norm Coleman and Democrat Al Franken, who are headed for a recount separated by the thinnest of margins — a couple of hundred votes, or about 0.01 percent.

About 25,000 ballots statewide carried votes for president but not for the Senate race. Although some voters might have intentionally bypassed the race, others might have mismarked their ballot, or optical scanning machines might have misread them.

A recount due to begin Nov. 19 will use manual inspection to detect such ballots.

This one is far from over.

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Flashback: Mormons give $500,000 of total $600,000 anti-gay budget in Alaska in 1998

Of the $600,000 anti-gay bigots had in hand to try to ban gay marriage in Alaska in October 1998, $500,000 came from one big lump sum donation from the Mormon Church. That's 83% of the entire hateful campaign financed by the Mormon Church. In California, one study showed that 77% of the donations to anti-gay advocates came from Mormons (it was after those donations flew in that the pro-gay side suddenly started to lose).

The Mormon Church has a long history of trying to forcefully impose its will, its religion, on others. Over the next few weeks and months, we're going to educate America about those efforts. Read More......

Obama delivers first radio address as president-elect

Obama delivered his first radio address as president-elect today. George Bush also delivered his weekly addressed and promised the transition would be "seamless." You know, I always hated linking to that whitehouse.gov website. That's going to change.

The audio of Obama's address is here. I am also providing the full transcript:

On Tuesday, Americans stood in lines that stretched around schools and churches in numbers this nation has never seen. It didn’t matter who they were or where they came from; what they looked like or what party they belonged to – they came out and cast their ballot because they believed that in this country, our destiny is not written for us, but by us. We should all take pride in the fact that we once again displayed for the world the power of our democracy, and reaffirmed the great American ideal that this is a nation where anything is possible.

This week, I spoke with President Bush, who graciously offered his full support and assistance in this period of transition. Michelle and I look forward to meeting with him and the First Lady on Monday to begin that process. This speaks to a fundamental recognition that here in America we can compete vigorously in elections and challenge each other’s ideas, yet come together in service of a common purpose once the voting is done. And that is particularly important at a moment when we face the most serious challenges of our lifetime.

Yesterday, we woke to more sobering news about the state of our economy. The 240,000 jobs lost in October marks the 10th consecutive month that our economy has shed jobs. In total, we’ve lost nearly 1.2 million jobs this year, and more than 10 million Americans are now unemployed. Tens of millions of families are struggling to figure out how to pay the bills and stay in their homes. Their stories are an urgent reminder that we are facing the greatest economic challenge of our lifetime, and we must act swiftly to resolve them.

In the wake of these disturbing reports, I met with members of my Transition Economic Advisory Board, who will help guide the work of my transition team in developing a strong set of policies to respond to this crisis. While we must recognize that we only have one President at a time and that President Bush is the leader of our government, I want to ensure that we hit the ground running on January 20th because we don’t have a moment to lose.

We discussed several of the most immediate challenges facing our economy and key priorities on which to focus in the days and weeks ahead to ease the credit crisis, help hardworking families, and restore growth and prosperity.

First, we need a rescue plan for the middle class that invests in immediate efforts to create jobs and provides relief to families that are watching their paychecks shrink and their life savings disappear.

Then, we’ll address the spreading impact of the financial crisis on other sectors of our economy, and ensure that the rescue plan that passed Congress is working to stabilize financial markets while protecting taxpayers, helping homeowners, and not unduly rewarding the management of financial firms that are receiving government assistance.

Finally, we will move forward with a set of policies that will grow our middle-class and strengthen our economy in the long-term. We can’t afford to wait on moving forward on the key priorities that I identified during the campaign, including clean energy, health care, education and tax relief for middle class families.

Let me close by saying I do not underestimate the enormity of the task that lies ahead. We’ve taken some major actions to date, and we will need further actions during this transition and subsequent months. Some of those choices will be difficult, but America is a strong and resilient country. I know that we will succeed if we put aside partisanship and work together as one nation. And that is what I intend to do.

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Palin calls Republican campaign staffers "mean-spirited," "immature," "unprofessional," and "jerks"

Finally, Sarah Palin got something right. She called the GOP operatives what they are:

“So, no, I think that if there are allegations based on questions or comments that I made in debate prep about Nafta, and about the continent versus the country when we talk about Africa there, then those were taken out of context,” Ms. Palin said. “And that’s cruel and it’s mean-spirited, it’s immature, it’s unprofessional, and those guys are jerks, if they came away with it taking things out of context and then tried to spread something on national news. It is not fair and not right.”

I can think of a few other attributes for Republicans, but Sarah hit a few key ones.

I'm intrigued by the strong defense of Palin by Randy Scheunemann, who either did or didn't get fired in the last week of the campaign:

Randy Scheunemann — a foreign policy adviser to the campaign who some factions claimed was fired in the final week, but others said had not been — said that some of the claims about her were false, and ultimately damaging to Mr. McCain.

“The people that are spreading these lies refuse to go on the record,” Mr. Scheunemann said. “They obviously have no loyalty to John McCain or to the person John McCain chose to be his vice president.”

Throughout the campaign, Scheunemann proved to be one of the biggest dirt-bags on the McCain team. He also emerged as Palin's top defender. He was supposed to be in charge of foreign policy. If he loved Palin so much, how did he let her go on the prank call with the President of France? The Palin team claims that the call was on her schedule for days. No one told the foreign policy expert? Scheunemann should have been fired for that. Read More......

Saturday Morning Open Thread

Good morning.

I think everyone needs to catch up on sleep this weekend. I know I do.

Bob Geiger has compiled some of the best editorial cartoons of the week. And, what a week it was. This week's cartoons are just terrific. Some are funny. Some are inspiring. Palin just provides unlimited fodder and it's good to see Lieberman gets smacked. Also, Chan Lowe takes a whack at the marriage fiasco in California.

Then read this week's poem, I, too, Sing America, by Langston Hughes. It says so much in not many words.

And, did I just see Ari Melber on the TODAY Show?

Let's get it started....

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MNAC Barcelona

Joelle and I escaped the rain last Sunday in Barcelona and headed over to the MNAC. The Guide du Routard says the museum has the best collection of Roman art in the world and it did not disappoint. Anyone who visits Barcelona should see the MNAC.

As a side note, Barcelona is a city that really does a fabulous job with public transport. A ten ride Metro ticket is only 7,30 euro and it goes everywhere. You can even use the Metro ticket - a standard ticket, no less - to go to and from the airport.


She is a real beauty. We just stood there and appreciated her for a while.


Plenty of families and tours for children. In general I find Europeans promote and teach culture much more than we do in America. It always impresses me how people over here appreciate and seek out culture regardless of education or social background. Culture is just part of life so it's not as distant as it can be in the US.


The martyrs...being martyred.


The MNAC has rescued many ancient paintings from small churches around the country and rebuilt them in the museum.


You don't see a pregnant Virgin every day.


Perhaps this is where the expression "serving your head on a platter" comes from.


Not many can pull off this look.


Velazquez is perhaps under-appreciated outside of Spain, but after a previous visit to the Prado, I became a convert. One of the great painters of all time. Read More......

Pilot lands after going blind

What an incredible story from the UK and well done by the RAF.

When the instruments on Jim O'Neill's four-seater Cessna aircraft became difficult to read, he assumed it was the glare of the sunlight as he flew over north England at 15,000ft. It was only when the dials blurred completely that he realised the full horror of his predicament: he was a solo pilot who had suddenly gone blind.

Struggling with the aftermath of a mid-flight stroke – which had put pressure on his optical nerve and robbed him of his sight in one eye and left him with very limited sight in the other – Mr O'Neill found himself unable to follow instructions from civilian air trafficcontrollers attempting to guide him to the nearest airstrip. Instead, an extraordinary rescue was launched when RAF staff, overhearing the emergency, offered to send a military plane to fly alongside Mr O'Neill and shepherd him in to land, issuing instructions to him over the radio.

Details of the amazing operation were revealed yesterday. Mr O'Neill, 65, a businessman with 18 years experience, was flying from Prestwick airport in Scotland to an airfield near Colchester, Essex on 31 October. At the end of the ordeal, he managed to land at RAF Linton-on-Ouse in North Yorkshire and emerged without a scratch.

Obeying orders to turn left or right and adjust his height and speed, it took seven attempts for Mr O'Neill, who runs a travel and conference booking agency, to manoeuvre his aircraft into the correct position, while a senior RAF instructor flew alongside him at a distance of just 150ft away.

Wing Commander Paul Gerrard, 42, was on a routine training sortie in a Tucano T1 turboprop plane when he received the order to come to the businessman's aid. "For me, I was just glad to help a fellow aviator in distress," said W/Cdr Gerrard. "I was just part of a team. Landing an aircraft literally blind needs someone to be right there to say 'Left a bit, right a bit, stop, down'. On the crucial final approach, even with radar assistance you need to take over visually. That's why having a fellow pilot there was so important."

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Lieberman flirting with Republicans

Do Democrats need any more evidence as to what kind of a weasel this guy is? Let Lieberman join the Republicans, then let him vote against everything he's always stood for. Not. Going. To. Happen. Not to mention, let the Republicans deal with Lieberman when he screws them too and refuses to vote the way they want.

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Thousands protested in Salt Lake City tonight

Sounds like the Mormons have created a bit of a problem for themselves.

The protest against California's Proposition 8 vote has come to Utah with a march in downtown Salt Lake City. Though the crowd started out small, police estimate it has grown to somewhere between 2,000 and 5,000 people.

They are upset that the financial support The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints gave to support the pro-Proposition 8 group. But the Church is upset it's being singled out from a large group of Prop 8 supporters.

At around 6 p.m., the rally was just getting underway at Temple Square. Salt Lake protesters call this solidarity with members of "No on Prop 8" who have marched around the Los Angeles LDS temple.

They are pointing at this faith because they say Latter-day Saints donated a majority of the money raised to push the vote through. Organizer Jacob Whipple says 77 percent of all donations for Proposition 8 came from the Church.

It seems the Mormons are now claiming they're being scapegoated and it was really the religious right's and the Catholics' fault. Sorry, but when you donate nearly 80% of the money to the anti-gay effort, and you drop in on state and state doing the same thing, dropping loads of money to promote legislative gay-bashing, then you are the problem and you are to blame.

At some point the Mormon Church needs to learn that they're not the only people with the right to free speech. They have the right to bankroll bigotry and we have the right to publicly call them on it. And we finally are. Read More......