Gallup: 48% of Americans spend more than an hour on the internet each day

Chances are, if you're reading this post, you are probably online more than an hour a day. That's considered "frequent use" by Gallup. I can safely say that I am a frequent internet user. In fact, if I wasn't online for more than an hour, I'd consider it an unusual day. In Gallup's polling, the number of Americans who spend more than an hour on the internet has reached 48% of the population:

Americans' frequent use of the Internet has almost doubled over the last five years; 48% now report using the Internet more than one hour per day compared to 26% in 2002.

Large education, income, and age gaps continue to exist in terms of Internet usage. Post-graduates, those making more than $75,000 per year, and those under age 30 are the most frequent users of the Internet, with more than 6 out of 10 in each group saying they use the Internet more than one hour per day. At the same time, the least educated, least affluent, and oldest Americans are those who least often use the Internet, with about one-third or fewer in each group saying they use the Internet more than one hour per day. Smaller, though noteworthy, gaps also exist between men and women, and the employed versus the non-working.

Gallup reports that those gaps are shrinking, too. Here's the trend line:

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Friday Orchid Blogging

This is a paphiopedilum. I'm on the road, so I don't have the exact cross, but it's bred to have long tressles, like it has. This is a first time bloom on this plant, so I'm very pleased. The trestles are about 15 inches long (they can get up to 3 feet on some plants) - if you look closely, you'll see they go to the bottom of the photo. Some think they may help bugs crawl from the ground, up the trestles, and then pollinate the plant.

Often the first time blooming, an orchid's flower is only so-so. You don't get to see how it really looks, at full potential, until the plant gets older. Next week I'll be showing you another paph that is on its second round of blooming. Last year, when it first bloomed, I hated it. This year, it's much darker, and just stunning. But that's for next week. Read More......

In case you need to hear more bad economic news, manufacturing at "lowest level since 1980"

Even more bad economic news:

U.S. manufacturing fell sharply in December and reports from abroad showed the same for plants in Europe and Asia, as businesses cut production and slashed product orders in response to the global recession.

The Institute for Supply Management's index of industrial production slipped by 3.8 percentage points in December compared with the month before, to the lowest level since 1980.

But, even more indications we shouldn't expect quick action to turn the economy around if the GOP has its way:

Republicans in Congress could stand in the way of Democratic President-elect Barack Obama's hopes of signing a massive economic stimulus plan into law right after he takes office on January 20.

The plan, aimed at easing the financial crisis, tops the agenda of the newly elected Congress due to be sworn in on Tuesday -- two weeks before Obama. Hearings in the new Congress could push a final package well into February.

One wonders just what kind of info. would the GOPers need in order to support an economic stimulus package. Perhaps, if the GOP leaders all invested with Madoff or the GOP leaders all lost their health care insurance, we'd see some action.

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The Senate is the center of the drama

What's going to cause more drama in the Senate next week?

The GOP filibuster of Al Franken?:

Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) threatened Friday to filibuster any attempt to seat Democratic Minnesota Senate candidate Al Franken next week.

The newly minted National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) chairman said he had not whipped votes in the GOP caucus, but added that he could not imagine any members defecting and seating Franken without a certificate of election.

Or the effort to keep Roland Burris out of the chamber?:

The U.S. Senate's sergeant at arms says he doesn't expect trouble when Roland Burris shows up to be sworn in as President-elect Barack Obama's successor on Tuesday.

The sergeant at arms, Terrence Gainer, said he has known Burris for years. Gainer said in a telephone interview: ''He is a good man. He plays by the rules.''

Jane Hamsher explains how the these two situations are inter-related. It's not pretty:

The Republicans have been planning to block Franken for some time, and Reid should have factored that in when he drew up his Burris game plan. Until Reid announced he'd refuse to seat Burris because he didn't have a certificate, the Dems had an argument that the Senate Republicans were just playing politics.

Now they're stuck trying to explain the double standard for Franken and Burris.

Great. The Senate is going to be the battleground. If change is going to happen, it has to get through that body. None of what's happening now bodes well for the rest of the session.

The drama should be over passing the stimulus package, considering the precarious state of our economy. This is a time for leadership, not gamesmanship. Read More......

Right wingers are still fighting against Clinton appointees

Further evidence that the GOP is stuck in the past.

In a dog bites man story, today's Washington Post lets us know that the right wingers are upset with Obama. But, the best part is that the right wingers are re-fighting the battles of the 90s. They're going after the same people they attacked ten and fifteen years ago. The country has moved on, the right wingers haven't:

To some staunch conservatives watching President Bush relinquish the reins of power to President-elect Barack Obama, a few too many ardent liberals are now crashing the gates.

Some well-known Democratic activists are advising Obama on how to steer federal agencies, including a few whom conservative Republicans fought hard to keep out of power in the Clinton administration. They include Roberta Achtenberg, a gay activist whose confirmation as an assistant housing secretary was famously held up by then-Sen. Jesse Helms (N.C.), and Bill Lann Lee, who was hotly opposed by foes of affirmative action and temporarily blocked from the government's top civil rights job.

Conservatives fear that some of these Obama transition advisers are too far left on the political spectrum and are a sign of radical policies to come.

The conservatives haven't had a new idea in years. Even their attacks on Obama are just recycled from the 90s. It's pathetic -- and equally pathetic that the Washington Post thought this was news. Read More......

Colorado's Governor has chosen the replacement for Senator Salazar

Both the Denver Post and the Rocky Mountain News are reporting that the Governor of Colorado, Bill Ritter, has chosen the replacement for Senator Salazar. From the Denver Post:

Denver Public Schools Superintendent Michael Bennet has been chosen to fill the U.S. Senate seat, sources close to the process confimed this morning.

Bennet would fill the seat after the confirmation of Ken Salazar as Interior Secretary.

Gov. Bill Ritter is expected to formally introduce Bennet as his choice on Saturday.

After an array of candidates put their names forward for selection, the choice came down to Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper or Bennet, Hickenlooper's former chief of staff. After spending a long holiday weekend in the mountains last week, Ritter began to focus on Bennet. The two men then discussed the choice on New Year's Day and the pick was solidified, according to sources close to the process.

That sounds quite dignified compared to what's been taking place in Illinois. Read More......

The Party of Lincoln is now the Party of McConnell, Coburn, DeMint and Vitter

The Republicans are gearing up to fight the Obama agenda. The key battleground will be the Senate.

Paul Krugman took a look at the Republican Party of 2008, which is still using the same tactics it has used for 40 years. But, the country is different and the GOP is basically a clique of right wing Southerners:

But America in 1993 was a very different country — not just a country that had yet to see what happens when conservatives control all three branches of government, but also a country in which Democratic control of Congress depended on the votes of Southern conservatives. Today, Republicans have taken away almost all those Southern votes — and lost the rest of the country. It was a grand ride for a while, but in the end the Southern strategy led the G.O.P. into a cul-de-sac.

Mr. Obama therefore has room to be bold. If Republicans try a 1993-style strategy of attacking him for promoting big government, they’ll learn two things: not only has the financial crisis discredited their economic theories, the racial subtext of anti-government rhetoric doesn’t play the way it used to.

The GOP Senate is controlled by obstructionist Mitch McConnell from Kentucky. Over the past few weeks, we've seen Louisiana's David Vitter (of D.C. Madam infamy) emerge as a leading voice, too.

Today's LA Times also looked at the GOP, with an eye towards the so-called moderates in the Senate. But, the moderates won't set the agenda, the hard core, right wing Southerners will:

The election results -- by depleting moderate Republican ranks -- leave the congressional GOP more dominated than ever by its more dauntless conservatives, such as Sens. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) and Tom Coburn (R-Okla.), who led the charge in the lame-duck session that killed an auto industry bailout.

Moderate Republicans worry that their party's conservative wing is not going to change its ways in response to the GOP's election drubbing.

"I would hope that the more conservative members of our caucus would take a look at these election results," Collins said. "It's difficult to make the argument that our candidates lost because they were not conservative enough."

It remains to be seen how aggressively Republicans will try to wield the filibuster threat. They have recently signaled they will fight Obama's economic recovery plan if it moves too quickly. But there are political risks if the GOP is seen as obstructionist at a time when voters are clamoring for economic relief and change.

The GOP will wield the filibuster and do everything they can to obstruct the Obama agenda. It'll be interesting to see what the "moderates" like Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe do. They really have no place in that caucus.

I've written this before, but it's worth repeating. In 2006, there were 55 GOP Senators. In 2009, there are 41 GOP Senators. They've lost 25% of their caucus -- and they're keeping the same old strategy.

So, the GOP strategy is working -- for us, not them. Read More......

Portland, Oregon swore in its gay mayor

Yesterday, Sam Adams was sworn in as the new mayor of Portland, Oregon, which is now the largest city in the U.S. to have a gay mayor:

There was a countdown at Portland's City Hall overnight, but it wasn't to ring in 2009.

About 40 people -- including the mother and partner of Sam Adams -- were on hand to sip sparkling wine and watch as the first openly gay mayor of a major U.S. city was officially sworn in at 12:01 a.m.

Adams secured the job with a big win in the primary in May. He garnered almost 60% of the vote in that multi-candidate election. Read More......

"He's a good decision-maker"

Everything you need to know about the interview conducted by the Washington Post with two of George Bush's top aides, Josh Bolten and Stephen Hadley, is summed up in this quote from Bolten:

"He's a good decision-maker," Bolten said.

Yes, the man who brought down the U.S. economy and destroyed our reputation in the world is viewed by his staff as "a good decision-maker." What's their definition of someone who makes bad decisions? So, you can read the full article, but you get the gist. This is the Bushies trying desperately to salvage their reputations. That can only happen if we ignore the facts of the past eight years. If you really want to hurl, read the last two paragraphs of the article:

Bolten said another of his goals when he took over was to try to get the country to see the likable boss he and other aides saw in private, convinced that would boost Bush's popularity. "I failed miserably," he conceded. "Maybe in the beginning of the sixth year of a presidency, that's a quixotic task. . . . But everybody who has actual personal exposure to the president, almost everybody, appreciates what a good leader he is, how smart he is and, especially, how humane he is."

Hadley invoked Bush's 2000 campaign theme in summing up the president's personal qualities. "He has got this great compassion which was not just a slogan, 'compassionate conservative.' It is who he is. It is one of the great things he brought to this office," Hadley concluded. "This is the one thing that just drives me crazy, that somehow this is an arrogant administration, an arrogant president running an arrogant policy. This guy -- one thing he is not is arrogant."

We'll see a lot of this pablum over the next couple weeks. But, we know all we need to know about George Bush. He is the worst president EVER. And, Bolten, Hadley, Cheney, Rove, Hughes, Fleischer, Bartlett...the list goes on and on...they all had a role in the worst presidency EVER. Read More......