When is the last time you saw such a CEO?

I think this guy would be locked up and sent away in the US or Europe for that matter. Read More......

Sarah Palin vs. the Turkey - the uncut version

This is the uncensored version of the video in which Sarah Palin holds a press conference while a turkey is having its head cut off, and blood drained, on camera just behind her. I know it's gross, but it's kind of like a train wreck happening before your very eyes. I don't find the video particularly graphic, but some may - be forewarned, this one has nothing blacked out or blurred.

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Obama names Gibbs as press secretary

Folks were talking about Gibbs possibly getting this job. He's got the personality for it, the press likes him - good fit.

U.S. President-elect Barack Obama announced on Saturday that close aide Robert Gibbs would be White House press secretary and Ellen Moran of women's organization Emily's List would be director of communications.

Obama said Dan Pfeiffer, who heads the Obama transition team's communications office, would serve at the White House as deputy director of communications.

"These individuals will fill essential roles, and bring a breadth and depth of experience that can help our administration advance prosperity and security for the American people," Obama said in a statement.

Gibbs, an Obama adviser since 2004, served as communications director to Obama when he was a U.S. senator from Illinois.

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Obama economic plan aims for 2.5M new jobs by 2011

Good. At this point, we need big plans and a vision. People need to think, to know, that their president is in charge and he's going to make sure everything turns out all right. The era of My Pet Goat is over.

President-elect Barack Obama promoted an economic plan Saturday he said would create 2.5 million jobs by rebuilding roads and bridges and modernizing schools while developing alternative energy sources and more efficient cars.

"These aren't just steps to pull ourselves out of this immediate crisis. These are the long-term investments in our economic future that have been ignored for far too long," Obama said in the weekly Democratic radio address.

The goal is to it quickly through Congress, with help from both parties, after Obama takes office Jan. 20. The plan, which envisions those new jobs by January 2011, is "big enough to meet the challenges we face," he said.

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Candace Gingrich pens an open letter to her big brother Newt

From Huff Post:

We know how much the right likes to play political and cultural hardball, and then turn around and accuse us of lashing out first. You give a pass to a religious group -- one that looks down upon minorities and women -- when they use their money and membership roles to roll back the rights of others, and then you label us "fascists" when we fight back. You belittle the relationships of gay and lesbian couples, and yet somehow neglect to explain who anointed you the protector of "traditional" marriage. And, of course, you've also mastered taking the foolish actions of a few people and then indicting an entire population based on those mistakes. I fail to see how any of these patterns coincide with the values of "historic Christianity" you claim to champion.

Again, nothing new here. This is just more of the blatant hypocrisy we're used to hearing.

What really worries me is that you are always willing to use LGBT Americans as political weapons to further your ambitions. That's really so '90s, Newt. In this day and age, it's embarrassing to watch you talk like that. You should be more afraid of the new political climate in America, because, there is no place for you in it.

In other words, stop being a hater, big bro.

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TNR on why we can't afford to let the auto industry fail

It's a good analysis, arguing that it is precisely because of the economic crisis we're in that we can't let the industry fail (via Krugman):

One reason for the casual support for letting GM fail is the assumption that bankruptcy would be no big deal: As USA Today editorialized recently, "Bankruptcy need not mean that the company disappears." But, while it's worked out that way for the airlines, among others, it's unlikely a GM business failure would play out in the same fashion. In order to seek so-called Chapter 11 status, a distressed company must find some way to operate while the bankruptcy court keeps creditors at bay. But GM can't build cars without parts, and it can't get parts without credit. Chapter 11 companies typically get that sort of credit from something called Debtor-in-Possession (DIP) loans. But the same Wall Street meltdown that has dragged down the economy and GM sales has also dried up the DIP money GM would need to operate.

That's why many analysts and scholars believe GM would likely end up in Chapter 7 bankruptcy, which would entail total liquidation. The company would close its doors, immediately throwing more than 100,000 people out of work. And, according to experts, the damage would spread quickly. Automobile parts suppliers in the United States rely disproportionately on GM's business to stay afloat. If GM shut down, many if not all of the suppliers would soon follow. Without parts, Chrysler, Ford, and eventually foreign-owned factories in the United States would have to cease operations. From Toledo to Tuscaloosa, the nation's?assembly lines could go silent, sending a chill through their local economies as the idled workers stopped spending money.

Restaurants, gas stations, hospitals, and then cities, counties, and states--all of them would feel pressure on their bottom lines. A study just published by the Michigan-based Center for Automotive Research (CAR) predicted that three million people would lose their jobs in the first year after such a Big Three meltdown, swelling the ranks of the unemployed by nearly one-third nationally and leading to hundreds of billions of dollars in lost income. The Midwest would feel the effects disproportionately, but the effect would reach into every community with a parts supplier or factory--and, to a lesser extent, into every town and city with a dealership. In short, virtually every community in the country would be touched....

[T]he economists and industry analysts I tracked down this week vouched for CAR's integrity and suggested the group's estimate was in the right ballpark. Susan Helper, an economist at Case Western University and a specialist on the automobile industry, told me her rough calculations suggest the most optimistic outcome would be "just" half a million jobs lost--and that's only if the failures are contained to GM. But she expects much worse, given the likely spillover effects: Her best estimate is that between 1.5 and two million jobs would be lost.

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Move aside Michael Deaver, Sarah Palin is in the building

She's the king of the world, damn it. Listen to her spokesman. And then tell yourself that this rank amateur was almost president.

"Tomorrow, Governor Palin could do an interview with any news media on the planet," said her spokesman, Bill McAllister. "Tomorrow, she could probably sign any one of a dozen book deals. She could start talking to people about a documentary or a movie on her life. That's the level we are at here."

"Barbara Walters called me. George Stephanopoulos called me," McAllister said. "I've had multiple conversations with producers for Oprah, Letterman, Leno and 'The Daily Show.'"

Oh my God, it's like listening to a teenage girl ("And then, he looked at me, and, like, I know he liked me cuz, you know, he kind of touched my arm and said 'hey.' He didn't say hey to you, he said hey to me, oh my God, OH MY GOD, OMG!").

Giddy does not become a potential future leader of the free world. You're not the king of world just because Barbara Walters wants to interview you. She wants to interview mass murderers too. The utter arrogance and naivete. And then to admit it publicly. Childish, immature, amateur, pathetic. And this is the future of the Republican party? Bring her on. Read More......

Could Sally Quinn be any more painful?

This woman is unbearable. Sally Quinn is the self-anointed authority on D.C. society, such as it is. She's really just famous for being Sally Quinn. Her tripe is regularly printed in the Washington Post. Earlier this week I saw her on one of the news shows talking about the important issue of the day: Where the Obama girls were going to school.

Today, Quinn takes her painfulness to a new level of absurdity in an Post op-ed:

Along with the speculation on what kind of puppy Sasha and Malia will choose, where the kids will go to school (it's Sidwell Friends), and, oh yes, who will be appointed to the White House staff and the Cabinet, the matter of where the Obamas will choose to worship is drawing a lot of interest in Washington and elsewhere.

Really? Maybe in Sally Quinn's weird little world, it matters. But no one else cares. I know a lot of people in D.C. and no one has ever mentioned Obama's choice of church. Clearly, I don't know the "right" people. Because people I know are worried about mundane issues like the economy, the war, global warming...

Quinn's op-ed gets worse. Yes, she has the audacity to make a recommendation of a church for the Obama family. She is insufferable.

The Washington Post compounded the problem by printing Quinn's pablum. It's pathetic. But, this guarantees Quinn another round of t.v. appearances to talk about this most important issue.

D.C.'s reputation is bad enough. Sally Quinn, with an assist from the Washington Post, just makes it worse. Read More......

After another day of recounting ballots, the margin between Franken and Coleman gets even tighter

After three days of recounting ballots in Minnesota, Al Franken has closed the gap even further. After the initial canvass, Norm Coleman was up by 215 votes.

Based on my math, using the "official" Minnesota Secretary of State's numbers, Al Franken has picked now picked up 100 votes since the recount started. That would drop Coleman's lead to 115 votes, with 60.86% of ballots recounted. These are votes, which were reported to the Secretary of State's office by 8:00 PM Central time last night.

The Star-Tribune, which has its own system of tracking the recount, has the Coleman lead at 120 votes.

This is going to come down to the challenged ballots, which will be reviewed in mid-December by a five-member panel. According to the Sec. of State site, the Coleman campaign has challenged 747 ballots. Franken has challenged 778.

It's just amazing how close this race is. Not that I think Joe Lieberman has any influence on anyone except the Senate Democrats, but one wonders if any votes shifted after Lieberman strongly defended Coleman's record on Iraq-related investigations in mid-October. Harry Reid might have this 59th vote sown up absent Lieberman's back-stabbing of the Democratic candidate. Just a thought.

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Saturday Morning Open Thread

Good morning.

Check out the week's best editorial cartoons as compiled by Bob Geiger. Hysterical. Palin is an unending source of material. This week, Joe Lieberman got plenty of attention -- as did the Senate Democrats who completely capitulated. Also, here's a tip: Bookmark Bob's site, particularly if you want to know what's going on the U.S. Senate. His blog is a font of key information. Case in point: The Obama resignation letter to Dick Cheney from the Congressional Record.

This week's poem is "Separation" by W.S. Merwin. Only 19 words, but wow. You feel it.

Start threading the news.... Read More......

Jimmy Carter refused entry into Zimbabwe

They sure don't make them like Jimmy Carter anymore. He's 84 and still traveling the world for humanitarian missions. Can you imagine someone like Bush lifting a finger to help anyone below a CEO or oil dictator after he leaves the White House? I give credit to Kofi Annan as well who never seemed to give a damn about Zimbabwe when he was at the UN, perhaps constrained by the African infighting at the UN (and AU) and previous refusal to criticize a fellow African leader regardless of their brutality or corruption. For now, that's all history and it's a welcome change to see on the ground attempts to force the issue on a global scale.

Kofi Annan and Carter announced earlier in the week that regardless of the Mugabe warnings, they would travel to Zimbabwe. Zim has experienced years of hunger courtesy of incompetence and cronyism and now the people are facing an outbreak of cholera. The Thabo Mbeki plan of coddling Robert Mugabe has been about as successful as Bush's plan to coddle Wall Street except in the case of Zim, people are dying.

Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter says he and others have been refused entry to Zimbabwe for a humanitarian mission.

Carter says he and other members of The Elders group were informed Friday night by former South African President Thabo Mbeki that efforts to secure travel visas had failed.

The Elders group was formed by Nelson Mandela and includes former U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan and Mandela's wife Graca Machel, an international advocate for women's and children's rights.

Thabo Mbeki really needs to get out of the way before more people die. Read More......

Two more banks go down

And Phil Gramm still thinks he is right. Nope, nothing wrong with his economic theories or actions at all. Just a stab in the dark here but I'm willing to gamble and say that even if this recession turns out to be the worst since the Great Depression, he still won't admit failure. AP:

Federal regulators on Friday shut down two big thrifts based in Southern California, saying they fell victim to the acute distress in the housing market in that state.

The failures of Downey Savings and Loan Association, based in Newport Beach, and PFF Bank & Trust of Pomona brought the number of U.S. bank failures this year to 22.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. was appointed receiver of the two thrifts. U.S. Bank, based in Minneapolis, acquired all the deposits of both.

Downey, the 23rd-largest U.S. savings and loan, had assets of $12.8 billion and deposits of $9.7 billion as of Sept. 30. PFF, the 38th-largest, had assets of $3.7 billion and $2.4 billion in deposits.

Also Friday, Georgia regulators shut down The Community Bank, a small bank in Loganville, Ga. The FDIC was made receiver of the bank, which had $681 million in assets and $611.4 million in deposits as of Oct. 17. The FDIC said all the bank's deposits and about $84.4 million of its assets will be acquired by Bank of Essex, of Tappahannock, Va. Its four branches will reopen Monday as offices of Bank of Essex.

The Office of Thrift Supervision, the federal regulator for the two California thrifts, said they both suffered mounting losses since last year. Downey's business focused on nontraditional, high-risk home mortgages such as payment-option and adjustable-rate loans.

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Huge (1.2 inches) single-celled organism discovered

Not politics, just cool:

Slowly rolling across the ocean floor, a humble single-celled creature is poised to revolutionize our understanding of how complex life evolved on Earth.

A distant relative of microscopic amoebas, the grape-sized Gromia sphaerica was discovered once before, lying motionless at the bottom of the Arabian Sea. But when Mikhail Matz of the University of Texas at Austin and a group of researchers stumbled across a group of G. sphaerica off the coast of the Bahamas, the creatures were leaving trails behind them up to 50 centimeters (20 inches) long in the mud.

The trouble is, single-celled critters aren't supposed to be able to leave trails. The oldest fossils of animal trails, called 'trace fossils', date to around 580 million years ago, and paleontologists always figured they must have been made by multicellular animals with complex, symmetrical bodies.

But G. sphaerica's traces are the spitting image of the old, Precambrian fossils; two small ridges line the outside of the trail, and one thin bump runs down the middle.

At up to three centimeters (1.2 inches) in diameter, they're also enormous compared to most of their microscopic cousins.

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The cover of TIME, circa 2004

Just came upon this, apparently folks discovered it this past September (that'll teach me not to check my ThinkProgress). Freaky. Read More......