BREAKING: Obama picks AZ Gov. Janet Napolitano to head Homeland Security

She's no Sarah Palin, but I guess she'll do:

Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano (D) has been chosen to serve as secretary of the vast and troubled Department of Homeland Security for President-elect Obama, Democratic officials said. Napolitano is a border governor who will now be responsible for immigration policy and border security, which are part of Homeland Security’s myriad functions.

Napolitano brings law-and-order experience from her stint as the Grand Canyon State’s first female attorney general. One of the nation’s most prominent female elected officials, she made frequent appearances on behalf of Barack Obama during the campaign. She was re-elected to a second four-year term in 2006.

Transition insiders have long expected that she would be offered a Cabinet slot, although she had also been mentioned for other posts, including attorney general.

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Today eHarmony, tomorrow the world

About time.

Online dating service eHarmony is adding another personality trait to its 29 dimensions of computability.

The California-based company will begin providing same-sex matches under as part of a settlement with New Jersey's Civil Rights Division.

Garden State resident Eric McKinley filed a complaint against the online matchmaker in 2005.

Under terms of the settlement, the company can create a new or differently named Web site for same-sex singles. The company can also post a disclaimer saying its compatibility-based matching system was developed from research of married heterosexual couples.

Yeah, the separate-but-equal thing is a bit creepy. But still, it's progress. Read the rest of this post...

MoDo likes Hillary for State

Maureen Dowd:

One person who famously opposed Hillary’s presidential bid thinks she’d make a great secretary of state.

“She’s smart and tough, a lot better than any of the old hacks like Holbrooke, Albright, etc.,” says David Geffen. “Barack Obama is going to run policy, and Hillary will be an effective communicator. It also takes Bill out of the game. It completely turns him into an ally — and probably a help to both of them. I think Obama is very smart to get as many smart people into the room as he can, to bring in Rahm and keep Lieberman and get Hillary into the cabinet. It brings an enormous amount of good will his way, and he’s going to need every ounce of it, given the wars and financial catastrophe America is facing. It’s getting bleaker every day. There are many, many, many more bubbles to burst.”

But why support Hillary for Madam Secretary if you don’t support her for Madam President?

“I don’t think they’re the same job at all, do you?” he replied.

I told him I agreed. Completely.

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How Oklahoma missed the Obama revolution

From the Oklahoma Gazette:

The world wept for joy; Oklahoma spat defiantly. The glory train of history pulled out of the station; Oklahoma waved goodbye and said “good riddance.” Dr. King’s dream came true; Oklahoma slumbered on, curled up on the hearth of racism and addicted to the mind-numbing power of the word “conservative.”

Whatever the rest of the country is up to, it must be wrong. If the American voter wants to send five new Democratic senators and 19 representatives to Washington, Oklahomans will respond by not electing a single Democrat running in a statewide election. If Obama wants to redraw the electoral map, turning red states blue, we will hunker down and become the reddest of all red states — the only state in which not a single county went for Obama.

The candidate that Gen. Colin Powell called “transformational” did not transform the Sooners — he made us even more recalcitrant. The opportunity to break down old walls instead of propping them up again passed us by. The chance to prove that race has nothing to do with it passed us by. The chance to support the next generation of young people, born again to a passion for politics, passed us by.

While almost everyone in the world celebrated this stunning about-face in the image of our tarnished nation, the majority of Okies proved once again that nothing has to make sense to make us proud, and God must find something endearing about ignorance....

Standing in line to vote, I met an elderly black woman who had her eyes on the prize. She said, “Rosa Parks sat down so that Martin Luther King Jr. could walk. Martin walked so that Obama could run. Obama ran so that our children could fly.”

Meanwhile, back at the red-dirt ranch, Oklahoma fell flat on its face. We are on the wrong side of history again, and we’re damn proud of it.

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Bush snubbed at G-20 summit

All the "pull my finger" jokes must have gotten old.

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Meet the newest member of the AMERICAblog team

Joe got a dog. His name is Petey. He's freaking adorable. Joe adopted him from the Washington Humane Society this afternoon. Like Boomer, who passed away last week, Petey is a cocker spaniel. And let me tell you, the dog is sweet. He's a tad protective at times - is still doing the bark at strangers thing - but he's just a very sweet, mild-mannered, affectionate dog. I decided to film the trip to pick up Petey today, and created a little video. For you dog lovers, enjoy - for the rest of you, sorry. :-)

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Christianists stymied HIV research

Yet another reason why we should thank God that these self-important neanderthals with the intellectual curiosity of Sarah Palin are finally out of power. There is a price to letting under-educated luddites with delusions of grandeur in the halls of power. From the Financial Times:

Important US research to reduce HIV infection may have been prevented in recent years because scientists have censored their funding requests in response to political controversy, according to a study published on Tuesday.

Writing in PLoS Medicine, the academic journal, Joanna Kempner from Rutgers University identified a “chilling effect” on researchers seeking grants from the government-backed National Institutes of Health after their work was questioned by Republican lawmakers and Christian groups.

The findings suggest politics influence scientists’ willingness to conduct research, and raise warnings at a time of continued sensitivity over medical research topics from sexual behaviour to stem cells.

Among 82 researchers polled by Ms Kempner, who had received money from the NIH, almost a quarter had dropped or reframed studies around sexual behaviour they judged to be politically sensitive, and four had made career changes and left academia as a result of the controversy.

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Why blogs matter

From the comments, GVgal writes:

As a 42 year old mom who can only shake my head in awe as I watch my 12-year old navigate through the internet and sundry other electronic gizmos, THANK YOU for a quick tutorial. I'm an avid reader of the blogs but clueless about so much - what the hell is twitter? threads?

I want to add my thanks for all you do as well - before the election I was on the internet probably five hours each day (we don't have TV) and I get the bulk of my news from the net. Because of you and Daily Kos and MyDD and others, this past election cycle I gave more money to more candidates, volunteered more time with our county Dem party, and even found out that Obama was going to be in Reno in time to get up (with my daughter) at 5 in the morning on a Saturday to see him, which was a once-in-a-lifetime experience. You are the best - and, I truly believe, the reason that all the Republican smears didn't work this time.

Feel free to click through and explain what Twitter is :-) Read the rest of this post...

The Big Auto blame game

The unions have been trying to change, perhaps they could do a bit more, though I don't see much of an effort by management other than finger pointing. If any bailout ever does happen GM is going to have to clean house starting at the top. They overplayed their hand with the help of people like Dingell (D-GM) and are on the verge of total failure due to gambling with their future and relying on gas guzzlers. Management and the GOP are all too happy about having everyone on minimum wage without benefits but then they'll start crying about no one having money to buy anything. David Horsey of the Seattle PI. Read the rest of this post...

Someone isn't happy about Obama making nice with Hillary

Over at Huff Post, David Bromwich argues that Obama shouldn't be so fast to make up with Hillary after everything she did to him during the primaries. First his take, then mine:

It is said that Barack Obama has read Doris Kearns Goodwin's book, Team of Rivals, about the war cabinet of Abraham Lincoln. It is said Obama wants to constitute his cabinet out of former rivals because he liked the book and he models himself on Lincoln.

Implausible as it sounds, this is the best explanation anyone has given of the offer of the position of secretary of state to Hillary Clinton. Lincoln took William Seward at State, and Seward was a rival indeed, but he had fought for Lincoln with ferocious loyalty and all his eloquence throughout the campaign, and he put his considerable vote-getting power at Lincoln's disposal. What can be said for Hillary Clinton? She fought against Obama until the last possible moment, and on the way exploited, for the purpose of discrediting him, most of the devices the Republicans would later tap in the general election. She said Obama had not shown himself fit to be commander-in-chief. She pretended not to know for sure whether or not he was a Muslim.

Team of Rivals is a pleasant work of popular history, only harmful to the extent that you weave fantasies around it. Anyone who cares about Obama's fortunes after his first large public mistake (for even to offer Clinton the position was a mistake) should close his copy of Goodwin and open the actual words of Hillary Clinton on Iraq, and the things Barack Obama said about those words.

I just don't buy it. And I say this as someone who was rather tough on Hillary during the primaries (well, that is, after being one of her top defenders in the blogosphere). It was a primary, things get said, things get done, you get over it. Hillary was vicious at times, and we were vicious back at her. Yeah, and so what.

Hillary's comportment during the primaries, as a primary contender, is a far cry from what Joe Lieberman did in actually endorsing the GOP candidate. When you are running for office you are granted a certain degree of latitude in how nasty you can be against your fellow primary contenders. Yes, we get pissed at you at the time, we strike back just as hard, but then we get over it. But running against, and criticizing, fellow Dems in a primary is not the same thing as joining with the enemy after the primaries are over.

I liked Hillary and Bill before the heat of the primaries, and I'm starting to like them all over again. I really believe Hillary would make a fantastic Secretary of State, and her husband's international ties would only benefit the Obama administration. If anyone can fix America's tattered image in the world, it's President Obama aided by a tag-team of Clintons. And I really am serious. I think this could be an incredible opportunity for America.

Comment on this post here: Comments. Read the rest of this post...

Massive privacy breach leads to extortion over medical records

Wow. This company has records on 15% of the entire US population - and those records now appear to be in the hands of criminals.

Corporate custodians of confidential medical data should be closely monitoring events connected to a nightmarish computer security breach in the St. Louis region.

Express Scripts is one of the nation's largest pharmacy benefits managers. The company, with headquarters in St. Louis County, handles approximately 500 million prescriptions per year for 50 million workers at 1,600 American companies. Early in October, it received an extortion letter, the details of which it released on Nov. 6.

The letter included personal information on about 75 Express Scripts clients — Social Security numbers, dates of birth and, in some cases, information about prescription medications. Whoever sent the letter demanded money from the company — the amount has not been disclosed — and threatened to use the Internet to reveal personal and medical information about millions of people if the demands were not met.

Last week, the criminal activity expanded: Express Scripts said that individual clients had received extortion letters directly.

(H/t to reader Perry.) Read the rest of this post...

Conservative writer Kathleen Parker says the religious right is killing the Republican party

A real tour de force here. You may recall that Parker was one of the first, and only, conservatives to come out an admit that Sarah Palin was an embarrassment. Here she takes on quite possible the GOP's biggest sacred cow, the religious right. She calls it "armband religion" - which means, I think, wearing your religion on your sleeve (but I can't seem to throw off the feeling that she meant a bit of a fascism allusion here as well). This is a hugely important piece - a must read. Here's an excerpt:

As Republicans sort out the reasons for their defeat, they likely will overlook or dismiss the gorilla in the pulpit.

Three little letters, great big problem: G-O-D.

I'm bathing in holy water as I type.

To be more specific, the evangelical, right-wing, oogedy-boogedy branch of the GOP is what ails the erstwhile conservative party and will continue to afflict and marginalize its constituents if reckoning doesn't soon cometh.

Simply put: Armband religion is killing the Republican Party. And, the truth -- as long as we're setting ourselves free -- is that if one were to eavesdrop on private conversations among the party intelligentsia, one would hear precisely that....

Which is to say, the GOP has surrendered its high ground to its lowest brows. In the process, the party has alienated its non-base constituents, including other people of faith (those who prefer a more private approach to worship), as well as secularists and conservative-leaning Democrats who otherwise might be tempted to cross the aisle....

Religious conservatives become defensive at any suggestion that they've had something to do with the GOP's erosion. And, though the recent Democratic sweep can be attributed in large part to a referendum on Bush and the failing economy, three long-term trends identified by Emory University's Alan Abramowitz have been devastating to the Republican Party: increasing racial diversity, declining marriage rates and changes in religious beliefs.

Suffice it to say, the Republican Party is largely comprised of white, married Christians. Anyone watching the two conventions last summer can't have missed the stark differences: One party was brimming with energy, youth and diversity; the other felt like an annual Depends sales meeting.

With the exception of Miss Alaska, of course.

Even Sarah Palin has blamed Bush policies for the GOP loss. She's not entirely wrong, but she's also part of the problem. Her recent conjecture about whether to run for president in 2012 (does anyone really doubt she will?) speaks for itself:

"I'm like, okay, God, if there is an open door for me somewhere, this is what I always pray, I'm like, don't let me miss the open door. Show me where the open door is.... And if there is an open door in (20)12 or four years later, and if it's something that is going to be good for my family, for my state, for my nation, an opportunity for me, then I'll plow through that door."

Let's do pray that God shows Alaska's governor the door....

Given those facts, the future of the GOP looks dim and dimmer if it stays the present course. Either the Republican Party needs a new base -- or the nation may need a new party.

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Daschle to be HHS secretary

No links yet. Roll Call doesn't provide their content for free, so no linky for Roll Call. Read the rest of this post...

It's now way easier to post a comment on our blog

What are "comments"?

Blog "comments" are a way for you, or any reader, to publicly join in a blog community (anonymously, if you like). You'll notice that under each title on this page there's a button that says "comments." If you click that button, and let the page fully load, it will take you to a box just under the post, entitled "Add New Comment," in which you can type your thoughts about our post. The box looks like this:



When you finish, your comment will be posted publicly in a long thread of other public comments from our readers. You can even get into a back and forth discussion with other readers, and follow that discussion as it threads back and forth (like an outline).

What should your comment say? Anything. Do you agree, disagree, or have something totally unrelated to say or report - maybe you've seen a good article somewhere else that we all should know about, fast-breaking news, etc). Your comments will appear publicly on our site, just beneath our post, along with those of our other visitors. I've tweaked the settings so that you don't need to register any longer, you can just make up a pseudonym (or your real name if you like), enter your email address, and comment away.

Give it a try. Use this post as a test comment, click the comments button and write anything - write 'test' if you're not feeling particularly inspired. This is your chance to test what a blog "comment" is, and to see how easy it really is to be published. Good luck, JOHN

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South Park creators to write Broadway musical lampooning Mormons

Mormons have now become a cultural joke as a result of their overbearing intervention into politics. Way to go! They went from an obscure, "misunderstood" religion that most people had heard of but didn't know much about, to one of the most depised groups in America that is now the butt of everyone's jokes! How's that religious imperialism going for you guys? From the Independent:

They've tried noisy protests, consumer boycotts, and the odd act of minor terrorism. Now supporters of gay marriage have unveiled a new weapon in their war against the Mormon Church: satire.

The creators of the cartoon South Park, Trey Parker and Matt Stone, are planning to stage a Broadway musical based on the lives and (many) loves of typical members of the Church of the Latter Day Saints.

It will be co-written by the composer Robert Lopez, who wrote Avenue Q, the award-winning musical which sends-up another all-American institution, Sesame Street.

Cheyenne Jackson, an openly-gay Broadway star who appeared in the film United 93, said this week that he has agreed to play the lead role, a Mormon missionary, in the show, which is currently being work-shopped and is slated to open in 2009.

And who can forget South Park's very special Mormon episode. Read the rest of this post...

AIG paying $3 million to executives who were fired

Amazing that AIG does not yet get it. It's time to use the power that the government has over there and clean house. The excuse from AIG is that this was deferred compensation that was previously earned. Um, yeah, but that previously earned revenue has been shown to be complete rubbish which is why there's a massive bailout at AIG. If Congress has its way they will call another committee, roll in the TV cameras and then do nothing other than congratulate themselves for the show so to be fair to AIG, they're not the only ones who don't get it.

American International Group, the insurer getting a $152 billion federal bailout, in a regulatory filing late on Tuesday disclosed it would pay roughly $3 million to several executives under deferred compensation plans that are being terminated.

AIG said last week that it would terminate plans totaling $503 million in deferred compensation because it did not want to provide an incentive to employees to quit the company.

The additional disclosure follows New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo's writing to the insurer on Tuesday to ask for information on any bonuses or salary raises for 2008.

You see, we only know this because Cuomo pushed the issue instead of playing dumb and leaving it all to Paulson. Read the rest of this post...

Franken-Coleman recount starts today: “The scoreboard reads 0-0 with 2.9 million to go.”

Today, in Minnesota, the recount begins in the Senate race. MinnPost.com has an excellent piece explaining the current situation and what will happen over the next several days. The recount will determine the winner:

“We do not know the winner . . . until the completion of the process,” [Secretary of State Mark] Ritchie said.

The Al Franken side, 215 votes behind in the tally of voting machines, countered with this: “The only person who has declared Norm Coleman the winner of anything is Norm Coleman,” said spokesman Andy Barr.

Perhaps it was Franken recount lawyer Marc Elias who put it most succinctly for those of you scoring at home: “The scoreboard reads 0-0 with 2.9 million to go.”

Recount starts at 40 sites, then adds 66 more

From Caledonia to Crystal, from Stillwater to Grand Rapids and at 40 sites in between beginning at 8 a.m. Wednesday, the recount starts ticking. In the following days, another 66 sites will be in play.

The secretary of state’s office will be posting results on its website at 8 p.m. after each day’s recount, and that will allow political junkies to track the tally of each hand-counted vote and compare it with previously reported election-machine votes from a specific precinct, said Deputy Secretary of State Jim Gelbmann.

Wednesday or Thursday night, staring at the results might not teach you much. But Gelbmann allowed that after a handful of days of recounting, “You’re going to start seeing trends of who’s picking up the most votes,” if anyone.

Game on.

And, again, what's Joe Lieberman doing to help his fellow Democrat, Al Franken? During the campaign, Lieberman was helping Coleman. Just seems like the Democratic Senators should make sure all the Democratic Senators are helping their candidates before they ask the rest of us to pitch in.

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Wednesday Morning Open Thread

Good morning.

There's a lot going on out there. It's freezing in DC today. 27 degrees and windy. But, I saw that it will be 70 in Denver.

So, Ted Stevens is gone. Congrats to Mark Begich. I met the Senator-election this summer and he did a quick video for us:


We're all waiting to see what Joe Lieberman is going to do to help Al Franken with the recount and Jim Martin with the runoff. We're waiting.

And, I am so over the media's obsession with where the Obama girls are going to school. NBC even brought in the incredibly painful Sally Quinn, who views herself as the queen of all things DC, to give her insight. Ugh. Leave the kids alone.

Okay...now let's get started....

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Want to enjoy some fresh air at a national park? Bush doesn't think so

Perhaps Bush is worried that he's not as unpopular as he could be. You need to have goals and who wants to be the first loser when you can be number one? Just imagine when we have an EPA that actually cares about the environment and not what's best for business?

The Environmental Protection Agency is finalizing new air-quality rules that would make it easier to build coal-fired power plants, oil refineries and other major polluters near national parks and wilderness areas, even though half of the EPA's 10 regional administrators formally dissented from the decision and four others criticized the move in writing.

Documents obtained by The Washington Post show that the administration's push to weaken Clean Air Act protections for "Class 1 areas" nationwide has sparked fierce resistance from senior agency officials. All but two of the regional administrators objecting to the proposed rule are political appointees.

The proposal would change the practice of measuring pollution levels near national parks, which is currently done over three-hour and 24-hour increments to capture emission spikes during periods of peak energy demand; instead, the levels would be averaged over a year. Under this system, spikes in pollution would no longer violate the law.

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Congress should start taking notes and learn from Cuomo

It's not quite made for TV and full of embarrassing questions the way some on the Oversight Committee prefer but it does seem to be getting results. Anyone in Congress who doesn't think Americans are still fuming about the rescue plan are kidding themselves. I get an earful about it every time I phone family in the US and it's not just the banks they're angry with. Congress - specifically Democrats in Congress who are failing in their job to control this bailout - are going to take the brunt of anger if they don't step up. Paulson is taking care of his friends and Congress looks silly and in a bubble as the damned thing unravels.

The New York Attorney General's office is negotiating with top Wall Street firms that received federal bailout money to forego executive bonuses this year, sources close to the attorney general told CNBC.

The efforts by New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo also may expand to include capping non-executive bonus compensation. In addition, Cuomo has not ruled out trying to recoup previous years' bonuses for top executives, sources said.

The discussions involve firms that have received money under the $700 billion Wall Street bailout fund, known as the Troubled Asset Relief Program, or TARP.

Besides Wall Street financial institutions, Cuomo has also asked insurance giant American International Group to disclose more on its executive compensation. AIG has received billions in government money under the TARP.

Cuomo is currently having discussions with Citigroup, Bank of America, Bank of New York Mellon, JP Morgan Chase, Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley, State Street and Wells Fargo.

Goldman Sachs and UBS have already dropped executive bonuses this year.

The negotiations on bonuses follow Cuomo's initial inquiry into compensation at Wall Street firms.

Efforts to curb bonuses beyond top executives could involve second tier—and possibly third tier—producers for the top firms, sources said. This could include traders, salesmen and bankers who fall below the executive level but still earn the vast majority of their income through yearly bonuses.

And the possibility of recouping bonuses from previous years could involve tens of millions of dollars.

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Bank of America CEO predicts worst ever credit card losses for industry

So the industry that sent pre-approved cards to everyone every day or the week including a friend's 2 year old daughter is in trouble? Good and serves them right. Now the people who thought this was a good idea - including the very top - ought to all be canned for such stupidity. Now I know the GOP thinks business can do no wrong but this was completely a self inflicted problem. And here I thought the big banks hired the best and brightest but they're all looking pretty stupid now.

Bank of America Chief Executive Kenneth Lewis said on Tuesday that the U.S. economy will get worse before it improves, and forecast record losses for the U.S. credit card industry.

"We, as an industry, may end up with possibly the highest credit card losses the industry has ever experienced," Lewis said.

Lewis said that in light of the ongoing financial crisis he saw a good chance of another half a percentage point rate cut at the next Federal Reserve meeting scheduled for Dec. 15-16.

Speaking to reporters, Lewis also said the largest U.S. bank will have 'fairly significant' job eliminations resulting from its takeover of Merrill Lynch in September.

Job cuts after creating an even bigger too big to fail. Go figure. Read the rest of this post...

Nearly 700,000 US children went hungry in 2007

Compassionate conservatism. Compassion for Wall Street and conservative for the poor. Even worse, this is what the religious right supports, calling into question yet again their own morality. What does this say about the wealthiest country on the planet?

Some 691,000 children went hungry in America sometime in 2007, while close to one in eight Americans struggled to feed themselves adequately even before this year's sharp economic downtown, the Agriculture Department reported Monday.

The department's annual report on food security showed that during 2007 the number of children who suffered a substantial disruption in the amount of food they typically eat was more than 50 percent above the 430,000 in 2006 and the largest figure since 716,000 in 1998.

Overall, the 36.2 million adults and children who struggled with hunger during the year was up slightly from 35.5 million in 2006. That was 12.2 percent of Americans who didn't have the money or assistance to get enough food to maintain active, healthy lives.

Almost a third of those, 11.9 million adults and children, went hungry at some point. That figure has grown by more than 40 percent since 2000. The government says these people suffered a substantial disruption in their food supply at some point and classifies them as having "very low food security." Until the government rewrote its definitions two years ago, this group was described as having "food insecurity with hunger."

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The Internet is a series of tubes

Greg reminds us of an oldy but a goodie that's particularly topical tonight.

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