Magazine covers we can believe in

(Hat tip to Ben Smith) Read the rest of this post...

Now that's "Change"

Chris earlier quoted a Republican all hot and bothered that Obama picked Bill Richardson to be in his cabinet:

Alex Conant, a spokesman for the Republican National Committee, used the Richardson pick to criticize Obama for picking numerous people with ties to Bill Clinton. "The Clinton band is getting back together," Conant said. "Nothing says change like picking the Clinton administration's energy secretary and U.N. representative to be commerce secretary."

Reader Robert just emailed me the following response:

Apparently, the GOP misunderstands the whole idea of "change." By "change," obama means bringing in people who *aren't* idiots. That's a fairly massive change right there, wouldn't you say?

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Christmas has officially been canceled

I can deal with concerns about having big political convention parties during a national disaster like a hurricane, but the suggestion that we should cancel Christmas parties in Washington because the economy is all f-d up, well, that kind of bothers me. Let's stop the silly season antics, as Obama calls them. Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus, and it's okay to have Christmas parties at Christmas, even when you have no money - that's kind of the point.

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College tuitions increasingly out of reach in US

Yet another problem that is linked to the days of easy credit. When I was in college I worked 40+ hours per week and was tired, but at least it was possible. I remember getting nervous when tuition went up to $500 per quarter, wondering how I could afford that increase. Today, the numbers are quickly moving beyond reach for many Americans. Even overseas students are opting for other countries instead of the US due to the high costs, not to mention the immigration issues. Universities haven't helped families or students by enriching the CEO-Presidents with million dollar salaries nor have they helped with shady loan programs. Easy credit is gone, so what's next?

Over all, the report found, published college tuition and fees increased 439 percent from 1982 to 2007, adjusted for inflation, while median family income rose 147 percent. Student borrowing has more than doubled in the last decade, and students from lower-income families, on average, get smaller grants from the colleges they attend than students from more affluent families.

“If we go on this way for another 25 years, we won’t have an affordable system of higher education,” said Patrick M. Callan, president of the center, a nonpartisan organization that promotes access to higher education.

“When we come out of the recession,” Mr. Callan added, “we’re really going to be in jeopardy, because the educational gap between our work force and the rest of the world will make it very hard to be competitive. Already, we’re one of the few countries where 25- to 34-year-olds are less educated than older workers.”

Although college enrollment has continued to rise in recent years, Mr. Callan said, it is not clear how long that can continue.

“The middle class has been financing it through debt,” he said. “The scenario has been that families that have a history of sending kids to college will do whatever if takes, even if that means a huge amount of debt.”

But low-income students, he said, will be less able to afford college. Already, he said, the strains are clear.

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I'm mad at Barack Obama

Barack Obama said he was going to be bipartisan. But clearly he lied. CQ hits the nail on the head:

Now that President-elect Barack Obama’s Cabinet is, by his count, half picked, the odds are fading that he’ll have more than one Republican on his team — suggesting that his campaign promise to include Republicans may have meant nothing more than the usual token appointment from the other side.

Only one Republican in his cabinet. Now, sure, Obama saved Joe Lieberman, John McCain's biggest supporter, from a certain political death. But how many Joe Lieberman's has Obama saved? Just one. Anyone else seeing a pattern here? To paraphrase CQ, the odds are fading that Obama will save more than one Joe Lieberman, more than one political enemy who was out to destroy him. (Well, okay, two if you count reaching out to Hillary, but I'm on a roll here, so let's ignore her for the moment.)

And look at Obama's position on global warming. He says it exists. That's not very bipartisan. And his position on gay rights. Obama says we should treat gays as human beings. Can you say demagogue?

And while we're at it, what about Joe Biden? Did anybody else notice how 100% of Obama's vice presidential picks have already been made, and not a single Republican name among them? All of Obama's vice presidents are Democrats. Is that change we can believe in? I say nay. If Obama were serious about bipartisanship, he would have conceded on election night and handed the country to John McCain for the next four years. Is beating your Republican opponent, and taking the job he's prepared his entire life for, anyone's definition of bipartisanship?

It might not be such an issue, except that Obama spent so much time on the campaign trail talking about his intention to have a bipartisan Cabinet and reach out to Republicans for ideas. Forget about reaching out for ideas, why not just pretend the Republicans won, that our eight year nightmare was just a dream, that we're winning in Iraq and Afghanistan, that the economy is going to grow by 4% this year rather than having been destroyed by 14 years of Republican rule, and that wishes are horses and beggars can fly.

And while we're at it, did anybody else notice that all of Obama's children are black? Not very racially bipartisan, if you ask me and CQ. Read the rest of this post...

Is this sexism or something else?

I'm annoyed with what Ed Rendell said but am not sure what he said was sexist. Discriminatory against anyone who doesn't live a "normal" American family life, but not sexist. It would come as no surprise to me if I heard the same thing said about a man or a couple (like Joelle and I) that have no kids. In fact I've heard the same here in France regarding the Paris mayor (Bertrand Delanoë) as well as the mayor of Lyon a few years ago. Neither mayor is married and neither are women. It's no shock to hear similar remarks about couples who don't have kids. Sure, they can work more and are given less slack during difficult times since they have more time to devote to work, right? (I can think of many married men who invest very little time with their family, but that doesn't enter into the story as far as I hear.) There is an enormous double standard when it comes to couples without kids versus couples with kids, straight and gay, as many of us notice especially over the holidays.

I like Campbell Brown but here I think she's wrong. Rendell's comments could just as easily be made about many other people, men and women, married and single. It's not right, but it's also not sexism. Read the rest of this post...

Lesbian on short list for Labor Secretary

We've never had an openly-gay Cabinet secretary. If not now, when? More from the WSJ:

For the rainbow cabinet of the nation’s first African American president, Mary Beth Maxwell is the perfect labor secretary you’ve probably never heard of: a gay woman, community organizer and labor leader with an adopted African American son. And this founding executive director of American Rights at Work is about to get the full-court press.

Maxwell already had the strong backing of former Rep. David Bonior, who despite repeated attempts to get his name removed from consideration continues to be on the short list of potential labor secretaries. Bonior, 63 years old, says it is time for his generation to turn over power to a new generation, and Maxwell, whose labor-backed organization pushes for expanded collective bargaining rights, is his pick.

Some labor leaders from both the AFL-CIO and Change to Win, a splinter union group led by the Service Employees International Union, back her as a consensus choice, citing her efforts on behalf of legislation to allow unionization at workplaces with the signing of cards, not secret balloting.

Appointing Maxwell is also a smart way for the Obama administration to circumvent rumblings in the gay community to repeal "Don't Ask Don't Tell" in the opening months of Obama's first term, a move some think might prove a bit too aggressive for a new administration that's supposed to be focusing on the economy. A gay Labor Secretary is not the equivalent of solving the gays in the military problem, but it is one hell of a step forward for civil rights and "change," and it's one hell of a comeback to anyone who tries to claim that Obama isn't coming through on his support for the entire civil rights community. Read the rest of this post...

Chrysler exec predicts "depression" if we don't bail him out

Not the kind of talk I like to hear when I'm getting ready to hand $30 billion dollars to someone for free. That sounds kind of like a threat.

A top Chrysler executive warned Wednesday that a carmaker collapse could send the economy spiraling into a depression, while the United Auto Workers agreed to new concessions for their companies.

Jim Press, Chrysler's vice chairman, said the U.S. automakers were "down to months left," as industry officials ratcheted up a fierce lobbying push to persuade Congress to approve as much as $34 billion in emergency aid.

"We're on the brink with the U.S. auto manufacturing industry," Press told The Associated Press in an interview. "If we have a catastrophic failure of one of these car companies, in this tender environment for the economy, it's a huge blow. It could trigger a depression."

Not to mention, consumers, and the markets, really doesn't need to hear people throwing the d-word around. I suspect we have no choice but to bail Detroit out, but if we don't do it right we're going to be bailing them out again and again and again every 3 to 6 months (think never-ending Iraq war supplementals). Read the rest of this post...

Merrill Lynch will still offer bonuses after losing billions

Why the hell are they giving out any bonuses after their failure? How does a company wipe away $20 billion and be required to be bought out or possibly collapse and then still give bonuses? These are people who were paid handsomely in recent years while selling trash so to give them yet another reward for that is obscene. It is especially bad since taxpayers are stuck bailing their sorry asses out and doing without a lot themselves. Someone in Congress (or New York) needs to work on the backbone and lower the boom here. Today, preferably.

Merrill Lynch & Co. plans to cut year-end bonuses in half after more than $20 billion of losses that forced the U.S. securities firm to sell itself to Bank of America Corp., Bloomberg News reported Wednesday, citing two people with knowledge of the situation said. The average bonus reduction will be about 50% at the New York-based company, and some traders and investment bankers will face steeper cuts, the report said. While employees won't find out their bonuses until later this month, division managers are being told now how much they'll get to distribute, it said.

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"Prop 8 - The Musical" starring Jack Black, Allison Janney, John C. Reilly, Marc Shaiman, and many more...

See more Jack Black videos at Funny or Die

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Chambliss: Palin makes Republicans "explode"

Saxby Chambliss credits Sarah Palin with his victory in Georgia's runoff yesterday. Sounds like the Georgia Senator is declaring Palin as the undisputed leader of the GOP:

“Sarah Palin came in on the last day, did a fly-around and, man, she was dynamite,” Chambliss told Fox News on Wednesday. “We packed the houses everywhere we went. And it really did allow us to peak and get our base fired up.”

Chambliss beat Martin by three points on Nov. 4 but did not reach 50 percent of the vote, making a runoff necessary. However, the incumbent easily beat his challenger Tuesday, more than quadrupling his margin of victory, and in the process kept Democrats from reaching a filibuster-proof Senate majority.

Chambliss heaped praise on Palin, saying she has a “great future” in the GOP.

“I can’t overstate the impact she had down here. All these folks did a great job coming in,” he said, referring to former presidential candidates Mike Huckabee and Rudy Giuliani. “They all allow you [to] add momentum to where we were in the campaign. But when she walks in a room, folks just explode.”

Now, a lot of Republicans aren't too comfortable with that prospect, hence the return of Jeb Bush. As predicted yesterday, Jeb is setting himself up to run for Senate from Florida according to an email he sent to Politico. I suspect the retirement of Mel Martinez was choreographed by the Bush team to get Jeb back in the game. They're not going to cede their party to Sarah Palin.

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It's Bill Richardson's turn to join the Obama administration

Bill Richardson gets the nod as Commerce Secretary today:

President-elect Barack Obama will name New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson to head the Commerce Department at a news conference today in Chicago, according to transition sources.

Richardson will appear alongside Obama at 11:40 a.m. Eastern time, and his nomination will mark the latest in a series of moves by the president-elect to put his Cabinet in place well before he takes office Jan. 20.

And, as a sign of the GOP desperation, check out the criticism of Richardson from the RNC:

Alex Conant, a spokesman for the Republican National Committee, used the Richardson pick to criticize Obama for picking numerous people with ties to Bill Clinton. "The Clinton band is getting back together," Conant said. "Nothing says change like picking the Clinton administration's energy secretary and U.N. representative to be commerce secretary."

Wow, Alex Conant, that's so tough. Most Americans, even a lot of GOPers, would welcome a return to the economy of Bill Clinton instead of the one George Bush and his cronies have foisted on us. And I bet, most Americans, including lot of GOPers, are very happy that Obama is bringing in a seasoned and competent team to get this nation back on track. The RNC is pathetic.

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November job cuts jump 148% from November 2007

This could not be imploding at a worse time. Obama has done a great job putting together his economic team (that is full of brainpower) but ultimately, there is only one President and he's about as unimpressive as ever. Until the baton is officially passed next month we will remain in a very delicate situation. Via CNBC.

November layoffs at U.S. firms surged to their highest monthly level in nearly seven years during November, led by the financial and auto sectors, according to separate reports released Wednesday.

Job cuts announced in November totaled 181,671, up 61 percent from October and 148 percent higher than November 2007, when job cuts totaled 73,140, outplacement firm Challenger Gray & Christmas said in a report released on Wednesday.

A separate report by ADP Employer Services put the November job cuts at 250,000 jobs.

The November planned layoffs was the largest monthly toll since January 2002, when employers announced a record 248,475 planned layoffs.

The most dramatic job cuts cited for November was Citigroup's plan to reduce its payroll by 52,000 employees.

Overall, financial sector layoffs announced totaled 91,356 in November, the report said.

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Wednesday Morning Open Thread

Good morning.

So, no filibuster-proof majority for the Democrats in the Senate. It's going to be very interesting to see how often the Senate Republicans use the filibuster to obstruct the Obama agenda. The GOP Senate helped get us into the huge messes we're in. Are they going to prevent us from getting out of it? The hard core right wingers will be putting enormous pressure on Mitch and his crew to obstruct. The American people will want results.

The auto-makers are on the Hill today. Sounds like they'll be better prepared than last time. We'll see.

Start threading the news. I have to take Petey out -- and it's cold today in D.C. Read the rest of this post...

UK to crackdown on abusive banks

What's that? Politicians actually using the power that they already own? Surely they must be joking. We simply don't do these things in America, where we're afraid we might upset the banking executives who are still debating whether or not they can slip in bonus payments despite record failures and a bailout. It would not be proper.

Banks will face huge fines if they do not treat their customers fairly, under a crackdown to be announced by the Government today.

Ministers have decided to turn the voluntary code of practice operated by the banks into a legally-binding one, amid mounting concern that they are flouting their own rules during the credit crunch. The move follows claims that small businesses and individual customers have had the terms and conditions of their loans and overdrafts changed overnight by their banks.

Small firms have complained to ministers that they have received letters or emails unilaterally changing agreements, demanding that homes are put up as collateral for loans and giving customers just 48 hours to sign up to such new arrangements. "There is mounting evidence that the banks are not sticking to their own code," one government source said last night.

A statutory code, opposed by the banks, will be announced by the Chancellor, Alistair Darling. It will complement a Banking Bill in the Queen's Speech today – which aims to prevent a repeat of the crisis which engulfed banks this autumn. The new code will be policed by the Financial Services Authority. The watchdog is expected to be handed powers to impose unlimited fines on banks which breach the code and to take "enforcement action" against those who refuse to change bad practices. The most severe punishment under the existing code is public censure by the board which oversees it.

Although a legally-binding code would not force the banks to lend more to businesses and householders, ministers will increase the pressure on them to "unblock" the system.

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Mugabe's grip starting to falter in Zimbabwe

The cholera epidemic continues to deteriorate and has claimed at least 500 people (some say it is considerably higher) but making life even more difficult for Robert Mugabe is his weakening control of the internal security forces. In another time, any revolts by this group would have been unthinkable. This is not going to end well for Mugabe, who should have walked away when it was still possible. Whether the end of in 2009 or beyond is difficult to say but when that day arrives, it will not be as dignified as he had hoped.

State hospitals and clinics have been shut across the country and the lack of money to buy water treatment chemicals means many major urban centres have not had clean water for over a year. Because of the breakdown in the water system, residents are having to drink from contaminated wells and streams.

"There is a general sense that everything is beginning to break down," said a senior Western diplomat, who described the situation in Zimbabwe as "low-grade anarchy" rather than a "mutiny".

In a clear sign that President Mugabe's hold on his state security machinery is starting to crumble, his once-loyal soldiers ran amok across the capital on Monday after they failed to access their paltry wages in the cash-strapped banks. The unarmed soldiers fought with heavily-armed police and several were arrested.

It was the third outbreak of such violence since last Thursday. The sight of rampaging soldiers was then unprecedented. Army sources said an inquiry had already begun, with dozens facing courts martial. Unconfirmed reports say three of the 12 soldiers who took part in Thursday's riot have been killed.

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