Tomorrow, Obama announces the National Security Team

Tomorrow morning at 10:40 a.m. Eastern, Obama and Biden will hold a press conference in Chicago to announce their national security appointments.

The big news is, of course, that Hillary Clinton will be named Secretary of State. She'll be at the press conference in Chicago. But, there will be several other key appointments, some we've heard about already, some new. "The Swamp" has the other names:

According to a Democrat familiar with the transition team's work, the former First Lady is part of a national security team that also includes: Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano, nominee for Secretary of Homeland Security; Eric Holder, for Attorney General; Defense Secretary Robert Gates, who will remain in his current position for at least one year; retired Marine Gen. Jim Jones, for National Security Adviser; retired Adm. Dennis Blair, for Director of National Intelligence; and Susan Rice, for U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations. Some of these officials also are expected to appear at the news conference Monday.

So, Susan Rice will be our ambassador to the United Nations. There was a lot of buzz that Caroline Kennedy would be named to that U.N. post. Perhaps she'll be the next Senator from New York instead?

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Virginia is blue -- and getting bluer

Losing Virginia was a devastating blow to the Republicans this year. But, it wasn't a fluke. As the demographics of Virginia, particularly the ever-expanding Northern VA suburbs change, the state is turning even bluer. All that GOP immigrant bashing, and there have been some vocal haters in Virginia like Corey Stewart from Prince William County, have only helped the Democrats increase their margins.

A post-election analysis in today's Washington Post shows just how much things have changed since the 2000 election:

In Northern Virginia's outer suburbs, a growing number of nonwhite residents, particularly Hispanics, are diminishing what had long been a big source of votes for Republican candidates. Loudoun, Prince William and Stafford counties and Manassas and Manassas Park have all experienced double-digit increases in the percentage of nonwhite residents since 2000. And in each of those locations, Democrats' share of the vote increased proportionally.

The nonwhite population of Prince William, for example, has grown by 13 percentage points since 2000. President-elect Barack Obama carried the county with almost 58 percent of the vote -- 13 points better than former vice president Al Gore did in the 2000 presidential race.

I guess all that immigrant bashing by Mr. Stewart in Prince William County paid off -- for the Democrats. Great strategy, VA GOP. And, what an amazing shift in population -- and Democratic vote.

The changing demographics helped the Democratic vote in other exurban counties, too:

Loudoun experienced a 12-point gain in the minority population since 2000, and Obama did 13 percentage points better than Gore did in 2000. Obama did 10 points better than Gore in Stafford, which saw a 10 percent increase in the minority population since 2000.

This shift, matched with historical Democratic strength in the inner suburbs, makes Northern Virginia a huge source of votes for Democrats. The region's size, compared with the rest of the state, threatens Republicans' ability to win statewide if Democrats can continue to get their voters to the poll, demographers and political scientists suggest.

"The transformation in Northern Virginia has been rapid and dramatic, and Obama came out of Northern Virginia with a margin of [213,000] votes, and that is very hard to overcome," said Ken Billingsley, director of demographics and information for the Northern Virginia Regional Commission. "In Prince William, the change has already occurred, and I am not the least bit surprised that Stafford, Spotsylvania and Fredericksburg are moving in that direction."

It's not the same Virginia it was just 10 years ago. That's something for which we can all be thankful.

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Hitmen charge $100 a victim as Basra honor killings rise

Smells like... victory:

Authorities in the southern Iraqi city of Basra have admitted they are powerless to prevent 'honour killings' in the city following a 70 per cent increase in religious murders during the past year.

There has been no improvement in conviction rates for these killings. So far this year, 81 women in the city have been murdered for allegedly bringing shame on their families. Only five people have been convicted.

During 2007 the Basra security committee recorded 47 'honour killings' and three convictions. One lawyer in the city described how police were actively protecting perpetrators and said that a woman in Basra could now be murdered by hired hitmen for as little as $100 (£65).

The figures come despite international outrage which followed The Observer's coverage of the death of 17-year-old Rand Abdel-Qader, who was murdered by her father last April in an 'honour killing' after falling in love with a British soldier in Basra. The 4,000 British troops stationed in the city since the invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein in 2003 withdrew to the airport last September.

Rand Abdel-Qader was killed after her family discovered that she had formed a friendship with a 22-year-old infantryman whom she knew as Paul. She was suffocated by her father then hacked at with a knife. Abdel-Qader Ali was subsequently arrested and released without charge.

Rand's mother, Leila Hussein, who divorced her husband after the killing, went into hiding but was tracked down weeks later and assassinated by an unknown gunman. Her husband had told The Observer that police had congratulated him for killing his daughter.

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Holiday shopping off to slow start

Predictable, but not the news that retailers wanted to hear. If you are worried about your own job and unsure about the future, of course you won't spend as easily as in the past. The decline in consumer spending will of course mean lower Q4 corporate numbers which will probably mean more pressure on stocks next quarter when the numbers arrive. Declining growth and an inability to provide clear guidance for the future (and who can really forecast in this climate?) will translate into an extension of this choppy market.

The U.S. holiday shopping season got off to a slow start as consumers, squeezed by the economic crisis, bought carefully and said they would wait for better deals closer to Christmas.

Early results from the Black Friday weekend, which kicks off holiday sales one day after Thanksgiving, bolstered forecasts by some analysts that total holiday sales could contract for the first time since that data started being collected in the early 1990s.

ShopperTrak, which measures customer traffic, said Saturday that Black Friday sales rose 3 percent to $10.6 billion. That was slower than an 8.3 percent rise in 2007.

"The initial response by many people may be positive," said Telsey Advisory Group analyst Joseph Feldman of the increase.

But, Feldman said, excluding inflation the sales figures are roughly flat year over year. His firm still expects overall holiday sales will be flat to slightly down.

Shoppers interviewed Saturday said they were disappointed by the deals this weekend and bet stores would offer even steeper discounts in the weeks to come -- a worrisome sign for retailers struggling with weak profits.

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"The Mormons played a vital role in the Prop 8 battle, and traditional marriage would have lost had it not been for their support."

"The Mormons played a vital role in the Prop 8 battle, and traditional marriage would have lost had it not been for their support." - Donald Wildmon, American Family Association, email solicitation

There you have it. One of the lead religious right groups, and certainly one of the nastiest. The AFA, like the Mormons, have a little history with Jews. The AFA also has a history of promoting a known hate group that "echoes Nazi Germany." Great "Christian" partners, these Mormons have found. And their nasty new friends say that the anti-gay hate proposition would have lost if it weren't for the Mormons. And they wonder why so many Americans now hate them. Read the rest of this post...

The case of the missing acorns

Interesting article in today's Washington Post about the dearth of acorns this year. I've been noticing the squirrels in my local park seem pretty thin for this time of year. There are no acorns:

The idea seemed too crazy to Rod Simmons, a measured, careful field botanist. Naturalists in Arlington County couldn't find any acorns. None. No hickory nuts, either. Then he went out to look for himself. He came up with nothing. Nothing crunched underfoot. Nothing hit him on the head.

Then calls started coming in about crazy squirrels. Starving, skinny squirrels eating garbage, inhaling bird feed, greedily demolishing pumpkins. Squirrels boldly scampering into the road. And a lot more calls about squirrel roadkill.

But Simmons really got spooked when he was teaching a class on identifying oak and hickory trees late last month. For 2 1/2 miles, Simmons and other naturalists hiked through Northern Virginia oak and hickory forests. They sifted through leaves on the ground, dug in the dirt and peered into the tree canopies. Nothing.

"I'm used to seeing so many acorns around and out in the field, it's something I just didn't believe," he said. "But this is not just not a good year for oaks. It's a zero year. There's zero production. I've never seen anything like this before."

Where the heck are the acorns?

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Bill Clinton will release identity of donors; Hillary to be announced as Sec of State on Monday (reportedly)

Bill Clinton has refused for a while to release the list of donors to his library and foundation. If he's truly now prepared to release those names, it means Hillary will be our next Secretary of State. Get ready for the world to like us again.

Former President Bill Clinton has agreed to make public 200,000 donors to his presidential library and foundation as part of an agreement with President-elect Barack Obama's transition team designed to allow his wife -- Hillary Rodham Clinton -- to be named Secretary of State, according to two sources familiar with the arrangement.

The former president has also agreed to allow the State Department and, potentially, the White House, to vet his personal business interests and speeches so as to avoid potential conflicts of interest, according to transition officials.

The outlines of the deal cut by Obama and the Clintons emerged last week as it became increasingly clear that the New York Senator would be named Secretary of State shortly after Thanksgiving.

And in fact, there are reports that Obama will announce Hillary's appointment tomorrow. Read the rest of this post...

Sunday Talk Shows Open Thread

Good morning everyone. Hope you all had a great holiday. I took a week off. Petey, the new dog, joined Carlos and me on an excellent adventure as we drove up to Portland to see my family. We made a few stops along the way so Petey got to walk in New York's Central Park and on the Boston Common. And, he was a huge hit everywhere we went, especially with the family. The little guy is just so lovable.

Anyway, back to the real world. It's a mixed bag on the Sunday shows today. There is, of course, much about India. But, there are random guests like Laura Bush and Ted Turner. Clearly, it's a holiday weekend.

And, FOX is dutifully providing Georgia Republican Saxby Chambliss with an open mike in time for his runoff on Tuesday.

Here's the lineup:

ABC's "This Week" — Sens. Jack Reed, D-R.I., and Richard Lugar, R-Ind.

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CBS' "Face the Nation" — Authors round table.

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NBC's "Meet the Press" — First lady Laura Bush; Said Jawad, Afghanistan's ambassador to the U.S.; Ted Turner, CNN founder and author of a new memoir.

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CNN's "Late Edition" — Sens. Robert Menendez, D-N.J., and Arlen Specter, R-Pa.; Sajjan Gohel, director of international security, Asia-Pacific Foundation; Ron Gettelfinger, president of United Auto Workers; Gene Sperling, former Clinton administration economic adviser; Maj. Gen. Mark Hertling, the commander of U.S. forces in northern Iraq.

"Fox News Sunday" _ Sens. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., and Saxby Chambliss, R-Ga.

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The mouse turns 40 next month

As much as I like using a mouse (or a Mac trackpad - which is so much better than what PCs offer) and as much as it has simplified computing, I still am partial to some of the old command line alternatives or drop down menus/hot keys that could be faster than dragging the stinkin' mouse across a page. (And those 8" floppy drives ruled too! Kidding...sort of.) Either way, the 40th anniversary of the mouse is only days away.

The name was never meant to stick. When Doug Engelbart and his team at the Stanford Research Institute in California designed a computer controller encased in a carved-out wooden block, with wheels mounted on the underbelly, one researcher nicknamed it a 'mouse'. 'We thought that when it had escaped out to the world it would have a more dignified name,' Engelbart recalled later. 'But it didn't.'

Engelbart's invention became the mouse that soared, an essential piece of computer hardware. Its 40th birthday will be celebrated next week when Engelbart returns to Stanford (now known as SRI International). The mouse was first shown to the world when he gave a presentation of a working network computer system in San Francisco on 9 December, 1968, which is still revered as 'the dawn of interactive computing'.

Yet in one sense Engelbart, now 83, was far ahead of his time. He never received royalties, partly because his patent ran out just before the tech revolution that saw the computer and mouse supplant pen and paper. Now the mouse faces growing competition from a new generation of touchscreens.

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India's Home Minister to resign after Mumbai attack

Accountability when something goes wrong? Wow, he should have been working in the Bush White House or Wall Street where accountability does not register. If he was in the US they would have given him a medal though perhaps not enough people were killed in the horrible attacks.

India's top security official offered his resignation Sunday, a senior aide said, as the government struggled under growing accusations of security failures following the Mumbai attacks that left at least 174 people dead.

Home Minister Shivraj Patil submitted his resignation letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh but has not received a response, aide R.K. Kumar said.

Patil has become highly unpopular during a long series of terror attacks and his ouster has long been predicted in political circles.

"Our Politicians Fiddle as Innocents Die," read a headline Sunday in the Times of India newspaper, part of a growing chorus of criticism.

Imagine that. Public outrage too and a critical media. Sheesh. What do they think they're doing? Don't they know now is the time to blindly support team that allowed catastrophic failure and attack anyone who dares to criticize? Read the rest of this post...

EU votes to drive bluefin tuna into extinction

The commercial fishing fleets in Europe have too much authority in the EU decision making process. (The US is not very impressive in this area either though at least there's a limited counter-balance with Canada in the region.) The EU lacks a long term sustainability program for fishing, voting over and over to allow catch limits that are higher than the market can sustain. As much as I prefer fish over meat I refuse to eat cod due to the stress on the stock. At markets I've witnessed baby swordfish for sale despite being well under the legal size limit. Even far away from the EU, their fishing fleets buy their way into African fishing territories, eliminating locals from the regional waters.

Every time the EU has a chance to bring sensible controls to the commercial fishing industry, they fold. I've never seen such desolate fishing along coastal waters as I do in France and it looks as though the offshore fishing won't last much longer either. The EU commercial fishing policies are as bad as the US (Bush) climate change policies, possibly even worse. There's simply no rational basis for the decisions other than giving the commercial fleets everything they want, which is precisely what Bush has done with climate change in the US. Dumb, dumb, dumb.

Earlier this week, however, a vital opportunity to pull the bluefin back from the brink was missed when the official body charged with preventing the stock from collapsing agreed to allow catch quotas for 2009 far higher than its own scientists recommended.

Amid a chorus of protests and dismay from conservationists, the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT), meeting in Marrakech, Morocco, endorsed a total allowable catch (TAC) of 22,000 tonnes for next year – while ICCAT's own scientists had recommended a TAC ranging from 8,500 to 15,000 tonnes per year, warning there were real risks of the fishery collapsing otherwise.

The scientists also urged a seasonal closure during the fragile spawning months of May and June, but the meeting agreed to allow industrial fishing up to 20 June.

The decision, which was branded "a disgrace" by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) and fiercely attacked by other conservation bodies, was driven by the European Union, amid allegations that the EU had threatened developing nations with trade sanctions if they supported lower catch limits and extended closed seasons. During the meeting, the names of some countries appeared and disappeared from the more scientifically based proposals.

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