http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/con tent/article/2008/11/19/AR2008111904207. html?nav=hcmoduletmv

"He is going nowhere," Schmidt said.

I couldn't have said it better myself!  :D

On Wednesday at DailyKos, and on the main page here for awhile, there was an article at the top of the Rec list entitled "Home Depot Founder to CEOs: You 'Should Be Shot'". It talks about a man named Bernie Marcus, who was one of the co-founders of The Home Depot in 1979. Apparently, he said something stupid today- that any CEOs who didn't support the GOP "should be shot". Obviously, no need for me go on about what's stupid about that statement. But the level of knee-jerk, irresponsible reaction to that statement today made me remember why I'm a former member of Free Republic and RedState, and the Republican Party as a whole.

I don't know... I always held the netroots on a higher level of responsibility than those jerks. Progressives are supposed to be the ones interested in discourse, not demagoguery- right?

(Crossposted from The Motley Moose)

Al-Qaeda's #2, Ayman Zawahiri, released a video today blasting President Elect Obama and calling him "dishonorable" and refering to him with racial epithets.

Wait, I thought they would be dancing in the streets? (a sincere Fuck You, you miserable traitorous bastard, Congressman King).

Oh, and Rush Limbaugh - you sick anti-American slimeball - thanks for the mention that Obama looks like Ayman Zawahiri.

Wait, I thought that Al-Qaeda was praying for Obama win? (special trans-continental 'piss-off' to John Howard)  

http://politicalwire.com/archives/2008/1 1/19/pritzker_tapped_for_commerce.html

CNN reports that Chicago businesswoman Penny Pritzker is President-elect Obama's choice to become Secretary of Commerce.

Again from Political Wire:

CNN reports that President-elect Obama has chosen Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano (D) to be Secretary of Homeland Security pending further vetting by the transition team.

Okay, look.  I get that pretty much all progressives want to see women properly represented in the Obama cabinet.  I want the exact same thing.  That said, some folks have taken the time to complain about how few women have been picked when, well, let me see now, we've got five cabinet appointees outed at this point, and three of them are women.

(cross-posted from DKos)

Jim Martin is a terrific candidate and it is thrilling that we have this second opportunity to replace the despicable Saxby Chambliss with a forthright, intelligent, experienced progressive. I'd like to encourage everyone who'd like to know more about Senator Chambliss' atrocious record to visit this site explaining his platform (www.saxby-chambliss.com). After you read up on Chambliss' voting record, refresh your memory of his campaign trickery with this video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tKFYpd0q9 nE). And after your ire has been replenished, take advantage of this information on how you can help Jim Martin.

To start making calls now, visit: www.my.barackobama.com/call4martin

To organize a phonebank with paper call lists, sign up at: www.nationalfield.org/phonebank

Most importantly, Jim needs more volunteers on the ground. If you are interested in going to Georgia and joining Jim's team, email the campaign at: volunteer@martinvictory.com

Jim will need all the help he can get to push back against the distortions of his record that Chambliss and his Senate Repug pals are spouting on local ad buys and national media. Jim's campaign site is here (www.martinforsenate.com) and his ActBlue page is here (http://www.actblue.com/entity/fundraiser s/19359).
IF YOU ARE IN OR NEAR GEORGIA, please find some time to knock on doors, call voters, and get Obama and Martin supporters to the polls on December 2. Early voting begins this week, and I will update this diary with the most comprehensive link to this information that I can find. Of course, I welcome tips and helpful links in the comments.
This is our kind of candidate. Run-offs are usually low-turnout elections, and must be won on the ground. Let's prove one more time this year what the power of the netroots can do to change the shape and character of our government. Let's put Jim Martin in the Senate.

The Minneapolis Star Tribune has a frequently-updated count of the recount vote. As I write this, with 7% of the votes recounted, Franken has pulled into a lead of 570 votes.

Of course, anything can still happen. But I'm happily surprised to have seen this happen.

Driving to a meeting earlier this morning, I tuned into my favorite morning drive time show, Rhode Island’s own NPR station WRNI.\It is their regular fund drive season and before the normal banter about who has donated the station played a clip from their underwriters.Included in the clip was an announcement from the Department of Homeland Security.The voice over was explaining to listeners how DHS supports NPR and that companies can contact DHS to being using the E-Verify system at their workplace to target illegal immigrants. Apart from the racism of used behind the implementation of the law and the big brotherish quality of having EVERY person have to get approval from the federal government before they can get a job, THE PROGRAM JUST DOESN”T WORK.The error rate is staggering. Naturally I was upset to here our local NPR affiliate broadcasting this trash that is more the style of Bugsy over on the other side of the dial.So I called up the station to voice my concerns.The folks there were great. Apparently there have been a number of complaints (see, its not just me) and the station masters themselves had put in a complaint to the national NPR. Apparently there are underwriters at the national level that local affiliates have to take, no matter what. Workers at the station forwarded me emails proving that they had indeed made the request to have the ads pulled from the local market But they also gave me the link to the NPR ombudsman so that any readers here that are fans of WRNI who want to keep the right-wing hate talk off our airwaves can send the right message. If you want to send a message to WRNI about this issue, contact them HERE.  Also, you can join the FACEBOOK group to send your message HERE. Ask your friends to sign up.

I was listening to Newsweek's Jonathan Alter being interviewed on Public Radio as I drove home from teaching today and the argument he was making was that Obama should not have to give up his Blackberry as the security mavens around him are demanding. Indeed, Alter gave lots of good reasons why Obama should stay plugged in.

In this day and age when corporate users and those developing highly secret government projects are using their Blackberries, the President should have at least the same access to personal communication. There are plenty of means to encrypt everything and Obama is an intelligent user. It was his use of the Blackberry that helped him get through this very tough election... and the Republicans didn't break his security... But I'll bet they tried!