Off to a Good Start

I know my expectations have been warped over the past eight years, but this is common sense, good law:

President Obama signed his first bill into law on Thursday, approving equal-pay legislation that he said would “send a clear message that making our economy work means making sure it works for everybody.”

The Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act is long overdue. After the Supreme Court refused to hear the Ledbetter v. Goodyear case on standing - no politics involved there - Senate Republicans killed the bill in 2008.

Elections have consequences.

Off to a Good Start

One of President Barack Obama's first acts Tuesday was to put the brakes on all pending regulations that the Bush administration tried to push through in its waning days.

The order went out shortly after Obama was inaugurated president, in a memorandum signed by new White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel.

Mmm, tasty hope.

The Stimulus Plan

Ambinder has the summary.

Clarence Thomas Wants a Pony for Christmas

Too bad for him, I don't think it's likely:

in a highly unusual move, U.S Associate Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas has asked his colleagues of the court to consider a lawsuit filed, that questions Barack Obama's citizenship.

Nobody likes Clarence.

Illegal Spying

Can we revisit FISA now?

Verizon Wireless said on Thursday that some employees had gained unauthorized access and viewed a personal cell phone account held by President-elect Barack Obama that is now inactive.

An Obama aide said his voice-mail messages and e-mails were not breached in the incident.

"We were notified yesterday that employees had accessed the records of an old cell phone no longer in use," the Obama aide said. "No voice or e-mails were listened to or read."

At Last

We won!

Couple senate races still up in there. More to come...

His Shrillness:

Last night wasn’t just a victory for tolerance; it wasn’t just a mandate for progressive change; it was also, I hope, the end of the monster years.

What I mean by that is that for the past 14 years America’s political life has been largely dominated by, well, monsters. Monsters like Tom DeLay, who suggested that the shootings at Columbine happened because schools teach students the theory of evolution. Monsters like Karl Rove, who declared that liberals wanted to offer “therapy and understanding” to terrorists. Monsters like Dick Cheney, who saw 9/11 as an opportunity to start torturing people.

And in our national discourse, we pretended that these monsters were reasonable, respectable people. To point out that the monsters were, in fact, monsters, was “shrill.”

Four years ago it seemed as if the monsters would dominate American politics for a long time to come. But for now, at least, they’ve been banished to the wilderness.

Oops

AP:

Republican John McCain has maneuvered himself into a political dead end and has five weeks to find his way out.

Last Wednesday, McCain suspended his presidential campaign to insert himself into a $700 billion effort to rescue America's crumbling financial structure. In so doing, he tied himself far more tightly to the bill than did his Democratic opponent, Barack Obama.

...

Within hours, however, the measure died in the House mainly at the hands of McCain's own Republicans.

Initially, McCain went silent, choosing instead to send his chief economic adviser out with a statement that blamed Obama, claiming that the first-term Illinois senator had put his political ambitions ahead of the good of the country.

Read the whole article, it's pithy and damning.

Whiner

Sidney:

After making it through their first debate with their civility intact, the major presidential candidates today stepped up their rhetoric in attacks over how to deal with economic issues.

At a rally here, Republican John McCain accused rival Sen. Barack Obama of failing to show any leadership during the congressional negotiations over a $700-billion bailout package, which was defeated in the Houses today. Campaigning in Colorado, Obama argued that the country can't afford to gamble on McCain, according to excerpts supplied by the campaign.

Never mind that the package was set to pass last week until Senator Sissypants showed up and gave House Republicans a reason to defeat this on solely political grounds (i.e., make Democrats look bad). They made this mess, they stopped us from fixing it and somehow it's our fault? Shove it.

Behind the Times

Sarah Palin:

Sarah Palin likes to tell voters around the country about how she “put the government checkbook online” in Alaska. On Thursday, Palin suggested she would take that same proposal to Washington.

“We’re going to do a few new things also,” she said at a rally in Cedar Rapids. “For instance, as Alaska’s governor, I put the government’s checkbook online so that people can see where their money’s going. We’ll bring that kind of transparency, that responsibility, and accountability back. We’re going to bring that back to D.C.”

There’s just one problem with proposing to put the federal checkbook online – somebody’s already done it. His name is Barack Obama.

Snap!

LOL

Rove:

Take it from an expert. Karl Rove, known as the architect of President George W. Bush’s electoral victories, believes White House candidates John McCain and Barack Obama have gone too far in their attacks on each other.

Rove, speaking on the television program Fox News Sunday, said an ad by the Democratic presidential nominee and Illinois senator criticizing McCain for not being e-mail savvy was unfair.

“His war injuries keep him from being able to use a keyboard. He can’t type. You know, it’s like saying he can’t do jumping jacks,” Rove said of the Arizona senator and former U.S. prisoner of war in Vietnam.

Sing it, Karl!

Adding, there's a difference of orders of magnitude between the two campaigns and Rove is trying to fudge that difference. Nice try.

Paul Krugman Writes a Column

Read it.

Talking Points Everyone Should Be Aware of

On pork:

At a rally today, Sen. McCain again asserted that Sen. Obama has requested nearly a billion in earmarks. In fact, the Illinois senator requested $311 million last year, according to the Associated Press, and none this year. In comparison, Gov. Palin has requested $750 million in her two years as governor -- which the AP says is the largest per-capita request in the nation.

This "reformer" talk is pure bullshit. If the press bothered to do its homework instead of just repeating his bullshit McCain would be stopped dead in his tracks, but such is our press. Same Republican party, same bullshit, different candidate.

I was only going to post that, but this is just as awful:

The priorities of Sarah Palin:

• An expensive sports complex made much more expensive because you're too incompetent to ensure the city had the land rights -- not burdensome.
  
• Paying for rape kits for rape victims -- burdensome.

(via LGM)

Once again the media is missing the ball. The issue isn't experience - it's sound judgment and understanding. If Palin can't properly administer a town of 4,000 and she doesn't understand how our government and economy work, then she does not deserve the office for which she campaigns.

John McCain represents neither reform nor change. He represents the same Bush policies that have dragged this country into the mud.

I Know This Doesn't Need Saying, But

Megan McArdle is still an idiot.

McCain's Cribz

Josh is angry:

I will not stand by and watch the Obama camp try to claim McCain owns seven homes when he owns at least ten.

Get on it rabid left! Seven houses is not damning enough! It's only middle class!

Obama Vindicated on Tire Pressure

Silly kerfluffle:

Our friends at Politifact have also looked into Sen. Barack Obama's claim about tire inflation and found it to be true -- not merely that car tune-ups and proper tire inflation will save millions of barrels of oil per year, but that it will save more energy than new off shore drilling would yield.

No one knows for sure, of course, which may be one of the reasons why our experts disagreed with Obama's claim that this conservation method would save more energy than new off shore drilling would yield.

But the salient point is that such measures are serious. Why the Republicans are mocking them at a time of energy crisis seems bizarre.

We're also reminded of this news from 1990:

"The Washington Times, September 14, 1990...The Bush administration yesterday launched an advertising blitz telling Americans they could fight oil shortages and high gas prices by conserving, while advising Congress there is no sign of price gouging by the oil industry and that gas prices are 'not unreasonable.' The slogan for the yearlong campaign, 'Do Your Part, Drive Smart,' tells consumers they can save more than 7 million gallons of gasoline a day if they keep their tires properly inflated, drive slower and join car pools.

Good luck trying to get anything fact based to stick with the Republicans. Especially principled John McCain.

McWhine

I'm a little worried his base may even get sick of him.

McCain's Media

Indeed.

Obama's FISA Vote

Obama voted for the awful FISA bill, which is some egg on his face, and although some on the left are up in arms, let's think about his vote in a political context. Obama will most likely become president with a sitting Democratic Congress with the same Speaker and majority leader. Whether you love or hate the FISA bill - I hate it - it was Steny Hoyer's - ugly, mentally-impaired, kitten-killing - baby. If Obama publicly came out against the bill this late in the game he would only antagonize Hoyer, with whom he has to work come 2009. I see the same logic behind his support of Blue Dog John Barrow in GA-12 against a progressive, black candidate. If Congressional incumbents feel threatened they will circle the wagons and thwart Obama's plans.

Obama needs to get along with the 111th Congress in order to get legislation passed. Although I disagree with his FISA vote, I abide by it.

Dangerous Territory

Does he have to go there? Really?

Reaching out to evangelical voters, Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama is announcing plans to expand President Bush's program steering federal social service dollars to religious groups and -- in a move sure to cause controversy -- support some ability to hire and fire based on faith.

Sen. Obama was unveiling his approach to getting religious charities more involved in government anti-poverty programs during a tour and remarks Tuesday in Zanesville, Ohio, at Eastside Community Ministry, which provides food, clothes, youth ministry and other services.

I'm skeptical to say the least.

Obama to Opt Out of Public Financing

I get an email alert:

Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama announced that he would become the first presidential candidate to forgo public financing of his general election campaign since the system was established three decades ago. Obama’s Republican opponent, John McCain, has been much less successful at raising money and the move sets up the likelihood of a big mismatch in money heading into the fall campaign. Here is the text of Obama’s announcement.

Good call. Time to crush McCain.