Category: Blogroll

Celebrating the Dawning of the Era of 44

Trish

The St. Aug Inaug

We were feeling it in St. Augustine this morning. The bells in the churches on the Plaza rang and the crowd that was gathered to share the moments together (via big screen T.V.) couldn’t stop cheering. The loudest outburst followed the announcement that, according to the Constitution, Obama became the president at noon, whether he had taken the oath of office or not. After that, the best moment had to be when Obama said, “we reject as false the choice between our safety and our ideals” and the camera cut to Bush, looking as pouty-faced as any three-year-old.

My friend Renee, an early Hillary supporter and atheist Jew, might have summed it up best. It’s as if, she said, someone knew exactly who our country needed now and sent him to us. Amen.

Obama’s Rick Warren Scandal Just Got Worse

Jon Ponder

The Obama team has just opened up a new front in their skirmishes with gay rights supporters over Obama’s decision to invite Rick Warren, the anti-gay megachurch preacher, to give the invocation at the inauguration tomorrow.
HBO says it was ordered by the Presidential Inaugural Committee not to broadcast the gay bishop’s prayer.
The latest incident occurred yesterday when HBO failed to broadcast an invocation delivered by openly gay Bishop Gene Robinson during pre-inaugural events at the Lincoln Memorial. Now HBO is claiming it was ordered not to broadcast Robinson’s prayer by the Presidential Inaugural Committee:

…HBO insisted in an email on Sunday night that it was not their decision to omit Robinson’s invocation, saying, “The producer of the concert has said that the Presidential Inaugural Committee made the decision to keep the invocation as part of the pre-show.”

Pam Spaulding speaks for millions:

Remember, this was the supposed salve on the wound to the LGBT community for the upcoming high-profile appearance of Rick Warren at the actual inauguration on Tuesday, which will be seen by millions and will float out there on YouTube in perpetuity. I had no illusions that Robinson’s appearance would reach the same level of exposure as Warren’s, but damn — no broadcast of it at all? That’s just freaking rich.

The hasty addition of Bishop Robinson to the lineup a few weeks ago was also badly bungled, when an Obama staffer somehow managed to channel both Clintonian truthiness and Bush stubbornness in in one short statement:

An Obama source said: “Robinson was in the plans before the complaints about Rick Warren. Many skeptics will read this as a direct reaction to the Warren criticism — but it’s just not so.”

Riiiiighhtt. Makes sense. Why would Obama want to appease homos he has just slapped in the face?

[…]

Pallin’ Around With Bigots: Obama and Warren

Trish


Six degrees?

Sarah Palin overplayed her hand with a guilt by association shot at Obama last fall. Because Obama served on a board with William Ayers, a former Vietnam War protester who bombed empty government buildings back in the day, Obama too must be a terrorist, she claimed. Palin’s logical leap lacked credibility because it defied the space/time continuum. When Ayers was staging antiwar rallies, Obama was 7 or 8 years old. By the time Obama met Ayers as a grown-up, the former radical was a distinguished college professor and civic leader, having been awarded Chicago’s “Citizen of the Year” honor in 1997.

Even though Palin was wrong to characterize Obama as “pallin’ around with terr-ists,” in degrees of separation at least, that relationship was the real deal.

A lot of people on our team correctly shouted Palin down when she made her ridiculous charges, and most people correctly ignored them on election day. What a difference a few short weeks, and one unpopular decision, can make.

This won’t be the last time Obama seems too inclusive of the ideologically impure to suit those who worked hardest to get him elected

Since Obama invited him to give the invocation at his inaugural, many on the left are throwing everything that “purpose-driven” Pastor Rick Warren ever did at Obama. Warren has worked in a missionary capacity with leaders of African countries (some of whom believe that a shower will wash away exposure to AIDS) who have criminalized homosexuality, locking up gays or handing out much harsher punishments.

Warren has also exhorted his followers to become as fanatical about Jesus as Hitler youth were in their convictions. That’s not a pretty picture but it’s also not uncharacteristic for born-agains, who are routinely urged to accept the Bible as inerrant and follow it literally — even the truly wacky stuff.

In spreading the word of Jebus, Warren has probably met a ton of other superstitious bigots, and slapped them on the back for their “good works” besides.

The problem isn’t that Rick Warren believes things we on the left don’t. The problem is our logic that because Obama invited Warren to offer a prayer on Inauguration Day, Obama is therefore advancing not only whatever Rick Warren does, but everything that everyone Rick Warren has ever been associated with does too.

It didn’t hold up when Sarah Palin said it, and it doesn’t hold up now.

This won’t be the last time Obama seems too inclusive of the ideologically impure to suit those who worked hardest to get him elected. I foresee many more such moves, which our side will classify as mistakes. If I ever fall in that category, remind me that I went on record, here and now, as saying that I trust Obama to have a bigger vision than my own, and that I think he’s right that we will get further by talking to everyone, and including everyone, than we will by staying inside our own little belief bubbles. I’m willing to wait and see how it all works out.

Pepsi Lowers the Bar on Obama Rip-Offs

Trish

Sure, there are a lot of shameless attempts by marketers to capitalize on the Obama “movement,” turning the inauguration into an advertiser’s political version of the Super Bowl.

But the web site launched by Pepsico, refresheverything.com, has to be among the most egregious. Besides ripping off the Obama “O,” the site features just plain awful language intended to show how Pepsi and Obama are after the same things: refreshing the nation.

Come on! Join the high fructose corn syrup-based national renewal

Refresh everything. It’s the guiding spirit behind everything Pepsi does.

This site will feature a series of fun experiences that let you participate in that spirit. And to start, it’s time to speak your mind as a new president prepares to refresh the nation.

So c’mon and take a look around. And be sure to check back for more ways to change our world into a fresher, funnier, more optimistic, much better place.

Does it get any worse than this? Well of course it does, as such stars as the ubiquitous Will.I.Am, Lady Gaga, Tracy Morgan, Eva Longoria, and NASCAR driver Jeff Gordon (whose video is the most sincere), lead the way in the tired practice of posting a YouTube for the incoming president. You are urged to do the same but of course, you’ll need to sign up for Pepsi email at the same time. That’s so you can continue to be a part of the great high fructose corn syrup-based national renewal.

Lessons From the Bush Years

Buck Banks

In a column slated to run this Sunday in the Washington Post, Bob Woodward sumes up 10 hard-earned lessons that Barack Obama should draw from George Bush’s troubled presidency:

1. Presidents set the tone. Don’t be passive or tolerate virulent divisions.

2. The president must insist that everyone speak out loud in front of the others, even — or especially — when there are vehement disagreements.

3. A president must do the homework to master the fundamental ideas and concepts behind his policies.

4. Presidents need to draw people out and make sure bad news makes it to the Oval Office.

5. Presidents need to foster a culture of skepticism and doubt.

6. Presidents get contradictory data, and they need a rigorous way to sort it out.

7. Presidents must tell the hard truth to the public, even if that means delivering very bad news.

8. Righteous motives are not enough for effective policy.

9. Presidents must insist on strategic thinking.

10. The president should embrace transparency. Some version of the behind-the-scenes story of what happened in his White House will always make it out to the public — and everyone will be better off if that version is as accurate as possible.

God Will Be Most Conspicuous Guest at Inauguration

Trish

No wonder D.C.’s going to need so much crowd control on Tuesday — God will be taking up most of the seats. The Big Guy will be represented in almost every form, which says a lot about how religious-ized we have become.

There will be a God on hand for almost everyone.

  • The Most Rev. Donald Wuerl is head of the Roman Catholic archdiocese, and as such, is traditionally asked to say a prayer.

  • Three rabbis will recite: Reform Rabbi David Saperstein, Conservative Rabbi Jerome Epstein and Orthodox Rabbi Haskel Lookstein

  • Ingrid Mattson, the first female president of the Islamic Society of North America, the nation’s largest Muslim group, will offer a prayer at the National Cathedral

  • Rev. Sharon Watkins, the first female president of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) will officiate at the Jan. 21 National Prayer Service that caps the inaugural festivities

  • V. Gene Robinson, the first openly gay Episcopal bishop, will kick things off on Sunday at the Lincoln Memorial. Robinson entered into a civil union followed by a religious ceremony last year with his partner, Mark Andrew

  • Rev. Joseph Lowery, a Methodist civil rights leader, will give the inaugural benediction

  • Rev. Rick Warren, a Southern Baptist from Southern California who worked against same-sex marriage in that state and who compares the “sin of homosexuality” to the sin of pedophilia, will give the inaugural invocation

  • Finally, after all the other praying dies down, Obama will take the oath of office, and in an elective nod to the deities circling overhead, will end it by declaring, “so help me God.”

Yeah, but which one?

Tell Obama What You Think

Buck Banks

citizensbriefingbook.jpg

In yet another unprecedented move designed to put the new president in touch with the people, effectively bypassing the gasbags in the Congress, Barack Obama’s folks have created Change.gov, a Web site that enables regular folks (read: voters) to voice their concerns, opinions, gripes, etc., in a forum that supposedly goes directly to the Man. According to senior Obama adviser Valerie Jarrett, just as the prez gets a briefing book daily on all the stuff that’s going on in the world, he will get a “citizens briefing book” filled with the rants of the hoi polloi.

OK, maybe this will actually happen. The only way to find out is to go to the site, sign up and let your beefs be known.

At Last: An Openly Gay Obama Appointee

Trish
John Berry

People can’t say enough nice things about Obama’s likely pick for director of the Office of Personal Management (OPM), John Berry. In addition to being the highest-level openly gay member of the Obama team, Berry really knows what he’s talking about when he says, “This place is a zoo.”

John Berry, the current director of the National Zoo, has accepted an offer to serve as director of the Office of Personnel Management…

While he’s directed 240 employees and more than 2,000 animals since 2005, Berry is no stranger to Washington or the Federal bureaucracy. He previously served as executive director of the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, assistant secretary for policy, management and budget at the Interior Department, as the Smithsonian’s director of government relations and senior policy advisor, as legislative director for Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) and as an associate staffer on the House Appropriations Committee.

FedBlog (who knew?) has more kind words.

From Colleen Kelley, the NTEU president’s, statement:

“The National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU) welcomes the apparent intention of President-Elect Obama to nominate John Berry, an experienced and respected public servant, to be the new director of the Office of Personnel Management (OPM). NTEU worked extensively with Mr. Berry during his service as legislative director for House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.). In that capacity, he earned the trust of agency management and unions alike, proving to be fair and determined in his pursuit of good government. He was involved in a number of legislative initiatives concerning federal employees, including the creation of the Federal Employees Pay Comparability Act (FEPCA).

In addition, Mr. Berry is widely regarded as having performed capably as Assistant Secretary for Policy, Management and Budget in the Department of the Interior during the late 1990s. Through that position and several others, including his current role as Director of the National Zoo, he has significant management experience and knows what it takes to run a federal agency. John Berry will help return respect to the federal workforce and help attract the best and the brightest to public service. I look forward to his confirmation by the Senate.”

Damn. Zoo jokes aside, this guy sounds good.