In one of his earliest and most successful attempts to piss off the world and connect Iraq to the 9/11 attacks, Pres. George W. Bush labeled Iraq, Iran and North Korea the “axis of evil,” and imposed sanctions intended to isolate them. Subsequent Bush-Cheney-Rice “diplomacy” has consisted of further punishing states with which they disagree by refusing to talk to them.

To say this policy has been an utter failure for the United States, leaving us with fewer friends in an increasingly polarized world, would be an understatement. Rather than crippling our alleged enemies, Iran and North Korea have only grown more defiant and closer to nuclear armament. And we all know the destruction and loss of life that resulted when Bush decided to halt the now proven United Nations weapons inspection program and invade Iraq instead.

Barack Obama examined the Bush cold shoulder policy and rejected it. He was derided by both Republicans and some Democrats — notably Hillary Clinton — for saying during the debates that he would be willing to talk to our opponents, including leaders of Iran. But history has shown that Obama’s path of holding friends close and enemies closer is wise.

Which brings us to Obama’s invitation to Pastor Rick Warren to provide his inaugural invocation. Gays are appalled that Warren, a man who unapologetically opposes gay marriage, was chosen. Why, they ask, would someone who helped pass anti gay marriage legislation be honored with a spot on this day of triumph for progressives?

[…]

As Politico astutely points out, Barack Obama has not named a single Southerner to his cabinet, and half the slots are already gone. Some politicians below the Mason-Dixon line have noticed the snub and are not happy about it:

“Not a one,” grumbles a one senior Democratic aide who hails from the South. “Not even half of one, unless you count Hillary Clinton, and she doesn’t count because she’s not even an Arkansan anymore. She’s a Yankee.”

Noting that Obama picked up 55 Electoral College votes in North Carolina, Virginia and Florida, the conservative-leaning Web site speculates why he has not chosen a denizen of the South:

Some Democrats chock (sic) it up to happenstance and say Obama is simply picking the most qualified people, no matter the region. Others acknowledge, however, that the paucity of Democrats in Obama’s cabinet reflects the declining political power of the red-leaning Southern states and the weakening bench of the blue team there.

“Who comes to mind immediately?” asked Charles Bullock, a political science professor at the University of Georgia. “No one, really.”

“The leading politicians in the South at least for the last generation have been active as Republicans,” Bullock added. “You just don’t have Democrats that come to mind as the go-to person or the expert. It highlights the thinness of the Democratic bench in the South… The skill set is so depleted.”

If Obama doesn’t appoint a Southerner to top level policy positions, it looks like he is buying into the stereotype that there isn’t anyone from the South smart enough to work for him

Ouch! Bullock does have a point. And he is a professor, so he must be right.

Alas, the Democratic Party in the South is much like a Southern family saga to be found in the works of William Faulkner — the strong, populist patriarchs of yore have degenerated into the ineffectual bumpkins running the party today.

Just look at the southerners rumored as prospective cabinet members:

Had he not self-destructed in a sex scandal, former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards might have landed a Cabinet post. The names of former Georgia Sens. Sam Nunn and Max Cleland briefly bounced around the Obama orbit.

Inez Tenenbaum of South Carolina is in the running for secretary of education. Former Texas Rep. Charlie Stenholm has been mentioned as possible pick for Agriculture secretary.

But Obama hasn’t pulled the trigger yet, prompting one former senior Democratic Hill aide to complain of a “geographic snubbing.”

“Southerners are pretty sensitive to the stereotype that they are slow in mind as well as voice,” the former aide said. “The risk to the president-elect is that if he doesn’t appoint anyone from the South to top level policy positions, he is going to look like he is buying into the stereotype that there isn’t anyone from the South smart enough to work for him.

But no matter who he chooses, Obama is screwed. Hispanics were pissed when he passed over Bill Richardson for secretary of state: “We’re definitely a little sore about it,” one Hispanic Democrat said. “I’ve heard lots of grumbling in the Hispanic community.”

And gays and lesbians expect a non-closeted cabinet member: “We’ve paid our dues in terms of money and effort. It is time for the people of our community to serve at the highest levels of government. This is something our community expects,” said Denis Dison, vice president of the Gay and Lesbian Victory Fund and Leadership Institute.

At the rate Obama is going, however, one thing is certain — if he screws up, we can always blame the Yankees.

According to Barack Obama’s official inauguration site (who knew?), a whole bunch of regular folks have given a whole lotta moolah to help him usher in his administration. Obama doesn’t have a PAC, he has a PIC, which is described on the page:

In keeping with President-elect Obama’s commitment to changing the way business is done in Washington, the Presidential Inaugural Committee (PIC) is taking unprecedented steps to insure transparency in the public reporting of donors to a Presidential Inaugural Committee. This chart will allow you to view, sort, and search virtually real-time information on all donors contributing over $200 to the 2009 Presidential Inaugural Committee.

Unlike previous inaugural committees, the 2009 PIC does not accept contributions from corporations, political action committees, labor unions, current federally-registered lobbyists, non-U.S. citizens and registered foreign agents and does not accept individual contributions in excess of $50,000.

The list has some well-known names or names that seem like they belong to well-known people: Halle Berry from Bumper Inc. gave $50k, the max. Several people from the Powers, Rogers and Smith firm in Chicago gave $25k, for a total of $100. Glass sculptor Dale Chihuly gave $50k. Jamie Curtis of Santa Monica gave $25k. Berry Gordy of L.A. gave 50. Christopher Guest gave 25. Samuel Jackson of SZT Promotions in L.A. gave 50. Wendy Rockefeller of the Rockefeller Family Foundation gave $12k, while Laurance Rockefeller of the League of Conservation Voters gave $38k, for a total of 50. Five members of the Soros family each donated $50k. Sharon Stone of L.A., who lists herself as self-employed, gave $50k. Robert Zemekis of Burbank, also self-employed, gave 50.

Gee, I guess all that stuff they said about Obama and celebrities was true after all.

The site has a schedule of events, a blog and my favorite part — Inaugural Store: Coming Soon!

Despite the best efforts of chronic self-loathers Justice Clarence Thomas and perpetual sore loser Alan Keyes, the U.S. Supreme Court has refused to hear an emergency appeal of a suit brought by some crank named Leo Donofrio claiming that president-elect Barack Obama is not a U.S. citizen.

Donofrio claimed that because Obama’s Kenyan father had British citizenship, Barack Obama Jr. was British, not American, although his mother was both a U.S. citizen and was physically in Hawaii — by most accounts a U.S. state at the time — when she birthed him, or as they said in the movie “Mandingo,” she “slipped a suckah.”

Apparently, no one but Donofrio was surprised at the ruling:

“This is the least surprising move by the Supreme Court in years,” said CBS News legal analyst Andrew Cohen. “No serious legal scholar believed that the Justices would take the case and overturn the election.”

Another crackpot, Phillip J. Berg, contends that Obama is actually a citizen of Kenya and Indonesia, apparently believing that if one spends any length of time in a country, one automatically becomes a citizen thereof. Berg’s suit looks like it is going the way of Donofrio’s and several other nuisance suits challenging Obama’s citizenship status.

But, invoking the “one-drop rule,” almost everyone agrees that Obama is a black man, even though he spent nine months in a white woman’s womb.