The Weekly Poll
Results
The Executive Order Edition
What action would you have our President-elect do in his very first Executive Order?
1. Issue a new order pertaining to___________....
2. Repeal Dubya's outrageous order to_________ ....
Well then, Poll-fans, here it is. A nice mix, too, at that I'm thinkin'...
Adam was first with...
1. Issue a new order pertaining to closing Guantanamo (and the other Secret Prisons).
and
2. Repeal Dubya's outrageous order to Rendition & Torture.
Then added the next day.
2. Repeal Dubya's outrageous order to repeal Habeas Corpus.
(Ah, Adam... My intention was to have ya pick just one... Either issue a new order or repeal an existing Bush atrocity as the very first executive act. I wanted to see the priorities... But, I forgive ya. I understand entirely.
I do, I really do. Ya just want to fix all the damage that The Smirkster has done, like RIGHT NOW... Me, too... Thanks and hang in there. BHO is 'The Man' and I expect a whirlwind of changes beyond this coming January 20th...)
Ed is next...
Confiscate Dick and Dubya's passports. Georgie owns a lot of land in Paraguay.
(Yes, I've read that... However, to do that properly they would have to be actually 'charged' and 'indicted' with specific crimes. Unfortunately, I'm not altogether sure BHO is prepared to do that. Once again, I understand the sentiment, though...)
sbbennett was even more strident with...
Invoke Presidential powers granted under the Patriot Act and arrest Bush, Cheney and his entire
administration (past and present) and haul their collective asses to Gitmo for extensive debriefing.
So was Paul...
Given that Dubya is almost certain to issue pre-emptive pardons clearing himself and his cronies of all crimes, the first executive order should be to declare Bush and the rest of them enemy combatants and "disappear" them to Gitmo.
(I believe that two wrongs don't make a right. We are progressives and to do that would be tantamount to being just like them... I know, I know, emotions dictate that they pay for their crimes and I think they will in due time. The Russians have a saying, 'Revenge is a dish best served cold'... I counsel patience and the Rule of Law. Even if they never see the inside of a court room, they already have been judged and found guilty by us and the world at large. That legacy will live on long after all of us are gone. Can you imagine the burden that their grandchildren will have to bear in the years to come?)
And the other Paul said...
1. Issue a new order pertaining to the repeal of Pelosi's statement that impeachment is off the table.
Though the chimp won't be in office, and therefore he cannot be impeached, every legal instrument should be bought to bear against this hideous republican cabal.
(Thanks, Paul... See my response to Ed)
joe (with the little j) was more upbeat with...
First send Hillary around the world to let everybody know that a NEW and Fair Leader is now in charge, we will close all the torture chambers and be what we once were a beacon of HOPE for the World. This will bring Good Karma to us and the World, then start working on National Health care,create Green jobs, put the regulations back in that were taken out.
(Yeah, joe! That's what I'm talkin' 'bout! Thanks!)
Joe (with the big J) writes...
1. Issue a new order pertaining to___________.... Granting a full pardon to Leonard Peltier, a citizen of the Anishinaabe and Dakota/Lakota Nations who has been unjustly imprisoned since 1976.
www.petitiononline.com/Clemency/petition.html
(I agree entirely and not just because I have my own Anishinaabe roots (Sault tribe of the Chippewa in the U.P. of Michigan)... Readers! Please read and sign the petition! Thanks, Joe!)
Sally P(al) not surprisingly declared...
I would choose number 2: Repeal Dubya's outrageous order to leave our troops in Iraq until 2011! That order should be overturned on January 21, 2009! We cannot afford to be over there morally, or financially, period.
Keep in mind the Russian's attempt to control the oil in Afghanistan in the 1980s - that long war broke the Soviet Union and caused the breakup of that empire. Barack had better deliver on his promise to get us the Hell out of Iraq, or we too will be split up into little, "Red and Blue" pockets of a once great nation! Alaska first of course... PS: Please don't anyone say, "We are obligated not to leave, blah, blah, blah!" It is time for the lunatics over there to fight their own battles against each other! Best we could do (but won't) is to allow all those innocent people who want out, to leave, and then let the religious nuts go at it! I don't understand that mentality and feel the farther away from it we get, the better. Let the troops guard our own borders, ports, and airports - plenty of work to do right here, in what is left of the good old US of A!
(I believe that BHO will get us out of Iraq sooner than the just negotiated deal stipulates i.e. 2011. That's the good news. What's the not-so-good news is that I believe that he thinks that we (as well as our allies) need to remain in Afghanistan and even do a 'surge' thing. Remember, during the campaign, BHO called for an increase of at least 2 brigades there. Oh, by the way, there's little, if any, oil in Afghanistan. The USSR's stated reason for their intervention there was to assist the Marxist Afghan government in their fight with the religious zealots that opposed them...)
Some Guy (Hoo Ha, another new respondent!) brought up a new issue with...
Not sure about first - but somewhere in the top ten i would like to see him or congress reinstate the equal time provisions for the media. It is time that the Radical Right Wing Blowhards on Faux TV and those on talk radio give equal time to even a centrist idea for a change. By the way why don't we call them by their correct name as Radicals instead of the misnomer Conservative? After all the terms are Radical Right / Liberal Left. Using the term Conservative alludes to the incorrect idea that they are centrist...
(Hmmmm... That would mean that Air America would have to do the same. Are you prepared to do that?
I'm not sure that I am... But, thanks SG!)
And finally DanD's wish list for Santa (his words, not mine)
Number 1: the absolute and unabrogatable primacy of The United States Constitution
Number 2: Well, I can't call it an order, instead I must refer to it as a predilection, that of course being Monkey-fister's fantasy-unitary pResidential predispostion to "outside-of-the-Constitutional-lawbox" issue "Signing Statements." This treacherous practice by a sitting president must forever (for Obama AND all his consequent unitary executive wannabes) be specifically identified as a high treason against America's Constitutional rule of law, with very summary public executions being the mandatory consequence for all violators...
(Summary public executions? Excuse me? No trial? No appeal? Do you have a preferred method?
I'm dying to know, haha... sorry... my bad)...
Whew! Very interesting stuff, if'n ya don't mind me sayin' so. Thanks again to all responders! As always, I say... Yer the best!
BadToTheBoneBob
The New Question
The Holiday Movie Season Edition
Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Paul Krugman: Deficits and the Future (nytimes.com)
Economists worry that large budget deficits will burden future generations. But strong fiscal expansion would actually enhance the economy's long-run prospects.
Ted Rall: SOMALI PIRATES LAUGH, AFGHAN BRIDES DIE
I'm the loudmouth pundit. I'm supposed to have the answers, or at least pretend to. This week, however, I'm baffled. Confused, even. So I'm turning the tables to ask you, dear reader: Why aren't we bombing the crap out of Somalia's pirates?
"The Future of the Internet And How to Stop It" by Jonathan Zittrain: A review by Hal Abelson (American Scientist; Posted on Powells.com)
The spectacular achievement of the Internet is a success that has many parents. But when it comes to engineering design, a top honor must go to the decision to make the Net "stupid": Let the network perform its limited function of transmitting bits, and leave "smarter" functions, such as encryption, content filtering and quality of service, to be supplied by the computers attached to the network rather than by the network core itself. In other words, let the network do its basic job while staying out of the way of everything else.
Guy Browning: How to ... stand out (guardian.co.uk)
The world is divided into those who frown on standing out and those who encourage it. Britain stands out even among those who favour standing out for its devotion to it. From birth, most people think they have an absolute right to be special. This comes from modern parenting, which encourages children to believe they are capable of anything rather than being capable of becoming a baker.
Rosanna Greenstreet: Q&A (guardian.co.uk)
Philip Glass, 71, was born in Baltimore, Maryland. He studied music at New York's Juilliard School and in Paris, then supported himself with a variety of jobs, including driving a New York taxi, until his 40s, when he began to compose full-time.
Can Britney do it again? (independent.co.uk)
She's the star who burnt out. Now Ms Spears aims to win us back by telling all. Guy Adams reports.
Clay Cane: The Soul of Seal (advocate.com)
Armed with a new album of soul classics and his trademark blunt outlook on the state of the world, Seal sat down with Advocate.com to discuss the rumors that he and wife Heidi Klum would have left the country had John McCain been elected, the gay rights movement, and what makes Seal's sound so damn sexy.
David James Smith: "Guillaume Depardieu: a tragic tale" (timesonline.co.uk)
He was the enfant terrible of French cinema. A tormented soul who inherited his famous father's talent, and his demons. It was a fatal combination that would send Guillaume Depardieu to an early grave.
Greg Archer: The Kid Stays in the Picture (advocate.com)
Lana Turner's lesbian daughter, Cheryl Crane, has penned her second memoir about her late, great movie star mother -- "Lana: The Memories, the Myths, the Movies." Crane sits down with The Advocate to relive that fateful night she killed her mother's mobster lover, share some untold stories, and give us a sneak peek at the new photographs of their life together.
Jim Halterman: Rosie O'Donnell dishes on her new variety show, "The View" and civil rights (afterellen.com)
"... I kind of found it surprising that people were saying 'you're not vocal enough.' I'm not vocal enough? I got married before anyone else didŠI'm living it and have been living it for a very long time. Of course I'm in favor of gay marriage and gay civil rights and civil rights for all Americans completely."
wrote:
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Sunny and a bit warmer.
Shelob the tarantula went into her molting mode, but never emerged.
Nominations
Annie Awards
DreamWorks Animation's "Kung Fu Panda" fought off stiff competition to earn 16 nominations -- the most for a feature -- for the International Animated Film Society's 36th Annual Annie Awards.
That includes a nomination for best animated feature, a category in which it is competing with Pixar Animation Studios' "WALL-E" -- considered the front-runner for the Oscar -- which earned seven nominations. "Panda" and "WALL-E" also earned one additional nomination each in the best video-game competition.
The top category is rounded out by nominations for Walt Disney Animation Studios' "Bolt," a 3-D release that earned five nominations; Sony Pictures Classics' "Waltz With Bashir," Israel's award-winning documentary, which took four nominations; and Sherman Pictures/Lama Films' "$9.99," a stop-motion title that earned two nominations.
Blue Sky Studios' "Dr. Suess' Horton Hear a Who," a Fox release, also had a strong showing with five nominations.
Annie Awards
Prize For Spanish-Language Woman Writers
Aura Estrada Prize
Three Nobel laureates threw their support Monday behind a prize to be awarded to Spanish-language women writers 35 or younger living in the United States or Mexico.
Gabriel Garcia Marquez from Colombia, Toni Morrison from the United States and Seamus Heaney from Ireland offered their support for the Aura Estrada Prize in memory of a Mexican writer who died in 2007 at age 30.
"Good causes must be supported. This prize has my full support," Garcia Marquez said as he announced the award at the Guadalajara Book Fair in western Mexico.
The award targets "women 35 years old or younger who are beginning their literary career and live in Mexico or in the United States, writing a fiction or non-fiction essay, short story or novel in Spanish," said Mexican writer Gabriela Jauregui.
Aura Estrada Prize
Post for a Cure Campaign
Vanessa Williams
"Ugly Betty" star Vanessa Williams has kicked off a breast cancer fundraiser by driving a pink fence post into the ground in suburban New York City.
Williams was in Mount Kisco on Sunday to mark the start of the Post for a Cure campaign for the American Cancer Society's Relay for Life effort.
As part of the campaign, a Mahopac fencing company will donate $1 for every post put in the ground through April 18.
YouTube Symphony Orchestra
Open Auditions
YouTube Symphony Orchestra
There's a new way to get to Carnegie Hall - YouTube, YouTube, YouTube.
Borrowing from "American Idol," the online video site announced plans Monday for a YouTube Symphony Orchestra, featuring a collaboration of wannabe musicians with Carnegie Hall, conductor Michael Tilson Thomas, composer Tan Dun and others.
Through Jan. 28, musicians can submit entries as they perform two videos: a display of their musical talents and an interpretation of an original work by Tan, who won an original-score Academy Award for 2000's "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon."
A panel of experts from some of the world's leading orchestras will narrow the field. YouTube users will then vote for the winners, who will be announced March 2.
YouTube Symphony Orchestra
Wins Turner Prize
Mark Leckey
British artist Mark Leckey was Monday named the winner of this year's Turner Prize, contemporary art's most prestigious award, with a film that included cartoon characters such as Homer Simpson.
The film, which also featured Felix the Cat and Garfield and showed him lecturing on his love of animation, was part of a body of work that won the 44-year-old the 25,000-pound (37,000-dollar, 30,000-euro) prize.
He was the bookies' favourite to win the accolade, given to a British artist -- those working in Britain and born here -- aged under 50 for an outstanding exhibition or other presentation of their work in the previous year.
Mark Leckey
Los Angeles Times Salvo
Producers
Hollywood's studio heads, stuck in a standoff with the Screen Actors Guild, are making their plea to the rest of the industry in a full-page ad in the Los Angeles Times as the threat of a strike looms.
The "open letter" that appears in Monday's paper says the actors are jeopardizing the work of other unions that have already made deals with producers.
It says "SAG is demanding that the entire industry literally throw out all its hard work because it believes it deserves more than the 230,000 other people working in the industry."
The letter was signed by the chief executives of eight major Hollywood Studios including The Walt Disney Co. and Paramount Pictures.
Producers
Beckoned By Mothership
Glenn Beck
Glenn Beck's new Fox News Channel program will debut weeks earlier than originally planned, on January 19.
Beck was lured away from CNN Headline News earlier this year so that Fox News Channel could fill its 5 p.m. slot, which had been "America's Election Headquarters" for the past several months, since John Gibson's show was canceled.
"Glenn Beck" originally was scheduled to premiere on Fox News Channel in February. But Fox News said Monday that Beck was able to get out of his CNN deal earlier than expected, enabling Fox News to push up the start date.
Fox News said that Beck's program, which will include guests and a look at the day's top political, entertainment and business headlines, won't be a carbon copy of CNN Headline News' "Glenn Beck."
Glenn Beck
Online Claims 41 Percent Share
U.S. Music Market
Digital music sales account for 18 percent of the U.S. music market and that figure will grow to 41 percent in five years, Forrester Research said in a report released on Monday.
The report titled "U.S. Music Forecast, 2008 to 2013" also forecast that 55 percent of U.S. online consumers will pay to download digital music in 2013.
JupiterResearch, a division of Massachusetts-based independent company Forrester Research, said in the report that growth in digital music sales will not compensate for declining CD sales, with the overall U.S. music market shrinking over the next five years from its current level of $10.2 billion to $9.8 billion.
U.S. Music Market
Buckeye Bonanza
Prostitute Raffle
An Ohio State University academic adviser and a real estate agent held a $10-a-ticket raffle that offered an evening with a prostitute who is also a child sex-abuse caseworker, police said.
Christopher S. Johnson, 33, an academic adviser at OSU's School of Nursing, organized the raffle through a Craigslist.com chat board, police said. Real estate agent Rusty Blades, 42, held the invitation-only party at his house in October for the participants.
Both Johnson and Blades were charged with promoting prostitution. A judge set bail Saturday at $50,000 for Blades and $25,000 for Johnson.
OSU spokesman Jim Lynch said that Johnson was placed on unpaid leave and that the school will investigate whether he improperly used his computer.
Prostitute Raffle
Former Hospital Worker Sold Records
UCLA
A former employee of UCLA Medical Center pleaded guilty Monday to selling information from the medical records of celebrities and high-profile patients, including Britney Spears and Farrah Fawcett, to the National Enquirer.
Lawanda Jackson, 49, spoke quietly as she entered her plea to the felony charge of violating federal medical privacy law for commercial purposes in U.S. District Court.
Jackson worked as an administrative specialist at the UCLA hospitals for 32 years and in recent years began using her supervisor's password to access medical records inappropriately, authorities said.
The tabloid deposited checks totaling at least $4,600 into her husband's checking account beginning in 2006, prosecutors said. Jackson resigned in July 2007 before she could be fired.
UCLA
Queen Of Yahoo Searches
Britney Spears
Britney Spears reigns supreme in online searches at Yahoo this year despite an historic US presidential election and a global financial crisis.
Yahoo users worldwide have made more online queries about the drama-prone pop star in 2008 than about any other single topic, according to a trend analysis released Monday by the California-based Internet firm.
The second most popular Yahoo search this year came from people trying to pin down information about World Wrestling Entertainment, an organization that stages theatrical professional wrestling events.
US president-elect Barack Obama ranked third, just ahead of Miley Cyrus, an actress that stars as Hannah Montana in an eponymous Disney Channel television show.
Britney Spears
007's Auto Auctioned
Lotus Esprit
The classic white Lotus sports car driven by Roger Moore in Bond film "The Spy Who Loved Me" was sold at auction in London on Monday for 111,500 pounds (165,936 dollars, 131,634 euros).
Bonhams auctioneers said the 1976 Lotus Esprit, which was driven on land and under water in the 1977 film, was bought by a private US collector who was bidding by telephone.
The new owner of the car, one of two Lotus cars driven in the film, described himself as a fan of both Lotus and James Bond and said the car would be going to Atlanta in the US state of Georgia.
Lotus Esprit
Oink. Oink.
Pigboy
Rush Limbaugh (R-Propagandist) has seldom been a fan of Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton. But the conservative radio pundit fascist drug addict has given his blessing to her selection as the next secretary of state.
He calls it "a brilliant stroke" by President-elect Barack Obama, who opposed Clinton for the Democratic nomination.
Limbaugh weighs in bloviates on the new administration as one of Barbara Walters' "10 Most Fascinating People of 2008," which airs Thursday on ABC.
Pigboy
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