I'm busy, but never too busy to fret about the Gators. Let me make one thing perfectly clear (h/t Nixon), if the SEC Champion is shut out of the BCS Championship game, I personally will riot on the streets.

Do something about this Barack!

This too is an Open Thread.

TChris is in trial, I'm off to the jail and BTD is swamped at work. Here's an open thread for you.

For those of you wanting to know more about Eric Holder, here are excerpts from his 1997 Deputy Attorney General confirmation hearing.

Planned Parenthood President Cecile Richards lauds President-elect Obama's announcement naming Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State:

Senator Clinton understands that women's quality of life directly affects the major issues confronting the globe: national security, environmental sustainability, and global poverty.

In a speech that, by the standards of the Bush administration, sounds positively radical, Clinton addressed the Cairo Plus Five Forum at the Hague in 1999, saying,

"Women's reproductive health and empowerment are critical to a nation's sustainability and growth ... we now know that no nation can hope to succeed in the global economy of the 21st century if half of its people lack the opportunity and the right to make the most of their God-given potential. No nation can move forward when its women and children are trapped in endless cycles of poverty; when they have inadequate health care, poor access to family planning, limited education."

President Elect Obama is making his announcements. Hilllary, Eric Holder, Robert Gates, Janet Napolitano, Susan Rice, General James Jones.

Update: Hillary gave a great, short speech. Holder makes me nervous. Napolitano stresses securing the border. Susan Rice also wants to strengthen our security. Biden, who spoke after the nominees, was confident.

I think we did get a welcome change from the Bush Administration -- and in thinking about who these appointees would be had McCain been elected, I'll say we did okay with this team.

Questions: To Obama, "Would India be justified in going after terrorists on Pakistani soil?" No direct answer. Next question is about whether the appointees will be a clash of rivals. [More...]

I'm shopped out, but in case you are still going, CyberMonday starts today. Prices will fluctuate throughout the day at most sites, but here's a few that will stay the same until Dec. 7:

• As far as I'm concerned, you can never have too many of these Western Digital My Passport 320 GB USB hard drives. At $90 instead of the usual $170, it's too good to pass up. Shipping is only $2.95 and there's no sales tax.

• If you've been wanting a big screen monitor for your computer, here's a steal: Samsung 22" Widescreen LCD Monitor for $189 with free shipping. List price is $380.

• How about a Panisonic 32" LCD HD TV that for $499? It's a 720 as opposed to 1080p (and I don't buy their "retail price" of $2500., but 720 probably all you need in a 32".

If you found any great deals, let us know (not the link, unless you can put it in html format, but the store and the item.)

Bump and Update: The Swiss voted to make permanent the experimental plan of providing heroin to addicts through doctor's prescriptions. The measure passed by 68%. (But they rejected an initiative to decriminalize pot):

****

Swiss to Vote on Prescription Heroin Policy Sunday

Tomorrow, the Swiss head to the polls. On the ballot: whether to make an experimental program allowing doctors to prescribe heroin permanent.

In 1998 Switzerland introduced an experimental 10-year heroin prescription programme. Today around 1,300 patients across the country are on the programme.

[More...]

Writing in the Washington Post, Former FBI agent Jack Cloonan and Sarah Mendelson, author of a report "Closing Guantanamo: From Bumper Sticker to Blue Print" have a plan to close Guantanamo.

Shorter version: Appoint a "blue ribbon panel" of experts to divide those who are left into two categories, those who can be released and those who should be tried in the U.S. criminal justice system. For those who are tried, no use of information gained through torture.

On a related note, a former leader of a team of interrogators in Iraq in 2006 writes, using a pseudomym, I'm Still Tortured by What I Saw in Iraq.

This is silly. Frankly, it does harm to real and legitimate claims for an Obama mandate

When your mandate measure puts anyone ahead of FDR, it is time to stop.

Speaking for me only

This is an Open Thread.

DemfromCt, who does good work on polling, blithely and unquestioningly endorses the unsupported and empty assertion from Pew:

First, the middle asserted itself. This was not a base election. Independents broke decisively for Obama, favoring him by a 52%-to-44% margin over John McCain.

I do not even know what that is supposed to mean but it worth reviewing these same numbers from 2004:

Bump and Update: It's Offical. Hillary will fly to Chicago tomorrow to join Obama for his cabinet appointments announcement, including her own as Secretary of State. Congratulations, Hillary!

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CNN and other news organizations are reporting that President Elect Barack Obama will name Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State on Monday.

The New York Times reports on the lengthy negotiations between Team Obama and Bill Clinton and the 9 preconditions the former President had to meet. [More...]

The teeth gnashing about Obama (and I am all for it, we need a Left Flank) continues - this time from Paul Rosenberg:

Nate [Silver]'s general point that Obama's agenda is more liberal than centrist is certainly true. This is hardly surprising in light of Obama's record in the Senate, where he and Clinton had virtually identical records, both as moderate liberals. Given that both are Democrats from solid blue states, there is nothing surprising about this at all. . . . [The Obama] agenda is top-heavy with playing catch-up. For the most part, it's all about enacting ideas that have been around for a long, long time. It's not much about new ideas.

Indeed. I am quite pleased with this. I remember the 90s. With a Democratic/Obama mandate for Bill Clinton's more ambitious agenda (and with a Depression looming, Obama can do as he pleases), we have a great opportunity. This is good news from where I sit - the "Center-Right" (this is meant as a joke, though some may think it is a fair description.)

Speaking for me only

Credit to Glenn Greenwald and Matt Yglesias for pointing to the latest NYTimes article that demonstrates that NBC and its empty headed, blow dried anchor Brian Williams have not a shred of integrity. See their posts and the Times articles for the details. But this is the bottom line about NBC specifically and the Media in general, from Yglesias:

it’s worth contemplating the breathtaking lack of integrity on display from the television networks here. As I said, Barstow published a piece on this back in April. None of the TV networks addressed the issue he raised in anything resembling a serious manner. And, again, we now have NBC News caught flat-out in the midst of corruption, deceiving their viewers. And NBC News isn’t sorry. They’re not apologizing. They’re not ashamed. Because they’re beyond shame. They never had a reputation for honor, so they don’t even see this sort of thing as damaging.

And if the Left blogs thinks this does not extend to their favorite cable new network, well, then they are willful fools.

Speaking for me only

I wondered how long it would be before some guy in Bangalore was writing my column about President Obama. . . . A penny for your thoughts? Now I knew my days were numbered.

She can always create a blog. More likely, HuffPo will hire her - they do need someone to provide even more Clinton Hate.

This is an Open Thread.

Speaking for me only

So says Poblano:

According to multiple sources, who confirmed the Tip O'Neill staffer-cum-MSNBC host has negotiated with veteran Obama staffers to enlist in his campaign, Chris Matthews is likely to run for United States Senate in Pennsylvania in 2010. Matthews, 62, would run as a Democrat.

I would strongly oppose a Tweety candidacy for ANY office, including, but not limited to, dog catcher. The man is an embarrassment.

Speaking for me only

It was a happy Thanksgiving for Steven Barnes -- the first he's had since some time before 1989, when he went to prison for a rape and murder he didn't commit.

The 42-year-old man walked out of state prison Tuesday after spending nearly half his life behind bars for a crime he did not commit. An Oneida County Court judge set Mr. Barnes free after DNA testing exonerated him of the murder and rape of a 16-year-old girl.

To his credit, the district attorney didn't stand in the way of Barnes' freedom.

The district attorney conceded that Mr. Barnes "would never have been arrested" if today's DNA technology had existed in 1985. The search for the real killer has been renewed.

Happy Thanksgiving, Steven Barnes.