Whose whining now?

President-elect Obama has been taking a lot of abuse recently — from liberals.
Why?
Because he chose someone they don’t like to give the invocation at his inauguration. That someone is evangelical preacher, and best-selling author of “The Purpose Driven Life”, Rick Warren. Warren, unsurprisingly, is anti-abortion and anti-gay marriage and that, according to those on the left, should have precluded him from having any kind of role, no matter how ceremonial or symbolic, in an Obama inauguration.
What distinguishes Warren from your run-of-the-mill evangelical preacher, according to Wiki, is his outspoken challenge to evangelical leaders to devote less attention to divisive social issues and focus more on efforts to fight international poverty and disease, expand educational opportunity for the marginalized, and combat global warming.
It sounds to me like the guy has taken some major steps in the right direction. So why the big uproar over the invocation nod? Atrios gave Obama “wanker of the day” honors for the choice and even suggested that inaugural attendees should turn their backs on Warren during the invocation.
Please stop.
Folks on the left have spent the last two years mocking those on the right as “whiny ass titty babies” and now here we have the same people behaving like spoiled children who throw a hissy fit when they don’t get their way on every little thing.
Obama can choose whoever he wants to give the invocation at his inaugural party. Get over it! If he wants to reach out to those on the right and show some appreciation to someone who met him halfway on some key issues, then what is the big problem? It’s not like Obama has changed his position on these social issues. Far from it. But he is going to need some support to get these changes in place and it is not helpful to have those who should be his biggest supporters rolling around on the floor, kicking and screaming over a complete non-issue. Sheesh!

Obama's Cabinet

Obama is nearly completely done naming his cabinet.

TREASURY SECRETARY: Timothy Geithner, president of Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
SECRETARY OF STATE: Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y.
ATTORNEY GENERAL: Eric Holder, former deputy attorney general.
DEFENSE SECRETARY: Robert Gates, holdover from Bush administration.
HOMELAND SECURITY SECRETARY: Gov. Janet Napolitano, D-Ariz.
NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER: Retired Marine Gen. James Jones.
COMMERCE SECRETARY: Gov. Bill Richardson, D-N.M.
NATIONAL ECONOMIC COUNCIL DIRECTOR: Lawrence Summers, former treasury secretary.
OFFICE OF MANAGEMENT AND BUDGET DIRECTOR: Peter Orszag, director of Congressional Budget Office.
HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES SECRETARY: Former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D.
VETERANS AFFAIRS SECRETARY: Retired Gen. Eric K. Shinseki.
HOUSING AND URBAN DEVELOPMENT SECRETARY: Shaun Donovan, New York City housing commissioner.
ENERGY SECRETARY: Steven Chu, director of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.
EPA ADMINISTRATOR: Lisa P. Jackson, former commissioner of New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection.
ASSISTANT TO THE PRESIDENT FOR ENERGY AND CLIMATE CHANGE: Carol Browner, former EPA administrator.
WHITE HOUSE COUNCIL ON ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY CHAIR: Nancy Sutley, deputy mayor for energy and environment in Los Angeles.
EDUCATION SECRETARY: Arne Duncan, Chicago schools superintendent.
INTERIOR SECRETARY: Sen. Ken Salazar, D-Colo.
AGRICULTURE SECRETARY: Tom Vilsack, former Iowa governor.
NATIONAL INTELLIGENCE DIRECTOR
Denny Blair, retired admiral and former commander of the U.S. Pacific Command.
LABOR SECRETARY
Rep. Hilda Solis, D-Calif.
TRANSPORTATION SECRETARY
Rep. Ray LaHood, R-Ill.

U.S. TRADE REPRESENTATIVE
Ron Kirk, former Dallas mayor.

POSTS TO BE DECIDED, WITH THE CONTENDERS:
CIA DIRECTOR
John Gannon, former deputy director for intelligence at the CIA during Clinton administration.
Jami Miscik, former head of CIA's analytical operations.
Steve Kappes, CIA's current No. 2.
Rep. Jane Harman, D-Calif., now heads House Homeland Security subcommittee on intelligence.
John McLaughlin, former interim CIA chief.

Add them all up and you have 24 major appointments of which half have gone to non-white males.
That’s pretty remarkable.
The one demographic group that looked as if it would be left out was the South, but that seems to have been rectified with the last minute nomination of Texan Ron Kirk as U.S. Trade Representative.

Franken may win afterall

I should know never to get my hopes up too much, but there has been a lot of buzz recently that Al Franken might actually pull out a victory in this Minnesota recount. The fact that the election board came down with two crucial rulings the other day that favored Franken may have made all the difference. Now, fresh analysis of the disputed ballots by the Minneapolis Star Tribune and the Associated Press show Franken should pull ahead in the vote count.
The frustrating thing so far is that all the official tallies have shown Coleman with a 200-vote lead. But now it may finally be revealed that the only reason he has had that lead to date is because he made so many frivoulous challenges to ballots in an effort to keep Franken’s numbers down. That slimy strategy has allowed Coleman to go around for the past few weeks boasting that he is the consensus frontrunner.
But that may all end soon.

Finishing what they started...

In the Express-New's Random Notes section this Sunday, they hi-lite a quote from Peggy Noonan in the WSJ stating that "the final argument for Mr. Bush" will be the fact that "since 9-11, there were no further attacks on American soil..."
Now this statement completely ignores the post-9/11 anthrax attacks that were never resolved. But that aside, it is maddening that anyone would try to pretend that because of something Bush did, al-Qaeda was deterred from making another attack.
This makes no sense when you consider that Bin Laden is still loose and al-Qaeda is as strong now as it ever was. Why wouldn't they have attacked again? Could it be that they simply didn't need to.
One of the goals of the 9/11 attack, besides killing people and striking fear in everyone else, was to damage the U.S. financially by striking at the heart of our economic and financial infrastucture.
Fortunately, they failed.
Unfortunately, Bush and the Republican economic polices may have succeeded where they fell short. Our nation is caught in an economic death spiral that was a direct result of the Republican economic policies that have damaged the very fabric of America both here and abroad.
Al-Qaeda doesn't need to drop any more bombs, Wall Street has blown itself up quite nicely without their help. We desperatly need to change course, but it may already be too late for many companies.