witchcrafting

well here's the condensed version of today's insanity:



for a longer vid of Fitzgerald's (of Valarie Plame fame) press conference today go here.

Digby wonders if today's news will become fodder for our next guilt-by-association "controversy." (seems Gawker is trying to jumpstart it themselves)


But fortunately there is this:

79%:

"An Obama job approval rating of 79 percent! That’s the sort of rating you see when the public rallies around a leader after a national disaster. To many Americans, the Bush Administration was a national disaster," says CNN Senior Political Analyst Bill Schneider.

But of course you can't please all of the people all of the time. David Wiegel talks to some detractors:

"This is the largest hoax in 200 years," said Berg. "Obama knows where he was born. He knows he was adopted in Indonesia. Obama places our Constitution in a crisis situation, and Obama is in a situation where he can be blackmailed by leaders around the world who know he is not qualified."

"It is common knowledge," explained Manning, "that African men, coming from the continent of Africa—especially for the first time—do diligently seek out white women to have sexual intercourse with. Generally the most noble of white society choose not to intercourse sexually with these men. So it's usually the trashier ones who make their determinations that they're going to have sex."

Manning evoked the memories of Africans who lost their lives "packed like sardines" onto slave ships, now in "a watery grave." "Do you think we want to wake those people up and tell them that the womb of a 16-year-old white girl has produced your redeemer? Has produced your savior? I don't think they want to wake up to that. I think they want to keep sleeping in that grave until true justice might be given."

"I can't stand to watch Obama," Mizell said. "He looks so deceitful. I feel like it's witchcraft going all over everybody, that he's witchcrafting everybody. He doesn't say anything. He uses a lot of good words."

more fun here and here!

Michael Tomasky responds to media reports that suggest liberals are unhappy with Obama:

Well, they didn't call me, and you can place me well outside the magic circle. I'm not nervous or flat-out angry or even concerned. I'm excited. And by the way, the vast majority of the people I know are excited, too.

Obama is still seven weeks away from taking office but has already signaled that he's going to do grand things, huge things – dare I say heretofore unimaginable things. A half-trillion dollar (at least; some suspect it may end up being more like a trillion) jobs-and-infrastructure program, which he wants to enact as soon as possible after he takes office? Liberals have complained for decades – yes, decades, since the 1970s – about the creaky state of America's bridges and roads and the need for more spending on transit. Ditto the schools. We live in a country of which it's still probably true that most schools were built in the 1920s (New York City, for example, opened a new school building once every three weeks for that entire decade). Again, we have complained and complained and complained about their condition, and quite rightly so, for decades.

And here comes a president who is about to do something about all this, and do it more grandly than most liberals would have dared to imagine just a few months ago. And do it immediately. And he's not liberal enough? Please. If President Obama were to pass a trillion dollar jobs-and-infrastructure bill and, Heaven forbid, drop dead on his elliptical machine in March, that single act alone would be enough to make him one of the most progressive presidents in the history of the country.

Ezra Klein offers a slightly different perspective here.

Paul Waldman on the revival of "big government" thinking.

Kula2316, posting at dkos, summarizes the arguments over Caroline Kennedy as a possible HRC Senate replacement:

Jane Hamsher's post at firedoglake about Caroline Kennedy has set off a debate on the blogs and in the media. Kos wrote yesterday that he agrees with Hamsher that it's not a great idea. Josh Marshall at Talking Points Memo feels the same:

But I think Jane Hamsher's right about this. Appointing Caroline Kennedy to serve out Hillary's senate term is just a bad idea.

::::::

Ruth Marcus at the Washington Post likes the political imagery of the whole thing:

She is the last survivor of her immediate family; she reveals herself only in the measured doses of a person who has always been, will always be, in the public eye.

Then, deciding that Obama is the first candidate with the inspirational appeal of her father, she chooses to abandon her previous, above-it-all detachment from the hurly-burly of politics. I know it's an emotional -- dare I say "girly"? -- reaction. But what a fitting coda to this modern fairy tale to have the little princess grow up to be a senator.

But, she also says:

More unsettling, political dynasties are fundamentally un-American. This is not -- or is not supposed to be -- a country in which political power is an inherited commodity.

Meanwhile, Mark Nickolas, the editor of Political Base, thinks the criticism of Kennedy is overblown:

Nevertheless, despite the remarkable life that Caroline Kennedy has lived...despite her Harvard undergraduate degree and Columbia Law School degree...despite her being an attorney, an editor, and a published author...despite that our next president trusted her to co-lead his search for a vice president...despite coming from one of the greatest families ever to serve in the United States Congress... we have to sit and listen to members of this Beltway fraternity (and sorority) bluster that she might not be qualified to become 1 of 100 in the Senate. Seriously?

I don't think many would argue that Caroline Kennedy couldn't be a good Senator. I think she could. But, since she's never run for public office before, I would much rather see her campaign and win an election than be appointed.

I think the real issue is that freshmen Senators generally have very little power, but CK would presumably be able to tap into her Uncle Ted's network of influence. If you're the Governor of New York you want to put someone in there who can bring home the bacon and CK's probably the most attractive prospect in that regard.

Apparently Ted is working the back channels.