new president

The next couple of days will be nothing but festivities for most, but for some it will be work. I’m not talking about right wingers who fear the end of days by the swearing in of Barack Obama as our 44th President, but I am talking about actual members of Obama’s new administration:

{[}]lt;blockquote>

Vans will be poised at the Capitol to take a few top aides of Barack Obama's to their new offices at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. as soon as he is sworn in, transition aides told Politico.

About 20 senior officials have had their paperwork cleared to enter the White House complex on Tuesday. Some will attend a traditional lunch with the new president in the Capitol, then get to work while the inaugural parade is under way.

The quick start on Tuesday is indicative of the months of planning that Obama’s transition team has put into preparing for his opening days in office.

Officials say on Wednesday, which is being referred to as “Day 1,” he is scheduled to meet with his economic team to discuss the latest calibration of his stimulus package, which is likely to be about $900 billion by the time it reaches his desk, probably in mid-February.

So we see more change coming. When Bush took office he decided to enjoy his first eight months at the ranch and golfing, while ignoring pesky little memos like “Bin Laden determined to attack”. Instead we have a President who realizes he is entering the biggest job in the world, and he is prepared to tackle it head on. That is change we can believe in.

Now that we have a Democrat taking over 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. and Democrats controlling Congress, can we look at a serious budget cut? I'm of course talking about the bullshit "war on drugs". So far this year our governments (federal and state) have spent close to $44 billion on this never ending war. It's like the "war on terror" in the sense that it is a war that can not be won.

A good starting point would be to go ahead and legalize marijuana. Marijuana is healthier than cigarettes and with our dying economy, could provide a big boost in the way of manufacturing and taxing. We need to face that fact that doing drugs doesn't make someone a loser in life. If you think so, then here is a nice list of people who have used drugs in the past and still went on to greatness, including our new President.

Let's also think about the savings of incarcerating people for drug use. If people weren't locked up for smokin' a doob, then we wouldn't spend tens of thousands per year to house them in prison, just so they go out there and do it again.

America has the highest incarceration rate of any country in the world. We also have the some of the toughest drug laws in the world. Coincidence? I don't think so. So please President Obama, Majority Leader Reid and Speak Pelosi, let's start looking at this huge sinker tied around the neck of the American tax payer and rid ourselves of it once and for all. If we learned anything from prohibition it's that it didn't work.

I turned on Morning Joe and heard him going off about Gwen Ifill moderating the debate tomorrow night. His complaint is that she has authored a book; The Breakthrough: Politics and Race in the Age of Obama . I hadn't heard about this book, so I started Googleing it. One of the first links I found was from none other than the National Review by none other than Malkin:

My dictionary defines “moderator” as “the nonpartisan presiding officer of a town meeting.” On Thursday, PBS anchor Gwen Ifill will serve as moderator for the first and only vice presidential debate. The stakes are high. The Commission on Presidential Debates, with the assent of the two campaigns, decided not to impose any guidelines on her duties or questions.

But there is nothing “moderate” about where Ifill stands on Barack Obama. She’s so far in the tank for the Democratic presidential candidate, her oxygen delivery line is running out.

And how does Malkin know exactly what is in Ifill's book when it won't be released until the very day our new President takes office, January 20, 2009? Reading the editorial review, it just says she is talking about the breakthrough of African-Americans in politics. Nothing about it being specifically about Obama.

So could this become the reason the McCain campaign does a last minute pull out of the debate? I Wouldn't be shocked if that's the case. If that's the case then how about Tom Brokaw, who has been acting as a "liaison" between the McCain campaign and NBC?

Environmentalists have feared that Bush would try to use his last year in office to push for opening up areas for drilling, and that is exactly his plan:

The Bush administration has proposed allowing oil and gas drilling in an area of the Bering Sea considered important for the recovery of the world's most endangered whale.

The proposal opening up 5.6 million acres off the Alaska coast to energy development was published Tuesday in the Federal Register by the Minerals Management Service.

Under the leasing proposal, the North Aleutian Basin lease sale would be held in 2011. Exploratory drilling could begin the next year.

Bush has been a disaster on the environment, and he will leave with a bang. Hopefully Congress has the ability to hold up his plans until we get a new President.

And not in a good way

Wall Street resumed its downward trek Friday as skittish investors, unable to hold on to much optimism about the economy, drew little comfort from President Bush's stimulus plan.

Investors had already pulled back from a big early gain, with the major indexes trading mixed as Bush began to speak. By the time the president finished announcing a plan for about $145 billion worth of tax relief, the indexes were well into negative territory.

"It's disappointed in the size of the economic growth package. Wall Street's showing its displeasure," said Kim Caughey, equity research analyst at Fort Pitt Capital Group in Pittsburgh. "Honestly, I think the institutional investors understand the limits to the government's ability to enact economic change."

The Dow Jones industrial average, up more than 180 points in morning trading, was down 85.11, or 0.70 percent, at 12,074.10. The Dow plunged 306 points Thursday amid deepening pessimism about the economy.