Below I state that Obama must be bold at the outset of his Presidency. In the NYTimes, Jean Edward Smith, who wrote a fine biography of FDR, describes the famous Hundred Days of FDR:

Here's the headline:

"America's Sheriff" Found Guilty of Witness Tampering

The (former) sheriff in question is Orange County's Mike Carona. Larry King described him as "America's Sheriff" during the investigation of Samantha Runnion's disappearance.

The rest of the story is brighter for Carona than the headline suggests. [more ...]

President-elect Barack Obama will enter office on Tuesday with the American People strongly behind him and willing to give his efforts to fix the country time to work says a NYTimes poll:

President-elect Barack Obama is riding a powerful wave of optimism into the White House, with Americans confident he can turn the economy around but prepared to give him years to deal with the crush of problems he faces starting Tuesday, according to the latest New York Times/CBS News Poll.

Mr. Bush is leaving office with just 22 percent of Americans offering a favorable view of how he handled the eight years of his presidency, a record low, and firmly identified with the economic crisis Mr. Obama is inheriting. More than 80 percent of respondents said the nation was in worse shape today than it was five years ago. By contrast, 79 percent were optimistic about the next four years under Mr. Obama, a level of good will for a new chief executive that exceeds that measured for any of the past five incoming presidents.

Time to be bold.

MTV's Inaugural Ball for President Clinton in 1993 was as good as they get: Michael Stipe of REM, Natalie Merchant (then of 10,000 Maniacs) and Don Henley ("Democracy" here). Bill and Hillary and Al and Tipper made memorable appearances.

Fast-forward 16 years and it's definitely a change. The two biggest musical events will be the "We Are One" concert at the Lincoln Memorial on Sunday afternoon in D.C. and the Youth Inaugural Ball, from which MTV and Service Nation will host their own event, Be the Change, on Tuesday night.[More...]

The New York Times profiles Gregory Craig who will be Obama's White House counsel. In doing so, it provides this description of the types of power lawyers in Washington:

In a city consumed by power, power lawyers come in various stripes. The scandal lawyer extricates politicians from sticky situations. The celebrity lawyer represents big names. The talk-show lawyer sounds smooth on Sunday mornings. The lobbyist deal-maker lawyer uses political connections to open doors. The policy wonk lawyer advises behind the scenes.

Craig, the Times writes, is a "classic" of the protoype power lawyer. How so? [More...]

As anticipated, Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley announced Thursday that he will work to win the repeal of the state's death penalty during the second half of his term.

[H]is promised introduction of a death-penalty repeal bill will face strong opposition, probably leading to a major political battle. O'Malley said the death penalty is not a deterrent, wastes resources that could be better spent fighting violent crime and leaves the state open to the possibility of executing innocent people. "That risk alone should be enough to repeal it and substitute it with life without parole," he said.

A death penalty repeal bill has also been introduced in Nebraska.

An 8th grade student in Safford, Arizona, found in possession of two prescription-strength ibuprofen pills, told school officials she got them from another student, Savana Redding.

School officials searched Savana’s belongings, made her strip to her bra and underwear, and ordered her, in the words of an appeals court, “to pull her bra out to the side and shake it” and “pull out her underwear at the crotch and shake it.” No pills were found.

Strip searching a student to recover a relatively benign medication on the strength of an uncorroborated accusation is outrageous, and seems like an obvious constitutional violation. When Savana's parents sued, however, school officials claimed they were immune from suit because students have no constitutional right not to be strip searched when they are accused of violating school policy. The Supreme Court agreed to decide whether the school's position (which the Ninth Circuit rejected [pdf]) is correct. [more ...]

If Barack Obama and Eric Holder really believe in change, they should change the Justice Department's reliance on assembly line justice. To obtain quick guilty pleas from immigrants who have entered the country illegally, federal prosecutors threaten felony convictions if the immigrants fail to enter prompt guilty pleas to misdemeanor charges.

Every day, of the 1,000 migrants apprehended by immigration agents in Arizona, 70 are "randomly" selected and processed like cattle through Tucson's federal court. The objective is to criminalize these migrants and have them spend time in the private Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), thereby serving as a disincentive for other would-be migrants.

Eliminating reliance on private prisons is another change the new administration should implement. CCA "receives $11 million per month from the federal government." That's $11 million that could be spend on something more productive than warehousing poor people who enter our country to find work.

Speaking of police officers who find it easier to lie than to conduct honest investigations:

Oakland intends to fire 11 police officers for allegedly lying to obtain search warrants in drug cases, officials said Thursday. ... At least 12 [suspects] have already had their cases dismissed because warrants that police used to obtain evidence were obtained on the basis of lies by officers, according to attorneys involved in the cases.

It's so much easier to invent crimes than it is to solve them honestly.

Two undercover narcotics officers have been charged with lying about a sting operation in Queens after one of the men they accused of selling drugs produced video evidence showing the officers had had no contact with him or three other men they arrested.

The officers allegedly bought cocaine from two men but claimed they bought it from six, resulting in the arrests of four innocent men.

It's bad enough that the police conduct sting operations -- often creating crimes that wouldn't have happened but for the sting. How lazy does an officer have to be to arrest four innocent people when it's so easy to find actual drug dealers willing to sell their product? And what ever happened to good old fashioned police work: investigating and sometimes solving actual crimes that actually occurred? [more ...]

. . . of the list of worst Presidential approval ratings ever for an outgoing President:

President Bush prepares to leave office with no evidence that public opinion toward him is softening during his final days in power, according to the latest New York Times/CBS News poll. When asked about Mr. Bush’s performance over the last eight years, 22 percent of respondents said they approved. That matched Mr. Bush’s job-approval rating for much of last fall, the lowest of his presidency. In the current poll, 73 percent disapproved of his performance over the course of his two terms.

In contrast, Mr. Bush’s most recent predecessors left office with approval ratings ranging from 68 percent, for both Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton, to 44 percent, for Jimmy Carter. Mr. Bush’s father left with 54 percent.

You did a heck of a job Bushie.

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