I am tying up loose ends this morning. J and TChris seem to be busy as well.

Here is an Open Thread.

So many end-of-year details to take care of. And the TL kid is on his way over for dinner. What's on your agenda the next few days?

In the news, Colorado Rep. Diana DeGette has withdrawn her name from consideration as a possible replacement for Sen. Ken Salazar. Gov. Ritter's decision is due any day.

And Denver Broncos coach Mike Shanahan was fired today, after 21 years with the team. The local news is obsessed with the story.

The Boulder District Attorney's office is seeking to prevent bloggers from live-blogging a locally high-profile criminal trial in which a father is charged with abusing and neglecting his child, resulting in the child's death. The trial will be in Denver.

Nationally, Obama and his bubble is filling air time, and the Israel-Gaza conflict continues, but doesn't seem to be dominating the news.

Hillary and Bill will be in Times Square New Years Eve to drop the ball.

This is an open thread.

Via TPM:

The President-Elect said:

"Roland Burris is a good man and a fine public servant, but the Senate Democrats made it clear weeks ago that they cannot accept an appointment made by a governor who is accused of selling this very Senate seat. I agree with their decision, and it is extremely disappointing that Governor Blagojevich has chosen to ignore it. I believe the best resolution would be for the Governor to resign his office and allow a lawful and appropriate process of succession to take place. While Governor Blagojevich is entitled to his day in court, the people of Illinois are entitled to a functioning government and major decisions free of taint and controversy," said President-elect Obama.

(Emphasis supplied.)

Via SusanG, Blago is really something:

Gov. Rod Blagojevich is expected today to name former Illinois Atty. Gen. Roland Burris to replace President-elect Barack Obama in the U.S. Senate. The action comes despite warnings by Democratic Senate leaders that they would not seat anyone appointed by the disgraced governor who faces criminal charges of trying to sell the post, sources familiar with the decision said.

I do not know anything about Burris except he seems willing to stain himself here in this farce. I assume the Senate will not seat him.

Speaking for me only

TChris noted Mitch McConnell's newfound love for oversight, but I was amused by Politico's take on the story:

McConnell may be likely to side with the growing public sentiment against the government's unprecedented use of federal dollars to jolt the economy . . .

(Emphasis supplied.) Growing public sentiment? Politico made that up:

A new national poll suggests most Americans favor an economic stimulus package even if it comes with an $800 billion price tag, although that support doesn't indicate the public wants to see a new era of big government. Two-thirds of people polled think Present-elect Barack Obama's stimulus package will help the economy. Fifty-six percent of those questioned in a CNN/Opinion Research Corp. survey released Tuesday said they favor the stimulus package that President-elect Barack Obama is proposing; 42 percent were opposed.

Facts are not important in some instances. For example, when you are trying to prop up a GOP talking point as Politico is wont to do.

Speaking for me only

From the Strib:

The State Canvassing Board today made changes to a handful of withdrawn challenges in the U.S. Senate recount battle and gave DFL challenger Al Franken a net gain of four votes, nudging his unofficial lead to 50.

What's left? The improperly rejected absentee ballots:

Writing about the dissonance between American policy regarding Israel and the views of Americans, Glenn Greenwald writes:

By itself, the degree of full-fledged, absolute agreement -- down to the syllable -- among America's political leaders is striking, even when one acknowledges the constant convergence between the leadership of both parties. But it becomes even more striking in light of the bizarre fact that the consensus view -- that America must unquestioningly stand on Israel's side and support it, not just in this conflict but in all of Israel's various wars -- is a view which 7 out of 10 Americans reject. Conversely, the view which 70% of Americans embrace -- that the U.S. should be neutral and even-handed in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict generally -- is one that no mainstream politician would dare express.

[More...]

Bob Herbert would like President Bush's departure from Washington to be accompanied by "a great hue and cry — a loud, collective angry howl, demonstrations with signs and bullhorns and fiery speeches — over the damage he’s done to this country."

This is the man who gave us the war in Iraq and Guantánamo and torture and rendition; who turned the Clinton economy and the budget surplus into fool’s gold; who dithered while New Orleans drowned; who trampled our civil liberties at home and ruined our reputation abroad; who let Dick Cheney run hog wild and thought Brownie was doing a heckuva job.

Yep. Tarring and feathering seems about right.

Sometimes you just have to sigh. Senator Mitch McConnell says taxpayers "deserve nothing less" than "tough scrutiny and oversight" of the economic recovery bill that the Obama administration hopes to pass in its opening days. You mean, like the tough scrutiny and oversight Republicans insisted upon when voting for the financial industry bailout?

Oversight is necessary, of course. Republicans just aren't very good at it, as the Bush administration's implementation of TARP makes clear. Republicans should stop posturing and leave oversight to the Dems.

President Bush's aides are speaking out, saying that it was Hurricane Katrina in 2005 that destroyed America's trust in him and cost him the ability to be an effective President. They say he was never able to recover from it.

I think Iraq was the issue that did him in. When Americans learned there were no weapons of mass destruction -- that we entered this war that took thousands of American lives under false pretenses -- he was toast.

After Iraq, I think Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo hurt him. Not so much because Americans cared about the treatment of the detainees, but because they came to realize how much the rest of the world did.

Between the photos of American military prison guards in Iraq leading prisoners around on leashes and subjecting them to terrifying dogs, electrical cords and sexual humiliation, and repeatedly hearing Guantanamo referred to as a stain upon our nation, for holding detainees for years without charges or access to federal courts, it was inevitable Americans would come to view Bush as a President whose policies tarnished America's image throughout the world.

When do you think Bush irreparably lost the trust of even those Americans who voted for him?

After John Ashcroft and Alberto Gonzales, former Attorney General Dick Thornburgh doesn't seem so bad. Sure, he didn't think that federal prosecutors should play by the same ethical standards that bind defense attorneys. Yes, he rabidly fought the drug war. But at least he didn't run the entire Constitution through a paper shredder. And unlike Gonzales, who took instruction from Karl Rove, Thornburgh was once sued by Rove.

In yesterday's New York Times, Thornburgh argues that white collar criminals deserve to be prosecuted, and urges the Obama administration to hire more FBI agents and prosecutors, but not to change any laws. He has it just about backwards.

Thornburgh seems to understand the problem. [more ....]

Congrats to Bristol and Levi on the birth of Tripp, a healthy, 7 pound boy.

(It was as long overdue as the start of the singing in the clip from Tommy above...."It's a boy" comes on around the five minute mark.)

No word yet on whether Levi was present for the delivery.