In my post below, I highlighted FDR's famous 1932 speech at Oglethorpe University. I choose to highlight portions of it again here:

No, our basic trouble was not an insufficiency of capital. It was an insufficient distribution of buying power coupled with an over-sufficient speculation in production. While wages rose in many of our industries, they did not as a whole rise proportionately to the reward to capital, and at the same time the purchasing power of other great groups of our population was permitted to shrink. We accumulated such a superabundance of capital that our great bankers were vying with each other, some of them employing questionable methods, in their efforts to lend this capital at home and abroad.

(Emphasis supplied.) Sound familiar? More . . .

On November 22, in his weekly radio address, President-Elect Obama said:

The news this week has only reinforced the fact that we are facing an economic crisis of historic proportions. Financial markets faced more turmoil. New home purchases in October were the lowest in half a century. 540,000 more jobless claims were filed last week, the highest in 18 years. And we now risk falling into a deflationary spiral that could increase our massive debt even further.

. . . I have already directed my economic team to come up with an Economic Recovery Plan that will mean 2.5 million more jobs by January of 2011 — a plan big enough to meet the challenges we face that I intend to sign soon after taking office. We'll be working out the details in the weeks ahead, but it will be a two-year, nationwide effort to jumpstart job creation in America and lay the foundation for a strong and growing economy. We'll put people back to work rebuilding our crumbling roads and bridges, modernizing schools that are failing our children, and building wind farms and solar panels; fuel-efficient cars and the alternative energy technologies that can free us from our dependence on foreign oil and keep our economy competitive in the years ahead.

[More . . .]

About the 8 year old in Arizona who shot and killed his father and father's boarder: First the cops wanted to try him as an adult. Then, they learned of ledgers that the kid kept of every beating, and that the kid said when it got to 1,000, he would have had enough.

Susan Mernit at Huffington Post breaks down the gruesome and mathematical tally of the beatings -- and their impact on the boy.

It's another case of powerless children in our society with nowhere to turn to. This kid is going to have a unhealthy dose of PTSD as he gets older. Who will be there for him?

Check out Susan Mernit's article on the case today at HuffPo --she's outraged at the parent who was killed. Some snippets below:

In answer to counterfactual assertions in the Media and from some bloggers like Matt Yglesias, Plutonium Page and John Issacs demonstrate that there is not a dime's worth of difference between the President-Elect and the Secretary of State designee on foreign policy. Indeed, President-Elect Obama explained:

Matt Taibbi in Rolling Stone:

Requiem for a Maverick John McCain ran one of the most incompetent, schizo campaigns in history — and for that we owe him big-time

Lots of good reading here, I liked this:

In short, McCain entered this election season being the worst thing that anyone can be, in the eyes of the Rove-school Republicans: Different. Independent. His own man. He exited the campaign on his knees, all his dignity gone, having handed the White House to the hated liberals after spending the last months of the race with numb-nuts Sarah Palin on his arm and Karl Rove's c*ck in his mouth. Even if you wanted to vote for him, you didn't know who you were voting for. The old McCain? The new McCain? Neither? Both?

You knew it had to be too good to be true. It was.

The Texas indictments against Dick Cheney and Alberto Gonzales have been dismissed.

TalkLeft was fortunate to be named one of the ABA Journal's top 100 law blogs in 2007. Voting just opened up for 2008.

It takes less than five seconds to vote, so if you enjoy Talkleft, please go here and vote for us.

Thanks, everyone!

I'm still at work, but here's the latest news:

• Sen. Dick Durbin goes to bat for former Ill. Gov. George Ryan, asking President Bush to pardon Ryan. I hope Bush listens. His efforts towards a moratorium on the death penalty and his emptying the state's death row due to the large number of wrongfully convicted inmates warrant a pardon.

• PA Gov. Ed Rendell has dropped the moratorium on parole for violent felons. The ban was imposed in September.

  [A] review found the state's evaluation and supervision of parolees were largely effective.

• An autopsy confirms the WalMart worker who died on Black Friday was trampled to death.

• Giants receiver Plaxico Burress appeared in state court on charges of criminal possession of a handgun. Bail in $100k. He has a top notch lawyer, Ben Brafman, who has also represented Sean Combs, among others. Facts below:

I'm busy, but never too busy to fret about the Gators. Let me make one thing perfectly clear (h/t Nixon), if the SEC Champion is shut out of the BCS Championship game, I personally will riot on the streets.

Do something about this Barack!

This too is an Open Thread.

TChris is in trial, I'm off to the jail and BTD is swamped at work. Here's an open thread for you.

For those of you wanting to know more about Eric Holder, here are excerpts from his 1997 Deputy Attorney General confirmation hearing.

Planned Parenthood President Cecile Richards lauds President-elect Obama's announcement naming Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State:

Senator Clinton understands that women's quality of life directly affects the major issues confronting the globe: national security, environmental sustainability, and global poverty.

In a speech that, by the standards of the Bush administration, sounds positively radical, Clinton addressed the Cairo Plus Five Forum at the Hague in 1999, saying,

"Women's reproductive health and empowerment are critical to a nation's sustainability and growth ... we now know that no nation can hope to succeed in the global economy of the 21st century if half of its people lack the opportunity and the right to make the most of their God-given potential. No nation can move forward when its women and children are trapped in endless cycles of poverty; when they have inadequate health care, poor access to family planning, limited education."

President Elect Obama is making his announcements. Hilllary, Eric Holder, Robert Gates, Janet Napolitano, Susan Rice, General James Jones.

Update: Hillary gave a great, short speech. Holder makes me nervous. Napolitano stresses securing the border. Susan Rice also wants to strengthen our security. Biden, who spoke after the nominees, was confident.

I think we did get a welcome change from the Bush Administration -- and in thinking about who these appointees would be had McCain been elected, I'll say we did okay with this team.

Questions: To Obama, "Would India be justified in going after terrorists on Pakistani soil?" No direct answer. Next question is about whether the appointees will be a clash of rivals. [More...]