Bump and Update: It's Offical. Hillary will fly to Chicago tomorrow to join Obama for his cabinet appointments announcement, including her own as Secretary of State. Congratulations, Hillary!

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CNN and other news organizations are reporting that President Elect Barack Obama will name Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State on Monday.

The New York Times reports on the lengthy negotiations between Team Obama and Bill Clinton and the 9 preconditions the former President had to meet. [More...]

The teeth gnashing about Obama (and I am all for it, we need a Left Flank) continues - this time from Paul Rosenberg:

Nate [Silver]'s general point that Obama's agenda is more liberal than centrist is certainly true. This is hardly surprising in light of Obama's record in the Senate, where he and Clinton had virtually identical records, both as moderate liberals. Given that both are Democrats from solid blue states, there is nothing surprising about this at all. . . . [The Obama] agenda is top-heavy with playing catch-up. For the most part, it's all about enacting ideas that have been around for a long, long time. It's not much about new ideas.

Indeed. I am quite pleased with this. I remember the 90s. With a Democratic/Obama mandate for Bill Clinton's more ambitious agenda (and with a Depression looming, Obama can do as he pleases), we have a great opportunity. This is good news from where I sit - the "Center-Right" (this is meant as a joke, though some may think it is a fair description.)

Speaking for me only

Credit to Glenn Greenwald and Matt Yglesias for pointing to the latest NYTimes article that demonstrates that NBC and its empty headed, blow dried anchor Brian Williams have not a shred of integrity. See their posts and the Times articles for the details. But this is the bottom line about NBC specifically and the Media in general, from Yglesias:

it’s worth contemplating the breathtaking lack of integrity on display from the television networks here. As I said, Barstow published a piece on this back in April. None of the TV networks addressed the issue he raised in anything resembling a serious manner. And, again, we now have NBC News caught flat-out in the midst of corruption, deceiving their viewers. And NBC News isn’t sorry. They’re not apologizing. They’re not ashamed. Because they’re beyond shame. They never had a reputation for honor, so they don’t even see this sort of thing as damaging.

And if the Left blogs thinks this does not extend to their favorite cable new network, well, then they are willful fools.

Speaking for me only

I wondered how long it would be before some guy in Bangalore was writing my column about President Obama. . . . A penny for your thoughts? Now I knew my days were numbered.

She can always create a blog. More likely, HuffPo will hire her - they do need someone to provide even more Clinton Hate.

This is an Open Thread.

Speaking for me only

So says Poblano:

According to multiple sources, who confirmed the Tip O'Neill staffer-cum-MSNBC host has negotiated with veteran Obama staffers to enlist in his campaign, Chris Matthews is likely to run for United States Senate in Pennsylvania in 2010. Matthews, 62, would run as a Democrat.

I would strongly oppose a Tweety candidacy for ANY office, including, but not limited to, dog catcher. The man is an embarrassment.

Speaking for me only

It was a happy Thanksgiving for Steven Barnes -- the first he's had since some time before 1989, when he went to prison for a rape and murder he didn't commit.

The 42-year-old man walked out of state prison Tuesday after spending nearly half his life behind bars for a crime he did not commit. An Oneida County Court judge set Mr. Barnes free after DNA testing exonerated him of the murder and rape of a 16-year-old girl.

To his credit, the district attorney didn't stand in the way of Barnes' freedom.

The district attorney conceded that Mr. Barnes "would never have been arrested" if today's DNA technology had existed in 1985. The search for the real killer has been renewed.

Happy Thanksgiving, Steven Barnes.

For quite some time, prosecutors were prevented from offering "victim impact" evidence during the penalty phase of a death penalty trial. This made perfect sense, because the decision whether a murderer should be executed shouldn't depend upon how sympathetic the victim could be made to appear, or how many grieving friends and relatives were left behind. That changed in 1991.

Writing for a 6 to 3 majority, then-Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist said prosecutors could balance the virtually unlimited defense mitigation evidence by offering "a quick glimpse of the life" of the victim. But the court laid out little specific guidance beyond saying that victim impact evidence must not be "unduly prejudicial."

The "quick glimpse" language gave birth to an industry that produces "life of the victim" videos, set to music. It is unfortunate that the Supreme Court recently declined to decide whether that kind of video evidence crosses the line that the Court drew in 1991. [more ...]

The Toronto Star reports:

Researchers say they have located the world's oldest stash of marijuana, in a tomb in a remote part of China. The cache of cannabis is about 2,700 years old and was clearly ``cultivated for psychoactive purposes," rather than as fibre for clothing or as food, says a research paper in the Journal of Experimental Botany.

The 789 grams of dried cannabis was buried alongside a light-haired, blue-eyed Caucasian man, likely a shaman of the Gushi culture, near Turpan in northwestern China.

Batteries of tests were performed on the substance. It had a high "THC" content. Other items in the tomb indicated the deceased was of "high social standing."

The tomb also contained bridles, archery equipment and a harp, confirming the man's high social standing.

Hope everyone is having a good Thanksgiving holiday.

Today is a big day in college football. You can discuss it here

Go Gators!!

This is an Open Thread for talking college football.

Looseheadprop, a former federal prosecutor who writes at Firedoglake, makes a last-ditch effort to derail the nomination of Eric Holder for Attorney General.

I agree Obama should have picked someone different, but for for much different reasons -- his position on drug offenses, his Biden-like endorsement of draconian crime bills and his closeness to Obama (a weaker but still troublesome comparison can be made to Bush and Alberto Gonzales) but I think Obama is so beholden to Holder for his work on his campaign, from the Veep Selection Committee on down, that it's hopeless. He sailed through his 1997 confirmation hearing for Deputy Attorney General. As I wrote here and here, [More...]

Share your thoughts.

When TalkLeft last discussed the prosecution of Lori Drew (background here), it was to criticize the Justice Department for exploiting a tragedy as a test case to create a new federal power to prosecute internet users who conceal their true identities on social networking sites like MySpace. Posing as a teenage boy, Drew used a fictitious MySpace identity to say mean things to 13 year old Megan Meier, who was a neighbor and former friend of Drew's daughter. Megan committed suicide, prompting a federal prosecutor in California to indict Drew for computer fraud, despite the decision of a federal prosecutor in Missouri (where Drew and Meier lived) to decline prosecution.

The prosecutor was plainly seeking glory. The good news is: he didn't get it. On Wednesday the jury acquitted Drew of three felony charges that accused Drew of obtaining "unauthorized access" of MySpace to inflict emotional distress on Megan. The bad news (at least for now): Drew was convicted of three misdemeanors. [more ...]