The Nightowl Newswrap

The Obama's visit the White House Michelle and Barack Obama visited the current occupant and the school marm today. Mrs. Bush showed Mrs. Obama around the private residence and the appointed one and the elected one went to the Oval Office for a sit down. No word on what was discussed or if aWol fixated on the carpet.

An idea whose time has come The Obama administration will establish a White House Office of Urban Policy. The new department is intended to better coordinate federal efforts to help America's cities, according to Obama transition co-chair Valerie Jarrett. "He's going to have a White House chief of urban policy," Jarrett told the Trotter Group, an organization of black columnists.

Middle Class tax cuts will be a top priority for the Obama administration Yesterday on ABC's This Week the newly elected president's incoming Chief of Staff told George Stephanopolous that Obama's administration will push ahead quickly with offering the middle class tax relief and will simultaneously waste no time in rolling back the Bush tax cuts on the wealthy. He said Obama's proposals would reduce taxes for 95 percent of working Americans by an average of $1,000 each, resulting in "a net tax cut" for the overall economy.

No, no, no, a thousand times NO!!! The DLC's day is done. Drag it behind the barn and put two behind it's right ear. The last thing newly-blue Virginia needs is Terry frickin' McAuliffe for Governor! No, no, no, no, no!!!!! McAuliffe is a carpetbagger deluxe. It wasn't that long ago that there was talk of him running for governor...of Florida.

Caveat Emptor We will have more on this later, but for now, don't go rushing to your doctor demanding a prescription for Crestor. First of all - the lone study that shows a benefit was conducted by the manufacturer of Crestor, not an independent entity. Second - statins carry a significant risk of liver damage. Proper diet and regular exercise are still the gold standard for optimal health, although we realize that taking a pill is easier.

The first House seat for 2010 just opened up GOP Representative Jerry Moran, who represents the KS 01 has announced he will not run for reelection in 2010, opting instead to run for the Senate seat that Sam Brownback will not seek reelection to. The bad news is Satan could get elected in the "Big First" if he ran as a republican against Jesus Christ himself. The good news is, Kathleen Sebelius could beat Moran in the Senate race without breaking a sweat.



Winnign the race to the bottom As it stands right now, with only 71 days left in office, George Bush is even more unpopular than Nixon at the time he resigned in disgrace. Fully 76% of the country disapproves of the current occupant.

Conversely, Obama ascends to the highest office in the land with a 68% approval rating. His approval numbers have gone UP in the week since the election, when 62% of the country had a favorable opinion of him.

Four more years for Olberman MSNBC has extended Keith Olberman's contract for another four years.

The Minnesota Senate race just keeps getting uglier It is entirely possible that the election won't be decided before the 111th is sworn in and seated.

DHL job cuts devastate Ohio community Wilmington, Ohio learned today that the largest employer in the area is not merely cutting jobs, but closing up shop entirely, knocking 8000 people out of work. Wilmington has a population of about 12,000 people, 3,000 of whom worked for DHL. Ohio is already grappling with one of the highest jobless rates in the country, 7.2 percent in September.

The Mars lander is dead! Long live the Mars lander! Mission managers announced today that it had been a week since they last heard from the spacecraft and that they thought it had probably fallen quiet for good. With the onset of winter and declining power generated by the Phoenix’s solar panels, managers knew the lander would succumb soon, but had hoped to squeeze out a few more weeks of weather data. Just after the lander completed its last major experiment analyzing Martian soil, an unexpected dust storm hit, blotting out the sun to the solar panels. The batteries, already low from running the experiment, became depleted. The lander first put itself into "safe mode" and then powered down. “At this time, we’re pretty convinced that the vehicle is no longer available for us to use,” said Barry Goldstein, the project manager. “We’re actually ceasing operations, declaring an end to mission operations at this point.” It revived itself on Oct. 30, but, with the dust still swirling, was never able to fully recharge its batteries. Each day, the solar panels would generate enough electricity for the spacecraft to wake up, but then the batteries drained again.

The White House keeps fighting the email battle, and they keep losing A federal judge ruled against the Bush administration in a court battle over the White House's problem-plagued e-mail system. With two-and-a-half months remaining before the Bush administration leaves office, U.S. District Judge Henry Kennedy ruled today that two private groups may pursue their case as they press the government to recover millions of possibly missing electronic messages. The Judge rejected the government's request to throw out the lawsuits filed by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington and the National Security Archive. The government had arrogantly argued that the courts did not have the authority to order the White House to retrieve any missing e-mails.

Excellent! Mike Lux, a veteran of the Clinton transition team and a tireless champion of progressive causes, has been tapped by President Elect Barack Obama to serve as an adviser and progressive liaison during the transition period. After working in the Clinton White House on issues ranging from health care and the budget to school lunch policy, Lux founded Progressive Strategies LLC and began writing for the site OpenLeft.com in July 2007. He also helped co-found a number of progressive institutions including: Americans United for Change, Center for Progressive Leadership, Grassroots Democrats, Progressive Majority, Ballot Initiative Strategy Center, and Women's Voices/Women Vote. He also writes for the Huffington Post.

Bullshit! A far-right Polish lawmaker bemoaned the election of Barack Obama. "Obama is an approaching catastrophe. This marks the end of white man's civilisation," said Artur Gorski of the opposition Law and Justice Party. He insists, tho, to the belief of pretty much no one, that his remarks are political, not racist.