News Nuggets 70

There are several interesting items in this week's Time Magazine along with the following!

Barack Obama: 2008 Person of the Year from Time Magazine

"In the waning days of his extraordinary year and on the cusp of his presidency, what now seems most salient about Obama is the opposite of flashy, the antithesis of rhetoric: he gets things done. He is a man about his business — a Mr. Fix It going to Washington."

Young Republicans Seek a New Kind of Party from the Christian Science Monitor

"Reflecting an Obama age, they want more diversity and pragmatism, less partisanship."

Committing War Crimes for the 'Right Reasons' (Glenn Greenwald) from Salon

"Those defending Bush officials by claiming they acted with good motives are invoking the same rationale used by every war criminal and aggressor."

Obama Charm Offensive sways Republicans from The Hill

"Some of these Republicans, who are poised to represent their party on issues ranging from the economy to healthcare to homeland security, say it is the most aggressive outreach from an incoming president that they can remember."

Hurled Shoes: Bush's Epitaph (Robert Scheer) from the Nation

"That an Iraqi journalist, whose family had been victimized by Saddam Hussein and who was kidnapped by insurgents while attempting to work as a TV reporter, came to so loathe the American president, as does much of the world, should serve as the final grade on the Bush administration."

Between Obama and the Press from the New York Times Sunday Magazine

"There was a sense among Obama’s communications team that not only did they have a gifted candidate to ride but also that they had figured out new ways to maximize their advantages."

Obama's Inaugural Ceremony from the New York Times

"Aretha Franklin and Dr. Rick Warren, an evangelical minister of the Saddleback Church, are among the select group of people who will participate in Barack Obama’s inaugural swearing-in ceremony on Jan. 20."

The Green House from Slate

"For President-elect Barack Obama, the sagging economy is the gift that keeps on giving. First, it helped get him elected. Now it's giving him a mandate to spend more than he ever could under normal circumstances."

Obama Preserves Political Capital for Stimulus Plan from the Wall Street Journal

"Barack Obama's transition team is resisting Bush administration overtures to coordinate more on the financial-sector rescue, convinced that neither the lame-duck President George W. Bush nor the president-elect has the clout to win a smooth congressional release of more bailout funds."

Lemmings on Wheels (Eugene Robinson) from the Washington Post

"It may be that General Motors, Chrysler and Ford are lumbering, Jurassic beasts that deserve their looming extinction. But only a free-market fundamentalist, a lunatic or a Senate Republican -- perhaps that's redundant -- would conclude that now is the moment to hasten Detroit's demise."

Flying Shoes Create a Hero in Arab World from the Washington Post

"In hurling footwear and insults at President Bush, Muntadar al-Zaidi expressed what relatives said were his own frustrations with American policy in Iraq and made himself into an overnight celebrity in the Arab world."