WASHINGTON — With the country sinking deeper into recession, the Federal Reserve launched a bold $1.2 trillion effort Wednesday to lower rates on mortgages and other consumer debt, spur spending and revive the economy. To do so, the Fed will spend up to $300 billion to buy long-term government bonds and an additional $750 billion in mortgage-backed securities guaranteed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke and his colleagues wrapped a two-day meeting by leaving a key short-term bank lending rate at a record low of between zero and 0.25 percent. Economists predict the Fed will hold the rate in that zone for the rest of this year and for most _ if not all _ of next year.

• Marijuana policy undergoes a long overdue shift.

WASHINGTON (AP) – Attorney General Eric Holder signaled a change on medical marijuana policy Wednesday, saying federal agents will target marijuana distributors only when they violate both federal and state law.

That would be a departure from the Bush administration, which targeted medical marijuana dispensaries in California even if they complied with that state’s law.

• Are newspapers next on the bailout list?

WASHINGTON, March 18 (Reuters) – U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder said on Wednesday preserving a healthy newspaper industry was important and he was open to adjusting antitrust policy if it could help.

“I’d like to think 20, 30, 40 years from now people will still be reading the newspaper,” Holder told reporters.

He was responding to a call by House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi, urging the Justice Department to give newspapers more leeway to merge or combine operations.

“The policy is to go after those people who violate both federal and state law,” Holder said in a question-and-answer session with reporters at the Justice Department.

• And in another first, Barack Obama will become the first sitting US President to appear on a late night talk show.

March 7 (Bloomberg) — President Barack Obama’s expected reversal of an 8-year-old restriction on U.S. funding for embryonic stem cell research has excited scientists and health advocates who say the action will accelerate the search for cures to major illness.

Obama plans to lift the funding ban, imposed by former President George W. Bush, in a March 9 signing ceremony, said two government officials, who spoke yesterday on condition of anonymity. Bush objected to the use of the tissue because the process caused the destruction of human embryos.

In a wide ranging NYT interview, Obama mulls reaching out to elements of the Taliban.

WASHINGTON — President Obama declared in an interview that the United States was not winning the war in Afghanistan and opened the door to a reconciliation process in which the American military would reach out to moderate elements of the Taliban, much as it did with Sunni militias in Iraq.

Mr. Obama pointed to the success in peeling Iraqi insurgents away from more hard-core elements of Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia, a strategy that many credit as much as the increase of American forces with turning the war around in the last two years. “There may be some comparable opportunities in Afghanistan and in the Pakistani region,” he said, while cautioning that solutions in Afghanistan will be complicated.

He will also start easing restrictions on trade and travel to Cuba.

President Barack Obama is poised to offer an olive branch to Cuba in an effort to repair the US’s tattered reputation in Latin America.

The White House has moved to ease some travel and trade restrictions as a cautious first step towards better ties with Havana, raising hopes of an eventual lifting of the four-decade-old economic embargo. Several Bush-era controls are expected to be relaxed in the run-up to next month’s Summit of the Americas in Trinidad and Tobago to gild the president’s regional debut and signal a new era of “Yankee” cooperation.

The administration has moved to ease draconian travel controls and lift limits on cash remittances that Cuban-Americans can send to the island, a lifeline for hundreds of thousands of families.

As anticipated, Julius Genachowski has been tapped by President Barack Obama to head the Federal Communications Commission.

The move is another indication that incoming leadership in Washington will move decisively to protect the free flowing Internet from those seeking to become gatekeepers to new media.

It also fulfills Obama’s promise made on the campaign trail to appoint an FCC chair who shares his support for Net Neutrality.

• Obama’s secret letter to Russia purportedly said if Russia helps with Iran, the European missile defense system will no longer be needed.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama said on Tuesday he wanted to work with Russia to resolve a nuclear stand-off with Iran but denied reports he had offered to slow deployment of a missile defense shield in exchange for Moscow’s help.

The New York Times reported that Obama had sent a letter to Russian President Dmitry Medvedev suggesting he would back off deploying a system in eastern Europe to intercept and destroy missiles, a move Russia sees as a military threat, if Moscow helped stop Iran from developing long-range weapons.

• Department of Justice halts a death penalty case.

SAN FRANCISCO — President Obama’s Justice Department halted the death penalty trial of an alleged San Francisco gang leader Monday by accepting a 40-year prison sentence that the Bush administration had vetoed.

The plea agreement for Emile Fort remained on hold after a federal judge heard a tearful plea from a murder victim’s mother for a life sentence and summoned prosecutors to a closed-door session to describe their case against Fort.

• The days of no bid government contracts are now over.

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama on Wednesday ordered an overhaul of the way the U.S. government awards contracts for private sector work, reversing a Bush administration policy that in some cases led to federal investigations of procurement practices and no-bid contracts.

Obama joined Republican Sen. John McCain, his presidential campaign rival, and other congressional figures to announce an executive memorandum that commits his administration to a new set of marching orders for awarding contracts. Obama said “the days of giving government contractors a blank check are over” and said changes could save up to $40 billion a year.

WASHINGTON — President Obama will propose further tax increases on the affluent to help pay for his promise to make health care more accessible and affordable, calling for stricter limits on the benefits of itemized deductions taken by the wealthiest households, administration officials said Wednesday.

The tax proposal, coming after recent years in which wealth has become more concentrated at the top of the income scale, introduces a politically volatile edge to the Congressional debate over Mr. Obama’s domestic priorities.

The president will also propose, in the 10-year budget he is to release Thursday, to use revenues from the centerpiece of his environmental policy — a plan under which companies must buy permits to exceed pollution emission caps — to pay for an extension of a two-year tax credit that benefits low-wage and middle-income people.

• Obama plans to reinstitute the assault weapons ban. Recently, Mexico has complained that our assault weapons are contributing to their drug war.

The Obama administration will seek to reinstate the assault weapons ban that expired in 2004 during the Bush administration, Attorney General Eric Holder said today.

“As President Obama indicated during the campaign, there are just a few gun-related changes that we would like to make, and among them would be to reinstitute the ban on the sale of assault weapons,” Holder told reporters.

Holder said that putting the ban back in place would not only be a positive move by the United States, it would help cut down on the flow of guns going across the border into Mexico, which is struggling with heavy violence among drug cartels along the border.

• The Attorney General also said they would stop raiding medical marijuana clubs.

Attorney General Eric Holder said at a press conference Wednesday that the Justice Department will no longer raid medical marijuana clubs that are established legally under state law. His declaration is a fulfillment of a campaign promise by President Barack Obama, and marks a major shift from the previous administration.

After the inauguration, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) continued to carry out such raids, despite Obama’s promise. Holder was asked if those raids represented American policy going forward.

“No,” he said. “What the president said during the campaign, you’ll be surprised to know, will be consistent with what we’ll be doing in law enforcement. He was my boss during the campaign. He is formally and technically and by law my boss now. What he said during the campaign is now American policy.”

President Obama launched a “fiscal responsibility summit” at the White House today by vowing to cut the federal deficit in half by the end of his first term in office, and he pledged to reinstate pay-as-you-go budgeting rules to prevent the government from spending money it does not have.

• The government is looking to buy majority stakes in large banks as the markets continue to tumble.

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration put the nation’s biggest banks on notice Monday that the government could become their biggest shareholder if regulators decide they are not strong enough to weather a deeper-than-expected downturn in the economy.

• US is secretly training the Pakistani military to fight the Taliban and al-Qaeda.

BARA, Pakistan — More than 70 United States military advisers and technical specialists are secretly working in Pakistan to help its armed forces battle Al Qaeda and the Taliban in the country’s lawless tribal areas, American military officials said.

The Americans are mostly Army Special Forces soldiers who are training Pakistani Army and paramilitary troops, providing them with intelligence and advising on combat tactics, the officials said. They do not conduct combat operations, the officials added.

• Karl Rove defies a Congressional subpoena. Again.

So today was the day that Karl Rove was supposed to appear before the House Judiciary committee to testify about the US Attorney firings. And of course, Rove didn’t show.

That wasn’t a surprise. After getting the deadline pushed back, Rove had already publicly indicated he didn’t plan on being there, citing President Bush’s claim of executive privilege. Rove’s lawyer had then asked for a second postponement, a request that Judiciary chair John Conyers had declined to grant.

The Obama administration did not make the same mistake twice.

A week after being hammered for offering a bank assistance plan that lacked details, the administration unveiled a sweeping and detailed plan Wednesday to prevent millions of foreclosures. It includes just about every suggested solution: loan guarantees, greater incentives to lenders and servicers, and expanded use of the government-sponsored enterprises.

It even included a stick to go with the carrots: a bigger push for legislation to let judges rework mortgages in bankruptcy.

• To the chagrin of right wing radio, Obama opposes the fairness doctrine.

“President Obama opposes any move to bring back the so-called Fairness Doctrine, a spokesman told FOXNews.com Wednesday.

The statement is the first definitive stance the administration has taken since an aide told an industry publication last summer that Obama opposes the doctrine — a long-abolished policy that would require broadcasters to provide opposing viewpoints on controversial issues.

• Transportation Secretary mulls a mileage tax.

WASHINGTON — Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood says he wants to consider taxing motorists based on how many miles they drive rather than how much gasoline they burn _ an idea that has angered drivers in some states where it has been proposed.

Gasoline taxes that for nearly half a century have paid for the federal share of highway and bridge construction can no longer be counted on to raise enough money to keep the nation’s transportation system moving, LaHood said in an interview with The Associated Press.

A six-year-old project to build state-of-the-art presidential helicopters has bogged down in a contracting quagmire that will challenge Mr. Obama’s desire to rein in military contracting expenses. The price tag has nearly doubled, production has fallen years behind schedule and much of the program has been frozen until the new administration figures out what to do about it.

• The stem cell research ban is coming to an end.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. President Barack Obama will soon issue an executive order lifting an eight-year ban embryonic stem cell research imposed by his predecessor, President George W. Bush, a senior adviser said on Sunday.

“We’re going to be doing something on that soon, I think. The president is considering that right now,” Obama adviser David Axelrod said on “Fox News Sunday.”

• Despite Republican opposition, Obama is will sign it into law tomorrow. (My Take)

President Obama will sign the $787 billion economic stimulus plan in Denver on Tuesday, the White House said today, as he continues his efforts to communicate directly to the American public about the economic crisis.

Obama had already announced a trip to Colorado and Arizona on Tuesday and Wednesday. He plans to announce his latest plans for reducing the number of housing foreclosures on Wednesday in Phoenix.

Obama’s decision to sign the stimulus bill in Denver is a striking departure from his first few weeks in office, when he held several signing ceremonies in the East Room of the White House.

JERUSALEM – Israel’s new coalition government — whether led by hard-line Benjamin Netanyahu or his moderate rival Tzipi Livni — is likely to take a tough line on two burning issues: Hamas and Iran.

As the two began courting potential coalition partners Wednesday, two scenarios took shape: a narrow alliance of hawks who would stall peacemaking with the Palestinians, or a broad power-sharing government that would give Israel a more moderate face and greater international support.

With only a few thousand votes by soldiers still to be counted, Livni’s Kadima Party had one more seat in parliament than Netanyahu’s Likud. But Netanyahu’s natural allies on the right have a clear majority of 65 in the 120-seat parliament, giving him the edge in forming a coalition.

President Shimon Peres will consult all 12 parties in the new parliament next week before choosing either Netanyahu or Livni to try to form a government — a process likely to take weeks if not months.

• House and Senate reach compromise deal on the stimulus bill. Expect final passage this week.

WASHINGTON — Moving with lightning speed, the Democratic-controlled Congress and White House agreed Wednesday on a compromise $790 billion economic stimulus bill designed to create millions of jobs in a nation reeling from recession. President Barack Obama could sign the measure within days.

“More than one-third of this bill is dedicated to providing tax relief for middle-class families, cutting taxes for 95 percent of American workers,” said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid at a Capitol news conference where he was joined by moderates from both parties whose support is essential for the legislation’s final passage.

• No more off shore drilling.

WASHINGTON — Interior Secretary Ken Salazar has rejected a Bush administration plan to open vast waters off the Pacific and Atlantic coasts to oil and gas drilling, promising “a new way forward” in offshore energy development including new wind projects.

Salazar at a news conference Tuesday criticized “the midnight timetable” for new oil and gas development on the country’s Outer Continental Shelf proposed by the Bush administration four days before President Barack Obama took office Jan. 20.

• Big change in press conference diction between this president and the last. Obama speaks at a 10th grade reading level, Bush at 7th.

• Finally, the homeless woman from Obama’s town hall gets a house.

SAN FRANCISCO — In a closely watched case involving rendition and torture, a lawyer for the Obama administration seemed to surprise a panel of federal appeals judges on Monday by pressing ahead with an argument for preserving state secrets originally developed by the Bush administration.

In the case, Binyam Mohamed, an Ethiopian native, and four other detainees filed suit against a subsidiary of Boeing for arranging flights for the Bush administration’s “extraordinary rendition” program, in which terrorism suspects were secretly taken to other countries, where they say they were tortured. The Bush administration argued that the case should be dismissed because even discussing it in court could threaten national security and relations with other nations.

• The Senate passed the stimulus bill 61-37 this afternoon. Now it’s on to conference where the two chambers can iron out their differences before voting again next week.

WASHINGTON (AP) – President Barack Obama’s economic recovery plan has passed the Senate and is on its way to difficult House-Senate negotiations.Just three Republicans helped pass the plan on a 61-37 vote and they’re already signaling they’ll play hardball to preserve more than $108 billion in spending cuts made last week in Senate dealmaking. Obama wants to restore cuts in funds for school construction jobs and help for cash-starved states.

Those cuts are among the major differences between the $819 billion House version of Obama’s plan and a Senate bill costing $838 billion. Obama has warned of a deepening economic crisis if Congress fails to act. He wants a bill completed by the weekend.

• National Security Council Overhaul.

The NSC will take on all national security matters that are strategic in nature and “of such importance that the president of the United States would care” about them, he said. Action groups from various departments and agencies will be formed around specific issues for as long as it takes to resolve them. “Some of these things will be very short-term. When the problem goes away, the group goes away.” Others will be ongoing. “An Afghan strategic review, that’s going to take a while,” Jones said. “The policy that is generated from that review, and the implementation, is going to take a while.”

• Iran is ready to talk.

Many Iranians are tired of isolation but some say Iran needs a hard-liner to win U.S. concessions not a moderate like Khatami, whose reforming efforts were mostly blocked by conservatives.

Speaking to reporters after meeting Iranian Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani in Madrid on Sunday, Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos said: “They (Iranians) think the American attitude is positive, and they are just waiting for that attitude to manifest itself in some gesture.”

Some principals will be regulars at the NSC “just by force of issues,” he said, and “you can’t just designate the whole government as being there.” But everyone should be kept aware of “what’s going on” and given an opportunity to say, ‘Wait a minute, I’ve got something to say here.’ “

• Obama seeks biggest nuclear weapons cut with Russia in a generation.

WASHINGTON, Feb. 4 (UPI) — U.S. President Barack Obama is seeking to slash the nuclear stockpiles of the United States and Russia by as much as 80 percent, sources say.

Obama is intent on re-engaging with Russia on the kind of arms reduction talks that resulted in the 1991 START treaty, which expires at the end of this year, and envisions as few as 1,000 nuclear warheads for each country, The Times of London quoted unnamed administration sources saying Wednesday.

• Bush’s faith based office is expanded and changed to include Muslim outreach; won’t discriminate.

WASHINGTON (AFP) — President Barack Obama warned Thursday that religion must not be hijacked by hate and intolerance, as he announced an overhaul of the former Bush administration’s faith-based initiatives.

The new Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships is expected to advise the new president on domestic and foreign policy issues and to forge links with faith-based organizations overseas.

“The goal of this office will not be to favor one religious group over another — or even religious groups over secular groups,” the president said in a speech at the annual National Prayer Breakfast.

“It will simply be to work on behalf of those organizations that want to work on behalf of our communities, and to do so without blurring the line that our founders wisely drew between church and state.”

• Efficiency rules for all appliances will be getting stricter, saving everyone money.

WASHINGTON – President Obama yesterday ordered the Energy Department to set energy efficiency standards for a broad range of common household appliances, in an effort to save Americans billions of dollars in electrical costs and reduced power plant emissions.

The department was charged with slashing the energy use of more than 30 product categories.

When the standards are fully implemented, the estimated energy savings over the next 30 years would equal the output of all current coal-fired electric generating plants in the United States for two years and save Americans more than $500 billion in their electric bills.

“This will save consumers money. This will spur innovation and this will conserve tremendous amounts of energy,” Obama said.

WASHINGTON — In announcing executive pay limits on Wednesday, President Obama is trying to hold the financial industry accountable to taxpayers while aiming to change an entrenched corporate culture that endorses outsize bonuses and perks that often bear little relationship to corporate performance.

Mr. Obama also needs to deflect a growing populist outrage over sky-high pay among the banks and other companies now on the public dole. His announcement comes just days before the administration is expected to unveil a new strategy — and possibly request more money from Congress — to guarantee or buy outright hundreds of billions of dollars in bad assets held by banks.

• More children now have healthcare.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. President Barack Obama signed a law on Wednesday expanding a health insurance program for children and raising tobacco taxes to pay for it, a big legislative victory a day after his pick to lead a healthcare industry overhaul stepped aside.

Obama signed the law just hours after the House of Representatives voted 290-135 for the $32.8 billion expansion of the State Children’s Health Insurance Program, or SCHIP, which was approved by the Senate last week.

The decision to withdraw his nomination as a member of the Obama cabinet comes as the White House battled across several fronts on Tuesday with tax problems of the president’s top political appointees. Mr. Daschle had expressed regret for not paying about $140,000 in back taxes, but on Monday vowed to press ahead..

• The digital TV switch over will be delayed.

Remember that dreary day in social studies when the topic was “How a bill becomes law?” Congress is trying to reenact all those steps — in what in Washington considers rapid time — to make sure that no one is denied their beloved television shows.

If nothing happens, current law will force all television stations to stop broadcasting their analog signals on Feb. 17, leaving those without cable, satellite, a late-model television or a converter box without access to over-the-air broadcasts.

At the request of the Obama administration, Democrats tried to move the switch-off date to June 12. They used a procedural shortcut that required a two-thirds vote in the House of Representatives, a mark they didn’t achieve when nearly all the Republicans voted against the bill last week.

• Stimulus Bill faces amendments in the Senate.

WASHINGTON, Feb 3 (Reuters) – The U.S. Senate on Tuesday began debating possible changes to an $885 billion economic stimulus bill with lawmakers pushing ideas ranging from more money for domestic construction projects to different tax cuts and a new mortgage subsidy for homebuyers.

• Generals want Obama to delay Iraq troop withdrawal.

WASHINGTON: CENTCOM commander General David Petraeus, supported by Defense Secretary Robert Gates, tried to convince President Barack Obama that he had to back down from his campaign pledge to pullout all US combat troops from Iraq within 18 months at an Oval Office meeting on January 21, sources have said.

But Obama informed Gates, Petraeus and Joint Chiefs Chairman Admiral Mike Mullen that he wasn’t convinced and wanted Gates and the military leaders to come back quickly with a detailed 16-month plan, according to two sources who have talked with participants in the meeting.

WASHINGTON — President Obama branded Wall Street bankers “shameful” on Thursday for giving themselves nearly $20 billion in bonuses as the economy was deteriorating and the government was spending billions to bail out some of the nation’s most prominent financial institutions.

“There will be time for them to make profits, and there will be time for them to get bonuses,” Mr. Obama said during an appearance in the Oval Office with Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner. “Now’s not that time. And that’s a message that I intend to send directly to them, I expect Secretary Geithner to send to them.”

• Congress passes children’s health care bill, quietly working on a nationalization plan.

Initially designed for children of working-poor families, this new Super-Schip will be double in size, and even kids whose parents make $65,000 a year will be eligible. The program will also now cover pregnant women and automatically enroll their new arrivals. The Congressional Budget Office estimates 2.4 million individuals will drop their private coverage for the public program.

The bill even takes a whack at the private market. Under the guise of money for “health technology,” the legislation makes the government the national coordinator for electronic health records, able to certify what platforms are acceptable. This is an attempt to squelch a growing private market that is competing to improve transparency and let consumers compare providers and costs. In liberal-world, only government should be publishing (and setting) health-care prices.

Add it up, and Democrats may move 10 million more Americans under the federal health umbrella — in just four weeks! Good luck ever cutting off that money. Meanwhile, the Democratic majority is gearing up for a Medicare fight, where it may broach plans to lower the eligibility age to 55. Whatever costs accrue, they’ll pay for by slashing the private Medicare Advantage option.

• New pro-labor executive orders are imminent.

Union officials say the new orders by Obama will undo Bush administration policies that favored employers over workers. The orders will:

_Require federal contractors to offer jobs to current workers when contracts change.

_Reverse a Bush administration order requiring federal contractors to post notice that workers can limit financial support of unions serving as their exclusive bargaining representatives.

_Prevent federal contractors from being reimbursed for expenses meant to influence workers deciding whether to form a union and engage in collective bargaining.

“We need to level the playing field for workers and the unions that represent their interests,” Obama said during a signing ceremony in the East Room of the White House.

BAGHDAD — Blackwater Worldwide, the security firm whose guards killed 17 Iraqi civilians on a crowded Baghdad street in 2007, will not receive an operating license from the Iraqi government, a decision that will likely force American diplomats here to make new arrangements for their personal protection, officials said Thursday.

Unlike many security contractors in Iraq, Blackwater has been operating without an Iraqi government license, although it had recently applied for one.

The request was turned down during the past few weeks by the Iraqi government, officials said.

“They presented their request, and we rejected it,” said Ala’a Al-Taia, an official with Iraq’s Interior Ministry. “There are many marks against this company, specifically that they have a bad history and have been involved in the killing of so many civilians.”

• Judge refuses to delay Guantanamo trials, defying Obama’s executive order.

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico – A military judge at Guantanamo on Thursday rejected a White House request to suspend a hearing for a USS Cole bombing suspect, creating an unexpected challenge for the Obama administration as it reviews the U.S. war-crimes trials process.

The judge, Army Col. James Pohl, said his decision was difficult but necessary to protect “the public interest in a speedy trial.” The ruling came in the case against Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, the alleged mastermind of the 2000 Navy destroyer bombing that killed 17 U.S. sailors in Yemen.

It seemed to take the Pentagon completely by surprise.

• Obama signs equal pay legislation.

WASHINGTON — President Obama signed his first bill into law on Thursday, approving equal-pay legislation that he said would “send a clear message that making our economy work means making sure it works for everybody.”

Mr. Obama was surrounded by a group of beaming lawmakers, most but not all of them Democrats, in the East Room of the White House as he affixed his signature to the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, a law named for an Alabama woman who at the end of a 19-year career as a supervisor in a tire factory complained that she had been paid less than men.

As a piece of legislation, the two-year package is among the biggest in history, reflecting a broad view in Congress that urgent fiscal help is needed for an economy in crisis, and at a time when the Federal Reserve has already cut interest rates almost to zero.

• Russia “stops missile development in Europe because of Obama.”

Russia has held out an olive branch to President Barack Obama by suspending plans to deploy missiles in Europe.

Defence Ministry officials said that the move had been made because the new United States leadership was reconsidering plans to establish a missile defence shield in Eastern Europe. Deployment of Iskander short-range missiles, which can carry nuclear warheads, in Russia’s Baltic exclave of Kaliningrad had been halted in response.

• Washington DC schools get canceled, Obama asks ‘Why?’

“We’re going to have to apply some flinty Chicago toughness to this town,” Obama said this morning. “I’m saying that when it comes to the weather, folks in Washington don’t seem to be able to handle things.”

• Karl Rove gets subpoenaed.

The chairman of the House Judiciary Committee subpoenaed Karl Rove, a former top White House aide, to testify about the Bush administration’s firing of United States attorneys and prosecution of a former Democratic governor. The subpoena, by Representative John Conyers Jr., Democrat of Michigan, continues a long-running legal battle and directs Mr. Rove to appear for a deposition next Monday. Mr. Rove previously refused to appear before the panel, arguing that former presidential advisers cannot be compelled to testify before Congress. Mr. Conyers said the transfer of power in the White House, with President Obama now in office, could affect the legal arguments available to Mr. Rove.

• Sen. Russ Feingold (D-WI) will introduce a constitutional amendment requiring a special election for open Senate seats instead of governor appointments.

Said Feingold: “The controversies surrounding some of the recent gubernatorial appointments to vacant Senate seats make it painfully clear that such appointments are an anachronism that must end.  In 1913, the Seventeenth Amendment to the Constitution gave the citizens of this country the power to finally elect their senators.  They should have the same power in the case of unexpected mid term vacancies, so that the Senate is as responsive as possible to the will of the people.  I plan to introduce a constitutional amendment this week to require special elections when a Senate seat is vacant, as the Constitution mandates for the House, and as my own state of Wisconsin already requires by statute.”

• The first bill Obama signs will be the “Lily Ledbetter Act.”

The bill is a response to a 2007 Supreme Court ruling that said a person must file a claim of discrimination within 180 days of a company’s initial decision to pay a worker less than it pays another worker doing the same job. Under the bill, every new discriminatory paycheck would extend the statute of limitations for another 180 days.

• Obama tries to woo Republicans, as the stimulus bill hits the House floor tomorrow for a vote.

WASHINGTON — President Obama will direct federal regulators on Monday to move swiftly on an application by California and 13 other states to set strict automobile emission and fuel efficiency standards, two administration officials said Sunday.

The directive makes good on an Obama campaign pledge and signifies a sharp reversal of Bush administration policy. Granting California and the other states the right to regulate tailpipe emissions would be one of the most emphatic actions Mr. Obama could take to quickly put his stamp on environmental policy.

• Auto execs laud the move, citing “new sheriff in town.”

• Nationalizing the country’s banks is getting a renewed, serious look from the administration.

• Climate change envoy announced.

WASHINGTON, Jan 26 (Reuters) – The U.S. State Department is expected to name Todd Stern, a senior White House official under former President Bill Clinton, as its climate change envoy, two people familiar with the decision said on Monday.

The people said the announcement could come as early as Monday, when U.S. President Barack Obama’s administration plans to announce steps to raise fuel efficiency standards. Stern coordinated the Clinton administration’s Initiative on Global Climate Change from 1997 to 1999 and acted as the senior White House negotiator in the Kyoto negotiations on climate change.

• Al-Qaeda is panicking because Obama is so popular.

The torrent of hateful words is part of what terrorism experts now believe is a deliberate, even desperate, propaganda campaign against a president who appears to have gotten under al-Qaeda’s skin. The departure of George W. Bush deprived al-Qaeda of a polarizing American leader who reliably drove recruits and donations to the terrorist group.

With Obama, al-Qaeda faces an entirely new challenge, experts say: a U.S. president who campaigned to end the Iraq war and to close the military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and who polls show is well liked throughout the Muslim world.

Jan. 21 (Bloomberg) — Bush administration proposals to ease emission requirements for factories and require some foods to carry country-of-origin labels are among pending regulations that President Barack Obama blocked on his first day in office.

• The Freedom of Information Act is now alive and well.

In October 2001, the Bush administration took an administrative action that would prove sadly symptomatic of its rule. John Ashcroft, then the attorney general, issued a memorandum warning against casual release of information to the public under the Freedom of Information Act. Such releases, Ashcroft said, should be made “only after full and deliberate consideration of the institutional, commercial and personal privacy interests that could be implicated.” In case anyone missed the point, Ashcroft added that any bureaucrat who said no to such a request could “be assured that the Department of Justice will defend your decisions unless they lack a sound legal basis.” It goes without saying that Ashcroft did not promise any such defense of government employees who released information under the terms of the act.

• The “global gag rule” on abortions is no more.

President Obama yesterday lifted a ban on U.S. funding for international health groups that perform abortions, promote legalizing the procedure or provide counseling about terminating pregnancies.

• Recovery.gov is launched to keep track of the money spent by the impending stimulus bill.

• A market regulation overhaul is in the works.

Officials say they will make wide-ranging changes, including stricter federal rules for hedge funds, credit rating agencies and mortgage brokers, and greater oversight of the complex financial instruments that contributed to the economic crisis.

• Executive order promises to close Guantanamo and CIA secret prisons within a year.

• Government salaries have been frozen if they’re over 100k and strict new ethics rules are now in effect.

• Obama tells Israel to open up Gaza borders.

• In what could be big trouble for Bush, Obama opens up public access to Presidential Records.

This is just the beginning…

When history is written, George W. Bush’s worst critics will accuse him of everything from willful negligence in handling 2008’s economic crisis to war crimes in the context of the catastrophic mistake that is the war in Iraq. In the end, they very well may be correct, but it is possible that all of his mistakes were not of the completely sinister nature like they’re sometimes characterized, but rather can be traced back to overall tragedy that he was simply a president stuck in the wrong century. Bush’s core beliefs — that the free market could police itself, that oil is always our answer, and that we can bomb and kill others into submission without chain reactions of consequences — were dying an eventual death around the time of Y2K, but Bush made sure to keep them on life support much longer than they ever should have survived.

There is no bigger example of The Past sucking the blood out of The Future than GM, Ford, and Chrysler begging for money from the U.S. Government yet again. This past month, we saw the Big Three auto companies fly in their private jets to Washington to request billions of dollars because for the past 25 years they have steadfastly refused to look at the calendar. They defiantly rejected efforts to increase their fuel efficiency standards as every country—even China—passed us in their mandatory requirements. Because executives lobbyied Congressmen to vote against everyone’s interests but theirs, their companies made short term profits that both crippled them and damaged the country. After all, only a 7.6 mile per gallon increase in our collective car efficiency would be enough to completely free ourselves from Middle East oil, while saving the individual American consumer critical pocket money. Instead, these companies marketed trucks that could pull airplanes down a runway and consumed oil at a breakneck pace. But why would they care about those details? They could just shove SUVs down Americans’ throats by luring them through tax breaks into a choice so obviously against their interests.

This is just the most blatant example of our chronic sickness of holding onto the past. It illustrates that the worst flaw of George Bush, and in turn of the corporations he represents, may be that he simply did not realize what century we lived in. The banking crisis, car company meltdown, and failed fight against Islamist extremism can be boiled down to using 20^th century policies in a 21^st century world.

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As tears were streaming down the faces of millions of Americans on the night of November 4, 2008, President-elect Barack Obama said, in words that would ring loudly far after the last piece of confetti had fallen, “The time for change has come.” It was a beautiful sight for more reasons than one. Many were crying because the sight of a black man winning the American presidency was possibly the most powerful symbol of American exceptionalism anyone had ever seen. But those words were much more than a symbol of tolerance and the triumph of ability. They were a prologue to the tangible changes that will dramatically alter this country in the coming months—much more change than has ever happened in our lifetime.

Obama has spent his transition months putting together what has been almost universally lauded as a cabinet filled with experience, pragmatism, and overall excellence. It is a cabinet based solely on achievement, without regard for partisanship or political and financial connections.

While all of Obama’s cabinet picks have been praised for their qualifications and temperance, none exemplifies the stark realities of the new way of doing things better than Obama’s pick for Energy Secretary, Dr. Steven Chu. Chu is a Nobel Prize winning physicist who is a professor at the University of California at Berkeley and the director of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, a global warming research center whose primary goal is “to develop methods to “store” solar energy in the form of renewable transportation fuel.” There is a reason Al Gore is planning a Green Inaugural. It’s because The Age of Oil is coming to a close and Obama plans to kick it out the door.<!–nextpage–>

Bush’s pick for Energy Secretary, on the other hand, was Spencer Abraham, a Michigan senator most famous for taking more campaign donations from those same dinosaurs in the American Auto Industry than any other senator, and led the fight against corporate average fuel efficiency standards in automobiles. Change indeed.

But this is not just a Liberal president replacing Conservatives with more of the same from the other side. It’s a complete change in a philosophy that has run our government since its inception. Obama, when asked what he would do to help his “friends” in Springfield, Illinois to stem their State’s budget shortfalls,  challenged the very nature of the question.

“Part of the charge [of the budget team] is to make sure that we are proceeding on projects and investments based on national priorities and not based on politics,” he said. “Now you mentioned, sort of, ‘my friends.’ I want to be clear friendship doesn’t come into this. That’s part of the old way of doing business.

“The new way of doing business is, let’s figure out what projects, what investments are going to give the American economy the most bang for the buck. How can we protect taxpayer dollars so this money is not wasted; restore a sense of confidence among taxpayers that when we spend their money, it’s on things that are actually gonna improve their quality of life; create the jobs that are so desperately needed; help to spur on economic growth and business creation in the private sector? That’s all part of the new way of doing business.”

Being friends with the President is no longer a means to an end in any sense. Just ask John Kerry, one of Obama’s biggest and earliest supporters. He was passed over for Secretary of State in favor of Hillary Clinton, a person many accused of secretly rooting for Obama’s political destruction only months ago. While Kerry was certainly qualified, Obama’s decision underscored the notion that the age of cronyism is over. No more “Heckuva Job” Brownies or “I do not recall” Alberto Gonzaleses.

This Cult of Competence has been put in place to help Obama alter our policies as smoothly as possible, and the cornerstone to this change will come in the form of a massive stimulus package that Obama plans to sign perhaps as early as Inauguration Day, every single element of which is designed take take us out of the antiquated 20^th Century once and for all.

For a month now, Obama’s economic team has been crafting this new package, not aimed at Wall Street Banks or the crumbling car companies, but for Middle Class Americans. And it starts with the Internet. The money will be spent on laying broadband across the country, with the goal of giving every American free Internet access, a move that’s been on the FCC’s desk for years but which the Bush Administration has stubbornly tabled. As Obama has said, “we are the nation that invented the Internet, yet we are 15^th in the world in broadband adoption. It is unacceptable that the United States ranks 15th in the world in broadband adoption. Here, in the country that invented the Internet, every child should have the chance to get online.”

But that is just the start of what may come to be known as America 2.0. Every goal of the stimulus bill is designed to put Americans to work immediately, but even more importantly, set us up for the future. A nationwide high-tech power grid that will allow states to share solar and wind power will accelerate our ability to get off our dependence on foreign oil. Along with that universal access to the Web, a transfer of all hospital records to an electronic broadband system will eventually save the country billions of savings in administrative costs annually. Moreover, massive construction efforts to modernize public schools will encourage young Americans to learn and save massive amounts of money by making the buildings more energy efficient with new lighting and insulation.

As Obama often said during the campaign, the money that we spent on the Iraq War could have been used to rebuild every road, bridge, and school in our country — an intriguing thought that some might say is farfetched. Not anymore. This stimulus package could reach as high as $800 billion, actually approaching the number we have fiddled away in Iraq.

With all of this new technology helping the lives of people in the United States, Obama’s foreign policy will be aimed at change for everyone that lives outside of the country. He is in the midst of planning a major foreign policy speech to be given in an Islamic country in his first 100 days, through which he hopes to win the hearts and minds of everyone looking for an end to the seemingly never ending violence in the Middle East and beyond. This has never taken on greater importance than now as Israel’s War against Hamas threatens to put the region and the world on an even greater imbalance. The 20th Century was filled with religious wars and intolerance on a global scale, and as the leader of the Free World, the weight of moving not only our country, but the world in a new direction has fallen squarely on Obama’s shoulders

Our new president will face tough questions about how to bring the Iraq War to an end and how to fix a war in Afghanistan that now includes Pakistan, India, and even complications with Iran—a daunting challenge. But if we learned anything from Barack Obama on that historic November night, while the path to the future may be tough, there is only one answer to the question as to whether this country and the world can succeed. Yes We Can.

Did Barack Obama just trick every single person in the country?

It would seem on the surface that President-elect Obama stirred up his first controversy with his supporters this week, after announcing that Rick Warren, pastor of the Sattleback Church and arch-villain of gay marriage in California, will be giving the opening prayer at Obama’s inauguration on January 20th. Criticism ranged from Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) calling the move a “mistake” to a Time Magazine columnist stating, “Obama has proved himself repeatedly to be a very tolerant, very rational-sounding sort of bigot.”

But let’s take a step back for a minute and take everyone’s strong opinions about Warren out of the equation. Policy-wise, his prayer before the swearing-in is meaningless . He is not part of the Obama administration in any capacity, and in fact, Obama is stridently against Warren’s views on gays. Not to mention, Warren certainly will not being saying anything even coming close to the subject at the inauguration.

Selecting Warren was simply, in Vice President-elect Joe Biden’s words, “a showing of unity,” further inoculating Obama from any criticism from Republicans that he never bucks the party line. Liberals might be frustrated, but they aren’t going anywhere, and as a bonus, every conservative evangelical in the country will smile and nod when hearing all this, not realizing Obama never actually changed his position at all. As a pure political move, it makes perfect sense.

Much more critical, though, is the fact that the criticism leveled at Obama is only vaguely directed at him. The real venom and sting has been reserved for Warren’s words and deeds over the last few years, from which the preacher has avoided taking any flack for at all. The beating Warren is taking in the national news this past week is much larger than it would have been had he been left out of the January 20^th lineup, regardless of his infamy in California. For the past week, the press has been digging up all the ridiculous things he’s said over the years, such as comparing gays and lesbians to pedophiles. As a consequence, he is now forced to go on TV and give interviews and press conferences emphasizing how he “loves gay people,” and “has many gay friends,” effectively killing the message of the most famous anti- gay marriage messenger in the country.

Essentially, Obama’s imaginary insult to the Left caused Rick Warren to completely change his tone about the issue, thereby advancing the Left’s cause, while making sure to pick up some Conservative votes along the way and never actually changing his position on anything.

And to think — he’s not even president yet.

That would be ending the Iraq War, Karl. And it’s 10:48 pm. I know George Bush goes to bed at 8 o’clock, but you’d figure “Bush’s Brain” stayed up a little later.

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Meanwhile, on MSNBC, Keith Olbermann just tried ask Chuck Todd “Any way that poll showing Obama with a 22-point lead in California is wrong?” with a straight face. You could literally feel him smirking as the camera panned to Chuck.

Even better news, Bill Bennett is still throwing in the obligatory “If Obama wins…” to the amusement of the rest of his colleagues.

Over on Fox, they just interviewed Karl Rove, and even in his alternate universe, Obama is going to win.

Weekly Standard hack Fred Barnes also continued his assault on early voting. A few days ago, he complained that when he went to vote early, the polling station was filled with “old, poor people.” Click the link, I’m not joking. Now, he just claimed it’s actually LESS convenient to spread it out over a few weeks than to stuff everyone into the voting booth on one day. Even on Fox, no one else could figure out what he’s talking about.

Everyone on CNN is covertly saying the election is over, lavishing praise on Obama. Republican Bill Bennett has even been giving him props, but he precedes every comment “This is not over.” But he has to say it so much that he’s now throwing in death metaphors to get his point across. “Not to beat a dead horse, but…this is not over.” Five minutes later, he got a little more disturbing, “Again, the body is not yet cold, BUT…” Here’s hoping he makes increasingly macabre McCain autopsy jokes as the night wears on…

CNN also just unveiled their new hologram technology, which LITERALLY looks like Princess Leia and Obi Wan Kanobi’s image coming out of R2D2. The hologramed reporters appear right next to Wolf Blitzer in the Situation Room even though they are located around the country. Wolf claims he will be beaming correspondents in all night…

More to come..

And that might be the only real reason why this election will not be called earlier than a third grader’s bedtime. As Ben Smith of Politico puts it:

The polls close at 7:00 Eastern in Virginia, Indiana, Georgia, and South Carolina, and anything other than a clean McCain sweep of those states likely means a short night.

Chuck Todd has a comprehensive schedule by state.

And Jonathan Martin writes up the counties to watch.

Here are all of the polls released yesterday, the last day that the major polling firms collected data. Obama’s aggragate average is approaching 52%, but I believe these polls under report the youth vote because of they generally don’t call cell phones, and we will probably see a disproportionate amount of the African-American vote judging by the early vote counts in many states.

We will have to look out for the Bradley Effect, which may or may not be a myth. Even if it’s true, I have a feeling it might be off se by the Reverse Bradley Effect. Paraphrasing Bill Maher, the Reverse Bradley Effect theorizes the pseudo racists are telling their buddies down at the Moose Lodge they’re voting for McCain, but when they get in the voting booth they might start thinking, “Hmm, well my kids teeth are falling out… and Obama is the only one that will give me health care. Maybe I will vote for the black guy.”

As far as the electoral college, Obama should get 338+ electoral votes, putting him well over the 270 needed to win. He will almost definitely flip Colorado, New Mexico, Virginia, and Iowa from Red States to Blue, and I think he squeak out Ohio, Florida and North Carolina, as well. Missouri and Indiana will be tough but if either fall for Obama, it will be over by 9 o’clock.

If McCain has any chance, he absolutely needs Pennsylvania. The east coast bellweather state is one of the first to close their polls, so if it is called early for Obama, it will be a good indicater of how the night could turn out. If Obama’s lead is 8 to 10 points and its over shortly after the polls close, then there will be no need to sweat. Barack Obama will be the President Elect. If we are still wondering who won Pennsylvania after a few hours, it might be a long night.

Check out CNN’s interactive map and make you’re own predictions.

Here’s a snippet:

Late last week, John McCain picked his running mate, the relatively unknown Sarah Palin, Governor of Alaska. Aesthetically, for McCain, it was a great pick. The grumpy, ugly, old man picked a smiling, attractive, young woman as his potential Vice President. The excitement over the first woman Republican VP nominee in history also probably blunted Obama’s poll bounce after his rousing convention speech on Thursday.

But while McCain’s pick got relatively good press over the weekend (and made him some money: The campaign has raised over $10 mil since Friday), it’s about to explode in his face, and I wouldn’t be the least bit surprised if she is off the ticket for good by the end of September. I had to make this a bulleted list because it is extremely long and probably will need to be updated almost hourly because right now, there is an army of progressive bloggers vetting her much more thoroughly than the McCain campaign ever did.

It was a tale of three speeches. On the night when the Democrats finally had their nominee, the two general election candidates — and the one just vanquished – all gave speeches laying claim to the title of Best Equipped to Be President.

The first, a plodding and awkward ramble, given in front of a grotesque lime green backdrop to what seemed like only a few dozen onlookers, gave viewers a taste of the John McCain they will see over the next few months: a grumbling curmudgeon who will try to steal the “change” platform from Obama by explaining his “change” means a third term of George Bush domestic and foreign policies that promise to change absolutely nothing. The listless, same-old speech from McCain was roundly panned by critics, even his buddies at Fox News, as not what he probably wanted compared to what everyone was about to witness from the new Democratic-elect.

The last orate, by contrast, was a soaring, transcendent victory claim given in front of 33,000 people; 18,000 who filled the arena and 15,000 more that stood outside in a constant, frenzied state. Everything that John McCain’s speech wasn’t, Barack Obama’s was.

In a booming voice that crescendoed over the uninterrupted screams and applause of the massive crowd, he gave the American people a taste of the Obama presidency: An end to the war, negotiations with our enemies, rescinding the ridiculous tax cuts for the rich and an actual energy policy were laid out as rebuttals to McCain, who has been in lockstep with George W. Bush on all the vital issues facing the people of the United States.

On the historic night when Obama finally became the west’s first real African American candidate for president, he pronounced, “America, this is our moment. This is our time. Our time to turn the page on the policies of the past.”

And then there was the speech in the middle.

A defiant, grasp at something that has been lost for months, Hillary Clinton, who many were expecting to at least concede something last night, gave what was at best a confusing quasi-victory speech for someone who had just lost and at worst a selfish narcissistic view of the contest that dripped with delusion and self denial. Ceding no ground to Obama, except that “he and his supporters have run an excellent campaign,” she went on to mimic asking what everyone in the press has been for the last few days, “‘What does Hillary want?’” and then refused to answer. She left the door open to her future plans and addressed the crowd as if she had not just lost the Democratic Nomination for President, which, unfortunately for her, she just had.

What Hillary Clinton will do in the next coming months for now remains a mystery. She will almost certainly have to admit she lost in the coming days, and with any luck, will fade into the background. But the two who remain will undoubtedly give us more of the taste they gave us last night. For John McCain, it will be idea that the world is extremely dangerous and only a war monger like himself can run it. And for Barack Obama, it will be the chance to bring a new face, a new voice, to the Presidency, one that has never been heard before.

Let’s hope, this time, the American people make the right decision. Though, if they just listen to the speeches from last night, it will really become an easy choice.

Recently, a Hungarian company claimed they developed software that can translate a dog’s bark to English with some regularity. Although there are many bugs in the software, the program seems to get it right about 43 percent of the time, including correctly identified words “stranger,” “fight,” “walk,” “alone,” “ball” and “play.”

As this technology advances in the coming decade, we may be able to decipher dogspeak with increasingly regularity and accuracy. Every time your dog wants food, has an itch in need of a scratch, has a stomach ache, is cold or hot or just doesn’t want to get up, he may be able to tell you immediately.

This also means he’ll learn barking can be advantageous to his needs and will do so with increasing frequency.

Initially, of course, the dog translators will fly off the shelves. Finally, a chance to find out why Fido insists on barking at the neighbors everyday! But what happens when the dog’s realize their new power? They already know that their human masters are willing to feed them, bathe them and pick up their shit. Just imagine what’s going to happen when they realize they can really boss you around.

Elderly dog owners who might not be up to the task of disciplining will get bombarded with “Give me a bone!” demands, while younger dog enthusiasts will realize their supposed best friend can now make sarcastic remarks about the taste of dog food or have a point-counterpoint argument about why he should be able to sleep on the couch. Not to mention, when your dog is in the car with his head out the window, might he start verbally second guessing your speed and direction? Backseat drivers will no longer be a humans only annoyance.

Will this also open up a gap in breed to breed intelligence? What happens when my golden retriever is giving a Shakespearian soliloquy on the meaning of life while your pitbull-cocker spaniel crossbreed can’t figure out the difference between your wife and the mailman? A major class war between dogs and their owners will no doubt commence.

These are just a few of the questions that will arise as dog translators make it out of the lab and onto the collars of man’s best friend. Consider yourself warned.

NASHUA, N.H. — Senator Hillary Clinton took an early lead and held on to defeat Senator Barack Obama.

The Associated press was the first to call the race for Clinton, NBC News followed before CNN around 11 p.m.

Obama was hoping to get a boost from college towns, but in the end he came up short.

Former Senator John Edwards finished a distant and disappointing third with about 17 percent of the vote.

Senator John McCain has won among the Republicans, it is projected. Iowa winner Mike Huckabee looks to finish third ahead of Rudy Giuliani

Turnout has been upwards of 70 percent statewide — over 500,000 votes.

McCain gave his victory speech around 9:30 p.m. local time. No word from Mitt Romney. Senator Obama conceded around 11 p.m.

Though he talked about winning and had the crowd cheering “Mich-i-gan” and “Mac-Is-Back,” his enthusiasm giving a prepared speech seemed to be lacking … his crowd didn’t seem to mind though.

As the world looks to New Hampshire, turn to BLAST.

Stick with Blast’s political blogs, PSA and Touch of Class for more developments.

Blast’s reporters be updating their stories all night as returns come in and reactions start.

Trevor Timm reported from Nashua, N.H. Blast Magazine staff writers Heidi Buchanan and John Guilfoil and correspondents Colin Vallance, Kellen Rice and Ryan Rice contributed to this report.