"I have seen what they're planning from the inside and if you know what's good for you, you'll do something, NOW, before it's too late because the guys is a Republican in disguise just like the PUMAs said. D'OH! Did I just say PUMAs? No, I did not, everything I said was in code. Whew!"

It will be interesting to see what he IS when the image fades and any reality of responsibility sets in. I believe he is more interested in making history than in making change. I still have to wonder that the daily french newspaper LeMonde interviewed the couple in 1996 and the gist of the interview did not differ from the context of this years primary. This has been a long time set up. That kind of orchestration scares me.

Time will prove us all.

there are about six things he can do on 1/21/09 that will open the ball properly:

1. Have Dems in both houses of the Congress simultaneously introduce Medicare for All bills, to be voted on within 30 days. If the Rethugs scream, let it be known they'd rather see businesses strangled and jobs deleted than level the playing field for American corporations. This has two giant benefits: it's the truth, and it's something a President can use a bully pulpit to go over the heads of the Lege to get word out to the public on.

2. Have a bill introduced in both houses, again to be voted on within 30 days, for a new Works Progress Administration and a new Civilian Conservation Corps -- and let both work in urban areas as needed to bring public schools, public libraries, public health clinics, post offices, and commuter stations (light rail, subway, bus, tram, trolley ... all of these) within walking distance (that is to say, half a mile or less) for people who currently don't have these available. Open up teacher training and nursing education to more potential students by reducing the cost -- government grants for training in exchange for, say, two years' service teaching or three years' service as a nurse-practitioner in medically-underserved communities (I'm thinking about inner cities, Indian reservations, South Texas, rural Idaho and Montana, and the Appalachians here; y'all feel free to add to the list) seems a reasonable tradeoff to me. One of the unsung virtues of the WPA and CCC was that it did stuff within reasonable distance of the enrollees' original homes -- and it spread the work across the whole country. Think of it as a variation on the Peace Corps, aimed at the US itself.

3. Close Gitmo. He can do that on an Executive Order. Close Abu Ghraib. Ditto. Also as many of the secret prisons and "rendition sites" as possible, also via fiat. Get a sympathetic Congressional representative and a smart Senator to slip provisions making these decisions permanent and irrevocable into some gotta-have-it legislation as soon as possible, but first just do it -- it's the right thing to do and it'll send the mother of all signals to the world at large that there's a new administration in town.

4. Identify and arrest those responsible -- not the grunts, but the commanders and the administrative REMFs who worked out the weasel-worded interpretative justifications -- for making it OK for US forces to employ "extraordinary interrogation techniques" -- what I and the rest of the great unwashed call torture. If the Inquisition did it, it's torture. If you don't want some guy in camo fatigues and a rag mask doing it to you or your spouse or kids, it's torture. Fairly broad definition, but inclusive enough to stop such activities as simulated drowning, sexual assault, "stress positions," beatings, and sleep deprivation. I'd be willing to go for prohibiting all the behaviors the UN prohibits, and prosecuting any and all breaches of human rights under that outline, going back to 9-12-01. Oh, and yes, I want Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Rice and the rest of them arrested too. America may be in a humor to forgive and forget, but I'm damn sure not.

5. Get out of Iraq. Now. Sixty days for the last GI to leave the sands. The hell with the contaminated gear -- blow it up and leave the pieces. Building more will create jobs in the US, which we desperately need (Note: said jobs should be for not-current DoD contractors -- maybe Chrysler to build trucks and armored Sprinters with Cummins engines that can run on SVO or WVO as well as diesel?) -- making axles, wheels, armored doors, shatter-resistant double-paned windows, turrets, swivels and hoists ... you get the idea.

6. Disband the ConAgra / Monsanto / Smithfield "ag industry" -- ENFORCE regulations on the employers rather than the workers with regard to immigration status verification, OSHA and EPA regulations, taxes and withholdings verification, hiring, and the FLSA. In fact, spread this to all US industries, including those who've "offshored" their headquarters for tax purposes and other profitable conveniences; and while we're about it, let's investigate, identify, and arrest those whose peculations and speculations led to the deregulation, misrepresentation, and downright crookedness out of which arose the Wall Street Crash of 2008 (again starting with Bush and his pals -- Bernanke, et al).

.

Say wha'? Please, Mr. President-Elect, is this really someone you want messing up scientifically valid HIV treatment? WTF??

...The Obama transition team has asked Ambassador Mark Dybul to remain in place as Global AIDS Coordinator, flying in the face of opposition by many HIV prevention, youth rights, and reproductive rights groups, 50 of whom recently signed a letter calling for a change in leadership. Ambassador Dybul helped enforce the exportation of abstinence-only programs denying millions of young people around the globe access to information about condoms. As if that isn't bad enough, he has also been an opponent of integrating HIV prevention and reproductive health, a major mistake given the tremendous numbers of young girls and women at risk for HIV infection.

Say it isn't so, Mr. BO!

If it is so, unleash the criticism.

I thought this was what a feminist looks like? Now I have to believe in abstinence-only sex ed? It's getting very hard to keep up.

Like a god indeed. I kept praying I'd wake up to Ms. Mag saying 'Gotcha! We were just kidding!'

Not quite in line with the topic, but contrast:

Our foreign policy must reflect our deep commitment to the cause of making human rights a reality for millions of oppressed people around the world. Of particular concern to me is the plight of women and girls, who comprise the majority of the world’s unhealthy, unschooled, unfed, and unpaid. If half of the world’s population remains vulnerable to economic, political, legal, and social marginalization, our hope of advancing democracy and prosperity will remain in serious jeopardy. We still have a long way to go and the United States must remain an unambiguous and unequivocal voice in support of women’s rights in every country, every region, on every continent.

....

“They want to maintain an attitude,” she charged, “that keeps women unhealthy, unfed, uneducated, and this is something that results all too often in violence against these young women.”

“This is not culture, this is not custom, this is criminal,” she said.

“Speaking broadly and promising that she would place an emphasis on areas like the Office on Human Trafficking and the Women’s Office, she said: I want to pledge to you that as Secretary of State, I view these issues as central to our foreign policy not as adjunct or in any way lesser. …”

via Dr. Socks at The Reclusive Leftist.

Oh, and I thought the wheelchair riff was fab, too.