Top Items:
Alexander Mooney / CNN:
Rick Warren to give inaugural invocation — (CNN) — President-elect Barack Obama's swearing-in ceremony will feature big names like minister Rick Warren and legendary singer Aretha Franklin, the Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies announced Wednesday.
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John Aravosis / AMERICAblog News:
Obama picks homophobe pro-'Prop 8' evangelical preacher to give the invocation at inaugural — 5:22PM UPDATE: Warren compared abortion to the “Jewish Holocaust,” and said that making abortion “rare” wasn't enough, he's for outlawing abortion, period. So that would make pro-choice people …
Discussion:
Box Turtle Bulletin, site.pfaw.org, Brendan Calling, American Prospect and Jack & Jill Politics
Andrew Sullivan / The Daily Dish:
Ugh — Rick Warren will give the invocation at Obama's inauguration. Warren is a man who believes my marriage removes his freedom of speech and cannot say that authorizing torture is a moral failing. Shrewd politics, but if anyone is under any illusion that Obama is interested in advancing gay equality …
Katharine Q. Seelye / The Caucus:
Aretha Franklin to Participate in Inaugural Ceremony — Aretha Franklin and Dr. Rick Warren, an author and leader 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.
Discussion:
Box Turtle Bulletin, The Daily Dish, Firedoglake, Right Wing Watch, PageOneQ, Feministing, The RBC, Blogging Faith and Booman Tribune
Aretha Franklin / CBN.com:
Pro-Life Rick Warren to Give Invocation at Obama Inauguration — Pro-life pastor Rick Warren will give the invocation at President-Elect Barack Obama's inauguration. It makes a whole lot of sense. Even though Warren and Obama disagree on the life issue, they do see eye to eye on many social justice issues.
The Politico:
Gay activists furious with Obama — Barack Obama's choice of a prominent evangelical minister to perform the invocation at his inauguration is a conciliatory gesture toward social conservatives who opposed him in November, but it is drawing fierce challenges from a gay rights movement that …
Greg Sargent / TPM Election Central:Top Liberal Group Hammers Decision For Rick Warren To Deliver …
Discussion:
AMERICAblog News, Box Turtle Bulletin, Philly.com, Calitics and Chronicle of Higher Education
Steve Benen / Washington Monthly:WARREN TO GIVE INVOCATION.... Barack Obama is, for the time being …
Matt Duss / Think Progress:Anti-gay, anti-choice, pro-assassination pastor to give inaugural invocation.»
Discussion:
The Seminal
Mike Dorning / The Swamp:
LaHood to be Transportation Sec — Peoria Republican congressman Ray LaHood will be nominated Transportation Secretary for the Obama Administration, Republican and Democratic sources said today. — A spokesman for the Obama transition team declined to comment and LaHood's office did not immediately return phone calls.
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Susan Crabtree / The Hill:LaHood considered for Cabinet post
Discussion:
The Hill's Blog Briefing Room, Ben Smith's Blogs, Matthew Yglesias and Chicago Breaking News
New York Times:
Kennedy Goes on Tour Upstate — BUFFALO — The first day of Caroline Kennedy's tour through upstate New York on Wednesday was meant to be a low-key, decorous excursion, mindful of the skepticism surrounding her bid to be appointed the state's next United States senator. — Fat chance.
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Gateway Pundit:
IRAQI AMBASSADOR TELLS OFF CODE PINK WHACKOS (Video) — CODE PINK AMBUSHES IRAQI AMBASSADOR- AMBASSADOR FIRES BACK — “He's lucky he didn't try something like this under Saddam Hussein.” — Ambassador Samir Sumaida'ie: … The anti-American Marxist front group Code Pink ambushed Iraq Ambassador …
Discussion:
Moe_Lane's blog, This ain't Hell …, Hot Air, The Raw Story, Brave New Films blog and JammieWearingFool
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Newsdesk / Clout St:
Illinois Supreme Court rejects Madigan bid to declare Blagojevich ‘unfit’ — SPRINGFIELD—The Illinois Supreme Court today rejected Atty. Gen. Lisa Madigan's attempt to have disgraced Gov. Rod Blagojevich declared unable to hold the office of Illinois chief executive, court officials said.
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Patrick / FishBowlDC:
WaPo: Only Positive Obama Ads, Please — Hoping to make a little cash off of Barack Obama's inauguration (that's certainly nothing new...), Washington Post.Newsweek Interactive and the Washington Post's classifieds departments have launched “Welcome to the White House”, a classfieds …
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Associated Press:
Cake request for 3-year-old Hitler namesake denied — EASTON, Pa. - The father of 3-year-old Adolf Hitler Campbell, denied a birthday cake with the child's full name on it by one New Jersey supermarket, is asking for a little tolerance. Heath Campbell and his wife, Deborah …
Mark Preston / CNN:
Second GOP senator to announce retirement — WASHINGTON (CNN) - Sen. Sam Brownback will announce Thursday he is retiring from the Senate when his term ends in 2010, allowing the Kansas Republican to explore a run for governor. — He will be the second GOP senator this year to publicly state …
Time:
Person of the Year 2008: Barack Obama — For having the confidence to sketch an ambitious future in a gloomy hour, and for showing the competence that makes Americans hopeful he might pull it off, the President-elect is TIME's Person of the Year.
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Media Matters for America:
Sean Hannity: Media Matters ' 2008 Misinformer of the Year — As Media Matters for America has demonstrated time and again, Fox News' Sean Hannity has been a prolific and influential purveyor of conservative misinformation. But never has he so enthusiastically applied his talents …
Mark Leibovich / New York Times:
Between Obama and the Press — ROBERT GIBBS'S HEADY WASHINGTON RISE was certified on a humid day in June when a procession of media and political fancies gathered in tribute to Tim Russert, the “Meet the Press” host who died of a heart attack several days earlier.
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Greg Sargent / TPM Election Central:Report: Obama Campaign Manager Disdained Mark Halperin, Politico
Discussion:
The Jed Report
Chuck Goudie / WLS-TV:
Blagojevich was bookie, says federal informant — The ABC7 I-Team has learned that an attorney who went undercover for the FBI in the late 1980's says he told federal authorities years ago about wrongdoing by Blagojevich. — His name is Robert Cooley. — Cooley was a criminal defense lawyer …
Discussion:
Fox News, The Note, The Raw Story, The Hill's Blog Briefing Room and Patterico's Pontifications
Matthew Kaminski / Forbes:
You Like Us! But Not For Long — America's euphoria over global goodwill is misplaced. — In the weeks since Barack Obama and his family walked out on that Grant Park stage, our euphoria about the world's euphoria must surely count as the most endearingly silly outcome of this election.
Discussion:
INSTAPUTZ
Dana Milbank / Washington Post:
Obama's Pressers: No Comment — and NoDoz — A month from now, the nation will say farewell to its sports-obsessed president who doesn't like tough questions. And it will replace him with, well, another sports-obsessed president who doesn't like tough questions.
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