Warren On?  Party Off.  —  Not that he was planning to attend, but Barack Obama should know that my sister's inauguration night party — the one for which she was preparing Obama Punch — has been canceled.  The notice went out over the weekend, by e-mail and word of mouth …

Seattle refuses to use salt; roads “snow packed” by design  —  To hear the city's spin, Seattle's road crews are making “great progress” in clearing the ice-caked streets.  —  But it turns out “plowed streets” in Seattle actually means “snow-packed,” as in there's snow and ice left on major arterials by design.

THERE IS NOTHING ANYONE CAN DO ABOUT IT.  —  Over at BoingBoing, Clay Shirky engages in a bit of self-congratulatory schadenfreude for predicting the collapse of the newspaper business model back in 1993.  And no doubt: He was prescient.  But like a lot of folks (many of them named Jeff Jarvis) …

Bush pardons man who helped Israel during wartime  —  Featured Topics: - Barack Obama - Presidential Transition  —  WASHINGTON - In a gesture of forgiveness for an American considered a hero in Israel, President George W. Bush on Tuesday granted a pardon posthumously to a man who broke …

Obama wants Bush war team to stay  —  Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates has asked most Bush administration political appointees except those targeted for dismissal to stay on in the Pentagon until replaced by the Obama administration in the coming months.  —  “I have received authorization …

New York Is Semi-Sweet On Caroline, Quinnipiac University Poll Finds; Cuomo Is Favored By Upstate Voters  —  New York State voters split 40 - 41 percent on whether Caroline Kennedy is qualified to be a U.S. Senator, but they expect by a 48 - 25 percent margin that Gov. David Paterson will name …

Emanuel Heads To Africa As Blagojevich Report Drops  —  With the Obama transition team set to release an internal report regarding the extent of its interactions with embattled governor Rod Blagojevich, one of the key figures in the mix is heading out of the country.

Conservative Snobs Are Wrong About Palin  —  I know Maggie Thatcher.  The two women have a lot in common.  —  Being listed in fourth place for Time magazine's “Person of the Year,” as Sarah Palin was for 2008, sounds a little like being awarded the Order of Purity (Fourth Class).

Why Obama Really Might Decriminalize Marijuana  —  The stoner community is clamoring to say it: “Yes we cannabis!”  Turns out, with several drug-war veterans close to the president-elect's ear, insiders think reform could come in Obama's second term — or sooner.

Obama to use Lincoln Bible  —  From the transition team:  —  “Washington, D.C. - On January 20th, President-elect Barack Obama will take the oath of office using the same Bible upon which President Lincoln was sworn in at his first inauguration.  The Bible is currently part of the collections of the Library of Congress.

Quirky Festivus holiday gains followers  —  Those who celebrate Festivus display a pole instead of a tree and air grievances instead of exchanging gifts.  —  JBURNETT@MIAMIHERALD.COM  —  Alexandra Casuso was only 11 years old when Festivus made its TV debut on Seinfeld in 1997 …

Top Clinton Advisor Wolfson Joining Team Bloomberg  —  In an exclusive interview with NY1, top Democratic strategist Howard Wolfson announced today that he will be joining Mayor Michael Bloomberg's re-election campaign as a senior communications advisor.  —  “Around the time of the term limits extension …

NPR Rewrites Rathergate History to Cover Up Fraud  —  National Public Radio does their best to rewrite history in this shockingly disingenuous piece on the Rathergate affair, told from Dan Rather's perspective as he openly states (and NPR doesn't challenge) that the memos in his infamous 60 Minutes II piece …

Child porn investigation catches California lawyer  —  (CNN) — A lawyer who served in the Clinton administration and more recently was an adviser to California's lieutenant governor pleaded guilty to a child porn charge in a San Diego federal court Monday.  —  Wade Rowland Sanders admitted …

The Op-Ed the New York Times Wouldn't Run  —  An FBI informant's response to Bill Ayers' rewriting of history got the cold shoulder — but you can read it here.  —  On December 5, the New York Times afforded former domestic terrorist Bill Ayers a chance to publish an op-ed …

The Bush Legacy  —  Ed Gillespie's RealClearPolitics article on “Myths and Facts About the Real Bush Record” is about as stupid and dishonest as you'd expect.  But after “debunking” five perfectly accurate alleged myths, Gillespie gets into the whopper that really gets my goat:

O, MY BOD!  IT'S BEACH BARACK  —  NEXT PREZ HEATS UP HAWAII  —  Just call him “Ab"-bama.  —  Buff-bodied President-elect Barack Obama put his chiseled frame on full display - as seen on Page 1 - during a stroll in Hawaii while on vacation with his family.

A housing scammer, pardoned  —  Seems like a bit of an odd time to pardon a guy who pleaded guilty to the relatively minor charges of making false statements to HUD and mail fraud amid an investigation of a massive housing scam that involved allegedly sticking the victims, homebuyers, with ballooning mortgages.