…since I harshed your mellow. Chris Floyd steps up to do the job:

Indeed, the entire arc of America’s bipartisan policies in [Central Asia] over the past 40 years can be seen as the elaborate construction of a gargantuan, self-propelled blowback machine, producing an endless effluent of violence, threat, chaos and crime that is now sluicing through the entire world. But blowback, as we all know, is not a design flaw of imperial policy, at least not for the most part; it is a design feature. No War Machine without perpetual war and rumors of war; no war profits – and no war powers – without the War Machine.

He’s talking about Barack Obama and UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown pledging an escalation of their countries’ military commitments to Afghanistan. Executive summary: more death and misery for the people there, more profit and power for a very select group of people here.

IRAQ WAR ENDS and other great headlines in today’s (fake) New York Times (courtesy of The Yes Men).

Good.is has a snappy video breaking down the $3 Trillion cost of war (as documented in Joseph E. Stiglitz and Linda J. Bilme’s exhaustively researched book, The Three Trillion Dollar War: The True Cost of the Iraq Conflict)

Mark Newman at the Department of Physics and Center for the Study of Complex Systems, University of Michigan generated this awesome collection of election maps. My favorite is above.

H/T Andrew Sullivan

UPDATE:
As Steve and Josh commented, the red/blue colors can give a biased visual perspective. Here’s the same map with the hue rotated 120 degrees.

After the hoopla of winning the election, and a lot of wonk-talk about the cabinet posts, I was so greatful to read this today:

WASHINGTON — President-elect Obama’s advisers are quietly crafting a proposal to ship dozens, if not hundreds, of imprisoned terrorism suspects to the United States to face criminal trials

I think that closing Gitmo as one of his firsts acts in office will send a strong message to the world, and americans at home, that morality is back on the table as an important american value.

NOTE: Pre-emptive anti-snark statement… I know the witch has many sisters and that Glinda herself has been known to cohort with lobbyists, but give a munchkin a chance to party a bit. ; )

Bush administration officials have shown a determination to operate under an expansive definition of self-defense that provides a legal rationale for strikes on militant targets in sovereign nations without those countries’ consent.

That’s from deep within an article that details how President Bush signed a secret order back in 2004 allowing the U. S. military to engage in hostile operations in countries that we’re not at war with.

Um… sweet!

From 52 to 48 With Love.

I may be depressing some of you with my recent posts which have offered criticism of the Obama transition team’s hiring decisions. I’m not anti-Obama (far from it!), I just want us all to be realistic about what’s happening, and to apply what pressure we can to keep things moving in the right direction.

I also want to give credit where credit is due. This is from the transition team’s official website, change.gov:

The Obama-Biden Transition Project does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, age, national origin, veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability, or any other basis of discrimination prohibited by law. (Emphasis added)

Right on.

Speculation has been running rampant in the media about the Obama family’s new dog, which he promised to Sasha and Malia in his victory speech on Tuesday night. So far, my favorite suggested name for the dog is Maverick.

Just this afternoon, Obama gave his first press conference, and he was asked about the dog. Like the lawyer he is, he responded that they family has to weight two competing considerations: on the one hand, Sasha is allergic, so they need a hypo-allergenic dog; on the other hand, they’d like to get a dog from the pound. He added, “But as you know, most pound puppies are mutts, just like me.”

I love it!!!

Let me preface this post by explaining my reason for posting it. It is not to condemn Obama, or to criticize those of us who voted for him (as, in fact, I did). It is to remind us that the real work of influencing policy decisions is ongoing, and to shine a bright light on the choices that Obama and his advisers are making. I am heartened by the fact that Obama is intelligent, reasonable, educated, and engaged with the world – indeed, it is for those very reasons that I believe he may be amenable to progressive influences. But we must be those influences.

So… the Obama team announced the formation of their Transition Economic Advisory Board:

The Transition Economic Advisory Board will help guide the work of the Obama-Biden transition team in developing a strong set of policies to respond to the economic crisis. The Board includes:

• David Bonior (Member House of Representatives 1977-2003)
• Warren Buffett (Chairman and CEO, Berkshire Hathaway)-will participate via speakerphone
• Roel Campos (former SEC Commissioner)
• William Daley (Chairman of the Midwest, JP Morgan Chase; Former Secretary, U.S. Dept of Commerce, 1997-2000)
• William Donaldson (Former Chairman of the SEC 2003-2005)
• Roger Ferguson (President and CEO, TIAA-CREF and former Vice Chairman of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve)
• Jennifer Granholm (Governor, State of Michigan)
• Anne Mulcahy (Chairman and CEO, Xerox)
• Richard Parsons (Chairman of the Board, Time Warner)
• Penny Pritzker (CEO, Classic Residence by Hyatt)
• Robert Reich (University of California, Berkeley; Former Secretary, U.S. Dept of Labor, 1993-1997)
• Robert Rubin (Chairman and Director of the Executive Committee, Citigroup; Former Secretary, U.S. Dept of Treasury, 1995-1999)
• Eric Schmidt (Chairman and CEO, Google)
• Lawrence Summers (Harvard University; Managing Director, D.E. Shaw; Former Secretary, U.S. Dept of Treasury, 1999-2001)
• Laura Tyson (Haas School of Business, University of California, Berkeley; Former Chairman, National Economic Council, 1995-1996; Former Chairman, President’s Council of Economic Advisors, 1993-1995)
• Antonio Villaraigosa (Mayor, City of Los Angeles)
• Paul Volcker (Former Chairman, U.S. Federal Reserve 1979-1987)

Let’s review: 17 members. Eight captains of finance and industry, including three former federal officials. Seven more former federal government officials. One governor of a midwestern state. One mayor of a large city. No representatives of labor unions. No representatives of non-governmental, non-financial entities. No academics without deep ties to the federal government. No one to represent the voices of the poor, the marginalized, the disenfranchised.

And now recall the Chomsky excerpt, posted below:

The domestic sources of power remain basically unchanged, whatever the electoral outcome. The major decision-making positions in the executive branch of the government, which increasingly dominates domestic and foreign policy, remain overwhelmingly in the hands of representatives of major corporations and the few law firms that cater primarily to corporate interests… It is hardly surprising, then, that the basic function of the State remains the regulation of domestic and international affairs in the interest of the masters of the private economy, a fact studiously ignored in the press and academic scholarship, but apparent on investigation of the actual design and execution of policy over many years.

We’ve got our work cut out for us.