Liberal Talk Radio

Big Pharma kills terrorists: The Afghan chieftain looked older than his 60-odd years, and his bearded face bore the creases of a man burdened with duties as tribal patriarch and husband to four younger women. His visitor, a CIA officer, saw an opportunity, and reached into his bag for a small gift. Four blue pills. [...]

Everyone wants to get it out of their system before the new sheriff comes to town: Israel. Turkey. The Taliban.

. . . you discover that ephemera from your favorite bands growing up are now part of a fusty old historical society. (See also, the Minnesota Historical Society Soul Asylum Record Series Finding Aid)

Republican Rep. Ray LaHood is Obama’s choice for Transpo Secretary. Erica Barnett rounds up the reax here. Take John Ashcroft. When he was nominated for Attorney General back in 2001, the big concern was that he was a hard-right anti-choice guy. But no one remembers Ashcroft’s tenure at the DOJ for his take on abortion. [...]

The unions are stoked about Obama’s choice for Secretary of Labor, Rep. Hilda Solis. I’m still a bit disappointed that the Labor Secretary wasn’t rolled out with the rest of the “economic policy team” a few weeks ago, but maybe she hadn’t accepted yet. Anyway, the symbol of nominating a latina Congresswoman from East L.A. [...]

Talk about building bridges! President-elect Barack Obama on Thursday defended his choice of a popular evangelical minister to deliver the invocation at his inauguration, rejecting criticism that it slights gays.The selection of Pastor Rick Warren brought objections from gay rights advocates, who strongly supported Obama during the election campaign. The advocates are angry over Warren’s [...]

Ever wonder what it’s like to live in Japan?  Wait no more: Going further than analysts anticipated, the [Fed] cut its target for the overnight federal funds rate to a range of 0 to 0.25 percent, a record low, virtually bringing the United States to the zero-rate policies that Japan used for six years in [...]

Corruption in Illinois and Iraq, the auto bailout fails in the Senate, and finally, we look back on 2008. Links Mentioned: Iraq reconstruction snafus … Mitch Albom unleashes on Republican Senators … video of the shoe incident.

Well, that didn’t take very long.

Here’s why: With the announcement by President-elect Barack Obama last week that Gates will remain in his job in the new administration, the Defense chief has been given broad new power to reshape how the Pentagon selects, designs and builds new weapons systems. The decision to keep Gates could spell the end of the Army’s [...]