A new year means it’s long past time I posted some Iron and Wine (Sam Beam). This is from Sam’s “lo-fi” first album. He directed (and I imagine shot) this video himself. You-ll notice it’s in one take. Originally from South Carolina, after film school Sam taught cinematography down in Miami before landing a record deal. He’s probably best known for his cover of The Postal Service’s “Such Great Heights,” as featured on the Grammy-winning soundtrack for Garden State and “Naked as We Came.” I think his latest album, with Calexico, is one of his best. Here’s the Wikipedia page, here’s his SubPop page here’s his official page, and here’s his MySpace page.

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Movin and a shakin……… new Yes Men.

WASHINGTON — President Bush has chosen a 25-year intelligence veteran, retired Vice Adm. Mike McConnell, to be the country’s second national intelligence director as he reshapes national security strategy with two years left in his presidency.

The current director, career diplomat John Negroponte, will move into the long-vacant job as top deputy to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

The nominations were expected to be announced Friday by Bush, said a senior administration official who spoke on condition of anonymity because the decision was not yet public.

The moves come as the White House considers a new direction in Iraq, where a quick invasion has devolved into a bloody civil conflict.

Part of the revised course appears to be an overhaul of Bush’s intelligence and national security team. In addition to Negroponte’s shift, Defense Secretary Robert Gates took over the Pentagon last month and is expected to bring in retired Lt. Gen. James Clapper as his undersecretary for intelligence.

Read more at the Sun Sentinel

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Adm. William “Fox” Fallon, chief of the U.S. Pacific Command has been tapped to replace Army Gen. John Abizaid as the commander of U.S. Central Command and overseer of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, according to a media report.

ABC News is reporting that President Bush will announce next week that he intends to nominate Fallon to head CentCom. The network is also reporting that Army Lt. Gen. David Petraeus, the well-respected Iraq commander who had begun the effort to train Iraqi security forces, will be nominated to become senior commander in Iraq, replacing Army Gen. George Casey.
Since Abizaid announced that he would leave his post in March, there had been widespread speculation as to who would replace him. Petraeus, thought to be one of the smartest commanders in Iraq, was often cited around Pentagon water coolers as one of the likeliest candidates to replace Casey.

As a sailor tapped to lead a combatant command engaged in a furious ground war, Fallon is more of a surprise. Fallon has said that one of his most important missions at Pacific Command is establishing a trusting and substantive relationship with China.

Officials at the Pentagon declined to comment on any possible changes to senior commanders.

Bush is expected to announce his new strategy in Iraq next week. Although the way forward is still far from clear, a distinct possibility remains that he will authorize a temporary “surge” in Iraq by sending as many as 30,000 more troops.

Source: Air Force Times

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Another one bites the dust…….

WASHINGTON - Harriet Miers, President Bush’s failed Supreme Court nominee, has submitted her resignation as White House counsel, the White House announced Thursday.

White House press secretary Tony Snow said the president reluctantly accepted her resignation, which takes effect Jan. 31. He said a search for a successor is under way.

Bush nominated Miers, a longtime Dallas lawyer, in October 2005 to replace retiring Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, but she dropped out under fire from conservatives who questioned her qualifications and would not support her.

Asked why she was leaving, Snow said: “Basically, she has been here six years.”

“As somebody said earlier today ‘She put 12 years of service into six years,’” Snow said.

Snow said Miers’ departure did not signal the beginning of an exodus of senior officials after six bruising years at the White House. Asked if other officials were poised to go, Snow said, “I’m aware of none and anticipate none.”

Read more here

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TUSCALOOSA | In all the brouhaha stirred up by Virginia Republican U.S. Rep. Virgil Goode over the first Muslim ever elected to Congress using a Koran in his private swearing-in ceremony next month (the official swearing-ins are done sans holy books of any kind), little attention has been paid to the fact that on Nov. 7 the first two Buddhists to ever serve in Congress were also elected.

Not only that, one of them is a southerner, Rep. Hank Johnson, a Democrat from our neighboring state of Georgia, who took out the inflammatory and confrontational former Rep. Cynthia McKinney in last year’s primary and coasted to victory in the general election in his heavily black, Democratic district in and around Atlanta. The other Buddhist elected in November was Rep. Mazie Hirono, a Democrat from Hawaii, a state which probably has more Buddhists than any other.

Read more here

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Jack Cafferty talks about Bush’s plan to escalate the war in Iraq.

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Diamonds are a girl’s best friend ya know….

Arkansas, The Natural State, is blessed with an abundance of geological wonders. The Crater of Diamonds State Park, the only diamond-producing site in the world open to the public, stands out as a unique geological “gem” for you to explore and enjoy.

Here, you are invited to prospect in the park’s diamond search area, a 37-acre plowed field that is the eroded surface of an ancient volcanic pipe that 95 million years ago, brought to the surface the diamonds and some of the semi-precious stones lucky visitors find here today.

Diamonds of all colors of the rainbow can be found here at Crater of Diamonds, but the three most common colors unearthed by park visitors are white, brown and yellow. This Arkansas Diamond Mine is a rockhound’s delight since, along with diamonds, over 40 types of rocks and minerals can found here, too. These rocks and minerals include lamproite, amethyst, banded agate, jasper, peridot, garnet, quartz, calcite, barite and hematite.

Read more here

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WASHINGTON - President Bush has quietly claimed sweeping new powers to open Americans’ mail without a judge’s warrant, the Daily News has learned.

The President asserted his new authority when he signed a postal reform bill into law on Dec. 20. Bush then issued a “signing statement” that declared his right to open people’s mail under emergency conditions.

That claim is contrary to existing law and contradicted the bill he had just signed, say experts who have reviewed it.

Bush’s move came during the winter congressional recess and a year after his secret domestic electronic eavesdropping program was first revealed. It caught Capitol Hill by surprise.

“Despite the President’s statement that he may be able to circumvent a basic privacy protection, the new postal law continues to prohibit the government from snooping into people’s mail without a warrant,” said Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.), the incoming House Government Reform Committee chairman, who co’sponsored the bill.

Read more at the NY Daily News

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Another news service tangled up terrorist Osama Bin Laden and Senator Barack Obama (D - IL), according to a blog item at the site American Idle on Wednesday. The news came after RAW STORY reported on Tuesday of CNN’s apology to the senator for a similar gaffe. An “automatic” slideshow function was blamed for the current foul up.

A photo time’stamped at 12:35 PM on Wednesday on Yahoo News, first revealed by blogger Corey Anderson, showed a pensive Senator Obama with the caption “Osama Bin Laden and al Qaida” beneath it. TPMCafe’s Election Central blog further revealed that clicking on the photo showed a larger version with the Bin Laden caption now a banner over the picture, and a caption describing the scene in which the AFP-owned photo was taken - a December 2006 event where Senator Obama was listening to testimony on radiation poisoning and federal workers.

Read more at RawStory

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Mayor Daly on the Iraq Study Group:

“The commission was everybody in Washington. They put the same people together to deal with the Iraq situation instead of going outside [the Beltway] and thinking outside the box.”
The mayor wondered why the nation is still struggling to find a solution in Iraq.

“Why is it we have all the brains there — whether Democrats or Republicans sitting there in offices — and they can’t come up with a solution? That’s what you really wonder about. All of those generals, all of those CIA agents, all the people we’re paying big salaries. If you come out here and talk to people [in the heartland], they’ll give you some common sense about an issue like that,” he said.

Read full article at the Chicago Sun Times

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I really dread hearing the dimwit’s plan. I am certain it’s going to involve escalation. I heard on the news he wants to increase troop levels by 20,000 to 40,000. And I don’t want to hear that congress can’t stop it. If they have to stop him by refusing to fund this war, then that’s what they should do.

WASHINGTON, Jan. 3 - Some key Senate Democrats say they could consider supporting a short-term increase in American troop levels in Iraq, a stance that reflects division within the party and could provide an opening for President Bush as he prepares to announce his revised plan for Iraq as early as next week.

Mr. Bush is expected to outline a strategy that would include adding to American forces, but would link that increase to a plan for economic development in Iraq. He has vowed to consult Congressional leaders before delivering his speech to the nation, and he began that process on Wednesday night by inviting House and Senate leaders to a White House reception, though officials said Iraq was not discussed.

Senator Carl Levin, the Michigan Democrat who will lead the Armed Services Committee, said he would not “prejudge” the president’s proposal. While he would oppose an open-ended commitment, Mr. Levin said, he would not rule out supporting a plan to dispatch more troops if the proposal was tied to a broader strategy to begin reducing American involvement and sending troops home.

“The American people are skeptical about getting in deeper,” he said in an interview. “But if it’s truly conditional upon the Iraqis- actually meeting milestones and if it’s part of an overall program of troop reduction that would begin in the next four to six months, it’s something that would be worth considering.”

Read more at the NYTimes

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SCIENTISTS SAY 2007 WARMEST YET

FED FEARS SLOWDOWN

GERMAN HELD IN LAS VEGAS JAIL TWO DAYS WHEN HE TRIES TO VISIT DAUGHTER

RELIEF FAR OFF FOR LA. RENTAL OWNERS

FBI RELEASES REHNQUIST NOMINATION FILES

AUSTRALIA STRUGGLES TO PROMOTE ORDER IN TROUBLED REGION

BLANCO TO MAKE CAMEO IN MURPHY OIL HEARING

NUMBER OF JOBLESS CLAIMS UP 329,000

SUBWAY HERO: SOMEBODY HAD TO DO IT

BOMBS KILL ATLEAST 13 IN BAGHDAD

TALIBAN WALK RIGHT IN, SIT RIGHT DOWN

UN REMOVES FOUR PEACEKEEPERS FROM SUDAN AFTER ABUSE

U.S. PORTS TO USE BIOMETRIC EMPLOYEE ID CARDS IN MARCH

KENYA SAID TO CLOSE BORDER WITH SOMALIA

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All morning I’ve been listening to Republicans whining. I’ll tell you what……the next two years are going to be ugly. And if the 110th Congress doesn’t accomplish things the American people want them to accomplish…..it’s gonna be even uglier. Let the games begin……..

WASHINGTON (CNN) — Democrats prepared to take control of both houses of Congress on Thursday after spending most of the last dozen years in the minority, with plans to quickly raise the minimum wage and toughen lobbying rules.

The Democratic takeover arrives with congressional leaders and President Bush stressing bipartisanship — but with indications emerging of the partisan fights to come.

Rep. Nancy Pelosi, a California Democrat, is slated to become the new speaker of the House — the first woman to hold that post — and Sen. Harry Reid, a Nevada Democrat, is scheduled to take over as Senate majority leader. (Watch to see what the Democratic-led Congress might accomplish )

New members of Congress will also take their oaths in ceremonies on Thursday.

Exit polls showed that rising discontent over the war in Iraq and a spate of corruption scandals helped drive voters in November to hand Democrats control of both houses of Congress for the first time since 1994.

And a national poll released this week showed Democrats have strong support for nearly all the measures they want to pass in their first days in charge.

Incoming House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, a Maryland Democrat, told reporters that Democrats would move quickly on rules changes.

“On Thursday and Friday, we’re going to adopt rules that will change the way the people’s house operates to ensure its integrity, to ensure its openness and to ensure its transparency,” Hoyer said Wednesday.

Tighter restrictions on spending earmarks, lobbying, gifts and travel will be proposed, Democratic House leaders said. (View what House Democrats pledge to pass in the first 100 legislative hours)

A $2.10 hourly increase in the minimum wage is among six bills Democrats pledged to advance in their first 100 hours of making new laws next week, after members are seated and committees are organized.

Read more at CNN.com

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