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Why can't governments operate more like businesses? In a twist of fate, the White House now is demonstrating how businesses should operate. Including online. This was evidenced, perhaps more than anywhere else, at 12:01 p.m. during the Presidential inauguration, at www.whitehouse.gov/blog. Yes, the White House now has a blog! I subscribed to in my Google reader. Did you? Macon Phillips, the Director of New Media for the White House, explained: "Millions of Americans have powered President Obama's journey to the White House, many taking advantage of the internet to play a role in shaping our country's future. WhiteHouse.gov is just...

Watching the inauguration of President Barack Obama, I was impressed by the graciousness and civility by the two presidents at the platform during the transition. To tepid applause, Mr. Obama began his Inaugural Address by thanking George W. Bush for his service. As the camera panned to Mr. Bush, the 43rd president seemed non-responsive, sad. After the ceremony, the Obamas and Bushes slowly descended the Capitol steps together, almost arm in arm—two presidents and two first ladies, two couples, four Americans, four people. They chatted quietly, amicably. The Obamas escorted the Bushes to the helicopter. They hugged, shook hands, George...

This week brought home the terrible price our nation is paying for we Republicans’ tolerating greedheads in our own party’s leadership. First, we have the rather obvious lack of, shall we say, virtue in President Barack Obama’s top three Cabinet picks. There was Hillary Clinton on Wednesday, being confirmed as Secretary of State. When she was first lady, she was at the center of the Travelgate criminal investigation. After that and all the other criminal investigations of the Clinton White House subsumed under the label “Whitewater,” a special prosecutor reported that Mrs. Clinton had almost certainly lied under oath to...

Barack Obama is well-spoken even when he has nothing intelligent to say – which is more than just occasionally. Incidentally, what’s all this fuss about Obama’s pectorals? Apparently the people that voted for him expect to be breast fed in return. Computer technicians report that Chinese viruses are difficult to cure – especially the ones that are in Chinese. No big surprise there. The Chinese leaders hold most of America’s debt in dollars. The people there would prefer to collect it in grocery coupons. Did Al Gore send out Holiday greeting cards reading Merry Hoaxmas? The Obama Administration kicks off...

It’s hard to believe America elected Barack Obama when Maricopa County’s Sheriff Joe Arpaio was available. Scholars say the prophet Nostradamus hedged in his prediction of a McCain Presidency. In a faithful translation of his Latin inscription he noted, “I didn’t say positively”. There is some justice in politics. John McCain did not lose by the humiliatingly large margin that he deserved. Obama will arrive at his Inauguration from Chicago by train. The Red Caps are expected to use a hydraulic hoist to unload his political baggage. President Bush, having refused the Obamas early occupancy at the Blair House, Michelle...

ONE of the "bundlers" who has raised $50,000 to $100,000 for the Barack Obama presidential campaign is Terrence Bean, who once controlled the biggest producer of gay porn in America. Bean, the first gay on Sen. Obama's National Finance Committee, is the sole trustee of the Charles M. Holmes Foundation, which owned Falcon Studios, Jock Studios and Mustang Studios, the producers of about $10 million worth of all-male pornography a year.

Two critics of the Muslim religion think it's interesting that Barack Obama will not shirk from using his full name when he takes office January 20. In an interview with the Chicago Tribune, the president-elect said he will follow the tradition and use his full name -- Barack Hussein Obama -- when he takes the oath of office. "I think the tradition is that they [previous presidents] use all three names, and I will follow the tradition," he said. "I'm not trying to make a statement one way or another. I'll do what everybody else does." But best-selling author Robert...

Barack Obama seems to have a recurring nightmare. In it, he is president of the United States, the most powerful man in the world, but he cannot vanquish the one force that has bedeviled all presidents: The Bubble. It can swallow a presidency, isolating the chief executive from both news he should know and opinions he should hear, and ensuring that he goes through his day attuned to the comforting chirping of yes men -- the siren song that serenaded George W. Bush as he plunged us into the muck of Iraq. Obama has often mentioned The Bubble. ''This is...

A former Republican presidential candidate says the political corruption scandal involving Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich could result in top advisors to Barack Obama being called to testify before a grand jury very early in his administration. President-elect Obama has called on Governor Rod Blagojevich to resign for allegedly trying to trade favors for Obama's vacant Illinois senate seat. Although Obama says he had no contact with the governor or his office on the matter, in an interview last month on Fox News Chicago, top Obama advisor David Axelrod said otherwise. "I know he [Obama] has talked to the governor --...

Since his election, Barack Obama has spent at least three Sunday mornings skipping church and working out in a gym, according to Politico.com. Well, he could do worse. The president-elect could take Washington Post religion maven Sally Quinn’s advice and attend services at Washington National Cathedral. There, he would find so much lukewarm liberal hogwash that it might make him long for the conspiratorial but biblically spiced rants of his old Chicago pastor, Jeremiah Wright. Quinn, co-moderator of the Newsweek/Post On Faith online column, wrote an op-ed on Nov. 22, “A Church for the Obamas,” calling the National Cathedral “the...

President-elect Obama and his wife Michelle came to town and did what people with young children usually do before moving. They looked at their new house and then Mrs. Obama checked out the school choices for their two young daughters. The schools Mrs. Obama visited were private, not public. While no decision has yet been made, it seems obvious the girls enjoy their private school in Chicago and have flourished in it.

HEALTH CRISISOBAMA LEAVING CAMPAIGN TRAIL TO VISIT ILL GRANDMOTHER MADELYN PAYNE DUNHAM Posted: 10:24 pm October 20, 2008 Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama is canceling nearly all his campaign events Thursday and Friday to fly to Hawaii to visit his suddenly gravely ill 85-year-old grandmother, a spokesman said. Robert Gibbs told reporters aboard Obama's plane that Madelyn Payne Dunham, who helped raise Obama, was released from the hospital late last week. But he said her health had deteriorated "to the point where her situation is very serious." Events originally planned for Madison, Wis., and Des Moines, Iowa, on Thursday will...

Iran, ahead of deadline, says will resist foesReuters TEHRAN - Iran's president said on Friday the Islamic Republic would "stand against" its enemies with its "power," speaking just before a deadline set by Western officials in a dispute over Tehran's nuclear ambitions. Western powers gave Iran two weeks from July 19 to respond to their offer to hold off on imposing more U.N. sanctions on Iran if Tehran would freeze any expansion of its nuclear work. That would suggest a deadline of Saturday, although Russia, one of the six powers facing Iran, has opposed a deadline and Iran dismissed the...

Muslims who want to live under the Islamic Sharia law were told Wednesday to get out of Australia as the government targeted radicals in a bid to head off potential terror attacks. A day after a group of mainstream Muslim leaders pledged loyalty to Australia at a special meeting with Prime Minister John Howard, he and his ministers made it clear that extremists would face a crackdown. Treasurer Peter Costello, seen as heir apparent to Howard, hinted that some radical clerics could be asked to leave the country if they did not accept that Australia was a secular state and...

White churches are the most frequent targets - and crime is often the motive. ATLANTA - Three torched churches were discovered in Alabama Tuesday - the latest in a string of suspected arsons that damaged five churches in Bibb County. Investigators have not discovered any apparent motives. Four of the five churches in Bibb County - three of which burned to the ground - were white Baptist congregations. The other was black. Nationally, such patterns are not unusual. Most arson targets are white congregations, whereas mosques and synagogues get hit in much smaller numbers. In a country with more than...

In case you weren't paying attention, since yesterday there's been a very public war of words between the Senate's two most hyped members, Barack Obama and John McCain, over lobbying reform. Rather then tell the entire backstory, which you can read here and here, I'll make three points. 1. McCain's lobbying reform bill is incredibly weak compared to the Democrats "Honest Leadership Act." That's why only two Senate Democrats, Joe Lieberman and Bill Nelson, have signed on. 2. As Josh Marshall noted today, it was McCain who assured anxious Republicans that his Indian Affairs Committee investigation of Jack Abramoff wouldn't...