Rush Strikes Back at 'Turncoat' Colin Powell
Tuesday, December 16, 2008 12:07 PMBy: Phil Brennan
Talk show legend Rush Limbaugh wasted no time in answering Colin Powell after the former secretary of state said on CNN that the Republican Party should stop listening to the radio host.
On Monday, Rush told his 20 million listeners that what Powell was doing was telling the GOP to throw them under the bus.
"I think Powell's premise is all wrong," Rush said. "The Republican Party needs to stop listening to me. Basically, what that means is the Republican Party's gotta throw you overboard. The Republican Party can't win as long as it is defined by people like you and me, those of you in this audience."
Powell is a bit late in telling his party to stop listening to him, Rush said, noting that the party had already stopped listening to him.
"The simple fact of the matter is, folks, what makes this funny to me is that the Republican Party's not listened to me in the last two years," he explained. "And you might even say in matters of policy and so forth, the Republican Party hasn't been listening to me for the last six years.
"And you might even say that the Republican Party is in the situation it's in precisely because of the people like Colin Powell and John McCain and others who have devised this new definition and identity of the party which is responsible for electing Democrats all over this country."
After recalling that Powell voted for Barack Obama, Rush charged that the Bush's administration's first secretary of state was upset because he said that Powell's endorsement of Obama was about race, and he is not supposed to say those things. "These things are supposed to go unsaid," Rush said
Rush also took aim at GOP presidential candidate Sen. John McCain.
"The Republican Party nominated Powell's perfect candidate. The guy's going after moderates, independents, Democrats, a guy who is not conservative at all, McCain, didn't stand up for much conservative [principles], and he's out there now saying he won't support Palin if she seeks the presidency again, or he might not."
Turning back to Powell, Rush said that Powell "insists that conservatives and Republicans support candidates who will appeal to minorities like I guess McCain who led the effort for amnesty. He insists that conservatives and Republicans move to the center like McCain, who calls himself a maverick for doing so.
"General Powell insists that conservatives and Republicans provide an open tent to different ideas and views, like I guess McCain, who repeatedly trashed Republicans and made nice with Democrats. I mean, their tent's big, they just don't want us in it."
Having been what Rush described as Colin Powell's ideal candidate, after McCain won the GOP at the last moment Powell switched sides.
"Once McCain was nominated as the Republican candidate, largely by independents and Democrats voting in Republican primaries, Colin Powell waited 'til the last minute, when it would do the most damage to McCain and the Republicans and endorsed Obama. And when I said it was largely about race, that's what set 'em all off, you're not supposed to say these kinds of things. This is supposed to go unspoken.
"Let me get this straight," Rush said. "The guy who has supported the Republican candidate for president should be thrown out of the party. That would be me. But the guy who bolted and sabotaged the Republican nominee by endorsing the Democrat candidate should stay in and be part of the team that determines what the Republican Party is going to be. The turncoat, General Powell, is the one who the party is gonna listen to? McCain's a moderate. I supported McCain. Powell, who wants a moderate, did not support McCain
Tuesday, December 16, 2008
Sunday, December 14, 2008
Palins Church Torched.... This stuff can't be tolerated.
ANCHORAGE, Alaska - Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin's home church was badly damaged by arson, leading the governor to apologize Saturday if the fire was connected to "undeserved negative attention" from her campaign as the Republican vice presidential nominee.
Damage to the Wasilla Bible Church was estimated at $1 million, authorities said. No one was injured in the fire, which was set Friday night while a handful of people, including two children, were inside, according to James Steele, the Central Mat-Su fire chief.
He said the blaze was being investigated as an arson. Steele said he didn't know of any recent threats to the church, and authorities did not know whether Palin's connection to the church was relevant to the fire.
"It's hard to say at this point. Everything is just speculation," he said.
Pastor Larry Kroon declined to say whether the church had received any recent threats.
Palin was not at the church at the time of the fire. She stopped by Saturday, and her spokesman Bill McAllister said in a statement that the governor told an assistant pastor she was sorry if the fire was connected to the "undeserved negative attention" the church has received since she became the vice presidential candidate Aug. 29.
"Whatever the motives of the arsonist, the governor has faith in the scriptural passage that what was intended for evil will in some way be used for good," McAllister said.
The 1,000-member evangelical church was the subject of intense scrutiny after Palin was named Sen. John McCain's running mate. Early in Palin's campaign, the church was criticized for promoting in a Sunday bulletin a Love Won Out conference in Anchorage sponsored by Focus on the Family. The conference promised to "help men and women dissatisfied with living homosexually understand that same-sex attractions can be overcome."
The fire was set at the entrance of the church and moved inward as a small group of women worked on crafts, Steele said. The group was alerted to the blaze by a fire alarm.
Damage to the Wasilla Bible Church was estimated at $1 million, authorities said. No one was injured in the fire, which was set Friday night while a handful of people, including two children, were inside, according to James Steele, the Central Mat-Su fire chief.
He said the blaze was being investigated as an arson. Steele said he didn't know of any recent threats to the church, and authorities did not know whether Palin's connection to the church was relevant to the fire.
"It's hard to say at this point. Everything is just speculation," he said.
Pastor Larry Kroon declined to say whether the church had received any recent threats.
Palin was not at the church at the time of the fire. She stopped by Saturday, and her spokesman Bill McAllister said in a statement that the governor told an assistant pastor she was sorry if the fire was connected to the "undeserved negative attention" the church has received since she became the vice presidential candidate Aug. 29.
"Whatever the motives of the arsonist, the governor has faith in the scriptural passage that what was intended for evil will in some way be used for good," McAllister said.
The 1,000-member evangelical church was the subject of intense scrutiny after Palin was named Sen. John McCain's running mate. Early in Palin's campaign, the church was criticized for promoting in a Sunday bulletin a Love Won Out conference in Anchorage sponsored by Focus on the Family. The conference promised to "help men and women dissatisfied with living homosexually understand that same-sex attractions can be overcome."
The fire was set at the entrance of the church and moved inward as a small group of women worked on crafts, Steele said. The group was alerted to the blaze by a fire alarm.
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
I wonder how well he knows this guy too?
Blagojevich Scandal: What Did Obama Know, and When Did He Know It?
Tuesday, December 9, 2008 7:04 PMBy: David A. Patten
Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich wanted “something big” from the Obama administration in return for naming its preferred candidate to fill Obama’s Senate seat — and he delivered an expletive-filled tirade when Obama’s representatives apparently refused to go along.
Blagojevich and his chief of staff, John Harris, were arrested Tuesday on charges that they tried to “sell” the U.S. Senate seat that Obama recently vacated. Under Illinois law, naming a replacement falls to Blagojevich.
The FBI says it taped Blagojevich complaining that Obama advisers were telling him that he had to “suck it up . . . and give this mother----er [the President-elect]] his senator. F--- him. For nothing? F--- him.”
Obama briefly addressed the arrests Tuesday afternoon, telling the media, “I had no contact with the governor or his office and so I was not aware of what was happening. It’s a sad day for Illinois. Beyond that, I don’t think it’s appropriate to comment.”
The criminal complaint was announced Tuesday by federal prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald, who came to national prominence during the investigation that led to the conviction of Scooter Libby on charges related to the Valerie Plame case.
Fitzgerald stated Tuesday that “there is no allegation in the complaint that the president-elect was aware of it and that is all I can say,” according to ABCNews.com.
The 76-page criminal complaint refers to the president-elect and his representatives at least 40 times, however.
Item No. 99 in the document states that Blagojevich and Harris spoke on Nov. 7 with “Adviser B,” a Washington, D.C.-based consultant presumably working on behalf of the Obama transition team.
During the call, Blagojevich indicated that he would appoint a person the complaint identifies only as “Senate Candidate 1” -- presumably a candidate preferred by the Obama administration -- in return for Blagojevich being appointed Secretary of Health and Human Services by Obama.
Candidate 1 is generally believed to be Obama insider Valerie Jarrett, who has been mentioned as among the favorites to replace Obama in the Senate.
Harris stated “we wanted our [request] to be reasonable and rather than . . . make it look like some sort of selfish grab for a quid pro quo.
During the call, Blagojevich stated he was hurting “financially.” And Harris said the “financial security” of the Blagojevich family was an issue. At one point, Blagojevich stated outright, “I want to make money,” according to the indictment.
Also discussed during that conference call was a “three-way deal” between the SEIU union, Blagojevich, and Obama. The deal was that Blagojevich would appoint Obama’s preferred candidate, and in return Obama would help Blagojevich win the SEIU appointment to head an organization called “Change to Win.”
ChangetoWin.org describes itself as an organization created by “seven unions and six million workers” to “restore the American Dream of the 21st Century.”
Harris said the three-way deal would give Obama a “buffer so there is no obvious quid pro quo for [the appointment of Senate Candidate 1]. The criminal complaint states, “Adviser B said that he liked the idea of the three-way deal.”
Three days later, the indictment said, Blagojevich told Harris it was unlikely that Obama would name him Secretary of Health and Human Services, or appoint him to be an ambassador, due to the investigation looming over him.
The complaint states that Adviser B and another consultant are believed to have participated in a call during which Blagojevich said they were telling him to “suck it up” for two years, and give this “motherf---er [the President-elect] his senator. F--- him. For nothing? F--- him.”
Next, states the complaint, Blagojevich says he would appoint another candidate, Senate Candidate 4, “before I just give f---ing [Senate Candidate 1] a f---ing Senate seat and I don’t get anything.”
Senate Candidate 4, the complaint states, is a deputy governor of the State of Illinois. Dean Martinez, Bob Greenlee, and Louanner Peters currently serve as deputy governors.
During the conversations with Obama’s representatives, Blagojevich repeatedly made it clear he would not agree to name “Senate Candidate 1” to fill the position without a quid pro quo from the White House, if only indirectly, according to the complaint. Blagojevich stated he wanted to make $250,000 to $300,000 annually.
The criminal complaint indicates Blagojevich and his staff were confident they could exact something from at least one candidate for the seat, Senate Candidate 5. Senate Candidate 5 is not identified.
Based on the complaint, it remains unclear whether any close Obama associate knew that Blagojevich was seeking monetary gain in return for the Senate appointment. It is possible that having such knowledge without reporting it to authorities in a timely way could raise serious legal issues.
If nothing else, the complaints represent an embarrassment to Obama given his support for Blagojevich’s gubernatorial reelection bid.
The RNC responded to the indictments in part by circulating an Associated Press report from August 2006 in which Obama stated, “We’ve got a governor in Rod Blagojevich who has delivered consistently on behalf of the people of Illinois.”
Also, RNC Chairman Robert M. “Mike” Duncan released a statement calling Obama’s reaction to the arrests “insufficient at best.”
He added, “Given the President-elect’s history of supporting and advising Gov. Blagojevich, he has a responsibility to speak out and fully address the issue.”
© 2008 Newsmax. All rights reserved.
Tuesday, December 9, 2008 7:04 PMBy: David A. Patten
Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich wanted “something big” from the Obama administration in return for naming its preferred candidate to fill Obama’s Senate seat — and he delivered an expletive-filled tirade when Obama’s representatives apparently refused to go along.
Blagojevich and his chief of staff, John Harris, were arrested Tuesday on charges that they tried to “sell” the U.S. Senate seat that Obama recently vacated. Under Illinois law, naming a replacement falls to Blagojevich.
The FBI says it taped Blagojevich complaining that Obama advisers were telling him that he had to “suck it up . . . and give this mother----er [the President-elect]] his senator. F--- him. For nothing? F--- him.”
Obama briefly addressed the arrests Tuesday afternoon, telling the media, “I had no contact with the governor or his office and so I was not aware of what was happening. It’s a sad day for Illinois. Beyond that, I don’t think it’s appropriate to comment.”
The criminal complaint was announced Tuesday by federal prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald, who came to national prominence during the investigation that led to the conviction of Scooter Libby on charges related to the Valerie Plame case.
Fitzgerald stated Tuesday that “there is no allegation in the complaint that the president-elect was aware of it and that is all I can say,” according to ABCNews.com.
The 76-page criminal complaint refers to the president-elect and his representatives at least 40 times, however.
Item No. 99 in the document states that Blagojevich and Harris spoke on Nov. 7 with “Adviser B,” a Washington, D.C.-based consultant presumably working on behalf of the Obama transition team.
During the call, Blagojevich indicated that he would appoint a person the complaint identifies only as “Senate Candidate 1” -- presumably a candidate preferred by the Obama administration -- in return for Blagojevich being appointed Secretary of Health and Human Services by Obama.
Candidate 1 is generally believed to be Obama insider Valerie Jarrett, who has been mentioned as among the favorites to replace Obama in the Senate.
Harris stated “we wanted our [request] to be reasonable and rather than . . . make it look like some sort of selfish grab for a quid pro quo.
During the call, Blagojevich stated he was hurting “financially.” And Harris said the “financial security” of the Blagojevich family was an issue. At one point, Blagojevich stated outright, “I want to make money,” according to the indictment.
Also discussed during that conference call was a “three-way deal” between the SEIU union, Blagojevich, and Obama. The deal was that Blagojevich would appoint Obama’s preferred candidate, and in return Obama would help Blagojevich win the SEIU appointment to head an organization called “Change to Win.”
ChangetoWin.org describes itself as an organization created by “seven unions and six million workers” to “restore the American Dream of the 21st Century.”
Harris said the three-way deal would give Obama a “buffer so there is no obvious quid pro quo for [the appointment of Senate Candidate 1]. The criminal complaint states, “Adviser B said that he liked the idea of the three-way deal.”
Three days later, the indictment said, Blagojevich told Harris it was unlikely that Obama would name him Secretary of Health and Human Services, or appoint him to be an ambassador, due to the investigation looming over him.
The complaint states that Adviser B and another consultant are believed to have participated in a call during which Blagojevich said they were telling him to “suck it up” for two years, and give this “motherf---er [the President-elect] his senator. F--- him. For nothing? F--- him.”
Next, states the complaint, Blagojevich says he would appoint another candidate, Senate Candidate 4, “before I just give f---ing [Senate Candidate 1] a f---ing Senate seat and I don’t get anything.”
Senate Candidate 4, the complaint states, is a deputy governor of the State of Illinois. Dean Martinez, Bob Greenlee, and Louanner Peters currently serve as deputy governors.
During the conversations with Obama’s representatives, Blagojevich repeatedly made it clear he would not agree to name “Senate Candidate 1” to fill the position without a quid pro quo from the White House, if only indirectly, according to the complaint. Blagojevich stated he wanted to make $250,000 to $300,000 annually.
The criminal complaint indicates Blagojevich and his staff were confident they could exact something from at least one candidate for the seat, Senate Candidate 5. Senate Candidate 5 is not identified.
Based on the complaint, it remains unclear whether any close Obama associate knew that Blagojevich was seeking monetary gain in return for the Senate appointment. It is possible that having such knowledge without reporting it to authorities in a timely way could raise serious legal issues.
If nothing else, the complaints represent an embarrassment to Obama given his support for Blagojevich’s gubernatorial reelection bid.
The RNC responded to the indictments in part by circulating an Associated Press report from August 2006 in which Obama stated, “We’ve got a governor in Rod Blagojevich who has delivered consistently on behalf of the people of Illinois.”
Also, RNC Chairman Robert M. “Mike” Duncan released a statement calling Obama’s reaction to the arrests “insufficient at best.”
He added, “Given the President-elect’s history of supporting and advising Gov. Blagojevich, he has a responsibility to speak out and fully address the issue.”
© 2008 Newsmax. All rights reserved.
Friday, December 5, 2008
AL "FRANKENSTEIN" is a real S/H
Franken Battles Coleman Over Missing Ballots
Friday, December 5, 2008 12:17 PMBy: David A. Patten
Despite warnings to keep politics out of Minnesota’s contentious Senate recount, the state’s Democratic secretary of state has granted Minneapolis an extension to continue its recount, following news that 133 ballots are missing.
The voting discrepancy has outraged supporters of Democrat Al Franken to the point that they have suggested authorities should conduct an intensive search of a local church to locate the missing ballots.
The 133 ballots in question were cast Nov. 4 at a church polling place near the University of Minnesota, where voters were thought to heavily favor Franken. Election officials supervising the recount on Wednesday counted 133 fewer votes than had been tallied there the night of the election. Assuming those 133 ballots conform to overall voting trends, their absence is costing Franken a significant number of votes.
According to the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Franken’s chief recount attorney, Marc Elias, urged state officials to “move heaven and earth” to locate the AWOL ballots.
On Thursday, lead Coleman recount attorney Frederic W. Knaak sent a letter to Minnesota Secretary of State Mark Ritchie charging that Franken seeks “a systematic forensic search of the church that served as a polling place, any vehicle used to transport ballots or other elections materials, [and] the warehouse where the ballots were stored.”
Knaak charged that “the Franken campaign has reached a new level of belligerency in their efforts to ‘unearth’ votes they believe they ‘lost’ in Minneapolis.”
In a separate statement Thursday, Knaak asked that Ritchey “refrain from any activity or action that can be perceived as partisan or supportive of the Franken campaign’s overblown rhetoric about missing ballots, and the need to ‘raid’ churches in the City of Minneapolis.”
That did not dissuade Ritchey from granting a recount extension to Minneapolis to give it extra time to locate the missing ballots.
Ritchey also dispatched his assistant, deputy Secretary of State Jim Gelbmann, to assist in the search and to act as an official observer.
The latest official vote count shows Coleman leading by 251 votes. That total, however, does not include the more than 6,000 votes that have been challenged during the recount process. Franken’s campaign has been keeping an unofficial tally of those votes, and maintains that Franken actually has a narrow lead in the recount despite the official figures being reported by election authorities.
The State Canvassing Board is scheduled to meet on Dec. 16 to determine the fate of those ballots and to certify a winner.
Friday, December 5, 2008 12:17 PMBy: David A. Patten
Despite warnings to keep politics out of Minnesota’s contentious Senate recount, the state’s Democratic secretary of state has granted Minneapolis an extension to continue its recount, following news that 133 ballots are missing.
The voting discrepancy has outraged supporters of Democrat Al Franken to the point that they have suggested authorities should conduct an intensive search of a local church to locate the missing ballots.
The 133 ballots in question were cast Nov. 4 at a church polling place near the University of Minnesota, where voters were thought to heavily favor Franken. Election officials supervising the recount on Wednesday counted 133 fewer votes than had been tallied there the night of the election. Assuming those 133 ballots conform to overall voting trends, their absence is costing Franken a significant number of votes.
According to the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Franken’s chief recount attorney, Marc Elias, urged state officials to “move heaven and earth” to locate the AWOL ballots.
On Thursday, lead Coleman recount attorney Frederic W. Knaak sent a letter to Minnesota Secretary of State Mark Ritchie charging that Franken seeks “a systematic forensic search of the church that served as a polling place, any vehicle used to transport ballots or other elections materials, [and] the warehouse where the ballots were stored.”
Knaak charged that “the Franken campaign has reached a new level of belligerency in their efforts to ‘unearth’ votes they believe they ‘lost’ in Minneapolis.”
In a separate statement Thursday, Knaak asked that Ritchey “refrain from any activity or action that can be perceived as partisan or supportive of the Franken campaign’s overblown rhetoric about missing ballots, and the need to ‘raid’ churches in the City of Minneapolis.”
That did not dissuade Ritchey from granting a recount extension to Minneapolis to give it extra time to locate the missing ballots.
Ritchey also dispatched his assistant, deputy Secretary of State Jim Gelbmann, to assist in the search and to act as an official observer.
The latest official vote count shows Coleman leading by 251 votes. That total, however, does not include the more than 6,000 votes that have been challenged during the recount process. Franken’s campaign has been keeping an unofficial tally of those votes, and maintains that Franken actually has a narrow lead in the recount despite the official figures being reported by election authorities.
The State Canvassing Board is scheduled to meet on Dec. 16 to determine the fate of those ballots and to certify a winner.
Wednesday, December 3, 2008
At Least Bush can actually say He didn't sell out!
Bush Didn't Sell His Soul For Politics
President Bush recently sat down with his sister, Doro Bush Koch, and gave her an insightful interview on the impact his faith has made on his family and his presidency. Bush also discussed his hopes for his legacy. See LifeSite News.
"I would like to be a person remembered as a person who, first and foremost, did not sell his soul in order to accommodate the political process," Bush told his sister. "I came to Washington with a set of values, and I'm leaving with the same set of values. And I darn sure wasn't going to sacrifice those values; that I was a President that had to make tough choices and was willing to make them."
Bush wants to be remembered for liberating Iraqis from dictatorship and for advancing health care at home and abroad. He also said he wanted to be known for being a president that "focused on individuals rather than process; that rallied people to serve their neighbor," and that he "came to Washington, D.C., with a set of political statements and worked as hard as I possibly could to do what I told the American people I would do."
I have previously blogged about the disgraceful treatment of President Bush, especially during the last four years of his presidency here. Bush has received ridicule, derision and contempt from many people on the left and the right. No matter what happened - hurricanes, floods, global warming, terrorism, etc., it was all Bush's fault. Deepak Chopra even blames Bush for the terrorist attack in India. See FOX News.
The length Bush's attackers and critics will go to evidently knows no bounds. Just this morning I was reading about a Seattle artist named Deborah Lawrence, who had the privilege of being asked to decorate an ornament for the White House Christmas tree. Each representative chooses an artist and commissions them to create an ornament, and Lawrence was selected by her representative Jim McDermott. However, instead of being honored by the chance to create a beautiful ornament celebrating Christmas, Ms. Lawrence instead created an impeachment ornament which congratulated McDermott on his support for a Bush impeachment resolution. See The Washington Post. I suppose that there is no inappropriate or unsuitable time to show partisanship and bad manners for a Bush hater.
However, Bush is obviously not going to let his detractors affect him negatively, and credits his Christian faith for keeping him strong. "I've been in the Bible every day since I've been the President, and I have been affected by people's prayers a lot," he said. "I have found that faith is comforting, faith is strengthening, faith has been important." It is this very faith that his critics despise the most, but Bush says that those who hate his faith and what he stands for " . . . should recognize - as (at) least I have recognized I am a lowly sinner seeking redemption, and therefore have been very careful about saying '(accept) my faith or you're bad.'" Bush added that the freedom of religion is of paramount importance – a freedom that any president must "jealously protect, guard, and strengthen."
Partial excerpts of President Bush's interview have been released by the White House, and the complete interview will be archived in the Library of Congress.Please log in to comment on this story.-->
President Bush recently sat down with his sister, Doro Bush Koch, and gave her an insightful interview on the impact his faith has made on his family and his presidency. Bush also discussed his hopes for his legacy. See LifeSite News.
"I would like to be a person remembered as a person who, first and foremost, did not sell his soul in order to accommodate the political process," Bush told his sister. "I came to Washington with a set of values, and I'm leaving with the same set of values. And I darn sure wasn't going to sacrifice those values; that I was a President that had to make tough choices and was willing to make them."
Bush wants to be remembered for liberating Iraqis from dictatorship and for advancing health care at home and abroad. He also said he wanted to be known for being a president that "focused on individuals rather than process; that rallied people to serve their neighbor," and that he "came to Washington, D.C., with a set of political statements and worked as hard as I possibly could to do what I told the American people I would do."
I have previously blogged about the disgraceful treatment of President Bush, especially during the last four years of his presidency here. Bush has received ridicule, derision and contempt from many people on the left and the right. No matter what happened - hurricanes, floods, global warming, terrorism, etc., it was all Bush's fault. Deepak Chopra even blames Bush for the terrorist attack in India. See FOX News.
The length Bush's attackers and critics will go to evidently knows no bounds. Just this morning I was reading about a Seattle artist named Deborah Lawrence, who had the privilege of being asked to decorate an ornament for the White House Christmas tree. Each representative chooses an artist and commissions them to create an ornament, and Lawrence was selected by her representative Jim McDermott. However, instead of being honored by the chance to create a beautiful ornament celebrating Christmas, Ms. Lawrence instead created an impeachment ornament which congratulated McDermott on his support for a Bush impeachment resolution. See The Washington Post. I suppose that there is no inappropriate or unsuitable time to show partisanship and bad manners for a Bush hater.
However, Bush is obviously not going to let his detractors affect him negatively, and credits his Christian faith for keeping him strong. "I've been in the Bible every day since I've been the President, and I have been affected by people's prayers a lot," he said. "I have found that faith is comforting, faith is strengthening, faith has been important." It is this very faith that his critics despise the most, but Bush says that those who hate his faith and what he stands for " . . . should recognize - as (at) least I have recognized I am a lowly sinner seeking redemption, and therefore have been very careful about saying '(accept) my faith or you're bad.'" Bush added that the freedom of religion is of paramount importance – a freedom that any president must "jealously protect, guard, and strengthen."
Partial excerpts of President Bush's interview have been released by the White House, and the complete interview will be archived in the Library of Congress.Please log in to comment on this story.-->
Thank God for Small favors....
Chambliss Sweeps to Victory in Georgia
Wednesday, December 3, 2008 7:22 AM
Article Font Size
ATLANTA — Relieved Republicans celebrated a resounding win in Georgia's hard-fought U.S. Senate runoff, a victory that denied Democrats a filibuster-proof majority and cemented the state's reputation as a GOP bastion.
Sen. Saxby Chambliss trounced Democrat Jim Martin Tuesday night, winning his second term by a margin of more than 10 percentage points. The race dashed Democrats' hopes of a 60-seat majority immune to Senate filibusters, which would have given President-elect Barack Obama a stronger hand moving his agenda.
A Martin victory was a longshot in Georgia. A Democrat hasn't won an open statewide seat since 1998.
Martin hoped to capitalize on excitement surrounding Obama but was unable to get many of the president elect's voters back to the polls one month after the general election. Obama never came to the state to campaign for Martin, although he recorded automated phone calls and a radio ad for the former state lawmaker from Atlanta.
Chambliss revved up the state's vaunted GOP turnout operation and kept a parade of ex-GOP presidential candidates traipsing through the state to whip up enthusiasm. He brought in Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, the former candidate for vice president, as his closer. She headlined four rallies for Chambliss across the state Monday that drew thousands of party faithful.
Minnesota - where a recount is under way - now remains the only unresolved Senate contest in the country. But the stakes there are significantly lower now that Georgia has put a 60-seat Democratic supermajority out of reach.
With 99 percent of the precincts reporting, Chambliss captured 57 percent of votes to Martin's 43 percent. It was a rare bright spot for Republicans in a year where they lost the White House, along with several House and Senate seats.
Martin called Chambliss to concede before 10 p.m., then emerged to tell supporters as his voice cracked: "For me and my family and campaign team and all of you this is a sad moment.
Chambliss portrayed himself as a firewall against Democrats in Washington getting a blank check.
"You have delivered a message that a balance in government in Washington is necessary and that's not only what the people of Georgia want, it's what the people of America want," Chambliss told 500 cheering supporters at a victory rally in Cobb County.
Martin, 63, made the economy the centerpiece of his bid, casting himself as a champion for the neglected middle class.
With most precincts reporting, turnout stood at about 35 percent. That's higher than the 20 percent predicted by a spokesman for Secretary of State Karen Handel, but it's far less than the 65 percent who voted in last month's general election.
The runoff between the former University of Georgia fraternity brothers was necessary after a three-way general election prevented any of the candidates from getting the necessary 50 percent.
Chambliss came to the Senate in 2002 after defeating Democratic Sen. Max Cleland in a campaign that infuriated Democrats. Chambliss ran a TV ad that questioned Cleland's commitment to national security and flashed a photo of Osama bin Laden. Cleland is a triple amputee wounded in the Vietnam War.
He was a loyal supporter of President Bush and, as a freshman, rose to become chairman of the Senate Agriculture Committee. The former agriculture lawyer from Moultrie has been the ranking Republican on the panel since Democrats won control of the Senate.
Some 3.7 million people cast ballots in this year's general election, and both sides have since tried to keep voters' attention with a barrage of ads and visits by political heavy-hitters.
Former President Bill Clinton and former Vice President Al Gore both stumped for Martin.
GOP nominee John McCain, former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee hit the stump for Chambliss.
Wednesday, December 3, 2008 7:22 AM
Article Font Size
ATLANTA — Relieved Republicans celebrated a resounding win in Georgia's hard-fought U.S. Senate runoff, a victory that denied Democrats a filibuster-proof majority and cemented the state's reputation as a GOP bastion.
Sen. Saxby Chambliss trounced Democrat Jim Martin Tuesday night, winning his second term by a margin of more than 10 percentage points. The race dashed Democrats' hopes of a 60-seat majority immune to Senate filibusters, which would have given President-elect Barack Obama a stronger hand moving his agenda.
A Martin victory was a longshot in Georgia. A Democrat hasn't won an open statewide seat since 1998.
Martin hoped to capitalize on excitement surrounding Obama but was unable to get many of the president elect's voters back to the polls one month after the general election. Obama never came to the state to campaign for Martin, although he recorded automated phone calls and a radio ad for the former state lawmaker from Atlanta.
Chambliss revved up the state's vaunted GOP turnout operation and kept a parade of ex-GOP presidential candidates traipsing through the state to whip up enthusiasm. He brought in Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, the former candidate for vice president, as his closer. She headlined four rallies for Chambliss across the state Monday that drew thousands of party faithful.
Minnesota - where a recount is under way - now remains the only unresolved Senate contest in the country. But the stakes there are significantly lower now that Georgia has put a 60-seat Democratic supermajority out of reach.
With 99 percent of the precincts reporting, Chambliss captured 57 percent of votes to Martin's 43 percent. It was a rare bright spot for Republicans in a year where they lost the White House, along with several House and Senate seats.
Martin called Chambliss to concede before 10 p.m., then emerged to tell supporters as his voice cracked: "For me and my family and campaign team and all of you this is a sad moment.
Chambliss portrayed himself as a firewall against Democrats in Washington getting a blank check.
"You have delivered a message that a balance in government in Washington is necessary and that's not only what the people of Georgia want, it's what the people of America want," Chambliss told 500 cheering supporters at a victory rally in Cobb County.
Martin, 63, made the economy the centerpiece of his bid, casting himself as a champion for the neglected middle class.
With most precincts reporting, turnout stood at about 35 percent. That's higher than the 20 percent predicted by a spokesman for Secretary of State Karen Handel, but it's far less than the 65 percent who voted in last month's general election.
The runoff between the former University of Georgia fraternity brothers was necessary after a three-way general election prevented any of the candidates from getting the necessary 50 percent.
Chambliss came to the Senate in 2002 after defeating Democratic Sen. Max Cleland in a campaign that infuriated Democrats. Chambliss ran a TV ad that questioned Cleland's commitment to national security and flashed a photo of Osama bin Laden. Cleland is a triple amputee wounded in the Vietnam War.
He was a loyal supporter of President Bush and, as a freshman, rose to become chairman of the Senate Agriculture Committee. The former agriculture lawyer from Moultrie has been the ranking Republican on the panel since Democrats won control of the Senate.
Some 3.7 million people cast ballots in this year's general election, and both sides have since tried to keep voters' attention with a barrage of ads and visits by political heavy-hitters.
Former President Bill Clinton and former Vice President Al Gore both stumped for Martin.
GOP nominee John McCain, former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee hit the stump for Chambliss.
Tuesday, December 2, 2008
WHY DO PEOPLE TURN INTO ANIMALS OVER STUPID SALES...
I remember the days when Cabbage Patch dolls came out or the Tickle Me Elmos when people were trampling eachother and getting into fist fights to get their kid the over priced, understocked toys.... Walmart makes the news every year for people getting trampled or killed at their Black Friday Specials. I think they need to come up with a better plan. I like Walmart, well not in general but I do like their low pricing. The problem is it attracts the lowest of the low elements of humanity also and people that are camping out in parking lots over night for a 50 inch TV they really shouldn't have in the first place (Cause there isn't room in the single wide for it) have that mentality that anything goes and they dont' care who they hurt to get what they want. Very sad and one reason I haven't or won't be shopping on Black Friday, ESPECIALLY at Walmart.
NEW YORK — Officials are combing through surveillance tape of a post-Thanksgiving shopper stampede that killed a Wal-Mart worker in New York to identify individual shoppers who may be responsible, but they say it could be difficult to bring criminal charges.
"We are reviewing film of all places from individual cell phones, from cameras that are in place in the store, trying to identify, if in fact we can identify, people that are culpable in this," Nassau County Police Commissioner Lawrence Mulvey told FOX News. "And it is difficult because a lot of people in the front of the line were pushed forward, and it’s difficult for us to decipher who is more responsible in all of this."
Click here for photos.
Mulvey conceded the case would be "very difficult ... for us to make."
The brutal death of the employee rattled shoppers even as they flocked to the Valley Stream store a day later.
"It felt a little freakish," customer Ellie Berhun, 48, told the Daily News. "Some man lost his life because a VCR was on sale? Please. It's just too sad for words."
Police said the temporary worker, Jdimytai Damour, was mowed down as about 2,000 bargain-hunters surged into the store at Friday's 5 a.m. opening, leaving a metal portion of the door frame crumpled like an accordion.
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Other workers were knocked to the ground as they tried to rescue Damour, and customers simply stepped over him and kept shopping even as the store announced it was closing because of the death, police and witnesses said.
At least four other people, including a woman eight months pregnant, were taken to hospitals for observation or treatment for minor injuries. The store, about 20 miles east of Manhattan, closed for several hours but reopened Friday afternoon.
The day after Thanksgiving is known as Black Friday because it has traditionally marked the point when a throng of shoppers pushes stores into profitability for the year.
Bentonville, Ark.-based Wal-Mart said it added staffers and outside security workers and put up barricades to try to prepare for the crush. But police spokesman Detective Lt. Michael Fleming said Friday that security was inadequate for a scene he called "utter chaos."
Criminal charges are possible, but identifying anyone in the store's videos may prove difficult, Fleming said.
Damour, 34, came from a temporary agency and was doing maintenance work at the store, Wal-Mart said.
A woman reported being trampled by overeager customers at a Wal-Mart opening Friday in Farmingdale, about 15 miles east of Valley Stream, Suffolk County police said. She suffered minor injuries but finished shopping before filling the report, police said.
Items on sale at the Valley Stream Wal-Mart included a Samsung 50-inch Plasma HDTV for $798, a Bissel Compact Upright Vacuum for $28, a Samsung 10.2 megapixel digital camera for $69 and DVDs such as "The Incredible Hulk" for $9.
Click here for more from MyFOXNY.com
NEW YORK — Officials are combing through surveillance tape of a post-Thanksgiving shopper stampede that killed a Wal-Mart worker in New York to identify individual shoppers who may be responsible, but they say it could be difficult to bring criminal charges.
"We are reviewing film of all places from individual cell phones, from cameras that are in place in the store, trying to identify, if in fact we can identify, people that are culpable in this," Nassau County Police Commissioner Lawrence Mulvey told FOX News. "And it is difficult because a lot of people in the front of the line were pushed forward, and it’s difficult for us to decipher who is more responsible in all of this."
Click here for photos.
Mulvey conceded the case would be "very difficult ... for us to make."
The brutal death of the employee rattled shoppers even as they flocked to the Valley Stream store a day later.
"It felt a little freakish," customer Ellie Berhun, 48, told the Daily News. "Some man lost his life because a VCR was on sale? Please. It's just too sad for words."
Police said the temporary worker, Jdimytai Damour, was mowed down as about 2,000 bargain-hunters surged into the store at Friday's 5 a.m. opening, leaving a metal portion of the door frame crumpled like an accordion.
Related
Stories
Police Reviewing Video to Identify Shoppers in Wal-Mart Stampede That Killed Worker
Wal-Mart Worker Dies When Shoppers Break Down Doors
Photo Essays
Black Friday Death
Other workers were knocked to the ground as they tried to rescue Damour, and customers simply stepped over him and kept shopping even as the store announced it was closing because of the death, police and witnesses said.
At least four other people, including a woman eight months pregnant, were taken to hospitals for observation or treatment for minor injuries. The store, about 20 miles east of Manhattan, closed for several hours but reopened Friday afternoon.
The day after Thanksgiving is known as Black Friday because it has traditionally marked the point when a throng of shoppers pushes stores into profitability for the year.
Bentonville, Ark.-based Wal-Mart said it added staffers and outside security workers and put up barricades to try to prepare for the crush. But police spokesman Detective Lt. Michael Fleming said Friday that security was inadequate for a scene he called "utter chaos."
Criminal charges are possible, but identifying anyone in the store's videos may prove difficult, Fleming said.
Damour, 34, came from a temporary agency and was doing maintenance work at the store, Wal-Mart said.
A woman reported being trampled by overeager customers at a Wal-Mart opening Friday in Farmingdale, about 15 miles east of Valley Stream, Suffolk County police said. She suffered minor injuries but finished shopping before filling the report, police said.
Items on sale at the Valley Stream Wal-Mart included a Samsung 50-inch Plasma HDTV for $798, a Bissel Compact Upright Vacuum for $28, a Samsung 10.2 megapixel digital camera for $69 and DVDs such as "The Incredible Hulk" for $9.
Click here for more from MyFOXNY.com
OPRAH took MONEY FROM THE MESSIAH'S ENEMIES
Oprah Took Millions From Obama Foe Tom, Katie, Erica Kane Do Tina
Oprah Took Millions From Obama Foe
With Oprah Winfrey, the intersection of politics and education is making for strange bedfellows. Federal tax returns and other reports confirm that she’s accepted at least $5 million for her self-named South African girls’ school from perhaps Barack Obama’s single greatest political enemy.
Oprah is probably the most well-known celebrity to back Senator Barack Obama’s bid for the presidency. She threw him a lavish launch party, endorsed him on her show, stumped for him in the early primaries, and cried — as captured by photographers — in a Chicago park when he won the election. Her loyalty seemed fierce.
But it turns out that Winfrey is very close friends with Dallas billionaire named Harold Simmons, a leading Republican donor and supporter of John McCain.
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This past August it was revealed that Simmons was the single donor to a 527 committee called American Issues Project. Its only issue: to run ads linking Obama to William Ayers, the political activist who was once part of the Weather Underground. Simmons paid $2.9 million to try and make Ayers the Obama campaign’s “Swift Boat,” an issue that might have sidelined permanently the Illinois senator’s chances and advance John McCain — Simmons’s candidate — to the White House.
Nevertheless, Winfrey has cultivated her friendship with Simmons on many social fronts since 2001, resulting in his being second only to her in donating funds to her Leadership Academy in Johannesburg, South Africa.
According to the 2006 federal tax filing for the Oprah Winfrey Operating Fund, Winfrey accepted a $1 million donation to the school from Simmons. That amount, The Dallas Morning News reported in 2007, was only part of a $5 million pledge to the Academy. Simmons is considered Dallas’s leading philanthropist to worthy causes. In this case, though, it might have been unnecessary, since Winfrey herself has donated over $60 million to the school.
It’s not like Simmons is a new Republican donor. He gave over $100,000 in the 2007-2008 election cycle to Republican candidates, separate from his Ayers campaign. He has always been an active Republican. In 2004 he was a major donor to the Swift Boat Veterans, the group credited with destroying the campaign of John Kerry for president.
Winfrey has long been close friends with Simmons and his wife Annette. She’s their neighbor in Montecito, California, having bought the estate next to them in 2001. As recently as two weeks ago, Oprah mentioned the couple on her show during a telephone discussion of the Montecito fires with another neighbor, actor Rob Lowe.
(Winfrey was not available for comment, according to her representative. Simmons, who doesn’t have a press representative, did not return our call.)
The Dallas Morning News—thanks to the dogged byline of Alan Peppard — is full of stories over the years documenting Oprah’s friendship with the Simmonses. They are often at each others’ homes and parties. When Oprah’s significant other, Steadman Graham, spoke to a group in Dallas, it was noted that he dined with the Simmonses. In April, 2006 — two years after the Swift Boat scandal was revealed — Oprah sent a camera crew to a Dallas luncheon hosted by Annette Simmons showcasing the thousands of tulip bulbs surrounding the lake on her property.
It’s unlikely though that the Simmonses were at Oprah’s house next door on September 9, 2007. That’s when she hosted an all-star fundraiser for Obama with Stevie Wonder and guests like Halle Berry, Will Smith, and other A-list Hollywood names. One can only imagine what Simmons thought as the sound of “Ain’t No Stoppin’ Us Now” blared over the loudspeaker system.
Interestingly, that was the last time either Oprah or Graham, for that matter, contributed any money either to the Obama campaign or to the Democratic Party. While they could have each made donations to Obama’s presidential bid, they gave just for the primary. And neither of them showed any interest in the Party itself, which funneled money to Obama.
Simmons, on the other hand, is a regular and constant Republican donor. And it’s not like the Obama campaign hasn’t taken notice of him. On August 21st and 25th, Robert Bauer, general counsel for Obama for America, wrote letters to John C. Keeney, Deputy Assistant Attorney General, Criminal Division, concerning the American Issues Project.
On the 25th Bauer wrote: “New facts have come to light that underscore the patently illegal nature of AIP’s formation and operation, and also demonstrate a knowing and willful violation of law on the part of its contributor, Howard Simmons [sic].” Bauer then attaches the Federal Election Committee filing by AIP that states its sole purpose: to defeat Barack Obama. Contran Corporation, owned by Simmons, is listed as AIP’s owner.
Bauer finishes his letter demanding Simmons’s prosecution: “We reiterate our request that the Department of Justice fulfill its commitment to take prompt action to investigate and to prosecute the American Issues Project, and we further request that the Department of Justice investigate and prosecute Howard [sic] Simmons for a knowing and willful violation of the individual aggregate contribution limits.”
Simmons, Bauer complained, had exceeded his personal donation limit because he’d given $2.88 million — roughly $2.7 million more than was allowed by FEC guidelines that state only $42,700 may be given to organizations other than candidate committees or party committees.
It wasn’t the first time Simmons had had trouble with political donations. In 1993, the FEC fined him just under $20,000 for exceeding limits in donations from 1988 and 1989. According to the New York Times, Simmons’s Swift Boat group was fined almost $300,000 for illegally spending $20 million to influence the election. Another Simmons-backed anti-Kerry group, Progress for America, was fined $750,000. They’d spent $31 million.
Simmons’ contentiousness is not limited to the backing of the Swift Boat Vets and the Ayers campaign to smear Obama. In December 1997, according to reports in the New York Times and elsewhere, Simmons was sued by two of his four daughters for abusing his powers in controlling millions of dollars he placed in trust funds for them. A jury agreed that he’d breached his financial duty as guardian of their inheritance, but were undecided on other issues. The case ended in a mistrial. Unusually, the case had been catalyzed when Simmons served her legal papers on one of the daughters by dropping them in her baby’s crib. The child had been born premature and was susceptible to infection, according to the New York Times and other reports.
Tom, Katie, Erica Kane Do Tina
Say this about the magnificent Tina Turner at age 69: she has no vertigo. Her 50th anniversary show pulled into Madison Square Garden last night for one show, and it was quite the show stopper. Or rather, she was the show stopper, with those hot legs and a body most 39 year olds would die for. And vertigo? No sign of it as she climbed a mammoth cherry picker that swung out over the first section of the floor audience. She dangled over it, danced up and down its armature, in stiletto heels no less. Tina Turner is the one of the world's greatest wonders.
There were plenty of celebs in the audience including Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes, whom Turner spotted and gave shout outs to. Susan Lucci — the famed Erica Kane from "All My Children" — was picked up in a video sweep. Anne Hathaway, with her dad, was tucked away just above us. Al Roker and Deborah Roberts Roker slipped into the crowd. And so on. Tina Turner coming to New York is an event.
The show is just under three hours long including a lengthy intermission. There's also some instersitial stuff with breakdancers, acrobats, and powerful backup singer Lisa Fischer. But make no mistake, it's Tina's show. She sings the whole thing, without any help, from beginning to end. Madonna would be embarrassed and run away if she saw this performance. Turner is, yes, 20 years older, and dances up a storm while singing "What's Love Got to Do with It," "Better Be Good to Me," "Acid Queen," "Simply the Best," and all her hits with gusto and verve, and a rock contralto voice that has lost none of its dynamic power.
Some things don't work. Resurrecting the set from "Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome" so Tina can sing her hit theme song is a mistake. At least Tina drop the wig. It's like King Tut meets Colin Farrell from "Alexander." Yikes.
Everything simple and easy worked so well. When Act II opens, Turner is sitting on a stool, surrounded by musicians, dressed in shiny black spandex. With aplomb she delivers her covers of "Help!" and "Let's Stay Together" that revived her career in 1984. It's soul music at its finest. When later she's rocking out to a Rolling Stones medley, or her old signature hit, "Proud Mary," she's the whole Rock and Roll Hall of Fame from A to Z.
Nice touches, too. With the ghastly but musically innovative Ike Turner safely dead, Turner shows a video montage of their days togehter with her own hit, "I Don't Want to Fight No More," playing in the background. At the very end of the show, when the audience has stopped chanting her name, Turner runs a video with credits of all the crew. She's got legs, and she's a mensch. What else do you need?
Tina, come back to the Garden soon. You could have played five shows with no trouble!
Monday, December 1, 2008
OBAMA to Announce Clinton as S. O. S. (Aren't there rules preventing this?)
President-elect Barack Obama plans to announce his picks for top administration jobs on Monday, including Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton as his secretary of state, transforming a once-bitter political rivalry into a high-level strategic and diplomatic partnership.
Obama will name the New York senator to his national security team at a news conference in Chicago, a person close to Clinton confirmed to FOX News.
Obama's announcements include members of his national security team and beyond, completing the nominations for one-third of his Cabinet as he moves quickly to assemble the country's new leadership in times of war and a troubled economy.
His selections include some of his most loyal campaign advisers and notably some who were not, including Democratic primary rival Clinton and President Bush's defense secretary, Robert Gates, staying in his current post.
Obama will also name Susan Rice as UN ambassador, Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano as homeland security chief and Eric Holder as attorney general, Democratic officials told FOX News. They requested anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly for the transition team.
Last week, he named key members of his economic team, including Timothy Geithner, president of Federal Reserve Bank of New York, as treasury secretary. Obama is not yet ready to name his intelligence advisers, one Democratic official said.
To clear the way for his wife to take the job, former President Bill Clinton agreed to disclose the names of every contributor to his foundation since its inception in 1997. He'll also refuse donations from foreign governments to the Clinton Global Initiative, his annual charitable conference, and will cease holding CGI meetings overseas.
Bill Clinton's business deals and global charitable endeavors were expected to create problems for the former first lady's nomination. But in negotiations with the Obama transition team, the former president agreed to several measures designed to bring transparency to his post-presidential work, including:
-- to volunteer to step away from day-to-day management of the foundation while his wife is secretary of state.
-- to submit his speaking schedule to review by the State Department and White House counsel.
-- to submit any new sources of income to a similar ethical review.
"It's a big step," said Sen. Richard G. Lugar of Indiana, the top Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, who said he plans to vote to confirm Clinton.
Lugar said there would still be "legitimate questions" raised about the former president's extensive international involvement.
"I don't know how, given all of our ethics standards now, anyone quite measures up to this who has such cosmic ties, but...hopefully, this team of rivals will work," Lugar said.
The Clinton pick was an extraordinary gesture of goodwill after a year in which the two rivals competed for the Democratic nomination in a long, bitter primary battle.
The two clashed repeatedly on foreign affairs during the 50-state contest, with Obama criticizing Clinton for her vote to authorize the Iraq war and Clinton saying that Obama lacked the experience to be president. She also chided him for saying he would meet with leaders of rogue nations like Iran and Cuba without preconditions.
The bitterness began melting away in June after Clinton ended her campaign and endorsed Obama. She went on to campaign for him in his general election contest against Republican Sen. John McCain.
Advisers said Obama had for several months envisioned Clinton as his top diplomat, and he invited her to Chicago to discuss the job just a week after the Nov. 4 election. The two met privately Nov. 13 in Obama's downtown transition office.
Clinton was said to be interested and then to waver, concerned about relinquishing her Senate seat and the political independence it conferred. Those concerns were largely ameliorated after Obama assured her she would be able to choose a staff and have direct access to him, advisers said.
Remaining in the Senate also may not have been an attractive choice for Clinton. Despite her political celebrity, she is a relatively junior senator without prospects for a leadership position or committee chairmanship anytime soon.
Some Democrats and government insiders have questioned whether Clinton is too independent and politically ambitious to serve Obama as secretary of state. But a senior Obama adviser has said the president-elect had been enthusiastic about naming Clinton to the position from the start, believing she would bring instant stature and credibility to U.S. diplomatic relations and the advantages to her serving far outweigh potential downsides.
Clinton, 61, a Chicago native and Yale Law School graduate, practiced law and served as the first lady of Arkansas during her husband's 12 years as governor of the state, from 1979-81 and 1983-1992.
Clinton was the nation's first lady from 1993 to 2001. The same year George W. Bush defeated Al Gore to succeed her husband in the White House, Clinton ran for the Senate as a New York Democrat. She won re-election in 2006 and was widely regarded as the favorite for her party's nomination for president in 2008.
In the Senate, Clinton served on the Armed Services Committee, the Committee on Environment and Public Works and the Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions
Obama will name the New York senator to his national security team at a news conference in Chicago, a person close to Clinton confirmed to FOX News.
Obama's announcements include members of his national security team and beyond, completing the nominations for one-third of his Cabinet as he moves quickly to assemble the country's new leadership in times of war and a troubled economy.
His selections include some of his most loyal campaign advisers and notably some who were not, including Democratic primary rival Clinton and President Bush's defense secretary, Robert Gates, staying in his current post.
Obama will also name Susan Rice as UN ambassador, Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano as homeland security chief and Eric Holder as attorney general, Democratic officials told FOX News. They requested anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly for the transition team.
Last week, he named key members of his economic team, including Timothy Geithner, president of Federal Reserve Bank of New York, as treasury secretary. Obama is not yet ready to name his intelligence advisers, one Democratic official said.
To clear the way for his wife to take the job, former President Bill Clinton agreed to disclose the names of every contributor to his foundation since its inception in 1997. He'll also refuse donations from foreign governments to the Clinton Global Initiative, his annual charitable conference, and will cease holding CGI meetings overseas.
Bill Clinton's business deals and global charitable endeavors were expected to create problems for the former first lady's nomination. But in negotiations with the Obama transition team, the former president agreed to several measures designed to bring transparency to his post-presidential work, including:
-- to volunteer to step away from day-to-day management of the foundation while his wife is secretary of state.
-- to submit his speaking schedule to review by the State Department and White House counsel.
-- to submit any new sources of income to a similar ethical review.
"It's a big step," said Sen. Richard G. Lugar of Indiana, the top Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, who said he plans to vote to confirm Clinton.
Lugar said there would still be "legitimate questions" raised about the former president's extensive international involvement.
"I don't know how, given all of our ethics standards now, anyone quite measures up to this who has such cosmic ties, but...hopefully, this team of rivals will work," Lugar said.
The Clinton pick was an extraordinary gesture of goodwill after a year in which the two rivals competed for the Democratic nomination in a long, bitter primary battle.
The two clashed repeatedly on foreign affairs during the 50-state contest, with Obama criticizing Clinton for her vote to authorize the Iraq war and Clinton saying that Obama lacked the experience to be president. She also chided him for saying he would meet with leaders of rogue nations like Iran and Cuba without preconditions.
The bitterness began melting away in June after Clinton ended her campaign and endorsed Obama. She went on to campaign for him in his general election contest against Republican Sen. John McCain.
Advisers said Obama had for several months envisioned Clinton as his top diplomat, and he invited her to Chicago to discuss the job just a week after the Nov. 4 election. The two met privately Nov. 13 in Obama's downtown transition office.
Clinton was said to be interested and then to waver, concerned about relinquishing her Senate seat and the political independence it conferred. Those concerns were largely ameliorated after Obama assured her she would be able to choose a staff and have direct access to him, advisers said.
Remaining in the Senate also may not have been an attractive choice for Clinton. Despite her political celebrity, she is a relatively junior senator without prospects for a leadership position or committee chairmanship anytime soon.
Some Democrats and government insiders have questioned whether Clinton is too independent and politically ambitious to serve Obama as secretary of state. But a senior Obama adviser has said the president-elect had been enthusiastic about naming Clinton to the position from the start, believing she would bring instant stature and credibility to U.S. diplomatic relations and the advantages to her serving far outweigh potential downsides.
Clinton, 61, a Chicago native and Yale Law School graduate, practiced law and served as the first lady of Arkansas during her husband's 12 years as governor of the state, from 1979-81 and 1983-1992.
Clinton was the nation's first lady from 1993 to 2001. The same year George W. Bush defeated Al Gore to succeed her husband in the White House, Clinton ran for the Senate as a New York Democrat. She won re-election in 2006 and was widely regarded as the favorite for her party's nomination for president in 2008.
In the Senate, Clinton served on the Armed Services Committee, the Committee on Environment and Public Works and the Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions
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