Democrat Al Franken will be declared the winner Monday. There is nothing post-partisan about Al Franken. Among other books, the new Democratic senator is the author of Rush Limbaugh Is a Big Fat Idiot and Other Observations and Lies and Lying Liars Who Tell Them: A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right.

At last, change I can believe in!

CNN: Secretary of State Mark Ritchie told CNN the canvassing board on Monday will confirm that Franken won the race by a 225-vote margin.

Al Franken Politics Barack Obama Minnesota News Change

President-elect Obama has chosen anti choice, pro abstinence education, anti embryonic stem cell research, anti labor, anti union, anti same-sex marriage and anti civil union Tim Kaine to chair the DNC.

Virginia Gov. Timothy M. Kaine will become chairman of the Democratic National Committee later this month, serving as the top political messenger for Barack Obama’s administration even while finishing his final year in the governor’s mansion, several sources said.

The Confluence: Virginia might actually get a liberal leader…while the DNC gets…something else
MyDD: Should Tim Kaine be the Next DNC Chair?

Tim Kaine Politics Barack Obama Virginia News Change

Those who have read my prior posts or heard one of my presentations on the topic of bullying, will be familiar with the name, David Yamada. He is the law professor who drafted the uniform anti-bullying legislation that has been introduced in several different state legislatures.

Professor Yamada, is now on line with his own blog, Minding the Workplace, and in his New Year’s Day post, Immersion in the Twisted World of Abuse at Work provides some background on how he became interested in the subject.

Clearly Professor Yamada is adding an interesting voice to the little niche of the blogosphere dealing with labor and employment law. If you are an HR practitioner you should check out his post HR Was Useless. It’s an interesting perspective that may hit a little too close to home for some.

Welcome Professor Yamada.

George H. W. Bush: I’d like to see Jeb elected president.
(Think Progress)

Caption This!

Bill Richardson will not be Obama’s Secretary of Commerce. Today Bill “Judas” Richardson withdrew his name from consideration due to an ongoing investigation into “pay to play” politics that could jeopardize his senate confirmation.

“Let me say unequivocally that I and my Administration have acted properly in all matters and that this investigation will bear out that fact,” he said Sunday in a report by NBC News’ Andrea Mitchell. “But I have concluded that the ongoing investigation also would have forced an untenable delay in the confirmation process.”

Flashback: Judas Tries to Embrace Hillary: When Bill Richardson tried to embrace Hillary recently, well, she didn’t exactly give Judas a Chris Matthews hug. ( video )

Bill Richardson Politics Barack Obama Cabinet News New Mexico James Carville Bill Clinton Hillary Clinton

Alaska State Trooper union: Johnston drug arrest delayed for political reasons.(Think Progress)

Reid fires back on Obama replacement appointees

WASHINGTON — Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid shot back today at critics who have suggested racial politics is at play in his reported preference for white elected officials rather than African-Americans as potential appointees to replace Barack Obama in the Senate.

Reid, in an extensive interview on “Meet the Press,” also suggested that Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich is making up the details of a phone conversation the two had in which Reid offered his preferences in the days before the governor’s arrest for allegedly trying to sell Obama’s seat.

Reid spoke to Blagojevich, as he did other governors with open Senate seats, about possible appointees, in a call the majority leader’s office has said was routine.

Reports said Reid expressed support for veteran Tammy Duckworth and Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan, but rejected three African-American lawmakers he believed may not be able to win the seat in a subsequent election.

Republicans and supporters of Roland Burris, the former Illinois official Blagojevich appointed to the seat, have begun to suggest race is at play – a notion Reid quickly refuted as a distraction.

“To suggest anything racial is part of the Blagojevich spin to take away from the corruption that’s involved his office in Illinois,” Reid said, detailing his own long history of supporting black officials in Nevada and Washington.

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But, of course, the repugs don’t want anything silly like facts getting in the way of one of their smears…

Female bomber at Shiite shrine in Baghdad kills 38

BAGHDAD – A woman hiding among Iranian pilgrims with a bomb strapped under her black robe killed more than three dozen people on Sunday outside a Baghdad mosque during ceremonies commemorating the death of one of Shiite Islam’s most revered saints.

The suicide attack, the most recent in a series that has killed more than 60 people in less that a week, was the latest to mar the transfer of many security responsibilities from the U.S. military to Iraqi forces.

Iraqi security forces have deployed thousands of troops in Baghdad and in the Shiite holy city of Karbala, just south of the capital, to safeguard against attacks during the ceremonies. Attacks by al-Qaida in Iraq, Sunni insurgents and even a Shiite cult have killed hundreds of people in recent years.

The attack in Baghdad’s northern Shiite neighborhood of Kazimiyah, which also and wounded at least 72 people, comes two days after a suicide bomber slipped into a luncheon at a tribal leader’s home south of Baghdad and killed at least 23 people. More than a dozen other people have died in other attacks since New Year’s Day.

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Richardson withdraws bid to be commerce secretary

WASHINGTON – New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson on Sunday announced that he was withdrawing his nomination to be President-elect Barack Obama‘s commerce secretary amid a grand jury investigation into how some of his political donors won a lucrative state contract.

Richardson’s withdrawal was the first disruption of Obama’s Cabinet process and the second “pay-to-play” investigation that has touched Obama’s transition to the presidency. The president-elect has remained above the fray in both the case of arrested Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich and the New Mexico case.

A federal grand jury is investigating how a California company that contributed to Richardson’s political activities won a New Mexico transportation contract worth more than $1 million. Richardson said in a statement issued by the Obama transition office that the investigation could take weeks or months but expressed confidence it will show he and his administration acted properly.

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With the adoption of the Name Equality Act — giving men the right to take a wife’s or partner’s name at marriage — California becomes the first state to heed the words of feminist trailblazer Lucy Stone:

“A wife should no more take her husband’s name than he should her’s.”

Ever since Lucy Stone kept her birth name after her marriage to Henry Blackwell back in 1855, the women who followed her controversial example have been termed Lucy Stoners. (I’m a Lucy Stoner!) One hundred and fifty years later, the law (in California) begins to catch up to the thinking of 19th century feminists:

Any man who registers for marriage or domestic partnership in California will now enjoy the option of adopting his wife or partner’s last name. The Name Equality Act of 2007, signed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in October 2007 was made effective Thursday. It eliminates any discrepancy in civil rights enjoyed by men and women with respect to the use of a marriage license or domestic partnership certificate to legally change the last name of one, or now both, parties. .

Couples will now have access to a gender-neutral marriage license or domestic partnership certificate, one that provides space for both parties to declare any changes to last names “upon solemnization” of the union. The options include taking the current last name of the other spouse or partner, taking the last name of the other given at birth, combining portions of both last names to form just one, or using a hyphenated combination of both.

The new law is called the Name Equality Act. And not only may a man take a woman’s last name, but the couple getting married may combine each others last name. For instance, John Smith and Jane Doe could be Mr. and Mrs. Smoe.

Also see:
The New Agenda: Misogyny and Oppression at the DMV

Feminist Politics Gender News Misogyny Women’s History Lucy Stone Patriarchy California Marriage Equality