Clippings for 6 November 2008...

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OK Barack, Time to Hit the Ground Running
AlterNet asked dozens of writers, experts and activists on key issues to write about where the country needs to go, and the priorities for Barack Obama's early days in office. The following is the first in a series of articles we'll be running this week.

It's Morning Again in America
Robert Scheer, editor of Truthdig.com writes: "It's time to gush! Later for the analysis of all the hard choices faced by our next president, Barack Obama, but for now, let's just thrill, unabashedly, to the sound of those words. Heck, both he and we deserve a honeymoon, at least for a few paragraphs of this column."

Barack Obama's Many Majorities
John Nichols writes for The Nation: "'If I should need to name, O Western World, your powerfulest scene and show,' wrote the poet Walt Whitman on the occasion of a distant election, "I'd name the still-small voice vibrating – America's choosing day." On this day after voting day, as Whitman's 'final ballot-shower from East to West' finishes, we are reminded once more that an American election, aggressively campaigned and well conducted, yields not the measure of men or parties, but of the country itself. Despite all the talk of spin, strategy, polls and personalities, an election ultimately tells us what America can conceive, what it is capable of, what indeed it demands."

After Four Decades, Finally: The Beginning of the End
Mark Weisbrot writes for commondreams.org: "But there is another sense in which this election will likely turn out to be historic. For nearly four decades this country has been moving to the right. Unfortunately we must include the Clinton years in this right-wing trajectory: with such major regressive structural changes as welfare reform, the World Trade Organization, and NAFTA, the Clinton administration continued the country's rightward drift on economic if not social issues. In other words, it continued using the government to make rules that would redistribute income, wealth, and power towards the upper classes. (These are generally described somewhat inaccurately as "free-market" or "free-trade" policies.)"

Audit Roundout: Obamanomics
Ryan Chittum reviews for the Columbia Journalism Review what Bloomberg, the Wall Street Journal, New York Times and Washington Post look ahead to the economic change likely under an Obama administration

GOP in Dire Straits
Jonathan Martin writes for Politico.com: "Thumped convincingly in consecutive election cycles, the Republican Party now finds itself in its worst straits since the rise of the conservative coalition — a minority party without the White House, fewer seats in the House and Senate, only 21 governors and full control of just 14 state legislatures."

Shape of Chamber Hangs in Balance
Amy Goldstein writes for the Washington Post: "The final shape of the new Senate lingered in doubt yesterday with a runoff likely in Georgia, recounts pending in Minnesota and possibly Oregon, and uncertainty over whether the longest-serving Republican senator in U.S. history had held on to his Alaska seat barely a week after being convicted on corruption charges. "

Beyond Election Day
Bob Herbert writes in a op-ed for The New York Times: "Conservative commentators had a lot of fun mocking Barack Obama's use of the phrase, 'the fierce urgency of now.' Noting that it had originated with the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Senator Obama made it a cornerstone of his early campaign speeches. Conservatives kicked the phrase around like a soccer ball. 'The fierce urgency of now,' they would say, giggling. What does it mean? Well, if your house is on fire and your family is still inside, that's an example of the fierce urgency of now."

The Biggest Losers
Glen Thrush writes for Politico.com: "On the face of it, Tuesday’s winners seem obvious: Barack Obama, congressional Democrats, Big Labor, liberals. Yet the ultimate verdict on the victors will come not from a single night of election returns but from the actions the winners take to remedy the nation’s economic ills and extricate it from two long and costly wars."

On a Mission From God: Examining Sarah Palin's Ties to the Christian Right
Chip Berlet and Esther Kaplan write for In These Times: "Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin was the star of the Christian Right’s 2008 Values Voter Summit in mid-September, even though she was a last minute no-show. The Republican vice presidential candidate’s name was tossed around frequently to euphoric applause at the event in Washington, D.C., while the few mentions of presidential candidate Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) drew only polite claps."

Obama Must Get Tech and Media Oversight Right
Diane Mermigas writes for MediaPost: "As if the recession was not enough of a deterrent, more stringent regulatory reviews and restrictions expected with a Democratic administration will slow mergers, acquisitions and partnerships, which could be critical to some tech and media companies hoping to weather a prolonged recession. How draconian the regulations will become is anyone's guess. President-elect Barack Obama has said he would pursue a vigorous antitrust policy, singling out the media as a consolidation-prone industry that would require close regulatory scrutiny. Google and Yahoo radically revised their proposed search advertising alliance on election eve in a bid for regulatory approval before deal-averse Democrats storm Washington D.C."

Media Change We Can Believe In
Rory O'Conner writes on his blog that fewer than one in four Americans now have "a lot of confidence" in traditional news media. The new president will have a full plate of media issues to deal with. But the American people will have to focus on fixing some of our media problems ourselves.

Public Wins with White Spaces
Freepress reports that in a landslide vote at the FCC, the public was the big winner. The FCC voted to approve the unlicensed use of white spaces -- empty airwaves between television channels -- to provide high-speed Internet access nationwide.

FCC Expands Use of Airwaves
Cecilia Kang writes for the Washington Post that the FCC approved a plan that would allow airwaves called white spaces to be used by gadgets such as cellphones and laptops connected to the Internet once that spectrum becomes available after the national transition from analog to digital television in February.

Seymour Hersh: The Man Who Knows Too Much
Rachel Cooke writes in The Guardian UK: "He exposed the My Lai massacre, revealed Nixon's secret bombing of Cambodia and has hounded Bush and Cheney over the abuse of prisoners in Abu Ghraib ... No wonder the Republicans describe Seymour Hersh as 'the closest thing American journalism has to a terrorist.' Rachel Cooke meets the most-feared investigative reporter in Washington."

Pot Wins in a Landslide: A Thundering Rejection of America's Longest War
Rob Kampia reports for AlterNet that voters dealt what may be a fatal blow to America's longest-running and least-discussed war -- the war on marijuana.

The Food Crisis and Gender
Katherine Coon, Foreign Policy in Focus: "Statistics on the most recent global food crisis are well-known. In the three years leading up to June 2008, food prices rose 83 percent. There is little prospect of returning to the cheap food regimes that characterized the world prior to 2005 anytime in the foreseeable future. So far, the food crisis has pushed an estimated 75 million people into chronic hunger since 2005. Women and children, particularly girls, have been hardest hit by the food crisis."

Gay Marriage Ban Looks to Have Passed in California, but Is It Legal?
Karen Ocamb writes for AlterNet that lawyers and marriage equality proponents are calling Proposition 8 illegal, and they may have good legal ground to stand on.

Grow Up, Please: State BOE race a sample of gender, race immaturity
The Hutchinson Daily News writes: "When America grows up, it no longer will be necessary to ask if this country is ready to elect a black president, if we're capable of electing a woman as president or if a candidate's sexual orientation should prevent him or her from serving on the state Board of Education."

Polis becomes 3rd openly gay member of Congress: Musgrave falls to challenger; Dole also ousted
Amy Cavanaugh writes for the Washington Blade: "Despite a strong showing from Democrats in races across the country, Election Day results for gay and gay-friendly candidates were mixed. The Gay & Lesbian Victory Fund, which endorsed 111 openly lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender candidates, reported that 70 percent of its candidates had won their races."