Rotten Little Girls

There’s a new President-elect and with him comes a new kind of government, if the recent weeks are any indication. Though Obama ran a tight ship during his Presidential campaign, his actions as President-elect have been delightfully transparent. Not only has he begun a weekly Youtube address (reminiscent of FDR’s Fireside chats), but Obama and has created a website called Change.gov that allows the nation an insider’s view of his fledgling administration’s decision-making process.

- Jump Starting the Obama Presidency

“The Obama era, it is now clear, began on Election Day and will not wait. Like his presidential campaign, his transition is proving to be historic. Unwilling to bide his time until President Bush packs up his things and leaves town, Obama simply took control of economic policy on Nov. 23, when he unveiled an economic team noted for its brains and experience and asked it to come up with a massive economic-stimulus plan, in the hopes of rushing it through Congress and readying it for him to sign by the time he is sworn in. . . . . Taken together, his bold moves heralded the fastest start by a President-elect in memory and one of the most dramatic takeovers ever. “I think it is very important for the American people to have clarity that we don’t intend to stumble into the next Administration,” Obama said Tuesday.”

- Obama Places Stringent Limits on Inaugural Contributions

“President-elect Barack Obama plans to bar special interests from contributing to his inaugural festivities and limit the amount he accepts to $50,000 per donor, the most stringent restrictions in the memory of campaign finance experts. Mr. Obama’s newly formed inaugural committee said Tuesday that it would not accept money from corporations, political action committees, people who are currently registered with the federal government as lobbyists, those who are not citizens of the United States or registered foreign agents. Campaign finance experts said that to their knowledge, the limits were tighter than for any previous inauguration, both in dollar amounts and in who will be permitted to give. Donations for earlier inaugurations have carried dollar limits, but they were higher — up to $250,000 for individuals in the case of George W. Bush, who allowed corporations to give more than that. The restrictions are in keeping with Mr. Obama’s pledge to curb the influence of money in government, and signal his intention to encourage broader public participation at the inauguration than in the past.”

- President-Elect Barack Obama’s Thanksgiving Address

- UFO enthusiasts call on Obama to release X-Files

“Gov Richardson, a former presidential candidate and fellow UFO aficionado, has written a forward to a book on the so-called Roswell Incident in New Mexico, where campaigners believe an alien spacecraft crash landed near the town of Roswell in 1947 and that the corpses of humanoid aliens have been kept hidden under lock and key by the government.
He has called for full disclosure by the Pentagon of what really occurred and reiterated his belief that there had been a “cover-up” during a presidential debate last year.
The campaigners, who want the truth “out there”, believe that the British Government’s decision to declassify thousands of UFO sighting documents this year has made it untenable for the US to maintain its policy of non-disclosure.”

Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving weekend. I don’t know about you, but I’m looking forward to January.

- Dollface

Photo credits: Stan Honda/AFP/Getty Images