We know the Presidential election.

But what other stories do you think were big this year?

Blago, if nothing else, has proven himself a serious narcissist in these past few weeks. It’s all about him. Well, he apparently admires Roland Burris’s narcissist self-infatuation.

Burris has named his kids, both male and female, after himself. There is Roland II and Rolanda. Yep.

Even more so, brought to us by Wonkette, is the already built Roland Burris gravesite monument with his whole biography carved into it.

At the top, in big letters, it reads “TRAIL BLAZER.”

Yeah, an ego like that suggests the guy wanted the Senate seat badly. He still had space on the marble for a few more jobs. I wonder how much he paid or promised for it.

This should surprise none of us. Absolutely none of us.

Obama appoints Sonal Shah, a Google employee, to work on his transition team. Reporters uncover evidence that Sonal Shah is tied to VHP of America, the American arm of Vishva Hindu Parishad, a questionable militant group in India.

Naturally and predictably, Shah denied the allegations.

A series of e-mails obtained by Nextgov suggest that Shah was an active member of the Vishva Hindu Parishad of America during the late 1990s and contributed to strategic discussions regarding the group’s public image. Two VHP of America officials also confirmed that Shah served on the organization’s governing council in the 1990s.

VHP is an international Hindu organization that is part of Sangh Parivar, the Indian nationalist movement organized around Hindutva, or Hindu nationalism. VHP has been condemned by the nonprofit group Human Rights Watch and the State Department for its role in the 2002 violence in the northwestern state of Gujarat that killed more than 1,000 people, most of them Muslims.

Okay, so Sonal Shah is working on tech policy. The problem is, and Obama should realize this, India and Pakistan don’t care what she is working on. The fact that he has put someone with close ties to VHP on his staff has serious and real potential to disrupt relations with India, who we should be getting closer to, and Pakistan.

Despite Shah’s statement renouncing the VHP, the issue has remained a hot topic in the Indian press. On Dec. 5, a group of more than 60 U.S. academics, many working in South Asian-related fields, sent a letter to Obama expressing their concern over Shah’s appointment and the increasing influence of Hindu nationalism in America.

Prashad also pointed to a 2004 speech by Shah at a Sangh-related event, where according to the organization’s Web site, Shah “exposed the hypocrisy of the Western way of life, highlighting its wasteful ways and compared them to the simpler but more genuine life in India. She mentioned how Indians would sacrifice whatever they had for their guests, but we in the West cannot even sacrifice a little time for them.”

She may be a perfect fit for Obama given all the distasteful people he has surrounded himself with over the years, but she could seriously undermine foreign relations by being so close to Obama.

I saw him on the news this morning. Probably $enator Roland Burris tried to defend his appointment by (A) playing the race card, (B) saying Blago’s problems are not his problems, and (C) acting all surprised by the backlash from everyone — everyone including Barack Obama.

The man must be a power hunger kleptocrat in typical Chicago fashion to get on television as boldly as he has and demand a seat in the United States Senate.

New York is showing maturity in rejecting Caroline Kennedy [who cares what the last name is, did you see she's a KENNEDY!!!]. Illinois is showing it has yet to move beyond its kleptocratic regime.

I am getting a first hand sense of what the coming “economic stimulus” package is going to be. In short, nothing but a hand out to municipalities around the country.

In my role as city councilman here in Macon, I received a letter from the local congressman about the economic stimulus package that gives away the game. You can read the letter here [2.4 MB PDF].

Here’s the highlight:

As you know, Congress and the Obama Transition Team are currently contemplating a massive economic recovery stimulus bill to help jumpstart our economy. Although negotiations are in a constant state of flux, I expect this bill will create funding opportunities for local projects. In further expect emphasis will be placed on projects that are 1) ready to go immediately and 2) otherwise eligible for federal funding through existing federal agencies and programs such as Federal Transit Administration road, bridge, sidewalk and park projects or STAG water and wastewater infrastructure projects . . . . Enclosed is an excerpt of projects the United States Conference of Mayors has recommended.

The letter then includes a lengthy attachment with all sorts of projects the United States Conference of Mayors wants funded as part of the “economic stimulus.”

As explained to members of City Council by someone in the mayor’s office:

To help us bring in a prosperous New Year, Washington is offering Macon the chance to recommend local public works projects for consideration under the proposed economic stimulus bill we’ve been hearing about in the news. . . .The point - and opportunity - is to get local workers drawing paychecks ASAP.

That’s it then. We will return to the New Deal and the Works Progress Administration. Among the things the Conference of Mayors wants out of the economic stimulus package is $120,000,000.00 for road resurfacing in Atlanta; $210,000.00 for a citywide asset inventory in College Park, GA; $142,600.00 for “community outreach officers” in Marietta, GA; $1,062,500 for new signage in Savannah so people can “engage in a pedestrian experience”; and $1,139,693.00 for new cabinets and countertops and a central HVAC system at Patterson Terrace in Savannah, GA.

This is an economic stimulus?

UPDATED: The Illinois Secretary of State is refusing to certify the appointment. Blago could constitutionally force him to as it is a clerical act, but would he?

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Rod Blagojevich has laid hands in the pocket of Roland Burris and extracted a United States Senate appointment for him.

That Burris would accept such an appointment means he is (A) an idiot; (B) corrupt as hell; or (C) all of the above.

Harry Reid has already leaked that Burris is unacceptable.

Someone should audit Burris’s finances to see how much he paid. Someone else should start asking Burris if he paid for the seat.

As a reminder of the awkwardness of Blago’s decision to go on and appoint someone while the cloud of corruption hangs over him, here is Harry Reid’s letter to him from earlier this month. The relevant portion is bolded.

Dear Governor Blagojevich:

We write to insist that you step down as Governor of Illinois and under no circumstance make an appointment to fill the vacant Illinois Senate seat. In light of your arrest yesterday on alleged federal corruption charges related to that Senate seat, any appointment by you would raise serious questions.

It is within the authority of the Illinois legislature to remove your power to make this appointment by providing for a special election. But a decision by you to resign or to step aside under Article V of the Illinois Constitution would be the most expeditious way for a new Senator to be chosen and seated in a manner that would earn the confidence of the people of Illinois and all Americans. We consider it imperative that a new senator be seated as soon as possible so that Illinois is fully represented in the Senate as the important work of the 111th Congress moves forward.

Please understand that should you decide to ignore the request of the Senate Democratic Caucus and make an appointment we would be forced to exercise our Constitutional authority under Article I, Section 5, to determine whether such a person should be seated.

We do not prejudge the outcome of the criminal charges against you or question your constitutional right to contest those charges. But for the good of the Senate and our nation, we implore you refrain from making an appointment to the Senate.

Sincerely,

Harry Reid

Editor’s Note: The action component has been removed. AOL’s Political Machine is going to cross-post a portion of this response instead. — Erick.

Okay, one more on this.

That AOL guy is now claiming I am defending a “racist” song.

In this kid’s world, it is racist. But as has been stated repeatedly, the song is not a racist song (note to Chip Saltsman: that this stuff is now going on is reason number one you are not qualified to be RNC Chairman).

Now here is the thing: the guy has moved beyond claiming the parody itself is racist to claiming that any parody of Al Sharpton is racist.

He had originally contended that the song had nothing to do with Al Sharpton. I pointed out the four reasons why it very clearly has everything to do with Al Sharpton, including that Rush both introduced the song as sung by Sharpton and has used this Sharpton voice for years to mock and parody Sharpton. The guy responds with, “What he’s basically saying is that it’s okay, Limbaugh’s been putting on a minstrel show for a long time. He and Shanklin are very good at it. ”

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Some guy named Tommy Christopher (is he the AOL writer who pretended to be John King to get on a call with John McCain so he could harass McCain?) has looked at my post on Chip Saltsman and come away convinced he must obfuscate the facts.

He quotes me thusly:

The columnist, an African-American, came up with the term and Rush Limbaugh had Paul Shanklin sing it in Al Sharpton’s voice. In the twenty years of Rush Limbaugh’s show, I venture to say there has never been a funnier parody.

There is absolutely nothing racist about the song, but the race baiters of the world love to think there is.

Then he writes:

He’s only about 100% wrong. First of all, the columnist did not come up with the term, something he would know if he had read the column.

Second, and most damningly, the song is not sung in Al Sharpton’s voice, or anything even close. Shanklin, a white “satirist,” sings the inflammatory ditty in the voice of an offensive, stereotypical caricature that sounds nothing like Sharpton. It is a pure minstrel show. Media types and Democrats may have been cowed into allowing this kind of thinly fig-leaved thing to fly, but that doesn’t make it any less foul.

I suspect this guy, who thinks I haven’t read the column in question, has not actually listened to either the song in question or much Rush Limbaugh to get it.

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Rahm Emanuel will leave his seat on Friday, according to Roll Call.

If you’ll remember, it seems Emanuel’s conversations with Blago involved finding a suitable seat warmer for Rahm. He wanted to have his cake and eat it too — go to the White House a couple of years, help Obama, then return to Congress.

“It has been a tremendous privilege to serve the people of the Fifth District over the past six years,” Emanuel wrote to Blagojevich, who also once represented the 5th district in Congress. “I am grateful for the opportunity to represent the hopes and dreams of a quintessentially American district.”

The governor has five days to schedule a special election for the safely Democratic 5th district seat after receiving Emanuel’s resignation. The election must take place within 115 days of the announcement.

So who will be the seat warmer and which reporter will have guts enough to ask about any deals?

We’re going to need constant mitchslapping in the 111th Congress. This should cheer some Republicans.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) Monday threw cold water on Democratic hopes of passing a massive economic stimulus package in time for President-elect Barack Obama’s Jan. 20 inauguration, exactly two weeks after the 111th Congress convenes for the new year.

With estimates for the stimulus package reaching as high as $1 trillion, McConnell called on his Senate colleagues to proceed with caution, hold a series of hearings and dedicate at least one week for public review.

We know that as these stimuli snake through Congress, Democrats and Republicans load them up with pork. We also know that a lot of the pork is preferred spending for friends and donors of Congressmen — an area ripe for “public review.”

Let’s have at it.

Incidentally, this weekend on Fox News Sunday, one of the panelists commented that she was sure the package would not reach $1 trillion because the “t word” was too intimidating both for the public and politicians. Very perceptive. While she was on Fox and Friends saying that, David Axelrod was on Meet the Press saying the package would run short of $1 trillion, to around $900 billion.

It’s like iTunes pricing — $0.99 for a song instead of $1.00.

Two days ago, Israel launched a massive counter-offensive against the Hamas terrorist stronghold in Gaza. Apparently learning from the failed strategy of the Lebanon war against Hezbollah in the summer of 2006, the Israelis are not depending on the rationality of their enemy. Instead of assuming that Hamas would want to protect Palestinian civilians and avoid unnecessary casualties, the Israelis are, rightly, assuming the opposite this time. They understand that Hamas, like Hezbollah, is using innocent civilians as a cover to allow them to continue to rain rockets into Israel without fear of retaliation. And if that cover must be blown in order to stop this deadly hail of terror, then sobeit. That is the choice of Hamas.

The Israeli offensive has touched off the standard outrage. Violent riots, ostensibly in support of the terrorists, convulse the capitals of Europe. The Secretary General of the United Nations calls for an immediate ceasefire. An Israeli flag has been burned in Jordan’s parliament. Here in the US, the usual suspects cry out against Israel’s “crimes” and decare solidarity with the Palestinian victims.

We declare no such solidarity with the murdrous terrorists who have provoked this conflict. As a group we declare our support for our tiny friend and ally of Israel, that embattled bastion of democracy and prosperity in the Middle East. While we mourn the deaths of those civilians who were turned into targets by their own puported leaders, we hope this action will result in a new understanding by the Palestinians that terror is not a viable road to independence. Now that Hamas has provoked this war, we pray that the Israelis have the fortitude to root their evil out of Gaza once and for all, and that in the aftermath, with Hamas gone, real progress towards peace can be made.

Maybe Karl Rove just took time out of his busy schedule to pen a lie about the President. Yes, that must be it. It couldn’t be the truth.

It all started on New Year’s Eve in 2005. President Bush asked what my New Year’s resolutions were. I told him that as a regular reader who’d gotten out of the habit, my goal was to read a book a week in 2006. Three days later, we were in the Oval Office when he fixed me in his sights and said, “I’m on my second. Where are you?” Mr. Bush had turned my resolution into a contest.

By coincidence, we were both reading Doris Kearns Goodwin’s “Team of Rivals.” The president jumped to a slim early lead and remained ahead until March, when I moved decisively in front. The competition soon spun out of control. We kept track not just of books read, but also the number of pages and later the combined size of each book’s pages — its “Total Lateral Area.”

Let’s begin the stop watch. At some point Keith Olbermann or someone like him is going to accept that this is true and will then state that the President has been reading while Rome burned, or some other such nonsense.

Meanwhile, more people on earth will be freed from tyranny because of the “distracted” book worm than because of any talking head.

Been up all night with an insomniac baby and a sick three year old. Have an open thread. I’m sure I’ll blog something later.

To recap: Chip Saltsman sent out a CD of songs to RNC members for Christmas. One of the songs was “Barack the Magic Negro,” a parody featured on Rush Limbaugh.

Apparently Mike Duncan does not listen to Rush Limbaugh, nor do the members of the MSM, all of whom are piling on Saltsman.

As CNN notes

The song, set to the tune of the 1960s pop hit “Puff the Magic Dragon,” was first played on Rush Limbaugh’s radio show in 2007. Its title was drawn from a Los Angeles Times column that suggested Obama appealed to those who feel guilty about the nation’s history of mistreatment of African-Americans.

The columnist, an African-American, came up with the term and Rush Limbaugh had Paul Shanklin sing it in Al Sharpton’s voice. In the twenty years of Rush Limbaugh’s show, I venture to say there has never been a funnier parody.

There is absolutely nothing racist about the song, but the race baiters of the world love to think there is. The added humor is that the song accurately captures the problems of the race baiters in American with Obama as President.

In any event, that Chip Saltsman did this shows poor judgment on his part. He should have known this would happen. This is a distraction from the RNC Chairman’s race coming on the heels of revelations that South Carolina GOP Chairman, and fellow contender, Katon Dawson belonged to an all white country club shortly before he decided to run for RNC Chairman.

The rest of the nation must rightly wonder who the hell these Southern white guys are running for RNC Chairman and what their problem is. Let’s face it, the song is really innocuous, but it’ll take forever to explain why. If perception is reality, and it is in cases like this, Saltsman has suffered a very significant self-inflicted wound.

One last note on this. Mike Duncan has seized on the issue to disqualify Saltsman. The issue really does help Duncan. Saltsman is not really a serious contender right now anyway. Duncan is, like it or not, the front runner. This only helps him. But, and this is a big but, Ducan’s response was

“I am shocked and appalled that anyone would think this is appropriate, as it clearly does not move us in the right direction.”

1. This suggests he doesn’t keep up with Rush Limbaugh, which suggests he’s a bit disconnected from the roots of the party.
2. “Shocked and appalled” needs to be taken off his copy-paste list as it is a bit overdone and overwrought for something like this.
3. This clearly does not move the GOP in the right direction. It lets the media keep alive a narrative that is not true, but feeds a pre-existing media created perception.

2010 will be so much fun.

Democrats have picked up a combined 13 seats in the past two election cycles. In 2010, more Republicans than Democrats are up for re-election, and Democratic incumbents appear to be well-positioned overall.

Sen. Reid, however, faces a potentially tough fight. A recent Research 2000 poll of likely voters put his approval rating at 38% and his disapproval rating at 54%, a possible reflection of voters’ displeasure with gridlock and partisanship in Washington. And while Nevada broke for President-elect Barack Obama by 12 percentage points in November, the state voted for President George W. Bush in 2000 and 2004.

As Senate majority leader, Sen. Reid is expected to play a critical role in shepherding Democratic priorities through the Senate, with a full docket of legislation up for consideration in the first year of the Obama administration.

And this, fellow RedStater’s, is our task. For the next two years, we must help the Senate Republicans put Harry Reid in extremely difficult positions. Likewise, we must follow his lobbyist children and tie their dealings to dad. We will simply use the facts and we will be able to make the case that Harry Reid is out of touch with Nevada.

It is an easier task to keep the man unpopular than to make him unpopular and, besides, will have Mitch McConnell around to keep up the mitchslapping.

The other day on Twitter, I commented thusly:

Resolved: fixing the GOP cannot be done from in DC and fixing the tech problems cannot be done without professional technologists.

Within days of the election I was approached by three people representing three different groups, all of whom wanted my advice on how to proceed on the technology front. My advice was pretty simple:

1. That you have come to me thinking I am a technologist is an indication of the problem;
2. Luckily for you, I have come to recognize my limits, but sadly there are too many others out there who do not recognize their limits and, unfortunately, offer themselves as solutions to our tech problem instead of offering real solutions;
3. If anyone you talk to says you need to duplicate what Obama did, run the other way as fast as possible;
4. When looking for people, choose technologists who are interested in politics, not political guys who learned tech; and,
5. Look outside Washington, D.C.

Then, seeking recommendations, I suggested six people — only two of whom are inside Washington, D.C.

Let me repeat it because it has become my constant theme: to succeed online, the right needs to invest in technologists who know politics and not political consultants who know technology. It is a hell of a lot easier to learn politics than it is technology. Further, technologists understand, develop, and use technology is a way more akin to what normal people do. Political consultants don’t do that. And it is doubly important to go outside of Washington, D.C. because of both points of view and circles of friends.

One caveat before wading into this: there is a place for political guys who know technology. There are tools to be developed and use of those tools. The political guys can, by and large, handle use of the tools. What I am concerned with is development of the technology tools for the right and their initial implementation.

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Kosovo has named a street after President Bush.

Kosovo decided Wednesday to name a central street of its capital Pristina after outgoing US President George W. Bush for his support of the territory’s split from Serbia.

Backed unanimously by Kosovo’s cabinet, Prime Minister Hashim Thaci said the move was “a sign of the huge state and national respect and appreciation” for the United States’ contribution to independence, declared earlier this year.

Both Republicans and Democrats in this country have grown weary of the President in recent years. Some have grown weary because of the war. Others, like me, because of his domestic policy. Instead of putting conservatism into compassion, Bush tried to put compassion into conservatism, but his compassion meant big government — a notion not compatible with the freedom of men.

And that will be the irony of the Bush legacy. Abroad, George W. Bush has been the great liberator. He has freed millions of people from ruthless dictators and radical Islamists. At home, he has kept us safe. But he has presided over a government that has encroached on American freedoms and eroded the free market he pledged to support.

The advance of liberty across the globe owes its progress largely to President Bush and his relentless assault against evil and terror. At home? A mixed bag. But one thing is indisputable.

George W. Bush, President of the United States of America, kept us safe. I can forgive much for that.

Morton Blackwell sent a very lengthy questionnaire to the candidates for RNC Chairman. He has gotten back his responses. Matt Lewis posted them in full at Townhall.com. In reviewing them, I have to say I am very impressed by Ken Blackwell’s responses.

That said, I continue to touch base around the country with RNC folks and continue getting the impression that Mike Duncan is probably the front runner in the race.

In addition to Morton’s questionnaire, we have ten issues we’d like answers to.

Saul Anuzis has already provided his responses. We continue waiting on the others.

Have an open thread. We are moving slow around here today with the holidays.

I have my column up at Human Events about Kwanzaa — the scientology of holidays. The first few comments are pretty hysterical.

As I note,

In 1977, Karenga outlined the principles of Kwanzaa and later noted, “People think it’s African, but it’s not. I came up with Kwanzaa because black people wouldn’t celebrate it if they knew it was American. Also, I put it around Christmas because I knew that’s when a lot of Bloods were partying.” Karenga went on to call Christ “psychotic” and declared Christianity a “white religion.” Apparently, the media agreed.

As the late Tony Snow once commented, “There is no part of Kwanzaa that is not fraudulent.” Kwanzaa actually is the perfect holiday for the mainstream media. Every other holiday celebrates a religious miracle, patriotic heros, or America itself. Every other holiday celebrates something greater than the self. Kwanzaa was made up by a felon establishing a holiday whereby people can celebrates the racial self. The self-absorbed mainstream media has been looking for a self-absorbing holiday.

Merry Christmas. Happy Hanukkah.

Thank you, Mr. President.