Midday Open Thread

• You can watch the Obama Inaugural Celebration at HBO's website. AmbroseBurnside has a liveblog going, and check out BarbinMD's Inaugural Guide. (h/t juliewolf and Lady Libertine)
• As noted by Kula2316 in Morning Reaction: Inaugural Optimism, both The Washington Post and The New York Times are reporting polls with crazy-mucho goodwill for the President-elect.

  My favorite result from the complete WaPo/ABC poll: When asked "Do you think Obama has a mandate to work for (major new social and economic programs) or for (only small policy changes)?" 71% answered "major new programs," 22% answered, "small policy changes," and 7% answered "no opinion."

• Washington Post reporters Roxanne Roberts and Krissah Thompson note that professional schmoozers in D.C. are having to adapt to changing times:

  The city's high-level social scene -- dinners, black-tie fundraisers, receptions, ubiquitous book parties -- is the place where money and experience are subtly traded for access and influence.

  Except for the first time the face of ultimate power is African American. With a black first family in the White House and a diverse group of appointees and Cabinet nominees, the all-white dinner party feels all wrong. Certain hosts are suddenly grappling with a new reality: They need some black friends. Overnight, black politicians, lawyers and journalists are hot properties, receiving engraved invitations from people they never got invitations from before.

• The Progressive Change Campaign Committee is giving away tickets to the Obama inaugural in a free raffle. Couldn't hurt to try!
• Hamas agrees to join Israel's cease fire.

  The Palestinian groups said in a statement that they would give Israeli troops a week to leave Gaza. Hamas leaders outside Gaza had previously said the group would continue fighting so long as Israeli troops remained on the ground.

  -- snip --

  Hamas demands the opening of the crossings on Gaza’s borders, while Israel is seeking an end to weapons smuggling into Gaza across the Egyptian border, and an halt to Hamas rocket fire.

• A good farewell to Bush at Asia Times by Pepe Escobar.

  Coming close to destroying a superpower and the global economy virtually single-handedly is not bad for someone born with a silver spoon in his mouth who never held a steady job until the age of 45 - until "turd blossom" Karl Rove, the little, fat, bald Machiavelli, engineered him as the ultimate, corporate-pleasing, Southern Strategy lethal weapon, and Bush family consigliere James Baker turned a massive electoral fraud, mostly in Florida and Ohio, into a hijacked mandate via the Supreme Court.

• It's the US government versus the climate change skeptics! Two reports have come out in recent days assessing the reality of climate change, and its effects.

  From the USGS, we have a stark warning that if warming continues, the Greenland ice sheet will completely disappear.

  A major U.S. government report on Arctic climate, prepared with information from eight Canadian scientists, has concluded that the recent rapid warming of polar temperatures and shrinking of multi-year Arctic sea ice are "highly unusual compared to events from previous thousands of years."

  The findings, released Friday, counter suggestions from skeptics that such recent events as the opening of the Northwest Passage and collapse of ice shelves in the Canadian Arctic are predictable phenomena that can be explained as part of a natural climate cycle rather than being driven by elevated carbon emissions from human activity.

  The part in bold is also known as the Sarah Palin View On Climate Change.

  Said warming will result in rising sea levels, a problem addressed by a report released by the EPA on Friday as well. Its specific focus was on the mid-Atlantic region of the US.  Click here to read the summary and access the full report.

  -- Plutonium Page

• Speaking of climate change skeptics and their bullhorns, one of the latter, a Boston Globe columnist by the name of Jeff Jacoby, has been busy over the past couple of weeks. His latest is a whinefest about How The Skeptics Are Being Oppressed By Obama By Way Of His Appointees. Click here for the latest cheap entertainment from Mr. Jacoby.

  -- Plutonium Page

• Speaking of criticism of Obama's appointees, Kate Sheppard at Grist voices some legitimate environmental concerns regarding Steven Chu, Lisa Jackson, and Ken Salazar.

  -- Plutonium Page

• It's Daniel Webster's birthday; Kevin Costner's, too.  (Three words: National Waterworld Day.  Now that would be change we can believe in.)