Midday open thread

• It's once again okay to call oneself a "liberal" in DC.
• CQ has a handy Obama nominee chart.
• The New York Times is getting all whiny about lack of an Obama sitdown with their editorial board. Check out this pool report, written by a NY Times staffer:

  After three and a half hours at his transition office, PEOTUS Obama took another 6 minute ride through Washington, arriving at 1:57 pm at the nondescript soviet-style building at 15th and L street that houses the Washington Post.

  Around 100 people -- Post reporters perhaps? -- awaited PEOTUS's arrival, cheering and bobbing their coffee cups.

  Pool is holding in a van outside, while Mr Obama does his Washington Post interview, and will exercise enormous restraint by ending report before saying what [she] really thinks about this turn of events.

  -- Helene Cooper, New York Times

  Seems extremely unprofessional, and betrays an extreme level of insecurity. Pretty pathetic, actually.

• Masked cops in America? Really?
• And speaking of masked cops raiding Latino neighborhoods, I never knew "This Land Is Your Land" had such subversive lyrics:

  "As I was walkin' - I saw a sign there

  And that sign said - no tress passin'
  But on the other side .... it didn't say nothin!
  Now that side was made for you and me!

  In the squares of the city - In the shadow of the steeple
  Near the relief office - I see my people
  And some are grumblin' and some are wonderin'
  If this land's still made for you and me."

  That second verse, according to Woody Guthrie's website, is supposed to look like this, which is even better:

  In the shadow of the steeple I saw my people,
  By the relief office I seen my people;
  As they stood there hungry, I stood there asking
  Is this land made for you and me?

  That's definitely not a patriotic song wingnuts can believe in.

• Wingnuts lie. Yes, I know that comes as a shock to many of you, but it does seem to happen on occasion.
• The wingnuts are classy as ever. Among the detrius is this:

  On his radio show last week, Rush Limbaugh railed against “people on our side of the aisle who have caved and who say, ‘Well, I hope he succeeds. We have to give him a chance.’”

  “Why?” Limbaugh demanded. “They didn’t give Bush a chance in 2000. Before he was inaugurated, the search-and-destroy mission had begun. I’m not talking about search-and-destroy, but I’ve been listening to Barack Obama for a year and a half. I know what his politics are. I know what his plans are, as he has stated them. I don’t want them to succeed.”

  Get that? Limbaugh would rather see a Second Great Depression than see Obama's plans succeed. There's one thing to argue, "Obama's plan won't solve our economic woes", and another to pray for failure so that his ideological worldview can remain intact. It's going to be a long eight years for Rush and his minions.

• Heroes:

  US Airways pilot Chesley B. "Sully" Sullenberger and his family are going to the presidential inauguration, the mayor of his California hometown said Sunday. Mayor Newell Arnerich said the town of Danville is also planning a welcome home for the pilot who landed his crippled aircraft safely in the Hudson River last Thursday.

  An aide to President-elect Barack Obama said Sunday evening that all five members of the Flight 1549 crew have been invited to the inauguration Tuesday. The aide spoke on condition of anonymity because details were still being worked out.

  -- DemFromCT

• Global Obamamania! -- Plutonium Page