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Change In the Air(waves) — WASHINGTON (CNN) — Welcome to the YouTube White House. — In one of many signs of “change” in the air, President Obama has officially tweaked the name of a White House institution, the Weekly Radio Address, which has been heard on stations across the nation each Saturday for years.
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President Barack Obama willing to negotiate with Iran ‘without preconditions’ — The new Obama administration is willing to talk to Iran “without preconditions” and will work towards the abolition of nuclear weapons, the White House said today. — The Obama foreign policy agenda that appeared …

Obama Will Get His Blackberry — President Barack Obama is going to get his blackberry.


After a Day of Crowds and Celebration, Obama Turns to Sobering Challenges
Discussion:
The Swamp

Mohammed Jawad and Obama's efforts to suspend military commissions — (updated below - Update II) — This is a very good and important step — not only because of its substance, but also because it was something Obama did almost immediately, even before his first full day in office:
Discussion:
TalkLeft, Harper's, Daily Kos, The Daily Dish, Hullabaloo, The Sideshow and Washington Monthly
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Obama Seeks Halt to Legal Proceedings at Guantanamo — In one of its first actions, the Obama administration instructed military prosecutors late Tuesday to seek a 120-day suspension of legal proceedings involving detainees at the naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba — a clear break with the approach of the outgoing Bush administration.
Discussion:
Gallup, CBC News, New York Times, The Washington Independent, Crooks and Liars, the talking dog, Associated Press, TalkLeft, The Strata-Sphere, Guardian, Emptywheel, Washington Monthly, Reuters, TIME.com, The Impolitic, TPMDC, RealClearWorld, Fausta's Blog, Alas, a blog, The Caucus, Runnin' Scared, Outside The Beltway, ATTACKERMAN, Pirate's Cove, Don Surber, Salon, On Deadline, Booman Tribune, Ta-Nehisi Coates and Daily Kos


A major Bush rule gets scrapped by Obama — (CNN) — It's the same Oval Office. The same desk. Even the same curtains. But President Obama has already made one major change: Go through eight years of White House photos, and you won't find one of former President Bush in the Oval Office without his jacket on.

DAILY SHOW - WHAT DIFFERENCES BETWEEN BUSH & OBAMA? (VIDEO) — Tonight Jon Stewart rightly pointed out that there really are no differences when it comes to philosophy about national security, and he demonstrates it with sequential video clips, comparing Barack's speech with past Bush speeches.

Anti-porn online law dies quietly in Supreme Court — Featured Topics: - Barack Obama - Presidential Transition — WASHINGTON - A federal law intended to restrict children's access to Internet pornography died quietly Wednesday at the Supreme Court, more than 10 years after Congress overwhelmingly approved it.
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Court won't save porn law, alters immunity rule
Discussion:
Blog of Rights

Aboard the Bush Plane — Britain's Leading Historian on the Genius of Obama's Unsoaring Inaugural — Full Coverage: Obama Inauguration, Bush Farewell — Blogs and Stories — In a Daily Beast exclusive, a former Bush advisor files his account—and his photos—from aboard the former president's flight back to Texas.

Experts say Obama should retake the oath — (01-21) 04:00 PST Washington - — Several constitutional lawyers said President Obama should, just to be safe, retake the oath of office that was flubbed by Chief Justice John Roberts. — The 35-word oath is explicitly prescribed in the Constitution …

Judge Obama on Performance Alone — Let's not celebrate more ordinary speeches. — With the noon sun high over the U.S. Capitol, Barack Obama yesterday took the oath of office to become president of the United States. On one level, it was a simple matter of political process — the symbolic transfer of power.
Discussion:
The Radio Equalizer, Commentary, Babalu Blog, Blue Crab Boulevard, Betsy's Page and This ain't Hell …

Wall Street Journal Receives Envelopes Containing White Powder — The Wall Street Journal received more than a dozen envelopes containing an unknown white powder, and New York City police and hazardous materials crews are investigating the matter, a spokesman said.
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Dutch MP faces anti-Islam charges — A Dutch court has ordered prosecutors to put a right-wing politician on trial for making anti-Islamic statements. — Freedom Party leader Geert Wilders made a controversial film last year equating Islam with violence and has likened the Koran to Adolf Hitler's Mein Kampf.
Discussion:
Matthew Yglesias, Jihad Watch, Little Green Footballs, Atlas Shrugs, Samizdata.net, Hot Air, Harry's Place, Israpundit, Gateway Pundit, Gates of Vienna and QandO

GOING, GOING, GONE — The mood at the Inauguration was so joyful, so filled with unalloyed expectation and—there's that word again—hope, that it seems almost peevish (and historically repetitive) to sound a sour note, but here it unavoidably is: the hostility among some in the vast crowd toward …
Discussion:
The Fix
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My “To Don't” List for the Right — The only thing worse than bad winners are sore losers, and we've had enough of them for the past eight years. So with that in mind, in the wake of today's historic inauguration, here's my Handbook For The Loyal Opposition, 2009 edition - a “To Don't List,” if you will.

Gingrich urges GOP to fight Geithner — Wants ‘tax evader’ disqualified — Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich is challenging Senate Republicans to take on President Obama's nomination of Timothy Geithner as Treasury secretary. — Mr. Gingrich said Mr. Geithner's failure to pay Social Security …
Discussion:
McClatchy Washington Bureau, The Washington Independent, The Corner, Hot Air, AmSpecBlog and QandO
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Schumer's $3-4 Trillion Horror Story — While questioning Treasury nominee Tim Geithner at his confirmation hearing this morning, Sen. Chuck Schumer said he spent some time calling around Wall Street this weekend, and what he heard was that if the government wants to clean out all the toxic assets …
Discussion:
Matthew Yglesias

Supreme Court revokes ban on Arab parties from national elections — Israel's Supreme court overruled on Wednesday a parliamentary panel which had decided to bar Israeli Arab parties from running in next month's parliamentary election. — The court issued its decision in response …

Is dissent still patriotic? — Do all Americans truly have a yearning to fundamentally “remake” our nation? There must be a subversive minority out there that still believes the United States — even with its imperfections and sporadic recessions — is, in context, still a wildly prosperous and free country worth preserving.

McCain Lends Hillary Clinton a Helping Hand — Patrick Yoest reports on Congress. — Sen. John McCain unexpectedly lent a hand to Sen. Hillary Clinton on the Senate floor today, calling for her quick confirmation as secretary of State without a lengthy roll-call vote.


“No Words That Will Be Quoted In A Hundred Years” — Packer on yesterday's proceedings: … Allow me: she was pretty pedestrian (but better than Aretha). — Mulling over the address yesterday, I felt in retrospect that the restraint and classical tropes of the speech were deliberate and wise.

America's drinking problem — For obvious reasons, I'm a huge fan of Glenn Reynolds' policy suggestion for Barack Obama: … A drinking age of 21 is an embarassment to a supposedly liberty-loving nation. If you are old enough to enlist, and old enough to vote, you are old enough to swill cheap beer in the company of your peers.

terror cases — ALBUQUERQUE (KRQE) - Former New Mexico U. S. Attorney David Iglesias, during a live interview on KRQE News 13, described his new job as a Navy judge advocate general prosecuting terrorism cases at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. — Share your opinions responsibly
Discussion:
The Politico, Talking Points Memo, TIME.com, TPMMuckraker and The Washington Independent


WHouse stops pending Bush regulations for review — Featured Topics: - Barack Obama - Presidential Transition — WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama's new administration ordered all federal agencies and departments on Tuesday to stop any pending regulations until they can be reviewed …


GOP Calibrates Role as Opposition — WASHINGTON — House Minority Leader John Boehner recently attacked the potential “wasteful spending” and “mountains of debt” in President Barack Obama's stimulus plan. A few days later, he warmly invited Mr. Obama to address House Republicans, saying …