WASHINGTON - President-elect Barack Obama plunged into rare pre-inaugural crisis talks with congressional leaders Monday, declaring the national economy was "bad and getting worse" and embracing tax cuts now expected to reach $300 billion. He predicted lawmakers would approve a mammoth revitalization p

From the inimitable Ken Layne: ...President-Elect Barack Obama, the man who saved the economy... Just imagine what he'll do once he actually becomes the president! Have you checked your 401k or IRA lately? I've sure been watching my retirement accounts,...

WASHINGTON - New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson said Sunday he would drop his effort to become commerce secretary in the Obama administration, as a federal investigation into a state contract awarded to his political donors became a growing threat to his nomination.

Fannie Nichols was eating ice cream and cake with her Tuesday night quilting group when she learned the nation had elected its first African-American president. The news triggered memories of growing up in a segregated South and how her mother had tried to shield her from the evils of racism.

In his weekly radio and video address describing what he called the American Recovery and Reinvestment Plan, Obama spelled out five main goals. He said his plan proposes to: double renewable energy production and make public buildings more energy efficient; rebuild crumbling roads, bridge

With Barack Obama ready to move into the White House and his party holding healthy majorities in Congress, 2009 will be the Democrats' year.

A fund has been established to help defray the expenses of a longtime Redding civil rights leader on her trip to Washington, D.C., to witness the inauguration of Barack Obama as president. Isaac Lowe, 87, learned last month she’d receive coveted tickets to the Jan. 20 event through the office of U.S. Rep. Wa

MR. BAD EXAMPLE: It has been said that no one is entirely useless because even the worst of us can serve as horrible examples. Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich is the horrible example who is warning President-elect Obama: No ego trips. Just stick to the facts. Do what you have promised to do.

Redding gun stores haven't noticed the economic downturn felt by most of America this holiday season. Just the opposite. Owners of three of the area's largest gun dealerships say their sales have doubled or even tripled as hundreds of worried gun-rights advocates rush to buy firearms before Pr

It’s not far-fetched for me to make a fashion statement.I mean, I routinely wear a rabbit-fur bomber hat around SoDak. I wear a cowboy hat.I have titanium earrings, for chirssakes.But I’m really

Obama's been on vacation not doing much newsworthy but the press corps ain't complaining: "No offense to the people of Crawford, Texas, but taking the presidential retreat from Crawford to Honolulu is change anyone can believe in," [CNN's Ed] Henry...

My what a difference a month makes in politics. Seems like it was just yesterday that we were losing in Iraq, gas prices were off the charts, both Hillary and Barack were raking in millions in illegal campaign contributions and ACORN was working out of Obama’s back pocket to fix an election, by paying for votes from peop

Dear President Elect Obama,   Let me begin by saying that in choosing Pastor Rick Warren to give the invocation at your inauguration you have not lost my day-to-day political support; however, you have greatly diminished my respect for you. To regain my respect, I urge you to recognize that no shade

Is there a klavern in your town? (In your town)If not, then why not have us down? (Have us down)You'll never recognize us, there's a smile upon our faceWe're changin' all our dirty sheets and a cleanin' up the placeYep, since we got a lawyer and a public relations manWe're your fri

President-elect Barack Obama made no apologies Thursday for asking evangelical pastor Rick Warren to give the invocation at his inauguration, a move that infuriated gays angry at Warren’s support for California’s Proposition 8 banning gay marriage. Obama said he and Warren don’t agree on everything, but he

Abortion groups have submitted their 50 page proposal to the Obama-Biden transition team. At the top of the list? More taxpayer dollars for abortion organizations like Planned Parenthood. How much mor

I see Charles Krauthammer ("'Centrist' picks hide Obama's ambition," Dec. 13), perhaps suffering from emotional exhaustion after his demonization marathon during the campaign, has demoted Obama from being the Antichrist Himself to being a mere limb of Satan. That's understandable; we're all tired by no

With all the recent bruhaha over Tony Rezko, Gov. Blagojevich and a scrum of Clinton-istas being appointed to fill Cabinet positions, Obama’s transition is looking more like a hockey game than anything resembling a seamless Presidential handoff. So, except for a couple of guys, appointed for Defense and a National Securi

With all of that questionable cash languishing in bank accounts belonging to Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and every other politician in America. I think it is time to do some “mining”For instance, it is commonly known that both Barack and Hillary had millions, even tens of millions in “questionable” don

Easy money led to asset bubbles in real estate and equities in Japan in the late 80s and early 90s. The inevitable collapse led to a severe recession. Then the government stepped in a la Bush-Obama. Result? Overall during the...

Within the cacophony of what is the Auto Bailout, the Banking Bailout, the Blagojevich Blowup and the Obama Blowout, there may be some quiet scandals bubbling below the surface. Scandals that could easily make today’s headlines pale in comparison. It is quite amusing to watch the UAW, in righteous indignati

Barack Obama has garnered praise from center to right - and has highly irritated the left - with the centrism of his major appointments. Because Obama's own beliefs remain largely opaque, his appointments have led to the conclusion that he intends to govern from the center.

A LA CLINTON: I think for the good of the country, Barack Obama should come clean with America and go on TV saying something to the effect of "I never had a relationship with that man, Mr. Blagojevich."

OK, Rep. Mike Thompson is from St. Helena, but he used to represent the Redding area in the state Senate. I think we can claim him if Barack Obama should name him secretary of the interior, as various news accounts...

Well, another cat is out of the bag. Obama is going to go on ANOTHER spending spree, rebuilding America. Yes folks, we are going to build or rebuild, schools, bridges, roads and any other thing some politician says needs building. And he is going to do it on top of all those other things he is going to do--at taxpayer ex

The inimitable Camille Paglia, at Salon, on two moves by the president-elect. I gulped when Obama also pledged educational reform by putting state-of-the-art computers in every classroom. Groan. Computers alone will never solve the educational crisis in this country: They...

CHICAGO (AP) — Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich was arrested Tuesday on charges of conspiring to get financial benefits through his authority to appoint a U.S. senator to fill the vacancy left by Barack Obama's election as president.

The last eight years of leadership from Washington has left this country in a sorry state, so I want to approach everyone in the spirit of ecumenicalism and President-elect Barack Obama's call to join together in reaching out to those who are less fortunate than ourselves.

Friends and Net acquaintances often ask me why I don’t write more. I tell them that I am overwhelmed with so much material, I don’t know where to start. I only write when I am inspired, when I am most offended, when someone--usually a Liberal-- picks my scab. And since November 4, my scab gets picked a lot. I am sta

WASHINGTON — President-elect Barack Obama on Saturday pledged to launch the biggest public works program since the construction of the interstate highway system in the 1950s as part of his plan to create millions of new jobs and stem an economic tailspin that is growing worse by the day.

Technorati Tags: second amendment,NRA,Freedom,Guns From the National Rifle Association Because Barack Obama’s campaign promise not to take away our guns is a lie. He’s not even in office, yet he’s fired the opening salvos in a war against the future of the Second Amendment, our hunting and shooting trad

In a behind-the-scenes legislative battle that I've heard helped stymie the attempt to balance the state budget during the lame-duck legislative session, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has proposed relaxing environmental reviews of some state highway projects in the interest of stimulating...

As he prepares to move back to Texas, our 43rd president is the beneficiary of Bush fatigue. The nation has long since repudiated him. Americans are looking ahead to the promise of Barack Obama.

In his decades in office, Rep. Wally Herger probably hasn't made as many Democratic constituents happy as he has in the one month since Barack Obama's election to the presidency.

CHICAGO (AP) -- President-elect Barack Obama picked a national security team headed by former campaign rival Hillary Rodham Clinton and Bush administration holdover Robert Gates on Monday, and said he wants to consult with military commanders before settling on a firm timetable to withdraw U.S. combat troops fro

President-elect Barack Obama has assured us that health care reform will not be put on the back burner. Let us hope he can deliver on that despite our deepening economic crisis. Foremost among health reform concerns: how to extend health coverage for the 47 million to 50 million uninsured, and how to contain ris

WASHINGTON - President-elect Barack Obama plans today to announce six experienced hands to fill top administration posts, moving at record speed to name the leadership team that will guide his presidency through a time of war and recession.

Technorati Tags: Obama,Citizen,Natural Born,Constitution Naturalized citizens are ineligible to hold the office of President. If the framers of our constitution merely intended for birth alone on U.S. soil then all would had been necessary was to say the President shall be “native born.” Barack Obama is not qualified t

Isaac Lowe, one of Redding's most prominent civil rights champions for more than a half-century, has won admission to an event that for years she could barely imagine - the inauguration of America's first black president.

WASHINGTON - Under President Bush, California Democrats often felt like actor Rodney Dangerfield - disrespected.But with President-elect Barack Obama headed to the White House - giving their party control of both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue for the first time in 14 years - lawmakers from California, one of the n

Seems like every day that I wake up since Nov. 4, 2008, I feel like I’m in a Rod Serling, parallel universe. Initially, I couldn’t believe that America had actually elected the “Puff of Smoke” to lead our nation. But once I got a glimpse of the sheeples that stampeded the polls to vote for “The One”, I underst

It may upset some of the Democratic Party’s more amped up liberals who want us out of Iraq now, but Barack Obama did the wise thing in asking the Bush administration’s defense secretary, Robert Gates, to stay on in that post

THE OBAMA CRASH: Obama says he'll raise taxes, including capital gains. As a result, investors are dumping stocks, and the market is tanking. Now there are fewer capital gains to tax, and plenty of capital losses that will reduce other taxes that would've been paid. Nice job, Obama voters. This was totally predi

Just in case anyone still wondered, President-elect Barack Obama has now made it plain he is a greenhouse gas believer. He gave no truck during his campaign to skeptics' frequent claims that climate change has nothing to do with human activity, and it's now certain he won't as president.

Jamison Foser, in his Media Matter column "When did experience become a flaw?" summarizes media complaints about Obama relying heavily on for Clinton staffers and Washington insiders in staffing his cabinet and administration. The appointment of Hillary

WASHINGTON - President-elect Barack Obama promoted an economic plan Saturday that he said would provide 2.5 million jobs by rebuilding roads and bridges and modernizing schools while developing alternative energy sources and more efficient cars.

Oprah wants her, and so do Letterman and Leno. Fresh from her political defeat, Sarah Palin is juggling offers to write books, appear in films and sit on dozens of interview couches at a rate that would be astonishing for most Hollywood stars, let alone a first-term governor.

America is all a-twitter that Obama hasn’t spoken to the nation about his plans to lead. Oh, I suggest that Obama’s cabinet picks are speaking much louder than a megaphone in an elevator. And while those stuck in “the cult of personality” frantically await the Messiah’s next utterance and marching orders, the 48%

The S & P 500 has lost roughly 25 percent since Election Day. In just over a year it's lost 52 percent of its value. The last time it was at this level? 1997. Read about this lost financial decade...