BREVITAS

OUTLYING PRECINCTS

David Sirota, Open Left - We live in a culture that now organizes around celebrity - and Obama knew it, and knew that lots of left organizations aren't really ideological - they are, if anything, organized around the Democratic Party and Bush hatred. So he basically figured out that if he could become a celebrity - and a Democratic Bush-hating one - he could swallow up a huge part of the "progressive infrastructure" and organize it around him . . . This, by the way, is very different from the Reagan model. Reagan was a telegenic, for sure - but he was a product of a movement. In the age of celebrity worship - the age where we literally organize around celebrity - Obama is a movement unto himself.

OBAMALAND

Politico - President-elect Barack Obama's transition team is asking potential appointees detailed questions about gun ownership, and firearms advocates aren't happy about it. The National Rifle Association has denounced the move, which has already led one Republican senator to consider legislation aimed at ensuring a president can't use an applicant's gun ownership status to deny employment. Obama's transition team declined to go into detail on why they included the question, suggesting only that it was done to ensure potential appointees were in line with gun laws. "The intent of the gun question is to determine legal permitting," said one transition aide. But even some Democrats and transition experts are baffled by the inclusion of the question. . . Matt Bennett, a veteran campaign operative who did a stint at Americans for Gun Safety and who now works for the moderate Democratic think tank Third Way, was equally befuddled. "It strikes me as overly lawyerly," he said, noting that only a small percentage of guns owned by adults are ever used improperly.

David Kopel - After the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the D.C. handgun ban and self-defense ban were unconstitutional in 2007, Holder complained that the decision "opens the door to more people having more access to guns and putting guns on the streets."

ECO CLIPS

Tree Hugger - Wal-Mart Stores will be supplying 15% of the electricity in approximately 360 Texas stores and other facilities though wind power, purchased from Duke Energy. Wal-Mart says that the purchase will be the equivalent power of some 18,000 ordinary homes. Duke expects the project to produce about 226 million kilowatt-hours of electricity annually, an amount which will avoid emitting 139,000 tons of CO2. Wal-Mart compares this to washing 108 million loads of laundry.

Slashdot - Slow-moving ocean and river currents could be a new, reliable and affordable alternative energy source. A University of Michigan engineer, Michael Bernitsas, has made a machine that works like a fish to turn . . . vibrations in fluid flows into clean, renewable power. This is the first known device that could harness energy from most of the water currents around the globe because it works in flows moving slower than 2 knots (about 2.3 miles per hour). Most of the Earth's currents are slower than 3 knots. Turbines and water mills need an average of 5 or 6 knots to operate efficiently.

IN 1978, JACK NICHOSON INTRODUCED A CAR THAT RUNS ON HYDROGEN

MEDIA

Wired - The web is the most trusted news medium (over TV and print combined), and Fox News is the most trusted TV news source, according to results from a new Zogby poll commissioned by the Independent Film Channel. Fox ruled with 39.3 percent of those polled beating out CNN at 16 percent and MSNBC at 15 percent. These results are good fodder for Fox in defending its claims of being "Fair and Balanced" -- it's also interesting to note that more people in the poll described themselves as Democrats than Republicans -- but the majority of Americans seem to also have little faith in the media at all. The online survey of 3,472 adults two days after the election found that three out of four people think that the media influenced the outcome, and about the same number also think that the media in general is biased. In the other categories, The New York Times was the most trusted newspaper and Rush Limbaugh (12.5 percent) came out on top among news personalities closely followed by Fox's Bill O'Reilly (10.1 percent).
Elizabeth Hasselbeck, Stephen Colbert and Chris Matthews were the least trusted personalities, all scoring under 2 percent.

ELITE ETHNOGRAPHY

TMZ - The battleground is one of the most exclusive areas of Bev Hills, called Beverly Park, which is divided into Northern and Southern parts. The South Beverly Park Homeowners Association is suing the North BPHA -- the posher part where Barry Bonds, Rod Stewart, Sly Stallone and Denzel Washington reside -- because the hired help and others for the Southern masters have been blocked from entering on the North side. Housekeepers and gardeners have been forced to take a seven-mile detour to enter on the South.

THE MIX

NNPA - The Revs. Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton, viewed as perhaps the highest profiled civil rights leaders in the nation, both say their roles will not change as America beholds its first black president. "The issues haven't gone away," says Sharpton. "Barack Obama said this is the beginning of change. This is not change itself. It's almost insulting to act like blacks should now shut up just because we have a black president.". . . Both Jackson and Sharpton, having been presidential candidates themselves, said in interviews that while they are celebrating the historic election, it is ridiculous to think that a sitting president could single-handedly eliminate the voluminous problems in the black community. Illustrating, Jackson compared the anticipation of the Obama to another big day in black history. "It's the biggest day since Dec. 31, 1862," when slaves awaited the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation. "After 246 years of slavery, we hoped for an Emancipation Proclamation. Lincoln signed the order the next day, but still they had to wait until the 13th amendment in 1865 to get free."

Washington Times President-elect Barack Obama will not move for months, and perhaps not until 2010, to ask Congress to end the military's decades-old ban on open homosexuals in the ranks, two people who have advised the Obama transition team on this issue say. Repealing the ban was an Obama campaign promise. However, Mr. Obama first wants to confer with the Joint Chiefs of Staff and his new political appointees at the Pentagon to reach a consensus and then present legislation to Congress, the advisers said. "I think 2009 is about foundation building and reaching consensus," said Aubrey Sarvis, executive director of the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network. The group supports military personnel targeted under the ban.

Womens E-News New Hampshire's state Senate will carve history for the Granite State in January when the legislative body convenes with women in 13 of the 24 seats forming the country's first female majority. Women will also factor in key positions of leadership: the Senate is presided over by its president, Sylvia Larson, and president pro-tem, Maggie Hassan, while Martha Fuller Clark continues her role as majority whip. . .

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