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Now that Rahm Israel Emanuel has accepted the position as President-elect Barrack Obama’s White House Chief of Staff i decided to do a little research on Mr. Emaneul.

Rahm Israel Emanuel (born November 29, 1959) is an American politician who has been a Democratic member of the United States House of Representatives since 2003, representing Illinois’s 5th congressional district, which covers much of the north side of Chicago and parts of suburban Cook County. Emanuel was chair of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee for the 2006 elections. After the Democratic Party regained control of the House, he was elected as the next chairman of the Democratic Caucus.

Following the campaign, Emanuel became a senior advisor to Clinton at the White House from 1993 to 1998. In the White House, Emanuel was initially Assistant to the President for Political Affairs and then Senior Advisor to the President for Policy and Strategy. He was a leading strategist in the unsuccessful White House efforts to institute universal healthcare and many other Clinton initiatives

One of his proudest moments during the Clinton administration “was an event that touched his political sensibilities and his personal ties to Israel: the 1993 Rose Garden signing ceremony after the Oslo Accords between Israel and the Palestinian Authority. Emanuel directed the details of the ceremony, down to the choreography of the famous handshake between Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat.”

He left the White House to accept a well-paid position at Dresdner Kleinwort investment bank in Chicago, where he worked from 1999 to 2002 and reportedly earned US$18 million.^[9] Emanuel also served on the Board of Directors for the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation (”Freddie Mac”), 2002-2004.

He has served on the United States House Committee on Ways and Means. In 2006 he co-authored a book titled The Plan: Big Ideas for America.  I’ve highlighted a few parts of the book I found interesting. Note: I have not had a chance to read the whole book, the following is from various samples and excerpts of the book that I’ve come across.

First, we must overhaul the tax code…we should make it easier for ordinary families to own homes, by allowing the deduction of mortgage interest by every homeowner…we must end the Republicans war on work..eliminating the capital gains tax on the middle class–and restoring it for the wealthy–will help make sure America is a country where work leads to wealth…

…our future depends more than ever on the vitality of our markets–which is all the more reason we cannot leave financial markets to protect themselves…corporations should be held accountable for the promises they’ve made to their workers and should not be allowed to walk away from their pension plans and stick taxpayers with the tab…

…the biggest barrier to universal coverage is what made coverage an issue to begin with: cost…a voucher system of universal health care, which would provide every American under sixty-five a voucher for basic health services from the insurance company or health plan of his or her choice…

…the national government isn’t meeting the responsibility to maintain an economic clime that helps America take the lead. In the 1990’s, economic growth exploded in large part because of the national government’s support of research into information technology…last year the U.S. fell to twelfth in the world in broadband access…

…Another key to a twenty-first-century infrastructure is high-speed rail. Railroads were the engine that drove America’s industrial revolution in the 19th century..railroads are a highly efficient way to move people and goods…

It’ll be damn interesting to see what effect he has on the Obama administration and what the next four years will bring.

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Hahaha. Aparrently Mrs. Palin is even more of an ignorant douche monkey than originally thought. The following is some of my favorite parts form an article on ABCNews.

• Fox News reports that Palin didn’t know Africa was a continent and did not know the member nations of the North American Free Trade Agreement — the United States, Mexico and Canada — when she was picked for vice president.
• The New York Times reports that McCain aides were outraged when Palin staffers scheduled her to speak with French President Nicholas Sarkozy, a conversation that turned out to be a radio station prank.
• Newsweek reports that Palin spent far more than the previously reported $150,000 on clothes for herself and her family
• Several publications say she irked the McCain campaign by asking to make her own concession speech on election night.
• Lawyers for the Republican National Committee are heading to Alaska to try to account for all the money that was spent on clothing, jewelry and luggage, according to The New York Times.
• That wasn’t the whole tab, however, according to Newsweek. The magazine claims that Palin leaned on some low-level staffers to put thousands of dollars of additional purchases on their credit cards
• The angry aide described the Palin family shopping spree to Newsweek as “Wasilla hillbillies looting Neiman Marcus from coast to coast.”
• On election night when it was clear that McCain would be giving a concession speech instead of an acceptance speech, Palin approached McCain with a speech in hand hoping to make her own concession speech, according to published reports.
• McCain drove himself home in a Toyota sport utility vehicle. Palin’s departure was a grander event. She left with an entourage of 18 family members and friends and a Secret Service detail, heading to the airport in a motorcade stretching more than a dozen vehicles, flanked by a dozen more cops on motorcycles. 
• She didn’t know Africa was a continent, according to Newsweek. Fox News revealed that during her cramming, she couldn’t name the three countries that belong to the North American Free Trade Agreement: the United States, Canada and Mexico

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Scientists have created clones of a mouse that had been dead and frozen for 16 years.

It is the first time they have been able to clone a frozen animal.

The Japanese researchers say their work will benefit mankind - and could be used to bring back extinct animals such as the woolly mammoth or sabre tooth tiger.

But ethical watchdogs branded the experiment disturbing.

Critics say it brings the world closer to the day when people try to clone long- dead relatives stored in cryopreservation clinics.

It could even lead to a macabre new industry - in which people leave behind ‘relics’ of their bodies in freezers in the hope that they could one day be cloned.

The gullible might be persuaded that they themselves could be brought back to life, complete with their memories, even though a clone would be a different person in almost everything except appearance. 

I agree with the last sentence. A clone of a human would look the same, but the person, the soul, the energy

 contained within the brain is different. I honestly don’t see what the big deal is about cloning humans. Other than the freakiness of having another person who looks exactly like me running around, I see nothing wrong with it.

The only thing I could think of that would be a problem is if the government began creating clone armies. You know, all Star Wars like and shit. Then it would be wrong. Maybe. You know, the more I think about it maybe we should clone humans.

We could clone humans and make different groups of humans. A group of humans to do all the dirty, shitty jobs out there. A group of humans to serve in the military. A group of humans to heal in MMO’s.

But then again I guess that akin to slavery.

And what about all the narcisists out there who might fall in love with themeselves? Could you imagine seeing a couple. A man and his clone in love, getting married. Now that would be freaky.

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Thank you. Thank you America for doing what I thought you were incapable of doing. I had believed for so long that no one cared. I thought that America’s intrinsic narcissistic quality would allow the abuse to continue.

I would often bitch and complain to whoever was around that this country was full of lazy idiots who didn’t care enough to do anything about the fascist regime that was forming before our eyes. “Where are the protest? Where are the demonstrations?”, I’d often ask.

I began to develop a hatred of the press and their compliance with the fascist propaganda machine. I developed an intense hatred of Bush. I devoured all the books I could get my hands on that talked about how bad Bush fucked up and how much this country had gone to shit.

My hatred blinded me to the fact that slowly but surely America was righting itself. The fact that Bush was in power to begin with was not the fault of Americans. Americans did their part…and the Republicans did their part to ensure Bush was awarded the presidency.

In 2004 America was determined to rid the country of a man who should never have been president in the first place. John Kerry’s insipid existence did not exactly make it easy for Americans to achieve this. And yet they nearly did. Some say they actually did. Again, the Republicans did their part to ensure Bush was given a second term.

In 2006 not even the mighty Republicans could keep Americans from explosively voicing their frustration and anger over having to endure six years of having a president that no one had actually elected. In 2008 Americans finished the clean up of a mess that began back in 2000.

I hope the actions of the American people in the 2006 congressional elections and the 2008 congressional/presidential elections prove to the world that the America of the last 8 years is in now way indicative of the American people. The country, perhaps even the world, has been held hostage over the last 8 years by a man and a party who achieved a level of power not seen since 1940’s Europe.

What happened last night was special. It proved that a democracy can work and that a democracy can overcome any obstacle. The framework that was laid over 230 year ago is still viable today. It was only 140 year ago that this nation fought a bloody civil war. Out of that war came a new nation. The United States of America.

You could feel a change last night. You could see it in the faces of people. You hear it in the wind as it carried voices far from their point of origin. You could just feel it.

I think this nation has become a nation of everyone. White, black, hispanic…doesn’t matter. Gay, straight…doesn’t matter.  Baptist, Catholic, Jewish, Muslim, atheist…doesn’t matter. It’s a passing of the torch. The good ol’ boy network is slowly dying. On the way out are old, rich, white people who represent nothing. On the way in are Americans.

This Is NOT Ameri