Fuck all the haters. I think Hillary Clinton is kind of a badass, and now she’s the top diplomat of the United States. It’s no President, but it beats sitting around with your thumb up your ass:

Hillary Rodham Clinton has decided to give up her Senate seat and accept the position of secretary of state, making her the public face around the world for the administration of the man who beat her for the Democratic presidential nomination, two confidants said Friday.

Mrs. Clinton came to her decision after additional discussion with President-elect Barack Obama about the nature of her role and his plans for foreign policy, said one of the confidants, who insisted on anonymity to discuss the situation. Mr. Obama’s office told reporters Thursday that the nomination is “on track” but Clinton associates only confirmed Friday afternoon that she has decided.

“She’s ready,” said the confidant. Mrs. Clinton was reassured after talking again with Mr. Obama because their first meeting in Chicago last week “was so general,” the confidant said. The purpose of the follow-up talk, he added, was not to extract particular concessions but “just getting comfortable” with the idea of working together.

A second Clinton associate confirmed that her camp believes they have a done deal. Senior Obama advisers said Friday morning that the offer had not been formally accepted and no announcement will be made until after Thanksgiving. But they said they were convinced that the nascent alliance was now ready to be sealed.

Dudes be starting beef!:

Al-Qaida’s No. 2 leader used a racial epithet to insult Barack Obama in a message posted Wednesday, describing the president-elect in demeaning terms that imply he does the bidding of whites.

In al-Qaida’s first response to Obama’s victory, al-Zawahri also called the president-elect—along with secretaries of state Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice—”house negroes.” Speaking in Arabic, al-Zawahri uses the term “abeed al-beit,” which literally translates as “house slaves.” But al-Qaida supplied English subtitles of his speech that included the translation as “house negroes”

We have exclusive video of the latest Al-Qaida missive. Check it out:

This would be far less funny if this wasn’t the realistic expectations of some people I know (thankfully, not that well) for the impending Barack Obama presidency .

According to BBC, Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has offered his congratulations to Democratic President Elect Barack Obama. I can already hear those hand-wringing, cro magnon browed McCain supporters and/or Fox News Pundits whipping themselves into a furor. “SEE. HE IS A MUSLIM TERRORIST! WE’RE DOOMED.” Yeah, that, or maybe it’s sign that we might not Bomb Iran like a certain other presidential candidate joked about/advocated. Entrenching our military in another Middle Eastern state doesn’t sound like a wise idea. Still, allowing Iran unrestricted nuclear research is nothing less than asinine.

Ahmadinejad is a fucker of mammoth proportions, and might very well bomb the hell out of Israel at the first opportunity of nuclear weaponry. Good luck walking that diplomacy tightrope, Barack.

From the BBC:

Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has offered his congratulations to Barack Obama on his presidential win.

It is the first official message of goodwill presented to an American leader by the Islamic Republic.

In a key change to US foreign policy, Mr Obama has offered to open unconditional dialogue with Iran about its nuclear programme.

Mr Ahmadinejad called for the new US president to implement a foreign policy of “non-interference”.

In a message carried on official news agency Irna, Mr Ahmadinejad said: “I congratulate you on being able to attract the majority of votes of the participants of the election.”

The great nation of Iran welcomes basic and fair changes in US policies and conducts, especially in the region
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
Iranian President

“As you know the opportunities provided by the Almighty God, which can be used for elevation of nations, or God forbid, for their collapse, are transient,” the message continued.

“I hope you will prefer real public interests and justice to the never-ending demands of a selfish minority and seize the opportunity to serve people so that you will be remembered with high esteem,” it said, according to the English language website of Irna.

Justice and respect

Mr Ahmadinejad said Americans expected the government to “rectify the critical situation facing the US, restore lost reputation as well as their hope and spirit, fully respect human rights and strengthen family foundations”.

He continued: “Other nations also expect war-oriented policies, occupation, bullying, contempt of nations and imposing discriminatory policies on them to be replaced by the ones advocating justice, respect for human rights, friendship and non-interference in other countries’ internal affairs.

“They also want US intervention to be limited to its [own] borders, especially in the Middle East. It is highly expected to reverse the unfair attitude towards restoring the rights of the Palestinians, Iraqis and Afghans.

“The great nation of Iran welcomes basic and fair changes in US policies and conducts, especially in the region,” President Ahmadinejad said.

Diplomatic stand-off

Formal contacts between the US and Iran are very rare, though the two countries held three rounds of talks in 2007 on the subject of security in Iraq.

The two nations have not had diplomatic relations since shortly after the 1979 Iranian Revolution and the taking of hostages at the US embassy in Tehran for 444 days.

The country was a member of what President George W Bush called the “axis of evil”, while the late revolutionary leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini described the US as the “Great Satan”.

Dialogue with Iran has been criticised by US ally Israel, with Israel’s Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni calling on Mr Obama not to talk to Iran. She said such dialogue could project weakness.

Mr Ahmadinejad has made a series of blistering verbal attacks against Israel, calling for an end to the Israeli state, and he has described the holocaust as a “myth”.

Here’s a few really smart people from Ohio and their take on Barack Obama.

A new website called Tax Cut Facts, a branch of Barack Obama.com, has introduced a new tax cut program to calculate which canidate will really be saving you money. Reports show that under President Senator Obama, 95% of Americans will be saving money. In addition, Obama will be applying credited money to help students and families of students pay for college.

“Barack Obama and Joe Biden will cut taxes for 95% of working families, and provide at least three times as much tax relief for middle class families as John McCain and Sarah Palin. The Obama/Biden plan provides $1,000 of tax relief for workers and new tax benefits to help families pay for college, childcare and save for retirement.”

Taxcutfacts.org also quotes various types of news sources explaining what the media has been saying about the Obama Tax Cut plan.

“Obama is not proposing to raise taxes for most Americans. To the contrary, he would triple the earned-income tax credit for low-wage earners, increasing work incentives at the bottom. He would cut taxes on people in the middle — indeed, he would do so more aggressively than McCain would.” [Sebatian Mallaby, Washington Post, 9/8/08]

Rea Hederman Jr., a senior policy analyst at the conservative Heritage Foundation “said the middle class would likely pay less under Mr. Obama’s plan than Mr. McCain’s.” [NY Sun, 8/15/08]

Obama’s tax calculator is “a very simple gadget that’s the most useful thing I’ve seen on any political website in a while.” [Forbes.com, 10/08]

After noodling with it, it’s pretty clear that unless you’re banking over $250,000 a year, you’re going to be getting either a break or no effect on your current taxes. I can understand where high-income people are coming from, with not being able to afford gold toilets and all, but realize that if you are making over $250k a year after this horrid recession you’re really sitting nicely. We have people out there who are straining not to lose their homes, and high-income earners are bitching about their wallets hurting. Fucking pathetic.

Check the site out, and take it with a grain of salt (considering it’s source).