"This week we learned that a number of Verizon Wireless employees have, without authorization, accessed and viewed President-elect Barack Obama's personal cell phone account," Verizon said in a Thursday statement.

Willacy County prosecutor Juan Angel Guerra stumped a presiding judge and attorneys for clients as high up as Vice President Dick Cheney when he failed to show up to court on his own grand jury’s indictments.

The no-show infuriated attorneys who’d spent the day milling about with what they’d hoped would be slam-dunk motions to quash the cases.

And it put Presiding Judge Manuel Bañales in a position he said he’d never been in before.

“At the very least I expected the district attorney to be here,” Bañales said, asking Guerra’s office manager, “Do you know where he is?”

Activists note that most of the candidates for top security posts voted for the 2002 resolution authorizing President Bush to invade Iraq or otherwise supported launching the war.

Maybe, it’s the Joe Lieberman effect! He’s in, he’s out, he’s back in the Democratic Party fold again. It is all so confusing. So is the fact that the Philadelphia Phillies, finally, won the World Series this year and the massive financial meltdown by the banksters on Wall Street! Who can know for sure? Here’s what the record shows: Alan Keyes, a perennial candidate for public office in a number of states, including Maryland, has recently filed a law suit in Sacramento, CA.

"Should Senator Obama be discovered, after he takes office, to be ineligible for the Office of President of the United States of America and, thereby, his election declared void, Petitioners, as well as other Americans, will suffer irreparable harm in that an usurper will be sitting as the President of the United States, and none of the treaties, laws, or executive orders signed by him will be valid or legal," Keyes wrote to the Sacramento Supreme Court.

The Obama campaign countered similar accusations early in 2008 by posting Obama's certification of live birth, and saying: "Barack Obama was born in the state of Hawaii in 1961, a native citizen of the United States of America."

A copy of this document is available from the Obama campaign:

In October the Hawaii State Health Department declared the certificate is genuine.

Sen. Ted Stevens' election defeat marks the end of an era in which he held a commanding place in Alaska politics while wielding power on some of the most influential committees in Congress.

It also moves Senate Democrats within two seats of a filibuster-proof 60-vote majority and gives President-elect Barack Obama a stronger hand when he assumes office on Jan. 20.

As the president-elect faces a once-in-a-century opportunity to remake the regulatory apparatus governing Wall Street, some of Obama's fellow Democrats and investor groups are urging him to bring sweeping changes to banks, hedge funds and executive pay. His closest economic advisers, men like Robert Rubin, Lawrence Summers and Paul Volcker, may recommend otherwise: go slow. If Obama takes their counsel, the 44th president, who succeeds Bush on Jan. 20, may not clamp down all that hard on a financial industry whose excesses have pushed the nation -- and much of the world -- into a recession.

The Environmental Protection Agency’s economic analysis of the bill forecast that a whopping $2.9 trillion would be shaved off the economy by the year 2050 if the legislation was enacted. It would also reduce GDP by 6.9 percent - a figure comparable with the economic meltdown of 1929 and 1930, and millions of jobs would have been lost within the first 10 years of its passage.

Just weeks before leaving office, the Interior Department's top lawyer has shifted half a dozen key deputies -- including two former political appointees who have been involved in controversial environmental decisions -- into senior civil service posts.

The transfer of political appointees into permanent federal positions, called "burrowing" by career officials, creates security for those employees, and at least initially will deprive the incoming Obama administration of the chance to install its preferred appointees in some key jobs.

Lieberman's colleagues in the Democratic caucus voted 42-13 Tuesday to approve a resolution condemning statements made by Lieberman during the campaign but allowing him to keep the Homeland Security Committee gavel.

Gov. Sarah Palin, heralded by some conservatives as the future of the Republican Party, faces some cold political realities in present-day Alaska.

President-elect Obama is, first and foremost, a consummate politician who has no doubt compromised himself to become the zenith star of one of the two political parties that control the electoral process, and whose well-heeled and connected sponsors are not at all interested in “change you can believe in” if it adversely affects their bottom line or their particular agenda.

Diamond and her friends should let the post victory euphoria subside and then ask Obama a few questions. They need to call in some chits, which will be redeemable only until November 2012.

The Bush administration told congressional aides it won't ask lawmakers to release $350 billion remaining as part of the $700 billion U.S. financial- rescue package, people familiar with the matter said.

It was noted more than once during the presidential campaign that Obama has a quality enabling all sorts of folks to project their aspirations on him. That has helped make him the most phenomenally successful politician in a generation. While artful ambiguity can work wonders in winning votes and political friends, it can make for trouble in the complex world of international relations.

President-elect Barack Obama reaching out to former rivals to build a broad coalition administration.

Convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff told his colleagues at his former law firm that he had an “agreement” regarding communications with a former assistant to then-Deputy Chief of Staff, Karl Rove, perhaps the most substantial documented tie between Abramoff and the White House to date.

The election of Barack Obama as the nation's first African American president has been heralded as proof that the United States has finally broken through the racial barrier. The image springs to mind of recalcitrant whites at last convinced to see beyond skin color, voting for a black man.

ABC News' Lara Setrakian brings my attention to Iranian Television reports that the government of Iran is planning on holding a conference entitled "Barack Obama's Election: The Future of Iran-US Ties" where various Iranian experts will assess just what President-elect Obama means to that Persian country.

The struggle for influencing Barack Obama's foreign policy agenda has begun in right earnest. The maneuvering by influential establishment figures - including Congressional voices, Obama advisors and even military officials - who are projecting incumbent Robert Gates as secretary of defense in the incoming administration highlights the pressures working on the president-elect.

In his victory speech, Barack Obama told us: "I will listen to you, especially when we disagree." And, you know what? I believe him. He will listen. That's the one important difference, I think, between the outgoing and incoming administrations: George W. Bush would no sooner listen to ordinary Americans when it comes to the conduct of foreign affairs than he'd consult with Congress – i.e., not at all – whereas Obama… well, at least it's possible, and that is one real big change.

Okay, then, listen up, Mr. President-elect, because I've got a few bones to pick with you.

John Bolton was on a panel in England and faced a hostile
crowd and made to look ridiculous. This video clip is a
fascinating window to how we are viewed across the pond.

Why didn't Jimmy Carter speak from the podium at the Democratic National Convention? Alan Dershowitz said he had something to do with it.

In an interview with Shalom TV, the Harvard Law School professor says he "pushed" Barack Obama "very hard to make that decision," Dershowitz said in an interview with Shalom TV. "Barack Obama had to make a choice between his Jewish supporters and his anti-Israel supporters like Jimmy Carter, and he did not choose Jimmy Carter. And that was an embarrassment for Jimmy Carter and a show of disrespect."

Cross burnings. Schoolchildren chanting "Assassinate Obama." Black figures hung from nooses. Racial epithets scrawled on homes and cars.

Incidents around the country referring to President-elect Barack Obama are dampening the postelection glow of racial progress and harmony, highlighting the stubborn racism that remains in America.

AUDIO:http://www.apfn.net/CC25/L001I081115-mcclellan.MP3

When future historians argue over the legacy of George W. Bush, the question they confront may be just which bracket of presidential failure he belongs in. Nixon and Johnson? Or Herbert Hoover? President Bush earned his place in the pantheon of disgrace even before he presided over an epochal financial crisis. Absent the atrocities of 9/11, he might have been a mediocrity: a big spender too prone to trust his shallow instincts but able to clear the competence threshold and lacking the sophistication to be truly dangerous.

In an about-face on procedural policy in Congress, Sen. Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.) recently promised to aggressively filibuster judicial candidates proposed by President-elect Barack Obama.

"I will lead a filibuster if the nominee is the kind of radical leftist who decides cases based on empathy rather than the Constitution or the law. And if that's what [Obama] intends to do, then I'll try to get my colleagues to join in that as well," Kyl said in a speech at a Federalist Society meeting last week.

Next month in Atlanta, a federal court will hear the high-profile appeal of former Alabama governor Don E. Siegelman, whose conviction on corruption charges in 2006 became one of the most publicly debated cases to emerge from eight years of controversy at the Bush Justice Department. Now new documents highlight alleged misconduct by the Bush-appointed U.S. Attorney and other prosecutors in the case, including what appears to be extensive and unusual contact between the prosecution and the jury.

There’s a lot of talk now about 2012. It seems to be a spontaneous thing that started to go around like when people used to do ‘the wave’ in ballparks. Something big is coming. You can feel it. There have been constant reports of lights in the sky and occasionally you will see people snake dancing in cities and towns when you turn on the TV. It reminds me of something I once read in a book called “Childhood’s End”. I don’t remember it that well now. Something’s coming. I just hope that this time it’s something good.

The questions now being asked are: Where to go from here and who's to blame for the downfall of the Republican Party?

Too bad the concern for the future of the Republican Party had not been seriously addressed in the year 2000 when the Republicans gained control of the House, Senate, and the Presidency.

An aide to Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., has been charged in federal court in Virginia with receiving and distributing child pornography.

Check out the seven-page, 63-item questionnaire that the Obama transition team is requiring prospective cabinet members and other high-level officials to fill out. Item 10 is quite a problem for bloggers:

10. Writings: Please list and, if readily available, provide a copy of each book, article, column or publication (including but not limited to any posts or comments on blogs or other websites) you have authored, individually or with others. ...

Georgia Congressman Paul Broun Wednesday stood by warnings that President-elect Barack Obama might set up a Gestapo-like civilian security force.

One day after the Athens Republican told a radio talk show that he regretted calling Obama a “Marxist,” a spokeswoman for the Athens congressman said, “We have not issued any official apology” for comparing Obama’s proposals to the tactics of Hitler and the Soviet Union.

'I would call my attorney general in and review every single executive order issued by George Bush and overturn those laws or executive decisions that I feel violate the constitution,' said Obama Other goals for his first 100 days: work out a plan to withdraw troops from Iraq; make progress on alternative energy plans and launch legislation to reform the health care system.

A number of influential congressional Democrats oppose keeping Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell and CIA Director Michael V. Hayden in their posts because both have publicly supported controversial Bush administration policies on interrogation and telephone surveillance. One Democrat on the Senate intelligence committee said there is a "consensus" view on the matter.

Look at my fellow conservatives! There they go, glumly shuffling along, depressed by the election aftermath. Not me. I'm virtually euphoric. Don't get me wrong. I'm not thrilled with America 's flirtation with neo socialism. But there's a massive silver lining in those magical clouds that lofted Barak Obama to the Presidency. For today, without a shred of intellectually legitimate opposition, I can loudly proclaim to America : The Era of White Guilt is over.