A lobbyist by any other name...

Google is locked cocked and ready to lobby.

"Google is not just a benign corporate entity. It has a variety of special interests," said Jeff Chester, the executive director of the Center for Digital Democracy, who has sparred with Google over data-privacy issues. "They're in a great position to push their agenda through with the support of the president and the Democrats in Congress."

New Politics right?

President Barack Obama's ban on earmarks in the $825 billion economic stimulus bill doesn't mean interest groups, lobbyists and lawmakers won't be able to funnel money to pet projects.

They're just working around it — and perhaps inadvertently making the process more secretive.

Oh and let's not forget, the new Ethics Rules.

The Obama administration has given an ethics waiver for Bill Lynn, a Defense Department nominee who is a former lobbyist.

In a written statement released moments ago, Armed Service Committee Chairman Carl Levin said the administration "has removed an obstacle to the confirmation of Bill Lynn to be Deputy Secretary of Defense by waiving the provisions of President Obama's Executive Order on Ethics Commitments that would have precluded Mr. Lynn's service."

At least Sen Levin and McCain called Obama out on it.

The move immediately drew criticism from Sen. John McCain, the top Republican on the Armed Services Committee. "I am disappointed in President Obama's decision to waive the 'revolving door' provisions of the executive order for Mr. Bill Lynn," he said in a written statement. "While I applaud the President's action to implement new, more stringent ethical rules, I had hoped he would not find it necessary to waive them so soon."

And Levin said he will delay confirmation. Still is this the change we are all waiting for?

Another note on GITMO. I really can't help myself. I am passionate that we are never attacked again on US soil. Here is an idea for all those Leftys that want GITMO closed because it looks bad. Let them adopt a detainee!

GAP (GITMO Adoption Program)

Option 1: Let any person that says GITMO should be closed because of a "Stain" on the US or because Europeans think bad of us for GITMO, take one of the more than 200 detaines into their homes and rehabilitate them.
Option 2: Send them to Alcatraz. NIMBY will be in full effect and maybe Pelosi will get voted out because of it.

Let them put their money where there mouth is. I really doubt it will fly. You know when rhetoric meets reality, reality demands tough choices. Obama is learning that right now.

A word on Pelosi. I can't tell anyone how much this woman drives me crazy. She claims the Stimulus Bill is "bipartisan" yet just the other day she said, "Yes, we wrote the bill. Yes, we won the election." Even Obama, who is the new bastion of bipartisanship said the same, "I won" when asked about GOP involvment in the Stimulus Bill.
With the victor comes the spoils. Yet with the victor also comes the responsibility. Obama now own the Stimulus via "I won" response. Obama owns GITMO. I'm sure we will all hear about how Bush got us into this mess until the cows come home. The clock is ticking. If Obama can't do anything to help the economy by 2010, we will have new House and Senate leadership via a slew of new Republicans forming a new majority. Obama will have to work bipartisan then. This democratic tyranny of the majority, that the Dems are calling Bipartisanship if pure Orwellian. It's too bad the average voter recieved a good Liberal education, and never had to read 1984.