Helen Thomas has been working in the White House Press Corps since the Nixon administration. In fact, she’s the only reporter with her actual name embedded on the chair, as opposed to the name of the news organization (she’s with Hearst Newspapers now after a 56 year career for UPI). The 88-year-old reporter is an old school, hard-hitting reporter lady, who asks the real toughies. She had to leave her beat in May after getting a stomach infection, but she returned to her beat this week. Check out this little clip of her:

The Secret Service likes to give nicknames to those it protects; it used to be a big deal when radio frequencies could somewhat easily be interfered with, but now, thanks to a little thing called technology, it’s not that serious. Buuuut, the nicknames are cute and revealing all at the same time.

Photo by Bobster1985

President-elect Obama: Renegade | Michelle Obama: Renaissance
Malia Obama: Radiance | Sasha Obama: Rosebud

Photo by BohPhoto

Vice President-elect Joe Biden: Celtic | Jill Biden: Capri

Beau

Beau Biden, Deleware’s attorney general and son of Vice President-elect Joe Biden is heading off to Iraq this month for a tour as a reservist for the Army National Guard. Here’s what Joe said to Junior’s brigade earlier:

“I’ve come here many times before as a Delawarean, as a United States senator,” he said, according to CNN. “But today I come, as you prepare to deploy, as a father — a father who had some sage advice from his son this morning: ‘Dad, keep it short, we’re in formation.’ … My heart is full of love and pride. … You are the best demonstration of both our nation’s greatness and … our people’s goodness. … Let me simply say, thank you, thank you for answering the call of your country. … So stay strong, stand together, serve honorably … may God bless you and may he protect you.”

While I will miss his hunkiness here in the U.S., it’s rumored that he could replace Papa Biden as the U.S. Senator when he returns. The governor of Delaware will have to choose Biden’s replacement for 2009-2010, but there will be a campaign for a full senate term in 2010, when Beau would have returned, hopefully safe and sound.

Photos by nmfbihop

Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean will vacate his seat when his term expires in January, following a tumultuous campaign for the party’s ticket and then the White House.

You may remember Dean as an early front-runner in the 2004 presidential race. After that unfortunate* “Dean Scream” and a 3rd place finish in the Iowa caucuses, Dean dropped out, but became useful as the DNC Chairman in 2005. And if you’re a real news nerd (or a New Englander who was paying some attention a few years ago), you may remember Dean as the governor of Vermont from 1991-2003.

Starting in 2006 for midterm elections, he orchestrated the 50 State Strategy by investing in each state to garner Congressional seats and lay groundwork for President-Elect Barack Obama’s campaign. States like North Carolina, Virginia, and Indiana, which had not elected a Democrat for president in decades, went blue on Election Day. Obama will select a successor for Dean. An aide told the Post that Obama may choose Missouri Senator Claire McCaskill:

My sense is that the Obama folks are pretty insular and don’t want somebody else building the party and haven’t even decided what building the party means for them. I bet they go with a split chair again …McCaskill at Chair, and somebody like Steve Hildebrand [Obama's Deputy Campaign Manager] at Operational Chair.”

*Ed Note: I really didn’t find anything wrong with the Dean Scream. He was just really excited. Leave the guy alone!

Yeah, I don’t know if you heard about this woman from Oswego, N.Y. who was duct taped on a United flight to restrain herself because she was acting so damn crazy.

I head about her days ago, and I thought, “Of course, someone from Oswego [where I attended undergraduate school] would be acting a fool on the plane.”

But then, my boyfriend pointed out that the crazy woman on the plane was ESTHER the crazy Hairdresser who cackled in the bottom of the student union snipping away at people’s hair. Seriously, you could be anywhere in the union and hear her [probably drunkenly] cackling away. We all suspected she was a friend of the bottle, but this is bad:

-She back-handed a flight attendant’s arse…
-She fell onto the head of a blind passenger and later started pulling the person’s hair…
-She put up a fight when federal officials came on to the plane (which made an emergency landing in North Carolina to remove her)…

Oh, and did we mention she was drunk like whoa?! Lots of people witnessed her drunkeness, so that’s not going to help her in federal court. Yeah, not good.

Photo by Ema

Well, it looks like three proposed ballot measures that were set up to alter or abolish abortions have been defeated. Shockingly, the South Dakota ban lost for the second time, 55-45%. In 2006, the law was defeated because it was too restricting. I personally predicted there would be enough people backing the it this year because it moderated the 2006 bill by making those crucial allowances for women who were raped, victims of incest, or are having a medical emergency.

Colorado’s ballot initiative was quite radical, sending it to crash and burn with a vote of 73-27. The bill proposed that fertilized eggs should be given full-on human rights.

California’s second push since 2004 to adapt parental notification laws was struck down again 52-48. The problem many people saw with it was that if a young woman declined to tell their parents for fear of what they would do, then she would have to turn her parents over to the authorities… so they would find out anyway…

On another note, California somehow decided to ban same-sex marriage, leaving a lot of people pissed off here in the Golden State, including about 90% of the people I work with, whose marriages are now either invalidated or now indefinitely held off. So…look for me on the news, as I will be at rally, after rally, after rally until we all have rights again.