IN THE FOOTSTEPS of F.D.R.

THANKSGIVING COOKING ADVICE from the Holiday Chef. Including planning your leftovers in advance, and making fool-proof gravy.

TERRORISTS VS. PIRATES: Er, I guess I’m for the pirates, then. I think . . . .

HOPE AND CHANGE: The London Times reports: “On the campaign trail, Barack Obama promised to get a million plug-in hybrid cars on the road by 2015. His own new presidential limousine will be far from green, however. The Obamobile being prepared for the president-elect is said to be a monster gas-guzzler made by General Motors, the troubled car giant. It will look like a black Cadillac but is built like a tank.”

THE BUSH TWINS TEACH THE OBAMA GIRLS how to jump on the White House beds.

HEH: An All-Girl Saudi Rock Band.

SO, WHO ARE THE RUBES THIS TIME? Glenn Greenwald has a clue. “So many progressives were misled about what Obama is and what he believes. But it wasn’t Obama who misled them. It was their own desires, their eagerness to see what they wanted to see rather than what reality offered.” Well, the master bullshitter always lets the rubes hear what they want to hear. And knows that there will be some rubes who will make excuses, even after the truth is revealed.

VICTOR DAVIS HANSON: Ten Random, Politically Incorrect Thoughts. Including this one: “California is now a valuable touchstone to the country, a warning of what not to do. Rarely has a single generation inherited so much natural wealth and bounty from the investment and hard work of those more noble now resting in our cemeteries—and squandered that gift within a generation.”

C.A.I.R. OFFICIALS hit with subpoenas. Several people emailed me about this, but this is the first news report I’ve seen.

THE ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION PROBLEM: Solving itself as illegals go home.

MODERNIZING THE NUCLEAR ARSENAL: Not. Gonna. Happen. I hope that’s wrong, but . . . .

HMM: Oil Price, Not Subprime Loans, Broke U.S. Consumers.

IN THE NEW YORK TIMES: More on Eric Holder and the Marc Rich pardon. “Mr. Holder never came close to meeting that standard. He had the last word at Justice on clemency petitions and he saw to it that he had the only word. He brokered one of the most unjustifiable pardons that an American president has ever granted.”

HEH: “I’m just trying to imagine Joe Terrorist showing up at the Visitor Center with his bow slung over his shoulder.”

BAH, HUMBUG.

PAM MEISTER: Clinging to My Guns, Salt, and Light Bulbs.

HOPE AND CHANGE: Well, I was hoping that things wouldn’t change too much, and I may get my wish: “Mr. Obama is also said to be reconsidering a key campaign pledge: his proposal to repeal the Bush tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans.” I’m feeling better and better about this guy . . .

MICHAEL S. MALONE: Why Companies Should Be Allowed to Die.

MORE half-price cookware. I like half-price.

THOUGHTS ON gay rights and the G.O.P.’s future: “It’s not that we’re likely to crack more than 35% of the gay vote (well, maybe 40%). But, to win back the suburbs, Republicans can’t alienate suburbanites. And anti-gay attitudes don’t resonate with families who have known gay people in college –and maybe even in the workplace–and even in their own families.” Sounds right to me.

THE OBAMAS walk away from public schools. “Not that there’s anything wrong with that. In fact, it’s wonderful that the Obamas had such a broad range of public and private school choices available to them. What’s puzzling is that the president-elect opposes programs that would bring that same easy choice of schools within reach of families who lack his personal wealth.”

UPDATE: Reader Louis Abelman says that Obama supports vouchers. I hope he’s right, and that Cato is wrong, but I note that the story Abelman sends is rather equivocal:

Senator Obama said this week that he is open to supporting private school vouchers if research shows they work.

“I will not allow my predispositions to stand in the way of making sure that our kids can learn,” Mr. Obama, who has previously said he opposes vouchers, said in a meeting with the editorial board of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel. “We’re losing several generations of kids, and something has to be done.”

Education analysts said Mr. Obama’s statement is the closest they have ever seen a Democratic presidential candidate come to embracing the idea of vouchers. . . .

When Mr. Obama filled out questionnaires for both national teachers unions last year, the American Federation of Teachers and the National Education Association, he told the unions that he did not support vouchers. But on Wednesday Mr. Obama opened his remarks to the Journal-Sentinel’s question on vouchers by saying he had to admit that he has been a “skeptic” of vouchers. . . . Told a current longitudinal study is ongoing, Mr. Obama said he would respond to its findings with an open mind.

Indeed, the story says this doesn’t make him a voucher “supporter.” So we’ll see . . . .

JAMES KIRCHICK: Barack Obama doesn’t fear the enraged, impotent Netroots.

DANIEL GROSS: Don’t Get Depressed: It’s Not 1929. “Financial executives invoke distant history in part to make up for their own recent shortcomings. If a force as powerful as the Great Depression has been unleashed on the global economy, how can a mere mortal like Merrill’s John Thain be held responsible? The specter of the 1930s has also been deployed by political leaders to create a sense of urgency.”

OBAMA DISAPPOINTMENT BLOOMS among the lefty peacenik crowd.

REMEMBERING THE 145TH ANNIVERSARY of The Battle of Fort Sanders.