President Bush and first lady Laura Bush have bought a home in an affluent neighborhood of north Dallas where they will live after the president leaves office in January.div class="feedflare" a href="http://feeds.cbsnews.com/~f/CBSNewsMain?a=xZWho"img src="http://feeds.cbsnews.com/~f/CBSNewsMain?i=xZWho" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.cbsnews.com/~f/CBSNewsMain?a=pHv6O"img src="http://feeds.cbsnews.com/~f/CBSNewsMain?i=pHv6O" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.cbsnews.com/~f/CBSNewsMain?a=7Dlwo"img src="http://feeds.cbsnews.com/~f/CBSNewsMain?i=7Dlwo" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.cbsnews.com/~f/CBSNewsMain?a=4Fn4o"img src="http://feeds.cbsnews.com/~f/CBSNewsMain?i=4Fn4o" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.cbsnews.com/~f/CBSNewsMain?a=M1sXO"img src="http://feeds.cbsnews.com/~f/CBSNewsMain?i=M1sXO" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.cbsnews.com/~f/CBSNewsMain?a=lUyuO"img src="http://feeds.cbsnews.com/~f/CBSNewsMain?i=lUyuO" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://feeds.cbsnews.com/~r/CBSNewsMain/~4/474947313" height="1" width="1"/

During the December 3 broadcast of The Rush Limbaugh Show, guest host Mark Davis asserted that Cecilia Muñoz, senior vice president of the Office of Research, Advocacy, and Legislation at the National Council of La Raza, and others at NCLR "are amnesty fetishists" and said, "[T]hat is what you get" in an Obama administration -- "a fan of amnesty." In fact, the position taken by NCLR and Muñoz, who has been named by Obama to be the director of intergovernmental affairs in his administration, on immigration is far from radical, contrary to Davis' suggestion. NCLR strongly advocates passage of comprehensive immigration reform, a position that is shared in principle by members of Congress from both parties and by President Bush.

NCLR states on its website:

NCLR supports comprehensive immigration reform that includes the following principles: 1) a path to citizenship for the current undocumented population; 2) the creation of new legal channels for future immigrant workers; 3) a reduction of family immigration backlogs; and 4) the protection of civil rights and civil liberties. By legalizing immigrants who live, work, and contribute to life in the U.S., the U.S. could deal fairly with hardworking people who have responded to an economic reality ignored by the law. At the same time, the U.S. can become more secure by enforcing the new law and by allowing undocumented immigrants to come out of the shadows and participate fully in their communities.

Bush supported a bipartisan bill that would have "creat[ed] a temporary worker program" and given undocumented immigrants who passed criminal background checks and remained employed the opportunity to apply for a green card in the future, and ultimately citizenship. NCLR sharply criticized the "Senate's failure to move a comprehensive immigration reform bill forward" when a cloture motion to cut off debate on that bill failed. Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) once sponsored a bill with Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-MA) and several other Democrats and Republicans to create a temporary worker program and give illegal immigrants a path to apply for a green card and ultimately for citizenship. (As Media Matters for America has noted, during the presidential campaign, McCain abandoned his support for that bill, saying during CNN's January 30 Republican presidential primary debate that he would no longer vote for it if it came up for a vote in the Senate.)

From the December 3 edition of Premiere Radio Networks' The Rush Limbaugh Show:

DAVIS: One quick tidbit in transition news. I believe a president-elect is judged by those he brings into the fold. So, joining the White House staff in the Obama administration will be Cecilia Muñoz. She currently serves as senior vice president for the Office of Research, Advocacy, and Legislation at the National Council of La Raza. The National Council of La Raza makes LULAC look reasonable. These folks are amnesty fetishists. Cecilia Muñoz, in her post, [reading] "advocated for federal legislation to give the estimated 12 million" -- this from CNS News, Penny Starr has the byline -- and I guess the estimated 12 million illegal immigrants -- yeah, that's estimated by people who lowball that figure -- to give them [reading] "a path to citizenship." And she has been tapped for the job of director of Intergovernmental Affairs.

And again, it's funny -- I just offer this not to raise an eyebrow, I mean, hello, it's a fan of amnesty in the Obama administration. Whoa, that's shocking. This is what you get. I love the emails that I sometimes get. "Mark, I'm concerned that Janet Napolitano will not be, you know, strong enough on our borders." Really? Really? Well, if enough Americans had been concerned about that, they would not have voted for Senator Obama. Of course, no -- no Homeland Security chief under President Obama is going to be ardent enough about protecting our borders. It's only in the last 18 months that President Bush's Homeland Security chief has been ardent enough about our borders.

Bernie Ebbers, the former CEO of WorldCom who is serving a 25-year prison term for masterminding an $11 billion accounting scandal, wants President Bush to lighten his sentence.

Bernie Ebbers, the former CEO of WorldCom who is serving a 25-year prison term for masterminding an $11 billion accounting scandal, wants President Bush to lighten his sentence.

On the December 3 broadcast of The War Room, co-host Rose Tennent read from an article about Deborah Lawrence, an artist who submitted an ornament for the White House Christmas tree celebrating, among other things, Rep. Jim McDermott's (D-WA) support for a resolution to impeach President Bush. Tennent read a quote from the article in which Lawrence said of the attention surrounding her ornament: "It took on a life of its own, obviously. In a way, I'm speechless." Tennent responded: "Good, stay that way. Don't talk," to which co-host Jim Quinn added, "That's right, don't talk. Shut up, bitch."

According to The Washington Post, first lady Laura Bush "asked members of Congress to pick local painters" to decorate ornaments for the White House Christmas tree. McDermott "contacted a local arts organization, which asked Lawrence, a collage artist, to create the local entry."

Media Matters for America has documented that Quinn previously introduced a segment on Sen. Hillary Clinton by playing Elton John's "The Bitch is Back." Additionally, on October 7, Quinn asserted that Rep. Nancy Pelosi, whom he referred to as "the Queen Bee," "hated" Clinton "because she didn't want Hillary to be the most important woman in Washington," adding, "I'm sorry, but it seems to be the nature -- I shouldn't say the nature of all women -- but it seems to be a trait that flows through, for whatever reasons, the gender, if you will." Quinn has also stated that to feminists, even "a childless feminist who looks like a Bulgarian weightlifter in drag" can be a "real woman," and has repeatedly referred to the National Organization for Women as "the national organization for whores."

Talkers Magazine lists Quinn & Rose among its "Heavy Hundred," which it describes as the "100 most important radio talk show hosts in America." According to the show's website, it airs on 18 radio stations and XM Satellite Radio.

From the December 3 broadcast of Clear Channel's The War Room with Quinn & Rose:

QUINN: She needs something --

TENNENT: She sounds frightening.

QUINN: -- to become gainfully employed somewhere doing something for her fellow man besides this.

TENNENT: Argh. Yup, that's right. So, anyway, so she thought that she was making a very brave statement -- turns out that the White House has decided that, "You know what, don't think that's appropriate, we're not gonna hang it on the Christmas tree." So, but you know what? They have a luncheon -- I didn't know this -- for all of the artists, then -- a Christmas luncheon. Guess what? She jumped on the plane and flew to D.C. -- D.C. to go to the luncheon.

QUINN: Oh yeah --.

TENNENT: Yeah, she's there.

QUINN: She's there for the free meal.

TENNENT: Can you believe it?

QUINN: She's probably homeless and lives out of a shopping cart.

TENNENT: I just think that's a shame -- that's a shame.

QUINN: Well, you know --

TENNENT: Well, she said -- oh, she said, "An artist doesn't always get this kind of attention." This is the artist speaking.

QUINN: Yeah, 'cause they're hardly ever that stupid.

TENNENT: Plus, like, you're weird. Like, now I'm starting to think that there's something really wrong with you. That's the attention you're getting right now, sweetie. She said, "It took on a life of its own, obviously. In a way, I'm speechless." Good, stay that way. Don't talk.

QUINN: That's right, don't talk. Shut up, bitch.

TENNENT: She said, "It's disappointing that I won't get to see it on the tree." And did you think you would?

QUINN: Yeah, you know, I'll tell you what. There's -- there's always Photoshop. You know, you could take a picture of it and --

TENNENT: She's an artist. She can figure all of that out, right?

QUIINN: Sure. Take a picture of the White House tree, put your little ball on it --

TENNENT: Yeah.

QUIINN: -- put it up on the morning of December 25th -- you know, the winter solstice celebration -- and I'm sure you'll have a great time with it.

Convicted drug dealer Clarence Aaron's only hope of ever walking free is to be granted clemency by President Bush.

divimg alt="" src="http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.15.1/40836?ns=guardianpageName=World+news%3A+A+toxic+legacych=World+newsc3=The+Guardianc4=Guantanamo+Bay+%28News%29%2CObama+White+House+%28News%29%2CBarack+Obama+%28News%29%2CUS+foreign+policy%2CUS+news%2CHuman+rights+%28News%29%2CWorld+newsc5=Not+commercially+useful%2CUS+Electionsc6=Julian+Borgerc7=2008_12_04c8=1128354c9=articlec10=GUc11=World+newsc12=Guant%C3%A1namo+Bayc13=c14=h2=GU%2FWorld+news%2FGuant%C3%A1namo+Bay" width="1" height="1" //divpEver since January 11 2002, when the first 20 prisoners were flown in from Afghanistan in orange jumpsuits and shackles, the Guantaacute;namo Bay detention camp has been a hefty burden around the Bush administration's neck. /ppThe defence secretary at the time, Donald Rumsfeld, picked the Cuban enclave as the "least worst place" to hold captives accused of terrorism. But the effort to run a camp outside the reach of US or international law, so that "enemy combatants" could be held indefinitely without charge, steadily corroded America's standing in the world. The images of the inmates languishing in small metal cages in Camp X-Ray, the rudimentary first phase of the complex, and the steady stream of reports of human rights abuses, have taken a daily toll. The camp's existence has angered and embarrassed Washington's closest allies, and become a recruitment tool for its enemies. /ppNearly six years on, there is no debate over whether "Gitmo" should be closed - only how. As it approaches the end of its term, the Bush administration is anxiously attempting to dispose of its own toxic legacy. John Bellinger, the state department's top lawyer, has been trying to persuade other governments to accept detainees cleared for release. More than 500 have already been sent back to their homelands or to third countries, but there are still 250 prisoners left who cannot go home for fear of persecution and who no one else will accept. They are now Barack Obama's problem./ppThe president-elect has frequently stated his intention to close Guantaacute;namo. In an interview since the election, he repeated that pledge, saying it was "part and parcel of an effort to regain America's moral stature in the world". But the question of what to do with the remaining inmates still divides his ideologically diverse national security and justice teams./ppObama's inaugural speech on January 20 will be closely scrutinised around the world for signs of how bold or cautious he decides to be. His policy on Guantaacute;namo will be widely seen as a benchmark for his intentions as president. /ppA report by a non-partisan panel of US security and human rights experts, entitled Closing Guantaacute;namo: From Bumper Sticker to Blueprint, estimates that the camp could be emptied within a year if the Obama administration decided on a clean break from Bush policies and devoted enough resources to the job. The report advocates the establishment of an independent commission to review the cases of all the detainees, to assess the evidence against them and order the immediate release of the innocent./ppThe first task will be to complete the Bush administration's effort to find homes for the 150-200 prisoners who, according to lawyers familiar with their stories, have no case to answer but who cannot be sent back to their native countries for fear they would be victimised, tortured or killed. /ppThe clearest example of inmates stuck in this limbo are the 17 Uighurs, separatists from a Muslim minority in China who were seized in Pakistan during the Afghan war. They have all been cleared for release by the US authorities, most as long ago as 2003, but have so far not been accepted by any third countries. Albania agreed to take in five other Uighur detainees in 2006, but has refused to take any more. /ppBellinger's efforts to find any other government to receive the Uighurs have been undermined by the adamant refusal of the US authorities to allow them to live in America because of the presumed threat they pose to the US, in part because of presumed animosity caused by six years of detention without charge. Obama's envoys may find they have better luck than Bellinger./pp"I don't think anyone is inclined to do this administration any favours, but Obama will find he has a lot of goodwill to draw on," a European diplomat says. But that goodwill will be greatly enhanced if the new administration stops fighting the resettlement of inmates in the US./ppA second category of prisoners will be referred for prosecution outside Guantaacute;namo, but that raises the question of whether that prosecution should be conducted by military courts martial in the US or the civilian legal system. That will be a decision that goes to the philosophical heart of the issue - should the US approach terrorism as a military threat or as a criminal enterprise, or some hybrid of the two? Obama has refrained from using the phrase "war on terror", but he is said to be under pressure from the more conservative national security experts on his team to leave his options open and not bind himself with the procedural constraints of the civilian judiciary./ppOn the other side of the debate is a "rule of law" camp within the embryonic administration which argues that anything short of a complete return to constitutional normality would rob Obama of the international goodwill he might otherwise gain by scrapping Guantaacute;namo./ppThat debate underlies the toughest dilemma the new administration is likely to face on closing the offshore camp: whether there should be a third category of prisoners, deemed too dangerous to release but too difficult to prosecute. The evidence against them may be in the form of intelligence material that cannot be disclosed in court, or that falls short of legal proof. Confessions would also be ineligible if they were obtained under torture, as in the case of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the alleged mastermind of the 9/11 attacks who was "waterboarded" (subjected to simulated drowning) by the CIA. And few if any of the inmates of Guantaacute;namo were reminded of their right not to incriminate themselves, which is standard police practice./ppThe Bush administration has been seeking international agreement for a new form of preventative detention that would allow inmates in this third category to be held in the US and abroad. "The problem is you've got 200-plus very dangerous people, and the question is what do you do with them. And these are people who say regularly: 'If I'm let out of here, I will go immediately and start killing Americans again,'" Condoleezza Rice, the outgoing secretary of state, said during a visit to London this week. She argued that "even though you know that this person is a future threat, we don't really have a legal framework for that, which is why it's been done within a war framework. But if you don't hold a person who you know is a future threat, then you risk the deaths of thousands of innocents. So I do think that this is something for the international community to take up."/ppThere is little sign, however, that the international community has any appetite for such a departure from established human rights law. The decision on preventative detention will be Obama's alone. Several of his advisers and allies, liberals included, think that terrorism is such a pernicious threat, and the security risks of releasing suspects are so great, that new legislation allowing for preventative detention is unavoidable. The political risk of a released inmate carrying out an attack are also enormous. Such an event could prove crippling to a new administration. /ppOn the other hand, any new system of preventative detention would be seen around the world as Guantaacute;namo redux, human rights lawyers say. It would be every bit as effective as an al-Qaida recruiting tool, and would perpetuate the extremists' self-image as warriors rather than mere criminals. Within the internal debate under way in the transition team, liberal activists want foreign governments to lobby Obama against creating a new legal limbo. /ppIt is one of the toughest decisions the new president has in his in-tray. What Obama decides will say a lot about his presidency. Sarah Mendelson, a senior fellow of the Centre for Strategic and International Studies and author of the Closing Guantaacute;namo report, says it is uncertain which way Obama would lean. But she adds: "My sense is the president-elect has taught courses in the constitution in one of the most reputable law schools in country. He ran on opting back into the international system. The idea of going for a new legal regime that will result in more years in litigation is not going to appeal. It will not be the clean break he needs to make."/ph2A history of the prison camp/h2p· January 11 2002: First prisoners arrive/pp· February 27 2002: First hunger strike begins/pp· April 29 2002: The first prison, Camp X-Ray, closes, replaced by a more solid concrete construction, Camp Delta/pp· November 10 2003: US Supreme Court agrees to hear appeals from inmates that they are being held illegally/pp· February 13 2004: Bush administration agrees to establish review panels to establish whether inmates still pose a threat/pp· March 19 2004: Five British detainees freed/pp· February 16 2006: The UN calls for the closing of Camp Delta, arguing that the treatment of some inmates amounts to torture/pp· June 10 2006: Three inmates hang themselves/pp· June 21 2006: President Bush first expresses the wish to close the camp/pp· September 6 2006: Fourteen "high-value" detainees are transferred from secret CIA prisons around the world to Guantaacute;namo, including Khaled Sheikh Mohamed, Abu Zubaydah and Ramzi Binalshibh, three alleged planners of the 9/11 attacks/pp· June 12 2008: US Supreme Court rules that inmates have the right to challenge their incarceration in the US courts/pdiv style="float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"ullia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/guantanamo"Guantánamo Bay/a/lilia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/obama-white-house"Obama White House/a/lilia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/barackobama"Barack Obama/a/lilia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/usforeignpolicy"US foreign policy/a/lilia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/usa"United States/a/lilia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/humanrights"Human rights/a/li/ul/diva href="http://www.guardian.co.uk"guardian.co.uk/a copy; Guardian News Media Limited 2008 | Use of this content is subject to our a href="http://users.guardian.co.uk/help/article/0,,933909,00.html"Terms Conditions/a | a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/webfeeds/1,,1309488,00.html"More Feeds/a pa href="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/DnF9th1tAua-YMzXf_qz88giof4/a"img src="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/DnF9th1tAua-YMzXf_qz88giof4/i" border="0" ismap="true"/img/a/p

Hackers into Tweeter’s website have posted a Photoshopped image of President Bush appearing to flip the bird on the homepage of the shuttered electronics store.img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/eh/rss/C157/~4/473652201" height="1" width="1"/

India identifies terrorist siege mastermind.

Tina Turner returns to the stage.

Paper: Gay parenting the next skirmish in culture war.

SURVEY: Most Americans favor gay adoptions, openly gay military service. "The Pulse of Equality survey, commissioned by the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) and released today, shows a majority of Americans favors a broad range of policies and protections for gays, as well as supporting them as adoptive parents. More than six in 10 would allow openly gay people to serve in the military. Another 63 percent favor expanding hate laws to include gays, lesbians and transgender people. Also, 69 percent support gays adopting."

Obama receiving more intelligence briefings than Bush: "The president-elect is receiving intelligence briefings every day of the week, exceeding the six days given to President Bush, according to Michael McConnell, the director of national intelligence."

Obama names New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson Secretary of Commerce.

Britney Spears has 27th Bday at Tenjune in NYC.

Model Edilson Nascimento finds being on the cover of Brazil's Junior magazine very funny.

"Don't Ask, Don't Tell" repeal to be a product of consensus-building not an add-on to an appropriations bill: "When it comes to President-elect Barack Obama making good on his campaign promise to repeal 'don't ask, don't tell,' gays and lesbians—70 percent of whom voted for him—may have to be patient. Advocates of the repeal are warning that any action might take a year or more."

Brad Pitt might get married.

New York Daily News steals Empire State Building in 90 minutes: "The News swiped the 102-story Art Deco skyscraper by drawing up a batch of bogus documents, making a fake notary stamp and filing paperwork with the city to transfer the deed to the property. Some of the information was laughable: Original 'King Kong' star Fay Wray is listed as a witness and the notary shared a name with bank robber Willie Sutton. The massive ripoff illustrates a gaping loophole in the city's system for recording deeds, mortgages and other transactions. The loophole: The system - run by the office of the city register - doesn't require clerks to verify the information."

Researchers have put together a new theory about what early Earth looked like, and apparently it looked much like a velvet black light poster from the 70's.

GQ: The Rise of the A-Gay. "Make way for the A-gays. Moneyed, successful, educated, and comfortable in their own skin, they're fast becoming the new archetype of cosmopolitan masculinity. The urban man's man. They don't own yappy miniature dogs or time-shares in Fort Lauderdale; they own Labradors and four-bedroom summer homes in Sag Harbor. Instead of cruising in gay clubs, they jet to Gstaad or the TED conference, and party at Sundance with Zooey Deschanel. They don't want to be part of any kind of closeted group or velvet mafia."

Gay rights groups in Canada pressure Ottawa to sign UN declaration against anti-gay discrimination.

Chace Crawford is a cheater.

Remember that meteor that was photographed lighting up the sky as bright as day over Edmonton, Alberta? They found it.

What was behind the Prop. 102 gay marriage loss in Arizona? "In last month's vote, the proponents of Prop. 102 shed their financial disadvantage, receiving over $7 million in contributions and swamping the mere $600,000 raised by the opposition. And they ran what Herrod describes as a 'first class campaign,' with five television ads and even more radio spots. The ads highlighted the simplicity of the ballot initiative and cast doubt on the opposition's argument that Arizona statutory law already defined marriage as between a man and a woman. With courts in Massachusetts, Connecticut, and neighboring California delivering gay marriage to their states by judicial fiat, proponents of traditional marriage in Arizona could see the need to enshrine the definition of marriage in the state constitution. California voters themselves saw the need, approving a ballot initiative last month that nullified the imposition of gay marriage by the state's supreme court in May. Sam Holdren, public affairs director of Equality Arizona, which opposed Prop. 102, blamed California's ballot initiative for fundraising difficulties in Arizona. 'We were only able to talk to a limited number of voters with a very narrow message,' said Holdren, while the supporters 'were able to inundate people's mailboxes and phones. They had a lot of money to run a really effective campaign.'"