Here's the Phoenix's editorial on Obama, gay rights, and the Defense of Marriage Act. I couldn't have said it better myself.

I was serious when I began this effort, and while it's taken a back seat, I'm coming to understand how sadly right I was. We need to Take Back Barack.

CNN is now reporting that New Hampshire senator Judd Gregg is withdrawing his name from consideration for the position of commerce secretary. This shows a real lack of organization on Obama's part, and while Gregg was rather conservative as these things go (and therefore might not have been the best choice in the first second place), this suggests Obama's cabinet is going to be a real mess.

This on top of the Obama administration's announcement Monday that it endorses and is maintaining the Bush administration's position on protecting as state secrets information about Americans torturing prisoners.

In addition to the petition for a Cabinet-level Secretary of Arts, there are plenty of other groups out there pushing Obama in a progressive direction. What's your issue? Here are a few to choose from, and places you can add your voice to the discussion. Robert Scheer at Truthdig has some reasons why, and so does Naomi Klein, but really, you already know why. Just jump in.

 -Organic and local food: FoodDemocracyNow.org has a petition for a sustainable US Department of Agriculture and includes information on twelve people who would be good as high-level (though not at the actual top) officials in the USDA.

So Obama is for women's health, right? I mean, he reversed the global gag rule and generally likes women, plus he has daughters. But he's clearly hoping that his daughters never end up poor and in need of birth control from Medicaid.

Those of you who aren't following the TakeBackBarack news-articles RSS feed, you should be - I continue to update that every day, sometimes multiple times a day, with stories from all over the Web about Obama's moves, decisions, and their significance. I promise you'll find interesting stuff there - I spend a good chunk of time digging around, and Google Reader's a big help, too. The feed is here: //www.google.com/reader/shared/user/12718493763117696582/label/TakeBackBarack

But my new favorite Obama-watch site is The Obameter, which tracks every single one of Obama's 510 campaign promises! You've gotta check it out.

A brief summary of my thoughts since Inauguration Day:

-Closing Gitmo is great. Even spending a night in one of those cells was pretty bad - much less being waterboarded, starved, and otherwise tortured.

A comment by Quincy Jones, the musician/composer/general arts supporter (and FOB - that's Friend of Barack, now), made during a post-election interview with has spawned an online petition drive to create a cabinet-level Secretary of Arts position. While it's unclear exactly what such a person would do, the very existence of the position would certainly raise the profile of arts and their contribution to national life, economic activity, and culture.

This is precisely the sort of effort I called for in the original piece. And John Nichols took a similar view in The Progressive on Monday, writing:

The Take Back Barack effort is on TV throughout January around the nation, thanks to Liberty News TV. (It's a non-profit progressive outfit based here in Portland, and they accept donations!)

Here's the clip - click here for a map to see where you can watch the whole show on your TV!

First up, what about this whole Leon Panetta as CIA director thing? On the good side, he's a civilian with long experience navigating the halls of power in DC. On the bad side, the CIA is badly screwed up and Panetta has no real prior knowledge of running an intel operation (sure, he handled some intel stuff as Clinton's chief of staff, but that's pretty different). On the good side, he is likely to do what Obama wants, and will probably be direct with Obama about any disagreements. On the bad side, he offers no signal as to what Obama wants from the CIA, and in this tea-leaf-reading exercise we call "covering the transition," we could really use a signal about that - especially given (see below) the problems with his Director of National Intelligence.

Now, on to a few other items:

You know you're on to something when somebody puts out a rush-edition book on the topic. And sure enough, in yesterday's mail, arrived Yes, We Can! 365 Ways to Make America A Better Place, by Paula Munier. It lists an action a day for an entire year that readers can take to improve America. Among the ideas are several we're looking to Obama for leadership on, and others will push him in progressive directions. Here are some examples:

-teach an unskilled laborer a marketable skill

I'll be taking a few days off for the holidays, but I'll try to check in and respond to comments and post stuff every couple days.

Here are a few tidbits I've found especially interesting recently:

President-elect Obama's commitment to restore honesty to the core of federal science policy (and science-related policies) is definitely encouraging. The biggest potential pitfall is that the Bush administration also claimed to base its decisions on science - even when it censored science to serve political ends. (This involved paying lip service to science while actually subjugating it to ideology.)

I don't believe Obama will engage in this kind of deception, but it's worth keeping an eye out.

I've been catching up on the blogosphere and reading Andrew Sullivan's commentaries on Obama's choice of conservative evangelical pastor Rick Warren to give the invocation on Inauguration Day. Sullivan and others appear to have struggled mightily and come to terms with the selection, saying it appeared abominable at first but is perhaps a new and giant symbol of Obama's "post-partisan" politics. 

While I commend their intellectual effort and attempt at compassion, I have to caution liberals and progressives about being too inclusive. Remember, we got to the Bush administration by being inclusive, patient, tolerant, and easygoing. We got to the Dems' takeover of the Congress in 2006 - and their utter failure to do anything good about Iraq, warrantless wiretapping, or holding Bushies accountable - by being accepting, and by believing that "this is a process" in which "things take time."

Sorry - it's been rather a day here, so while I'm waiting for the call to be on the radio (we're taping it so I don't have to get up at 1:30 am to attempt to be coherent), I'll offer a summary of some of my thinking so far. (I'll also marvel at how quickly this TBB meme is expanding.)

I've had several really interesting exchanges with people - and have been very entertained by various comments suggesting I'm either a moonbat or a wingnut or both. In any case, these exchanges have helped me sharpen my point, and have deepened my belief that Take Back Barack is the right move at the right time.

Many of the comments about Take Back Barack so far have been from conservatives shouting with glee, calling Obama a "snake-oil salesman" and a "con man," and apparently suggesting I'm a sucker for believing his promises. But it appears the progressive community might be paying some attention. Early tomorrow morning (East Coast time) - so early it's late at night Pacific time - I'll be on the Phil Hendrie Show talking about the Take Back Barack effort.

It starts at 1 am Eastern, 10 pm Pacific. You can listen live here, or find out what station in your area is broadcasting it here.