In contrast to the many horrendous selections of the Chimperator's administration, Barack Obama's picks to date for his cabinet indicate that competence and intellect are once again important rather than merely a blind allegiance to a particular dogma or agenda. Obviously, if the Chimperator had not surrounded himself with so many "yes men," perhaps many of the disasters of the last eight years might have been avoided or handled much more competently. Likewise, we will soon see scientific truth and research trumping Christianist views in a number of government agencies. Here are some analysis highlights from Dan Froomkin at the Washington Post:

*

The way President-elect Barack Obama is assembling his brain trust doesn't just indicate a dramatic turn away from President Bush's policies. It also suggests the return of spirited policy debates to a White House that has been largely devoid of them for the last eight years.

*
Rather than simply hire a new brand of loyalists -- or replace one gut player with another -- Obama is making it clear that he wants his thinking challenged and wants to hear opposing views before he reaches his decisions. That would be a dramatic contrast to the intellectually incurious Bush, who so rarely ventured beyond his bubble of flatterers and yes-men.

*

Obama said. "One of the dangers in a White House, based on my reading of history, is that you get wrapped up in group-think and everybody agrees with everything and there's no discussion and there are no dissenting views. So I am going to be welcoming a vigorous debate inside the White House.

*

"'Open and serious debate versus ideological certitude will be a great relief to the military leaders,' said retired Maj. Gen. William L. Nash of the Council on Foreign Relations. Senior officers are aware that few in their ranks voiced misgivings over the Iraq war, but they counter that they were not encouraged to do so by the Bush White House or the Pentagon under Donald H. Rumsfeld. "'The joke was that when you leave a meeting, everybody is supposed to drink the Kool-Aid,' Nash said. 'In the Bush administration, you had to drink the Kool-Aid before you got to go to the meeting.'"

*

And here's another way the Obama White House will be a far sight different than Bush's: There will be no Cheney figure, squelching opposing views. Here's Vice President Cheney watcher and New Yorker reporter Jane Mayer yesterday on CBS's Face the Nation: "You're seeing very strong players divvying up this national security portfolio. So that won't -- it takes a president like Bush to have a vice president like Cheney. Obama so far seems to be so much more involved in the details and in kind of wanting to command the policies all the way up and down.

I have posted previously about Roman Catholic priests who have been after church members who voted for Barack Obama. Yet another case of fusing fetus worship over all else and voting for the GOP has cropped up in California where a pastor is telling Democrat voters that they need to go to confession since they are guilty of a "mortal sin" if they voted for Obama. I'm sure the good pastor has been totally silent in terms of demanding resignations in the Church hierarchy by those who enabled or covered up the sexual abuse of minors. After all, increasingly, the Catholic Church only cares about children BEFORE they are born. Screw them - often literally - after they are born and still minors and it's OK. Here are some highlights from the San Francisco Chronicle:

A Roman Catholic priest has told parishioners they should confess if they voted for Barack Obama because the president-elect supports abortion. The Rev. Joseph Illo says his parishioners at St. Joseph's Catholic Church in Modesto shouldn't risk losing their "state of grace" by receiving communion sacrilegiously. He delivered the message in a Nov. 21 letter and during mass. In an interview this week with the Modesto Bee, Illo says he sent the letter because Catholic teaching requires that people go to confession when they commit a mortal sin.

*

The Modesto Bee has more on this story. Here are some highlights:

*

That letter, dated Nov. 21 and first mentioned in The Bee on Saturday, led to stories picked up by news media around the world. In the letter, Illo told the parish's estimated 15,000 members that they risked their "state of grace" if they received communion without having attended confession - but only if they voted for Obama knowing his position on abortion. The letter read, in part, "If you are one of the 54 percent of Catholics who voted for a pro-abortion candidate, you were clear on his position, and you knew the gravity of the question, I urge you to go to confession before receiving communion."