WASHINGTON - Speculation swirled over what appointments President-elect Barack Obama would make as he pivots from an election campaign to the task of building a Democratic administration.

NEW YORK - After an F-bomb dropped on "Morning Joe," the MSNBC news-talk show has installed an early-warning system.

“GE Capital is another company that outsources jobs to India. GE Capital needs to be boycotted by the USA until they bring these jobs back home. We have people here in the states that can speak English and do these jobs just fine!”

I have never eaten at a Chick-fil-A, mainly because, until recently, the restaurant chain did not have a location in my area. Now that they do, I intend to try it very soon. I would have done so today, Aug. 1 — dubbed "Chick-fil-A appreciation day" by former Gov. Mike Huckabee on his Fox TV show — but instead I am here slaving over a hot laptop, writing this column for you fine folks. Duty trumps chicken, at least for today.

“This is nothing more than a political land grab,” Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, said of Barack Obama’s Chicago-style political decision to bring the influential role of conducting the U.S. Census under White House influence. This single act should end any further bipartisanship. Obama is executing raw power politics as taught by his role model, leftist Chicago organizer Saul Alinsky. Alinsky pioneered this in-your-face style of political move.

"Will we do to Gabby Giffords like we have done to so many before? Will she ‘earn' her job for the things she has done or will she be ‘given' her job because she got shot? What will the future be? I look at the poll here and I see that both Gabby and Flake have the lead and I wonder why?"

“What happened to all the bailout money the banks received? I know 10 people that tried to modify their home loans and after doing everything the bank asked, they got turned down. What a scam.”

In 1980 William Clay, the president of the Professional Air Traffic Controllers union (PATCO) told their convention that they must “learn the rules of the game,” which were “that you don’t put the interest of any other group ahead of your own.” They must be “selfish and pragmatic” and emphasize that “what’s good for the federal employees (is) good for the nation.”

Howard Dean doesn't mind talking trash, but the folks who made him chairman of the Democratic National Committee knew that going in. There was, notably, that famous scream and the promised courtship of "guys with Confederate flags on their pickup trucks."

CHICAGO - Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich met with a renowned Chicago criminal lawyer Saturday as he weighed his legal options on how to fight a scandal that has left his career in tatters and disrupted President-elect Barack Obama's White House transition.

"Our legislature fiddles while Arizona burns. Conservatives who rail against the ‘Nanny State' are flooding us with laws that tell us how to live and how to behave."

CHICAGO - President-elect Barack Obama and former Republican rival John McCain pledged Monday to work together on ways to change Washington's "bad habits," though aides to both men said it was unlikely McCain would serve in an Obama Cabinet.

 “Democrats want state Sen. (John) Huppenthal prosecuted for a sign flap during the election (Tribune, Thursday). This must also mean they support prosecution of the Arizona State University student who is a member of the Democrat club who removed signs in Tempe regarding state representatives and senators.”

WASHINGTON - If President Bush gets his way, the venerable $255 Social Security death benefit will fade into history. And 16- and 17-year-old high school dropouts will lose their monthly survivor payments.

Martin Schram: "Transparency" is the most promising buzzword of the 21st Century. Politicians promise it whenever they campaign. CEOs promise it whenever they get caught. Obama promised us a transparent presidency -- but so far has just given us a translucent presidency.

Austin Hill: In the aftermath of the tragic murder at the United States Holocaust Memorial and Museum in Washington, D.C., last week, it was Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon’s turn to seize an opportunity and take shots at his political nemesis, Sheriff Joe Arpaio.

WASHINGTON - The Republicans attacking President Barack Obama's economic stimulus package point to a project they dub the "Sin Express" - a high speed rail link between Anaheim, Calif., site of Disneyland, and Las Vegas.

CHICAGO -Ousted Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich's plan to auction off President Barack Obama's vacant U.S. Senate seat marked the culmination of years of scheming for personal gain that included trying to extort a congressman and pressuring businesses to hire his wife, prosecutors alleged.

CHICAGO — Thousands of striking Chicago public school teachers packed a city park Saturday in a show of force as union leaders and the district tried to work out the details of a tentative agreement that would end a week-long walkout.

"A well-regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.” — The Second Amendment

"A well-regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed." — The Second Amendment

At first blush this sounds like an outlandish question with a conspiratorial twist. The corollary question goes like this: Is the Obama administration intentionally scaling back clean-up efforts in the Gulf in an attempt to maximize the damage so Democrats in Congress will have an excuse to take effective control over yet another major sector of our economy and impose crippling and draconian new taxes on the American people?

One way or another, the Obama administration is trying to shut up its critics, and if that requires plopping First Amendment free-speech guarantees into a six-foot grave and covering the principles up with mud, so be it.