On Monday’s The Daily Show, Jon Stewart asks the question: “Can’t we just have the guy on the left already?” in the “Clusterf#@k to the Poor House – Goofus and Gallant” skit. The guy who he is referring to is President Gallant (a.k.a. Obama) instead of who is currently in charge, President Goofus (a.k.a. Bush).  With the economy in shambles, Obama is working on creating stimulus packages while Bush is literally “hanging himself.” After examining the efforts of both presidents, Stewart pleads..”Do we really have to wait until January 20th?”

Unlike President Bush whose approval ratings are dismal, President-elect Barack Obama has received high approval for how well he is transitioning to the White House. A recent USA Today/Gallop poll shows that 78% approve of his transition work. And Obama is picking up favor among Democrats, Republicans and Independents for his Secretary of State choice, Hillary Clinton (69% approval rate) and his decision to keep Robert Gates as the Secretary of Defense (whopping 80% approval rate). Let’s see if these approvals maintain while the folks are in office.

And can you believe that a small county in Alabama created a Barack Obama holiday? Yes, it’s true. Alabama’s Perry County will observe the second Monday in November as “The Barack Obama Day.” The county’s offices will close and its 40 employees will have a paid holiday. “The sponsoring commissioner, Albert Turner Jr., said the holiday is meant to highlight the Democratic president-elect’s victory as a way to give people faith that difficult goals can be achieved.”

And more bad news for automakers… According to the Associated Press, General Motors’ sales dropped 41 percent in November and Ford’s sales also fell 31 percent last month. It appears that the U.S. automakers may need that bailout after all. GM, Ford and Chrysler pleaded for more than $38 billion dollars of government assistance including loans Tuesday. The companies are now asking for more than the $25 billion they requested two weeks ago and state they don’t have a Plan B. An intervention of some sort is predicted based on House Speaker Pelosi recent remarks.

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Free veggies anyone? More than 40,000 people showed up to pick free vegetables left over from the harvest at a Colorado farm about 37 miles north of Denver. The farm owners expected about 5,000 to 10,000 people to pick a few carrots and potatoes last Saturday. Instead, more than 11,000 cars showed up and the people picked the fields clean. Owner, Ms. Miller, told the Denver Post, “Overwhelmed is putting it mildly. People obviously need food.”

And in Los Angeles recently, Mayor Villaraigosa revealed his long-range plan to generate “enough solar power to meet one-tenth of the city’s energy needs by 2020.” His goal could be achieved if solar panels are installed on public and private energy generating facilities as well as on residents’ homes. This initiative will also help the city’s Department of Water and Power reduce its use of fossil fuels, like natural gas and coal, and benefit global warming reduction efforts. If the Mayor’s plan were successful, Los Angeles would become the “hub of the solar-energy industry.”

The White House may become a “green” house. In the recent Barbara Walters interview with President-elect Barack Obama and his wife Michelle, Obama said that he wants to make the White House green. He plans to work with the chief usher for house and evaluate his new home’s energy efficiency. When asked why the focus on greening the house, Obama said, “Part of what I want to do is to show the American people that it’s not that hard.”

Global warming is a global concern. Although the global economy is in the pits right now, HSBC bank’s second annual global poll found that 43 percent think climate change is a bigger problem than the financial crisis. And 78 percent of those polled want their countries to do their “fair share” of reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Although the global citizens polled want their governments to fight global warming, invest in renewable energy (55 percent), and participate in climate talks (27 percent), as individuals, these people are less willing to change their own lifestyle than last year (47 percent in 2008 vs. 58 percent in 2007). Have they ever heard the expression that change begins with YOU?

So if you are a big greenie, where can you meet like-minded individuals? Funny you should ask. There is a new social networking site called Greenwala. The site is designed to help people learn more about being green, brag about their green works with family and friends.

Now that gas and oil prices drop, will America keep its push to “go green?” A recent NPR article investigates whether American energy consumers will revert back to their old, gas guzzling, non-recyclable ways with low oil prices.

Speaking of fossil fuels, a new study by Greenpeace and the European Renewable Energy Council claims the world could be free of fossil fuels completely by 2090. What would it take? Only trillions of dollars worth of investments in renewable energy and a worldwide support, that’s all.

Google going Green? Google’s CEO, Eric E. Schmidt, joined forces with GE’s CEO, Jeffrey R. Immelt, to announce their “green” collaboration effort to generate renewable electricity. Additionally, Google’s nonprofit arm, Google.org, has already invested in clean energy startups like harnessing wind power with kites.

Ready for your next all-electric car? Well, chances are you might have to wait until 2012. The recent 2008 Paris Motor Show revealed the new generation of electric cars. It featured the electric Chevrolet Volt, gas-electric hybrids like 2009 Honda Insight. However, the show stopper was the 2012 Volage electric car by Venturi, Monaco’s only automaker. In addition to the Volage, Venturi also makes the Fetish, an all-electric, 2-seat sports car, available in 2009. Both the Volage and Fetish sell for a hefty price, $500,000 and $400,000 respectively. Hmm.. how’s that gasoline or hybrid car looking?

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With a week before the presidential election, Dookie and the “WASSUP” boys are back after spending 8 years in hibernation with a new comedy. Only this time, they aren’t just pushing a beer but have jumped on the pro-Obama bus. Their latest video critiques the current state of the economy, the Iraq war, the Hurricane Katrina disaster and gives a big shout-out to Obama.

Early Wednesday morning a 6.4 magnitude earthquake struck southwestern Pakistan, killing at least 170 people and leaving an estimated 15,000 people homeless. Rescuers are currently digging and searching for survivors in the a remote valley in Baluchistan, a province bordering Afghanistan. The worst hit was a British hilltop village of Ziarat and eight surrounding villages. “There is great destruction,” said Ziarat Mayor Dilawar Kakar to Associated Press. “Not a single house is intact.”

With less than a week until the presidential election, many people have decided to vote early. And in key swing states like North Carolina, Nevada and Colorado, the number of Democrats early ballots outweigh Republicans ballots nearly 2 to 1.

So, does the electoral math add up to an Obama landslide? According to the most recent Associated Press-GfK poll, Barack Obama is leading or tied with John McCain in eight key states: Colorado, Florida, Nevada, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Virginia. This poll also showed Obama winning in states among early voters. Furthermore, “the polling shows Obama holding solid leads in Ohio (seven percentage points), Nevada (12 points), Colorado (9) and Virginia (seven), all red states won by Bush that collectively offer 47 electoral votes.” Based on these results, if Obama wins these four states or a magical combination of two or three of them with significant amount of electoral votes, he would almost certainly become president.

I don’t know if you caught Wanda Sykes on Jay Leno’s show about a week ago. Leno asked Wanda what she thought of the election and Sarah Palin. Without holding back, Wanda criticized the $700 billion bailout package as broke people paying for the wealthy. It’s “welfare for the rich.” She also wants receipts for what they’re spending. And about the woman running for VP, Wanda described Palin in one word: crazy. Check out the video (which NBC has now pulled from YouTube).

-The Caramel Bella