Three in four Americans believe that President-elect Barack Obama is making strong, thoughtful decisions as he prepares to take over as the nation’s 44th commander in chief, a new poll shows. When George W. Bush took the helm of power in 2001, six in 10 Americans saw him as a strong and decisive leader. Obama’s strongest suit, according to the CNN/Opinion Research Corp. survey, is his ability to inspire and his apparent honesty. “That’s the best number an incoming president has gotten on that dimension since Ronald Reagan took office in 1981,” CNN Polling Director Keating Holland said. Read more here.

Shoe-thrower Wants Lesser Charges
Attorneys for the Iraqi reporter who tried to bean President Bush with his shoes say that their client’s actions do not amount to an assault and, thus, no trial is necessary. The reporter, Muntazer al-Zaidi, has been charged with assault against a foreign head of state. During a joint news conference with Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki earlier this month, al-Zaidi called Bush a dog as he hurled both of his shoes at the U.S. president. If convicted, al-Zaidi could spend 15 years in prison. Dhiaa al-Saadi, who represents the defendant, told Reuters that the defense was appealing to have the charge reduced to insulting a visiting head of state, which carries a two-year maximum sentence. “Have you ever heard of anyone being killed by a shoe?” al-Saadi said. “In Europe, they throw eggs and rotten tomatoes to insult. In Iraq, throwing a shoe is a symbol of disrespect.” At least the argument was good enough to convince the Iraqi High Judicial Council to delay the trial, which was supposed to begin today. “Due to a legal appeal presented by defendant Muntazer al-Zaidi’s lawyers to the Federal Appeal Court, the case has been referred to this court for study,” the council said in a statement. “Therefore, the Central Criminal Court has adjourned the case pending (its) ruling.”

America’s Oldest Has Died
George Rene Francis, the oldest man in America, who was inspired by Booker T. Washington’s visit to his third-grade class and the message of peace by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., died Saturday in Sacramento. He was 112.  Francis, who was born in New Orleans in 1896, lived to see 19 presidents and witnessed Babe Ruth whack one of his signature homeruns, died of congestive heart failure in Eskaton Care Center Greenhaven, his family, told The Sacramento Bee newspaper. Francis, a lifelong advocate of equal rights, taught his daughter how to drive after she was forced to relinquish her seat on the bus to a White man. In November, he gleefully cast his vote for Sen. Barack Obama. “I think he’s great, because he’s Black. Because the White people thought the Negro would never be promoted. I think it’s beautiful,” he told the Bee. His favorite poem was “The Black Man’s Plea for Justice,” but he never taught his children bigotry or prejudice, his daughter, Lelia Francis Larue, told the newspaper. “He was exceptionally good-natured. We don’t remember any really harsh words at all. He didn’t curse. He and my mom were very gentle people.”

Bush snatches back a pardon. With the potential of a scandal to mark one of his last official acts as commander in chief, President Bush has yanked back a pardon he awarded to a man accused of steering poor and minority people toward overpriced mortgages and loans with hidden costs. Isaac Toussie, one of 19 people that Bush pardoned on Tuesday, had been convicted of mail fraud and making false statements to the Housing and Urban Development Department. In the rare presidential revocation of a pardon, White House press secretary Dana Perino said that Bush made his decision “based on information that has subsequently come to light.” Turns out that Toussie’s father donated $28,500 to the Republican Party, just before his son petitioned the White House for the pardon. Read the rest here.

Bush says he was a good civil rights president. President Bush says America shouldn’t forget about his contributions to civil rights. While acknowledging that Sen. Barack Obama’s election portends a “very hopeful moment for race relations,” the president pointed to such programs as No Child Left Behind education law, which he called “a piece of civil rights legislation” and his push to overhaul Social Security, saying it was aimed at giving Blacks a greater stake in the nation’s future. Read what else he had to say here.

Some Black lawmakers are unhappy with Obama’s cabinet picks. Members of the Congressional Black Caucus have not publicly expressed it but The Hill.com is reporting that some Black lawmakers are disappointed with President-elect Obama’s picks for his cabinet and the way he went about it. “People I’ve talked to have expressed that they were hoping to have seen a few more African-Americans in place, and in places where you can pinpoint needs,” Rep. Danny Davis (D-Ill) said. He pointed to a notable absence of Black nominations to positions that specifically deal with policy on urban problems like education, housing, labor and improvement of cities. Another aide, speaking anonymously, said CBC members are not questioning the qualifications of Obama’s nominees but they expected two things: “a better consultation and communication process and, at the end of the day, more blacks in the Cabinet,” reports the Hill.com. Only one member of the CBC, Chairwoman Barbara Lee (D-Calif.), has released a statement commending Obama on his nominations. She praised the President-elect for picking Steven Chu, an Asian American, to head the Energy Department. So far, Obama has selected four African Americans to his cabinet.

The shoe-throwing Iraqi apologizes. The Iraqi journalist who tried to bean President Bush with his shoes is begging not to be sent to prison. Describing his action as “an ugly act,” Muntadhar al-Zeidi, a correspondent for an Iraqi-owned television station based in Cairo, Egypt, said in a letter that he would like to be forgiven. He could spend two years in prison for insulting a foreign leader. He has been jailed ever since being wrestled to the floor by security guards last Sunday during a news conference featuring Bush and Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. A spokesman for Maliki, Yassin Majid, told The Associated Press that al-Zeidi went on in the letter to recall an interview he conducted with the prime minister in 2005, when al-Maliki invited him into his home, saying: “Come in, it is your home too. …So I ask for your pardon, Excellency.”White House press secretary Dana Perino said Thursday that “the president harbors no hard feelings about it, and the Iraqis have a process that they’ll follow… .But he did urge them not to overreact, because he was not bothered by the incident, although it’s not appropriate for people to throw shoes at a press conference, at any leader.” Many  Iraqis have hailed al-Zeidi as a hero for defying a president they blame for destroying their country.

Shoe-throwing Iraqi is a hero to some. All of a sudden, Muntadar al-Zaidi, is a hero. Before Sunday, the Iraqi TV reporter who hurled his shoes at President Bush during a news conference was a relatively obscure figure, even in his own land. But by Monday al-Zaidi was the darling of the Arab world. Read more here.

Reporter throws his shoes at Bush. Saying that he was angry over the deaths of women and children at the hands of U.S. military personnel, a reporter for a Baghdad TV station hurled his shoes at President Bush Sunday, barely missing Bush, who was in the middle of a news conference with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. “This is a farewell kiss, you dog,” Muntadar al-Zeidi yelled in Arabic as he hurled his shoes at Bush. “This is from the widows, the orphans and those who were killed in Iraq.” Al-Zeidi, identified as television correspondent, was wrestled to the ground by members of the crowd. “So what if the guy threw a shoe at me?” said Bush, who narrowly missed being hit in the head. “If you want the facts, it was a size 10,” he joked. He continued with jokes later aboard Air Force One, when he quipped, “I didn’t know what the guy said but I saw his `sole, ” The Associated Press reported.

President George Bush used his executive power to pardon rapper/producer John Forte yesterday. Forte, who worked with the Fugees, was arrested in 2000 after he was caught in Newark International Airport with two briefcases full of liquid cocaine worth an estimated $1.4 million, reports Billboard. He was charged with possession with the intent to distribute and conspiracy to distribute and was sentenced to a mandatory 14 years in prison. But after serving half his sentence, Forte, who is 33, will be released Dec. 22 and will be on supervised probation for five years. In addition to co-writing songs on the Fugees’ album, “The Score,” he also put out two solo albums. Did the president do the right thing?

Rev. Jackson is concerned over Bush’s orders. President Bush’s executive orders could hamper those of incoming President Barack Obama, the Rev. Jesse Jackson said Sunday. “Bush is signing away consumer and environmental laws. I mean they’re running amok, you know,” Jackson said of the Bush administration’s final months in office. Read the rest here.

Obama asks Bush to help struggling automakers. The struggling auto industry was foremost on the mind of president-elect Barack Obama as he visited the White House Oval Office for the first time on Monday, according to news reports. Obama put himself in the middle of a political standoff between the White House and Democrats on Monday as he asked President Bush in a meeting at the White House to support immediate emergency aid to the automakers, according to The New York Times. Read the rest here.