H I S T O R Y

[dragonboy]

(Disclaimer - I was just having fun.)

What, you mean you were rooting for Obama all along?!!

Oh no wait, that's not what you're talking about is it?  ;) ;) ;)

[Angry Ewok]

(Disclaimer - I was just having fun.)

What, you mean you were rooting for Obama all along?!!

Oh no wait, that's not what you're talking about is it?  ;) ;) ;)

Snap.

[dragonboy]

 ;D ;D ;D  [smiley=thumbsup.gif]

[Taterbug]

ANYWAY, where were we? (and where is MMJ fanatic? I thought he would be excited for Obama?)

Do you think we should  have the Police do a welfare check on him ?

Maybe he's walking around in his bathrobe and fuzzy slippers in a daze.

[megalicious]

[size=16]Call me when a wife actually listens to instructions, for a change.[/size]

AM I RIGHT GUYS!!!  ;D

Oh snap!  You're not even married yet!  Meg, are you listening to this?

sorry-- i wasn't listening
:D

[dragonboy]

http://www.imdb.com/news/ns0000002/#ni0600750

Actor Edward Norton has produced a documentary chronicling America's next President Barack Obama's path to the White House.

The Fight Club star's production company Class 5 Films has closed a deal with bosses at American network HBO, who plan to air the finished programme early in 2009.

Norton reportedly approached the Obama campaign in 2006 to document his entrance into the world of politics. Directors Alicia Sams and Amy Rice filmed extensive footage of the Obama in his role as Illinois' senator and continued to shoot the politician as he kicked off his presidential campaign in 2007.

Norton tells the Hollywood Reporter, "Senator Obama's history-making race for the White House has given our film a perfect framework to explore the pulse of the country at this vital moment in our history."

[JacketGal]

That sounds great, DB! Thanks for posting.

Saw this in the Chicago Trib today. I liked the message, a lot! And the writer quotes Sam Cooke!  8-)

"What's so funny about Peace, Love and Understanding?" :)

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/colum....,2467645.column

20 life lessons from the 2008 election

Mary Schmich - Chicago Tribune

November 9, 2008

Life is larger than politics, but politics can teach us about life at large. Here are 20 life lessons from the 2008 campaign.

1 Joy and grief sometimes collide.

On Monday of last week, Barack Obama's grandmother, who raised him like a second mother, died. On Tuesday, he was elected president. It's a deeply sad coincidence, but also a reminder that life gives and it takes away and none of us is exempt from its capricious timing.

2 Be yourself. Your best self.

Barack Obama was his best self in this campaign. John McCain was not. The public knew the difference. The best McCain—the maverick who doesn't talk so much about being one—re-emerged in his humble, blunt concession speech.

3 Loss can liberate.

See above. McCain has been liberated back into his better self, which is good for him and for the country.

4 Be wary of flattery.

Sarah Palin was cynically flattered into a job for which she wasn't prepared. But flattery is like ice cream: You can't blame anyone else if you gobble it up and wind up feeling bad.

5 Cynicism is at best a short-term gain.

6 Do the prep work.

Bluffing, as Palin learned, is like walking on stilts—you can't do it for long.

7 Don't hold others in contempt just because they disagree with you.

Barack Obama preached that message and abided by it. Unfortunately, not all of his supporters have learned to follow their leader.

8 Don't question the motives of people with political ideas different from your own.

Joe Biden expressed that point—a corollary to lesson 7—in his debate with Palin. Question your opponents' judgment perhaps, question their conclusions, but assume that their motives are as good as yours.

9 Tina Fey is smarter than you and I.

10 Failure isn't forever.

Do your work and your fortunes may change. Think Katie Couric.

11 Don't abandon the people you love for your own profit.

Until they make it impossible not to. Think Rev. Jeremiah Wright Jr.

12 Stay on point.

The economy. Not Bill Ayers.

13 Success is a friend magnet.

Have your friends from around the country been e-mailing, texting and calling about Obama and the Grant Park rally, as if the fact that you live in Chicago gives you special insight? Have you been basking in the glow just a little? And isn't it amazing how many people who've never even been here suddenly know the words " Grant Park"?

14 Looks help.

Vigorous, youthful looks help more. What if Obama were 72 years old?

15 Luck helps.

Think about the sex scandal that knocked Republican Jack Ryan out of the U.S. Senate race that launched Obama's national career.

16 Connections help.

Think Richard Daley.

17 Everything runs its course.

Presidencies, generations, banks, interminable campaigns. And, we hope, wars.

18 Progress is patchwork.

On the day we elected a black president, voters in California and three other states proved how many Americans aren't yet willing to treat gay people as full citizens.

19 Radical change is possible.

But radical change tends to happen slowly. See lesson 18. The election of the first African-American president of the United States wasn't the result of one campaign. It was the consequence of centuries of struggle.

20 We should all listen to Sam Cooke.

Obama's a fan of Cooke, the soul singer who had 29 Top 40 hits in the 1950s and '60s. They're all worth singing along with, but the song guaranteed to give you chills—the theme that outlasts the political season—is "A Change is Gonna Come."

There've been times that I've thought I couldn't last for long
But now I think I'm able to carry on

It's been a long time coming

But I know a change is gonna come.

[Janet]

Good read.

[red]

http://barackbrains.com/

[MMJ_fanatic]

ANYWAY, where were we? (and where is MMJ fanatic? I thought he would be excited for Obama?)

Do you think we should  have the Police do a welfare check on him ?

Maybe he's walking around in his bathrobe and fuzzy slippers in a daze.

Not at all--just hanging back letting all the gloating occur and waiting to see what happens next.
Tho' I gotta say making Rahm Emmanuel chief of staff is hardly a good start or a way to eliminate partisanship.

[camille]

From Bill Kristol in the New York Times today:

...a few minutes into his victory speech, just after midnight, Obama told his daughters, "And you have earned the new puppy that's coming with us to the new White House."

I gulped.

Not out of my deep affection for dogs, fond of them though I am. But because while we've all known that Obama is a very skillful politician, he hasn't until now been a particularly empathetic one. Competence plus warmth is a pretty potent combination. Suddenly visions of the two great modern realigning presidents — Franklin Roosevelt (with his Scottish terrier Fala) and Ronald Reagan (with his Cavalier King Charles spaniel Rex) — flashed before my eyes. Maybe a realignment could be coming.

Obama was, naturally, asked about the promised-but-not-yet-purchased puppy at his press conference Friday. (If one were being churlish, one might say that it was typical of a liberal to promise the dog before delivering it. A results-oriented conservative would simply have shown up with the puppy without the advance hype.)

Obama commented wryly that the canine question had "generated more interest on our Web site than just about anything." He continued:

"We have two criteria that have to be reconciled. One is that Malia is allergic, so it has to be hypoallergenic. There are a number of breeds that are hypoallergenic. On the other hand, our preference would be to get a shelter dog, but, obviously, a lot of shelter dogs are mutts like me. So — so whether we're going to be able to balance those two things, I think, is a pressing issue on the Obama household."

Here, in a few sentences, Obama did the following: He deepened his bond with every dog lover in America. He identified with every household that's tried to figure out what kind of dog to get. He touched every parent with a kid allergic to pets. He showed compassion by preferring a dog from a shelter. And he demonstrated a dry and slightly politically incorrect wit by commenting that "a lot of shelter dogs are mutts like me."

It could be a tough four or eight years for conservatives.

Now, that's Bill Kristol. Mr. Fox News Sunday himself. The biggest, most adamant cheerleader Sarah Palin every had. This is editor of the Weekly Standard. Among the most prominent conservative journalists that exists today - out n proud style. To my ears, it sounds like he's having fun with how special this Obama guy is.

But in all seriousness - fan-boy crushes aside - here's the salient part of his column:

His selection of Rahm Emanuel as chief of staff suggests that Obama's not going to be mindlessly leftist, and that he's going to shape a legislative strategy that is attentive to Congressional realities while not deferring to a Congressional leadership whose interests may not be his own. Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton were both tripped up in their first two years by their Democratic Congresses. Obama intends for Emanuel to ensure that that doesn't happen.

I say this not to rub your nose in anything. I'm saying it to release you from the knee-jerk need to hate on everything. 95% of the population on this planet has experienced something like a euphoric group-exhale-tears-of-joy-this-eight-year-nightmare-is-finally-over and I have to say, it is the most amazing feeling. I have two friends who are studying abroad in Germany right now and they said they could not. believe. the difference in how people react to them - over night.

This whole thing has been a profoundly surreal experience of the effect one person can have on the world and it is ecstatically, insanely fun to feel a part of. There's no reason you can't feel a part of it now too if you want to. Barack - President Obama - hasn't solved anything yet. Though announcing that he will lift this country's ban on stem cell research and put an stop to dangerously unregulated uranium mining near the Grand Canyon on Day 1 is an incredibly reassuring step in the right direction... We do have hope that he will, over time, get us going in the right direction again...

Not the usual playing-not-to-lose, gritted-teeth, I-know-all-politicians-are-assholes, but maybe try to actually get something done in the first couple days before you completely sell out, kind of begrudging "hope" some people sometimes have in their candidates. I'm talking a whirlpool, sunbeam calm of "I recognize this guy as an actual human being - an incredibly intelligent and compassionate one at that - and I'm honestly not scared like I used to be." type of hope.

we have hope we have hope we have hope we have hope we have hope we have hope...

Take a moment to actually analyze this guy's policies, his positions, the people around him. I swear to you he is not right/left. I think maybe this guy is for you too...

[pawpaw]

THANKS CAMILLE  :)

[ycartrob]

I was talking to a conservative friend of mine who said, "It's a shame this election was decided solely on race." I said, "Why, all of a sudden, do you think it's a shame this election was decided on race when every presidential election in the history of our nation was decided on race?" He did not answer, but he laughed and got my point rather quickly. (even though Hillary would have won, or Edwards, etc...)

What Obama and all who voted for him have put into motion cannot be stopped by any partisan politcs from either side.

Liberty and Justice for all.

[red]

[Angry Ewok]

I love the Pokemon battle.

[AMightyCaporal]

Wow- that pokemon battle was intense! great find!