Life in the 21st century
Nov 04 2008
Congratulations to Barack Obama, the 44th President of the United States and the first African-American to hold the title, Leader of the Free World.
This is a day of pride for all Americans. We can finally look past race and see the measure of the person running for office.
Nov 04 2008
I just saw this one for the first time. Super Barack Obama takes on the forces of evil.
Too funny.
Nov 04 2008
If you have a chance, go to CNN and watch the candidates vote live. I know it’s just a gimmick, but it’s cool to see them at the machines.
By the way, Obama took way to long to be voting the straight party ticket. Good for him!
Nov 03 2008
The news came out of Hawaii today that Barack Obama’s grandmother passed-away this morning:
HONOLULU (AP) — Barack Obama’s grandmother, whose personality and bearing shaped much of the life of the Democratic presidential contender, has died, Obama announced Monday, one day before the election. Madelyn Payne Dunham was 86.
Obama announced the news from the campaign trail in Charlotte, N.C. The joint statement with his sister Maya Soetoro-Ng said Dunham died peacefully late Sunday night after a battle with cancer.
They said: “She was the cornerstone of our family, and a woman of extraordinary accomplishment, strength, and humility. She was the person who encouraged and allowed us to take chances.”
Obama learned of her death Monday morning while he was campaigning in Jacksonville, Fla. He planned to go ahead with campaign appearances. The family said a private ceremony would be held later.
My deepest sympathies to Senator Obama and his family on their loss. It is a shame she came so close to seeing her grandson make history.
Nov 03 2008
During a radio interview with Ann Compton today, Barack Obama had this to say:
COMPTON: If you are elected, you’ve made a lot of campaign promises; you can’t keep most of those. Maybe not even if you had a rubber stamp Democratic Congress. Can you?
OBAMA: Well, I think that we are not going to get everything done all at once, because of this financial crisis that’s going to require a lot of attention, a lot of resources.
Not just money, but staff time thinking about how do we right the ship. And so, it means that some priorities may get deferred, but the core commitments that I’ve made in this campaign — changing the tax code so that middle-class families are getting more of a break, initiating the kind of investment in clean energy that we have to have to deal not only with the economy and climate change and our national security, making sure that our health care system is controlling costs and providing better care for people, improving our education system — those four domestic items will get done.
Of course, he is not going to get everything done right away, but I don’t like the sound of this. It sounds like the building of excuses even before he is elected. He is saying that there is such a mess it, you can’t expect it to be fixed. That already sounds like Washington spin to me. Why not set targets, goals, or time lines? Why not say what he will accomplish in the first months. Why not raise expectations?
I though we are going to have change with Obama, not more political rhetoric. I thought we were going to see a new way of doing business in Washington. I thought we could expect:
Here’s to hoping for better in 2012!
Nov 03 2008
This video of Barack Obama discussing his approach to coal power has created quite a stir in the news today. Here is the video:
How is the coal industry reacting to this news on the eve of the election? Not well:
COLUMBUS, Ohio, Nov. 3 /PRNewswire–USNewswire/ — Mike Carey, president of the Ohio Coal Association (OCA), today issued the following statement in response to just-released remarks from Senator Barack Obama about the nation’s coal industry.
“Regardless of the timing or method of the release of these remarks, the message from the Democratic candidate for President could not be clearer: the Obama-Biden ticket spells disaster for America’s coal industry and the tens of thousands of Americans who work in it.
“These undisputed, audio-taped remarks, which include comments from Senator Obama like ‘I haven’t been some coal booster’ and ‘if they want to build [coal plants], they can, but it will bankrupt them’ are extraordinarily misguided.
“It’s evident that this campaign has been pandering in states like Ohio, Virginia, West Virginia, Indiana and Pennsylvania to attempt to generate votes from coal supporters, while keeping his true agenda hidden from the state’s voters.
“Senator Obama has revealed himself to be nothing more than a short- sighted, inexperienced politician willing to say anything to get a vote. But today, the nation’s coal industry and those who support it have a better understanding of his true mission, to ‘bankrupt’ our industry, put tens of thousands out of work and cause unprecedented increases in electricity prices.
I’m not sure if “bankrupting” is the correct way to go here. I like the idea of a reducing our dependence on greenhouse emissions but, bankrupt the coal industry? Yikes.
Nov 01 2008
There is a new and interesting development in the Barack Obama saga. The latest news, his aunt may be living illegally in this country:
WASHINGTON – Barack Obama’s aunt, a Kenyan woman who has been quietly living in public housing in Boston, is in the United States illegally after an immigration judge rejected her request for asylum four years ago, The Associated Press has learned.
Zeituni Onyango, 56, referred to as “Aunti Zeituni” in Obama’s memoir, was instructed to leave the United States by a U.S. immigration judge who denied her asylum request, a person familiar with the matter told the AP late Friday. This person spoke on condition of anonymity because no one was authorized to discuss Onyango’s case.
How does that happen? What does it mean?
Onyango’s refusal to leave the country would represent an administrative, non-criminal violation of U.S. immigration law, meaning such cases are handled outside the criminal court system. Estimates vary, but many experts believe there are more than 10 million such immigrants in the United States.
OK, so it’s not a criminal court case, but it is still illegal. I bet the McCain camp is going to have a field day with this one. This has been a rough night for the Obama.
Only 4 more days of this madness then we can get back to worrying about our jobs again.
Nov 01 2008
There has been quite a bit of speculation that Barack Obama was born outside of the US and not a natural born US citizen; making him ineligible to hold the office of President of the United States. That issue appears to be settled now:
HONOLULU — State officials say there’s no doubt Barack Obama was born in Hawaii.
Health Department Director Dr. Chiyome Fukino said Friday she and the registrar of vital statistics, Alvin Onaka, have personally verified that the health department holds Obama’s original birth certificate.
Frankly, this makes me happy. Can you imagine the mess we would have if they determined he was NOT eligible to be President?
Oct 30 2008
The ratings are in for Barack Obama’s infomercial last night and they are big:
More than 30 million people watched the Barack Obama “infomercial” last night at 8 across multiple broadcast and cable networks.
According to early ratings, about 30.1 million watched “Barack Obama: American Stories” on CBS, NBC, Fox and Univision.
That has to make the Obama camp very happy. Was the ad effective? I guess we will find out on Tuesday. You can watch the show on YouTube and I’ve included the first segment here.
It’s too bad the McCain camp didn’t have the money produce their own infomercial; it would have been interesting to compare the two.
Oct 30 2008
Two funny videos from the Daily Show with John Stewart. First, the Obama interview:
Second, his bit on Obamania:
Good stuff.
