Obama's Night

“An extraordinary time

© Bryan Zepp Jamieson
http://zeppcommentaries.com/
8/28/08

For people expecting a grand spectacle, tonight’s show in Denver might
have been something of a let down. Beijing’s Bird Nest had far more
entertainers, more lavish sets and backdrops, a bigger lightshow, and
fireworks that made any fireworks show seen in America look weak.

Even people just expecting it to be the fourth night of a political
convention would have been underwhelmed. There was lots of confetti, and
party stalwarts wearing looks of dumb adoration, and lots of real pretty
speechifying.

And yet, it was an utterly unforgettable event. There was a sense that
something completely out of the ordinary was happening, and that made
this much more than just a big political rally, or a half-game show.

I watched most of it on PBS, switching to Faux News immediately after
Obama’s speech. I caught only the tail-end of Al Gore’s speech, and a
brief speech by Joe Biden. Then came speeches from five ordinary people,
two of them former Republicans, explaining why they were supporting
Obama. PBS, to their credit, stayed with them, rather than pushing them
into a background sound while gasbags pontificated about what It All
Meant. One of the speakers, a fellow named Barney Smith, brought the
house down by remarking, “I want a government that will put Barney Smith
ahead of Smith, Barney.”

Then came the standard bio film, except that, like so many things about
Barack Obama, it wasn’t all that standard at all. Some relatives were
white. Some weren’t. Some were American. Some weren’t. But they were all
completely human, and worked to make Obama a fully realized person.

Then came the speech.

It was a good speech. Obama had wisely chosen not to give one of his
patented barn-burners, instead opting to detail the differences and
similarities between him and John McCain (“We ALL put country first!”)

The key word in the speech was “Enough!” Addressed to the Republicans,
it was stentorian. It was an indictment of how Republicans and their
rich owners have cheated America, debased American workers, humiliated
America around the world, and have the effrontery to whip around with a
smug smirk and say that they are the party of patriotic values.
“America,” Obama said, “is better than this.”

Turning his focus to McCain, Obama said, “Senator McCain likes to talk
about judgment, but, really, what does it say about your judgment when
you think George Bush has been right more than 90 percent of the time? I
don't know about you, but I am not ready to take a 10 percent chance on
change.”

A few minutes later, he got to the fundamental difference between the
plutocrats of the GOP, and average Americans. “We measure the strength
of our economy not by the number of billionaires we have or the profits
of the Fortune 500, but by whether someone with a good idea can take a
risk and start a new business, or whether the waitress who lives on tips
can take a day off and look after a sick kid without losing her job, an
economy that honors the dignity of work.” It’s true. Newspapers can’t
figure out why they are dying off in America (but not other places), but
they still devote far more ink to what Wall Street is doing rather than
how workers are doing.

Among his promises:

“I'll eliminate capital gains taxes for the small businesses and
start-ups that will create the high-wage, high-tech jobs of tomorrow. I
will cut taxes for 95 percent of all working families, because, in an
economy like this, the last thing we should do is raise taxes on the
middle class.”

“I will set a clear goal as president: In 10 years, we will finally end
our dependence on oil from the Middle East.”

“I will tap our natural gas reserves, invest in clean coal technology,
and find ways to safely harness nuclear power. I'll help our auto
companies re-tool, so that the fuel-efficient cars of the future are
built right here in America.”

“I'll invest $150 billion over the next decade in affordable, renewable
sources of energy -- wind power, and solar power, and the next
generation of biofuels – an investment that will lead to new industries
and 5 million new jobs that pay well and can't be outsourced.”

From there he scorched the GOP on economics and foreign policy, acidly
noting that you don’t defeat al Qaida in 80 countries by occupying Iraq,
and that McCain might be willing to chase bin Laden to the gates of
hell, but apparently not to his caves in Pakistan. Answering the GOP
charge that Dems are weak on defense, Obama said, “We are the party of
Roosevelt. We are the party of Kennedy. So don't tell me that Democrats
won't defend this country. Don't tell me that Democrats won't keep us safe.”

Foreseeing the GOP tactics to come, Obama said, “[If] you don't have any
fresh ideas, then you use stale tactics to scare voters. If you don't
have a record to run on, then you paint your opponent as someone people
should run from. You make a big election about small things.”

After the speech, I switched to Faux. They were playing their usual game
of criticizing from two directions at once, two of the “experts” saying
the speech as all flash and no substance, and the other two saying it
was policy wonk stuff with no excitement. But William Kristol, I
noticed, couldn’t restrain himself from characterizing it as a great
speech, and from saying this man would be extremely difficult for McCain
to beat.

As for McCain himself, he did something unexpected tonight: he showed
class and some humanity. He ran an ad, speaking directly to Obama,
congratulating him on the nomination, and noting that it was so
symbolic, not just to Obama but to all people, that he gave his
acceptance speech on the 45th anniversary of Martin Luther King’s “I
Have a Dream” speech. Then, with a wry smile, he said that they would
resume the fight tomorrow, but that tonight was Obama’s night, and
congratulated him again.

It was a class moment in a campaign that probably isn’t going to see
many of those.

After the speech, and before the bloviation, Faux News showed a young
couple. She stood, slightly misty eyed, head up, proud of Obama. He
stood behind her, arms around her, tears running down his cheeks, proud
and resolute.

It spoke volumes of the power Obama wields, and the potential he has to
either restore America to greatness, or destroy it.

Because, no matter what else you want to say about him, Barack Obama is
extraordinary.

Paul Krugman, The New York Times, August 29, 2008

My first reaction to Bill Clinton’s convention speech was sheer professional jealousy: nobody, but nobody, has his ability to translate economic wonkery into plain, forceful English. In effect, Mr. Clinton provided an executive summary of the new Census report on income, poverty and health insurance — but he did it so eloquently, so seamlessly, that there was no sense that he was giving his audience a lecture.

My second reaction was that in Mr. Clinton’s speech — as in the speeches by Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden (this column was filed before Barack Obama spoke on Thursday night) — one heard the fundamental difference between the two parties. Democrats say and, as far as I can tell, really believe that working Americans are getting a raw deal; Republicans, despite occasional attempts to sound sympathetic, basically believe that people have nothing to complain about.

As it happens, the numbers support the Democrats.

That Census report gives a snapshot of the economic status of American families in 2007 — that is, before the financial crisis started dragging the economy down and the unemployment rate up. It’s a given that 2008 will look much worse, so last year was as good as it will get in the Bush years. Yet working-age Americans had significantly lower median income in 2007 than they did in 2000. (The elderly, whose income is supported by Social Security — the program the Bush administration tried to kill — saw modest gains.) Meanwhile, poverty was up, and health insurance — especially the employment-based insurance on which most middle-class Americans depend — was down.

But Republicans, very much including John McCain and his advisers, don’t believe there’s a problem.

Read More Here

Robert Parry, Consortium News, August 28, 2008

In judging the shape of a future John McCain presidency, there are already plenty of dots that are easy to connect. They reveal an image of a war-like Empire so full of hubris that it could take the world into a cascade of crises, while extinguishing what is left of the noble American Republic.

McCain has made clear he would continue and even escalate George W. Bush's open-ended global war on Islamic radicals. McCain buys into the neoconservative vision of expending U.S. treasure and troops to kill as many Muslim militants as possible.

McCain's tough talk - for instance, his joking about "bomb, bomb Iran" and his vow to pursue Osama bin Laden "to the gates of hell" - is indistinguishable from Bush's "bring 'em on," "smoke 'em out," "dead or alive" rhetoric.

Beyond the words, McCain's global war strategy is as hawkish, if not more so, than Bush's. In late 2001 and early 2002, McCain took the lead in pushing the neocon plan of a rapid pivot from the invasion of Afghanistan toward the prospective invasion of Iraq.

Even before the Taliban had been thoroughly defeated - and as the Bush administration was failing to chase bin Laden to the gates of Tora Bora or to the gates of northwest Pakistan - McCain was advocating a diversion of U.S. intelligence and military assets toward Iraq's Saddam Hussein, who had nothing to do with 9/11.

That premature pivot from Afghanistan to Iraq may go down as one of the worst national security blunders in the history of the United States. It has bogged the U.S. military down in two indefinite wars while fueling anti-Americanism around the world and especially among the billion-plus Muslims.
Yet, McCain and his neocon allies have never acknowledged this serious error of judgment, nor has the mainstream U.S. news media demanded that McCain accept responsibility for this catastrophic mistake.

Read More Here

"Yes He Can..."

"But first we have to elect him."

© Bryan Zepp Jamieson
http://zeppcommentaries.com/
8/26/08

After Hillary’s speech last night, no reasonable person would conclude
that the Clintons weren’t on board for the 2008 presidential campaign.

That didn’t stop the far right, and the corporate media lickspittles who
give them artificial life in a country that hates them. So for the past
22 hours, we had been hearing about how Hillary wasn’t SPECIFIC enough
in her praise of Obama. Of course, if she had gotten into specifics, the
right would have put thousands of manhours into combing through every
public utterance she ever made in hopes of finding something she said
about Obama that might even be construed as slightly different from what
she said in the speech.

But, they whined, she could have said that about anyone who was the
party nominee. And of course, that’s exactly true. She said the things
that she said to show that she fully supported her party’s nominee.

Then Bill Clinton spoke tonight. The right was so busy watching for any
signs of a lack of party unity with Hillary they totally forgot that in
many ways, Bill’s voice in the party is even stronger than Hillary’s.

One reason for that is that they have spent years assuming that because
they hate Bill Clinton, everyone else must, as well. I just love
mentioning to them that on the day after the House impeached Bill
Clinton, his popularity was above 70%, and it stayed will above 55%
until he left office.

Bill Clinton was a strong president who brought America eight years of
relative peace, and an unparalleled economic boom, and people remembered
that.

So when Bill Clinton stood to address the convention, the applause
dwarfed the applause any other speaker, including Hillary, had gotten.
Obama will get a bigger round of applause when he steps to the mike
tomorrow, but he’ll also be in front of a crowd some twenty times
larger, too.

Bill Clinton doesn’t give speeches without specifics. The man has an
extraordinary genius, and he’s capable of rattling off long strings of
statistics and specifics, and give a detailed and comprehensive analysis
of just about anything relating to economics, politics, or strategy.

Even with only 18 minutes to speak, (six of which were eaten up by
raucous applause), he produced a long laundry list of things that Barack
Obama would have to address, to undo the immense damage George Putsch
and the neo-cons have done to America, and expressed the unwavering
conviction that Obama, with the help of Joe Biden, the Clintons, the
Democrats and most of America, was exactly the man to do it.

Clinton began his endorsement of Obama by saying, “Everything I learned
in my eight years as president, and in the work I have done since in
America and across the globe, has convinced me that Barack Obama is the
man for this job. [...] He has a remarkable ability to inspire people,
to raise our hopes and rally us to high purpose. He has the intelligence
and curiosity every successful president needs. His policies on the
economy, on taxes, on health care, on energy are far superior to the
Republican alternatives.”

...“he has shown a clear grasp of foreign policy and national security
challenges and a firm commitment to rebuild our badly strained
military.” It’s worth noting that Clinton not only nullified Saddam
Hussein, making him irrelevant save only for neo-cons who wanted control
of Iraqi oil, but the only war he fought was waged with no American
casualties, and rid the world of the vile reign of Slobodan Milosevic.
And he did far more in two years to try and capture bin Laden than
Putsch has managed in the seven years since bin Laden murdered 4,000
Americans.

“Barack Obama is ready to lead America and to restore American
leadership in the world.
Barack Obama is ready to honor the oath, to preserve, protect and defend
the Constitution of the United States. Barack Obama is ready to be
president of the United States.”

Bill, I think you’re holding back. Tell us how you REALLY feel.

“Yes, he can, but, first, we have to elect him”

OK. I think we can count Bill as being on board the Obama bandwagon.

Joe Biden spoke next, and, mindful of the nature of the creature he
hopes to replace, remarked, “no longer will the most dreaded words in
the English language be: 'The vice-president's office is on the phone.’”
Joe might have a penchent for shooting from the lip, but I doubt he’ll
actually shoot any six foot tall lawyers in orange hunting vests,
mistaking them for brown six ounce birds.

Beyond that, it was the sort of speech you would expect from the vice
presidential candidate. He doesn’t have to make nice like Obama, and so
spent a quarter hour or so cheefully dropping failure bombs on the heads
of Republicans in general and McCain in particular. Then Obama popped
his nose in and allowed as how he was generally happy with Biden, the
Clintons, the Democrats and the whole wide world, and the delegates
left, filled with cheerful resolve to get roaring drunk and boff their
brains out, that being what conventions are really for.

Tomorrow, of course, is the Obama speech. The Republicans have been
trying to ridicule the backdrop to his podium, which is supposed the
reproduce the Greco-Roman heroic architecture facing so popular in the
federal district. They are tying to pretend it’s meant to be Olympus,
and that Obama is trying to be Apollo.

They’re lucky I didn’t plan that backdrop. I know exactly what I would
have used as a model, knowing they would ridicule the pretentious
grandeur of it.

In fact, if any of them have any brains (and a few of them do) they
might want to run and make a quick check to make sure it isn’t modeled
after one of John McCain’s seven homes.

Hillary's Big Speech

She puts party and country first.

© Bryan Zepp Jamieson
http://zeppcommentaries.com/
8/26/08

About half way through her 30 minute speech at the convention tonight,
Hillary looked out over the sea of supporters in the arena – nearly but
not quite half the delegates there – and said, “Were you in this
campaign just for me?”

That was the exact moment that any worries I had that she would hold
back, perhaps vacillate just enough to leave doubts in the minds of her
supporters about going with Obama, that was the exact moment those
concerns vanished.

That was the moment she told her supporters that what it was about, what
it had always been about, was far more important than her.

The right had been pumping up the notion that Hillary might not only be
grudging in her praise of Obama, but might even openly sabotage him. A
couple of real dreamers imagined that she might try at the last minute
to turn the floor nomination process the following night into a real
vote, a real fight.

I wasn’t worried about that. If she had done something so stupid–and she
is not, by any stretch of the imagination, a stupid woman–she would have
been as big a pariah in the Democratic Party as Zell Miller or Joe
Lieberman. If she was seen in any way to be sabotaging Obama’s chances,
I think even many of her supporters would have turned on her.

But she is capable of subtlety, and I wondered if she might give a “I
come not to praise Caesar...” speech, delivering praise with just enough
of an edge, or a lack of fulsomeness, as to leave vague doubts. Nothing
where anyone could point at her and say, “You’re trying to make Obama
lose so you can run again in 2012", but enough.

Then she said, “Were you in this campaign just for me?” and I realized
that she had done the same calculation, and whatever lay in her heart of
hearts, she knew that her future, along with that of the Democratic
Party and the United States, lay with Barack Obama.

One of the most startling things about the speech was the reactions of
former President Clinton. He watched Chelsea introduce her mum with that
“I’m so proud of you, little girl” look that was on his face through
much of the campaign, and which he still wore as she began speaking. The
CSpan camera kept panning back to him for reaction shots, and normally
he has an array of expressions that the perfect attentive spouse wears
for such occasions: approval, mild amusement, sober consideration, and
of course, “I’m so proud of you.” What I didn’t expect to see were
expressions of surprise and open delight. I figured she probably had
practiced this, the most important speech of her political career, on
him a dozen times, and his biggest challenge would be to manage to look
interested.

I don’t think he knew exactly what she was going to say. Now, maybe I’m
wrong, and Bill Clinton really is that good an actor, but if I’m right,
then she decided to take this moment, one of the most challenging of her
life, and make it entirely her own.

That speaks very well of her as a person. With both Clintons, there is
always a sense of being unsure how much is genuine, and how much is the
work of a consummate politician, and tonight, I came to realize that
this moment, at this time and in this place, was as real as it gets, for
both of them.

Hillary, just by wearing a vague look at the right moment in the speech,
could have cost Obama several million votes. She could have done it in
such a way that no blame for a subsequent loss would blow back on her.

She didn’t do that.

The right wingers are already trying to paint her speech as a generic
concession speech, and saying that she could have given the exact same
speech no matter who the nominee might have been. Don’t be fooled. She
is going to give Obama here whole-hearted support.

She didn’t zero in on Obama as a person, because in 48 hours, Obama
himself will be doing that, in front of 75,000 at the Denver football
stadium, and hundreds of millions of people around the world. That will
be his moment, and she would have been wrong to steal any of his thunder.

She asked her followers, “Were you in this campaign just for me?” and
she expected them to say “no”. She HOPED they would say “no.”

Is she in this campaign just for Obama? Of course not. She in it for the
ideals of her party, and the future of her country. She’s there, not to
try to steal his show, but to support him.

It was a point that had the potential to be her finest moment. She lived
up to it.

And with that, the biggest potential block for Obama has been removed.

The Speech

I am honoured to be here tonight. A proud mother. A proud Democrat. A
proud American. And a proud supporter of Barack Obama.

My friends, it is time to take back the country we love.

Whether you voted for me, or voted for Barack, the time is now to unite
as a single party with a single purpose. We are on the same team, and
none of us can sit on the sidelines.

This is a fight for the future. And it's a fight we must win.

I haven't spent the past 35 years in the trenches advocating for
children, campaigning for universal healthcare, helping parents balance
work and family and fighting for women's rights at home and around the
world ... to see another Republican in the White House squander the
promise of our country and the hopes of our people.

And you haven't worked so hard over the last 18 months, or endured the
last eight years, to suffer through more failed leadership.

No way. No how. No McCain.

Barack Obama is my candidate. And he must be our president.

Tonight we need to remember what a presidential election is really
about. When the polls have closed, and the ads are finally off the air,
it comes down to you - the American people, your lives and your
children's futures.

For me, it's been a privilege to meet you in your homes, your
workplaces, and your communities. Your stories reminded me every day
that America's greatness is bound up in the lives of the American people
- your hard work, your devotion to duty, your love for your children and
your determination to keep going, often in the face of enormous obstacles.

You taught me so much, you made me laugh, and ... you even made me cry.
You allowed me to become part of your lives. And you became part of mine.

I will always remember the single mom who had adopted two kids with
autism, didn't have health insurance and discovered she had cancer. But
she greeted me with her bald head painted with my name on it and asked
me to fight for healthcare.

I will always remember the young man in a Marine Corps t-shirt who
waited months for medical care and said to me: "Take care of my buddies;
a lot of them are still over there … and then will you please help take
care of me?"

I will always remember the boy who told me his mom worked for the
minimum wage and that her employer had cut her hours. He said he just
didn't know what his family was going to do.

I will always be grateful to everyone from all 10 states, Puerto Rico
and the territories, who joined our campaign on behalf of all those
people left out and left behind by the Bush administration.

To my supporters, my champions - my sisterhood of the traveling
pantsuits - from the bottom of my heart: thank you.

You never gave in. You never gave up. And together we made history.

Along the way, America lost two great Democratic champions who would
have been here with us tonight. One of our finest young leaders,
Arkansas Democratic Party chair, Bill Gwatney, who believed with all his
heart that America and the south could be and should be Democratic from
top to bottom.

And congresswoman Stephanie Tubbs Jones, a dear friend to many of us, a
loving mother and courageous leader who never gave up her quest to make
America fairer and smarter, stronger and better. Steadfast in her
beliefs, a fighter of uncommon grace, she was an inspiration to me and
to us all.

Our heart goes out to Stephanie's son, Mervyn, Jr, and Bill's wife,
Rebecca, who traveled to Denver to join us at our convention.

Bill and Stephanie knew that after eight years of George Bush, people
are hurting at home, and our standing has eroded around the world. We
have a lot of work ahead.

Jobs lost, houses gone, falling wages, rising prices. The supreme court
in a right-wing headlock and our government in partisan gridlock. The
biggest deficit in our nation's history. Money borrowed from the Chinese
to buy oil from the Saudis.

Putin and Georgia, Iraq and Iran.

I ran for president to renew the promise of America. To rebuild the
middle class and sustain the American dream, to provide the opportunity
to work hard and have that work rewarded, to save for college, a home
and retirement, to afford the gas and groceries and still have a little
left over each month.

To promote a clean energy economy that will create millions of green
collar jobs.

To create a healthcare system that is universal, high-quality and
affordable so that parents no longer have to choose between care for
themselves or their children or be stuck in dead end jobs simply to keep
their insurance.

To create a world-class education system and make college affordable again.

To fight for an America defined by deep and meaningful equality - from
civil rights to labour rights, from women's rights to gay rights, from
ending discrimination to promoting unionisation to providing help for
the most important job there is: caring for our families. To help every
child live up to his or her God-given potential.

To make America once again a nation of immigrants and a nation of laws.

To bring fiscal sanity back to Washington and make our government an
instrument of the public good, not of private plunder.

To restore America's standing in the world, to end the war in Iraq,
bring our troops home and honor their service by caring for our veterans.

And to join with our allies to confront our shared challenges, from
poverty and genocide to terrorism and global warming.

Most of all, I ran to stand up for all those who have been invisible to
their government for eight long years.

Those are the reasons I ran for president. Those are the reasons I
support Barack Obama. And those are the reasons you should too.

I want you to ask yourselves: Were you in this campaign just for me? Or
were you in it for that young Marine and others like him? Were you in it
for that mom struggling with cancer while raising her kids? Were you in
it for that boy and his mom surviving on the minimum wage? Were you in
it for all the people in this country who feel invisible?

We need leaders once again who can tap into that special blend of
American confidence and optimism that has enabled generations before us
to meet our toughest challenges. Leaders who can help us show ourselves
and the world that with our ingenuity, creativity and innovative spirit,
there are no limits to what is possible in America.

This won't be easy. Progress never is. But it will be impossible if we
don't fight to put a Democrat in the White House.

We need to elect Barack Obama because we need a president who
understands that America can't compete in a global economy by padding
the pockets of energy speculators, while ignoring the workers whose jobs
have been shipped overseas. We need a president who understands that we
can't solve the problems of global warming by giving windfall profits to
the oil companies while ignoring opportunities to invest in new
technologies that will build a green economy.

We need a president who understands that the genius of America has
always depended on the strength and vitality of the middle class.

Barack Obama began his career fighting for workers displaced by the
global economy. He built his campaign on a fundamental belief that
change in this country must start from the ground up, not the top down.
He knows government must be about "we the people" not "we the favored few".

And when Barack Obama is in the White House, he'll revitalise our
economy, defend the working people of America, and meet the global
challenges of our time. Democrats know how to do this. As I recall,
President Clinton and the Democrats did it before. And President Obama
and the Democrats will do it again.

He'll transform our energy agenda by creating millions of green jobs and
building a new, clean energy future. He'll make sure that middle-class
families get the tax relief they deserve. And I can't wait to watch
Barack Obama sign a healthcare plan into law that covers every single
American.

Barack Obama will end the war in Iraq responsibly and bring our troops
home - a first step to repairing our alliances around the world.

And he will have with him a terrific partner in Michelle Obama. Anyone
who saw Michelle's speech last night knows she will be a great first
lady for America.

Americans are also fortunate that Joe Biden will be at Barack Obama's
side. He is a strong leader and a good man. He understands both the
economic stresses here at home and the strategic challenges abroad. He
is pragmatic, tough and wise. And, of course, Joe will be supported by
his wonderful wife, Jill.

They will be a great team for our country.

Now, John McCain is my colleague and my friend.

He has served our country with honor and courage.

But we don't need four more years ... of the last eight years.

More economic stagnation … and less affordable healthcare.

More high gas prices … and less alternative energy.

More jobs getting shipped overseas … and fewer jobs created here.

More skyrocketing debt ... home foreclosures … and mounting bills that
are crushing our middle-class families.

More war ... less diplomacy.

More of a government where the privileged come first … and everyone else
comes last.

John McCain says the economy is fundamentally sound. John McCain doesn't
think that 47m people without health insurance is a crisis. John McCain
wants to privatise Social Security. And in 2008, he still thinks it's
okay when women don't earn equal pay for equal work.

With an agenda like that, it makes sense that George Bush and John
McCain will be together next week in the Twin Cities. Because these days
they're awfully hard to tell apart.

America is still around after 232 years because we have risen to the
challenge of every new time, changing to be faithful to our values of
equal opportunity for all and the common good.

And I know what that can mean for every man, woman and child in America.
I'm a United States senator because in 1848 a group of courageous women
and a few brave men gathered in Seneca Falls, New York, many traveling
for days and nights, to participate in the first convention on women's
rights in our history.

And so dawned a struggle for the right to vote that would last 72 years,
handed down by mother to daughter to granddaughter - and a few sons and
grandsons along the way.

These women and men looked into their daughters' eyes, imagined a fairer
and freer world, and found the strength to fight. To rally and picket.
To endure ridicule and harassment. To brave violence and jail.

And after so many decades - 88 years ago on this very day - the 19th
amendment guaranteeing women the right to vote would be forever
enshrined in our Constitution.

My mother was born before women could vote. But in this election my
daughter got to vote for her mother for president.

This is the story of America. Of women and men who defy the odds and
never give up.

How do we give this country back to them?

By following the example of a brave New Yorker , a woman who risked her
life to shepherd slaves along the Underground Railroad.

And on that path to freedom, Harriett Tubman had one piece of advice.

If you hear the dogs, keep going.

If you see the torches in the woods, keep going.

If they're shouting after you, keep going.

Don't ever stop. Keep going.

If you want a taste of freedom, keep going.

Even in the darkest of moments, ordinary Americans have found the faith
to keep going.

I've seen it in you. I've seen it in our teachers and firefighters,
nurses and police officers, small business owners and union workers, the
men and women of our military - you always keep going.

We are Americans. We're not big on quitting.

But remember, before we can keep going, we have to get going by electing
Barack Obama president.

We don't have a moment to lose or a vote to spare.

Nothing less than the fate of our nation and the future of our children
hang in the balance.

I want you to think about your children and grandchildren come election
day. And think about the choices your parents and grandparents made that
had such a big impact on your life and on the life of our nation.

We've got to ensure that the choice we make in this election honours the
sacrifices of all who came before us, and will fill the lives of our
children with possibility and hope.

That is our duty, to build that bright future, and to teach our children
that in America there is no chasm too deep, no barrier too great - and
no ceiling too high - for all who work hard, never back down, always
keep going, have faith in God, in our country and in each other.

Thank you so much. God bless America and Godspeed to you all.

Joe Conason, The New York Observer, August 26, 2008

As the Democrats convene in Denver to celebrate Hillary Clinton and nominate Barack Obama, a minority of her supporters continues to behave petulantly. They whine, they bluster, they agitate themselves and each other. But what is it about Senator Clinton's repeated endorsements of her former opponent that they cannot understand? How do they honor her by undermining him?

No doubt many of her friends still feel robbed, months after her gracious concession. With considerable justification, they believe that their woman ought to be accepting the nomination of their party this week, rather than the man who took it from her. She certainly possesses the talent and experience to be a formidable national candidate, and during her life in politics she has worked very hard to earn that prize. She entered the campaign almost two years ago as a prohibitive favorite.

It is past time for the zealots to face honestly why she lost might have been hers. Her defeat cannot be blamed on outdated or unfair party rules, on the rhetorical manipulations of the Obama campaign or even on the reflexively hostile coverage of the Clintons in the mainstream media – because a competent campaign would have accounted for all those utterly predictable factors. Those angry donors and voters should be brandishing their pitchforks at the well-compensated consultants who wasted tens of millions of dollars without developing an inspirational theme or an effective plan.

Dwelling on blame, however, is not what Senator Clinton has urged her fellow Democrats to do.

To take her at her word—as those who constantly proclaim their devotion ought to do –means joining her behind the new Obama-Biden ticket. Rather than sulking over the slights and stupidities of the primary, she speaks about the disastrous implications of a Republican victory as well as the policies and values she holds in common with Senator Obama. Do the rejectionists think that her campaign speeches on his behalf are insincere – that when she says she wants him to win, she is being false? Such assumptions are an insult to her.

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Rabisco Pop!!!

Cóla la!!!

É só imprimir e se divertir!!!

.

.

.

.

Pinte mais:

Minnie Mouse

Conheça:

http://www.amoremminuscula.com.br/

Paul Krugman, The New York Times, August 24, 2008

So the Obama campaign has turned to the politics of personal destruction, attempting to make a campaign issue out of John McCain’s inability to remember how many houses he has. And the turn comes not a moment too soon.

Over the past month or so many Democrats have had the sick feeling that once again their candidate brought a knife to a gunfight. Barack Obama’s campaign, inexplicably, was unprepared for the inevitable Republican attack on the candidate’s character. By the middle of last week, Mr. Obama’s once formidable lead, both in national polls and in electoral college projections based on state-level polls, had virtually evaporated.

Mr. Obama’s waning advantage brought back bad memories of the 2004 campaign, whose key lesson was that there are no limits to the form G.O.P. character attacks can take.

You might think, for example, that a party claiming to support the troops would shy away from attacking a war hero’s military record — but back in 2004 the Swift-boat lies were enthusiastically embraced by Republican activists, and helped neutralize the advantage John Kerry was supposed to get from his biography.

And you might think that a party committed to tax cuts for the rich, a party that routinely castigates those who engage in “class warfare,” would shy away from attacking a Democrat for his wealth. But raw class envy played an important role in the attacks on Mr. Kerry, whom Rush Limbaugh described repeatedly as a “gigolo” with a “sugar daddy wife,” and G.O.P. supporters don’t seem to have experienced any cognitive dissonance.

It was predictable, then, that Mr. Obama would find himself on the receiving end of an all-out character attack, much of it nonsensical: he’s un-American because he vacations in Hawaii, where his grandmother lives? It was also predictable that responding by repeating what a great guy the candidate is, or denouncing the attacks as unfair, would be ineffective.

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Biden His Time

No flash but some substance... and an ability to fight.

© Bryan Zepp Jamieson
http://zeppcommentaries.com/
8/23/08

I haven’t been too impressed by all the hoopla over who the candidates
pick as their running mates. While the media will fulminate endlessly
over What It All Means, and say that Obama picked Biden for his
experience, or his gravitas, or because John McCain already had a date,
the reckonings will matter for little.

I greeted the news that Joe Biden had gotten the nod with a
jaw-splitting yawn. Biden was the safe choice, and in many ways the most
obvious choice. I would have liked to have seen someone more leftist on
the ticket, someone more activist in nature, say a John Edwards or a
Bill Richardson, but Biden does have a lot of Washington experience,
especially in foreign policy, and he can fight like a badger when he
needs to.

Tickets get in trouble when they pick VP candidates who are interesting.
Nixon won despite Spiro Agnew, and McGovern lost, in part, because of
the medical history of the unfortunate Eagleton. The presence of
Lieberman on the ticket probably drove 100,000 or so voters to Ralph Nader.

It’s the (comparatively) low key policy wonks in the number two slot who
do the most good. Reagan probably wouldn’t have won in 1980 without
George Bush, and Gore was central to the overall success of the Clinton
administrations.

Even in a losing cause, a solid, feisty running mate can be memorable.
Lloyd Bentsen will be remembered for his debate with the hapless Dan
Quayle for many years after anyone is able to recall a single line from
any of Walter Mondale’s speeches.

There was a cartoon strip that ran in papers a few days before the
Kennedy assassination. The gist of it was that nobody knows who the Vice
President is, and when told, the foil character slaps his head laughing
and says, “Oh, THAT’S right!” The role of the vice president had been to
stay the hell out of the way, keep a very low profile (except during
campaigns) and wait for the President to die. The notion of a “balanced
ticket” came from the earliest days of party politics, when the runner
up at the convention often became the VP candidate in order the keep the
two main factions happy. This usually led to more-or-less united
political parties led by two men who couldn’t stand one another. In the
past 40 years, as primaries became a major vehicle for selecting
candidates and conventions changed from party fights to coronations, the
notion of a “balanced ticket” came to mean a ticket that could appeal to
diverse demographics. If the main candidate was a liberal from the NE,
then you got a moderate from the south to “balance” it out. Election
results did little to suggest that this actually worked, but it was
conventional wisdom, and like much conventional wisdom, impervious to
reality.

I’ve never had anyone say to me, “I wasn’t going to vote for that guy,
but then he picked so-and-so as his running mate.” A ticket can be hurt
by a bad choice, of course, but usually not significantly so. Dan Quayle
virtually defined the term “idiot”, and Bush still won in ‘88.

Veeps not only bided in anonymity, they usually were considered
expendable. Presidents would swap out the number two man every four
years or so–FDR went through three Veeps before deciding on Harry Truman
in ‘44. One of the men widely rumored to have been an FDR vice president
at one point, John Nance Garner, once famously observed that the job
wasn’t worth “a pitcher of warm spit.” Up until then, vice presidents
became known only if the president died while in office, or if they shot
someone themselves (no, Dick Cheney wasn’t the first vice-president to
shoot someone).

The job changed in 1993, when Clinton gave Al Gore oversight over
reducing the size of the federal government (something Gore achieved
stunning success at) and a fairly active role in preparing
administration policy.

In the Putsch junta, of course, it’s completely topsy-turvy. Putsch sits
around waiting for the vice president to die so he can take over, and in
the meantime, the vice-president, the vile Dick Cheney, sits behind the
curtain, pulling levers and running the smoke and light machines. Cheney
is one of those type of people who, like Vladimir Putin, evokes a
visceral revulsion and dislike in people. If you meet him, you don’t
want to shake his hand; you want to throw large rocks at him. Some
people wondered vaguely why the GOP wanted a hapless moron like Putsch,
and a slimy, reptilian sort with no visible charm like Cheney as their
ticket, and the inverted roles, like all the American values and
institutions that the GOP has corrupted and inverted, required
completely new roles. Putsch was there to provide enough charm to cover
for the unelectable Cheney, and persuade enough gullible fools that he
was a friendly moderate.

Hopefully, things will change after this election. McCain, should he be
elected, will probably be the actual president, and not an embarrassing
puppet. And the vice president will probably be relegated to drinking
warm spit and waiting for McCain to die.

With Joe Biden, though, there probably is some good news. The ticket is
balanced, although with a glorious disregard for the south. Assuming
that McCain goes for Romney or some other midwesterner, this might be
the first time since about 1952 that the major parties haven’t had a
mush-mouf on either ticket. Biden does provide a counter to the claims
that Obama lacks foreign policy experience (he has more than McCain and
Obama combined) and he’s mature and relatively moderate. What he isn’t
is just another damned centrist trying to placate the implacable right.
He tends to the middle from personal belief, rather than political
cowardice. Nor can Obama be accused of picking Biden in order to pick up
electoral votes; Delaware was already a dark blue color on the electoral
map. Nor did Obama look for an ideological “balance”; they voted the
same way 91% of the time.

I don’t agree with everything in Biden’s senate career. He presided over
the Bork and Thomas hearings, which were disasters. He was for the war
back in 2002, although has since come to his senses. On the other hand,
his stances on such things as Vladimir Putin, abortion, middle eastern
policy, and human rights all mark him as one of the good guys.

He’s not an exciting choice, but he’s a solid choice. He may not help
the ticket, but he certainly won’t hurt it.

Frank Rich, The New York Times, August 24, 2008

As the real campaign at last begins in Denver this week, this much is certain: It’s time for Barack Obama to dispatch “Change We Can Believe In” to a dignified death.

This isn’t because — OMG! — Obama’s narrow three- to four-percentage-point lead of recent weeks dropped to a statistically indistinguishable one- to three-point margin during his week of vacation. It’s because zero hour is here. As the presidential race finally gains the country’s full attention, the strategy that vanquished Hillary Clinton must be rebooted to take out John McCain.

“Change We Can Believe In” was brilliantly calculated for a Democratic familial brawl where every candidate was promising nearly identical change from George Bush. It branded Obama as the sole contender with the un-Beltway biography, credibility and political talent to link the promise of change to the nation’s onrushing generational turnover in all its cultural (and, yes, racial) manifestations. McCain should be a far easier mark than Clinton if Obama retools his act.

What we have learned this summer is this: McCain’s trigger-happy temperament and reactionary policies offer worse than no change. He is an unstable bridge back not just to Bush policies but to an increasingly distant 20th-century America that is still fighting Red China in Vietnam and the Soviet Union in the cold war. As the country tries to navigate the fast-moving changes of the 21st century, McCain would put America on hold.

What Obama also should have learned by now is that the press is not his friend. Of course, he gets more ink and airtime than McCain; he’s sexier news. But as George Mason University’s Center for Media and Public Affairs documented in its study of six weeks of TV news reports this summer, Obama’s coverage was 28 percent positive, 72 percent negative. (For McCain, the split was 43/57.) Even McCain’s most blatant confusions, memory lapses and outright lies still barely cause a ripple, whether he’s railing against a piece of pork he in fact voted for, as he did at the Saddleback Church pseudodebate last weekend, or falsifying crucial details of his marital history in his memoirs, as The Los Angeles Times uncovered in court records last month.

Read More Here

Steve Benen, CBS News, August 23, 2008

The event on the steps of the old Illinois Capitol wrapped up a little while ago, and we got a chance to see Barack Obama and Joe Biden, side by side, for the first time. Other than Biden referring to Obama as "Barack America" at one point, it seemed to go off without a hitch. (If you're going to screw up Obama's name, I have to say, "Barack America" is probably the least problematic way to do it.)

Obama's introduction suggested a genuine affection for Biden, and Obama told a story about Biden's background that a lot of people may not have known.

"... he picked himself up, worked harder than the other guy, and got elected to the Senate -- a young man with a family and a seemingly limitless future."Then tragedy struck. Joe's wife Neilia and their little girl Naomi were killed in a car accident, and their two boys were badly hurt. When Joe was sworn in as a Senator, there was no ceremony in the Capitol -- instead, he was standing by his sons in the hospital room where they were recovering. He was 30 years old."

"Tragedy tests us -- it tests our fortitude and it tests our faith. Here's how Joe Biden responded. He never moved to Washington. Instead, night after night, week after week, year after year, he returned home to Wilmington on a lonely Amtrak train when his Senate business was done. He raised his boys -- first as a single dad, then alongside his wonderful wife Jill, who works as a teacher. He had a beautiful daughter. Now his children are grown and Joe is blessed with five grandchildren. He instilled in them such a sense of public service that his son, Beau, who is now Delaware's Attorney General, is getting ready to deploy to Iraq. And he still takes that train back to Wilmington every night. Out of the heartbreak of that unspeakable accident, he did more than become a Senator -- he raised a family. That is the measure of the man standing next to me. That is the character of Joe Biden."

Obama added, "Joe Biden is what so many others pretend to be -- a statesman with sound judgment who doesn't have to hide behind bluster to keep America strong." I can't imagine who he might have been referring to.

Read More Here

Paul Krugman, The New York Times, August 22, 2008

Last weekend, Pastor Rick Warren asked both presidential candidates to define the income at which “you move from middle class to rich.” The context of the question was, of course, the difference in the candidates’ tax policies. Barack Obama wants to put tax rates on higher-income Americans more or less back to what they were under Bill Clinton; John McCain, who was against the Bush tax cuts before he was for them, says that means raising taxes on the middle class.

Mr. Obama answered the question seriously, defining middle class as meaning an income below $150,000. Mr. McCain, at first, made it into a joke, saying “how about $5 million?” Then he declared that it didn’t matter because he wouldn’t raise anyone’s taxes. That wasn’t just an evasion, it was a falsehood: Mr. McCain’s health care plan, by limiting the deductibility of employer-paid insurance premiums, would effectively raise taxes on a number of people.

The real problem, however, was with the question itself.

When we think about the middle class, we tend to think of Americans whose lives are decent but not luxurious: they have houses, cars and health insurance, but they still worry about making ends meet, especially when the time comes to send the kids to college.

Meanwhile, when we think about the rich, we tend to think about the handful of people who are really, really rich — people with servants, people with so much money that, like Mr. McCain, they don’t know how many houses they own. (Remember how Republicans jeered at John Kerry for being too rich?)

The trouble with Mr. Warren’s question was that it seemed to imply that everyone except the poor belongs to one of these two categories: either you’re clearly rich, or you’re an ordinary member of the middle class. And that’s just wrong.

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http://elouai.com has separate "fully clothed" dollmakers as "step-by step" dollmakers for both girls and boys. It's more time consuming compared to www.faceyourmanga.com, but it's great to spend a bit of time on if you haven't got anything to do at work for an hour (if that happens at all, and you are connected).

It's pretty easy: you just pick your gender, and if you took the "step-by-step" dollmaker you just browse all the pages (and sometimes sub-pages where stuff can be color-organised) and click something to try on: tops, bottoms, backgrounds, hairs, eyes, mouths; etc...

You can also "lock" items on the right in case you want to re-use something, like for example if you tried something and aren't too happy about it, instead of browsing back along the many pages, you can just click on the clotheshanger-symbol to lock it in your temporary "closet".

On top of that clotheshanger-symbol you can also "save" 3 complete pictures: there's 3 boxes showing a disk and an arrow right above the big box where you're working in. The disk of course saves whatever is currently shown in that big box, and the arrow will replace whatever you're working on with your previously saved work.

I tried both versions ("step-by-step" and "fully clothed") and you can't take a saved picture from one version into the other. I preferred the "step-by-step" version, since it offers the biggest level of customizations, but the body just "stands".
The "fully clothed" version on the other hand offers sitting and leaning bodies and several other body positions, but you can only tweak the face a bit here.

When you're completely satisfied, you can save your picture in PNG, GIF or JPEG format, or send it as an e-card.
Tip: when you send it as an e-card, it'll open in a new page, and there's an "edit" box right above the ipcture, so, if you still wanna use the same appeareance, ubt with diffirent clothing > this is a neat option!

Here's #1 made with the "step-by-step" version:

And #2 made with the "fully clothed" version:

Links:
"step-by-step" Girl Dollmaker
"step-by-step" Boy Dollmaker
"fully clothed" Girl Dollmaker
"fully clothed" Boy Dollmaker

There are a couple other "create your ..." toys aswell, but I didn't try those (yet).

Right now, thanks to some friends on Flickr I just discovered a small site where you could create a manga figure of yourself (or anybody).

It takes about half an hour to completely style and tweak the character, and looks simple "slick"!

When finished, you need to enter your email and it'll send you your picture in JPEG format. You can also "buy" a printed version if you have PayPal.

Here's mine:

Make your own at www.faceyourmanga.com

Here's what ended up looking like a senior class photo...

Too bad my senior photos didn't look this good... LOL... in speaking of which... where are my senior class photos?  x_x

Well, anyway... this ends my art spree for the day.  How much did I draw? ... I don't even know.  I'll be back tomorrow with more words than pictures. :)

Nite.  

In our short years we come long way 
To treat it bad and throw away 
And if we make a little space 
A science fiction showcase 
In our short film, a love disgrace 
Dream a scene to brighten face 
In our short years we come long way 
To treat it bad, just to throw it away

Sorry things ended the way they did... I had to do it.

I guess I'm on a roll today with the artsy-fartsy stuff lol.  I dunno what's gotten into me, but, I guess I'll take advantage of it while the perk is still around.  Drawing helps me relax... but of course it does the opposite if I do things "wrong"  haha.

I'm trying to figure out what to draw next. I'm actually skimming through photos I have on my laptop and on Facebook... I'm even looking through friends' photo albums for ideas... LOL.  So, if you happen to see yourself on here, or someone that resembles a photo... yeah, lol. =P  You know who got it... lol

Then I've been reading some great comments from all perspectives, and I'm less certain that its a great and wonderful thing. I still think its good but I have some reservations. Dazed and Confused has a really valuable summary, and links to some blogs with follow-up.

Because I posted such a huge rant on Dazed's blog I'm going to re-use and expand it here...

RAF not being available to some countries is a real slight to those areas, and I can understand exactly how they feel. They feel ignored and like 2nd class clients (try getting an authenticator in Australia and you'll feel the same).

The points made by Be-Nameless in particular are really valid, and got me re-thinking the issues. IMHO Blizzard is cropping the legs from the power-leveling services in the same manner in which they created so many daily quests so that gold farmers would have less appeal. And that is good.

It is shameful however that a mechanism is not present to allow the folks who are already leveling slowly to continue their progression at an increased rate. These people signed up earlier, and have less benefits than recent arrivals. They're the ignored middle child between the Mature Raider and the New Player.

So what is the solution?

Offer the increase in leveling to all toons 20-60, regardless of their recruit a friend status. If these people have only one character they'll be happy, and might get into tBC before Wrath is released. If they already have 70s, then this is Alts anyway, and therefore won't negatively impact the player base, or increase server load. More toons adds more options in group role composition.

Then again why even offer the 3x XP at all? The previous XP increase was already pretty sweet, and the teleport to each other is a nice boon to speed co-op play. In fact the teleport is the feature that makes the most sense to me! It is perfect for casuals doing co-op and there should be more options for this style of co-op play (its an MMOG afterall). I know it might make the world "smaller", but you don't get through 60 levels in WoW without seeing it as a reasonably big place. C'mon be realistic.

Another purported failing of the new RAF is that players will get to level 60 without really knowing their class. What utter rubbish. There are already players at level 70 that can't tell the difference between a Warlock and a Mage, so this won't make them any stupider. It may increase the amount of idiots at level 58-60 in Outland looking for group, granted. I can see how that might be true.

But I can also see how if you're so dull-witted that you can't learn the basics of your class while going solo to 60, then a bit more speed won't change anything. Solo leveling is totally different to group leveling, and if you group-up you get challenged more and hopefully learn more. And RAF actually encourages group play; that is a good thing folks.

Lasting the +1 per 2 levels is odd. That's the boost for helping a mate play; a nice little extra. Except its not a little extra like the new mount, its friggin huge. A free level 30 with no actual action is bloody amazing. And I say that as I can't see past the benefit to myself to understand if this is fair at all. I like it too much to have any kind of neutral perspective.

I plan to wrought the system to the hilt; in case they realise how good this actually is and take it away. Sorry, but at heart I have a selfish streak.