There are quite a few photos in recent news stories of his visit to his grandmother. The one photo that evokes my empathy for his pain follows....
Looking at this picture I am reminded that Obama took his first steps on his historical journey to the presidency in a neighborhood most of America doesn't want to live in. Dilapidated fences with makeshift repairs, utility poles about to keel over and no manicured lawns in sight.
Yet, here is our future President, taking a somber walk through his old stomping grounds, wearing sandals and jeans - just like the rest of us would be when visiting home. I'm certain that secret service was never far behind. However, I am touched to my core that he walks these streets unafraid to be seen there, unpretentious and reflective.
Much has been said of his love for his beloved Toot and I don't feel the need to elaborate further. This photo speaks volumes about Obama's core beliefs. He understands our plight because he has walked those streets.
What more could we want in a President?
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The latest bile from William Kristol:
Still, we hope for a McCain-Palin victory, for the sake of the country. And also for the pleasure of seeing the dejection of the mainstream media, the incredulity of the leftwing triumphalists, and the humiliation of the pathetically opportunistic "conservatives" who've been desperately clambering on board the Obama juggernaut. We're proud to stay off that juggernaut.
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The Lord of the Flies climate
"She is a diva. She takes no advice from anyone," said this McCain adviser, "she does not have any relationships of trust with any of us, her family or anyone else. Also she is playing for her own future and sees herself as the next leader of the party. Remember: divas trust only unto themselves as they see themselves as the beginning and end of all wisdom."
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Steven D is not amused by the Christian Right's Dark Obama Fantasy.
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More of Palin's alleged record of reform disintegrates upon inspection - this time pipeline cronyism.
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The NYT has a very helpful piece today on Sarah Palin's theology. Hint: we have the possibility of a witchcraft-believing, earth-purifying theocrat in the White House and they won't even respond to questions about it.
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Norm Coleman mails "rape" comic book to Minnesota's children.
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Robert Gates must go: http://www.boomantribune.com/story/2008/10/25/111244/15
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Quenching the Thirst for a Better America: http://www.commondreams.org/view/2008/10/25-0
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'John McCain Was Never Tortured in My Jail', says Tran Trong Duyet - Leo Lewis in Hanoi http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2008/10/25-1
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This week Matt Stoller served up the Sierra Club's dish on Senator Gordon Smith's massive veggie-packing business. Senator Smith's very own Smith Frozen Foods takes in sewage from Weston, Oregon, and spreads the sewage water on the veggies they grow, pack, and ship off to your supermarket's freezer. Smith Frozen Foods must love them their E Coli: they've even blessed us with E Coli in the packing plants' water supply.
Kinda like carrying coals to Newcastle, but using stool instead.
Keep reading: http://firedoglake.com/2008/10/25/gordon-smiths-menu-for-america-eat-sht-and-die/
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Mormons have donated 40% of the cash to stop gay marriage in California. You might think that Mormons would be more tolerant than others toward nontraditional marriage practices, since their antecedents practiced polygamy for more than a century after the church was founded in the 1830s. And it still goes on today in splinter groups like the FLDS.
The fact that many mainstream Mormons are embarrassed by their polygamous heritage makes their activism in California appear not only intolerant and mean, but also clueless. Entangling themselves in another group's struggle for the right to marry is bound to bring comparisons with their own.
Even so, the good guys are winning the money race, but just barely. With just 10 days to go before the vote, the no-on-8, pro-gay marriage side has raised $31.2 million. But anti-gay forces are nearly even, with $27.5 million.
Update: under relentless pressure from the Courage Campaign and NO activists, the Mormon Church has closed its Utah call centers they were using to lie to Californians about Prop 8.
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Does Palin support the aerial hunting of witches?
From Talk2Action: - read the whole thing. OMG.
On July 13, 2008, at a conference held at a church in Everett, Washington, a suburb of Seattle, Mary Glazier told top leaders of the New Apostolic Reformation that at the age of twenty four, a young Wasilla, Alaska woman had joined Glazier's prayer group which was later to become the Alaska "spiritual warfare network". Mary Glazier is the Alaska Director of the Global Apostolic Prayer Network, originally founded in 1990 as the "Spiritual Warfare Network".Gov. Palin's witch-fighting network had it's first big success in Alaska, five years later, when they took on a witch who worked in the Alaska State Prison System. Here's how Gov. Palin's witch-fighting mentor, Mary Glazier, describes their victory:
As we continued to pray against the spirit of witchcraft, her incense altar caught on fire, her car engine blew up, she went blind in her left eye, and she was diagnosed with cancer.
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Showing signs of starvation as salmon runs faltered up and down the west coast, Puget Sound's Orca population lost seven of its number over the past year, bringing the population to just 83, anxious scientists reported Friday.
The development marks the biggest reduction in the Orca population since a series of bad chinook salmon seasons in the 1990s battered the killer whales' numbers.
Revealing the degree to which the Orcas are interrelated to a far-flung marine ecosystem, the collapse of California's Sacramento Valley chinook run seems likely to be partly to blame for declining killer whale numbers, said Ken Balcomb, founder of the Center for Whale Research on San Juan island.
The same fishery collapse off the California and Oregon coasts shut down salmon fishing this year for humans, too. - seattle pi
I think we need some more studies on this. Perhaps Exxon could help.
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Today Bush held a signing ceremony for the accords for Albania and Croatia to join NATO, saying, "May the stories of Albania and Croatia be a light to those who remain in the darkness of tyranny." Yes, I'm sure people who remain in the darkness of tyranny comfort each other by whispering tales of Albania and Croatia.
His Irrelevancy also went to the National Security Agency today. "We have been here at NSA, which is on the front line of protecting the American people." If by "front line," you mean a building in Maryland where they listen to your phone calls and read your emails.
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Grand Larceny - crickets chirping
Chaos in the financial system may translate into better than expected bonuses for Wall Street.
Yes, you read right. While the outlook is pretty grim, at least compared to last year's $33.2 billion bonanza, compensation consultants expect a 30% to 50% decline in payouts this year, but billions will still flow.
http://abcnews.go.com/Business/IndustryInfo/story?id=6105795&page=1
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Bad news for the lunatic fringe: http://www.balloon-juice.com/?p=12903
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More of the people we get to share this country with.
I wonder if all those Joe Sixpacks who are planning to vote for John McCain because their pappy didn't fight in World War II so they could vote for a nigra (sic), and who love Sarah Palin ever think while they're screaming at Republican rallies about tax cuts for "lazy people on welfare" that Alaska is the biggest welfare state in the country.
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Ladies, they're onto us
Geniuses at the National Review Online have figured out what's behind women's criticisms of Sarah Palin: "the collective grief, shame, and guilt from personal involvement in the abortion of an unborn child."
Hmm. I've never had an abortion and never performed one. So I guess I dislike her for different reasons.
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John McCain received nearly $7 million in 6,652 donations that exceeded contribution limits while seeking the Republican presidential nomination, the Democratic National Committee said on Saturday.
The DNC listed the figure in a complaint it said it will file on Monday with the Federal Election Commission. The Republican National Committee filed a similar complaint on October 5, alleging Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama had not done enough to weed out illegal contributions. http://www.reuters.com/article/politicsNews/idUSTRE49O1UJ20081025
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Alaska knows Palin best, and their largest newspaper has endorsed Obama: http://www.adn.com/opinion/story/567867.html
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US-Iraq deal dead in the water: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/iraq/article5014584.ece
4,187 soldiers killed in Iraq; 622 in Afghanistan.
4,048 of those deaths occurred after Mission Accomplished.
15 soldiers are wounded for every fatality.
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