I just saw this awesome CNN special Obama Revealed showing clips from his childhood etc, and luckily found it on Youtube. The user has the complete one-hour special broken into 7 parts. BTW- They're doing one on Palin and Biden soon... these people work fast!



( The Other 6 Clips )

The dramatic Clint Mansell music is a bit much, but pay attention to the numbers and the commentary:



The other night, I was at my Mom's house and my 14 yr old brother said in this real serious voice, "I hope we don't have more wars 'cause I have an older brother, and I'll be eighteen in four years, and I could get sent over there to get shot."
I don't know where that came from because neither I nor my Mother have ever said anything like that to him, but it made me feel sick.

That's when I realized this is much bigger than my personal reasons for my politics. There are actual lives at stake here, and if this keeps going, those lives could be my brother, or my husband, or my son.

It makes mo so worried.

Statement of U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer on the McCain Acceptance Speech
For Immediate Release
September 5, 2008

Last night at the Republican National Convention, John McCain used the word "fight" more than 40 times in his speech.

In the 16 years that we have served together in the Senate, I have seen John McCain fight.

I have seen him fight against raising the federal minimum wage 14 times.

I have seen him fight against making sure that women earn equal pay for equal work.

I have seen him fight against a women's right to choose so consistently that he received a zero percent vote rating from pro-choice organizations.

I have seen him fight against helping families gain access to birth control.

I have seen him fight against Social Security, even going so far as to call its current funding system "an absolute disgrace."

And I saw him fight against the new GI Bill of Rights until it became politically untenable for him to do so.

John McCain voted with President Bush 95 percent of the time in 2007 and 100 percent of the time in 2008 -- that's no maverick.

We do have two real fighters for change in this election -- their names are Barack Obama and Joe Biden.

Hey, mods, can we get one of those countdown icons on the community's home page?

CNN just reported that searched for Sarah Palin online have been the highest of any political personality in three years. The anchor said this as though it were a good thing. Is it just me, or does it seem that this proves how little anyone knows about her, and how desperate they are to find out? The GOP flung this stranger into our midst, someone who could potentially end up the president. Of course we're gonna Google her. This is actually encouraging, because it means a lot of people are utilizing the net to do their own research, and that makes me happy.

Look closely

from McCain's Speech:

"We believe everyone has something to contribute and deserves the opportunity to reach their God-given potential from the boy whose descendents arrived on the Mayflower to the Latina daughter of migrant workers. We're all God's children and we're all Americans."

Now for something completely different! (A post about Obama, lol)

From CNN Political Producer Alexander Marquardt

TERRE HAUTE, Indiana (CNN) – Since leaving their convention in St. Paul, Minnesota, John McCain and Sarah Palin have tried to cast themselves as mavericks, Washington outsiders, the real agents of change.

Barack Obama isn’t buying it and wants the label for himself.

“Everywhere I go we’ve been talking about change, that’s been the theme of this campaign,” Obama told supporters in a show barn in Indiana. “And we must be on to something, because I notice now everyone’s talking about change now.”

“Suddenly [McCain’s] the change agent!” Obama laughed. “He says, “I’m going to tell those lobbyists that their days of running Washington are over.” Who’s he going to tell? Is he going to tell his campaign chairman who’s one of the biggest corporate lobbyists in Washington? Is he going to tell his campaign manager who was one of the biggest corporate lobbyists in Washington? Is he going to tell all the folks who are running his campaign who are the biggest corporate lobbyists in Washington?”

“Who is it that he’s going to tell that change is coming?” he added, “I mean come on, they must think you’re stupid!”

Obama said Thursday that he’ll focus on McCain because he’s running against McCain and not his running mate Sarah Palin. But Saturday Obama singled out Palin for the first time for flip-flopping on earmarks while governor of Alaska.

“She is a skillful politician,” said Obama, “but when you’ve been taking all these earmarks when it is convenient and then suddenly you’re the champion anti-earmark person, that is not change, come on. I mean, words mean something. You can’t just make stuff up. You can’t just make stuff up.”

The McCain campaign shot back saying that Obama is all talk.

“Barack Obama has requested the equivalent of one million dollars in new pork barrel spending for every working day he's been in the U.S Senate,” wrote McCain spokesman Tucker Bounds in an e-mail to reporters. “While John McCain has never once asked for an earmark, and Governor Palin has vetoed hundreds of millions in government spending including killing the infamous 'bridge to nowhere'.

When a former Republican asked the Illinois senator if he would welcome ‘converts’ like him, Obama took the opportunity to accuse McCain of hypocrisy.

“I have to say, when John McCain says in his [acceptance] speech that he wants to reduce the rancor in Washington and I’m thinking, did you pay attention to the last two days of your convention?” Obama chuckled, “were you not watching? Did they not get the memo?”

“When it starts getting personal, when you start just focusing exclusively on trying to tear the other person down instead of what you are going to do on behalf of the American people to deal with this economy, then that’s not serving Democrats, that’s not serving Republicans, that’s not serving anybody.”

There's an interesting article at time.com that questions whether or not Palin's addition to the McCain ticket will really draw in all the evangelical voters, like they hope it will. It points out that many younger evangelicals are not so gung-ho on the idea of removing books from public libraries, discouraging birth control, etc. To read it, click here.

Here's a question for you: On this same subject, I'm curious to know if you're religious in an evangelical sense, do you feel yourself somewhat sympathetic to Sarah Palin's views on matters like birth control, etc.? I was raised evangelical myself, specifically as a Southern Baptist, but it's been a long time since I was able to take seriously the very strict notions not only about religion, but their wider-reaching views about many aspects of life and politics. As we know, Obama's own religion is rather conservative in many respects, but at the same time is open to accepting people regardless of their sexual orientation, politics, and so on.

LJ friend dawn_again has created some kick-ass Obama wallpaper (the background borrowed from Deviant Art) that she encourages me to share with everyone. To see it or download it, click here. It's huge, so for wallpaper on Windows, click to center it, rather than tiled.

I don't think this has been posted yet. I saw it on Kos a little while ago.



And here's the ( text )

Please pass on these voter registration sites that cover all states. Re-post them in your own LJ and other blogs, newswletters, etc. It's amazing to think that after all these months of campaigning, the election is now only eight weeks off! Voter registration deadlines almost everywhere are only four weeks off, at the most. And remember to be registered at your current address, so you might need to re-register.

Here you go:

Project Vote Smart

Rock the Vote

NOTE: If you're living out of the country and will still be gone on Election Day, use
Federal Voting Assistance Program.

Every vote counts!

Go Obama!

I just watched the 9/11 "Tribute" video shown at the RNC for the first time...all I can say is WTF?

I was a senior in a Seattle high school on 9/11. I remember my Mom alerting me to the attacks around 6:30am and seeing a split screen on CBS with the two towers burning on the left and the Pentagon on fire on the right. I saw video of people jumping out of the towers rather than be burned alive, my teachers at school in tears, fear of attacks in Seattle (and in fact bin Laden originally had Seattle and LA on his hit list for that day but didn't have the money to support a West Coast version of the attacks), teaching basically brought to a halt as tv and radios were on, and the computers were being used to access the latest info. I also remember when I first got to school seeing a girl crying because she thought family were on one of the planes mentioned. I'll never know if that girl in fact lost family or not.

Republican Party...I've had enough of your fear-mongering. You've got no new ideas, you've ran this country terribly and have used nothing but personality, patriotism and fear to hold on to power. I'm so tired of this. Every time I look at the Republican Party i see hatred, fear and darkness. There's no hope, no optimism, no light...all are perceived as signs of weakness. All they can do is scare us into trying not to accept trying to move on and actually make things better. We're supposed to look back at 9/11 and commemorate those who died and look to a better future. I didn't see hope, all I saw was abuse..."It won't happen again (see planes smashing into buildings, building falling to the ground, bloodied up people, etc) because McCain will protect us". Disgusting. And the revision of history "It's a war we never chose to fight"...like the terrorists just decided one day to start fighting America just for kicks.

To remind you...every time you watch those buildings fall and those planes explode into them...you're watching people die and die violently. But well...the Republican Party already knows that. That's the point.

Performers: The Gyronauts - Tash, Sean, and Laura
Music: "Yeah" by LCD Soundsystem
Where: Bedford Avenue, New York, NY
URL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZJ3HhCxC6wg

Just for funnies.. A friend of mine, who is a libertarian and won't be voting for either obama or mccain, woke up this morning with a limerick fully-formed in her head. It's about sarah palin:
There once was a lady named Palin
Who as a VP Nom was failin'
She liked to ban books,
And stand up for crooks,
but ignore that her daughter's been nailin'.

Just wanted to share. :)

McCain's invitation to "Fight with me!" in his acceptance speech brings up strange images for me. Maybe I've seen "The Fight Club" a couple of too many times.