Showing posts with label Barack Obama. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Barack Obama. Show all posts

April 14, 2009

Wonkette for the win


The new BFFs. [Click for bigger.] Photo by Chief White House Photographer — and American of Portuguese descent — Pete Souza.

Money quote [bowdlerized version]:




Hmm let’s see should Obama maybe not 100% please every [gosh-darned] animal fanatic in America or should he just look right into Ted Kennedy’s eyes — yes this is the same Ted Kennedy currently dying of brain cancer — and say, “You know, Ted, I just don’t want your [darn] dog, right?”

From the totally not PG-rated Rescue-Dog Fanatics Hope Obama Will Kill Ted Kennedy’s Elitist Water Dog over at Wonkette, via the most excellent YesBiscuit!

February 2, 2009

"Sounding Black"

Listen to Tony Award winning actress and playwright Sarah Jones talk with linguist John McWhorter about code switching, Barack Obama's blaccent, black English and southern English: ten minutes that warm a language-lover's ear.




Produced by Studio 360's Derek John. H/T: Jack & Jill Politics.

January 20, 2009

Edited to add:

Patrick was there. O.M.G. Visit Terrierman for the deets. I hope his feet thaw out OK.


Also: I forgot to post sources for the photos in the previous post. The wonderful thumbs-up shot is from Danielle Belton's The Black Snob. More from the Snob [I love this photo so much I could just diiieeeee]:


All the other photos in the previous post [and the small photo above] were liberated from the most excellent Spanish news site El País. Check out their photos of Inauguration Day here.

Inauguration Day Photos

"As for our common defense, we reject as false the choice between our safety and our ideals." President Obama

Just a few. Oh, and the White House web site features a new look, a new agenda and a new blog.













Didn't think I'd live to see the day. Yay us!

Inauguration Day 2009





Related posts:
Yes
Election Day 2008

January 18, 2009

The New Patriot Act: Go to the Pound

Dear President Obama,

Here is a list of the first 10 things you should do as president:

1. Fly to the White House in a helicopter.
2. Walk in.
3. Wipe feet.
4. Walk to the Oval Office.
5. Sit down in a chair.
6. Put hand-sanitizer on hands.
7. Enjoy moment.
8. Get up.
9. Get in car.
10. Go to the dog pound.

Chandler Browne, age 12, Chicago

More advice for the new president here.

Patrick [Terrierman] went to DC and reports that the crowds were much smaller than anticipated. Kidding!


Read Terrierman's report here.

The TVs at work better be ready Tuesday morning, is all I can say.

January 14, 2009

November 30, 2008

Vetting


New Yorker cover by Barry Blitt. Click for bigger.

OMG I love this. [Good eye, you out there! Yes, Mr. Blitt is the same illustrator who gave us the controversial fist-bump cover.] From MediaBistro, via HuffPost.

November 8, 2008

I LOL'ed


From The Root, where you'll find some terrific writing from Henry Louis Gates Jr., Alice Walker and others, in a special section in honor of our President-Elect.

November 4, 2008

Election Day 2008: Fanfare for the [un]common man




















Give a listen to Aaron Copeland's Fanfare for the common man, performed by the United States Marine Band. From the collection of the Library of Congress — good music to vote by.

October 28, 2008

"Charles Alexander, Born 1922, Meets Obama"

Hat tip: the most excellent Jack & Jill Politics.





From a related thread over at the Daily Kos:
You Have No Idea How Nice Charlie really is...

So I have had the pleasure of living and playing in the Boulder area for over 6 years now. One of my first jobs was working in the historic Hotel Boulderado, and one of the first people I met there was Charlie Alexander. He was a staple in the lobby and ran the vintage elevator for anyone who dared to use it. He would tell anybody and everybody who was within earshot about the stories of his life. He was like a walking history lesson for us ignorant youth. As expected I moved on from the service industry, and sadly lost touch with most of the people at the Boulderado, including Charlie. Now I see this and am crying in my office because this is such a touching story, and because it makes me think of how he used to talk about his wife. Like she was a goddess, as I am sure she was to him. So there is a little more local color about Boulder's Charlie Alexander.
Peace and Love,
B~

October 25, 2008

Come down off that ledge, Selma!


B-Rock's birth cert. Click for big.

Selma, as we both know, you can't cure stupid. For instance, there will always be people who are convinced that Barack Obama is an Arab terrorist. Along similar lines, there will always be people convinced that "pit bulls" pose a unique threat [and by "pit bulls" these poor souls mean all dogs of maybe two dozen breeds, and mongrels that resemble one of those breeds]. Gosh, there's even a
highly aggressive behaviour unique to pit bulls, not exhibited by any other type or breed of dog
which is, um, about as truthful and accurate as Barack Obama's "birth certificate" from Kenyatown, Kenya, shown at the top of this post.

Furthermore,
pit bulls have a tendency to be unpredictable and [...] even apparently docile pit bulls may attack without warning or provocation.
Sweet Jebus. Nope, you can't cure stupid. The Ontario [Canada] Court of Appeals decision [the one stating that a ban on "pit bulls" will somehow protect Canadians from dog bites] is total, absolute, unadulterated batshit craziness. But change will come. Judicial batshitocity will eventually be revealed for the ignorant, bigoted nonsense it is, and "pit bulls" will survive their detractors. Remember the Netherlands...!

From the mixed-up files of the court of FUBAR —

Salem Village, Massachusetts, 1692: nineteen convicted witches are executed; at least four women accused of witchcraft die in prison; a four-year-old girl is accused of witchcraft and imprisoned for eight months; an elderly man is pressed to death; and two dogs are executed — hanged — as suspected accomplices of witches. Witchcraft hysteria comes to a screeching halt when the governor's wife is rumored to be a witch and the governor says, "You people? Are insane. Go home."

Fast forward to 2008 -- Salem is the Wicca capital of the known universe. Witch City.

Washington, D.C., 1857: Chief Justice Roger Taney rules that once and future slave Dred Scott is shit out of luck, since he has no standing to sue for his freedom in federal court.
[U]nder the terms of the U.S. Constitution, blacks were not — and never could be — citizens of the United States. At the time of the Constitution's ratification, Taney wrote, blacks were "regarded as beings of an inferior order, and altogether unfit to associate with the white race, either in social or political relations; and so far inferior, that they had no rights that the white man was bound to respect; and that the negro might justly and lawfully be reduced to slavery for his own benefit."
Fast forward to 2008: the black guy is going to win the election for president. Also: pit bulls will survive.

West Coast of the U.S., 1942: Civilian Exclusion Order No. 346 states that all people of Japanese ancestry, whether citizens or non-citizens, are to report to assembly centers, where they will live until being moved to permanent "Relocation Centers." The L.A. Times editorializes:
A viper is nonetheless a viper whenever the egg is hatched - so a Japanese American, born of Japanese parents - grows up to be a Japanese, not an American.
Fast-forward to 2008: the L.A. Times has endorsed Obama for the presidency, Muslim dad [and Kenyatown birth cert] notwithstanding.

Pit bulls will survive the Ontario nightmare. Pit bulls will survive because the culture of fear and ignorance is circling the drain, and because more and more smart, principled people own pit bulls and know them and love them. C'mon inside now, Selma -- we'll have some tea, hug the dogs, take yoga breaths and look at FrogDog's puppy photos.

[Huge, huge thanks to Selma -- Caveat -- for her tireless efforts on behalf of justice and basic sanity north of the border. Elle a besoin d’être consolée.]

Related:

Ohio

Child killed by dog in Ontario, Canada

Other BSL posts

June 4, 2008

Yes

You can order this print here [if there are any left. I ordered mine back on May 23rd, yay me].

From Andrew Sullivan's most excellent blog:
A reader writes:

Tomorrow I will go to the African American cemetery outside of Chicago where my great-grandparents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, friends, neighbors, and my mother and father are buried. And I will tell them that they were right -- that if we studied hard, worked hard, kept the faith, fought for justice, prayed, that this day would come.

And it has.

April 4, 2008

Don't sleep

How'd I miss this? From the NY Times:
On Jan. 31, Derrick Ashong, a 32-year-old musician, dropped off his pal, Shaunelle Curry, at the Democratic primary debate taking place at the Kodak Theater in Hollywood. After shrugging off her suggestion that he join her in carrying a sign for Barack Obama outside the theater — his band was leaving on tour the next day — he reconsidered and walked back to join her.

Carrying a sign saying “¡Sí, se puede!” (Yes, we can!), he joined a throng that was milling around in the background of the live CNN shot focused on the anchor Wolf Blitzer. Then a guy named Mike carrying a video camera came walking by and began peppering Mr. Ashong with a series of skeptical and very pointed questions.

“So why are you for Obama?” he asked. It was clear from his approach that he expected a dimwitted answer, an expectation that he was about to talk to another acolyte smitten by Senator Obama’s rock star persona.




The young man in the video is musician Derrick Ashong. Take a listen to his follow-up:




Here's Derrick and his band Soulfège [heh -- nice name]. The song is a remix of a West African classic, and the video was filmed in Ghana -- Derrick does the second verse in three languages. Enjoy.



Hat tip to my cool cousin, also to Jack and Jill Politics.

March 18, 2008

Obama's Speech





From Andrew Sullivan's blog:
[T]his searing, nuanced, gut-wrenching, loyal, and deeply, deeply Christian speech is the most honest speech on race in America in my adult lifetime. It is a speech we have all been waiting for for a generation. Its ability to embrace both the legitimate fears and resentments of whites and the understandable anger and dashed hopes of many blacks was, in my view, unique in recent American history.

And it was a reflection of faith - deep, hopeful, transcending faith in the promises of the Gospels. And it was about America - its unique promise, its historic purpose, and our duty to take up the burden to perfect this union - today, in our time, in our way.

I have never felt more convinced that this man's candidacy - not this man, his candidacy - and what he can bring us to achieve - is an historic opportunity. This was a testing; and he did not merely pass it by uttering safe bromides. He addressed the intimate, painful love he has for an imperfect and sometimes embittered man. And how that love enables him to see that man's faults and pain as well as his promise. This is what my faith is about. It is what the Gospels are about. This is a candidate who does not merely speak as a Christian. He acts like a Christian.

Bill Clinton once said that everything bad in America can be rectified by what is good in America. He was right - and Obama takes that to a new level. And does it with the deepest darkest wound in this country's history.

I love this country. I don't remember loving it or hoping more from it than today.