Obama’s First One Hundred Daze
[ Comments Off ]Posted on April 11, 2009 by admin in Politics
Saturday, April 11th, 2009Is Obama our hope for the future, or has he pledged himself to Satan?
Clearly, we haven’t even reached the traditional 100 day marker of a new administration, but personally, I border on feeling like I was chumped again. Don’t get me wrong, I in fact voted for the man. And I believe in my gut that he’s a good person, with good values. Which is why I’m concerned. He’s only 47 years old, and swimming in a shark tank of Washington insiders. Talking to a friend the other day, we agreed that maybe Obama needs to get all FDR on their ass, so to speak. Jon Stewart recently made light of the conservative media’s desperate assertion that Obama’s a tyrant. But in a way, I think we need a tyrant. Not a demented, imperialistic fiend like Dick Cheney, but a single, solid voice that will speak about what we all know is the right thing, and galvanize the heart of our country. In the meantime, if the Obama administration doesn’t stop being more like the Bush administration than the Bush administration was – by doing things like expanding the Bush era State Secrets doctrines (it started in January, and is only getting worse) – I’m gonna have to start believing the hype about Obama’s pledges to Satan. Never mind his bowing to Saudi King Abdullah, I’ll accept that as a simple protocol gaffe, one that hardly compares with the kind of crap Prince Philip pulls on a regular basis. But seriously, what do you think? Can Obama handle the current state of affairs?
Same Oldbama?
[ 1 Comment ]Posted on March 15, 2009 by admin in Politics
Sunday, March 15th, 2009Is Obama The Next Jimmy Carter?
On occasion recently I’ve missed the simple message of terror and paranoia served up on a regular basis by the Bush administration. At least you felt like you knew where things stood. Although I got a definite kick out of the Democratic Party’s brief dalliance with making Rush Limbaugh the new GOP leader, it ultimately just smacks of politics as usual, and as a friend of mine pointed out yesterday, a candidate isn’t likely to get elected in this country unless they’re playing pretty nice with the existing (and frankly corrupt) Washington bureaucracy. All of which leaves me a little disillusioned; although my gut tells me that Barack Obama is a good man with good intentions, can those good intentions survive in the cesspool that is our nation’s capitol (and guidance from a guy like Rahm Emanuel who offers parenting advice like this), or will Obama end up being another Jimmy Carter?
Does Obama Have A Message?
[ Comments Off ]Posted on February 23, 2009 by admin in Politics
Monday, February 23rd, 2009I still have lots of Hope but I’m running out of Change
Like many, I was deeply moved by Barack Obama’s inauguration speech. In spite of this, I can’t at this moment remember a single word of what he said. And this troubles me slightly, in spite of my mild disdain for the sound-bite-centered language of the era we live in. I’ve recently been reading Words That Work
Keeping An Eye On Obama
[ 5 Comments ]Posted on January 26, 2009 by admin in Politics
Monday, January 26th, 2009Well, the Bush administration started off with heart surgery and pretzel-induced faceplants, and went out in a wheelchair hot on the tail of a shoe toss. So what can we expect of our new president? Well, his first potential gaffe (bungling the oath a little) was actually not his fault, and they took care of [...]
Well, the Bush administration started off with heart surgery and pretzel-induced faceplants, and went out in a wheelchair hot on the tail of a shoe toss. So what can we expect of our new president? Well, his first potential gaffe (bungling the oath a little) was actually not his fault, and they took care of that right away. Otherwise, his mere presence has inspired hope and patience in millions (watch and read about the Purple Tunnel of Doom if you haven’t), and his transition into power has had an air of dignity and statesmanship that has been missing for awhile. His greatest concern now should be the millions of people like you and me, who took him at face value, and have a new-found hope in the future. Like any politician, he made a lot of promises to get our vote, and I for one will be keeping an eye on him, especially since he managed to disappoint and anger me before I was even able to cast my vote for him. To help you keep track of the myriad promises he’s made (around 500 to be specific), check out PolitiFact’s Obamameter, where they track them by categories like No Action, In the Works, Stalled, Promise Kept, Compromise, or Promise Broken. No word yet if they’re going to track the Obama’s fisting behavior.
New WhiteHouse.gov: Spiffier Than Joe Biden’s Teeth!
[ Comments Off ]Posted on January 21, 2009 by admin in Politics
Wednesday, January 21st, 2009It’s kind of refreshing in a way to look for old Bush press information and encounter the image at left. The Obama administration didn’t waste a second hitting the “Delete” button and getting new content on the White house web site yesterday. I’m excited by the prominence of the message that “WhiteHouse.gov will be a [...]
It’s kind of refreshing in a way to look for old Bush press information and encounter the image at left. The Obama administration didn’t waste a second hitting the “Delete” button and getting new content on the White house web site yesterday. I’m excited by the prominence of the message that “WhiteHouse.gov will be a central part of President Obama’s pledge to make his the most transparent and accountable administration in American history“, and the fact that the administration’s Director of New Media Macon Phillips had a blog post up the first day is encouraging. However, contrary to this Wired.com article’s perception of all the technical genius going on, my inauguration day experience with technology was a little frustrating. I don’t have regular TV, so often watch things like this on line. When I visited the CNN live feed, even though it queued me up before I got an active stream, I thought it was pretty cool that I could see my friends “live blogging” (even though I seemed to be the only person I know who LOVED Aretha’s hat) since I had recently been logged into FaceBook. That is, until the second time I commented on the stream, when the video died. Rather than wait in line again at CNN, I fired up my Joost account, only to find it couldn’t connect. I eventually went to the Joost home page (Hulu was having seizures too) and got a solid stream. Until about 5 minutes into the speech, at which point it just sputtered out completely, so I switched on NPR (and people wonder why I’m such a late adopter with technology. Puh!) In any case, I couldn’t be more enthused about the changey hopey, and I’m glad there seems to be enough humor in this new administration that maybe we’ll have more things like joebidensteeth.com. Smile everybody! It’s a new era!