Wouldn't It Be Cool If US CEOs Were Like This

via videosift.com
3 minutes

Waiting in line to buy lunch is a bit much. His time is still worth maybe ~1 million USD a year in terms of the productivity he brings to the economy, even if he declines the paycheck.

Obviously he disagrees. His behavior says that he knows he's no more valuable than his other employees, that without them his company couldn't function, but without him, it'd probably get on just fine. And that is something that US CEO's refuse to accept.



What is disgusting, is when CEOs continue to ramp up their pay while slashing jobs and wages all over a company. They continue to give themselves pay rises, and those of their close lackeys, but make life horrible for those in the lower rungs of the company. THAT is not right. If the company is falling on hard times, it is usually to do with poor leadership, so there is no justifiable reason why they should be getting more money.

Perhaps slashing his salary to such a low level that he is starting to have financial issues himself isn't the best idea, as it may divert his attention from his job of getting the company back on track, but not giving himself pay rises is indeed the right move.

Fabled Enemies - Full Movie

1 hour 42 minutes


The trailer was posted August 11, 2008

Bush Bums A Cup of Coffee - He's Broke Too - Paulson Gets The Bill

2 minutes

The video speaks for itself.
Citibank, here's a bag of money.
Who else wants a bag of money.
We've got plenty of bags of money just lying around.

Look at Paulson's face. Something is going on that the people are not being told about.

Now if the lastest news is to be believed - this is what Citibank are now doing.

According to a “Notice of Change in Terms and Right to Opt Out,” set in hard-to-read, tightly spaced mouse type that Citibank mailed out last week:

All of your APRs may increase if you default under the Card Agreeement that you have with us because you fail to make a payment to us when due (even though we may have waived the late fee), you exceed your credit line, or you make a payment to us that is not honored.

In these circumstances, we may automatically increase your APRs (including any promotional APRs) on all balances to the Default APR, which equals the Prime Rate plus up to 23.99% or up to 29.00%, whichever is greater.

Twenty-nine percent? Twenty-nine percent!! Do the math (which you can do with the interest rate calculators at Bankrate.com.) At that rate, if you were $5,000 in the hole and gave the collectors at Citibank or any credit card company $128 a month to pay down the loan, it would take you ten years and cost you over $15,000 clear your debt.

Obama's Weekly Address - The Economy

4 minutes
Nov 22nd 2008

Transcript

Kennedy said there should be no secrets.

I have just finished watching the movie 13 Days on TV.
It is about Kennedy and Krushchev as they battled and manipulated over Cuba in 1962.
They brought the world to the brink of war.
Krushchev blinked and Kennedy won.

Kennedy also said that there should be no secrets. (video)
Its a pity that George Bush does not listen to Kennedy.


2 minutes

Bush is snubbed at the G-20 meeting

1 minute

CNN's Rick Sanchez Reports on Bush being ignored at G20 Summit - Funny, and deserved.

What if Obama chooses Hillary for Secretary of State

Jonathan Freedland on the pros and cons of Hillary Clinton becoming US secretary of state

3 minute video - This is from the UK.
I cannot seem to embed this video.
The rumours are running wild that Hillary [Clinton]
will be Secretary of State.
Obama has not made his decision yet.
At least he has NOT announced it.
We need to STOP second guessing his decisions.

Obama's first post-election press conference

part 1


part 2


part 3

Text of President-elect Barack Obama's FIRST Post Election Press Conference held on November 7th.


OBAMA: Thank you very much, everybody. Thank you very much.

This morning, we woke up to more sobering news about the state of our economy. The 240,000 jobs lost in October marks the 10th consecutive month that our economy has shed jobs. In total, we’ve lost nearly 1.2 million jobs this year, and more than 10 million Americans are now unemployed.

Tens of millions of families are struggling to figure out how to pay the bills and stay in their homes. Their stories are an urgent reminder that we are facing the greatest economic challenge of our lifetime, and we’re going to have to act swiftly to resolve it.

Now, the United States has only one government and one president at a time. And until January 20th of next year, that government is the current administration.

I’ve spoken to President Bush. I appreciate his commitment to ensuring that his economic policy team keeps us fully informed as developments unfold. And I’m also thankful for his invitation to the White House.

Immediately after I become president, I’m going to confront this economic crisis head on by taking all necessary steps to ease the credit crisis, help hardworking families, and restore growth and prosperity.

And this morning, I met with members of my transition economic advisory board, who are standing behind me, alongside my vice president-elect, Joe Biden.

They will help to guide the work of my transition team, working with Rahm Emanuel, my chief of staff, in developing a strong set of policies to respond to this crisis. We discussed in the earlier meeting several of the most immediate challenges facing our economy and key priorities on which to focus in the days and weeks ahead.

First of all, we need a rescue plan for the middle class that invests in immediate efforts to create jobs and provide relief to families that are watching their paychecks shrink and their life savings disappear.

A particularly urgent priority is a further extension of unemployment insurance benefits for workers who cannot find work in the increasingly weak economy.

A fiscal stimulus plan that will jump-start economic growth is long overdue. I’ve talked about it throughout this — the last few months of the campaign. We should get it done.

Second, we have to address the spreading impact of the financial crisis on the other sectors of our economy: small businesses that are struggling to meet their payrolls and finance their holiday inventories; and state and municipal governments facing devastating budget cuts and tax increases.

We must also remember that the financial crisis is increasingly global and requires a global response.

The news coming out of the auto industry this week reminds us of the hardship it faces, hardship that goes far beyond individual auto companies to the countless suppliers, small businesses and communities throughout our nation who depend on a vibrant American auto industry.

The auto industry is the backbone of American manufacturing and a critical part of our attempt to reduce our dependence on foreign oil.

I would like to see the administration do everything it can to accelerate the retooling assistance that Congress has already enacted. In addition, I have made it a high priority for my transition team to work on additional policy options to help the auto industry adjust, weather the financial crisis, and succeed in producing fuel-efficient cars here in the United States of America.

And I was glad to be joined today by Governor Jennifer Granholm, who obviously has great knowledge and great interest on this issue.

I’ve asked my team to explore what we can do under current law and whether additional legislation will be needed for this purpose.

Third, we will review the implementation of this administration’s financial program to ensure that the government’s efforts are achieving their central goal of stabilizing financial markets while protecting taxpayers, helping homeowners, and not unduly rewarding the management of financial firms that are receiving government assistance.

It is absolutely critical that the Treasury work closely with the FDIC, HUD, and other government agencies to use the substantial authority that they already have to help families avoid foreclosure and stay in their homes.

Finally, as we monitor and address these immediate economic challenges, we will be moving forward in laying out a set of policies that will grow our middle class and strengthen our economy in the long term. We cannot afford to wait on moving forward on the key priorities that I identified during the campaign, including clean energy, health care, education and tax relief for middle-class families.

My transition team will be working on each of these priorities in the weeks ahead, and I intend to reconvene this advisory board to discuss the best ideas for responding to these immediate problems.

Let me close by saying this. I do not underestimate the enormity of the task that lies ahead. We have taken some major action to date, and we will need further action during this transition and subsequent months.

Some of the choices that we make are going to be difficult. And I have said before and I will repeat again: It is not going to be quick, and it is not going to be easy for us to dig ourselves out of the hole that we are in.

But America is a strong and resilient country. And I know we will succeed, if we put aside partisanship and politics and work together as one nation. That’s what I intend to do.

With that, let me open it up for some questions. And I’m going to start right here with you.

Q: Thank you, Mr. President-elect. I wonder what you think any president can accomplish during their first 100 days in office to turn the economy around? How far can you go? And what will be your priorities on day one?

OBAMA: Well, I think that a new president can do an enormous amount to restore confidence, to move an agenda forward that speaks to the needs of the economy and the needs of middle-class families all across the country.

I’ve outlined during the course of the campaign some critical issues that I intend to work on.

We have a current financial crisis that is spilling out into rest of the economy, and we have taken some action so far. More action is undoubtedly going to be needed. My transition team is going to be monitoring very closely what happens over the course of the next several months.

The one thing I can say with certainty is that we are going to need to see a stimulus package passed either before or after inauguration.

We are going to have to focus on jobs, because the hemorrhaging of jobs has an impact, obviously, on consumer confidence and the ability of people to … buy goods and services and can have enormous spillover effects.

And I think it’s going to be very important for us to provide the kinds of assistance to state and local governments to make sure that they don’t compound some of the problems that are already out there by having to initiate major layoffs or initiate tax increases.

So there are some things that we know we’re going to have to do, but I’m confident that a new president can have an enormous impact. That’s why I ran for president.

Q: (OFF-MIKE) from House Democrats that the stimulus package may be in trouble, that it’s going to be a hard time getting out of a lame-duck session. Are you still confident that you would be able to get something done before you actually take office?

OBAMA: I want to see a stimulus package sooner rather than later. If it does not get done in the lame-duck session, it will be the first thing I get done as president of the United States.

Q: Senator, for the first time since the Iranian revolution, the president of Iran sent a congratulations note to a new U.S. president. I’m wondering if, first of all, if you responded to President (Mahmoud) Ahmadinejad’s note of congratulations and, second of all, and more importantly, how soon do you plan on sending low-level envoys to countries such as Iran, Syria, Venezuela, Cuba, to see if a presidential-level talk would be productive?

OBAMA: I am aware that the letter was sent. Let me state … repeat what I stated during the course of the campaign.

Iran’s development of a nuclear weapon I believe is unacceptable. And we have to mount an international effort to prevent that from happening.

Iran’s support of terrorist organizations I think is something that has to cease.

I will be reviewing the letter from President Ahmadinejad, and we will respond appropriately. It’s only been three days since the election. Obviously, how we approach and deal with a country like Iran is not something that we should, you know, simply do in a knee-jerk fashion. I think we’ve got to think it through.

But I have to reiterate once again that we only have one president at a time. And I want to be very careful that we are sending the right signals to the world as a whole that I am not the president and I won’t be until January 20th.

Q: Picking up what we were just talking about, your meeting with President Bush on Monday. When — he is still the decider, obviously, stating the obvious. When you disagree with decisions he makes, will you defer? Will you challenge? Will you confront? And if it becomes confrontational, could that rattle the markets even more?

OBAMA: Well, President Bush graciously invited Michelle and I to — to meet with him and first lady Laura Bush. We are gratified by the invitation. I’m sure that, in addition to taking a tour of the White House, there’s going to be a substantive conversation between myself and the president.

I’m not going to anticipate problems. I’m going to go in there with a spirit of bipartisanship and a sense that both the president and various leaders in Congress all recognize the severity of the situation right now and want to get stuff done.

And, you know, undoubtedly there may end up being differences between not just members of different parties, but between people within the same party.

The critical point and I think the critical tone that has to be struck by all of us involved right now is the American people need help. This economy is in bad shape. And we have just completed one of the longest election cycles in recorded history.

Now is a good time for us to set politics aside for a while and think practically about what will actually work to move the economy forward. And it’s in that spirit that I’ll have the conversation with the president.

Q: Thank you, Mr. President-elect. With the country facing two wars and a financial crisis, do you think it’s important for you to move especially quickly to fill key cabinet posts, such as treasury secretary and secretary of state?

OBAMA: When we have an announcement about cabinet appointments, we will make them. There is no doubt that I think people want to know who’s going to make up our team.

And I want to move with all deliberate haste, but I want to emphasize deliberate as well as haste. I’m proud of the choice I made of vice president, partly because we did it right. I’m proud of the choice of chief of staff, because we thought it through.

And I think it’s very important, in all these key positions, both in the economic team and the national security team, to … to get it right and not to be so rushed that you end up making mistakes.

I’m confident that we’re going to have an outstanding team, and we will be rolling that out in subsequent weeks.

Q: Yes, sir. To what extent — to what extent are you planning to use your probably pretty great influence in determining the successor for your Senate seat? And what sort of criteria should the governor be looking at in filling that position?

OBAMA: This is the governor’s decision; it is not my decision.

And I think that the criteria that I would have for my successor would be the same criteria that I’d have if I were a voter: somebody who is capable; somebody who is passionate about helping working families in Illinois meet their … meet their dreams.

And I think there are going to be a lot of good choices out there, but it is the governor’s decision to make, not mine.

Lynn Sweet?

Q: Mr. President-elect…

OBAMA: What happened to your arm, Lynn?

Q: I cracked my shoulder running to your speech on election night.

OBAMA: Oh, no.

(LAUGHTER)

Q: (inaudible)

OBAMA: I think that was the only major incident during the … the entire Grant Park celebration.

Q: Thank you for asking. Here’s my question. I’m wondering what you’re doing to get ready. Have you spoken to any living ex-presidents, what books you might be reading?

Everyone wants to know, what kind of dog are you going to buy for your girls? Have you decided on a private or public school for your daughters?

OBAMA: Let … let me list those off.

In terms of speaking to former presidents, I’ve spoken to all of them that are living. Obviously, President Clinton — I didn’t want to get into a Nancy Reagan thing about, you know, doing any seances.

I have reread some of Lincoln’s writings, who’s always an extraordinary inspiration.

And, by the way, President Carter, President Bush, Sr., as well as the current president have all been very gracious and offered to provide any help that they can in this transition process.

With respect to the dog, this is a major issue. I think it’s generated more interest on our Web site than just about anything.

We have … we have two criteria that have to be reconciled. One is that Malia is allergic, so it has to be hypoallergenic. There are a number of breeds that are hypoallergenic.

On the other hand, our preference would be to get a shelter dog, but, obviously, a lot of shelter dogs are mutts like me. So … so whether we’re going to be able to balance those two things I think is a pressing issue on the Obama household.

And with respect to schools, Michelle will be — will be scouting out some schools. We’ll be making a decision about that in the future.

Q: You are now privy to a lot of intelligence that you haven’t had access to before, in fact, much of what the president sees, I’m sure all of it.

First of all, do you — what do you think about the state of U.S. intelligence, whether you think it needs beefing up, whether you think there’s enough interaction between the various agencies?

And, second of all, has anything that you’ve heard given you pause about anything you’ve talked about on the campaign trail?

OBAMA: Well, as you know, if … if there was something I had heard, I couldn’t tell you. But…

Q: (OFF-MIKE)

OBAMA: I have received intelligence briefings. And I will make just a general statement: Our intelligence process can always improve. I think it has gotten better. And, you know, beyond that, I don’t think I should comment on the nature of the intelligence briefings. That was a two-parter. Was there another aspect to that?

Q: Well, just whether — you know, absent what you’ve heard…

OBAMA: OK, I get you.

Q: … whether anything has given you pause.

OBAMA: I’m going to skip that.


Q: Mr. President-elect, do you still intend to seek income tax increases for upper-income Americans? And if so, should these Americans expect to pay higher taxes in 2009?

OBAMA: The … my tax plan represented a net tax cut. It provided for substantial middle-class tax cuts; 95 percent of working Americans would receive them.

It also provided for cuts in capital gains for small businesses, additional tax credits. All of it is designed for job growth.

My priority is going to be, how do we grow the economy? How do we create more jobs?

I think that the plan that we’ve put forward is the right one, but, obviously, over the next several weeks and months, we’re going to be continuing to take a look at the data and see what’s taking place in the economy as a whole.

But, understand, the goal of my plan is to provide tax relief to families that are struggling, but also to boost the capacity of the economy to grow from the bottom up.

All right. Thank you very much, guys.

Obama may have to bury his beloved BlackBerry

2 minutes 30 seconds

Obama may have to bury his beloved BlackBerry


WASHINGTON - Before he ran for president, Barack Obama quit smoking. Now that he's won the job, he may have to break another addiction: checking his BlackBerry for email.

The president's email can be subpoenaed by Congress and courts and may be subject to public records laws, so if a president doesn't want his e-mail public, he shouldn't email, experts said. And there may be security issues about carrying around trackable cellphones.

Obama transition officials haven't made a decision on what the new president will or will not carry but those who have been there say it's unlikely he'll carry his BlackBerry and he may be in for some withdrawal pains.

"Definitely he's going to feel an electronic detoxing," said Reed Dickens, former assistant press secretary to President George W. Bush. Dickens jokes he is so addicted to his BlackBerry he checks his device before opening his right eye.

Obama has often been seen avidly checking his email on his hand-held equipment. This past summer, news cameras recorded him checking his BlackBerry while watching his daughter's soccer game, only to have Michelle Obama slap at his hands, prompting him to return the device to its holster.

Actress Scarlett Johansson said she has had frequent email exchanges with him during his campaign travels, something the Obama campaign downplayed.

"This is a decision president-elect Obama will have to face," said former Bush press secretary Scott McClellan, who added Obama's legal advisers will probably recommend against an emailing president.

"While he has pledged an open and transparent government, I doubt the president-elect is interested in subjecting his own personal communications to that standard," McClellan wrote in an email interview. He added: "He will have to think very hard about whether he wants to make his own words that subject to open records by having his own email and his own BlackBerry."

There is presidential precedent for an email blackout. Presidents George W. Bush and Bill Clinton didn't email while in office.

"It's all discoverable; it creates a trail that might end up in congressional investigators' hands," said Clinton press secretary Mike McCurry.

If you want to delete White House email, you get a stern warning about archiving presidential records, he said.

A few days before Bush took office in 2001, he sent an email to a few dozen close friends saying he would no longer use email: "Since I do not want my private conversations looked at by those out to embarrass, the only course of action is not to correspond in cyberspace. This saddens me."

Bush was unhappy about losing his email and mostly used the phone to talk with friends, McClellan wrote, adding: "I am sure the president looks forward to being able to communicate with them via email again come Jan. 20, 2009."

The Bush White House has been battling courts about lapses in email archives at the White House.

Before 2001, Bush was an active emailer but that was before the now ubiquitous BlackBerry with email and text-message functions was released in 2002. Users who constantly check their devices often call themselves crackberry addicts. A Canadian government agency asked its workers to live by a "BlackBerry blackout" on nights and weekends "in order to achieve work/life quality here."

"I think Obama is the first president who is addicted to the BlackBerry like the rest of us and there's a lot of presidential records and archive rules on what gets stored and what doesn't," said former Clinton press secretary Joe Lockhart.

Quitting BlackBerry use is not something some political types - such as McClellan - or tech-geeks like thinking about. Benjamin Nugent, author of the book "American Nerd," said the president-elect is such a techie and has nerd qualities. So cutting off the BlackBerry could be painful. It'll be interesting if we could see the torment on his face. For me it would be hell."

But it actually could be good for the president-elect, said psychology professor Lawrence Welkowitz of Keene State University in New Hampshire. "It might be a completely freeing thing for him, so that he can free himself to think and act," said Welkowitz, who doesn't carry a BlackBerry.

But even if Obama isn't packing a BlackBerry or cellphone, he'll have plenty of aides within arm's reach who do, experts said. Often a president uses the equipment of personal assistants.

And there is the chance Obama may buck the past and keep his BlackBerry tethered to his belt.

"He's the president," McCurry said. "If he wants to carry the BlackBerry, he's entitled."

Colin Powell on President Elect Obama

5 minutes

Change has come to America - Obama said so.

When I started this blog back in January, I was horrified with the possibility that George Bush might try and steal this election. So I started this blog as a call to the American people to WAKE up and take action. WAKE up and do something or they will lose their country.

Well yesterday the people spoke in a resoundingly LOUD voice. They want the situation to CHANGE.

So this blog will now follow Barack Obama and Joe Biden as we see how they deal with the USA, the world, the wars, the financial crisis and the Middle East.

Will they be diplomatic or will they be bullies?
I think we all know that they will be diplomatic.
Barack Obama has never been anything other than diplomatic, even when he is debating with John McCain.

A Landslide Win for Obama

According to MY local paper, Obama has ended up with almost 350 electoral votes. He only needed 270 to win. So he has been handed a DECISIVE vistory. The Republicans cannot steal it and the Electoral College CANNOT change their votes. Well, actually they can.

It turns out there is no federal law that requires an elector to vote according to their pledge (to their respective party). And so, more than a few electors have cast their votes without following the popular vote or their party. These electors are called "faithless electors."

In response to these faithless electors' actions, several states have created laws to enforce an elector's pledge to his or her party vote or the popular vote. Some states even go the extra step to assess a misdemeanor charge and a fine to such actions.

But not this year. NOT in 2008. This year the Electoral College MUST go with what the people voted. They have no choice. If they do vote for McCain - there will be riots in the streets.

The Nation that Stops a Race....Until Now

Apologies for no video but I will post them when I find them.

I am currently looking for analysis of how and why Obama won, and the below article I think is the BEST explanation for why the USA finally has a Black President




The Nation that stops a Race

Sydney Morning Herald, Sydney, Australia
Peter Hartcher
November 5, 2008


SOMETIMES when Barack Obama waited outside a restaurant for the valet to bring his car, a white couple would toss him their car keys. He endured this and all the petty humiliations of the black man in America.

Yet he never allowed his anger to take over and he never surrendered to the tightly boxed confines of racial expectations. He was always determined to break what he calls "the psychological shackles of slavery and Jim Crow [segregation]".


And he and his wife try to protect their two young daughters from being snared by the lingering culture of post-slavery despair: "Michelle and I must be continually vigilant against some of the debilitating story lines that our daughters may absorb," he writes, "about who the world thinks they are, and what the world imagines they should be."

Before African Americans could persuade whites that they could hold high office, they have had to convince themselves first.

But what's Obama's secret? He goes to today's US election as the favourite to become the most powerful man in the world. How did he resist the mindset of racial limitations that has bound generations of African-Americans for the 143 years since the abolition of slavery?

As with Colin Powell, until now the black man who ascended higher than any other in America, Obama's family came from outside mainstream African-American society and never fully joined.

Asked the secret of his success, Powell, the former chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff and secretary of state, emphasised that his parents were immigrants from Jamaica.

The British ended slavery in the Caribbean more than a generation before the Americans got around to it and they set up compulsory schooling and allowed blacks to work in the civil service.

As a result, Powell said, Jamaicans had "an opportunity to develop attitudes of independence, self-responsibility and self-worth. They did not have their individual dignity beaten down for 300 years, the fate of so many black American slaves and their descendants."

Similarly, Obama's parents were not part of the African-American experience. Obama's father, an immigrant from Kenya, was a senior government economist who left his wife and two-year-old son in Hawaii to study at Harvard University.

His mother, white and from the mid-western US state of Kansas, was an independent-minded woman who earned a PhD in anthropology. She worked in rural development in Indonesia, where she married her second husband, an Indonesian geologist who ended up as a public relations consultant for the US oil company Mobil.


As Obama has said: "My own upbringing hardly typifies the African-American experience."

Colin Powell remarked that one of the reasons he was able to progress to the very highest post in the US Armed Forces was that "I speak reasonably well, like a white person".

Likewise, Barack Obama, as a student one of the most brilliant young lawyers of his generation at Harvard, has perfect grammar, an urbane accent and only ever play-acts at speaking like a working class African American.

As he told a rally this week as he criticised a policy of his rival, John McCain: "That ain't right," echoing a Chris Rock movie character, an accidental know-nothing presidential candidate in the film Head Of State. And then Obama continued: "Not only is it not right, it ain't right," he smiled. He can visit Bubba's neighbourhood, he was demonstrating, but he doesn't live there.

Another vital aspect of the success of Powell and Obama is that they are not threatening.

Powell's cousin, Bruce Llewellyn, chairman of the Philadelphia Coca-Coca Bottling Company and the richest black man in the US, contrasted Powell with Jesse Jackson: "Jesse scares white people, because he really sounds like a fiery zealot, like he might just jump up and say, 'F--- you!' and hit you in the mouth."

As Powell himself put it: "I don't shove it in their face, you know? I don't bring any stereotypes or threatening visage to their presence. Some black people do."

Obama's calm and measured manner reassures white audiences, though some remain apprehensive. As Francis Fukuyama, professor of international political economy at Johns Hopkins University, explained it: "Obama's been very careful to distance himself from the traditional Jesse Jackson agenda and the Jesse Jackson persona. A lot of people are worried about voting for him because they think once he's elected the mask will fall off and there'll be an angry Jesse Jackson underneath."

But Obama doesn't carry the anger that many African Americans bear as part of their harsh historical experience. That's because he does not come from that experience.

When American commentators call him a "post-racial" candidate, what they are really observing is that he is a post-slave culture candidate. Obama has talked about the African Americans' tendency to protect themselves psychologically by assuming the worst: "I've had some blacks tell me, 'We've been trying for 300 years, and it hasn't worked yet."'

Obama, unburdened by the brutal history of the American negro, instead assumes the best. He has persuaded millions of other Americans, of all colours, that the best is within reach.

With Hope Restored, Now the Work Begins

With Hope Restored, Now the Work Begins.

Congratulations
President-Elect Obama

You rose above the nasty partisan politics that have infected this country for so long now and lifted this nation up from the nightmare of the past eight years. The country has put their faith in you and now the real hard work begins. You will have a majority in both houses to assist you, so the road could be considerably easier at least for the first two years. The amount of the vote seems to indicate that even your enemies cannot use the silly “no mandate” mantra. Things have aligned themselves for you well.

Do not lose sight of why so many were dissatisfied though. It is not a repudiation of traditional republicanism or conservatism. It was a resounding “no more” to the neo-con vision for America. That is what you must seek to undo as your presidency unfolds.

For starters, you need to fix the election process in this country. You need to repeal that horrific HAVA; which turned over so much power to companies that are corrupt. You need to declare Election Day a national holiday, and strip the power from individual states to manipulate their elections. You need to make voting more accessible, not less. We need to get rid of caging lists and partisan vote challenges. Make no mistake about it Mr. Obama; they tried to steal it from you as they had Kerry and Gore. There was simply too much of a wave to overcome. If HAVA and elections are not straightened out by the time your first term is up, then the problems will still remain. Integrity must be restored to our electoral process. Complete open elections. Source codes revealed, exit polling data should be public domain. It remains a crucial problem that needs to be immediately addressed.


Secondly, we need to restore accountability to the government. The era of deregulation must end and end now. Starting with the media. Media consolidation has allowed fiction to be presented as fact and has skewed the reality in this country for far too long. If you do not have a fair media, as well as elections, then this country will always be able to be hijacked by ideologues as it has been for a decade now. And do not stop there. Regulation and transparency in government needs to continue in the financial markets, housing industry and any other area that has been gutted by the Bush Neo-Con cabal.


Thirdly, it is time to bring our kids home with the honor they have earned. It is time to start worrying about THIS country. It is time to develop the infrastructure of THIS country. It is time to focus on education, jobs and strengthening our currency before we hit a financial 9-11. It is time to stop blowing countries up randomly and hiding behind some veiled “terror” nonsense. Along with this Mr. Obama, it is time to restore our standing in the world. It is time to end Gitmo and torture as a national policy. This country has forfeited its decency in exchange for a false sense of security. Along with all of this also must be a restoration of our precious civil liberties. It is time to end the police state this country is turning into. You were a Constitutional Law Professor for long enough to respect the guiding document of this nation. It is time to take the shackles off of the American people. It is time for “free speech zones” to mean the entire United States of America.


Lastly, President-Elect Obama, it is time to re-balance the government. It is time to end the theory of a unitary executive. It is time to outlaw signing statements where a president thinks he is above the law. And here is the really hard part Mr. Obama. You cannot truly move on without addressing what happened. This is not about revenge it is about justice. The Bush Administration needs to be held accountable for violations against the American people and the constitution, period. If you choose to move on without doing this, you do so at the peril of every American. You will end up condoning illegal activities committed by presidents. If this president lied this country into a war that has killed hundreds of thousands of people, he must be held accountable. If not, it gives free reign for future presidents to abuse their power as it appears Bush has done. We must once again prove to the world that no one in this country is above the law, least of all the chief law enforcement officer, who so disrespected the laws of this country that he signed over 800 signing statements saying he would not adhere to the laws he signed. That hypocrisy must end and be held to account.

Martin Luther King Jr. once said, “If you lose hope, somehow you lose the vitality that keeps life moving, you lose that courage to be, that quality that helps you go on in spite of it all. And so today I still have a dream.” We had almost lost that hope over the past eight years. The hope that all that could be right about America could be restored. The hope that dreams were still worth holding onto. I do not know if Barack Obama can fix everything. I do not know if he is the answer to all that ails this great nation. What I do know is that for this moment in time, for this glimmer in the pages of history, hope has been restored and dreams seem just a bit more possible.

Now the work begins.

Barack Obama's Victory Speech

18 minutes

2008 US President
Barack Obama!!!!!!


Change has come to America.

This is the TRANSCRIPT of Obama's Victory speech if you want a copy.

John McCain Concedes Defeat

10 minutes

The polls have called it - Obama Wins

OBAMA WINS


At 11.10 pm Eastern time, they called it.
This is what the screen said.
John McCain has conceded and congratulated Obama.




Sarah Palin will NOT wake up as the VP elect tomorrow.
Obama has won over 330 Electoral votes.
The House of Representatives and the Senate are both dominated by the Democrats
Must find out what happened to Nancy Pelosi.

This is a new screen at 11.20 pm Eastern time










I just watched Obama's speech in Chicago and it was wonderful. He is gracious and caring about everyone. He even thanked Mccain and Palin for their hard work and effort in this race.

With several states still to finish counting, including Alaska, this is the latest screen shot - 11.45 pm Eastern standard time.



This is a most historic victory.
The first black President of the USA.

McCain Now Officially Involved in Voter Fraud 2008

4 minutes

Posted October 21, 2008

No Candy For Kids of Obama Supporters.

2 minutes

No candy for Obama supporters or for Kids of Obama supporters.
This is just so cruel!!!
Lets pretend that she represents Mccain.
So, do you really want a president like that?
And she was an alternate delegate for the RNC



SALON
Diane Sweet
Saturday November 1, 2008

A Metro-Detroit Michigan woman refused to give candy on Halloween to children of Barack Obama supporters.

Shirley Nagel of Grosse Pointe Farms gave out treats Friday evening, but only to those who share her support of John McCain and running mate Sarah Palin.

Fox 2 News reports a sign posted outside Nagel's house, about 12 miles west of Detroit, served notice to all trick-or-treaters. It read: "No handouts for Obama supporters, liars, tricksters or kids of supporters."

Nagel told a Fox 2 reporter that "Obama's scary." When asked about children who'd been turned away empty-handed and crying, she said: "Oh well. Everybody has a choice."

The neighbour of Shirley Nagel put a sign up on his gate that said Obama 4 Peace (actually showing the peace sign) and he gave out candy to ALL the kids.

Sarah Palin speaks to Nicholas Sarkozy

6 minutes

She is Sarah Palin
He is NOT Nicholas Sarkozy.

Transcript

Radio Comedy Duo called the Masked Avengers from Montreal.

MONTREAL - In an over-the-top accent, one half of a notorious Quebec comedy duo claims to be the president of France as he describes sex with his famous wife, the joy of killing animals and Hustler magazine's latest Sarah Palin porno spoof.

At the other end of the line? An oblivious Sarah Palin.

The Masked Avengers, a radio pairing notorious for prank calls to celebrities and heads of state, notched its latest victory Saturday when it released a recording of a six-minute call with Palin, who thought she was talking with Nicolas Sarkozy.

Throughout the call, which was making the rounds in U.S. political circles by day's end Saturday, Palin and the pranksters discuss politics, pundits, and the perils of going hunting with Vice-President Dick Cheney.

"We have such great respect for you, John McCain and I, we love you," Palin gushes, evidently unaware she's speaking to an infamous Quebec comedian named Marc-Antoine Audette.

At one point, Palin even comes close to confirming her intention to one day run for president, when Audette slyly remarks he can see her taking over the big desk in the Oval office.

"Maybe in eight years," she replies with a nervous chuckle.

Over the course of the interview, Palin doesn't seem to realize she's being tricked until Audette comes clean near the end of the call.

"Ohhhh . . . have we been pranked?" she says, in her inimitable style. Seconds later, Palin's aide can be heard taking the phone before the line goes dead.

Throughout the conversation, Audette drops plenty of clues that something's amiss.

He identifies French singer and actor Johnny Hallyday as his special adviser to the U.S., singer Stef Carse as Canada's prime minister and Quebec comedian and radio host Richard Z. Sirois as the provincial premier.

"We should go hunting together," Palin offers when Audette professes a love of hunting - or, more precisely, killing animals. "We can have a lot of fun together while we're getting work done. We could kill two birds with one stone."

Audette then jokes that they shouldn't bring Cheney on the hunt, referring to the 2006 incident in which the vice-president shot and injured a friend while hunting quail.

"I'll be a careful shot," responds Palin, who praises Sarkozy throughout the call.

"I look forward to working with you and getting to meet you personally - and your beautiful wife, oh my goodness," she says.

"You've added a lot of energy to your country with that beautiful family of yours."

Audette then tells her his wife, Carla Bruni, a singer and former model, was jealous to hear Sarkozy would be speaking to Palin. "Give her a big hug for me," Palin responds.

Audette goes on to describe Bruni as "hot in bed" and claims she's written a song for Palin, the French title of which translates as "Lipstick on a Pig." In English, Audette says the song is about Joe the Plumber.

Finally, he mentions a notorious Hustler video titled "Nailin' Paylin," describing it as "the documentary they made on your life."

"Oh, good, thank you, yes," Palin replies.

"That was really edgy," Audette says.

"Well, good."

In an interview Saturday, Audette told The Canadian Press it wasn't easy setting up the interview with Republican presidential candidate John McCain's running mate, and described the accomplishment as the pair's biggest triumph to date.

"It really took a lot of work," he said.

"We had to go through the Secret Service, the people in her entourage. It's the biggest coup so far. We're proud to add (this prank) to our top hits."

It took the pair, known for securing surreptitious interviews with celebrities, politicians and heads of state, five days to set up the call, Audette said. The secret to getting powerful people on the line? Time and persistence.

"I wanted to see how (Palin) was on an intellectual level," Audette said, comparing the latest prank to the duo's crank call with pop idol Britney Spears.

"You can see that she's, well, not really brilliant."

In a statement Saturday, Palin's team said the vice-presidential nominee was "mildly amused" to learn she was the victim of a prank.

"Gov. Palin was mildly amused to learn that she had joined the ranks of heads of state, including President Sarkozy, and other celebrities in being targeted by these pranksters," said spokeswoman Tracey Schmitt.

"C'est la vie."

Audette, too, was contrite afterward.

"I hope we won't have a one-way ticket to Guantanamo Bay."

The well-known radio prankster duo of Audette and Sebastien Trudel have most recently tricked Rolling Stones singer Mick Jagger. Other celebrity victims include Spears and Bill Gates.

In 2007, they conned Sarkozy himself by impersonating Prime Minister Stephen Harper. And their 2006 call to former French president Jacques Chirac was rated by the BBC as one of the top 30 all-time best moments in radio history.

Known as the "Masked Avengers," they've been popular on the Quebec comedy scene for a decade.

The Avengers, who have a regular show on Montreal radio station CKOI, will air the full interview on the eve of the U.S. elections. It can also be heard in full on their website www.justiciers.tv .