Monday, April 27, 2009
Sunday, January 25, 2009
VIDEO-- Inauguration Of Barack Obama - A New Day by Will.i.am
By GottaLaff
CNN just launched this video. It's beautiful:
Friday, January 23, 2009
Three Days
By GottaLaff
Obama Signs Order To Close Guantanamo... Shutters CIA 'Black Site' Prisons... Forbids Torture Of Detainees... Lifts Abortion 'Gag-Rule'... Freezes Proposals On Easing Emissions... Revives Freedom Of Information Act...We've gone from an eternity of destruction to three days of eye-popping accomplishments.
Thursday, January 22, 2009
VIDEOS: Obama busts a move vs. Bush is a complete bust
By GottaLaff
President and First Lady Obama hit the dance floor at one of the many inaugural balls he attended.Now let's compare that to Bush's Awkward, Embarrassing on So Many Levels Moves:
H/t: One of our Anonymi for the Obama link
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
Donna Brazile Swipes Obama's Blanket
Fangirl alert. I wonder if it was a Slanket?
Former Al Gore campaign manager Donna Brazile acknowledged on ABC News that she took the fleece blanket that President Obama left on the platform after giving his inaugural address yesterday.Blogger is having "scheduled maintenance" so posting is dicey.
Said Brazile: "Barack Obama had this fleece. You know, we were all given this blue fleece and someone took it. When it was over with, I went over to the president's chair and I took it... If he wants it back, I'll give it back, but I have that. This is the blanket that was at his chair in case he got cold. He left it, I took it."
Limbaugh: I Fear That Obama's FOIA Order Makes It Easier To Hold Bush To Account
HA!!!!! Too, too funny you horrid gasbag. Via Think Progress.
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
VIDEO: Al Roker's first presidential interview in 12 years... with President Obama
By GottaLaff
When I was grabbing shots of the parade, I watched Al Roker nearly jump out of his skin as he got "his first presidential interview in 12 years". I couldn't capture it in stills, but Paddy granted my fondest wish and found the video. It's a keeper:
What a great day. I'm all smiles.
Obama tattoos in D.C.
By GottaLaff
Washington tattoo parlor owners said the influx of people to the capital for President Barack Obama's inauguration brought many requests for Obama tattoos.Tattoo artists in the District said the most popular Obama-themed tattoos have been the 44th president's campaign logo, the word "Hope," and the popular red and blue Obama poster designed by artist Shepard Fairey, CNN reported Tuesday. [...]
Matt "Fatty" Jessup, owner of Fatty's Custom Tattooz and Body Piercing, said his store is having an "Obamathan" promotion that offers customers free $60 "Obama '08" logo tattoos with purchase of another tattoo worth at least $200.
"A lot of people are feeling very inspired and taken by this moment in our nation's history. And for many people, they are in town for this historic event, they want something to remember it by," he said.
As Chris Matthews said (I think it was him), today was a "Where were you when....?" day.
Monday, January 19, 2009
Random thoughts: "History is being made here tomorrow"
By GottaLaff
For the past half hour or so, I've been watching Tweety as he comments on the groundswell of support, optimism, and the sheer pride and joy expressed by the throng of onlookers.
Matthews has literally marveled, over and over again, "Tomorrow at this time, we will have a new president. Barack Obama will be president," almost as if he has to convince himself that this dream is actually coming true.
The beaming faces, the tears, and the sweet, lovely words that pour from these ebullient Americans is beyond anything any of the talking heads have ever witnessed. It's true. And it's breathtaking.
We've all waited so long...
Promises, promises
By GottaLaff
Via Ambinder, we see that P.E. Obama is not even officially president yet, but he's already kept two promises:
The St. Petersburg Times's PolitiFact has compiled a list of 498 promises. Two have been fulfilled even before the inauguration -- one -- that $3,000 tax cut -- is stalled.Here's the short version:
There are 26 pages of promises, each with a little image like the ones below:Tracking Obama’s promises
PolitiFact has compiled about 500 promises that Barack Obama made during the campaign and is tracking their progress on our Obameter. We rate their status as No Action, In the Works or Stalled. Once we find action is completed, we rate them Promise Kept, Compromise or Promise Broken.
No. 59: Invest in electronic health information systems"Invest $10 billion a year over the next five years to move the U.S. health care system to broad adoption of standards-based electronic health information systems, including electronic health records."
No. 503: Appoint at least one Republican to the cabinet
Interview with Steve Kroft of "60 Minutes": Question: "Will there be Republicans in the Cabinet?" Obama: "Yes." Question: "More than one?" Obama: "You're not getting any more out of me."
Sunday, January 18, 2009
Bigger than race
By GottaLaff
Barry Blitt
For all our huge progress, we are not “post-racial,” whatever that means. The world doesn’t change in a day, and the racial frictions that emerged in both the Democratic primary campaign and the general election didn’t end on Nov. 4. As Obama himself said in his great speech on race, liberals couldn’t “purchase racial reconciliation on the cheap” simply by voting for him. And conservatives? The so-called party of Lincoln has spent much of the past month in spirited debate about whether a white candidate for the party’s chairmanship did the right thing by sending out a “humorous” recording of “Barack the Magic Negro” as a holiday gift.Tears. Happy ones and sad ones.Next to much of our history, this is small stuff. And yet: Of all the coverage of Obama’s victory, the most accurate take may still be the piquant morning-after summation of the satirical newspaper The Onion. Under the headline “Black Man Given Nation’s Worst Job,” it reported that our new president will have “to spend four to eight years cleaning up the messes other people left behind.”
Those messes are enormous, bigger than Washington, bigger than race, bigger than anything most of us have ever seen. Nearly three months after Election Day, it remains astonishing that the American people have entrusted the job to a young black man who seemed to come out of nowhere looking for that kind of work just as we most needed him.
“In no other country on earth is my story even possible,” Obama is fond of saying. That is true, and that is what the country celebrates this week. But it is all the tragic American stories that came before him, some of them still playing out in chilly streets just blocks from the White House, that throw both his remarkable triumph and the huge challenge ahead of him into such heart-stopping relief.
Poll-itics: Obama more popular than ever, despite speed bumps
By GottaLaff
The On a Roll Poll:
A new national poll suggests that Barack Obama is more popular than ever, regardless of recent speed bumps on the road to transition.But wait! There's more!The CNN/Opinion Research Corporation survey released Sunday morning also indicates that most Americans see Obama's inauguration as a chance for the nation to come together.
Eighty-four percent of those questioned in the survey say they approve of how Barack Obama is handling his presidential transition. That is up two points from the middle of December and up five points from the beginning of December.
The rise in approval also comes after a series of missteps in the Obama transition the past few weeks — situations that have included New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson announcing that he was withdrawing his nomination as commerce secretary, calling a federal grand jury investigation in his home state a distraction; the disclosure of Treasury Secretary nominee Timothy Geithner's failure to pay $34,000 in taxes, and some initial pushback by Republicans and even some Democrats to the naming of Leon Panetta as CIA director.
The poll also indicates that six in 10 Americans think Obama's inauguration will be a celebration in democracy. Four in 10 Americans felt that way when George W. Bush was inaugurated eight years ago.Then there's that whole black and white thing:
Nine of out 10 African-Americans questioned in the poll say that Obama's election is a dream come true. Also, nine out of 10 African-Americans questioned say they are thrilled or happy by Obama's impending inauguration. Only a quarter of white respondents say they are thrilled.
Count me in as one of the 25% of thrilled whites. And excuse me, but wtf?
What is up with white people? Aren't these the same voters who supported Obama in droves, or am I living in a parallel universe? Granted, I consistently identify with African Americans more often than not, but I'm truly baffled by those numbers.Virtually every African-American in the survey says that it is likely they will watch Tuesday's ceremonies on TV.
Fifty-seven percent of whites say they are likely to do the same. Virtually every African-American interviewed approves of how Obama has handled the transition so far.
"But there is a note of caution that tempers blacks' enthusiasm about an Obama presidency. Most of them say that the American public will hold Obama to a higher standard than past presidents because he is black," Holland said. "Most whites say that Obama's race will not matter in how he will be judged as president."
Then again, it's a "poll". Why am I even surprised?
Saturday, January 17, 2009
PhotObama: Mr. Obama Goes to Washington
By GottaLaff
Howard Fineman on MSNBC just now:
"[Obama has] a down home folksiness, a familiarity..."
(click on image to enlarge)
What is important is that, finally, our new president has officially arrived in Washington D.C.
50,000
By GottaLaff
AT THE STOP OFF IN BALTIMORE, Md. -- It's a safe estimate that about 50,000 or nearly 50,000 people came out at events or along the Obama-Biden train route, according to police and the Obama transition team.You ain't seen nothin' yet. Wait 'til Tuesday.The greatest number comes from the massive event in Baltimore going on currently, with an estimated crowd of 40,000.
-- There were about 250 invited guests in Philadelphia.
-- 7,875 in Wilmington, Del.
-- The first slow roll saw an estimated, but not confirmed because we didn't stop, 1,000 people.
-- And on the second slow roll, also not confirmed, were about 2,000 to 3,000.
VIDEO: Obama train rolling through Maryland
By GottaLaff
You've seen the still pictures, now we have a short video:
Edgewood, Maryland:
PhotObama: 35,000 in Baltimore
By GottaLaff
MSNBC:
"It was like a rock star's presence on that stage. I was struck by the tone... rallying the troops to support his cause. Enlisting the citizens to stay with him through the very tough times that lay ahead."
(click on images to enlarge)
Laffy Note: I put together collages since there were way too many photos to post separately. Just click on each collage to see closer views.
PhotObama: Rolling through Edgewood, Maryland
By GottaLaff
On the right, um, track. The Obama Choo-Choo rolls through Edgewood, MD:
(click on images to enlarge)
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