Today is the fifth anniversary of YouTube's first video upload. On April 23rd, 2005 at 8:27pm (a Saturday night—nerd!) this video of YouTube co-founder Jawed Karim sparked an internet revolution. Fittingly for the site, he's at a zoo.
By GottaLaff
It's been a year since the Tea Tantrumers started their whining, and in that year we've witnessed the birth of:
Tea Party organizers say hundreds of events, ranging from protests, rallies, candidate forums, grassroots training seminars, and even movie screenings of a Tea Party documentary, are expected to be held nationwide.
Tea Party activists trace the birth of their movement to a couple of anti-stimulus protests across the country in mid-February of last year. Those small demonstrations were followed days later by business news correspondent Rick Santelli’s televised rant on February 19, 2009 about the federal government’s Wall Street bailout. Santelli's outburst inspired anti-big government activists to hold Tea Party protests across the country 8 days later. [...]
As the movement has grown, tensions have been rising among various Tea Party groups. Rival factions are battling over who will carry the movement’s banner, and others worry that powerful groups are "astroturfing" what they think should remain a grassroots group. [...]
Activists in the Tea Party movement tend to be male, rural, upscale, and overwhelmingly conservative, according to a recent national poll. [...] Tea Partiers GOP leanings, the poll suggests, may pose a problem for the Tea Party movement if it tries to turn itself into a third party to compete with the two major parties in this year's general election.
All the ingredients for not-success.
Happy birthday. Enjoy your cake.
By GottaLaff
The L.A. Times says that Prez O has "proved to be presidential." See? He's not the fascist, communist, socialist, Marxist failure the Rushpublics says he is:
[I]f unemployment numbers don't improve, the president may not just be a diminished president but a finished one.It's nice to post something more positive once in awhile.
Still, Barack Obama will today complete one of the more successful first years of any modern president. Love him or hate him, Obama has demonstrated that he can be both president and presidential in the face of some galactic challenges. [...]
But the circumstances he confronted were certainly worse than any of his immediate predecessors -- deep recession at home and two costly wars abroad. [...]
He is indeed still the question-mark president [...]
The president has stopped the economic bleeding and the panic of recession, stabilized and moved to reform the financial sector, and gone farther and faster on healthcare than any of his predecessors.
Abroad, his policies are also works in progress. [...]
Indeed, the president does well on the international stage. He's emerged as the well-spoken Energizer Bunny of American diplomacy. [...]
Obama is out there (everywhere) in the face of crisis, trying to restore confidence until the economy improves. [...]
And herein lies the problem: A president who wants to be transformational is trapped in a dysfunctional political system of oppositional Republicans, unruly Democrats and overly grandiose goals of his own making. He has no large Roosevelt or Reagan coalitions to support him; no martyred predecessor to unite the nation; no nation-wrenching crisis that compels the public to accept bold change and follow his lead.
A year in, Obama may well be coming to realize that while politics is about what people want, governance is about what they get.
By GottaLaff
Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
By GottaLaff
- Description:
- AMERICANS NEED TO MARCH ON WASHINGTON IN NUMBERS HERETOFORE UNSEEN TO DEMONSTRATE OUR SUPPORT FOR THE FUNDAMENTAL CHANGES WE STILL BELIEVE IN AND WANT TO SEE OUR PRESIDENT & REPRESENTATIVES FIGHT FOR.
Feel free to go to the Facebook page and add any input you may have.
- We're now on twitter: http://twitter.com/March4Change and, we have an email address for those who are so inclined:
March4Change@gmail.com
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IF YOU DO NOTHING ELSE -THIS FRIDAY - PLEASE EMAIL THE FOLLOWING SHOWS/ORGS WITH THE FOLLOWING SUBJECT LINE
"March for Change We Still Believe In - Jan 15th, 2010"
and language to this effect:
On January 15th, 2010, Americans will gather, peacably, on the DC Mall to show our continued support for the progressive agenda our POTUS campaigned on. We voted for President Obama b/c we hoped for more from our government: more compassion, more diplomacy, more honesty, more protection, and more equality.
On January 15th, 2010, we will stand in opposition to the voices of fear, ignorance, and hate that have, thus far, garnered virtually all the attention of the main stream media and skewed the debate over issues that are far to important to ALL Americans. We've written and phoned our Representatives in the House and Senate. We've remained a diligent, anonymous, but silent majority. Now, is the time for America to see our faces and hear our voices.
info@rainbowpush.org
vfped@veteransforpeace.net
http://www.now.org/chapters/fl.html
rachel@msnbc.com
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/30031533
Countdown@msnbc.com
firedoglake@gmail.com
--If you live in any State within a day's drive of DC - PLEASE DO YOUR UTMOST TO DISSEMINATE INFO & RALLY SUPPORT FOR THIS UNDERTAKING!
--LOCAL EFFORTS - If you'd like to participate by organizing something within your own community, PLEASE DO SO!!! Use the same techniques that have brought you to this group - only on a local level. Once you numbers grow, contact the local media with a press release a week or two prior to Jan 15th. We'd rather see you in DC but we understand if it's too far or costly for some to travel. BTW - organize carpools or pool resources to charter buses, rent minivans, pay for gas.
--A member suggested that those of us who will be in DC wear something to represent those who are unable to attend (e.g. a pin or flower or what have you). GREAT IDEA!
I suggest we ALSO wear something that demonstrates our solidarity with the POTUS and with one another so . . . . break out and dust off your "old" Obama gear to show support for him BUT ALSO wear an armband (any suggestions besides an armband?) to signify our solidarity with one another.
Midge Hough [Laffy Note: My posts about her can be found here, here and here] lost her daughter-in-law, Jenny, and unborn grandson due, in part, to lack of health care insurance. Midge contacted me yesterday and expressed her support for our effort. [...] Please watch the grievous inhumanity she suffered at the hands of those who oppose the health care reform our country so desperately needs.
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I understand that letters to congress and phone calls work. Been there, am doing that. But in today's political environment, perception and image (TV to be precise) are everything. When's the last time you tuned into your nightly news of choice to see a story about the millions of letters Americans have sent to our reps demanding serious healthcare reform? But I'll bet a months salary that you've seen stories re groups of sorely, uninformed, Tea Baggers in the last couple of weeks. And, whether we like it or not, these images drive the news stories and the national discourse on issues like Healthcare, the Environment, Energy, Education, and so on.
We need to show our numbers, our vigor, and our commitment to REAL, SUBSTANTIVE, AND FUNDAMENTAL (not incremental) CHANGE in a way that will capture the national media's attention and call attention to our discontent. This astroturf, right-wing, TeaBag movement has been successful in creating the misperception that "Millions" of Americans are fed up with Gov't (specifically Obama). THE REALITY, however, is that many more of us voted for our President because we hoped for more from our government. More compassion, more diplomacy, more honesty, more protection, and more equality.
If a conservative, Dick Armey lead and Glenn Beck fueled, astro-turf, movement can conjure up 50,000 to "protest" in DC, how many more democrats, could a true grassroots movement deliver to DC in a show of support for the policies our candidate campaigned on?
I KNOW WE HAVE IT IN US AND THE APPARATUS FOR ORGANIZING AND COORDINATING SUCH AN EVENT ARE ALREADY IN PLACE. IF YOU FEEL THIS A WORTHY CAUSE LET IT BE KNOWN TO FRIENDS AND FAMILY ACROSS THE COUNTRY - THAT ON JANUARY 15, 2010, THE FIRST ANNIVERSARY OF PRESIDENT OBAMA'S INAUGURATION, AMERICANS FROM ALL OVER THE COUNTRY WILL DESCEND ON WASHINGTON DC IN THE STRONGEST SHOW OF SUPPORT EVER FOR A SITTING PRESIDENT & THE POLICIES WE SENT HIM TO FIGHT FOR.
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WHAT WE FOUGHT FOR & WHAT YOU CAN DO TO MAKE THIS HAPPEN
I'm urging everyone (and I'm doing it here in SWFL) to contact friends, organizations (e.g. democrat clubs - those at local Institutions of higher learning, local federal congressional reps, local chapter of ORGANIZING FOR AMERICA, MOVEON, NOW, GLAAD, AFL-CIO, NAACP, RAINBOW PUSH COALITION, NATIONAL ACTION NETWORK, VETERANS FOR PEACE, THE ED SHOW, OLBERMAN, MADDOW, Air America, etc) locally, regionally, or even nationally, please feel free to share the idea of the March for Change We Still Believe In.
We are, all of us individually, sparks in this and together we can create bonfires all over the country. Take the baton, run with it, pass it on, and keep us all posted!
By GottaLaff
I can't believe it's been a year! I'll never forget the sheer excitement and elation I felt on Election Night 2008:
One year after his historic election, President Obama speaks to Organizing for America supporters about the progress we've made and the challenges we still face.
By GottaLaff
Senator Barack Obama “suspended” his campaign and returned home to Chicago on Friday night for personal reasons: to celebrate the 16th anniversary of his marriage to Michelle.I posted about this yesterday, and there were no further details except for one: He bought her the flowers you see above. Sigh. What a guy.
By GottaLaff
Barack Obama would like one simple thing for his 16th wedding anniversary _ a quiet date with his wife.[...]He's putting his campaign on hold Friday night to fly back to Chicago and take his wife, Michelle, out to an Italian restaurant.
"I've got this whole romantic dinner planned," Obama told a rally in Grand Rapids. "I think it should go pretty well. That's my hope any ways. I've got a gift all picked out."
I'm kvelling.
Obama told reporters aboard his campaign plane that he never forgets their anniversary, after it slipped his wife's mind their first year. Asked for his thoughts on how to maintain a marriage for 16 years, he suggested a sense of humor, listening and "never get so mad that you forget why you love them."
Oy. I'm all verklempt. (Only Yiddish words suffice at times like this.)
"You know what you guys could give us for our anniversary?" he said, turning to the television reporters. "Not have a camera pool outside of the restaurant, so that everybody knows that we're there."
My gift to the Obamas: A tremendously successful debate for Joe Biden tonight, and a win on November 4th. Anyone want to chip in?
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