18 Nov 08 All In A Name
One wonders how many more votes a candidate named “Barry Houston O’Banion” might have gotten. What a concept lol.
07 Nov 08 Advice To Obama
David Alan Grier dropped a few words of advice in Obama’s direction last night on Chocolate News.
05 Nov 08 Yes We Did!
This Week In Blackness - Episode 12
05 Nov 08 Obama’s Acceptance Speech
Yes, he’s all that, and his kids are cute too. 
05 Nov 08 Still Speechless
As much as I had hoped for it, and worked for it, and expected it, I was still in a state of shock when Obama gave his speech last night. I will go out on a limb and say that I believe he is more pragmatic than the conservatives think he is, and less liberal than the progressives think he is. I expect that he will change the country and the world in the ways he has promised, however some of the stops on that journey are likely to surprise all of us.
There were other very important elections last night, and I’ll have a lot to say about all of them. But not quite yet. I’m still enjoying the afterglow of Obama’s victory and want to savor it a little while longer.
04 Nov 08 Game, Set, Match OBAMA
CNN just joined MSNBC in calling the state of Ohio for Obama. John McCain no longer has any way to get to 270 electoral votes. Congrats to Barack Obama, the next President of the USA.
03 Nov 08 The Dance-Off
Tomorrow night the Obama - McCain dance-off becomes old news, it’ll be wrapped up and thrown out like an old fish. Let’s enjoy it one last time!
03 Nov 08 The Election Line
With one day left in the campaign, the national Pollster numbers show Barack Obama leading John McCain 51.5% to 44.3%, with 4.2% of the votes going to other candidates or still undecided. Their electoral college prediction is 311 votes for Obama, 142 votes for McCain, and 85 votes too close to call. These are the best predictions available in the US, but many people wonder how accurate they really are. For example, what if the people polled weren’t telling the truth?
There is a better way to predict elections than polling the voting population: ask the gamblers. Rather than dealing in hypothetical what-if’s, the gambling world deals in dollars and cents. Every potential fraud or screwup has to be taken into account when your livelihood depends on correctly predicting the outcome. A pollster can say “Ooops!” and move on, but a bookie who sets the wrong odds literally loses his shirt. Gambling on election outcomes is illegal in America, but perfectly acceptable in many parts of the world. Two sites, Intrade and Betfair, won’t let Americans place bets, but do publish their election odds lines. With only one day left to go, their numbers are likely to be very accurate. If not, they face going out of business the day after tomorrow.
This morning Betfair has Barack Obama at approximately 91% to win and John McCain at 8%, with the odds of Obama receiving more than 350 electoral votes at 59%. Those are overwhelming odds this late in the game. Their prediction model has Obama winning the following battleground states: Colorado, Florida, North Carolina, Ohio and Virginia. Over at the Intrade site they put the electoral college numbers front and center: 353 for Obama, 185 for McCain. Their model has Obama picking up the same swing states, plus Nevada. Here’s the bottom line: tomorrow night the newsboy bobbleheads are going to be talking about an Obama presidency, you can bet on it.
30 Oct 08 Helen Takes No Prisoners
Helen is an 82 year-old woman who lives near Austin, Texas. Her kids gave her a blog and she doesn’t pull many punches. She has a lot to say, and if you visit there, keep reading back for the good stuff. Here’s a sample from something she wrote today to an undecided acquaintance.
Now let’s talk about taxes. John McCain is working overtime to scare the hell out of all the Joe the Fill-in-the-Blank’s out there. He’s trying to fool them into thinking that they actually make enough money to be worried. That is the biggest joke the Republican party has managed to play on the good people of America. Most of us don’t even make enough money in a life-time to afford the membership into that club. The idea of a progressive tax where the wealthy pay more in taxes than the poor is nothing new. Not even close. In fact 81% of economist agree with the concept… and here is a real eye opener - until he crapped his pants about losing this election John McCain supported the concept as well. Trust me, that dog don’t hunt, he will say anything to win at this point. De-regulation of banks? He was for it, but now is against it. He was for privatization of social security and now he is against it. He was for the estate tax and now he is against it. He used to have a spine and now he doesn’t. You know, at his age, he should know there’s medication for such personality swings.
If I hear that McCain is a Maverick one more time I just might throw myself to the floor and break a hip. A maverick is an independent individual who doesn’t go along with a group or party. If John McCain’s a maverick I am one of those cheerleaders on the sidelines of Harold’s beloved Dallas Cowboys. Nobody seems to dispute that the Republican party led by George W. Bush got us into this mess but what everybody seems to forget is that Sarah Palin and John McCain are Republicans. Look, when the Religious Right came knocking at the door of the RNC Membership Round-Up, someone should have turned out the porch lights and told everyone inside to be quiet until they went away… the same thing I do when those nice looking boys on bicycles with bibles come to my door. But the Republicans opened that door, invited them in and now they have to live with that decision.
Cecilia, when was the last time a politician brought a tear to your eye… moved you deep in your soul? Honestly when was the last time you really felt that Americans could do anything if we put our hearts and minds to it? I am an old lady. Most of my life politicians have moved me. Most of my life I have felt that Americans can do anything if we put our hearts and minds to it. It’s been 8 long years. I had almost forgotten what that felt like. Thank you Barack Obama. Thank you.
30 Oct 08 The Obama American Story
Just in case you or someone you know missed it last night, here’s the full show.
30 Oct 08 The Temperament of a Rabid Badger
On his way to endorsing Obama last night, Steven Colbert had a few words to say about John McCain’s temperament (see above). He also described the Republican party as “A staggering mass of flaming agony” lol.
30 Oct 08 Obama On The Daily Show
Obama was really busy yesterday, he guested on Jon Stewart’s Daily Show via satellite before his appearances last night.
30 Oct 08 You Can Vote
You can vote however you like!
29 Oct 08 Obama For Obama
The town of Obama, Japan is going for their 15 minutes of fame, and selling a whole lot of Hawaiian shirts in the process. Gotta love those Obama Obama girls hehe.
28 Oct 08 FUX News: Unfair & Unbalanced
It is becoming very clear to the American public that television and radio need “Fairness Doctrine” laws to provide a level playing field for all political viewpoints. In the past 20 years the media, mainstream and otherwise, has become consolidated under the ownership of a handful of large corporations. One company in particular, News Corp., owned by Rupert Murdoch, has taken the practice of promoting right-wing viewpoints to extremes. FUX News hosts regularly shout down guests who attempt to provide a counterpoint to the biased claims of Murdoch’s propaganda. Today Fox News operates without any regulatory boundaries on content, free to broadcast self-serving political viewpoints presented as news, as discussed in this video by Bill Burton and Megyn Kelly.
Video from Daily Kos
