Baby Barack

Our 44th President.



Although the photo is undated, Barack Obama was born August 4, 1961.

Source: Chicago Tribune

Olbermann On Prop 8

Keith Olbermann gets a tad emotional about the opposition to Prop 8 in California. Love is being prohibited from some and I don’t know how making a second class of citizenry stands up in the Supreme Court. Whether you're for or against it, it's worth watching.

NOTE: Why does California have an initiative system where you can overturn laws just after they've passed and leave basic human rights to the loudest, most heavily-funded groups to determine?

Schwarzenegger: Mormon Segregationists

Schwarzenegger makes the connection with Prop 8 not allowing gay marriage with previous laws that prohibited blacks from marrying whites:

"I think it is unfortunate, obviously, but it's not the end, because I think this will go back into the courts, this will go back to the Supreme Court, because the Supreme Court very clearly in California has declared this unconstitutional. It's the same as in the 1948 case when blacks and whites were not allowed to marry. This falls into the same category."

The racist Mormon Church didn't think blacks had souls until the late-70s, now they think gay marriage in another obvious right they think they can deny. Civil rights are civil rights and are not subject to some hick from Utah and his six wives to interfere with.

LiberalsAreCool TV

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Potential Cure For AIDS

A potential cure for AIDS:

"The startling case of an AIDS patient who underwent a bone marrow transplant to treat leukemia is stirring new hope that gene-therapy strategies on the far edges of AIDS research might someday cure the disease.

The patient, a 42-year-old American living in Berlin, is still recovering from his leukemia therapy, but he appears to have won his battle with AIDS. Doctors have not been able to detect the virus in his blood for more than 600 days, despite his having ceased all conventional AIDS medication. Normally when a patient stops taking AIDS drugs, the virus stampedes through the body within weeks, or days.

While cautioning that the Berlin case could be a fluke, David Baltimore, who won a Nobel prize for his research on tumor viruses, deemed it "a very good sign" and a virtual "proof of principle" for gene-therapy approaches."

Still early days and a lot of research to be done, but as stem cell research and other sciences get a new life post-Bush and his anti-science administration, there is reason to have new hope.

Source: WSJ

Bush Spy Revelations Anticipated When Obama Is Sworn In

The great thing about getting a Democrat in office after Bush is that we will get to know all the horrible illegal things Bush/Cheney/Addington/Yoo did.

"When Barack Obama takes the oath of office on January 20, Americans won't just get a new president; they might finally learn the full extent of George W. Bush's warrantless domestic wiretapping.

Since The New York Times first revealed in 2005 that the NSA was eavesdropping on citizens' overseas phone calls and e-mail, few additional details about the massive "Terrorist Surveillance Program" have emerged. That's because the Bush administration has stonewalled, misled and denied documents to Congress, and subpoenaed the phone records of the investigative reporters."

War criminals, all of them. Keep this in mind as January 20 approaches:

"I'd bet there are a lot of career employees in the intelligence agencies who'll be glad to see Obama take the oath so they can finally speak out against all this illegal spying and get back to their real mission," says Caroline Fredrickson, the ACLU's Washington D.C. legislative director.

Source: Wired

Olbermann: "Four More Years"

Liberal media is catching on, Olbermann re-ups with MSNBC for four more years:

"The announcement came less than two years into Mr. Olbermann's current four-year deal. MSNBC essentially tore up his February 2007 contract (reported to be worth up to $4 million a year) and wrote a new one, according to two employees with knowledge of the agreement. The new contract is valued at about $7.5 million a year, one of the people said."

Why mess with success. Next up will be Rachel Maddow.

Source: NYT

2012: Palin Goes Rogue

Palin goes rogue in a 2012 debate with Grandpa.

Cocoa Tea Sings "Brack Obama"

Songs dedicated to the President-elect are popping up, check out Cocoa Tea with "Barack Obama"



Found this video dedicated to Oliver Willis by his fans on his blog, Source: Oliver Willis

The Mormons: What You Need To Know

After writing about the Mormon Church and their support of Prop 8 in California, I was reminded of the South Park episode on Joseph Smith. I had forgotten I had my own cartoon on the Mormon Church I had found on the internets.

This video explains the origins of mankind. Spirit children? Jesus and Lucifer were brothers? Jesus had three wives? And the classic line:

"Negroes cursed with black skin"

You have to see this! Does religion get any better than this?

David Brooks: Conservatism Dead, No Leadership

David Brooks on Bob Schieffer growing a set of balls and speaking truth to politics. Modern conservatism is dead, it has no leadership and has failed to address any of the problems of the day.

With its circular firing squad in place, Brooks is a dead man walking.

Grading the Election Theories

Mark Schmitt at the American Prospect grades all the election theories you've heard over the long election cycle. Some highlights:

Bradley Effect: F.
"Polls will be wrong because white voters lie and say they'll vote for a black candidate when they won't. Or, polls under represent lower-income whites who won't vote for a black candidate. Whatever version of the theory, it wasn't true and never was. There wasn't even a Bradley Effect in the election it's named after, L.A. Mayor Tom Bradley's 1982 campaign for California governor. He lost because of a gun-control initiative on the ballot that drew unexpected rural white turnout. The only interesting thing about the Bradley Effect is why so many in the press seemed deeply invested in believing it. Perhaps it was just shorthand for the doubt that Barack Obama would ever be elected president."

And:

Always trust Nate Silver: A+.
"Not really a theory, per se, but Silver's fivethirtyeight.com had an impeccable record all year. In the primaries, he operated from a core theory, which was that demographics would be a better predictor than polls, but for the general election, he used aggregations of polls in addition to creative demographic data, such as the ratio of Starbucks to Wal-Marts in a state, to make projections. More important than being right, Nate taught all of us (and all political wonks went to fivethirtyeight.com) a vast amount about electoral politics and demographics -- enough to make all the theories above look kind of simplistic."

Source: Mark Schmitt

Get Your War On: New World Order

Play this video for all your Faux News Hannity and O'Reilly friends who fear Obama and "change".

Source: 23/6

Separate Church From State

California is not as liberal as you thought after passing Prop 8. And as the battle continues and the Mormon Church sends its' money and members to fight, I can't help but think of that South Park episode on Joseph Smith and Mormons. But I digress.

The First Amendment says the State may not establish a religion. The state may not take principles of religious belief from a religion, any religion, and establish it as the law applicable to all.

"That the supporters of Proposition 8 were motivated by religious beliefs cannot be denied. Now the religious beliefs of some Californians are in our Constitution and, until overturned, govern us all whether we like it or not," - James Brosnahan, San Francisco Chronicle.

But the church is all about control. Maybe that's good for some, but it's not good for all. They need to step back and realize that the Founding Fathers were not zealots and made remarkable provisions to protect all involved.

"Marriage is a fundamental right in constitutional analysis. There are very few things in life more important than the ability to choose one's partner. Marriage is not just a word; it is a status, a state of mind, a way of being. Look in any direction and you will see examples of the people's respect for the institution of marriage.

A large group of Californians has now been denied that fundamental institution."

What it boils down to is equality is equality. All men are created equal. Our rights should be equally protected. If the Church has an opinion, great, but it should not be the law.

Source: SFGate

Obama Plans Guantanamo Close

Bush, Cheney and Addington shredded the Constitution, Barack is putting it back together.

via HuffPo:

"President-elect Obama's advisers are quietly crafting a proposal to ship dozens, if not hundreds, of imprisoned terrorism suspects to the United States to face criminal trials, a plan that would make good on his promise to close the Guantanamo Bay prison but could require creation of a controversial new system of justice."

I am not pro-detainees rights, per se, but the Bush administration's military commissions were a farce. No convictions and a lot of mistrials, not to mention, major criticism by human rights groups, defense attorneys and even some military prosecutors who quit the process in protest.

The whole "enemy combatant" title and suspension of Habeas Corpus were mistakes made by novices. Endless incarceration with no rights sent the world a message that Bush was just as evil as the next guy and our standing around the globe suffered. Want to enlist more terrorists? Just show them a picture of Bush or an orange hood. That is his legacy.

Obama closing Guantanamo is as clear a signal as can be sent that the Bush era isn't just over, it will be actively rolled back.

Source: HuffPo

Smartest Guys In The Room

The smartest guys in the room on election night.

From left to right, that's Robert Gibbs, communications director; David Plouffe, campaign manager; Barack Obama, president-elect; and David Axelrod, senior strategist.

Obama Positioned to Quickly Reverse Bush Actions

200? I'm sure it will be much higher soon.

"Transition advisers to President-elect Barack Obama have compiled a list of about 200 Bush administration actions and executive orders that could be swiftly undone to reverse White House policies on climate change, stem cell research, reproductive rights and other issues, according to congressional Democrats, campaign aides and experts working with the transition team."

A good first step:

"Obama himself has signaled, for example, that he intends to reverse Bush's controversial limit on federal funding of embryonic stem cell research, a decision that scientists say has restrained research into some of the most promising avenues for defeating a wide array of diseases, such as Parkinson's."

Change I can believe in.

Source: WaPo