PoliticalChurch: Breaking Church News + Business, Politics,Royal Wedding, TD Jakes Speech

African American Hat Wearing Compared with British Hat Wearing: The Art Extravaganza in It All

2011-05-01T10:17:00.000-07:00

African Americans Wear Hats Too: Compare and Contrast

Dance to Zenga Zenga Video, Music and Lyrics: Gaddafi Zenga Zenga RAP

2011-02-27T21:57:00.000-08:00

Translation:

Inch, inch. house, house. home, home. zanga zanga

Forward, forward, Revolution, Revolution

(Repeat)

I got millions on my side not from the inside but from other countries. From here i send a call to all the millions of the desert.. from desert to desert the millions will march and no one will be able to stop them.

Fast, fast

(Repeat)

The bell of work has rang!, the bell to march has rang!, the bell of victory has rang!, no turning back!

(Repeat)

Enjoy!! Gaddafi RAP

Egypt Rises Again as Hosni Mubarak Falls Down: Huge Celebrations in the Streets of Cairo, Children Are Embracing, Kissing Soldiers

2011-02-11T08:53:00.000-08:00

Today is the day for celebrations! It is the time to sleep! No, it is such an emotional time for all freedom lovers of the world and all eyewitnesses of the Egyptian protests. The forces of the people have toppled a dictator.

Google, Facebook, and Twitter, the power of the Internet and communication, the resilience of the young people of Egypt, the working class, the middle class and the upper class of Egypt descended on the street go against a defiant Hosni Mubarak. Every single Egyptian and many other people of the world, From Tunisia to the South of Sudan, are rejoicing in the realization of power exercised by Egyptians.

After three weeks of massive protests, the people of Egypt got what they've always wanted. They have been protesting against an autocratic government, against the bad working conditions of the working class and lack of opportunities. Despite all the defiance shown by Hosni Mubarak, he was finally forced to step down.

Celebrations are everywhere now! From Tahir Square to Wall Street, Cairo to Washington and anywhere Egyptians are living. More importantly, twitter users, Internet and blogophiles are all rejoicing over the power of the people of Egypt.

These new events follow the deposition of the Tunisian dictator in Tunisia. Now it is Egypt's turn to boot a strongman, a dictator in the person of Hosni Mubarack. These new developments come as a surprise for the few remaining dictators around the world. Ultimately, the power comes back to the people!

Today, the young people of Egypt, the children of Egypt, Old as well as young people, have reclaimed their voice. They obtain their victory and do not forget those who became martyrs for this revolution.

The Google executive who was imprisoned became a voice in this country. He came back upon his release to reignite the flames of freedom. He turned out to be a good organizer of the Tahir crowd.

Wael Ghonim, Google Executive on leave, plans to write a book about revolution 2.0. He realized that his mission has accomplished. His contribution was to only participate in the revolution. He wants to go back to his company to work. He stated that he accomplished his role. Wael Ghonim does not want all the attention to be on him. He is thinking about the martyrs and future of his country.

Crystal Cathedral Declared Bankruptcy: Mega Churches Are Hit Hard by Recession and Failing Economy

2010-10-18T18:30:00.000-07:00

The recent news shocked everybody. But nobody was immune from the precarious conditions of the country. Faithful are not able to contribute to the works of the church. If they do, the collections are not enough to pay the debt and interests on huge loans.

Crystal Cathedral is one of the first megachurches to file for bankruptcy in this economy, but it is not the only one that is suffering due to lack of funds.

The church's budget woes have forced it to downsize its staff, cancel programming in certain markets, and even send home choir and orchestra members.

Pastor Eddie Long Accused of Sexual Improprieties: Pastor Long's Sexual Scandal

2010-10-01T07:48:00.000-07:00

A mega church pastor is in the spotlight these days. Some of the male participants in his youth academy accused him of coercing them into sex with expensive gifts and trips on his private jet to nice resorts. Pastor Long said he is not a perfect man, but that he wants to fight these charges in court. He wants justice.

According to ABCnews, CBS, NBC, CNN and various other networks, the pastor has sent very personal pictures to these young men. He poses in sports, sexy, and tight t-shirts in bathrooms and sends these pictures to the men. Many critics feel that a pastor should not do that. God knows what else he sent and remains to be uncovered in court!

Being a minister in the age of quick technology, social networks, smartphones requires a lot of self-control. Apparently, Pastor Long was not exercising any self-restraint when he released these pictures. In addition, he is married to a beautiful woman. How come his wife did not notice anything? How come she does not come to support her man?

It has been reported that other church leaders closed their eyes on the fact that these types of activities are occurring in church. Videos of pastors, clergymen seducing church members are all the rage online. Pastors as well as priests are preying on the flock! Watch out, churchgoers! Keep your girls and boys close to you

Tribute to Dorothy I. Height, Matriarch of the American Civil Rights Movement, a True Hat-wearing Sister With Great Fashion Flair

2010-04-29T06:44:00.000-07:00

A true giant, a true shero is gone. Dorothy I. Height has served us well. Her legacy will be around for a long time. She fought the good fight for men and women. She created bridges among the various ethnic groups. She had friends among the powerful and the destitute. She was always around when the huge decision had to be taken. Dr. Height wore many hats throughout the years. She was fond of great hat architecture. She wore them too.

So long, Dorothy! We will see you in Heaven some day!

Afrrican-American Church Ladies Wear Hot Hats on Palm Sunday

2010-04-10T10:48:00.000-07:00

On Palm Sunday, all over the US, the Caribbean and the rest of the world, Christians are ready to go to church. They want to give their best to the Lord. Nowhere has the church-going taken a fashion show sense than some parts of the US and the Caribbean where women wear their best outfits adorned with exceptional hats. It is a tradition passed down from grandmothers to daughters. Followers of Church of God in Christ take great pride in wearing their best dresses and suits on this day.

So all over the country, you will see beautiful people going to church on Palm Sunday. Please pay attention to their hats!

===========

Pope Benedict's 2010 Easter Message: Pope Prayed for Haiti and Chile but Made No Mention of Sex Scandal Broiling the Holy See

2010-04-04T09:55:00.000-07:00

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

I bring you the Easter proclamation in these words of the Liturgy, which echo the ancient hymn of praise sung by
the Israelites after crossing the Red Sea. It is recounted in the Book of Exodus (cf 15:19-21) that when they had crossed the sea on dry land, and saw the Egyptians submerged by the waters, Miriam, the sister of Moses and Aaron, and the other women sang and danced to this song of joy: “Sing to the Lord, for he has triumphed wonderfully: horse and rider he has thrown into the sea!” Christians throughout the world repeat this canticle at the Easter Vigil, and a special prayer explains its meaning; a prayer that now, in the full light of the resurrection, we joyfully make our own: “Father, even today we see the wonders of the miracles you worked long ago. You once saved a single nation from slavery, and now you offer that salvation to all through baptism. May the peoples of the world become true sons of Abraham and prove worthy of the heritage of Israel.”

The Gospel has revealed to us the fulfillment of the ancient figures: in his death and resurrection, Jesus Christ has freed us from the radical slavery of sin and opened for us the way towards the promised land, the Kingdom of God, the universal Kingdom of justice, love and peace. This “exodus” takes place first of all within man himself, and it consists in a new birth in the Holy Spirit, the effect of the baptism that Christ has given us in his Paschal Mystery. The old man yields his place to the new man; the old life is left behind, and a new life can begin (cf. Rom 6:4). But this spiritual “exodus” is the beginning of an integral liberation, capable of renewing us in every dimension – human, personal and social.

Yes, my brothers and sisters, Easter is the true salvation of humanity! If Christ – the Lamb of God – had not poured out his blood for us, we would be without hope, our destiny and the destiny of the whole world would inevitably be death. But Easter has reversed that trend: Christ’s resurrection is a new creation, like a graft that can regenerate the whole plant. It is an event that has profoundly changed the course of history, tipping the scales once and for all on the side of good, of life, of pardon. We are free, we are saved! Hence from deep within our hearts we cry out: “Let us sing to the Lord: glorious his triumph!”

The Christian people, having emerged from the waters of baptism, is sent out to the whole world to bear witness to this salvation, to bring to all people the fruit of Easter, which consists in a new life, freed from sin and restored to its original beauty, to its goodness and truth. Continually, in the course of two thousand years, Christians – especially saints – have made history fruitful with their lived experience of Easter. The Church is the people of the Exodus, because she constantly lives the Paschal Mystery and disseminates its renewing power in every time and place. In our days too, humanity needs an “exodus”, not just superficial adjustment, but a spiritual and moral conversion. It needs the salvation of the Gospel, so as to emerge from a profound crisis, one which requires deep change, beginning with consciences.

I pray to the Lord Jesus that in the Middle East, and especially in the land sanctified by his death and resurrection, the peoples will accomplish a true and definitive “exodus” from war and violence to peace and concord. To the Christian communities who are experiencing trials and sufferings, especially in Iraq, the Risen Lord repeats those consoling and encouraging words that he addressed to the Apostles in the Upper Room: “Peace be with you!” (Jn 20:21).

For the countries in Latin America and the Caribbean that are seeing a dangerous resurgence of crimes linked to drug trafficking, let Easter signal the victory of peaceful coexistence and respect for the common good. May the beloved people of Haiti, devastated by the appalling tragedy of the earthquake, accomplish their own “exodus” from mourning and from despair to a new hope, supported by international solidarity. May the beloved citizens of Chile, who have had to endure another grave catastrophe, set about the task of reconstruction with tenacity, supported by their faith.

In the strength of the risen Jesus, may the conflicts in Africa come to an end, conflicts which continue to cause destruction and suffering, and may peace and reconciliation be attained, as guarantees of development. In particular I entrust to the Lord the future of the Democratic Republic of Congo, Guinea and Nigeria.

May the Risen Lord sustain the Christians who suffer persecution and even death for their faith, as for example in Pakistan. To the countries afflicted by terrorism and by social and religious discrimination, may He grant the strength to undertake the work of building dialogue and serene coexistence. To the leaders of nations, may Easter bring light and strength, so that economic and financial activity may finally be driven by the criteria of truth, justice and fraternal aid. May the saving power of Christ’s resurrection fill all of humanity, so that it may overcome the multiple tragic expressions of a “culture of death” which are becoming increasingly widespread, so as to build a future of love and truth in which every human life is respected and welcomed.

Dear brothers and sisters, Easter does not work magic. Just as the Israelites found the desert awaiting them on the far side of the Red Sea, so the Church, after the resurrection, always finds history filled with joy and hope, grief and anguish. And yet, this history is changed, it is marked by a new and eternal covenant, it is truly open to the future. For this reason, saved by hope, let us continue our pilgrimage, bearing in our hearts the song that is ancient and yet ever new: “Let us sing to the Lord: glorious his triumph!”
pilgrimage, bearing in our hearts the song that is ancient and yet ever new: “Let us sing to the Lord: glorious his triumph!”us sing to the Lord: glorious his triumph!”

TD Jakes's Palm Sermons: Change is Coming Despite The Oppression of the Assyrians; Pray When Your Car Is Sliding on Ice

2010-04-04T08:54:00.000-07:00

Lack of Food and Clean Water in Port Au Prince: Some Schools Reopen under Tents

2010-02-07T11:54:00.000-08:00

Breaking Church News: Pastor Rick Warren's Record Collection: $2.5 Million

2010-01-03T19:14:00.000-08:00

Saddleback Pastor and "The Purpose-Driven Life" Author Rick Warren Got Answers to His Prayers and Urgent Letter

God does answer his people's prayer these days. He did it in the past. He will continue to do it. It does not help if you are well-connected and have some fame. That is what happened to Pastor Rick Warren of Saddleback Church.

According to Daily News, Evangelical pastor Rick Warren's got a new purpose in life: to raise $900K by the first of the year for his struggling church.

Warren, the author of the best-selling book 'The Purpose-Driven Life' and pastor at Saddleback Church, needs the money to fill a giant hole in the church's budget resulting from significantly lower donations, the Associated Press reported.

Warren wrote an urgent letter to his parishioners asking for the money.

"Dear Saddleback Family, THIS IS AN URGENT LETTER," he wrote. "With 10 percent of our church family out of work due to the recession, our expenses in caring for our community in 2009 rose dramatically while our income stagnated."

Michelle Obama Greeted Other Heads of State with a Kiss on the Cheeck, but Offered Handshake to "Ladies Man" Italian Prime Minister, Silvio Berlusconi

2009-09-28T06:56:00.000-07:00

No Kiss for You, Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi! You are a bad boy who needs to face a powerful, tall woman! He got a lesson in being a cad! Michelle made all women proud during g20 Summit in Pittsburg! President Obama was not too happy with his gesture. Respect another man's wife, Silvio!

Why does he always put his foot in his mouth? Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi continues to make mistakes. He continues to commit gaffes.

Berlusconi told a Milan rally of conservative supporters on Sunday that he was bringing greetings from the United States from "What's his name? Some tanned guy. Ah, Barack Obama!"

Shortly after Obama's election in November 2008, Berlusconi raised eyebrows by saying the victor was "young, handsome, and even has a good tan."

This time, Berlusconi, a billionaire media mogul who began his career as a cruise ship entertainer, also took a jab at the First Lady.

"You won't believe it," he said, "but two of them went to the beach because the wife is also tanned."

Berlusconi is known for his gaffes. Most people know that he likes to see an attractive woman. It seems that he is not held up to the same standards as other people.

One may wonder whether Michelle, knowing his sexual scandal stories, found him creepy. Many European publishers show him looking at Michelle's dress instead of her face. He was waiting for her to come greet him or kiss him. Michelle refused and only gave him a handshake.

Good for you, Michelle! President knew he was dealing with a foxy Silvio Berlusconi. So he made it a point of standing right there with his wife to keep the encounter pleasant. No matter how much money a man has, he needs to respect women, specially another powerful man's wife! Keep your come on to big daddy moves to yourself, little man, Silvio!

Vox Populi: Twitter Gives Voice to Iranians after #IranElection, Twitter Revolution

2009-06-16T02:12:00.000-07:00

Who would have thought that the only media network that Iranians depend on to broadcast their protests would be Twitter. Twitter has taken social networks to a higher level. The same can be said of Facebook which has just allowed users to claim their own name on their profile. Great job!

Since Twitter has realized its power after these elections, it does not even want to update its system fearing that many people may be cut. So they postponed the updates till tomorrow.

Mr. Obama Surprised Aides with Passover, Seder Dinner at White House

2009-04-10T10:43:00.000-07:00

Mr. Obama is showing respoect to various cultures. After touring some muslim countries where he showed respect to their culture, he came home to participate in the Jewish Seder. Everyone is saying that he will be in Jerusalem next year. After returning home and meeting with kings, queens and other heads of state, some bloggers feel he should have not greeted the Saudi Arabia King and the Queen of England a certain way.

What is the Seder?

"The Seder, held in the Old Family Dining Room at the White House with several aides and their families, included the traditional Passover dishes, matzo ball soup, brisket and kugel. The White House chefs prepared the meal after consulting family recipes from several Seder participants.

While the Obamas hosted the dinner, it was overseen by Eric Lesser, a White House aide who helped organize the Seder in Harrisburg during the campaign last year. He is now a special assistant to Mr. Obama’s adviser David Axelrod."

John Legend's Open Letter to the Editor

2009-03-13T12:26:00.001-07:00

A recently published cartoon by the New York Post -- that many believed
was linked to President Obama -- has upset a lot of people. The Rev. Al
Sharpton called it "troubling at best." And now, singer John Legend is
as well. Here's his open letter to the Editor:

Dear Editor:

I'm trying to understand what possible motivation you may have had for
publishing that vile cartoon depicting the shooting of the chimpanzee
that went crazy. I guess you thought it would be funny to suggest that
whomever was responsible for writing the Economic Recovery legislation
must have the intelligence and judgment of a deranged, violent
chimpanzee, and should be shot to protect the larger community. Really?
Did it occur to you that this suggestion would imply a connection
between President Barack Obama and the deranged chimpanzee? Did it occur
to you that our President has been receiving death threats since early
in his candidacy? Did it occur to you that blacks have historically been
compared to various apes as a way of racist insult and mockery? Did you
intend to invoke these painful themes when you printed the cartoon?

If that's not what you intended, then it was stupid and willfully
ignorant of you not to connect these easily connectable dots. If it is
what you intended, then you obviously wanted to be grossly provocative,
racist and offensive to the sensibilities of most reasonable Americans.
Either way, you should not have printed this cartoon, and the fact that
you did is truly reprehensible. I can't imagine what possible
justification you have for this. I've read your lame statement in
response to the outrage you provoked. Shame on you for dodging the real
issue and then using the letter as an opportunity to attack Rev.
Sharpton. This is not about Rev. Sharpton. It's about the cartoon being
blatantly racist and offensive. I believe in freedom of speech, and you
have every right to print what you want. But freedom of speech still
comes with responsibilities and consequences. You are responsible for
printing this cartoon, and I hope you experience some real consequences
for it. I'm personally boycotting your paper and won't do any interviews
with any of your reporters, and I encourage all of my colleagues in the
entertainment business to do so as well. I implore your advertisers to
seriously reconsider their business relationships with you as well.

You should print an apology in your paper acknowledging that this
cartoon was ignorant, offensive and racist and should not have been
printed. I'm well aware of our country's history of racism and violence,
but I truly believe we are better than this filth. As we attempt to rise
above our difficult past and look toward a better future, we don't need
the New York Post to resurrect the images of Jim Crow to deride the new
administration and put black folks in our place. Please feel free to
criticize and honestly evaluate our new President, but do so without the
incendiary images and rhetoric.

Sincerely,
John Legend

Jon Stewart vs. Jim Cramer of CNBC

2009-03-13T12:06:00.000-07:00

+++++++++++++++++++++++++

Mars Hill Church Pastor, Mark Discoll As Presented by NightLine and The New York Times Magazine: Mars Hill vs. Other Megachurches

2009-02-01T08:49:00.000-08:00

What does Mars Hill have in common with other megachurches such as Joe Oesteen's Lakewood church in Houston, Bill Hybel's Willow Creek Community Church in Illinois, T.D. Jakes's Potter's House in Dallas, Texas and Rev. Robert H. Schuller's California's Crystal Cathedral, Pastor Rick Warren's Saddleback Church?

They all have members in the thousands. And their ministers are very influential people leading the flock. They are respected and are not afraid of taking a stance against popular secular issues. They are willing to stand on the Word of God.

One of these pastors has been featured on Nightline and The New York Magazine lately for his position on various issues and his way of tackling various issues such as masturbation and sex. He is causing some grief to various Christian conservatives who are calling him, "the foul mouth minister or the cussing pastor." Because of his hellfire theology, a large group of critics are staying away from his sermons. Yet, they are very popular on Youtube, Godtube and elsewhere on the Internet.

Pastor Driscoll preaches that women should submit to their husband as found in the Bible. He allows his members to watch "Fight Club" movies, but not the Chronicles of Narnia. The church has worship warms up for about 1 hour of popular hymns by Bruce Springsteen's song, "Born to Run." He may preach for more than 1 hour. That is longer than most pastors do these days.

When he appeared on Nightline, the reporter asked him about masturbation. Once again, he gave an answer that made everybody laugh. "Whatever your hands find to do, use them with all your might..."

Text of Inaugural Benediction by Rev. Joseph E. Lowery: The Best Inauguration Performance

2009-01-20T23:14:00.000-08:00

God of our weary years, God of our silent tears, thou, who has brought us thus far along the way, thou, who has by thy might led us into the light, keep us forever in the path we pray, lest our feet stray from the places, our God, where we met thee, lest our hearts drunk with the wine of the world, we forget thee.

Shadowed beneath thy hand, may we forever stand true to thee, oh God, and true to our native land.

We truly give thanks for the glorious experience we've shared this day.

We pray now, oh Lord, for your blessing upon thy servant Barack Obama, the 44th president of these United States, his family and his administration.

He has come to this high office at a low moment in the national, and indeed the global, fiscal climate. But because we know you got the whole world in your hands, we pray for not only our nation, but for the community of nations.

Our faith does not shrink though pressed by the flood of mortal ills.

For we know that, Lord, you are able and you're willing to work through faithful leadership to restore stability, mend our brokenness, heal our wounds, and deliver us from the exploitation of the poor, of the least of these, and from favoritism toward the rich, the elite of these.

We thank you for the empowering of thy servant, our 44th president, to inspire our nation to believe that yes we can work together to achieve a more perfect union.

And while we have sown the seeds of greed — the wind of greed and corruption, and even as we reap the whirlwind of social and economic disruption, we seek forgiveness and we come in a spirit of unity and solidarity to commit our support to our president by our willingness to make sacrifices, to respect your creation, to turn to each other and not on each other.

And now, Lord, in the complex arena of human relations, help us to make choices on the side of love, not hate; on the side of inclusion, not exclusion; tolerance, not intolerance.

And as we leave this mountain top, help us to hold on to the spirit of fellowship and the oneness of our family. Let us take that power back to our homes, our workplaces, our churches, our temples, our mosques, or wherever we seek your will.

Bless President Barack, First Lady Michelle. Look over our little angelic Sasha and Malia.

We go now to walk together as children, pledging that we won't get weary in the difficult days ahead. We know you will not leave us alone.

With your hands of power and your heart of love, help us then, now, Lord, to work for that day when nations shall not lift up sword against nation, when tanks will be beaten into tractors, when every man and every woman shall sit under his or her own vine and fig tree and none shall be afraid, when justice will roll down like waters and righteousness as a mighty stream.

Lord, in the memory of all the saints who from their labors rest, and in the joy of a new beginning, we ask you to help us work for that day when black will not be asked to get in back, when brown can stick around ... when yellow will be mellow ... when the red man can get ahead, man; and when white will embrace what is right. That all those who do justice and love mercy say Amen.

2009-01-20T22:52:00.001-08:00

Here is the speech of the 44th president of the United States of America, Barack Obama, on January 20, 2009

"My fellow citizens,

I stand here today humbled by the task before us, grateful for the trust you have bestowed, mindful of the sacrifices borne by our ancestors. I thank President Bush for his service to our nation, as well as the generosity and cooperation he has shown throughout this transition.

Forty-four Americans have now taken the presidential oath. The words have been spoken during rising tides of prosperity and the still waters of peace. Yet, every so often the oath is taken amidst gathering clouds and raging storms. At these moments, America has carried on not simply because of the skill or vision of those in high office, but because We the People have remained faithful to the ideals of our forbearers, and true to our founding documents.

So it has been. So it must be with this generation of Americans.

That we are in the midst of crisis is now well understood. Our nation is at war, against a far-reaching network of violence and hatred. Our economy is badly weakened, a consequence of greed and irresponsibility on the part of some, but also our collective failure to make hard choices and prepare the nation for a new age. Homes have been lost; jobs shed; businesses shuttered. Our health care is too costly; our schools fail too many; and each day brings further evidence that the ways we use energy strengthen our adversaries and threaten our planet.

These are the indicators of crisis, subject to data and statistics. Less measurable but no less profound is a sapping of confidence across our land — a nagging fear that America's decline is inevitable, and that the next generation must lower its sights.

Today I say to you that the challenges we face are real. They are serious and they are many. They will not be met easily or in a short span of time. But know this, America — they will be met.

On this day, we gather because we have chosen hope over fear, unity of purpose over conflict and discord.

On this day, we come to proclaim an end to the petty grievances and false promises, the recriminations and worn out dogmas, that for far too long have strangled our politics.

We remain a young nation, but in the words of Scripture, the time has come to set aside childish things. The time has come to reaffirm our enduring spirit; to choose our better history; to carry forward that precious gift, that noble idea, passed on from generation to generation: the God-given promise that all are equal, all are free, and all deserve a chance to pursue their full measure of happiness.

In reaffirming the greatness of our nation, we understand that greatness is never a given. It must be earned. Our journey has never been one of short-cuts or settling for less. It has not been the path for the faint-hearted — for those who prefer leisure over work, or seek only the pleasures of riches and fame. Rather, it has been the risk-takers, the doers, the makers of things — some celebrated but more often men and women obscure in their labor, who have carried us up the long, rugged path towards prosperity and freedom.

For us, they packed up their few worldly possessions and traveled across oceans in search of a new life.

For us, they toiled in sweatshops and settled the West; endured the lash of the whip and plowed the hard earth.

For us, they fought and died, in places like Concord and Gettysburg; Normandy and Khe Sahn.

Time and again these men and women struggled and sacrificed and worked till their hands were raw so that we might live a better life. They saw America as bigger than the sum of our individual ambitions; greater than all the differences of birth or wealth or faction.

This is the journey we continue today. We remain the most prosperous, powerful nation on Earth. Our workers are no less productive than when this crisis began. Our minds are no less inventive, our goods and services no less needed than they were last week or last month or last year. Our capacity remains undiminished. But our time of standing pat, of protecting narrow interests and putting off unpleasant decisions — that time has surely passed. Starting today, we must pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, and begin again the work of remaking America.

For everywhere we look, there is work to be done. The state of the economy calls for action, bold and swift, and we will act — not only to create new jobs, but to lay a new foundation for growth. We will build the roads and bridges, the electric grids and digital lines that feed our commerce and bind us together. We will restore science to its rightful place, and wield technology's wonders to raise health care's quality and lower its cost. We will harness the sun and the winds and the soil to fuel our cars and run our factories. And we will transform our schools and colleges and universities to meet the demands of a new age. All this we can do. All this we will do.

Now, there are some who question the scale of our ambitions — who suggest that our system cannot tolerate too many big plans. Their memories are short. For they have forgotten what this country has already done; what free men and women can achieve when imagination is joined to common purpose, and necessity to courage.

What the cynics fail to understand is that the ground has shifted beneath them— that the stale political arguments that have consumed us for so long no longer apply. The question we ask today is not whether our government is too big or too small, but whether it works — whether it helps families find jobs at a decent wage, care they can afford, a retirement that is dignified. Where the answer is yes, we intend to move forward. Where the answer is no, programs will end. And those of us who manage the public's dollars will be held to account — to spend wisely, reform bad habits, and do our business in the light of day — because only then can we restore the vital trust between a people and their government.

Nor is the question before us whether the market is a force for good or ill. Its power to generate wealth and expand freedom is unmatched, but this crisis has reminded us that without a watchful eye, the market can spin out of control — and that a nation cannot prosper long when it favors only the prosperous. The success of our economy has always depended not just on the size of our Gross Domestic Product, but on the reach of our prosperity; on the ability to extend opportunity to every willing heart — not out of charity, but because it is the surest route to our common good.

As for our common defense, we reject as false the choice between our safety and our ideals. Our Founding Fathers, faced with perils we can scarcely imagine, drafted a charter to assure the rule of law and the rights of man, a charter expanded by the blood of generations. Those ideals still light the world, and we will not give them up for expedience's sake. And so to all other peoples and governments who are watching today, from the grandest capitals to the small village where my father was born: know that America is a friend of each nation and every man, woman, and child who seeks a future of peace and dignity, and we are ready to lead once more.

Recall that earlier generations faced down fascism and communism not just with missiles and tanks, but with sturdy alliances and enduring convictions. They understood that our power alone cannot protect us, nor does it entitle us to do as we please. Instead, they knew that our power grows through its prudent use; our security emanates from the justness of our cause, the force of our example, the tempering qualities of humility and restraint.

We are the keepers of this legacy. Guided by these principles once more, we can meet those new threats that demand even greater effort — even greater cooperation and understanding between nations. We will begin to responsibly leave Iraq to its people, and forge a hard-earned peace in Afghanistan. With old friends and former foes, we will work tirelessly to lessen the nuclear threat, and roll back the specter of a warming planet. We will not apologize for our way of life, nor will we waver in its defense, and for those who seek to advance their aims by inducing terror and slaughtering innocents, we say to you now that our spirit is stronger and cannot be broken; you cannot outlast us, and we will defeat you.

For we know that our patchwork heritage is a strength, not a weakness. We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus — and non-believers. We are shaped by every language and culture, drawn from every end of this Earth; and because we have tasted the bitter swill of civil war and segregation, and emerged from that dark chapter stronger and more united, we cannot help but believe that the old hatreds shall someday pass; that the lines of tribe shall soon dissolve; that as the world grows smaller, our common humanity shall reveal itself; and that America must play its role in ushering in a new era of peace.

To the Muslim world, we seek a new way forward, based on mutual interest and mutual respect. To those leaders around the globe who seek to sow conflict, or blame their society's ills on the West — know that your people will judge you on what you can build, not what you destroy. To those who cling to power through corruption and deceit and the silencing of dissent, know that you are on the wrong side of history; but that we will extend a hand if you are willing to unclench your fist.

To the people of poor nations, we pledge to work alongside you to make your farms flourish and let clean waters flow; to nourish starved bodies and feed hungry minds. And to those nations like ours that enjoy relative plenty, we say we can no longer afford indifference to suffering outside our borders; nor can we consume the world's resources without regard to effect. For the world has changed, and we must change with it.

As we consider the road that unfolds before us, we remember with humble gratitude those brave Americans who, at this very hour, patrol far-off deserts and distant mountains. They have something to tell us, just as the fallen heroes who lie in Arlington whisper through the ages. We honor them not only because they are guardians of our liberty, but because they embody the spirit of service; a willingness to find meaning in something greater than themselves. And yet, at this moment — a moment that will define a generation — it is precisely this spirit that must inhabit us all.

For as much as government can do and must do, it is ultimately the faith and determination of the American people upon which this nation relies. It is the kindness to take in a stranger when the levees break, the selflessness of workers who would rather cut their hours than see a friend lose their job which sees us through our darkest hours. It is the firefighter's courage to storm a stairway filled with smoke, but also a parent's willingness to nurture a child, that finally decides our fate.

Our challenges may be new. The instruments with which we meet them may be new. But those values upon which our success depends — honesty and hard work, courage and fair play, tolerance and curiosity, loyalty and patriotism — these things are old. These things are true. They have been the quiet force of progress throughout our history. What is demanded then is a return to these truths. What is required of us now is a new era of responsibility — a recognition, on the part of every American, that we have duties to ourselves, our nation, and the world, duties that we do not grudgingly accept but rather seize gladly, firm in the knowledge that there is nothing so satisfying to the spirit, so defining of our character, than giving our all to a difficult task.

This is the price and the promise of citizenship.

This is the source of our confidence— the knowledge that God calls on us to shape an uncertain destiny.

This is the meaning of our liberty and our creed — why men and women and children of every race and every faith can join in celebration across this magnificent mall, and why a man whose father less than sixty years ago might not have been served at a local restaurant can now stand before you to take a most sacred oath.

So let us mark this day with remembrance, of who we are and how far we have traveled. In the year of America's birth, in the coldest of months, a small band of patriots huddled by dying campfires on the shores of an icy river. The capital was abandoned. The enemy was advancing. The snow was stained with blood. At a moment when the outcome of our revolution was most in doubt, the father of our nation ordered these words be read to the people:

"Let it be told to the future world...that in the depth of winter, when nothing but hope and virtue could survive ... that the city and the country, alarmed at one common danger, came forth to meet [it]."

America. In the face of our common dangers, in this winter of our hardship, let us remember these timeless words. With hope and virtue, let us brave once more the icy currents, and endure what storms may come. Let it be said by our children's children that when we were tested we refused to let this journey end, that we did not turn back nor did we falter; and with eyes fixed on the horizon and God's grace upon us, we carried forth that great gift of freedom and delivered it safely to future generations.

Thank you. God bless you. And God bless the United States of America."

Blame NYC Plane Crash on Flock of Large Birds but Hail the Hero Pilot, Sully!

2009-01-15T18:05:00.000-08:00

The Hudson Hero

No Selffishness, one for all

But all were praying for a safe crash landing

High amount of responsibility

The pilot kept his cool under pressure

and saved many lives

Passengers and family members rejoiced over

His expertise and heroism

Upon crashing damaged aircraft

In the Hudson river

Bravo, Bravo, Bravo!

that is the sould of America

The airline industry sings high praises

Halleluia! Amen

Can't Put T.D. Jakes into One Category: Pastor, Preacher, Minister, Novelist, Author and Now Filmmaker of Not "Easily Broken" Movie

2009-01-06T22:56:00.000-08:00

Rev. T.D. Jakes has a new title. He is a filmmaker. His new movie is based on his novel by the same name. Not Easily Broken is a movie made from a male's viewpoint. It is a twist on the romance novel usually written by women for women. In an interview given to the San Francisco Chronicles, the famed minister of Potter House, Dallas, talks about his multi-dimensional aspect. Not content to preach to his 50,000 strong church members, he is now ready to reach a wider audience with this movie. He wrote the script himself.

Rev. T.D. Jakes wants wants to be philanthropist and businessperson. He wants to make money so he can help the poor. If that is the case, it is a good mission.

The movie embraces the human experience. It is the human story. He also talks about the need to have some strong black people as role models. He complains about how the media usually take the easy route such as drug dealers and the examples of black people doing the wrong thing. Among some of the examples he gave, he named Colin Powell, Sidney Poitier and President elect Barack Obama.

Not Easily Broken is a good movie to see.

PoliticalChurch Finds and Presents: OneinJesus.info, a Christian Blog by J. Quinn

2008-12-29T18:26:00.000-08:00

For the past few days, I have been reading with great pleasure the postings by Jay Quinn. He writes about a variety of topics on his blog. He is author whose book I am trying to acquire to read. He is also available to give presentations. He is a new voice in the blogosphere. He is not afraid of tackling various contemporary issues and using the Bible to refute and accept some viewpoints.
Check his blog right here:

http://oneinjesus.info/index-under-construction/the-political-church/

Ode to Elizabeth Alexander, Barack Obama's Inaugural Poet

2008-12-26T03:50:00.000-08:00

Elizabeth is not scared about composing and delivering her inaugural poem on January 20. She has a good track record. Find out more about what she is doing to write one of the most important poems of her life. A poem that will be heard by the whole world. Is this going to be the day of poetry?

PoetryBusiness will give you more information on this very important contemporary poet.

Check Ms. Alexander's poems, essays and other writings on her site: www.elizabethalexander.net

Crystal Cathedral Younger Rev. A. Schuller Ousted, Fired for Disobedience to Daddy or Rev. Robert H. Schuller Senior

2008-12-26T00:49:00.000-08:00

Church founder Robert H. Schuller removed his son as the sole preacher on the 39-year-old TV show after the younger Schuller refused to rotate his role with other pastors. That's after three years of continuous request that he rotates ministers! It goes without saying that the Younger Schuller thought it was his daddy's ministry and that he could not get fired.

Daddy had a few surprises under his sleeves for his son!

Rev. Robert H. Schuller would not want to see his ministry destroyed because of his son's disobedience. So he did the right thing by sending him packing. What started as an internal fight between father, son and other ministers is finally revealed to the public. Rev. Robert H. Schuller did his best to work things out with his son. What greater honors he has had to have a son follow in his footsteps or replace him on the pulpit some day? But he could not let Satan get into his son to try to destroy years of hard labor.

Leaving things untouched would be a bad message to the other ministers and the rest of the church. Apparently, the younger Schuller remains in good standing with his denomination. He is still a pastor within the Reformed Church of America.

It has been announced that he is looking forward to starting his own ministry. At this point, he wants to run his own business, well, the church business!

The Younger Schuller may be stung by the entrepreneurial preaching, evangelizing bug. It is time for him to spread his wings!

Read these links:

http://bryonsweblog.wordpress.com/2008/11/30/robert-a-schuller-removed-2/

http://obadiah1317.wordpress.com/2008/12/14/robert-a-schuller-resigns-from-crystal-cathedral/

http://bryonsweblog.wordpress.com/2008/12/15/robert-a-schuller-leaves-crystal-cathedral/

"
The timing of all this has a sort of rotten egg aroma to it, does it not?
Robert Schuller senior says, “I was called to start a mission, not a church. There is a difference. . . . You don’t try to preach . . . what is sin and what isn’t sin. A mission is a place where you ask nonbelievers to come and find faith and hope and feel love. We’re a mission first, a church second.”
“Because of that, we don’t want one face . . . to be a spokesman.” Yet that didn’t enter into Robert H Schuller’s mind for those first 35 years as it was only until his son began to preach sermons using Bible verses quite liberally."

The Fitness Race is On: How Does Shirtless Obama Compare with Other Shirtless Past Presidents? Bill Clinton, Russian Vladimir Putin and Ronald Regan?

2008-12-24T08:56:00.000-08:00

Read the rest of the article and see more pictures at http://americanparent.blogspot.com

Barack Obama will lead the USA in the fitness race against Russian Premier Vladimir Putin, shown either fishing or hunting in various pictures. The peoples of the United States and Russia will participate in this race for survival. According to various reports, Russian women are getting as fat as American women. Those who can afford to have baratric surgery in both countries are trying to shed the weight. Now their leaders are starting a new war, the war on fat, the war on bulge.

Let us support them so they can lead us to better health!

How I will Miss President George W. Bush's Sense of Humor: He Saw Size of Flying Shoe Missile

2008-12-18T08:13:00.000-08:00

Who is not going to meet President Bush when he leaves the White House in January? I guess many of us who like his sense of humor will miss him secretly. He knows how to give, cause and take a joke. He does not take himself seriously at all. He does not care whether he is the butt of jokes. While dodging the shoe missile, he had the time to notice the size of the man's foot. In that way, he sets the precedent for many future presidents. While he could have this guy and his entire family killed, he chose to use humor to deflect such a serious assault. Under Saddam Hussein, the perpetrator and his whole family would be put to the shooting squad.

If anything, for the Arab World that is rejoicing over the shoe throwing incident which is the greatest insult for them, they can see that Bush brought change to Iraq in that regard.

Saturday Night Live will miss him too. How many jokes and skits have they played on him?

Bush is cool. He will be greatly missed. We hope he continues to be cool!

President Elect Barack Obama's Inauguration Ceremony Details

2008-12-18T07:56:00.000-08:00

We now know who is going to participate in Barack Obama's inauguration ceremony. Dr. Rick Warren, pastor of the influential Saddleback Church, will be one of the select participants. He is the author of the "Purpose-driven Life," a bestseller which has placed him in the conscience of most people, Christians and non-christians alike. World-known "queen of soul," Aretha Franklin will sing at the swearing in ceremony too.

Yale University African-American Poet, Elizabeth Alexander, will also read an inaugural poem, just like Maya Angelou did for Bill Clinton.

The question that many are asking is whether Rev. Rick Warren is poised to replace Rev. Billy Graham who is getting old and sickly. Each president chooses his own minister for faith matters. Rev. Wright caused too much trouble. I imagined he feels sorry for missing such a great opportunity. He could have been up there too!

"In honoring the civil rights movement, Mr. Obama has asked the Rev. Dr. Joseph E. Lowery, dean of the civil rights movement and co-founder with the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, to deliver the benediction."

Buy or read inauguration poems at these sites: (Find links to Elizabeth Alexander's Poetry)

http://poetrybusiness.blogspot.com

http://bestsellerpicks.blogspot.com

http://justpublished4you.blogspot.com

Bush Iraqi Shoe Thrower Video; YouTube Bush Dodged Flying Shoes in the Arab World

2008-12-15T16:13:00.000-08:00

What is the meaning of shoe throwing in the Arab world?

Shoe throwing is a sign of insult. The shoe throwing act that is the hottest news all over the world is a sign of insult that most Arabs understand. Whereas for us, the West, it is an assault against the Leader of the Free world.

The iraqi journalist who threw the shoes at Bush immediately became a hero. By doing so, he put Bush in the same category as late leader, Saddam Hussein whose statue was dragged in the street as a dog.

It is a sign of displeasure with what is going on in Iraq.

Without Sex Promise, People Are Going Back to Churches all over America: The New York Times Publishes on Church Growth and Palin's Wasila Church Burn

2008-12-14T09:40:00.000-08:00

In hard economic times, christians as well as non-christians are going back to churches all over America. They need God's help and miracles in these harsh times. God is the same in good and bad times. We, Christians, need to pray more all the times.

In an article published by the New Times on Dec. 14, the writer shows churches are growing but are also facing with economic crises they have never seen before. Less and less people are giving. They require help instead. Many churches have huge loans to pay. When the collection plates return empty, it is time to consider and start living the crisis day after day.

In another development, an arsonist set on fire the Wasila church attended by Sarah Palin. She quickly visited the church to present her apology as the fire may be linked to her political stint. Everyone hopes that this criminal can be caught.

Find more comments about the growth of christian churches at the New York Times.

Hmong Taste Testers Pick Whopper over Big Mac. Is That So?

2008-12-05T08:56:00.000-08:00

Burger King dropped the burger bomb in Romania, remote thailand village and other virgin territories. Is it a good thing? This campaign is not to combat poverty. It is to make money.

Why go all the way to Thailand when good hmong actors can be found locally? Burger King could find hmong taste testers in Fresno, CA and the Twin Cities. Burger King could even find some Hmong actors, real, ordinary people in Wisconsin, North Carolinas and elsewhere.

It is time to recognize the contributions of Hmong people to this country. You can find many of them in various sectors of the population. Hmong professionals such as doctors, teachers, social workers, artists, and government officials could also participate in the taste testing campaign. They could still give valid opinions on the burger. Why go to a place that is not familiar with the burger war? These people eat good, organic foods. Let's not destroy their taste buds with burgers from America. Hmong in the remote village of Thailand want freedom as well as foods. How many of them are left behind? They need to be reunited with their family members here in the States.

Now Burger King may want to do a video to show their efforts and plight in the remote village of Thailand where these Hmong do not have any rights.

OK, get the message, Burger King?

Non-Christians Are Intrigued by Church Members' Sex Challenge: Free, Free Sex for 7 Days

2008-11-16T22:30:00.001-08:00

The world has hijacked sex. It has distorted it. But God gave us the talents and equipped us to show affection to our partners in the context of marriage. Even gays and lesbians want to be married and enjoy sex in the context of marriage. That may explain why there are so many rallies all over the US. after California banned same-sex marriage.

Visit FertilityGoldSpot: Coast to Coast Fertility Clinics

Go to Coast to Coast Fertility Specialists and Centers from Boston to California

Singles are asking pastor Ed Young what they can do. They want to know if there is anything for them. Pastor Ed Young wants them to wait until they get married.

Pastor Ed Young's Prescription for Sex for Church Couples: Men are Flocking to Fellowship Church for Satisfaction

2008-11-16T22:18:00.000-08:00

The pastor of a Dallas mega-church has begun his challenge to married couples. He wants them to have sex every day for a week. Rev. Ed Young says it will strengthen their marriages. (Nov. 16)

Enjoy Sexual Satisfaction as Prescribed by Pastor Ed Young for Married Couples of His Church

Men Are Going Back to Church to Participate in Pastor Ed Young's Challenge: Seven Days of Sex

2008-11-16T22:03:00.000-08:00

Fellowship Church Pastor has found the secret to getting men to leave their golf fellowship and couch for the church. The simple solution is the promise of more sex. In his challenge to married couples of his church, he wants them to have sex for seven straight days. The message is being heard nationwide. This is a potent message for our times. No he is not a pimp. He is married to Lisa Young. As couple, they are going to participate in the joyful experiment.

Seven Days of Sex from Fellowship Church on Vimeo.

Get more sex and church-related videos at FertilityGoldSpot Sex Education Center

Seven Days of Free Sex, A Challenge By Pastor Ed Young to Married Men of His Church

2008-11-16T21:54:00.000-08:00

Will your congregation's pastor start inviting you, married couples, to have sex too? Why not? Sex in the context of marriage has nothing to be ashamed about.

Get More Sex Education Videos at G-SpotFertilitygold Center

Seven Days of Sex from Fellowship Church on Vimeo.

Pastor Ed Young's Challenge to his Church: "Married Couples to Have Seven (7) Days of Sex"

2008-11-16T21:39:00.000-08:00

Sex is so much a part of everybody's life and the American psyche. It makes headlines news when Fellowship Church Pastor, Ed Young, wanted to challenge the married members of his church to have seven days of straight sex, the news media had a field day. Now sex comes to church. Church goers are finding the joy of sex. At least, they are doing it the way God intended it to be. The pastor's goal is to open new lines of communication between couples who are going through difficult times. The economy goes sour. Debts are piling up. Foreclosures are hitting the church members. There is a direct impact in offering. If church members are happy, they will continue to find solutions to their immediate problems.

Here is what Pastor Ed young has written in his blog: "The amount of press this challenge has gotten over the last several days has been a little surprising. I can't say I'm shocked, though. Our culture is so used to toilet water that it's refreshing when we get a taste of God's pure desire for sex in marriage. So no, I'm not shocked. I'm excited. But the most exciting aspect of this isn't the press. It's not the news coverage or the interviews.

The most exciting part of this right now is the potential that this challenge has to help heal and strengthen so many marriages and families. I pray over the next week that communication lines are opened, intimacy is restored and marriages are strengthened as they "do it" God's way. Please join me in this prayer."

Lust Vegas Week 2 Promo from Fellowship Church on Vimeo.

His wife, Lisa, also wrote something to encourage church members to have lots of sex.

"I mentioned this at Flavour, but let me say it here. I'm so excited about this challenge! (And yes, ladies, I'm the one who brought the idea to Ed through a magazine article I'd found.) Why am I so excited? That's simple. Because God has revolutionized my view of sex and removed a lot of preconceived notions I had. And I can truly value intimacy done God's way.

This challenge is about so much more than the act of sex. This is an opportunity for marriages to get back to what God designed them to be. It's a chance for all of us to reinforce our love for our spouses.

So here's my prayer for this next week. First, to the ladies. I 'm praying that God expands your view of the importance of sex in marriage and that He gives you the diligence in prioritizing this aspect of your marriage. And for the men, my prayer is that you will lead out spiritually for your wife so that the oneness God has in mind will supernaturally flow through every aspect of your marriage. (And yes, that includes sex.)"

Haitian School Collapse: Death Toll Climbs

2008-11-08T14:57:00.000-08:00

If you want to help a Haitian Child, you can sponsor or donate here: OneNationDonation

Haiti, the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, has been struggling to recover from widespread riots over rising food prices, a string of hurricanes and tropical storms that killed nearly 800 people.

Thousands of Haitian menial laborers live in collapse-prone hillside slums around the capital, Port-au-Prince, to be near the mansions of the foreign diplomats, U.N. staff and wealthy elite for whom they work.

Parents said they toiled endlessly throughout the year to afford the school's $1,500 tuition in hopes of empowering their children to someday escape poverty.

Supporters and Opponents of Proposition 8 Beyond the 2008 Elections

2008-11-08T14:23:00.000-08:00

Yes on Prop8 would eliminate, ban same-sex marriage in California. No on Prop8 would allow same-sex couples to continue to get married. Spending for and against the amendment has surpassed $70 million. It has become the most expensive social-issues campaign in U.S. history. Prop 8 is about fundamental issues pitting its supporters against its opponents.

If you care about donating for a good cause, please donate at OneNationDonation

Newspapers Could Not Keep Up with Demand After Obama's Landslide Victory as First Black President of the USA

2008-11-06T06:56:00.000-08:00

The closest I could get to a New York Times Newspaper:

Newspaper selling became the sought-after product the day after Obama was elected president of the United States. I could not find one of the popular papers I usually read. Already, they are selling like hot potatoes on ebay and elsewhere.

Oprah Winfrey Cries Her Eyelashes Off; Colin Powell Cries; Jesse Jackson Cries over Obama's Victory Speech

2008-11-06T06:14:00.000-08:00

A Song for Change

Complete Euphoria all over the world!

I am in tears and so are my friends and the rest of the country

Cries of joy indeed!

The tough among us have been softened by a new set of realities

The World rejoices and cries over the first Black President of the United States

It is not a victory about one man, it is a victory for the people and the world

It is a victory brought by hope and change

A catharsis, a great symbolism that has washed away the sins of our founders

JFK's prophecies have come to pass: In 40 years or so, an African-American will be

President of the United States of America. Hard to Swallow but true

Anything is possible in the United States, indeed! Hope is reborn

The promise of this country remains intact: Through hard work, discipline and organization

One can achieve most of his/her dreams

What a collective moment for us, Americans, and the world!

More than the Superbowl, more than the Olympics, more than the Pope,

And more than any war or other calamity could have done, a victory by Obama

Created a transformative moment for us all

The world symphony takes center stage: A new maestro is about to enter

The Inhabitants of our planet are eager to witness the new direction we take

Sonnet for the Audacity of Hope

Sonnet for the Aftermath of Change

Symphony for the collaborative effort and renewal of spirits

The past appears to be buried with this landslide victory. The stings of racism, Jim Crow, Discrimination

And other social, political inequities must take back seat to the hope and promises,

And possibilities offered by this great country of ours

``A hundred years ago, he would have been a slave. A hundred years on, he is the president. That's massive,''

``A new broom sweeps clean. The new president may introduce concrete measures to fix the financial crisis. Once things improve in the U.S., the world improves and China improves.''

"Obama's victory marks ``a historic change which shows that the United States is an entirely exceptional power, completing a fundamental social revolution in the space of two, three generations.''

``A new face offers Europe a new chance to remarry America.''

The World Rejoices and Cries Over Obama's Election as President of the United States: Hope and Change Have Come and Made Historic Moment

2008-11-06T06:08:00.001-08:00

Through tears and whoops of joy, in celebrations that spilled onto the streets, people around the globe called Barack Obama's election Tuesday a victory for the world and a renewal of America's ability to inspire.

From Paris to New Delhi to the beaches of Brazil, revelers said that his victory made them feel more connected to America and that America seemed suddenly more connected to the rest of the world.

"As a black British woman, I can't believe that America has voted in a black president," said Jackie Humphries, 49, a librarian who was among 1,500 people partying at the U.S. Embassy in London on Tuesday night.

"It makes me feel like there is a future that includes all of us," she said, wrapping her arm around a life-size cardboard likeness of the new U.S. president-elect.

"Americans overcame the racial divide and elected Obama because they wanted the real thing: a candidate who spoke from the bottom of his heart," said Terumi Hino, a photographer and painter in Tokyo. "I think this means the United States can go back to being admired as the country of dreams."

Kenya, where Obama's father was raised as a goatherd, declared Thursday a national holiday, and in Obama's ancestral village of Kogelo, people danced in the streets wrapped in the American flag.

In South Africa, Nelson Mandela, the civil rights icon who helped bring down his country's apartheid regime, released a letter to Obama in which he said, "Your victory has demonstrated that no person anywhere in the world should not dare to dream of wanting to change the world for a better place."

ad_icon

Desmond Tutu, another iconic anti-apartheid leader and the retired Anglican archbishop of Cape Town, said Obama's victory tells "people of color that for them, the sky is the limit."

"We have a new spring in our walk and our shoulders are straighter," Tutu said, echoing a sentiment heard across Africa.

The world sees Obama as more than a racial standard-bearer, of course. Many people praised his policies on matters ranging from Iraq to health care, which they appeared to know in remarkable detail.

Others expressed concerns. In China, some people worried about Obama's positions on the delicate issues of Tibet and Taiwan. Some Indians and Egyptians said they had questions about his views on Pakistan and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Many people, in dozens of interviews around the world Tuesday night and Wednesday, also said they understood that no new president could immediately change the United States or the world. But many said Obama's election was a powerful signal that the United States intended to change direction.

The World is Talking about What Young People and Obama Have Achieved in this Election

2008-11-05T00:13:00.000-08:00

PARIS, 01:00 a.m., "Nouvelle Amerique"
They are not quite dancing on the Champs Elysee, but the French have enthusiastically embraced Obama’s campaign, and the newspapers this morning show how clearly his election is seen as historic, and as a true break with the past, especially with the policies and tensions of the Bush Administration. Some big headlines: "Nouvelle Amerique’ (New America); "Victoire Historique" (Historic Victory); "Changement est La!" (Change is Here!).

ISLAMABAD, 12:54 a.m., Congratulations. We Have A Problem.
Pakistan’s civilian President, Asif Ali Zardari has sent his best wishes to Barack Obama, adding that he looked forward to working with him. The Pakistanis, repeatedly called America's best ally in the war on terror by the Bush administration, have been angered by U.S. missile strikes in the Afghan-Pakistan border area, and the threat of new ground incursions. Yesterday, Pakistan's Prime Minister had a rather more pointed message, delivered to Gen. David Petraeus, head of U.S. Central Command: "If he doesn’t respect the sovereignty and integrity of Pakistan, and if he doesn’t change his policies towards Pakistan, anti-America and anti-West sentiments will be there."

SINGAPORE, 12:48 a.m., It's The Economy
AP is reporting that oil prices slid below $69 a barrel Wednesday in Asia, sliding back after an election day rally. Prices are falling because the expectation is that a slowing global economy will cut demand for crude. The immediate global credit crisis may have passed, but recession and even fears of depression continue. President Bush will hold a summit next week to try to find international consensus on how to regulate global markets and avoid a rerun of the economic crisis of the past six weeks. Will President-Elect Obama attend? What role should he play? Can a Bush-brokered summit find any solutions, or has the power passed on so comprehensively that he is the lamest of lame ducks, unable to do any of the arm-twisting that may be required?

GAZA, 12:15 a.m. Wednesday, Fresh Reminder Of An Old Problem
Israel’s military is reporting that Palestinian militants have fired a barrage of rockets (as many as 35 according to Army radio) from Gaza towards Israel, the first major attack since a ceasefire went into effect in June. There's no early word on casualties. The attack came hours after the Israeli army killed six alleged Hamas militants. After the inaction of the Bush years, Palestinians and other Arabs hope that an Obama Presidency will bring new urgency to achieving peace with Israel. Some Israelis however, worry that Obama will not be as supportive, or tolerant of Israel (especially the continuing settlement construction in the West Bank).

KISUMU, Kenya, 11:20 p.m., "We Are Going To The White House
People are on the streets, dancing, singing, pouring out of the Senator Obama Public School where they have been watching election results. Barack Obama’s family, his father's relatives, stayed glue to their televisions a few miles up the road in Kogelo, coming out to cheer as Senator McCain conceded. "We will see Obama in the White House," they sang, "we are going to the White House." Kenya's President Mwai Kibaki declared Thursday a public holiday so that Kenyans can celebrate "the historic achievement by Senator Obama and our country."

LONDON, 11:00 p.m., More Media Watching
Sky News correspondent Michelle Clifford, at the election party in downtown Chicago (Click here to see Sky's coverage: "It really does feel like the whole of Chicago is cheering... You really do feel like you're taking part in history." Now that the result is clear, waiting for McCain and Obama, British television is focusing on Jesse Jackson standing in the crowd, tears running down his face. And the normally unflappable BBC has a radio correspondent in Chicago talking about a "hurricane of emotions" from the crowd waiting for Obama.

LONDON, 7:00 p.m. Tuesday, The World Is Watching… Literally
It’s midnight, and in my normally quiet London neighborhood, lights are on and the blue glow of television sets flickers from house after house. To say interest is intense is an understatement. In London and in Paris, around the globe, many feel they have a personal stake in the outcome, and no American election has ever been scrutinized so closely by so many foreign journalists and news organizations. The BBC has sent more than one hundred staff members to cover the final stretch. British newspapers published pull-out-and-save guides to watching the results and understanding the outcome, (Electoral College 101) complete with menu suggestions (The Independent: Barbecue Chicken and Pecan Pie; the quintessential British take on American comfort food). In the U.K., two networks are offering competing wall-to-wall coverage, correspondents in place from Arizona to Chicago, from Miami to New York.

The World Is in need of Clear Leadership: World Leaders Congratulate Obama

2008-11-05T00:07:00.001-08:00

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has congratulated US President-elect Barack Obama on his election win and paid tribute to Republican candidate John McCain.

Mr Rudd says he will soon telephone Mr Obama.

"Australia looks forward to working in the closest possible way, in the closest possible partnership with an Obama administration, acting together to deal with the great common challenges we face as democracies," he said.

"He has delivered to the world and to his country a very good message of hope," he said.

"The world at present is in part fearful for its future. This is I believe a great day for the American democracy and let us celebrate this day with our friends in America."

Federal Opposition Leader Malcolm Turnbull has also warmly congratulated the new US leader and says he looks forward to working with him after his inauguration.

Mr Turnbull says the victory proves that America is able to rise above issues about diversity to elect its first black president.

"Our diversity is our strength and that is the great wonder about Barack Obama's election," he said.

"What it shows you is that a country that has witnessed terrible racism, terrible intolerance, terrible friction can nonetheless rise above that and choose somebody based not on the colour of their skin but on the content of their character."

New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark says her Government "very much looks forward to working with the new Obama administration."

"Senator Obama will be taking office at a critical juncture. There are many pressing challenges facing the international community, including the global financial crisis and global warming," she said.

"We look forward to working closely with President-elect Obama and his team to address these challenges."

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown congratulated the new US leader, hailing his "energising politics... his progressive values and his vision for the future".

"I would like to offer my sincere congratulations to Barack Obama on winning the presidency of the United States," he said in a statement.

"The relationship between the United States and the United Kingdom is vital to our prosperity and security... Barack Obama ran an inspirational campaign, energising politics with his progressive values and his vision for the future."

French President Nicolas Sarkozy said: "With the world in turmoil and doubt, the American people, faithful to the values that have always defined America's identity, have expressed with force their faith in progress and the future.

"At a time when we must face huge challenges together, your election has raised enormous hope in France, in Europe and beyond. France and Europe ... will find a new energy to work with America to persevere peace and world prosperity."

Israeli-US relations face "a bright future," Israeli foreign ministry spokesman Ygal Palmor said in reaction to President-elect Obama's election to the White House.

"Israelis congratulate the two great friends of Israel, John McCain for his great campaign, Barack Obama for his historic victory," he said.

"We are certain the Israeli-American friendship faces a bright future."

A statement from the Pakistani embassy in Washington said: "President [Asif Ali] Zardari expressed the hope that Pakistan-US relations will be enhanced under the new American leadership that received a popular mandate in [the] poll."

China's President Hu Jintao congratulated President-elect Obama on his victory, saying he hoped bilateral ties could be raised to a new level, the foreign ministry said.

"In a new historical era, I look forward to... taking our bilateral relationship of constructive cooperation to a new level," Mr Hu said in a written message, according to a statement on the foreign ministry's website.

Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper said: "I look forward to meeting with the President-elect so that we can continue to strengthen the special bond that exists between Canada and the United States.

"In the weeks and months ahead Canadian officials and diplomats will be working closely with members of President-elect Obama's transition team. Ministers in our government look forward to building a strong working relationship with their counterparts in a new Obama cabinet."

Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso also congratulated him on his victory, pledging to work with the new leader to strengthen relations.

"I wish to strive to further strengthen the Japan-US alliance and solve various problems in the international community as a whole in cooperation with the next President Obama," Mr Aso said in a statement, expressing his "sincere congratulations."

Afghan President Hamid Karzai says the election took the world into a "new era."

"The election of Senator Barack Obama to the Presidency of the United States has taken the American people and the rest of the world with them into a new era - an era where race, colour and ethnicity, I hope, will also disappear... in politics in the rest of the world," he said.

The Philippines has also sent their best wishes.

"We wish to express our profound congratulations to President-elect Barack Obama for his historical and stellar win as the 44th President of the United States," President Gloria Arroyo's spokesman Lorelei Fajardo said in a statement.

"His call for change opened a new phase in American politics, sparking hope and inspiration not only for the American people but the citizens of the world.

"America has always been the bastion of democracy and the world has always looked to the USA for direction. Obama has promised change and the American people and the world await these changes," she added.

"We look forward to greater cooperation between the USA and the Philippines, the Democrats have always been good allies," she adde

World Reactions, US Reclaims World Leadership, Obama Victory in the Blogosphere

2008-11-05T00:01:00.000-08:00

Marty Peretz, “The Spine” blog.

It’s a fundamentally bold, hopeful brand of politics. And I think it’s no coincidence that that theme’s been at the center of his campaign. Relative to Clinton, you see two people with similar policy agendas. But Clinton comes from a school of politics that says liberalism can’t really win on the questions of war and peace, identity and authenticity, crime and punishment. It says that we live in a fundamentally conservative nation, and that the savvy progressive politician kind of burrows in and tries to make the best of a bad situation. It’s an attitude very much borne of the brutally difficult experience of organizing for McGovern in Texas and running for governor in Arkansas at the height of Reaganism. Relative to McCain, Obama thinks it’s possible to accomplish things in the world. He thinks the United States faces a lot of serious international challenges, but doesn’t see them as primarily driven by menacing and implacable foes. Obama thinks that a combination of visionary leadership and shrewd bargaining can greatly improve our ability to tackle key priorities without any great expenditure of our resources.

Matthew Yglesias, “The Audacity of Hope“

Il est vrai qu’il arrive à point nommé. La classe dirigeante est largement discréditée. La société américaine est de plus en plus multiraciale : la moitié des 7millions d’Américains qui se déclarent métis ont moins de 18ans (selon le recensement de 2000). Et comme le rappelle parfois Barack Obama, les Etats-Unis ne seront plus en 2050 un pays majoritairement blanc.

Barack Obama arrive au bon moment, et avec un profil différent : même s’il ne parle pas de langues étrangères (sauf l’indonésien), il est le premier candidat “global”. Sur les chemins de campagne, il a parfois été rejoint par les membres de sa famille recomposée à l’échelle planétaire. On a vu Auma Obama, sa demi-sœur, qui fait du travail social à Nairobi, au Kenya. Elle est la fille qu’eut Barack Obama Senior, le père du candidat, avec sa première femme. Ou Maya Soetoro-Ng, son autre demi-sœur, née du remariage de sa mère avec un homme d’affaires indonésien. Maya est professeur à Hawaï, où Barack a été élevé par ses grands parents, et où 21% des habitants se déclarent “Hapa” –“moitié moitié”– c’est-à-dire issus de mariages mixtes.

[. . .]

Contrairement à Hillary Clinton, qui a souvent évoqué la “dimension historique” des primaires 2008 –une femme et un africain-américain prétendant à la nomination du parti–, Barack Obama met rarement cette dimension en avant. En remportant la nomination du parti, il n’est pas moins entré dans l’Histoire. De son vivant, la génération qui a dû conquérir le droit de partager avec les Blancs les salles de café ou les sièges d’autobus, aura vu un Noir choisi par des millions de Blancs pour les représenter dans la compétition pour la Maison Blanche.

Quand Barack est né, en 1961 à Honolulu, les mariages mixtes étaient interdits dans 16Etats. Le voilà aux portes de la Maison Blanche. “Notre pays ne sera plus jamais le même, écrit le blogueur Oakland Kid sur le site Daily Kos. C’est au monde entier que nous parlons maintenant avec une voix nouvelle. Quelque part au paradis, Martin Luther King, Thomas Jefferson et Walt Whitman doivent sourire.” Inconnu il y a quatre ans, candidat à la présidentielle à 46ans, Barack Obama arbore une absence complète de fébrilité. Sa biographie est déjà écrite, rédigée à l’âge de 33ans, alors qu’il sortait de la faculté de droit de Harvard où il avait été élu à la présidence de la prestigieuse Law Review. Derrière son ascension et son apparente facilité, se cache une organisation disciplinée, fondée sur un premier cercle, celui des amis de Chicago, Juifs et Noirs progressistes, typique de la ville. A son état-major, le candidat n’a donné qu’une consigne : pas de drames.

Corine Lesnes, “Barack Obama, un destin américain,” Le Monde.

“The spirit of the times is for Obama — even if less so in Asia, Africa and Latin America than in western Europe. But an optical illusion may be influencing our mood — notably the comforting picture that it is not America but George W. Bush that is the problem. Out goes the ‘cowboy,’ in comes Change and Hope, and we can love America again.”

Josef Joffe of Die Zeit, quoted in “Foreign Reaction to Obama’s Claim is Favorable,” New York Times.

But his insistence that he can bridge the nation’s ideological chasms without resort to partisan warfare leaves some with the nagging sense that he makes it sound too easy, and that his full measure as a politician has yet to be taken.

He has stumbled and fumbled more than once. Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton confounded him, pushing him back on his heels, his irritation too apparent. He falls in love with his words and perhaps his celebrity, acknowledging after Texas that he had become too dependent on arena politics and too aloof in smaller settings.

“Barack Obama: Calm in the Swirl of History,” The New York Times.

Perhaps it is unfair to suggest that Senator Obama opposed IRGC designation before he supported it. In the context, however, of the candidate’s flip-flopping on personal negotiations with terrorist state leaders, however, the audience at AIPAC might ask why Senator Obama has pivoted from opposition to “Lieberman-Kyl” to support for the IRGC designation his audience demands. Is this really change they can believe in?

Danielle Pletka, “Obama’s Pander Pivot,” The Weekly Standard.

And yet, Mr Obama will not want to make the offer if there is a chance that she will actually accept. Expect a complicated dance between the two in coming days. She probably would not bring to his ticket what it needs. He campaigned on “change”, whereas she lived in the White House for eight years in the 1990s. He rose to prominence partly for his early and clear opposition to the war in Iraq, which she voted for. And there is the delicate but unavoidable fact that Americans may be skittish about breaking both the colour and sex barrier at the same time.

“Obama’s victory,” The Economist.

I have to wonder, what exactly is Obama referring to when he suggests that McCain is denying Obama’s accomplishments? My sense is that McCain generally offers a pretty generous assessments of Obama’s many impressive qualities. As to Obama’s accomplishments, are there any in particular that McCain ought to highlight? I realize that this sounds like I’m poking fun, but I’m genuinely curious.

Reihan Salam, The American Scene.

For Senator Obama the risk is dog-whistle politics that attempt to highlight his exotic heritage. The debate about why he does not wear a flag pin or rumours that he took the oath of office on the Koran when he was sworn into the US Senate are cases in point.

In his victory speech he vowed that he would not demonise his political rivals or “use religion as a wedge, and patriotism as a bludgeon”.

The second half of the presidential campaign is going to be much more robust, and it will be instructive to see if Senator Obama can stick by his principles of rising above bitter and divisive partisan politics.

“Hail the great black hope: now for the white votes,” The Sydney Morning Herald (I should say that this title is very Australian sounding to me for some reason).

“I’ve always been a person of possibilities,” said Sweet Fairley, a former president of the Jackson branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. “For me, the first thing I thought about is, ‘From slavery to the presidency.’”

[. . .]

“We are in such distress that we’re already in the hole,” said Hampton, 77, of Jackson. “Problems in the country are larger than a single nominee.”

“Leaders savor Obama victory,” Jackson Citizen Patriot.

In winning the nomination, Obama has left many African Americans elated but at the same time fearful that their own preoccupations might derail the candidate in a general election, said William Jelani Cobb, author of books about contemporary black culture.

“Black Americans are treading on thin ice, moving very delicately. This (Obama’s) opportunity is frail and fragile (and many say) let’s make sure that nothing happens to ruin it,” said Cobb, a professor of history at Atlanta’s Spelman College.

“Blacks savor Obama win, fear disappointment,” Reuters.

Comparate nunc, Quirites, cum illorum superbia me hominem novum. Quae illi audire et legere solent, eorum partem vidi, alia egomet gessi; quae illi litteris, ea ego militando didici. Nunc vos existumate facta an dicta pluris sint. Contemnunt novitatem meam, ego illorum ignaviam; mihi fortuna, illis probra obiectantur. Quamquam ego naturam unam et communem omnium existumo, sed fortissumum quemque generosissumum. Ac si iam ex patribus Albini aut Bestiae quaeri posset, mene an illos ex se gigni maluerint, quid responsuros creditis, nisi sese liberos quam optumos voluisse? [They despise me as an upstart; I them as do-nothings. They taunt me with my humble birth; I them with their disgraceful behavior. I consider all men equal in birth and noble only in relation to their bravery. If the ancestors of Albinus or Bestia could be asked whom they would prefer for a descendant, myself or them [the nobility], what would they say that they wished for their sons to be the best men possible? ]

Quod si iure me despiciunt, faciant item maioribus suis, quibus, uti mihi, ex virtute nobilitas coepit. Invident honori meo; ergo invideant labori, innocentiae, periculis etiam meis, quoniam per haec illum cepi. Verum homines corrupti superbia ita aetatem agunt, quasi vostros honores contemnant; ita hos petunt, quasi honeste vixerint. Ne illi falsi sunt, qui divorsissumas res pariter expectant, ignaviae voluptatem et praemia virtutis. Atque etiam, cum apud vos aut in senatu verba faciunt, pleraque oratione maiores suos extollunt, eorum fortia facta memorando clariores sese putant. Quod contra est. Nam quanto vita illorum praeclarior, tanto horum socordia flagitiosior. Et profecto ita se res habet: maiorum gloria posteris quasi lumen est, neque bona neque mala eorum in occulto patitur. Huiusce rei ego inopiam fateor, Quirites, verum, id quod multo praeclarius est, meamet facta mihi dicere licet. Nunc videte quam iniqui sint. Quod ex aliena virtute sibi arrogant, id mihi ex mea non concedunt, scilicet quia imagines non habeo et quia mihi nova nobilitas est, quam certe peperisse melius est quam acceptam corrupisse.

Equidem ego non ignoro, si iam mihi respondere velint, abunde illis facundam et compositam orationem fore. Sed in vostro maxumo benificio cum omnibus locis me Nam me quidem ex animi mei sententia nulla oratio laedere potest. Quippe vera necesse est bene praedicent, falsa vita moresque mei superant. Sed quoniam vostra consilia accusantur, qui mihi summum honorem et maxumum negotium imposuistis, etiam atque etiam reputat num eorum paenitendum sit. Non possum fidei causa imagines neque triumphos aut consulatus maiorum meorum ostentare, at, si res postulet, hastas, vexillum, phaleras, alia militaria dona, praeterea cicatrices advorso corpore. Hae sunt meae imagines, haec nobilitas, non hereditate relicta, ut illa illis, sed quae ego meis plurumis laboribus et periculis quaesivi. vosque maledictis lacerent, non placuit reticere, ne quis modestiam in conscientiam duceret.

Non sunt composita verba mea; parvi id facio. Ipsa se virtus satis ostendit. Illis artificio opus est, ut turpia facta oratione tegant. Neque litteras Graecas didici; parum placebat eas discere, quippe quae ad virtutem doctoribus nihil profuerant. At illa multo optuma rei publicae doctus sum: hostem ferire, praesidia agitare, nihil metuere nisi turpem famam, hiemem et aestatem iuxta pati, humi requiescere, eodem tempore inopiam et laborem tolerare. His ego praeceptis milites hortabor, neque illos arte colam, me opulenter, neque gloriam meam laborem illorum faciam. Hoc est utile, hoc civile imperium. Namque cum tute per mollitiem agas, exercitum supplicio cogere, id est dominum, non imperatorem esse. Haec atque talia maiores vostri faciundo seque remque publicam celebravere. Quis nobilitas freta, ipsa dissimilis moribus, nos illorum aemulos contemnit, et omnis honores non ex merito, sed quasi debitos a vobis repetit.

Ceterum homines superbissumi procul errant. Maiores eorum omnia quae licebat illis reliquere: divitias, imagines, memoriam sui praeclaram; virtutem non reliquere, neque poterant; ea sola neque datur dono neque accipitur. Sordidum me et incultis moribus aiunt, quia parum scite convivium exorno neque histrionem ullum neque pluris preti cocum quam vilicum habeo. Quae mihi lubet confiteri, Quirites. Nam ex parente meo et ex aliis sanctis viris ita accepi: munditias mulieribus, laborem viris convenire, omnibusque bonis oportere plus gloriae quam divitiarum esse; arma, non supellectilem decori esse.

Quin ergo, quod iuvat, quod carum aestumant, id semper faciant: ament, potent; ubi adulescentiam habuere ibi senectutem agant, in conviviis, dediti ventri et turpissumae parti corporis. Sudorem, pulverem et alia talia relinquant nobis, quibus illa epulis iucundiora sunt. Verum non ita est. Nam ubi se flagitiis dedecoravere turpissumi viri, bonorum praemia ereptum eunt. Ita iniustissume luxuria et ignavia pessumae artes, illis qui coluere eas nihil officiunt, rei publicae innoxiae cladi sunt.

From Bellum Iugurthinum (The Jugurthine War), Sallust (see here for a less than ideal translation; this speech by Marius is also called “On being accused of a low origin“). There are elements of Obama, McCain, and Mrs. Clinton in Marius’s speech.

“God willing, I would like Mr. Obama to be the first black African to be president of the United States,” said William Ochieng, who was among a crowd in Kisumu toasting Obama with a brew called Senator Keg — nicknamed “Obama” beer since the U.S. senator’s presidential campaign took off.

At the Uncle Sam barbershop in Nairobi, Kamau Gichamba said he has high hopes for Obama.

“I’m very happy about his win. He is a Kenyan!” said Gichamba, 37, as he cropped a customer’s hair. “If Obama becomes president, the world will become a safer place. He will not stoke wars like (President) Bush.”

“Kenyans’ hopes are high after Obama seals nomination,” AP.

The world’s great age begins anew,
The golden years return,
The earth doth like a snake renew
Her winter weeds outworn;
Heaven smiles, and faiths and empires gleam,
Like wrecks of a dissolving dream.

[. . .]
O cease! must hate and death return?
Cease! must men kill and die?
Cease! drain not its dregs the urn
Of bitter prophecy!
The world is weary of the past–
O might it die or rest at last!

World Reactions to Obama Win Increase: Young and Old Cheer Historic Victory

2008-11-04T23:55:00.000-08:00

``A hundred years ago, he would have been a slave. A hundred years on, he is the president. That's massive,'' T. K. Kurien, president of strategic programs at Wipro Ltd., India's third-largest software services provider, said by telephone from London.

``A new broom sweeps clean,'' said Wu Ruiling, 69, a retired teacher in Shanghai. ``The new president may introduce concrete measures to fix the financial crisis. Once things improve in the U.S., the world improves and China improves.''

``I hope that President Elect Obama will be able to resist the protectionist pressures from Congress that he'll feel pretty heavily,'' said Chris Patten, former European Union commissioner for external relations and Britain's last governor of Hong Kong. ``For China to get better off does not mean America getting worse off.''

French President Nicolas Sarkozy congratulated Obama in a letter released publicly, saying the outcome ``resonates well beyond your borders.''

``Your stunning victory rewards a tireless commitment to serving the American people,'' Sarkozy wrote. ``It is also the crowning achievement of an exceptional campaign whose brilliance and high tone demonstrated the vitality of American democracy to the entire world, while keeping them spellbound.''

Faisal Ali al-Mutawa, chairman of Bayan Investment Co. KSCC, a Kuwaiti financial services provider, called Obama's victory incredible, saying it proves he's ``an extraordinary person.''

``Am I worried?'' he asked in a phone interview from Kuwait City. ``Yes, because he is untested as far as foreign policy and its complexity is concerned, especially in our area. If there's no orderly withdrawal from Iraq, there will be chaos in our region.''

Ren Zhengxian, 37, a rickshaw driver in Beijing, said he didn't know if Obama would be able to change the U.S. for the better. ``We don't know what he'll be like,'' he said, watching Senator John McCain's concession speech in a bar. ``Clinton was friends with everyone. Bush has started wars and now the U.S. economy is so bad. We just don't know if he can change the U.S.''

``It's America showing some maturity,'' said Greg Ryan, 38, a financial planner in Sydney, Australia, adding Obama will be a more ``peaceful'' president than George W. Bush. ``America's gone too far down that world policeman thing.''

Obama's victory is a ``generational change'' and he may take global warming more seriously. ``That's the big picture isn't it, the environment. The war over water is going to be bigger than the war over oil in the long run.''

``Obama winning the election shows just how much the U.S. has changed,'' said South Korean Kim Sang Hyuck, 32, watching the results on his mobile phone in downtown Seoul. ``When I was studying there in Philadelphia nearly 10 years ago, there were still pockets of racism. I never thought then that the U.S. would choose an African-American president.''

Obama's victory ``carries with it hope for millions'' of Americans and people of ``African descent both in the continent of Africa as well as those in the Diaspora,'' Kgalema Motlanthe, South Africa's president, said in a statement.

Yasuhiro Nakasone, 90, who served as Japan's prime minister from 1982 to 1987, said the Bush administration had ``got into a rut'' and that Obama offered ``hope.''

``The public will feel a sense of freshness,'' said Nakasone, whose office waiting room in Tokyo is adorned with a picture of him strolling with the late U.S. President Ronald Reagan at Camp David, the presidential retreat.

Kongkiat Opaswongkarn, chief executive officer of Asia Plus Securities Pcl, Thailand's third-largest broker, said many Thais think Obama will reduce tensions in the world. Still, others preferred McCain because they saw him as being more committed to free trade.

``A lot of people who are not focused on exporting to the U.S. wanted Obama as president,'' he said. ``People are tired of Bush, they want more peace talks, more words of negotiation rather than pointing weapons at each other. Obama's character is very appealing.''

Pongsak Assakul, vice chairman of the Thai Chamber of Commerce in Bangkok, said an Obama presidency will slow trade.

``It's known that the Democrats are more anti-trade and they are trying to protect the jobs in the U.S., so there could be some sort of reaction or delay on free-trade agreements and negotiations,'' he said. ``It will affect the whole world. More protectionism will happen under Barack Obama.''

Rosa Chiquichano, 61, the only Indian in Argentina's national parliament, said Obama's victory gives hope to minorities the world over that change is possible. ``This is a great opportunity,'' she said. ``I hope he will help start a new order based on equality, solidarity and preservation of natural resources.''

Jacques Santer, 71, a former prime minister of Luxembourg and ex-president of the European Commission, said Obama's victory marks ``a historic change which shows that the United States is an entirely exceptional power, completing a fundamental social revolution in the space of two, three generations.''

Anwar Ibrahim, 61, Malaysia's opposition leader, said that while Obama represents a new face, there's some concern about his refusal to rule out pursuing extremists in Pakistan.

``I've met many Muslims who say when it comes to Middle East politics, his rhetoric on Pakistan is as strong as condescending, but still he represents this different face in the administration,'' he said.

``A new face offers Europe a new chance to remarry America,'' said Wolfgang Ischinger, 62, a former German ambassador to the U.S. ``That's the good news. The bad news is that this outburst of Obama-mania does create expectations which no president can possibly fulfill. Sooner or later there will be some disappointment on the way.''

World Reacts Positively to Obama Victory: From Berlin to Greece, Kenya and Brasil, Great Parties

2008-11-04T23:49:00.001-08:00

Barack Obama: "[To] all those watching tonight from beyond our shores, from parliaments and palaces to those who are huddled around radios in the forgotten corners of the world - our stories are singular but our destiny is shared. A new dawn of American leadership is at hand.

Afghanistan

Hamid Karzai, the Afghan president, congratulated Obama on his US election victory, saying it took the world into a "new era".

Iraq

Hoshyar Zebari, the Iraqi foreign minister said Washington would not adopt a "quick disengagement" policy with Baghdad under the presidency of Barack Obama as a "great deal is at stake here".

Palestinian Territories

Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president, congratulated Obama and urged him to speed up efforts to reach an Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement.

"President Abbas congratulates US president-elect Barack Obama in his name and in the name of the Palestinian people and hopes he will speed up efforts to achieve peace, particularly since a resolution of the Palestinian problem and the Israeli-Arab conflict is key to world peace," Nabil Abu Rudeina, Abbas's spokesman, said.

"President Abbas hopes the new administration will continue to make the peace efforts one of its top priorities."

Meanwhile, Hamas, which rules the Gaza Strip, urged Obama to learn from the "mistakes" of previous US administrations in dealing with the Muslim and Arab worlds.

"He must learn from the mistakes of the previous administrations, including that of Bush which has destroyed Afghanistan, Iraq, Lebanon and Palestine," said Fawzi Barhum, a Hamas spokesman.

"He must improve US ties with the rest of the world rather than wave the big American stick.

"We want him to support the Palestinian cause or at least not to be biased towards the Israeli occupation. We have no problem establishing normal relations with the United States to explain our just cause."

Israel

Israeli-US relations face "a bright future", Ygal Palmor, a spokesman for Israel's foreign ministry, said in reaction to Obama's election to the White House.

"Israelis congratulate the two great friends of Israel, John McCain for his great campaign, Barack Obama for his historic victory.

"We are certain that Israeli-American friendship faces a bright future."

China

Hu Jintao, China's president, congratulated Obama on his victory in the US presidential poll, saying a closer relationship btween the two nations would be "for the benefit of Chinese and American people, and people around the world".

"In a new historical era, I look forward to ... taking our bilateral relationship of constructive co-operation to a new level," Hu said in a written message, according to a statement on the Chinese foreign ministry's website.

Wen Jiabao, China's prime minister, also congratulated Obama, while Xi Jinping, the vice-president, sent a message of congratulations to Joe Biden, Obama's running mate and America's next vice-president.

Britain

Gordon Brown, the UK's prime minister, congratulated Obama, hailing his "energising politics ... his progressive values and his vision for the future".

"I would like to offer my sincere congratulations to Barack Obama on winning the presidency of the United States," he said in a statement.

"The relationship between the United States and the United Kingdom is vital to our prosperity and security ... Barack Obama ran an inspirational campaign, energising politics with his progressive values and his vision for the future."

India

India's ruling Congress party hailed Obama's victory, saying his "youthful energy" was in tune with the energy of emerging India.

"Obama represents youthful energy, exuberant dynamism and a forward-looking progressive mindset which is also the spirit animating India," Abhishek Manu Singhvi, spokesman for India's Congress party, said.

France

Nicolas Sarkozy, the French president, congratulated Obama on a "brilliant victory".

"I give you my warmest congratulations and, through me, those of all French people," Sarkozy told the Democratic candidate in a letter made public by the French presidency.

"Your brilliant victory rewards a tireless commitment to serve the American people. It also crowns an exceptional campaign whose inspiration and exaltation have proved to the entire world the vitality of American democracy. By choosing you, the American people have chosen change, openness and optimism," he wrote.

"At a time when all of us must face huge challenges together, your election raises great hope in France, in Europe and elsewhere in the world."

The European Union

Jose Manuel Barroso, president of the European Comimission, applauded Obama's victory, with Barroso calling for a "new deal".

"This is a time for a renewed commitment between Europe and the United States of America," Barroso said in a statement. "We need to change the current crisis into a new opportunity. We need a new deal for a new world."

"I sincerely hope that with the leadership of President Obama, the United States of America will join forces with Europe to drive this new deal. For the benefit of our societies, for the benefit of the world."

Sudan

Khartoum expressed hope that Obama's election win would mean "real change" for the country's strained relations with the US - America has branded Sundan as a "state sponsor of terrorism".

"The result of the election is a purely domestic affair, but certainly the United States, being the only big power in the world, it affects almost everything in other countries," said Ali al-Sadiq, a spokesman for Sudan's foreign ministry.

"We would hope that the slogan of president Obama - 'change' - would be reflected in the foreign policy in the United States, especially towards Sudan and oppressed countries, the Palestinians, the Iraqis and the Somalis.

"We would like to see some real change between Sudan and the United States."

Somalia

Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed, the president of transitional Somali government, voiced hope that Obama would help end conflict in the world.

"I am congratulating Barack Obama for his election as the president of United States of America," Yusuf said in a statement released by his spokesman.

"I am hopeful that he will help end major crises in the world, particulary the endless conflict in my country Somalia. This was an historic election in which a proper leader was elected. This is a great moment for America and Africa."

Japan

Taro Aso, the Japanese prime minister, offered his "heartfelt congratulations" to Obama, pledging to work with the new leader to strengthen relations.

"I would like to extend my heartfelt congratulations to Senator Obama on his election as President of United States of America," Aso said in a statement.

"I will strive to further strengthen the Japan-US alliance and to resolve various challenges the international community faces when addressing issues such as the international economy, terrorism and the environment."

The Philippines

Gloria Arroyo, the Philippines' president, congratulated Barack Obama for winning the US presidential election.

"We wish to express our profound congratulations to President-elect Barack Obama for his historical and stellar win as the 44th president of the United States," Lorelei Fajardo, a spokesman for Arroyo, said in a statement.

"His call for change opened a new phase in American politics, sparking hope and inspiration not only for the American people but the citizens of the world.

"America has always been the bastion of democracy and the world has always looked to the USA for direction. Obama has promised change and the American people and the world await these changes. We look forward to greater co-operation between the USA and the Philippines, the Democrats have always been good allies."

Australia

Kevin Rudd, the Australian prime minister, praised Obama's victory saying it was a testament to the strength of the US democratic system and was a message of hope not just for the United States but for the whole world.

"Twenty-five years ago Martin Luther King [the US civil right activist] had a dream of an America where men and women would be judged not on the colour of their skin but on the content of their character," Rudd told said.

"Today what America has done is turn that dream into a reality. A world which is in many respects fearful for its future."

Rev. Jesse Jackson Cries at Barack's Victory Speech; Obama Cries at Grandmother's Death

2008-11-04T23:27:00.000-08:00

Obama's grandmother was a hard worker who loved family, modesty—and Hawaiian 'ohana.

In the Hawaiian language, the word “tutu” for grandmother is of recent origin; it’s something of a novelty, not found in the ancient legends or chants. Yet it is used frequently and with great fondness instead of “grandma” by people on the islands. The more usual word would be “kupuna”, for respected elder, and in the case of a grandmother, “kupuna wahine.” But it comes down to the same thing, and Barack Obama’s calling his grandmother “toot” won him the affection of his fellow islanders. Recently, a prominent Hawaiian leader (indeed “Kahuna”) said Obama’s use of the word was proof that “he is one of us.”

The Hawaiian dimension of the death of Obama’s tutu, Madelyn Payne Dunham, is powerful, because this sad event embodies the important symbols in island life: family (‘ohana), the elder (kupuna), and the cycle of life and death. Death is not a lugubrious occasion here, but more often a celebration of a life

President-Elect's Acceptance, Victory Speech Video

2008-11-04T23:09:00.001-08:00

66% of Young Voters Went for Obama: What Minorities and Black Americans Are Saying About the President Elect

2008-11-04T23:02:00.000-08:00

Ross, cast her own vote near her home in Pittsburg. She walked home with a flag in her hand and a song on her lips. Hallelujah, she sang, over and over. Hallelujah.

"It's like Martin Luther King's dream coming true. Because he said it was going to happen," she said. "We've came a long way. A lot of people are still narrow-minded, but we have come a loooong way for him to come this far. People have woken up."

Across the Bay Area, black citizens of all ages and classes shared Ross's elation. For some, the happiness was tempered by bitter experience; others were too overjoyed to see anything but hope. Jean Carey, 44, an administrative assistant in Oakland, recalled her brothers who died before seeing these days, but also the aunts in Texas who, at 90, managed to get out and vote today.

"I started thinking about all of my relatives who couldn't have done this, and I started getting really emotional and crying," said Carey, weeping again at a boisterous celebration at the Everett and Jones restaurant in Oakland. Across the room, Benten Brown, 62, hoisted a sign that read, "This day is for Dr. King and all those who fought and died for the equal rights of all people."

"I'm a Jim Crow baby," said Brown, who said his grandfather was a slave in Georgia. "This day is an incredible feeling for me and everybody."

Those who study race and politics said there is little in history that serves as a comparison for Tuesday's events.

"It's the second Emancipation Proclamation. This is about their really feeling American. This is about their claims to citizenship," said Fred Harris, director for the Center on African American Politics and Society at Columbia University.

Black Americans have seen enormous changes in the 40 years since The Chronicle published Johnnie Marie Ross's story under the headline "A Ghetto Eulogy." Lashawn James, 29, said that when his mother was born in South Carolina, most blacks were denied the right to vote. Today, her son has an MBA from Stanford and is working at a private equity firm in Oakland.

"To look from where she was to where we are now is what makes this very special. Because of the sacrifices she had to go through to put me where I am," he said.

His friend and classmate, Sean Haywood, 30, said the election of Obama "means we are all justified in dreaming bigger from now on. It doesn't necessarily mean everything is attainable, but it means we certainly have the right to dream."

But does this election fulfill King's dream?

"We're so far away from fulfilling (King's) dream that it's tragic," said Shelby Steele, a scholar on race at Stanford University's Hoover Institution. "The reality on the ground is that the black-white achievement gap is worse than it ever was, 55 percent of all federal prisoners are black, the illegitimacy rate is over 70 percent. So the reality is there is no parity between blacks and white."

Nevertheless, many people see hope in Obama's election.

"To me, Obama's election is a step forward in the direction I think we need to go," said Jim Sleeper, a lecturer in political science at Yale and author of "Liberal Racism: How Fixating on Race Subverts the American Dream."

To Sleeper and some other academics, the election of Obama is the latest step in a long journey for black Americans, from the end of slavery and the beginning of the civil rights movement, through the Voting Rights Act of 1965, Shirley Chisholm's run for president in 1972, Jesse Jackson's runs in 1984 and 1988, and President Bush's appointments of Colin Powell and then Condoleezza Rice as secretary of state.

"There is a generational change," Sleeper said. "I think it will have a profound effect. The president of the United States ... it really is somebody people see as embodying America."

The New York Times Presents: 44th President-elect, 47 years old, Ready to Govern Thanks to Experience

2008-11-04T22:34:00.000-08:00

“People feel he is a part of them because he has this multiracial, multiethnic and multinational dimension,” said Philippe Sands, a British international lawyer and author who travels frequently, adding that people find some thread of their own hopes and ideals in Mr. Obama. “He represents, for people in so many different communities and cultures, a personal connection. There is an immigrant component and a minority component.”

Francis Nyamnjoh, a Cameroonian novelist and social scientist, said he saw Mr. Obama less as a black man than “as a successful negotiator of identity margins.”

His ability to inhabit so many categories mirrors the African experience. Mr. Nyamnjoh said that for America to choose as its citizen in chief such a skillful straddler of global identities could not help but transform the nation’s image, making it once again the screen upon which the hopes and ambitions of the world are projected.

Shi Yinhong, a professor of international relations at the People’s University of China, said Mr. Obama’s background, particularly his upbringing in Indonesia, made him suited to understanding the problems facing the world’s poorer nations.

He and others say they hope the next American president will see their place more firmly within the community of nations, engaging in what Jairam Ramesh, junior commerce minister in the Indian government, called “genuine multilateralism and not in muscular unilateralism.”

Obama's Grandmother Watching Obama Becomes President-Elect from Greece, Kenya, Australia and London

2008-11-04T22:24:00.000-08:00

Change Has Finally Come to America: First African-American Becomes President Elect of the United States of America

2008-11-04T22:15:00.000-08:00

President-Elect Barack Obama's Victory Speech in Chicago

2008-11-04T21:51:00.000-08:00

Election Night
Tuesday, November 4th, 2008
Chicago, Illinois

If there is anyone out there who still doubts that America is a place where all things are possible; who still wonders if the dream of our founders is alive in our time; who still questions the power of our democracy, tonight is your answer.

It's the answer told by lines that stretched around schools and churches in numbers this nation has never seen; by people who waited three hours and four hours, many for the very first time in their lives, because they believed that this time must be different; that their voice could be that difference.

It's the answer spoken by young and old, rich and poor, Democrat and Republican, black, white, Latino, Asian, Native American, gay, straight, disabled and not disabled - Americans who sent a message to the world that we have never been a collection of Red States and Blue States: we are, and always will be, the United States of America.

It's the answer that led those who have been told for so long by so many to be cynical, and fearful, and doubtful of what we can achieve to put their hands on the arc of history and bend it once more toward the hope of a better day.

It's been a long time coming, but tonight, because of what we did on this day, in this election, at this defining moment, change has come to America.

I just received a very gracious call from Senator McCain. He fought long and hard in this campaign, and he's fought even longer and harder for the country he loves. He has endured sacrifices for America that most of us cannot begin to imagine, and we are better off for the service rendered by this brave and selfless leader. I congratulate him and Governor Palin for all they have achieved, and I look forward to working with them to renew this nation's promise in the months ahead.

I want to thank my partner in this journey, a man who campaigned from his heart and spoke for the men and women he grew up with on the streets of Scranton and rode with on that train home to Delaware, the Vice President-elect of the United States, Joe Biden.

I would not be standing here tonight without the unyielding support of my best friend for the last sixteen years, the rock of our family and the love of my life, our nation's next First Lady, Michelle Obama. Sasha and Malia, I love you both so much, and you have earned the new puppy that's coming with us to the White House. And while she's no longer with us, I know my grandmother is watching, along with the family that made me who I am. I miss them tonight, and know that my debt to them is beyond measure.

To my campaign manager David Plouffe, my chief strategist David Axelrod, and the best campaign team ever assembled in the history of politics - you made this happen, and I am forever grateful for what you've sacrificed to get it done.

But above all, I will never forget who this victory truly belongs to - it belongs to you.

I was never the likeliest candidate for this office. We didn't start with much money or many endorsements. Our campaign was not hatched in the halls of Washington - it began in the backyards of Des Moines and the living rooms of Concord and the front porches of Charleston.

It was built by working men and women who dug into what little savings they had to give five dollars and ten dollars and twenty dollars to this cause. It grew strength from the young people who rejected the myth of their generation's apathy; who left their homes and their families for jobs that offered little pay and less sleep; from the not-so-young people who braved the bitter cold and scorching heat to knock on the doors of perfect strangers; from the millions of Americans who volunteered, and organized, and proved that more than two centuries later, a government of the people, by the people and for the people has not perished from this Earth. This is your victory.

I know you didn't do this just to win an election and I know you didn't do it for me. You did it because you understand the enormity of the task that lies ahead. For even as we celebrate tonight, we know the challenges that tomorrow will bring are the greatest of our lifetime - two wars, a planet in peril, the worst financial crisis in a century. Even as we stand here tonight, we know there are brave Americans waking up in the deserts of Iraq and the mountains of Afghanistan to risk their lives for us. There are mothers and fathers who will lie awake after their children fall asleep and wonder how they'll make the mortgage, or pay their doctor's bills, or save enough for college. There is new energy to harness and new jobs to be created; new schools to build and threats to meet and alliances to repair.

The road ahead will be long. Our climb will be steep. We may not get there in one year or even one term, but America - I have never been more hopeful than I am tonight that we will get there. I promise you - we as a people will get there.

There will be setbacks and false starts. There are many who won't agree with every decision or policy I make as President, and we know that government can't solve every problem. But I will always be honest with you about the challenges we face. I will listen to you, especially when we disagree. And above all, I will ask you join in the work of remaking this nation the only way it's been done in America for two-hundred and twenty-one years - block by block, brick by brick, calloused hand by calloused hand.

What began twenty-one months ago in the depths of winter must not end on this autumn night. This victory alone is not the change we seek - it is only the chance for us to make that change. And that cannot happen if we go back to the way things were. It cannot happen without you.

So let us summon a new spirit of patriotism; of service and responsibility where each of us resolves to pitch in and work harder and look after not only ourselves, but each other. Let us remember that if this financial crisis taught us anything, it's that we cannot have a thriving Wall Street while Main Street suffers - in this country, we rise or fall as one nation; as one people.

Let us resist the temptation to fall back on the same partisanship and pettiness and immaturity that has poisoned our politics for so long. Let us remember that it was a man from this state who first carried the banner of the Republican Party to the White House - a party founded on the values of self-reliance, individual liberty, and national unity. Those are values we all share, and while the Democratic Party has won a great victory tonight, we do so with a measure of humility and determination to heal the divides that have held back our progress. As Lincoln said to a nation far more divided than ours, "We are not enemies, but friends...though passion may have strained it must not break our bonds of affection." And to those Americans whose support I have yet to earn - I may not have won your vote, but I hear your voices, I need your help, and I will be your President too.

And to all those watching tonight from beyond our shores, from parliaments and palaces to those who are huddled around radios in the forgotten corners of our world - our stories are singular, but our destiny is shared, and a new dawn of American leadership is at hand. To those who would tear this world down - we will defeat you. To those who seek peace and security - we support you. And to all those who have wondered if America's beacon still burns as bright - tonight we proved once more that the true strength of our nation comes not from our the might of our arms or the scale of our wealth, but from the enduring power of our ideals: democracy, liberty, opportunity, and unyielding hope.

For that is the true genius of America - that America can change. Our union can be perfected. And what we have already achieved gives us hope for what we can and must achieve tomorrow.

This election had many firsts and many stories that will be told for generations. But one that's on my mind tonight is about a woman who cast her ballot in Atlanta. She's a lot like the millions of others who stood in line to make their voice heard in this election except for one thing - Ann Nixon Cooper is 106 years old.

She was born just a generation past slavery; a time when there were no cars on the road or planes in the sky; when someone like her couldn't vote for two reasons - because she was a woman and because of the color of her skin.

And tonight, I think about all that she's seen throughout her century in America - the heartache and the hope; the struggle and the progress; the times we were told that we can't, and the people who pressed on with that American creed: Yes we can.

At a time when women's voices were silenced and their hopes dismissed, she lived to see them stand up and speak out and reach for the ballot. Yes we can.

When there was despair in the dust bowl and depression across the land, she saw a nation conquer fear itself with a New Deal, new jobs and a new sense of common purpose. Yes we can.

When the bombs fell on our harbor and tyranny threatened the world, she was there to witness a generation rise to greatness and a democracy was saved. Yes we can.

She was there for the buses in Montgomery, the hoses in Birmingham, a bridge in Selma, and a preacher from Atlanta who told a people that "We Shall Overcome." Yes we can.

A man touched down on the moon, a wall came down in Berlin, a world was connected by our own science and imagination. And this year, in this election, she touched her finger to a screen, and cast her vote, because after 106 years in America, through the best of times and the darkest of hours, she knows how America can change. Yes we can.

America, we have come so far. We have seen so much. But there is so much more to do. So tonight, let us ask ourselves - if our children should live to see the next century; if my daughters should be so lucky to live as long as Ann Nixon Cooper, what change will they see? What progress will we have made?

This is our chance to answer that call. This is our moment. This is our time - to put our people back to work and open doors of opportunity for our kids; to restore prosperity and promote the cause of peace; to reclaim the American Dream and reaffirm that fundamental truth - that out of many, we are one; that while we breathe, we hope, and where we are met with cynicism, and doubt, and those who tell us that we can't, we will respond with that timeless creed that sums up the spirit of a people:

Yes We Can. Thank you, God bless you, and may God Bless the United States of America.

Welcome to the 44 President Elect of the United States of America

2008-11-04T21:40:00.001-08:00

Decision 2008 placed us in front of the annals of history. For the first time, Americans elect a man of color to lead this country. Yet, 150 years ago, the bonds of slavery were the norms. The U.S.S renewed hope in most people all over the world. Nowhere can this story be possible! We are proud to be Americans on this day!

John McCain rose above the long months of his failed presidential campaign to reclaim his statesman status by acknowledging what has been happening in this country. He recognize it is time to lead and he has offered the 44th president elect his help to govern this great country.

Proposition 8 Aims at Eliminating Same-sex Marriages in Califonria: Lots of Money Funds It

2008-11-04T08:32:00.000-08:00

Voters are going to the polls to select a new president. They are going to voice their opinions against some propositions. The biggest and well-funded one is proposition 8. Both sides have received lots of funding from all over the country and the world. Proponents of Prop8 want to exclude same-sex marriages in California. They receive funding from the Mormon church and various other organizations in the country and the Catholic church. Well, the protestant churches also join the fray. For the first time, all these organizations rally to support one major issue. On the other side, you have all the proponents of Prop8 that want gays, lesbians and bisexuals to have the right to marry in California. They have their own organization that receives all kinds of funding too.

Today, we select a president and various propositions. We will find out what happens to Prop8 tonight.

John McCain and Sarah Palin's Latest Rounds of Attacks on Obama and Biden

2008-10-30T17:41:00.000-07:00

As the days are numbered, the attacks by John McCain increased. His campain comes up new rounds of attacks while Obama is traveling to red territories that John McCain does not want to cede. The fight is tight in these last hours. In the meantime, voters are heading to the voting booths ahead of time all over the country. Young and adults want to let their voice get heard. They want change. They want change in the economy and financial sectors.

These are major elections. In the meantime, proposition 8 is getting lots of money from various sources. Its opponents are running ads on all TV stations. The fight is on. Who is going to win in the end? The elections may be over, but some issues will not be over soon.

Obama Brother Found in Kenyan Shack by Italian Vanity Fair

2008-10-30T17:37:00.000-07:00

Will the younger brother of Barack Obama come to his inauguration as president of the United States if he ends up being elected in January 2009? At least, the young, 26-year man is alive and doing as well as can be in Kenya according to some reports from the Italian version of Vanity Fair.

"Obama’s brother lives in a Kenyan shack
U.S. presidential candidate Barack Obama’s lost brother has been tracked down in Kenya. George Hussein Onyango Obama, aged 26, was found by journalists from the Italian edition of Vanity Fair. He reportedly lives in poverty in a shack on the outskirts of Nairobi.
He has the same father as the U.S. senator, Barack Hussein Obama, but a different mother. Her name has been given as Jael.

The youngest of Obama’s half-brothers says he lives on less than a dollar per month in a 2m x 3m shack. Its walls are decorated with posters of famous footballers and a calendar featuring exotic beaches. The magazine also noted George has a newspaper picture of his brother.

He has only met his famous brother twice. Once when he was five and then in 2006 when Senator Obama visited Nairobi. George admits their meeting was very brief and cool.

Who is Going to Take The Blame for the Poor Republican Campaign? John McCain's Staff or Sarah Palin?

2008-10-29T07:52:00.000-07:00

Already, the pundits are predicting that there will be a major rift in the Republican party whether John McCain wins or loses these elections. It will be a break from the past. The party will have to adopt new ways of remaining consistent with its core values. No matter what, observers and party affiliates are saying that the bloodletting will be necessary for the party.

Some late night TV guys such as Jay Leno and David Letterman have been making fun of the campaign. Sarah Palin and John McCain have been the butts of jokes.

For sure, many Republicans are not happy with the way things are going. The conservatives are furious over the state of things or the way John McCain drives the party down to the ground. Maybe there is a future for Sarah after this debacle. After all, she was just shot out of a cannon. She is in the limelight right.

The New York Times Presents The Huffington Post and The Daily Beast by Arianna Huffington and Tina Brown

2008-10-29T07:24:00.000-07:00

Tina Brown is ready to spend other people's money. In article by The New York Times, the Grand Lady of Talk has enough time to create a good niche for this new blog. The Daily Beast will toe to toe and head to head against the Huffington Post, Politico, Daily Kos and others. It appears that not everyone is in agreement with the way things are going. So far, there is a high amount of dollars that is being spent on The Daily Beast.

At least one person is on records, "Michael Jackson, the head of online programming at IAC and a longtime lieutenant of the company’s chairman, Barry Diller, distanced himself from The Daily Beast. After being involved in its early formation, he raised questions about the cost, according to three people briefed on the matter who were willing to speak freely on the condition that they remain anonymous. Ms. Brown now reports directly to Mr. Diller."

"the cost of the starting The Daily Beast — reports have placed the figure at $18 million, but Ms. Brown says that number is high — has caused tension within IAC/InterActiveCorp, which is financing the site and which also collaborates with The Huffington Post on the humor site 23/6.

Michael Jackson, the head of online programming at IAC and a longtime lieutenant of the company’s chairman, Barry Diller, distanced himself from The Daily Beast. After being involved in its early formation, he raised questions about the cost, according to three people briefed on the matter who were willing to speak freely on the condition that they remain anonymous. Ms. Brown now reports directly to Mr. Diller."

It seems that Tina Brown has her work cut out for her. She will have to get out making money for the IAC. The question is whether there is another success story similar to the Huffington Post by Ariana.

If Politico.com has been able to make it in so short a time, maybe The Daily Beast will beat the odds too.

Amy Poehler's Baby Mama: Her new Baby

2008-10-27T04:36:00.000-07:00

"Saturday Night Live" just won't be the same without Amy Poehler — who gave birth to a son hours before the "Baby Mama" star was to appear on the NBC show.

The live show's parody news anchor was missing from her spot alongside Seth Myers on "Weekend Update" because she gave birth earlier Saturday.

On behalf of Poehler and her husband, Will Arnett, "I can confirm that Amy gave birth to Archie Arnett on Saturday," read a statement from Poehler's spokesman, Lewis Kay.

The baby was born early Saturday evening in New York, weighing 8 pounds, 1 ounce.

Mother and child were "healthy and resting comfortably," according to the statement.

Poehler, who performed on Thursday night's special edition of "SNL" and is known for playing Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, was rehearsing the show until Friday. She also starred opposite Tina Fey in this year's "Baby Mama" as a working class girl who agrees to be a surrogate mother for a single businesswoman.

Saturday Night Live's Funny Bones with Presidential Elections, Funny Soundbites

2008-10-27T04:27:00.000-07:00

Shopping Spree for Sarah Palin: Free Clothes, hair styling and accessories

2008-10-27T04:14:00.000-07:00

What was wrong with Sarah Palin's old clothes? What was wrong with her Alaska fashion sense? Do not ask me. Ask John McCain, his wife and the Republican Party. Apparently, they wanted her to have a personal wardrobe reform. She needed new clothes as the Senator has been answering questions about the $150,000 shopping spree. "Palin needed clothes. They will be donated to charity after the elections," answered John McCain. The Republican Party found it necessary to change her clothes and make her more like chic so the guys, married men can come to the rallies. They wanted her to become a MAGNET BABE for the Vote on November 4. And come, the guys have come to the political gatherings. I read about a guy who got up at 2 A.M. to do his work in order to be able to finish on time and take time off. That is what new looks can give you, a strong following that will bring out the vote.

Mayberry Segment: Andy Griffith and Ope, Opie

2008-10-27T04:12:00.000-07:00

Mayberry Segment: Andy Griffith and Opie

In the Mayberry segment, "Opie" asks "Sheriff Taylor" "why more people aren't voting for change.
"Well, Ope, people are funny."
"Sometimes change scares them and they'd rather keep doing the same ol' thing that's been messing them up than change to the thing that can help them."

Opie then said, "He hopes to vote for somebody as good as Mr. Obama when he grows up.."

Colin Powell Backed Barack Obama

2008-10-19T23:29:00.000-07:00

Mr. Powell, a retired Army general who was a chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff under President George Bush and President Bill Clinton, seemed intent on making the most out of his endorsement by saving it until the end of the race and by not informing either candidate before disclosing it on “Meet the Press.”

Mr. Powell said he was dismayed by the tenor of the campaign, declared that Mr. McCain’s running mate, Gov. Sarah Palin, was not fit to be vice president, expressed displeasure with the direction of the Republican Party and called Mr. McCain scattered on his approach to the economy. “Every day there was a different approach,” he said.

“As gifted as he is,” Mr. Powell said of Mr. McCain, a friend for 25 years, “he is essentially going to execute the Republican agenda

JoeThePlumber or Joetheplumber.com Gets into Spotlight by Obama and McCain's Last Debate

2008-10-16T12:22:00.000-07:00

Who would have thought that a plumber would get the center stage at the recent presidential debate? In the past, a Wall Street financier would have made the headlines. But not this year. Wall Street is no more or it is no longer what it used to be. This is the triumph of the little guys, the ordinary guys who do real jobs and who are not to make a few bucks from the American taxpayer. It makes sense that Barack Obama and John McCain want to align themselves with the ordinary, hard-working guy, Joe the Plumber.

The third and final presidential debate wasn't about Barack the Senator. And it wasn't about John the maverick, either. Instead it was all about Joe the plumber.

The debate was fairly unremarkable, save for repeated references to a plumber from Toledo, Ohio named Joe Wurzelbacher. Sen. McCain made the first reference when he chided his democratic rival for wanting to raise taxes on people like ol' Joe. That's standard—politicians often make allusions to "regular folks" to prove that they understand real problems.

But then it got weird. Sen. Obama mentioned the suddenly famous plumber, too. And then Sen. McCain talked about Joe some more. It was almost as if both candidates thought the entire election rode on Joe's vote. By the end of the debate, "Joe the plumber" had been mentioned a grand total of 20 times. That's more than "change" and "reform" combined.

The bizarre exchange inspired both the searchers and the bloggers. Queries on "who is joe the plumber" and "joe wurzelbacher" both skyrocketed. Meanwhile, blogs and papers from the Buzz attempted to shed some light on the man behind the socket wrench. The New York Times explains how Joe and Sen. Obama met and discussed Obama's tax plan for small businesses (like, ahem, plumbers).

Politico reports that Joe isn't about to surrender his 15 minutes. He's already talked to Katie Couric and he'll be ruminating on his sudden fame during morning news programs. Tune in, but don't expect to hear who he's voting for. Media Bistro writes that Joe plans to keep that between himself and the lever (well, assuming he's registered).

What will happen to Joetheplumber.com?

Joe the Plumber, after he went ‘toe-to-toe’ with Obama, then got his video plastered on YouTube, I could almost see the dollar signs light up. The dollar signs got even bigger after Joe The Plumber was mentioned 15 times during the presidential debate last night. Political rhetoric and opinion aside, let’s look at the aftermath of ‘Joe the Plumber’ in the internet world.

Joetheplumber.com is as of now a site about ‘plumbing’. It is owned by a plumber living in Amarillo, Texas. The site has places to procure an estimate, list of services available, and means to contact Joe. Pretty standard fare for a services site. After the past two days we can expect that the site, and Joe the Plumber of Amarillo will never be the same.

Tina Fey as Sarah Palin: Parody of Katie Kouric's Interview with Sarah Palin

2008-10-01T00:01:00.000-07:00

Sarah and Katie

A parody of Sarah Palin on Saturday Night Live two weeks ago was well-received by the Republican vice presidential nominee, according to her press secretary. It would be hard to imagine she felt the same about last night’s treatment.

Alaska’s proximity to Russia and why that emboldens Palin’s foreign policy credentials happened in the real Palin and Couric interview as we discussed earlier. The SNL writers thought that was pretty good material.

Russians hanging around

So they took Amy Poehler, who impersonated Hillary Clinton in the earlier skit, but this time had Poehler imitate Couric in what they called the “fourth installment” of the interview series.

“You got Alaska here, this right here is water, and this is Russia,” Palin (Fey) explained using her hands to assist. “So, we keep an eye on them. Every morning, when Alaskans wake up, one of the first things they do, is look outside to see if there are any Russians hanging around. And if there are, you gotta go up to them and ask, ‘What are you doing here?’ and if they can’t give you a good reason, it’s our responsibility to say, you know, ‘Shoo! Get back over there!”’

Lifeline please?

It would have been a missed opportunity had the writers not lampooned the “I’ll get back to ya’” gaffe that the real-life Palin used when Couric stumped her. They played that line when discussing foreign policy.

COURIC: “What lessons have you learned from Iraq and how specifically, would you spread democracy abroad?”

PALIN: “Specifically, we would make every effort possible to spread democracy abroad to those who want it.”

COURIC: “Yes, but specifically what would you do?”

PALIN: “We’re gonna promote freedom. Usher in democratic values and ideals. And fight terror-loving terrorists.”

COURIC: “But again, and not to belabor the point. One specific thing.”

PALIN: “Katie, I’d like to use one of my lifelines.”

COURIC: “I’m sorry?”

PALIN: “I want to phone a friend.”

COURIC: “You don’t have any lifelines.”

PALIN: “Well in that case I’m gonna just have to get back to ya’”

Wondering if Palin might call for a suspension of her campaign next week to work on a legislastive issue? If so, she should make sure she’s not scheduled for the David Letterman show. He’s already got enough material.

Rudy Giuliani's Sentences consist of "a Noun, a Verb and 9/11." What New Soundbites Does Biden Have for Sarah Palin?

2008-09-30T23:33:00.000-07:00

Here is the most viewed video on Youtube.com: The Biden - Giuliani Debate. He tore him apart

Joe Biden's Debate: Is Sarah Palin any Match for the Veteran?

2008-09-30T23:29:00.000-07:00

Sen. Joe Biden nails Rudy Giuliani during Tuesday's MSNBC debate: "And the irony is, Rudy Giuliani, probably the most underqualified man since George Bush to seek the presidency, is here talking about any of the people here. Rudy Giuliani... I mean, think about it! Rudy Giuliani. There's only three things he mentions in a sentence -- a noun, a verb, and 9/11. There's nothing else! There's nothing else! And I mean this sincerely. He's genuinely not qualified to be president."

Watch Biden speak about Giuliani in this video from MSNBC:

Financial Bailout for The Rich: How About The Little, Ordinary Guys of Mainstreet?

2008-09-30T23:24:00.000-07:00

Wall Street's Casino Attitude, Questions and Answers: Wall Street's Business Model Incites Greed, Cowboy Investing, Lack of Risks, Push for more Profits and More Borrowing (Leverage)

Wall Street is not what it used to be. Some of the buildings are still there. However, everybody from company directors to ground crew, traders, brokers and customers is running scared. Wall Street as we knew it is having huge problems. Consisting of giant investment houses, brokerage firms, hedge funds and "private equity" firms, Wall Street business model has come under huge assaults from greedy traders and management directors who thought that risks were to be handled differently in their quest for more and more profits.

Bear Stearns is no more. Venerable Merrill Lynch had to find a purchaser in Bank of America. The Feds could not rescue investment bank Lehman Brothers which had to file for bankruptcy. Insurance giant AIG received an $85 billion bailout from the Federal Reserve. That's after the government took over Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the largest mortgage lenders in an effort to shore up the economy and the housing market. Investors have just found out that their funds could be lost if it was not for this late-hour lifeline. Foreign investors also had to be reassured. Anything that happens to our economy ends up having great repercussion in other countries' stock markets.

In the past few years, Wall Street has gone away from its business model. They have long lost their role as advisers and intermediaries. In the past, these investment banks used to work for their clients. They traded stocks and bonds for major institutional investors such as insurance companies, pension funds, and mutual funds. They raised capital for companies by underwriting, selling new pension funds, mutual funds. They provided advice to corporate clients on mergers, acquisitions and spinoffs. That's how they made their money by charging fees.

Wall Street's financial institutions changed their focus. They were in business for themselves. They were investing for themselves by using partners' or shareholders' money to place bets on stocks, bonds and other securities which they called "principal transactions.

If anybody wants to do something about Wall Street's compensation system, he/she will have to lay the groundwork to avoid future chaos. It is not a secret that Wall Street's compensation system is heavily skewed toward annual bonuses which reflect the profits traders and management directors earned in the year. Even when these traders and directors were making base salaries of $200,000 to $300,000, bonuses were their gravy. They used to receive bonuses five to 10 times their base salaries.

Unlike commercial banks, investment banks rely too much on borrowed money which they call "leverage." There were too many windfalls caused by too much borrowing. For a long time, traders and money managers were focusing too much on their own short-term profits. That is why the crash was just around the corner. Wall Street was being severely damaged by these acts. Short-term goals were met, but investors, shareholders and the rest of the country were going to get hurt. Everyone involved had huge incentives to increase borrowing.

John McCain's Runningmate, Sarah Palin, Is After Hillary's Female Supporters' Votes

2008-08-30T17:35:00.000-07:00

Sarah Palin vows to break the glass ceiling. She wants to give a fresh voice to women. She gives homage to Geraldine Ferraro, Walter Mondale's candidacy for president on the democratic side.

Sarah also tipped her hat to acknowledge Hillary Clinton. At the same time, she wants to tell her supporters, "I want your votes. Put a woman in the White House no matter what."

John McCain may have a chance. No matter what, the first black person and the first woman have a chance to be in the White House.

Barack Obama's Acceptance Speech Text, Yes We Can, Si se Puede Song

2008-08-29T08:33:00.000-07:00

Alaska Governor Sarah Palin As John McCain's Runningmate: What's Her Experience?

2008-08-29T08:23:00.000-07:00

John McCain rolled the dice. He picked Sarah Palin as his runningmate. But wait, Who is Sarah Palin?

She is the governor of Alaska who has been in office for a year and a half. Nobody knows much about her. 98 % of the country does not know her. How can they vote for her? What has John McCain been thinking?

This must be a calculated risk by the camp of John McCain to get those disatisfied by the loss of Hillary Clinton. John wants to go after the voters who would have voted for Hillary Clinton.

Any way, Sarah Palin is the new face on the Republican ticket.

Thus far, Hillary undecided may have a new shot at supporting a woman. That is what John McCain wants to see. But Sarah Palin does not have a lot of experience in office. Before being governor, she was serving in a small town where she raised taxes. How can she stand up to argue with veteran foreign policy maker, Joe Biden? Sarah has a lot to crunch in order to be ready for the task.

Senator Hillary Clinton Moves to Suspend Roll Call: She Assures Her Future With Eyes Firmly Fixed on the Future

2008-08-28T08:15:00.000-07:00

Sen. Hillary Clinton motioned to cut the roll call short saying, “With eyes firmly fixed on the future, and in the spirit of unity with the goal of victory, with faith in our party and our country, let’s declare together with one voice right here, right now that Barack Obama is our candidate and he will be our president.

The Clintons Said That Barack Is Ready To Be President

2008-08-27T22:07:00.000-07:00

The party avoided a potentially embarrassing rift when Hillary Clinton went directly to the convention floor to move for a suspension of the roll call. She was met by thunderous cheers.

The cheers continued as the former president was welcomed by such an outpouring of affection and applause from delegates that it delayed his address for several minutes.

Bill Clinton's opening words left no doubt as to his singular mission: "I am honored to be here tonight to support Barack Obama," he said, as the hall erupted in deafening ovation, a sea of waving American flags and chants of "Bill! Bill!"

"Republicans said I was too young and too inexperienced to be commander in chief," the two-term president said. "Sound familiar? It didn't work in 1992, because we were on the right side of history. And it won't work in 2008 - because Barack Obama is on the right side of history."

Then Biden revved it up another notch.

"John thinks that during the Bush years we've made economic progress. I think it's been abysmal," he said.

"Whose judgment should we trust? Should we trust John McCain's judgment, when he said only three years ago, 'Afghanistan, we don't read about it anymore because it's succeeded?'

"Or should we trust Barack Obama, who more than a year ago called for sending two additional combat brigades to Afghanistan?"

Although relations between Bill Clinton and Obama have been considered chilly, Clinton made clear he was ready to extend his hand - and his heart - to Obama's cause.

"Hillary told us in no uncertain terms that she'll do everything she can to elect Barack Obama" he said. "That makes two of us."

Marshalling energy and emotion that has been a hallmark of his political brand, he intended to make the case that Obama has the experience and seasoning to lead the nation.

"Everything I learned in my eight years as president and in the work I have done since, in America and across the globe, has convinced me that Barack Obama is the man for this job."

Hilary Clinton Unites Party, Backs Obama All The Way to Nomination and Presidency

2008-08-27T21:55:00.000-07:00

Hilary Voted for Obama. She told her camp about it. She requested unity to defeat the Republicans

"You haven't worked so hard over the last 18 months, or endured the last eight years, to suffer through more failed leadership," she said. "No way. No how. No McCain." As she spoke, convention organizers passed out signs reading "Unity," and that was the message they hoped Democrats would take forward to the fall....."

The Country Needs More than a Good Soldier, It needs a Leader

2008-08-27T21:49:00.000-07:00

In his acceptance speech, Biden, the fiery chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, cast himself as a champion of working-class families -- a key target group Obama has struggled to win over -- and laid out a sustained critique of Sen. John McCain (Ariz.), who will accept the GOP nomination next week.

"I am here for everyone I grew up with in Scranton and Wilmington," he said. "I am here for the cops and firefighters, the teachers and assembly-line workers -- the folks whose lives are the very measure of whether the American dream endures."

Time and again, Biden charged, Obama's judgment on foreign policy issues has been superior to McCain's. On domestic issues, he said, McCain would continue the policies of President Bush rather than embrace changes he said the country desperately needs.

"Again and again, on the most important national security issues of our time, John McCain was wrong and Barack Obama was proven right," Biden argued. "Folks, remember when the world used to trust us? When they looked to us for leadership? With Barack Obama as our president, they'll look to us again, they'll trust us again, and we'll be able to lead again."

In their response to the night's proceedings, McCain's campaign sought to turn Biden's words against Obama.

"Joe Biden is right: We need more than a good soldier. We need a leader with the experience and judgment to serve as commander in chief from Day One," said spokesman Ben Porritt. "That leader is John McCain."

Runningmate Joe Biden's Speech at the Democratic Convention

2008-08-27T21:44:00.000-07:00

Beau, I love you. I am so proud of you. Proud of the son you are. Proud of the father you've become. And I'm so proud of my son Hunter, my daughter Ashley, and my wife Jill, the only one who leaves me breathless and speechless at the same time.

It is an honor to share this stage tonight with President Clinton. And last night, it was moving to watch Hillary, one of the great leaders of our party, a woman who has made history and will continue to make history: my colleague and my friend, Senator Hillary Clinton.

And I am honored to represent our first state — my state — Delaware.

Since I've never been called a man of few words, let me say this as simply as I can: Yes. Yes, I accept your nomination to run and serve alongside our next President of the United States of America, Barack Obama.

Let me make this pledge to you right here and now. For every American who is trying to do the right thing, for all those people in government who are honoring their pledge to uphold the law and respect our Constitution, no longer will the eight most dreaded words in the English language be: "The vice president's office is on the phone."

Barack Obama and I took very different journeys to this destination, but we share a common story. Mine began in Scranton, Pennsylvania, and then Wilmington, Delaware. With a dad who fell on hard economic times, but who always told me: "Champ, when you get knocked down, get up. Get up."

I wish that my dad was here tonight, but I am so grateful that my mom, Catherine Eugenia Finnegan Biden, is here. You know, she taught her children — all the children who flocked to our house — that you are defined by your sense of honor, and you are redeemed by your loyalty. She believes bravery lives in every heart and her expectation is that it will be summoned.

Failure at some point in everyone's life is inevitable, but giving up is unforgivable. As a child I stuttered, and she lovingly told me it was because I was so bright I couldn't get the thoughts out quickly enough. When I was not as well dressed as others, she told me how handsome she thought I was. When I got knocked down by guys bigger than me, she sent me back out and demanded that I bloody their nose so I could walk down that street the next day.

After the accident, she told me, "Joey, God sends no cross you cannot bear." And when I triumphed, she was quick to remind me it was because of others.

My mother's creed is the American creed: No one is better than you. You are everyone's equal, and everyone is equal to you.

My parents taught us to live our faith, and treasure our family. We learned the dignity of work, and we were told that anyone can make it if they try.

That was America's promise. For those of us who grew up in middle-class neighborhoods like Scranton and Wilmington, that was the American dream and we knew it.

But today that American dream feels as if it's slowly slipping away. I don't need to tell you that. You feel it every single day in your own lives.

I've never seen a time when Washington has watched so many people get knocked down without doing anything to help them get back up. Almost every night, I take the train home to Wilmington, sometimes very late. As I look out the window at the homes we pass, I can almost hear what they're talking about at the kitchen table after they put the kids to bed.

Like millions of Americans, they're asking questions as profound as they are ordinary. Questions they never thought they would have to ask: Should mom move in with us now that dad is gone?

Fifty, sixty, seventy dollars to fill up the car?

Winter's coming. How we gonna pay the heating bills?

Another year and no raise?

Did you hear the company may be cutting our health care?

Now, we owe more on the house than it's worth. How are we going to send the kids to college?

How are we gonna be able to retire?

That's the America that George Bush has left us, and that's the future John McCain will give us. These are not isolated discussions among families down on their luck. These are common stories among middle-class people who worked hard and played by the rules on the promise that their tomorrows would be better than their yesterdays.

That promise is the bedrock of America. It defines who we are as a people. And now it's in jeopardy. I know it. You know it. But John McCain doesn't get it. Barack Obama gets it. Like many of us, Barack worked his way up. His is a great American story.

You know, I believe the measure of a man isn't just the road he's traveled; it's the choices he's made along the way. Barack Obama could have done anything after he graduated from college. With all his talent and promise, he could have written his ticket to Wall Street. But that's not what he chose to do. He chose to go to Chicago. The South Side. There he met men and women who had lost their jobs. Their neighborhood was devastated when the local steel plant closed. Their dreams deferred. Their dignity shattered. Their self-esteem gone.

And he made their lives the work of his life. That's what you do when you've been raised by a single mom, who worked, went to school and raised two kids on her own. That's how you come to believe, to the very core of your being, that work is more than a paycheck. It's dignity. It's respect. It's about whether you can look your children in the eye and say: we're going to be OK.

Because Barack made that choice, 150,000 more children and parents have health care in Illinois. He fought to make that happen. And because Barack made that choice, working families in Illinois pay less taxes and more people have moved from welfare to the dignity of work. He got it done.

And when he came to Washington, I watched him hit the ground running, leading the fight to pass the most sweeping ethics reform in a generation. He reached across party lines to pass a law that helps keep nuclear weapons out of the hands of terrorists. And he moved Congress and the president to give our wounded veterans the care and dignity they deserve.

You can learn an awful lot about a man campaigning with him, debating him and seeing how he reacts under pressure. You learn about the strength of his mind, but even more importantly, you learn about the quality of his heart.

I watched how he touched people, how he inspired them, and I realized he has tapped into the oldest American belief of all: We don't have to accept a situation we cannot bear.

We have the power to change it. That's Barack Obama, and that's what he will do for this country. He'll change it.

John McCain is my friend. We've known each other for three decades. We've traveled the world together. It's a friendship that goes beyond politics. And the personal courage and heroism John demonstrated still amaze me.

But I profoundly disagree with the direction that John wants to take the country. For example, John thinks that during the Bush years "we've made great progress economically." I think it's been abysmal.

And in the Senate, John sided with President Bush 95 percent of the time. Give me a break. When John McCain proposes $200 billion in new tax breaks for corporate America, $1 billion alone for just eight of the largest companies, but no relief for 100 million American families, that's not change; that's more of the same.

Even today, as oil companies post the biggest profits in history — a half trillion dollars in the last five years — he wants to give them another $4 billion in tax breaks. But he voted time and again against incentives for renewable energy: solar, wind, biofuels. That's not change; that's more of the same.

Millions of jobs have left our shores, yet John continues to support tax breaks for corporations that send them there. That's not change; that's more of the same.

He voted 19 times against raising the minimum wage. For people who are struggling just to get to the next day, that's not change; that's more of the same.

And when he says he will continue to spend $10 billion a month in Iraq when Iraq is sitting on a surplus of nearly $80 billion, that's not change; that's more of the same.

The choice in this election is clear. These times require more than a good soldier; they require a wise leader, a leader who can deliver change the change everybody knows we need.

Barack Obama will deliver that change. Barack Obama will reform our tax code. He'll cut taxes for 95 percent of the American people who draw a paycheck. That's the change we need.

Barack Obama will transform our economy by making alternative energy a genuine national priority, creating 5 million new jobs and finally freeing us from the grip of foreign oil. That's the change we need.

Barack Obama knows that any country that out teaches us today will out-compete us tomorrow. He'll invest in the next generation of teachers. He'll make college more affordable. That's the change we need.

Barack Obama will bring down health care costs by $2,500 for the typical family, and, at long last, deliver affordable, accessible health care for all Americans. That's the change we need.

Barack Obama will put more cops on the streets, put the "security" back in Social Security and never give up until we achieve equal pay for women. That's the change we need.

As we gather here tonight, our country is less secure and more isolated than at any time in recent history. The Bush-McCain foreign policy has dug us into a very deep hole with very few friends to help us climb out. For the last seven years, this administration has failed to face the biggest forces shaping this century: the emergence of Russia, China and India as great powers; the spread of lethal weapons; the shortage of secure supplies of energy, food and water; the challenge of climate change; and the resurgence of fundamentalism in Afghanistan and Pakistan, the real central front against terrorism.

In recent days, we've once again seen the consequences of this neglect with Russia's challenge to the free and democratic country of Georgia. Barack Obama and I will end this neglect. We will hold Russia accountable for its actions, and we'll help the people of Georgia rebuild.

I've been on the ground in Georgia, Iraq, Pakistan and Afghanistan, and I can tell you in no uncertain terms: this administration's policy has been an abject failure. America cannot afford four more years of this.

Now, despite being complicit in this catastrophic foreign policy, John McCain says Barack Obama isn't ready to protect our national security. Now, let me ask you: whose judgment should we trust? Should we trust John McCain's judgment when he said only three years ago, "Afghanistan we don't read about it anymore because it's succeeded? Or should we trust Barack Obama, who more than a year ago called for sending two additional combat brigades to Afghanistan?

The fact is, al-Qaida and the Taliban — the people who actually attacked us on 9/11 — have regrouped in those mountains between Afghanistan and Pakistan and are plotting new attacks. And the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff echoed Baracks call for more troops.

John McCain was wrong. Barack Obama was right.

Should we trust John McCain's judgment when he rejected talking with Iran and then asked: What is there to talk about? Or Barack Obama, who said we must talk and make it clear to Iran that its conduct must change.

Now, after seven years of denial, even the Bush administration recognizes that we should talk to Iran, because that's the best way to advance our security.

Again, John McCain was wrong. Barack Obama was right.

Should we trust John McCain's judgment when he says there can be no timelines to draw down our troops from Iraq that we must stay indefinitely? Or should we listen to Barack Obama, who says shift responsibility to the Iraqis and set a time to bring our combat troops home?

Now, after six long years, the Bush administration and the Iraqi government are on the verge of setting a date to bring our troops home.

John McCain was wrong. Barack Obama was right.

Again and again, on the most important national security issues of our time, John McCain was wrong, and Barack Obama was proven right.

Folks, remember when the world used to trust us? When they looked to us for leadership? With Barack Obama as our president, they'll look to us again, they'll trust us again, and we'll be able to lead again.

Jill and I are truly honored to join Barack and Michelle on this journey. When I look at their young children — and when I look at my grandchildren — I realize why I'm here. I'm here for their future.

And I am here for everyone I grew up with in Scranton and Wilmington. I am here for the cops and firefighters, the teachers and assembly line workers — the folks whose lives are the very measure of whether the American dream endures.

Our greatest presidents — from Abraham Lincoln to Franklin Roosevelt to John Kennedy — they all challenged us to embrace change. Now, it's our responsibility to meet that challenge.

Millions of Americans have been knocked down. And this is the time as Americans, together, we get back up. Our people are too good, our debt to our parents and grandparents too great, our obligation to our children is too sacred.

These are extraordinary times. This is an extraordinary election. The American people are ready. I'm ready. Barack Obama is ready. This is his time. This is our time. This is America's time.

May God bless America and protect our troops.

Luda or Ludacris's "Politics" Turns the pundits' Heads: Politics Lyrics

2008-08-01T01:28:00.000-07:00

Some will find his song funny and entertaining. Others will find it distasteful. It all depends on whom you are supporting.

Find out for yourself here:

”Now Jesse talkin’ slick and apologizin’ for what?/ If you said it then you meant it.”

Luda also calls out President Bush saying,

“Yeah I said it, ‘cuz Bush is mentally handicapped/ Ball up all of his speeches and throw ‘em just like candy wraps/ ‘Cuz what you talkin’ I hear nothin’ even relevant/ And you the worst of all 43 presidents.”

He goes on to call Hilary Clinton “irrelevant” and guarantees Obama will be in office next term. Ludacris finishes “Politics” with encouraging lyrics reminding every one to get out and vote.

“Get out and vote or the end will be near/ The world is ready for change ‘cuz Obama is here!”

Ludacris “Obama Is Here” Lyrics

I’m back on it like I just signed my record deal
Yeah the best is here, the Bentley Coup paint is dripping wet, it got sex appeal
Never should have hated, You never should’ve doubted him
With a slot in the president’s iPod Obama shouted ‘em

Said I handle my biz and I’m one of his favorite rappers
Well give Luda a special pardon if I’m ever in the slammer
Better yet put me in office, make me your vice president
Hillary hated on you, so that bitch is irrelevant

Jesse talking slick and apologizing for what?
If you said it then you meant it how you want it head or gut?
And all you other politicians trying to hate on my man,
watch us win majority vote in every state on my man

You can’t stop what’s bout to happen, we bout to make history
The first black president is destined and it’s meant to be
The threats ain’t fazing us, the nooses or the jokes
So get off your ass, black people, it’s time to get out and vote!

Paint the White House black and I’m sure that’s got ‘em terrified
McCain don’t belong in any chair unless he’s paralyzed
Yeah I said it cause Bush is mentally handicapped
Ball up all of his speeches and just throw ‘em like candy wrap
’cause what you talking I hear nothing even relevant
and you the worst of all 43 presidents

Get out and vote or the end’ll be near
The world is ready for change because Obama is here
’cause Obama is here
The world is ready for change because Obama is here, yeah
cuz Obama is here

Here is the video

Another Version:

Content of the Indictment Against Longest Running Senator Ted Stevens

2008-07-30T07:47:00.001-07:00

A federal grand jury in the District accused Stevens of concealing on financial disclosure statements lucrative gifts from the now-defunct oil company Veco and its top executives, including a Viking gas grill, a tool cabinet and a wraparound deck. At one point, Veco employees and contractors jacked up the senator's mountainside house on stilts and added a new first floor, with two bedrooms and a bathroom, the indictment says.

The senator, who once oversaw more than $900 billion in federal spending each year as chairman of the Appropriations Committee, said he has "temporarily relinquished" his senior posts on several committees, in accordance with Senate rules, while he focuses on the legal battle ahead.

Stevens, 84, the first sitting U.S. senator to face criminal charges in 15 years, adamantly denied the allegations in a statement yesterday afternoon.

"I have never knowingly submitted a false disclosure form required by law as a U.S. senator," said Stevens, whose more than five decades of public service date to the missions he flew for the Army Air Corps during World War II. "The impact of these charges on my family disturbs me greatly. I am innocent of these charges and intend to prove that."

Political Earthquake: Quake Shakes L.A.; Indictment Shakes Washington D.C and Alaska Senator Ted Stevens

2008-07-30T07:17:00.000-07:00

On a day when parts of Los Angeles were rattled by a 5.3 earthquake, Alaska Senator Ted Stevens was rattled by an indictment against him. He has been charge with taking large gifts from a builder who renovated his home. He was the architect or the senator who brought so much money to Alaska for the "Bridge to Nowhere." Ted Stevens has been the longest running senator in Alaska. He has been an honorable man until these charges. He is being accused of accepting $100,000 in gifts while he claimed that he paid for all the work on his house.

It seems that some of the Senator's moves were a way to pay back his good friend, Bill allen who headed VECO.

"t is VECO that is at the heart of the Stevens indictment handed down Tuesday, and prosecutors outlined hundreds of thousands of dollars in financial favors VECO allegedly did for Stevens.

What was less clear was what Stevens did for VECO, though the indictment mentions -- without elaboration -- that VECO asked for his help with projects in Pakistan and Russia, among other favors."

In addition to doing extensive remodeling on Stevens' home, VECO has paid his son, Ben, at least $364,000 in lobbying and consulting fees since 1996.

Ben Stevens, who was an Alaska state senator until last year, has also been ensnared in the VECO scandal but has not been charged.

Reactions from other writers and bloggers keep surfacing:

"Rich Lowry, the editor of National Review, thinks the news provides John McCain with a campaign opportunity. Lowry writes at The Corner, his magazine’s staff blog: “McCain should absolutely unload on Stevens, and frame it as the sort of dysfunction and corruption in Congress that he has long railed against. A good way to get some indie cred without upsetting any conservatives.”

-Patrick Ruffini, a Republican Internet strategist, writes at The Next Right: “At a minimum, Stevens must abandon his re-election campaign if not resign. Let’s not act like Democrats, who shield their William Jeffersons. But who to replace him?”

-Erick Erickson of the conservative community site RedState agrees that Stevens should step down. He writes: “While people are innocent until proven guilty, we know enough facts to suggest Mr. Stevens is going to be looking for a deal. And the voters of Alaska, committed to reform, are going to throw him out of office. This is one seat that should stay in Republican hands. It will not, however, if Ted Stevens decides to hang on. For the longest time Ted Stevens has done all things for the good of Ted Stevens. Now is the time for him to fall on his sword and take one for the GOP team.”

Gunman Shoots and Wounds 7 in Church

2008-07-27T12:01:00.000-07:00

An armed man opened fire on worshippers in a Unitarian church in Knoxville, Tennessee, during a children's play Sunday, critically wounding seven people, police and church members said.

The man entered the church and began shooting during a children's production of the musical "Annie," said Steve Drevik, a church member who arrived after man's arrest.

Barack Obama's Berlin Speech Excerpts

2008-07-25T01:58:00.000-07:00

Thank you to the citizens of Berlin and to the people of Germany. Let me thank Chancellor Merkel and Foreign Minister Steinmeier for welcoming me earlier today. Thank you Mayor Wowereit, the Berlin Senate, the police, and most of all thank you for this welcome.

I come to Berlin as so many of my countrymen have come before. Tonight, I speak to you not as a candidate for President, but as a citizen -- a proud citizen of the United States, and a fellow citizen of the world.

I know that I don’t look like the Americans who’ve previously spoken in this great city. The journey that led me here is improbable. My mother was born in the heartland of America, but my father grew up herding goats in Kenya. His father – my grandfather -- was a cook, a domestic servant to the British.

At the height of the Cold War, my father decided, like so many others in the forgotten corners of the world, that his yearning -- his dream -- required the freedom and opportunity promised by the West. And so he wrote letter after letter to universities all across America until somebody, somewhere answered his prayer for a better life.

That is why I’m here. And you are here because you too know that yearning. This city, of all cities, knows the dream of freedom. And you know that the only reason we stand here tonight is because men and women from both of our nations came together to work, and struggle, and sacrifice for that better life.

Ours is a partnership that truly began sixty years ago this summer, on the day when the first American plane touched down at Templehof.

On that day, much of this continent still lay in ruin. The rubble of this city had yet to be built into a wall. The Soviet shadow had swept across Eastern Europe, while in the West, America, Britain, and France took stock of their losses, and pondered how the world might be remade.

This is where the two sides met. And on the twenty-fourth of June, 1948, the Communists chose to blockade the western part of the city. They cut off food and supplies to more than two million Germans in an effort to extinguish the last flame of freedom in Berlin.

The size of our forces was no match for the much larger Soviet Army. And yet retreat would have allowed Communism to march across Europe. Where the last war had ended, another World War could have easily begun. All that stood in the way was Berlin.

And that’s when the airlift began -- when the largest and most unlikely rescue in history brought food and hope to the people of this city.

The odds were stacked against success. In the winter, a heavy fog filled the sky above, and many planes were forced to turn back without dropping off the needed supplies. The streets where we stand were filled with hungry families who had no comfort from the cold.

But in the darkest hours, the people of Berlin kept the flame of hope burning. The people of Berlin refused to give up. And on one fall day, hundreds of thousands of Berliners came here, to the Tiergarten, and heard the city’s mayor implore the world not to give up on freedom. “There is only one possibility,” he said. “For us to stand together united until this battle is won … The people of Berlin have spoken. We have done our duty, and we will keep on doing our duty. People of the world: now do your duty … People of the world, look at Berlin!”

People of the world -- look at Berlin!

Look at Berlin, where Germans and Americans learned to work together and trust each other less than three years after facing each other on the field of battle.

Look at Berlin, where the determination of a people met the generosity of the Marshall Plan and created a German miracle; where a victory over tyranny gave rise to NATO, the greatest alliance ever formed to defend our common security...........

Obama in Europe: ObamaMeter: The New John F Kennedy for Europeans

2008-07-24T08:40:00.000-07:00

http://ingodwetrustfinancial.blogspot.com

http://podshoppingblog.libsyn.com

CNN's Black in America: Is this the Race Card the Network is Playing?

2008-07-24T08:22:00.001-07:00

I watched the show last night. I keep wondering why CNN did not do a documentary on poor in America, the special needs populations, Austism in America, the plight of drug addicted people, military families with no assistance, the situation of young and addicted to speed, drugs, violence and so much more.

We hope to see some documentaries along this line.

PolticalChurch Presents Obama in Germany "Ich bin ein Berliner" ("I am a Berliner").

2008-07-24T07:45:00.000-07:00

Obama is the hope of a Western world filled with concerns. A recession looms as does high inflation sparked by exploding demand for commodities and natural resources. Furthermore, no one has yet come up with a convincing response to global warming. No one knows how to bring peace to the Middle East, Afghanistan or Iraq. And no one has a promising strategy for dealing with Islamist terrorism.

Barack Obama has already found his spot at the Brandenburg Gate. Indeed, it's where he will speak-- his voice, met with wild cheers from his audience, is enough to send shivers down one's spine even today. After giving his speech, he is driven in an open limousine through Berlin, where hundreds of thousands line the streets, chanting: "Kennedy, Kennedy."

He will be in Berlin this Thursday, when Germans will hail him as a magician with the ability to transform a gloomy world into a brighter place. Never before has there been so much excitement in Germany over the visit of a presumed US presidential candidate. Obama may be running for the White House, but judging by the commotion, one would think that he had already advanced two steps further and were the president of the world.

The rockstar, the stud has landed in Germany. And Germans are ready to show their appreciation for the first black presidential candidate in U.S. history. Germans are ready for a change of relationship between the U.S. and the "old country" or "old Europe." By going to Germany first, Obama hopes to grab the same magic that made John F. Kennedy an enduring image in the minds of most Germans. Barack Obama hopes to grab a bit of the Berlin magic established by President John F. Kennedy when he came to Berlin in 1963 for his famous "Ich bin ein Berliner" speech.

ObamaMania in Europe: Germany Loves Barack; Obama Speaks at the Victory Column Then Goes to France and England

2008-07-23T08:40:00.000-07:00

If Obama was running in Germany,he would have already wrapped up the elections. Most Germans are in love with the democratic candidate. They see hope in him. They do not care much about John McCain who is too old and belongs to the wrong party. That is what most Germans are saying. Even shop owners have a preference for the presidential candidates. They prefer to sell Obama bubble heads instead of John McCain, the senator. This week, Germans will have a chance to see their rock-star status candidate, Sen. Barack Obama. Germans stop at U.S. bases in Germany to talk about their happiness.

On Thursday, Obama will speak at one of Berlin's most famous landmarks, the Victory Column. It will be the first of three stops in Europe, where polls show Obama as an overwhelming favorite in the U.S. election.

Resonating with Europeans are Obama's age, eloquence and energy. The German news magazine Der Spiegel splashed the headline "Germany meets the superstar" over a photo of Obama on its cover this week. Some experts have a simple explanation for Europe's Obamamania. An America expert with the German Council on Foreign Relations put it bluntly: "He's not Bush."

Obama will continue to France and Britain after his Berlin stop.

Additional News:

The Dark Knight's Christian Bale is arrested for assault. Read about it at Is the Dark Knight for Kids?

Obama Money Machine: How His Presidential Campaign is Doing in Comparison

2008-07-22T23:16:00.000-07:00

Obama has established joint fundraising agreements with the Democratic National Committee and two other party committees. Those entities can raise larger sums and spend unlimited amounts on behalf of individual candidates.

Of the $20.3 million Obama's joint fundraising committees amassed in June, 86%, or $17.6 million, came in chunks of $5,000 or more; 64% came in increments of $28,500 or more, campaign finance reports filed over the weekend show.

Even as he touts his base of small donors, Barack Obama is relying heavily on well-heeled contributors who have given $28,500 or more each to Democratic Party committees that will campaign on his behalf.

Obama aides emphasized that the average donation to his campaign in June -- during which he brought in $52 million -- was $68. Over the course of his campaign, the presumed Democratic presidential nominee has raised $340 million. By law, an individual can give no more than $2,300 to a candidate for the primary and $2,300 for the general election.

Barack Obama and John McCain at MegaChurch Forum, Saddleback Church, Lake Forest, Calif This Summer

2008-07-21T12:22:00.000-07:00

This is what is coming up. It is an important event that we need to watch. Saddleback Church forum which the presidential candidates are going to attend.

"The Rev. Rick Warren has persuaded the candidates to attend a forum at his Saddleback Church, in Lake Forest, Calif., on Aug. 16. In an interview, Mr. Warren said over the weekend that the presidential candidates would appear together for a moment but that he would interview them in succession at his megachurch."

So far, both candidates agree to meet at the church. More to come here.

List of Starbucks Stores to be Closed Published: California Stores Among Them

2008-07-21T08:16:00.001-07:00

It is the sign of the times. Starbucks has fallen prey to the woes of the economic times. With less money to spend, consumers are not buying mo

Starbucks Corp. has named all 600 company-owned stores it plans to close in a bid to boost its business and weed out unprofitable locations.

The company announced 50 stores late last week, saying those stores would be closed by the end of July. Those include four stores in Alabama, seven in Minnesota and eight in California.

Now the gourmet coffee retailer is detailing all stores slated for closure. Including the eight other stores, California will now lose 88 stores with two each in Los Angeles and San Francisco, and 10 in San Diego.

Florida will lose 59 stores, including three each in Tampa and Palm Beach Gardens. Louisiana will lose 13 stores, nine of them in Baton Rouge.

The company announced earlier this month that it would close 600 company-owned stores in the U.S. starting in July and continuing through the first half of the next fiscal year. But Starbucks didn't say which locations would be shut down, until now.

The move to close the stores is a turnabout from Starbucks' aggressive expansion plans. But the company curtailed those plans as it saw traffic and its profits decline recently as the faltering economy has led some consumers to question their spending on pricey coffee.

Starbucks Closure, Starbucks Closure List, Starbucks Closures, Starbucks Losses, Starbucks Store Closure List, Starbucks Store Closure List. Starbucks Closure list

List of Starbucks Stores to be Closed Published: California Stores Among Them

2008-07-21T08:16:00.000-07:00

Presidential Candidate Obama Visits Iran, Iraq, and Afghanistan

2008-07-21T08:11:00.000-07:00

Democratic candidate Obama is visiting Iraq, Afghanistan and Iran. The candidate is showing that he knows what he is talking about. He is trying to establish his foreign policy foundations.

Iran's president has been against Israel and has talked about destroying the Jewish state. It is important to talk instead of fighting. The candidate can not sit around and let Iran's president threaten Israel this way. Saber rattling is not the way to go. Showing off long-range missiles is not the way to go either.

The Politics of Fear: Pictures Speak Louder Than Words; The New Yorker Magazine Cover

2008-07-21T08:01:00.000-07:00

What is being depicted in the magazine's cover? New Yorker's July Issue, "The Politics of Fear."

The burning flag, the nationalist-radical and islamic outifts, the fist-bump, the portrait of Bin Laden on the wall. All of them echo one attack or another.

The magazine said satire is part of what it does 'to hold a mirror to prejudice, the hateful, and the absurd. And that's the spirit of the cover." While Jay Leno, David Letterman, jon Steward of the Daily Show on the Comedy Central Conan O'Brien have been able to make fun of Senator John McCain's old age with all kinds of joke derivatives, not much has been said about Michelle and Obama. Satire may be the way to poke fun at them. The question is whether it is tasteful or tasteless.

New Yorker Magazine Cover Shows Obama Satire

2008-07-15T18:25:00.000-07:00

Regarding the controversial New Yorker cover, Barack Obama defends the magazine's right to print it, but said it furthered misconceptions about him.

The cover showed Obama dressed in Muslim garb and fist-bumping his wife in the Oval Office while the American flag burns in the fireplace. The magazine's editors said yesterday it was an attempt to show how Obama's foes were resorting to the politics of fear.

"Well, I know it was The New Yorker's attempt at satire," Obama says in an interview that is to air tonight on CNN's "Larry King Live." I don't think they were entirely successful with it. But you know what? It's a cartoon, Larry, and that's why we've got the First Amendment.

PoliticalChurch Blog Supports the Business Model of LaserMonks.com, Monkegifts.com, monasterygiftbaskets.com: A feel-good Story

2008-07-04T12:59:00.000-07:00

Real monks work for their living. They also work to support each other and others' ministries. That is why we find a lot of monks are getting entrepreneurial by creating multimillion dollar businesses that catch the attention of a lot of people. www.lasermonks.com and www.monkegifts.com are two good examples of great charitable work ideas. The funny thing about these monks' work is that they are not seeking to be rich. On the contrary, they make the money which they turn around to give away to much needy people around the world. As we are about to shop for this holiday season, think about what your dollars can do when you shop at benevolentblends for the coffee afficionados.

Here is what the SFgate site is saying about them, "That model, which LaserMonks characterizes as "commerce with compassion," is also the subject of a recent book, "LaserMonks: The Business Story Nine Hundred Years in the Making," by Sarah Caniglia and Cindy Griffith, who now live at Our Lady of Spring Bank and manage operations for both LaserMonks.com and its two offshoots, BenevolentBlends.com, a coffee retail site, and Monkegifts.com, which sells products (such as Trappistine Creamy Caramels and Holy Hot Chocolate) produced by other monasteries."

Visit these offshoots: www.lasermonks.com, www.monkegifts.com

If you want to make a donation, go to Sponsorandfeedachild.blogspot.com to make the donation.

T.D. Jakes's Daughter, Sarah Jakes, Wedding Announcement: Marriage Bliss to Them!

2008-05-25T16:29:00.000-07:00

Bishop T. D. Jakes and his wife, Serita Jakes recently announced wedding plans for their youngest daughter, Sarah Dionne Jakes. Ms. Jakes, 19, will marry Robert Leandro Henson, 22, of Longview, Texas, on Saturday, June 21, 2008, at the world renowned church, The Potter’s House of Dallas.

[Why is Sarah going to get married so young? At 19 years of age, why can't she wait until she completes her studies? More and more newshounds want to know why she is such in a big hurry to tie the knots.]

Ms. Jakes is a junior at the University of Phoenix majoring in journalism. She is a member of her father’s church, The Potter’s House of Dallas, and is active with the debutante program. Ms. Jakes shares two hobbies—cooking and reading—with her family.

[This is great about this young woman. She is involved in the church and ministry. She has two hobbies, but why the rush?]

Henson is a senior at Texas Christian University (TCU). During football season, he dons a purple and white jersey for the TCU Horned Frogs as a linebacker. As a student, he studies criminal justice, and upon graduation in 2008, he plans to pursue a career in federal law enforcement. When he is not studying or playing football, Henson enjoys music and poetry.

[Many readers of this blog write to say that Henson appears to be a great standing young man who works hard and is focused on a career. The female readers of this blog like the fact he likes music and poetry. When we get some of his poems, we will publish them here!]

The wedding ceremony will incorporate traditional customs with family members and friends serving as the wedding party and with the father of the bride, Bishop Jakes, giving his daughter away. The groom’s family will be represented by his mother, Samantha Henson and his sister, Tiffany Sterling. Bishop Noel Jones, Senior Pastor, City of Refuge Church in Los Angeles, California will officiate the ceremony.

Get a preview of the wedding dresses or gowns Sarah Jakes is going to wear at her wedding.

Wedding Resources:
Find elegant dresses, Beautiful Wedding Gowns and more:
http://www.microcreditcapital.com

B. Obama Receives the support of more superdelegates; Hillary Clinton sees the end of her campaign while Obama looks at November

2008-05-13T06:52:00.000-07:00

Obama is closer to reaching his goals. He is scheduled to receive the democratic nomination. Hilary is about to give up after Tuesday's Virginia results. Superdelegates are making the difference in this year's elections. They are going to support Obama. More and more of them are going his way.

Southern China Rocked by 7 point magnitude Earthquake: Over 200,000 Reported Dead

2008-05-13T06:47:00.000-07:00

Bodies covered in sheets lie in the streets everywhere one turns. Schools were flattened by the quake, trapping hundreds if not thousands of students. The rescue effort continues to take place.

Going to the Potter's House: Following T. D. Jakes

2008-05-06T07:56:00.000-07:00

Find every sermon and message preached by t. d. jakes here. You will find all the links you need.

Bishop T. D. Jakes's Message for These Times: What Does he Have To Say About This?

2008-05-06T07:46:00.000-07:00

Go to Bishop T.D. Jakes' Messages and Potter's House

The blood-washed church for which Jesus died is not relegated to one group or another, nor is it held hostage by politics or ethnicity. It is a breathing, living testament to God's love and grace. It serves its community where it is located and is aware of the needs and nuances of that community. However, its relevance and vision must go beyond its community and reach the world for which Christ died.

Today as the church moves from its introspective posture to a broader role in politics, business, media and impacting societal ills, it has the dubious and daunting task of doing so without losing its core function. Like all such organizations that cease to be intrinsically focused, it runs the risk of being totally misunderstood and misaligned.

I have listened and watched the events of the last few days with great disappointment as the church and the so-called African-American church, in particular, has been painted rather negatively with a broad, wide-ranging brush. I personally wish the distinctions of the church by ethnicity would one day become an antiquated idea. But this will require more people moving from a segregated worship experience. Until then, the church is becoming increasingly bruised by those who seek to move it from its core principles and make it an instrument of division rather than a catalyst for unity!

To say the current picture in the media of the institution that I have loved all of my life is less than flattering would be an understatement. And because I know that many Americans unfortunately do not venture outside of the comfort of their own groups for worship, the only understanding some will have of who we are is based largely on sound bites and media portrayals. I want to set the record straight!

I am afraid that once again our churches will be victimized by stereotypical ideas and opinions that are based in whole or in part by the extreme and not the norm.

The church I have read about in the media -- a church filled with divisiveness, a lack of tolerance for other ethnic groups, a church not focused on helping the downtrodden and less fortunate, a church filled with hostility -- does not remotely resemble the churches that I grew up around and have loved for more than 50 years.

Most, if not all, predominantly African-American church doors are open to all, not just to blacks, but to anyone who is seeking a spiritual home, guidance, support, direction, faith and a feeding of the soul in the purest sense. Many of us have worked with other organizations, different cultures and denominations believing that there is more to unite us than there is to divide us.

The African-American church I know is filled with programs designed to address the many ills that inflict our society: HIV/AIDS, homelessness, reducing the rate of recidivism, assisting with employment and job training, economic development and financial management classes, home buying seminars, food banks to feed the hungry, schools to educate and an active plan to guide our youth. Those outreaches have been colorblind, passionate depictions of Christ's love for all humanity!

The predominantly African-American church may be founded by an African American, it may be led on Sunday by an African American, but as you look through the crowd of these beacons of hope and faith, you will see an increasing audience that is much more reflective of our world than many would have you to believe. White, black, Hispanic, Asian -- nationalities from all across the world come together -- some to visit our churches, to enjoy our music and ministers and still others are gradually starting to join our churches. Gradually race fades into the fabric of faith and becomes less central to the overarching core of human needs in general. Is it a perfect union? Of course not. Is there work to do? Absolutely! But the core message is not one that enrages, but one that encourages people to change and grow, and any other depiction is distorted and inaccurate.

The Potter's House, though largely African-American, is composed of 20 different nationalities and growing in diversity. It is designed much the same way Sen. BarackObama has built his campaign: on a strong commitment to reconciliation, the admonition for unity and strong desire for the continuation of diversity instead of exclusion.

While I have not endorsed any candidate, who can ignore the hunger of Americans for change? No matter who your political choice may be, it is hard to remain ambivalent to the tone that Obama sounded, igniting a national response from people of all walks of life, crowding into stadiums openly weeping -- like they were in church -- at the very idea of a nation that reflects the best of our ideals; not the divisive ranting and bickering that may drive up ratings but threaten the cannibalization of our dreams and the demolition of our hopes.

As a child, I grew up in a neighborhood back in West Virginia where blacks and whites helped each other in times of need and despair. Now that I am in Dallas, Texas, I have seen our city struggle to its feet in times of dire desperation. I was there when the buses came in to the Reunion Arena in Dallas loaded with mostly people of color who were hungry, weak and tired, and needing human dignity. They were unloaded -- covered with the stench of the atrocities of the superdome in New Orleans. I saw blacks, whites and Hispanics driving up with bags of clothes and food and crying together, trying to accommodate whomever they could, wherever they could. This is the America I want my grandson to grow up in.

I am wondering who will get the message that our nation's citizens are by and large looking for a voice that will unite us, clothe our naked, feed the poor and help our diminishing middle class before we self-destruct like many great empires of the past. Who cares what color they are, what banner they fly, what gender they are, or how they pronounce their names? This is a defining moment in our history, and we are about to destroy greatness with petty self- aggrandizing egotism!

I implore you to not take the words of a few and depict the thoughts, hearts and motives of many. At the end of the day, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. proved with his nonviolent approach that hate-filled words will not liberate anyone. To be sure, there is still work to do to defeat racism and to attain justice in our country for all. We continue to need someone who will hold us accountable to our best practices and not our worst. But there is no liberation without love, no prosperity without philanthropy and no hope if the church becomes immersed in the quagmire of pettiness.

As an American I plead with you that we are running out of time. It is critical that we dislodge ourselves from political distractions. We must return to the task of looking for the right man or woman who can answer the bloodcurdling cry of a nation that is in search of a leader with a courageous effective plan for the war in Iraq, and the medical, moral, economic and security issues that are being ignored by these distractions. If we do not, we will have done a terrible disservice to our coming generations. Go to Bishop T.D. Jakes' Messages and Potter's House

The Bible said that while good men slept, evil ones came and planted tare, a noxious weed, among the wheat! The tare of a hate-filled church image is a tactical distraction planted to divert our attention from choosing our next president. Let's get back to listening for leadership strategies from our best and brightest before there is no country left to lead. My hope is that the church remains a vibrant part of our process, sounding the alarm that warns: America, please wake up out of our sleep!

Get more from CNN on the Potter's House and T. D. Jakes.

The Black Church Analysis: What Does Rev. Wright Mean?

2008-05-04T23:52:00.000-07:00

What does the "Black Church" come to mean these days? Media personalities are not tired of trying to find out about what it means. More and more interviews are conducted with theologians and pastors to try to define it.

Black people created a religion that blends Christianity with others to form a new religion. The Black Church is the invisible church where enslaved Africans were not allowed to worship during the day. They ended up "stealing away tonight" so their masters would not find out what was going on. The official Black church started in Philadelphia. It started before the Civil Rights.

The Black church emerged as a religion of protest against white slave holders unwilling to let black people worship. The issues surrounding the movements of 1963 and on revolved around the idea that Black people want to affirm and assert themselves.

The Black Church affirms Black People's humanity. that is why most black people go to a church where they feel welcome.

Can Barack Obama Move beyond This Controversy and Win the Nomination over Hilary Clinton?

2008-05-02T00:57:00.000-07:00