Something My be Brewing…

After a year off to start up my not-for-profit, I am feeling the itch again. Stay tuned…

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Obama May be the ‘Black’ John F. Kennedy

I was speaking with a colleague recently and asked him about the parallels between Obama and Kennedy.

The similarities are startling.

In 1960 Kennedy’s campaign staff knew that John F. Kennedy would defeat Richard Nixon, and it was confirmed just before their first televised debate – a debate where Nixon looked old and tired, offering the same tired solutions. Sound familiar?

The then Senator Kennedy, a Democrat, was a fresh face from Massachusetts, much like Obama from Illinois. Eventually, Kennedy’s solid performance in the debate boosted his standing in the polls. Moreover, the image of Kennedy we see is considered to be one of the most dynamic images in U.S. presidential history. Nixon, conversely, looked terrible during the debate. Nixon’s appearance cost him votes that night, despite a solid intellectual performance. Separate surveys later demonstrated this. Among those voters polled who watched the debate on television, a majority thought Kennedy won the debate. However, among those voters polled who listened to the debate on radio, a majority thought Nixon won the debate. The key here, as was the case with Obama and McCain, was that separation was achieved in the minds of the American people in favor of the younger, fresher, more appealing Democrat.

The question to ask now is whether or not President-elect Barack Obama is on the same political road as Kennedy. It may be too soon to tell, but the beginnings of a big change in American politics, and in public policy, seems afoot.

Obama attracted new voters in large numbers, primarily African-Americans and young voters ages 18-21. He also attracted young couples and young, urban professionals that became a twenty year base for the Democratic party.

Some elements of the answer are even more apparent: his high-toned oratory, his promises of reconciliation in a divisive time, a background in community organizing that suggests both idealism and a talent for problem-solving. When answering the charge that the Illinois senator lacks the record of achievement befitting a White House aspirant, Obama’s backers often stack him next to JFK. Obama is 44, they note, older than JFK was when he ran. Skeptics derided JFK, as they now do Obama, as callow and ill-versed in substantive issues. And yet Obama, similar to JFK, manages to inspire people with sex appeal, cerebral cool headedness, and a message of generational change. Maybe the most important aspect of Kennedy mirrored in Obama may be the way that JFK handled his Catholicism. In the 1960 campaign, Kennedy turned his religion from a liability into an asset. Obama did the same thing with his race.

We can only hope their presidencies don’t end the same way.

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Former Senator Chafee Calls Sarah Palin a “Cocky Wacko” and I Couldn’t Agree More

Former, easygoing, Rhode Island Sen. Lincoln Chafee has referred to Republican VP candidate Sarah Palin, as a, “cocky wacko,” during comments to a Washington think tank.

I couldn’t agree more.

Chafee claims that Palin’s mere nomination and recent foolish comments have energized Obama backers. “People were coming into my office, phone calls were flooding in, e-mails were coming in, ‘I just sent money to Obama, I couldn’t sleep last night’ — from the left. To see this cocky wacko up there,” he said.

Chafee has come out and said what most on the left are already thinking, and that is that Palin, a fundamentalist Christian, social Conservative, harbors positions that are downright dangerous. These positions include:

– Choose life, even if her own daughter were raped. (Nov 2006)

– Ok to deny benefits to homosexual couples. (Aug 2006)

– No spousal benefits for same-sex couples. (Jul 2006) 

– Wants exit plan; also assurances to keep our troops safe. (Mar 2007)

– We don’t know what the plan is to ever end the war. (Aug 2008)

– Focus on fighting Al-Qaeda terrorists, not on reading rights. (Sep 2008)

– “As for that VP talk all the time, I’ll tell you, I still can’t answer that question until somebody answers for me what is it exactly that the VP does every day?” –Sarah Palin, interview with CNBC’s “Kudlow & Co”, July 2008

– “Pray for our military men and women who are striving to do what is right. Also, for this country, that our leaders, our national leaders, are sending soldiers out on a task that is from God. That’s what we have to make sure that we’re praying for, that there is a plan and that that plan is God’s plan.” –Sarah Pailn, on the Iraq war, speaking to students at the Wasilla Assembly of God, June 2008

– God made dinosaurs 4,000 years ago as ultimately flawed creatures, lizards of Satan really, so when they died and became petroleum products we, made in his perfect image, could use them in our pickup trucks, snow machines and fishing boats.”

I think it was a bit longer than 4000 years ago…the Egyptians were not riding dinosaurs last time I checked. Oh! That’s right! Sarah is a Christian fundamentalist, so that means the world is only four thousand years old. I’m so silly…

Your Morning Cereal – The Onion News Network Weighs in on Election Demographics

Want to know how much power niche voters will have? Just watch this…

That about sums it up I think.

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Your Morning Cereal – Man Tries ‘Wile E. Coyote’ Rocket Car Stunt

The Arizona Highway Patrol discovered a pile of smoldering metal embedded in the side of a cliff (I told you this was a ‘Wile E. Coyote’ stunt…and I wasn’t joking.)

The wreckage was first thought to be an airplane crash, but it was in fact, a car. The type of car was unidentifiable at the scene. Later, investigators finally pieced together the cause.

An amateur rocket scientist, and I do mean amatuer, had gotten hold of a JATO unit (Jet Assisted Take Off), military rocket. These are used to give heavy military transport planes extra boost on short runways. He drove his 1967 Chevy Impala out into the desert, to a long stretch of road. He proceeded to attach the JATO unit to the car, and fire it. 

The results were unsuccesful for the driver.

It was determined that the driver ignited the JATO approximately 3.0 miles from the crash site. The distance calculated by the scorched and melted asphalt at that location.

The JATO, reached maximum thrust within 5 seconds, and a top speed of 350 mph, for a duration of 25 seconds. The driver, along for the ride and probably mercifully unconscious when the car hit the cliff in mid air, could only be identified by some scraps of hair and teeth recovered at the crash site.

The automobile did manage to stay on the straight highway for about 2.5 miles before becoming airborne for an additional 1.4 miles and impacting the cliff at a height of 125 feet.

Wile E. Coyote would be proud.

Read the full article at SlapHappyNews.com

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Ellen DeGeneres Marries Girlfriend in L.A.

Afternoon talk show host Ellen DeGeneres married her life partner, actress Portia de Rossi, at their home in Los Angeles this past Saturday. 

DeGeneres, 50, and de Rossi, 35, exchanged their own vowes at  small ceremony, after dating for about four years. During that time they have been open about their relationship.

DeGeneres announced her plans to marry de Rossi, on her daytime talk show in May after California’s Supreme Court overturned a state ban on same-sex marriage.

If you remember, it was DeGeneres who broke the ‘gay’ T.V. barrier in 1997 when her television character came out of the closet on her sitcom “Ellen.” Afterward, she disappeared for a bit from T.V., but has resurrected her career.

I say good for her, as this is more proof that love cannot be simply legislated away. People who think homosexuality is a conscious lifestyle choice made to impress people, are wrong-headed. In Ellen’s case, she is finally able to express here love for here mate, and vice-versa, the way all other people who are in love, choose to express it…through marriage. 

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Your Morning Cereal – A Little Olympic Humor Courtesy of George Bush

Here’s our President attending the games in China!

Oops.

Your ‘right’, their ‘left’ sir! Your ‘right’, their…never mind.

🙂

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