Inauguration platform construction started

Official, symbolic, nail-driving ceremony.



Actually, this picture is from mid-October. We''ll try to get a more recent picture.

Read The Full Article:
http://www.demconwatchblog.com/2008/11/inauguration-platform-construction.html

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A Modest Proposal.

In response to the ever-reasonable Proposition 8 in California, which restored TRADITIONAL marriage as it has been defined for thousands of years (and was mostly funded by the Mormon Church of Latter Day Saints), I hereby call upon the gay community to[...]

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http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Docudharma/~3/445575504/showDiary.do

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What's Next

BY TAYLOR MARSHWe won, so what’s next?Seriously, what’s next?What should be the priorities of the lame duck Congress, if any, the new Congress?What about President-elect Obama? What’s next?[...]

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http://www.taylormarsh.com/archives_view.php?id=28724

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An Ever So Modest Proposal.

In response to the ever-reasonable Proposition 8 in California, which restored TRADITIONAL marriage as it has been defined for thousands of years (and was mostly funded by the Mormon Church of Latter Day Saints), I hereby call upon the gay community to promote the equally reasonable and Jesusesque "Proposition P", which would restore TRADITIONAL prophets, as THEY have been defined for thousands of years.

My Proposition P, or The Defense of Religious Leaders Who Did Not Wear Magical Underwear, would change the California constitution so that only prophets identified BEFORE 1820 would be recognized.
All other prophets, say ones that claimed that they could find gold by putting stones in a white stovepipe hat or who, for years, promoted the practice of polygamy, would be devalued as second-class and the believers in these modern and substandard prophets would not be allowed to claim that their values was as valid as those of us who believe in, like, totally REAL God.

Look, I'm NOT trying to make these immoral, shameful and clearly substandard new believers feel badly about themselves, its just that TRADITION dictates one homogeneous world-view and I'm worried what it says about MY prophet if any paranoid, self-interested, outcast in Pennsylvania can wander into the woods and claim to have heard the word of God.

And then there's the children?

What will happen to the little one's blind adherence to my totally random, but much OLDER belief system, if they are forced to consider someone else's totally random but very RECENT system of morality via fear and invented bogeymen?

Can we really take the chance that some "teacher" pushing an "agenda" of "tolerance" might suggest these "other prophets" are anything more than amoral puss sacks?

No! TRADITIONAL PROPHETS are the way it has always been done... always being defined as at least a couple thousand years, before which we had the PRE-TRADITIONAL Gods and Prophets Like Zeus and Vishnu, who we should also probably get around to outlawing and belittling at some point.

Look, if none of the above is compelling, consider this:

We must pass Proposition P, The Defense of Prophets Act, if for no other reason than to ensure that gay people, who have existed since the beginning of humanity, won't find themselves being bullied by a religion which postdates, say, penicillin.

Proposition P: because every hateful acts of spite deserves and equally irrational response.  

Read The Full Article:
http://www.myleftwing.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=23569

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Workers Sent Home for Wearing Pro-Obama T-Shirts

WXII-12 of Winston Salem, NC, says that three Obama supporters were sent home from work after the Election for wearing pro-Obama t-shirts.

WINSTON-SALEM -- Three BE Aerospace workers were told they could not wear their Barack Obama T-shirts on the job Wednesday, one of the workers said.

The three workers told WXII's Kim Gebbia that they were told to either
turn the shirts inside out or go home, and claimed that the company told them wearing the shirts was equivalent to pushing politics on the job. The shirts read "Teamsters for Obama." Workers Wearing
Obama Shirts Say They Were Sent Home

We want to unite the country, but it might take a while.


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http://francislholland.blogspot.com/2008/11/workers-sent-home-for-wearing-pro-oba
ma.html

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Whither Senate Republicans

THE FIFTH COLUMNIST by P.M. Carpenter

This is going to get real interesting, real fast.

And that, I think, is about as precise as one can be -- for now.

As the NY Times reports this morning, "Congressional Democratic leaders promised to use their new power to join President-elect Barack Obama in pursuing an aggressive agenda that puts top priority on the economy, health care, energy and ending the Iraq war."

The House will experience few to no bumps in pursuing that agenda, what with its updated megamajority and authoritarian rules. But the U.S. Senate? Therein could lie the rub, although no one is yet trading heavily in risky speculation on the upper body's ultimate demeanor.

In his victory speech Tuesday night, Obama adjured the new and smaller Congressional minority Bookmark/Search this post with: buzzflash | delicious | digg | yahoo | technorati Technorati Tags: P.M. Carpenter republicans senate mcconnell

read more

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http://www.buzzflash.com/articles/carpenter/231

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Abbreviated Pundit Round-Up

Your one stop pundit shop.

Roger Cohen nails it in the first sentence:

Beyond Iraq, beyond the economy, beyond health care, there was something even more fundamental at stake in this U.S. election won by Barack Obama: the self-respect of the American people.

... but be sure to read the rest.

David Broder hopes an Obama presidency will end hyper-partisanship. To the center, to the center!

Eugene Robinson says that:

... something changed on Tuesday when Americans -- white, black, Latino, Asian -- entrusted a black man with the power and responsibility of the presidency. I always meant it when I said the Pledge of Allegiance in school. I always meant it when I sang the national anthem at ball games and shot off fireworks on the Fourth of July. But now there's more meaning in my expressions of patriotism, because there's more meaning in the stirring ideals that the pledge and the anthem and the fireworks represent.

Stefan Passantino, who argues against early voting, seems much more concerned about politicians than he does about voters.

Pat Toomey, president of Club for Growth, warns Barack Obama that he must follow the agenda of the rightwingnutosphere, because really, it's what the American people voted for on Tuesday.

Gail Collins gives a snarky recap of the election. My favorite bit?

But we’re in a good mood, so let’s forget Alaska. Instead, we’ll contemplate the fact that North Carolina tossed Elizabeth Dole out of office despite her ad campaign aimed at convincing the state that her opponent, Kay Hagan, was an atheist. This was accomplished, you may remember, through the creative strategy of showing Hagan’s picture along with another woman’s voice saying: "There is no God!" If Dole had won, by the next election we would have been bombarded with ads that appeared to show candidates saying "I support adultery!" or "Let’s kill the puppies!" Now that won’t happen. Thank you, North Carolina.

Karl Rove, fresh from his whirlwind tour of every Fox News show known to man, found time to tell us how Barack Obama won in a "center-right" nation.  Center-right nation...you know, it's like "the" math. A fantasy.

Today's commentary from the Washington Times has earned an all-in-one pundit stop. If you're a masochist.

John Corvino says of the disappointing vote on Proposition 8:

The path to inclusion is not always direct and the pace of change almost never steady. This setback is by no means a final verdict. In the coming years, gay and lesbian citizens will continue to tell our stories. We will demonstrate that, like everyone else, we are worthy of having someone to have and to hold, for better or for worse. More Americans will realize that such relationships are a good thing -- not just for us but for the community at large.

When the smoke from this battle clears, Americans will realize that gays are not interested in confusing children or in forcing princesses on little girls who don't want them. But they also will realize that, when girls grow up to love princesses, they deserve to live happily ever after too.

Read The Full Article:
http://feeds.dailykos.com/~r/dailykos/index/~3/wcIhzapcQhU/655375

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The World Reacts

When I graduated from college I went to Europe "for the summer." That summer lasted for almost 7 years and included a VW van drive across Asia to Afghanistan, India, Sri Lanka and Nepal... and back. Since then I've spent a month each year-- at the minimum-- overseas, revisiting places I loved, like Italy, Turkey, France, Morocco, India, or discovering new places I missed the first time around. Last year I went to Myanmar for the first time and soon I'll be going to Senegal for a little acclimatization before heading off to trek in the Dogone country of Mali and visit The Sheltering Sky's Timbuktu, both in Mali. So, thank God America's voters-- or election rustlers-- didn't decide to inflict yet another George Bush on us... and the world.

Way back in October we noted that, with a few outlandish exceptions (Sudan, Cuba, Iraq... Namibia), the entire world was rooting for Obama to beat McCain. (And in the end, even Namibia hopped on the Obama bandwagon. Regretably, Myanmar was split exactly down the middle, 50-50; they'd still be counting votes the way they are in Charlottesville tonight.) Oh, and then there are the shrinking and dark little corners of the Fourth Reich. Other than that, the whole world is united in joy and hope.

And, although people all over the world were thrilled that American voted for Obama instead of McSame (63,974,022 to 56,453,789)-- hailing it as "a renewal of America's ability to inspire"-- nowhere was the excitement more heartfelt than in Kenya, Obama's father's homeland. But because of my upcoming trip to Mali I was wondering what they had to say about it there. I found a quote from the president, Amadou Toumani Touré: "The United States has given a lesson, a lesson in maturity and a lesson in democracy. The essential considerations that prevailed were really the considerations of a man who had a program.''

Over the past 8 years-- and especially the past 4-- I've experienced a very different kind of reaction to my country-- and even to myself-- than I had experienced since Nixon's provocative trip to Venezuela-- and I only experienced that on television... as part of a political strategy for terrorist-haters back home. After the Clinton idyllic Clinton-lovin' years, our co-inhabitants of the planet were mostly mortified with what we put over ourselves. Yesterday they celebrated just like we did.

Today, we are all Americans.

For longtime U.S. expatriates like me-- someone far more accustomed to being targeted over unpopular policies, for having my very Americanness publicly assailed-- it feels like an extraordinary turnabout.

Like a long journey over a very bumpy road has abruptly come to an end.
And it's not just me.

An American colleague in Egypt says several people came up to her on the streets of Cairo and said: "America, hooray!" Others, including strangers, expressed congratulations with a smile and a hand over their hearts.

Another colleague, in Amman, says Jordanians stopped her on the street and that several women described how they wept with joy.

When you're an American abroad, you can quickly become a whipping post. Regardless of your political affiliation, if you happen to be living and working overseas at a time when the United States has antagonized much of the world, you get a lot of grief.

A friend of mine sent me this today, pointing out, at least implicitly, that foreigners knew what people in the old slave-holding states and the Mormon Empire can't grasp:


video details and more



Yep... time to break out the old American flag clothes and parade down the Champs-Élysées.

Read The Full Article:
http://downwithtyranny.blogspot.com/2008/11/world-reacts.html

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Why is the Sundance Film Festival taking place in
the Hate State of Utah

UPDATE: Our friend Brent Andrus, who is a lead donor to Prop 8, in fact runs a series of hotels, including (big surprise here), Courtyard Marriott, Fairfield Inn Marriott, Residence Inn Marriott, and Spring Hill Suites Marriott. Never, ever stay at a Marriott again. It's clear that what people have been whispering about Marriott for years is true. It's not just some independent company. It's part and parcel of the Mormon Church and their bigoted agenda.



It's time we held Utah accountable for the hate and bigotry it gladly exports to the rest of our union.

Mormons from Utah dumped millions into Prop 8, the anti-gay proposition in California that just passed - they are personally responsible for revoking the marriages of nearly 20,000 gay couples. This is not the first time the Mormons went beyond their borders to promote hate and intolerance of gays and lesbians - it's been happening for years. The Mormon church regularly intervenes around the country to promote hatred, bigotry and discrimination against gay and lesbian Americans. Enough is enough. The Mormon church, and its associated businesses, are free to foment discrimination against gay and lesbian Americans, but we are also free to stop frequenting the businesses of those who would make our children bastards, and we their parents second class citizens.

It's time to stop funding those businesses and individuals who promote hate. And let's start with the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah. It's high time Sundance found a better state to party in than the seat of the Mormon Church. Sundance is THE gathering of liberal Hollywood. The last place it should be is in Utah. Robert Redford, are you out there?

Let's start with one donor in particular:

Brent Andrus of Huntington Hotels in Park City, Utah gave $20,000 to Prop 8 on October 16th, 2008.

I've done some Googling and I'm having a hard time finding exactly which property or properties Mr. Andrus owns. Perhaps someone from Sundance needs to ensure that neither Mr. Andrus nor his hotels are in any way involved in the Sundance Festival, including guests staying at his businesses. UPDATE: We have our answer, see the top of this post.

And then Sundance needs to start looking to move the festival. All of you who know someone who knows someone in the industry need to weigh in with the Sundance organizers, and those attending, to ensure that Utah and the Mormon Church pay a price for the bigotry they embrace and export.

Next up: Marriott Hotels. It's Mormon owned. Stay at a Marriott and you finance the repeal of your own civil rights, and those of your friends and families. Spread the word, never ever stay at a Marriott Hotel ever again. More on Marriott's extensive holding later.

Read The Full Article:
http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Americablog/~3/444536944/why-is-sundance-film-fest
ival-taking.html

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Cabinet - Treasury

We've played this game before, back when we were discussing veep choices. So, remember, I only have a 10 choice maximum per poll. And probably I'll miss someone's choice, so use the comments.

OK, now that that is out of the way, let's play.

Remember that you're going to need to pick ALL the cabinet posts over the next week to 10 days.

We're starting today with Treasury. This is who you want to see, not who President-elect Obama will pick. Please use the comments to explain why you picked who you did, with special attention paid to whether you went with a private sector, or public sector choice. That is, is there a better perspective to bring to the position, or is it all about the person?

If you want to go all out and say "I like so-and-so, but I think President-elect Obama will pick this other person", that would be great!

Online Surveys & Market Research

Read The Full Article:
http://www.demconwatchblog.com/2008/11/cabinet-treasury.html

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