OBAMA WINS: THOUGHTS

A long night, first waiting for the results, then for Romney to concede, then for Obama to give his final campaign . . .I mean, acceptance speech (which I think was very good, if not a bit long winded). I am happy with the results and thankful I don't have to kowtow to my more conservative family members (I love you all though). The best man won, simple as that. Romney was a fake and liar (though I think he probably is a decent man). The country is divided, but there are people (see: old white guys) who now need to accept the fact that our nation is changing, becoming more diverse. Women are getting stronger politically and economically. You can no longer disrespect them or "mansplain" to them (Akin and Mourdick. . .I mean, Mourdock. . .went down in flames). Hispanics are gaining strength and numbers, and this shift will only increase as more achieve citizenship (just look at the number serving in our military). Younger people are getting more involved. Possibly even the regularly disenfranchised are finding their voices. Craziness and extremism have limits (hear that, Talibani Teapartiers and religious extremists?). Will there be a third party movement? If so, that possibility likely means the Democrats will stay in power much longer. Money is much too important in modern elections, but saying that, it doesn't mean that seats can necessarily be bought (ahem, McMahon). A strong federal government is still important to our collective well being (how many Hurricane Sandys do we need to reiterate this fact?). The Republican Party needs to rethink their role, or they risk permanent outsider status, with the pressure mounting inside their caucus more damaging than that from without. I hope some sanity returns to the deluded fans of FOX and Rush (when will they realize they are being lied to?). We all live here together and this is our country too.

There are many problems our politicians have to address quickly. Major problems. At some point our elected representatives have to work together. Compromise. Do what is best for the country rather than bending over for narrow interests. Our Senators have to lead.

An openly lesbian Senator. How cool! A wounded female vet with Thai heritage earns a seat in the House. Yeah. New Hampshire has an all-female delegation. Right on. A Buddhist (as well as first Asian American female, born in Japan) and a Hindu win seats for the first time. All right! I'm not sure I am too happy with the new stoner states, though, but not too disturbed by it either. Rabid anti-gay supporters argued vociferously that the courts and legislatures that had okayed right-to-marriage laws would be disavowed by the electorate. . . and for the first time they were proven wrong. Let people be who they are and get over your prejudices. Let's make the schools, roads, and infrastructure better. Lets take care of our veterans. Find new things to make and greater goals to achieve. Be a world leader, not a bully. Convince Muslims in the Middle East that stronger women's rights actually improve life for everyone there. Repair this broken world environment. Stop the slaughter of people, the enslavement of children, the exploitation of females. So much to do.

God bless America and President Obama.

OBAMA MYTHS

Despite the fact that today is the election and it really dooesn't matter much, Paul Brandus wrote an article about popular myths about Obama, many of which my conservative friends always bring up, and I liked his response. Herewith some portions of that article,

Obama has played more golf than any president in history

This isn't even close to being true. . .He plays on a regular basis: 104 rounds from January 2009 through Aug. 4 of this year. . .That puts him about in the middle when compared with other duffers-in-chief. It's less than Bill Clinton, and a lot less than Dwight Eisenhower, who played more than 800 rounds over eight years — four times as often as Obama plays.

And why is it an outrage if the president, who heads one of three branches of government, golfs 104 times in three-and-a-half-years, but the head of another branch of government, the Speaker of the House, plays four times as much? You heard correctly: John Boehner once told Golf Digest that he plays upwards of 100 rounds a year. Seems like a double standard, no?

Obama has taken more vacation time than any president in history

This isn't even remotely accurate either . . from January 2009 to October 31, 2012, Obama spent all or part of 72 vacation days

· Ronald Reagan was away for 436 days, usually at Rancho del Cielo (his mountaintop retreat in California) or Camp David.

· Bill Clinton, who didn't own a vacation home, loved to party with his elite friends in Martha's Vineyard and the Hamptons.

· George W. Bush spent 32 months at his ranch (490 days) or Camp David (487 days) — an average of four months away every year.

Obama shows his true colors by not going to Arlington National Cemetery

That being said, the tradition of going to Arlington itself on Memorial Day is fairly new. Most presidents never, or rarely, went. Let's look at the past six decades:

· Eisenhower: Twice in eight years

· Kennedy: Never in three years

· Johnson: Once in five years

· Nixon: Never in six years

· Ford: Twice in two years

· Carter: Never in four years

· Reagan: Three times in eight years

· Bush Sr.: Never in four years

· Clinton: Eight times in eight years

· Bush Jr.: Seven times in eight years

· Obama: Three times in four years

Bush Jr. and Obama really have perfect records as far as I'm concerned. The one year Bush wasn't at Arlington he was at Normandy, honoring the heroes of D-Day. The one year Obama wasn't at Arlington he was at a National Cemetery in Illinois, where the heroes who rest in peace are no less deserving of our respect than those who rest in Arlington.

Obama has never visited Israel as president
It's true that Barack Obama, as president, hasn't visited the Jewish state. Not once in four years. He's in good company:

· Nixon waited five-and-a half years to visit

· Ford never went

· Carter went once in four years

· Reagan never went in eight years

· Bush Sr. never went

· Clinton went six times in eight years

· Bush Jr. waited seven years to visit

Taxes under Obama are at an all-time high

If you buy this one, congratulations: You've failed not just history, but economics as well. Between the combined burden of federal, state, and local income taxes, Americans are parting with the smallest share of their income since 1958. The Bureau of Economic Analysis says we pay 23.6 percent of what we make, down from an average of about 27 percent during the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s.

OBAMA ON WOMEN

From NH speech by President Obama, from today's campaigning, some lines I liked:

"Four years ago, I said in this great country of ours, nobody should go bankrupt when they get sick, and so we passed health reform--yes, I like the name “Obamacare”--so your insurance companies can’t jerk you around anymore. So young people can stay on their parent’s plans till they’re 26. So women can’t be charged more than men for their insurance--being a woman is not a preexisting condition. . .

And, by the way, we want our sons to thrive in math and science and engineering, but we also want our daughters to thrive in those fields, too. See, we don’t have to order up some binders to find qualified, talented, driven young women who can learn and excel in these fields right now. And when these young women graduate, I want them to receive equal pay for equal work. I don’t know why this is so complicated. Governor Romney still won’t say whether or not he supported a law to protect that right, no matter how many times he’s asked. This is not -- this is not that hard. I’ve got two daughters. I want to make sure they get paid the same as somebody’s sons for doing the same job. Pretty straightforward. Any confusion there? . . .

You know where I stand. Look, the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, this was the first bill I signed into law. And I know you want the same thing for your daughters, or sisters, or moms, or grandmas as I do. And this is not--as I said in the debate, this is not just a women’s issue, this is a family issue, this is an economic issue.
I also believe women should make their own health care decisions. I know you’ve got -- and it’s not just Washington that sometimes deals with this issue. You’ve got a state legislature up here that sometimes acts like it knows better than women when it comes to women’s own health care decisions. My opponent has got the same approach. Governor Romney said he’d end funding for Planned Parenthood, despite all the work it does to provide women with mammograms and breast cancer screenings. . .

We made sure that insurance companies are providing women with contraception. He supported legislation that would turn those decisions over to a woman's employer. Think about that. Do you think, like, your boss, or your insurance company, or some politician in Concord or Washington should get control of your health care choices?

VOTE

I cannot watch; I closed my eyes, this debate process I do despise.
Who cares what they look like on screen, I’d rather hear their thoughts on green.
Who saved the jobs and fed the small, kept the country from hitting a stall?
Passed some laws for gays and poor, let immigrant kids stay on our shore.
Made women’s pay an equal thing, despite reaction caterwauling?
Promoted art, education too, as any civilized would do.
Made sure some money trickled down to people closest to the ground.
Helped some others keep their homes, unlike those giant greedy gnomes,
who’d let folks fail after rigging world, their narrow views fully unfurled.
Now people with existing woes, or assaulted by economic blows,
and college kids in sick despair, are sure to get decent health care.
Four solid years of no attacks, so who has really had our backs?
Osama’s dead, a whole lot more, bad guys knock on Allah’s door.
One war is ended though much pain, I hope we don’t do that again,
Another, slowly, winds its way down, I’d rather have our troops in town,
enjoying life and working hard, hopefully with their Union card.
Car companies allowed to live, the wealthy a little more won't give.
I could go on and list some more, don’t want an escape from this door,
So let women decide their fates, no matter their private health states,
I know there’s some who’ll wring their hands, but they’re acting like they’re Talibans.
In less than month we’ll right this boat, so don’t forget to go and vote.

Obama Economics

Quotations from interview of Michael Grunwald, author of The New New Deal (2012) by Slate contributor David Plotz (8-14-12):

"It quickly became obvious that [Obama's] American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (the formal name of the stimulus) was also a huge deal for health care, transportation, scientific research, and the safety net as well as the flailing economy."

"Most of the money in the stimulus went to unsexy stuff designed to prevent a depression and ease the pain of the recession: aid to help states avoid drastic cuts in public services and public employees; unemployment benefits, food stamps, and other assistance for victims of the downturn; and tax cuts for 95 percent of American workers. And the money that did flow into public works went more toward fixing stuff that needed fixing—aging pipes, dilapidated train stations, my beloved Everglades—than building new stuff. In its first year, the stimulus financed 22,000 miles of road improvements, and only 230 miles of new roads. There were good reasons for that. Repairs tend to be more shovel-ready than new projects, so they pump money into the economy faster. They also pass the do-no-harm test."

"First, the Obama team’s Recovery Act message was highly nuanced. It was short-term jobs along with long-term investments. It was tax cuts along with spending. It was the biggest domestic spending bill in history, but it was also just a first step toward normalcy. The economy needed fiscal stimulus in the short term but fiscal responsibility in the long term."


"Anyone who received expanded unemployment benefits or food stamps or Cobra subsidies or Pell Grants in 2009 or 2010 benefited from the stimulus. The stimulus saved more than 300,000 education jobs, and preserved over $100 billion worth of health services for the poor. We’re already using more clean energy and less energy overall because of the stimulus; the electric vehicle industry is here because of the stimulus; the domestically manufactured content of U.S. wind turbines has increased from 20 percent to 60 percent because of the stimulus. There are over 100,000 stimulus projects that have upgraded our parks, subways, hospitals, food pantries, and so forth. . . The stimulus helped prevent a depression, and as Romer says in the book, depressions really, really suck. They create horrible human suffering, and horrible deficits, too. The economy is quite lousy, but it really could’ve been a lot lousier. . .By 2015, almost all of us will have an electronic medical record because of the stimulus. The stimulus is also pouring $1 billion into desperately needed “comparative effectiveness research” that will help doctors and patients learn what kind of treatments actually work. There’s billions more for data-driven education reforms—Investments in Innovation and School Improvement Grants as well as Race to the Top—that will seek to scale up promising approaches in public schools. And the most exciting changes will transform the way we generate and consume energy."

PEACE OBAMA

Now, I like President Obama as much as the next guy, and a heck of a lot more than the wacko wing-nuts, and overall I think he has done a good job so far. But the announcement that he had been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize was a bit perplexing. Sure, he has attempted to move the United States toward a more peaceful path---despite being saddled with two wars not of his making---and I commend his efforts to reduce the nuclear stockpiles and reduce tensions with the Muslim world. But the Peace Prize? Already? Hmmmmm. . .I was thinking maybe this was a "preemptive awarding"! Perhaps the Swedes were worried we were planning on bombing them? Well, maybe they were just so delighted to have the warmongers in the Cheney (I mean Bush) White House replaced by the more pacifist Obama, that the committee members decided to award the prize as a hopeful gesture of future good behavior on behalf of Washington? But the Literary prize organizations better not start awarding prizes for forthcoming volumes!

OBAMA INAUGURAL SPEECH

I am probably violating some copyright law, but I wanted to record my favorite part of President Obama's (doesn't that sound nice?) inaugural speech:

"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 nonbelievers. 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. [emphasis mine] 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."

OBAMA VIDEO

This is hypnotic, and I loved it during the campaign. Whenever I got a little down or apprehensive about the election I would play it to buck myself up.

http://wearetheones.dipdive.com/#/~/videoplayer/0/279/1598/~/