Obama set a timeframe for leaving Iraq! This makes me happy

took this picture on the street in Madrid a few years ago

Change Gon' Come - Sam Cooke 1964

1964 - what a different country we had then; Medger Evers and the Freedom Rides to the south.....and tonight my friends and I were screaming alongside the fireworks set off by neighbors in Brooklyn. It makes me cry and these are tears of joy. Mr. Obama, I am so proud of your campaign and what we are capable of with you as president.

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

I was born by the river in a little tent
Oh and just like the river I been a runnin' ever since
It's been a long, a long time coming but I know
A change gon' come oh yes it will
It's been too hard living but I'm afraid to die
Cuz I don't know what's up there beyond the sky
It's been a long, a long time coming but I know
A change gon' come oh yes it will

I go to the movie, and I go downtown
Somebody keep tellin me "don't hang around"
It's been a long, a long time coming, but i know
A change gon' come oh yes it will

Then I go to my brother
And I say "brother, help me please"
But he winds up knocking me
Back down on my knees
There been times that I thought I wouldn't last for long
Now think I'm able to carry on
It's been a long, along time coming but I know

Watch this: Damon Weaver, 5th grader in FL interviews Joe Biden

this sort of thing always makes me very happy.

dueling houses

Saw this on Capitol Hill in DC this past weekend. I like that the Obama sign is on the "white house". heh heh.

Bill Ayers was my nursery school teacher. Seriously.

Below is a letter I sent to the New York Times today:

Letter to the Editor:

What makes a radical? Is it early learning, or your parents beliefs passed along? I am a liberal, yet American to the core, the descendent of passengers on the Mayflower according to my grandmother, yet Bill Ayers was my nursery school teacher. I turned out fine and I’ve never had the inclination to bomb anyone. So when I read, “Senator John McCain joined in the attacks on Thursday on Senator Barack Obama for his ties to the 1960s radical William Ayers as he told an angry, raucous crowd that “we need to know the full extent of the relationship” I feel I must add my two cents. These people do realize that Mr. Obama is a United States Senator, do they not? Not to mention that the Weather Underground was active when Mr. Obama was a child himself.

Bill Ayers and his wife Bernadine Dohrn worked at a day care center called BJ’s Kids on Manhattans’ Upper West Side in the late seventies. Only years later, after Mr. Ayers and Ms. Dohrn had been pardoned by the government did my parents realize who they had been. My mom remembers BJ’s kids as an unruly operation, where she protested the practice of the children being sent home with whatever jacket or mittens happened to be closest, as she had knitted my winter accessories herself. And the time they took all the kids to a No-Nuke demonstration somewhere just outside of the city without letting the parents know in advance about the field trip. I guess I must have been mumbling leftist rhetoric that evening at home and she knew something funny had happened at school that day. Day care centers in the city were hardly regulated back then and many such home-grown operations supported the burgeoning crop of babies from aging hippies like my parents; full disclosure: my mom volunteered for the Chicago Seven during their trial in 1969, writing press releases in Chicago.

So when John McCain and Sarah Palin and others intent on making you forget what this election is really about and bring up Bill Ayers and the Weather Underground, who no one really remembers nowadays anyway, I hope everyone remembers that Barack Obama was a child when the Weather Underground did their dirtiest work. Also that I was a child when Bill Ayers helped me learn to tie my shoes and find my winter mittens, and I am not a terrorist and neither is Barack Obama. The only people looking childish in this situation are, well, John McCain and Sarah Palin. Barack Obama is the only candidate that really has a plan to get this country back on track and I plan to be in Washington to watch him be sworn in to office in January.

- quotation taken from: McCain Questions Obama-Ayers Relationship By Elisabeth Bumiller
October 9, 2008, NYT

Wonderful picture from Fredericksburg, VA rally

photo by: ROBERT A. MARTIN/THE FREE LANCE-STAR

I like T Rex, but this is ridiculous.

This is worth a look-see, folks, especially if you are still undecided about who should be given the keys to the country.

This election is different and it matters what you think

It makes me crazy and sad at the same time to listen to friends and colleagues of mine who are supporters of Obama yet say that the election is going to be won by McCain/Palin. It might be. That's not the point. Why give up now when we have such a good shot and things are going the Democrats way? It often seems to me that people bring so much of their own pain upon themselves. Call me an "elitist" crazy liberal, which I guess I am, but if you imagine yourself a loser, that is what you shall be, but if you know that you will be alright, that is what will be as well. Obama knows this, and that is one of the reasons why he has been so successful, in life, and in this campaign. The modern Republican party appears to be primarily concerned with abortion, the death penalty and the NRA, but that's a bait and switch to hard working people who are just looking for the strongest leader. They have no faith in Americans who are seeing the economic life of this country slide across the oceans and think on election day it all comes down to which candidate goes to church more often. I think America is smarter than that. Don't you?

Everyday, imagine President Obama making a speech on the veranda of the Rose Garden at the White House, and read this

Obama in the LES on a sunny afternoon

here we have a contribution to my Obama project by my friend Harlan who added a little Barack flavor, some Bama-zest, if you will, to my picture of Faith from a few weeks ago. The real version is on my website. But doesn't he look lovely? He was just taking a quick reflective moment at the door to a womens clothing shop while his main aide, Mr. Love was grabbing some lemonades from Cake Shop across the street.

Obama rides the subway

so does Mayor Bloomberg. That's one of the ways politicians stay connected with the voting public. Here he said he had just come from a campaign meeting at Dumont.

It's stressful running for president

you gotta let loose. leaving the bar with your beer, however, is not recommended. He crashed 10 minutes later.

Obama loves the environment!

It was on this hike in the Catskills last September (for Nat & Dave's wonderful wedding) that I really understood how fragile and beautiful our environment really is. I got up to the top of the mountain and was like, "hey, there's a shit ton of trees up here! no one needs to worry! alright!"
But Barack, was like, "hey, hey, now, listen, just because you SEE a lot of trees right now doesn't mean we don't have a problem..." He said a lot of other stuff too but I was winded and really really hungover, so I don't remember, but I think he knew what he was talking about.
(apologies to Jay and Bill)

Obama gets a little crazy sometimes...don't we all.

When Alex got married last year, the presidential race was so far off, we hardly talked about it at all, well, ok, Barack did bring it up a bit at Alex's stag party in the lower east side. We were like, dude, get another drink, relaxxxxx....

Obama sings the hits!

The secret service was all over us this night and confiscated most peoples cameras, but I'm sneaky. He's totally doing "American Pie" by Don McLean. It was sweet.

He's just a regular guy like you

Except he wants to be president.

Obama supports the arts!

I managed to snap a quick pic of our future president as he made his way to his seat at the Met a few months back for a rousing production of Otello. Michelle was there too, but they must have left the girls at home...date night!

Obama loves brunch!

Boy were we surprised to see Obama at Enid's for brunch! And he totally gets there early to beat the hangover rush. (apologies to Dan)