Obama sweeps February 9 Contests

Story here.

Update: Thought this needed a pic. Here's one of a baby playing "got your nose" with Senator Obama. ;)

Also, the Cleveland Plain Dealer is endorsing Obama.

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Is Hillary trying to get Shuster fired? Looks that way.

Here is something from The Politico. A letter she wrote to MSNBC. There is a difference in concern for your daughter and in actually shutting up a station that is trying to get some truth out. Who's next...Keith?

Hillary Rips Shuster

ORONO, MAINE — Hillary Rodham Clinton on Saturday morning ripped MSNBC over reporter David Shuster’s suggestion that Chelsea Clinton was “sort of being pimped out” by the campaign.

“I found the remarks incredibly offensive,” Clinton told reporters in this snowy town outside Bangor. Earlier, she sent a letter to NBC brass that called for swift action against Shuster, who was suspended Friday by MSNBC.

“Nothing justifies the kind of debasing language that David Shuster used and no temporary suspension or half-hearted apology is sufficient,” Clinton wrote to NBC News President Steve Capus, who apparently had already called Clinton to personally apologize.

“I would urge you to look at the pattern of behavior on your network that seems to repeatedly lead to this sort of degrading language,” Clinton wrote. “There’s a lot at stake for our country in this election. Surely, you can do your jobs as journalists and commentators and still keep the discourse civil and appropriate.”

NBC did not immediately respond to an e-mailed request for comment.

Okay, who wants to pull me down from the ceiling I just hit.

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Overheard at the gym

First, a disclaimer...I would very much prefer not to overhear other people's conversations at the gym. I try to go at least twice a week, three times if I'm lucky, and what I want to do is get in the pool and move. I'm not much of a swimmer, but I used to take water aerobics classes, and now I just go to the pool when I have the opportunity and do "freestyle water aerobics for one". I don't ask for much--I just want my own little spot near a wall where I can just do my thing and tune everybody else out. If conditions are right, that's where I can do some of my best creative thinking. But if people within earshot are having a conversation, then conditions are most definitely not right, and I can't seem tune them out no matter how hard I try.

I was actually in the shower, not the pool, so I couldn't see who was talking, but I had passed some older women on the way to the shower. Several of them--I'm guessing at least three--were having a conversation that I kept catching bits and pieces of...

"I stayed up way too late last night watching the returns."
"So, what do you think?"
"I don't knooow!"
"Well, our governor has endorsed Clinton."
"Boo!"
"I'm not ready for a woman president."
"Me neither."

At this point, I *really* wanted to be able to tune out, because I was afraid I might hear something that would annoy me enough that I'd feel compelled to butt into their discussion. But the water wasn't loud enough to drown them out, so as I finished up my shower, I heard the conversation turn to the subject of women priests, and how one of the women had a friend who is one, but, "something about that is just not right." Also, apparently the women's movement is to blame for "the mess we're in today". Whatever that is.

But I wouldn't be sharing this story with you now, if it didn't have a positive twist. Here it comes. One of the women said (paraphrased)

"I used to think like that. Then my husband left me when I was 40, and I was totally unprepared to support myself. I vowed that I would never again let myself end up in that situation. ... Sometimes your situation changes, and then you change."

I didn't hear what the other women said in response, but inside I was saying "Right on, sister!" Because every day, in small ways we have opportunities to speak up and give the other side of the story. And an alternative perspective, when shared by "someone like you" has a better chance of taking root and possibly, as time goes on, softening (or even changing) some of the judgments people make.

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Nice blog at Huff Post...how Dean begat Obama.

The post is quite true in many ways. The enthusiasm, the involvement, the passion. The willingness to work. Interesting in its comparison.

How Dean Begat Obama

Seeing the crowds of young supporters at Barack Obama rallies, commentators have been trying to locate the precise source of the apparently sudden swell of the "youth vote." It's Facebook! It's a greater focus on students by campaign field operatives! Or maybe the relatively young candidate himself is the cause. But as I watched Super Tuesday returns alongside members of Manhattan Young Democrats and the liberal ACT NOW organization at a packed Irish pub in midtown Manhattan, I got a different answer over and over again: we were engaged years before Obama hit the scene, and we'll be engaged even if he doesn't wind up with the nomination.

.." So when were all these young hardcores formed? Another answer was consistent: many had been "Deaniacs," or supporters of Howard Dean's 2004 presidential bid."

...."Though the young "Deaniacs" who helped fuel the former Vermont governor's presidential bid did not wind up deciding the 2004 Democratic primary or the general election, Trippi (until recently an adviser to John Edwards) says it was the first presidential cycle since the 60's in which Democrats gave youth participants a sense of ownership. "I think what [youth activists] weren't used to was a campaign saying, 'Here, this is yours, too.' They were used to protesting totally outside any political institution -- whether it was the World Trade Organization protests or anything else -- because no one was giving them something to mold and help shape. And here they had a shot at impacting something, winning and changing things. The Dean campaign was one of those things.

Well, though, of course all of us Deaniacs know who is still first. But if we have to settle, Barack will do.

Thanks, Howard Dean, for the inspiration and hope.



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New thread

Talk amongst yourselves.


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Open Thread

Updated election returns can be found here.

This picture, from the Honolulu Star Bulletin, shows Barack Obama with his grandmother in Kenya.



And reflecting another side of the Illinois Senator's roots: Tiny Irish village claims Obama as its own

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An Even MORE Super Tuesday, thanks to Jessica!

Ok, I promised an announcement today, so here it is:

*******************

Breaking News!

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The 5th Annual DemocracyFest will be held in Dulles, VA (just outside Washington DC) on August 16-17, 2008.

Tickets will be on sale soon! (Hopefully within the next couple days!)

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Jessica Falker | 02.05.08 - 12:58 pm

See more details on this thread (see approx. 4pm)~!
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Super Monday Endorsement!

From the National Nurse Newsletter
February 4, 2008
www.nationalnurse.org

via listener
(who just bought 20 more "I support the National Nurse" buttons for her legislators!) ♥


The National Nursing Network Organization (NNNO) is pleased to announce the endorsement of the International Parish Nurse Resource Center to establish an Office of the National Nurse. Our gratitude goes out to Reverend Dr. Deborah L. Patterson, Barbara Wehling, RN, PhD and the 12,000 parish nurses in the United States for their support and for the great work they contribute in helping to keep so many Americans well. Dr. Patterson refers to the Nightingale Initiative for Global Health (NIGH), who endorsed The Office of the National Nurse initiative in April 2007. You may visit the NIGH website: http://www.nightingaledeclaration.net/ and join the thousands who have signed the Nightingale Pledge https://www.nightingaledeclaration.net/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=17&Itemid=18

HAVE to add a Dean photo with Nurse Teri in it! (on the right with big smile):

Gee, and there I was thinking of posting a Mundane Monday thread,
so we could all catch our breaths between yesterday and tomorrow. LOL!

XOXOXXX listener


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There's some major sporting event today, right?

Oh yeah, today is Puppy Bowl Sunday!

The intro piece above is from last year's festivities.

And something completely different. Demetrius and I laughed out loud at some of these...
The 9 Manliest Names in the World

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