via Michael Croft on Facebook
]]>So, better late than never, here’s my favorite jumbotron pic:
Seems silly, huh? But, then, I listen to the snippet of video I shot, and hear the (fabulous, diverse, and sometimes crazy) people around me, and it was worth it to see this on a screen bigger than a 40″ LCD.
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One commenter ran the *staggering* numbers:
I just ran some numbers. Allowing for the persistent petitioners who pester him/her/it several times a day, we can assume it averages well over 200M prayers a day. Assuming an average length of a prayer at one minute, that means it averages processing about 139K simultaneous prayers 24/7/365 just on the American circuit. When one considers the peaks around bedtimes, disasters, and final exams, that would take some serious bandwidth, to say nothing of multitasking processing power.
All it leads me to think is that it certainly explains the wait times on the prayer line:
.
.
Closing Appeals
Dear America,
Mine.
Mine mine mine.
Me Me Me Me Me Me Me!
Mine mine mine mine mine. Mine. Mine. Mine. Mine!
In conclusion: Fear fear fear fear. Very scary fear!
Sincerely,
The Republican Party
P.S. If you liked Joseph McCarthy, you’ll love us!
-
Dear America,
We.
Us. We. Together. Americans. United States.
Hope compassion equality inclusiveness competence.
Brains common sense community respect hard work accountability.
Action change responsibility. More viewpoints, smarter solutions.
In conclusion: Yes we can.
Sincerely,
The Democratic Party.
P.S. Vote.
Damn. I’m still undecided.
Heh, heh.
]]>“This is a matter of opinion and opinions are like (well you know) everybody has one. My personal opinion? I agree. If after reading this email you disagree, Please, no need to reply back to me. Your opinion is yours and that’s fine, just delete it.
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A lot of Americans have become so insulated from reality that they imagine that America can suffer defeat without any inconvenience to themselves. Pause a moment, reflect back. These events are actual events from history.. They really happened!!! Do you remember?1. 1968 Bobby Kennedy was shot and killed by a Muslim male extremist.
2. In 1972 at the Munich Olympics, athletes were kidnapped and massacred by Muslim male extremists.
3. In 1979, the US embassy in Iran was taken over by Muslim male
extremists.4. During the 1980′s a number of Americans were kidnapped in Lebanon by Muslim male extremists.
5. In 1983, the US Marine barracks in Beirut was blown up by Muslim male extremists.
6. In 1985 the cruise ship Achille Lauro was hijacked and a 70 year old American passenger was murdered and thrown overboard in his wheelchair by Muslim male extremists.
7. In 1985 TWA flight 847 was hijacked at Athens, and a US Navy diver
trying to rescue passengers was murdered by Muslim male extremists.
(remember the pilot of this flight was from Richmond, MO)8. In 1988, Pan Am Flight 103 was bombed by Muslim male extremists.
9. In 1993 the World Trade Center was bombed the first time by Muslim male extremists .
10. In 1998, the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania were bombed by Muslim male extremists.
11. On 9/11/01, four airliners were hijacked; two were used as missiles to take down the World Trade Centers and of the remaining two, one crashed into the US Pentagon and the other was diverted and crashed by the passengers. Thousands of people were killed by Muslim male extremists.
12. In 2002 the United States fought a war in Afghanistan against Muslim male extremists.
13. In 2002 reporter Daniel Pearl was kidnapped and murdered by– you guessed it– Muslim male extremists.
No, I really don’t see a pattern here to justify profiling, do you? So, to
ensure we Americans never offend anyone, particularly fanatics intent on killing us, airport security screeners will no longer be allowed to profile certain people… Absolutely No Profiling!They must conduct random searches of 80-year-old women, little kids, airline pilots with proper identification, secret agents who are members of the President’s security detail, 85-year old Congressmen with metal hips, and Medal of Honor winner and former Governor Joe Foss, but leave Muslim Males alone lest they be guilty of profiling.
According to The Book of Revelations: The Anti-Christ will be a man, in his 40′s, of MUSLIM descent, who will deceive the nations with persuasive language, and have a MASSIVE Christ-like appeal… the prophecy says that people will flock to him and he will promise false hope and world peace, and when he is in power, he will destroy everything.
And Now: For the award winning Act of Stupidity Of all times the People of America want to elect, to the most Powerful position on the face of the Planet — The Presidency of the United states of America .. A Male of Muslim descent who is the most extremely liberal Senator in Congress (in other words an extremist) and in his 40′s.
Have the American People completely lost their Minds, or just their Power of Reason??? I’m sorry but I refuse to take a chance on the ‘unknown’ candidate Obama.
Let’s send this to as many people as we can so that the Gloria Aldreds and other stupid attorneys along with Federal Justices that want to thwart common sense, feel ashamed of themselves — if they have any such sense. As the writer of the award winning story ‘Forest Gump’ so aptly put it, ‘Stupid Is As Stupid Does’.
Each opportunity that you have to send it to a friend or media outlet…do it! or again. . . just delete.”
My response:
You really like to be afraid, don’t you?
Take a quick look here. This tripe (the part about Barack, anyway) is entirely incorrect, Biblically speaking. Read your Bible. I suggest 2 Timothy 1:7 as a good place to start.
For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.
I should mention at this point how glad I am to no longer be involved in this kind of crazy-making fear-inspiring religion. (Or any, for that matter, but that doesn’t have anything to do with this post.) One other point of interest (to me, at least) is that I received this blindly (sender sent to self, with me in the bcc: field) from someone to whom I’d already given a request to cut it out with political emails. The level of passive-aggression in her intro comments (before the forwarded portion) is off the charts. Oh, yes. That’s perfectly fine for you to spam me with this nonsense, then to instruct that if I disagree, I shouldn’t reply.
What.Ev.Er.
The best response I’ve heard about the idea that Barack Obama might (clutch pearls) be a Muslim (ohnoes!) came from General Colin Powell last week on Meet the Press:
I’m also troubled by, not what Senator McCain says, but what members of the party say. And it is permitted to be said such things as, “Well, you know that Mr. Obama is a Muslim.” Well, the correct answer is, he is not a Muslim, he’s a Christian. He’s always been a Christian. But the really right answer is, what if he is? Is there something wrong with being a Muslim in this country? The answer’s no, that’s not America. Is there something wrong with some seven-year-old Muslim-American kid believing that he or she could be president? Yet, I have heard senior members of my own party drop the suggestion, “He’s a Muslim and he might be associated terrorists.” This is not the way we should be doing it in America.
click to view the
full photo essayI feel strongly about this particular point because of a picture I saw in a magazine. It was a photo essay about troops who are serving in Iraq and Afghanistan. And one picture at the tail end of this photo essay was of a mother in Arlington Cemetery, and she had her head on the headstone of her son’s grave. And as the picture focused in, you could see the writing on the headstone. And it gave his awards–Purple Heart, Bronze Star–showed that he died in Iraq, gave his date of birth, date of death. He was 20 years old. And then, at the very top of the headstone, it didn’t have a Christian cross, it didn’t have the Star of David, it had crescent and a star of the Islamic faith. And his name was Kareem Rashad Sultan Khan, and he was an American. He was born in New Jersey. He was 14 years old at the time of 9/11, and he waited until he can go serve his country, and he gave his life. Now, we have got to stop polarizing ourself in this way. And John McCain is as nondiscriminatory as anyone I know. But I’m troubled about the fact that, within the party, we have these kinds of expressions.
Exactly. What if Senator Obama *were* Muslim? And?
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Our words:
- elite
- small town / main street
- maverick
- earmarks
- naming any specific voter and/or local digs by name
We were shocked — shocked, I tell you — to not use “elite” and “earmark.” That said, we ran out of wine due to “maverick” alone. When Joe started his rant, I considered pulling out the vodka.
]]>Found via We Don’t Buy It, a comic strip explanation of the subprime crisis. Classic. NSFW language, but classic.
]]>The McCain ad strikes me a cynical and as disrespectful to the intelligence of the American people. Anyone who actually watched the debate saw that “John is right…” was usually followed by a specific instance in which Obama agrees, followed by a vast wasteland of areas where their perspectives diverge.
Rather than blathering on about this, I’ll point you to two more prominent bloggers who reached the same conclusion that I did:
Hilzoy (Obsidian Wings): “John Was Right”
Nonetheless, the McCain campaign seems to think that pointing out the occasions when Obama said that McCain was right is a winning strategy. I think this is wrong, not only for the reasons I mentioned, but because it undercuts one of McCain’s main lines of argument: that he is willing to reach across the aisle and work for bipartisan solutions, whereas Obama is not.
…
John Cole (Balloon Juice): Tactics v. Strategy, Style v. Substance
Obama is clearly not agreeing with him on substance- this is Obama’s style. He works from a point of agreement, and then moves to differentiate himself and or to attack. Everything is”You are right, but…”
I know that this bothers some of you, but it is one of the things I like about Obama. I think it is a graceful and gentlemanly way of debating. Additionally, it works really well in the type of format they had last night, where they are allowed to provide lengthy comments and responses. It may not be as effective in a different type of format, where it really may seem that all Obama does is agree with someone and then get cut off by the buzzer before supplying the “yes, but.” Last night, though, it was exceptional. Obama was able to come across as a decent, earnest, and honest fellow of integrity who was confident enough to point out when his opponent was right before contrasting the differences between the two of them, while McCain sat hunched over the podium grimacing and unable to look his opponent in the eye.
…
My own thoughts…in writing, without having to type a darned thing. Rather than feeling chagrined that someone beat me to the punch, I’m just glad that there are others out there who see what I see.
]]>Oh, he’s a lumberjack, and he’s okay!
Via DailyKos, I bring you today’s amusement. If you were one of Sarah Palin’s kids, what *would* your name be?
Leave your name in the comments.
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