Obama!
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- gramme0
Change is coming, that's for sure. But will it be out of the frying pan into the fire? Only time will tell. I for one am rather nauseated by the repeated mantra of change without hearing much about specific ways that things will supposedly change. I'm all for change, I'd just rather hear something a bit more concrete and less ideological.
I find it alarming that such a huge number of Americans believe Obama (or any other president for that matter) can have a substantial effect on our economy. I think politicians have very little power in that regard. The stock market does what it does for a variety of reasons. The biggest economic factor seems to be businesses, and in particular the people that run them. The effect politicians have on our local and global economies is relatively miniscule.
- Bingo on paragraph #1.404NotFound
- So does declaring war on other countries and deficit spending factor into you assessment?Mimio
- I was thinking more about the proactive things presidents do for the economy, rather than the ways they unintentionally damage it.gramme
- damage it. I should have made that clear in my post.gramme
- Unintended consequences are the hobgoblin of small minds. Ask Bush.Mimio
- Of course. Know that I share your disdain for Bush, except on the subject of abortion.gramme
- gramme and i have a very similar perspective :)sputnik2
- Llyod0
We'll still be in iraq for the next 50 years
- tasty0
There was a family in my 99.9% white town who lived next to a vacant house - in 1998 when a african american family was planning on purchasing it and the news leaked they bought it out from under them...
Also the middle school faced the start of Amityville (a mixed neighborhood...there is rumor that the border between amityville and massapequa was pushed to keep black families out of our school district.
My neighborhood was fucked up. Massapequa, NY (long island). A bunch of white kids who glorify the "hip hop lifestyle" and then are afraid to cross a town border because there are black kids in it.
- _salisae_0
when i was beginning my middle school years my family's residence was such that we were situated just across the school district line from my friends. i heard story after frightening story about the mostly black school i was scheduled to attend. i was so worried i made my mom lie about my address and drive me to a bus stop near my dad's work that shuttled me to the 'white' school.
my plan went well except i forgot to memorize the falsified address and when the teacher passed around a card for us to write down our info i got so nervous i wrote a probably very strange address. i was called to the dean's office where they asked me plainly .. 'what is your address?'. my bottom lip started to shake and i just broke down in tears.
i had been in the middle of a math test but they went ahead and shipped me off to the other school that very day.
i thought i'd be locked up in a locker by crazy rednecks. intimidated by blacks, etc etc. but what i actually found was that these people knew how to have a good time. they didn't look me up and down to determine how much my parents had spent on my clothes .. they had no concern for that kind of status whatsoever and i was able to just be myself. which, at that age was a tremendous gift.
when i see black people, who have been subjected to being treated as sub-humans rejoicing for obama's win it makes me cry from a very deep place in my heart.
- Helluva story, salisae. :)
Truth will always bubble to the top.harlequino
- Helluva story, salisae. :)
- CALLES0
BREAKING NEWS!
I HEard Oliver Stone Is Already Working On The Script For His Next Movie
B.O.
=/
- tasty0
there were 2 point in his speech last night that made me feel moved.
1) when he spoke about Ann-Nixon Cooper, the woman who had seen the country meet so many milestones with her own two eyes from 1 generation past slavery to the election of a man who is mixed.
It shows we have progressed as a nation - beyond color and are reaching toward improvement with the candidate that the majority of America believed in.
2) (and this excerpt) Let us resist the temptation to fall back on the same partisanship and pettiness and immaturity that has poisoned our politics for so long. Let us remember that it was a man from this state who first carried the banner of the Republican Party to the White House - a party founded on the values of self-reliance, individual liberty, and national unity. Those are values we all share, and while the Democratic Party has won a great victory tonight, we do so with a measure of humility and determination to heal the divides that have held back our progress. As Lincoln said to a nation far more divided than ours, We are not enemies, but friends...though passion may have strained it must not break our bonds of affection. And to those Americans whose support I have yet to earn - I may not have won your vote, but I hear your voices, I need your help, and I will be your President too.
- I was moved by the whole thing.hallelujah
- not surprisingly, I wepthallelujah
- creez0
obama is a good man
- hallelujah0
people are like dogs that have been kicked too much... afraid to hope
- so true.vespa
- some of your parents must have really done a number on youhallelujah
- Taschen0
Obamarama
- Jimbo820
It'll be interesting to see if people still rave about him in 4 years time, I doubt they will.
- Taschen0
The difference in popular vote isnt that great:
McCain (R) 55,542,743
Obama (D) 62,680,702Man, I'm actually tired of hearing about Obama
- yeah 7 million isn't that much. wait, wtf are you talking about? let's stay positive here.doesnotexist
- i don't swim in your toilet. please, don't piss in my pool7point34
- that's the biggest % dem win since LBJ in early 64hallelujah
- another reason to recognise how complex america is and how important it is to reconcile and for us not to judge its citizens too harshlykelpie
- ...harshlykelpie
- that 7 million difference all came from Oprah viewersTaschen
- IT IS A HUGE DIFFERENCE! Gore won the popular vote and Bush won by only 3million votes and with only 34 more electoral votes... so get real. Obama won huge.blaster
- madirish0
i for one, am very happy for Rand. He has dreamed of this all for so long and put so much into it- breathe ease well my friend.
- haven't seen him. i worry he's had a heart attack7point34
- where is Rand today?vespa
- he goes by the name hallelujah these days, he's about. yay for Rand, that's exactly how I felt tookelpie
- thanks guyshallelujah
- that explains a lot.paraselene
- harlequino0
Breakfast tasted so so good this morning.
- _salisae_0
through the years here on nt i have felt very judged and insulted by the comments made by the british about americans. it took a lot of will power and forced perspective to not feel directly represented by your narrow view of us. now that i – along with many of my friends and my family – are represented by someone who shares many of our philosophies and sentiments allows me such a huge sigh of relief.
i apologize if this came across in other ways and my anger toward you guys was all too apparent, but what can i say – i might not be a stupid american – but i am throughly human.
- brits OR australians living as brits :)_salisae_
- *hugs the yankkelpie
- who me? what did i say?vespa
- lol @ kelpievespa
- (in seriousness, apology right back if I've ever been guilty of that)kelpie
- Sorry,but you americans voted bush in twice, you have to cop some flak for that.thebottlerocket
- i didn't vote bush in. i voted quite the opposite. it was a twice stolen election, ffs._salisae_
- and yes, i am apologizing to you, vespa. and sorry again if you can't see that i'm happy you're on the american side now that it suits you._salisae_
- now that it suits you and specifically applies to your mixed race experience._salisae_
- well, you don't come off that contrite, in fact i get the impression you've been waiting...thebottlerocket
- years to make a post like this.thebottlerocket
- vespa0
yea 7point34 i've always felt like i didn't fit in anywhere. tell your friend to go to hawaii...
The other day i was doing a photoshoot with my band, and the other 2 girls and the photographer are white. For some reason we were talking about how lovely spoken language sounds to the ear in Swahili, and I said, I only know one word -- "Mazungi", cos my Raj calls me Mazungi, it means whitey, awww. And they all looked at me blankly, and I realised haha they don't think of me as white so they don't get it!
Anyways I wonder if Obama's kenyan grandma calls him her little Mazungu :)
- Jimbo820
I'm from the South and went to uni in Manchester, was up there for 3 years and when there my accent got stronger south if anything, I think I enjoyed being different to everyone else and so it got more and more exagerated until I was just went around mumbling "apples n pears, apples n pears, apples n pears"
- Wolfboy0
yeah, it's like when I moved away from the north and my accent became a little more neutral so that when I went back to visit my family and northern friends they would all take the piss, doing posh voices and calling me soft. But in the south my accent is still strong enough for my southern friends to do the old 'ee by gum' or 'alright are kid' schtick.
It is like that isn't it?
Still, last night/this morning was incredible, I was really moved by the speeches and celebrations - this image of Jesse Jackson was so powerful, probably more so because of his differences with Obama. The western world feels like a positive place today, for the first time in a few years.
- Watch out. Jesse will be taking credit for Obama's success before too long.404NotFound
- Jimbo820
There's no doubt that he ran for presidency for the right reasons and not to be labelled as "first black president", that would be ludicrous. What we are talking about is him being called a black man when in reality he is mixed race.
My best mate has just had a mixed race baby, I asked him about this today, he said his son was mixed race, not black. He said pretty much the same thing as creative- in that if his son is classed as black then he would be disregarding his white mother's heritage and that wouldn't be right.