The rest of my family (parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles) are very conservative, and this year is no exception. My son has just turned 1 year old, and over the Labor day weekend, my wife and I will be with my family. The last time we were all confined together was Thanksgiving of 2007, and my uncle and I got into a shouting match over universal health care. Very uncomfortable situation. (more)
If you haven't already seen it, please check out the absolutely incredible website Obamascrapbook, which was started by PeacePuppy. This incredible project, which must have taken her an extraordinary amount of time, can be an INVALUABLE tool, in the months to come.
I really hope everyone will check it out and send it to their family and friends!!
It's a biography of Barack's life, featuring all sorts of photos that most have never seen before. It is amazing. And it will inoculate him from the coming 527s with all sorts of "Obama is scary" themes. Your mother, your grandmother, your aunt or coworker--anyone who feels that Obama is an unfamiliar quantity, can be reached via this simple little site. Please take a second to check it out!
And on a truly heart-melting note...Check out Obama and his girls. They are soo sweet!
When Obama was nominated, I, a Hillary person, did not know much about him, although my son absolutely loved him. So I started doing my homework. And I found out lots of facts that few people know.
In my family, the game of choice, indeed, the game of passion was, and is, Pinochle. And not any of this wimpy two deck variety where there was an ace lurking around every corner. We believe that if you are going to bid 46, you had better earn it the hard way, with real meld.
Because of this, a good hand is something to be savored, something to be enjoyed. You don't often get a really really good Pinochle hand when playing partners with one deck.
My parents, aunts, uncles, grandparents all loved to play. Indeed, my mother and I still play daily games of two handed pinochle, in which I usually function in the role of sacrificial lamb. Of course, you really have to be of a certain age to appreciate the finer points of the game.
John McCain's new negative spot (couldn't stay positive for too long, huh John?) doesn't seem to have as much traction as "Celeb" though it uses some of the same imagery and themes. However, like yesterday's "Broken" ad, it gives Obama plenty of fodder for responses in the near term. Importantly, it is running in the same 11 states that "Celeb" did.
By now most informed voters know the story of how John McCain dumped his disabled first wife, Carol, after she waited for him to return from Vietnam. But, the details expose a rot at the core of this man who would be president.
In an article in the Daily Mail, Ross Perot (who paid for Carol McCains medical expenses while McCain was a prisoner of war) has this to say about the Republican nominee,
"McCain is the classic opportunist. He’s always reaching for attention and glory. After he came home, Carol walked with a limp. So he threw her over for a poster girl with big money from Arizona. And the rest is history."
There are more details to this sorry story, that need to get out to the public.
Right now, as I'm typing this, my hands are trembling with anger and sorrow. A while ago I read a story on the news about young Danieal (pronounced "Danielle") Kelly, a 14 year-old disabled girl, who died from neglect. For a couple of hours, that story kept staying in my mind. What with Iraq, the elections, everything, yet this one story stood in my mind. One word, one single word kept coming back...murder
Presuming Barack Obama gains the Presidency, and at this point in time that's a reasonable presumption, the First Family will once again include young children: two wonderful girls, aged ten and seven. Think about what this means.
In a sense, the most vulnerable and innocent of Americans, our children, will have direct representatives with access to the Oval Office.
The President of the United States will have a daily pulse on the needs of children in America. The President will be able to know firsthand what children in America are thinking.
The future of our country, our children, will be on the mind of our President day and night.
I'm running for president of the United States, because I want to help with family values. And I think that family values are important, when we have two parent -- families that are of parents that are the traditional family.
STEPHANOPOULOS: But there are several hundred thousand children in the country who don't have a home. And if a gay couple wants to adopt them, what's wrong with that?
MCCAIN: I am for the values that two parent families, the traditional family represents.
STEPHANOPOULOS: So, you're against gay adoption.
MCCAIN: I am for the values and principles that two parent families represent.
It certainly sounds like John McCain is not only opposed to gay couples adopting, but also single adults adopting.
Today Michelle Obama is going to be attending a luncheon where she'll be discussing Barack Obama's plan for Working Women and Working Families. This makes me very excited for a few reasons:
My 3 1/2 year old nephew Danny awoke last Tuesday and told my sister, "Mommy, I can't stand up." They spent the afternoon and evening in the ER at Loyola Hospital. He was admitted at 1:30 the next morning, after a battery of tests and MRI's.
I wrote this diary on Tuesday night, and hundreds of Kossacks responded with warm thoughts, wishes and prayers.
Like many I watched the CNN documentary Black in America; however, this diary is not about the documentary. I had been intrigued by the young man that was doing the intro and ads for the CNN special. His words were so effective, insightful and I found some more info about him on the website his name is Jon Goode.
He already had my attention but I was even more curious when I read:
"Kids will be kids
but moms will be moms,
you can do what you did
and mom's gonna show you
right from wrong."
He is three and a half years old. He is an amazingly cute and funny kid.
Update: Little had changed when I went to sleep last night, but I'll talk with people this morning & hopefully update with news, in the next couple of hours.
THANK YOU to everyone who has posted a good wish to Danny or our family, or didn't post and sent that wish. I responded to most posts last night (tried to do them all, but sometimes I miss). This morning, I'm running behind schedule, so I'll have some catching up to do on responding to posts. But thank you.
