Weekend Words

Word has it that the Senate has the votes for a public option.  It will be interesting to see if this proposition pans out and then, who amongst our august lawmakers, can make a better deal and sell out.  Politics as usual.  But what is an upcoming weekend without the required reading?  Here is an informative overview of the good, the bad and the ugly about a possible public option; I just hope that by getting some sort of bill enactment, the whole concept is not so watered down that yes, we wind up with the votes for the public option, but not with the meat and substance that would actually offer the benefits of such legislation:

http://www.fivethirtyeight.com/2009/10/public-option-playing-field-in-two.html

But weekends are also for having fun, so play your hearts out and enjoy the following:

And now, for the piece de resistance of puzzle solving:

NBA verses NFL – u gotta love this……………………….

GUESS WHICH ONE…….
Even if you aren’t a sports fan this is very interesting!

? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
36 have been accused of spousal abuse

7 have been arrested for fraud

19 have been accused of writing bad checks

117 have directly or indirectlybankrupted at least 2 businesses

3 have done time for assault
71 repeat 71
cannot get a credit card due to bad credit
14 have been arrested on drug-related charges
8 have been arrested for shoplifting

21 currently are defendants in lawsuits, and
84 have been arrested for drunk driving in the last year


Can
you guess which organization this is?

NBA Or NFL
?

Give up yet?
Scroll down,


Neither,
it’s the 535 members of the
United States Congress

The same group of Idiots that crank out
hundreds of new laws each year
designed to keep the rest of us in line.

Show Me

Well, well, well!  Finally, President Obama has gotten hot under his collar. This was publicly announced today after his nine months of striving for reconciliation, unification and bipartisanship hit the ever-constant brick wall.  Kind of like having a baby: nine months of patience at last followed by a delivery.

Many people have the sense that President Obama’s laying back on such hot-button issues like finance and health care reform is exactly why they voted for him: they admired his efforts in trying to create a more unified political system and government.  However, there are many other voters who are breathing a sigh of relief at his new, tough stance on the issues.  Unfortunately, our political system does not reward conciliatory behavior as politics is just another battle for power, influence and  money.  It is a dog-eat-dog world and certainly our elected officials would even eat their own young to get re-elected and obtain all the perks associated (but actually not prescribed) with holding public office.

President Obama has demanded that those banks that benefitted the most from the federal bailout  drastically reduce their compensation bonuses.  It appears that many of these financial institutions gladly accepted the nation’s funds, but never used those assets as they were meant to be used, i.e.  as mortgage relief to those people temporarily under water to their mortgage lenders, to provide capital for new mortgages and to infuse small business with loans to survive.  The banks then used those federal monies to inflate their current earnings and finally, used those inflated figures as the basis for huge bonus payouts.  Talk about the emperor’s new clothes and Ponzi schemes!

Our President has also, at last, criticized the insurance industry for their dastardly policies such as capping benefits, denying coverage for actually getting sick and inventing ridiculous pre-existing conditions.  And for the insurers lording over all of us in their corrupt manner, our government has blessed them with an anti-trust exemption.  Not only is the insurance industry responsible for price fixing, being the absolute judge in life and death decisions with no timely recourse, and holding our physicians over a barrel by charging them with exorbitant medical malpractice premiums, but also the industry, as we speak, has the government’s approval for such twisted and warped policies.  President Obama has finally called these thieves on the carpet for their irresponsibility to their policyholders in lieu of their own profitability.  Making nice and ethical business practices will never be a part of our current insurance industry nor, for that matter, our entire corporate ethos.  The only strategy to correct such blatant abuses is to talk their talk, walk their walk,  i.e. to force viable competition in the form of a hefty public option.  A weak public option would act as a mere slap on the wrist to the industry.

On the international scene, President Obama asserted his belief of honesty in government by forcing Afghanistan President Karzai’s hand in capitulating to an election runoff after significant fraud had been uncovered in the initial election.  No more of our troops will be committed to that war front until Afghanistan has negated its election fraud and a viable, duly elected government is in force.  Bravo Mr. Obama.

I do believe the true Obama is emerging.  In my post of May 6, 2008 called “A Promise is a Promise”, I set forth my case that, if elected,  Barack Obama would be the biggest bastard our Office of the President has ever seen.  I wrote this with very positive intentions.  Well folks, the true Obama has come out of his cocoon just this week.  Further, Andrew Sullivan has also reached this same conclusion:

http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2009/10/that-mushy-steel.html

Go for it, President Obama!  You have been more than patient on all fronts and now show us the stuff of which you are truly made.  I always knew you had it in you.  I am waiting for the next, deliberate step in your wise leadership.  Make believe I am from Missouri: show me.

Obstructing the Obvious

Am I just a simpleton, an intellectual featherweight, who looks for patterns and explanations, reasonable justifications, for truly ridiculous situations?  Or perhaps, I am able to see what is so obvious that it takes my breath away to observe how the powers that be and the general population cannot see the forest from the trees?  Is the obvious so damn obvious that people just ignore it?

Let us examine some specific examples of this delusion.  The Redskins, Washington, D.C.’s football team, has been a losing, floundering proposition ever since Dan Snyder bought that franchise in 1999.  The team has gone through so many different GM’s, coaches and players, still and yet with a losing record.  The only consistency during the last decade has been the ownership.  Could that ownership be the cause of the Redskins’ lethargy?  Seems like the most logical assumption to me.  Despite having had on board many talented players and truly experienced coaches (mind you, coaches who previously and subsequently to their Redskin tenure have been the top leaders in the NFL, e.g. Joe Gibbs, Marty Schottenheimer and Norv Turner), the Redskins are a pathetic excuse for a football team.

Dan Snyder’s objectives throughout his ownership seems to be for fulfillment of his ego first, his pocketbook second,  his win/loss record third and obligation to the fans dead last.  Eventually, the fans who make Snyder’s personal take from the team possible, will pull out their support and Snyder will either sell the team or make some overdue changes.  It is a repeat of the survival of the fittest: when the franchise can no longer reap the rewards of overpriced tickets due to their dreary, losing record, the owner will be forced to exit.  This is a form of natural selection, and I daresay that Snyder will be selectively ousted.  The only Redskin constants over the last ten years have been a losing record and Snyder’s ownership.  Is this as obvious as I think it is?

Another example of the “Duh! Phenomenon” involves the recent refusal of a judge in Louisiana to marry an interracial couple.  Justice of the Peace Keith Bardwell, an elected Republican servant, denied a marriage license to the couple in question based solely on racial concerns.  What century is the judge living in?  Is he not aware of the Supreme Court ruling of 1967,  Loving v. Virginia, that outlawed, MADE UNCONSTITUTIONAL, the obstruction or failure to carry out interracial marriage?  Judge Bardwell is not a legal entity unto himself; he was elected to rule based on our Constitution.  Any refusal to do so can be seen as a violation of our law and he should have been put off the court and released of his duties as soon as he decided to editorialize and act upon his own law.  Isn’t that as obvious as the nose on your face?  Why is he still holding on to his job?

Thirdly, and of the highest importance, is the current state of our financial industry and it’s effects on other legislation, i.e. health care reform.  I must note that, just like Dan Snyder who is a private entrepreneur in a private business who can do whatever he wants with his assets, the private banks are somewhat different.  They have a responsibility to their shareholders.  Furthermore, once these banks accepted federal bailout funds, they also must answer to each and every one of us taxpayers and the government.  How come the government does not see this obligation?  Why are the financial companies still paying out huge bonuses on the backs of our taxpayers?  And why in all of heaven and earth, is the government permitting that?  The United States Treasury gave out hundreds of billions of dollars to this industry that is continuing exactly those practices that almost brought them to their knees one year ago.  Why?

I just love the fallacy of protecting these financial behemoths with the excuse that “They are too big to be allowed to fail.”  Once again, it is absolutely clear to me (and any moron) that if these companies are too big to fail, they most certainly are too big to exist.  DUH!

I might have an answer.  For the government to completely take over the financial industry would be cause for many to scream “Socialism”.  Here is my interpretation.  We will get something of a public option in health care reform to OFFSET the greed and corruption of the financial industry.  The lead article in the Washington Post today (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/10/19/AR2009101902451.html?nav=hcmodule), sure enough, cites the increased demand for a public option.  Basically, we are going to make the private insurance industry be the sacrificial lamb in return for the lack of regulation and oversight of our financial sector.  Since the American people have an attention span of about three seconds (thank you Roselie) plus the fact that our legislators will not put their reputations and elective powers on the line to change our economic structure, the greed and corruption of the financial industry will live on.  However, seeing the negative reaction of Americans to this outrage, our lawmakers will, to some degree, be willing to cut off the insurance companies by passing a weak public option.  Having been the victims of a near financial collapse, our citizens have undergone major economic losses, one result being that they can no longer afford health insurance.  Thus, by forcing real competition on the private insurers, our lawmakers are “punishing” one greedy sector of our economy for the sins of another.  Since the financial industry was a major CAUSE of our hardships, the private insurers are going to have to pay so that the EFFECTS of that corruption can be somewhat cleaned up.  The ongoing feeding frenzy of the financial industry is going to have to be paid for by the insurance industry.  Obvious?   Displacement behavior?  Sure.  Fake retribution?  Definitely.  It sure beats taking the time and effort to solve the problem structurally.  In this way, we are not resolving the problems in our financial industry nor are we offering a strong enough public option.  It is a lose/lose proposition.

In the United States, we are all experts at obstructing the obvious, whether it be sports, law, finance or government.  Things are complicated enough, sure.  So why, when we are presented with a clear and defined issue, do we not jump on it and correct it?  Do you think it could be that the more confusion we reap, the more personal gain might be in it?  That couldn’t possibly be: it is too obvious.

Suckah

I apologize.  Undoubtedly, my own fond childhood memories coupled with a pretty terrific set of parents has mislead my thinking on the aims of other families.  IT WAS A HOAX!!!!!!

How naive could I have been?  Did I actually think that Falcon Heene was throwing up for no reason on the morning show?  The lies and scam that his parents perpetrated would make anyone vomit.  So much for the piety of parenthood.  Fame, money and the lure of reality television trumps holding a regular job any day of the week.

Heaven help us.  But most of all, help Falcon Heene and his brothers.

The Voyage of Falcon Heene: It Is What It Is

I am so enjoying this day, revelling in the aftereffects of yesterday’s story about young Falcon Heene AKA “Balloon Boy”.  What is so very refreshing about this story is that the cautionary tale was all about a kid just being a kid.  No guile, no personal agenda and no malice intended.  Very straightforward.

Falcon (could anybody have come up with a better name for this kid?), after having been yelled at by his Dad for playing with the weather balloon, went and hid in a cardboard box in the rafters of his garage.  Then he promptly fell asleep for a number of hours.  The balloon subsequently broke its tether and flew fifty miles from Fort Collins to the Denver vicinity.  Another child had erroneously (perhaps merely wishing it to be true) reported that Falcon had climbed into the balloon right before it took off.  When it finally alit, alas, there was no boy inside.

The involved authorities are trying to be very formal and authoritarian about this “mishap”, and are calling for a possible investigation into the whys and wherefores  in order to justify the expenses incurred.  Fugedaboudit!  Don’t throw good money after bad.  This was simply an incident of a kid being a kid.

Why, many are asking, was Falcon so scared of his father?  Duh!  He did not want to be yelled at for possibly being responsible for the loss of an expensive piece of equipment.  Any parent in their right mind would be just as adamant as Mr. Heene was in scolding his son for playing with something that clearly was not a toy.  The boy’s reaction, getting and staying put in a place for a few hours until his Dad’s anger subsided, is not hard to understand.  No child abuse here, just a typical parent/youngster action and reaction to normal admonishment of what is okay and what is not.  Nothing more to read into this.

I remember when my sister and I were of a comparable young age, we got some paints on our new carpet (or was it the Silly Putty on the newly painted walls?).  We promptly ran and hid until a few minutes later when our mother discovered the mess.  She found my sister right off the bat.  However, I had a fantastic hiding place: a small niche in the back of the linen closet.  No way was Mom ever going to find me.  But her calls for me were becoming angrier and angrier, so I chickened out, not wanting to escalate her frustrations (and perhaps the consequences) even more, and I exited the closet.  But certainly,  just like Falcon, if nobody would have been seeking me out, I too would have just taken a nap and stayed exactly where I was.

So chill, America.  There is nothing suspicious about this event.  A kid, through no intention of his own, just happened to get the best of many adults.  The grownups should cease and desist trying to save face, accept the simplicity of the situation, and be happy as clams that this child is safe and sound.  And so much smarter than any of the big people!

Move On

You gotta read this Op-Ed by Garrison Keillor, which was printed in the New York Times today:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/15/opinion/15iht-edkeillor.html?_r=1&ref=global

With just a touch of appropriate irreverence coupled with a sufficient dose of honesty that aptly describes the current state of the Republican Party, Keillor makes his point.  He is correct when he says that the Republican reaction to President Obama’s Nobel award is “68% envy and 32% sour grapes.”  My Mama would have summed up the situation in two words: “They’re jealous.”

To find negativism in this award is no party platform.  Sorry, even in the absence of any substantive policy footholds, the GOP is going to have to dig deeper.  Wishes are not reality, and the reality of the Republicans is nowhere, nada, zilch.  The GOP represents an empty platform indicative of an empty, simply retaliatory, strategy.

History Calls

History is calling.  Not since FDR’s stab at trying to get all Americans universal health care, has there been a more deliberate attempt at such a feat.  Our Congress should not fall victim to fear as did FDR, when he backed away from universal health care because he thought it would threaten passage of the New Deal and other more pressing economic legislation.

In America today, the need for health care reform is crucial to our economic health.  It is an imperative for moral reasons as well.  No longer should four month old infants be denied health insurance because they weigh 17 pounds.  No longer should a person be denied coverage because they lost their job.  The partnership of jobs and health coverage was a fluke that occurred after World War II.  Many companies used the draw of health coverage as a means of securing talented employees.  No longer should a policyholder be denied their rightful and paid-up benefits if they get sick, have a genetic tendency towards some specific disease, or is of a particular gender.    Remember: health coverage is for those of us who are SICK.  How does the insurance industry get away with denying assistance to those who are ill?  Isn’t that their reason for being?  Without even addressing the factors of cost, these strictures of health insurance must be changed now.

Who are the people who believe that the health insurers are actually concerned with the well-being of their policyholders?  Who are you that believe the insurance industry is actually concerned with more than their bottom line?  Look yourself over from head to toe, and then tell me you believe these things …. especially after yesterday’s announcement by PricewaterhouseCoopers that health premiums could grow significantly in the future if the Baucus plan is approved.  Tell me you were unaware that this report was paid for by America’s Health Insurance Plans (AHIP)*, which is an insurance industry trade group.  In the vernacular, this is a lobby.  Duh!  Tell me you were not surprised by the timing of the release of this report, i.e. one day before the Senate Finance Committee’s vote on health care reform.

If you can honestly refute these facts about the insurers, I would be amazed.  Even Olympia Snowe has shown some respect for her constituents (that IS her job) and the need for reform by voting for the health care proposal in the Senate Finance Committee today.  Here are some of her comments after the vote:

She cautioned that her vote should be seen as a sign of her faith in the process going forward, not as support for the final package that will arrive on the Senate floor.

“Is this bill all that I would want? Far from it,” said Snowe. “Is it all that it can be? No. But when history calls, history calls, and I happen to think that the consequences of inaction dictate the urgency of Congress to take every opportunity to demonstrate its capacity to solve the monumental issues of our time.”

She sure saved her ass: she thought the better of our dire circumstances and voted for reason and need.  The other Republican committee participants are waiting to be shamed into voting for a fair and viable health policy.  What will it take?  Will we need a major swine flu epidemic, with our emergency rooms and intensive care units overflowing, not to mention high death rates, before reality can replace greed, elitism and corporate corruption?

History is indeed calling.  After the Senate Finance Committee vote today, this proposal will go through the usual chain of command: the Senate, the House,  many committees, and finally, the President’s desk, after which, some kind of legislation will emerge.  I hope that the resulting package will reflect a sense of fairness to all. It will not be everything for everybody.  Just a program that addresses the needs of all Americans, offers some choices at reasonable costs and eliminates the factor of profit from health care.  Our need for medical care has grown way too big (morally and financially) for private companies to be in charge of it.  And after all, what else besides profit motivates private industry?  The private insurance industry has been and continues to be NO MODEL for providing health care.  Therefore, health care coverage must be taken out of the private arena.  Coops will not be efficient for competition because they would lack the scope and size needed to foster competitive rates.  What we really need is a single payer health care system.  It might take twenty years, but we WILL wind up with a federally-run, universal system.  The only entity big enough, at this point, to handle universal health care, is the United States government.  Like it or not, that is our reality.

Knock knock.  Who’s there?  History.  History who?  History calls.  Shall we answer by doing, or by letting the moment pass once again?

*Please refer to the following link for an extensive profile on AHIP and its betrayal of health care reform:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/peter-dreier/health-insurance-industry_b_318066.html

Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/10/13/snowe-voting-yes-on-senat_n_318745.html

Obama: A Man on the Brink

OUR GEORGE W. BUSH WORLD

A picture is worth a thousand words.  The above photograph illustrates what our world became under the tenure of George the Second.  From each individual citizen to our nation as a whole to our international standing, we became isolated from freedom, reason and any iota of governance.  We were stranded on an island, looking back to a vacuum of policies that were harmful and defeating to all of us and looking forward to more of the same.  George the Second was a caretaker for a government that had no principles.

Flash forward to less than even a year ahead.  Barack Obama is not a caretaker, but a person who is full well taking care.  We now have a President who has jumped into the arena of actual leadership and governance.  He is in the throes of facing down such issues as our personal freedoms, economic recovery, universal health care, nuclear proliferation, harmony at home and peace abroad.  Need I mention that these tasks will take time and we need to have patience?

As a corollary to President Obama’s award of the Nobel Peace Prize, I reiterate that his acceptance of this recognition is almost a promise by him to deliver, with all of our help and understanding, the goods.  Nobody has said it better than Michael Moore:

October 10th, 2009 6:01 PM

Get Off Obama’s Back …second thoughts from Michael Moore

Friends,

Last night my wife asked me if I thought I was a little too hard on Obama in my letter yesterday congratulating him on his Nobel Prize. “No, I don’t think so,” I replied. I thought it was important to remind him he’s now conducting the two wars he’s inherited. “Yeah,” she said, “but to tell him, ‘Now earn it!’? Give the guy a break — this is a great day for him and for all of us.”

I went back and re-read what I had written. And I listened for far too long yesterday to the right wing hate machine who did what they could to crap all over Barack’s big day. Did I — and others on the left — do the same?

We are weary, weary of war. The trillions that will have gone to these two wars have helped to bankrupt us as a nation — financially and morally. To think of all the good we could have done with all that money! Two months of the War in Iraq would pay for all the wells that need to be dug in the Third World for drinking water! Obama is moving too slow for most of us — but he needs to know we are with him and we stand beside him as he attempts to turn eight years of sheer madness around. Who could do that in nine months? Superman? Thor? Mitch McConnell?

Instead of waiting to see what the president is going to do, we all need to be pro-active and push the agenda that we want to see enacted. What keeps us from forming the same local groups we put together to get out the vote last November? C’mon! We’re the majority now — the majority by a significant margin! We call the shots — and we need to tell this wimpy Congress to get busy and do what we say — or else.

All I ask of those who voted for Obama is to not pile on him too quickly. Yes, make your voice heard (his phone number is 202-456-1414). But don’t abandon the best hope we’ve had in our lifetime for change. And for God’s sake, don’t head to bummerville if he says or does something we don’t like. Do you ever see Republicans behave that way? I mean, the Right had 20 years of Republican presidents and they still couldn’t get prayer in the public schools, or outlaw abortion, or initiate a flat tax or put our Social Security into the stock market. They did a lot of damage, no doubt about that, but on the key issues that the Christian Right fought for, they came up nearly empty handed. No wonder they’ve been driven crazy lately. They’ll never have it as good again as they’ve had it since Reagan took office.

But — do you ever see them looking all gloomy and defeated? No! They keep on fighting! Every day. Our side? At the first sign of wavering, we just pack up our toys and go home.

So, at least for this weekend, let us celebrate what people elsewhere are celebrating — that America now has a sane and smart man in the White House, a man who truly wants a world at peace for his two daughters.

Many, for the past couple days (yes, myself included), have grumbled, “What has he done to earn this prize?” How ’bout this:

The simple fact that he was elected was reason enough for him to be the recipient of this year’s Nobel Peace Prize.

Because on that day the murderous actions of the Bush/Cheney years were totally and thoroughly rebuked. One man — a man who opposed the War in Iraq from the beginning — offered to end the insanity. The world has stood by in utter horror for the past eight years as they watched the descendants of Washington, Lincoln and Jefferson light the fuse of our own self-destruction. We flipped off the nations on this planet by abandoning Kyoto and then proceeded to melt eight more years worth of the polar ice caps. We invaded two nations that didn’t attack us, failed to find the real terrorists and, in effect, ignited our own wave of terror. People all over the world wondered if we had gone mad.

And if all that wasn’t enough, the outgoing Joker presided over the worst global financial collapse since the Great Depression.

So, yeah, at precisely 11:00pm ET on November 4, 2008, Barack Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize. And the 66 million people who voted for him won it, too. By the time he took the stage at midnight ET in the Grant Park Historic Hippie Battlefield in downtown Chicago, billions of people around the globe were already breathing a huge sigh of relief. It was as if, in that instant, one man did bring the promise of peace to the world — and most were ready to go wherever he wanted to go to achieve that end. Never before had the election of one man made every other nation feel like they had won, too. When you’ve got billions of people ready, willing and able to join a cause like this, well, a prize in Oslo is the least that you deserve.

One other thought. The Peace Prize historically has been given to those who have worked to throw off the yoke of racial discrimination and segregation (Martin Luther King, Jr., Desmond Tutu). I think the Nobel committee, in awarding Obama the prize, was also rewarding the fact that something profound had happened in a nation that was founded on racial genocide, built on racist slavery, and held back for a hundred-plus years by vestiges of hateful bigotry (which can still be found on display at teabagger rallies and daily talk radio). The fact that this one man could cause this seismic historical event to occur — and to do so with such grace and humility, never succumbing to the bait, but still not backing down (yes, he asked to be sworn in as “Barack Hussein Obama”!) — is more than reason enough he should be in Oslo to meet the King on December 10. Maybe he could take us along with him. ‘Cause I also suspect the Nobel committee was tipping its hat to all of us — we, the American people, had conquered some of our racism and did the truly unexpected. After seeing searing images of our black fellow citizens left to drown in New Orleans — and poor whites seeing their own treated no better than the black man they had been raised to hate — we had all seen enough. It was time for change.

Thank you, Barack Obama, for giving us the opportunity to redeem ourselves. Now for the tasks ahead. We need you to do all that you promised to do. We need it. The world needs it.

My prediction for the future? You become the first *two-time* winner of the Nobel Peace Prize! Yeah!

Fred (that’s Norwegian for “Peace”),
Michael Moore
MMFlint@aol.com
MichaelMoore.com

So let us hold up our glasses, which are now half full as opposed to all-the-way empty, and wish our President the best as we pledge our diligence and hard work to transform his words into accomplishments.  Let us never allow America to be stranded again.

The Peace Train

We people of the world are getting smarter.  The Nobel Prize Committee just pulled “an Obama”: our President has been awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace, in recognition of his efforts for world reconciliation.  This is really big.  Our man for the ages is now even more obligated to follow through with his ideas of hope and change for the greater good.

Astonishing.  How in the world can President Obama accept this award and in the same breath, substantially increase our presence in Afghanistan?  Hah!  The people of the world are uniting for peace, opting for cooperation instead of proliferation.  For the Uighars in China, for the Green Party in Iran, for all of the uninsured Americans, I say “Hallelelujah!”.

The first step in the attainment of any goal is visualizing that goal.  Barack Obama certainly has that quality.  And now, that contagion is spreading to you and me.  True, the Nobel is a political prize but in this case, it is an important item in President Obama’s resume.  He has spoken, the Nobel Committee has answered, and it will be difficult now to stop the peace train.  When good ideas present themselves, the length of one’s tenure in office does not have much bearing.  Some critics may say that this award is too premature.  Not true: this prize if offered as a reward for President Obama’s audacity of hope and represents a stepping stone to actualization of that hope.  This honor will make Barack stand and deliver.  That is not premature kudos.  Rather, it is reinforcing the ideals so that they have a better chance of succeeding.  Much more work is needed, but we are on the right track.  This my friends, is truly “going rogue”.  Imagine: words rather than wars.

That is the beauty in the Nobel Committee’s  recognition of Barack Obama: this particular award is much more aimed at potential, rather than actual accomplishments.  It is as if the Committee is challenging President Obama, is daring him, to turn the peace momentum into reality.  That is a hard road from which to turn back.  The Nobel Peaceniks have decidedly “Obamaed” Mr. Obama!

More later.  I have to take this all in.  More than any other day, today I proudly sign this entry, YO MAMA FOR OBAMA.

Congratulations, Mr. President.  And congratulations to America and each and every one of us who continue the quest:

Sully Obama Peace Prize Reax by Andrew Sullivan

Sorry, I was up till 2 finishing my column.

If any person has done more to advance some measure of calm, reason and peace in this troubled word lately, it’s president Obama. I think the Cairo speech and the Wright speech alone merited this both bridging ancient rifts even while they remain, of course, deep and intractable. He has already done more to heal the open wound between the West and Islam than anyone else on the planet.

I’d just add one caveat: the American people who elected him deserve part of the credit too. Now he needs partners to help him.

What an incredible time to be alive and bear witness to hope.

Northwest Passage: Photo Essay

Good morning Sunshine ......

Pike Place Market splendor ......

Flower power ......

Washington Park in amazing Anacortes ......

The reason I went to Seattle ......

Even "dead" is beautiful ......

Twist of fate ......

Still and yet astonishing ......

After all, what good is an upcoming weekend without a little irreverence?