~*~ CONGRATULATIONS ~*~ PRESIDENT ~*~ BARACK ~*~ OBAMA ~*~
TRIBUTE:http://www.africreations.com/Obama-Tribute.html Black Designers Crafters and Artists for Obamahttp://my.barackobama.com/page/group/BlackDesignersCraftersandArtistsforObama
Delores Chamblin
The term is ending soon for Mr. George Bush. Across the USA the massive grassroots pushthroughout the campaign for the '08 election to register, vote early and make the selectionfor a man of hope and real change not dramaresulted in big victory for President - Obama!
"Yes We Did!"
HATS OFF TO OBAMA!http://www.flickr.com/photos/africreations/show
Delores
http://my.barackobama.com/page/outreach/view/main/Afri
http://my.barackobama.com/page/group/BlackDesignersCraftersandArtistsforObama
The term will soon end for Mr. George Bush. We must continue to make a huge final pushto get out the vote and make the selection for the best candidate this historic election - one with a clear message of hope not drama. Oh "Yes We Can" elect Mr. Barack Obama!
HATS OFF TO OBAMA! (Slide Show) http://www.flickr.com/photos/africreations/show
"Pole" for Obama to Get Voters to Polls
On Saturday November 1, for a final push to get out the vote I decided to use an empty flag pole at Lakeland Farmer's and Flea Market in Lakeland Florida to encourage shoppers to vote early.
Some of the photos in the links below demontstrate how I temporarily transformed the empty pole in a high visibility location at the market to an early vote pole - to remind folks to vote after they left the market.
Photo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/africreations/2994175232
SlideShow: http://www.flickr.com/photos/africreations/show
The election is only a few days away! Please do whatever you can to get out the vote and/or make a donation to help raise funds for Obama for America.
Its Official: Colin Powell endorses Barack Obama!
Retired Army Gen. Colin L. Powell, an adviser to the last three Republican presidents, said today that he is crossing party lines to support the Democratic candidate for the White House. (Excerpt from the link below)
In this MSNBC video Colin Powell brings up some excellent and very important points which needs to be heard!
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/washington/2008/10/powell-obama-en.html
Retired Army Gen. Wesley Clark's comments demonstrates why it is imporatant to elect Barack Obama as the next U.S. president.
Link: http://link.brightcove.com/services/link/bcpid1569844333/bclid1425858110/bctid1825806782
On Saturday September 27th, I decided to leave a little early from Lakeland Farmers and Flea Market to attend the Obama Rally and Voter Registration Drive at Lake Bonny Park in Lakeland Florida where Forest Whitaker was the celebrity guest speaker. In addition to displaying Obama flyers on the issues and providing useful information regarding early voting etc for local residents, I have been doing fundraising for Obama for America on saturdays at the market by requesting donations for my crocheted Obama hats, caps and other handmade creations.
Last Saturday September 20th, I also decided to leave the market a little earlier than normal and teamed up with another person to do three hours of door to door canvassing of unregistered voters in Lakeland. That allowed me to reach another group of people in another proactive way.
Similarly, attending the Obama Rally and Voter Registration Drive also gave me the opportunity to reach another segment of the population. By attending this event I was able to observe a younger and energetic crowd! The weather was beautiful and the youths were fired up. They were very enthusiastic!
Before heading to the stage where he made a significant but brief speech, Forest Whitaker stopped by the table where I had some of my handmade crocheted Obama hats and caps displayed. He commented that he liked them and had not seen any other hats or caps like those elsewhere. In a quick response, I mentioned that they are my own creations and I do them for fundraising for Obama for America. After leaving the rally, a young man who came to the event and was walking alongside Mr Whitaker in the entourage returned from the parking lot to the table and stated Forest Whitaker wanted to purchase one of the hats, but did not have time to do so earlier. I did not have any large sizes left, so the young man picked a small medium size crocheted Obama cap for Forest Whitaker.
I tip my hat to Forest Whitaker for all his great accomplishments on and off screen and for taking the time out to speak to the youths. They are the future.
Below is a link to an article from the Lakeland Ledger about the event. It is encouraging to see young people are interested and involved in this campaign.
Forest Whitaker Draws Crowd for Political Rally in Lakeland http://www.theledger.com/article/20080927/NEWS/809270251#
Delores Black Designers Crafters and Artists for Obama http://my.barackobama.com/page/group/BlackDesignersCraftersandArtistsforObama
Fundraising Pagehttp://my.barackobama.com/page/outreach/view/main/Afri
Forest Whitaker Draws Crowd for Political Rally in Lakeland
http://www.theledger.com/article/20080927/NEWS/809270251#
By Shoshana WalterTHE LEDGER
LAKELAND | For about five minutes Saturday afternoon, Oscar-winning actor Forest Whitaker spoke about the importance of young people rallying around presidential candidate Barack Obama and empowering themselves by taking a more active role in the election,
In the front row, cousins Whitney Lee, 19, and Tiffany Lee, 15, both of Lakeland, giggled. The two recognized themselves in Whitaker’s words. They stood beneath the shade of a campaign sign and watched Whitaker’s every move.
Reaching out to young people is something Obama has proved he does best, Whitney had said before Whitaker took the microphone. He speaks to young voters, embraces them, and that’s one of the reasons she’s been encouraging people to register to vote, she said.
That sentiment was echoed throughout the event at Lakeland’s Lake Bonny Park as Obama supporters registered new voters and practiced campaigners pumped up a crowd of about 300.
That crowd swarmed Whitaker as he arrived, many on their tiptoes to sneak peaks and quick cell-phone snapshots at the round-faced man, who’s much taller than he looks in the movies.
Accompanied by his publicist and his wife, Keisha, a tall actress with oversized sunglasses, Whitaker created excitement when he arrived.
Obama represents us, he told the crowd: Vote. You can make a change by being heard.
“When you have hope, you can make those possibilities into a reality,” he said.
Behind him, Whitaker’s publicist assembled a “protective circle” of campaigners who whisked Whitaker to his car immediately after his speech.
But the crowd wouldn’t leave him alone.
As his publicist hurried him along, Whitaker posed for pictures, signed autographs and answered a reporter’s questions. He obliged a fan for one last photo from behind the rolled-down, tinted windows of his black SUV.
Dylan Parrish, a senior at Rochelle School of the Arts, leaned in as Whitaker smiled from his seat.
Parrish registered to vote Saturday and turns 18 in October.
“I’m very excited,” he had said from the bleachers before Whitaker arrived. “It’s been really hyped up since last year ... I think [Obama] talks in a way that we understand.”
Whitney Lee said she likes Obama’s stances on education, the economy and his support of equal pay for equal work.
At 15 years old, Tiffany Lee can’t vote yet, but she knows other people can. Her father, 41 years old, registered to vote for the first time in this election, she said.
She’ll be able to vote next time around, and if all goes well, she said, she knows who she’ll be supporting.
Deadlines are quickly approaching! One of the best ways to help Barack Obama win the election is to vote early before November 4th.
The Obama Campaign has an important and useful website - VoteForChange.com ( http://my.barackobama.com/vfc ) where you can get information on early voting and locations!
You can also register to vote, request to vote absentee or find your polling location.
Vote early and avoid the rush and crowds on election day!
You may also contact your local Board of Elections for information on early voting.
DeloresBlack Designers Crafters and Artists for Obamahttp://my.barackobama.com/page/group/BlackDesignersCraftersandArtistsforObama
The Seattle Times recommends Barack Obama for president. Below is an excerpt from the article. Be sure to check out the complete op-ed and link which includes Obama's positions on the issues.
BARACK OBAMA FOR PRESIDENThttp://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/editorialsopinion/2008190671_obamaed21.html
Excerpt:
An economic Katrina is shattering the confidence of hardworking, middle-class Americans. The war that should never have been in Iraq is dragging on too long. At a time of huge challenge, the candidate with the intelligence, temperament and judgment to lead our nation to a better place is Sen. Barack Obama.
Obama should be the next president of the United States because he is the most qualified change agent. Obama is a little young, but also brilliant. If he sometimes seems brainy and professorial, that's OK. We need the leader of the free world to think things through, carefully. We have seen the sorry results of shooting from the hip.
As our country lurches from one financial or energy crisis to the next, American taxpayers remain burdened with the cost of the war in Iraq and Afghanistan — to the tune of $12 billion a month.
Consider the banking and financial morass. Neither Obama nor his opponent, Sen. John McCain, offers a perfect solution. But McCain is all over the map, veering from statements such as "The fundamentals of our economy are strong" to the more obvious "Wall Street is threatened by greed."
McCain is at heart a deregulator. But it is the hands-off and ineffective federal regulatory system that allowed this mess to fester. Obama offered a more coherent approach months ago when he called for regulating investment banks, mortgage brokers and hedge funds and streamlining overlapping regulatory agencies.
Our country is on the wrong track. Average, middle-class citizens have lost confidence that if they work hard, they can improve their lives, afford to send their kids to college and not be tossed out of their homes.
American optimism has been wracked by President George Bush and a previous Republican Congress. If you want change, you do not keep what is essentially the same team in power. You try something different. You vote for the stronger matchup, Obama and Sen. Joseph Biden, a smart and steady hand on foreign policy and other matters.
LABOR FOR CHANGE - HATS ON FOR OBAMA! http://www.flickr.com/photos/africreations/sets/72157607156508831/show
BACK 2 SCHOOL 4 OBAMAhttp://www.flickr.com/photos/africreations/sets/72157607071326855/show
HANDMADE FOR OBAMAhttp://www.flickr.com/photos/africreations/sets/72157607151767328/show
Elections will be in less than 100 days! To help me reach my fundraising goals I am supplementing my online fundraising for Obama for America with offline activities, most recently at a produce and flea market. Many flea market goers are looking for necessities at the dirt cheap prices.
But I thought it was still a good idea to get out and set up a table at rustic Lakeland Farmers & Flea Market to reach more people offline. Customers who made a donation received one of my handmade items created for fundraising.
Flyers (including one in spanish) on Barack Obama's positions on key issues were also placed on the table for customers and those just browsing or passing through. I found the flyers at Barack Obama's website and all I had to do was print them. Here is the link for the flyers: http://www.barackobama.com/downloads
For the table display I included a binder with all the flyers encased in individual plastic covers, so if I ran out of any flyers, a permanent one would be available for customers to read.
To attract attention I wore my very visible Obama '08 tee shirt and covered the weather beaten wooden table with a bright red plastic table cloth.
My Obama Fundraising Table at Lakeland Farmers & Flea Market - Saturday August 2, 2008:
Photo and info: http://www.flickr.com/photos/africreations/sets/72157607151767328
Slide Show: http://www.flickr.com/photos/africreations/sets/72157607151767328/show
Delores,Black Designers Crafters and Artists for Obama Group: http://my.barackobama.com/page/group/BlackDesignersCraftersandArtistsforObama
Excerpts with links from the following:
1. Worldly Success for Barack Obama2. How Obama Became Acting President3. Obama Abroad4. Hats Off To Obama For Foreign Policy
WORDLY SUCCESS FOR BARACK OBAMA
Barack Obama’s world tour was a success. Nothing went wrong for the Democratic party candidate for the US presidency. And four big things went right.
The first and most important success was in Iraq. Nouri al-Maliki, the Iraqi prime minister, effectively endorsed Mr Obama’s plan for a withdrawal of American troops. That has blunted one of the most dangerous attacks on the Democrat – that he is prepared to throw away hard-won progress in Iraq.
And there were three other big pluses for Mr Obama as he progressed from Afghanistan to the Middle East and then on to Europe.
In Afghanistan, the evident deterioration of the security situation has served to bolster Mr Obama’s argument that Iraq has been a distraction from the “central front in the war on terror” – in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
In Israel, the apparent warmth of the greeting extended to Mr Obama may have deflected the charge that he is willing to take risks with Israeli security. But – unlike John McCain, his Republican rival who visited Israel but not the Palestinian territories – Mr Obama made sure to go to the West Bank.
And the huge and enthusiastic crowds that greeted Mr Obama in Berlin served to underline an important theme of the Democrat’s campaign – that he is the man best placed to repair American alliances in Europe and to combat the rising tide of anti-Americanism.
Link to Complete Financial Times Article (Editorial): http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/3aec179a-5a7a-11dd-bf96-000077b07658.html?nclick_check=1
HOW OBAMA BECAME ACTING PRESIDENT
What was most striking about the Obama speech in Berlin was not anything he said so much as the alternative reality it fostered: many American children have never before seen huge crowds turn out abroad to wave American flags instead of burn them.
Mr. McCain could also have stepped into the leadership gap left by Mr. Bush’s de facto abdication. His inability to even make a stab at doing so is troubling. While drama-queen commentators on television last week were busy building up false suspense about the Obama trip — will he make a world-class gaffe? will he have too large an audience in Germany? — few focused on the alarms that Mr. McCain’s behavior at home raise about his fitness to be president.
Once again the candidate was making factual errors about the only subject he cares about, imagining an Iraq-Pakistan border and garbling the chronology of the Anbar Awakening. Once again he displayed a tantrum-prone temperament ill-suited to a high-pressure 21st-century presidency.
Link to Complete New York Times Article (Op-Ed): http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/27/opinion/27rich.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin
OBAMA ABROAD
He's been called a naive idealist. But in terms of foreign policy, he's the true realist in the race.
Link to Complete Newsweek Article: http://www.newsweek.com/id/147763
HATS OFF TO OBAMA FOR FOREIGN POLICY
Barack Obama, in his July 15 address on foreign policy, characterized with clarity the blunders of the current U.S. leadership, but more importantly laid out with reason and rationality where our future focus needs to be.
The current foreign policy is not sustainable and will most likely result in, not only increased opposition from radical groups, but growng hostility from sovereign states which extrapolated out could yield much more epic disasters.
Our country needs a course correction now. Obama, for all his failings, possesses the wisdom and foresight to return the U.S. back to a position of worldwide leadership, not worldwide contempt and antagonism.
Kudos to Obama for his insight and clear thought. - J.J. Warriner,Laveen
Link to Commentary: http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/opinions/articles/2008/07/19/20080719satlets196.html
Delores, AfriCreationshttp://www.africreations.comBlack Designers Crafters and Artists For Obamahttp://my.barackobama.com/page/group/BlackDesignersCraftersandArtistsforObama
This is going to be short. I did not intepret Barack Obama's fathers day speech as talking down to black men, but I can understand why some may view it that way. The way a person interprets a message depends on the person's mindset. Those who can see the small picture as well as the large picture can understand both sides. As in the case of Jesse Jackson's remark, the media often like to make a big to do about nothing much. All black people are not the same. Even black men separated from their kids are not monolithic. Fox News (and the like) is also not fair and balanced. But thats not news to many.
Of course no one is perfect, but Barack Obama on the other hand has the ability to inspire all types of people, lead, and move this country forward.
"Yes We Can" elect Barack Obama for president in '08!
Delores, ownerAfriCreations.com &Black Designers Crafters and Artists for Obama group
From house parties to voter registration drives and more, grassroots support offline and online has brought Barack Obama within reach of the presidency. But there is still much work to be done to get as many people as possible involved and registered to vote.
There are ways that anyone can support and promote Barack Obama for president from the grassroots level and keep the momentum going. One way for example is by wearing or visibly displaying (such as on the dashboard of your car) a hat or cap that promotes Obama for president. Even simply adding relevant Barack Obama buttons to hats or caps you already own can start conversations that result in getting more people registered to vote.
Barack Obama is already making history and can bring about real change in Washington. So hats off to Obama! "Yes we can" elect Obama for president in '08!
DeloresBlack Designers Crafters and Artists for Obama
Wan Ali is just one of the very talented members of our group "Black Designers Crafters and Artists for Obama" who is creatively promoting Obama for President!
Check out the YouTube video with Wan Ali and Barack Obama:http://youtube.com/user/wanshow
I create handmade Obama hats and raise funds in other ways for Obama. Check out the following link for examples:http://www.africreations.com/Crochet-Obama-Hats.html
Feel free to share your ideas with the group and what you are doing to promote Obama for President or any appropriate links.
Some of you may have already read Barack Obama's booklet - "The Blueprint for Change - Barack Obama's Plan for America." It is a free booklet that can be read online or printed for offline reading.
Here is the link:http://www.barackobama.com/pdf/ObamaBlueprintForChange.pdf
Yes We Can! Communicate and Educate! Obama for President in '08!
Have a great Memorial Day Weekend all!
Barack Obama is making history all over the U.S. Thousands attended the Obama rally in Tampa Florida on May 21, 2008. Click the link below to watch a great inspiring video!Thousands attend Obama rally in Tampa
Delores, Black Designers Crafters and Artists for Obama group
Hats on for Obama - (hats, caps, headbands, etc)
Wear Obama Gear day, week or month - (tee shirts, buttons, signs, hats, caps, ties, headbands, bags, etc.)
Display and Show for Obama - (signs, bumper stickers, performances - songs, videos, speeches, poetry for Obama etc.)
Comments and suggestions welcomed for creative ways or other ideas that many people can get involved in nationally to show support for Obama for an entire day, week, or month!
Delores,
Black Designers Crafters and Artists for Obama
