Often see blog posts making demands on Obama or accusing him of planning to do things. Senator Clinton started all that by preaching: he is just words and has no plans. People, mostly her followers, would say, they want to hear his plans, what is he going to do about thus and such, or they want details. It is silly to me, because presidents have limited power to do anything. Basically a president presides or directs the action. The best info I came up with about what the US president does is this:
My computer has a lot of memory and works fast. I am spoiled by the speed of the Internet. I have taken to keeping my Task Manager open to try and determine why my 'net experience slows down to a crawl and often freezes. That happened a lot when reading Obama '08 member community blogs.
It is hard to read the text on the bar "transferring date from Yield Manager" because the URL's or names flash so swiftly. The little hourglass wait symbol comes up as I wait. "Transferring data from Flicker" and "transferring data from "Photobucket" often whiz by as I sit staring at the screen unable to scroll or type.
A website is rather like a faucet. If there are a lot of people in the home and all turn on the hot water faucet at the same time, depending upon tank size the hot water is soon gone. Depending on the home, sometimes flushing a toilet will lower the water pressure at the kitchen sink. That is why this site often gets overwhelmed. Pulling images from other sites is like the decrease in water pressure. Everything else is like the size of the hot water tank, called memory or bandwidth.
As I watched that "transferring data from" I saw the spike in my Task Manager and available memory . I had wanted to comment on a couple of blog posts I read. They have moved to page two already as I commented on one of them. But once again I have to leave due to the memory spike.
20 blog posts per page and I counted 18 images in on the page. I did not count how many blog posts had images, but it was less than the number of posts without them. Some of those images are not related to Senator Obama. I often wonder how many images of Obama appear on Clinton and McCain's sites. I can not understand this obbsession with Obama's opponents. I wonder if members think people who come to Obama's campaign site to read about Obama are just dying to see pictures of other candidates. I do not and bothersome that I can not do what I wanted, read the interesting posts~because this obbsession with other candidates. C'est la vie.
Even though Senator Obama said last week that "everyone needs to settle down" about his VP selection because he is "a big believer in making decisions well, not making them fast and not responding to pressure." and "I will meet with a range of a people, and I will ultimately make a decision.", his supporters keep blogging about VP choices.
My hope is that members who can not wait upon Obama to announce his pick, will at least blog about their choices qualifications rather than just throwing out names of their fav picks. Like what makes people think Caroline (nee: Kennedy) would be up to the VP and maybe unwanted president position. How did she vote on Iraq? Wait a sec, she is not a member of Congress. Well, how does she feel about Iraq and Iran?
When I listened to her short speech for Obama in Los Angeles, she struck me as much too shy to be presidential. Any running mate of Obama's will be under constant stress of being prepared to jump in as president unexpectedly. Would she want it?
An excerpt from Scott Grafton's Obama '08 blog post:
I met Barack Obama last August, when I accompanied him on a 5-nation, 15-day tour of Africa.In Kenya we met with President Mwai Kibaki. Kenya has a history of difficulties with government corruption. It would have been easy for Senator Obama to stay on the edges of the conversation and not push any controversial issues. After all, he was a relatively new U.S. Senator.But Senator Obama didn’t do that. His broad life experience has given him courage and judgment beyond what we might expect.Senator Obama looked President Kibaki in the eye, and with a respectful but forceful tone, urged him to work on the issues that are keeping Kenya from progressing as a nation.It was an incredible thing to watch. It was also very instructive and told me a lot about his character and courage.
Michael Hirsh quoted Gen. Scott Gration in a Newsweek Article dated Aug. 2, 2007 as saying:"Our nuclear forces are not a deterrent as powerful as they once were, and yet those nuclear weapons and fissile material provide a threat. If, in my view, they’re not doing a deterrence mission and they pose a threat if terrorists get ahold of them, we ought to be pulling back the number of ICBMs.When you have 15,000 to 16,000 weapons floating around, I think you can reduce that number significantly. And make sure nobody else feels a requirement to get new nukes. I believe if you could get rid of all the nuclear weapons this would be a wonderful world." Hirsh reports Gration calling himself a "pragmatist.""As a fighter pilot I stood nuclear alert. I understood that during the cold war we had this requirement. I was defending America in that process. Things have changed right now. But we have to do it in a way that makes sense. I’m not one who just says get rid of everything unilaterally.""While he hasn’t served in the military he has tremendous respect and admiration for service people. … I’m very involved in veterans’ issues, and I believe there’s not a candidate out there who’s taking care of our veterans like Obama."
http://www.newsweek.com/id/32587
I wonder if today's school children repeat that litlle ditty: "sticks and stones will break my bones, but names will never hurt me". Sometimes it was the parents calling their children names or spouses calling each other names. Senator Obama thinks the majority of Americans are decent people. He would not speak about other people the way some of his bloggers do.
West Virginia would be a good example of that. Obama supporters became quite upset with the ugly words used to describe people from the state. They left comments on the offening posts or wrote a blog post about it. Words can hurt or "a word causing pain makes anger come up". Senator Obama asks me to believe in his abilty to bring about change in DC. Yet he does not seem to be doing a great job of leading his supporters to a higher standard of civility.
The reason I posted Children Learn What They Live is twofold. The first is: we have 11 and 12 year old members of the community. Can not say how often they visit or how much time they spend reading comunity member blog posts. As I scroll the posts I wonder what members are teaching the children.
Telling people they are "wasting oxygen" for instance. I expect that stuff from trolls, but it is sad to see it coming from Senator Obama site members. The positive yes, we can energy that used to be found here is gone today. It started a while back when the focus on Senator Obama gave way to all about Clinton. Before that stuff was over the focus became all about McCain as well.
With the negativity and anger came fights or spats between community members. Some of the nicer ones split on account of it. Gone are the positive affirmations of the day and other uplifting blog posts that inspired, promoting Obama's message of harmony. I just read another "good bye" post by a member who got criticized harshly. It is sad enough to be verbally attacked by trolls and Hillary supporters, without being attacked by community members also.
The second reason I posted Children Learn What They Live will have to wait for tomorrow. Falling asleep at the screen.
My father kept Children Learn What They Live By Dorothy Law Nolte, Ph.D taped to a kitchen cabinet and I read it often. It begins:
"If children live with criticism, they learn to condemn.If children live with hostility, they learn to fight.If children live with fear, they learn to be apprehensive."
And ends with:
"If children live with kindness and consideration, they learn respect."
I often think it is "people learn what they live". I liken the government to parents and the citizens to children or the people who learn to condemn, fight and be apprehensive under the leadership of our leaders. One of the reasons I liked Senator Obama was he has a way of bringing out the good in people.
For his birthday his members used their blogs to gather support for a special food drive fundraiser. The donations went to a food bank and were made in Obama's name. People who had never participated in a local food drive did so on Senator Obama's birthday. It was always a positive and pleasurable experience to scroll the community blog posts.
Wish I had saved blog posts by Obama '08 young members. An enthusiastic 12 year old boy who used part of his summer vacation to campaign for Obama to the amazement of his classmates. I enjoyed reading about what he was doing. Another 12 year old girl excited to be going to another state to campaign. The one who got his teacher to vote for Obama.
Katie began her blog with this post: "Hi everyone even though I am only 11 years old i fell very strongly that Obama should win." Sje continued telling about a class play about the primary and complaining that she has to wait until 18 to vote. She wants her voice heard. Completed with her show of enthusiasm "!!!".
It is nice to see young people being interested in and knowlegable about politics.
One of my favorite activies is solving Puzzabilty dot com's "Say What" puzzles. Often wish they posted a new one daily, not just once on Sunday. Last weeks quote was:
Winston Churchill said: Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak. Courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen.
Another of my web activites is reading Obama '08 member's blog posts on the community page. I think that quote applies to many. To listen more and talk less. I say that because it seems like many members are unaware of elements of this long primary campaign. An example might be when someone DEMANDS that Senator Obama do something, when he already did so.
Demanding he name a VP when he said it was too eary to do so, seemed rude to me. I wonder, if the posters were "listening" would they "talk less" in their demading. As a reader it is disheartening. I tend to assume everyone knows about Senator Clinton's special interest lies, for instance. Do not they know, I think, that Senator and Bill Clinton have been telling their voters for months now that McCain is better than Obama.
Strange to me is the posts that keep suggesting VP's who did not endorse Senator Obama and endorse him quickly in the campaign. Even on the day it was announced that Senator Kennedy has a brain tumor, there was a post saying he needs to be Obama's VP. It was announced that Caroline (nee: Kennedy) is on Obama's committee to "vet" candidates, yet, I read posts here still suggesting she would be a great VP.
One of the reasons I choose to vote for Obama in my state's primary is that he traveled his state talking to citizens. He listens first. But he also had the courage to speech out about something that mattered even though it may have cost him his election in Illinois that year. That he did win, shows me that he is in touch with citizens and what they want from government. Listening to us being one of those things.
Who is Donah from Alexander City, AL? I wonder how he defines the word "love"?
I am sure people like Bill Clinton and Neil Bush love the money they make with their UAE (United Arab Empire) Dubai business partners. Neither man could be called "African/American". Chances are the Dubai Sheiks they do business with are Muslims.
I know exactly one African/American woman that was considering relocating to an Arab country. Not that she loves Arab Muslims, but because of the job opportunity. She wrote an article about it, but I do not think she was seriously considering it.
So this Donah character decides to get an account and use blogs provided for Senator Obama's supporters use to make a rather strange statement. It is hard to know what he is talking about. Like what Arab Muslim African/Americans are so in love with. Is it a new movie idol or pop singer I have not heard about yet?
Or is Donah one of those 13 year old pranksters that think they are cool 'cause they can blog here? Or maybe it is someone older under the influence of alcohol or drugs. Because what Donah wasted his time typing surely made no sense at all.
How dumb are people that they do not realize that they are messing with the government when they get an account at Senator Obama's campaign website. I wonder how many of these trolls who think they are being clever already have FBI files on them. One complaint to staff and they can track the IP address and find out their real name and street address.
That is the problem with hiring a 24 year old whiz kid to be in charge of the website. His restrictions at Face Book are more stringent than here. I guess he did not realize Obama's supporters needed that same kind of protection here. It would save a lot of staff time if they simply restricted use of tools to people who donate first. That would rid the site of the trolls.
Any information citizens want about Senator Obama is readily available without an account. They could learn more simply by reading, not posting the questions. Most often when they post a question it is not that they seek an answers. Just a sneaky way to flame.
Senator Obama thinks the majority of American people are "decent". He said in his June 3rd speech: "Americans are a decent, generous, compassionate people united by common challenges and common hopes..."
Yet what does that word "decent" mean? Is torture decent? Is getting an account at Senator Obama's campaign website to tell people who support him, that they do not and that they support candidates that approve of torture an example of being decent? I think not and can only hope Senator Obama has not overestimated how many decent people are US citizens.
According to Senator Clinton 18 million of them think lack of integrity is a good qualification for a president to possess. They voted for the Clintons who are lacking in moral fiber. Decent? Majority? Um...
"Americans are a decent, generous, compassionate people united by common challenges and common hopes..." Barack Obama
True or false? I do not consider Ku Klux Klan members "decent" nor "compassionate" and I most definitely am not united with them for common hopes. The exact opposite, I find them a challenge: how to rid the USA of the terrorist group forever. Anyone that flies a Confederate flag is also not "united". Nor are people who pit Democrats against Republicans.
"We may call ourselves Democrats and Repbulicans but we are Americans first, we are always American first.." Barack Obama
Senator Obama used to thank his Independent voter support often. Likewise he often spoke of those Republcian voters who switched to vote for him in the Democrat primary To support him fully. What is the common challenge and common hope? My desire is an end to corruption in DC; to elect people of integrity; people who represent me and my ideals. Not people who want to dictate to me. What are your challenges and hopes?
"I have found that this co-operation happens not because we agree upon everything.
but because behind all the false labels and false divisions and categories that define us~~~Americans are a decent, generous compassionate people united by common challenges and common hopes;
and every so often there are moments which call upon this fundamental goodness to make this country great again..." Barack Obama, June 3, 2008, St. Paul, Minnesota
