Obamania, For Real
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There's a rather touching image of Obama practising for the oath taken by Callie Shell of Time magazine.
While it borders on the obvious cliche, I still found this image pretty strikingDirck Halstead gives a good background to Callie Shell at Digital Journalist
Four years ago Time photographer Callie Shell met Barack Obama backstage when she was covering presidential candidate John Kerry. She sent her editor more photographs of Obama than Kerry. When asked why, she said, "I do not know. I just have a feeling about him. I think he will be important down the road." Her first photo essay on Obama was two and half years ago. She has stuck with him ever since.
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And George Mitchell, US Special Envoy to Nothern Ireland for the last 13 years, and an active participant in the peace process there, has been named Obama's Middle East envoy.
That has to come in as one of the most difficult jobs in the world right now.
Hope he's getting well paid.
Agreed Craig. TDS breathed oxygen from the absurdities of the Bush years. Is Jon Stewart going to spend the next 4 years doing skits on writer's block?
John Stewart has been doing the daily show for 10 years now - as of last week I think.
It wouldn't surprise me if he does a couple more years, maybe a term, and then lets it go after 2012.
He is absolutely at the height of his powers however. C4 should have moved it to prime time some time last year.
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I like this photo.
It needs a caption along the lines of "So long. Thanks for coming. Don't come back."
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Joe, I'm hopin rectitude isn't some kind of euphemism..
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Gepetto shuffles off to Wyoming in a wheelchair, Pinocchio's packed off to Texas. Pity, really - I'd kind of hoped they'd end up together as an exhibit in some kind of creationist museum, next to the sodomites 'n stegosaurus.
Genius worthy of repeating. Love it.
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I'm hopin rectitude isn't some kind of euphemism..
I always thought it was an abreviation: Rectitude = Rectal Attitude.
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I feared it was more along the lines of get the devil behind thee..
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A happy toddler.
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Apparently the Presidential oath of office has been retaken.
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The Australian's dreadful Janet Albrechtsen has the latest winger talking points:
However, the inauguration is just a moment in history. While Obama’s toastmaster skills are exceptional, his performance as President is an entirely different and more uncertain matter. Yet if the liberal media’s performance to date is any guide, predetermined judgments in favour of Obama will infect coverage of his presidency.
"Toastmaster skills". O rly.
Of course, building and running a revolutionary presidential campaign out of nowhere, and entering office with 80% approval ratings doesn't count for these folks.
But me, I'm loving the clarity and decisiveness of the early presidential announcements -- and especially his first executive order and what it portends for transparency and the rule of law:
Two days after his 1993 inauguration, Bill Clinton barred senior appointees from leaving and then, at any time in the next five years, lobbying former colleagues in the agency where they had worked. He reversed the order a month before leaving office, as aides complained of difficulty finding jobs.
Obama's order applies more broadly to "every appointee in every executive agency," barring them from leaving and then lobbying any other executive branch official or senior appointee for the remainder of his administration. The rule also bars new officials from making policy on any matter involving their former employer or clients for a period of two years, or from working at an agency they lobbied within the past two years. "We should never forget that we are here as public servants," Obama said.
The reason he probably won't suffer Clinton's fate is that there will be plenty of smart people who won't see this work as a chance to cash in later, but as a chance to make history.
Of course, a claim to have made history is something you can cash in on on for the rest of your life ...
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A completely insane post by Glenn "Instapundit" Reynolds:
But Barack Obama’s election allows Americans to feel better about themselves, for electing him President. Chesley Sullenberger’s accomplishment, on the other hand, stresses the benefits of hard work, experience, and coolness under pressure — things that require effort, and that might make Americans feel worse about themselves to the extent that they realize that they might not measure up. That’s why Sullenberger’s triumph is an old-fashioned one, and Obama’s is tailor-made for the 21st Century.
On the other hand, there are reasons for Americans to feel good in the Flight 1549 story, too:
So Obama's purty and all that, but he's not as good as that pilot that landed the plane in the river, who is a much better American. If there is any sense in which this is a rational comparison, it's completely lost on me.
Roy Edroso rounds up more rightblogger reactions.
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WANT!!!
Bwah! I don't know who that is, but I do not believe it is Obama.
I love the one of him facing off with Darth Vader, though. 'Mr Cheney? Is that you under there?'
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As Leonard Cohen so aptly put tonight, "Democracy has come to the USA"...... Shit that was one gooood concert. :)
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As Leonard Cohen so aptly put tonight
Yeah, rub it in.
On the subject of how, oh heavens how is Jon Stewart going to cope with the new Obama order and the instantaneous disappearance of anything that can be made fun of in the world, day one went brilliantly.
"Ladies and Gentlemen, Beethoven!"
It was an excellent episode.
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John Oliver's piece filmed on the Mall - was classic laugh out loud funny. Tapped into the hype - and the discussion about comparing this to moon landing - superb.
Indeed an excellent episode.
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Days into his presidency, he does what his speech declared and closes Guantanamo and bans torture. I see idiotsavant's asking whether there'll be prosecutions, I think he's right, but at least this is a step in the right direction. It'll be interesting to hear what the former inmate David Hicks, now free from his protection order a month or more , says when he eventually speaks...
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It'll be interesting to hear what the former inmate David Hicks, now free from his protection order a month or more , says when he eventually speaks...t
Apparently Hicks wrote poetry while in his Taliban phase. I saw a snatch somewhere, it included the line "there blows the beagle" - rhymed with eagle. He meant bugle.
While it'd be interesting to hear his story, I fear he's no wordsmith.
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While it'd be interesting to hear his story, I fear he's no wordsmith.
No, I don't think he'll be eloquent in the slightest, but I do hope he does provide another version of the story. The government narrative is obscene and needs to be challenged. His military lawyer, Michael Mori, was a great advocate - and very well spoken.
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The Howard Government's supine disinterest in Hicks's plight was shameful. All the more reason that his story gets heard.
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If only it were limited to supine disinterest!
Howard was active in his advocacy against Hicks declaring him a terrorist without trial, evidence or verifiable information. Howard's sycophancy was condemned here, by some but not all, but rewarded in the US (by Bush awarding him the Freedom medal days before Obama's inauguration).
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I love the I/S take on Bush's departure:
And so a village in Texas gets its idiot back. Couldn't they have reclaimed him sooner?
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As Leonard Cohen so aptly put tonight, "Democracy has come to the USA"......
Oh, ballocky bullshit, Sofie. What happened was the peaceful, orderly transfer of power which has been going on in the United States for over two and a quarter centuries.
Now Mr Cohen might want to share his stellar insights into what it would take to bring some democracy back to Canada.
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Oh, ballocky bullshit, Sofie. What happened was the peaceful, orderly transfer of power which has been going on in the United States for over two and a quarter centuries.
I think Leonard always had his tongue in his cheek a bit with that song.
But OTOH, I think it's quite viable to say that a degree of democracy has been restored to the USA by the events of the past 48 hours.
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the peaceful, orderly transfer of power
Yeh, like their 2000 election..
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