Posts Tagged Barack Obama
Twenty Promises Barack Obama Made to America
written 20 Jan 2009 well into the night
I haven’t been writing here all that much lately, much perhaps to your RSS feeders delight. I simply found myself complaining about things more often than anything else, aside from the fact that I’ve been traveling so much and writing about those adventures on my other site. I have been mostly writing the occasional bit of prose here, with the hope that those short stories can inspire a little happiness rather than fuel the fires of anti-Bush, anti-progress that burn brightly enough in other places more poignant than my own. Today I’m going to break from my new trend of sticking to descriptive prose, however, and make a simple list.
I’m making this list simply because I feel that Barack Obama has a lot on his plate, and I hold him to clean that plate. Many people have mentioned that there is too much for him to do, and he can only do so much. But he has promised us to do exactly that: so much. And anything short of that will just be another Presidency, which is not what we’re after, which is not what we all did so much to get him elected.
So here it is, my list, Twenty Promises Barack Obama Made to America on this Inauguration Day.
- Optimism will lead us.
- An end to small arguments and lies, and meaningless words.
- We’ll remake America as a great country, out of the ashes of the past 8 years.
- We’ll rebuild the economy.
- Create new jobs building roads, bridges, and high tech gear to bind us together.
- Give science it’s rightful place, not as something to be feared, but used to help humanity.
- Use technology to improve health care and lower it’s costs.
- We’ll use our natural, renewable resources – sun, wind and soil, not oil – to fuel our lives.
- Transform our learning institutions to become as great as they need to be.
- Eliminate failing government programs and expand those that work.
- Hold the government accountable for spending our money.
- Focus not on our economy’s growth for growth’s sake, but for it’s impact on every person’s quality of life.
- Re-establish America as a peaceful leader of the world.
- Re-establish and protect our individual freedoms instead of handing them over in fear.
- Leave Iraq.
- Make peace with Afghanistan.
- Help any Third World country who wants it to improve their farms and clean their waters, to help them with their health and their education.
- Stop America’s excessive use of resources.
- Hold every American responsible to help ensure these ideals go forward.
- That all of the items above will happen.
I say we hold him as responsible to them all as I hope he holds us, and we hold ourselves, to #19.
More Posts in This Archive
Obama to Make Technology a Hub, not Just a Spoke
According to NPR, Obama plans to seriously overhaul some technological aspects of the government and everyday American’s lives as well. He specifically mentioned hiring a Chief Technical Officer to coordinate government IT departments and making certain they’re using the best technology, to put government affairs online so that citizens can review what’s being spent on what and other decisions, and ensuring that everyone in the nation has access to broadband Internet.
Read more on Obama to Make Technology a Hub, not Just a Spoke…
What Will Barack Obama Save First?
Now that the election is finally over we can all breathe again, but only for about two months. The world is expecting quite a bit from our new famed leader, and he has effectively promised us salvation. Now all that we can do is wait until he smites George Bush, presumably with some type of fire and/or brimstone, and try and guestimate what our new President will save first. Here are my top picks:
“Don’t Spread the Wealth Around!” Who are these people?
I hear clips of McCain rallies, and when the people aren’t shouting absurd idiocies about Arabs or making threats on a Presidential Candidates life, I hear a lot of people cheering when McCain says that he doesn’t want to spread the wealth around.
Read more on “Don’t Spread the Wealth Around!” Who are these people?…
My Entire Adult Life Has Been Lived Under George W. Bush
I distinctly remember not voting in the 2000 Presidential Election. I was 21 years old and lived in a studio apartment with two room mates and thousands of roaches. The past couple of years worth of media had been all about how Clinton was a bad person for having sex with an Intern, bad enough to be ousted from his position as leader of the free world, so politics in general didn’t exactly put a spark in my eye. And frankly, as a college kid, I was more concerned with how I was going to make my paycheck stretch from beer to beer than with the state of squabbling between two old guys who wanted to live in a white house.
Read more on My Entire Adult Life Has Been Lived Under George W. Bush…
On Politics: Lies, Damn Lies and Fox News
So I enjoyed, very much, watching Barack Obama give his speech last night. Now, don’t get me wrong, I love as much as the next guy the sweeping, dramatically colorized, superhero stance and big smile pictures of Obama, and if he were passing out Kool Aid, I’d gladly drink it, however — what I was mostly impressed with was the fact that he gave specifics as to what he planned to do while President. That’s something that I’d never heard George Bush, John Kerry or John McCain do. Anyone who can’t tell you exactly what they’re doing is probably either lacking a plan or dishonest. Ambiguity is the main weapon of the liar.
And in this Ring: Democratic Vice Presidential Contenders
Congress.org reports that the top three likely picks for Obama’s Vice President are Tim Kaine, Joe Biden and Evan Bayh. Still being young enough to be politically minded but old enough to also want to know a few facts, I thought I’d turn to the Internet’s top research facility: perezhilton.com er, I mean, Wikipedia. I’ve included a short list of what I’ve found here:
Read more on And in this Ring: Democratic Vice Presidential Contenders…
Obama Cinches Democratic Nomination, Tristan Finds out First
A Wired News feed in my Gmail tells me that Obama has finally become the Democratic Presidential Candidate, and as I click on the link to read the details I mention it to my son, Tristan, who I’ve been explaining the election process and my affinity towards Obama vs. Hillary or that old guy, etc.
Read more on Obama Cinches Democratic Nomination, Tristan Finds out First…
Obama on the Weekend
I’m incredibly excited about voting on Tuesday. I’ve never said that before in my life. When it came time to vote for Kerry a few years ago, it wasn’t that I was excited about the prospect of him becoming the next President, but that I was horrified by the idea of four more years of Bush. I’d even venture out on a limb and say this is excited anyone’s been about elections since the days of Bon Jovi acoustically rocking the vote.
On Saturday past, a beautiful shiner of a day where fathers fixed their boy’s bikes, moms power walked with their strollers leading the way and singles everywhere had their dogs pull them around the neighborhoods, my doorbell rings (somewhat hilariously as the door was already open.) A 20-something kid with corn rows and a dapper shirt that managed to convey the message, “You have no idea if I’m going to manage a local farmer’s market or break out my surfboard and hang ten, do you?” appeared in the door frame. The man’s mission was singular, visiting door to door to see if my neighborhood’s denizens could be counted on to support Obama.
I assured him that I would be voting in his direction and the guy thanked me and moved on. The visit had nothing to do with my decision, I was going to vote Obama anyway, but I’ll tell you that no one from Hillary’s camp came my way, and it was recognized.
More on Politics: “Change” vs. Hillary
Following this week’s string of politically influenced posts, I thought I’d mention something of interest which I’d noticed while writing yesterday’s post about the Democratic Party’s website. Keep in mind that this isn’t the website of either of the party’s presidential candidates, but the entire party’s site.
Democrats seem to love splash pages, with both Obama and Hillary having a similar “Join us” message when first visiting their site, a theme which follows through the democrats.org. I couldn’t help but notice, however, that on the Democratic Party’s splash page they feature two squares: one for each of the main candidates right now. But if you look at the signage there you’ll notice that while Hillary’s campaign signs scream here name as the main piece of content, Barack’s favor the word “change”, with his name being completely absent from the signs themselves.
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