Its Election Day (finally!)
and no matter where you stand, get informed, get to the poll and VOTE!
For more information on who you are voting for and where to vote click here.
Now, enjoy Ray Charles singing my favorite rendition of American The Beautiful, live from the Dick Cavett show 
This is amazing! It must have taken someone a long time to pull these clips together on beat, but the result are well worth it. Check out our President “singing” “Im Sexy And I Know It” made popular by LMFAO. You can click here to see the LMFAO version which is one of the funniest videos of recent times in itself.
Wow. So on the heals of the healthcare debate wrapping up Obama drops another bomb…announcing a new energy plan thatproposes opening areas off the shores of the US for speculating for oil. Very interesting for a couple reason…
First, it contradicts what he campaigned for. While his press secretaries are trying to spin it like he has always been for drilling, this is just a recent development (see the State of the Union in January when he first announced this in a big way). During his campaign he definitely stated he was not for this though (see this statement from June 2008)
Second, its unclear what the political motives were behind it.
Part of me says it was a bad political move because if he did this to throw a bone to conservatives after the healthcare uprising then that was stupid because 1) hes not going to win them over because their biggest problem is him, not his legislation (which is clear because any conservative who actually studies healthcare will actually realize that what passed is very similar to what Mitt Romney created in Massachusetts), and 2) in throwing this bone he pissed off one of his strongest group of supporters which are young people and environmentalists. I honestly think they dont care much about the enviros or young people however because they have the “well who else are they going to vote for, republicans?” attitude towards those groups.
The other part of me says it was a good move. It makes it seem like Obama is reaching across the aisle on an issue important to Republicans (oil, money, jobs) while allowing him to be strong on national security (by touting this as a way to make the US more energy independent and to stop sending money to the Middle East). On the Democratic end, while this may seem like a loss at first glance, it may not be. The places he opened up for exploration off shore are actually areas where there isnt supposed to be a ton of oil available and are not the areas the are most ecologically sensitive. He’s also giving the green light on an oil exploration project that will take 10-15 years to happen which is more than enough time for other legislation to be passed that develops clean energy. So in reality, this is a short term, superficial give to the Republicans that really wont do much harm.
So thats my take, what do you think???
Perhaps you haven’t heard, but there has been an intense debate raging on over healthcare in this country
This has been a hot issue for…oooooh, about 30-40 years…but since the 2008 election campaigns its been THE issue. So now that the big healthcare bill has passed, why are people still so angry?
Frank Rich from the New York Times provides his ideas as to why, and I think this is a great analysis. Check it out here.
(by the way, I had to order the shirt below just for historical reasons…love it!)
as i flew in to DC on my 4th flight from kenya i ended up getting a fantastic view of the mall where the inauguration was about to go down. it was also my first glimpse at the frigid weather that was waiting for me and the shorts i was wearing on the flight because all two of the pants i brought to kenya were trashed. brilliant move. DC was like 8 degrees.
saturday night had a nice time at willies inauguration party. sunday i met up with jake and jen tapper and headed to maureen dowds house for a little get together. it was a odd crowd to say the least. i spent most the time in her dining room and living room which was crammed with random folks that included tom hanks, george lucas, anderson cooper, andrea mitchell, alan greenspan, brian williams, jon favreau, doris kearns goodwin, luke russert, and others.
afterwards i headed to the declare yourself inauguration party that had live performances from john legend, maroon 5, jamie foxx, jessica alba and samantha ronson (with her loyal lohan sidekick).
monday night i was all set to go to the huffington post party only for my jet lag to kick in full force. i ended up falling asleep at 4pm and waking up at 11pm ensuring i missed the party. sweet.
that ended up not being the worst thing in the world because we were up at 7am to head to the mall to attend the official inauguration. the event was a claustrophobes worst nightmare. we were pinned into a small bin and for 5 hours werent allowed to move. the event was amazing though. to be surrounded by millions of people who were all in a celebratory mindset and were feeling the emotions of hope and inspiration was amazing. i was truly moved by the experience and it was certainly a life moment i will never forget.
Wonder if obamas press people know he’s gracing the cover of nairobis tv guide?
The answer is for work and because I’m a lucky SOB!
The purpose of this trip to film a service project which will be used in MTV’s Inauguration special on January 20 (live at 10pm on MTV). The basic premise of the show on Jan 20 is to highlight and encourage service. We saw record setting involvement of young peeps during the 2008 Presidential elections and in an effort to keep that momentum going, we want to highlight some cool ways young people are getting involved in hopes of inspiring people to stay active or take action for the first time. We will be filming live on inauguration night from Obama’s Presidential Inauguration Committees official “Youth Ball”. During this live event there will be performances by Kanye West, Rihanna, and Fall Out Boy, President Obama will come and share some assumingly inspirational remarks directed towards youth people, and we will highlight 3 service projects currently underway. One is taking place in DC to fix up a school in partnership with Service Nation, one in New Orleans with The Lower Ninth Ward Project to help rebuild a home destroyed by Hurricane Katrina, and lastly the project I am working on which is to build a computer lab at a school in Kenya in partnership with Millennium Promise.
Per Millennium Promise’s website, “Africa has the greatest proportion of people living in extreme poverty- more than 40 percent or roughly 300 million people living on less than $1 a day. With rural communities stuck in a poverty trap, they’re unable to make the investments in human capital and infrastructure required to achieve self-sustaining economic growth. The Millennium Villages project, organized by Dr. Jeffrey Sachs, offers a bold, holistic model for helping rural African communities lift themselves out of extreme poverty by focusing on agriculture, health, education and infrastructure.”
For our project, we will work with the Millennium Villages Project in Lihanda, Kenya – about 20km from the western village of Nyangoma-Kogelo where Obama’s father grew up and where his grandmother still lives (what a beautiful tie in for the inauguration night, right?). We will help create a computer lab at Omindo Primary School, which will give young Kenyans some of the tools they need to expand their education and get connected to the rest of the world. Once completed, the new lab will provide computers and Internet access to over 400 students that attend the school as well as the thousands of others living in the village.
Im traveling on the trip with Sean (producer), Steve and Jordan (cameras) and Tim (host).
