NYTimes Obama's Voting Record with over 800 Bills Sponsored

Graphic of the 800 bills, broken down into Crime, Health Care, Economy, Education, Ethics, Etc. Showing his strong and persistent record of public advocacy and proving his words match his actions.

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Obama Supporters Put Their $$$ Where Their Mouth Is.

Over 1,400,000 Obama Supporters have given to his campaign for the nomination of the Democratic party. The established media spins the question of "whether Obama is electable" because of his "loss" in PA though he closed the gap (which had been huge/) Let's note: Clinton's campaign is in serious debt while Obama's supporters continue to send in small donations - like the "$5 on 5/5, Cinco de Mayo, Cinco de B.O." concept found here: http://my.barackobama.com/page/event/detail/4rrjzHis Grassroots Fundraising Committee is hard at work, and while considerably more money is coming from individual donors acting on their own, the unprecedented numbers tell the tale: more people are actively supporting this candidate than any other in history.

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Philadelphia Weekly: We want Barack Obama to be president.

Philadelphia Weekly endorses Obama for president. Among the reasons they give for their endorsement: the way Obama managed the latest controversy as well as the one about his pastor showed that "standing up is what Obama does best."

The choice has never been more clear: there are old-school self-serving politicians who will attack the least thing an opponent says in an attempt to focus attention on negative, divisive sound-bites, or there is a new opportunity to elect a candid, bold, honest man who has a track record of service, commitment, and honesty.

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Is Obama 'Elitist' and 'Out of Touch' About Religion?

Frank Schaeffer, son of a pastor and lifelong Republican, shows how if Obama isn't in touch with religious America, no one is. The fallout generated from this whole bittergate thing is just amazing. The press prefers this to issues, and ignores that his competitors are considerably more insulated that he is, while repeating that "elitist" word as though we all want an idiot who never finished college for president.

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...our life here is eternally fresh

Nothing lasts forever.

Nothing lasts forever.
No one lives forever.
Keep that in mind, and love.

Our life is not the same old burden.
Our path is not the same long journey.

The flower fades and dies.
We must pause to weave perfection in the music.
Keep that in mind, and love.

Love droops toward its sunset.
We drown in the golden shadows;
Love must be called from its play.
Love must be born again to be free.
Keep that in mind, and love.

Let us hurry to gather our flowers
Before they are plundered by the passing winds.
It quickens our blood and brightens our eyes
To snatch kisses that would vanish if we delayed

Our life is eager,
Our desires are keen,
For time rolls by.
Keep that in mind, and love.

Beauty is sweet for a short time
And then it is gone.
Knowledge is precious,
but we will never have time to complete it.
All is done and finished in eternal heaven

But our life here is eternally fresh.
Keep that in mind, and love.

~ Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941)

Bengali poet Rabindranath Tagore. also known as Bhanushingho, received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1913, the first time it was awarded to an Asian. Philosopher, artist, playwright, composer, and novelist, he soon became the best known voice of India's spiritual heritage in his time, touring widely.

A contemporary of Ghandi, in 1919 he resigned his knighthood after the "incident in Jallian Wala Bagh," which came to be known as the Amritsar Massacre, in protest of British policies and to draw attention to the atrocity that had been perpetrated in a Punjab city.

I was wise enough to never grow up while fooling most people into believing I had.

A handful of quotes, to start you thinking:

"If we are to achieve a richer culture, rich in contrasting values, we must recognize the whole gamut of human potentialities, and so weave a less arbitrary social fabric, one in which each diverse human gift will find a fitting place."

"Never doubt that a small group of committed people can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has."

"For the very first time the young are seeing history being made before it is censored by their elders."

"Instead of being presented with stereotypes by age, sex, color, class, or religion, children must have the opportunity to learn that within each range, some people are loathsome and some are delightful."

"We are now at a point where we must educate our children in what no one knew yesterday, and prepare our schools for what no one knows yet."

Those are all thoughts from one insightful anthropologist, Margaret Mead. If you don't know who she is, obviously you should. What about these next four names... do they ring any bells? Do you know why they matter?

• Bob Geldorf
  
• Betty Williams
  
• Peter Benenson
  
• Nelson Mandela

I hope you recognize at least one from that list. In each case, their story is how one person who cares can matter immensely - how one person, moved to act, can change the world. The following video, from Nickelback, may help you understand. They get it.

Do you?

Memphis, Tennesee, April 4th, 1968

A patriot with a hopeful dream was shot and killed, fighting for freedom, truth, justice, and the rights of all citizens of the United States of America to be treated equally. "The time is always right to do what is right." Nearly 200 years earlier, patriots had penned a document that gave rise to a new, unique nation.

The Declaration of Independence of the Thirteen Colonies
In CONGRESS, July 4, 1776

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America,

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness...

[read the entire Declaration of Independence]

"We've been warned against offering the people of this nation false hope. But in the unlikely story that is America, there has never been anything false about hope."

~ Senator Barack Obama

"Isn't segregation an existential expression of man's tragic separation, an expression of his awful estrangement, his terrible sinfulness?"

~ Martin Luther King, Jr., 1963

---

It is difficult to convey to those who were not present at the time, just how turbulent the year 1968 was for those of us in the U.S.A. One can cite assassinations and riots, or talk about the mood, the palpable acrimony that seemed to seize nearly everyone. Passions ran hot, and blood spilled - not just in the U.S., but half-way around the globe in the war-torn nation of Viet Nam.

At a time when we were, ostensibly, trying to come together, it seemed the divisions had never been more pronounced. Each of us who lived through, and recalls, those times bears a certain number of wounds - for like it or not, the events of 1968 touched and shaped us all without reference to our beliefs or the color of our skin, they set us on the course we have followed ever since. In some cases, we have scars; for others the wounds are still vivid, real, and open.

We must not forget. For the sake of our children, we dare not.



"Early morning, April 4,

A shot rings out in the Memphis sky.

'Free at last,' they took your life,

But they could not take your pride."

~ U2