January 21, 2009 :: staff :: One Comment
Over 2 million people flooded the National Mall and surrounding streets at the heart of the nation’s capital to attend the Inauguration of Barack Obama as president of the United States. The unprecedented crowd, facing unprecedented security measures, gathered in good spirits to hear what was widely seen as the dawning of a new era. Obama himself said that citizenship carries the burden of responsibility for “shaping an uncertain destiny”.
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January 20, 2009 :: J.E. Robertson :: Comments Off
The hour is upon us, a new period in our history is about to open up before us, and we are called to shoulder the responsibilities of our aspirations, our needs and our freedoms. It is a serious undertaking, a task of noble and concerning difficulty, to be the change, the improvement, we demand, but so it is, and we have awakened to that complex, ethical and civic principle.
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January 19, 2009 :: Denver Lessing :: 2 Comments
Facing an economic crisis of historic proportions, and with the nation reeling from several years of soaring fuel prices, in the face of mounting risks from climate destabilization, President-elect Barack Obama may issue an executive order to require fuel-efficiency be raised on all new vehicles.
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January 19, 2009 :: staff :: Comments Off
Thailand has jailed an author for 3 years for “insulting” the king and crown prince in just one paragraph in a self-published novel that sold only 7 copies; Harry Nicolaides, an Australian, received the 3 year sentence, in part because he pled guilty, earning him a lower sentence. According to the Christian Science Monitor, “Most [...]
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January 19, 2009 :: J.E. Robertson :: Comments Off
The New York Times edition on this Sunday two days before the inauguration of Barack Obama as 44th president of the United States is a time-capsule, a probing glimpse of the nation at this pivotal moment in history. The president-elect’s road to inauguration is graced with stellar poll numbers, but also beset on all sides with crises and conflicts of daunting complexity.
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January 18, 2009 :: J.E. Robertson :: 2 Comments
Setting out from Philadelphia’s 30th Street Station, a special inaugural Amtrak train carried President-elect Obama and his wife to Wilmington, Delaware, where they would pick up VP-elect Joe Biden and his wife, and where both men would deliver addresses to the crowd gathered outside the station. The train tour would take them on to Baltimore and Washington, DC, and was designed to recreate the final stages of Pres. Abraham Lincoln’s 1861 journey to his inauguration.
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January 17, 2009 :: staff :: Comments Off
We began this train trip in Philadelphia earlier today. It is fitting that we did so — because it was there that our American journey began. It was there that a group of farmers and lawyers, merchants and soldiers, gathered to declare their independence and lay claim to a destiny that they were being denied.
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January 15, 2009 :: J.E. Robertson :: Comments Off
Eric Holder today told the Senate judiciary committee he views the practice known as ‘waterboarding’ as torture. That makes the ‘enhanced interrogation’ technique illegal under a number of US laws and international treaties, and Holder’s view —in keeping with those of the committee chair, Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT) and Pres.-elect Obama— raises the question as to whether he would seek to prosecute individuals in the outgoing administration who engaged in or ordered such practices.
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January 15, 2009 :: staff :: Comments Off
According to the Financial Times, “Susan Crawford, the Pentagon official responsible for convening the military commissions at Guantánamo, told the Washington Post that interrogators had “tortured” Mohammed al-Qahtani, the alleged 20th hijacker.” The finding puts serious pressure on the White House and outgoing Bush administration, as the president-elect has vowed he will reverse US policy [...]
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January 15, 2009 :: staff :: Comments Off
Always, and especially in the crucible of these global challenges, our overriding duty is to protect and advance America’s security, interests and values: First, we must keep our people, our nation and our allies secure. Second, we must promote economic growth and shared prosperity at home and abroad. Finally, we must strengthen America’s position of global leadership — ensuring that we remain a positive force in the world, whether in working to preserve the health of our planet or expanding dignity and opportunity for people on the margins whose progress and prosperity will add to our own.
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January 14, 2009 :: J.E. Robertson :: One Comment
Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY) appeared before the Senate foreign relations committee, Tuesday, in confirmation hearings for her nomination as secretary of State. Her preparation and the sweeping breadth of her responses to issues of major global import were widely praised, by members of both parties. She now appears to be headed for what leaders of both parties suggest will be a significant majority vote to approve her nomination.
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January 14, 2009 :: staff :: Comments Off
Citigroup forced to join with Morgan Stanley —which will hold 51% of shared assets— to hold onto Smith Barney, which accounts for 30% of its profits. Analysts suggest government of $45 billion to prop up massive bank now “underwater”, Citi will be forced to start selling assets. US retail sales fell by 2.7% last month, [...]
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January 12, 2009 :: staff :: Comments Off
Pres.-elect Barack Obama’s aides have told members of the press that he will in fact issue an executive order in the early days of his administration to close the Guantánamo Bay detention camp. Obama had said yesterday in an interview that he acknolwedges the closure will be complicated and will take some time; his aides have not specified how long the president-elect plans to take to close the facility or what plan he will enact to deal with the 250 people detained there, some of whom will likely face trial in US federal criminal courts.
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January 10, 2009 :: staff :: Comments Off
We start this new year in the midst of an economic crisis unlike any we have seen in our lifetime. We learned yesterday that in the past month alone, we lost more than half a million jobs – a total of nearly 2.6 million in the year 2008. Another 3.4 million Americans who want and need full-time work have had to settle for part-time jobs. And families across America are feeling the pinch as they watch debts mount, bills pile up and savings disappear.
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January 8, 2009 :: J.E. Robertson :: Comments Off
President-elect Barack Obama today announced his comprehensive economic recovery plan, warning that inaction could lead to a deepening and prolonged recession and double-digit figures of unemployment. Obama’s plan calls for a massive economic stimulus package, tax-cuts friendly to small businesses, and building a new economy through investment and innovation in healthcare, infrastructure and energy.
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January 8, 2009 :: staff :: One Comment
Obama decries “imprudent and dangerous decisions” as mistakes that led to current economic crisis, calls for end to “culture of anything goes” in business and in economic policy: “We start 2009 in the midst of a crisis unlike any we have seen in our lifetime – a crisis that has only deepened over the last few weeks. Nearly two million jobs have now been lost, and on Friday we are likely to learn that we lost more jobs last year than at any time since World War II. Just in the past year, another 2.8 million Americans who want and need full-time work have had to settle for part-time jobs. Manufacturing has hit a twenty-eight year low. Many businesses cannot borrow or make payroll. Many families cannot pay their bills or their mortgage. Many workers are watching their life savings disappear. And many, many Americans are both anxious and uncertain of what the future will hold.”
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January 6, 2009 :: staff :: Comments Off
US House and Senate sworn in for next terms; Obama names Panetta to head CIA; Israel hits UN school in Gaza, killing 40, Israel says it was responding to hostile fire, does not target schools; Nkunda reportedly outsed as Kivu rebel leader, denies ouster
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January 6, 2009 :: J.E. Robertson :: 3 Comments
In a dramatic scene in the heart of the nation’s capital, Roland Burris, the former Attorney General of the state of Illinois, recently named by embattled Gov. Rod Blagojevich, attempted to enter the Senate chamber to be sworn in and was blocked from entering, on a technicality related to his “paperwork” (his credentials were not signed by the Illinois secretary of state, for which there is no Constitutional requirement). The Minnesota seat that belongs to either Al Franken or Norm Coleman also remains unfilled, due to ongoing challenges.
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January 4, 2009 :: Denver Lessing :: Comments Off
As the economic downturn deepens, and job losses continue, with the Treasury moving tens of billions of dollars in “bridge loans” into Chrysler, GM and GMAC, in hopes of preventing the collapse of American manufacturing and the loss of millions more jobs, with banks desperate enough to “deal over debt” that credit-card holders can no longer pay, President-elect Barack Obama is reported to be planning an expansion of unemployment assistance.
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January 4, 2009 :: staff :: Comments Off
Radio & web address by President-elect Barack Obama, 3 January 2009 As the holiday season comes to end, we are thankful for family and friends and all the blessings that make life worth living. But as we mark the beginning of a new year, we also know that America faces great and growing challenges—challenges that [...]
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December 24, 2008 :: Denver Lessing :: Comments Off
Since the announcement of Gov. Blagojevich’s shocking insinuations, on recorded wiretaps, that he could or intended to sell the appointment to the Senate seat vacated by President-elect Obama, there has been speculation about whether any members of the transition team had contact with Blagojevich or might appear on the tapes. No allegation of any kind was made against any member of the transition, and the only “evidence” that had been included in the prosecutor’s court filings was that Blagojevich was angered by the unwillingness of anyone around Obama to participate.
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December 18, 2008 :: J.E. Robertson :: Comments Off
President-elect Barack Obama today named another three members of his overall economic team. Announcing appointments to financial regulatory positions, Obama pledged that “financial regulatory reform will be one of the top legislative priorities” in the early days of his administration. He spoke of the need to “crack down on the culture of greed and scheming that’s led us to this moment of reckoning”, warning repeatedly that failure to regulate properly has led to historic losses and a dangerously weak economic outlook.
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December 16, 2008 :: Denver Lessing :: Comments Off
President-elect Barack Obama today announced his choice for secretary of Education, Arne Duncan, chief executive officer for the Chicago Public Schools system. “Arne is the most hands-on” of public schools reformers, according to the president-elect, who said that “when faced with tough decisions, Arne doesn’t blink; he’s not beholden to any one ideology”, that he takes action and achieves significant systemic improvements. Duncan has been superintendent of the Chicago Public Schools for 7 years, in which time, he has achieved a number of surprising statistical improvements in a troubled system.
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December 11, 2008 :: J.E. Robertson :: One Comment
President-elect Barack Obama held a press conference today in Chicago to announce his choice for Health and Human Services secretary, former Democratic Senate majority leader Tom Daschle. Daschle is a top adviser to Obama and the two have made clear their commitment to ending the problem of underinsurance and the uninsured and making sure that no Americans go without treatment.
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December 10, 2008 :: J.E. Robertson :: One Comment
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), one of the United Nations’ founding charters, today marked 60 years since its official adoption. Promising the most sweeping raft of protections for human beings around the world, the document has long been controversial, as the major powers have each been accused of selectively enforcing the document’s provisions, according to their own governments’ ideologies or convenience.
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December 7, 2008 :: J.E. Robertson :: Comments Off
US president-elect Barack Obama pledged on Saturday, in his weekly radio and web address, to initiate a massive public works program to help create jobs, build a greener economy, restore US industrial relevance and spur economic growth. The plan announced by Obama would also require that states who participate in the massive investment in new and upgraded infrastructure use the money quickly or lose the funding.
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December 7, 2008 :: staff :: Comments Off
[W]e need action — and action now. That is why I have asked my economic team to develop an economic recovery plan for both Wall Street and Main Street that will help save or create at least two and a half million jobs, while rebuilding our infrastructure, improving our schools, reducing our dependence on oil, and saving billions of dollars. We won’t do it the old Washington way. We won’t just throw money at the problem. We’ll measure progress by the reforms we make and the results we achieve — by the jobs we create, by the energy we save, by whether America is more competitive in the world.
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December 1, 2008 :: J.E. Robertson :: Comments Off
President-elect Barack Obama, at an event in Chicago today, announced his entire top-level national security team. The team includes another bevy of “heavyweights”, with Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton named for secretary of State, Sec. of Defense Robert Gates to stay on, Eric Holder named for attorney general, Gov. Janet Napolitano for Homeland Security chief, Susan Rice for UN ambassador, and Gen. James Jones for national security adviser. VP-elect Joe Biden contextualized the nominations as right for “extraordinary times”.
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November 30, 2008 :: J.E. Robertson :: Comments Off
Throughout the siege of Mumbai, we have been hearing that India suspects the plot must have had its roots in Pakistan. Between Friday and Saturday, we began to hear Indian diplomats expressing concern that reflexive anger might cause people not to distinguish between Pakistan’s government and militant groups operating out of Pakistan. Now, we are seeing increasing concern that the attack could be designed to destabilize Pakistan itself and create an opportunity for Taliban-linked groups to seize control of some parts of the country.
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November 26, 2008 :: staff :: 2 Comments
Today, I’m pleased to announce the formation of a new institution to help our economic team accomplish these goals: the President’s Economic Recovery Advisory Board. This Board is modeled on the President’s Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board created by President Eisenhower to provide rigorous analysis and vigorous oversight of our intelligence community by individuals outside of government — individuals who would be candid and unsparing in their assessment. This new board will perform a similar function for my Administration as we formulate our economic policy.
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November 26, 2008 :: Denver Lessing :: Comments Off
President-elect Barack Obama, in his third press conference in as many days, has announced a new entity, the independent Economic Recovery Advisory Board (ERAB), to be headed by former Fed chairman Paul Volcker. ERAB will include individuals from government, private business, organized labor and academia, pooling the knowledge and analysis of individuals with a wealth of experience and who are not bound by being employees of the president, in order to get the best advice for weathering the storm.
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November 24, 2008 :: staff :: Comments Off
President-elect Barack Obama has officially named a team of top economic officials and advisors which has been well-received by political leaders, market analysts and the press. Timothy Geithner, president of the New York Federal Reserve Bank, will serve as Secretary of the Treasury, while former Treasury secretary and onetime Harvard president Lawrence Summers will serve as chief of the National Economic Council.
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November 23, 2008 :: staff :: One Comment
President-elect Barack Obama said yesterday in his weekly radio address —now also a video staple on YouTube— he has already tasked his economic team “to come up with an economic recovery plan that will mean 2.5 million more jobs by January 2011″. Obama has long pledged he would incentivize development of a green-energy economy, as a response to the imperatives of economic sustainability, job-creation and reduced environmental impact. The president-elect added that “it will be a two-year, nationwide effort to jumpstart job-creation”, ostensibly a first building-block in what may be a broader economic recovery, which he hopes will be in full swing before the end of his first term.
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November 23, 2008 :: J.E. Robertson :: Comments Off
The media are ablaze with speculation about whether President-elect Obama will be able to “control the Clintons”, whether his stature is so monumental and secure, after an admittedly meteoric rise, that the vanquished senator from New York will devotedly voice his foreign policy and look good doing it, whether the White House will be infiltrated by “re-treads” from the Clinton years, whether the socialist bailouts of George W. Bush’s own red October are enough to give Obama a pass on the anti-supply-side dictates of a potentially necessary “new New Deal”.
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November 19, 2008 :: J.E. Robertson :: One Comment
President-elect Barack Obama is reported to be filling out his cabinet with prominent and experienced appointees. Some critics are already alleging ther are too many “Washington insiders” getting positions, but the transition team insists there is a new tone being set and these individuals will be ideally positioned to effect key reforms. Former Senate majority leader Tom Daschle (D-SD) has been offered the post of Secretary of Health and Human Services, and has reportedly accepted. Longtime Justice official and Obama aide Eric Holder is expected to get the nomination to serve as attorney general.
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November 18, 2008 :: staff :: Comments Off
Rumors have been swirling for a little under a week that Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY) has been offered the position of Secretary of State by her former rival, the US president-elect Barack Obama. Now, the Guardian newspaper is reporting, even as msot media continue to focus on the vetting of former Pres. Bill Clinton’s financial dealings, that “Hillary Clinton plans to accept the job of secretary of state offered by Barack Obama”.
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November 17, 2008 :: staff :: Comments Off
Obama/McCain: “At this defining moment in history, we believe that Americans of all parties want and need their leaders to come together and change the bad habits of Washington so that we can solve the common and urgent challenges of our time. It is in this spirit that we had a productive conversation today about the need to launch a new era of reform…”
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November 17, 2008 :: J.E. Robertson :: Comments Off
Just a couple of years ago, the conventional wisdom dictated that financial minds must view “green technology” as pie in the sky, an unaffordable idealistic quest for something beyond the “easy” solution of endless oil. Then, almost overnight, the financial markets discovered that oil was not infinite, that the entire US economy was beholden to the pricing whims of an international cartel —this was long known, but tolerated—, and failure to go green could cripple the world’s most powerful democracy.
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November 14, 2008 :: J.E. Robertson :: One Comment
President-elect Barack Obama’s healthcare proposal, as laid out, aims to expand availability of safe generic prescriptions drugs, in order to bring down costs across the system and help secure full treatment for all Americans. High prescription-drug costs inflate insurance premiums and often determine whether patients will receive adequate treatment for sometimes serious health conditions. A prescription-drug plan, passed by George W. Bush, in concert with a bipartisan coalition in the then Republican-controlled Congress, aimed to help increase availability, but was not aggressive in reducing costs.
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November 14, 2008 :: J.E. Robertson :: 3 Comments
Critics have sought to characterize President-elect Obama’s healthcare proposal as “socialized medicine”, despite its relying almost entirely on market dynamics and the private sector. Government spending is considered to be one area where Obama’s plan could be unacceptable to fiscal conservatives, though Obama’s fiscal policy is largely in line with conservative fiscal policy and aims to cover new spending with spending cuts elsewhere. New analysis suggests there is already money to cover his plan and to reach near universal coverage with a few workable adjustments in current legislation.
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November 11, 2008 :: J.E. Robertson :: One Comment
The “conservative movement” in America is struggling to understand its most important setback in a generation, in part because its worldview takes for granted that what has happened simply cannot be real. In today’s New York Times, David Brooks writes about the growing rift between the conservative “Traditionalists” and the “Reformers”. He suggests the traditionalists, who say their losses come from not clinging firmly enough to the tax-cutting, slash government, immigration-crackdown agenda, will prevail in coming years, due to institutional entrenchment.
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November 10, 2008 :: staff :: Comments Off
President-elect Barack Obama has been welcomed by Pres. Bush as the two confer on the work of governing, the process of transition, the inner workings of the residence and security issues. It is Obama’s 8th trip to the White House, his first to the Oval Office itself. Reuters reports that Bush and Obama “were expected to discuss the global financial crisis, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and other challenges the Republican president will bequeath to his Democratic successor”.
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November 10, 2008 :: J.E. Robertson :: One Comment
To understand the relevance and virtues of Barack Obama’s economic vision, we have to look at the long history of struggle between American laissez-faire capitalism and American middle-class capitalism. We are on the verge of what is likely to be a comprehensive philosophical shift in economic policy toward generative investment, which means counting as economic imperatives the resilience and productive expansion of the positive bases of economic growth, i.e. human and environmental health and well-being, resource-density and cyclical models of resource use and reproduction.
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November 7, 2008 :: J.E. Robertson :: 4 Comments
Barack Obama’s election victory, making him 44th president of the United States, was resounding not only for its historic significance, not only because the nation faces monumental crises and is calling for serious reform at a potential turning point in political trends, but because mathematically, it was decisive. Obama carried at least 28 states —with Missouri still in recounts—, won more than 65.1 million votes —nearly 8 million more than McCain—, and if McCain takes Missouri and the one unassigned Nebraska vote, his Electoral College margin is 364 to 174.
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November 7, 2008 :: J.E. Robertson :: One Comment
The Republican party has seen virtually every one of its over-arching policy assumptions discredited or rejected, in the 2006 and 2008 elections. It now faces an historic challenge, to reinvent itself in a climate where the other party dominates both houses of Congress and has elected a popular new president by a wide margin. The campaign of Sen. John McCain struggled to overcome the Obama message, in part because it was relying on the assumption that specific Republican party platform planks were the political ideas most en vogue with the electorate, when they were in fact at odds with current economic and political reality.
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November 6, 2008 :: J.E. Robertson :: 5 Comments
Sen. Barack Obama, as president-elect, now faces the daunting task of staging a transition from campaign to governing, and from the Bush years to the Obama years, in what must be the most artful and adroit performance of the task seen in decades. Facing two wars, looming multifaceted economic crisis, and the need to overhaul national energy policy and fight environmental degradation on an unprecedented scale, Obama is faced not just with forming a cabinet and White House team, but formulating a strategy for enacting the change he has promised in a time of historic difficulty.
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November 5, 2008 :: J.E. Robertson :: One Comment
I have long felt, as so many Americans do, a profound emotional attachment to the ideals we always speak of when we talk about our founding revolution, our enlightened democracy, our progress toward a freer and more just world. And I have always aspired to see those ideals put on display, not just by an historic moment, but by the collective awareness of millions of impassioned American citizens. This moment in history is a sea change in our collective mindset, and a victory for all Americans.
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November 5, 2008 :: staff :: One Comment
If there is anyone out there who still doubts that America is a place where all things are possible; who still wonders if the dream of our founders is alive in our time; who still questions the power of our democracy, tonight is your answer. It’s the answer told by lines that stretched around schools and churches in numbers this nation has never seen; by people who waited three hours and four hours, many for the very first time in their lives, because they believed that this time must be different; that their voice could be that difference.
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November 5, 2008 :: J.E. Robertson :: Comments Off
Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) has defeated Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) to become the 44th president of the United States of America. Around 11pm Eastern Time, American news media and wire services began projecting that enough states would deliver their Electoral College votes to Obama to make him president-elect. Shortly afterward, Sen. John McCain phoned his rival to congratulate him on his historic victory. Sen. Obama is the first African American to win the presidency of the United States.
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