don't interrupt

If we can't have Jed Bartlet...

"Americans need real change."

We may not know the final outcome of today's voting until morning, but the results so far make one thing clear.

When the dust settles from today's contests, we will maintain our substantial lead in delegates. And thanks to millions of people standing for change, we will keep adding delegates and capture the Democratic nomination.

We knew from the day we began this journey that the road would be long. And we knew what we were up against.

We knew that the closer we got to the change we seek, the more we'd see of the politics we're trying to end -- the attacks and distortions that try to distract us from the issues that matter to people's lives, the stunts and the tactics that ask us to fear instead of hope.

But this time -- this year -- it will not work. The challenges are too great. The stakes are too high.

Americans need real change.

In the coming weeks, we will begin a great debate about the future of this country with a man who has served it bravely and loves it dearly. And we will offer two very different visions of the America we see in the twenty-first century.

John McCain has already dismissed our call for change as eloquent but empty.

But he should know that it's a call that did not begin with my words. It's the resounding call from every corner of this country, from first-time voters and lifelong cynics, from Democrats and Republicans alike.

And together you and I are going to grow this movement to deliver that change in November.

Thank you,

— from Barack Obama, overnight, March 4, 2008

if the candidates were brands

from Brand Aids, Salon, 03 March, 2008

sorry but the Europeans have better shopping

You're probably already familiar with the Dutch retailer, Hema. But maybe you haven't seen the clean lines and uncanny product mix on their new website — a clear indication of where things are going and worth browsing for a couple of minutes if you ask me.

change

“What shall we find the other side of the walls of the world we are abandoning?

“Fear will come upon us – a void, a vast emptiness, freedom – how are we to go forward not knowing where we are going, how face loss, not seeing hope of gain?... If Columbus had reasoned thus he would never have weighed anchor. It was madness to set off upon the ocean, not knowing the route, on the ocean on which no one had sailed, to sail toward a land whose existence was doubtful. By this madness he discovered a new world. Doubtless if the peoples of the world could simply transfer themselves from one furnished mansion to another and better one – it would make it much easier; but unluckily there is no one to get humanity’s new dwelling ready for it. The future is even worse than the ocean – there is nothing there – it will be what men and circumstances make it."

— Alexander Herzen, quoted by Leo Tolstoy in The Kingdom of Heaven is Within You: Christianity Not as a Mystic Religion but as a New Theory of Life, New York, Cassell Publishing Company, 1894, p 157

daily monster | get yer fix

props | ten things we should never say to kids

A generous review of Ten Things We Should Never Say to Kids from Nicole Avery, The Planning Queen in Surrey Hills, Victoria, Australia.

Nicole writes about thoughtful parenting in her Planning with Kids blog (where she uses words like whilst and spells reorganising with an s.

I think the second best thing about Ten Things We Should Never Say to Kids is it's free. The best thing about it is what's inside.

You can download Ten Things We Should Never Say to Kids at thetinycompanycalledme.com

Senator McCain Said What?

Rudolph W. Giuliani’s statement on Wednesday that he was uncertain whether waterboarding, a simulated drowning technique, was torture drew a sharp rebuke yesterday from Senator John McCain, who said that his failure to call it torture reflected his inexperience.

“All I can say is that it was used in the Spanish Inquisition, it was used in Pol Pot’s genocide in Cambodia, and there are reports that it is being used against Buddhist monks today,” Mr. McCain, who spent more than five years in a North Vietnamese prison camp, said in a telephone interview.

Of presidential candidates like Mr. Giuliani, who say that they are unsure whether waterboarding is torture, Mr. McCain said: “They should know what it is. It is not a complicated procedure. It is torture.”
— The New York TimesOctober 26, 2007


Oddly, on February 13, 2008, Senator McCain voted against a ban on waterboarding. Senator McCain, you leave me shaking my head. Who are you?

oh, no you can't | like hope, but different

[thanks JP]

yes, yes we can

We may not, but we can.

yes we can

I've been out of the loop for a bit—a long story I'll try to tell as soon as Kara Powell and I deliver the updates and revisions for a new edition of our sexuality curriculum, Good Sex, for Youth Specialties.

But I did find time tonight to listen, and nod my head, to the words of Barack Obama in South Carolina. He's talking about an American ideal I remember; an American ideal I want to help reclaim and burnish to a bright and shining state. I choose to ignore the weary and cynical who say it can't be done. I say it can and must be done—and we must do it.

Burn the 18 minutes it takes to watch this speech. And don't tell me you don't want this too.