I think he may show up some places as our last president, but mainly he’ll just be retiring to his ol’ ranch in Texas. Aw, he gets to return to his ol’ cow.
It didn’t hit me that Barack was the president until I saw his Wikipedia page - a very surreal, but nice, feeling. I heard his speech in full today, and for the first time, I’m proud that Australia and the US are strong allies, and hopefully he’ll be able to visit our lovely shores soon, as president. And I just have to say how adorable Barack and Michelle’s two girls are! =)
Yeah, that’s such a bummer. One giant step forward for one minority group, but a step back for another. And for the people that voted “yes on 8,” you have to wonder what exactly gay marriage would have to do with a majority of them, in the first place? How would it even affect them in the slightest if gay marriage was legal? Thinly veiled bigotry under the guise of religion and personal opinion is all it is. Fair enough if you don’t want to go marrying another adult of the same gender, but I don’t see how anyone could go out of their way to deny people rights. I’m hoping that Obama, and also the Democrats, will be able to do something about this, especially because I believe there are parallels between gay rights and black rights, and because he mentioned “gay or straight” in his speech, which I was surprised at because usually politicians sweep gay marriage under the rug. But I think they have bigger problems to deal with, like the war in Iraq, healthcare, the economy, right now.
Firstly, why would anyone choose to be gay? Just like you chose the colour of your skin, huh? And gross for two consenting adults who love each other to marry and make a lifelong commitment to each other? Hmm, I’m sorry but I don’t see the immorality there. To me it’s “immoral” to stop that from happening, or to pass a bill that prevents that from happening. But that’s for another topic.
Bush still remains in office, and still has power. In fact, under the radar is news that he’s now trying to push through more last-minute anti-regulation laws. Here’s the first paragraph, link below to the Los Angeles Times:
"Reporting from Washington – The White House is working to enact an array of federal regulations, many of which would weaken rules aimed at protecting consumers and the environment, before President Bush leaves office in January. The new rules would be among the most controversial deregulatory steps of the Bush era and could be difficult for his successor to undo. Some would ease or lift existing constraints on private industry, including power plants, mines and farms."
latimes.com/news/science/env … 9967.story
Prop 8 in California: it’s going to the courts, because it’s a change of the constitution, but I predict it will be upheld. However those on the other side can simply submit a proposition next year or in later elections to undo it if they want to. There was a huge amount of money spent to pass it (mostly from out-of-state groups). It’s the first time amending the California constitution where we are actually taking away rights for people. (No one knows the status of those gays already married during the months up until now). Less than 50 years ago, there were laws in many states in the US where marriage between an Asian and white, or a Black and white, were illegal. At the time, such a thing went against some people’s views of what marriage should be, so it was illegal. Today it’s gay marriage instead of interracial marriage. No difference. It’s one group of people trying to define their ideology on others. Last time I looked, California had a divorce rate of almost 50%. Maybe those supporters of Prop 8 should be more concerned about their own marriages falling apart instead of trying to find fault in other people wanting to be happy.
I, too, would like to say, it will be nice to be able to listen to our President and not have to cringe at the sound of our President’s voice. This isn’t a Democrat/Republican thing. I don’t mind listening to tapes of Reagan or the first Bush. But I literally cannot take more than 15 seconds of GW speaking before I cringe and have to turn the channel.
One commentator made a nice observation. When asked who she thought would be the first appointment to the new White House, she chimed in “well, the puppy of course!” (Obama promised his girls a puppy if they won).
Yay! Obama won! I feel so happy! So this is what it feels like when yer guy wins…facinating! 
I hope Obama can start to fix things, although I’m not expecting anything soon, and I’m certainly not expecting things to be the way they were back in the late 90s. But any start in the right direction would be good.
Sarah Palin in 2012? Well… those who would like to see this might want to have a dose of reality first. Some interesting news coming out.
For those still thinking the reason McCain lost was because his aides didn’t allow Sarah Palin to go out more in public, here’s an interesting postscript to the election. If you haven’t heard already, the truth behind the scenes with Sarah Palin is now coming out.
Including news that Sarah Palin didn’t know Africa was a continent (she thought “Africa” was a country), and didn’t even know which countries were in North America (it’s USA, Canada, Mexico).
Is this from the “liberal media” the Republicans love to blame so much?
Well, not unless you call Fox News and Bill O’Reily the “liberal media.”
Here’s a link. Be sure to click on the video clip from yesterday’s Bill O’Reilly show on Fox News (scroll down just a bit and click on the video).
huffingtonpost.com/2008/11/0 … 41653.html
Covers everything from not knowing what countries are in North America to why the Katie Couric interviews went bad.
Now we know why she was hidden from the public so much except with prepared speeches.
Probably because Alaska isn’t the best place to learn an education and to learn about other continents…its so hard to get stuff that California gets…
Alaska is a little different then California…
Al-Bob- Well, hopefully that’ll be something Mr. Obama will be dealing with as soon as possible- equal education for everyone! I didn’t realise things were so different in different states, though. Really, the quality of education should be equal all around, but I guess it isn’t always like that.
Rac_Rules- I really didn’t know that George Bush came from Texas. 
Well, he must be sort of relieved in a way, to be able to go back home and return to his cows. Though in a way, it must also be sort of weird to have so many millions of people celebrating you leaving office, if I were him.
Education in Alaska is just fine. And Palin went to college not in Alaska, but in a half-dozen other places. She first went to “Hawaii Pacific College”, left after one semester, went to North Idaho Community College, left after two semesters, went to University of Idaho, left after two semsesters, returned to Alaska to the Matanuska-Susitna community college, soon left there as well, and returned back to Idaho to finish up her college education. There’s nothing wrong with changing schools every semester or year of course. But is this (someone who doesn’t know what countries neighbor the US, or that Africa isn’t a country) who we want to lead the free world? For those who would defend her, imagine your reaction if it was the Democrat who didn’t know even these most basic things.
Exciting Senate News.
The Republican senator from Alaska, Ted Stevens, who was just indicted on seven felonies of bribery and corrpution – looks like he just got re-elected (just about two weeks after he was indicted). It’s still too close to call, but he’s leading by a few points, and it’s pretty certain he will get re-elected. As a convicted felon, he wasn’t even allowed to vote for himself. Even McCain and top Republicans asked him to step aside. Well he didn’t, and it’s going to get interesting. Technically, a convicted felon CAN serve in the Senate by Senate rules. Though people on both sides of the aisle are asking him to step down so they can run another Republican. All it does is remind people another reason why they voted Republicans out of power again, twice in a row (2006, and now 2008).
Post-election Senate. Democrats picked up another seat today in a close race that was finally called for the Democrats (Oregon). This brings them up to 57 (anything over 50 is a majority, but they needed 60 to have complete control because Republicans can stop any legislation from going through unless Democrats reach 60).
I was glad to see Eliazabeth Dole (Republican) defeated. Boy was I glad to see that. This was the incumbent Republican Senator who took TV ads out faking her Democratic opponent’s voice (to make it sound like her oppenent was screaming “There is no God!”) Putting aside the fact that it’s disgusting that one should have to pass a religous test to be considered for public office in this country, Dole’s Democratic opponent (Kay Hagen) who won, is active in her church, and was a Sunday school teacher for years. Dole (the Republican) still stood by her ads (faking her opponent’s voice screaming “There is no God!”) until the end. This from someone who spent a total of 19 days last year back in her district. Boy was I glad to see Dole lose.
But it looks like it will stay at 57 for Democrats (technically 55 Democrats + 2 Independents who usually vote with Democrats). Even though there will be a runoff in Georgia (because no one got above 50%, state rules there) it’s not in doubt the Republican will eventually win there.
I was also sad to see democrat Al Frankin (old comedian from Saturday Night Live) not win in Minnesota (out of hundreds of thousands of votes, his opponent won by something like 500). There’s an automatic recount (required by law if the difference is less than 1%), but it looks like the Republican Norm Coleman won – though most people say only because there was a 3rd party candidate who got a huge amount of votes as well.
Well… that’s election 2008.
Now comes the hard part. Governing.
A few quick updates.
(1) For the first time ever… there is not one, single Republican representative (member of the House) in all of New England (the US’ upper North-East, for those of you outside the US). Not one. Every representative to the House from this part of the country is now a Democrat. Every single one.
(2) Joe the Plumber: it now comes out that Joe the Plumber’s own family was on welfare when Joe was a child – not once, but twice. And he credits it with helping his family lead a middle-class life style. So it was fine for his family to have received a little of “share the wealth” to help them out when needed, but once they got through their hard times with a bit of help, it’s nothing for others, hm?
(3) North Carolina has now officially been called for Obama. History there, for that state. That makes the Obama elctoral map even more of a landslide: 364 to 162. Missouri is now the only state left that’s still too close to call.
(4) Just a personal note here. Over the last few weeks I’ve argued politics here on Pixar Planet, sparring with those whose views I’ve totally disagreed with, like Al-Bob and Rac_Rules. It’s been interesting, and I’m glad people have been so involved with politics this time, no matter what side they’ve been on. Hope everyone who has taken part here keeps their interest in politics up. Politics works best when a country’s people are informed and active.
what is your point in all these updates and thoughts??
Cuz it seems to me your strutting…
No, it’s that the election may be over, but all the results haven’t been known yet (I also made the thread Endgame and Postgame to also talk about the aftermath of the election as well, even before Election night). But even the election, we’re still getting data from the remaining races. Oregon’s Senate was finally called (add one more for the Democrats) but for instance, Alaska, Georgia, and Minnesota haven’t been called yet, though in the end I think the Republicans there will hang onto their seats. Likewise, I mentioned North Carolina today because it finally got called today (went to Obama) but Missouri still hasn’t been called (last state to be officially called) and as I said, it’ll probably go for McCain, as he has a slim lead there. One interesting sidenote is that Missouri has correctly predicted how the Presidential race would go for many, many elections (I forget since when, but it’s been decades… they always have voted with the winner. So much so that newspapers and news organizations always make a big deal out of it). It’s almost a tie there, but McCain has a slight lead, and I think in the end the state will go to McCain – meaning this is the first time in decades Missouri will have voted differently than the winner. These are simply comments as the last of the races get called, and historical changes worth noting (such as this being the first time in the country’s history where there’s not one Republican House member from all of New England. That’s not strutting, it’s never happened to an entire region before, and if that’s not worth mentioning, then nothing is. If the Republicans had taken an entire region of the country and there wasn’t one lone Democrat left in an entire region, it’d definitely be worth noting just as much). So there are a few more races still to be called, but it looks like in them, the Republicans will probably hang on to the remaining seats in the end.
As a perfect example why everyone should vote, in the Minnesota Senate race (Al Franken vs Norm Coleman), the difference between the two has now shrunk from around 750 down to 236. Out of over 3 million votes (including some for the Independent running), Norm Coleman (R) won Franken (D) in the initial count by only 236 votes. Wow. So there will be the recount required by law, but as I stated above, Coleman will probably still come out ahead.
[quote="joehisa":2xkmj1hx]Sarah Palin in 2012? Well… those who would like to see this might want to have a dose of reality first. Some interesting news coming out.
For those still thinking the reason McCain lost was because his aides didn’t allow Sarah Palin to go out more in public, here’s an interesting postscript to the election. If you haven’t heard already, the truth behind the scenes with Sarah Palin is now coming out.
Including news that Sarah Palin didn’t know Africa was a continent (she thought "Africa" was a country), and didn’t even know which countries were in North America (it’s USA, Canada, Mexico).
Is this from the "liberal media" the Republicans love to blame so much?
Well, not unless you call [b:2xkmj1hx]Fox News and Bill O’Reily[/b:2xkmj1hx] the "liberal media."
Here’s a link. Be sure to click on the video clip from yesterday’s Bill O’Reilly show on Fox News (scroll down just a bit and click on the video).
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/11/0 ... 41653.htmlCovers everything from not knowing what countries are in North America to why the Katie Couric interviews went bad.
Now we know why she was hidden from the public so much except with prepared speeches.[/quote:2xkmj1hx]Ok, I’m surprised to see Fox doing this, but I still have something to say.
Notice at the beginning they say "Some insiders told us."
No real resource. No names. No quotes. When a news source says "Some insiders" without any real identification, more often than not that means that someone without any creditability claims this happened, and they want to say it but don’t want to make it seem less believable.
And apparently Obama didn’t know there where less than 57 states in his [i:2xkmj1hx]own country[/i:2xkmj1hx].
That reminds me of Kellie Pickler on that one episode of Are You Smarter Than A Fifth Grader where she said she thought Europe was a country and France was a continent.
I’m glad I’m not the only one who had to check with my homeslice Wikipedia to be absolutely sure.
Obama has a metric crapton of problems to deal with now. CAN WE FIX IT? YES WE CAN~
I’ve been bursting to say this ever since I heard Obama’s slogan, and I’m sorry, but is there no-one else who immediately thinks ‘Bob the Builder!’ whenever he says it? Bob the Builder, can he fix it? Bob the Builder, yes he can! That was the only thing that ever made me doubt Obama slightly- the way he borrowed a slogan from a kid’s animated TV programme.
I’ve heard about that Sarah Palin not knowing about continents and stuff, and although I’m not exactly a fan of hers, it does sort of sound as if she said something and it’s been twisted in an unfortunate way. Either that, or she really is stupid.
I did…but of cource i’m right winged so its different for me…
I don’t want to take anything away from his speech, as I really liked it, too… but I heard this on the radio:
[url]http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=0hrz84ud9aM[/url] Heheh. 
Creepy, I thought the same thing too. My sibling and I were watching him on TV and when Obama said that line, he said “Spongebob Squarepants.” I had to correct him and sing B.T.B.'s theme song.
No matter if you’re a fan of Palin’s views or not, the entire world saw her for the past two months unable to answer the simplist questions about national – and especially international affairs. She’s not a stupid person, but she knew nothing about the world or international affairs – not what you want for someone running to possibly lead the free world.
When candidates are on the trail day after day, you know they’re going to mess up a word here and there. It’s why Obama said “57 States” (he’s a Harvard Consitutional scholar, he obviously knows there are 50), and why McCain said “My fellow Prisoners” instead of “My Fellow Americans” when addressing a rally. Remember, McCain also said in Pennsylvania “My opponents seem to think you’re racist here. Well, I couldn’t agree with them more!” Obviously he didn’t mean that, which is why I never posted on it before. When you watch someone and 98% of the time they make sense and 2% of the time they stumble, you know it’s just being human. But when you watch someone who has no clue 98% of the time, it’s something else.
And the aides that are attacking Palin now are obviously doing it to save their own skins. It’s unfair to Palin. She is who she is. If she was unqualified for the Presidency, McCain’s aides are the ones who picked her and pushed her on McCain (who wanted Lieberman). They have no one to blame but themselves.
Useless trivia, but did you know there is a town of Obama, Japan? Yes, it’s a small town, and if you do a google search, you will see some videos.
Trying to drum up business in the small town with the same name as the candidate (now President-elect), a few months ago they had “Obama Girls” that danced the hula (Obama is from Hawaii) and sell all kind of products with “Obama” on it, from Obama T-shirts, to Obama Manjuus (manjuu are sweet bean cakes). The manjuu wrappers say “Oba-Man” on them (shortening of OBAma MANjuu). But “Oba-man” is also how you would pronounce “Olbermann” in Japanese. Left-wing media plot? You decide.
And if I remember right, in New Zealand there is both a town of “Clinton” and a town of “Gore.”
I love how you attack my joke instead of attacking my actual argument.
By the way, what did she do? You can’t say the whole Russia thing (that was something that people took way out of context, she didn’t mean literally, folks! Jesus.)
Sorry dude, I know how you don’t want to believe it, but a lot of the negative things you hear are just things that where blown way out of proportion by the media. It stinks, but it’s true. 90% of the news media is liberal biased, and, unfortunately, they care more about getting the candidate that would get the most buyers (AKA the first black president) then who is the most qualified. Ok, Palin wasn’t the best. But she’s not nearly as bad as she’s made out to be.
Heh. I find it amusing that I’m in the minority here, and yet… it’s also a bit disturbing from my standpoint. I guess it turns out that I’m one of the few hard-core Republicans on this website, and one of the most disappointed at that…
Yep, November 4th was a sad day for America. My reasons I shall explain on my deviantArt page in the near future, as I do not wish to engage in deep political discussion on such a website as this. To be honest, I’m rather shocked that Pixar Planet is currently a bit of a hub for politcal and religious discussion at the moment, where as it used to be a site that was chiefly concerned about Pixar news in general. Ah well. It was to be expected, I suppose.
But, yes. To reiterate, America is now… umm… – how shall one put it? – … officially and royally screwed, and I do mean royally. Argue with me all you want, everyone. I shall not change my viewpoints.
Gosh, I really feel for the military at this point. For pity’s sake, let the troops perform their service, Obama! Don’t pull out the troops… shakes head
– Mitch