BP Makes Me Sick

Join experts, political leaders, and thousands of Americans in signing the statement:

We cannot let the denial of protective gear that hurt so many 9/11 clean-up workers happen again with the Gulf clean-up workers.

President Obama and the federal government must demand that BP allow every clean-up worker who wants to wear respiratory protective equipment to do so -- and ensure that workers get the equipment and training they need to do their jobs safely.

Over 50K signatures already.

Forbidding workers from wearing protective gear around hazardous materials is a crime and if the government and law enforcement will not intervene they are themselves complicit and displaying the final proof that America is no longer free but owned by big corporations and voting is a sham, a circus performance put on for the sole purpose of pacifying the populace.

Obama can not claim that the White House has been calling the shots from day one of the oil rig explosion and continue to allow this travesty to continue unless he wishes to own the policy of preventing workers the use of appropriate protection as his own. The first hints of this story were breaking over a month ago so it very much looks like the administration either can't or won't enforce compliance of worker safety rules regarding the handling of hazardous materials.

This is not change I can believe in Mr President. The hope you engendered in my spirit two years ago is going the way of the brown pelican and the marshes of Louisiana.

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WIN!

moar funny pictures

Got a one tracked mind still today. Spent all my free time scoping out news of the inauguration and the day after via my online sources. My thoughts and emotions are too scrambled to write about. But the thumbs up Obama got from his youngest daughter about sums it up.

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Inauguration 2009

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Obama's Oath and Inaugural Address

If I'm dreaming, I donn't want to wake up.

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Oh, My Shameless Cheating Heart

moar funny pictures

I'm pushing hard to finish The Story of Edgar Sawtelle before the Oprah.com webinar with the author on Monday evening. But the chances are slim seeing as how I've got more than 300 pages to go and I'm reading less now that I'm back on my feet almost normally and thus able and willing to help my sister and Mom which is why I came to spend the month with them in the first place.

So I'm going to read for awhile now that everyone else has gone to bed and if I am still reading with no sign of sleep or eyestrain at 3AM I think I'm going to keep right on reading and not lay down at all until Sunday night. Because now that I'm up and about I also need to get my hours swung around to be more compatible with my sister and mom's needs. They slid back to the graveyard shift like hours I keep at home after the ER visit on the 6th. I've been trying to flip them by setting the alarm for 10AM no matter what time I lay down all week. But it isn't working. Either I fall back to sleep or I am groggy and useless for several hours anyway. Skipping sleep entirely for a day has been a tried and true method in the past for switching my sleep hours.

One way or another I simply MUST be awake Tuesday morning to watch Obama's inaugeration ceremony in DC and the celebrations following it. I will probably be watching online without fanfare as I am not among those who share my enthusiasm. (There's my cheating heart again.) I so wish I could go to one of the parties being thrown on Tuesday. And that is saying a lot. Anyone who knows me knows that social gatherings are not my thing. Given a choice I would prefer going to the ER than to a party or a potluck. But for this year's inaguration I think I would be delighted to be in a crowd of like-minded where I could freely laugh and cheer and cry happy tears and dance for joy and sing kumbaya and halleluiah and hug my six nearest neigbors.

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Book Giveaway: The American Journey of Barack Obama

Hachette Book Group has authorized me to give away 1 copy of this amazing from the editors of LIFE magazine.

And a reminder: I've got two other giveaways still open: One for Gods Behaving Badly. The second for Lost and Found. The deadlines for all three are the same--December 6--because NaNo and then a trip out of town are keeping me so busy I wanted to push back the drawing and notifying tasks to a less over-committed day.

The rules for a qualifying entry to this drawing are at the bottom of this post. Please read them carefully.

The American Journey of Barack Obama covers the candidate from his childhood and adolescence to his time as editor of The Harvard Law Review and his Chicago activist years, culminating with the excitement and fervor of the historic 2008 Democratic National Convention. The unfolding drama of Obama's life and political career is cinematic in scope, and never has it been presented so compellingly.

In addition to a powerful array of photographs that were taken by many of the country's greatest photographers (and some that were snapped, in the quiet moments, by Obama family members themselves), this book also includes a Foreword by Senator Edward M. Kennedy, an incisive narrative biography and original essays by some of our finest writers, including Gay Talese, Charles Johnson, Melissa Fay Greene, Andrei Codrescu, Fay Weldon, Richard Norton Smith, Bob Greene and several others. Many readers will find a new understanding of Obama. All readers will feel that they are bearing witness to a singular, undeniably American story.

I received my reviewer's copy a week ago and it truly is a spectacular book. The photos range from the typical family pictures from his and Michelle's childhood and courtship to those taken by professional photo journalists from the beginning of his political career in Illinois through to the 2008 Democratic Convention in Denver. The candid shots of Barack with friends and family are riveting.

Rules:

• Leave a comment in this post expressing your interest in entering the drawing.
• Provide an @ by which I can contact you in case of a win. Either in your comment or in an email to me at joystory AT gmail DOT com If you email your @ be sure to connect it to your entry. If I do not receive an @ your entry will be disqualified.
• If, in the case of a win, you would like me link to your blog in the winners announcement post, provide your URL in your comment or via email. This is not a requirement for entering nor do you have to have a blog yourself in order to enter.
• If you blog about this giveaway, send me a link to the post and your name will be entered a second time.
• Deadline for entering is NOON PST Saturday December 6, 2008. I will select the winner with a random number generator using www.random.org
• Winner must provide a US or Canadian mailing address. No PO Boxes.

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Monday Poetry Train #65

Lisa Marie Regan - Tulsa

The Scope of Hope
by Joy Renee

Hope: the path
Forward my feet trod
In joy shod.

It's 8:05 PM PST
November 4, 2008
and I'm crying as if my heart is breaking.
But the feeling is the opposite of grief.
It is joy. It is relief.
It is like a mending of the shattering--
the gathering and fusing of the parts,
of the many scattered shards
of my heart.

This freight of dreams we must
remember--for posterity's sake--
long time coming, swift appears to exclaiming
cheers, but the feeling is ephemeral, brief.
It is joy. It is relief.
It's a commending to our hands, for sheltering
against extinguishing, this precious spark
now shared among scattered hearts,
this our hope.

Inspired hearts
Conjoined in hope
Effect change.

<<<<<<<<<<<<<<>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

I reworked and expanded the piece I began in the minutes after the election results were announced last week. In order to balance out the opening haiku, I added to the ending the haiku that I wrote months ago and have had in my sidebar for awhile now.

While I was looking for images to post with this, I ran across the following video of Will I Am which expresses exactly the same thing I was trying to above--that the exultation of the moment, wonderful as it feels, is only the beginning. We must continue to invest the same energy, cooperation, imagination and hope that was put into the campaign into the work that is before us for we are the change we have been waiting for.

Hop on the train.

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Thursday Thirteen #111

Thursday Thirteen

Thirteen Memorable Moments From Obama's Election Night Speech

1. 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.
2. It’s the answer that led those who have been told for so long by so many to be cynical, and fearful, and doubtful of what we can achieve to put their hands on the arc of history and bend it once more toward the hope of a better day.
3. Sasha and Malia, I love you both so much, and you have earned the new puppy that’s coming with us to the White House.
4. But above all, I will never forget who this victory truly belongs to – it belongs to you.
5. [You supporters, organizers, volunteers, voters] proved that more than two centuries later, a government of the people, by the people and for the people has not perished from this Earth. This is your victory.
6. I know you didn’t do this just to win an election and I know you didn’t do it for me. You did it because you understand the enormity of the task that lies ahead. For even as we celebrate tonight, we know the challenges that tomorrow will bring are the greatest of our lifetime – two wars, a planet in peril, the worst financial crisis in a century.
7. The road ahead will be long. Our climb will be steep. We may not get there in one year or even one term, but America – I have never been more hopeful than I am tonight that we will get there. I promise you – we as a people will get there.
8. But I will always be honest with you about the challenges we face. I will listen to you, especially when we disagree. And above all, I will ask you join in the work of remaking this nation the only way it’s been done in America for two-hundred and twenty-one years – block by block, brick by brick, calloused hand by calloused hand.
9. This victory alone is not the change we seek – it is only the chance for us to make that change. And that cannot happen if we go back to the way things were. It cannot happen without you.
10. So let us summon a new spirit of patriotism; of service and responsibility where each of us resolves to pitch in and work harder and look after not only ourselves, but each other.
11. Let us resist the temptation to fall back on the same partisanship and pettiness and immaturity that has poisoned our politics for so long....And to those Americans whose support I have yet to earn – I may not have won your vote, but I hear your voices, I need your help, and I will be your President too.
12. And to all those who have wondered if America’s beacon still burns as bright – tonight we proved once more that the true strength of our nation comes not from the might of our arms or the scale of our wealth, but from the enduring power of our ideals: democracy, liberty, opportunity, and unyielding hope.
13. This is our moment. This is our time – to put our people back to work and open doors of opportunity for our kids; to restore prosperity and promote the cause of peace; to reclaim the American Dream and reaffirm that fundamental truth – that out of many, we are one; that while we breathe, we hope, and where we are met with cynicism, and doubt, and those who tell us that we can’t, we will respond with that timeless creed that sums up the spirit of a people:
14. Yes We Can.

Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!

The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It's easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!

View More Thursday Thirteen Participants

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The Scope of Hope

Hope: the path
Forward my feet trod
In joy shod.

It's 8:05 PM PST November 4, 2008
and I'm crying as if my heart is breaking.
But the feeling is the opposite of grief.
It is joy. It is relief.
It is like a mending of the shattering--
the gathering and fusing of the parts,
of the many scattered shards
of my heart.

Read more...

Thursday Thirteen #110

Thursday

Thirteen

Thirteen Reasons Why I Support Barack Obama

1. He cares about people more than ideas--
2. But he articulates ideas well,
3. Without either patronizing or pandering to people, by which I mean he neither talks down to us nor tells us only what he thinks we want to hear,
4. Which is an essential skill of an effective leader.
5. That skill in communicating combined with the range of his intellectual curiosity and
6. The rigor of an intellect trained by an intensive education
7. Will give him the ability to seek out whatever information or advice that any unforeseen circumstance requires.
8. This ability was tested, honed and displayed from 1985 to the present as he took leadership roles as a community organizer in Chicago, as editor of the Harvard Law Review, as a civil rights lawyer, as a Professor at Chicago University Law School, as Illinois State Senator and then U.S. Senator from the State of Illinois--
9. And most recently during the crisis with the economy when his leadership and problem solving manner was manifest before the entire nation as he displayed a calm demeanor while going about gathering the information and advice he needed
10. And then proceeded to work in a reasoned and deliberate fashion in cooperation with his colleagues on both sides of the aisle
11. While simultaneously running his campaign on an even keel which evidences his ability to multitask
12. And as well his ability to organize, to delegate and to inspire people to work together toward a common goal.
13. Most of all he had the audacity to hope when I had begun to despair and he was able to show me how his hope was rooted in his personal knowledge of the hearts of the American people based on the many thousands of them he has met and listened to, worked with and for, over the last two decades and he has proved to me that the possibility of cooperation, the power of local community and the willingness of a majority in our pluralistic republic to pull for the common dreams of all and work together in a spirit of respect, while holding differing opinions on some issues, for the commonweal is still viable.

Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!

The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It's easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!

View More Thursday Thirteen Participants

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Sunday Serenity #99

moar funny pictures
Hope! I can almost taste it.

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Monday Poetry Train #62

Haiku
by Joy Renee

Inspired hearts
Conjoined in hope
Effect change.

<<<<<<<<<<>>>>>>>>>>

I posted this once before during the primary but not on Poetry Train.

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Consumed By Obama Drama

I have nothing for a Fiction Foray post this week as I've spent the entire week watching the Democratic Convention coverage nearly every waking hour. So I thought I would share what it is that has me so consumed. Above, courtesy of MSNBC, is the full 40 some minutes of Obama's speech from Thursday night. This is on a par with the Martin Luther King Jr. 'I Have a Dream' speech given 45 years ago to the day. Our grandchildren will be talking about this speech fifty years from now the way we still talk about MLK's speech.

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Obama '08

It's about time I declared myself. I've been convinced since last fall. I'll be having more to say about it but for now:

Inspired hearts
Conjoined in hope
Effect change.

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