Hagel may be the only senior Republican elected official who has publicly criticized McCain's choice of Governor Sarah Palin as his running mate. "I don't believe she's qualified to be President of the United States," Hagel told me. "The first judgment a potential President makes is who their running mate is-and I don't think John made a very good selection."He scoffed at McCain's attempts to portray her as an experienced politician. "To try to make the excuse that she looks out her window and sees Russia-and that she's commander of the Alaska National Guard." He added, "There is no question that this candidate is arguably the thinnest-résumé candidate for Vice-President in the history of America."
Famed artist Xavier Cortada has created a custom work with the names of the first 1,000 donors to the campaign. The work, titled "Justice is an action verb," was unveiled last week at a Miami reception. The original work is being donated to the permanent art collection in the Stonewall Library in Broward County and only 500 prints were made. Now, the campaign is offering a very limited number of these prints to Florida Red and Blue/SayNo2 supporters to commemorate the efforts to defeat Amendment 2.
These striking prints are 24x36 and they will ship one to you for a contribution of $50.02. A very limited number of prints signed by Xavier Cortada are also available for a contribution of $150.02. You must include the $.02 so they know when you give on-line that you'd like your "Justice is an action Verb" print.
So give to a great cause, get a great piece of art, and get involved!
2008 has been one of the most exciting and news worthy years in recent memory. There have been two national elections (one between Clinton and Obama the other between Obama and McCain). There has been an economic collapse, hurricanes, fires, celebrity sightings, international intrigues, wars, scientific discoveries, local stories of neighbors doing good, and salacious stories of corruption at the highest levels of public office. Yet for all of this, newspapers continue to lose readers.
This week the Audit Bureau of Circulations (ABC) released data showing in a slip in daily newspaper circulation during the last six months. Daily newspaper readership fell 4.6% to 38,165,848 copies with Sunday readership seeing a similar slide of 4.6% to 43,631,646 copies. Just this week the Newark Star-Ledger announced major staff cuts and the LA Times just yesterday made public another round of layoffs in its newsroom. Click here for a rundown of the top 25 newspapers in the country.
What does all this mean for the future of news reporting?
Andrew Keen at internetrevolution.com beleives that out of work reporters and a difficult economy will result fewer Americans blogging for free.
"...how will today's brutal economic climate change the Web 2.0 "free" economy? It will result in the rise of online media businesses that reward their contributors with cash; it will mean the success of Knol over Wikipedia, Mahalo over Google (Nasdaq: GOOG), TheAtlantic.com over the HuffingtonPost.com, iTunes over MySpace, Hulu over YouTube Inc. , Playboy.com over Voyeurweb.com, TechCrunch over the blogosphere, CNN's professional journalism over CNN's iReporter citizen-journalism... The hungry and cold unemployed masses aren't going to continue giving away their intellectual labor on the Internet in the speculative hope that they might get some "back end" revenue. "Free" doesn't fill anyone's belly; it doesn't warm anyone up," writes Keen.
He is correct to a point. Difficult economic times, for reporters and for the world at large, will result in some blogger attrition. But the impact of having more unemployed Americans typing at their laptops will increase the number of men and women blogging. This increase in participation may also give rise to a new generation of bloggers who continue to contribute once their economic fortunes improve. The global recession may, in the end, improve the level of discourse and activity online as new talent, who in the past were consumed with their full-time employment, discover the blogosphere and decide to stay.
Obama supporters, you've earned a free ride on the Hell Express. Janet also has this warning (gee, what is that about judging others -- is that section missing from the Bible (Porter edition)?To all those who name the name of Christ who plan to willfully disobey Him by voting for Obama, take warning. Not only is our nation in grave danger, according to the Word of God, so are you ... [T]his election is not about race. It's not about the economy. It's about obeying God.
...
Be forewarned: If you willfully disobey God on life and marriage because of race or false hope for the economy, you will usher in the kind of change that brought the Soviet Union to collapse.
But the warning goes far beyond that. To those who think that God's grace gives them license to willfully disobey Him without consequences - think again:
Not everyone who says to Me, "Lord, Lord," shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. Many will say to Me in that day, "Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?" And then I will declare to them, "I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!" (Matthew 7:21-23)
That deals with your eternity.
To those who call themselves by the name of Christ who ignore what God says about life and marriage, who and are clinging to a fantasy of economic gain, think again ... Then obey Him in the voting booth and out of it. If not, do us all a favor and quit calling yourself a Christian.Hat tip, Right Wing Watch.
The good news? Some 30 to 40 workers at a telemarketing center in Indiana walked off the job rather than read a nasty McCain campaign robo-call script* that attacked Obama for being "dangerously weak on crime," "coddling criminals," and for voting against "protecting children from danger." One worker said, "We were asked to read something saying [Obama and Democrats] were against protecting children from danger. I wouldn't do it. A lot of people left. They thought it was disgusting."
Please note that people who make calls for telemarketing firms don't make big bucks, and these folks gave up their pay by walking out. That's real integrity.
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* Robo-calling is illegal in Indiana, so live callers were required to read the script.
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