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Celebrities crave access with Barack Obama By TINA DAUNT January 9, 2009 One of the things that makes Hollywood so attractive to politicians is not just the depth of its pockets, but the fact that its hand isn't out. Collecting contributions from any other industry usually comes with an implicit understanding that it wants something in return, usually something that has an economic benefit. Yes, the entertainment industry cares about copyright and distribution, but these days nearly everybody is on the same page when it comes to those issues. What celebrities care most about are causes and the access that...

WASHINGTON (AP) — Throngs of well-wishers are expected to line the tracks as President-elect Barack Obama travels by train from Philadelphia to Washington the weekend before his swearing-in as the 44th president, prompting heightened security along the rails. The 137-mile route will be manned by thousands of police officers from the 40 jurisdictions in Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland and Washington, D.C., that Obama's train will pass through, officials with Amtrak said Thursday as it outlined security plans for the inauguration. Crowds are expected to gather at numerous spots, including overpasses, parking lots and commuter train stations, as Obama retraces the journey...

Obama and Spider-Man appear in comic together WASHINGTON (AP) - Spider-Man has a new sidekick: The president-elect. Barack Obama collected Spider-Man comics as a child, so Marvel Comics wanted to give him a "shout-out back" by featuring him in a bonus story, said Joe Quesada, Marvel's editor-in-chief.

With the elevation of Barack Obama to the White House, we have successfully centrifuged enough beefcake uranium to reach critical mass and transform the press corps into Malibu/Waikiki paparazzi. Nobody could have avoided the front-page pictures of Obama’s naked torso, toothy grin, backwards ball cap, and hip-hop hand salutes. They trumped the latest Israeli retaliation in Gaza; they eclipsed the Democrat embarrassment in Chicago; they moved the Madoff mess to page E4; and they bumped Britney’s comeback tour. And these photos and stories — “The girls had fruity shaved ices; dad had a tuna melt …” — weren’t targeted at...

DELMAR BOULEVARD is an arterial road running through some of the poorest and richest, and most racially divided, neighbourhoods of St Louis, Missouri. Some city aldermen are now trying to rename the street after Barack Obama before he takes office.

Hopes too high for Obama - Castro From correspondents in Havana AAP January 03, 2009 02:53pm BARACK Obama appears to be an honest and sincere man, but his election has awakened "excessive hopes" that the US will change, Cuban President Raul Castro says. Mr Castro repeated previous assertions that he is open to talks at any time with Mr Obama, who takes office on January 20, but said he is not desperate to do so. Mr Obama has said he wants to ease the 46-year-old US trade embargo against Cuba and meet with Cuban leaders as first steps toward normalising...

Obama. Much easier to pronounce and certainly more ear friendly than the name, Nebuchadnezzar. Beyond that difference, though, the similarities of both men are quite striking. Both, enemies of God's people, raised up by God to punish His people's increasingly sinful ways. Nebuchadnezzar, a world leader and ruler of the ancient Babylonian empire, believed that he could get more cooperation from the people who opposed him ( e.g. those that he conquered) by allowing them to keep their gods (things that they worshipped). He confiscated their land and any riches they possessed. In return, he allowed them to live a...

When I first read the title of this DUmmie THREAD titled, "Does Obama have MANA???" I thought it was referring to Biblical manna as "Manna from heaven." However this mana being being referred to is the mystical Polynesian Mana which gives him supernatural powers as we shall see. Yeah, Barack Obama refrains from giving his input on the Gaza strip crises and already the DUmmies are crediting him with mystical healing powers. So let us now watch the DUmmies worship the Mana in Obama in Bolshevik Red while the commentary of your humble correspondent, who tragically notes that the...

WASHINGTON -- Peter Hart, the veteran and highly respected Democratic pollster, talks almost reverentially about the political benefits that accrue to politicians from an association with Barack Obama. Nearness to the president elect, he says, is worth at least 5 percentage points to any aspiring candidate. It is an illusion of near Messianic proportions, the therapeutic results of a touching of the hem. Obama himself reinforces this mystical illusion by deciding to travel to his Washington inauguration from Illinois by train, emulating the journey that Abraham Lincoln took to take the oath of office in 1861, expecting huge crowds as...

It appears Obamamania has not only infiltrated British newspapers, but so has Palin Derangement Syndrome...even in the fashion section. Is there any safe place a person can go these days without being told Michelle Obama is "a goddess [who] stepped onto the world stage and made it her own...married to someone who is, frankly, a sex god," or that Sarah Palin is the "worst dressed" woman in the world "who may have spent $150,000 on six suits but still resembled a hopelessly sexless, up [sic] hockey mom who buys all her clothes from Wal-Mart?"

Sixty-six percent of American citizens will celebrate Christmas this season as a religious holiday. It is the day of the year where the globe recognizes the birth of the Messiah, the child called Jesus who was born "away in a manger" in the town of Bethlehem. The place of the birth of the Messiah was extremely important due to the promise made by God, prophesied by Micah. This Old Testament Seer proclaimed the Christ child would be born in the town of Bethlehem. The Scribes and Chief Priest living at the time of the birth of Jesus Christ validated and...

Hollywood, Fla., may join Opa-locka, Fla., St. Louis and Masaka, Uganda, in naming streets after President-elect Barack Obama. Thomas and Theresa Smith, activists in Hollywood's predominantly black Washington Park neighborhood, say they've gotten a positive response from city leaders to their request to rename Pembroke Road, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel reported Saturday. He's the first black president of our country; the first! Thomas said. Hollywood has streets named after presidents, but because Pembroke Road is a state road, the renaming ceremony, if it happens, is a way off, say city officials, who need approval from the Florida Legislature. Opa-locka last...

<p>Police in Naples shut down vendors of nativity scenes featuring the Prez-elect alongside Jesus. Why so touchy?</p> <p>Thank your stars you don't live in Italy, where you can get shut down for selling Barack Obama nativity figures.</p> <p>All this would make one think Italians have no sense of humor, which is totally untrue - after all, socialist party leader, media mogul, football-team owner, Economist whipping boy and (in his spare time) prime minister Silvio Berlusconi is famous for his wit.</p>

The other day, I noticed that my husband had for the 10th time ruined the slick seasoned surface of my cast-iron skillet by scrubbing it with a Brillo pad. I started to get ticked off, building up a tiny tornado of fury. But then I thought: Would Barack Obama let this get to him? That tall, cool drink o' distilled water would never blast Michelle for a domestic faux pas like this, but here I am going ballistic because my spouse tried to clean a pan? Poof! My anger was gone. (Much later in the article:) And have we ever...

In the entire history of our country, I'm not sure there has ever been a presidential honeymoon period as tender and loving as the one that Barack Obama is experiencing today. In Perry County, Alabama they have already voted to create a paid holiday called "Barack Obama Day." That's an honor not bestowed on "lesser Presidents" like George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Ronald Reagan, and Teddy Roosevelt -- whose accomplishments, though great, surely will not eclipse those of "President Government" after his time in office. But, that's just a county holiday. Topeka activist Sonny Scroggins, with the support of the NAACP,...

NAPLES, Italy, Dec. 4 (UPI) -- A vendor spokesman in Naples, Italy, says police shut down a shopping area offering nativity figurines, including one of U.S. President-elect Barack Obama. The unidentified spokesman said police shut down the Via San Gregorio Armeno shopping area of the city in an attempt to stop certain open-air vendors who are suspected of operating without authorization, the Italian news agency, ANSA, reported Wednesday. Among the nativity statue offerings set to be offered by the Christmas vendors were ones featuring the U.S president-elect. Also included in the holiday theme are Inter Milan soccer star Zlatan Ibrahimovic...

New Column: What the Obama Cult Factor Portends The cult mystique of Barack Obama continues while his fawning supporters blindly accept every move he makes, proving their support for him in the general election was not based as much on policy as personality. This could play right into Obama's hands if, as I believe, he does have major change on his mind. From a policy standpoint, Obama's campaign was fueled -- initially, at least -- by his unequivocal stance against the Iraq war. He was the only credible candidate (excluding such buffoons as Dennis Kucinich) who maintained from the outset...

Enough gloom and doom: There's a prediction from a leading color source that cheerful and sunny yellow will be the influential color of 2009.

The more time I spend in Berkeley, California (where I am on an extended visit), the more I find myself wondering about something. Is the left-wing phenomenon known as “Obamamania” on the wane? It might be too early to tell, but from what I’ve been reading and hearing, I see clear signs that it is. A number of leftist commentators have worked themselves into quite a lather over Barack Obama’s apparent “centrism” — especially his failure to appoint “progressives” (code language for far leftists)...

Believers dispute divine role in victory of president-elect Did God play a role in the election of Barack Obama, and could the Democrat even be God's sovereign choice for our next president? The answers to those questions vary widely, depending on who is doing the answering. Among those praising the heavens for Obama's victory was Larry Younginer of suburban Atlanta, who the Chicago Tribune reports kneeling at his church and praying the day after Obama's victory. "Lord, we have again come to you," Younginger prayed, "and you have heard our cries from heaven, and you have sent us again from...

The publishing industry is betting on Barack Obama like no president in decades. Since Election Day alone, more than half a dozen book deals have been signed to exploit Obamania. Two dozen books in the works range from the serious to the silly. There are retrospective ticktocks on how Obama won office and prospective looks at his first year in the White House. There is a biography on Obama’s father, a compilation of essays on Obama and race, and others tilting toward the celebratory with photographic montages. There are children’s books, of course, and a style guide on Michelle Obama,...

Did God play a role in the election of Barack Obama, and could the Democrat even be God's sovereign choice for our next president? The answers to those questions vary widely, depending on who is doing the answering. Among those praising the heavens for Obama's victory was Larry Younginer of suburban Atlanta, who the Chicago Tribune reports kneeling at his church and praying the day after Obama's victory. "Lord, we have again come to you," Younginger prayed, "and you have heard our cries from heaven, and you have sent us again from the state called Illinois a man called Barack...

Perhaps the real cake-taker in Obamaland promises, however, is the one that our enemies will now like us and will no longer wish to make war on our homeland. Once President Obama conducts his miraculous diplomacy with our sworn enemies, they will not be our sworn enemies any more. They will be our friends. Was there a more balderdash-ridden promise in this entire campaign season? Obama did not promise to meet with al-Qaeda, of course, but most of our sworn enemies are Islamo-fascist terrorist groups and nations, all of a similar mindset to be sure. Al-Qaeda was first off the...

Enough with the Lincoln analogies; Reagan is the president that Barack Obama is most closely modeling himself after. Ronald Reagan inherited stagflation, a defeat abroad and a nation at its nadir in morale. Through the sheer force of his personality as much as his policies, four years later, it was "Morning in America," the theme of his 1984 re-election campaign when he won 49 states. Obama isn't president yet, but his determined calm and orderly transition pace appear to be soothing the financial markets, producing the first sustained gain in stocks since the mid-September meltdown. On Jan. 20, Obama will...

Naming things after political leaders is a time-honored tradition. Mt. McKinley. The State of Washington. Theodore Roosevelt Elementary School. Etc, etc But before a political leader gets something named after him, shouldn’t he have to of, you know, done something? (CBS/AP) A school on Long Island has been renamed Barack Obama Elementary School in honor of his historic rise to the presidency The move at the largely black and Hispanic school in Hempstead is among the first in what will likely be a wave of name changes around the world now that Mr. Obama has been elected president, from schools...

Obama: 'Change comes . . . from me' By NIA-MALIKA HENDERSON Obama referred to his team of advisers as "fresh thinking," adding that the “vision for change comes first and foremost…from me.” President-elect Barack Obama pushed back at a press conference in Chicago today when asked how he would respond to supporters "who were looking for change," given how many of his announced and rumored appointments thus far are Clinton administration veterans. “When it comes to the people that we've pulled together -- because I know this has been sort of conventional wisdom floating around Washington -- that, well, you...

When development does not proceed well enough, the longing of the child for a benevolent parent with superhuman powers persists into adulthood. The search for an Idealized Other easily contaminates the immature citizen's judgment on political matters, with grave implications for societal sanity. His wish for a loving caretaker in the flesh aborts his moral commitment to the abstract principles essential to civilized freedom. Instead of seeking through limited government those protections that allow him to make a good life for himself, the immature adult seeks an omnipotent leader and benevolent government to provide it for him. In his fondest...

Barack Obama’s election as president is fueling ratings among syndicated television newsmagazine shows—and they are returning the favor. It’s a symbiosis in which shows such as “Access Hollywood” and “Entertainment Tonight” cover the Obama family like royalty, bringing back a Camelot mythology to the White House. In return, they are enjoying a ratings bump with unexpected staying power. “We’re going to treat the Obamas like a Hollywood family,” said Rob Silverstein, executive producer of NBC Universal Television Distribution’s “Access Hollywood.”

President-elect Barack Obama's image looms larger than ever in the media these days, but now his face has been rendered in 3-D portraits smaller than a grain of salt, using nanotechnology. The mini-Barack Obamas were made by John Hart, an engineering professor at the University of Michigan, who dubbed them "nanobamas." Each nanobama contains about 150 million carbon nanotubes stacked vertically like trees in a forest. A carbon nanotube is an extraordinarily strong hollow cylinder about 1/50,000th the width of a human hair. Hart created the "nano art" to raise awareness of nanotechnology and science. "Developments like this are an...

Gilbert Arenas is a millionaire and NBA superstar, but even he has been caught up in the Obama-mania sweeping parts of the country. Soon after Election Night, the Washington Wizards franchise player decided to show his support for President-elect Barack Obama by getting a political tattoo on his left hand.

Nov 20, 2008 7:13 pm US/Central Obama Advisers To Public: Temper Expectations Reporting: Mike Flannery CHICAGO (CBS) ― President-elect Barack Obama and his inner circle fear that some voters expect him to turn around the economy, wind down the war in Iraq and, perhaps, cure cancer -- all by the Fourth of July. They know they must manage and lower those expectations, CBS 2 Political Editor Mike Flannery reports. A top economic advisor to Obama had a glum warning for the rest of us Thursday morning: Neither the job market nor the stock market will be turning around any time...

GENIUS, THY NAME IS OBAMANovember 19, 2008With Time magazine comparing Obama to Jesus, I guess we should be relieved that, this week, liberals are only comparing him to Abraham Lincoln. The one thing every liberal on TV seems to know about Lincoln is that he put rivals in his cabinet, as subtly indicated in the title to historian and plagiarist Doris Kearns Goodwin's book: "Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln." Like Lincoln, Goodwin is always open to contributions from her rivals, although Lincoln was better at crediting their words. And hasn't Obama talked to former rival Hillary...

The radio call came before the suicides began. On Nov. 18, 1978, Jim Jones Jr. was 18 years old and living in a Peoples Temple compound in Georgetown, Guyana, 150 miles from the Jonestown settlement. The previous night, he and his teammates on the Peoples Temple basketball team had played in a tournament, narrowly losing to the Guyanese national team. That afternoon, via shortwave, the Rev. Jim Jones, the boy's adoptive father, contacted him with a chilling order: All 60 Temple members living in Georgetown should immediately "get knives, wire and scissors and take our own lives." The son tried...

What makes this piece by Howard Kurtz so remarkably stupid is that he is supposed to be the media critic for the Washington Post and he never saw this kind of slavish devotion to Obama during the campaign? What's troubling here goes beyond the clanging of cash registers. Media outlets have always tried to make a few bucks off the next big thing. The endless campaign is over, and there's nothing wrong with the country pulling together, however briefly, behind its new leader. But we seem to have crossed a cultural line into mythmaking. "The Obamas' New Life!" blares People's...

On Nov. 18, 1978, more than 900 men, women and children - many of them poor African Americans from San Francisco - died after drinking a cyanide-laced potion in Peoples Temple founder Jim Jones' compound in the jungles of Guyana. Then, while San Francisco struggled to grasp the enormity of that tragedy, on Nov. 27 a fiercely conservative ex-supervisor named Dan White assassinated Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk, one of the nation's few openly gay politicians. White was a former police officer and firefighter who had campaigned against the city's "social deviates." With the bullets he fired, White...

"On Thursday, CNN aired "Escape from Jonestown," presented by CNN special investigations unit corespondent Soledad O'Brien. This week marks thirty years since the horrific deaths of more than 900 people, roughly a third of them children, at Jonestown. The massacre was orchestrated by "Reverend" Jim Jones. What CNN barely referenced was Jones's connection to several leading Democratic politicians of the time. O'Brien did identify Jones as a believer in socialism and, with a survivor, passingly alluded to his influence in the Democratic Party" ...

OAKLAND — Convinced Jim Jones was God, Garrett Lambrev was the first person to join Peoples Temple in Ukiah in 1966 after the group moved from Indiana. Ten years later — two years before the Jonestown tragedy — he was part of a wave of defectors, shaken to the core by tales of torture and wanting nothing to do with a god who could sanction such things. He was reviled as a traitor and lived in fear for his life. Yet as Lambrev reflects on the enigma of Peoples Temple, his thoughts settle not just on the horrors of the...

Nov 14 - A song based on a Christian prayer and aimed at uniting the world behind Barack Obama is creating waves on the Internet.

THERE IS a symbolic significance to the Washington summit beyond economics, reinforcing as it does the place of the US at the heart of world affairs. "Without question the American economy is still as influential on the rest of the world as it was," historian Niall Ferguson says. "There was this notion that some economies around the world, most notably China, had decoupled from the American economy. I think we're seeing just how unlikely that claim was." The crisis represents some economic weakening of the US, but is affecting other countries more severely in relative terms; while the US stock...

Rev. Peterson: Black Preachers Are Worshiping The Wrong Messiah! There shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies…2 Peter 2:1 With the November 4 election of Barack Obama, black preachers have been celebrating across the country. Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson, Founder and President of BOND Action, Inc. is rebuking these black preachers for their part in electing the most left-wing presidential candidate in American history: “Ninety-six percent of black voters supported Barack Obama and the majority of these voters were influenced by black preachers to put race ahead of their country and their faith,” said...

Climate first for Obama transition teamAppointments to key energy positions should reveal the new president's priorities. Alexandra Witze Published online 11 November 2008 | Nature | After eight years out in the cold, Democrats in Washington DC are rushing to warm themselves by the White House fireplace. And although research advocates may have to wait to see major science-policy positions in the new administration filled, a sense of the next president's priorities and style of governance is starting to emerge. Barack Obama, who defeated John McCain on 4 November for the presidency (see 'The congressional outcome'), swiftly set up a...

The controversial Nation of Islam Minister Louis Farrakhan has hailed Barack Obama as a God-given leader with extraordinary vision, but warned of the racial animosity stirred up by his victory in the presidential election. Delivering a sermon at the Mosque Maryam in Chicago on Sunday, Mr Farrakhan added that Mr Obama will be able to make positive changes only with help from “God and people of goodwill,” and he urged followers of the Chicago-based black nationalist movement to do their part. “President-elect Obama has energized all segments of the depressed, downtrodden, rejected and despised,” Mr Farrakhan said in a 90-minute...

Obama Holiday Rallies Turned Away by Topeka McDonald's @ 3:12 pm by Chris Good After Internet news circles buzzed Monday about an activist's plans for a national holiday in honor of President-elect Barack Obama, the Kansas McDonald's slated to host the holiday-promoting rallies has said "no." Activist Sonny Scroggins, leader of a group called Bias Busters of Kansas, had planned to hold rallies at a downtown Topeka McDonald's every Tuesday to plan a push for an Obama holiday. A Topeka Capital-Journal story about Scroggins' plans caught some national attention Monday after being featured prominently on the Drudge Report. The McDonald's...

Warning its readers to “be prepared to gag,” the “Scrapbook” page of this week's Weekly Standard magazine recited “some of the worst over-the-top reactions to The One's ascendance,” starting with Time's Nancy Gibbs who opened this week's cover story by comparing Obama with Jesus: “Some princes are born in palaces. Some are born in mangers. But a few are born in the imagination, out of scraps of history and hope...” In the November 17 issue, she heralded (citing his full name) the greater meaning of Obama's victory:

Barack Obama's speeches contain the hypnosis techniques of Dr. Milton Erickson, M.D, who developed a form of "conversational" hypnosis that could be hidden in seemingly normal speech. Obama's mesmerized cult like worship by millions may be the result of this brazen use of these techniques. Obama's techniques are thoroughly studied and discussed in this article. Unless one knows about these methods, they are not noticeable, but once you know about them, they are obvious.

November 10, 2008 Here Comes the Conservative Civil War By Rod Dreher And so, with a resounding, bone-rattling crash, the conservative era ends. Now the scattered and demoralized armies of the right will turn on each other with such ferocity it will make the brutal opening scene of Gladiator look like a slap fight at a slumber party. It's about to get mercenary in the woodshed. Who lost conservatism? The first instinct among shell-shocked and infuriated partisans will be to blame anybody but their own faction for this historical repudiation. Look to the talk-radio mob to set upon conservative elites...

The crazed ecstasy that has afflicted Obama's followers here and around the world is taking a creepy turn with a frightening preview of life in the not so distant future in the USA. Apparently Obama's admission that he would be president for a minimum of 10 years and rule over 57 states and finally the world were slips of his real intentions. This latest scheme isn't another brilliant Onion parody or a satire of Barack Obama on Saturday Night Live. This is scarily real about a man who was elected with slightly more than half of the votes. As reported...

0bama Spokesman Says 'Obama Ready to RULE on Day 1' By Warner Todd Huston (Bio | Archive) November 10, 2008 - 02:02 ET * [Email this to friend] * [Printer-friendly version] **Video Below the Fold** The co-chair of Barack Obama's Transition Team, Valerie Jarrett, appeared on Meet the Press this weekend and used, shall we say, an interesting word to described what she thinks Barack Obama will be doing in January when he's officially sworn into office. She told Tom Brokaw that Obama will be ready to "rule" on day one. It's a word that reflects the worst fears that...

Plans are being made to promote a national holiday for Barack Obama, who will become the nation's 44th president when he takes the oath of office Jan. 20. "Yes We Can" planning rallies will be at 7 a.m. and 7 p.m. every Tuesday at the downtown McDonald's restaurant, 1100 Kansas Ave., until Jan. 13. The goals are to secure a national holiday in Obama's honor, to organize celebrations around his inauguration and to celebrate the 200th birthday of President Abraham Lincoln, who was born on Feb. 12 1809. At 7:30 a.m. on Inauguration Day, Obama Cake will be served at...