I still say the country is doomed

USSA here we come

So long USA

Just strengthens my resolve to get out.

These photos were most certainly not staged. This was a spontaneous celebration of hope and life, by those who haven't been taught the politics of hatred and prejudice. I *suppose* that you could call the last photo 'staged', in the same way that you would 'stage' a photo of a family picnic when you ask Aunt Millie to put down the potato salad for a moment and smile for the camera.

Look at the faces in the crowd. There are whites, blacks, hispanics, and Muslims. You wouldn't see this at a McCain rally. If McCain would have won, then both of those kids would have been white, they probably would have been dressed in camouflage, and they wouldn't have been passing an Obama sign; they would have been passing an Obama doll...most likely with a noose around it's neck, and they both would have been flashing the 'one fingered' sign.

He's only one man. There are ~300 million of us. It's up to US to make this happen.

"And then, one Thursday, nearly two thousand years after one man had been nailed to a tree for saying how great it would be to be nice to people for a change, one girl sitting on her own in a small cafe in Rickmansworth suddenly realized what it was that had been going wrong all this time, and she finally knew how the world could be made a good and happy place. This time it would be right, it would work, and no one would have to be nailed to anything."  Douglas Adams

The problem with bad people is that they always assume everyone else is just as bad.

Obama won't be the massive change everyone expects. The power of the president is actually a lot less than many believe, including mr GWB, but imo, he was much more suited for our country than McCain was. We need a better economy and better foreign relations are what we need for the short term. Fiscal Conservatives have tanked our economy. Go figure.... And foreign relations, well, he wins that hands down for obvious reasons. For the long term, he'll let us keep the freedoms we have and we'll get back the ones we lost under GWB, hopefully.

I'm just glad that America voted for Hope instead of Fear.

And so VERY thankful that Palin never made it near the presidency. Anyone who's remotely intelligent who has done proper research on her should be appalled at her nomination. Which has nothing to do with her being a woman, but with her ruling, rational, and deductive reasoning abilities.

Nobama.

Sorry had to, a shame it was.

Sorry but, isn't that the whole point? If it's "spontaneous", that means the photographer takes pictures without coaching anyone.

This obviously isn't the case in these pictures, since it doesn't take much to know that the two kids wouldn't know what they were doing much less flashing signs to the camera while looking straight at it.

It's staged. The crowd is irrelevant. It's like going out in the street, stopping a random person and asking him to make a sign for the camera then claiming it was spontaneous because the other people walking on the street didn't know what was going on. It doesn't work that way.

my heart bleeds more

Mistralok - The Douglas Adams quote deserved karma - the rest of that deserved a massive karma loss. Assuming all McCain supporters are racist morons puts you squarely in the "just as bad as them" category. I'm truly sick and tired of people bitching that anyone who didn't vote for Obama must belong to the KKK, or that anyone who voted against Clinton was a sexist pig, or whatever other bullshit anyone claims. Yes, some of the people who supported him are like that, but not the vast majority.

I have serious problems with some of his plans. His healthcare plan will be a disaster. His tax plans are idiotic. His plans for Iraq are shortsighted, and have the potential to turn the place into another Darfur. It has nothing at all to do with him being black.

That being said, I still didn't vote for McCain. I preferred his policies, but I judged the probability of him completing his first term to be essentially zero, and a Palin presidency would be at least as bad as keeping Bush on for a third term. The only real hope Obama brings me is that Congress and the courts can restrain the stupid stuff and let him change the stuff that needs to be changed. Of course, my vote mattered not at all; I'm from Illinois. Even without Obama being from here, the north end of the state is enough to force our vote democratic even if Satan himself was on the ticket.

Hey I live in a Chicago suburb, not by choice, and I'm not too keen on Satan.

But yeah, it's too damned socialist here.

/sigh

Whats so wrong with Socialism? All that much closer to the perfect society...

I'm still confused why everyone hates Finland? They have been the example of how to do socialisim right. to me it seems as though the spirits of government types are as follows:

Socialist: the government will take care of you

communist: you are born equal, and that is how you stay

capitalist: by hook or crook, you have earned your place in society

monarchy: I can trust my destiney to one good man

democracy (direct): the only fair option is the one chosen by the true majority

republic: see monarchy

anarchy: I trust a whole bunch of people with the ame amoutn of power as me over anyone with more

dictatorship: the world is dangerous, and we must trust the leader to protect us

sure, there are bad examples, cuba is a bad example on how not to run a country, and russia is a great example of a dictatorship that looks like whatever it feels like looking like. I am still perplexed by the hatred of socialisim though.

sorry for sounding incoherent btw.

So, fundamentally, if you have a picture of Aunt Millie smiling at the camera, at the family picnic, you *do* consider that a staged photograph.

Fine.

Personally, I disagree - staged is doing something

[quote]

written for or performed on the stage; "a staged version of the novel"

arranged: deliberately arranged for effect; "one of those artfully staged photographs

[/quote]

You're attempting to justify your cynicism by calling a fairly obvious impromptu thing between a pair of kids 'staged'. This is the mark of an amateur cynic - a truly talented cynic such as myself prefers to recognize that these kids were cute, presume they did it without coaching, and know in his heart of hearts that Obama will disappoint anyway.

Presidents disappoint, those elected with high hope moreso than those of which mere competence was expected (although, with extraordinary efforts, even they can disappoint. As per Sarah Vowel on The Daily Show)

That said, hey, if we aim for a messiah-like opening of the heavens and the singing of a choir of angels, perhaps I can deal with the disappointment of mere competence.

Jonnan <-- I lie - I'm not cynical, I'm sardonic. That's cynical with a sense of humor.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l46t_nrySg4

Nuff said