barackobama

OBAMA IS RUNNING FOR PRESIDENT ‘08! 

So were you among the 15,000 or so people  in Illinois on Saturday to  witness Obama’s announcement? Did you  watch the live streaming webcast?

I was lazy and didn’t feel like getting up early to watch myself, so I watched it yesterday at my leisure.  It’s 30+ minutes long, however, most of it wasn’t speech, but rather music over top of watching Obama smile, wave, and shake hands before and after his speech. Honestly, I think the music may have been my favorite part. Their choice of songs was amusing and had me laughing.

While listening, I also signed up for “My” BarackObama.com account.  The Obama campaign has been criticized in the past for having a lame non-interactive site.  Well, it seems someone’s taken note and produced the most community oriented interactive campaign sites I’ve ever seen (okay, I don’t visit many politicians’ websites, but still!)

The new Barack Obama site is set up like a social networking site à la Myspace/LiveJournal. You can create a profile and network with people in your local area, invite friends to join, blog (I think I’ll keep my Today.com blog), find out about local events, and I suppose most importantly to Obama: FUNDRAISE by creating a fundraising goal page and then email all your friends begging for contributions on Obama’s behalf in order to watch your fundraising goal bar inch up.

Oh and any new hip politician site isn’t complete without their very OWN BLOG.  Keep an eye on it for the latest updates!

READ THE TRANSCRIPT | WATCH THE VIDEO

Here is a Preview Video of an announcement set to be made live on the web tomorrow morning at BarackObama.com

Senator Obama will be making a speech about his plans for the future in Springfield, Illinois on Saturday morning.

We are all invited to watch a live video feed of the event on BarackObama.com, which will be a brand new site in the morning.

Here are the details:

Live Video Feed from Springfield, Illinois
10:55 AM Eastern / 9:55 AM Central / 8:55 AM Mountain / 7:55 AM Pacific
http://www.barackobama.com

From the Minneapolis - St. Paul Star Tribune: Veterans, Obama say number of war wounded grossly understated

Veterans groups and Sen. Barack Obama say government officials are obscuring the actual number of wounded in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars by leaving out of some public documents troops who suffer non-combat injuries.

…the number of wounded in the wars often circulated publicly is around 23,000.

That number only accounts for those wounded in combat. When troops from those wars who were wounded in other ways are counted, the number more than doubles, to about 53,000.

“It doesn’t make a difference whether you were hit by enemy fire, or injured because your vehicle crashed, or got sick because of serving in a war zone,” Obama said in a statement. “The effects on the soldiers and their families are the same. And the impact in terms of the current fighting force and future demands on the VA are also the same.”

Combined Joint Task Fork - Horn of Africa, Obama sees benefits in Horn of Africa mission
Harowo, .S. Senator Barack Obama Visits Counterterrorism Force Base In Djibouti

Yuck, just read that Barack is a smoker!

He’s trying to quit though, thank goodness. 
Read about it yourself at ABC News: Obama to Quit — Smoking, That Is

If he suceeds in kicking the habit this time maybe he will be an inspiration to others.