Just an average Joe.

Obama finally chose his VP pick today in Senator Joe Biden. The uncensored, down-to-earth, not afraid to fight, Joe Biden. I think it's a great choice.

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Biden gave a fiery speech in which he praised Obama and criticized McCain, saying "these times require more than a good soldier, they require a wise leader." Biden also emphasized the importance of this election: "This is no ordinary time, this is no ordinary election."

From the AP - Barack Obama introduced Sen. Joe Biden of Delaware on Saturday as a man "ready to step in and be president," and the newly minted running mate quickly turned his campaign debut into a slashing attack on Republicans seeking four more years in the White House.


Sen. John McCain would have to "figure out which of the seven kitchen tables to sit at" when considering his own economic future, said Biden, jabbing at the man he called his personal friend.

It was a reference to McCain's recent inartful admission that he was not sure how many homes he owns.

Before a vast crowd spilling out from the front of the Old State Capitol, Obama said Biden was "what many others pretend to be -- a statesman with sound judgment who doesn't have to hide behind bluster to keep America strong."

Democrats coalesced quickly around Obama's selection of the 65-year-old veteran of three decades in the Senate -- a choice meant to provide foreign policy heft to the party's ticket for the fall campaign against McCain and the Republicans.

Obama made a symbolic choice for the ticket's first joint appearance.

(READ MORE)

The official wedding photos are out. Awwww.....

YOU AND ME AND PEOPLE MAKES 20

With the exception of a rogue pair of quotation marks unleashed by CNN ("Ellen DeGeneres 'marries' Portia Rossi"), the whole world seemed full of nothing but praise and well-wishes for the world's most famous lesbian couple, Ellen DeGeneres and Portia de Rossi, who got married last weekend in an intimate ceremony at their home in Los Angeles.

And by "intimate," I mean 19 of their closest friends and family and, of course, People magazine. (READ MORE)

7 Houses ????? Yeah.. he understands me.

"Caroline: Pull a Cheney!"

Tuesday, August 19th, 2008

"Caroline: Pull a Cheney!" An Open Letter to Caroline Kennedy (head of the Obama VP search team) from Michael Moore

Dear Caroline,

We've never met, so I hope you don't find this letter too presumptuous or inappropriate. As its contents involve the public's business, I am sending this to you via the public on the Internet. I knew your brother John. He was a great guy, and I know he would've had a ball during this thrilling and historic election year. We all miss him dearly.

Barack Obama selected you to head up his search for a vice presidential candidate. It appears we may be just days (hours?) away from learning who that choice will be.

The media is reporting that Senator Obama has narrowed his alternatives to three men: Joe Biden, Evan Bayh and Tim Kaine. They're all decent fellows, but they are far from the core of what the Obama campaign has been about: Change. Real change. Out with the old. And don't invade countries that pose no threat to us.

Senators Biden and Bayh voted for that invasion and that war, the war Barack ran against, the war Barack reminded us was the big difference between him and Senator Clinton because she voted for the war and he spoke out against it while running for Senate (a brave and bold thing to do back in 2002).

For Obama to place either of these senators on the ticket would be a huge blow to the millions that chose him in the primaries over Hillary. He will undercut one of the strongest advantages he has over the Hundred-Year War senator, Mr. McCain. By anointing a VP who did what McCain did in throwing us into this war, Mr. Obama will lose the moral high ground in the debates.

As for Governor Kaine of Virginia, his big problem is, well, Obama's big problem -- who is he? The toughest thing Barack has had to overcome -- and it will continue to be his biggest obstacle -- is that too many of the voters simply don't know him well enough to vote for him. The fact that Obama is new to the scene is both one of his most attractive qualities AND his biggest drawback. Too many Americans, who on the surface seem to like Barack Obama, just don't feel comfortable voting for someone who hasn't been on the national scene very long. It's a comfort level thing, and it may be just what keeps Obama from winning in November ("I'd rather vote for the devil I know than the devil I don't know").

What Obama needs is a vice presidential candidate who is NOT a professional politician, but someone who is well-known and beloved by people across the political spectrum; someone who, like Obama, spoke out against the war; someone who has a good and generous heart, who will be cheered by the rest of the world; someone whom we've known and loved and admired all our lives and who has dedicated her life to public service and to the greater good for all.

That person, Caroline, is you.

I cannot think of a more winning ticket than one that reads: "OBAMA-KENNEDY."

Caroline, I know that nominating yourself is the furthest idea from your mind and not consistent with who you are, but there would be some poetic justice to such an action. Just think, eight years after the last head of a vice presidential search team looked far and wide for a VP -- and then picked himself (a move topped only by his hubris to then lead the country to near ruin while in office) -- along comes Caroline Kennedy to return the favor with far different results, a vice president who helps restore America to its goodness and greatness.

Caroline, you are one of the most beloved and respected women in this country, and you have been so admired throughout your life. You chose a life outside of politics, to work for charities and schools, to write and lecture, to raise a wonderful family. But you did not choose to lead a private life. You have traveled the world and met with its leaders, giving you much experience on the world stage, a stage you have been on since you were a little girl.

The nation has, remarkably (considering our fascination with celebrity), left you alone and let you live your life in peace. (It's like, long ago, we all collectively agreed that, with her father tragically gone, a man who died because he wanted to serve his country, we would look out for her, we would wish for her to be happy and well, and we would have her back. But we would let her be.)

Now, I am breaking this unwritten code and asking you to come forward and help us in our hour of need. So many families are hurting, losing their homes, going bankrupt with health care bills, seeing their public schools in shambles and living with this war without end. This is a historic year for women, from Hillary's candidacy to the numerous women running for the House and Senate. This is the year that a woman should be on the Democratic ticket. This is the year that both names on that ticket should be people OUTSIDE the party machine. This is the year millions of independents and, yes, millions of Republicans are looking for something new and fresh and bold (and you are the Kennedy Republicans would vote for!).

This is the moment, Caroline. Seize it! And Barack, if you're reading this, you probably know that she is far too humble and decent to nominate herself. So step up and surprise us again. Step up and be different than every politician we have witnessed in our lifetime. Keep the passion burning amongst the young people and others who have been energized by your unexpected, unpredicted, against-all-odds candidacy that has ignited and inspired a nation. Do it for all those reasons. Make Caroline Kennedy your VP. "Obama-Kennedy." Wow, does that sound so cool.

Caroline, thanks for letting me intrude on your life. How wonderful it will be to have a vice president who will respect the Constitution, who will support (instead of control) her president, who will never let her staff out a CIA agent, and who will never tell her country that she is "currently residing in an undisclosed location."

Say it one more time: "OBAMA-KENNEDY." A move like that might send a message to the country that the Democrats would actually like to win an election for once.

Yours,
Michael Moore
MMFlint@aol.com
MichaelMoore.com

Rachel Maddow Becomes First Out Lesbian to Host Prime-Time News Show

I knew this was coming when she started filling in for Keith Olbermann.  

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AfterEllen.com

Openly gay political commentator Rachel Maddow, 35, is getting her own prime-time show on MSNBC, the cable news channel confirmed on Tuesday.

"This just completes our prime-time lineup," MSNBC President Phil Griffin told the New York Times.

Beginning Sept. 8, Maddow will replace commentator Dan Abrams in the 9 p.m. time slot. Her show will initially focus on the presidential race but will become more of a general news program after the election.

"This is great," Maddow told the Times. "Getting a regular cable show is something I’ve wanted."

Maddow will be the first out lesbian to host a prime-time news or political commentary show on American television, and one of the very few women ever to do so. MSNBC does not have any other news or political commentary shows hosted by women.

(READ MORE)

Ellen DeGeneres and Portia de Rossi Officially Married

America's current reigning celebrity lesbian couple were officially — and legally — married this weekend.

"Ellen DeGeneres and Portia de Rossi were married tonight in an intimate ceremony at their home in Los Angeles," their spokesperson told People magazine late Saturday.

De Rossi, 35, wore a backless, light pink dress, and DeGeneres, 50, wore pants, a button-down shirt and vest, all in white, according to Us magazine. Both outfits were designed by Zac Posen.

(READ STORY)

Legendary Torres defies odds, age

BEIJING -- Let's start by dispelling some rumors about Dara Torres. She hasn't been talking to the Chinese gymnastics team about age manipulation. She didn't jam the info computers in Beijing with page 457 of her swim résumé. She hasn't reserved a place to jump into the 2047 World Championships to celebrate her 80th birthday when her grandkids could be coaching her.

But let's also confirm this about the amazing 41-year-old Torres: Her two silver medals on Sunday in the swimming competition are a resounding victory for the masters' set, the over-40s who, at least in Torres' sport, are expected to get the nice going-away watch even before their 30th birthdays. If Jason Lezak, at 32, can joke that in swimming terms he's ready for AARP, Torres should be in her category of AANGTBRP: (American Association of Never Going to be a Retired Person).

Torres led for most of the 50-meter freestyle on Sunday, before being out-touched by Germany's Britta Steffen 24.06 seconds to 24.07. She came back shortly after and anchored the 4x100-meter medley team to second place behind heavily favored Australia. With her silver in the 4x100 freestyle relay, she now has 12 Olympic medals -- four of every color from a total of five Games. It's a good bet that some people of a certain age who were clapping in their living rooms were also dusting off their jogging shoes and looking for their tennis racquets. "If that's so, it's great," the new mom said afterwards. "If this helps anyone out there who is in their middle-aged years and has put off what they wanted to do because they thought they were too old or because they have a child, and that they can't balance what they want to do with being a parent, then that's great. What I've done is show them that they can do it."

Torres has been doing it since the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles, where she won a gold medal on the U.S. 4x100-meter freestyle relay team when she was just 17. That was five Olympic teams ago. Back then, disco was barely dead, Miami Vice was in vogue, Al Gore was still figuring out the Internet and Lionel Richie and Van Halen were going to No. 1 with songs like "Hello" and "Jump" that had very few other lyrics. And here's the most telling reference: Michael Phelps, the all-time leader in Olympic gold medals with 14, was not even born. A full three-quarters of Torres' 2008 female teammates weren't, either.

"For so long in this sport," said Natalie Coughlin, one of Torres' older teammates, at 26, "it was thought that if you're getting to 16, 17 or 18, you're getting to the end of your career. Dara has done a fantastic job in proving that you can continue to improve and that women can have children and get back into the sport. She has gotten rid of a mythology in swimming that has been there for so long." Torres is affectionately known as Mom and Legend to her teammates.
Yes, doping rumors have dogged her for years, but Phelps' coach, Bob Bowman, points out that Torres is constantly modernizing her stroke, updating her technique more readily than her 20-year-old rivals who, by comparison, are more set in their technical ways. Her improvement curve is still changing, he says, because she is, too. If Torres is indeed thriving on spinach and fruit shakes, it is time to break out the line from When Harry Met Sally: "I'll have what she's having."

Consider what a difficult double she had on Sunday, as much mentally as physically. At 10:40 a.m. Beijing time, she left the awards stand, wearing the silver medal from the 50 free, a race she came within a fingernail of winning. In that time, she fought the temptation to review the race and review her career, because she still had one more race to swim with her teammates. Then she posed for pictures for photographers, tossed her flowers into the stands at 10:41, posed for some more pictures and apologized for running off to the ready room at 10:42. At that point, the announcer began introducing the swimmers for the medley relay. As her teammates walked onto the pool deck, waiting for her to join them, Torres placed her medal inside and skipped back toward Lane 4. The unofficial count of elapsed time between leaving the pool deck from an emotional ceremony and skipping back onto it to race again was 54 seconds. Of the eight women swimming the freestyle legs on their relay teams, Torres recorded the fastest split, at 52.27 seconds, but it wasn't enough to catch Australia's Libby Trickett, who had jumped in with a sizeable lead.

As she left the pool to wait for her second medal, Torres was actually answering questions from her rivals, Trickett and Steffen, about childbirth, at one point mimicking the actual procedure right in the ready room. In Beijing, the mom has lived up to both her nicknames and her legend.