tofublog

I like the first one. 

• He collects Spider-Man and Conan the Barbarian comics

• He was known as "O’Bomber" at high school for his skill at basketball

• His name means "one who is blessed" in Swahili

• His favourite meal is wife Michelle’s shrimp linguini

• He won a Grammy in 2006 for the audio version of his memoir, Dreams From My Father

• He is left-handed – the sixth post-war president to be left-handed

• He has read every Harry Potter book

• He owns a set of red boxing gloves autographed by Muhammad Ali

• He worked in a Baskin-Robbins ice cream shop as a teenager and now can’t stand ice cream

• His favourite snacks are chocolate-peanut protein bars

• He ate dog meat, snake meat, and roasted grasshopper while living in Indonesia

• He can speak Spanish

• While on the campaign trail he refused to watch CNN and had sports channels on instead

• His favourite drink is black forest berry iced tea

• He promised Michelle he would quit smoking before running for president – he didn’t

• He kept a pet ape called Tata while in Indonesia

• He can bench press an impressive 200lbs

• He was known as Barry until university when he asked to be addressed by his full name

• His favourite book is Moby-Dick by Herman Melville

• He visited Wokingham, Berks, in 1996 for the stag party of his half-sister’s fiancé, but left when a stripper arrived

• His desk in his Senate office once belonged to Robert Kennedy

• He and Michelle made $4.2 million (£2.7 million) last year, with much coming from sales of his books

• His favourite films are Casablanca and One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest

• He carries a tiny Madonna and child statue and a bracelet belonging to a soldier in Iraq for good luck

• He applied to appear in a black pin-up calendar while at Harvard but was rejected by the all-female committee.

• His favourite music includes Miles Davis, Bob Dylan, Bach and The Fugees

• He took Michelle to see the Spike Lee film Do The Right Thing on their first date

• He enjoys playing Scrabble and poker

• He doesn’t drink coffee and rarely drinks alcohol

• He would have liked to have been an architect if he were not a politician

• As a teenager he took drugs including marijuana and cocaine

• His daughters’ ambitions are to go to Yale before becoming an actress (Malia, 10) and to sing and dance (Sasha, 7)

• He hates the youth trend for trousers which sag beneath the backside

• He repaid his student loan only four years ago after signing his book deal

• His house in Chicago has four fire places

• Daughter Malia’s godmother is Jesse Jackson’s daughter Santita

• He says his worst habit is constantly checking his BlackBerry

• He uses an Apple Mac laptop

• He drives a Ford Escape Hybrid, having ditched his gas-guzzling Chrysler 300

• He wears $1,500 (£952) Hart Schaffner Marx suits

• He owns four identical pairs of black size 11 shoes

• He has his hair cut once a week by his Chicago barber, Zariff, who charges $21 (£13)

• His favourite fictional television programmes are Mash and The Wire

• He was given the code name "Renegade" by his Secret Service handlers

• He was nicknamed "Bar" by his late grandmother

• He plans to install a basketball court in the White House grounds

• His favourite artist is Pablo Picasso

• His speciality as a cook is chilli

• He has said many of his friends in Indonesia were "street urchins"

• He keeps on his desk a carving of a wooden hand holding an egg, a Kenyan symbol of the fragility of life

• His late father was a senior economist for the Kenyan government

Barack Obama: The 50 facts you might not know – Telegraph

Carter is jealous of this kid.

Tons of great pics of Obama Here

I could not have been happier when Obama won.  Well, I could have been a teeny tiny bit happier…  President elect Obama could have have said that he supports Gay Marriage throughout his campaign.  But, if he had done that he probably wouldn’t be President Elect Obama.  Gay Marriage is just another one of those divisive issues that >50% of the country just can’t seem to get behind.   To give Barack a little, very little, slack, he does support civil unions, which give some of the same rights.  He also opposes Prop 8.

One day, not very long from now, when Carter and Claire are a bit older they are going talk to their kids about civil liberties.  The idea of not allowing a gay person to marry will seem as crazy to our grandchildren as the idea segregated schools and white only restrooms seem to me.   The conversation will probably go like this:  “Mom, tell me again about the time when only white men could be President and only men and woman could marry…  That’s funny…”  I really believe it will seem crazy in ~20 years.  I can’t get in the mind of Barack, but I sort of believe he thinks the same thing.   

One step at a time…   

But come on California… Really… You are going to pass proposition 8?  Really?   Not surprisingly, the “Protect Marriage” movement is mainly supported by right leaning religious groups.  Groups not generally seen as on the vanguard of socially liberal thinking.  A significant amount of money for the proposition has come from one church…  headquartered just slightly east of California…

Proposition 8 is an initiative state constitutional amendment on the 2008 California General Election ballot, titled Eliminates Right of Same-Sex Couples to Marry.^[1][2] If passed, the proposition will "change the California Constitution to eliminate the right of same-sex couples to marry in California."^[3] A new section would be added stating "only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California."^[3]

The measure was originally submitted for the ballot by petitioners with the title "California Marriage Protection Act."^[4] The title and summary were revised by Attorney General Jerry Brown to more "accurately reflect the measure."^[5] The Superior Court of California ruled in favor of these changes, stating, "The title and summary is not false or misleading because it states that Proposition 8 would ‘eliminate the right of same-sex couples to marry’ in California. The California Supreme Court unequivocally held that same-sex couples have a constitutional right to marry under the California Constitution." ^[6]

Vote as of 11PM  8: Gay marriage ban Yes 53.0% No 47.0%

Here is the LATIMES article.

OBAMA!