"Sometimes what I did wasn't popular. But that's OK. I always did what I thought was right. It is a great day because we got to come home once and for all. I come home with my head held high. The presidency was a joyous experience, but as great as it was, nothing compares with Texas at sunset. Tonight I have the privilege of saying six words that I have been waiting to say for a while: It is good to be home."

-Former President George W. Bush
in his homecoming speech in Midland, Texas

from, of all people, my grandmother...

Subject: BACK IN SERVICE



Subject: Message to the world



Dear World:

We, the United States of America, your top quality supplier of the ideals of liberty and democracy, would like to apologize for our 2001-2008 interruption in service. The technical fault that led to this eight-year service outage has been located, and the software responsible was replaced November 4. Early tests of the newly installed program indicate that we are now operating correctly, and we expect it to be fully functional on January 20. We apologize for any inconvenience caused by the outage. We look forward to resuming full service and hope to improve in years to come. We thank you for your patience and understanding.


Sincerely,
THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

more than ever

another really good article on race/obama from a.coop., via twitter. basically just states the obvious, but i found myself saying "...yeah! ...YEAH!" to a lot of the points addressed. give it a read here.

"don't worry about history, they'll write it later."

i've been following anderson cooper on twitter for the past few days and loving the articles he keeps sending "my" way--here is one i just couldn't resist posting up here; the excerpt that follows is his speculation on what (if anything) our new president's predecessor might have left in a note in the top drawer of the desk in the oval office:

Keep a sense of humor.

Don’t forget to eat lunch.

Exercise helps with the stress. Keep shooting hoops.

Meet with the families of our fallen troops. Value their sacrifice.

Remember that you’re also a husband and a father and that the folks working around you have families.

Don’t worry about history, they’ll write it later. Have faith in your judgment. Protect the country we all love.

My new phone number’s unlisted but I’ll make sure you have it.

anyway, read the rest of the article here.

...from sea to shining sea.

Yes, we can.

Yes, we did.

Yes, we will.

PRESIDENT Barack Obama. As I live and breathe.