We don’t know if he was a Christian, a Muslim, or a Jew.
We don’t know if he was left wing or right wing.
We don’t know if it was done with a political purpose in mind, or if his mind merely snapped, lashing out at a society of which he wasn’t a part.
At this point, we know nothing about the bomber at today’s Boston Marathon.
But I will not cower in fear.
I will not listen to the ones with the megaphones who are already using this as an excuse to settle political scores.
I will not hide in my room, or acquiesce to give up a bit of freedom for safety. Giving up one rarely secures you the other.
I will not pound my chest and say that the answer is more guns on the street, so that we’re all deputized, armed, dangerous.
I will not let hatred blind me.
I will run towards the danger, like hundreds of citizens did in Boston.
I will open my home to those who suffered and lost.
I will stay resolute that fear will not prevail.
I will trust that this country will feel its way towards doing the right thing. It always, eventually, does.
Our instinct is to give up on our fellow humans. One of my first reactions was to root for global warming to do its worst.
But that hopelessness is the one thing which will condemn us to extinction.
Hope is what keeps humanity going; it’s the only thing keeping us from falling into the abyss. Once we’ve lost hope, we’ve lost what makes us human.
I will not lose hope.
We don’t know what prompted the bomber to commit his act. But one thing we can assume with a clear certainty is that hope was lost in him.
I will not be that man.
I will not succumb to the thought that humanity is a cesspit, doomed to fall. One man bombed a race. Hundreds raced towards the explosions, to help out their fellow human beings. I’m with them.
2:45 ET: Michelle Obama speaks at a campaign event at Ohio Wesleyan University, Delaware
5:45 ET: Michelle Obama speaks at a campaign event at Cuyahoga County Community College, Cleveland
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NYT Editorial: There are many unanswered questions about the vicious assault in Benghazi last month that killed four Americans, including Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens. And Congress has a responsibility to raise them. But Republican lawmakers leading the charge on Capitol Hill seem more interested in attacking President Obama than in formulating an effective response.
It doesn’t take a partisan to draw that conclusion. The ugly truth is that the same people who are accusing the administration of not providing sufficient security for the American consulate in Benghazi have voted to cut the State Department budget, which includes financing for diplomatic security. The most self-righteous critics don’t seem to get the hypocrisy, or maybe they do and figure that if they hurl enough doubts and complaints at the administration, they will deflect attention from their own poor judgments on the State Department’s needs.
Newport News/Williamsburg International Airport, October 13 (Jonathan Ernst/Reuters)
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Washington Post: President Obama is regarded as significantly more honest and trustworthy than Mitt Romney in a new Washington Post-ABC News poll — a finding that could inform the incumbent’s strategy heading into the second debate of the general election Tuesday night.
Fifty-five percent of likely voters said that Obama is “honest and trustworthy,” while 41 percent said he was not. For Romney, on the other hand, 47 percent said he could be described as honest and trustworthy, while an equal 47 percent said that he could not.
…. But in the handful of swing states identified by the Post (along with Democratic-leaning Ohio), Obama’s lead is even more pronounced on the question. Fifty-six percent of swing-state voters said the incumbent is honest and trustworthy, while just 44 percent said the same of Romney.
Virginia Gazette: …. The president arrived at the office, where he came into the lobby carrying a stack of pizzas …. he introduced himself to a small group of campaign workers in the lobby before heading into a back room, where 11 volunteers were phone banking. Obama introduced himself to the volunteers before taking a seat between Alexa Kissinger and Suzanne Stern to make his own phone calls to local volunteers. “I’ve got to get to work,” Obama said.
After joking with Stern about “old school” phones Obama …. then called Ellen and Chuck Hawkins. “Is this Ellen?” Obama asked. “Ellen this is Barack Obama.” Hawkins seemed not to believe she was getting a call from the president of the United States.
“It is. It is. Really, truly,” Obama said. “I’m over here in the Williamsburg office. They have told me some of the great folks that have been doing work, and I know you and Chuck have been working so hard.”
After making phone calls Obama, shook hands with and hugged a line of roughly 20 volunteers standing outside in front of the office, before heading back to Kingsmill to continue preparing for the debate.
With campaign volunteer Suzanne Stern at a campaign office in Williamsburg, October 14 (Jonathan Ernst/Reuters)
…. greeting supporters outside the Williamsburg campaign office (Jonathan Ernst/Reuters)
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NYT: BOSTON — When the ceiling collapsed in the Big Dig tunnel here, Gov. Mitt Romney was at his vacation home in New Hampshire. When the Bush administration warned that the nation was at high risk of a terror attack in December 2003, he was at his Utah retreat. And for much of the time the legislature was negotiating changes to his landmark health care bill, he was on the road.
During Mr. Romney’s four-year term as governor of Massachusetts, he cumulatively spent more than a year – part or all of 417 days – out of the state, according to a review of his schedule and other records. More than 70 percent of that time was spent on personal or political trips unrelated to his job, a New York Times analysis found.
Reuters: U.S. retail sales rose in September as Americans bought more cars and gasoline, while a gauge of consumer spending pointed to stronger-than-expected economic growth in the third quarter.
Retail sales increased 1.1 percent, the Commerce Department said on Monday, beating expectations after an upwardly revised 1.2 percent rise in August.
…. The details of the report showed broad strength across retailers, with sales of motor vehicles and parts up 1.3 percent … Other categories were also strong, with sales at electronics retailers up 4.5 percent, while sales at food and beverage stores rose 1.2 percent.
Charles Pierce: These are some things the president of the United States cannot say but that I can say about him. Because he is a black man, he has an obligation to be grateful to the white people who voted him into office. Because he is a black man, he has an obligation not to use the full powers of his office in such a way as to alienate any of the white people who so graciously voted him into office. Because he is a black man, he has an obligation not to use the full advantages of his office in his effort to get those white people to reelect him as their president for another four years. Because those white people voted him into office, his primary job as president is to make sure his entire presidency is a demonstration of how far we’ve come as a nation on race, and that means he is not allowed to do anything or say anything that the white people who elected him can perceive to be divisive, because his primary function is to make them feel good about themselves. In theory, at least, all presidents are servants of the people who elected them. In the case of Barack Obama, it has seemed from the start that the idea as applied to him was more than mere metaphor. He is the first president in my lifetime whom the country felt obligated to remind that he know his place.
The rules of the office changed on him just about the second that his hand came off the Bible in January 2009. Every benefit of every doubt that ever was given to every president, good or bad, was not given to him…..
…. It has been hard not to notice that he is the first president in my lifetime who is treated as though he has been given permission by the country to lead it, a permission that can be rescinded at any time, for whatever reason, fair or foul.
…. The event of him is still remarkable. The idea that America elected a black man to be its president forty years after it declined to allow Martin Luther King Jr. to stand on a balcony without getting shot still maintains its power to awe and inspire. Of course, he can’t make full use of that, either, because as we know by virtue of his very election, race is no longer an issue in this country. But the rest of us can make of it what we will. Even in this, his second cautious, no-drama campaign, there remains a sense that you could get in on the making of history again. It’s time for Barack Obama to be as bold as he wants the rest of the country to be. If the path is narrow, you might as well run as walk.
Okay, finally: about Friday. You know, when things got a little heated around here. 😕
Just to clear up a bunch of stuff:
* No, this place hasn’t turned in to Huffy Firebagger Kos, as some of you suggested. It will always be a blog for those smart enough to support President Obama and his efforts in the face of all that poison from the right and their buddies on the ‘left’.
* Fire/Teabagger bile is blocked here, and I do my best to weed out trolls.
* With that in mind, I’m asking you all – very, very politely – to trust that the people who post here regularly, and who sometimes express their frustrations over different issues (as some did on Friday), are not Fire/Teabaggers, and don’t ever deserve to be branded with that slur.
* Some seriously good people were abused here on Friday, and accused of all sorts (the worst of which I deleted), simply for sharing their frustrations – some of which, for what it’s worth, I share too. That was ugly, and wrong.
* I know, most of you want this place to remain an upbeat refuge, it’s why you come here, and that’s largely what it will remain – but we can handle debate, we’re not Fire/Teabagger sheeple who bow to their ringleaders’ absolute opposition to the President and never dissent from that line, no matter what. We’re way smarter than that.
* So, debate will always be welcome here, and if that debate gets passionate and contentious at times, well, that’s good – and it’s healthy.
* By all means, argue back if you don’t agree with those expressing frustration – but attack the message, not the messenger, okay?
* No, Firebagger memes aren’t welcome here, because they’re just hate-fueled baseless spite, but the views of supporters of the President who reckon the administration could do a whole lot better in boosting his hopes of re-election will always be welcome. Some of you feel disagreement among the President’s supporters gives encouragement to his opponents – I’d argue that it does the opposite, because it shows we’re capable of debate, unlike the mindless sheeple. And nothing scares the poor old Fire/Teabagger sheeple more than freedom of thought …. for them, it’s a terrifying and alien concept.
* What I’m asking you all, more than anything, is to ‘disagree without being disagreeable’, as the man said. I gave up posting on a bunch of sites, now overrun by Firebaggers, simply because of the levels of venomous abuse thrown at people for expressing their honest views. I won’t allow that happen here.
* I’m not in to rules, at all, but I’m going to set one now: Nastiness towards fellow posters is not acceptable here, ever.
* Call me old-fashioned, but I’m just asking for some civility.
Just a very, very polite request: please keep things civil when you’re arguing with others here – as the man said, “disagree without being disagreeable”.
I haven’t had a chance to read all the comments the last few days, but having looked through a few …. just a small request: please be civil to each other!
I know this is a miserably tense time, but let’s try to keep our heads and stay united through it all. That doesn’t – needless to say – mean we won’t disagree, sometimes passionately, on the issues currently being debated, but let’s try to do so in a respectful way.
Also, please don’t bring ‘professional’ left/GOP spin and lies here – as we all know, those two groups are united in their opposition to any form of compromise in these talks for the sole reason that they believe it would reduce the President’s re-election chances. It’s all about destroying Obama – if the American economy is trashed in the process, so be it. Honestly, we don’t need their pitiful talking points repeated here, we know where to go if we want to read them.
So, when the President is up against that level of mindless hostility and opposition I think we should all just try to dig a little deeper, stay calm, wait to see what happens – and stay united. By all means disagree with each other, but try to be nice while doing it!
President Barack Obama talks with Press Secretary Jay Carney and Senior Advisor David Plouffe in between meetings in the Oval Office, July 5, 2011. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)
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When I see Plouffe in the White House I think of this tune:
Think Progress: When trying to figure out where presidential candidate Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) gets her stringent, anti-gay views, you only have to look as far as her husband. Dr. Marcus Bachmann, who has described himself as his wife’s “strategist,” runs a Christian-based counseling center in Minnesota that has been rumored to offer reparative treatment for those looking to “ungay” themselves….
….After seeing her husband’s virulent remarks, it’s no surprise then that Michele Bachmann has fiercely disparaged the gay community and has announced she’s in favor of an anti-gay marriage amendment on the campaign trail. What’s the most terrifying isn’t what Dr. Bachmann said, but the threat that the United States could elect a president who believes that homosexuality can be disciplined out of someone.
The Obama Diary 
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