Ladywriter

After 8 long years of Bush - a fresh start. Let's seize this historic moment to send a flood of global messages to Obama. Our message and the number of signers, as well as all our personal messages, will be displayed on a giant wall in the heart of Washington DC. Over the next 48 hours, the wall could become a focal point for US media reporting on global reactions to the Obama win. A massive global response will help make this a major moment of unity and reconciliation between the US and the world. Let's get to a million! Dear President Obama: As citizens across the world, we congratulate you on your election, and celebrate your campaign commitments to sign a strong new global treaty on climate change, close Guantanamo prison and end torture, withdraw carefully from Iraq, and double aid to fight poverty. No one country or leader can meet the world's most pressing challenges alone, but working together as one world in a spirit of dialogue and cooperation, yes we can bring real and lasting change. Sign the message below and spread the word!

hows things been? What are your plans for post senior year?

Racist America lost big time hard core last night. The rest of us sent them and the rest of the world a message; we wont be controlled by fear and prejudice anymore. The rein of rich old white dudes is coming to an end so say the ethnic groups, women, young people, old people! everyone who voted yesterday for Obama. So many of us came out to vote to put this country on the right path again we broke voting records, shocked ol' whitey and his ignorant buddies, and proved to everyone on earth America can still be the place where dreams come true. Yes we can.

there is hope for America. Through all the campaigning I desperately wanted to believe it and last night my fellow Americans proved to me that it is time to put insignificant things like skin color aside. Yes, there are a lot of racist and antisemitic people in this country but the rest of us sent them and the world a very loud and clear message last night. We will no longer be controlled by the fearful and prejudice. Its a huge awesome step in the right direction for our country. We are a melting pot, we were long overdue for a national leader that reflects our ethnic diversity. This landslide victory also showed me as a person living here in the states that the people with love, acceptance and hope in their hearts outnumber those with hatred in their hearts. We've got the numbers on our side now and we will put this country on the right path -finally.

Barack Obama elected 44th president ‘Change has come to America,’ first African-American leader tells country “If there is anyone out there who doubts that America is a place where anything is possible, who still wonders if the dream of our founders is alive in our time, who still questions the power of our democracy, tonight is your answer,” Obama declared. “Young and old, rich and poor, Democrat and Republican, black, white, Hispanic, Asian, Native American, gay, straight, disabled and not disabled, Americans have sent a message to the world that we have never been just a collection of red states and blue states,” he said. “We have been and always will be the United States of America. “It’s been a long time coming, but tonight, because of what we did on this day, in this election, at this defining moment, change has come to America,” he said to a long roar.

Until the republican party ditches the racist, antisemitic, right wing evangelical view of how this country is and what America stands for (as was defended by a landslide tonight) they'll keep losing. Hey, works for me

what is this thing I'm feeling... wow I think its hope! X'D MCCAIN CONGRATULATES OBAMA

Obama elected 44th president Illinois senator to become first African-American executive in U.S. history!!!! WE WON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Barack Obama, a 47-year-old first-term senator from Illinois, shattered more than 200 years of history Tuesday night by winning election as the first African-American president in the history of the United States, according to projections by NBC News. Obama reached the 270 electoral votes he needed for election at 11 p.m. ET, when NBC News projected that he would win California, Washington and Oregon. The Associated Press reported shortly after 11 p.m. that Obama’s opponent, Republican Sen. John McCain of Arizona, had called Obama to offer his congratulations. Campaigning as a technocratic agent of change in Washington pathbreaking civil rights figure, Obama swept to victory over McCain , whose running mate, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, was seeking to become the nation’s first female vice president. more

Michigan OKs medical marijuana; Massachusetts decriminalizes some pot NBC News and news services updated 10 minutes ago Voters in Colorado and South Dakota on Tuesday rejected anti-abortion initiatives, while Michigan approved medical marijuana and Massachusetts decriminalized the possession of an ounce or less of marijuana, according to NBC projections. Those results were among the first from 153 state measures across the country. Some of the nation's most divisive social issues — gay marriage, abortion and affirmative action — went before voters as 36 states. The most momentous was a proposed constitutional amendment in California that would limit marriage to heterosexual couples. Results were not yet available on that vote. In Washington, voters were deciding whether to join Oregon as the only states offering terminally ill people the option of physician-assisted suicide. Massachusetts had three distinctive measures on its ballot — to ban dog racing, ease marijuana laws and scrap the state income tax. Massachusetts voters rejected killing the state tax. Critics of the proposal had said the cuts would ripple state services, drive up property taxes, harm the state's credit rating and scare away business. On same-sex marriage and affirmative action — issues on which the public is deeply divided — Democrat Barack Obama and Republican John McCain had rarely made proactive comments during their presidential campaigns. Abortion also had seemed like an uncomfortable topic for them at times, although Obama made clear he supports abortion rights and McCain said he would like to ban most abortions. But in a half-dozen states, those three issues were front and center. Same-sex marriage Florida, Arizona and California have constitutional amendments on their ballots that would limit marriage to a man and a woman. Twenty-seven states have previously approved such amendments, but none were in California's situation — with same-sex marriage legal since a state Supreme Court decision in May. Only Massachusetts and California allow same-sex weddings, while gay couples are expected to begin marrying this month in Connecticut. Several states allow civil unions. California's opposing sides together raised about $70 million, much of it from out of state, to wage their campaigns. The outcome, either way, will have a huge impact on prospects for spreading same-sex marriage to the 47 states that do not allow it. The rival camps view the California vote in epic terms, with the outcome of Proposition 8 having enormous influence on prospects for same-sex marriage rights in other states. "If we lose California, if they defeat the marriage amendment, I'm afraid that the culture war is over and Christians have lost," said Donald Wildmon, founder of the American Family Association. "California is a big dam, holding back the flood — and if you take down the dam in California, it's going to flood 49 other states." Obama is expected to win easily in California, but the vote on Proposition 8 is expected to be close. Of keen interest to both sides is how churchgoing black and Hispanic voters — in general a pro-Obama constituency — will vote on the ballot measure. According to exit polls, blacks were far more likely than whites or Hispanics to support the ban. Age also was a key factor — the exit polls showed voters under 30 opposing the ban by a 2-to-1 margin, while most voters 60 and older supported the ban. Both Obama and McCain say they oppose same-sex marriage. But Obama, unlike McCain, opposes Proposition 8 and endorses the concept of broader rights for same-sex couples. Gay rights also is an issue in Arkansas, where a ballot measure would prohibit unmarried couples from adopting or being foster parents. Conservatives backing the idea say it's aimed at same-sex couples, who are able to adopt and be foster parents in most states. CONTINUED Other issues1 | 2 | Next >

The actor had to get a court order before he was allowed to cast his vote NEW YORK - Many Americans endured long lines to vote. Tim Robbins had to get a court order before he was allowed to cast his vote for president.The 50-year-old actor’s voting woes began Tuesday morning when he ran into trouble at his polling station: His name was missing from the registration rolls. He said his name was nowhere to be found on the books at a YMCA in downtown Manhattan, where he’d previously voted in presidential elections. “I had been voting there for years,” he said in a telephone interview. “I have not moved, I have not changed party affiliations. There’s no reason why it shouldn’t be in the rolls. So I was given a paper ballot and filled it out, but I wanted my vote to be registered there — and I don’t trust paper ballots.” Robbins, who lives with partner Susan Sarandon and has been registered to vote in New York since 1988, said he doesn’t trust paper or affidavit ballots because “oftentimes those things get lost or thrown away.” So he did not submit his and asked to speak to a supervisor. “I stayed in the voting place and asked to see someone from the Board of Elections and told them I wasn’t going to leave until someone from the Board of Elections came and explained to me why I wasn’t being allowed to vote — why my name had been taken off the voter rolls.” The supervisor said a police officer had been called over, Robbins said, “at which point, I said to him, ‘Are you trying to intimidate me?”’ The police at the location said he had “every right to be there,” Robbins said. Police said there was no police involvement. After hours of waiting, Robbins said he was told to visit the board’s downtown office, which confirmed what he knew to be true: He’s a registered voter. A judge then issued a court order allowing him to vote — and that he did, at the same location where his trouble began. “If anything it seems like a random thing, but in randomness there are numbers. And there have been in the past,” said Robbins, who said that other voters also were not listed. “This is just one example of how difficult it is to vote in the United States,” he said.

Crowds gather all over globe to follow historic U.S. elections BERLIN - Around the world, throngs packed plazas and pubs to await U.S. elections results Tuesday, many inspired by Barack Obama's promise of change amid a sense of relief that — no matter who wins — the White House is changing hands.As millions of American voters decided between Obama or John McCain, the world was abuzz, ready to bear witness to a moment of history that would reverberate well beyond American borders. "America is electing a new president, but for the Germans, for Europeans, it is electing the next world leader," said Alexander Rahr, director of the German Council on Foreign Relations. In Kenya, Obama's ancestral homeland, the atmosphere was electric with pride and excitement as people flocked to all-night parties to watch election results roll in. "Tonight we are not going to sleep," said Valentine Wambi, 23, a student at the University of Nairobi who was joining hundreds of others at an election party. "It will be celebrations throughout." The Irish village of Moneygall was also trying to claim Obama as a favorite son — based on research that concluded the candidate's great-great-great grandfather, Joseph Kearney, lived there before emigrating to the United States. Election dominates TV coverage At Moneygall's Hayes Bar, an American flag fluttered outside window Tuesday and local band Hardy Drew and the Nancy Boys played their rousing folk song "There's No One as Irish as Barack Obama." "We're not going to go mad with the drink," said Ollie Hayes, who runs the pub. "We just want to show Barack that we appreciate he's from here, to have some finger food and watch the early results." Scores of U.S. voters living in the Mexican state of Baja California crossed the border to cast their vote, including Roberto Chavez, 32, an engineer who has dual citizenship. "Usually I only vote in Mexican elections because I live here, but I'm going to vote in this election because I want Obama to win," he said. In Germany, where more than 200,000 people flocked to see Obama this summer as he burnished his foreign policy credentials during a trip to the Middle East and Europe, the election dominated television ticker crawls, newspaper headlines and Web sites. In Paris, among the festivities planned was a "Goodbye George" party to bid farewell to President George W. Bush. "Like many French people, I would like Obama to win because it would really be a sign of change," Vanessa Doubine said Tuesday as she shopped on the Champs-Elysees. Muslims hope for less confrontation Obama-mania was evident not only across Europe but also in much of the Islamic world, where Muslims expressed hope that the Democrat would seek compromise rather than confrontation. The Bush administration alienated Muslims by mistreating prisoners at its detention center for terrorism suspects at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and inmates at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison — human rights violations also condemned worldwide. "I hope Obama wins (because) of the need of the world to see the U.S. represent a more cosmopolitan or universal political attitude," said Rais Yatim, the foreign minister of mostly Muslim Malaysia. CONTINUED McCain draws support in Israel1 | 2 | Next >

By Ho Binh Minh Ho Binh Minh – Tue Nov 4, 6:44 am ET HANOI (Reuters) – Flood water from southern China pushed up river levels in northern Vietnam on Tuesday, worsening inundations across a wide region that have killed at least 120 people on both sides of the border. Flooding in northern and central Vietnam since last Friday has killed 86 people, including eight children, while 34 have died from flooding and mudslides in southwestern China. Vietnam, the world's third-largest rice exporter, has not released any crop damage estimates in the northern delta, but the government said nearly 260,000 hectares (642,000 acres) of rice, corn, sugarcane and fruit had been submerged. However, the country's main agricultural area, including the Central Highlands coffee belt and the Mekong Delta rice basket, has not been affected by the floods, although rain disrupted coffee harvesting last week. Floods rarely affect coffee trees planted on hilly terrain in five central highland provinces, 1,400 km (870 miles) south of the Vietnamese capital, Hanoi. The Mekong Delta, which produces most Vietnamese rice for export, lies further south. On Tuesday, more rain fell in Hanoi, which has experienced its heaviest flooding since 1984, and the authorities reported 20 deaths in the capital and surrounding area from drowning, electric shock or lightning. Schools in Hanoi stayed closed on Tuesday and many streets remained submerged. "This natural disaster is characterized as the largest ever in Hanoi," Pham Quang Nghi, chief of the Hanoi branch of the ruling Communist Party, was quoted by state media as saying at a meeting on Monday. More heavy rain could strike northern Vietnam this weekend, the national weather center said. In southwestern China's Yunnan province, mudslides caused by heavy rain killed at least 26 people, with 45 missing, Chinese state media reported. Mountain torrents triggered by heavy rain hit Guangxi to the east of Yunnan, killing eight. Vietnam's Health Ministry alerted clinics in flood-hit areas to be staffed around the clock to prepare for any outbreaks of diseases such as cholera or dengue as residents in parts of Hanoi and 17 other provinces struggled with a shortage of fresh water and food plus power cuts. State-run Voice of Vietnam radio said instant noodles and rice were distributed to flood victims in and around Hanoi on Monday. More water arrived in the northern province of Lao Cai from China, raising Vietnam's Red River, the radio station said on Tuesday. Forecasters said Thai Binh river in the northern delta region was also rising. (Editing by Sanjeev Miglani)

NEW YORK – This year's ozone hole over Antarctica was the fifth biggest on record, reaching a maximum area of 10.5 million square miles in September, NASA says. That's considered "moderately large," NASA atmospheric scientist Paul Newman said in a statement. NASA has tracked the size of the hole for 30 years. Last year, it was 9.7 million square miles, about the size of North America. The hole is an area of depletion in the stratospheric ozone layer, which blocks harmful ultraviolet rays from space. Created by human-produced gases, the ozone hole generally forms in August and grows to its maximum size in September or October before breaking up. ___ On the Net: NASA's ozone hole watch: http://ozonewatch.gsfc.nasa.gov

article TOKYO (AFP) – Japanese scientists said Tuesday they had created a mouse from a dead cell frozen for 16 years, taking a step in the long impossible dream of bringing back extinct animals such as mammoths. Scientists at the government-backed research institute Riken used the dead cell of a mouse that had been preserved at minus 20 degrees Celsius (minus 4 degrees Fahrenheit) -- a temperature similar to frozen ground. The scientists hope that the first-of-a-kind research will pave the way to restore extinct animals such as the mammoth. The findings were published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences in the United States. The scientists extracted a cell nucleus from an organ of the dead mouse and planted it into an egg of another mouse which was alive, leading to the birth of the cloned mouse, the researchers said. "The newly developed technology of nucleus transfer greatly improved the possibility of reviving extinct animals," the research team led by Teruhiko Wakayama said in a statement. "Even though reviving extinct animals is often described in films and novels -- such as in Michael Crichton's 'Jurassic Park' -- it had in reality been impossible," they said. Cells from dead bodies have previously been useless as they are ruined in the freezing process. But Wakayama's team discovered a way to extract a nucleus intact from a frozen cell by grinding cell tissues into multiple pieces. The cloned mouse was able to reproduce with a female mouse, it added. But the researchers said tough challenges remain ahead in terms of how to restore extinct animals, which would require breeding with animals that are still alive. To revive a mammoth, researchers would need to find a way to implant a cell nucleus of a mammoth into the egg of an elephant and then implant the embryo into an elephant's uterus, it said. The elephant is the closest modern relative of the mammoth, a huge woolly mammal believed to have died out with the Ice Age. But Akira Iritani, a mammoth expert at Kinki University in Osaka, said it was only a matter of time before researchers could find a mammoth for a resurrection project. "I have high hopes that we will be able to find a fine sample," he told public broadcaster NHK. "It's said that there are more than 10,000 mammoths lying underneath Siberia," he said. Even if it is impossible to recreate a whole animal, the process could create cloned embryonic stem cells for extinct species, giving a boost to research on evolution and zoology, he said. Cloning can be controversial in terms of both bioethics and, if the animals are eaten, food safety. Earlier this year, a report by the European Union warned that cloning can threaten the health of livestock. South Korea's parliament has passed a law to regulate research into cloning, following a scandal in which a now-disgraced expert falsely claimed to have made the first human clone stem cells.

PIGS WITH MOUSE GENES: HOW GM ANIMALS MAY BE ENTERING THE FOOD CHAIN WITHOUT LABELING By Ari LeVaux, AlterNet The FDA may be taking the public, and nature, down a dangerous path. http://www.alternet.org/healthwellness/105424/

Death to big oil

lol I like a lager once in a while