Meet my younger nephew, Danny.

He is three and a half years old.  He is an amazingly cute and funny kid.

Update:  Little had changed when I went to sleep last night, but I'll talk with people this morning & hopefully update with news, in the next couple of hours.

THANK YOU to everyone who has posted a good wish to Danny or our family, or didn't post and sent that wish.  I responded to most posts last night (tried to do them all, but sometimes I miss).  This morning, I'm running behind schedule, so I'll have some catching up to do on responding to posts.  But thank you.  

Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeek!

We can't go to Netroots Nation, there’s a mouse in our house!

And ...

It’s a Girl !
 
Don’t just sit there, jump to the cute photo !

I'm writing a diary on this even though I live down here in the CA - 29th CD (Pasadena).  

I am just very proud of my parents, Roger and Sharon, who live in the WA - 04 CD and are working to change that part of the state from Red to Blue.  It's hard work and knowing that my wife and I are working in tandem with them to do the progressive, boots-to-the-ground work is an great feeling.

They are working on George Fearing's campaign to defeat incumbent Doc Hastings and on the Obama campaign locally.

My daughter was brought into the world this morning at 8:26am Japan Standard Time. It was a full day of rushing, managing, emoting, empathizing, and celebrating. My daughter was carefully and compassionately delivered here in northern Japan by the same team that delivered my son a year and a half ago.

This diary is about two things. First, it's about the hopes I have for my daughter on this special day. Second, it's a thank you to Japan for embracing social medicine and affording my family the opportunity to benefit from the prosperity of great nation.

Thanks to Party Girl185 (via Youtube), for those who missed, didn't see, or only saw snippets; here is the entire 7 minute, two part interview, broadcast on Access Hollywood yesterday.
Remember, there will be two more segments tonight and tomorrow.

You better pay attention, if you want to see this wonderful family again (the video is after the break). Check bottom/update for New M.Obama video.

Barack Obama said this morning (on the Today Show), after being asked by Matt Lauer, about any criticism, that

"we got carried away, it was a mistake, and we won't be doing it again".

Here's the text. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/... Video is below.

I certainly can't argue with Senator Obama's decision (after all it's his kids), but I thought what he did was great, and any criticism (which I really didn't hear), was ginned up by his opponents who lust to define his as some "exotic", scary, unpatriotic American.

The Townsel clan celebrated the Fourth of July as we have since my small person, Sadie, was a tiny baby -- hitting the tailgate party and fireworks display in beautiful, downtown Waxahachie, Texas.

My parents and I took Sadie there as an eight-month-old because the Dallas Wind Symphony was scheduled to play, and she so loved the nighttime display that she uttered her second-ever word: fah-wuks (baby-girl for fireworks). A tradition was born.

Some years have been better than others. Some years have been hellishly hotter than others. Mostly, though, we've loved having a beautiful small town in which to share watermelon and chicken and a tinny audiotape of the 1812 Overture piped through public speakers.

This year's event was so special, it brought tears to all our eyes. This year, my Dad could actually see the fireworks. More below:

By Candace Talmadge/North Star Writers Group

We would like some information about where to go as we have not been able to get the information from the medical community that we need in order to make the right decision for our dad.

Our father is an 83 year old man who is trying to decide whether to go home on hospice or to have the dual surgeries: free flap surgery and debriding of his head wound.

They re-appeared...Hurray!

For those of your bloggers who have not been here more than 6 months, I would encourage you to visit the FAQ's inbetween that flamming comment you are considering writing because someone does not agree with your POV

Today is the anniversary of our adoption of Lucy.

Owning a Siamese cat seems to bring a sort of madness over the owners.  This seems to be a combination of having paid an exhorbitant sum of money for a purebred animal that is an uneasy cross between Mephistopheles and Bhudda and the avaricious idea that they now owned half of the franchise to pursue such profit themselves.

My father was no less suceptible than anyone else.

I just returned from Michigan and I came back to a very full diary with comments and emails also.

Thank you again DK users you showed me yet again that although we might disagree policy-wise in the end we all care and need support in the same way.

My father's funeral was earlier in the week and when I mentioned to those family members who knew what a political blog was (i.e. those under 30) they were very thankful as well and wanted me to make sure that I took the time (thus this diary) to thank people on their behalf)

I at times try to live my life isolated, but as the words of Lisa Simpson at the end show, I realize this is not a good idea.

<More after the break>

When I was a kid, I used to love the 4th of July.  My parents raised me to be a patriotic American, one who loves his country even despite her flaws.  Every 4th, we'd pack the whole family up and have a picnic at Stone Mountain Park.  We'd eat sandwiches, toss a frisbee, play gin, and wait for the sun to go down.  Then came the laser show, one which featured outlining, then animating,  the Confederate generals carved into the rock (this is the South, and, unfortunately, Confederate pride will never go out of style).  Then came the fireworks.  A gigantic, ear-splitting fireworks display, made louder by the soundwave echo slamming against the mountain, bound for our tender eardrums.  It was beautiful, true rocket's red glare and mid-air bomb bursts.  

These days I dread the 4th. It's not for the jingoism I was too young to understand as a child, which irks me, but I try not to let other's infantile politics change the spirit of the holiday for me.  The real reason is I'm not much for fireworks anymore.  I haven't been since I came back from Iraq.

This summer is the summer of pain. Families across America are struggling with higher prices for gas and food along with record unemployment rates, flat wages, and the deepening housing crisis. In April 2008, gasoline prices easily shattered an inflation-adjusted record that had stood since March 1981, and they have only continued to soar since then, hitting new record highs almost weekly. Ever-higher food prices, which rose 22.7 percent from March 2001 to April 2008, are taking another bite out of families’ wallets.

I was sitting this afternoon at work when I received a call from my sister with the news.  As the title suggests, my dad had gone in that afternoon with chest pains, and sure enough, he had a heart attack.  I passed by three people as I bolted out the door to the hospital and told them what happened.  When I got there we had about ten agonizing minutes of waiting before the cardiologist came and spoke to us.  It was a miracle how it happened.  He was coded immediately and taken to the cardio cath lab and a stent was placed in his artery.  It took all of 17 minutes for that to happen from the time he walked in to the time they were done.    

I come from a very Republican family.  How Republican was it?  Well, one grandfather was a Bircher, who subscribed to The Plain Truth and seriously argued that Dwight Eisenhower (even though a Republican) was secretly a communist.  When I came out against the Vietnam War, he told me in front of all the family that I should be put up against a wall and shot.  My other grandfather was an oil man and true to his class.  I once told him that I favored a girl of Japanese extraction.  He told me that if I married her, she and my kids would have to eat in the garage when we came to visit.  We're talking extremophiles like you rarely see any more.

My father was also in the oil business.  My brother was a corporate lawyer for Texaco.  My stepfather was vice president in charge of legal affairs for Getty Oil.  As a kid, before my father started drinking, I won swimming tournaments at the country club in Dallas.  We're talking very, very Republican.

The times they are a-changin', however.

It's probably easy for you.

You can just write off James Dobson as a doddering old fool who is stuck in a conservative mindset.

But it's not as easy for me.  You see, I work for an organization that is working with churches across the country to prevent divorce and strengthen families, I am familiar with Dr. James Dobson and Focus on the Family.  I'm familiar with his organization on a different level from most Americans, because I see the impact of his work on behalf of the family and on behalf of protecting families and children.  In fact, my personal values are mostly aligned with the values of Focus on the Family.  I'm an Evangelical Christian.  I take the Bible seriously on its prohibitions of homosexual acts and I believe life begins at conception.

More after the jump...

Lets lighten up the mood a bit around here.

A lot has been said about Barack's maternal grandparents Stanley and Madelyn Dunham; as well as his paternal grandmother Sarah Obama. We all know about his mother Stanley-Ann Dunham (so named because her Dad had wanted a boy), his wonderful wife Michelle and of course Malia and Sasha (Natasha) - his kids.

However not to much has been discussed about his older half-sister (on his fathers side) - Auma Obama. We've read clips, maybe heard a brief audio clip or seen her hanging around Michelle (she accompanied Michelle a lot during the primaries, esp in New Hampshire).  As someone who spent a lot of my early years in West Africa and who has also had to trace my roots to villages in Africa, my attention always perks up when I see Obama's African family profiled.

So who is Auma Obama.......?