Hilary gets her 3am wish

Remember this ad? Hilary Clinton wanted world leaders to phone her at 3am in the White House. Now she gets her wish, thanks to call diversion and a decent PABX at the White House. As Secretary of State she can talk to world leaders any time. BH Obama is cleverer than you think.

Finally! Obama is President

Rob Reynolds reports for Aljazeera. CNN footage of the speech:

Part 2 here. Oath of office here. Speech transcript, audio from NPR.

Uncle Jay Sings the News for 2008

Uncle Jay Explains the News is a brilliant, funny, satirical look at the week's news in America. Enjoy! He also has a YouTube channel.

His other most popular video is this one:

Bye-bye Bush Iraqi Style

The Iraqi journalist said what the rest of us have felt for years: "Good riddance to bad rubbish". It's a pity the shoes missed. The US invasion of Iraq has been a costly disaster, and US taxpayers are starting to feel the effects.

John "Hamster" McCain

Am I the only one who thinks that John McCain looks like a hamster? Those puffy cheeks were on full display during his nomination speech, which no one remembers because we still have the shrill voice of the yapping pitbull ringing in our ears.
American politics is a mystery to me, and I don't have the vote in the USA. But the choices made at the polls in America affect the rest of the world, so we watch and hope.

I hate stereotypes, but if the DNC could be summed up as slightly insincere but sophisticated and charming, then the RNC would be summed up as nostalgic and snide. Sarcasm is all very well, but when it becomes the main point of a speech, then it is really boring.

A More Perfect Union

Barack Obama's speech on "race" has already chalked up over 2 million views in 4 days on YouTube. I hope South Africans can learn from this man too.

Four Million Views. Not bad!

Both of these videos have been watched about 4 million times. Check out http://www.youtube.com/youchoose for more.

Then there are the "official" videos, such as this one, with half a million views.




Barack Obama's 2006 book, "The Audacity of Hope" is also the top download on Audible at the moment. It's most interesting, even to a non-US citizen like me.

Congress 101

South African parliament has a similar process: they call it absenteeism, or "caucusing" or whatever. Uncle Jay has a podcast feed and a web site.