Check it out. This labor of love includes tons of info on guitars and those who play them, along with a killer blog to keep guitar newbies and longtime enthusiasts equally strung out.

O’Reilly’s response, in general, was that these factors alone didn’t seem like a big enough deal to cause tension in the campaign. He questioned the reporter with the following.

“It’s gotta be more than that, go…”

Seriously, can there be more than that?

It’s not just that a new guy is about to be our president. It’s that, on a very basic level, we all have to relearn what it means to be an American. What does it mean to black, white or brown in this country? How does the remaining institutionalized racism and the fact that we have a black president co-exist?

Even with a two year election cycle this all, historically speaking, happened so fast. And think about this for a second. For the first few months of the new year, it’s going to be pretty amazing and incredible and unbelievable to see an African-American family in the White House. But with the constant exposure they’ll all be getting, that novelty will quickly wear off. In a few months, seeing a black president is going to be just another visual we’ve grown accustomed to. It will seem totally normal.

And this is a reality that seemed unthinkable a blink of an eye ago.

+

Here are some great photos from the Obama campaign.

+

Henry Louis Gates: In Our Lifetime.

+

Bigger than partisan politics? You bet.

Great moment for the American experiment folks. Great, great moment.

We are finally walking the walk.

Let me think. I wonder what turned them off about the McCain campaign.

Hint: She’s, regardless of any arguments to the contrary, a dumbfuck.

“We’re going to lose a lot of stature throughout the world because we have somebody who, though eloquent and a very nice person, who I like, who doesn’t know what he’s talking about.”

Dear election, please end.

The key goal of most intelligent people in America is to use an Obama victory to get a few years break from being so violently aware that we are, in many ways, a nation of gullible idiots.

The basic facts won’t change by more than a few percentage points, but having a frontal lobe at the mic for presidential press conferences will at least give us some breathing room to repress the reality that many of our neighbors think Iraq did 9/11, gave Bush a first and second term, think Obama is a terrorist, hold Palin in high regard and find Two and Half Men to be blisteringly funny.

The false reverence of head in the sand stupidity and contempt for knowledge has been the most dangerous trend in the last decade. Most of those who preach it don’t believe it (the son of a President and Yale graduate against the elite? only in America, folks). But they fan its flames and we may all pay a price heavier than the ones already levied.

Wednesday July 14, 2004
Meet Barack Obama

Senate Candidate Barack Obama of Illinois will deliver one of the keynote addresses at the Democratic Convention. It’s probably worth keeping a close eye on this guy. Many Dem operatives think he is candidate whose star will rise all the way to the Oval Office.
—-

Tuesday July 27, 2004
From the Fleet Center in Boston
Obamamania

Most people in this arena hadn’t heard of Barack Obama a few months ago. He is an up and comer from Illinois. Top Kerry strategist Bob Shrum recently told me that he and others think Obama is on his way towards becoming the first black president.

He got the keynote address. They passed out placards with his name to people all over the floor (a status symbol to say the least). He had the buzz of a politician in the heat of a fevered battle.

But could he pull it off? Could he make a massive splash on the national scene and make good on what Eminem might call his “one shot?”

Let’s put it this way. I almost expected the guy to complete his speech by saying “And I accept your nomination…” He rocked the house. His was not a speech about his state or this election alone. This was a speech, like Clinton’s and many of the other top players, that was about America.

Obama opened with his own biography and explained how unlikely it was that a guy with his background and family history would be giving the keynote at the Democratic Convention.

It’s a story you’re likely to hear again and again in the coming years. And each time, it will seem a whole lot less unlikely.

Just take a whiff of this.