I admit, I uploaded this to YouTube myself, from Obama's new website:
http://www.barackobama.com/
...so it'll be available to be seen and embedded in political blogs and the like.
(I'm merely a conduit here, not the producer of the video, obviously.)

Obama's previous "announcement":
http://www.videosift.com/video/Obama-Announces

Siftquistion?

Yow-Ya must reaaallly believe there Theo, dinna take you for a believer....

Funny how faith works.....

Obama looks like the guy who helped Skynet get off the ground, in T3....shit, be scared of all of em!

Bring on higher taxes, regardless of the savings to come, from
the hobbled military... oh yeah, farhad, this is technically, not, a break with the rules, but slipped it into the sift like cocaine mixed in with cake flour-

But, it iiiss the first black man who may run for high office.....*Visions of spin, of
stepinfetchit and Armstrong, of the same old song and dance....

You must understand, this sifter has lost faith in politics as usual, in the pep rally mentality, the duality, of m"my side against your side"....The process needs a revamp, not the players...But...

Hope
Faith
Unification, with the collective heads out of asses, may do it....I admire your faith, theo47

I understand your frustration with politicians, choggie - Obama addresses it in the video above, in fact.

At some point, however, you either choose to do something and participate in the process (as slowly as democracy tends to work), or you complain, complain, and complain some more.

Thanks for being a true American and doing the latter.

Hey, man, doing something is a lifestyle, the words we chose to justify our action or inaction, is a justification mindfuck....putting up pictures on posters is all well and commendable, but when the shit hits the fan, when all this inaction in the form of putting up with the kings' decrees becomes unsustainable mentally, then comes revolution...

So why keep this model if it will net the United States a third world country staus in my kid's lifetimes, if the process for critical thinking is stifled and denied untill there are only robot-putties left, what the fuck good does free health care, better min-wage, and stem-cell research get us?
Ike was right, Chomsky's right, and if you think stopping the head by changing its prothetics will do you any good, your faith is admirable, but wasted.

School kids in the 1940's in America, could name continents, capitals, presidents and writers....
Education is key, but before that, process-



So if you think you do more by selling a candidate, or lambasting the devout, you are in an idyllic world of your own design. And by the by, what do you think a true American is??? A devout, pollitcally active, bitter Atheist???? Seriously, not trying to be an an asshole here, but, then again, guess that's what it is.

Why is this in the humor playlist? Of a user who joined today?

Um, sorry but...I have a big problem with theo's self linking from his youtube account. Anyone else?

*blog

Sending this video to Sift Talk for discussion (sent by gold star member MLx)

Comment hidden because you are ignoring dag.(show it anyway)

Yes, this is a good post - but we don't want to set a precedent. I would be happy enough if you could find an alternate source Theo and we'll return it.

Ok, 1st, sorries for the tirade, theo, I was outta line rantin', I'll work on that.

On subject, agree with mlx, the precedent, being the issue, wipe out tartar, before it becomes a full-blown cavity-

joeirt's slippage, however, can'not be excused-still need justice on that !
http://www.videosift.com/?domains=www.videosift.com&search=joe+dirt

You have a disturbing number of self-links, Theo47:
Stupid Design: God Is A Lousy Engineer
Bill Maher > David Blaine
If fallen soldiers came back to life and voted...
Novak + Cheney + Rove = Armageddon

Comment hidden because you are ignoring dag.(show it anyway)

hmmmm. Response Theo?

Here's a solution: I would be happy to host some videos of this nature on my own YouTube account. That way, if anyone wishes to put up something here they could do without self-linking/promotion.

The other thing is we could have a "catch-all" YouTube account administered by who-I-don't-know and let that be the repository.

Just a thought or two.

i think self linking should only really be frowned upon if the person has something to gain financially by submitting it. If it's a crap video then people will downvote it.

I actually feel sorry for theo because one has to go out of their way to find and collate information they feel is informative and pass it on to others, and when this reaction comes about it's like a slap in the face imo. There is no difference in any of his videos already existing on youtube, he just went to the effort of making the internets betterer!

Comment hidden because you are ignoring dag.(show it anyway)

I think it gets right down to the bedrock of the philosophy of this site. Not to be too precious, but it's what sets us apart from sites like VideoBomb that are all about people posting stuff they want to get noticed for. If you have a good video, is it really that hard to contact a sift-buddy to post it for you? At the very least it promotes a social attitude to get people working together.

That being said - I think the rate of self-linking is only going to increase. We're looking at ways to mitigate this now, that will still keep the Sift "pure".

Thank you, ren - my sentiments, exactly.

The only thing profitting from my harmless "self-linking" (again, a misnomer, as I produced none of them) is the Sift, in page views.

Exact same video, now with different YouTube submitter.
...except I posted it hours earlier.

Whatever.

*return

Returning this video from Sift Talk (Returned by gold star member theo47)

Comment hidden because you are ignoring dag.(show it anyway)

ThanQ

Well regardless, Theo as a contributor has earned the benefit here. He's not a new member that signed up just to promote his own work.

The major contributers (say the top 30 or so )are the core of this community. For gold stars I think problems should be addressed privately instead of a "calling out."

... (ahem), now-then, getting back to some heady political discussion... OBAMA RULES!!!

Comment hidden because you are ignoring dag.(show it anyway)

If Obama wins, I may move back to the US. Also, this is a very high quality YouTube video. I wonder if it's because there is so little movement, or if YouTube upped the bandwidth for it?

This version is from Obama's "official" YouTube page, so I'm thinking they had a higher quality version to download instead of the lower-res one I downloaded from their site.

Sounds very believable to me. Also i like the fact that he doesn´t wear a tie, as unimportant as it may seem to most others.

My sending this to SiftTalk wasn't a personal attack on Theo, just a concern that the basic tenant of posting had been so violated. The rules should apply to all of us, no matter the submitters' status or personal agenda.

Oh, and upvote for Obama!

Am glad conan picked up on that. That was really cool.

Please, America, dont screw up this time.

Well he's just announcing his exploratory committee not a run and while I like the guy, I don't know if he's electable. Everyone seems to ignore the elephant in the room here, does anyone really think the ignorance belt states will allow a black man to be president? Or a woman? John Edwards is gaining a lot of steam just off his good looks and electability. It's ugly and un-american to think a black man couldn't be pres, but thanks to the hicks it's reality.

q[It's ugly and un-american to think a black man couldn't be pres, but thanks to the hicks it's reality.]q

Maybe, but for a black man, obama is about as white as they come , you know.. I mean if he was ANY of the stereotypes.. he isnt. Also, all these racist feelings that are around, I have a feeling they never really run deep, once you get to know a person, like people will do when obama is on tv all the time, people do tend to judge character, not color, its when they hear things like "black man wanted in connection with a murder" that people start up that ignorant color-part of the brain.

Ofcourse, there will always be the wacky KKK members out there, but if anything, their answers would have the opposite effect on 99.9% of the viewers, if some reporter ask them how theyd feel about having a black president.

Obama is what every American loves, he is successful against the odds. The American dream itself.

" Well he's just announcing his exploratory committee not a run and while I like the guy, I don't know if he's electable. Everyone seems to ignore the elephant in the room here, does anyone really think the ignorance belt states will allow a black man to be president? Or a woman? John Edwards is gaining a lot of steam just off his good looks and electability. It's ugly and un-american to think a black man couldn't be pres, but thanks to the hicks it's reality."

I sort of felt that way prior to Allen's spectacular self destruction during the '06 election cycle. If a fat white man can be thrown out of office for being racist in Virginia, than a charismatic skinny black man can waltz into the oval office.

What's up with the crazy rules? What's the difference between uploading something and linking it or finding it on the net and linking it? If it's crap it'll get downvoted, if not, it deserves to be in the sift.
IMO, but I'm just a noob ofcourse

ontopic: Obama seems like a great guy. He might rebuild foreign respect for the USA again.

He didn't say "I'll be running for the presidency". But what he said was something about filing for presidential exploratory committee. Of course I know that means he's running for presidency, but make it simple Barak! Half the country (the south, cough cough) don't understand your fancy linguo.

A "presidential exploratory committee" is a fancy way of saying "the legal way to start raising money for the campaign".

He's running.

cybrbeast - the reason for the rule is that it adds an extra step to the Sifting process - you may like a video, and you're welcome to Sift it.

But someone else already liked the video enough to put it online.

If you're the one who put it online, just ask someone else if they like it enough to put it on the Sift.

It is, if you will, the "11th vote", of sorts.

That's the reason it applies to everyone; we enforce the rule especially fiercely with new members, but ask older members to respect it too; thanks for the fix theo.

@JAMES: I hope and wish you're right. Perhaps the freako fringe is dwindling, but it's still a big group, at least in terms of the country's last few elections being decided by just a million or less people, tossed in here or there.

Hopefully the rational part of the country will outnumber the freaks; this is a really good speech and hopefully he'll do well - seems as close as you can get to a proper leader, by the sound of it anyway.

Who is this man? Beyond his constituents, there are only a handfull here, that are able to answer this. This reeks of the same spin, bling, and politics as usual, and there are only a few resons that this (candidate) gives any hope. One is his candor concerning his prior drug use, this is honesty that may cost him, no doubt the yahoos will use it as ammo-the yahoos being the other candidates-this process is flawed, has been for fifty freekin' years, and the power behind governments, and its annihilation , is what we all truly crave-not some, "I voted for the best guy, so my jobs' done" mentality...
Black, white, red, green, non-issue, and the yahoos never made a shit-lick of difference, aside from being used by the controllers and herders of man, anyhow. This is more of the same, different party, the emperor's nekkidness is what we all crave to scream, not blaming the last guy or the last party...Politics has become a twisted freak-show, the cracks, fissures on load-bearing supports, and the cockroaches are scrambling for cover, the light of truth beginning to burn-This experiment, is blessed and doomed, damaged and worthy of repair, this is paradise, and oblivion, all in the same package.
Six years from now, we may all stand on the ashes, with a will to re-try, but politics as usual, will not.

Is there no one speaking of a spiritual dimension, not of any man's invention but one of instinct and intuition, of subconscious and conscious awareness of a world beyond the one we see,feel,hear etc? This dance is an outer manifestation of and inner struggle to detach and seek satisfaction and justice, with ourselves.

Oh yeah, and all this can only work, if were still here, so the only real goal is not to suffocate the planet with bullshit, or blow it up with tiny earth-bound suns.

Gotta hate the politics of monkeys, terra-philes and idgits.

Oh and if anyone thinks themselves immune to being used and abused, we all are guilty!

Barak Obama has many things going for him; Harvard Law degree, obvious historic pension for charity, a thoughtful and calming orator, very little corporate connections, genuine and friendly manner, and a great smile. He seems entirely genuine in his convictions, and his interest in engaging Americans in putting down their chips and dip for a second and realizing that, over time, we can effect the Washington D.C. situation to make this nation a respectable country again.

Addressing his admission to smoking pot and trying cocaine as a teenager; would you prefer he lie about it (like nearly ever other politician)? He's running as a genuinely kind and honest citizen, and he is running on confronting just this kind of 'smallness' in politics. The color of his skin, his teenage rebelliousness, his lack of D.C. experience, ... you're free to judge him how you wish, but it looks to me like he'll do fine.

Barack in '08!

"He'll do fine!"

My eyes truly glaze over when people (see above) criticize politicians as a group.
As George Carlin put it:

"You may have noticed that there's one thing I don't complain about: politicians. Everybody complains about politicians. Everybody says they "suck". But where do people think these politicians come from? They don't fall out of the sky. They don't pass through a membrane from another reality. No, they come from American homes, American families, American schools, American churches, American businesses, and they're elected by American voters. This is the best we can do, folks. It's what our system produces: Garbage in, garbage out."

@theo, great Carlin quote.

I don't know much about Obama's qualifications, but he rarely blinks in that video. Impressive!

"Who is this man? Beyond his constituents, there are only a handfull here, that are able to answer this."

Who is this man? That's a question for the ages, right after "Who am I?" How many of us know who any of our elected representatives are? The sad fact is that many people are single issue voters. The sadder fact is people voting for no particular reason. My mother-in-law voted for Bush because she didn't like the way Kerry looked. People voted for Bush in 2004 because of Iraq, and against republicans in mid-term elections because of Iraq.

You may want to read Barack's two books if you want to know more about him and what he stands for:
D
reams from My Father and The Audacity of Hope

According to Dumbo: "We now have spent $400 billion and have seen over 3,000 lives of the bravest young Americans wasted.

"Wasted." Like a vote for any victicrat.

Yes wasted. Wasted by an administration that doesn't know how to handle a war.

Al Qaeda is still operating.
Iraq is in chaos and in sectarian civil war.
The middle east is far more unstable then before.
Afghanistan is still not stabilized.
Dissolution of the middle class.
Rising national debt.
Hurrican Katerina.
Lowering labor standards.
Shit you can go on and on....

Am sorry but this is America, when the chief fails, he gets replaced. Am sorry if you are too much of a failure as a real republican to see that.

*promote, remember where we started from.

Promoting this video back to the front page; last published Wednesday, January 17th, 2007 12:00am PST - promote requested by Fjnbk.

*election08

Adding video to channels (Election08) - requested by NetRunner.

oh, obama. how i love thee.