Via Time’s blog, here are Barack Obama’s remarks in Milwaukee. Certainly not the normal stump speech and I found it quite moving.
That spirit of looking out for one another, that core value that says I am my brothers’ keeper, I am my sister’s keeper, that spirit is most evident during times of great tragedy, it’s most evident during times of great hardship, it’s most evident when natural disasters strike because we understand that only God has control and so it takes it out of the realm of politics. We all understand that we have to come together.
But that spirit can’t just be restricted to moments of great catastrophe. Because as I stand here today and look out at the thousands of folks who have gathered here today, I know that there’s some folks that are going through their own quiet storms.
[…]
There’re people out there who’ve seen their jobs shipped overseas. There’re people out there who don’t have healthcare, maybe they’ve been trying to pay it on a credit card but mostly they’ve just been putting off trying to see a doctor. There’re seniors out there that don’t know how they’re going to pay their home heating bill this winter. There are folks out there that don’t know how they’re going to fill up the gas tank. There are young people in this audience right now that have graduated from high school, have the grades and want to go to college, but don’t have the money. There are young people being born in the inner cities, right here in Milwaukee, that don’t see any prospects for the future that think the only path available to them is a casket or a jail cell.
All across America there are quiet storms taking place. There are lives of quiet desperation. People who need just a little bit of help. Now, Americans are a self-reliant people, we’re an independent people. We don’t like asking somebody else to do what we can do ourselves but you know what we understand is that every once in a while somebody’s going to get knocked down. Every once in a while somebody’s going to go through some hard times. When we least expect it tragedy may strike. And what has always made this country great is the understanding that we rise and fall as one nation, that values and family, community and neighborhood, they have to express themselves in our government. Those are national values. Those are values that we all subscribe to. And so that the spirit that we extend today and in the days to come as we monitor what happens on the Gulf that’s the spirit that we’ve got to carry with us each and every day. That’s the spirit that we need in our own homes and it’s the spirit that we need in the White House. And that’s why I’m running for president of the United States of America.
Because if there’s a poor child out there, that’s my child. If there’s a senior that’s having trouble, that’s my grandparent. If there’s a guy who’s lost his job, that’s my brother. If there’s a woman out there without healthcare, that’s my sister. Those are the values that built this country. Those are the values we are fighting for.
I have listened to Pandora radio just about every work day for over 2 years. So obviously, I think its a great service. Pandora selects music that it learns you will like. After 2 years its pretty good at picking music I like. I have come to depend on Pandora during work. I remember, before Pandora, how I used to worry about what music to play, and when it stopped, I had to lose my focus on my work. Now it just streams things I like all day.
If you have ever listened to me talk about the music business, you’ll know I have lots of opinions regarding artist and consumer rights. For what ever reason, the music licensing companies have decided Internet radio stations like Pandora, should pay more money then regular and satellite radio. Pandora may go under when the new rates come into effect.
Now I’m sure there is a place for telling Pandora that they should figure out how to make more money, be leaner, etc. But it is absolutely in the music industry’s interest to have fair fees in an emerging music market.
Pandora keeps track of all the music you select as “thumbs up”. I took at my list and selected which groups or songs Pandora introduced to me. Of the 154 songs, 91 fit the “new to me” description. That’s pretty remarkable, considering I like to hear music I know while I work and I don’t bother tagging most songs. Many of the new songs are from groups I have bought multiple albums of.
If my results are common (and certainly Pandora can do some statistics for the general user base), to me that is strong evidence that Pandora can work as a marketing tool not just as a revenue tool for the music industry. Getting paid to advertise sounds like a good deal to me.
Here is my full list of “thumbs up” songs: (Continued)
Working with the Guide Dog Foundation for the Blind upcoming new website (launching October 1st {crosses fingers}) has really focused my attention on web accessibility. This is my second project with Fusion that put accessibility as a high priority.
It’s not something that gets a lot of attention in CIS programs at colleges or in other training programs. When you hear about new web technologies like AJAX and SilverLight, rarely is there a technical discussion of how to make them accessible.
But I have come to the conclusion that it is important, it does matter, and every web developer needs to make it a priority. Perhaps you are like me and surf with a non Microsoft web browser. Do you ever go to a site that tells you to use Internet Explorer to continue or renders incorrectly? Its frustrating, especially if you don’t run on Windows and can’t use IE. This is similar to users who use screen readers or adaptive technologies.
As the Internet becomes the foremost place for information and communication in our society, we risk excluding a group of people solely because they have a “non-standard” means of reading and inputting data.
Web technologies have their power not in their appearance or their particular interface, but in the global transfer and processing of data. How a particular user needs to view or send that data should be abstracted. It shouldn’t matter if a user uses a keyboard or a mouse to select hyperlinks.
When developing a site, developers know to keep security in mind. They know to test the site in multiple browsers. But I know until recently, I did not even think to consider how my HTML would be read by a screen reader. Developing with accessibility in mind, doesn’t make development very much more difficult. It can feel pretty good that more people can access and enjoy your sites.
Most sites can become drastically more accessible by making a few changes. I am still learning how to develop truely accessible sites (I’m sure sidesinger.com isn’t). Here is where I suggest developers start.
I found the following regular expression sites extremely helpful. I seem to be doing RegEx quite a bit lately and I never seem to memorize all the rules about them. Plus you have to test them.
But then I read this slate.com article about one of his initiatives: cross state portable health care. As someone who couldn’t stay on their employer’s local health plan when I moved out of the state but continued working for the company, I thought ok, its not much but I would take it. Well turns out it would be a disaster.
While I hate health insurance companies, they rape Americans slightly less than credit card companies. If McCain’s portable health care is passed without more robust federal protections like raising required minimum coverage and protections for sick people, the insurance companies will use the laws of the least consumer friendly states, just like credit card companies.
McCain must think open markets will make health care cheaper. It probably will for young healthy people. But if there is one thing that we should check against the excessive greed of capitalism, its people’s health. If insurance companies had their way, they would only take the customers who need them the least: healthy people. That begs for regulation.
It is sad that there is profit, greed, and companies that by law have to care more about shareholders than patients in health care. Even more sad is the middle men insurance companies that come between you and health.
