OBAMA RE ELECTION and RETWEET VICTORY: victory tweet becomes most retweeted ever!

US president tweets 'four more years' with picture of himself hugging Michelle

Barack Obama's photo posted on his Twitter account. Photograph: Obama campaign

Barack Obama has celebrated winning another term as US president by tweeting a photograph of himself hugging his wife, Michelle – which almost immediately became the most popular tweet of all time.

Obama brought his sophisticated social media campaign to an emotional climax, proclaiming his victory on Twitter and Facebook just as TV networks were breaking the news.The tweet, captioned "Four more years", was his most re-tweeted — 472,000 shares in three hours and marked as a favourite by more than 70,000— according to Twitter’s politics account @gov. It was also the most popular ever, topping a message from singer Justin Bieber, website BuzzFeed said.

from 

Barack Obama

• ✔

@BarackObama

Four more years. pic.twitter.com/bAJE6Vom

Tags: US president, Michelle Obama, Obama, four more years, tweets, tweet, retweet, tweeting a photograph , social media , Twitter, Facebook, Justin Bieber, Bieber, BuzzFeed

Michigan man dies at the poll, revived—makes sure he voted

Odd news from  Yahoo! News: Michigan man dies, is revived, at poll—and makes sure he voted By Lylah M. Alphonse.

FINAL VOTE

Even a near-death experience couldn't keep one elderly voter away from the polls during early voting in Southfield Township in Michigan.  "I was filling out the form as were an elderly couple sitting at a nearby table," Ty Houston, 48, a registered home-care nurse, told The Detroit News on Tuesday. "His wife, who was helping him fill out the ballot..........screamed for help and I went over to see what I could do."

Houston responded immediately, moving the victim to the floor and assessing the situation. "He was dead," Houston said. "He had no heartbeat and he wasn't breathing." He started performing CPR and a few minutes later the man started breathing again. He had a tracheotomy tube in his throat, but could speak."He knew his name and his wife's name," Houston said.

But the victim's first question after his near-death experience took everyone by surprise. "Did I vote?" he asked astonished onlookers.The man's wife tried to reassure him that it wasn't important, but Houston says the man responded that only two things were important: "That I love you and that I finished what I came here to do—vote."

They checked. He had.

EMS arrived on the scene and took the couple to William Beaumont Hospital in Royal Oak, The Detroit News reported. Though the county clerk, Sharon Tischler, confirmed the event, neither she nor Houston knew the name of the victim or his wife. Houston said that he's just glad he decided to vote when he did. "It was God's divine word that I be there," he said. "Originally, I was just going skip the ballot and just go to lunch that day."

Tags: Yahoo! News, Michigan , Lylah M. Alphonse, Southfield Township Michigan, Southfield Township, Michigan, The Detroit News, Detroit , William Beaumont Hospital in Royal Oak, William Beaumont Hospital, Royal Oak

Strange US Election Polling Stations- 2012 US Presidential Race

This is a collection of  pictures of very unusual Polling places for the on going 2012 US Presidential Elections. US polling stations have been found in casinos, shopping centres, a pet store, beauty salons and and even home garages! By force of circumstance on the East Coast, the devastation caused by hurricane Sandy forced authorities to find alternative safe locations for people to vote.

Below is a selection from US Presidential Elections: America’s Weird Polling Stations [PHOTOS]By Umberto Bacchi and  Laundrettes, temples and a garage: America's strangest polling stations:

In Chicago, Illinois, voters cast their ballots in a laundrette (AFP/ Robyn Beck)

Urbanimal Pet Store polling place in Chicago

at the Krishna Temple in Salt Lake City  (AFP/ Robyn Beck)

at Pressure Billiards hall during the US presidential election in Chicago

David Smith oversaw matters in his father Vincent’s front room in South Carolina, whose
house has been used as a polling station for decades, and in the front room for the last 30 years

at Sam's Auto Sales in Chicago

at the Bay Head Fire Company in Bay Head, New Jersey

Gordies Foundation Barber School at Sam's Auto Sales   in Chicago

at temple in the Mission District in San Francisco

at Delias Beauty Salon  in Chicago

Tags: US Presidential Elections, US , Polling Stations, America, Presidential Elections, Elections, laundrette , ballots, voters, Chicago, Illinois, Chicago,, Chicago, Illinois, Urbanimal Pet Store , Salt Lake City, Krishna Temple, AFP/ Robyn Beck, AFP, Pressure Billiards hall, Billiards hall, Billiards, South Carolina, Sam's Auto Sales , Bay Head Fire Company, Bay Head, New Jersey, Bay Head, New Jersey, Gordies Foundation Barber School , Mission District in San Francisco, Mission District , San Francisco, Delias Beauty Salon, Beauty Salon

Mitt Romney's ODD Orbit- Crazy, Stupid and Bizarre Quotes from Mitt

1.  “I was born and raised here. I love the state. It seems right here. Trees are the right height. I like — I like seeing the lakes. I love the lakes. Something very special here. The Great Lakes but also all the little inland lakes that dot the parts of Michigan. I love cars. I don’t know — I mean, I grew up totally in love with cars…. I love cars. I love American cars.”

 —Mitt Romney, campaigning in Michigan (February 2012)

Watch the video. The transcript doesn’t do it justice.

from shitrepublicancandidatessay.tumblr.com

2. ''Who let the dogs out? Who, who.''

—Mitt Romney, during an awkward photo op with a group of African Americans kids at a Martin Luther King Day parade (January 2008)

3. ''Can you see that one of those chocolate, um, uh, chocolate goodies finds its way to our ride?''

—Mitt Romney, struggling to identify a doughnut while visiting an Iowa restaurant, June 8, 2012.

Watch Mitt Romney struggle to identify a chocolate doughnut:

from underthemountainbunker.com

4. 'I like those fancy raincoats you bought. Really sprung for the big bucks.''

—Mitt Romney, making fun of fans wearing plastic ponchos during a visit to the site of the Daytona 500 Nascar race in Florida, Feb. 26, 2012

5. Mitt Romney in 2002: ''I respect and will protect a woman's right to choose.''

Mitt Romney in 2007: ''Look, I was pro-choice. I am pro-life. You can go back to YouTube and look at what I said in 1994. I never said I was pro-choice, but my position was effectively pro-choice. I changed my position. And I get tired of people that are holier-than-thou because they've been pro-life longer than I have.''

from mittromneyforpresident2012.org

6. ''When you have a fire in an aircraft, there's no place to go, exactly, there's no -- and you can't find any oxygen from outside the aircraft to get in the aircraft, because the windows don't open. I don't know why they don't do that. It's a real problem.''

—Mitt Romney, suggesting it would be a good idea to crack a window in a pressurized cabin at 35,000 feet with 500-mile-an-hour winds (Beverly Hills fundraiser, Sept. 22, 2012)

7. ''We've always encouraged young people: Take a shot, go for it, take a risk, get the education, borrow money if you have to from your parents, start a business.''

—Mitt Romney, offering advice to students, citing a friend who borrowed $20,000 from his parents to start and business and suggesting anyone in the audience could do the same (Otterbein University in Ohio, April 27, 2012)

from newser.com/

8. ''I hope people understand this, your friends who like Obamacare, you remind them of this, if they want more stuff from government tell them to go vote for the other guy — more free stuff. But don't forget nothing is really free. ''

—Mitt Romney, reacting to getting booed at his speech during the annual NAACP Convention after he pledged to repeal Obamacare, July 11, 2012.

9. ''When you give a speech you don't go through a laundry list, you talk about the things that you think are important.''

—Mitt Romney, when asked about failing to mention the troops in his nomination speech at the Republican National Convention, Fox News interview, Sept. 7, 2012

10. ''We have a president, who I think is a nice guy, but he spent too much time at Harvard, perhaps.''

—Mitt Romney, who has two Harvard degrees (April 5, 2012)

from ivygateblog.com

Tags: Barack Obama, CNN, tweets , Obama/ Romney debate, Romney, debate, Zingers, Chris Christie, coal, Big Bird, Jim Lehrer, Bill Clinton, Clinton, Gangnam-style, bust a move , Lady Gaga, pop sensation, Carmelo Anthony, Tyson Chandler, Jeremy Lin , NBA stars , NBA , Mitt Romney

Amazing Anniversary Coincidence: Bush's "Mission Accomplished" speech AND Obama's bin Laden death announcement.

Talk about an amazing anniversary coincidence from toptenz.net:  

May 1, 2003- Mission Accomplished?

May 1, 2003-George W. Bush landed on the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln and gave a speech announcing the end of major combat operations in Iraq. Visible in the background was a banner stating “Mission Accomplished.” 

The Iraq War began on March 20, 2003 with the invasion of Iraq by the United States under President George W. Bush and the United Kingdom under Prime Minister Tony Blair. Two months after the war started, on May 1, 2003 following the speech, the image above became internationally recognized. Bush was criticized for suggesting the war was over, when in fact it was just beginning.

The controversy surrounding the speech and the banner made video clips and pictures of the speech famous. As criticism mounted, the White House released a statement saying that they didn't mean to imply the Iraq War was over. Pentagon said the banner referred to the aircraft carrier’s 10-month deployment and not the war itself. The banner and picture have come to symbolize the irony of the President giving a victory speech only a few weeks after the beginning of a relatively long war. 

May 1, 2011- Mission Accomplished!

May 1, 2011, exactly eight years after the speech, President Barack Obama announced
that U.S. Navy SEALs had killed al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden in Pakistan. 

Tags: Mission Accomplished, George W. Bush , Bush , USS Abraham Lincoln, Iraq War, Iraq, Prime Minister Tony Blair, Tony Blair, Prime Minister , President Barack Obama , Barack Obama , Obama , Osama bin Laden, bin Laden

Superstorm Sandy breakout star- the sign language lady!

The sign language lady- one of the storm's biggest breakout stars!

Watch Lydia Callis in action ,  the sign-language interpreter who appeared at New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg's side whenever he made a public statement. Bloomberg's live storm updates were translated by Callis who underlined the drama with extremely committed facial expressions that became an immediate Twitter hit. Her mesmerizing display inspired gifs and her own Tumblr.

She's the mayor's official sign language interpreter, translating live on air as he delivers the latest news on Hurricane Sandy. Unlike Bloomberg's own stilted Spanish, Callis's signing is both lightning-fast and emotive, her animated face lighting up and contorting happily as she goes, not unlike a guitarist during a blistering solo. Callis already has quite the online fan club 

Tags: Superstorm Sandy, Superstorm, Sandy, Internet Sensation, Internet, The sign language lady, sign language lady, sign language, breakout star, Lydia Calas, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, New York, Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Bloomberg, Tumblr

On This Week in History: Oct 29 - November 4

Oct 29, 1998 John Glenn returns to space

Back in Orbit: John Glenn's Return to Space

Nearly four decades after he became the first American to orbit the Earth, Senator John Hershel Glenn, Jr.,  is launched into space again as a payload specialist aboard the space shuttle Discovery. At 77 years of age, Glenn was the oldest human ever to travel in space. During the nine-day mission, he served as part of a  NASA study on health problems associated with aging.

Oct 30, 1938 Welles scares nation

The New York Times headline from October 31, 1938

Orson Welles causes a nationwide panic with his broadcast of "War of the Worlds"—a realistic radio  dramatization of a Martian invasion of Earth. He was only 23 years old when his Mercury Theater company  decided to update H.G. Wells' 19th-century science fiction novel War of the Worlds for national radio. This  was not planned as a radio hoax, and Welles had little idea of the havoc it would cause.

The show began on Sunday, October 30, at 8 p.m. - prime-time in the golden age of radio with millions of  Americans tuned in. Welles introduced his radio play followed by a weather report. Then the scare began  with a report of explosions on the planet Mars followed by a large meteor crashed into Grovers Mills, New  Jersey. Soon, an announcer at the crash site described a Martian emerging from a large metallic cylinder,  Martians mounted walking war machines fired "heat-ray" weapons at humans and  annihilated 7,000 National Guardsman. The radio play was so realistic with sophisticated sound effects and actors portraying terrified announcers and other characters. As many as a million radio listeners believed that a real Martian invasion was underway. Panic broke out across the country. When news of the real-life panic leaked into the CBS studio, Welles went on the air as himself to remind listeners that it was just fiction.

The Federal Communications Commission investigated the program but found no law was broken. Welles feared that the controversy generated by "War of the Worlds" would ruin his career. In fact, the publicity  helped land him a contract with a Hollywood studio, and in 1941 he directed, wrote, produced, and starred  in Citizen Kane—a movie that many have called the greatest American film ever made.

Oct 31, 1517 Martin Luther posts 95 theses

Luther in 1533 by Lucas Cranach the Elder

On this day in 1517, the priest and scholar Martin Luther approaches the door of the Castle Church in  Wittenberg, Germany, and nails a piece of paper to it containing the 95 revolutionary opinions that would  begin the Protestant Reformation. In his theses, Luther condemned the excesses and corruption of the Roman Catholic Church, especially the  papal practice of asking payment—called "indulgences"—for the forgiveness of sins.Though Prince Frederick III the Wise had banned the sale of indulgences in Wittenberg, many church members traveled to purchase them. When they returned, they showed the pardons they had bought to Luther, claiming they no longer had to repent for their sins.

The term "Protestant" first appeared in 1529, when Charles V revoked a provision that allowed the ruler of each German state to choose whether they would enforce the Edict of Worms. A number of princes and other supporters of Luther issued a protest, declaring that their allegiance to God trumped their allegiance to the emperor. They became known to their opponents as Protestants which gradually came to apply to all who believed the Church should be reformed, even outside Germany. By the time Luther died in 1546, his revolutionary beliefs had formed the basis for the Protestant Reformation, which would over the next three centuries revolutionize Western civilization.

Nov 01, 1512 Sistine Chapel ceiling opens to public

Inside the Sistine Chapel, looking west to the entrance. Photo © Web Gallery of Art.

The ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in Rome, one of Italian artist Michelangelo's finest works, is exhibited to the public for the first time. Michelangelo Buonarroti was the greatest of the Italian Renaissance artists. He was called to Rome in 1508 to paint the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel—the chief consecrated space in the Vatican. Michelangelo's epic ceiling frescoes, which took several years to complete, are among his most memorable works. Central in a 

complex system of decoration featuring numerous figures are nine panels devoted to biblical world history. The most famous of these is The Creation of Adam, a painting in which the arms of God and Adam are stretching toward each other. In 1512, Michelangelo completed the work. Michelangelo worked until his death in 1564 at the age of 88.

Nov 02, 1947 Spruce Goose flies

Spruce Goose

The Hughes Flying Boat—the largest aircraft ever built—is piloted by designer Howard Hughes on its first  and only flight. With laminated birch and spruce, the massive wooden aircraft had a wingspan longer than a football field and designed to carry more than 700 men.

Following the U.S. entrance into World War II in 1941, the U.S. government commissioned Hughes Aircraft  Company to build a large flying boat capable of carrying men and materials over long distances. Because of wartime restrictions on steel, Hughes decided to build his aircraft out of wood laminated with plastic and covered with fabric. Although it was constructed mainly of birch, the use of spruce would later earn the aircraft the nickname Spruce Goose. It had a wingspan of 320 feet and was powered by eight giant propeller engines. Development cost a phenomenal $23 million and took so long that the war had ended by the time of  its completion in 1946. With many detractors from Congress demanding that Hughes prove the plane airworthy, Hughes took  the H-4 prototype out into Long Beach Harbor, CA for an unannounced flight test November 2, 1947, Thousands of onlookers had come to watch the aircraft taxi on the water and were surprised when Hughes lifted his wooden behemoth 70 feet above the water and flew for a mile before landing.

The Spruce Goose never went into production, primarily because critics alleged that its wooden framework was insufficient to support its weight during long flights. Nevertheless, Howard Hughes refused to neglect his greatest achievement in the aviation field as he kept from 1947 until his death in 1976, the Spruce Goose  prototype ready for flight in an enormous, climate-controlled hangar at a cost of $1 million per year. Today, the Spruce Goose is housed at the Evergreen Aviation Museum in McMinnville, Oregon.

Nov 03, 1964 D.C. residents cast first presidential votes

The first election that D.C. voters cast their ballots in was between incumbent President
Johnson and challenger Barry Goldwater.  D.C. voters helped secure LBJ’s presidential win 47 years ago

On this day in 1964, residents of the District of Columbia cast their ballots in a presidential election for the first time. The passage of the 23rd Amendment in 1961 gave citizens of the nation's capital the right to vote for a commander in chief and vice president. They went on to help Democrat Lyndon Johnson defeat Republican Barry Goldwater in 1964, the next presidential election.

In 1801, the District was put under the jurisdiction of Congress which terminated D.C. residents' voting  rights. In 1961, the 23rd Amendment restored these rights, allowing D.C. voters to choose electors for the  Electoral College based on population, with a maximum of as many electors as the least populated state. With a current population of over 550,000 residents, 61-square-mile D.C. has three electoral votes.

Nov 04, 1956 Soviets put brutal end to Hungarian revolution

A spontaneous national uprising that began 12 days before in Hungary is viciously crushed by Soviet tanks  and troops on this day in 1956. Thousands were killed and wounded and nearly a quarter-million Hungarians fled the country.

The problems in Hungary began in October 1956, when thousands of protesters took to the streets demanding a more democratic political system and freedom from Soviet oppression.  In response,  Imre Nagy, the newpremier,  tried

to restore peace and asked the Soviets to withdraw their troops. The Soviets did so, but Nagy then tried to push the Hungarian revolt forward by abolishing one-party rule and  announced that Hungary was withdrawing from the Warsaw Pact (the Soviet bloc's equivalent of NATO). On November 4, 1956, Soviet tanks rolled into Budapest to crush, once and for all, the national uprising.  Vicious street fighting broke out, but the Soviets' great power ensured victory. At 5:20 a.m., Nagy sought  asylum at the Yugoslav Embassy in Budapest. He was captured shortly thereafter and executed two years  later.

The Soviet action stunned many people in the West. An estimated 2,500 Hungarians died and 200,000 more fled as refugees. Sporadic armed resistance, strikes and mass arrests continued for months thereafter,  causing substantial economic disruption. Inaction on the part of the United States angered and frustrated  many Hungarians.  As Soviet tanks bore down on the protesters, theUnited States did nothing beyond issuing public statements of sympathy for their plight.

Tags: John Glenn, space shuttle Discovery, space shuttle , Discovery, NASA, Orson Welles, Orson Welles, "War of the Worlds", "War of the Worlds", Mercury Theater , Citizen Kane, Martin Luther , Germany, Wittenberg, Castle Church, Protestant Reformation, Protestant, Roman Catholic Church, Roman Catholic , Prince Frederick III the Wise , Sistine Chapel in Rome, Sistine Chapel , Rome, Italian Renaissance, Italian , Renaissance, Michelangelo Buonarroti , Michelangelo, Spruce Goose, Evergreen Aviation Museum, Howard Hughes, D.C. residents cast first presidential votes, 23rd Amendment in 1961, Lyndon Johnson, Electoral College, Hungarian revolution, Soviets, Hungary, Imre Nagy