Victory for Obama!

The primaries are officially over, and we finally have a Democratic nominee! Hillary Clinton hasn't conceded yet, but hopefully that will come soon. It's time for her to bow out with some grace so that the party can unite around Barack Obama. Maybe Clinton will be the VP nominee, maybe not, but for right now, she just needs to chill.

I love my news links, since reading the papers is how I keep myself occupied at work. Just for fun, we're going international today. The New York Times has an interesting round up of international reactions. What was most interesting to me were the numerous statements that Obama has the potential to change foreign perceptions of the United States for the better. That's definitely something we need right now.

In the Times Online, Gerard Baker wonders if Obama can fulfill the American dream. He writes:

In 220 years a country that has steadily multiplied in diversity, where ethnic minorities and women have risen to the very highest positions in so many fields of human life, has chosen a succession of 42 white men as its leader. For good measure, the vice-presidency, the only other nationally directly elected position in the US government, has been held by a succession of 46 white males

But last night, in a tumultuous break with this long history, the ultimate realisation of the American dream moved a little closer, and a black man became his party’s nominee for the presidency.

And finally, John Ibbotson of the Globe and Mail offers and analysis of the Clinton campaign. The simplest explanation:

Everything Hillary Clinton wanted to be, Barack Obama turned out to be also, only better.

Music Stuff

Why doesn't the Johnson County Library have Fiction Plane? Grrrr. Last.fm won't let me stream them anymore. :( However, they do have Ministry of Magic. That's, of course, completely unrelated, but I do find wizard rock pretty amusing.

d4ni's opinion of the Ting-Ting's made me laugh. "The drums! The fucking drums!" I happen to like songs that repeat stuff a lot. It makes the lyrics easy to remember.

The radio station's here are all awful, but one of them sort of made up for it by playing Weezer for an entire hour yesterday. Remember the Keep Fishin' video? With the Muppets? ( Weezer + Muppets = WIN! :D )

Song of the week is Duffy's "Hanging on to Long." It's pretty awesome.

ETA: This week's free download on iTune is "Let's Dance to Joy Division." iTunes is being really great recently about giving me those great moments of "I already knew about The Wombats!" music snobbery. :D In reality, I think the iTunes people are just getting all their alt-rock and indie ideas from BBC radio.