How to answer a sad question from a little girl whose mom could face deportment? See video above.

“Hey guys, wanna go chill at McDonald’s?” The company behind the golden arches wants to get you to “linger.”

Bee kind! Save our honey bees, eh?

Is ur Twitter accnt ruining ur vocab? Beware the effects!

Is Putin re-building the Union? How a common currency could instigate Soviet memories…

The blonde-haired, blue-eyed terrorist? “Jihad Jane” helped target cartoonist.

Colleen LaRose … was “the weird, weird, weird lady who lived across the hall,” neighbor Eric Newell tells the Allentown, Pa., Morning Call. ”We always called her the crazy lady.”

Go on Twitter, get famous! Well, it helps if Conan O’Brien chooses you to be the one person he follows.

(Conan may be selective, but we at USDemocrazy are not!! Give us a follow and we’ll follow you back!)

Thanks, Wikicommons

We here at USDemocrazy are taking time to reflect. We would much rather do that then listen to our editors!

This week features a look back at 2009, and today reflection will be political in nature.

Seeing that we are in the season of giving, how about the ten perfect gifts for the politicians in your life?

Fortunately, the Caucus blog has compiled that list, noting everything from a Salahi sari to a Hanukkah song from a U.S. Senator:

Hatch sings about Hanukkah

If you’d rather look at pictures, CBS has compiled a good list of the 20 top political stories in Photos.

For those interested in combining social media with politics, the Politico offers a look back at Twitter updates from those who made political news in 2009.

The year 2009 started off on an optimistic note in American politics, but closed with cynicism. Let us all hope that 2010 goes in the opposite direction!

That’s right! We’ve learned all those messages on your Twitter feed from the President are really written by his staff.  But don’t worry…all US Democrazy tweets are entirely written by us (at least until we can afford a staff).

Now that that is taken care of…. lets talk about the important news, like the comments President Obama made during his current visit to China (No offense to Tweeters but I am limited only 140 characters on stories related to Twitter).

The actual news is that Obama announced he is opposed to China’s “Great Firewall”.  This firewall blocks Internet traffic such as Youtube and Twitter reaching Chinese citizens.

How effective will Obama be at breaking down China’s firewall?  Well, currently China is restricting his contact with the public to a level greater than previous Presidents have received.

Also, tearing down the firewall is probably not Obama’s primary goal.

John Watkins, Jr. hopes Obama focuses on

open markets, energy and climate change, military ties, currency, and yes, those touchy issues of Taiwan, Tibet, and China’s treatment of its own people.

What will the actual focus be?  A Financial Times video about the President’s visit suspects this visit is to build friendships not firm agreements.

Keep an eye out for more news from Obama’s trip to the Far East as he meets again with Chinese President Hu today.

Oh yeah, about the President not Tweeting himself.  I think Nicole Ferraro, blogging for Internet Evolution, puts it best about the Presidents use of his Twitter account:

Thank you, Mr. President, for not taking even a millisecond out of your day to post an update on Twitter, and instead focusing on governing.

What do you folks in cyberspace think about Obama’s trip to China? Please let us know in 140 characters or less…in Haiku if possible.

via the Associated Press

Not in my Back Prison Yard! :With all the talk of Gitmo closing soon, an Illinois prison may be in line to take “a limited number” of terror suspects. Some local politicians are suspect of these suspects.

Collateral damage: Although we tend to see war in terms of deaths, economic costs, and physical destruction, a new study on birth defects in Iraq may have discovered new unintended outgrowths of modern warfare.

Tweet to Space: Tomorrow’s Space shuttle launch will have a new interactive twist. For the first 100 to sign up, NASA will use Twitter to give people a first-hand look at the launch.

Ooops… The New York Times has uncovered compromising emails sent by lobbyists for Big Pharma company Genentech to members of Congress. What’s the big deal? Some legislators have taken these emails’ talking points and inserted them word-for-word into speeches and statements.

I’ve search your person, you pockets, and your luggage. Now may I have your D.O.B. to make sure you’re not lethal?

Hey Google! Thanks for saving our butts! Love, Twitter.

“Russian Vodka Consumption Shocks Even Russians.” We believe that is enough said.

Thanks to Wikicommons.

The newest on the highest bench. Sotomayor confirmed by the US Senate.

NOT TWITTER!!! Twitter gets taken down by black hats.

Already hard at work. New NASA satellite checks out far away planets.

Lee and Ling, pardoned in North Korea

In recent weeks, months, and years (millenia?) there’s been a lot to say about North Korea.

Whether it’s running jokes about North Korea’s leader on late-night TV…or a professor of international relations stressing out on the radio about the DPRK’s nuclear tests , or anything in between, we here at USDemocrazy have heard it all.

Surely you’ve heard of the imprisoned American journalists Euna Lee and Laura Ling (pictured above) and their release from a hard labor camp in North Korea. (If not, that’s ok… It was on our “What’zup today?” page yesterday!)

The two had been working along the border of North Korea and China, when they were arrested (for spying) and have been held in prison for the past five months, until yesterday.

The two were employed by Current TV, a news channel founded by former Vice President Al Gore. Big Al expressed his joy at a news conference iat the airport where the two landed safely in the United States. Gore mentioned:

It speaks well of our country that when two American citizens are in harm’s way that so many people would just put things aside and just go to work to make sure that this has had a happy ending.

Gore is referring to the outreach from (mostly online) movements to free the two. The site www.lauraandeuna.com and the very active Twitter page tried to raise awareness about the two women’s plight.

Much has been said, too, about just how the pardons from leader Kim Jong-Il came about.

It’s widely known that former President Bill Clinton took a trip to Pyongyang to work his southern charm on the other side of the world.

Politico wanted to know how Bill Clinton got the gig as negotiator for the non-Obama-administration affiliated mission:

In a mid-July phone call to their families from captivity, the two journalists passed along an astonishing offer: North Korea would be willing to grant amnesty and release them, if Bill Clinton would agree to come to Pyongyang as an envoy and seek their release.

Clinton is now being hailed by many as the reason the journalists saw U.S. soil so soon.

However, the Obama administration was sure to mention at every opportunity there was no message whatsoever from their administration to the naughty rogue Kim administration.

Still…Obama was, however, pretty happy with the job Clinton (and Gore) did.

Of course, in true American fashion, not everyone was wholly happy with the “Mr. Clinton goes to Pyongyang” situation. Former ambassador to the United Nations under President George W. Bush, John Bolton, said in an interview with NPR’s All Things Considered:

The symbolism of a former president going to meet with Kim Jong Il I think is something that benefits Kim Jong Il a lot more than the United States, and it only encourages others to do the same thing.

Bolton is sure that Iran is watching this concession: Act up, hold Americans hostage, or otherwise, and you might get some diplomatic talks out of the situation. (And Bolton isn’t the only skeptic on the situation, either.)

Even people in Seoul, South Korea are a little befuddled about the talks with Mr. Clinton, and how they could affect future North Korea/world politics.

So, what’s left to be seen is a lot: What will this mean for six-party nuclear talks? Will North Korea be more willing to engage in diplomatic talks anytime soon? How will the U.S. proceed in its relationship with the DPRK? What will Bill Clinton do next?

Thoughts?

]]> http://www.usdemocrazy.net/2009/08/06/out-of-north-korea-into-the-history-books/feed/ 1 http://www.usdemocrazy.net/2009/07/30/whatzup-today-77/ http://www.usdemocrazy.net/2009/07/30/whatzup-today-77/#comments Thu, 30 Jul 2009 06:52:45 +0000 noone http://usdemocrazy.wordpress.com/?p=2203 “It’s on, Google!!!” Microsoft and Yahoo! get together. We read it all on Google News.

Yeah, I tweeted about mold in my apartment. Sue me.

You cheapskates! Time spends just a little for a cover photo.

Who WOULDN'T want this in their home/office?

Biden is missing from D.C.!

Shatner does Palin, by reading, of course, her poetic words.

NOT GUILTY! Blago is back (with a vengeance).

More please. Castro wants more from the US.

Twitter Bad? The risks of tweeting.