I’ve just been reading this page over and over again today. It’s like a YouTube video, but with words.
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I watched it go live at PRECISELY 12PM EST, like clockwork. Perfect clockwork. 11:59AM, madman war criminal cowboy’s website, click REFRESH… and rebirth.
I like my website. And your website. And all of our website.
It’s ours again. 305 Million people own this website. We always did, but for the first time this century, it feels like mine.
Ain’t it grand to have a leader that the whole wide world admires, including even 80% of our country?
Reading this reminds me that, born in 1961, Obama is still a Baby Boomer (1946-1964). His teenaged mother was born during WW II, making her a member of the Silent Generation. This will hopefully take out the generational taint left by early Boomer G. W. Bush.
Two things.
It’s funny you mention this because I’ve been doing the same thing.
I also learned I’m one month older than our new President. I had no idea. I would have sworn he was a few years younger.
Reading this reminds me that, born in 1961, Obama is still a Baby Boomer (1946-1964).
Depends on whose generational scale you apply.
A lot of people have made the case that he’s part of Generation Jones - the group that fell between the Boomers and the Gen Xers.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generation_Jones
Too young to fully grasp the ethos of the social movement of the 1960s (he was eight years old during Woodstock, and only 6 when MLK and RFK died).
Too old to fit into the stereotypical apathy of the Xers.
I don’t really consider him a Boomer. The Clintons are Boomers. Barbra Streisand is a Boomer. He was just a little kid when they were coming of age in the Summer of Love.
His experience of the 1960s - the defining decade for the Boomers - could not possibly have been experienced in the same as that of someone 10-15 years older than him.
It would be like 10 year old kid today trying to say that they are experiencing the same world as a 22 year old blogger activist.
Geek that I am, I just noticed that the copyright for whitehouse.gov is under Creative Commons 3.0. How cool is that?!
Oops, meant to paste this excerpt in from the wiki on Gen Jones…
The election to the presidency of Barack Obama, born in 1961, focused more attention on Generation Jones. Many influential journalists, publications, and experts pointed out that Obama is a member of Generation Jones, including Jonathan Alter (Newsweek),[19] David Brooks (The New York Times), and Karen Tumulty (Time Magazine).
Geek that I am, I just noticed that the copyright for whitehouse.gov is under Creative Commons 3.0. How cool is that?!
I’m a bit confused… in what way is the site copyrighted?
Nothing written on that site, absolutely nothing, is protected by copyright, as far as I know. It’s all public domain, because everything officially published by the Office of the President is considered part of the public domain (except for sensitive classified national security documents, which you’ll never find on a public website).
It’s really fucking awesome to have a President that not only we, but most of the world, loves. The last time that happened I was 15 years old (early January 2001).
I would assume that while the content published is public domain, the code behind it would be more protected, possibly the property of the programmers, depending.
The Clintons were each born within a year after their dads were demobilized—if one birth year is sufficient to define a generation, generational terms are meaningless.
Besides, the returning vets did not stop at one child—I know several with at least seven siblings. A mom who had her first child in 1947 had her last in 1967. Although Hillary—whose parents started dating a decade before she was born—got her youngest sibling in 1954, when her dad was 43. Parents’ attitudes affect their children as much as cultural trends.
Babs was born during WWII, thus a Silent Generation member.
the group that fell between the Boomers and the Gen Xers.
A group whose shared characteristics were not discerned by anyone until 35 years after the last one was born—pardon me if I do not immediately buy into it.
the 1960s - the defining decade for the Boomers
Defining in what sense? The Sixties were defining for the Silent Generation, and the very leading edge of the Boomers. John McCain started flying for the Navy in 1960. The birth control pill came out in 1963, when the earliest boomers were 16. Civil rights for blacks were enacted the next year. Sixties campus radicals were born in 1948 or earlier. The draft caught only the youngest of the boomers—the first lottery, in 1969, covered men born from 1944 to 1950. The last people to be sent to Vietnam—in the 70s—were born in 1952.
I’m a bit confused… in what way is the site copyrighted?
Government works cannot be copyrighted, but the website may contain the work of third parties, which can be copyrighted, whether produced under contract for the government, or just ‘cause, like this comment I’m typing here.
A succint explanation is here:
http://www.whitehouse.gov/copyright/
If you click on the slideshow of American Presidents, the last guy looks a little different than the first 43.
For one, he’s not wearing a wig.
But seriously, is it me or is Obama by far the cutest President?
You’d think we’d all be on the same page after the President’s impassioned plea for unity at his inaugural, including conservative bloggers. You’d think wrong. Check out what Malkin, Chuckie at LGF, David Horowitz and others have been saying about the new administration.
In this post is something interesting that I found on the new White House website that truly body-slams Bush.
Well, it wasn’t actually a surprise that Malkin et al. wouldn’t be ‘unificators’.
the group that fell between the Boomers and the Gen Xers.
A group whose shared characteristics were not discerned by anyone until 35 years after the last one was born—pardon me if I do not immediately buy into it.
Well, there’s some subjectivity there, but I look at shared cultural experiences, which is why the theory of Gen Jones came to be. A lot of the mid-40somethings in Washingfton have described themselves as Gen Jones.
Al Sharpton said that even though he was born within the official definition of the Baby Boom era, how could he really identify with the Civil Rights struggle in the same way that someone who was 20-something than? He was 5.
It’s two different coming of age experiences. Barack Obama did not come of age in the same era as Hillary Clinton, and I just don’t see them as direct generational companion.
But as I said, it’s highly subjective.
Here’s an interesting video featuring prominent figures from this group (born in the Gen Jones years), describing why they don’t really consider themselves classic Boomers in the traditional social context…
Forgot to include the link to the GenJones website…
http://generationjones.com/2008election.html
A new poll released today, of a nationally representative sample of 500 U.S. adults born in 1961—the same year Obama was born—shows that today’s 47 year olds clearly feel not like Boomers nor Gen Xers, but instead believe they belong to the heretofore lost generation in-between Boomers and Xers…Generation Jones.
Per the poll, Americans born in 1961 consider themselves part of the following generations:
57% Generation Jones
22% Baby Boomers
21% Generation X
I didn’t happy cry at all yesterday but seeing that web page did it to me. It’s on the web, it must be real!
How gorgeous is the new White House web site?
Seriously?
Seriously.