Please be advised that we have decided to suspend all BWFO weekly calls until further notice. It was a difficult decision, but in the end, doing so will help us continue to focus on BWEL, and what comes next for the organization.

State Chapter Directors: We encourage you to continue to engage with your members at the state level and stay involved in the upcoming local races and issues that are important to the President, and important to the causes supported by BWFO. Transitioning the organization, especially part-time, is a much more difficult exercise than it may seem, but please know that as soon as possible, we will provide communications to every member about how you can get involved with BWEL, and continue some of the great work we started with Black Women for Obama!

“We are in the midst of historic cultural and demographic changes, and Obama is both the symbol and in some ways the architect of this new America,” Time Editor Rick Stengel told NBC’s “Today” show, where he announced the selection on Wednesday.

The short list for the honor included Malala Yousafzai, the Pakistani teenager who was shot in the head for advocating for girls’ education, as well as Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi, Apple CEO Tim Cook and Italian physicist Fabiola Giannati.

Obama also received the honor in 2008, when he was President-elect.

In an interview with Time, Obama said his re-election “may have been more satisfying a win than 2008.”

“We’ve gone through a very difficult time,” Obama told the magazine. “The American people have rightly been frustrated at the pace of change, and the economy is still struggling, and this president we elected is imperfect, and yet, despite all that, this is who we want to be. That’s a good thing.”

Last year, Time honored “The Protester,” citing dissent across the Middle East that spread to Europe and the United States, saying the protesters reshaped global politics.

Time’s “Person of the Year” is the person or thing that has most influenced the culture and the news during the past year for good or for ill. In 2010, Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg received the honor.

Other previous winners have included Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, Bono and President George W. Bush.

Because this is Jon Stewart, it is of course high comedy. Unless you chose to watch the election results come in with the toxic waste dump of a news network Fox News, you may not have seen Karl Rove’s meltdown, and Megan Kelly’s pathetic attempt to convince Fox News’ OWN electoral vote watchers that what they had just seen was not what they had just seen. Enjoy, and you’re welcomed.

(Source: LA Times)

Monday’s presidential debate, the third and last between President Obama and Gov. Mitt Romney, featured a forceful and articulate defense of Obama’s foreign policy. That was no surprise. What was surprising was that it came from Romney.

That seemed to annoy the president — who was prepared to rebut his opponent’s previous, more bellicose pronouncements. But the ever-shifting Republican nominee tacked even closer to the moderate middle than he did in the debate devoted to economic policy.

Once Romney intimated that he might keep U.S. troops in Afghanistan past NATO’s 2014 deadline. No more. Now he agrees with Obama that it is feasible to transfer combat responsibilities to the Afghans by that point. On Iran, Romney emphasized economic sanctions rather than the threat of a military attack, effectively endorsing Obama’s approach. On Syria, Romney disappointed some of his neoconservative supporters by forswearing direct U.S. military intervention or the establishment of a no-fly zone. There was no call for returning U.S. forces to Iraq, though Romney continued to accuse Obama of bungling negotiations aimed at keeping a small residual force there.

ENDORSEMENTS: The Times’ recommendations for Nov. 6

Yes, there were nuances of difference. Obama says the U.S. won’t allow Iran to develop a nuclear weapon, while Romney continued to describe the red line as “nuclear capability.” And Romney didn’t discard his more sweeping indictments of Obama’s foreign policy. He dusted off his canard that the president had conducted an “apology tour” through the Middle East. To be clear: Obama has not apologized for American influence; every time Romney says otherwise, he reinforces the many reasons to distrust his honesty.

Even Romney’s rhetoric was less blustery in the debate than it has been on the campaign trail. A viewer who hadn’t tuned into the campaign before Monday night might have wondered what all the shouting was about. Both candidates support withdrawal from Afghanistan, a careful courtship of Syrian opposition forces, the continued targeting of suspected terrorists by drones, and the leveraging of military aid to induce Egypt and other nations where Islamists are ascendant to respect the rights of women and religious minorities. Both want to engage China in trade, but press it to play fair.

If Romney believes in a thoughtful and centrist foreign policy, which he hadn’t until Monday night, it would argue for his candidacy. But if that vision is attractive — and it is — why not stick with the president who is already pursuing it?

Speakers at the event included Georgia House Representative Tyrone Brooks, Donna McLeod, BWFO National Director of Voter Outreach, Patricia Wilson-Smith, Executive Director for BWFO, Judy Jones, BWFO National Director of Membership Outreach, as well as a number of local candidates for office, including Renita Hamilton, State House Candidate for District 105, Jennah Es-Sudan, Candidate for School Board District I, and many others. The rally was inspirational and exciting, and ALL of Gwinnett County is now FIRED UP AND READY TO GO on November 6th!!!!

For the remaining 24 days until the election, BWFO will post each day’s new reason – today is day number 69:

REASON 69: President Obama has improved conditions for our active and retired military. 

I am not in the military. I have never been in the military. In fact, the closest I have come to serving was making a movie about actors making a war movie. Which, by the way, was a really hard shoot. We shot in Hawaii for like three months. And it was really muddy. And there were mosquitoes. It was hell.

For the remaining 24 days until the election, BWFO will post each day’s new reason – today is day number 67:

• Day 67

  Because Obama opposes the Supreme Court’s Citizens United Decision.
  read essay →— Karen Fowler