Rehash

Two bloggers on opposite sides of the globe had posts about the election night here in the good ole U S of A that made me stop and reflect for a moment.  

A Kiwi blogger whom I adore asked her readers...where were you when you heard?  Much like the cultural milestones of where you were when you heard of the assassination of JFK (not born yet), when you heard that Princess Di had passed away (in front of my TV at home, I woke to it on a crawl across the bottom of the screen) when you found out about 9/11 (working for ye olde evile bank, and worried to death for a friend who is a flight attendant) she thinks that Obama's election might, in time, come to garner the same question.

It was another Yankee blogger who had a map from the New York Times that showed an amazing shift from red to blue.  Much more than red states vs blue states, this breaks it down by county, and shows a nearly completely blue map.  I'm astonished at the shift in the republican vs democrat numbers, look at those percentage differences!

I was at home on election night, reading more of Duma Key by Stephen King, DH sound asleep beside me.  (That book is still scaring the crap out of me.)  I turned the television on around 9 PM, with the sound off so as not to wake him, and surfed between CNN, NBC, ABC and Headline News.  I can't watch Fox News even without sound.  When I turned it off to try to get some sleep, the count was 199 to 69 on CNN, and 124 to 90-something everywhere else.  

About two hours later, I woke up thirsty and starving, and went to find some small thing to eat. On my way back to bed, I stopped and turned the TV on in our loft, closing the door so I could watch for a minute with some sound.  When the channel tuned in (it takes a sec on the TV in the loft) my stomach flopped when I saw the electoral college numbers had shot to over 300 for Obama and weren't that much higher than they had been two hours earlier for McCain.  

I felt like maybe I'd had the wind knocked out of me.  I had very high hopes leading in to the election for just exactly that result, but I wasn't sure it would turn out this way.  Just because I hoped hard, that didn't mean much.

I left it on and continued to watch until President-Elect Obama took the stage at Grant Park in Chicago with his wife and daughters and made his speech.  Call me an old cornball, but when they came out together, holding hands and their little girls skipping, I burst into tears.  I continued to sob my way through the rest of his speech.  I've watched it a few more times on YouTube, hell, I posted it here, too, and I'm still getting chills every time I watch it.

My favorite line might be the bit about how the victory belongs to the people.  Or maybe the the line about how 2 centuries later, this remains a government of, for, and by the people.  Or the line about the enduring power of our ideals.  I haven't felt that way for eight long years; I've felt like my voice has been ignored.  

I've told people (regarding W) "He isn't MY president."  That's grossly unfair, I know.  The president is the president, is the president, whether or not you voted for him or agree with him.  I know.  The thing about W, though, besides the fact that I think he's not the brightest bulb in the box, or besides the fact that he didn't win the 2000 presidential election, he had the presidency handed to him by judges beholden to his dad, and besides the fact that he's led in the wrong direction for so long is that I disagreed with almost everything he's done as president.  (No, I'm not bitter, why do you ask?)

I'm sure that I won't agree with everything that President Obama does; I certainly didn't agree with everything Bill Clinton did.  There are some very un-reasonable expectations for his presidency.  We aren't known for being the most...um...patient of people.  I'm sure that if the economic situation doesn't improve soon, he'll be in for a terrible few months.  But I am so full of hope.  So sure that things will get better.  I hope I'm right.

Beyond Words

Record voter turnout across the country.  The first African American President.

I could quip, be snarky, and snide, but I have no deisre to.  

Instead, I quote myself from yesterday.  

I hope.

A Nation Divided

I was talking about the election with some colleagues.  We were debating whether or not we would know the results by Thursday morning.  (My vote is NO, btw.  I am fairly sure that we're going to face a Bush vs. Gore-esq long-term battle.)  Someone pointed out that there hasn't been a landslide election in a very long time, that the results tend to be 51%/49%.  I hadn't thought about it in that way in a while, but he's not wrong.

That divide is part of what makes the democracy work; I can have my opinion, you can have yours, and the twain need never meet.  Neither party involved in my example is afraid to make our opinions known, we hold the freedom of speech as a sacred right.

A tangent - - I've noted frequently on these pages that I am sick unto death of campaigns, political ads, hoopla and hullaballo.  Sick. Of. It.  And I'm a junkie when it comes to all things political.  We're all sick of it, and yet, what is the chatter around the water cooler?  The election.  Politics.  Red vs. Blue, conservative vs. liberal, what should be done about the financial crisis by those in charge, voting.  We bitch about how sick of the whole mess we are, and then the conversation turns right back to the election.  Human nature, I guess.

Back to the point.  This divide shows itself on election day more than any other.

Ohio allowed early voting this year, and I took advantage of that.  Honestly, they could allow it every year and I wouldn't know.  It has been in the news, though.  I did it this year because along with a long battle for us to know who the winner is, I think that there will be a record turnout for voting this year, and like every other red-blooded 'merican, I don't like standing in line.

The county board of elections is housed in a reclaimed big box retail store, and it looks like it.  They have panelling dividing the various county departments housed there.  It is ugly.  I was astonished that the parking lot was crowded, not just with cars but with milling people too.  I found a space and coming inside the building, was accosted by a guy working for someone running for a seat on one of the county courts.  The candidate in question has chosen an unfortunate purple-pink-mauve color for his literature.  It is memorable, I'll give him that.  

Inside, the line to get your absentee ballot (which is how they're letting Ohioans vote early, by absentee) was long.  I couldn't see the end of it from the door.  When I got to the end, I thought, "I'm gonna be here all day."  But it moved quickly, and soon I was standing at the counter, ID in hand, and the nice civil servant went searching for me in the voter registration rolls.  I think I waited for that longer than I waited in line.  Dunno why people have so much trouble with the whole hyphenated name thing.  People, it just ain't that tough.

The lighting in that old big-box store is weird.  Either it is too dark to see properly, as in was in the voting "booths", really just partitions where you could stand and darken in your ovals, or it was blinding bright with the florescent lights.  I tried, really did, to take a picture of my ballot with the crackberry, showing who I choose for President, but the bb overcompensated for the lack of light with its built-in flash, and the ballot is too washed out.  Since it did flash and make a bunch of noise, I decided that it probably wasn't smart to continue to try to take pictures.  Disruptive, you know.

I had to wait in line again to turn in the ballot.  The number of people there really gave me hope that this time, finally, more people are taking the right to vote more seriously.  Maybe, for the first time in a while, we will have more than 35% of the eligible population actually vote.  

I have hope.

The chatter in the lines was all Obama, Obama, Obama, if that's any indication of what's going to happen.

I have hope!

Poli-sci-fi

Is there a single soul left in the United States (or, frankly, anywhere on earth) who is not sick unto death of the current US presidential election?  Gah.  And: boooooorrrrrrring.  I'm so over it, and I am a political nut. I started this blog yea those many years ago specifically to write about liberal-lefty-politics and the pro-choice side of the abortion debate.

I have not watched a single one of the debates.  I didn't pay attention to a single second of the conventions over the summer, other than the daily recaps I heard on the morning news as I drove to work.  I can't watch McCain.  I want to throw things at the TV when I do.  DH gets really upset at me hurling things at his flat-screen telly, and I like peace and serenity in my home.  I can't listen to Palin.  I scream obscenities at the radio if she's on.  I am making a good-faith effort (really.  No, seriously!) to clean up my language, so that's not good either.

My issue (abortion) is so decisive for me that I. Will. Not. Ever. vote for someone who is anti-choice.  The McCain/Palin team has made it abundantly clear where they stand on this issue. Truth is, though, that I wouldn't vote for him even if I wasn't such a pro-choice advocate.  He's out of touch with reality, out of step with....well, I was going to type 'the American people' there, but it sounds so pompous that I can't type it with a straight face, so instead I will say that he's out of step with ME.

I usually feel that a presidential election comes down to the choice of a lesser of two evils.  Who of the two candidates is going to do less damage during the 4-8 years they're in office? Yes, yes, there are always more than two, but reality, people, reality.  A third-party candidate has about as much likelihood of getting elected as I do of turning into a pretty pretty fairy princess.  With wings.  

I voted for Hillary in the primaries, because the possibility that there might be a female president in my lifetime is too beautiful to resist.  I didn't think she was going to get the nomination, but I wanted to vote for her.  Then, surprise, surprise, she won Ohio.  I was stunned, I didn't think she had a shot.  

Obviously, then, I will be voting for Barak Obama when it comes time to cast my ballot.  I don't feel bad about that decision in any way, and this time I think it is a choice between hope and evil rather than a choice between the lesser of two evils.  I have a hard time not feeling hopeful when I hear Obama speak.  My local paper (a rag if there ever was one) carries Parade magazine as part of its Sunday inserts, and last week's Parade had a small paragraph about what the tax plans of two candidates would mean for income levels from $10,000-$100,00, broken down in chunks of about 10K.  Under McCain?  My tax liability would stay roughly the same.  Under Obama?  My tax liability would DECREASE by over ONE THOUSAND DOLLARS.  $1,000! How can I say NO to that?  I can't.

It seems surreal to me that there might be a minority in the White House.  I'm excited about that.  So many predictions for the twenty-first century have fallen flat; where are our flying cars?  Our jet-packs?  Our vacations on the moon?  Nowhere, that's where.  But people who have been traditionally disenfranchised gaining more and more political power?  That's here.  Fantastic indeed.

Immigration. Again.

I heard a news story that was preceded by the pundit wittily noting that this election season, Sarah Palin's lipstick is more of an issue than immigration.  And ugh, he was right.  That is dammed annoying.

The report was about yet another right-wing nut job "we're against everyone who isn't just like us" group.  An anti-immigration lobby, that has taken out ads in Harper's and The New York Times and I've already blocked what their name was from my memory.

The thing is....the United States is a nation of immigrants.  I've ranted about this before, probably ad nauseum, but it still bugs me every time I hear someone talking about how all of those (Mexicans, Africans, Syrians) insert your favorite social minority here are ruining this country for the rest of us.  What-ev-er!  Isn't it a good thing that no one felt that way about their grands and greats?  Unless you can trace your ancestry to waaaay back before the Mayflower as being entirely Native American, guess what?  There is an immigrant in your family tree.

Is the far right really that dumb?  Whoever this group was, they are taking out ads warning of overpopulation, and how massive immigration just might destroy the environment.  Riiiight.  Because it is the recent immigrant population that is living in McMansions, driving giant SUVs, and continuing to push along the consumer-driven economy by purchasing ever more stuff at Wal-Mart.  Silly me.

Masterstroke

After the appointment of Joe Biden to the democratic veep, I was feeling....blah. Sure, sure, Biden's foreign policy experience balances Barak's inexperience nicely, and yeah, yeah, being an Irish Catholic from Scranton, PA works for him, for the ticket. It is just....*I* don't care so much.

And then Friday, when John McCain announced Sarah Palin as his running mate...pandemonium. Without divulging details about my job, I can tell you that there is cable in the office, and we watched Ms. Palin give her speech at Wright State University, right here in Oh-hia-ia. It is a well-known fact that I'm a die-hard liberal, and as we watched the telly, we also watched each other for reaction.

(Gentle Goddess, I love working someplace where I'm not the only political nut, as well as someplace where I'm not the only intellectual. Heeee, heee, heee!)

I hate to say it, but Palin said a lot of things that made sense to me. I'll never vote for McCain, because he's anti-choice, but this was a masterstroke because Palin will appeal greatly to those who feel disenfranchised by the Democratic party keeping Hilary off of the ticket.

I've heard die-hard Clinton supporters say that they'd vote for McCain rather than Obama, because they're still pissed at the party. To that I say: what-ev-er. How dumb can you be? Do we NEED four more years of Republican economics, the Republican version of women's rights, the Republican version of foreign policy, where we've become one of the most despised countries in the world? No. We. Do. Not.

Palin's got a son in the military. A kid with Down's Syndrome. She's a maverick, like McCain, and she's extraordinarily articulate. She doesn't have the power that Obama does in front of a crowd, but his charisma is nearly....supernatural. I've never seen crowds respond to anyone like they respond to him. Those who were around at the time tell me that it is very Kennedy-esque. But with her son in the military and heading to Iraq, that makes it hard for anyone to bash the war. With a kid with major medical problems, she's going to be seen as an advocate for healthcare. She didn't come off as brash, or pushy, or overbearing, walking that fine line that women in public life must with exquisite care.

Then, as I was running this morning, I saw a flash on CNN that Palin's 17 year-old daughter is preggers. They're saying she's going to get married and have the baby....let's hear it for abstinence-only sex ed!!!

All I can say is that it is going to be a hell of a ride. I plan to stay tuned.

THAT'S the ticket!

All eyes on Denver this week for the Dem convention. I'll be watching bits and pieces, but as I do actually work for a living, I won't be glued to the telly the whole time.

I'm feeling very 'meh' about the choice of Joe Biden as veep. I wanted Kathleen Sebelius, but y'know, Barak's people just didn't consult me on their choice. The nerve.

Politicking (as in, ignore this post if you don't like my political POV)

I know that by the time Oh-hi-ia's primary rolls around, the question of both the democratic nominee and the republican will be determined; we're after Super Tuesday, and I think by that time, the winner will be determined.

I think it is going to be Barak for the dems.

I don't know whether to be elated or disappointed by that. Both?

I still don't know which way I'm going to vote...allow me, if you will, to quote Jimmy Buffett's character Frank Bama, who said, "The best navigators in the world don't know where they're going until they get there. And then they're still not sure." I'm feeling a bit like that about who to vote for.

President Idiot was on the telly tonight giving his State of the Union address. For many of the previous speeches, I haven't watched them on television, because I got in trouble after throwing large, heavy things at the screen during his 'axis of evil' remarks.

I'm struck by a few things that are different from listening to the speech on the radio. One, watching the polar opposite reactions of the dems and the repubs is hilarious. Barak, scowling at him. Someone on the republican side, I don't even know who, nodding with every point he made, like some syncopate.

Two, I have to look at Dick Cheney's face...does that man EVER look like he's not constipated?

I mean, seriously. Dude. Do a poo. Looks like you need one.

(Sorry, everyone needs some potty humor every now and then. Politics and poo. They're a natural pair, no? At least, they often smell the same.)

Third, and I think that this just might be the audio on the channel I've chosen to watch on, it sounds like people in the gallery are clapping in unison, in time with one another. That is seriously annoying.

I wish we were more like the Brit House of Commons, where they make all kinds of disagreeable noises when the opposing party is speaking. That's unthinkable here, and its a damn shame, because a whole lot of what he said during that speech needed booing.

Finally, the repubs popping up out of their seats every ten seconds to give him a standing ovation is obnoxious.

There is so much that I disagree with that he said; we'd be here for the next six hours if I picked every bit of the speech apart, so I'm going to focus on just two things...No Child Left Behind and his blatant applause-whoring by mentioning the armed services over and over and over and over again.

I have a friend who is an elementary school teacher who calls it "no child left untested" because it has increased exponentially the amount of standardized testing she has to do. And yet, the legislation has never been funded. President Idiot said that 'no one could argue the effectiveness of it.' Mr. President, I beg to differ. You've got to back up that sort of thing with cash money in order to get it done. Urgh.

If I spend more than a line or two bitching about his Iraq policy or his applause-whoring, I'm going to get comments bashing me for not supporting the troops. Therefore, let me say this:

IT IS POSSIBLE TO SUPPORT THE TROOPS, AND BE AGAINST THE WAR.

/end rant.

Every single time the president mentioned those serving in the armed services, cheers. And you know that's going to happen when you're writing the speech, so the only thing I can surmise is that he wanted to ensure that there'd be plenty of applause. Grr.

How come I've never heard of the Democratic Govenor giving the dem response? Kathleen Sebelius....gotta say, like her.

Brave New World

What a stunner, Barak winning in Iowa. I'm bowled over. I'm still on the fence for who to vote for in the democratic primary in Oh-hia-ia in March, but by then the point might be moot...with all of the states that have shifted around their primary dates to get more attention (don't get me started) Oh-hia-ia's is kinda late.

I desperately want a female president; ergo, my choice should be Hillary, no? Unfortunately, I just don't think she's electable. The conservatives just hate her, even moderate conservatives like my parents. Which does not bode well for her electability. Barak is so charismatic; he's a new face, with I think near Kennedy-like expectations from those who still have hope for the government in this country. (At the moment, that does not include me.)

I like what he's got to say a whole lot. Wow, is he ever a good speaker! But I like her, too. Quite a lot. For crying out loud, Pakistan, PAKISTAN, had a female leader, as did England, and we have not yet. Isn't it time? She's got the experience; I just don't think he has the experience needed, the foreign policy sensitivity, to be president. If he'd waited 10 years...but then perhaps his moment would have passed.

The closer the date creeps to March 4, the less I can afford to sit on the fence. But watching them both in action...I just don't know. I think it is impossible to watch his victory speech in Iowa and not be filled with hope.



But the fact that she IS a woman, and has fought for women's rights for years, plus her experience mean so much to me. Both of them want to move the perception of America back to where it needs to be around the world. They're not so far apart. For me, then, it is ultimately this: Who is more electable? Who can actually win the White House?

Now if they'd join forces, and one would agree to be vice....that would be interesting.

I just don't know if this country is ready to elect a woman, or an African-American. That makes me so very sad.

Did YOU vote?

I did.

And yes, I watched the returns into the wee hours, marveling at the very low number of voters in each race. School levies, decided by 10 or 15 or 20 votes. Mayoral races with very slim margins.

I went to vote at noon-time, my new boss having suggested that I head home at lunch and fetch a winter coat because it was not just cold yesterday, it was fucking freezing, and we were spending some time walking around the city. So I ran over to the precinct after fetching said winter coat and cast my ballot, and at 12.30 in the afternoon, I was only #77 in my precinct to vote.

That saddens me. Voter apathy is one of the worst problems a democracy can face, in my ever-so-humble. In non-presidential years, the usual voter turnout is something like 20%. Twenty percent of those eligible to vote actually do so. The other 80% stay home. Truly, it doesn't just sadden me, it disgusts me. Women really had to fight to get the right to vote in this country; out of respect for those brave souls alone should women head to the polls. Nevermind the rest of it; that one vote does make a difference, that it is part of your civic responsibility, that you can't bitch about the state of the country if you don't vote.

And then there's the fact that now that the November elections are done, things are going to really heat up for next year's presidential primaries. Already the longest running election in our history, I know by the time it is all said & done, we're all going to be way over it.

Pink-o!

Even whilst bemoaning the fact that the current presidential election campaign has been the longest and most expensive in our country's history, I'm still paying attention to it and an active participant in it. Which is silly, because if I want to encourage the powers that be to cease and desist with the huge money-sucking mess, I ought to ignore it and urge you to do the same.

But I've never been able to ignore politics, from about the age of 10 on, I've been highly interested in the political machine and the governance of not just the United States, but much of the world.

I caught a snippet the other day of Glen Beck criticizing Hilliary Rodham Clinton, which made me exasperated at his ignorance. And I don't think he's an idiot, let me be clear on that. I disagree with him a lot, but mostly I think he's a smart guy. He was talking about Clinton's new plan to give every child $5,000 for college or to purchase a home. Nice idea, impractical, but hey, no less crazy than some of the other things presidential candidates have been talking about lately.

During his critique, he brought out the dreaded word "Socialist." Which usually has every red-blooded American running for the hills, screaming "Commie! Commie!!" Allow me to edumacate y'all for a second; first, socialism isn't communism. Second, Dictionary.com defines socialism as a theory or system of social organization that advocates the vesting of the ownership and control of the means of production and distribution, of capital, land, etc., in the community as a whole.

Is socialism evil? Not inherently so. I think it has lofty ideals that don't end up working well in practice, because of the basic human trait of greed, but in a perfect world.....

Is it counter to capitalism? I hate to admit it, but sure, some of the ideals of socialism are directly opposed to capitalism, but again, that's a case of good ideas on paper not working well in the real world; the human factor.

It just frustrates the living hell out of me that people like Mr. Beck, in the interest of sensationalism and ratings, toss the term around as if it is something we all ought to be terrified of.

Personally? I'm more frightened of W's destruction of habeas corpus and the possibility that Mit Romney might be our next president than I am of a few socialist programs. I have not yet made up my mind who I shall vote for (and note, please, that the day in question is MORE THAN A YEAR from now) but my vote will go to a candidate who is pro-choice, first and foremost. That issue, more than any other, is a deciding factor for me. Socialist programs? Not so much a deciding factor.