Election Night 2008 (part 1)

As I sit down to write this post to be published on Election night, I find that no matter how I look at it, the post starts the same way:

I can’t believe who we elected to be our next President!

If Barack Obama wins this election, we will be witnessing history, in a good way.  I didn’t know how to find the right words but somebody else said “He is a transforming figure in our history” and I can’t say it any better than that.  I will feel so proud of us (Americans) for getting beyond race, class, and culture, and for voting with our minds and hearts.  After 8 years of what I call Republican Oppression, i.e. a total lack of regard for our own laws and our constitution, Americans have finally figured out that Bush and his entire administration lied and cheated their way into the office of the President, twice, and into an unjust war in Iraq.  People don’t trust the Republicans any more.  And why should they.  And if it weren’t John McCain running, who is only a quasi Republican, I don’t think this race would be as close at all.  If any run of the mill Republican was running against Barack Obama it would have been over a long time ago.  McCain has just enough, or HAD just enough, indepedence in him to get some to stop and think.   

I had a conversation with a friend the other day and found myself saying things like “this election is not about the economy, the war, taxes, education, the deficit, abortion, or who is associated with whom.  It is about the next President’s personality, temperament, and intelligence.”  As a people, we are wounded.  We feel like we were let down and lied to for 8 years.  I feel sorry for the next President whoever it is.  I don’t think that Senator Obama or Senator McCain has a clue what he will be walking into, or what secrets he will uncover, or what messes Bush has left behind to be cleaned up.  And neither do we as voters.  But I do know who I trust to make calm, rational, thoughtful decisions based on integrity and looking at the problems from every angle.  And that is Barack Obama.  Joe Biden was right; Obama has a spine made of steel and he won’t waiver from the path of steadfast corrective action.  John McCain is a rash, emotional, quick tempered, war monger whose first instinct is to simply react with both guns blazing. 

If John McCain wins, I will be aghast that the politics of fear have once again won out.  McCain has so little left of a campaign that I don’t know what he is “for”, I only know what he is against.  And his latest ads are basically saying “Vote for me or you will most likely die at the hands of terrorists”.  That viewpoint is not what we as Americans are believe in.  We want calm, rational thinking.  That doesn’t mean we won’t go to war if that is the absolute right decision.  But it must be a last resort.  As far as Iraq goes, there is no winning, and there is no defeat.  McCain gets so wound up, and caught up, in both of those ideas.  Everything is so black and white with him (no pun intended).  Its yes or no, right or wrong and the decision for him must be made right now!  In these last day of McCain’s campaign he continually and repeatedly uses “Air Quotes” for just about every word that comes out of his mouth.  It makes no sense.  Air quotes are supposed to be used extremely sparingly to make a point.  If you air-quote everything you say, it has no meaning and he ends up looking like a complete fool, or a complete idiot.

I don’t want to get too confident but I can not believe how many conservatives, everyone from Christopher Hitchens (conservative columnist for Vanity Fair) to Colin Powell (Former Secretary of State under Bush) to Scott McClellan (long time aide and former White House press secretary under George Bush) have now endorsed Barack Obama.  I’m not sure if it is sincere.  I don’t know if some of these hard line republicans know that their party is going to take a huge hit so they are tyring to save their careers.  I’m just not sure.  If it all leads to Barack Obama becoming President through the politics of hope over the politics of fear, then I don’t care how he gets there.

If it weren’t for the politics of fear, the Republicans would not have gotten a free ride from 2001 to 2006.  Their power, no, their arrogance, continued unchecked for years.  The things that the Bush Administration and the Republicans in general have gotten away with is nothing less than criminal.  Our basic constitutional rights have been stripped away at many levels and it seems as if nobody noticed.  Do people realize that our own government can listen in on our phone calls, and read our emails without permission or probable cause.  No court or warrant is needed.  Do you realize what the implications are?  And which of the two candidates is likely to rectify this situation?  I know; do you?

So in preparing a post for Election Night 2008, I decided that any post on that night will be short and to the point.  Any analysis of that night will be done later.  I decided to post all of these thoughts that have been running through my head now, before the election.  I can tell you that on Election Night I hope that very quickly after the polls on the East Coast close, I will be able to make my Election Night post and then get some sleep.  Some good old-fashioned, happy the country will be in good hands, the republicans are finally gone, ding-dong the which is dead, sleep.

60 Minutes on CBS

Watching 60 Minutes is like watching “Clueless” and “Weekend at Bernie’s”.  You really can’t tell if Leslie Stahl still has her marbles and you can’t tell if Andy Rooney is still alive.

In the last several weeks I have watched this new season of 60 Minutes and questioned whether or not Leslie Stahl can still consider herself a reporter.  She seems confused to the point that she always appears to be looking for something she misplaced.  In one new show they sent her to do a piece on the new electric cars.   It was an electric sports car by Tesla Motors to be specific.  The car had balls.  She drove it like a librarian in a pedestrian zone looking for her lost cat.  They owner of the the company kept saying “go head, step on it, the car can take it”.  And Leslie still couldn’t bring herself to to do it.  She was “a-scared”.  This week she was in Sadr City, the infamous neighborhood in Baghdad where so much violence has occurred.  The U.S. built a wall in Sadr City to hold back insurgents to a point where mortar attacks could not hit the green zone.  While still a dangerous place, it is somewhat safer.  But did Leslie Stahl have to wear a bright red blouse and sensible sandals.  She stuck out like a sore thumb and looked more like a tourist who go lost.

Andy Rooney, at one time, was at least entertaining.   He was never hysterically funny but if you like that old curmudgeon kind of humor, it wasn’t half bad, sometimes.   I do record 60 Minutes every week.  The great thing about DVRs is you can record ONLY new episodes of shows but I digress.  Recently, Andy Rooney talked about the high price of cereal and Wonder bread.  He said the price everything keeps going up, except the stock market.  That was it.  That was the entire beginning, middle, and end of his 5 minute commentary.  If this is what they pay him for, to comment on pop culture and current events, and this is the best he can come up with, I’d rather read the National Enquirer.

I don’t know what’s going on over there at 60 Minutes and CBS News in general.  The first thing they need to do is hire some new blood at 60 Minutes that is under a hundred years old.  These people are the reason that Social Security won’t be around for me.  Enough already.

What is going on with Lindsey Graham

I don’t know that much about Lindsey Graham.  I’ve mentioned him before because he said stupid things on “Meet the Press”.  And today on some political talk show he said more stupid things.  I know he’s a Senator from South Carolina and that’s about all I know

Now, what I think, or what I assume by seeing him on TV is another thing entirely.  He reminds me of your typical white, middle-aged Republican from the South.  Typical in that he is a closeted, middle-aged gay man who speaks out about family values and his evangelical religion.  I don’t know why he is always standing behind John McCain at McCain rallies with a very weird smile on his face.  I think he’s in love with big John to tell you the truth.  I think he finds John’s “maverick-ish-ness-ity” really, really sexy.  If you look at Lindsey Graham and squint your eyes a bit, he looks like a bull-dyke lesbian with an excessively short haircut.  And if you put a flannel shirt on him/her, I could swear I saw in at home depot with his “roommate” buying flower boxes.

Hero of the Week – 10/15/08

Peter Dezell, coach of Chicago’s ”Our Lady of Perpetual Help” varsity football team, gave a 12 year old boy named Patrick Nicholson a chance.  Patrick was born with down syndrome.  Patrick’s older brother was on the football team and when Patrick would ride with his mom to pick up and drop off his brother, Patrick would wonder why he couldn’t be involved, too.

Coach Dezell gave Patrick an extra jersey one day and asked him to help him out as an assistant coach.  Patrick flourished as part of the team and two years later, he has come out of his quiet shell, has stopped running away and hiding behind trees when someone talked to him, and is now running a tight ship on the football field.  Patrick is very good at what he does.

The coach was up against some parents who said that Patrick would be a distraction.  The coach stood his ground.  For a man to stand up to scrutiny and to push back against public opinion for something he knows in his heart is right, Coach Peter Dezell is my hero.  And so is Patrick.

Special thanks to the CBS Evening News alerting me to this story.

Monica Crowley – Republican Whore

I can’t believe I listened to this as I was AM-Radio-channel-surfing.  I can’t believe I heard it, and I can’t believe she said it.

Monica Crowley, forever now in my mind known as, and added to the big list of, republican whores, actually said that William Ayers was Obama’s BFF.  For those of you who don’t do texting, it was originally used by middle school girls to mean Best Friends Forever and has now moved to the public vernacular.

First, I’ll say it again, Obama was 8 years old when Ayers was an active political activist; some say terrorist.  Second, they were on the same school improvement board and probably sat in the same room for that as board members do.  They may have had an occasional lunch or dinner together with other board members.  Beyond that, there’s not much but this is what the Republicans are saying make Barack Obama himself a terrorist.  That is what they are implying.  They are implying that Barack Obama and William Ayers (who is now a college professor) are skulking around Washington D.C. in the middle of the night, dressed all in black with ski masks and carrying ropes and guns and C4 explosives.  They also want you to conjure up an image of Barack Obama in a robe and turban training with Al Qaeda in the dusty Afghanistan countryside.  That is what they mean when they try to link Obama to Ayers and when the emphasize Obama’s middle name (Hussein).  Doesn’t anybody understand that Hussein is the Arab equivalent of “Smith”.  It is the most common first, middle, and last name in the world.  The King of Jordan, one of the few Arab countries that America has a pretty good relationship with, is named King Hussein.  Does that mean we should cut off all diplomatic ties and not meet with him “without pre-conditions”; because of his name?

So to come back full circle, this is what Monica Crowley, just a few days before the election, is trying to get you to imagine in your mind.  Barack the domestic terrorist.  Barack the secret member of Al Qaeda.  Barack the Muslim (as if being a Muslim is a crime of some sort).  Yes the party that says it can bring America together through reform and “mavericky-ness” is telling you that Barack Obama is really a terrorist in disguise.  I find this to be repugnant, disgusting, cheap, evil, and qualifies as something only a Republican Whore would say.  There’s along list of them.  Monica Crowley is only one.

This next one falls into another category entirely.  Monica Crowley is a hateful, lying, manipulating skank.  Barack Obama left on Thursday of this past week to go see his grandmother.  The grandmother that raised him and gave up so much so that he could have a good life and go to college.  She is gravely ill and while it hasn’t been said, it has been intimated that she could very well be on her death bed.  This is a scenario that I can not imagine a man would have to endure just days from the end of his Presidential Campaign.  Can you imagine a woman in such dire condition, a woman who scrimped and saved and took care of Barack every day of his life, including after her daughter, his mother, died of cancer at such a young age.  She devoted her life to him and in many ways he just wants to make her proud.  And god forbid if he gets elected and she misses this historic event by just a few days.  It would be awful. 

But Monica Crowley doesn’t think so.  She got the Republican talking points memo.  I heard Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity talk about it so why was I surprised when I heard Monica Crowley talk about it.  She said that Barack Obama’s trip to Hawaii was all a lie.  It was all a ruse to hide the fact that he is not really a U.S. Citizen and he is going to Hawaii to further cover up this fact in the documentation of his birth.  She said it, I heard it; and you read it correctly.  If you need proof that she said it go to her web site or Youtube or just Google it.  It’s not just Crowley that is saying it.  All of the neo-con wacko’s got the same memo on what lies to perpetuate to try and get something to stick to stop the Obama revolution.  So they are saying Barack Obama is not really a U.S. Citizen and there is some conspiracy to hide it.  Obviously he would not be eligible to be President if he were not a U.S. born citizen.  Do they really think that everyone will question his citizenship because the Republicans say so and then NOT vote for him because we’re just so unsure of the whole thing.  I don’t know what’s more offensive; Crowley and the rest of the Republican whores saying this stuff or the fact that they think we’re so dumb that we’ll buy it.

Based on current U.S. Law, Crowley and the rest of them should be at minimum sued for libel and at most, thrown in jail for treason.  To say such horrible things about a man who could be leading our country in a week or so should go to jail.  If there were any hint, any iota of truth to even the idea that it could be true I would just let it go as one more political attack.  But this is too much.  I can’t wait until this election is over.  I can’t walk around all day staring off into space thinking about this stuff and shaking my head.  People are beginning to think I’m a crazy person.

9 days to November 4th – the Republicans are at it again

For all practical purposes, the Iraq war has been on the back burner.  When is that last time you remember hearing any real news out of that war zone, let alone Afghanistan.  Other than in political speeches, at times, the subject has gone mostly undocumented.  Americans are distracted right now with the economy.  Bad news for John McCain whose entire platform fell apart because it was based solely on national security.  And now that even Colin Powell and former Bush loyalist and press secretary Scott McClellan have publicly endorsed and said they are voting for Barack Obama, there aren’t many outs for McCain.

So suddenly on Sunday morning, 9 days before the election, something sketchy happened just inside Syria on the Iraq/Syria border.  Nobody is really saying what happened other than what looks like U.S. Special Forces killed some number of people on the ground from helicopters or something like that.  We dont’ specifically know who was killed but the Syrians have called on the U.S. to denounce the incident.  The U.S. Government (the Republicans) aren’t even admitting that there was an incident.

I find it interesting that even the Iraqi government agrees with Barack Obama and wants a schedule to remove U.S. and other allied troops from Iraq.  Legally, U.S. forces have not right to even be in Iraq after December 31, 2008 and unless an agreement is made between the U.S. and Iraq we will be considered as illegally occupying a sovereign nation as of that date.  So the interesting part is that the end of our presence there is within sight.  So what do John McCain and the Republicans have left to try and convince the American people that we need John McCain.  I’m not saying that John McCain is a reason even if Iraq was the primary focus of every American.  I’m saying they believe Americans will think we need John McCain because of is so-called experience.

So could this be a bait and switch?  Did something really happen by accident on the Syrian border?  Or on purpose?  And was it manufactured for political purposes?  I”m not a conspiracy theorist but George Bush’s 2004 campaign made sure that the lies that led us to war in the first place were not revealed until after he won his second term.  That’s when America finally figures out what the rest of the world already knew.  America was duped by the people they elected and trusted to run this country.

So in the end, all I am saying is that if we haven’t learned anything, I hope it was that we should question everything the government tells us.  I mean that whether the Republicans or Democrats are in power.  I hope that Barack Obama will reverse some the constitutional pillaging that occurred under George Bush should Obama become our next president.  I hope he exposes all of the lies, crimes, and misdemeanors committed by Bush and his “advisers” and friends over the last 8 years.  Be smart; don’t let this happen again.  Question everything.

Election Season 2008 Update

I can’t believe how long it has been since I blogged anything substantial.  In some ways I have checked out mentally from this election.  I am so tired of Palin and McCain and the ridiculousness of it all.  I’m tired of Bill Ayers, and irate republican rally attendees, and Sarah Palin’s clothing budget, and Joe the plumber.  Stick a fork in me, I’m done.

And I can just sit back now without guilt anyway.  I’ve done all I can.  I’ve written all I can.  I have already voted.  I’m going to spend some time writing my election night blog post ahead of time; one if Obama wins and one if McCain wins, and I’ll just publish one of them that night.   Unless of course there is a tie and a long drawn out process.  Or god forbid we have another Florida 2000; I don’t think I can handle that again.

In my final analysis, as much as I hate to say it as to jinx it, I believe Obama will win by a landslide.  We have not used that word in the country for politics in quite some time.   But an Obama landslide would make me proud.  Proud of us.  Proud of us Americans.  Proud of America.  Even if Obama were to win by the smallest of margins I would feel that pride.  But for whatever reason, I want the BIG win. 

After 18 months of being unemployed, I finally have a job.  I did not think I would survive the ordeal but somehow I hung in there and things worked out OK.  I have a huge financial hole to dig out of but at least now I can start digging.  It is strange now because I am on a full-time work schedule and have far less time to write about current events, politics, and pop culture.  I spend far fewer hours thinking about and watching TV about politics.  I think this is a good thing because it was becoming all-consuming.  I was watching cable TV News all day and night.  And I would get angry and I would write on my blog.  And when I wasn’t doing that I was worrying day and night about how I was going to survive another day.  Survival at its basic elements is an ugly thing.  How will I eat?  How do I get to an interview now that my car has been repossessed?  How can I afford to buy decent clothing to wear to an interview or a job?  How in the world, with my failing health, am I ever going to even hold down a job?  All of this was on my mind 24 hours a day. 

I am feeling better these days.  Tired, but it’s a good tired.  I really like my new job and its only a few miles from home.  In Maine, that’s almost unheard of.  People here commute long distances.  So even if gas were to go to $4.00 or more a gallon again, a tank of gas will last me more than a week.  My life taking a turn for the better has made my health take a turn for the better as well.

Things are looking up.  After 18 months I actually went to Target to splurge on a pair of jeans, some cargo pants, and a few shirts.  I have changed so much since going through a job loss.  I’ve always known what’s really important in life, but living as I did really brought that point home.  Friends and family are really all there is in the end.  And I was blessed in so many ways by people who reached out to help me during my time of need.  You can’t even make some of this stuff up.  People are truly kind deep down.  There’s so much bitterness and hate in the world and that is what is shown on TV every day.  But in reality, the kindness of strangers has at times amazed me.

That’s it for now.  Eleven days left and unless something major happens, I’m going to lay low until election day.  I should write about what a complete idiot Elisabeth Hasselbeck is and how I’d like to smack her, open-handed, right across her mouth and then back it up with a smack upside the back of her head.  But she’s not worth it.  In my opinion, let her leave and go have her own show on Fox Noise.  It’s only a short step from there to obscurity.  Hey, that would be a great name for her show:  “From here to obscurity”, get it!  And I still get the giggles when Hasselbeck shows up in spell check with a suggestion of “horseback”.

Anyway, Ciao folks.  See ya’ soon.

AND DON’T FORGET:  VOTE, VOTE, VOTE, VOTE, VOTE., VOTE (not more than once, just go vote).

2008 Presidential Election? Wake me when it’s over.

After almost 2 years of listening to Presidential hopefuls give stump speeches, participate in debates, fight, argue, sling mud, and all of the other crap that comes with it, I must declare “I AM DONE”.

Luckily in the State of Maine, we have a hybrid of early voting and absentee ballot.  I went to Town Hall and got my forms and if I wanted to, I could go around the corner, complete my voting forms, and return them immediately to the Registrar to get counted on Election Day.  I had the option of taking them home and mailing them back to Town Hall but I wanted to just be done with it all.

So as of Tuesday, October 14, 2008, I have cast my votes.  For the local town council seats, registrar, town clerk, and dog catcher, I just wrote my own name in because I don’t know any of these people.  I do know myself and know I would be good at whatever I do but I don’t have the same assurance from some stranger.

I really don’t care anymore.  I’ve wanted Barack Obama to be President since I saw him in 2004.  I know he’s not perfect but he is who I want.  I don’t care about William Ayers or Reverend Wright or ACORN or Joe the Plumber.  I”m done.  This election should have either happened 6 months ago, or only started 6 months ago because we are all struggling with fatigue.  I can’t watch another Meet the Press, or Hardball, or Face the Nation, or CNN Election Central.   I will still watch Keith Olbermann and Rachel Maddow because they are both very intelligent and very funny.  But I may even take a break from them for a while.

I just want it to be over.  I want to wake up on November 5, 2008 and have everything be OK.   I want the democrats to be swept into power at all levels of government.  So from Maine that means, no more Susan Collins.   I would rather have one party take a stab at getting something done than have 4 more years of partisan politics getting nothing done, or worse, getting something done poorly.

From here on out I’m going to my happy place in my head.  Wake me up when it’s over.

The Sarah Palin week in review

She started the week by saying Obama was “palling around with terrorists”.   “Palling” isn’t a word; I believe she meant to say “hanging around in a friendly way like you would with your best pal”.  As a result of these statements, Palin and McCain supporters started yelling things like “off with his head” and “kill him” in reference to Barack Obama.  And when the ground swell was out of control she did nothing to stop it.  I finally found something that Hillary Clinton and Sarah Palin have in common.  They both wanted Barack Obama assassinated at one time or another so that they could move into a position of power.  Clinton mentioned it in passing in June of 08 when she said the race wasn’t over yet because it was only early June.  And Bobby Kennedy was murdered in June during his 1968 run for the Presidency, so she still had time.

Next, because of Palin’s remarks, a woman at a McCain rally said she didn’t trust Obama because “he’s an Arab”.  Well first of all, if he was Arab he wouldn’t be allowed to run for President.  You have to be born an American citizen to be President.  What scares me is that one woman spoke out loud, in public, about show she was afraid of Obama because he was an Arab, and one man at another rally said that he was afrad of Obama being President because Obamais a terrorist.  If two people think it, that means a whole lot of people think it, too.  There should be a few simple questions asked of a voter to prove they have the faculties to cast a vote.  Start with “Can you spell you own name?” and then move on to difficult questions like “Do you have to be born in the USA to be President?  YES or NO”.  If you can’t answer these, you don’t deserve to vote.  When did acts of violence against American Presidents or Presidential Candidates become part of our culture.  Well, there were those “unfortunate incidents” but it’s not like it’s commonplace.

Next, I’ll take Abuse of Power for $200 Alex.

Check out this transcript of Palin’sconference call with reporters on Friday, October 10th, after the report of her “abuse of power” case was released.  It is all-telling and frankly, scary.  I still can not tell if she is dumb or clever. 

Here’s what the commission said:

“For the reasons explained in section IV of the report, I find that Governor Sarah Palin abused her power by violating Alaska Statute 39.52.11(a) of the Alaska Executive Branch Ethics Act. 

“The legislature reaffirms that each public officer holds office as a public trust, and any effort to benefit a personal or financial interest through official action is a violation of that trust.”

Here’s what Palin said on Friday after the above report summary was release:

I’m very very pleased to be cleared of any legal wrongdoing … any hint of any kind of unethical activity there. Very pleased to be cleared of any of that.

Here is a transcript of part of the Palin conference call with the press

http://mudflats.wordpress.com/2008/10/12/through-the-looking-glass-with-sarah-palin/

If you want to see the whole interview (with audio), click here.

Lastly, for fun, try the Sarah PalinBaby Name Generator.  With offspring named Track and Trigg, don’tcha wanna know what yer name would be if you were her child:
http://politsk.blogspot.com/2008/09/sarah_13.html

Have a nice day and I hope your next Sarah Week is as good as you last.

The Implosion of McCain

John McCain claims that Obama has no experience, or not enough, or he’s “green behind the ears”, or whatever it is he says.  On the other hand, during the debate he was blaming Obama for something and referred to Obama “and his cronies”.  Well, you can’t have it both ways.  He’s either “too new” or has “cronies”.  It can’t be both by mere definition.  It’s just more of the same unintelligible rhetoric from the McPalin campaign.

And now both Sarah and Cindy are calling Barack Obama a terrorist, and unpatriotic, and allow audience members to say things like “kill him” (meaning Obama) without any attempt to put that crowd in its place and not allow such hateful anger to be spewed.  They don’t stop it because they invite it.  The McPalin campaign has become THAT desperate.  They have no more ideas, no platform to speak of, and their support system is waning.  All that is left for McPalin is hate-mongering and inciting violence.

Candidates that run against each other are opponents, not enemies.  Barack Obama and John McCain are fellow Americans.  They have different opinions on what should happen next in this country and they should discuss those opinions openly so that Americans can decide for themselves who they agree with more.  That is what we call democracy.  But to try and make Americans believe that Barack Obama is a Muslim (not that there is anything wrong with that but they know Americans are afraid of Muslims), or worse, that Obama is an actual terrorist, is simply going too far.  You can’t tell me that McCain and his surrogates can’t hear the hate speech eminating from the audiences that attend their “hate sessions”.  You can’t tell me that they don’t hear audience members yelling out “Hussein!” when yelling out something hateful about Barack.

As for Cindy McCain, she should simply be taken out back and shot.   To stand there and say a chill went down her spine, or was it up her spine, when Barack Obama voted against funding for HER SON as a soldier in Iraq.  She never did say that her own husband, John McCain, voted against that very same war finding bill.  How big was the chill when she learned that her own husband didn’t support her son.  This is how desperate the McPalin crew is.  Obama is an unpatriotic, Muslim terrorist who was somehow involved in 9/11 because  he’s a mamber of the sleeper cell in Chicago.  Didn’t you know that?

I don’t know if this country can stomach any more of this bullshit.  I don’t know if Americans will stand for this stuff for another 27 days.  It’s time for America to tune out, or speak up.   I’ve decided to speak up.  Enough is enough.   

There was a hate-monger at a McCain event who said “Can you imagine waking up on November 5th with a President named Barack HUSSEIN Obama.  Let me answer that, please.  Yes, I can.