Laudable goals and democracy

Yesterday, Nancy Pelosi was quoted as saying:

"Our priorities have tracked the Obama campaign priorities...The growth of our economy, the education of our children, the health of our people, the end of dependence on foreign oil and the end of the war in Iraq."

Those are my priorities as well. I plan to remind them if I see them going off track. This election reminded us all that this is OUR government. WE sent them there. WE are the boss of them! (grin) Don't let them forget it. Watch what goes on. If they do something that irks you, DON'T let them get away with it. On the flip side, if they want to do something that they're having a hard time getting support for among their peers, write them and tell them that you agree with them ... and then write some of the other folks and tell them too.

It's high time that we run our democracy, like a democracy. (Some would say that it's a republic, but it works the same way.)

Here is a great speech from "An American President" about what it means to be President, how politics works, and what it means to be a citizen of this country. Obama is great, but I would love to vote for Andrew Shepard.

Worth staying up late for

Yesterday, I left work a few hours early so I could avoid long lines at the polls. The only line when I got there was for voter registration. I was amazed at the number of new voters this election brought into the game. Bravo! (Then again, things had to get pretty crappy in this country to convince people that they needed to participate in the process, huh?)

We flipped between CNN, Fox News, and Comedy Central during the evening. Fox was pretty unbiased for them. Comedy Central, with Steven Cobert and John Stewart, added levity to a tense situation. CNN did a fantastic job, including a holographic interview.

The only thing I wonder is how the media can predict the outcome of a state's election with less than 20% of the precincts reporting in. I guess it is educated gambling. They probably base their predictions on bellwether precincts for the state (ones that are typically representative of how the state will go). It still makes me nervous when they do this. It always makes me think of the Chicago Tribune's flub in 1948 when they went to press early with "Dewey Elected" when Truman ended up winning.

One of the amazing things about this election is the number of states that went from Red to Blue: Nevada, Colorado, New Mexico, Iowa, Ohio, Virginia, and (especially) Florida. Indiana, Missouri, and North Carolina are still too close to call today. Heck, in North Carolina the tally between the two candidates is only about nine thousand votes apart! For the latest tally, see CNN's election map.

At the end of the evening, I watched McCain's concession speech and Obama's victory speech. McCain was extremely graceful (even if supporters were not - they booed mention of Obama several times), especially in expressing his condolences on the death of Obama's grandmother. Obama was inspiring. I liked how his supporters applauded McCain.

Obama's speech spoke to me on a few particular points. I liked how he said that we may not get the job done in one year or one term, but that we will get the job done. And, he warned that there may be some missteps along the way. I fully expect that he's right on both counts. I hope people heard this note of reason. Like a good manager, Obama is trying to set reasonable expectations. The country is in serious trouble, and all of our issues may not be addressable in a couple of years. However, I think we elected the right person for the job. Obama seems like a serious person who will make well considered decisions. I hope he plays to the center, though he's a noted Liberal. His ultimate support came from the center. Also, while he won, the country is still divided. We will definitely need the support of a lot of folks on the other side to resolve our issues, so it's best not to alienate too many of them.

I am really proud to be an American today. I actually agree with John McCain on at least one thing: We are the greatest nation on Earth. (Flawed? Yes. But head and shoulders above the rest.)

Florida and elections

There are way too many ways to enjoy the fact that Florida has opened the polls more than two weeks before the rest of the country.

1. Maybe with all that extra time they can count the votes correctly?
   
2. Maybe the Electoral College will invalidate their election for being officially too early?
   
3. Maybe the voters will have enough time to interpret confusing ballots?
   
4. Maybe the Republicans will have enough time to come up with a believable line of crap as to how their candidate pulled off another close election in the state, while giving the missing ballots more time to be eaten by gators in the swamp
   

Finally listening to the DNC

I didn't manage to watch either the Democratic or Republican conventions. The greater part of me says, "No great loss". After all, the speeches are highly engineered bits of propaganda to fire people up. However, Audible.com had all the speeches from both conventions available FOR FREE, so I downloaded them to my Sansa MP3 player. I started listening to them today as I rode the shuttle bus between my office and a conference in Cambridge. While I feel somewhat manipulated, I found myself inspired. Thus far I have listened to Michelle Obama, Edward Kennedy, Nancy Pilosi, and Hillary Clinton. Tomorrow, I'll probably get through Bill Clinton, Al Gore, Barak Obama and Biden's speaches. Then, I'll start listening to the Red Team's crap. I think I need to hear it to know how they're selling themselves. On my Red Team playlist I have Bush, Lieberman (what a traitor), Laura Bush, and Sarah Palin. Palin's is the third longest recording (at 40 minutes). McCain's is 49 minutes (Obama's is 45 minutes). In the case of McCain and Palin, I have to wonder: how can people who have so little to say take so much time to say it?

Palin is making me ill

I feel like I'm on the verge of becoming a rabid screaming dog on the topic of Sarah Palin. This mindless right-wing shallow reactionary wench has begun campaigning on her own. She claims that Obama will raise taxes, and that she and McCain know how to grow the economy.

Excuse me? Look here, Madame Trailer Trash, ruling over a podunk town in Alaska does not give you the street credibility to claim that you know how to 'grow an economy'. Knowing how to line your own pockets and those of your friends does not give you credibility.

Sadly, many narrow-minded under-educated frightened Americans will buy into your line of bull and think that you and The Fossil will save them from the scary over-educated black man and his free-spending tax-loving Liberal cronies.

Yes, I just spewed a bunch of stereotypical labels. Sadly, politics is, a great deal, about pandering to the quantifiable camps.

In actuality, I don't know if the Ice Bitch is makihng me ill, or if it's just the potential of the shallowness of the election jargon and marketing that's making me want to go live in a cave for the next two months.

Conventions on my terms

Part of me wanted to watch the DNC and RNC hoopla the last couple of weeks. Things just didn't work out. I have both reasons and excuses for not watching. However, Audible has made it easy for me to play catch up. They have ALL the major speeches from both conventions available for FREE download. I've already lined up most of the DNC speaches. I'll probably pick up at least McCain and Palin's crap as well.

I already told my husband that we should plan on divorcing ourselves from any live radio or commercial television programming until November. (TiVo is a blessing, yet again.) I have no tolerance for the negative campaigning that both sides indulge in any more. A negative campaign ad against the other side can even make me hate my own candidate.

Chick flick or horror movie

Another nod to Dr Momentum on this one. Maureen Dowd opined in NY Times Op-Ed Columnist - Vice in Go-Go Boots? that the Sarah Palin story could be compared to the movie "Miss Congeniality". Maybe, if FearNET did a remake of it.

November cannot come soon enough!

The news this weekend is grim for proponents of democracy. Thank you, Dr Momentum for Twittering about this.

Apparently the GOP can't stomach the idea of protesters spoiling their party in St Paul by highlighting the failures of the current administration. This weekend, St Paul Police raided homes of potential RNC protesters. Police surrounded one house for two hours while they waited for a warrant, informing residents that anyone who attempted to leave would be arrested

This shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone, really. According to MN Blue, a site which follows Minnesota politics, at recent Republican national conventions, police have been overstepping boundaries, using violent crowd tactics on peaceful protesters resulting in rightfully huge damage judgments. An update to the story on MN Blue describes items confiscated from raided homes. MN Blue questions whether there was just cause in these cases. And, also questions if those who were harassed really are the individuals they should be worried about.

At least we'll have less GOP posturing to put up with as the result of Gustav barreling into the Gulf Coast. Bush and Cheney are passing on the convention because of the impending hurricane. Maybe we'll get lucky and the two of them will go down there to witness the potential destruction first hand? Doubtful, but I can dream can't I?

And then there is Hope

I think this piece embodies what the majority of Obama supporters see when they look at him.


I am a bit jaded. I believe that he still is a politician, with all the requisite flaws. However, I have some Hope based on this movement. Whether or not Obama is the man that his followers think that HE is, his followers may be the voices that spur that change.

I think that Barack Obama's campaign is less about him than about the ideals that it embodies and attracts. May this movement bring out the best in each of us. Then, may each of us do our part to bring the envisioned changes into being.

Obama/Biden

In tapping Biden as his running mate, some say that Obama's choice shows a lack of confidence, or a willingness to stray from his promise of change. I think it shows that Obama realizes that he needs to bring some experience into his freshman ticket. Biden's liberal record is very close in alignment to Obama's vision, so I see no betrayal here. By picking someone from "the inside" Obama has a better chance at getting heard on Capitol Hill.

It will be very interesting now to see who McCain picks. Will he align himself with a former foe (Romney) known for his fundraising prowess, a popular moderate (Lieberman) to attract independents who've recently fallen out-of-love with McCain's sudden shift to the right, or a known conservative (such as Huckabee) to accentuate the difference between the democratic and Republican tickets. There's an interesting discussion of the contenders which includes the the Vegas odds for each choice.

The Olympics finish up on Sunday night. The Democratic Convention starts Monday night. So, we'll all still have games to watch!

I respect him, but make him back off

Ralph Nader is again thinking about taking an independent run at the Presidency this year.

When I was in college, I totally admired what Nader stood for and espoused. However, I am one of 'those Democrats' who think his run for the Presidency in 2000 gave George W. Bush the win.

While neither Clinton or Obama is perfect, a Nader candidacy will take votes from which ever one of them garners the Democratic nomination. That, and the fact that McCain has often attracted centrist Democrats, could hand the election to McCain.

And, let's be real here. Does he really think he has a chance of actually winning? What would be the point, other than stealing votes from the Democratic nominee? Does he really hate the Democrats that much that he'd rather see a Republican win?

Even if the guy doesn't like the two main parties, he should admit that his politics are in line with many leftist Democrats. If he actually wanted a shot at the Presidency he should have run as a Democrat in the primaries. Heck, he and Kucinich have a lot in common.

So, Ralph, are you listening? STEP OFF!

Anxious citizen

Living in NH, I am REALLY looking forward to tomorrow. It is a privilege to be the first state to hold an actual, voting, Presidential primary every four years. The outcome of our primary often determines the course of the primary season overall.

That said, the REAL reason I am looking forward to tomorrow: PEACE!

This weekend, we had at least seven calls each day on Saturday and Sunday, and four this evening. In addition, we have actually had campaign workers knock on our door three times in the last three days.

GO AWAY! LEAVE US ALONE!

Geesh.

Participatory democracy is a privilege. I KNOW! But, I really can't wait until Wednesday morning.

The current best reason to have caller ID in NH

We live in New Hampshire: the first primary state. Yes, Iowa has their caucuses before we have our primary, but that just means we get to share the attention with them.

Over the last several weeks, we have gotten more and more phone calls from various and sundry political campaigns and survey organizations. We pretty much don't answer the telephone any more. We have a great phone system in our house. Not only does it have caller ID, but it has a voice announcement of the ID. So, we can be sitting in the living room watching television when the phone rings. We merely pause whatever we're watching (even live TV, since we have TiVo), and listen to the ID of who is calling. If we don't recognize the name we return to our 'regularly scheduled programming'.

This afternoon, we have gotten three calls in less than two hours. The first two were announced as "number available", which means there is no name associated with the numbers. The last one was "private caller". The first two got me to peak at the display and then walk away chuckling. The last one was a complete no-brainer. None of our friends block caller ID.

We still have a little over a week until the primary. I wonder how many more calls we're going to get. Maybe I should start a pool?

(Primary) Politics = Ridiculous (Doh!)

As most of you know, I live in NH. We traditionally hold the first primaries in the country for Presidential elections. Politicians favor us with an inordinate amount of attention, relative to the size of our population (41st according to Infoplease), since our primaries influence the rest of the primary elections.

This week, the Democratic Party ruled that all Michigan forfeited of its delegates by moving the date of its primary ahead of the official February 5th start date of the primary season. New Hampshire, Iowa, Nevada and South Carolina have traditionally held early primaries/caucuses, and were thereby exempt from the wrath of the Party.

Look, I (somewhat) enjoy all the attention that the candidates pay to NH. I like that they visit my small (by populuation standards) us a great deal in the months leading up to the primaries. Though I do wish they'd stop calling my house. However, this 'race to be first' has gotten out of hand.

All state-residency-loyalty aside, here's how I see it. Wyoming is actually the least populated in the country. Let's let them hold their primaries/caucuses on January 2nd. Let's make everyone else hold theirs at least one week out after that. Currently, Wyoming waits until May to hold a convention to determine their selections. If they would like to continue to do that, perhaps they could offer to sell their slot!

Any state that would like to take on Wyoming's slot, could bid for the privilege. Wyoming is not a wealthy state. Imagine the benefit to them to selling off their preeminent position in the primaries. As the least populated state in the union, they could garner some financial benefit to their position (once every four years) by auctioning off their preeminent primary slot every fourth year in (say) October.

What do you think?

I promise to do a weekly hero post tomorrow. This one was just too annoying to pass off today.

NH makes the national news for an election-related event

This seems like a lame and shallow way to end the month. However, I felt compelled to comment on this ridiculous turn of events.

A NH man took several people hostage in a Rochester, NH, office for the Hilary Clinton campaign. I was impressed by the fact that the Clinton campaign had an office in a town of 30,000 people. But, hey, it's New Hampshire. When it comes to Presidential elections we rate. Every baby worth kissing in this state has chapped cheeks come election day.

For a relatively small (by population) state, I know for a fact that we harbor quite a few unstable folks. So, it was no surprise that the AP said:

"A law enforcement official confirmed to The Associated Press earlier that the suspect's name was Leeland Eisenberg, and said Eisenberg was an older man known around the town to be mentally unstable."

After all, we were the same state that harbored the income tax rebels who held off the Feds for months hold up in their home.

Bet you thought only Montana harbored right wing militia-minded types. The only reason you don't hear about us as much is that we're loners. Militia-minded folks tend to be joiners, of a sort.

I'm quite grateful that election day is January 8th. After that, I can get some peace. The campaign folks from both parties call our house almost every night at this point.

It's grand to be relevant.