The Paradox of Vision

...and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.













These really do say it all.

Wow. Unbelieveable feelings of relief. After eight looooonnnnggg years, I finally have hope again for my country. In the last weeks before the election, I have been mostly silent, holding my breath and waiting to see if the signs of light at the end of the tunnel were real.

When I think about the possible implications, I am just dumbfounded. The real chance that the wars will end. The real chance that the assault on the environment will end. The real chance that we will regain the respect and admiration of the world. The real chance that our economy can be repaired.

America began as, and will always remain, a fluid and dynamic grand experiment. We are learning, as a country, across generations, how to become better as human beings. It is hard to defy all that evolutionary programming which makes us fear and distrust anyone different from ourselves, but we are slowly moving in a positive direction. Sometimes we take steps back, but they are always followed by a greater number of steps forward. Barack Obama represents the hope that we all hold - for our nation and for our world - the world our children will inherit.

Full text of his acceptance speech here. Yes We Can.

Having said that, as I sit here floating in the post-victory happy place where I've been since last night, I feel obligated to link to a few words from John Scalzi offering a little reality check on things. We're not talking the second coming of Jesus here, folks. This is a man, preparing to run a country in the midst of not one but several epic crises, a man who must govern the Entire United States of America, red states included. He will be forced to concede some things. He will fail at some things.

Nevertheless, I'm going to enjoy this. I want to savor the feeling of an historic moment. It's the same feeling I had in college when I watched the Berlin Wall come down. Hope, simple and pure. We may just be alright.

Yes we can.

For the Record, Here are my voting recommendations:

President - Barack Obama
LA Senator - Mary Landrieu
U.S. Representative, 7th District - Don Cravins, Jr.

Proposed Constitutional Amendments:

#1, Term Limits for Boards - NO
#2, Increased Notice For Special Session - NO
#3, Appointment of Temporary Replacements for Legislators - NO
#4, Increase Parish's share of severence tax - YES
#5, Preserve special assessment for homeowners - YES
#6, Remove right of first refusal for blighted properties - YES
#7, Invest non-pension benefits in stocks - NO

In all cases, folks, vote your conscience, but VOTE. It's a right and a privilege.

For a little while I was trying to be folksy but after a bit, it just came off douchey...

Ron Howard in a funny and surreally (yes I just made that word up) nostalgic call to action in this year's presidential election:

I really didn't intend to do any more posting about Sarah Palin, at least for the time being. But the pile just keeps on getting taller and taller, the smell just keeps on getting more awful, and my tolerance for ignoring this stuff is pretty low to begin with.

Now, to be honest, this is probably because I live in an area populated with lots of conservative Christian voters who aren't necessarily that well-versed on the finer points of politics. That's being polite, if you hadn't noticed. The fact is, most of the people around here are voting for McCain because Obama's name sounds funny and he's pro-choice. Really. It matters not one whit that A) The current Republican administration has, by any yardstick imaginable, run this country straight into the ground, B) McCain/Palin promise four more years of the same or C) The McCain/Palin/Republican campaign machine is a great big ball of misdirection, smear tactics and outright lying. Seriously, they don't care. Obama's name sounds funny. Didn't somebody say he was a Muslim? Yeah, I ain't votin' fer him. So, you see, I'm assaulted from all sides on a daily basis. I can't even discuss politics casually with my neighbors without getting really angry. I need to vent periodically.

In any case, rant aside, The New York Times ran a piece on Saturday that just adds more evidence for my opinion of Sarah Palin - that this woman is simply not fit to govern this country (and let's be honest, who really thinks John McCain will last a year in office?) She has no real grasp of or interest in actual policy, she appoints elementary school friends to every top post (yes I know lots of politicians do this but at least let's have someone running the Dept of Agriculture who has more than just a "childhood love of cows" to recommend them for the post), she carries out systematic removal of anyone within her reach of power who offends her (personally or politically), and she is unapologetically guided in all her policy decisions by her fundamentalist Christian beliefs which portray science and education as, at least, laughable and, at worst, dangerous.

Here, have some tidbits:

• Gov. Sarah Palin lives by the maxim that all politics is local, not to mention personal. So when there was a vacancy at the top of the State Division of Agriculture, she appointed a high school classmate, Franci Havemeister, to the $95,000-a-year directorship. A former real estate agent, Ms. Havemeister cited her childhood love of cows as a qualification for running the roughly $2 million agency.

• Rick Steiner, a University of Alaska professor, sought the e-mail messages of state scientists who had examined the effect of global warming on polar bears. (Ms. Palin said the scientists had found no ill effects, and she has sued the federal government to block the listing of the bears as endangered.) An administration official told Mr. Steiner that his request would cost $468,784 to process. When Mr. Steiner finally obtained the e-mail messages — through a federal records request — he discovered that state scientists had in fact agreed that the bears were in danger, records show. “Their secrecy is off the charts,” Mr. Steiner said.

• But in 1995, Ms. Palin, then a city councilwoman, told colleagues that she had noticed the book “Daddy’s Roommate” on the shelves and that it did not belong there, according to Ms. Chase and Mr. Stein. Ms. Chase read the book, which helps children understand homosexuality, and said it was inoffensive; she suggested that Ms. Palin read it. “Sarah said she didn’t need to read that stuff,” Ms. Chase said. “It was disturbing that someone would be willing to remove a book from the library and she didn’t even read it.” “I’m still proud of Sarah,” she added, “but she scares the bejeebers out of me.”

• The Wasilla High School yearbook archive now doubles as a veritable directory of state government. Ms. Palin appointed Mr. Bitney, her former junior high school band-mate, as her legislative director and chose another classmate, Joe Austerman, to manage the economic development office for $82,908 a year. Mr. Austerman had established an Alaska franchise for Mailboxes Etc.

• Many lawmakers contend that Ms. Palin is overly reliant on a small inner circle that leaves her isolated. Democrats and Republicans alike describe her as often missing in action. Since taking office in 2007, Ms. Palin has spent 312 nights at her Wasilla home, some 600 miles to the north of the governor’s mansion in Juneau, records show.

• Mayors across the state, from the larger cities to tiny municipalities along the southeastern fiords, are even more frustrated. Often, their letters go unanswered and their pleas ignored, records and interviews show.

It occurred to me while reading this article that in truth, Sarah Palin is the ideal Republican candidate. She's clueless about actual policy issues and unfailingly faithful to the religious right, so she's easy to program and control. She's not interested in debate or dissent, instead choosing to surround herself with cronies and old friends who are unwilling to question her, and, probably most importantly, she's very, very good at spouting the RNC's talking points in such a way that makes them sound self-evident and hip. She looks pretty and vivacious in front of the camera, in contrast to her half-dead running mate. No wonder she's their beauty queen.

Oh, and also, War is Peace, Freedom is Slavery, and Ignorance is Strength. Right?

Via Minister Faust, guest blogging on Ecstatic Days...

I’m a little confused. Let me see if I have this straight…..

If you grow up in Hawaii, raised by your grandparents, you’re “exotic” and “different.”

Grow up in Alaska eating mooseburgers, a quintessential American story.

If your name is Barack you’re a radical, unpatriotic Muslim.

Name your kids Willow, Trig and Track, you’re a maverick.

Graduate from Harvard law School and you are unstable.

Attend five different small colleges before graduating, you’re well grounded.

If you:

• Spend three years as a brilliant community organiser
• Become the first Black president of the Harvard Law Review
• Create a voter registration drive that registers 150,000 new voters
• Spend twelve years as a Constitutional Law professor
• Spend eight years as a State Senator representing a district with over 750,000 people
• Become chairman of the state Senate’s Health and Human Services committee, and
• Spend four years in the United States Senate representing a state of 13 million people while sponsoring 131 bills and serving on the Foreign Affairs, Environment and Public Works and Veteran’s Affairs committees

…you don’t have any real leadership experience.

If your total resume is:

• Local weather girl
• Four years on the city council and six years as the mayor of a town with less than 7,000 people, and
• Twenty months as the governor of a state with only 650,000 people…

Then you’re qualified to become the country’s second highest ranking executive.

If you have been married to the same woman for 19 years while raising 2 beautiful daughters, all within Protestant churches, you’re not a real Christian.

If you cheated on your first wife with a rich heiress, and left your disfigured wife and married the heiress the next month, you’re a Christian.

If you teach responsible, age appropriate sex education, including the proper use of birth control, you are eroding the fiber of society.

If , while governor, you staunchly advocate abstinence only, with no other option in sex education in your state’s school system while your unwed teen daughter ends up pregnant , you’re very responsible.

If your wife is a Harvard graduate laywer who gave up a position in a prestigious law firm to work for the betterment of her inner city community, then gave that up to raise a family, your family’s values don’t represent America’s.

If you’re husband is nicknamed ‘First Dude’, with at least one DWI conviction and no college education, who didn’t register to vote until age 25 and once was a member of a group that advocated the secession of Alaska from the USA, your family is extremely admirable.

OK, much clearer now.

Or should be, anyway. After all, he voted with Bush 100% of the time last year.

"Because she's going to have the nuclear codes."

Via Edge of the American West (an excellent blog about American History and politics), Matt Damon gives us his take on Sarah Palin as President.

From Senator Barbara Boxer of California, some comments on John McCain's GOP Convention acceptance speech:

For Immediate Release
September 5, 2008

Last night at the Republican National Convention, John McCain used the word "fight" more than 40 times in his speech.

In the 16 years that we have served together in the Senate, I have seen John McCain fight.

I have seen him fight against raising the federal minimum wage 14 times.

I have seen him fight against making sure that women earn equal pay for equal work.

I have seen him fight against a women's right to choose so consistently that he received a zero percent vote rating from pro-choice organizations.

I have seen him fight against helping families gain access to birth control.

I have seen him fight against Social Security, even going so far as to call its current funding system "an absolute disgrace."

And I saw him fight against the new GI Bill of Rights until it became politically untenable for him to do so.

John McCain voted with President Bush 95 percent of the time in 2007 and 100 percent of the time in 2008 -- that's no maverick.

We do have two real fighters for change in this election -- their names are Barack Obama and Joe Biden.

We made it through Gustav with nary a scratch, thank goodness. We were without power for two days, but that is a minor inconvenience compared with some of the things that happened in this area - lots of people have trees slicing through their roofs, and a few parishes still have no water or power. Hopefully, help will be forthcoming a little more quickly this time.

In the meantime, I've been perusing the internets buzz lately about the GOP Veep nominee, Sarah Palin. Turns out she's as bad as I figured James Dobson's choice would be, with the added insult that the Republican party thought it would be clever to nominate a woman because Hillary's supporters just wanted a female, right? The politics don't matter much. Yeah, ok. Idiots. Gloria Steinem says it very well in a LA Times opinion piece here.

Anyway, you know I love Jon Stewart, so to rev up your outrage while laughing your ass off check out his little segment on Republican hypocrisy.

America, we cannot turn back. Not with so much work to be done. Not with so many children to educate, and so many veterans to care for. Not with an economy to fix and cities to rebuild and farms to save. Not with so many families to protect and so many lives to mend. America, we cannot turn back. We cannot walk alone. At this moment, in this election, we must pledge once more to march into the future. Let us keep that promise -- that American promise -- and in the words of Scripture hold firmly, without wavering, to the hope that we confess.

Crossposted at The Wild, Wild Left

An old friend recently asked me about where I stand in my support of Obama. Up until now I've been outspoken and very vocally supportive of his campaign, based on the fact that A) He seemed unafraid to support progressive issues and B) He seemed the right man, at the right time, to bring our country together. I have to admit, though, that I've been less vocal lately (read silent). Today I redesigned my blog, and after some thought, I left off the little "Support Obama" graphics I've been sporting for a few months now.

I'm just baffled, frankly. I don't understand who these Democratic candidates are listening to. I understand about the need to reach out to the center, and even to the right, in an effort to portray oneself as understanding of their needs. A President of the United States should be willing, insistent, in fact, on listening to the wishes of every citizen. However, for some unknown, unfathomable reason, Democratic candidates lately have felt it their duty to pander instead of listen, to court instead of consider - a tactic that is not only dangerous, it's misguided, and possibly deadly.

So listen up, candidates and earstwhile advisory staff: You can't have it both ways. You can't stand in front of thousands upon thousands of frustrated, hopeful progressives and shout that YOU are the one who will change things, YOU are their one great hope for turning back the tide of the loss of women's rights, the unconscionable intermingling of church and state, and the loss of basic constitutional freedoms while simultaneously voting and speaking in terms which directly refute your supposed ideals.

While he campaigned among and for Democrats only Obama seemed like just what this party needed - a candidate not afraid to stand up against the Evangelical Right that has held American politics hostage for years. And then, magically, once the cards shifted and he found himself the nominee, he started backtracking, shifting, and yes, pandering.

Think the FISA vote.
Think women's reproductive rights.
Think withdrawing from Iraq.
Think faith based initiatives.

It's more than just wrong. It's politically stupid. By trying to play it both ways, Obama is going to lose his core voting block. You can't convince the Republicans that you are one of them. They won't buy it. And your base, your best shot at winning this election, will feel like you've betrayed them and stay home in November. You'll lose to a candidate who is riding the coattails of a President with a 27% approval rating.

Yes, I'm still voting for Obama. In a choice between ANYONE and McCain, I'll still vote for the other guy. However, I don't want to drag my feet to the polls in November. I don't want to go through the motions of choosing the lesser of two evils. I want a candidate I can believe in, a candidate who really can offer me HOPE that we aren't failing as a democracy. So, if you don't mind, will the real Barack Obama please stand up?