Tag Archives: Obama

Voting

So there’s this whole early voting brouhaha going on in the US right now.

On top of all kinds of Republican-led legislation at the state level to add ID requirements that ostensibly are to keep non-citizens and ineligible people from voting fraudulently (I think everyone who isn’t a state-level GOP legislator is aware that the number of votes cast fraudulently is really, really low, like in the 0.000001 decimal points of votes cast, low. It’s really a non-issue, that has been seized on by the kind of people who don’t believe President Obama’s birth certificate is valid, because, you know, he’s, um, black. Sssshh! apparently a lot of people didn’t notice that last time!)

I know Canada has a really small population, compared to the US, and we, too, have a voting problem inasmuch as a pathetically small percentage of our eligible citizens vote; however, I can’t imagine the foofaraw if they tried to curb early voting. I mean, employers are required to allow employees up to 4 hours to leave work early/come in late in order to allow them sufficient time to vote. That’s right! if you need to leave at 3:00 so you can make it to the polls, you’re allowed to. I normally vote in the morning, and get it over with, so I don’t have to worry about going at the end of the day when the lines can be long. And that’s another thing: for me, a long line is one that takes a whole half-hour to get through.

These tales of 3 and 4 and 5-hour lines? unfathomable! why aren’t there more polling stations, or more booths per poll, or more days available for early voting? you should not have to stand for 3 or 4 or 5 hours in order to exercise your constitutionally-protected right to cast a ballot for the candidate(s) of your choice. (Not your boss’s choice! yours!) That’s ridiculous!

I don’t understand how these legislatures are so sure that the early voters who happen to line up first, and get in to vote without waiting half the day, are only people voting on the “right” side. Conversely, some of the older people who can’t stick it out and give up without voting, for example, might be conservative older people. What makes them so sure they’re doing themselves a favour? I really don’t get it.

If there’s one thing that the American people ought to insist on, in my opinion, it’s figuring out the most equitable way for its citizenry to vote. Some states do it by mail. It’s a bit less exciting, because you can do it at your leisure, with your computer or newspaper or whatever handy, to make sure you’re voting for the people who are going to do things the way you’d like, rather than lining up with your neighbours and feeling all patriotic together, but given that the US Postal Service is an existing infrastructure, and that ballots can then be entered in an orderly fashion over days or weeks, I think it’s a pretty good system. I mean it beats lining up in all kinds of weather for hours on end, to do something that it’s both your right and duty to do.

Of course, the TV news would have way less of a horserace, and “election night” would be a bit of a yawn, but what’s more important?

If not that, then MOAR POLLING STATIONS.

The current system clearly is not working. And that’s with less than half of eligible voters voting! imagine if everyone stood up to be counted!

A night on the town.

GM continues its lurching advance to bankruptcy, and the President dared to take his wife out for a night on the town. In New York City.

New York City isn’t experiencing any economic trouble, of course. And the opening of a Broadway revival of an August Wilson play shouldn’t mean anything to a President. You know, August Wilson, that guy who won a couple of Pulitzers.

Listen, you idiots, when Obama decides to take a four-week “vacation” on his “ranch” instead of paying attention to what’s going on in the world, you may have a foot to stand on. Dinner and a show are a pretty normal, mainstream diversion, the kind that even poor people can achieve once in a while. Not that the Rebublicans know too much about what regular people do for entertainment.

Oh and that election…

I cried. I did. The tears just poured down my face, the Main Distractor and I were instant messaging, and even though I was alone (with the dogs) in my Vancouver living room, not in a crowd of hundreds or thousands or hundreds of thousands, it was great.

There are some races that didn’t go the way I would have preferred, personally (Darcy Burner in WA for one, Michelle Bachmann in MN for another, for opposite reasons), and holy SHIT the religious people need to keep their self-righteous motherfucking noses out of the politics, because taking away people’s civil rights is just not done in a democracy. It’s just not done! Why would they think that they could? and I mean come down to it, how does a proposition like that even get on a ballot? what the fuck is going on down there in California?

Anyway, I’m terribly pleased that the right man won the election. I’m very interested to see what happens in the next 12 months.

I was going to write this more than a week ago, a sort of a note about which websites and people helped feed my insatiable newscraving in the run up. Then other people started doing that, and I didn’t want to appear like a bandwagoner. But anyway. In the unlikely event that anyone who bothers to read what I write isn’t aware, I give kudos to the following:

And the news/opinion sites listed as distractions on the right.

Redistribution of wealth.

ALL taxes are redistribution of wealth, for all of the ignorant douchebags cheering John McCain. ALL taxes. You people seem to need to return to civics class. Taking tax dollars and paying for public schools? redistribution of wealth, Einstein.

What’s funny is how the closed-minded are now using “socialist” as an epithet, much like they use “liberal.” Firstly, I defy any of these people to actually, accurately define socialism. Secondly, I defy any of them to show anything socialist about Obama’s platforms.

Trickle Down Economics was supposed to be the Republican, Capitalist, Friedmanesque way of redistributing the wealth. Privatization of gain, and socialization of loss seems to be the end of that line. You want to start talking about redistribution of wealth? All of it upward? I’ll take Robin Hood over Gordon Gecko, any day of the fucking week. Even the goddam Kevin Costner Robin Hood.

***

And the Obama campaign didn’t say one thing against Joe the Plumber; that was the media, who merely checked out who he was, something the McCain campaign signally failed to do.

I haven’t heard Obama say he was going to cut cheques for the poor as a way of reducing their taxes, either. But we know how poorly Sen. McCain did in school, so it’s understandable that he would not be able to see any other way of reducing taxes. Oooohhhh, and with his next breath he talks about the two wars the US is fighting. He hasn’t bothered to tell anyone how he’s going to pay to fight those wars, with his tax cuts.

I’ll take one SecState Powell over any number of Haigs, Bakkers, and Kissingers, too. You go, Colin Powell! One of the very few honourable figures of the entire Bush II administration.

***

Amy Poehler’s Palin rap is the best thing I’ve seen in ages.

And back to sighing.

Since last I wrote, a lot has happened. To me personally, and in the world at large.

Personally, I had a few days off last week and red-eyed my way eastward to meet up with my Main Distractor. Yay Main Distractor! It was just great to see him live and in person instead of his skype-analogue (oh, how’s that for a contradiction in terms?). He saw how blue I was to be heading east for the first time in ten years or whatever it was and not see my girl P. in Philly, and said, “Hey, babe, we can go to Philly if you want!” so we jumped in the Bunny (with me shouting OBAMA! at every bumper sticker and lawn sign) and zoomed up to Philly for a cheesesteak and a chat with Miss P., and then came down I-95, stopping to see my messageboard co-proprietor Jody in Baltimore, my Main Distractor’s good friend Stéphane in VA (and also got to meet his awesome executive pastry chef wife, Amanda, at the huge resort she works at), and then supper and drinks with some Norfolk friends, followed by the Norfolk version of Rocky Horror Picture Show.

Saturday we headed south to his parents’ house on a beautiful lake, and I got to meet them. Super-nice people! not that that surprised me, but they were really sweet and welcoming to me. We played some cards and went out on the lake, and had a v pleasant visit.

Sunday we headed back to Norfolk, and another nice dinner and a movie :D

Monday I reluctantly came home.

Friday we learned that the next step in his work permit application has been on pause for two weeks for reasons unknown, which has made the likelihood of his getting here by Christmas…rather less, let’s call it. So I’m reduced to basically not thinking about it as my reactions vary between despair and top-blowing, name-calling anger. I know my priorities are not everyone’s but I can’t help but feeling that my life (and the Main Distractor’s, obv) is on hold, and the efforts required on others’ parts at this juncture are not great. STEP UP.

In the world at large, the political rhetoric is getting pretty offensive from time to time, on the Republicans’ part. I don’t believe everything I hear just on the face of it, either good or ill, and I find the apparent ignorance of so many as evidenced in TV interviews and online comments simply astonishing. And depressing.

Sigh.

Um, Roe v. Wade. (Pause) Updated.

That’s the latest on Gov. Palin. Katie Couric was asking her about Supreme Court decisions, and apparently, the only Supreme Court case she could come up with was Roe v. Wade.

Unlike Sen. Obama, I’m no ConLaw scholar, and while I worked in a US law firm for several years, I was only assigned to the litigation department for a matter of days when I was a floater. So I’m not particularly knowledgeable about the Supreme Court or its landmark decisions.

Off the top of my head, I was able to think of: Miranda, the case that required arresting law enforcement to advise those being arrested of their rights against self-incrimination (under the Constitution, right?);  Brown v. Board of Education, which forced integration of public schools; and Hustler Magazine v. Robertson, which was immortalized in the movie The People vs. Larry Flynt. I suppose if I thought a little harder and longer, I might be able to come up with a few more, but I think those are sufficiently well-known if even a somewhat-informed Canadian knows about them. Right?

Edit: I mean SHIT! we studied stuff like that in high school! don’t they teach American History in Wasilla? I learned it in Philadelphia. She and I must have been in Grade 10 at nearly the same time, since I was a grade ahead…It’s EMBARRASSING. Her history teacher must be mortified.

***

The new Katie Couric clip where Katie asked a simple question, “What newspapers and magazines do you read?” (which is a pretty benign question, isn’t it? it’s not a trick, GOTCHA question!!) and at the end of the nonresponsive answer, the whole “you people act like Alaska is another country or something” defensive thing. I don’t think anyone would have been surprised to hear that she doesn’t subscribe to The New York Times and The Atlantic and The Economist and Mother Jones…neither do I, unless my NYT RSS feed counts. But perhaps the Anchorage Daily News? the Juneau daily? the Wasilla weekly? the Seattle Post-Intelligencer? how about Time or Newsweek? Ladies Home Journal or Redbook? The Sporting News? People at the hairdresser, like the rest of us? I bet Alaska even has CABLE TELEVISION! do you suppose she watched CNN, even occasionally, before greatness was thrust upon her? maybe FOX NEWS! LOL

This line has been floating around my head for weeks now, and given the revelation of her cheating on her husband with his business partner, it’s only the truth: Jane, you ignorant slut.

Cowboys and mavericks. Let’s keep them in the multiplex, where they belong.

Obama is a really smart guy.

Contrary to Sen. McCain’s repeated assertions, he understands. ( I keep belabouring this point, but just because McCain and Palin say it doesn’t make it so. Hell, even the Republicans don’t know what Sarah Palin is talking about.)

Obama’s not a cowboy, thank Christ. He’s a scholar and a professor of Constitutional Law…remember the Constitution? that precious piece of paper that Bush cleaned his boots on? There’s hope for the rule of law, if Obama makes it to Washington. There’s hope (well I sure hope) that the appalling breaches of the Bush/Cheney years (politicizing the entire DoJ? the utter corruption at the Department of the Interior? the terrifying effort to rush rush rush and install the most conservative people possible at every single level without regard to qualifications, and fire those whose politics don’t fall into line…violent response to peaceful, First Amendment guaranteed protest of an illegal war…the torture, the extraordinary rendition, habeas corpus, illegal wiretapping…) I mean there’s SO MUCH that is SO WRONG, and I think it’s really important to prosecute the offenders, lest anyone think that it’s acceptable behaviour.

It isn’t. No matter what all you cowboys, mavericks, and moose-hunters think, it isn’t.

Kertwang!

There’s so much material, the blogosphere may explode…for sheer hilarity, not much beats Sarah Palin talking to Katie Couric. Alas, poor Couric….Katie seems to have valued politeness over the facts, or perhaps she was afraid of Gov. Palin’s possible response if confronted by the spectre of the Gray Lady. Gov. Palin also apparently was not briefed on Sen. Obama’s six-point economic plan, and I don’t think the wet finger is going to catch its vibrations, either.

Sen. McCain wants to suspend his campaign in order to lend his vast, vast economic expertise to the Senate while it hashes out the bailout. Senator Reid says don’t bother, Senator Photo-Op, we’ve got this.

Sen. McCain also wants to, uh, postpone the Presidential Debate set for Friday…perhaps using the VP Debate slot. I can totally understand that, since the VP debate will be a massacre. The VP debate would be a massacre with a well-informed 8th Grader going up against Gov. Palin, let alone Sen. Biden.

On a more sober note, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. says that masses of Democrats are being sneakily disenfranchised.