I think I have a little crush on Michelle Obama now, much like I do on Barack! I really want this woman to be First Lady. She seems like she doesn’t take crap from anybody.
‘Politics’ Category
-
Michelle Obama on The Colbert Report
April 16, 2008 :: 2:04 pm
Category Politics | Tags: | 1 Comment
-
The Caucus
March 4, 2008 :: 10:17 pm
Doc and I just got done “caucusing.”
Get your mind out of the gutter! It may SOUND dirty, and we may have made a lot of innuendo jokes about it, but caucusing is actually just a very strange part of our very strange political system. Apparently in Texas, you get to vote in the primary election, and then you get to vote AGAIN at the caucus the same night. The primary selects 2/3 of the delegates, and the results from the caucus select the remaining third.
So not only did we early vote in the primaries last week, we showed up for the caucus tonight. We had no idea what to expect, but since the Obama people have called us about a dozen times over the past two weeks urging us to show up and vote, we decided to go and see what it was all about.
We walked about 3/4 of a mile to the elementary school in our neighborhood, and stood in a very long line of people waiting outside the doors. After the last voter had voted in the primary around 7:30, they let everyone in and we split up by precinct to stand in new very long lines. Eventually we got to the sign-up sheet and cast our votes for Obama. We weren’t sure what to do after that, but a lot of people seemed to be sitting in chairs lining a long hallway filled with lockers and childrens’ drawings, so we sat down and chatted with the people around us for a while. Brittney called Doc while we were waiting and said that she was still in line in her precinct, with about 100 people ahead of her! It seems like crazy numbers of people are turning up for the elections this year.
About an hour later, the results were in: Obama was assigned 12 delegates, and Clinton 8.
Then, they asked people in our group to sign up to be delegates! 12 delegates and 12 alternates. By this time I think that there were maybe only 40 people or so left in the Obama group. I didn’t know that we were selecting delegates from amongst ourselves — I sort of thought that there were a couple of people who were like professional delegates or something and we’d just ratify their nominations — but no! I seriously considered signing myself up just because it would be interesting, and the seats weren’t exactly being contested.
As we were standing around trying to decide whether to leave or if we needed to hang out for a while yet, we saw Brian Peacock! He and his wife Jen were there. Apparently we’re neighbors and we didn’t even know it! I don’t think I have seen him in years. When one of the precinct captains shouted down the hallway that we still needed 3 more delegates, he signed right up. And I think that Jen signed up as an alternate. It was very cool to see them; it’s been a few years. Now I wish I’d thought to get Brian’s e-mail address, or see if they wanted to have dinner sometime.
I was quite surprised at the sheer numbers of people who showed up (and glad we walked rather than drove). The precinct workers were overwhelmed by it — they really didn’t have space for us all. They told us not to bother writing down our voter registration numbers on the sign-in sheet so things would move faster.
All in all, it was a very interesting evening, and I’m glad we went.
Category Politics | Tags: | 5 Comments
-
Misguided
March 3, 2008 :: 9:49 am
Overheard this morning in the office, spoken by an otherwise smart and talented 20 year old:
“It’s not fair. People who have higher incomes obviously worked harder for that money, so why should they be taxed at a higher rate? It’s just not fair.” Spoken like one who has only known those higher income levels. Let’s go talk to some minimum wage factory workers and tell them that they’re simply not working very hard.
Also: “Someone who works three jobs and earns the same income as someone who just works 9 to 5 is taxed at the same rate. That’s not fair.” Honey, someone who works three jobs is probably doing it to simply make ends meet and not earning enough to even be taxed in the first place.
This is the same woman who informed us that, although she is a Republican, she was going to vote in the Democratic primary, for Hillary Clinton, so that Barack Obama wouldn’t win the nomination, thus giving John McCain an easier win in the national election.
And you know what, it’s not even 10 a.m. on a Monday morning. It’s too early for this crap.
Category Politics | Tags: | 4 Comments
-
No, not THAT party!!
February 25, 2008 :: 2:57 pm
I early-voted last week in the primaries.
This is the first time I have ever voted in a primary, and it’s also the first election in which I have ever donated money to a political candidate. I guess that this time around, I feel that there is so much at stake and our current embarrassment of a president has run this country so far into the ground, that we have a huge opportunity to make changes. I’d say “it can’t get much worse, right?” but then I think back to Orwell’s “1984″ and realize that, while we’re getting closer and closer every day to that kind of reality, it’s not entirely here yet. However, Dubya has another 329 days in office (and counting!) and I’m fairly certain he’s going to do a lot more damage before he’s booted out of the Oval Office.
I have never wanted to vote in a primary election before because doing so would officially register me as a Democrat, and I have never wished to declare an official affiliation with a major political party. After all, I have voted for third-party candidates plenty of times, and will continue to do so as I see fit.
But I like what Barack Obama has to say, and I definitely would prefer to see him in office over Hillary Clinton. Don’t get me wrong; I’ll vote for whichever one of them wins the Democratic primary, but his ideas inspired me to donate to his campaign.
Anyway, when I went to vote, the lady at the computer asked me which party I wanted to vote in, and slowly and methodically entered my information from my voter card. I don’t think she liked computers very much. She completed and printed out my paperwork and very carefully instructed me to first take it to a little old lady at one table and next to a little old lady at another table five feet away. Then a third little old lady walked me back to a voting booth and inserted her key to bring up the computerized ballot. I set down my purse on the floor and hovered my finger above the screen, ready to press the “Obama” button, when I realized all the candidates were Republicans! I went back to the computer lady and told her she’d registered me for the wrong party. They had to make phone calls to headquarters, do a bunch of stuff on the computer, and assure various people that I was, in fact, incorrectly registered and not trying to vote in BOTH primaries (like it was somehow my fault that she’d clicked “R” instead of “D” on her screen!). I think it’s interesting because I very clearly said “Democrat” when she initially asked me which party… was it an accident? Who knows.
At lunch that same day, Brittney and Yvonne and I got into a conversation about politics with a man and woman seated at the table next to us. We started out discussing the situation in Serbia/Kosovo, because the attacks on the U.S. Embassy in Belgrade were being shown live on CNN on the TV in the corner. The man started asking those “feeler” questions where, if you’re perceptive enough, you’ll pick up that he’s a liberal and trying to see what your political affiliation is.
We ended up talking about Obama’s campaign for a long time. He said that he and his wife and young son had gone to the Obama rally the day before and he was really surprised that it was not just “a sea of black folks” like him, and that Obama’s campaign was attracting not only black people (he pointed to himself) but also white people (he pointed to Brittney), Hispanics (pointing to Yvonne), and mixed-race (pointing to me)!
I thought… me? Mixed-race? How interesting that someone would think that about me! I’ve never really given it that much thought, assuming that I look pretty much Caucasian… but apparently my looks aren’t that cut-and-dried. I don’t know everything about my genealogy, and it’s certainly possible, especially given some of my physical features and my olive skin tone. I think it would be really neat if I had some nonwhite heritage, actually.
Category Politics | Tags: | 1 Comment
-
George Hates Babies
September 26, 2007 :: 9:11 pm
Category Politics | Tags: | 2 Comments
-
Written on Sugar
February 19, 2007 :: 3:46 pm
I just read a story on cnn.com about the Croatian government’s reaction to discovering sugar packets in some cafes with Adolf Hitler’s face and Holocaust jokes printed on them. This is completely appalling, especially considering Croatia’s past ties to Naziism. Sometimes words fail me, and all I can think of is: PEOPLE SUCK.
But it did remind me of something I’d completely forgotten about: when I was in high school, my friends and I would write things on sugar packets when we were out at restaurants, and then replace them in the container on the table. I don’t remember anything specifically that we wrote, but it would be things that we thought were funny, or clever, or cryptic. Jokes, weird phrases, or good fortunes. We wanted the next person to find that sugar packet to be either pleased, or confused, or both.
Category High School, Memories, Politics | Tags: | 6 Comments
-
Rest in Peace, Molly Ivins
February 2, 2007 :: 12:30 am
The incomparable Molly Ivins died this past Wednesday at age 62 from breast cancer. She was a fiery Texas liberal with a razor sharp wit and writing style. She coined the term “Shrub” to refer to the current President Bush, and was an outspoken critic of the Iraq war.I never met her and truthfully didn’t know all that much about her life other than what I’ve gleaned from her columns these past many years, but from reading a little bit today on the news sites, she sounds like someone I really would have liked to have known. A strong woman, a woman who told it like it was, a friend to the legendary Texas governor Ann Richards (whom I also would have liked to have known).
You know that hypothetical question people ask, “What historical figures would you like to have dinner with?” I think that I would say my grandma, Ann Richards, and Molly Ivins. Wow, what conversation that would be!
Category Politics | Tags: | 1 Comment
-
Dick Cheney Totally Hates You
November 14, 2006 :: 11:26 pm
That shirt you’re wearing right now? Chances are, Dick Cheney hates it. That car you drive? Thinks it’s for whiny un-American pansies. The fact that you’ve probably eaten tofu and wear designer shoes and have actually had sex while standing up? Pervert heathen traitor to the real America, Dick thinks. He hates that.
Some days, Dick has trouble counting all the ways in which he hates you, the world, life. Some days, he hates the fact that there are not enough hours in the day for him to count the ways in which he hates you and all you probably stand for. This makes him sad. Which he also hates.
Category Politics | Tags: | No Comments
-
we did it!!
November 8, 2006 :: 9:25 pm
VICTORY!
The Democrats are now the majority party in both the U.S. House and the Senate. As reported moments ago, Virginia, the last state to report, went Blue by a mere 7200 votes, thus confirming the Democratic majority in the Senate. The House went Democratic by a fairly wide margin, confirmed yesterday.
I’m so happy that, as Arushi said, Americans show up to the polls when it’s important.
And Rumsfeld resigned.
!!!!
(But will one evil supplant another? I don’t know much yet about his successor, Robert Gates.)
If I wasn’t feeling like I’d been hit by a truck full of phlegm, I’d be dancing in the streets.
Of course, here in the Giant Red State of Texas, it’s still vastly Republican/conservative. The closeted homo slick used car salesman Rick Perry won the governorship again — not that there’s anything wrong with that — the homo part, I mean — but it wasn’t by anything that you could call a “landslide.” And good old Kinky Friedman, bless his heart, took a full 13% of the vote. Not bad for a no-bullshit-taking Jewish cowboy poet.
For the record, I voted a straight Democratic ticket with the exception of a vote for Kinky, and in races where there was no Dem candidate I voted for the Libertarian candidate instead, and that’s only because they frighten me just slightly less than Republicans do. The funny part is, so many of the people I talked to, both liberal and conservative alike, voted exactly the same way I did.
Also for the record, I am not a member of the Democratic Party and am not of the mindset that Democrats = Good and Republicans = Evil. In fact, sometimes the shades of grey inbetween extend so far to each side that it’s hard to tell where one party ends and the other begins. I consider myself a very liberal Independent. My views often coincide with the Democrats, and when they do, I will vote for them.
Category Politics | Tags: | 3 Comments
-
stick magnetic ribbons on your suv!
October 5, 2006 :: 9:43 pm
Category Music, Politics | Tags: | 1 Comment
-
confections of mass deliciousness
July 12, 2006 :: 8:52 pm
“The world can no longer turn a blind eye to Wonka’s deception and misdirection,” Rumsfeld said. “Without full inspections, there’s no earthly way of knowing which direction Wonka’s going. Not a speck of light is showing, so the danger must be growing. And he’s certainly not showing any signs that he is slowing. Are the fires of Hell a-glowing? Is the grisly reaper mowing? Who can provide the world with the answer to these pressing questions?”
“The candy man can,” Rumsfeld added grimly.
Category Movies, Politics | Tags: | No Comments
-
quailtards
February 16, 2006 :: 11:35 pm
damn!! my unbelievably clever post title was not so original.
me and the daily show writers think alike.
and now, i have just one word: quailtards.
Category Politics | Tags: | No Comments
