Finally, proud to be an American

We did it.

WE DID IT!

I saw the words "BARACK OBAMA ELECTED PRESIDENT" on the television last night at 10:15. I stared at the screen for a long time and then cried for a few minutes, mostly out of relief but also because the historical significance of the victory had hit me.

I haven't had too much doubt that Obama could, WOULD, win the presidency... once the initial Palin Effect started wearing off, that is. It got a little scary there for a while, but she had plenty of rope to hang herself with, and she was very obliging about taking McCain down with her.

Don't get me wrong; I don't think McCain's an evil guy or anything. I think he's performed great service to his country and really has had some "mavericky" ideas, but got taken over by the Republican Machine and was told what to say, think, and do in order to win the election at any cost.

Palin's a different story though. I think she's as sneaky, lying and manipulative as Dick "Montgomery Burns" Cheney. She scares me.

So I guess that I haven't really let myself think too much about the outcome of the election, one way or the other. A McCain win would have been just beyond depressing, but it seemed like if I hoped and wished too hard for an Obama victory, I would jinx it. (As if I had that power, right?) And if I didn't get my hopes too high in the first place, then the disappointment at a McCain win would be easier to take. So I guess seeing those words on the screen last night let me pour out some of that emotion that I've been blocking for so many months.

It was incredibly moving to see a black man win the highest office in our country (something I didn't think I would ever see in my lifetime and I am only 36 and how sad is that), but I honestly don't think this election was about race. I think that this man won on the basis of his message of hope and change, AND on the fact that he has good solid realistic policy ideas about how to bring America out of the cesspool that Bush and his administration have put us in.

It's an enormous insult to the American public to propose that the election outcome was based on race. So please, let's not even go there.

Some people are saying that it was inevitable that Obama would win because this country is at the lowest of lows, and Americans were ready for any sort of change, that Obama was just lucky to be in the right place at the right time; as if his win had nothing to do with his ideas and plans, but was just some inevitable product of the fact that we ain't got nowhere to go but up anyway. I would say to you that at this point, after what Bush & Co. have done to this country over the past 8 years, it's pretty much a level playing field for ANY candidate who might have chosen to run. Don't call it an easy win based on THAT.

And while I'm all about unity and bipartisan cooperation, for one day I have let myself think: Suck it, GOP.

Actually, I don't really have it in me to gloat like that for long. It's not like a nyah-nyah, we won and you lost kind of thing. It's more like, OK, finally we have someone who can really help us out of this mess. I'm ready for all Americans, regardless of party or gender or race or class or any other dividing line, to get down to business and work together to bring about the changes that Obama has promised. Like he said in his victory speech last night, the changes that we need require everyone's help.

Now let's get started.

Tired and befuddled

Sorry for the posting hiatus, but I have been very tired and busy lately. My energy levels have plummeted over the past week or so, even with the extra iron supplements I've taken.

Aquaman is more active than ever; I can feel him moving strongly a lot of the time. Doc and I have been having a lot of fun talking to him with our hands on my belly, and feeling him do acrobatics in there. His "kick counts" have been hovering right around 5 minutes -- sometimes less -- for 10 movements.

I look forward to the times when I can lie down quietly and feel him moving around. It is fascinating and it never gets old.

I worry that I'm not going to be a good mom, though. I have no idea what I'm doing, and I don't feel particularly maternal. Last night I dreamed that he was born and he came out a kitten. Kittens, I know. Babies, I don't.

Doc has been working very hard to get his studio consolidated, pared down, and moved into the other room. He also has rearranged the garage a bit and put some additional shelving in there for storage. By this weekend we might be ready to steam clean the carpets in the baby's room, and start preparing it for painting. Our pile of stuff to put on eBay or otherwise sell or discard has grown exponentially. Know anyone in the market for pro audio gear, slightly out-of-date computers, or older computer software and games?

Next Monday night we have our first childbirth preparation class. I have no idea what to expect. Also on Monday is our 32 week doctor's appointment. I can't believe there's just 8-1/2 weeks to go. Everything's happening really fast now.

Congratulations to Bonnie and Tracy on the birth of their daughter last week, Josephine Theresa. She's a cutie, and already wearing a tiara in her baby photos. Whatever direction life takes her, she's going to be one brilliant kiddo with parents like that.

Also, happy birthday last Sunday to Doc, yesterday to Nate, and Monday to Joel! There's just birthdays all over the place these days.

I'd like to go into a political rant, what with everything that's going on these past couple of weeks with the presidential and vice presidential debates, the massive domino-effect bank failures, the unbelievable bailout package that's being considered in Congress (why are these banks' profits private, yet their debts are public?), etc. etc.... but I just don't have the energy to come up with something to say about it all. I'm angry and nervous and disgusted and hopeful, but in all honesty I think that my pregnancy hormones are preventing me from forming coherent sentences these days. That's not an excuse or anything; I really feel generally befuddled a large percentage of the time. I think it's my brain doing what it needs to do to keep my stress levels lowered.

A few days ago in yoga class, something "clicked" in my head, and I suddenly came to the realization that it is now time for me to begin slowing down. Time for me to begin letting people help me more and do things for me. It was like a self-preservation mode turned on. I took it easy in yoga and didn't test my limits, and then when I came home I did almost nothing that evening. If I am slower and befuddled now, so be it. My body's doing this to me for a reason; I'm not going to fight it too hard.

Who wants to go polar bear huntin'?

Stop overloading my lady-brain!

Sigh... I am not even going to get into the whole Sarah Palin GOP VP pick thing, how one woman is apparently just as good as another.

Must... control... self.... AIIIIIIGHHHHHHHHH!

For now,  just enjoy Samantha Bee's report on last Friday's episode of The Daily Show.

Get your supporter kit

Hey,

I just made a donation to support the Obama campaign before the August fundraising deadline.

Make a donation now and receive a first edition Obama-Biden supporter kit:
https://donate.barackobama.com/collection2008

Thanks!

Please don't vote for McCain.

I just read a great article in the Boston Globe written by Susan Jhirad, a professor of English at North Shore Community College, about the hard-line feminist Clinton supporters who threatened to vote for McCain in the general election if Clinton didn't get the nomination. Some of them even now are so angry that they are claiming that that is what they will damn well do.

Perhaps I'm just being naïve, but I have a hard time believing that the majority of them will follow through with it. Some of them may choose to not vote at all, but I have enough faith in the intelligence of my fellow Democrats (though perhaps I really shouldn't) that they will realize that they cannot do anything about Clinton not winning the nomination, and since their only options now are McCain and Obama, Obama is BY FAR the better choice.

I support Barack Obama for president. It's OK that you have supported Hillary Clinton. I get it, I really do. What I don't get, can't get, is seeing some of you riled up Clinton supporters threatening to vote for McCain.

Let me get this straight; you consider yourself a Democrat and a feminist. Yet rather than vote for a man who supports a woman's right to choose, children's healthcare, and an end to the war in Iraq, you would vote for a man who voted against all of these things.

You would vote for a man who is promising to nominate far-right activists for the Supreme Court, a man who votes consistently against choice, affirmative action, and workers' rights.

You would vote for a man who supports President Bush on most major issues vs. a man whose positions are quite similar to Clinton's.

I just don't get it.

Read the rest of the article; it is superbly written and puts into words what I've been feeling for months now.

Change... part one

Congratulations on securing the nomination, Mr. Obama! I am proud to say that you have my vote and as much financial support as I can scrounge together.

The gasoline "crisis"

So yeah. Gas is nearing $4 a gallon. In many parts of the country, it's topped $4 already. There's no sign of prices going back down.

And I don't care.

Well, scratch that. I DO sorta care (when I fill up and it's $40), but I'm actually happy about it, despite the blow my bank account is taking. The fact that we drive a Prius as our main car helps (48MPG! Love you, Aluminum Falcon!) but I've always thought that higher gas prices would mean more companies and consumers investing in new technologies --  hybrids, plug-in cars, etc. -- as well as utilizing and expanding public transportation. More demand for these products and services will lead to more supply. And the world will be a less polluted place.

Tom Friedman of the New York Times thinks so, too. He proposes:

.... a “price floor” for gasoline: $4 a gallon for regular unleaded, which is still half the going rate in Europe today. Washington would declare that it would never let the price fall below that level. If it does, it would increase the federal gasoline tax on a monthly basis to make up the difference between the pump price and the market price.

To ease the burden on the less well-off, “anyone earning under $80,000 a year would be compensated with a reduction in the payroll taxes,” said Verleger. Or, he suggested, the government could use the gasoline tax to buy back gas guzzlers from the public and “crush them.”

But the message going forward to every car buyer and carmaker would be this: The price of gasoline is never going back down. Therefore, if you buy a big gas guzzler today, you are locking yourself into perpetually high gasoline bills. You are buying a pig that will eat you out of house and home. At the same time, if you, a manufacturer, continue building fleets of nonhybrid gas guzzlers, you are condemning yourself, your employees and shareholders to oblivion.

What do you think?

Michelle Obama on The Colbert Report

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.

The Caucus

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.

Misguided

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.

No, not THAT party!!

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. 

George Hates Babies

Written on Sugar

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.

Rest in Peace, Molly Ivins

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!

Dick Cheney Totally Hates You

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.

we did it!!

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.

stick magnetic ribbons on your suv!

Stick your apathy up your passivity!

confections of mass deliciousness

"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.

quailtards

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.

cheney's got a gun....

yes, that's OK, go ahead and keep laughing at the cleverness of my post title.

really.

i'll wait.

...

... dee dee dee, dum de dum, hhmmmmmmmm hhrmmm mmhmmm...

now that you've got ahold of yourself again, thank you very much for the laugh. i feel validated. :)

i know by now we have allllll heard about the vice president of the united states, dick cheney, shooting an elderly man in the face last saturday when he mistook him for a quail.

everyone's reporting it as an accident. and i agree, i'm sure it was. the guy is supposedly a friend of his, after all. it's not like he was out hunting with, like, michael moore and OOPSIE!

i won't even talk about how i feel about guns, and hunting, and the theories that they were trying to keep it quiet and not tell the media.

then yesterday, we hear that the poor guy he shot had a heart attack in the hospital, to boot, directly caused by a pellet to the heart.

done, i think?

i think i got this redesign mostly accomplished. tonight i changed my header banner image to something i think works better. that is actually a quick & dirty photo of a close up portion of one of my paintings, which i did some "stuff" to in photoshop.

i got my backgrounds and colors more to my liking as well.

i'm not sure i'm happy with the font sizes and the way the "about me" section is displaying but i'm pretty sure i'm not going to worry about that right now.

it is supposed to get cold tomorrow. by "cold" i mean temperatures in the 40s, possibly lower 50s. how sad is this, that in february i'm having to point this out as unusual. we've had such a bizarrely warm and dry winter. hey, it's supposed to rain again tomorrow. i'll take photos if it does.

www.churchsigngenerator.com is a site that i wasted probably a good hour at work today looking through. you can make your own church sign!



here are some of my favorites:

• god wants to kill you
• behold! i come quickly
• staying in bed shouting OH GOD! does not constitute going to church
• don't be so open minded; your brains fall out
• jesus loves you; bush doesn't
  
• god's favorite word is come
  

the must-see movie of 2006...