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unraveling
30.Nov.2008
Lease-busting party
When George W. Bush came to the White House, there were all sorts of
stories of mischief pulled off by the outgoing Democratic
administration, but did any of those turn out to be true? I remember the
one where the [W] keys had supposedly been pulled off of computer
keyboards, and pretty much nothing that rose to any level of
significance. The news has had many cycles since, and the trail of
truthiness has grown cold.
On their way out though, the mischief is
real, and potentially far-reaching. The "no last minute regulations"
decree by Chief of Staff Josh Bolton does not apply to last minute
anti-regulations.
Making it harder for the government to protect workers by regulating
toxic substances and hazardous chemicals is deemed worthy of special
attention. Eight years to enact regulations? Let's make it
ten.
Allow coal companies to dump rock and dirt from
mountaintop
removal into nearby streams and valleys? Sounds great. Can't get
enough of that great stuff.
29.Nov.2008
Perhaps the Almighty struck him down
A more interesting tale than "he collapsed, was taken to the hospital,
and pronounced 'ok'" after all. It seems that one of the Federalist
attendees called out A.G. Michael Mukasey... as Tyrant! And apparently
with some justification, as
summarized by Randy Stapilus.
Washington State Supreme Court Justice Richard Sanders' departing
assessment, delivered a quarter hour before Mukasey's unexpected
fainting spell, and in spite of the Society's failure to provide "for
questions or response," seems an overdue statement on the quality of
leadership in the Attorney General's office under George W. Bush. Hard
to imagine at the time that John Ashcroft would prove to be the best of
the lot.
The most useful—and therefore the most satisfying— of the
demonstrations I participated in during Bush's term was
when Alberto Gonzales came here to
Boise, expecting to find a friendly audience for a morale-boosting
photo-op but finding instead that he had to hide his face.
And now Mukasey, chortling with his Federalist Society buddies about how
quaint the rule of law is. We can't say good-bye soon enough.
28.Nov.2008
Thanksgiving
In my cultural milieu, there were two great family holidays, bundled
here at the end of the two darkest months of the year. Having cycled
from grand nephew to great uncle, and experienced the range from most
boisterous to least, from the widest circles of friends to the closest
to home, it still feels that a "family" gathering is the right way to
observe the day.
There are more possibilities for "family" than ever before.
We had dinner with 15 yesterday, siblings from each of three
generations, two ex's and their new spouses, all turned grandparents,
ages from 3 to 69. It seems like only yesterday I was trying to puzzle
out who was who, aunts and uncles, cousins and in-laws, the inevitable
wrong names and awkward re-introductions followed by minimally
recognizable conversation.... and now with an almost completely changed
cast of characters, it all makes perfect sense, framed with near-perfect
and jolly chaos for four or five golden afternoon hours, laced with the
ultimate comfort foods: turkey, stuffing, ham, mashed potatoes and gravy,
sweet potatoes, cranberries, three kinds of pie.
It was a long way over the hills and through the woods to find this
year's gathering, but definitely worth the time and trouble to get here.
We long for the company of those who couldn't be with us, hoping that
they had at least as jolly a gathering, somehow, and that next time,
we'll all be together, even as we know it won't be possible. We gather
the harvest of the season as best we're able, give thanks for the bounty
we have to share, pause a moment to enjoy a family gathering we now know
is a once-in-a-lifetime experience.
22.Nov.2008
Why we didn't hear from Bill Ayers
As explained in
his
interview with Terry Gross:
"...I taught, I lectured at universities, I spoke to my students, I spoke
in certain public forums, but what I didn't do was respond to
microphones being thrust in my face, and saying 'what is your
relationship with Obama? Are you an unrepentant terrorist?' and I felt
like, 'gee, how does one enter into that discussion when the premises,
ah, as I said, are so profoundly dishonest...?'"
The short version is that the "charges" were utterly irrelevant.
And ultimately ineffective, but it could easily have gone
differently.
Beyond the deconstruction of the McCain campaign's effort to smear
Obama, Ayers does provide a unique, first-person perspective on the
history of American terrorism over the last half-century.
45 years ago today
Must have been that first "remember where you were" moment for me.
Sister Mary Carl told my third grade class what had happened in Dallas,
with as shocked a look on her face as I'd ever seen an adult have.
My "thought for the day" correspondent sent a timely quote from JFK's
inaugural address:
"Let the word go forth from this time and place, to friend and foe
alike, that the torch has been passed to a new generation of
Americans—born in this century, tempered by war, disciplined by a
hard and bitter peace, proud of our ancient heritage—and unwilling
to witness or permit the slow undoing of those human rights to which
this Nation has always been committed."
MountainGoat Report:
Remembering JFK.
21.Nov.2008
You cannot be serious
Wired reports a Zogby poll says Fox News is the most trusted
TV news source. Rush Limbaugh edged out Bill O'Reilly as "most trusted
news personality," 12.5 to 10.1%.
Stephen Colbert was "least trusted," under 2%. You do know he's trying
to be funny, don't you?
Did he really write that?
Yup. Cal
Thomas did:
"Remarkably, a college degree does not increase civic knowledge.
According to the report, 'The average score among those who ended their
formal education with a bachelor’s degree is 57 percent, or an ‘F’. That
is only 13 percentage points higher than the average score among those
who ended their formal education with a high school diploma."
So, with a college degree, you average 57, and with just a high school
diploma, a 44. No increase?! Civic knowledge isn't the only other
deficit at hand: Houston, we have an innumeracy problem.
Of course, reading about a quiz, I had to
look
it up and try for myself. (The answers that Cal gave away in his
column didn't make a difference, by the way: I knew 'em anyway.) I
got 32 out of 33 right (97%), without cheating. I missed the one about
the Puritans: I have them credit for pacifism rather than pessimism.
As with so many tests, you can get a different answer if you look at the
questions a different way.
The Intercollegiate Studies Institute's summary bemoans the result
that "almost 40 percent of all respondents falsely believe the president
has the power to declare war," whereas some of us who know how it's
supposed to be bemoan the demonstrable fact that the our most
recent President was quite capable of declaring war, now wasn't
he? (And that's talking about real-live shootin' war, not just the
rhetorical War on This or War on That.)
So, take the test, learn from what you miss, and remember: it's your
country. Don't let the big men take it away from you.
Limited warranty
Nebraska found out about unintended consequences with their newly
enacted "child safe haven" law. The intention was to protect newborns
from being abandoned or killed by panicked young mothers, but they
neglected to be more specific than "child."
Teenagers can be a handful, you know. In the last couple months, parents
have been dropping off their older children—as old as 17—to
have the state take over. As Homer Simpson would say, D'OH!.
They've scaled back their offer to a
30-day
warranty; after that, you're on your own.
(One of my 16 great-great-great grandfathers found himself with too many
kids to handle when his wife died; he handed them off to a sister and
emigrated from Germany to the U.S. of A. Two of the boys tracked him
down, joyfully reunited and settled in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where they
all lived happily ever after, so you never know how these things will
turn out.)
20.Nov.2008
From long ago and far away
Here's a novel legal theory: that was "fair use" of that "long-ago
published song," and besides,
it
wasn't us anyway. "Long" in this case is a paltry few decades, well
within the 100+ years envisioned by the
Mickey Mouse Protection Act. I thought Republicans liked
businesses.
"McCain argues that Browne's stance only 'strengthens the fair use
argument.' Their emphasis. You're welcome!"
(Whatever you think about copyright laws, it's still important to keep
your tires properly inflated, by the way. Especially those of you who
are getting ready to go over the fields and through the woods to
grandmother's house for Thanksgiving. Word to the wise.)
19.Nov.2008
Other worldly
Carolyn Porco is one of my favorite storytellers, with some amazing
stories to tell. In this month's Scientific American, she has
enough space to describe some of the
Secrets
of Saturn's Strangest Moon.
"Enceladus not only has enough heat to drive surface-altering geologic
activity but also is endowed with organic compounds and possibly
underground channels or even seas of liquid water. Energy, organics,
liquid water: these are the three requisites for life as we know it. In
our explorations of this alien and faraway place, we have come face to
face with an environment potentially suitable for living organisms. It
does not get much better than this."
18.Nov.2008
Polled Pols
Looks like Ted Stevens won't be going out on a high note after all.
Voted out is so much less memorable than expelled. At 85, he'll be
able to manage on his pension, no doubt.
But President of the last Freshman class, and
famous patoot in his own
right? Maybe not. (Do you even get a pension after one term in the
House?) We at least have the last word on whether those were bunny ears,
or horns: he's got neither.
The next frontier of civil rights
Mountain Goat:
H8 in Idaho?
PrideDEPOT.com:
loud and
clear in Boise. ("Can I vote on your marriage?")
Left Side of the Moon:
Marching...
Ridenbaugh Press:
The other side of Idaho Falls
Thinking about the mob scene
Jerry Brady offers the most
thoughtful response to the Madison County schoolbus chant
that I've yet seen:
"Anyone with ears to hear know these children were parroting their
parents. Children get the drift from home: The new president is radical,
dangerous and not to be trusted.
"How terribly sad.
"Elsewhere, Obama's election loosened a joy and celebration unknown for
decades, including unprecedented acclaim from abroad. It was the
greatest imaginable affirmation of America's capacity to renew itself.
It could only have happened in the U.S.A. Whether you voted for him or
not, you could be proud of your country in this hour.
"Predisposed by their parents, many Idaho children will miss the
marvelous message that, with character and ability, anyone can succeed
here. They may go on muttering, complaining and passing on adult myths
instead of joining in the renewal we so badly need."
16.Nov.2008
A big, fat 'I told you so'
From
Christie Todd Whitman:
"Unless the Republican Party ends its self-imposed captivity to social
fundamentalists, it will spend a long time in the political wilderness.
On Nov. 4, the American people very clearly rejected the politics of
demonization and division. It's long past time for the GOP to do the
same."
As entertaining as Sarah Palin has been, the election would have been a
lot more interesting with a McCain-Whitman ticket.
New kid in town
Idaho's soon-to-be freshman Congressman made his way onto
All Things Considered today, as an "interesting politician,"
a Democrat from Idaho, talking about moving to a new town for a new
job.
All politics are local
"Local" to this planet, that is. Email from our friends in Belgium a
few days after the U.S. election:
"I have never known a US presidential election to be so 'popular' in
Belgium. Already for several weeks, 2 full newspaper pages were daily
dedicated to the election.
"Even our youngest (Saar just turned 9 last week) can tell you who the
candidates were, and who was the good one and who was the bad one. McCain
was bad but according to her 'nobody could be worse then Bush.'
(Although now she has had it with Obama, he has been so prominent on
the news and on other programs on TV that she reacts, 'now he is
elected, he better start working and stop occupying all my TV time.')
Wout, our eldest, is doing a presentation in the Dutch course on the
figure of Obama."
Other reactions: from
the Voice of America,
Medvedev, the
security-minded (who would seem to agree with Joe Biden's assessment),
Yemen,
Kota Kinabalu and Kuala Lumpur (now from a friend of a friend of
a friend of a blogger),
the Beeb,
Calcutta, and
a long list of disaffected racists, right here at "home," including
the two incidents in Idaho.
15.Nov.2008
Shooting from the air
For somehow who made his living through erudition and good humor, the
success of ill-tempered anti-intellectualism can't be pleasant. It
does provide opportunity for comment, of course, and our mood is
better off for Dick Cavett's consideration of
the Wild Wordsmith of Wasilla.
"Could the willingness to crown one who seems to have no first language
have anything to do with the oft-lamented fact that we seem to be alone
among nations in having made the word intellectual an insult?"
13.Nov.2008
Turns out hate is a family value
Some of the people on the losing side of the election have managed to
communicate their disappointment to their children... or maybe it was
just one child who heard the word. Let's be generous and imagine that
the word was brought up out of the concern that has simmered underneath
every conversation about race and politics for at least 40 years, but
never more than in this campaign, with a black man running for—and
elected!—President.
These things can happen,
young children
chanting like a mob, if not acting like one. The people of
South Africa, perhaps might hear the news and wonder what kind of
madness is this, or perhaps think to themselves "yes, we know of this
madness ourselves."
The people of Rexburg, Idaho (among others) now have a decision to make,
how to react. I say, it's a moment for teaching. Let's learn what this
word "assassinate" means, and how it resonates through American history,
still fresh in the minds of people who were alive (and in 3rd grade)
the last time it happened to a President, or to a candidate for
President, or to a preacher who led a Civil Rights movement that
culminated in a historic victory this month.
Let's not wait for Martin Luther King Day to talk about how the human
spirit can rise above hatred and bigotry and ethnic cleansing and genocide.
Or not.
Let's talk about this in school. Let's talk about this in church. Let's
talk about this in coffee shops, and restaurants, and libraries, and
bookstores, and bars, and every public place, and most of all, at
home.
12.Nov.2008
It's not desecration, it's just stupid
Out here in Red Zone America, the folks who ended up on the short end of
last Tuesday's election are feeling some distress. To share their
feelings, some have taken to
flying their flags upside down, which is recognized as—yes,
that's right—a distress signal.
It's not the "gee I'm upset and need an antacid" distress signal, but
rather the "dire distress" of "extreme danger to life or property," as
in ship sinking, house afire, and so on. If you make believe (with
or without an overactive imagination), you risk the Boy Who Cried Wolf
scenario: when your pretend stress changes to real stress, no one's
going to know your protest has changed to an actual call for help.
Oh, and the crucifix atop the flagpole? That's just wrong.
11.11.2008
Armistice Day
A week on, it's time to think about how we're all going to get along.
A friend writes this morning that he's "been reading way too many nasty
comments about our president-elect for (his) own good" and I wonder
first of all, why? and only a little, from where? I have
seen that spammers have taken to provocative subject lines including
McCain (a little) and Obama (mostly), trying to get some attention.
The election is over. The governing goes on, and while there will no
doubt be some dramatic changes to what goes on in Washington (that's
what we voted for, 52% of us!), the apocalyptic nightmares that have
been bubbling in the dark recesses of reactionary cellars are not coming
to pass.
Last Tuesday night, Alice Walker sent an
open letter to
Barack Obama, counseling realistic expectations, and starting from
a ground of happiness:
"We are used to seeing men in the White House soon become juiceless and
as white-haired as the building; we notice their wives and children
looking strained and stressed. They soon have smiles so lacking in joy
that they remind us of scissors. This is no way to lead. Nor does your
family deserve this fate. One way of thinking about all this is: It is
so bad now that there is no excuse not to relax. From your happy,
relaxed state, you can model real success, which is all that so many
people in the world really want...."
Do read the whole letter, it's quite wonderful.
I've been travelling (and reading) in different circles than my friend
in the past week, and while I can tell that everyone doesn't have the
same enthusiasm about the result of the election, there is no doubt in
my mind that we, as a people of many races and cultures mixed together,
are ready to close the book on the "crushing of whole communities,
torture, dehumanizing as a means of ruling a people's spirit," and start
writing a new story.
It's not going to be easy for any of us. The righteous urge for
self-preservation as an ultimate value that motivated lawyers in the
Justice Department to draw careful lines around methods of
dehumanization, and to repudiate international treaties that were
signed with the blood of the millions slaughtered in our worldwide
warfare remains strong among many who lost power last week.
"We must learn actually not to have enemies, but only confused
adversaries who are ourselves in disguise."
The second article that my friend sent as a tonic against fear and
bitterness was by Said Ahmed-Zaid, in Saturday's Idaho Statesman,
Unless we
love our neighbors as ourselves, we do not truly love God.
Seems to be a common theme here, going back a couple millennia. Might
we be ready to listen?
7.Nov.2008
Hope to see him surface from this
Good wishes going to my blog buddy Bubblehead (aka Joel Kennedy, there
in the blogroll), getting
some stomach cancer looked after. Let's hope medical science gets
the job done, and Idaho's premier submarine blog will continue giving us
its unique point of view.
Bring back the Whigs
I'm just joking, I don't remember anything about them from history class
(assuming there was something), but Timothy Egan's list of
the surprises include this tidbit that struck home in Ft. Boise:
"For Republicans, the trouble is deep and spreading. They nearly lost
Montana, Missouri and the most populous county in Idaho, a state where a
Democrat was just elected to Congress. When this kind of thing happens
in Idaho, it’s time to start reading up on the Whig party for history
lessons."
Look Who's Talking
John Ensign writes for the National Republican Senatorial Committee,
under the subject It's Not Over:
"The liberals are mobilizing an army of lawyers in Minnesota and Alaska
to try to steal these seats they could not win outright on Election
Day."
No doubt they recognize the tactic? They can't stop the Georgia runoff,
but I suppose there's a 50-50 shot at keeping Norm Coleman in Minnesota,
and Ted Stevens' seat—letting GOP diva Sarah Palin appoint a
replacement after his ethics debacle plays out—in Alaska. Merkley
seems to have edged out incumbent Republican Gordon Smith in Oregon, so
the Dems and their sometime-fellow travellers Sanders and Lieberman are
up to 57... +3 is the magic number, for a straight anti-party line vote
anyway.
What will happen if the Senate actually has the ability to do
things?!
Trepidation all the way around.
6.Nov.2008
Back to abnormal
Traveling to Atlanta today, US Airways thought I should go via Phoenix,
so, most of two hours to kill in the vicinity of the Barry M. Goldwater
terminal. Kids are travelling, David Martinez Gomez is being paged,
flights are boarding with only one carry-on and one personal item per
passenger allowed, a little spark plug of a guy in blue jeans shorts
and olive t-shirt is broadcasting his animated half of a phone
conversation, pacing a five hundred square foot area, working some kind
of a business deal.
As he wanders by me for the 5th time, I'm a little disappointed that the
conversation has shifted to the other end, and now he's silent, just
pacing in and out of the streams of baggage laden travellers coming and
going.
After we'd cleared the cloud deck south of Boise, and after I'd squeezed
myself into a magazine between the fuselage and the super-sized
gentleman in 5E for a while, the start of a gradual descent prompted me
to look out the window. To the west of our flight path were sculpted
canyons of the Colorado River piercing the bland, brown desert expanse.
Then uplands with scrub, and forest, mountains, fractal drainage
patterns, outlying signs of habitation scattered about, a main highway
with sharp-edged shadows in the morning light, traces of the gigantic
waterworks that supply millions of Arizonans with life's essential,
then descending to make the mountains stand starker, closer, more
intense and personal. I'd been glued to window watching the scrolling
geography as we neared greater Phoenix, the habitation density scaling
up, a medium-sized reservoir drowning a wide canyon when the guy in 6F
looked out, said to his seatmate in a bored tone, "not much to look
at."
5.Nov.2008
More stories from election day
A friend who was the Democrat's poll-watcher in just-across-the-CD-line
precinct 31 said 250 people used Idaho's day-of registration
at her polling place yesterday. There have been a bunch of new
apartments built across Cole, filling in the last remnants of farms
that were once west of the city.
Missouri—leaning red—and North Carolina—leaning
blue— still
haven't made up their minds which way to cast their electoral votes.
So much for Big Mo's bellwether status. Even if they do finally tilt to
the winner, you don't get points for coming in after the decision is
made.
Kay Hagan trounced Elizabeth Dole in the N.C. Senate race,
after Dole's "godless" stunt backfired big time. (So, just in case
you weren't paying attention, this country does have a religious test
for office. Atheists need not apply.)
One commentator on CNN last night, before the race had been called,
said Obama provides a sort of Rorschach Test for America: what do you
see when you look at him? A liberal? A socialist? A moderate? A black
man? A white man? (The Anti-Christ?)
Walt Minnick for Congress
The Secretary of State's
***
UNOFFICIAL ***
953 of 956 precincts reporting, last updated 9:22am, and Walt
Minnick with 51% of the vote, 173,865 to Bill Sali's 170,219.
Looks like our all-red Congressional delegation is going to be
infused with the winds of change, too.
(Bubblehead
called the race at 5:52am, scooping the MSM.)
The Democrats repeated their sweep of District 16, where we live:
congratulations to Les Bock, Grant Burgoyne, and
Elfreda Higgins.
While we were waiting for Obama's speech, Jeanette asked Grant how long
he'd been laboring behind the scenes before this night. He said "the
first campaign I worked on was in 1972." 36 years of hard work, and now
the harder work begins!
Districts 16, 17, 18, and 19 are all sending three Democrats to the
statehouse.
What you didn't see in this morning's Statesman
It was deemed too "premature, ill-advised, and sophomoric" by our local
paper's editorial page editor last week, and he decided to do reruns
instead. D'OH!
"Hanging on to the strips" so we can "catch up" isn't quite the same
as being first thing in the morning, now is it? He seems to have
confused the editorial page's mission as being right (let alone
Right) rather than provocative.
Oh what a night
One of those ones we'll remember where we were. I was at one of
the two Ada County Democrats events, in one hospitality suite to watch
John McCain's concession speech, and another, for one of our District 16
state legislators, to watch
Obama's
victory speech, to an amazing crowd on a warm night in Grant
Park. (The other was
at the aptly-named Powerhouse Event Center, livelier than
both the suite, and the "big room" downstairs at the Holiday Inn,
by good measure.)
"Hello Chicago."
The two TVs in the suite were tuned to different channels, the audio out
of synch, as if I were there, hearing the words bounce off the buildings
on Michigan Avenue, before they floated out over the lake.
"It's been a long time coming—but tonight, because of what we did
on this day, in this election, at this defining moment, change has come
to America."
It's easier to be gracious when your side has won, but I did take note
that the crowd cheered, politely, at the mention of the "extraordinarily
gracious call" from McCain... as compared to
McCain's partisans, who had booed mention of the man who will be their
President, their Commander-in-Chief, come January 20th, 2009.
"...while the Democratic Party has won a great victory tonight, we do so
with a measure of humility, and determination to heal the divides that
have held back our progress."
Election Day
Blue tide rising
8pm Mountain, half of Idaho done voting, and all those easterly states
sending in their results. Watching predictions on
MSNBC (200 to 124), the oddly retarded
New
York Times site (155 to 17) and the amalgamated
NewsHour map (collecting others' calls, not making their own: 207 to
95; whoop make that 129) rolling in.
The popular vote totals so far for President are 22 million and change
for both candidates, 50 to 49%...
Get on the Word Train
Play along with the NYT's interactive feature:
What one word describes your current state of mind?
On the verge of VP or Queen of the rump
Sarah Palin popped onto my radar like Putin coming over the Bering
Strait, but according to
Jane Mayer's account of how McCain came to find his running mate,
Palin was being touted by the east coast media elites for more than half
a year before the GOP convention in Minnesota. I guess my left-leaning
MSM reading list doesn't include the Right stuff.
She's some kind of maverick, you betcha. She prays a mean grace, walks
rough-hewn Alaskan floors with high heels, and generally charms the
pants off of conservative white guys. A match made in heaven!
Yet another casserole dish of high ambition and Bill Kristol's
salesmanship. The only thing missing in the story is some Ahmed
Chalabi-style savory seasoning.
"After she became the mayor of Wasilla, Palin oversaw the hiring of a law
firm to represent the town’s interests in Washington, D.C. The Wasilla
account was handled by Steven Silver, a Washington-area lobbyist who had
been the chief of staff to Alaska’s long-serving Republican senator Ted
Stevens, who was indicted in July on charges of accepting illegal gifts
and is now standing trial. (Silver declined to discuss his ties to
Palin.) As the Washington Post reported, Silver’s efforts in the
capital helped Wasilla, a town of sixty-seven hundred residents, secure
twenty-seven million dollars in federal earmarks...."
Annoying for him, but good for others?
Imagine this: you've been going to the same place to vote for 15 years,
no change of address, no registration anywhere else. You show up to
vote... and "sorry, you're not on the list." Excuse me?!
That's
what happened to actor Tim Robbins today, along with maybe 40 others
in his precinct.
Having a high-profile case may help out some of the possibly thousands
or tens of thousands not-so-high-profile cases that are playing out
today.
We voted
Saved it for the day-of, because isn't it more fun to go "live"?
Leisure Villa was full of our nearest neighbors during the first hour's
rush, the line snaking around inside the clubhouse. The only less
than fully orderly event while we were there was one gal who showed up
ready to register and vote, but at the wrong precinct. Just on the other
side of Cole Road, she's in the other Congressional District, too.
She seemed upset that things weren't the way she expected, and that
she couldn't just vote there. Sorry.
Two dilligent poll-watchers were straining to hear names above the
variable hubbub of people chatting in line, I said my name nice and
loud for them, and everyone else in the room. No need to give us that
late afternoon GOTV call.
The sky is gloomy here but fall colors keep it lively, wind out of the
SE and started to rain while we were inside. The tandem ride back home
was brisk and damp.
Where to go? What to do?
Check idahovotes.gov if you need to
know where to vote. You can see if you're registered at your current
address. You can register today, at your polling place, with
photo identification and proof of residence, either for the first time,
or if you've moved since you last registered.
Use the
Idaho Statesman's
voter guide to see what races you'll vote in, who the candidates
are, how they answered questions, listen to their interviews, print
yourself a sample ballot.
Outside of Idaho, try the
League of Women Voters'
site. Something seem fishy? Check it against the
voting myths and
misinformation catalog. Call 1-866-OUR-VOTE if you need legal help,
and if you have a problem, try to videotape the situation and send it to
VideoTheVote.org.
3.Nov.2008
Un buh lievable
Jesus' General brings us
a FoxNooz segment about a new twist on Hallowe'en: a true patriot
refusing to dole out treats for Obama supporters—or their
four-year-olds.
That's cool, it's not a socialist holiday or anything. But what part of
Trick or Treat doesn't this mean-spirited partisan understand?
No Treat has consequences; if she lived in my neighborhood, well, I
would've had to do some mentoring about proper holiday protocols to the
newest generation to go begging door to door.
As it was, we had exactly one trick-or-treater on Friday night. A little
girl with a tiger onesy and no hat/head/mask, supervised by a parent,
but otherwise by herself. Kind of somber to be in a neighborhood without
much in the way of young kids anymore.
Color running out
It's been an especially colorful fall in our neighborhood, after the
right sequence of cold and warm and dry and wet weather. Apparently a
freakishly early snowfall followed by
some moderately warm weeks is just the ticket?
Missing it already
I imagine for those mired in campaigns (or
wishing they were), the chaos and excitement is reaching a fever
pitch today. Me, I'm looking forward to Thursday and having it all over.
I'm looking forward to voting tomorrow morning, as always, but it seems
anti-climactic after all that's gone before.
I am so sick of the endless fundraising letters and emails. We gave what
we could, as early as we could, knowing that early money has more
leverage. That of course put us on A-lists all the way around. I don't
want to call anyone. I don't want anyone to call me. I don't want to
persuade, or be persuaded. I don't want to hear any more lies,
over-parsed voting records, Joe the Occupation, feigned indignation,
hateful pseudo-patriotism, 30-second spots, debates, rallies, or
press releases.
I know I should be sprinting for the finish line, beating the bushes for
every last voter who'll vote the way I want, but great God almighty,
anyone who isn't motivated by the situation at this point, registered
long ago, and voted already, or else scheduled their day around it
tomorrow... maybe they should just stay home and let those of us who do
care decide things.
Still... there is the possibility of something new happening, whether
it's in a community, a state, the nation, or just
in one
person's heart. I guess it's the retail aspects of politics
that attract me, more than the wholesale. Too much sausage in the
latter, with a lot of truly offal stuff going into—and coming out
of—the process.
Día de las Muertos
Haunting sextet
From Robert Draper's narrow encomium, through Ari Fleischer's tribute to
moral absolutism, Curtis Sittenfeld's clever jujitsu, Jacob Weisberg's
lighthearted recollection of Bushisms, Scott McClellan's sincere
compliment, to Paul Burka's "Past Perfect," the NYT's collection of
What I
Will Miss About President Bush makes me look forward to
starting.
All about us
Regardless of Tuesday's outcome, George W. Bush may be the last
President from the Baby Boom generation, and what a legacy he's going to
leave in our name.
Tom
Friedman:
"Never has one generation spent so much of its children’s wealth in such
a short period of time with so little to show for it as in the Bush
years. Under George W. Bush, America has foisted onto future generations
a huge financial burden to finance our current tax cuts, wars and now
bailouts. Just paying off those debts will require significant
sacrifices. But when you add the destruction of wealth that has taken
place in the last two months in the markets, and the need for more
bailouts, you understand why this is not going to be a painless
recovery."
raveling
Tom von Alten
tva_∂t_fortboise_⋅_org
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Monday, 01-Dec-2008 22:54:31 MST
http://fortboise.org/blog/200811.html
