Sorry I did write about this before, the Obama euphoria was still alive and thriving when I heard and I have recently descended back from my previous state of mind, so here we go.

I support those seeking appeal to the ban on marriage between two people of the same sex who love each other so much they want to commit to life together.

I support the protests in California that are taking place. I would in all places California would be the LAST place to do this atrocity - since it has a strong, politically active GLBT population. For those of you in California who depend on others to motivate- from all the way in homophobic Ohio, GET YOUR ASSES IN GEAR! I want to marry in California before I even consider getting married in Connecticut or Massachusetts( no offense, I love New England fall foliage).

The time is now to act.

Change may have come to America, but the same effort we put into electing Barack Obama should be put into protesting this bill and fighting for our equal rights.

It is a change we can all believe in.

I do apologize to all my friends here because I have been busy with school, work, life, and getting Barack Obama elected I have been unable to frequent much of this board as often. But I do have to tell you something.

I can't believe the reality around me. I'm not addicted to illusion, but I cannot believe that after 8 years, democracy came back full and strong and the man i busted my ass to get in office GOT IN!!! OMG! I could not jumping up and down, screaming, shouting, smiling, crying, etc. Somebody pinch me! I partied for 3 hours with one of my friends and we couldn't help ourselves. Yesterday, because I didn't want to jinx anything( because the last election I got so wired that I fell into a two month depression after hearing about the returns) so I tried being oblivious to politics. I voted absentee, followed my own advice to combat voter suppression, and next thing I know my state is finally BLUE!!! AND BARACK OBAMA IS THE NEW PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The best part about hearing this was the gratifying experience that I helped elect him. I blogged, I talked with people, I distributed campaign literature, I phonebanked, I volunteered and attended a debate, I voted in my first presidential election, and for the first time, I feel like a citizen of these great United States of America. It's a wonderful feeling. It really is. I lived history. I helped elect the first African-American president. I feel so good I want to cry! It's finally happened!

Today, in the spirit of President Obama, I did not gloat to my Republican friends. In the past couple elections, they have gloated, which prolonged the partisan bickering. But, no, I managed to successfully put aside my desire to gloat for the sake of the betterment of this country. It feels wonderful.

All this is starting to sink in, and I can say what I learned throughout this whole campaign is many. I am a believer in progress and equality, and I am proud to have racial consciousness.

Yes We Can? YES WE DID!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

1. If you have voted early or voted absentee, call your county Board Of Elections and make sure your vote will be counted.

2. If you plan on voting November 4th, make sure that your precinct and your voting location is running smoothly.

3. If the Board Of Elections is lying to you or you feel like they aren't being 100% honest, ask them again the previous questions of whether your vote did come in, ask if they have it on record.

4. In light of point 3, if they hesitate or deny, it helps to reference the ACLU and say ( and know) you will be taken seriously.

5. If you encounter a glitch with your voting machine, report it to your poll workers. It is their job to fix it and steer you out of it.

6. If the poll worker refuses to do their job, then, by all means, talk to their supervisor and call your county.


These points will help stop voter suppression. We let it get away with us in 2000 and 2004, and accountability must be respected and preserved for the sake of democracy.

Oh, I forgot to mention, if you know how to contact your state's electoral college, remind those who belong to it of their Constitutional duty. They seem to have forgotten about that recently.


VOTE FOR CHANGE!

OBAMA/BIDEN '08!

Compared to the last 3, I didn't yell at the TV a lot, which is a feat from someone with my blood.

I can say that John McCain has some nerve equating criticisms of record to negative personal attacks filled with racial epitaphs and slurs. "I am proud of my rally audiences?!" I dropped my jaw so far I had to pick it up from the ground after getting on my hands and knees looking for it. I wouldn't be proud of a growing angry mob that trives on the silent condoning of racist statements.

I did expect that Obama would rise above and put the issues first, and he did, with the confrontation fueled by denial McCain was pulling, showed off so much respect and humility I couldn't help but feel proud.

But, I was even more proud of the "silent" star of the evening, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, who played her cards right and gave McCain the right advice for Obama to make himself look like the obvious choice for President and McCain stumble. And McCain was too smiley denial-y to know it.

In speaking of that, I hated the way he condescended to Barack Obama like a Southern plantation owner to a shoe shining slave in the 1840s and the slave could read! Please don't interpret that last sentence as a racial slur, it was meant to make a metaphorical connection to McCain. Obama is not stupid, so, stop talking about him and to him like he is. Outside of his excuses and falsities, he really was pathetic tonight. And, I say this with no overconfidence, Obama has the Presidency.

For those unaware of the past few weeks on the comedy circuit, and for those who are aware and want to laugh it up some more. I would like to break from serious talk and share with you the three Tina Fey as Sarah Palin SNL videos I found.

Recently, a McCain/Palin campaign official thinks that Tina Fey's spot-on impersonations of Sarah Palin are hurting the Republican chances of winning this election. It's obvious that the official has no sense of humor that doesn't involve racial epitaphs and mob building( if one finds that stuff humorous), and it's all so obvious that the campaign official isn't looking at the way McCain and Palin are playing the political game, either. What is SO obvious is that Tina Fey's comedic talents aren't the ONLY thing that is responsible for the slide in polls. Could it be the economy that you don't want to discuss anymore? Could it be the plans you say you have but actually will hurt America more than help it?

Sorry to kill the impending comedy, but I really couldn't help the fact that there is usually one serious paragraph in my posts.

Here we go, laugh your antlers off to this one while drinking from your Joe Six-Pack!

http://www.hulu.com/watch/34465/saturday-night-live-palin--hillary-open

http://www.hulu.com/watch/36863/saturday-night-live-couric--palin-open


http://www.hulu.com/watch/37730/saturday-night-live-vp-debate-open-palin--biden

This has been an historic election already, a real push for social progress in this country. In the campaign alone, we have had an African American man successfully compete for the highest political office in the country, a woman successfully complete for the highest political office in the country, and a woman compete for the second highest political office in the country.

I've been recently asking myself, yet again, whether my feelings towards Sarah Palin can be interpreted as sexist. Outside of the baby eating rumor, I have made jokes to my friends about her sex life with her husband Todd. Of course, I always tell myself that it is policy before personal. On policy, Palin would pain America extremely.

I know in the past I have writtten posts that combat sexism towards Hillary Clinton and Nancy Pelosi as well as other women on my political side of the spectrum. After all, I know how hard it is to be a woman in power and not afraid to be passionately assertive in the process. But, I can't imagine how hard it is to be a woman in power in a political party that hates you, like Sarah Palin.

I can say that the rumors I heard when she was announced VP upsetted me, and the fact that even in my humor, the thought that they could be interpreted as preferential sexism upsets me. I should know better.

But, it is a challenge, because Sarah Palin is far from pro-woman in regards to her politics. She doesn't believe in the free reproductive choice for women as I do. She doesn't believe that women are just as capable as a man in everything that doesn't require a penis. And, this is only the crust of the disagreements I have with this person, not to mention the fact that she was chosen by John McCain just to pander to women voters, especially those still upset about Clinton.

In my sociology class today, someone who is obviously a Republican (" I know I'd rather die than defend Hillary Clinton") said that Palin and McCain have been oppressed in this campaign too. That got me fired up because society favors the fact that they are rich and white, and with McCain, the fact that he is white,rich, and male. She was saying how Biden talked down to her during the VP debate as if she had no clue what she was saying, which, in credential perspective, she didn't. I don't consider my criticisms of her credentials to be sexist, because if she was a man, they would be the same. I can't simply take someone seriously politically when asked about what she feels her credentials about foreign policy are with the response : "I can see Russia from my house!" I can see the Cleveland Clinic from my dorm room, but that doesn't mean I'm qualified to be a doctor.

Now, part of me wonders whether if Palin is milking the dumb beauty pageant contestant to satisfy the expectations of what the Republican Party expects of its women. But, I know that Hillary Clinton wasn't milking her passion for the Presidency that led her to tears, so I guess I might have a double standard.

What do you think? I'd really appreciate some advice.

AS most of you read and some of you heard, the Republican Party is using what it has left now to try and win this election, the fear card. McCain and Palin want to milk that cow no matter how little America cares for it now. Of course, to the some Americans who do care and will only respond, vote, and live in the constant influx of fear the Bush Administration has been handing out and manipulating us towards for the past 8 years, without fear they aren't secure. Shame, because Americans shouldn't be afraid anymore or ever. The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.

We have done very bad things when we fall into fear's hands. In the late 40s and 50s, we blacklisted people we thought were Communists just because we were told to be afraid of Communists. Many innocent lives were stripped of their dignity during that time period. In the 60s and 70s, social innovators like Malcolm X, Martin Luther King, Angela Davis, Jane Fonda, Dolores Huerta, the Chicago 7, and many more were wiretapped because people were told that the change they were bringing was bad. Many innocent lives were stripped of their dignity during that period in time too.

And, now, we have McCain and Palin playing the fear card similarly to that effect in the last months of this campaign for President, with talk of Obama's "terrorist connections" and his "pastor problems." In fact, at a rally the other day, they stood by and stood silent when people were shouting " Terrorist!" "Treason!" "Kill him!" and even told an African American cameraman to "sit down boy." Is this preparation for Bill O'Reilly's "lynching party" the right-wing is planning when and if Barack Obama is elected president?

Fear makes people ignorant of facts that challenge, rebut, and disengage fear. Palin may speak of Ayers and Wright, but here are facts and clarifications they are too ignorant and fear-based to consider:

1) Ayers, though identified as an American terrorist, was taken off the list in 1989.

2) Barack Obama was only eight when Ayers was identified as and did do terrorist actions to get his point across.

3) Ayers, now a college professor, words about what he did were taken out of context to scare the population into voting Republican and screwing this country over for 4 more years.

4) Barack Obama was distanced himself from Rev. Wright. Though a hard choice to make, the fact that he distanced himself is honorable on his part. Just because one's pastor is angry doesn't mean the congregation member is. That would be just like saying that just because when I was little and had a homophobic priest, that I must be homophobic too.

5)Rev. Wright is historically justified in his anger because America hasn't really been all that great to Americans of African descent in the past 228 years of our existence.

6) Compare: Jerry Falwell blaming gay Americans for 9/11 versus Rev. Wright blaming Americans for 9/11 in general and look particularly at the media covering those events. Do you see a double standard?


Take these points into serious consideration. Look at the way the Republican Party is manipulating these to create unpatriotic fear in American citizenry.

Sarah Palin says she "worries that Barack Obama doesn't see America as you and I see America." Translation: Sarah Palin is scared to death that an American of African descent can achieve that amount of political power and become the president, and will say anything to demean, degrade, and discourage his potential. Also, "you and I" means "white America" and "rich America." I can just picture her asking " how can we preserve our assets when someone we've been trying to repress success from climbs over our shoulders and achieves it? He needs to be put in his place, which is polishing my shoes at the Wasillia Mall."

The Republican Party and the McCain/Palin '08 campaign is on its last legs if they keep holding themselves up to this.

 

 This is inspired by my favorite Rolling Stones' song " Out Of Time":

 

You don't know whats going on
You've been away for far too long
You can't come back and think you are still mine
You're out of touch, my baby
My poor discarded baby
I said, baby, baby, baby, youre out of touch

Well, baby, baby, baby, you're out of touch
I said, baby, baby, baby, you're out of touch
You are all left out
Out of there without a doubt
cause baby, baby, baby, you're out of touch

You thought you were a clever guy
Giving up your political whirl
But you can't come back and be the first in line, oh no
Youre obsolete my baby
My poor old-politics baby
I said baby, baby, baby you're out of touch

Well, baby, baby, baby, you're out of touch
I said, baby, baby, baby, you're out of touch
Yes, you are left out
Out of there without a doubt
cause baby, baby, baby, you're out of touch

I said, baby, baby, you're out of touch

A leader was born tonight, and delivered. Of course, Barack Obama has always been a good leader, but tonight he really shined. The way he addressed the town hall and Senator McCain showed great humility and compromise, and a willing to work.

McCain used every trick in his book, but they failed, at least to the Ohio voters who appeared "uncommitted." Ohio is officially a blue state, because we no longer want to get the blues from John McCain.

Also, why was there NO mention of Sarah Palin? McCain kept mentioning Lieberman, has he changed his mind?

After this election, I would just like it if America changed one thing about our mentality about ourselves- the idea that race should no longer be a "hush-hush" issue that people live in denial about and suppress the first person to mention it in conversation, the topic of severity of dealing with how race affects our social behaviors and everything that grows from that root, and the notion that because we choose not to talk about it, it is okay and we have "progressed."

This is my first presidential election, and I'm glad to take part in this living history that has been taking place, and I am not dismissing one social ill from another when I say this, but, I'm glad Barack Obama running and with a high percentage chance of succeeding to get the Presidency that people are finally beginning to examine their own prejudices dealing with race, racism, and how issues affect race parlay into our everyday lives.

I can say personally that since Obama put his hat in the presidential ring that I've had to examine my beliefs and opinions about how progressive my values really are, and that through the fires that this election has put me through, I passed the test and feel better about my values. But, with every white person that tells me : "We've progressed, race doesn't have anything to do with this election" or something along that line, I am bothered at the denial of obvious reality, the blissfulness of being addicted to the illusion, and the fact that people are afraid of their own prejudices. Why do we find comfort in the illusions that lie to us and hurt others in the process?

I'm a white male, yes, but I have enough race consciousness to know we can do better in this country. That by accepting the realities we don't want to accept we can therefore use that as a springboard for great social change. I know I will be inheriting the previous generations' messes, but I also know that I will be inheriting the previous generatons' triumphs and progressions too. The truth of the matter is that we all suffer under the ills that plague our society, whether we like it or not, whether we want to admit it or not, and whether we like to accept it or not. I am speaking for myself here, and I just want to state that in case it looks like I'm patronizing people I do not mean to patronize. I may belong under many social categories that society doesn't particularly favor, but at the end of the day, the fact that I am conscious about the things that give me unearned privilege like the fact that I am white and male, then I can use that to bring to light several injustices and be taken seriously on the matter, even if it's undeserved attention.

Honestly, all social ills are the same, their only difference is who they are illed against. What makes the social ills equal is that the person and people maintaining the ill fall under the same mentality: " This person is different from me, that is wrong and they should be punished."

After this election, not only can we raise ourselves up from the ground regarding the issues that are being discussed, but we have a chance of beginning to raise ourselves up from the ground about the issues we don't discuss, and we can start by discussing them.

I can not stop yelling at the TV, and all it is is policy. Sure, the fact that I have been spreading a rumor that Sarah Palin eats babies is a little sexist, but when it comes to debates, it is policy.

Sarah has tried to seduce voters into her ticket by throwing her vernacular euphomisms ( "darn it!") annd hockey and soccer moms, but, from someone who has been there, I feel like I am being talked down to and I know that as an Ohio voter, I am not stupid. Ohio voters might do stupid things sometimes, like the past 2 elections, but we are not stupid. Stop feeding these populist lies Palin, it doesn't work.

You talk soccer moms and Main Street when you live on a mansion on a hill looking down on what was once a peasant community. You talk respect of women's right when you sold your ovaries to the state and to G-d with your victim-pays rape kits, your disrespect of the right to privacy and Roe v. Wade and I could go on.

Sure, you have been in VP for the past 5 weeks, but how can you say you believe in global warming when you said you didn't just the other day? How can you promise change when you are funded by the status quo. The McCain-Palin campaign management, at least financially is run by oil company lobbyists. You talk energy independence when you are funded by people who expect dependence for 100 more years. You dismiss a reasonable, pragmatic call to withdrawal our troops from Iraq and let Iraq become Iraq, because we can't surrender now. Wait until your son comes back in a body bag and if alive, wait until he develops PSTD. You talk working class when you only care about that 1% you belong to. You have scripted substance, but that's it. You still can't answer the questions.

We are not stupid. And there you go with your vernacular! G_D!

In regards to the "No" vote on the bailout, I have to side with Congress on this one because Bush's plan was only a bandaid. Would you put a bandaid over a failing kidney, or would you rather prefer a surgeon go in there and do their very best to fix it?

The bandaid is Bush's bailout. The surgeons are Congress who are skeptical and doing their job right. Now, if only we had a leader who is willing to work and get his hands dirty for the American people. Thank G-d for early voting. And it's a horrible shame that the economy had to sink so low to get people to wake up.

http://www.sinfest.net/comikaze/comics/2008-09-25.gif

I'm not a big fan of presidential debates, especially in the past few years. I understand their importance. I understand what they are to the uneducated voter who looks to these as ways of being educated about the candidates. I understand to some voters who are conflicted in where they channel their support, these debates finalize who they are voting for. I know, because I once felt like I was in those latter realities.

As a voter who gets his own education, currently free of media bias and social influence, about who the candidates are and how they campaign, the most I can say regarding why I am not a fan is simply because in modern time, these "debates" aren't really debates. "Debate" is just the polite term used as a cover while two opposing politicians go at each other in every way, shape, or form they can in verbal discussion. I know I'm speaking the current " old school" politics, the "more of the same" of the current debating strategy, but I think that it is true that "debate" is now the formalized excuse that the media and to a certain extent, the politicians, give while they duke it out for two hours.

In light of this current reality, I know how ugly these "debates" get. My definition of "ugly" in this circumstance entitles the condescending way an opposing politician can make his "debate partner" look inconsistent and stupid no matter how intelligent the opposing candidate to said politician is. The opposing politician currently brings up fear-based rhetoric to reel the uneducated voter in, if not already manipulate a fear to his advantage in one form or the other. How does one address this? If my chance one or two Obama advisors reads this today, the best suggestion a constituent can give to Senator Obama is that be blunt as possible when criticizing this tactic directly. To some, it may make you look high and mighty, but, if enough people clue in and tone in to the way it is approached, it may win a few more votes and steer more people your way.

Connecting these dots to the ultimate, basic, "problematic".... the issues. No one focuses on the issues at these things. It used to be issues was all its about, now it is just personal quibs with the excuse of criticizing record and vice versa. To some, those are "issues" enough. Sure, people may like to see Whoopi Goldberg and Elisabeth Hasselbeck go at it on the View and look at it like they are digging at each other personally, but, the general impression I get from the media is that they care more about the fact that they got into a fight rather than discuss what they are fighting about, which is mostly the issues. And, maybe the View is a bad reference to this, or maybe it isn't.

The issues really matter in this election, because more and more people are beginning to realize how what plays in Washington is reverberated throughout the country. Yet, we have one politician who would rather brush it off and talk like an eltist trying to convince the "stupid" masses that it is okay if the U.S. government screws its constituents over, that it is good while he profits from it and another politician, Barack Obama, who knows America from the ground up because he's been there and still is there, knows reality well enough to confront it and speak truth to power. Who doesn't believe his constituents are stupid, and is looking for no financial profit that involves dirty dealings. Of those two, WHO is more likely to talk about the issues tonight? WHO is the one to refocus the "debate" so that issues are all we talk about?

This election calls for an honest discussion about the issues and the real, most pragmatic way to handle them honestly and upfront. It calls for someone to speak truth to power. That, comparing this to surgery, someone who would actually go in there and fix the broken organs themselves rather than put a band-aid over it because it's cheaper to do so and costs the Hospital Administration less, taken the Hospital Administration only gives a damn about the Hospital Administration and not about the patients its services are there to serve to their fullest extent.

Talk issues
Speak truth to power


Yeah, I'm not a big fan of presidential debates. I already know who I'm voting for, I don't even know whether I should watch the debates or not. Should I, or shouldn't I, considering these factors?

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/22/opinion/22observer.html?th&emc=th

We already know how historic this presidential election has been, we've seen history being made and progress becoming a reality with the road to the nominations. Yet, I wonder in the face of progress, will America prove itself to be the great place it is or, in the midst of depressing factors, continue to side with status quo simply because of comfort?

Of course, if America chooses status quo it will be like giving an alcoholic who is going to AA meetings alcohol and asking them not to drink it, when we all know they will. Why do we find comfort in the things that hurt our country so?

I know that as a human being, it's hard to ask for an ideal to be realized, it's also hard to live with high expectations of a particular ideal for which to perceive others by, but, for once, I would love it if America finally lives up to its ideals with its real results.

WHich, is why I don't get, at least in my home state of Ohio, why people find security in John McCain. According to a recent poll( who of which I am starting to be skeptical about), John McCain leads by 6%. 6% compared to Barack Obama. I know the demographic factors behind this, and this is why I am writing this.

We as Americans are used to being handed information about people and politicians on a silver platter. Though a recent political culture trend, how can we make an educated choice when we are too lazy to do the work? There is nothing wrong nor is it time consuming to go to the politician's websites, read their literature if they have written any, pay attention to their speeches, you get the picture. It's not as time-consuming as it looks. The most it could all take is 2 hours of your time if you choose to do so collectively. Still, in the midst of this possible reality, people still depend on other people to tell them. Sure, Barack Obama may give speeches, but he doesn't have time to sit down with every American and talk to them about who he is, where he came from, what his policies will be, that is for the voter to find out for themselves. We seem to have another dependence not just with foreign oil, but with our mainstream news media to tell us how to think. FOX is the leading example, but, other media outlets do the same thing as well. We are being told to think because after 8 years of a man who can't, the media, which is mostly funded by conservative Republican backers, makes up for that by dumbing us down. The media may antagonize us by telling us of a "race war" between white and African Americans regarding prejudice for example( as they show you on Yahoo today) for example. It may be true, but it's probably more likely to be false. What is the goal of this news story? To blame African Americans for causing white Americans to rethink "values" they find so comfortable, even though those "values" are racist to say the least. Why must the "minority" be blamed for the "dominant" group's fault? Especially when the fault is not theirs to begin with.

Yet, here we are, at the brink of real change and progress, positive to say the least. The players of status quo have nothing to go on except the same old, fear-based rhetoric that has become commonplace. in American political culture. The level of comfort is as stable as Rush Limbaugh without his oxycontin. Not that he is stable with it either, but you know what I mean.

Right now, this country as a whole is between Barack and a hard place, and I'd rather be with Barack than in the hard place McCain and Painin' Palin would put us in.