Where's the Bull-horn??

Kudos to Katherine for posting this link on Facebook with this introduction:
"I don’t think George W. Bush should be allowed to slip quietly out of town. There should be a loud, collective angry howl and demonstrations over the damage he’s done to this country. Where's my bull-horn?"

Thanks, Katherine. I couldn't have said it better myself....
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/30/opinion/30herbert.html?_r=1

Our Shared Destiny

Over the past few days, I've been reading the January issue of Essence Magazine. For those who don't know, Essence is targeted towards Black readers. The issue had a large section of photographs and articles on Obama's victory and a variety of responses from prominent Black Americans as well as from some young black students.

Reading the issue has left me with the feeling that the Black and White communities in our country now are really entwined into a shred destiny. That, up to now, we've been on parallel but different tracks. As so many in the nation look forward with hope, we are all so truly dependent upon Obama as the President of all of America - our futures are truly linked.

Victory Font Analysis

Here's a different perspective on the biggest story of 2008....analyzing the type fonts of the front page stories proclaiming Obama's victory: http://fontfeed.com/archives/newspaper-front-pages-proclaim-obama-victory/

If this is the non-partisan view....

In their own words (with my emphasis):

The Center for Public Integrity is a nonprofit organization dedicated to producing original, responsible investigative journalism on issues of public concern. The Center is non-partisan and non-advocacy. We are committed to transparent and comprehensive reporting both in the United States and around the world.

And this is the Center for Public Interest's list of the executive failures for the current administration http://www.publicintegrity.org/investigations/broken_government/

What additional failures would you add from your partisan point-of-view? Please comment.

Liberal Discounts with the Liberal Card

Here's a card that celebrates while offering a way to get discounts for being liberal. http://www.liberalcard.org/

2008 R Us - Not Singing So Much

Okay - well, I'm not singing quite as much right now. Yes - I'm still confident that the election of Barack Obama is going to be a very good thing for the USA. However, my singing has slowed since my last post because the 2008 financial crisis has come too close to our home, literally. Our home sale fell through in the past month because the buyer lost his Wall Street job within days of the scheduled closing. It's back on the market now.

While we're waiting for it to sell, I've obtained a seasonal job at a well-known local department store. I have my training on Sunday and look forward to making posts to this blog with my liberal-heart reactions to working retail this holiday season.

Til then - if you know somebody who wants a wonderful updated 3-bedroom home in CT, please let me know.

My Liberal Heart is Singing!

I feel somewhat speechless...just about all I can think to write is that my liberal heart is singing with joy that such an intelligent, thoughful, collaborative, open minded person is now president-elect of our country! OBAMA!!!

Like some of the other changes in my life this month, I have a feeling that we don't yet know how much good will come from this event.

NASCAR & Politics Don't Mix

As you may know, my DH is a huge NASCAR fan. Me - not so much. The predominate NASCAR political point-of-view is fairly conservative which might be why Sen. Biden had this trouble using NASCAR lingo (from http://election.swiftmob.com/content.html?page=1040&content=4228646&pageNum=1):

"We've got a big NASCAR track up in my state at Dover Downs. But here in Charlotte you know racing a lot better than anybody in the country. I know that. So I'll talk a little bit in terms of racing terms," he told the young crowd at the University of North Carolina - Charlotte.

"Right now, our campaigns are trading a little paint. But, uh, what worries me most is the McCain campaign seems to have gotten a little loose."

No response.

"Um, and, uh I can tell you - not a lot of NASCAR fans in here," Biden said.

That didn't stop him from keeping the metaphor going. "You know that term getting a little loose on the, you know, when you're out there going 185 miles an hour, getting a little loose? Well John's getting a little loose. He doesn't have much of a steady hand these days."

"And now, and now's the time, now's the time we most need a steady hand."

My Friend

I consider myself to be an peacenik and am saddened by the violence in the world. No violence has touched me as personally as the murder of my friend, Mary, and her daughter two years ago. Mary was a college friend of mine and one of the most loving, joy-filled, and giving persons who I have ever known. Her daughter, Susanna, was her first born and was born only six months before my first child. So, I remember Mary fondly giving me mothering advice.
We hadn't seen each other in years and it was even a few years since we had been in contact but I always knew that I would get back to Seattle, again, and that Mary and I and our friend, Sid, would all three pick up where we left off. That was, until, Sid called two years ago, with the news of Mary's and Susanna's murders.

And how did these two wonderful women get murdered? They were hiking - yes, that's right. They were hiking in the mountains in the outskirts of Seattle and were shot. Just like that - and the murders are not yet solved. A week does not go by that I don't think of Mary but this week I am writing about her and Susanna in my blog because somebody who saw my online photos of them contacted me. Through that contact, I learned about a new effort of Mary's wonderful husband to aid the investigation - I wanted to share this news story with you.

As you watch this, please multiply this tragic tale by the tens of thousands who are victims of gun violence in our country each year. http://www.nwcn.com/topstories/stories/NW_092908WAB_stodden_murder_documentary_TP.c62a554d.html

Sam Harris on Gov. Palin

Although, in my opinion, Sam Harris is a bit heavy handed in his comments regarding Sarah Palin's religion, he raises many good concerns regarding her candidacy in this Newsweek editorial: http://www.newsweek.com/id/160080

Sleaziest, Most Dishonest?

My recollection of past campaign ads was that they insinuated untruths. This campaign, McCain and Palin ads have had total blatant lies in them. And now, it appears that Rove and I agree expect instead of calling it lying, he says the ads are beyond the "100 percent truth" test.

What I wonder is when the American voters are going to decide that eight years of having a president misleading them is enough.

Rove: McCain went 'too far' in ads - CNN.com

Women Against Sarah Palin

Not too much for me to add to the many thoughts posted on this blog:
Women Against Sarah Palin

Family Values

The Republican ticket is headed by a man who courted his current wife while still married to his former wife and his running-mate is a proponent of abstinence-only sex education despite results of studies showing its ineffectiveness.

That's not my idea of family values.

Here's references:

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-divorce11-2008jul11,0,6546861.story

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8470845/

I'm going to repeat a theme from my previous post but it totally irks me that their slogan is "America First" when it is quite apparent that Sen. McCain's selection of running-mate was totally politically motivated.

Irony

If you didn't know what pandering or irony are, this post is for you. The "other side" has provided great examples this week of both....

IRONY - This column is a great summary of the irony I was already appreciating with regards to the request some had for conservatives to pray for bad weather for Obama's outdoor speech: http://www.gather.com/viewArticle.jsp?articleId=281474977432497&grpId=3659174697244816&nav=Groupspace

PANDERING -Senator McCain's selection, today, of Gov. Palin as his running mate is the most extreme example of pandering to an extremist wing of a party that I can ever recall. ...and that's saying a lot. Many have said that his real intent was pandering to Sen. Clinton's supporters. However, if the Republican's presumptive Presidential candidate had really wanted to pander to Hillary Clinton supporters, he could have picked our Connecticut Governor M. Jodi Rell. She has years of experience as both a legislative leader and two term Governor. Oh that's right, he couldn't do that since she is pro-choice in some situations.

Mass. Senators' Speeches - Best So Far

Even most of my liberal friends aren't paying too much attention to it, but I love watching the Democratic Convention every four years. Perhaps it's my appreciation for diverse rituals but I even love the Roll Call which each state boasting in turn.

How great that Sen. Clinton and Michelle Obama are both so so right that Sen. Clinton's candidacy has almost entirely broken the glass ceiling. It will seem so much more natural for the Sen Clinton or which ever woman runs next.

And of course, I love all the liberal-hearted themes that run through so many of the speeches. My favorite two speeches are by the two Mass. senators....Kennedy's as the most sentimental and very heartfelt and Kerry's for so well summarizing the case for Obama's presidency. I'll add links to the speeches in the next day or so.

MoveOn.org Political Action: 10 things to know about McCain

I know the following link is from a Political Action Committee but my liberal heart and I usually agree with the positions of Move-On so I find their take on McCain to be worthwhile reading. Here's the link:

MoveOn.org Political Action: 10 things to know about McCain

Science Stories are Important

Great commencement speech by Ron Krulwich at Cal Tech on the importance of telling engaging stories about science.

By the way, I strongly recommend "Radio Lab" podcasts. Most of them are very engaging stories.

http://blogs.wnyc.org/radiolab/2008/07/29/tell-me-a-story/

Core Democratic Value - Participation & Inclusion

Worst ever

My son had this link on his website regarding historians concluding that Bush is the worst president...ever. In the past couple days, there's been so many examples of the current Administration's incompetence that I am tempted to start a list....here's the list from just this week:

1) FAA meltdown

2) The stories in"This American Life" episode 353 ("The Audacity of Government") available for free streaming here.

3) ABC News story this week about the Security Council "principals" approving torture.

4) ABC News story this week that military equipment and uniforms are available on e-Bay - even our military's helicopter parts.

5) National and worldwide oil and food price crisis.

6) No indication of an exit strategy for Iraq.

And this is just this week's list.

PBS Shows This Week

A few weeks ago, I was in Costco and was emotionally jarred to see "Johnny Got His Gun" by Dalton Trumbo. This book that was described by the Chicago Daily News as "It is hard to imaging a more persuasive argument for staying out of war than this smooth, savage, brilliant tale." The book was written during World War I. My sister gave it to me and I read it during the Vietnam War. And here it is, again.

One reason I think the book was jarring to see is that most of us have so few reminders in our life that the tragic war is still ongoing. Thankfully, this week PBS has two programs this week to remind us....

Bill Moyers Journal has an excellent story about the documentary "Body of War" and its hero, Tomas Young, as well as the film's co-directors Phil Donohue and Ellen Spiro. The show includes a clip from the move that juxtaposes the congressional war resolution vote and the cost that Mr. Young paid for that decision. For more information, see Bill Moyers Journal

Also coming up on Monday 3/24 & Tuesday 3/25 is a PBS Frontline "Bush's War" 2-part 4 1/2 hour story documenting the run-up to the war. For more information, see Bush's War

MIT's take on the cost of the Iraq war.

This MIT (!) site explores an aspect of the war in Iraq that has been largely ignored - the human cost of the war for Iraqis.

Memories on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day

As I start to write what MLK Jr. Day means to me, I am drawn back to memories of Lucille Davis. During the summers after 4th and 5th grade, my parents hired Lucille to do light housekeeping and to be my brother's, sister's and my nanny for the summers. Lucille was a black ("negro", at that time) college student from the south who I grew to love and confide in. I have really fond memories of her being such a patient listener.

At the time Lucille was with us in the summer, we lived in Armonk's Windmill Farms and we belonged to the Swimming Club that was on one of the lakes. Lucille would accompany us to the lake wearing her maid uniform and sit under a tree in the hot sticky weather while we would swim. It took many years until I realized why she wouldn't (or couldn't) join us in the water.

Within our house, Lucille was treated like a member of the family. I remember joining my mother and Lucille at the kitchen table while they were having a cup of coffee and my mother encouraged Lucille to tell me about living as a "Negro" in the South. And so it was that I learned for the first time about the Jim Crow laws from an intelligent college woman who had to sit in the back of the bus and sit in the balcony at the movies. This was in the summers of '61 and '62.

And now when I think of this day honoring the man who changed that way of living, I remember that it was not just our nation's civil rights values but also Lucille and many individuals whose lives were changed by his powerful leadership.

My Caucus Experience

Caucuses are the word of the day. When we lived in MN, it was a caucus state. At the caucus, we first figured out how many attendees supported which candidates. The next step was to split up the delegates to the County Democratic Convention proportionately to the support for each candidate and then we had to choose which attendees would be the delegates at the County convention. I don't remember who I was supporting but there were just a few supporting that candidate and somehow I ended up selected as the candidate for my candidate at the county convention.

What made my participation in the convention more interesting than usual was that Logan was only 2 months old and fully nursing so I brought him with me for most of the day. He did great and I enjoyed the experience of seeing out the positions for the national platform begin with discussions at the county level. I would love to go to a national convention someday...even though it probably would be interesting for 15min and boring for all the rest.

As for tonight's results....I was sorry to hear that Dodd has dropped out but I'm very happy with the possibility of a democratic winning the nomination!