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by doug | November 7th, 2008 @ 12:18 am
I am still drifting along in a combination of post-election denouement and increased workload. This blog has new areas to delve into now that Barry O. is assembling his transition team. In short – Lonely Blue Boy, the political arm of the grammaticalaxy, will be transitioning as well… from cheerleader to watchdog. Now that we have placed our presidential candidate in power and helped consolidate our position in congress, it is time to make sure those that represent our interests in Washington and in the world stay true to the movement, to the promises they made, and to the commitment to strive ever onward toward that impossible ideal – a more perfect union. We will be watching, President Obama.
And while I’m on a political tangent, I might as well voice my incredulity at the fact that, in California, a vast majority of that state’s citizens voted a progressive, African-American man into the highest office in the world, and at the same time voted against equality for same-sex couples. It is disturbing. And I am having to try very, very hard not to let that abominable intolerant streak get in the way of my jubilation in the wake of the national election.
 My creativity is in a bit of a slump this week, but it is due to the acquisition of a new creative tool – my new Nikon D90. So my literary ramblings and photo posts have ebbed as I am reading up on the technical and artistic elements involved in sophisticated digital photography. In other words, be patient. Less posting now should equal a deluge in the near future.
It is actually a pretty good time to take up this new diversion, since the election season is over and my workload at the office is on the rise. I can let myself recharge and re-imagine some things – about this blog, about my daily life, and about my short- and long-term goals. I am going to devise a system, either public or private, with which I will be able to track my progress health-wise. I was kicking around implementing an entirely electronic “to-do list” system, but I ultimately decided against it. Diet and exercise and other routine, day-in and day-out goal oriented tasks lend themselves well to the kind of online journal I’m envisioning, but good old pen and paper has never failed me in organizing my daily priorities. Technology, like all things, is probably best embraced in moderate amounts.
Anyhow, please continue to watch this space, if you are so inclined. There will be more content shortly. And there should be more, and better, photographs as well.
by doug | November 4th, 2008 @ 7:57 pm
Well, here I am. I voted at lunch today – all for Democratic candidates with the exception of the congressional race, where Republican incumbent Spencer Bachus is running unopposed (I wrote-in Nick Saban). I have gone against party lines before – two years ago I voted for our Republican governor Bob Riley – but not this time. And for every sarcastic or sadly non-ironic pro-McCain quip I have read tonight on social networks Facebook and Myspace, I cast, along with my vote for progress, my middle finger high into the Alabama air. I try real hard to be gracious, but blind, ignorant comments like those spoil the whole thing.
It is early yet, and I intend to update this post periodically throughout the night with random thoughts on the election and the coverage and what not. So far, my only comment is a negative one regarding the coverage on CNN. I eventually had to turn it to MSNBC when CNN broke out the “never before seen on television” Jessica Yellin hologram. Re-fricking-diculous.
Of course, now that my wife has gotten home, the TV is back on CNN (she likes John King). More to come.
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8:15 CST
Looking like a good night for us so far. Pennsylvania was called surprisingly early, and with not a whole lot of explanation as to why. I’m a little skeptical of races that are called before any precincts are reporting, but I’ll take it nonetheless. Florida is interesting. Virginia looks a little closer than I thought it would be, especially with such strong support for its former governor Mark Warner. North Carolina might be the early dagger to the heart.
I’m not popping the champagne corks just yet, but I am optimistic.
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8:43
Ohio. That’s got to hurt. This is now about how big a win this is going to be for Barack. John King is spelling it all out on the map, in a way that is really all the more amusing due to the fact that John King is trying very hard not to sound amusing. I have been waiting eight years for a night like this, my friends.
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9:35
Not much happening in the past hour or so. They’ve made the fascinating determinations that Arkansas and Mississippi have gone to McCain. Extra, extra… read all about it. I hate the mainstream media.
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9:50
That f#$%ing hologram is back. Will.I.Am. That’s news?
Speaking of, you know, actual news – it looks like we’re going to fall a little short of the 60-seat filibuster-proof majority in the U.S. Senate. It was always kind of a distant dream, but I’d held out a sliver of hope anyway. No matter. Polls close on the west coast in about 7 minutes. Let’s see if the talking heads and crappy special effects can make enough predictions to push this one over the edge.
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10:00
And there you have it. I don’t have the words. Now I only hope that he can be the President that we all hope he will be. These crowd shots are truly incredible. The greatest disgrace now would be for President Obama to just turn out to be another two-faced, power hungry politician. I, obviously, do not believe that will be the case. I think, though, that we cannot approach this as merely the end of the journey (though it certainly seems like a victory celebration is in order). This is a beginning, and we have to keep the movement rolling on. Progress is not an end goal. It is a state of constant motion toward a higher ideal. We cannot stop. We cannot congratulate ourselves for what we have achieved – though we certainly have achieved a great deal as Americans and democrats and world citizens. We must, must, must push on. Equality. Liberty. Prosperity. Responsibility. And halle-freakin-lujah – there is one end we can celebrate. The final chapter of this eight-year long national disaster has been written at last.
Your President-Elect:
by doug | November 3rd, 2008 @ 8:40 pm
The second post of the night is a reminder that tomorrow is, at long last, election day. It has been a long haul, but a fun one. I am not going to make any last minute pleas to your liberal leanings. You all know where I stand on things. I would encourage you, though, to take the time and vote. Vote thoughtfully. Vote your interests. But most importantly simply cast a vote for somebody. I am more disturbed by people who say they are undecided or that they don’t care or that they don’t have time. Indifference cannot be tolerated, and there are more candidates on the ballot than just the two from the major parties. Vote for Barr or Nader if you don’t like either of the top two choices. And educate yourselves on the other state and local races and initiatives that are on the ballot. This is important, and it is vitally important for each of us to be part of the process. Now go out there and pull those levers hard! Good night.
by doug | October 30th, 2008 @ 12:49 am
Look. I am either overloaded or brain-dead. All I am reading about is the election, and all I am inclined to talk about is the election (and maybe Alabama football). The problem I run into while I’m perusing all of the various blogs and news articles during the day, is that I cannot possibly make a stronger argument than those who do this sort of thing for a living. So it is with a strange mixture of relief and resignation that I endeavor to submit my personal list of must-read political material. I will continue to keep a sharp eye out for these sorts of articles from now until election day. These will be selected for their relevance to my undecided, conservative and libertarian readers. My only personal, direct plea to those friends would be that they should read these pieces with unbiased eyes. You don’t have to take them to heart. You don’t have to agree with them or with me. But please click the links and give them a once-over. I don’t want to destroy your way of life or take away your hard-earned income, and neither do the progressive politicians I endorse. I don’t want to debate or argue. I just want to present these closing arguments from a diverse range of political thinkers. Here’s the first batch:
1) Ryan Sager on how Karl Rove and his protégés have alienated the fiscal conservatives and libertarians.
2) Robert Shrum on the changing times – the failure of Reagan-era politics and economic theory.
3) Andrew Sullivan’s Top Ten Reasons Conservatives Should Vote For Obama. A snippet:
Until conservatism can get a distance from the big-spending, privacy-busting, debt-ridden, crony-laden, fundamentalist, intolerant, incompetent and arrogant faux conservatism of the Bush-Cheney years, it will never regain a coherent message to actually govern this country again.
4) Anne Applebaum, an “independent female voter” on Why McCain Lost Me.
5) An Adobe Flash presentation of the many, many conservative thinkers, writers and politicians who have turned away from the Republican Party due to “The Palin Effect”. My favorite quote is from Christopher Hitchens:
This is what the Republican Party has done to us this year: It has placed within reach of the Oval Office a woman who is a religious fanatic and a proud, boastful ignoramus. Those who despise science and learning are not anti-elitist. They are morally and intellectually slothful people who are secretly envious of the educated and the cultured. And those who prate of spiritual warfare and demons are not just “people of faith” but theocratic bullies. On Nov. 4, anyone who cares for the Constitution has a clear duty to repudiate this wickedness and stupidity.
More to come over the next and final week of the 2008 election season.
by doug | October 24th, 2008 @ 3:09 pm
It is that time again. Didn’t we just do this?
Next Thursday I will grudgingly celebrate my birthday… alone. That’s right. My wife will be out of town on a business trip. Not only do I have to ponder what it means to be striding ever closer to the death that awaits us all, I get to do that all by myself. So, in the interest of cheering myself up, I am officially opening the comment box (the “Slap Me” link at the bottom of the post) for suggestions on what I should do to take my mind off the passage of time, etcetera. Good movies, local events, sadness, happiness… it doesn’t matter. Help me out here.
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Politics:
Aren’t we all Scott McClellan and Colin Powell, really? If we voted for George W. Bush, we were good little conservatives who believed him when he promised to cut spending and reduce the size of government. If we didn’t vote for him, at least we thought after 9/11 that he might be the right man at the right time. In the end, we were pawns. We were blindfolded and led to support wars based on falsehoods and legislation based on ill-conceived notions of “homeland security.” We were lied to, and our collective name has been sullied right along with that of the administration we elected to office TWICE. We should all be as pissed and disenchanted as the former Secretary of State and WH press secretary. We should all be ready for real change in Washington. The word is thrown around so much now that it doesn’t have much meaning left, but the concept is solid: it is time for a new philosophy, a new way of doing business in DC, a new image to show to the rest of the globe. No third term. No fear tactics. No smear politics. No McCain. No Palin.
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Football:
Thanks, Auburn. Way to screw up our strength of schedule.
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Halloween:
It is almost time for the annual Halloween Party in Memphis. My costume is coming together, finally. Right now I’m just hoping people will get it. If not, it will just be offensive. In previous years, I have been the pope, Prince, and Caligula.
I hope I haven’t set the bar too high.
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Religion:
Those of you who are concerned for my immortal soul will be happy to know that I have taken your advice and purchased Strobel’s The Case For Christ. I have not given equal time to the pro-religion side of the argument, and I hear this is a good book for that purpose. Far be it from me to be as closed-minded as the fruitcakes I sometimes rail against. I’ll let you know my opinion once it has been read (there are a couple of titles ahead of it in the queue).
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And that’s all I’ve got. We’re going to Ocean tonight for an early birthday celebration. Last time was divine. I will let you know how it is the second time around.
by doug | October 16th, 2008 @ 11:00 am
Oh. Your. God. That was a brutal smack-down.
You will notice that I am a day or two behind on my weekly political screed. It is mostly due to my wife not being in town. You would think I would be MORE productive when I have the house all to myself, but that theory was debunked last night. I had good intentions – edit some photographs, blog the debate, flesh out an article about poverty in the Woodlawn community – but I just vegged (sp?) out in front of the television all night. Did I really need to watch that debate twice? I think not. But maybe I was able to glean a little extra insight by watching the two different feeds (C-SPAN for the live version, CNN – with their dial-testers – for the replay). Let’s go to the videotape:
First things first: Bob Schieffer did the best job of any of the debate moderators – fair and unobtrusive. Just ask the questions and let the candidates talk. The sit-down format was nice, too, as it seemed to be more conducive to a dialogue between candidates and between the individuals and the viewing audience. The previous debates felt much more rehearsed and it was like they were just lobbing campaign talking points at the voters.
Secondly, if the snap polls are to be believed (and there are enough of them to be considered a pretty fair assessment of the viewing public’s opinion), the country saw the same thing I saw – John McCain went nasty. I’m not going to push a bunch of numbers on you (you can go to any major news outlet and view them on your own, if you’d like), but one poll I saw last night asked “which candidate was more likeable?”. The results were 77% for Obama, 22% for McCain. That is a remarkable margin.
McCain was playing to his base, and I’m sure die-hard conservative republicans thought he nailed it. But he doesn’t really have to convince those people to vote for him, now does he? What will the reaction of independents and moderates be? My guess is that they’ll be turned off. The public opinion trends last week already were indicating that the negative McCain ads were hurting, not helping, him. This final debate just reinforced those opinions.
Furthermore – Obama’s demeanor and, frankly, his answers were more thought out, more spontaneous, and more in touch with the American people than McCain’s. He stayed above McCain’s silly character smears and spoke directly to the average voters and their collective concerns. From McCain, there was no hail mary pass. No “gotcha” quote. Nothing. Not even the ludicrous “Joe the Plumber” shtick, which backfired.
Please watch the video, if you didn’t catch the live version, and form your own opinion. I begin these political posts with every intention of trying to be at least somewhat fair, but I really cannot find anything good to say about Mr. McCain’s performance last night. He is a petty little man who cares about power, not people. Every decision he has made in this campaign – from his disastrous choice of an inexperienced, extremist running mate to his reliance on negativity, smears and lies – is indicative of his low opinion of the American voter.
I want to point out what I thought was the most important thing Obama said last night. Abortion has become the gigantic lead albatross of political wedge issues. I hear more people cite the Democratic Party’s pro-choice platform as the reason they could never vote Democratic than any other reason people give. I would go so far as to say that, were it not for the abortion issue, there would be no gridlock in Washington because the government would be dominated by Democrats – they are just more in sync with the values of “Main Street Americans” than the big-business, free-market-worshipping Republicans. Obama, in a candid moment at the end of one of his answers, added this rare nugget:
But there surely is some common ground when both those who believe in choice and those who are opposed to abortion can come together and say, "We should try to prevent unintended pregnancies by providing appropriate education to our youth, communicating that sexuality is sacred and that they should not be engaged in cavalier activity, and providing options for adoption, and helping single mothers if they want to choose to keep the baby."
Those are all things that we put in the Democratic platform for the first time this year, and I think that’s where we can find some common ground, because nobody’s pro-abortion. I think it’s always a tragic situation.
I do not think that this language will change the minds of hard-core conservative Christians, but it shows a depth and a thoughtfulness and a willingness to cut though the slogans and litmus tests and partisan rhetoric. It is a quality that has been missing in American politics for years – an acknowledgement of our differences but with an emphasis on what unites us, not what tears us apart. That, and I have never heard a politician articulate my own personal view on abortion as clearly as Barack did last night. Radical pro-lifers tend to react to “I’m pro-choice” with “how can you support killing innocent babies?!!” when that is a gross distortion perpetuated and encouraged by evangelists and the hard-right politicians that use those genuinely-felt beliefs as a way to hold on to power. This is the climate of this political age… and it is time to clear the air.
That was a little off topic. To return to the debate – Barack’s biggest challenge has been to convince older, white moderate voters that they can trust him to run the country and make decisions on their behalf. He has met that challenge. Congratulations, Mr. President.
Now let’s get out there and grab a whole mess of senate seats.
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x-posted @ Daily Kos
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My creativity is in a bit of a slump this week, but it is due to the acquisition of a new creative tool – my new Nikon D90. So my literary ramblings and photo posts have ebbed as I am reading up on the technical and artistic elements involved in sophisticated digital photography. In other words, be patient. Less posting now should equal a deluge in the near future. 