Friday, October 31, 2008

Today I Cast My Vote for Obama, Rice, Oliver & Bullock...


This morning I woke up, made my coffee, checked my e-mail, listened to an hour or so of Stephanie Miller, then I made my way downtown to vote on the first day of Oklahoma's early voting option. It took me about 10 - 15 minutes to find a place to park in a scene that seemed overwhelming and a skosh discombobulated. Once I'd parked my car, and found my way to the end of the line I found that the voting process in Tulsa was more organized and going much more smoothly than I had originally thought. It was a beautiful day here in Tulsa, so there was no problem standing outside in shorts and a t-shirt for about an hour as the line wound itself around the parking lot and into the Election Headquarters. Once inside the Election Center I filled out my green form, then queued up to get my ballot (fortunately a woman standing next to me in line told me that I had missed an important step in the process and hadn't had my green sheet marked with my proper precinct, ballots, and registered party). I rejoined the line behind the woman who had been so kind to direct me to the counter on the other side of the line where my green sheet was properly completed. Once I reached the table where ballots, pens and "I voted" stickers were distributed, I had learned about the 77 year old lady's lunch plans (a tea room recently opened on Harvard), and the fellow in line behind me who was voting in his first presidential election. I took my ballot and solemnly went to a cardboard station where I read the ballot measures again and voted rather randomly for the judges, but I took great care with my vote for Obama/Biden and Andrew Rice (over James Inhofe) and Georgianna Oliver (over John Sullivan) and George Bullock (over Dan Sullivan) - it seems as if the Sullivans produced more than one right-wing political tool here in Oklahoma.

Anyway, afterward I headed home, picked up my doggies and headed for the Bark Park (as I already mentioned it was a loverly day here in Northeastern Oklahoma). Then I took the boyz home and drove to campus where I worked out - the only thing that has kept me sane over the last two weeks :). After working out (20 minutes on the elliptical machine, 30 minutes on the rowing machine, plus 50 ab shots),I stopped by Jim's Coney Island and treated myself to an oregano chicken dinner - most of the half chicken I brought home with me. I voted today, so that on the official voting day I will be available to drive Democrats to the polls. Here are a few subtle questions I have devised to guarantee that the folks that I am shuffling to the polls are actual Democrats: Questions such as "Did you catch Sean Hannity last night?" (Of course, if the answer is "Yeah, it was great" then I drop them off at the nearest Denny's or Waffle House, and tell them to call a cab), or I might speculate that "Global warming is such a scam." and if they agree to this proposition they also will be dropped off at the nearest cafe or corner. Or perhaps I will just tell them that their voting day is tomorrow (thanks BobR!). That's my plan for how to survive and feel like I made at least a small contribution to the Obama victory that I hope is just around the corner. Go Obama/Biden 2008!!!

Wednesday, October 29, 2008

Sherman Alexie on The Colbert Report



For more information about Sherman Alexie, see the Official Sherman Alexie Web Site.

Are You Suffering from EAD
(Election Anxiety Disorder)?


If you, like me, have been unable to sleep, or eat, and can only find fleeting relaxation in a very large beverage or three, and you can trace the cause of this particular anxiety to the upcoming election, then you, my friend, may be suffering from Election Anxiety Disorder.
Articles like this one sure don't help calm my already frayed nerves:
Accuracy Of Polls a Question In Itself
Skeptics Challenge Assumptions Made


Here are a few of the symptoms of EAD (Election Anxiety Disorder):
1. Do you wake up in the middle of the night in a cold sweat with a disembodied head of John McCain chasing you to Canada?
2. Do you feel sick to your stomach every time somebody mentions Sarah Palin, Alaska, or the phrases "you betcha" or "guys and gals?"
3. Do you refresh the web sites 538.com or HuffPo more than twice every hour?
4. Have you begged your physician for a few xanax or valium just to get you through until next Wednesday?
5. Are you so blasted by the time that Rachel Maddow comes on that you have to stay up and watch her show again (which fortunately isn't a problem, as you haven't slept for at least a week)?
6. Is your credit card bill filled with charges to Obama for America, the DNC, and your local senatorial candidate?
7. Are you so disgusted that you can barely wave to your neighbors who have a McCain/Palin sign in their yard?
8. Do you listen to Stephanie Miller, Thom Hartmann, and Randi Rhodes all day at work until you are about to scream?
9. Are you watching Barack Obama's half hour show on the TV right now?
10. Are you a freakin' nervous wreck and have your friends and co-workers suggested that you ignore politics for the next week, but you know that it would be easier to give up heroin if you were a junkie?

If you answered yes to more than five of the above questions then you are likely suffering from EAD. All I can say is hang in there, stay busy by making phone calls, or voting early so that you can spend all day on November 4th driving other Democrats to the polls. Wear your Obama t-shirts, buttons, and bracelets whenever you can get away with it. Don't give up and know that we'll always have Canada if the Republicans steal 2008 (again), but I am hoping against hope that I don't have to move to Canada, that this year, this time, America will wake up and vote for a real future, a real change, real hope. Vote Obama/Biden 2008!!!

Sunday, October 26, 2008

To Those 7% of PUMAs Who Still Have Not Jumped on the Obama Wagon

WARNING - MAJOR RANT AHEAD (you have been warned!)



Nobody effing cares anymore - you are so irrelevant that it is just too easy to ignore you (provided that you live in a state that is going to be so blue it is almost navy - a state like New York, Massachusetts, Maryland or California). So if you live in any of those states nobody freakin' cares what you do on November 4th - you can stay home and masturbate or pick your nose or try to explain why you are so goddamn lame on your flimsy little website or blog or whatever vehicle you may chose to try to explain (or not) why you have decided to hold onto your grudge (whether it be a lingering sense that your candidate, Mrs. Clinton, was done wrong or you are just a closet racist after all - I am not suggesting that those are the only two plausible reasons why you have not yet joined the Obama campaign, but without any explanation from you, we are left guessing). Just don't try to convince any of us who have been working for the change that will benefit you and your family (partner, husband, wife, child[ren], or parent[s]), or that you had anything to do with anything positive that may happen in this country in the next four or, if we are lucky and wise enough as a nation, eight years. Just go away - we obviously don't need you on election day, and we don't need you now or anytime in the future. You have rendered yourself forever irrelevant - so just go away. Buh-bye, now and forever.... OBAMA/BIDEN 2008!!!

For a more nuanced view of the role of race in the 2008 presidential election, please see Frank Rich's piece, In Defense of White Americans, NYTimes, October 25, 2008.