And in other news, if you happen to feel like calling the White House comment line for oh, any reason at all today, that phone number is 202-456-1111.

See, here's the thing. I'm not going to rant about how Obama's betrayed me or how he has blood on his hands. This is politics, people, and expecting any politician to reflect my views a hundred percent kind of assumes that I'm the only subject position in the land. If you think about it for a little while, you'll see how silly that is. (And what a bad way to stay married, if you carry it home with you.)

But since I'm not the only subject position in the land, I think it's only fair to encourage other subject positions to make those positions known. Because this is politics, after all.

Again, 202-456-1111. 

Okay, I finally get it.

I realized at the gym on Friday, with CNN running on the big screen TVs that hang everywhere there, that I get a great sense of comfort and safety from watching the Obamas on TV. It wasn't just a lack of the sense of fear and loathing I'm used to: it was actual pleasure.

...so that's what the emotional response to having a leader who you identify as like you is. Huh.

Now I understand the people who still defend Reagan. 0.o

An interesting examination of the relationship between the queer community and the African-american civil rights movement. (And no, people of color are not responsible for the passage of Prop 8., so please, guys, stop spreading that meme until you do a little reading.)

I have to say that slit's experience of the modern queer community is not very similar to my experience of the radical lesbian community (aka The Community) of the 1980s, where women of color were in many ways seen as More Perfect Lesbians, possibly because the women's community in those days was a little hung up on mythologizing the survivors of oppression. But I'm not connected with any Communities these days, except inasmuch as I have friends who participate in several, and I have no idea what the current state of the zeitgeist in queer radicalism is. If it's as slit presents it, I think I'm just as happy not to be.

This morning I am thinking very fondly of my godson, and feeling so grateful that he will never have a real memory of a time that someone whose skin is brown like his couldn't become President of the United States.  --panjianlien, elsewhere in a locked post, quoted with permission.


That, exactly. I am thinking very fondly of my godson, too. And the fact that the first president Sunil knows about will be Barack Hussein Obama. Somebody who I honestly believe, at this point, may hold the ideals of a public servant rather than a kleptocrat. A community organizer. That guy.

No, of course racism and prejudice aren't over in America, and neither are years of anger and the twisted baggage of "us vs. them" thinking. But I do note that last night, both candidates made a point in denouncing that kind of thinking--though one was booed for it, and the other applauded. And I also note that my generation, and even more dramatically the people younger than me, voted overwhelmingly for human rights, for social justice, for looking forward, and for change.

It's not going to be easy, and that's another message I think everybody should be hearing loud and clear. Building a strong and just society, a strong and just economy, and a strong and just foreign policy are not going to be easy. It's going to take all hands on deck, and it's going to take compromise on the level of Henry Clay. (Remember when compromise was an ideal in American Democracy? Remember when it was something that made a statesman great?)

In some ways, we're like a drunk who's just really hit bottom hard enough to finally believe that the alcohol is killing him. Backsliding is easy. Staying clean is hard.

But the future is inevitable, and we've stopped trying to hide our faces from it. It's just a matter of outliving the walking corpse of the dead century.

Via sithdragn:

http://isobamapresidentyet.com/

Ladies and gentlemen, it's looking an awful lot like John Sununu just got served.

I am trying very hard not to think about CT Question 1 (Shall we call a constitutional convention?) and CA Proposition 8 (a ballot initiative to make illegal some marriages). I have voted and donated. I've done what I can, and now it's up to the polls.

Do not obsess about what you cannot control.

The CT Constitution is currently amended by a combination of legislative action and ballot initiative. It is the oldest written constitution in the US (that's why it says "Constitution State") on our license plates.

A convention would allow it to be amended without ballot initiative or direct legislative action. Which might mean that the newly recognized right of couples of any gender to marry in my home state would be abridged.

Let's not, guys. We're better than that.

Got up at 5 am to vote, showered, dressed, and walked the half mile to the polls through a gorgeous, misty November morning that I shared with the garbage trucks:



Some more somewhat blurry shots behind the cut. I was hand-holding in low light conditions.

( My civic duty. I show u it. )

The radio is predicting a crushing defeat for CT Representative Christopher Shays, who--they say--is the last Republican member of the House from New England.

Yankees. I tell you what. You goof up, we'll let you know.

I've been avoiding blogging politics lately, because I'm as sick of it as anybody else, and if you haven't already made up your mind who to vote for and figured out how to get to the polls, all the continued nagging is going to do is drive people off, at this point.

But this is a heck of a speech.



And I think "Once more choose our better history" is one of those phrases that will ring for a long time.

Sadly, the concept far exceeds the execution. And where are the doves?

Campaign '08 as an AD&D game. Brilliant.

BIDEN: He has a point. Cindy turned out to be a vampire.

---

Andrew Wheeler with more on why some bookstore chains do not carry some books. This is excellent. if you care about the publishing industry at all, go read it.

You know, I don't always watch Jon Stewart. He is awfully funny when he's on--but the best stuff all makes it to my reading list the next day anyway, and usually at 11 pm at night I'm either writing or hanging around with my friends on the intarwebs or getting ready for bed.

Well, this morning I get to be the guy spamming your flist with Jon Stewart clips. Or more precisely, clips of Aasif Mandvi on the Daily Show, talking to Jon Stewart about whether the terms "Arab" and "decent family man" are mutually exclusive.

via delux_vivens:

Barack Obama is smarter than you.

Yes, the man has bought billboards in virtual reality.

I love him so.

Oh, I heard a scary woman on NPR this morning talking about how she is afraid to vote for Obama because he would "take care of his people first." She also mentioned as how she'd never thought of herself as a racist before.

...

I'm just going to sit here and boggle for a minute. His people? *

...his people? Gifted biracial children of hard-working single mothers? Shemar Moore will be pleased to hear it. Pork barrel pulling up, man!

I mentioned this to tanaise, and she replied, "Luckily, that's a fairly small group, so there will be plenty of time for him to take care of the rest of us."

---

*Because it's always about us versus them. You know, actually, applying the metric that people tend to project their own motivations on other people, it's not all that unlikely that somebody that profoundly, unconsciously buying into the paradigm would be a little worried about what might happen if the shoe were on the other foot.

---

I leave you with a Toni Morrison quote: "If you can only be tall because somebody else is on their knees, you have a serious problem."

Can everybody on my flist who actually just watched Sen. Biden cream the Buffybot by answering the questions he was asked, producing actual specifics and details, being respectful of his opponent, and showing human emotion--please, please stop saying, "The media will no doubt pronounce it for Palin?"*

Item 1) The CBS poll and the CNN and CBS focus groups gave it to Biden by a landslide.

Item 2) Our learned helplessness is showing.

Thank you. You may shop as usual.

---

*Memo to future debate opponents: do not play the parenting-is-hard card on Joe Biden. Just don't. The head he is handing you will be your own.

Well, I'm sure by now everybody's seen The Buffybot exploding on Katie Couric (And Katie, looking rather like a stunned mullet in her reaction shots--or maybe like a spliced-in Saturday Night Live regular). And I'm also reasonably sure we've all seen David Letterman and Keith Olbermann taking Sen. McCain apart by inches. "The road to the white house runs right through me." That is not all that much of an exaggeration.

Man, he's Letterman. There are people you do not fuck with.

In local news, we have a lull before the storm. Still too soon to tell which way Kyle is tracking or if it will make hurricane status, but we're sitting tight and enjoying mist and a break in the weather.

And local Connecticut boy, actor and philanthropist Paul Newman has died at the age of 83. Bye, Butch. We'll miss you.

And how often do you get to use these two tags together?

I finally got to sit down and watch Obama's Letterman appearance this morning (I'd heard sound bites) and I've gotta say...

...if dude doesn't win, he's got a great future in late night television. Dude is funny.



"Technically--she would be the lipstick."



"It's Disneyland, man!"



Interesting, despite the general hysteria about the polls, that traditionally Republican New Hampshire is tending kind of purple this year. Also, I wonder how effective traditional polling is going to be, in an election where so many people who are very motivated to vote don't have land lines, either out of financial necessity or because they're my age or a bit younger and can't be arsed to pay for outdated C20th technology. (When I called up to cancel my land line, the AT&T rep I talked to sounded absolutely hysterical with customer-retention desire, and was feeding me scare stories. "But what if you need to call 911?")