Interesting

Right now, MSNBC and CNN are covering the inaugural parade, and Fox News is broadcasting live from Bush's homecoming rally in Texas, where he is giving a speech. I hope Fox can learn to say goodbye.

This time tomorrow...

...Bush will not be our President.

:)

New President

I have been a slacker on this blog for the past week.

I am thrilled about the results of our Presidential election, and I've been celebrating. I spent the night of the election in Union Square...it was an awesome spontaneous public party...crowds kept convening, people started body surfing. The feeling in the air was joyous.

But I've been a slacker on this here blog. All of my post-election discussion energy has been spent in the Comments sections of MooreThoughts, the Nashville Republican blog run by my sister and brother-in-law. Reading their blog posts has provided a stark contrast to sense of hope and happiness I've experienced in New York all week, and it's been interesting, if frustrating, interacting with them online.

I'll get back to writing on my own blog again soon, very soon...

I voted!

It took an hour and a half, but I did it!

I had a new polling place place this year, as I just moved to my current neighborhood a little over a year ago.
I always enjoy seeing the inside of unfamiliar schools, so I was pumped!
No, really. I'm serious.

Anyway...when I got to PS 6 at 43 Snyder Avenue, the line of voters was spilling out of the school and wrapping around two sides of the building. At 11:45am!
It was so exciting to be surrounded by so many other voters...I've never experienced an election where people CARE so much. Refreshing.

Pretty much everyone was in good spirits. It actually felt a little bit like waiting in line for a popular ride at an amusement park. The folks who had finished voting came out of the school with a smile and a bounce in their step, and they assured those of us still waiting in line, "It's worth it!"

Once inside the school, we were led directly to the gym, which was a somewhat organized madhouse. The lines for each district were long and nearly intertwining, and it took a minute to navigate through and find my proper spot...but I did! And I voted! And it did feel especially awesome this year.

2 more days...

I went to Lansdale, PA (a working class suburb of Philadelphia) this past Wednesday and Thursday to volunteer with the Obama/Biden campaign.
I'd like to post some of the pictures I took on my camera phone at the campaign headquarters...but, I haven't figured out how to get those pictures from my phone to my computer yet. So, for now, a description in words only:

I arrived in Lansdale a bit after 10am on Wednesday, and right away I was put to work, with several other volunteers, calling known Obama supporters in the area. The goal was to recruit more volunteers for this weekend's big Get Out The Vote push.
Apparently, the fantastic, hardworking staff in Lansdale had managed to register many new voters over the course of the campaign, but many of these new voters were still unclear about the voting process (not sure where to vote, what to bring, and, in some cases, even which day to vote). The campaign was organizing an impressive schedule of canvassing for Saturday, Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday to make sure that new voters had all the necessary information. Many people had also signed up to drive people to polls all day on Tuesday.

After I called 108 people, it was time to do a little canvassing. I went, armed with Obama literature and local endorsements, to designated addresses where the residents' candidate preferences were still unknown. The weather was cold and a bit rainy, the sun was setting, and the canvassing was, frankly, exhausting. But I was extremely happy when I came upon folks who were planning on voting for Obama...many of their neighbors had McCain/Palin signs in their yards, and I think it was a relief to these folks to be made aware that there was a local team of volunteers working for the Obama campaign.

The next day was more focused on physical labor tasks. We were getting together packets for the volunteers who would be doing the Get Out The Vote canvassing, which meant organizing door hangers with voting information/locations printed on them and sorting out walking routes on zoned maps of the town.

I gotta say, I was pleased to discover just how extremely well organized the Obama campaign is. We were working out of a former truck showroom, and there was no central heat or even land phone lines, but the staff was dedicated and friendly and diverse, and the information they had been able to compile about Lansdale residents and put to effective use in the campaign was awesome.

The race is Pennsylvania is tighter than some polls indicate, and McCain absolutely needs the state to win the election. I am so very glad I was able to give some time to the impressive effort in Lansdale.

I am cautiously optimistic, and I'm also nervous as hell.

Goin' to PA...

I'm heading to Pennsylvania early tomorrow morning to volunteer with the Obama campaign for two days.

I have voted in every Presidential election since I've been old enough to vote (my first vote was for Clinton in 1996 - remember Rock the Vote? Ah, memories)...but this election is the first one that has me motivated to get involved in the campaign process. I want Obama to win too much to just show up and vote on election day. This year, I feel the need to do more. The last thing I want is for McCain to win and to find myself saying, "Is there anything else I could have done to prevent this?"

So I'm pretty glad I'm able to get to PA tomorrow...looking forward to it!

On a side note...my lovely, lovely new cable was having problems all week (oh no!)...my first box didn't work correctly, and then my replacement box was on the fritz all week... I am now on my third cable box, and I think this one's the charm...no trouble yet! So great! I am watching the Rachel Maddow show on MSNBC as I write this. I have never seen the Rachel Maddow show before...and, hey, I know that MSNBC is completely in the tank for Obama and definitely biased (which can be a bit annoying - I like my news a bit more balanced...um, not FoxNews, no), but...this is totally entertaining. I am loving having all this political coverage right before the election. Yay!

Wow.

Have y'all seen this photo? It was taken as the candidates were taking their seats at the last Presidential debate:

John McCain will adopt your babies...

Oh, my goodness. Last night's Presidential Debate.

I will have to find the quotes from the transcript later, but can I just say now that I found two of McCain's comments last night to be highly amusing (because of how confusing they were):

1) In the Roe v Wade portion of the debate, McCain made a comment that an unwanted pregnancy is a difficult thing for a woman to deal with, but that he would make sure all of the children of unwanted pregnancies were taken care of. Don't you worry...John and Cindy are going to adopt all your unwanted babies.

2) In the education portion of the debate, McCain said that he would get rid of bad teachers, and that he would get those bad teachers other jobs. Huh? Is he worried about offending the bad teacher vote? I assume he plans on hiring the bad teachers to be nannies for all the babies he's going to be adopting.

Also, on an unrelated note...

Giuliani's speech at the RNC the other week was AWFUL.
Awful and childish and mean. And the laughter in the audience was just gross.
I am so glad he is no longer my mayor.

The DNC...

I just checked out my sister's blog, as I often do, and I realized just how behind I am in posting on this here blog o' mine. My sister Sarah often has moments of slagging behind in her own blog (which she shares with her husband, Nathan - Sarah's writing is in the column on the right)...but both my sister and brother-in-law have been posting like crazy since this Democratic National Convention began. And they are not Obama supporters! (Heck, they're not even Democrats...though my sister USED to be, but that's another story, I suppose...care to elaborate, Sarah?).

Anyhoo...thought I'd just drop a line here as I sit at home watching the DNC on PBS, waiting for Obama's speech in an hour or so.
I'm excited to hear the speech, though I fear it will be a lot of preaching to the choir (sorry, Sarah and Nathan, I guess that plays right into your view of Obama as a man with a messianic complex). But if it IS preaching to the choir, well, that's not so bad if it at least manages to get the choir fired up to work for the campaign.

OK, back to the pundits for me for now, but before I go, a wee little story:

As I walked from the subway station to my apartment building after work today, I passed a man hawking some goods on the corner. He had his palm stretched out, with about five buttons resting on that palm. "Obama, Obama!" He was selling Obama buttons.
Yes, I live in a very Obama-supportive neighborhood. And, yes, I am an Obama supporter.

Response to my sister's first query

OK, so I put out a challenge to my multitude of readers (and myself) a couple weeks ago. I promised that I would write a post on any topic that was proposed through a reader comment to my June 8, 2008 post.
Sooo....I actually received some comments, and now I've got some writing to do. Two Sarahs, one of whom is my sister, provided me with writing fodder. Sister Sarah went a bit overboard and gave me THREE topics to write about (thank you, dear sister). I am now going to attempt to respond to her first request. Here is her question:

1. Are you concerned that Barack Obama will destroy any motivation to work and succeed through his oppressive tax plan and desired expansion of entitlement programs? Why or why not?

A note: my sister and I are indeed the best of friends, but we have very different political beliefs. Luckily, we both enjoy a good spar once in a while...

Allow me to pick apart your question, dearest sister, as you chose some loaded vocabulary words (destroy, oppressive). I can guess where you stand on Barack Obama's fiscal plan.
What part of Obama'a tax plan are you referring to? I hardly find it oppressive to reverse the tax cuts that Bush gave to the wealthiest Americans.

And the expansion of entitlement programs? Are you referring to his desire to increase access to jobs and transportation in low-income urban centers? His desire to provide incentives to minority- and women-owned businesses, as well as small start-ups?

My answer to your question: NO. I don't think that approaching our nation as a humanistic and compassionate community "destroys" people's desire to "work and succeed."
Yes, I think that people should enjoy the rewards of their hard labor, and I believe in personal responsibility for the course of one's life. But I also think that Americans are born into all different kinds of circumstances, and that offering some government assistance to people in depressed circumstances can create a sense of hope that could be the needed impetus to pull oneself out of said depressed circumstances.

I could elaborate further, but I have three more pending topics to write about. I am not, however, against revisiting this topic in the future...

I messed up...

...I really, really did. *Somehow* I got it into my head that to be able to vote in an election in New York State, one had to register (or update one's registration) at least 25 days (only 25 days!) before the election. Why oh why did I think that the New York bureaucracy could adjust its records in such a short amount of time?

I've been a registered voter since 1996, when I used my vote in Maryland to help elect Bill Clinton into his second term. At the time I was a registered Democrat. A few years later, after I had been a New York resident for a couple years and had grown skeptical of all established political parties, I switched my party affiliation to None. I was Independent and proud of it.

Proud, yes, but also stupid. New York is such an overwhelmingly Democratic-with-a-capital-D state and city that almost all elections are basically determined at the primary level, when the Democratic candidate is chosen. Since one must be affiliated with a party to vote in New York primary elections, I was essentially giving up a big part of my ability to determine our elected leaders.
For this reason, I've considered changing my party affiliation back to Democratic many times over the past several years, but it took this current Presidential election for me to finally say, "it's time." This Democratic race is intense!

I thought I'd take the opportunity to adjust my party affiliation at the same time I registered my new address change (I moved this past Fall). So...I just recently got my updated registration into the Board of Elections this week, thinking I had made it in time...only to learn that October 12, 2007 was the deadline for changing party affiliation for our February 5, 2008 primary election. HOW did I miss this piece of information???
Why oh why can I not live in South Dakota or even West Virginia, where primary elections are being held on June 3, 2008 and May 13, 2008, respectively? Then I might still have time to make the necessary changes...but then I'd also live in South Dakota or West Virginia, so...

I am just supremely disappointed in myself right now. I'm also jealous of the Iowa caucusers, who are able to register and/or change party affiliation right up to the day of the caucus. Argh.

At least I can still vote in the general election this November.