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Post by S'ewing S'cubie on Nov 5, 2008 16:05:01 GMT -5
It's really strange to see the reaction here in England...so many people are saying "We won!" even though they didn't vote and in fact are English.... I heard on the news that Kenya has gone completely nuts. Their president declared today a holiday!
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Post by Squeemonster on Nov 5, 2008 16:17:21 GMT -5
As am I, on both counts. This is extremely depressing news. This isn't good news, granted, and I don't mean to trivialize it in any way, but I'll be damned if I'm gonna get depressed or disapppointed today. Change on issues like this takes time. There are back and forths . . . but today is a day that means that whatever setbacks, there is hope. ;D I am not depressed in any way, today. I am full of hope and giddiness and just . . . well, speechlessness. I am so proud of our country. I just want to hold this election out to the world and say "Look! Lookit what we did!!" But I am still disappointed over Prop 8. I know it's gonna change. Obama has proven that. I just kinda wish it could have been the second part of a whopper of a one-two punch. But yes, ain't much out there that could keep this goofy grin off my face today. ;D
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Post by Julia, wrought iron-y on Nov 5, 2008 17:17:40 GMT -5
A few more random ruminations. (What? I put away the laundry!) 1. So, looking into your crystal ball do we assume that 67 year old Biden is good for 2 terms? 2. If not, I'm am extremely high on Montana governor Brian Schweitzer (http://www.brianschweitzer.com/), who gave a great speech at the convention in Denver. His Lt. Gov. is Repub. Also, he worked hard for Obama in MT and the final outcome had McCain 2 pts under projected polls and Obama 4 pts above (50-47 instead of 52-43) 3. Sarah Palin was interviewed a bit today (it was fairly informal) and the bit I saw had her questioning the fairness (or at least the balance) of the media. Here is my question: if the Repubs think that journalists have been one-sided what can they do to "fix" that? Send more kids to journalism schools? My guess is that a lot of students who enter journalism schools are more likely to come out Dem than Rep for a variety of reasons, but there you are. 4. Change. Change actually happens whether you work for it or not. Lots of change. I"m no suggesting that we don't need to work for positive changes but one reason I"m optimistic is just looking back over my "short" life and seeing where we've come, for example, in our relationships with Japan and Germany in the past 60 years. 5. Have you heard that there is not one single Repub member of the House from New England?Why yes, I had heard that. I did. And I did my very best to help that along. Although I'm not very fond of our Republican governor, who was re-elected mostly because he was running against 2 others who split the opposition, I think we have terrific members of Congress. Especially Bernie Sanders, who turned Burlington around when he was mayor (on the Socialist ticket) and Pat Leahy. How could ya not love a man who was publicly told to go fuck himself by Dick head Cheney? Did y'all know that in the March election, Brattleboro passed a resolution swearing out a warrant for Bush and Cheney, and will arrest them for war crimes should they ever happen to find themselves there? Not that I can imagine either of them ever coming to Vermont. Cheney, no, but Shrub has this charming inattention to detail, and might get lost on the way to Maine. Julia, having zero cooperation from the XYs today, both of whom are home and not useful
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Post by Sue on Nov 5, 2008 17:58:22 GMT -5
I really need to get my life back, but I am so not looking forward to withdrawal.
And, sometimes Chris Matthews can get on my last nerve. (Like when he asks a question and then just keeps on going right over the other person and gives the answer he wants to hear; or they start to answer and he disagrees and starts shouting over them.
But, the guy is just so darned tickled, please, touched and beside himself with glee and patriotism and pride that he's just plain fun to watch.
Clear partisanship and a joy to behold.
Meanwhile Wolf Blitzer is crowing over the Nielsen's that say CNN led all networks (ALL, not just cable) in coverage from 8-12:30 eastern. Well, I watched CNN, primarily for one reason: THEY USE REALLY BIG NUMBERS and very easy to understand graphics. All the other networks had cameras on the achors or reporters and little tiny numbers at the bottom that were hard to read and then switched too fast before I had a chance to sort out just what I was looking at.
CNN: for old blind slow thinking people!
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Post by SpringSummers on Nov 5, 2008 18:22:37 GMT -5
I really need to get my life back, but I am so not looking forward to withdrawal. And, sometimes Chris Matthews can get on my last nerve. (Like when he asks a question and then just keeps on going right over the other person and gives the answer he wants to hear; or they start to answer and he disagrees and starts shouting over them. But, the guy is just so darned tickled, please, touched and beside himself with glee and patriotism and pride that he's just plain fun to watch. Clear partisanship and a joy to behold. Meanwhile Wolf Blitzer is crowing over the Nielsen's that say CNN led all networks (ALL, not just cable) in coverage from 8-12:30 eastern. Well, I watched CNN, primarily for one reason: THEY USE REALLY BIG NUMBERS and very easy to understand graphics. All the other networks had cameras on the achors or reporters and little tiny numbers at the bottom that were hard to read and then switched too fast before I had a chance to sort out just what I was looking at. CNN: for old blind slow thinking people! There's nothing wrong with blatant partisanship if you're not billing yourself as anything but. And it can be fun to watch/listen to . . . as well as "getting on your last nerve" as you say, at times. No one at work was really owning up to feeling the way I did today; I think because it's a pretty conservative crowd . . . and I don't mean that as necessarily "politically conservative," (though it's probably a 50-50 office) but "emotionally conservative." I did get to share it some with my co-worker. She was a McCain voter, but had struggled over who to vote for, and was not immune to feeling the history, and pride over "lookit what we did!!" as Monnie says. Still, it's good to have you all to share this with. To see the country rise above the petty - worrying about skin color or the candidate's middle name - was such a marvelous delight.
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Post by SpringSummers on Nov 5, 2008 18:43:13 GMT -5
I see we have a new member who joined today callng himself "barry." I'll bet it is Barak! He heard about us, and had to come check us out.
Cabinet posts, here we come!!
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Post by Spaced Out Looney on Nov 5, 2008 18:46:14 GMT -5
It's really strange to see the reaction here in England...so many people are saying "We won!" even though they didn't vote and in fact are English.... I never realized before this election how much the rest of the world is interested in American politics. Or maybe it's a new thing.
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Post by Spaced Out Looney on Nov 5, 2008 18:46:52 GMT -5
I see we have a new member who joined today callng himself "barry." I'll bet it is Barak! He heard about us, and had to come check us out. Cabinet posts, here we come!! Hee!
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Post by Rachael on Nov 5, 2008 19:26:32 GMT -5
It's really strange to see the reaction here in England...so many people are saying "We won!" even though they didn't vote and in fact are English.... I never realized before this election how much the rest of the world is interested in American politics. Or maybe it's a new thing. I think in recent decades it's been a biggish deal, who is POTUS. I'm not enough of an historian to know how much the world was watching when my parents/grandparents were young. But THIS year...well, we have W to make up for. The world, for the most part, is very upset with us over electing the current President a second time. So they were all paying attention. Third best thing to happen last night; we got redeemed in the eyes of the world.
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Post by Spaced Out Looney on Nov 5, 2008 19:44:32 GMT -5
I never realized before this election how much the rest of the world is interested in American politics. Or maybe it's a new thing. I think in recent decades it's been a biggish deal, who is POTUS. I'm not enough of an historian to know how much the world was watching when my parents/grandparents were young. But THIS year...well, we have W to make up for. The world, for the most part, is very upset with us over electing the current President a second time. So they were all paying attention. Third best thing to happen last night; we got redeemed in the eyes of the world. *Nods*
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Post by Julia, wrought iron-y on Nov 5, 2008 20:37:05 GMT -5
Dance Party in Seattle.
Julia, happy, happy people
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Post by Spaced Out Looney on Nov 5, 2008 21:12:18 GMT -5
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Post by Onjel on Nov 6, 2008 6:06:54 GMT -5
I'm at a loss to explain why a state that is pretty much completely "blue" (see results for the presidential election) and socially progressive in so many ways would vote to ban gay marriage. What is up with that? Why does anyone care who gets married, unless they think it effects something economically? That's pretty specious from, say my standpoint. Maybe not an employer that pays for health insurance but hey, they can change that option for everyone if it's a money thing. Make co-pays bigger, whatever.
I don't get it. I would rather see unions of all kinds (between humans until such time as other humanoid life forms are found, I do have my limits) legalized and "legitimized" in the eyes of society than make a group of people feel they have to deny their chose family arrangement. That has all kinds of bad potential. What am I missing?
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Post by Onjel on Nov 6, 2008 6:12:38 GMT -5
I really need to get my life back, but I am so not looking forward to withdrawal. And, sometimes Chris Matthews can get on my last nerve. (Like when he asks a question and then just keeps on going right over the other person and gives the answer he wants to hear; or they start to answer and he disagrees and starts shouting over them. But, the guy is just so darned tickled, please, touched and beside himself with glee and patriotism and pride that he's just plain fun to watch. Clear partisanship and a joy to behold. Meanwhile Wolf Blitzer is crowing over the Nielsen's that say CNN led all networks (ALL, not just cable) in coverage from 8-12:30 eastern. Well, I watched CNN, primarily for one reason: THEY USE REALLY BIG NUMBERS and very easy to understand graphics. All the other networks had cameras on the achors or reporters and little tiny numbers at the bottom that were hard to read and then switched too fast before I had a chance to sort out just what I was looking at. CNN: for old blind slow thinking people! There's nothing wrong with blatant partisanship if you're not billing yourself as anything but. And it can be fun to watch/listen to . . . as well as "getting on your last nerve" as you say, at times. No one at work was really owning up to feeling the way I did today; I think because it's a pretty conservative crowd . . . and I don't mean that as necessarily "politically conservative," (though it's probably a 50-50 office) but "emotionally conservative." I did get to share it some with my co-worker. She was a McCain voter, but had struggled over who to vote for, and was not immune to feeling the history, and pride over "lookit what we did!!" as Monnie says. Still, it's good to have you all to share this with. To see the country rise above the petty - worrying about skin color or the candidate's middle name - was such a marvelous delight. I never cared about skin color. Maybe I'm in the minority (especially coming from the most racially polarized area of the country) but for me it's all about policy, and I don't mean about abortion (which I sooooo wish people would leave alone). It's all about how the candidate looks at the role of government. Neither one was willing to reduce government's role in our lives so *shrugs* guess I was out of luck, but on the bright side, that made them both identical in that sense. Again, I don't get this need to focus on outward appearances, but I can't deny it occurs. Whether it's sexism, racism or homophobia (not necessarily outwardly apparent, but. . .), I'm sick and tired of it and I believe if we did one thing this week, we jumped squarely onto the path where racism is close to being a thing of the past. I am very glad to see that. Now to work on the other "isms/phobias".
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Post by SpringSummers on Nov 6, 2008 6:58:17 GMT -5
There's nothing wrong with blatant partisanship if you're not billing yourself as anything but. And it can be fun to watch/listen to . . . as well as "getting on your last nerve" as you say, at times. No one at work was really owning up to feeling the way I did today; I think because it's a pretty conservative crowd . . . and I don't mean that as necessarily "politically conservative," (though it's probably a 50-50 office) but "emotionally conservative." I did get to share it some with my co-worker. She was a McCain voter, but had struggled over who to vote for, and was not immune to feeling the history, and pride over "lookit what we did!!" as Monnie says. Still, it's good to have you all to share this with. To see the country rise above the petty - worrying about skin color or the candidate's middle name - was such a marvelous delight. I never cared about skin color. Maybe I'm in the minority (especially coming from the most racially polarized area of the country) but for me it's all about policy, and I don't mean about abortion (which I sooooo wish people would leave alone). It's all about how the candidate looks at the role of government. Neither one was willing to reduce government's role in our lives so *shrugs* guess I was out of luck, but on the bright side, that made them both identical in that sense. Again, I don't get this need to focus on outward appearances, but I can't deny it occurs. Whether it's sexism, racism or homophobia (not necessarily outwardly apparent, but. . .), I'm sick and tired of it and I believe if we did one thing this week, we jumped squarely onto the path where racism is close to being a thing of the past. I am very glad to see that. Now to work on the other "isms/phobias". Whether it's "why people voted against gay marriage" or "why some people focus so heavily on skin-color or gender," I think it's all about the same thing: Voting isn't just about what makes sense. It's also about what feels right. When they match up -when what makes sense is also what feels right to you - then baby, you're sittin' in clover; go for it! When they don't, you've got to choose: will you go with what your brain is telling you, or will you go with what your heart is telling you? The best way to choose is to try to figure out which side of you is most likely to be giving you the right answer. Is the question one that can/should actually be answered by your brain? 'Cause not everything can be, but that doesn't mean it can't be answered at all. Is it one in which "your feelings" are relevant? 'Cause they aren't always, no matter how much you may wish they would be. If your brain or heart is giving you the wrong answer, why might it be doing so? Fear? Of what? If you face the issue, can you bring them into synch? So you mull it over, then you choose, and then you go with your choice, and you live with your choice. So that's my theory on how people work, all of us, all the time.
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