Oh say can you see?

Pundits have it that the youth vote, no matter how often it is encouraged, is not dependable; well … times have changed. Look at this video clip from Penn State — similar is happening across this nation. In every state, turnout … young and old, black and white, gay and straight … is huge; people are engaged. Apathy has disappeared. Politics is … finally … personal.

Over at the Daily Dish, Sullivan is posting voters commentary and you can feel the high in their tone! You can add your own thoughts and a picture from your polling experience over at Planet Waves.

My son reports a wait to vote in the Pea Patch; this doesn’t happen in S. Missouri villages like ours. My daughter is working the polls today in S. California, and she just called to say the lines are into the street and have been since they opened; old timers she’s working with say they’ve never seen this before.

I’m not entirely rational today — it’s not that my brain isn’t working, it’s that my heart is too. It occurs to me that I’ve spent the last five years, day in, day out, cataloging Bush’s crimes and encouraging readers to keep the Vision.

FIVE YEARS. And all that energy is converging on this one moment in time; solidifying in a pregnant moment of bright-blooming change. My brain can’t hear itself for the loud thump of my heart.

I’m sure … make that absolutely sure … that we are all in that kind of haze at the moment; we do not truly realize how much Bushian PTSD we’ve suffered. We are hesitant to hope, wary of promises. We’ve lived in the twilight zone between bitter acceptance and a kind of flight-or-fight adrenal overload. If it is, indeed, over now — tomorrow we will wake up not knowing how to react.

When prisoners are let out of jail, they are unfamiliar with sunlight, squinting against it like an enemy. We’ve been psychic prisoners for eight years — sunlight may seem confusing and unfamiliar. Try to remember when life wasn’t a series of incoming arrows to dodge, and turn your face up to the sun.

The Arizona Daily Star in Tucson gave me a thrill this morning, waiting until the last minute to issue their endorsement. Here’s the first line of their editorial:

We see America the way Barack Obama sees America.

Tucson is one of the many spots on the map I call home; it’s a university city and liberal enough, spiritual certainly … and Republican, absolutely. It’s also John McCain’s home state, and the one he’s been forced to campaign in to hold on to his numbers. ‘Zonies are an interesting and laid-back species — they live in hostile climes, accommodating weather and topography by adopting its patterns. They’re traditional by nature — and their political tradition is conservative.

But not today. Today they see America the way it CAN be. Today they have the Vision!

George Bush has done his best to kill this nation off — to isolate, neglect and denigrate Her … and now comes a man who says he remembers what She was and what She can be again. It’s no wonder they call him The One … he’s like a voice in the wilderness. He has kept the memory of the nation that produced him; he asks us to remember who we are.

Do you? Can you recall how we took for granted being American? How we assumed our civil liberties would be in place forever, unshakable? How we took pride in being a nation of ethical rules, like the Geneva Conventions? How we simply assumed that things would be righted, not ignored? That we would be protected, not exploited? That we could count on Constitutionality, not fall prey to signing statements?

All these long years after 9/11, bin Laden is still free; surrealistically, I read recently that he’s writing his memoirs (and not surprisingly, that link is no longer available.) WRITING HIS MEMOIRS! What? He’ll have a book-signing at yer local Borders? He’ll autograph a copy for you?

All these years after Abu Ghraib, we’re still holding political prisoners in Iraq and other covert spots and Gitmo remains open for business. We have Chinese Muslims there nobody wants — so we’ll keep them locked up forever?

All these years after Katrina, there is less restoration in the Big Easy than crime and violence. Levy’s have not been fixed to withstand another hurricane and much of the city lies moldering. Refugee’s have still not returned home.

Obama is a referendum on Bush’s terms … and on the conservative model back to Nixon and Reagan. Put a fork in ‘em — they’re done.

If Libby Dole loses her campaign — and it appears she well may — it will be the first time since 1952 that a Dole or a Bush haven’t had their fingers in the American pie, pulling strings, priming cronies and setting covert agendas … the kind that came to fruition in the improbable heir-apparent and first-born of Barbara Bush.

It’s a new day. And the question of how you see America is what’s driving people to stand for hours to vote — some in the rain, as here in California today. It’s what’s driving elders to think they have the wherewithal to stand in line longer than their legs can hold them, and depend on strangers to help them do it. It’s what’s allowing parents to deal with their impatient little one’s as they stand in long lines, telling them how important this task. It’s encouraging people of color, as a friend reported in Virginia, to endure questions about their eligibility from snippy poll workers.

This is the day we put our faith in the God/dess of liberty and equality and ask her to beat the pants off that old lightning-throwing, thunder-belching, partisan God of the Old Testament; it’s past time He took his place in antiquity.

It’s time to move along — no matter who wins this election, we’re moving along.

Today we define our future. It doesn’t end up in our hands very often … don’t miss this opportunity. VOTE!

Just one article, today — it took my fancy and pleased my heart. Read it while you wait to see what happens next.

Jude

It’s Official, I Also Endorse Obama
Stephen Elliott, HuffPo
November 3, 2008

I took my time deciding on whether to publicly support Barack Hussein Obama for President of the United States. For starters, I didn’t know if I could trust him. I’m from Chicago and ten years ago a friend of mine got burned on a bag of skunk weed on the South Side, not far from where Obama was teaching law classes. Admittedly, this was northeast of Hyde Park at 63rd and Cottage Grove, outside of Harold’s Chicken Shack, and I’m not saying Obama had anything to do with it, but Obama knew where he was living and who he was associating with. Obama might not live in a rough area, but he lives close to one.

Further, I was concerned about Obama’s economic policies. He wants to tax people who make more than $250,000 and give tax breaks to what he calls “the middle class.”

People throw around the term “middle class” like it applies to everyone. I don’t know what that means to those of us sharing one-bedroom rent-controlled apartments. John McCain wants to give more money to the rich. That may not help me, but at least I get it. The man has ten houses; he’s talking about himself and his friends. Where I come from we always chose loyalty over integrity. It’s the code.

When I saw John McCain speak recently he promised to win the war in Iraq, and then use the “surge” to win the war in Afghanistan. The problem is the war in Iraq is unwinnable. It’s part of the larger war on terror. We missed our chance to sink a trillion dollars into Afghanistan and turn Tora Bora into Switzerland. What McCain was talking about when he promised to win in Iraq is magic. If McCain were able to do such a thing he would be the last wizard. How often do we get a chance to elect the most powerful person in the world to the most powerful position in the world?

Yet there are things about McCain I just can’t accept. He’s against socialism but promises to save social security and medicare. His wife’s a former drug addict who insists she’s loved America every day of her life, but her father made all of his millions bottling Belgium Beer. McCain’s economic team is full of the evangelists of bank deregulation. I might have already hit on this, but in Chicago you always watch the person with the money. You count the money when they leave and you count the money when they come back. Deregulation is based on trust, and trusting people holding large sums of money is ridiculous. Deregulation is a mantra for the greedy and the foolish. My father used to say if you sit at a poker table and you don’t see the mark, you’re the mark. If you’re in favor of deregulation and you’re not rich, you’re the mark.

I like Barack because he believes in talking with people. Last night, in Miami, John McCain said he wouldn’t sit down and talk to Hugo Chavez adding the Venezuelan leader to a long list of enemies he’s not speaking to that also includes the Prime Minister of Spain. Someone once complained to Winston Churchill about the endless discussions of the United Nations. “Better talk, talk, talk,” he replied, “than war, war, war.” On the other hand Churchill was a colonialist who hated Gandhi. But what I’m saying is I want a candidate who sits down with the world. We’ve already gone to war with “terror” and lost, it’s time to try not going to war. It might hurt our pride but there’ll be a lot less suffering.

For me, the most desirable trait in a president is that he doesn’t get us attacked. I mean, remember that big mouth kid that was always getting smacked around by football players three years older than you? You wouldn’t put that guy in charge of your group because then, when he started insulting all the meatheads, you would also be in line for a beatdown. It’s OK to hang out with the big mouth at your home or in some other enclosed space, but on the schoolyard it’s best just to stay away from that guy because you know one day someone’s going to shoot a missile up his ass.

I’m also supporting Barack because he’s the only candidate who’s not George Bush. Plus, he’s almost absurdly cool. What sealed it was when he went out in blue jeans and a leather jacket and gave a speech in Pennsylvania. That picture, on the cover of the New York Times, is one of the coolest photographs of any candidate, anywhere. That same day John McCain cancelled a rally because of rain. I want a rain or shine president who is also a rockstar. Someone who inspires those around me to make sacrifices, even if I don’t always make sacrifices with them. Finally, it’s important to me that the President of the United States is smarter than me. And if the president dies, on account of being old, I expect the Vice President to be smarter than me too. I want a President who understands plumbers, but I don’t want a plumber as Secretary of State.

Barack is supported by Allison Winfield, who I met at the Obama rally in Sunnyside, Florida. Allison’s hot enough to melt a Ben and Jerry’s ice cream truck on the north pole. At that same rally a group of women screamed from the back bleachers, “We love you Obama!” Barack raised his hand, looking straight ahead, and said, “I love you back.” It was a Shaft moment.

In other words, I’ve spent as much time as allowed and gathered all the information. I’ve read the Drudge Report and Talking Points Memo. I’ve seen Matt Drudge swinging in seedy gay clubs near South Beach and Josh Marshall bleary eyed wearing sweat pants at the Democratic Convention. I’ve come to the only conclusion available to me. For those undecideds left in the American hinterland, I invite you to join me. Make up your mind! Walk the rainbow with me to the polls this Tuesday! ++

“So keep fightin’ for freedom and justice, beloveds, but don’t you forget to have fun doin’ it. Lord, let your laughter ring forth. Be outrageous, ridicule the fraidy-cats, rejoice in all the oddities that freedom can produce. And when you get through kickin’ ass and celebratin’ the sheer joy of a good fight, be sure to tell those who come after how much fun it was.”
~ Molly Ivins, 1944 - 2007

In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.

Add comment November 4th, 2008

Comes a moment …

… of turning, scarce as hen’s teeth. A rarity. An era-buster. Comes a perfect storm of circumstance buoyed by astrological transits and sociopolitical movements and heart-yearnings. And so it is, now. Look around you today — this is what democracy looks like!

You’ll need nosh and wine … or burritos and margies … or whatever floats your boat tomorrow night — just bypass the Kool Aid. Let’s gather up some resources to keep handy in the next days: here’s one to bookmark — an interactive map, poll closings, yadda. There’s more here. Remember — keep an eye on Virginia and Florida, both in the blue column now; they will likely report first and give us the tone of this election.

And in the unlikely event that you’re still undecided, here’s a sharp little film clip to review your options.

This will be the largest turnout in decades, evidenced by early voting totals and day-long waits to vote. That doesn’t factor in absentee votes, unusually large this year. High turnout on voting day looks to swamp the available supplies and suspect machinery. Again — we may not know anything until Wednesday morning. Add the legal stuff, and we may not know for quite awhile.

The polls reflect an Obama win — but we’re twisting up with nervous energy and holding our breath, aren’t we? It says something disturbing about our times that with anywhere from a 7 - 13 point lead, and every Sunday pundit projecting his win, Barack Obama is still policing his ground team to keep pushing and not get too confident. Sad commentary that while most of us want to soar, we’re fettered by the ball and chain of repressive politics and the dark thought-forms of an erratic and played-out Republican electorate.

The Pub disinformation campaign has done its work; you’ll find an illustration here of the near hysteria of the moment. While I cringed watching it, it’s mild compared with what will come next. You can sense what’s just below the surface of this conversation, waiting to explode.

Compare it to this Christian Science Monitor article: My wife made me canvass for Obama; here’s what I learned. So many of us are ready to reach for one another’s hands, not wave our fists in the air. Time will tell how much of each we will see next.

In this extraordinary moment, we don’t know what happens next — and, truthfully, we’re not entirely sure what we’re feeling, either. You can’t really anticipate a moment like this, a perfect storm of energies that come together like a laser light to pinpoint a turning — you have to enter it and ride the wave.

Reality is making a comeback but it has to peel back layers of poli-crud and fear and self-righteousness and Christocratic nihilism to poke its head up into the light. The dark got too dark there, for awhile … and we’re not sure how quickly light can come flooding in, how it will … if it will. Andrew Sullivan writes an excellent article in the Times UK speaking to that question. He ends it with his signature sign-off: know hope. I’m with him.

The reads today play “what if …” That’s what we’re all playing today, isn’t it?

By the way, an authentic American icon died this weekend; Studs Terkel. RIP.

Hang ten, Wavers — and [a Jude sign-off] keep hope!

Obama leads McCain in 6 of 8 key states
Reuters
Mon Nov 3, 2008

Onslaught of dirty tricks as election day nears
In the final hours of the campaign, bogus fliers, e-mails and calls increase
Heather Clark / AP
Sun., Nov. 2, 2008

In the hours before Election Day, as inevitable as winter, comes an onslaught of dirty tricks — confusing e-mails, disturbing phone calls and insinuating fliers left on doorsteps during the night.

The intent, almost always, is to keep folks from voting or to confuse them, usually through intimidation or misinformation. But in this presidential race, in which a black man leads most polls, some of the deceit has a decidedly racist bent.

Complaints have surfaced in predominantly African-American neighborhoods of Philadelphia where fliers have circulated, warning voters they could be arrested at the polls if they had unpaid parking tickets or if they had criminal convictions.

Over the weekend in Virginia, bogus fliers with an authentic-looking commonwealth seal said fears of high voter turnout had prompted election officials to hold two elections — one on Tuesday for Republicans and another on Wednesday for Democrats.

In New Mexico, two Hispanic women filed a lawsuit last week claiming they were harassed by a private investigator working for a Republican lawyer who came to their homes and threatened to call immigration authorities, even though they are U.S. citizens.

“He was questioning her status, saying that he needed to see her papers and documents to show that she was a U.S. citizen and was a legitimate voter,” said Guadalupe Bojorquez, speaking on behalf of her mother, Dora Escobedo, a 67-year-old Albuquerque resident who speaks only Spanish. “He totally, totally scared the heck out of her.”

In Pennsylvania, e-mails appeared linking Democrat Barack Obama to the Holocaust. “Jewish Americans cannot afford to make the wrong decision on Tuesday, Nov. 4,” said the electronic message, paid for by an entity calling itself the Republican Federal Committee. “Many of our ancestors ignored the warning signs in the 1930s and 1940s and made a tragic mistake.”

Voter suppression efforts

Laughlin McDonald, who leads the ACLU’s Voting Rights Project, said he has never seen “an election where there was more interest and more voter turnout, and more efforts to suppress registration and turnout. And that has a real impact on minorities.”

The Obama campaign and civil rights advocacy groups have signed up millions of new voters for this presidential race. In Ohio alone, some 600,000 have submitted new voter registration cards.

Across the country, many of these first-time voters are young and strong Obama supporters. Many are also black and Hispanic. ++

Tomorrow
William Rivers Pitt, TruthOut
11/03/08

The Republican Rump
PAUL KRUGMAN, NYT
November 3, 2008

Maybe the polls are wrong, and John McCain is about to pull off the biggest election upset in American history. But right now the Democrats seem poised both to win the White House and to greatly expand their majorities in both houses of Congress.

Most of the post-election discussion will presumably be about what the Democrats should and will do with their mandate. But let me ask a different question that will also be important for the nation’s future: What will defeat do to the Republicans?

You might think, perhaps hope, that Republicans will engage in some soul-searching, that they’ll ask themselves whether and how they lost touch with the national mainstream. But my prediction is that this won’t happen any time soon.

Instead, the Republican rump, the party that’s left after the election, will be the party that attends Sarah Palin’s rallies, where crowds chant “Vote McCain, not Hussein!” It will be the party of Saxby Chambliss, the senator from Georgia, who, observing large-scale early voting by African-Americans, warns his supporters that “the other folks are voting.” It will be the party that harbors menacing fantasies about Barack Obama’s Marxist — or was that Islamic? — roots.

Why will the G.O.P. become more, not less, extreme? For one thing, projections suggest that this election will drive many of the remaining Republican moderates out of Congress, while leaving the hard right in place.

For example, Larry Sabato, the election forecaster, predicts that seven Senate seats currently held by Republicans will go Democratic on Tuesday. According to the liberal-conservative rankings of the political scientists Keith Poole and Howard Rosenthal, five of the soon-to-be-gone senators are more moderate than the median Republican senator — so the rump, the G.O.P. caucus that remains, will have shifted further to the right. The same thing seems set to happen in the House.

Also, the Republican base already seems to be gearing up to regard defeat not as a verdict on conservative policies, but as the result of an evil conspiracy. A recent Democracy Corps poll found that Republicans, by a margin of more than two to one, believe that Mr. McCain is losing “because the mainstream media is biased” rather than “because Americans are tired of George Bush.”

And Mr. McCain has laid the groundwork for feverish claims that the election was stolen, declaring that the community activist group Acorn — which, as Factcheck.org points out, has never “been found guilty of, or even charged with” causing fraudulent votes to be cast — “is now on the verge of maybe perpetrating one of the greatest frauds in voter history in this country, maybe destroying the fabric of democracy.” Needless to say, the potential voters Acorn tries to register are disproportionately “other folks,” as Mr. Chambliss might put it.

Anyway, the Republican base, egged on by the McCain-Palin campaign, thinks that elections should reflect the views of “real Americans” — and most of the people reading this column probably don’t qualify.

Thus, in the face of polls suggesting that Mr. Obama will win Virginia, a top McCain aide declared that the “real Virginia” — the southern part of the state, excluding the Washington, D.C., suburbs — favors Mr. McCain. A majority of Americans now live in big metropolitan areas, but while visiting a small town in North Carolina, Ms. Palin described it as “what I call the real America,” one of the “pro-America” parts of the nation. The real America, it seems, is small-town, mainly southern and, above all, white.

I’m not saying that the G.O.P. is about to become irrelevant. Republicans will still be in a position to block some Democratic initiatives, especially if the Democrats fail to achieve a filibuster-proof majority in the Senate.

And that blocking ability will ensure that the G.O.P. continues to receive plenty of corporate dollars: this year the U.S. Chamber of Commerce has poured money into the campaigns of Senate Republicans like Minnesota’s Norm Coleman, precisely in the hope of denying Democrats a majority large enough to pass pro-labor legislation.

But the G.O.P.’s long transformation into the party of the unreasonable right, a haven for racists and reactionaries, seems likely to accelerate as a result of the impending defeat.

This will pose a dilemma for moderate conservatives. Many of them spent the Bush years in denial, closing their eyes to the administration’s dishonesty and contempt for the rule of law. Some of them have tried to maintain that denial through this year’s election season, even as the McCain-Palin campaign’s tactics have grown ever uglier. But one of these days they’re going to have to realize that the G.O.P. has become the party of intolerance. ++
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Add comment November 3rd, 2008