Obama Wins!

This survey map from back in March seems to be uncannily accurate. Some of the colors will be different, I’m sure, but …

Image source: Surveys, USA

I hope I’m not going to repeat history with that headline. The election is not settled as I write this. Suna and I are spending a very nice evening at home watching the election returns. The kids are watching downstairs.

They are talking on TV about the real America and how John McCain insulted most of America by suggesting that only white rural areas of the country were the real America. We are now an ethnically and culturally diverse nation. Only our enemies try to stereotype us as white Christians. The Taliban says that about us, not admitting that there are more Muslims in this country than in Iraq. McCain made the same mistake.

The popular vote is very close as I write. I am starting to relax as Obama’s victory is starting to feel more certain. I hope that he wins the popular vote, too. I hope he can win with an indisputable mandate, something that hasn’t been done in a very long time.

We’re switching to the Daily/Colbert election coverage until we get more news about my home state. Or not. Maybe I’ll just start using Swagger from Old Spice.

Politics and Mondays Always Get Me Down

Go team!

Photo source: John F. Zur

Well, you’ve seen how busy the last month has been and how much we have accomplished. And you’ve seen how the election has turned nasty over the last month as McCain’s chances for victory evaporated. In a way, having been too busy to pay much attention to politics has been a good thing.

But the election is at hand, and I am still nervous about what will happen. No matter who wins, I will be nervous for awhile.

Still, as I mentioned in church the other Sunday, I am grateful to live in a country where politics is discussable. So many people die worldwide over politics. So many people die for saying things that are not nearly so nasty as what our politicians say about each other on a good day. So many people die for their politics—over even minor difference in ideology.

No matter how I rant about neo-fascist Republicans, I am glad to live in a relatively free and peaceful society. I am also glad that this round is almost over.

Ideopathy

Thanks, Trackgrease. I wish life could have been easier for you, but then you wouldn’t be who you are now. At least, you learned how to fight the ideopaths.

Beneath the complexity and idiopathy of every cancer lies a limited number of “mission critical” events that have propelled the tumour cell and its progeny into uncontrolled expansion and invasion.

—Evan & Vousden (2001)

I take today’s quotation from wordsmith.org’s word of the day. Wordsmith defines idiopathy as “A disease of unknown origin or one having no apparent cause.” From this entry, I looked for the word ideopathy, which I found in use but not on any of my favorite dictionary sites. It makes sense to define ideopathy as an idea or political movement that has become pathological. In this case, it fits the description of cancer that Evan and Vousden provide above.

Which leads to my decision not to vote in the Republican primary this year.

The other day, Suna got a recorded call from John McCain. In the recording, he promised to further the Bush administration’s attacks on the Constitution, fairness, and choice. He vowed to continue the war against science. While I realize McCain was probably trying to appeal to his rabid base, his (hopefully) disingenuous rhetoric convinced me that he is now owned by the ideocrats (read ideopaths) of the far right.

Perhaps Cthulu would be the lesser evil. Besides, he is the heir apparent to the Republican nomination. Voting for him in the primary would accomplish nothing.

That leaves Ron Paul, who has as much chance of being the nominee as I do. Voting for him would also be throwing away my primary vote.

So I am back to my usual course—voting in the Democratic primary—and my original dilemma. I still can’t decide which candidate to vote for. Clinton has the baggage that comes with experience. Obama has the vague optimism that speaks of inexperience. I still have a few days to agonize over this decision.

Grateful Monday

So that is what I am grateful for today. I am grateful that I live in a country where I can agonize over such a decision and speak publicly about that agony without fear of repression or reprisal—at least not yet.

And I want to thank Trackgrease for doing his part to help ensure that I have something here to be grateful for. He served four years in the Army and eight years in the National Guard. The operative word here is served. He was not an officer or a decision maker. He simply did what he could to put his nation’s safety and health above his own.

Let us all do what we can this year to protect and serve our democracy. If nothing else, vote. As Edmund Burke said, “All it takes for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing.” Let this be the year we stop doing nothing.

References:

Gerald I. Evan and Karen H. Vousden (17 May 2001). Proliferation: cell cycle and apoptosis. In Cancer. London: Nature. In Wordsmith.org (13 February 2008).

Wordsmith.org (13 February 2008). A.word.a.day—idiopathy. Available: https://wordsmith.org/words/idiopathy.html

Children of the Night

The source of today’s lyrics and one of the best albums of all time. Photo source: Amazon.com

Sure must be fun to watch a President run

Just ask the man who owns one

—John Kay

I recently participated in a survey of registered voters who plan to vote in the Republican Primary. Since that is my current plan, I answered in the affirmative. It was a fairly stilted survey. The questions were not as poorly written as some. There was nothing like, “Would you rather be safe by giving up all your rights under the Constitution or help the terrorists rape your family and farm animals while you watch?”

Some of the questions were:

Who do you plan to vote for: Ron Paul, John McCain, or Mike Huckabee?

I pressed 1 for Paul. As my mom used to say, “As often as this country gets screwed, we need a gynecologist in Washington.” He’s a good man. My family has known him all my life. But I still wouldn’t really vote for him. He’s just a little too whack for me.

What is more important to you: the economy or the war on terrorism?

Duh! If the economy goes to hell, we can't afford a war on terrorism—as if we needed one. It’s always the economy, stupid.

Only after the survey was over was I informed that the poll was paid for by the McCain organization. I wonder if I would have had the opportunity to answer the other two questions if I had not pressed 1 to say I was going to vote in the Republican primary. Probably not. I wouldn't have mattered then.

That was a little over a week ago. Today, McCain all but has the Republican nomination in hand. The pundits say that if Huckabee wants to be VP, he should bow out of the race sooner, rather than later. But I don’t think he wants to be VP, Romney wants that job. No, Huckabee wants to drive the party platform to the right. So, I apparently don’t need to vote Republican to get my least-evil choice.

But I still don’t really care for either of the remaining Democratic contenders. They both cancel each other out.

And last night, Obama won his ninth straight primary, and the pundits are starting to talk as if he has already been anointed. So, I still don’t know who to vote for in March. Oh, well, it won’t be the first time I’ve made up my mind while looking at the ballot.

Maybe I will vote per the bumper sticker I saw the other day. “Cthulu for President: Why choose the lesser evil?” Probably not.

Bold Marauder

If you think my views are extreme, check out the source of this lovely illustration.

Photo source: Project for the Old American Century

And we will dress in helmet and sword, and dip our tongues in slaughter

And we will sing a warrior’s song and lift the praise of murder

And Christ will be our darling and fear will be our name

—Richard Farina

I came across the following quote at wordsmith.org while reading the Word of the Day posting.

The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed—and hence clamorous to be led to safety—by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.

—H.L. Mencken

Makes you wonder how Mencken knew what GWB would be doing 50 years after he died. Maybe Nostradamus was right when he said, “The more it changes, the more it stays the same.”

So that begs the question: Who are the real terrorists?

I think there are many correct answers. The Bush Administration is correct when they label people who want to cause harm or death to innocents with that moniker. They are wholly incorrect when they label anyone who disagrees with them as a terrorist. The United States was founded on the right of citizens to disagree with the government. The Second Amendment was not designed to protect citizens against foreign invaders. It was designed to protect citizens against their own government. The Founding Fathers had first-had experience with a terrorist government.

I am sad to say that we are growing painfully close to knowing the type of government our Founding Fathers knew. We have now have a government based on lies and fear. We need to find out if there is still anything left of our democracy after two stolen elections. The only way to know is if the Bush Administration hands over power to the opposition after a free and fair election.

I hope Stephanie is right, and this is the Dawning of a New Day. But I’m not that optimistic. I think McCain is a good man with good intentions, but can he tame the fascist wing of his party? I’m not confident that he can. All I know is that if the Republicans stay in power this year, the terrorists win. Maybe not the ones with fuzzy beards, but the ones who have raped the Constitution for six years now—the ones who hold power and pull the puppet’s strings.

God help us if Huckabee wins. No one else will.

On the lighter side: We Must All Do Our Part To Preserve This Climate of Fear