Omnibus

Sorry I haven't posted here in a while, but this is just too fun. Boycott Liberalism" is a convenient place to go for a list of liberal products, people, groups, and media outlets to support. Oh, I'm aware that the purpose is that the site editor wants us to boycott these products, but for those of us on the left side of the isle it's a real help, too! I mean, who knew Donald Trump was a liberal? Or that going to the Star Trek movie was somehow a liberal activity? There's also a convenient list of conservative organizations that the editor wants you to frequent, but of course, those of us on the left can use it as a list boycott list of our own! Hooray!

Mawwaige. Mawwaige is what teaws us apawat, twoday.

Okay, so apparently when I have actual people to talk to about the election (thanks Gwen, Maria, and Chris) I don't rant about it much here, and my blogging is inconsistent at the best of times. I'm sure I'll have plenty of criticism for President Obama on the day after his inauguration, but for now, three cheers for the guy who promised change and made us believe he could deliver.

I did want to cap things off, though, with a little comment on my state of Arizona, our neighbors in California, and our fellow citizens in Florida. Seriously, guys, what the hell? I mean, CA and FL, you both went for Obama, you're supposed to be liberal states. AZ, we're supposed to be libertarian mavericks, to each his or her own. So what gives on the gay marriage ban? Why did we enshrine a limitation on people's civil rights into our states' constitutions?

In 1896, the US Supreme Court decided that non-White Americans should be separate, but equal, from White Americans in the case of Plessy v. Ferguson. It was not until 1954, over half a century later, that Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka overturned that decision, telling Americans that separate was inherently un-equal. This after many challenges by groups like the NAACP attempting to show that institutions for "colored" people were not receiving the same attention, funding, etc as the White "equivalents."

Still, it was not until Loving v. Virginia in 1967 that the Court determined that people of color and people devoid of color had a right to marry.

While it was a unanimous decision in 1967, it is worth noting that it came 71 years after Plessy and represented hundreds of years of progress. Barack Obama's victory came 112 years after the US Supreme Court enshrined the idea of "separate but equal."

I have a friend who says she has "hope for, but not faith in, humanity." Perhaps this is what she means. Obama gives us hope that any minority, no matter how politically unpopular, may some day have just as good a shot in this country as everyone else. I hope that, soon, homosexuals will be treated as equals. But the idea of civil unions being pushed right now brings echoes of Plessy to mind. I hope that an openly gay man or woman can be president before 2120. As for my faith that it will actually happen...

Just had to share

I find this at once frightening and hilarious:

[F]our months ago, a Wasilla blogger, Sherry Whitstine, who chronicles [Governor Palin's] career with an astringent eye, answered her phone to hear an assistant to the governor on the line, she said.

“You should be ashamed!” Ivy Frye, the assistant, told her. “Stop blogging. Stop blogging right now!”

From an article in the NY Times.

Bedfellows

It's been pointed out elsewhere, but it seems like I'd be neglecting the purpose of this blog if I didn't mention that Bush's Department of the Interior appears to be quite literally in bed with the oil industry. Apparently this started in around 2002.

Seriously?

Sarah Palin? I guess McCain's decided to stop bringing up Obama's lack of experience. It's McCain's 72nd birthday today. By the end of his first term, he'll be 76. He has had health problems. Neither his age nor his health is a disqualifier for president, but it makes the VP choice very important. There is a very real chance that, if he is elected, Palin will eventually have to step in as President.

Sarah Palin's experience includes 2 years as governor of one of the most sparsely populated states in the Union, and Mayor of a town most people have never heard of until today. She has less foreign policy experience than Obama, less domestic policy experience than Obama, and (considering she's younger than Obama) less life experience in general.

On top of this, bigots from red states who may previously have come out to vote against Obama might stay home now. Female PUMA (Party Unity My Ass) voters might also stay home, considering the fact that Palin, though female, is pro-Life, whereas your average Hillary voter is strongly pro-Choice.

Oh, and there's nothing like naming a running mate who is currently involved in an ethics scandal to boost your credibility as a straight talker.

I think this was a bad decision for McCain, and we really won't know until after the election's over. Any bump he gets from this is going to get lost in his Convention bump. If he doesn't get a bump from picking Palin or from the Convention, that could just be because Obama's speech last night was such a success. Maybe we'll be able to see if she's helping him after the VP debates, but by then I think we can expect so much political background noise that it will be hard to pin down. And even if she does give McCain a big bump or a big dip at the VP debates, that could easily be Biden's fault (or vice versa).

This is going to be an interesting election....

Polyhedral Die You Can Believe In

Recently there's been some talk about whether McCain is taking bits and pieces of his speeches from other sources. I doubt much will come of this, since there was similar talk about Obama earlier this year and that has all died down. Plagiarism doesn't really have legs as a story, and I think the reason is that people care more about what the candidate says than where he got the words. Otherwise, they'd be criticized for having paid speechwriters and not doing all the work themselves, right? On the other hand, the most recent example is about a story McCain tells about his time in captivity. This goes to the heart of his personal narrative, the way the public perceives him, etc, etc. If McCain did not really share a special moment with a covert Christian in that Vietnamese POW camp, that would be like discovering Obama's white grandmother was actually the picture of a perfectly tolerant, color blind, civil rights activist, rather than a woman with some occasional moments of prejudice that taught the future Senator that even if you don't like everything about a person, there are some people you just can't disown.

All that aside, what really caught my eye was this bit from the McCain campaign's response:

It may be typical of the pro-Obama Dungeons & Dragons crowd to disparage a fellow countryman's memory of war from the comfort of mom's basement, but most Americans have the humility and gratitude to respect and learn from the memories of men who suffered on behalf of others.

To be clear, whoever wrote this blurb on McCain's website (I think his name was Michael) is talking about bloggers. Bloggers, of course, all play Dungeons and Dragons, and live in their mothers' basements. In short, what otherwise passes for a reasoned and well thought out response to a possible embarrassment to the candidate is suddenly brought down to the level of ad hominem attacks. School yard insults. He's calling liberal bloggers nerds. He is, presumably, exempting right wing bloggers from this charge.

And of course, we all know, nerds are losers. They'll never amount to anything. And I thought maybe McCain was making progress when he stole from Wikipedia.

Green Bandit out.

Tolls of Death

I've read that Obama wants to remove troops from Iraq, but put more on the ground in Afghanistan. Now, I'm more anti-war than Obama (in fact, he once quipped that he was not against wars, only against "dumb" wars). But facts on the ground, as they say, seem to support this move if one is militarily inclined. The US has already lost nearly as many troops in combat Afghanistan in the month of August (today is the 1st) as it did in combat in Iraq for the entire month of July.

Happy Independence Day

Happy Fourth, everyone.