Twittering

Clinton Has to Surrender Charity Work

        Will someone who is smarter than me please explain to me why Bill Clinton is having to step aside from all his charity work as Hillary Clinton becomes Secretary of State? I could see how there would be an occasional conflict and he would have to bow out, but why would he have to completely divorce himself from some of the initiatives he is passionate about?

This is Your Nation on White Privlege

        This is a brilliant article on White Privilege that so captures the issues in our national discourse.

Quote of the Day

Comes from Davenetics:

Going from eight years of Bush to an Obama win means one thing quite clearly. For those who still had any doubt, it’s now official. Evolution is not just a theory.

Agreed

Agreed.

An Open Apology to Boomers

This article that showed up in the Salon today captures exactly how I feel, and my overall world view. It's so on target, I'm jealous I didn't write it.

Living the Obama Rally

        Moments after 10 p.m., when the bell sounded indicating CNN was prepared to call another state, the people fell silent for just a brief instant, like the sliver of white line defining the horizon between the sea and the sky. In one fell swoop, Wolf Blitzer called California, Oregon, and Washington all solidly for Barack Obama, pushing his electoral college vote over the 270 he needed.
        The ground shook as the people exploding into cheers, tears, laughter, high-fives, strangers hugging strangers, and lovers embracing lovers. Thunderous ovation plundered.
        The jumbo-tron flashed to a live shot of Grant Park.
        Oprah was with the people.
        And Reverend Jessie Jackson stood silently somber, a lifetime of work come to fruition, tears running down his face. The people danced around him.
        A fallen war hero, Senetor John McCain appeared on the jumbo-tron.
        “My friends.” He hushed the people into silence as they watched and listened intently. He spoke of his admiration for Barack Obama, and his accomplishment not only as the first African-American to be elected to office, but as a man who persevered through the campaign while inspiring millions who felt they had no stake, or could make no difference.
        “I deeply admire and commend him for achieving.”

        The shadow of nearly eight years of fear, and terror, and war begin to melt away.
        “Ladies and Gentlemen, presenting the next First Family of the United States of America.”
        Michelle and Barack walked across the stage, a bounce in their step. Malia and Sasha ran forward. Their faces--the whole family--beamed of youth, energy, optimism, and hope.
        Obama approached the podium.
        “Change has come to America.”

        When Obama finished speaking, the people retreated back into the city. Spirits high, they yelled in the gullies of high rises, and danced on State Street. A mass of humanity from all walks of life, all backgrounds, all experiences, making its way through the city, high on hope. High on a common vision of optimism.
        The last time we felt that feeling was in 1996 on the streets of Atlanta during the Centennial Olympic Games.
        For a brief moment--an evening--we could feel how living in a diverse world is supposed to feel. Change is opportunity. Opportunity is challenge. Challenge makes us better people. Better people come together. Together, we can do it, yes we can.

More on the Obama Election Night Rally
        Tony’s Obama Rally Photoset
        Tim’s Obama Rally Photoset, Includes a few videos
        Tony’s Twitter Page
        Tim’s Twitter Page
        Chicagoist’s live-blogging report on the Obama Rally with Tim’s contributions
        Chicagoist’s Obama Rally Photo Galley I
        Chicagoist’s Obama Rally Photo Galley II
        Chicagoist’s Obama Rally Photo Galley III

Was that Tony on NBC?
        Yes, we bumped into Kevin Tibbles moments before he went live, and Tony jumped in the background. And the facial hair? Yeah, that’s new, too. Tim was busy snapping photos.

Special Thanks
        Special thanks to Jessica, a.k.a. Little Mary Sunshine, who was able to get us the tickets so that we could tag along as “+1.”

Follow Us on Twitter at the Grant Park Obama Rally

        Hundreds of thousands of people are expected to gather Tuesday night in Chicago’s lakefront Grant Park, where Senator Barack Obama will speak from a stage facing the skyline. And we have tickets for the ticketed event in Hutchinson Field.
        We’ll have our cameras and cell phones in hand, and will be “live blogging” via Twitter. You’ll be able to follow-along on our Twitter pages:
        Tony’s Twitter Page
        Tim’s Twitter Page

What is the Barack Obama Rally?
        Check out the Tribune’s Guide to the Rally
        Tribune Photos
        Grant Park Map

What is Twitter?
        Twitter is a service that allows people to stay in touch through the exchange of quick, frequent messages. Registered users of Twitter can “follow” us to have messages pushed to your own Twitter page, or even as a text message on your cell phone. Check out Twitter now.

Vote to Cancel Out Your Neighbor

Why Conservatives Vote for Obama

This is a great video about the logic that conservative voters are putting into their decision on who to vote fore. They're putting country first.

An Important Civics Lesson

Release 'Patriotism,' Or I'll Hold 'Gay' Hostage

        I’ll give the word ‘gay’ back when right-wing republicans give the word ‘patriotic’ back. This morning, reporter on NPR was speaking with a woman about the differences between Barack Obama and John McCain. She was citing McCain’s past, demonstrating he was more patriotic than Obama--implying serving in the military and being a P.O.W. is more patriotic than leaving private practice to serve in public office.
        But that’s not my understanding of the requirements necessary for one to be patriotic. You know, when I was in elementary school, I received gold stars every quarter for citizenship, so I consider myself a bit of an expert in the area. And growing up, my understanding of what it meant to be patriotic was a little more global than being a P.O.W.
        I was taught that it was people like John McCain who helped to create a world where we could be patriotic without fighting, a world where each of us could demonstrate our patriotism in our unique ways. With roots firmly planted in a small fishing and timber town along the southern coast of Oregon, in my redneck background being patriotic meant, above all, respecting yourself enough to respect the people around you regardless of what they think because we each have a God-given right to think and believe what we think and believe.
        But McCain and the radical platform he panders to have altered the meaning of patriotic. If you disagree, you’re not only un-patriotic, but you’re pro-terrorist. If you question authority, you’re more than disrespectful, you’re unpatriotic. They’ve even pushed so far to suggest that if you live in an urban area, you’re not American. Obama has pointed out there are no states in this union of United States of America that are less American than another state.
        In the redneck backwoods I come from, being patriotic meant that you had the ability to question authority in order to hold it accountable. It meant you were free to speak your mind, as long as it didn’t break the respect-yourself-enough-to-respect-the-people-around-you rule. It meant taking pride in your freedoms, and your ability to demonstrate your pride by saluting the flag, or burning the flag. Marching in a demonstration, or watching a demonstration. Voting for the candidate who already holds the office, or voting for the candidate that you think will represent you in a new and different way.
        So until the McCain cronies get a grip on the true meaning of patriotism, I’m going to demonstrate my terrorist inclination and hold the word ‘gay’ hostage. Not only will it be ‘happy,’ but it’s going to represent a sinful inclination for pink cocktails. It’s going to mean an immoral embrace of both the feminine and masculine. It’s going to represent a sense of style and fashion, combined with a biting humor and wit. It will mean invoking the words of the United States Constitution to point out the injustices that still live in our country. And, I’ll it means I will thoughtlessly worship Dolly Parton.
        Oh, wait, she’s patriotic; I’ll thoughtlessly worship Cher.

Battleground for Your Heart

I love it when boy bands are being created to battle against McCain.

Misses Palin, I Made This Telescope For You

Cracking the Case on Joe the Plumber

Sarah Palin's Best Gay Friend

Jeff 4 GBBF!

Hysterical!

Why Do People Vote Republican?

        University of Virginia’s Associate Professor of Psychology Jonathan Haidt has some very thought-provoking ideas on why people vote Republican. He contemplates the foundation of a moral society, and that it’s more than just how we treat each other (what the Democrats focus on). But it’s also about sustaining and supporting societal institutions (country, family) that provide a hierarchy that guarantees moral order. So while most of America is hurt by Republican policy, they actually prefer their presentation of moral clarity.
        Haidt goes on to suggest that if the Democrats are going to succeed, they need to more fully embrace the full spectrum of American mural concerns.

Hockey Moms for Truth

Go Obama

Why don't we see change like this from McCain?

McCain's Integrity

        Brilliant article by Andrew Sullivan on McCain’s integrity. Forget how Palin or McCain is playing to the general public; McCain’s actions are speaking so much louder than any of the sound bytes or talking points.

Never Gonna' Give You Up

We just knew it was only a matter of time before that dreadful "green screen" behind McCain was transformed into something brilliant like this.



Whoever art directed the video images behind McCain paid more attention to how the background would appear to convention attendees than it would to television audiences.

An Open Letter to Sarah Palin

        Thanks to Jessica, who posted this on her blog, too.

Hello All,
        I just can't refrain from sharing this piece with you which I wrote this morning after Sarah Pallin's appalling speech last night! I was so outraged by her smarmy sarcasm! This piece has just been picked up by Women's Feature Service, a syndicate to which I regularly contribute, so I am prohibited from submitting it to major dailies. However, feel free to share as widely as you'd like!

Elayne Clift
PO Box 299
Saxtons River, Vt 05154 USA
802-869-2686/fax 2687
eclift@vermontel.net
www.elayneclift.com

AN OPEN LETTER TO SARAH PALIN

        Okay, you did it. You hoodwinked your party and a lot of other Americans too, I suspect, with your cheerleader’s charm and your finger-waving fervor. You got yourself called “Hottest VP.” Some say you “knocked it out of the park.” Well, I think you should be knocked out of the park, Sarah, and here’s why.
        First, your hypocrisy is astounding. How can you possibly say that something like an unplanned pregnancy is a personal matter deserving of privacy? Doesn’t every woman who grapples with a painful abortion decision deserve the same privacy? What rock have you been living under that enables you to advocate for abstinence-only sex education when you can’t even teach that dubious value to your own daughter? Why do you speak of love and support for children (including the unborn) when your party refuses to legislate policies that would offer them decent healthcare and early childhood education and provide their mothers with a modicum of support, including paid maternity leave?
        You are a selfish woman, Sarah, with dubious priorities. “J’accuse”, as writer Emile Zola wrote -- but you must pardon me for exposing my elitist education -- because as a mother myself, I cannot fathom how you would subject a teenage daughter in trouble to the kind of public scrutiny she now must endure in the interest of your own ambitions. At the risk of sounding like a failed feminist, I must also say that being the mother of a special needs child too, I just don’t get how you can abdicate the desperately important advocacy and monitoring that will be required in these first years of your son’s life. (I know your husband is deeply involved and responsible, but believe me, Sarah, no one does it like a mom.) As you said yourself, “Children with special needs inspire special love.” Where is your special love, Sarah? Family values, I might remind you, are not just a set of lofty ideals wrapped in grandiose rhetoric; they involve making hard choices in the best interest of everyone in the family.
        By now many people are finding you either mean-spirited or remarkably ignorant. I think you are both. Nothing revealed these characteristics so much or so shockingly as your attack (and Rudy Guliani’s) on community organizing. “I guess a small town mayor is sort of like a ‘community organizer’ except that you have actual responsibilities,” you said. Don’t you get it, Sarah? Community organizing is what your beloved faith-based charities do! Community organizing by women all around this country is what happened in the 1970s and 80s to enable you to be taken seriously as a candidate for vice president, and to stand, God forbid, a heartbeat away from being the CEO of the most powerful country on earth. Community organizing is what got us the Americans with Disabilities Act which will serve your son well as he matures. I will never, ever, forgive you, Sarah, for your snide, sarcastic, demeaning, despicable disrespect for one of America’s finer traditions – or for your surly attacks on the media, America’s Fourth Estate and a pillar of any democracy.
        Your much anticipated coming out party was billed as a way for all of us to get to know who you are. Well, Sarah, I know who you are. You are the bully in the sandbox, the teenager who thinks she can get her way by being flirtatious, the adult who thinks she can get by without doing the hard work and get ahead without paying much dues, the politician who believes that lies are more expedient than facts. I know who you are, Sarah, and I don’t like or trust you. I find you duplicitous, shallow, insulting and frighteningly retro – all qualities I am terrified to contemplate in a V.P. or a president.
        For the record, by the way, here are just a few reasons, reported by the Associated Press, that I find you duplicitous and dishonest:

• You said you had protected taxpayers by vetoing wasteful spending but the truth is that as mayor of Wasilla you hired a lobbyist and went to Washington every year to support earmarks for the town totaling $27 million. Since you’ve been governor Alaska has requested nearly $750 million in special federal funding, the largest per capital request in the country. And that Bridge to Nowhere? You only dropped the idea after it was ridiculed nationally.
• You accused Barack Obama of never having authored a major law or reform, “not even in the state senate.” The fact is that as a new senator Mr. Obama worked in a bipartisan way to pass federal legislation, now law, that helped intercept illegal shipments of WMDs and made it harder to stockpile conventional weapons. He also co-sponsored major ethics reform legislation.
• You falsely accuse Mr. Obama of planning to raise all kinds of taxes without fully sharing his complete and complex tax plan. In reality, just for starters, the McCain-Palin plan would raise taxes for middle income taxpayers by 3% while the Obama-Biden plan would provide $80 billion in tax breaks, mainly for poor workers and the elderly.
• You and Mr. McCain continue to inflate your experience and role as governor in a state that ranks 47th in terms of population. For example, you may be in charge of your state’s national guard, but your authority does not include calling those guards into actual military service. (Alaska has one of the smallest state guards in the country, by the way.) Contrary to what John McCain has claimed, you do not have national security as one of your primary responsibilities.

        Sarah, Sarah, Sarah. Even your own political pundits, Peggy Noonan and Mike Murphy, were caught by a live mike calling your speech “political [expletive]” and bemoaning the fact that “It’s over.” Honey, I’m afraid that as the truth keeps surfacing and folks get beyond your being a “hotty,” and when you must finally respond to the press on the Sunday morning talk shows or at press conferences, and when the spotlight shines down upon you as you debate your formidable, experienced opponent you will no longer be the toast of your party. You will simply be toast. And that’s something I wouldn’t find hard to swallow at all.

Elayne Clift writes about women, politics and social issues from Saxtons River, Vermont.

The Real Sarah Palin

        These quotes provide so much insight into a woman who’s callous approach to the world is itself the worst enemy to all women.

She Was Allowed a Decision?

        Republican VP presumptive nominee Sarah Palin announced today that her teenage daughter is pregnant. McCain posted a statement from Governor Palin and her husband Todd:

        We have been blessed with five wonderful children who we love with all our heart and mean everything to us. Our beautiful daughter Bristol came to us with news that as parents we knew would make her grow up faster than we had ever planned. We're proud of Bristol's decision to have her baby and even prouder to become grandparents. As Bristol faces the responsibilities of adulthood, she knows she has our unconditional love and support.
        Bristol and the young man she will marry are going to realize very quickly the difficulties of raising a child, which is why they will have the love and support of our entire family. We ask the media to respect our daughter and Levi's privacy as has always been the tradition of children of candidates.

        “We’re proud of Bristol’s decision to have her baby...”? 1) She’s a minor, and I thought minors don’t have rights. And, 2) Isn’t the concept behind the pro-life movement that a woman shouldn’t have the ability to decide?

If You're Gonna Be Talkin' Family Values...

This Needs No Introduction

Just in Time for the Election

        My friend Richard sent me a link to this