I’ve been watching the responses of various friends and acquaintances in regards to the news of the Election outcome, and it’s brought me to one conclusion. There’s something I need to say to all of you…

CHILL THE FUCK OUT!!!

Obama won, if you love it- great. If you hate it- fine. But everyone needs to chill the fuck out some.

McCain supporters, sucks for you that your guy lost, but he did. Crying racism, anti-christ, liberal media, and flat out End of the World isn’t going to suddenly make him President. He lost for many reasons, many of them his own, now is the time to accept it, deal with it, and get back to focusing on the big problems our country faces (and I swear to god if I hear one of you say “having an a-rab in office is the big problem our country faces” I will kick the shit out of your face, ok?) now we need to all buckle down and work on- the economy, lack of U.S. businesses, energy reform, foreign policy, etc… We all need to do it together. Continuing to hold on to negative bipartisan feelings will not do the country any favors.

Obama supporters, you have to understand that some of McCain’s die-hards are going to completely fucking hate you for a while. There was a whole lot of emotion invested by both sides, a borderline religious fervor, and so those feelings are going to have to cool with time, patience, and understanding. Of course, when most of you tout Obama as pretty much the second coming, of course there will be those who see him in the opposite light. He’s a man. Our country has come a long way in electing a minority into head office, in a race that has also prominently featured females, so it’s been a great day for progress, but in the end we still elected a human being. He’s not a god people, you can relax. And just because the color of the skin of the man in office has changed, doesn’t mean anything else has… yet. Just like I told McCain’s supporters above, we’ve not even STARTED fixing the country yet. Tighten your belts, buckle down, and get ready for the hard part. Casting your vote was easy, what comes next won’t be, but we still all need to work to make the changes needed to bring this country to an even higher plateau than it’s known before. So don’t get all cocky cuz your guy won. We’re not out of the woods yet.

Again, please, I beg of you. For the good of the country, everyone calm the fuck down. There’s a great potential future for our country but blind hate or blind adoration will not get us there. Hard work, and working together, will.

Just as I was musing that today feels like Christmas Eve for the politically obsessed, I came across this poem.

Thanks Feisty Charlie!

‘Twas the day before the election, when all through the news
The pundits and pollsters were spouting their views.

The candidates were running around all the states,
Praying like hell there would be no mistakes.

Sarah Palin was crying about the media and elite,
While John McCain was busy throwing out red meat.

And no matter how hard they seem to try,
Everyone saw right through their lies.

I think Sarah Palin needs to buy herself a clue,
In addition to her brand new expensive suit.

John McCain will regret choosing Palin one day,
I do believe that is what the history books will say.

Read the full story

So, really I should be out Halloween partying with my friends, but sadly I have drill this weekend which entails waking up before the butt crack of dawn for a 3-or-so hour drive to the armory, so instead I’m just about to call it a night… but before I do- there’s something gnawing on my mind.

There’s a record number of early/absentee votes pouring in this election, more than was projected, which is leading to an even bigger projection of how many people will be voting altogether.  Groovy, lots of votes means more of the American public getting involved in the system that requires their involvement to even function a quarter of the way it’s supposed to…

But at the same time, I know there’s many people who are abusing the early voting procedure just so they can vote now instead of on Election Day.  Why?  I dunno, guess it seemed a good idea at the time.  The one thing I can’t help but wonder though, is whether or not they’re going to help or hinder the very causes and Candidates that they’re supporting.  Somehow I can’t get around the concern that somehow this abundance of early voters is going to be used to skew the Election in one direction or another, because we all know it’s not like our Gov’t has ever botched vote counting before.

Not to mention if all the polls about the early votes seem to be pointing strongly in favor of one Candidate over another (granted no one will be officially releasing those results until the first set of posted results on Election Day, but right now it seems to be mostly Democrats who participated in the early voting and one would have to assume they’re backing Obama) it makes you wonder if undecideds will go with the flow of the majority, or act in a more reactionary way and go against the majority when it comes time for them to make their vote…

I don’t know, it’s just something that was rattling around in my pre-sleep contemplations.  Election season really needs to end so I can go back to dreaming about girls…

After the essential non-event that was the first Presidential Debate last week, this week we have the potential Veeps taking the stage. Obama and McCain gave us little to go off of other than what we already knew about them and essentially left the stage in a draw, though as days have gone by and more scrutiny has been placed on the debate many would point to Obama as the winner, much of which could be due to McCain’s obvious disdain for his opponent. Though a continued smolder and tight grimace is arguably better than the explosion of temper that could’ve happened as McCain has displayed in his past. So the Reps have to be happy about that at least.

So now it’ll be Biden (who made an appearance after the debate to lend to the discussion) and Palin (who rarely makes any sort of an appearance except in restaurants where she can occationally be found to make statements that go in direct opposition to her running mate’s positions) taking to the podiums.

What kind’ve strategy (or would it be tactics?) do the Vice Presidential candidates need to employ to win this election? Well, Palin has a few things going for her- no one expects anything good from her, she’ll have a chance to do her “pitbull” attack directly in her opponent’s face which is exactly what her base desires of her, and should Biden go from defense to offense in return he’ll be seen as bullying (you can ask Hillary Clinton all about that… gee, seems sexism can run in favor of the very people who claim it from time to time, can’t it?). So basically Palin needs to keep her answers short and sweet, stick to what she knows, and do her best to be funny and biting with her criticisms. Biden won’t be able to do anything in response to the latter, and as for the answers to questions- she needs to stay away from riffing, because that tends to be when she proves just how little she actually knows (sounds a little like our current Prez doesn’t it?).

Biden on the other hand is not exempt from making verbal slips himself, and will need to do much the same in the short and sweet answer vein. If anything, Biden needs to keep from overexposing himself and overplaying his hand. When asked a question, show that he has a grasp of the topic, express the policy choices that he and Obama are making, and leave it at that. He also needs to keep from adressing Palin too much, especially in the way that McCain was addressing Obama. No comments of inexperience, no comments of being naive, and don’t go on the attack when she’s brutally wrong and floundering. The reporters and commentators and analysts will handle that more than enough when the debate is over. If Biden plays too heavy handed he could come across as a bully, and that’s the last thing the Dems need right now, because it would give Palin a free pass.

If anything Biden needs to attack the man who won’t be there, and that’s McCain. Obama was too reserved to score a KO punch on any of the opportunities he was given.

So what will be the result of this Debate? Well, if Biden comes out ahead, no one will be shocked or surprised, but it’s likely more of the undecided middle will lean towards Obama and Biden as McCain comes across as prickly and arrogant after his last appearance, and it’s likely that Palin’s (I’m sorry, I have no other word for it) cattiness and lack of understanding of questions or answers will prove too frightening a combination. If Palin somehow managed to recover amazingly from past media Q&A sessions and is suddenly eloquent and well informed on all things Executive Branch related it will be a major coup for the Reps and could calm the fears that even many in their own base have about Palin.

Part of me is almost hoping for a complete train wreck in this week’s Debate to prove just how much of a farce this whole thing has become, but at the same time, no one will really benefit from that. Rather, I hope everyone can get their shit together and we can get past the bluff and bluster and the American public can actually learn something about the people who could potentially be a last breath away from being the President themselves.

Watch the debate Live from Washington University in St. Louis on Thursday, October 2nd at 8pm CST.

Arguably the worst Prime Minister ever to grace the Israeli Knesset, Ehud Olmert,  is expected to step down this weekend after Foreign Affairs Minister Tzipi Livni (who I endearingly call ‘Zip Zip’) was elected by her party last night to succeed him.

Livni is the second female Isreali Prime Minister.

In her first speech since being declared the winner of the Kadima primary elections, Tzipi Livni said the party had proven “that there is a different kind of politics. For a very long time I was told there was no such thing, and today Kadima proved that there is.”

Is that “change we can believe in”, Ms. Livni?

You know who else loves Ms. Zip?  Condoleezza Rice.

In related news, only 46 days until America votes their own loser out of office.

….because if Obama is elected president, it’ll boost membership.  This may possibly be the most backward logic I’ve ever read.  Then again, we are dealing with supremacists here.

Senator Barack Obama became the first African-American to accept the Democratic Party’s nomination for president Thursday.

The historic event prompted a Montgomery, Alabama, Civil Rights organization to gauge how white supremacists might react to an Obama presidency.

A Southern Poverty Law Center investigation shows most white supremacist groups support Obama’s candidacy. It’s not the result they expected.

“What was really unexpected was that a very large number of white supremacists, including some of their intellectual leaders, like David Duke, were saying actually, this could be a good thing for us,” explained the SPLC’s Mark Potok.

Potok heads the Intelligence Project, which monitors hate groups nationwide.

An article in the project’s newly released magazine, The Intelligence Report, indicates white supremacists feel an Obama administration would boost their membership rolls.

Barack Obama, a candidate widely recognized for his bi-racial background, beat out white men and a white woman to earn the Dem nomination.  A large step in racial equality some would think (no comment on what it may say about gender equality- I’ll leave that commentary for Nancy Pelosi) but how does the average white American feel about voting for a non-white candidate?

Over half of white Americans still think he is a risky choice. A Washington Post and ABC News survey has reportedly termed Republican John McCain as a safe pick.

Over 40 per cent of white Americans believe Obama has the experience to make a good president but they raise concerns over him over-representing the interests of African-Americans.

However, the good news for him is that nine out of ten people are open to the idea of electing an African-American president.

But the criticisms don’t stop with worries that he’ll be too focused on issues that face African-Americans.  Actually, now there are criticisms being put forth that worry he’s not focusing enough on those issues in a bid to play it safe in order to appeal to white America.  And they’re coming from an unlikely source…

“There’s only one thing different about Barack Obama when it comes to being a Democratic presidential candidate. He’s half African-American,” (Presidential Candidate Ralph) Nader said. “Whether that will make any difference, I don’t know. I haven’t heard him have a strong crackdown on economic exploitation in the ghettos. Payday loans, predatory lending, asbestos, lead. What’s keeping him from doing that? Is it because he wants to talk white? He doesn’t want to appear like Jesse Jackson? We’ll see all that play out in the next few months and if he gets elected afterwards.”

Seems like a damned if you do, damned if you don’t scenario.  Of course, I could make a comment about Nader’s history of “taking votes away from Democrats” but really by this point… there is no point.  I am disgusted with the 2 party system, but we’ve really yet to have any reasonable 3rd party candidates, so… what can you do?

Or if not them, the folks they surround themselves with. 

Hillary Clinton (who’s resignation I missed due to being away for a 3 week military engagement, but I still delighted in the knowledge once I received it) is obviously no longer in the race- but staying in as long as she did, she destroyed herself financially to the tune of nearly $10 million in debt.  So now she’s asking all her supporters that gave up their money for her failed campaign bid to pony up some more dough, because she’s now drowning in her own over-spending.  Well Hill, on behalf of the American public, welcome to how the rest of us are feeling in the current financial state of the union: debt as a way of life.

Barack Obama has made his own minor political gaffe in the past few days by using a mock-up of the Presidential Seal as an emblem on his lecternduring a meeting between himself and Dem. state Governors which drew some criticisms over the weekend.  The Obama campaign has said it was a one time only appearance for the emblem, with some members saying Obama himself felt a little embarrassed by the whole thing.  The emblem was comprised of the same eagle holding arrows and olive branch that denote war and piece as seen on the Presidential Seal, and also carried the words “Vero possumus” or loosely translated from latin: “Yes, we can”.  Presumptuous?  Perhaps, but really a very minor snafu in the great context of things. 

The Republicans are not off the hook in terms of embarrassment, as one of John McCain’s aides made a statement that McCain has found himself apologizing for, and that his opponent Obama’s campaign has already jumped on.  The statement in question being made by Charlie Black, a top advisor to McCain, said that the McCain campaign would benefit greatly from another terror attack taking place on American soil.  McCain went into damage control, telling reporters “I cannot imagine why he would say it. It’s not true. I’ve worked tirelessly since 9/11 to prevent another attack on the United States of America. My record is very clear.”  However, one has to look at the validity of the statement, with McCain’s major platform being his aggressive stance against “global terror”, he’d probably do well to have some of that terror brought back to the front of people’s minds, leading to the same style of voting that saw George W. Bush re-elected (or just plain elected depending on who you ask) in ‘04, thinking only a “War President” could carry us through the strife of a continued war against “threats to our way of life”. 

But that’s just me riffing…

Hillary Clinton has found herself under intense fire from all sides now after a comment made Friday during an interview which some say suggests she’s waiting to see if perhaps something bad might happen to Barack Obama.
And by something bad we’re not referring to scandal, illness, or even a change of heart, nope-
She has (and not for the first time) invoked the assassination of RFK in June of 1968 after he had won the California Primary.

Now, is this comment unfortunate?  Highly.  I can recall numerous occasions of sitting around with co-workers who speculated that if Obama were to be elected, there would be more than enough loonies hanging around ready to shoot him for not being a white man.  Powerful, influential, well spoken, politically active, socially conscious black men have a rough history in this country.  As do young, change invoking, crowd rallying political figures.  Obama is both of these.

Is Hillary really suggesting that she might just be waiting for great tragedy to strike so she can step into the position?  We all know that the Clintons can be cold, calculating power-mongers.  But I would greatly hope this is just another verbal misstep by a candidate for whom the fight has been long and hard and is nearing a weary end.

Then again, to keep an image like this is the minds and on the tongues of the American public during such a high charged election season is foolish at best, reckless and dangerous at worst. 

Race, Gender, Party Affiliation, War, Failing Economy, Global Disasters- all of these heated topics are major parts of this election.  Extreme violently personal responses are not unheard of when it comes to any of these issues.

“We all remember Bobby Kennedy was assassinated in June in California.” She said to the LA Times. 

Yes Senator, we do.  It’s the very reason that Obama has had Secret Service with him since last May, 18 months before the election, and earlier than any candidate before him.

For your viewing pleasure dear reader- I leave you with Clinton’s comments in their full context, followed by one of the more heated responses she’s recieved from the news media.  Make your judgements for yourself.