musing on the inauguration

I'm hoping Maya Angelou is chosen to speak on January 20th, like she did for Clinton's inauguration.

I looked up her poem for that day on the googles yesterday. My friend and I were discussing our memories of where we were when Clinton was inaugurated, and I remembered how moved I was by listening to Angelou as her words bloomed into that cold, bright Washington DC morning. I was in my little studio apartment in San Diego, sitting on my bed, watching that event on the TV, with it's rabbit ear antenna pointing toward the ceiling. I remember where I was sitting, and the quality of the light in the room, like it was yesterday.

We mulled over the realization that - since we both remembered where we were during Clinton's first inauguration so clearly - Obama's would be one of those impossible to forget, tattooed-onto-your-memory kind of events that we looked forward to with hearts trembling with joy.

Re-reading "On The Pulse of Morning" again yesterday, with a mind to our newly minted President Elect with his hand raised and speaking the oath of office, made me tear up.

* * *

ON THE PULSE OF MORNING
Maya Angelou

A Rock, A River, A Tree
Hosts to species long since departed,
Marked the mastodon.
The dinosaur, who left dry tokens
Of their sojourn here
On our planet floor,
Any broad alarm of their hastening doom
Is lost in the gloom of dust and ages.

But today, the Rock cries out to us, clearly, forcefully,
Come, you may stand upon my
Back and face your distant destiny,
But seek no haven in my shadow.
I will give you no more hiding place down here.

You, created only a little lower than
The angels, have crouched too long in
The bruising darkness,
Have lain too long
Face down in ignorance.
Your mouths spilling words
Armed for slaughter.
The Rock cries out today, you may stand on me,
But do not hide your face.

Across the wall of the world,
A River sings a beautiful song,
Come rest here by my side.

Each of you a bordered country,
Delicate and strangely made proud,
Yet thrusting perpetually under siege.
Your armed struggles for profit
Have left collars of waste upon
My shore, currents of debris upon my breast.
Yet, today I call you to my riverside,
If you will study war no more. Come,
Clad in peace and I will sing the songs
The Creator gave to me when I and the
Tree and the stone were one.
Before cynicism was a bloody sear across your
Brow and when you yet knew you still
Knew nothing.
The River sings and sings on.

There is a true yearning to respond to
The singing River and the wise Rock.
So say the Asian, the Hispanic, the Jew
The African and Native American, the Sioux,
The Catholic, the Muslim, the French, the Greek
The Irish, the Rabbi, the Priest, the Sheikh,
The Gay, the Straight, the Preacher,
The privileged, the homeless, the Teacher.
They hear. They all hear
The speaking of the Tree.
Today, the first and last of every Tree
Speaks to humankind. Come to me, here beside the River.
Plant yourself beside me, here beside the River.

Each of you, descendant of some passed
On traveller, has been paid for.
You, who gave me my first name, you
Pawnee, Apache and Seneca, you
Cherokee Nation, who rested with me, then
Forced on bloody feet, left me to the employment of
Other seekers--desperate for gain,
Starving for gold.
You, the Turk, the Swede, the German, the Scot
You the Ashanti, the Yoruba, the Kru, bought
Sold, stolen, arriving on a nightmare
Praying for a dream.
Here, root yourselves beside me.
I am the Tree planted by the River,
Which will not be moved.

I, the Rock, I the River, I the Tree
I am yours--your Passages have been paid.
Lift up your faces, you have a piercing need
For this bright morning dawning for you.
History, despite its wrenching pain,
Cannot be unlived, and if faced
With courage, need not be lived again.

Lift up your eyes upon
The day breaking for you.
Give birth again
To the dream.

Women, children, men,
Take it into the palms of your hands.
Mold it into the shape of your most
Private need. Sculpt it into
The image of your most public self.
Lift up your hearts
Each new hour holds new chances
For new beginnings.
Do not be wedded forever
To fear, yoked eternally
To brutishness.

The horizon leans forward,
Offering you space to place new steps of change.
Here, on the pulse of this fine day
You may have the courage
To look up and out upon me, the
Rock, the River, the Tree, your country.
No less to Midas than the mendicant.
No less to you now than the mastodon then.

Here on the pulse of this new day
You may have the grace to look up and out
And into your sister's eyes, into
Your brother's face, your country
And say simply
Very simply
With hope
Good morning

politics, flowers and gifts

El Tinklenberg is not in our district, but we're happy to see Michele Bachmann (Republican, MN 6th congressional district's Rep.) digging her own political grave with her outrageous comments about Barack Obama being 'anti-American'. Apparently the backlash is giving Tinklenberg an edge he needs in his run for her seat. I heard a fellow interviewed while I was listening to MPR yesterday, who said he was a Republican who had been planning to vote for her (again), but said he'd vote for ANYONE other than Bachmann now, so he'd been researching Tinklenberg and thought he looked better than he expected.

This article about Minnesota's former governer also made me quite happy when I saw it yesterday:

Carlson endorses Obama, spurred by Bachmann remarks

The former governor said Obama represented the best hope for an America facing an economic crisis.

Star Tribune
Last update: October 23, 2008 - 8:57 PM

Former Republican Gov. Arne Carlson endorsed Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama on Thursday, saying Obama represented the best hope for an America facing an economic crisis and criticizing Republicans for waging a mean-spirited campaign that has "been going down all these side roads."

Speaking at the State Capitol, where he was introduced by U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., Carlson said his party had strayed from the moderate philosophies of past Republican leaders such as Ohio Sen. Robert Taft and President Dwight Eisenhower. "I consider myself a Republican maverick," Carlson said in explaining his endorsement of Obama.

[snip]

Carlson also took aim at U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann, saying that her controversial remarks of the past week suggesting that Obama may have anti-American views, had led him to endorse the Democratic nominee. After hearing Bachmann's comments, he said he telephoned former Vice President Walter Mondale, the Minnesota Democrat, to tell him of his plan.

(read the rest of the article on their website)

And our local news reports that outraged people keep calling the local Bachman's gardening stores, asking if they're related to Michele Bachmann.

Any connection between flowers, 'anti-American?'

"Larry Pfarr with Bachman’s says Congresswoman Bachmann’s statements have caused a flood of phone calls and e-mails, from those wanting to know if Bachman is tied to Bachmann. "I can reassure everybody that she is no relation to Bachman’s Home Gift and Garden," Pfarr said."

[snip]

Bachman’s is staying out of Bachmann’s political controversy. They want both Republicans and Democrats to buy flowers here.

(Here's the rest of the article and accompanying video)

I haven't been following Tinklenberg's campaign as closely as those in our own district, but I got a chuckle out of this video, care of Tinklenberg For Congress.

daleks for Obama

see more hipster robot webcomics and pixel t-shirts

One of the web comics I follow regularly is Diesel Sweeties. My Mister and I got an extra chuckle out of this particular strip because I've joked about moving to Canada (or Australia for that matter) if the Karl Rove camp stays in power after this election cycle.

But heck, we're in the middle of trying to buy a house. We've made a lot of friends with some really amazing people here in the Twin Cities. We've both got good jobs here, it's a beautiful place to live, and we expect to be in Minnesota for a good long while. So, in all seriousness, we're not going anywhere any time in the foreseeable future.

That said... there are three words that could change my mind. "President Sarah Palin".
*shiver*

Just kidding.

I think.

Global Sign Watch

This story has it all. Human interest. Tension. Kidnapping and maiming of garden gnomes. Internets FTW! Don't steal this family's Obama sign. The world is watching. Literally.

Preston Fosback and his mother, Kristine, were shocked when their Obama sign was stolen one night in April from the front yard of their Portland, Ore., home.

When they put up another one nine days ago, that, too, was swiped within hours. Undeterred, they made their own sign and put it up the next day.

But this time, 16-year-old Preston had a plan: He set up a video camera inside the house and trained it on the sign from behind a window. He figured he would catch the thief on film, should he return. He hooked up the camera to a Web site that provides live streaming. He wrote a few words on the site explaining its purpose.

And then, the handmade sign with red, uneven letters went global.

A few people started watching the video, which shows the sign next to another sign endorsing a local candidate, beside a flowerbed. The only reliable action consists of the occasional car passing in the background.

Still, by that first evening, more than 100 people were watching. The next day, when Preston checked the site during lunch at school, more than 450 were there, not only from around the U.S. but as far away as Australia, Sri Lanka and Japan.

Read the rest of the article at the Wall Street Journal

Watch the sign

disappointed to say the least

Disappointed.

Angry.

Frustrated.

Disgusted.

All good words for how I feel about Obama's vote for the FISA telecom amnesty bill.

Big Night in St. Paul

We got into the Obama event last night, much to my great joy.

The camera gets shaky for a moment as everyone in the hall (including me) leapt to our feet to cheer our hearts out.

I've posted more photos on my flickr page, and will be writing a bit about the experience soon.

The Final Stretch

The race for the Democratic nomination is rounding the last bend tonight, or it should be, as the last primaries are being held today. Barack Obama will be speaking in St. Paul tonight, and my Mister and I will be trying to get one of the 18,000+ seats at the event.

Meanwhile, according to NPR in their article, Clinton Denies Plans to Concede Race to Obama (NPR.org, June 3, 2008):

Clinton said Monday that Obama could get a majority of the delegates now at stake. But as for the total number of delegates needed to win the nomination, the Clinton campaign refuses to concede that 2,118 is the "magic" number.

And in the same article:

The Clinton campaign maintains that she is ahead in the popular vote. This is only true if the disputed Michigan numbers (where Obama was not on the ballot) are counted — and if four caucus states won by Obama are not counted.

I live in one of the caucus states that Obama won. I participated in the Minnesota primary caucus, which was run, as far as I know, fully within the rules of the Democratic National Committee and the Minnesota DFL party.

Hillary Clinton either a) lives in a parallel universe b) her math skills are worse than my own, or c) she's trying to pull a fast one on the US public out of a selfish hunger for power that has driven her to keep draining Obama's campaign of the resources it should be saving up for the run against McCain, rather than admitting she's lost fair and square.

That "fair and square" bit being debatable, since she had no business demanding (or receiving IMHO) delegates from two states that didn't hold their elections according to the agreed upon rules that the rest of the states observed.

First she said all that mattered were the delegates. Then she said it was the popular vote that really matters. Along the line she retconned her role as First Lady regarding the level of her influence in creating international policy and her composure under ( imagined ) sniper fire. Now she wants to fabricate a win in the popular vote using Rove-esque math, and keep dragging us through the divisive mire of further appeals of the delegate allocation process.

Let it go, Hillary. Let us move forward with time still left to patch our party back together so we can face the Republican Party in the coming months as a re-united party, rather than a squabbling pack of ill-mannered children.

Who's side are you on anyway, Hillary?

Tournament of Politics

Campaign 2008 as a Texas Hold'em Tournament.

We've returned from a commercial break, and now join the hand in progress at the final table.
It's still any body's game

We still haven't seen the flop. Bets are being made, three players in the hand, and the players are sizing each other up with a little not-so-friendly banter.

Clinton might be on tilt at this point, judging by her tells. But her image at the table has been a bit erratic, so it's a bit hard to read her. That bluster we've been seeing in the last few hands could be calculated for effect. Her name is well known in poker circles, but this is her first tournament at this level. Even so, she was an early favorite to make it to the final table.

McCain looks confident, and will surely play tight until one of the other two is eliminated. He was short stacked early in the tournament, but he's come back strong. He's virtually guaranteed a spot in heads up, so why waste his chips on a risky bet right now?

And Obama? He's the youngest player in the tournament, and it's also his first presidential tournament. He's holding his own, has been reading his opponents well, and has a good shot at a seat in the final two. He's got some really enthusiastic fans in the audience, and he's representing a strong hand. He's slightly ahead of Clinton, just going by their chip count. But I think he's been the more consistent player throughout, and I'm going with Obama for the win.

How about you, Bob? Who's your pick to win?

Presidential

DSC_1653.jpg
From the Barack Obama flickr page

This photo was posted to the Barack Obama flickr pool. I've read that it was taken by David Turnley

I'm all but holding my breath as the primaries roll on and Clinton and Obama remain so close in delegates.

I don't trust Hillary Clinton. I don't respect how she's been running her campaign. And I don't feel confident that she could bring in a win against John McCain. Not because she's a woman, but because I know so few Democrats who are excited by her, and I know so many Republicans who hate her so much she's guaranteed to bring them to the polls to vote against her, even if they aren't excited by McCain.

Barack Obama, on the other hand, inspires his supporters to near frenzy. I believe he'll bring out the Democratic voters in droves. His campaign needs to do more to dispel the myth that he doesn't have any substantial plans for fixing things.

I was chatting with a fairly liberal friend of mine who was buying that line. I pointed out that there are pages and pages of information on his plans available on his website. Outlines breaking things down for folks with short attention spans, and 10 page PDF files to download with more details than I've seen from any other candidate in as long as I can remember. My friend's reply was that she doesn't spend a lot of time browsing the web, so she'd never seen this information. She reads email a few times a week, and that's about it. Barack Obama's speeches excite and inspire. Now his campaign needs to do a better job of pointing the folks on the fence to the gritty details that don't fit in a rousing stump speech.

Personally, my fingers are crossed for an Obama/Edwards ticket. I think they'd be unstoppable together.

A lively discussion over at WWdN: In Exile

I've been participating in a lively political discussion over at WWdN: In Exile. Part of Wil's original post is quoted below.

It's going to be a huge challenge for our next president to heal this nation, and end the Culture of Fear that's been created by the Bush Administration. I believe that Barack Obama is the best candidate to do that, and I was proud to vote for him today. ~Wil Wheaton

In response to a commenter with the screen name 1BigBank who stated that the Democratic party can't win because of the high proportion of small minded, bigoted people in this country (his full post is here) I posted the following:

@1BigBank: We, as the people of the USA, get to decide what the country is or is not ready for. If Obama or Hillary gets out the vote more effectively than those who have such racist or sexist political views do, we win and they have to become ready pronto. We are only defeated before we begin if we allow ourselves to buy into the "not ready" line and refuse to vote our conscience based on their bigotry.

We may have a long way to go yet for true equality and a level playing field, but we've come long way from where we were.

If we had waited for the country to have been "ready" for the US to accept civil rights such as women's suffrage or African Americans being allowed to integrate with whites, these things would never have happened. They happened because those who were right mobilized their political power to get the right things done, and because of visionary leaders who defied conventional wisdom about what the masses could accept.

I believe this. It's not just pretty words for me. And this year I see such enthusiasm for the Democratic party that I think we have what it takes to make good things happen. I hope that more people can find their hope restored by the swell of support for both Clinton and Obama, and that their hope can inspire others. We can turn things around. We can win the presidency back from the far Right.

In the words of Barack Obama, "Yes we can".

Caucus night

Results

Super Tuesday 2008.

We live in Minnesota where delegates for presidential candidates are selected by caucus. My Mister and I went to our DFL Party precinct caucus in support of Barack Obama. It's late, but I wanted to jot down my impression of the event before turning in for the evening.

People caucusing for the Democratic candidates had the option to arrive at the appointed hour, cast their ballot for presidential candidate, and then leave. And many people did do just that. By the time we arrived they had run out of the official registration sheets, and were making due with additional pads of paper. The Chair from another precinct came by to see if we had any extra forms or pens (they were in another room of the same building), so apparently other precincts were also unprepared for the numbers of people who showed up.

We chose to remain to participate in the rest of the evening's proceedings. The room was full, so many people remained standing from just before 7:00 PM to shortly after 8:00 PM. There were people of all ages there, many of whom (like us) were caucusing for the first time. Our precinct is fairly ethnically diverse (for Minnesota) and I'm glad to say the people in the room seemed to be a decent cross section of the local population.

My Honey and I opted to become district delegates. Our precinct is allowed 30 delegates, and 32 people nominated themselves. Two of them volunteered to be alternate delegates instead, so the numbers worked themselves out such that the nominations did not need to come to a vote. So March 15th, my Honey and I will be attending the county-unit convention as precinct delegates.

In addition to choosing delegates for the county convention, resolutions were raised, debated and voted upon to be sent on for consideration in the party platform for 2008. The vote breakdown among those 141 people was:

John Edwards 1
Hillary Clinton 34
Barack Obama 106

Of the 141 people who came to vote for a presidential candidate, 50 remained behind for the rest of the event, which I understand is roughly 5 times the number who usually choose to participate in this particular precinct.

We held a straw poll among those remaining 50 people to determine how support for the candidates for Senate broke down. Those (non-binding) votes were:

Al Franken 28
Mike Ciresi 6
Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer 3
Undecided 13

Among the resolutions that were voted upon there were several regarding support for affordable health care, one opposed to profiteering by corporations in industries that are part of the country's infrastructure (oil, telecom, etc.) and two on the topic of education.

Resolution-wise, the most notable, IMHO, was one stating the precinct's position against any attempt to alter the state constitution to discriminate against GLBT couples. There have been recent attempts by the conservative politicians in Minnesota to add an amendment to our constitution banning same-sex marriage, and the issue is likely to come up again with the next legislative session. They've been unsuccessful so far. And I'm happy to report that this particular resolution passed unanimously, so our opposition to such amendments has gone on record.

So as I wrap this up, Minnesota has reported results of 67% of the vote going to Obama. Hillary is still ahead in nation-wide results, but not so far ahead that it's definitely over. My Mister and I are holding out hope that when they divvy up the delegates and the Super Delegates make their commitments Obama can still pull out a win.

See more of my photos and additional comments on the caucus in my flickr photos.

People are scary

So I was watching the news tonight on BBC America to see what our primary elections look like to other folks, and I just about choked on my beverage.

They showed a radio talk show host taking calls from his listeners, and a lady was calling in to complain about McCain's policies. Specifically, she complained about his being against torture. She then, in a civilized tone of voice said, "I'm pro-torture."

First of all, well DUH, McCain is against torture. I mean, come on lady, the man was a prisoner of war and on the receiving end of torture. And how can a person in a country that takes pride in words like "freedom" and "justice" wrap her mouth around words like, "I'm pro-torture." I assume to people like that "justice" is only valuable when it's applied to people of their choosing.

Ick.

Ick ick ick ick...

Did we ever have just a little bit of moral high ground to stand on? Can we have it back, please?

Does that anonymous woman realize that by advocating torture, she's giving up any right to be outraged if torture is used on our own people? I have family in the military. Are they worth protecting, even if she thinks torture might be useful? Which, I do not believe it is. But even if it were useful, is it worth that risk? That sacrifice? What about civilians traveling abroad? Where does the line get drawn?

I mentioned it to my friend, Tym, and he said, "People are scary."

That sums it up for me right now.

This is one of the big reasons I'm going to vote in the caucus tomorrow. This is a real part of why I'm voting for Barack Obama and Al Franken.

* * *

Our biggest problem with the Bush administration is that for us it's déjà vu all over again. We spent six years watching the man as governor of Texas, the basis for our 1999 book, Shrub. We were tempted to begin this book by observing, "If y'all had've read the first book we wouldn't've had to write this one." Cooler heads prevailed.

From Bushwhacked: Life in George W. Bush's America
By Molly Ivins and Lou Dubose

Yes We Can - Barack Obama Music Video

I believe that a leader like Barack Obama could help us regain some of our lost respect in the world. If you're an undecided voter in the US, and your state is casting it's ballots on Super Tuesday, please watch this video. And consider giving Obama your vote.