Tired?

"....put your hand on the arc of history and bend it once more for a brighter day....."
-President Elect Barack Obama, 11-4-2008.

Barack Obama didn't just suddenly become the President of the Untied States last week. During the the past couple of weeks he has exhibited an almost unnatural calm and an air of destiny..His grasp of the situation made it seem like this day was almost just a formality, and besides the fact that those of us who watch this stuff closely have been twisted in worry that the machinations of men or technology might prevent that which seemed a foregone conclusion, it felt done even before the states toppled.
The Obama family, along with the Bidens looked so crisp and shiny on the hi-def, and the hope in the moist eyes of the crowd ...the tears streaming down Jesse Jackson's face...the celebrating throngs jammed outside of the the white house fence; because its really ours, you know!
As an exclamation point on the historic change that has taken place, the new guys have opened up President-elect shop here. I find it heartening and touching because it is not only,as Jill says, a big hat tip to the Dean-genius grass-roots Internet explosion, but it asks us for our input and stories; it engages all Americans to reach towards their leaders and tell them something...anything....And, I don't care if its just bullshit that some secretary is skimming over in the basement by the standpipe...Its a moment in history that will exist on the Internets and in the ether for as long as this little ball falls around the sun.

Its been a long 8 years, and the trauma of it for some of us isn't gonna just rub off...celebrating the end of the Bush era and the dawn of hope, and realizing the importance of this thing; something so small and taken for granted; that in the face of fear and threats and the tight grip of a huge machine backed by big business robbing us blind, we have our vote, and with that we can do something. It is less about the top spot than it is about the landslide of defeats across the country!

Its that Chris Shays lost BIG, which is a big fuck you to Joementum Lieberman. Here in CT people were saying that Joe has been neutered....Just ask Harry Reid, and watch Joe hem and haw and squirm while he tries to explain again how it was such a hard decision for him to make to throw his party under the bus because he thinks he knows whats best for the country!..and after watching him for months, standing behind John McCain, my supposed democratic representative, ignoring every promise he ever made, in order to to step over the dead bodies of public servants who really wanted to improve the country in order to improve his own lot in life...too caught up in a doctrine that he really didn't seem to grasp...on that required him to be the Jew sacrifice in the end days scenario....Fuck Joe and fuck Chris Shays and their weak-assed supporters who knew they were bad for us but were afraid of the unknown, or who just wanted their fucking tax break to remain intact at the expense of our entire s0ciety circling the drain ! So long...don't let the door hit you on the way out. Maybe now we can get to work on real statewide health care and reforming our social services division...not to mention putting the money back into our schools!

This is where the sacrifice begins, and though President Elect Obama only hinted at it in his victory speech, I hope that he really lays it out well, so that those who expect the country to bounce right back will begin to understand how deep the hole is that we are digging out of. This is gonna cost money and its gonna take time. Its gonna require concentration and an attention span, or at least trust in our leaders to be moving us back towards being a society that serves all of its people. In a global era, Americans have to realize some stark truths; we are not on this planet alone and we don't each automatically get a flat screen TV just for being born. Credit cards are not just free money, and no one owes you anything beyond the best society that we can build as a society together, realizing that we are only as strong as the children that we educate and give a hand up towards knowledge and success.

It was a historic night, and the pessimist in me is a little voiced devil on one shoulder whispering that they're all liars while the hopeful kid is pushing forward thinking maybe, maybe, maybe...
In Jesse Jackson's face you could see the years of the years of marches, the blood of his friend Martin laying on that balcony that day, the failures and struggles and inhuman treatment that has left its enduring mark on us all, but yet still allows our society to produce this shining and beautiful moment.
Obama accepts his place as if its was always destined to be that way, and perhaps it was.

I like him. What I don't much like these days is the American people, half of whom seem content to be greedy pigs regardless of what is going on around them. There is a shamelessness in this country that has grown out of this idea that all we are good for is to be consumers and that we deserve stuff...lots of it. I think that encouraging Americans to be come producers again might just get our asses in gear. Maybe high tariffs on imported goods, like the crap at Walmart, might just snap us back into a world where everything isn't so disposable.

We are blessed with this land that used to be a land of abundance, and we have squandered our principal away at the roulette wheels of unfettered capitalism. It is not our right to be the most powerful or the richest and safest nation in the world. we have to work for it and use our great fortune in so many things to enrich society as a whole rather than just a select few who seem to have forgotten the trickle down part of this setup.

In the beginning of this bizarre nightmare, a few bright lights shone out of the Internets and the radio box, (forget the TV, besides West Wing as a total fantasy of what could never be,) as another great punctuation mark on the Bush years and all that has torn us apart, Jill had this from Crooks and Liars: Irrelevant!Well worth a look if you want to keep in mind the faces of those who dragged us down and who continue to pander to the lowest urges in the human animal.

And for those of us who have felt compelled to document this or purge our tortured souls or try to make some change by yelling like Who's on an elephant's trunk somewhere, visit the Weblogs nomination page and be either nominate a favorite blog, or look through the nominations (in the comments under each category,) and click the little plus sign or number after the blog that you want to be counted for! I'm gonna mention that Brilliant at Breakfast is nominated for Best Blog, best political coverage, best mid-sized, and Jill as best individual blogger. Also look for my all time favorite, Driftglass, under the same categories, and my little RIPCoco as one of the undiscovered gem, all the way at the bottom. Show some love, and nominate anyone who you think deserves mention! If you have a blog, snag a badge and post it, and send your readers over.
Never before have I been more grateful for these voices that have actually, literally saved me during this time...as well as for the outlet for myself. I'm not sure if I'm even going to still have the political voice in me as things settle; I'm thinking about it. Right now, I'm just exhausted and hopeful....at least there are going to be some grownups in the house this time around; how far the American people and the bureaucracy allow that to go will have to be determined.





c/p Brilliant at Breakfast

Get Out and Vote! Odds and Ends from a Long Campaign...

Yeah, Ive been disgusted by the self important youngsters questioning Obama's experience, or the rich folks and their tax cut concerns....like, not that they need 'em, but they just sorta like 'em!
Vote, and not just for the free coffee at Starbucks...I wonder if you have to show them your purple thumb to get that coffee...and heaven knows that some of you will no doubt have to stand in line for a long time so may need the coffee.
My thoughts are with those voters who will wait on lines, including my Mom (though she has that uncanny ability to get up really early ad be there before the line forms!)
My thoughts are also with voters who will be blindsided by questions that are misleading at best (that was, vote NO to question one in CT!!)
Bring your camera/phone/camcorder....

For your party, Bill Maher has kindly provided a party pack including a coloring map to follow along with the ice rink at Rockefeller Center, and special libation recipes to grease the wheels. Check the printout buttons and name tags...This pack is a must for every election party.

...and remember, Maron v Seder will be broadcasting live at around 9PM here. They're also on, you know, weekdays at 3PM, so tomorrow is a double!

The Seditionist blog will have a chat, which I may or may not drop in on depending on what time I get home. The link will be posted here and there.

At this point, it looks good, but I'm not counting my...well, you know...

Ben Afflek did a really funny Keith Olbermann on Saturday Night Live this past weekend...its long but pretty damned funny...if you catch nothing else, check out the special comment towards the end:



For your nervous snacking pleasure, I think its OK to finally eat those Obama heads that you've been saving in the fridge






A dutch company came up with these, and because of overwhelming interest produced the head in white as well as dark chocolate.
The McCain head only came in white chocolate...and for the life of me I cant find the link to the place that was selling them; they're obsolete anyway after tomorrow....Ill keep looking for it.






What am I gonna do with this? I guess she goes down to the shelf in the basement with the Spice Girl dolls,

and Cher...We call it "mom's collection" but I wonder if I'm ever really gonna get around to that eBay listing thing I've been planning for so many months now.














I'd like to send a big shout out to the Freeway Blogger who has managed to take blogging to the next level during this nightmare and reach more people than we could imagine. I hope that he continues his work and that his followers keep on going too...I'm seeing a bit of it around here even, so...its working as a great way to get the word out. Is it possible that we may be looking at the end of our long national nightmare...?
Good luck to us all...At some point some little bit of insight and logic has to dawn around the edges of things...right?


Great thanks to Colbert and Stewart for their part in opening some eyes out there!
And as always, Olbermann himself....

More to come...stay tuned...

c/p Brilliant at Breakfast

Connecticut's Questions and the Hidden Agenda Driving Them. No to Question #1. Jim Himes for Congress! Midnight in the land of the Flip Floppers!

I know I shouldn't rely too much on my own personal experience, because I live in this southern CT to NYC liberal bubble, and I know that the democratic party in this area doesn't really bother much with the workaday signage and campaigning; we live blue here. The big push in these parts is to have calling parties to call voters in swing states to talk with them, and its not beyond the candidates to stop in to attend high roller fund raising events in tony houses in Greenwich or Rowayton.

I'm usually happy to do the calling thing, and even happier to speak with the bunch of neighbors here who have McCain Palin signs out, because I can say that I'm their neighbor....whatever, I suppose we're all neighbors in some higher sense...but CT. swings blue, so even if we have red voters, its not a strong focus. People don't want to be called, and its so seldom that someone has a question that one can answer.

In any case, I'm troubled, as usual, that the local party hardly bothers to put out signs or rally us generally more than to ask for money and a little bit of volunteerism. Its always the same crowd running things and it smacks of the local PTA where a few alpha moms run the show. I'm still pissed that so many "dems" supported Lieberman after he jumped from the party, and that Lamont's organization was sent to a back room as if we was the independent candidate!

The McCain signs are an annoyance and an emotional drag, as things like this always are when the aggressively stupid or the just plain greedy, insist on their point of view with the bold surety that Fox News is the only network that tells the truth unvarnished. Humvee drivers who seemingly want to project an image that they perceive as being very American, but which comes off as just plain idiotic; the silly young men who drive by my bumperstickered car giving me the finger, as if their vote means anything in this county or state...the young man who last night sat around a firepit at a Halloween party up here, and said with all authority that he is just worried that Obama doesn't have the "experience," which I read as "he's black," readying himself for the vote that is not gonna serve him in his construction job and middle class life where he is unable to buy a house in the town he grew up in or even afford healthcare. These things trouble me, but its not about wining CT for the democrats; Its about the American psyche and how twisted America has become about our collective place in things.


The problem that I see right now is that Chris Shays signs that are everywhere. I believe that alot of people are voting for Shays because hes a hometown boy and pretends to be a liberal. That's, um, liberal republican, and hes really only as liberal as his BFF Joe Lieberman is a democrat! These guys are strong supporters of the Bush agenda, even now, and they really don't represent CT., so much as they represent the last bastion of cronyism that is dying a terrible wheezing death around this state.

I worked hard on the Lamont campaign to get rid of Joe Lieberman, and during that time I had the opportunity to speak with Shays at a town meeting and then on a conference call. My issue was not only with Lieberman changing parties after he lost the primary; he started his own party with the dismissive attitude that he was doing this because we didn't know what was best for our state. The whole thing boiled down to the war in Iraq; Joementum had gone to Iraq with Shays some 14 times,becoming one of the biggest defenders of Bush and his war, and he and Shays were the token liberals in the push to victory. Its well known that Joe Lieberman will do anything for the adulation of having the senate floor erupt in cheers as he returns from his fact finding missions ready to advise and instruct or from his close bid with losing his seat, only to be voted in by Ct's republicans who shunned their own candidate because Lieberman was representing them just fine!


The soft spoken Shays has some sharp claws, and skirts the issues that are important to his constituents, while hiding behind the "liberal" label. Its long past the time when Shays should have retired his seat and moved on. Diane Farrell almost unseated him two years ago, and he retained the seat by a slim margin mainly with a last minute flip flop on the Iraq war. Shays claimed that a trip just weeks before the election changed his mind; this after so many, many trips and the fantasy ideals that were put forth even as the entire country crumbled and people died needlessly.

Last week, the Stamford Advocate had a front page story in which Chris Shays threw McCain under the bus in the service of his own re-election. This is the Chris Shays that I know. He flip flops at the drop of a poll number and heaven forbid that reality ever take hold; until recently he was parroting the republican talking points about the economy. Worst though is that he boasts that CT is the first state to provide health insurance for all of its children. Well, its a horrible system with little coverage, and its not working! Having talked to him about this personally, I can say that what he does is to just deny that its true or possible that providers won't take the state insurance. Shay's modus operandi is that when he is confronted with a problem he acts like it is merely a personal problem of the questioner and he refers them to a staff member who will discuss it in private.

But this is an undeniable problem across the board in CT, so even if his staff were to take me into an office and out of the town hall, so that he could move on to other issues, they couldn't solve the problem that I have to drive 2 hours to get to a specialist for my son....or that it took us an entire year to get a surgery approved, only to have it canceled on the night before because it was suddenly denied again; oh they had approved the surgeon but not the hospital!! By the time this orthopedic surgery was performed on my son, he was the oldest, biggest kid that this surgeon had ever done this procedure on! Now we will probably lose our coverage anyway because our provider, a subsidiary of Blue Cross and Blue Shield, is opting out of the state's program, and our Dr. barely takes what we have...no one will take the alternatives. I'm looking into private insurance and its going to probably be a grand a month for a family plan if I can even find one that will take us! The issue is that the paperwork involved for a tiny reimbursement is not worth it to many doctors who have full time staff trying to deal with the bureaucratic nightmare that is this program (and unregulated health insurance in general!) I've heard lately that some doctors don't want the responsibility of prescribing drugs to children for a gross payment of maybe $19 per visit, which is much less when overhead and man hours processing the claims is taken out! The hospitals with the clinics for the poor, who have the "A" type of insurance, have a deal with the state and they also have institutional insurance and rotating doctors in clinics, so the responsibility is much less.

So, its not about my personal medical issues, as much as its about the boasting that goes on with Shays and Lieberman around this being such a great program. It's the kind of thing that might make them eligible for a task force on national health coverage in a bipartisan position...and I don't think that this plan should be used as anyone's blueprint for how health care should be taken care of in this country. What is really reprehensible is to do this experiment on children...the very poor kids who go to the hospitals tend to get OK care because they have the clinic doctors available. But we cant all go to the hospital clinic, can we? And we make too much money to be in the "A" program, so we pay a premium, which disallows us from a level of service that poorer people have...and no pediatricians or specialists are taking this insurance around lower Fairfield county anyway....so...I would very much NOT like to have the liar Chris Shays walking around Washington DC, misrepresenting what he's done here. It sucks, and along with just about everything else in this region, the move is to push the poor out and make room for more high rises (Trump has a tower going up in downtown Stamford) and mansions. And of course, foreclosures are at an unprecedented high....while Shays claimed that the economy was stable, until he just changed his mind a little while ago.

Jim Himes, who is running against Shays, is an experienced businessman who has worked successfully in business, but his most important work has been in the not for profit housing and financial support sector:

After over a decade at Goldman Sachs, Jim devoted himself full-time to pursuing business-oriented solutions to the problems of urban poverty. Jim found an ideal role with Enterprise Community Partners, where he has run their Northeast operations since 2004. Under Jim's leadership, Enterprise worked with private, public, and community organizations to address complex issues of urban poverty. At Enterprise, Jim developed an innovative program to provide tax preparation assistance and financial services to low-income families at very low cost. Jim led the way in financing the construction of thousands of affordable housing units in the greater New York and Northeast regions, often using new green technologies to achieve energy efficiency and reduce utility costs.

Himes is not a career politician and he is not steeped in the rampant cronyism that has overrun this state. He has spent years developing ways to help lower income people handle their finances and to find affordable housing. He may enter on a junior level, and I'm hearing grumbles from people who feel that he will not be able to get a foothold or be heard on anything important... But, my feeling is that we are going to see an unprecedented turnover of power and faces in this election, and granted that Shays will have to go at some point...besides that he doesn't represent what the voters of his state want, and he lies and flips whenever its convenient...and we always have Chris Dodd, who is the strongest representative that we could hope for!

Shays was so wrong about the war, and even when specialists were telling him and Joe that what they were seeing was not as it seemed, they both insisted that because Baghdad looked better to them in their military security caravan, that it must be so. Shays has been wrong on the economy, on insurance for our children, on federal eavesdropping and privacy issues, and on medicare...he has sided with Bush in just about everything and changes his mind back and forth...I don't want it anymore. Its time for him to go!

Connecticut needs a congressman like Himes on board, and the American house needs this kind of new upcoming public servant working hard to get us back on track and to help America work again. This country is just not feasible for so many people anymore, and the Bush administration has managed, unbelievably, to fulfill its objective, which was to funnel all of the money upwards to a rare few, while the middle class crumbles, and the legions of the voiceless poor grows. Leaders who have been complicit with that movement should have no place in our government going forward. Shays is a lifetime politician who began his career as a young man in my district in North Stamford. Back in the days when the residents of this part of CT were more interested in how a representative might do in bringing funds to our state and our city, the largely democratic population here felt that Shays was liberal enough to represent us. But, more recently, Shays has been singing the Bush line, and that is not working for any of us on any level. And thus the flip flop of this past week...its vintage Shays and I hope that the voters don't fall for it.

There are Shays signs all over the place in Stamford, and its more likely due to the organized republican party getting the signs out, rather than being representative of who is going to vote for the entire republican ticket. There are way more Shays signs than McCain Palin signs, leading me to think that his independent campaign is more organized, and as has happened in the past, democrats will leave the line for the congressional seat vote. I don't encourage that, because it causes confusion, and even with the new ballots, alot of people may lose their votes by making silly mistakes while trying to serve someone that they are familiar with. That is no reason to make decisions about our children's future; no reason at all.

For CT voters who will be faced with 2 questions about the state's constitution,(those of you from towns with other questions about budget concerns and marching bands are on your own!) I have this to say: They vaguely word the first question to be about having the ability to edit the sate constitution in the upcoming term. The answer would be no, because hidden in that simple question is the stated objective to make gay marriage unconstitutional in CT. It is not the time to mess with any constitution for anything.

The time now is to change our leadership and stop worrying so much about what your neighbors are doing in their bedrooms in private. If people want to enter the unholy alliance of marriage, then that's their problem. I don't recommend it personally, but hey, it makes some people feel more secure; so go for it! Just sign a pre-nup so we don't have more backup in the court systems in this state. My question of the secretary of state is why is this aim on stated in the ballot question?

The second question is about young voters who will be 18 on election day and should they be allowed to vote in primaries when they are 17. I don't understand this or what it represents in a real way. It is supposed to encourage young voters to get involved earlier, but I'd be more in favor of lowering the entire voting age so that voting could be something that becomes part of high school curriculum and then we can bring back civics class and poli-sci and all that! The red flag there is that it also involves opening up the state constitution for editing, and its worded strangely, as these things always are! So, I say no right now, unless I get a compelling reason not to. My son just shrugged...it makes no real sense as a half measure regarding the primaries...like, why then don't we allow driver's licenses to people who will be of age when they can afford their car? I don't know if that is the equivalent, but I'm in favor of an across the board lowering of the voting age rather than this confusing half measure as part of editing our constitution...its all about gay marriage....keep that in mind. So, to question 1, vote NO!




c/p Brilliant at Breakfast

Jon Stewart and Barack Obama on the Bradley Effect ....Scary Socialism!....and also, Why Would Anyone even Want to be President?

Last night Jon Stewart interviewed a relaxed and happy looking Barack Obama. What has struck me this past week besides my PTSD from the Bush Administration, and fretting over the reports coming out of our good friend Brad's blog about the voting situation, is that there is a certain sour grapes feeling emerging from the right that no one would want this horrible state of affairs now anyway. (...just some ongoing wingnuttia on Hardball; to which I think that even Tweety said to whichever wingnut it was, "well you'd take it if you could, right?")

Woe is to the President that has a House and Senate fully in line with him, because then the blame cant fall anywhere but on that one party. I suppose that some sort of investigation and...er...impeachment might have laid the blame for alot of this on the correct shoulders, but that was not what the party wanted to focus on. So, the American short memory will ensure that the democrats get all the blame for things not moving forward fast enough or things overlooked in the coming years. There will be blame for sure, even if its the American people, so trained in their responses and set in their imperialistic ways, regardless of if their dominion is a mobile home or a mansion, unable to effect and allow change for fear of losing a few dollars here or there. Hey, you save in the long run with preventative care, but most people seem to want the payoff now!

My favorite part of Jon Stewart's interview with Barack Obama last night was that Obama makes it clear that now is the perfect time to effect change, if you're really in it for the right reasons. Presidential politics seems to have morphed into a game where the aim is to cause only enough waves to profit your friends, and emerge with a fine legacy or at least a compulsion fulfilled, regardless of if anything got better in the process. Its all about who gets the blame and who gets the cash. There are two types involved in this mess as far as I can see: the type that sees that there is more looting to be done before its time for the rapture, and the type that is actually a public servant and embraces the hard work of trying to put this thing back together. I could count the uninformed, the dreamers, the anger management problem folks, the risk takers and the gamblers who think that one more lotto ticket will put them up in that high bracket that Obama is attacking. Everyone can get whipped up into a frenzy by Donald Trump when the possibilities being real, but when you look around the Hyatt ballroom and realize that its full of suckers just like you with a pile of bills on the table at home, reality and logic have to take over in the world of grownups.

I believe that Obama is in this for the right reasons. And even though I haven't been his staunchest supporter along the way, I think he shows a great understanding of the hysteria that has gripped the country, and may be able to bring some calm and rational behavior to this situation. I sure hope so because I'm tired, I cant sleep, and I don't know if I can live here if McCain Palin get into office.




Americans of a certain stripe seem to forget the society part of our country; how our technological and intellectual advances were made possible by sacrifices of others who emigrated here or slaved away in factories to make a penny. This stuff isn't taught in school in any real way anymore, but the idea that so many American view the waxing and waning semi-socialist way that this country has run from the get-go as some sort of dictatorship, is just laughable.

So worried is the right about redistribution of the wealth that they forget that the only reason that they were able to earn that money was on the shoulders of everyone who came before, settled this place, fought in wars, invented and designed and worked their asses off in order to give Joe the Plumber the opportunity and the right to spew his nonsense. Call it greed or ego, but Americans are not all that special that we just deserve a chance...and God didn't just give us this fertile land; we took it from the Native Americans in grotesque and horrible ways that we are supposedly still repaying (though, last I looked, we still hold the principal of that, and its counted against the national debt...) Hoarding all of our money in the mattress with that smaller government or whatever it is they are calling it, and no standing army, would leave guys like Joe the Plumber out in the cold if his house catches on fire or he should need the police...or even if he drives down a road or highway to go to his non-job where he spins his web of lies.

I want to know what part of the infrastructure of America, physically and socially, the McCain campaign thinks is not some part of redistribution of wealth. I also want to know what part of the fire and police departments they want to privatize and outsource, because the failing infrastructure of the entire country should indicate how well that works! ...bridges and tunnels and highways and parks? How about the national forests?...come on!

I want to know how Halliburton would run social services? This is not how America was designed, and if what was once a village based economy, where each neighbor could rely on another, has grown to include an organized bureaucracy with which we imperfectly get help when we need it, I would have to say that it may be worthwhile for one of these guys to stand up and say that America is semi-socialist and that unregulated capitalism doesn't work!

A friend taking a friend in if their house is destroyed...is that socialism? Bringing a casserole when a community member loses a loved one...is that Socialism? Helping a friend with a sick relative....the list goes on, and its not considered wrong or strange in smaller view. Churches and social groups collect dues or contributions that go towards running an infrastructure; is that socialism? Its when the population grows and progress moves in such a way that we lose our tribal and family ties; when we begin to rely on the market of a bigger structure than just the farm fields, that we need more of a main structure into which everyone contributes. With proper representation there shouldn't be a problem. Its only a problem if it becomes a talking point and is misused to the point where the word has no meaning anymore. Rather than talking about it so much, I wonder how much time any of these disgruntled wing nuts in my town actually get involved in cutting down on overspending or bureaucracy! Ill tell you, its usually only involving something that effects their bank account or their backyard.

Up the road from me is the old town of Bedford Village, NY. I often take my dog Lola to the green, which, as part of the historic preservation of the area, has a plaque that notes that local farmers shared this village green for grazing their cattle. I'm sure then that they also worked on the green and reseeded it, as good neighbors banding together through hard winters and hot summers. Through history there have been cooperative efforts on the part of Americans, which can be seen in the endless piled stone walls around, here made of the stones that tough Americans plowed up from this rocky place, in order to grow crops. The stone walls built all over the Bedford town square and all roads coming and going from it, were not brought in from Home Depot; they were part of a cooperative where everyone gave time and whatever they had to better the whole. Its only now, in the twisted minds of these wing nuts, that we are seeing some deep rooted form of hate that throws the poor, and anyone else outside of some perceived lucky group, under the bus.

The horrible thing is that Americans likely need to have some tragedy, like the great depression with no social net, or children dying because roads are not maintained, to see that regulation is necessary. The greater good can only be served by Americans remembering that we are all the same, and if our weakest part is really our strongest as a society, then we have been neglecting that part too long. There is a greater good, and if life is fleeting for us , we still have the responsibility of every American since the beginning of this great experiment to leave something to our children; some foundation to stand on for their own dreams.

Ive been avoiding alot of this, and spending time with my birds because I find that I am just really...upset...worried. but I will be making some calls and doing something this weekend...and Im trying to not get my hopes up or take anything for granted in this. Anything can happen, and as much as Obama should have the numbers down...look at BradBlog for some scary facts that will give you pause.

Here is my friend Susan hobnobbing with the actual Barack!...um...or a reasonable depiction of him!...close enough! You go girl!

c/p Brilliant at Breakfast

Quick Hits and Countdown to Election Wierdness...Marc Maron at Comix in NYC...

If American life lacks the punch of a reality show to the point that we demand larger than life puppets as candidates for our highest office these days; if Jerry Springer-esque family drama played out in oil wrestling is the thing we need to fill our check-out-line reading needs; maybe we shouldn't be so fucking surprised that we pay to fully costume the actresses and actors and that the production companies...er...campaigns stand on the sidelines with the storyboard and airbrush machine at the ready. No such luck for the McCain campaign which history may look at as really a night course in performance art 101 taught by some agitprop group found in Washington Square Park. It seems impossible that any professional politicos could have run thigns exactly this badly without it being part of some sorta joke. But then, the delusional current administration did at some point drink their own koolaid and after all that inmates/asylum stuff blows over, it will be anyone's guess if we can ever untangle what part of the nightmare thats gonna lave quite a hangover in this country for a long time to come. Whats left to hope for? Well, I hope that my son might be captured by Obama's hope thing in the way that I was captured by Jimmy Carter and before that the Kennedys, when I was a kid. Maybe he can feel some feeling of being able to shape the destiny of his world before the reality comes crashing in.

Sarah Palin may well be looking towards 2012, and for the appetites of the wingnut fringe, the ongoing Palin saga should be a great diversion while Obama races to deconstruct all that the Bushies have put in place. This, my friends, is not a joke. It would behoove us to keep the lunatic fringe that Palin will lead back underground with her in mind because if we don't there wont be any excuse. I tell myself that its gonna be a good time for me to pull back from politics and to try to work with birds and just be happy...but really, its probably not going ot be possible in the long run. I can always hope though, cant I?

With an unbelievable eleven days to go, Rachel Maddow is taking over the TV-box cable ratings game with her MSNBC show, proving that even a network run my the M$M has to listen when ratings talk. The American people surely have made it clear that they want liberal voices out there, and Rachel has risen to the top on sheer intelligence and star power. Its been fantastic to watch her rise. Tonight Keith Olbermann had Sam Seder on to punditize about snarky republicans spinning Obama's break to see his grandma into some sort of air mile thievery. Sammy immediately turned that silliness into how sick McInsane is in his cold assessment of "the life of the mother" being important in the abortion issue, spotlighting how fucking cold the radical right can be when dealing with real people as opposed to test tubes of cells....and how cold McCain is in general as he would say anything to get a few more votes. This delighted me because no one is better than Sam at pointing out wingnuttia in terms that draw us all together, along with Obama, shaking our heads in disbelief at the silliness of the children in their pretend world.

It occurred to me tonight that with Rachel rising, Sam is going to be moving into the spotlight more and more. At the same time, Seder and Marc Maron are breaking ground with their web based daily live show, Maron v. Seder 3PM EST, M-F, here. Maron is currently traveling cross country with the UK Guardian and talking to a remarkable array of people from all walks of life showing us the front lines in America up close and personal. Of course, Marc also has his way of pulling even the most far-out survivalists close, and helping us to see their humanity if not really understand it. Looking at our ever morphing culture along with Marc makes it all a little more bearable...and seeing things like the plight of homeless veterans standing on line for services with our own eyes is jarring and sad. This is merely a small glimpse of what the future will be like as we pull out of Iraq and the Guardian and Air America are doign a great thing by showing us some unvarnised truths. Maron v. Seder should be on cable or even network TV...I think that they would have to tone it down for network, so it probably belongs on HBO, Showtime, or FX, daily. In any case, look for Maron to also start turning up on Olbermann etc, as he is a tremendously smart commentator with a gift for explaining issues from angles that touch on everyday people while not being so wonky as to over intellectualize them.

Lucky New Yorkers will have the opportunity to see Maron on Friday the 24th and Sat the 25th at Comix in NYC...I'll be there at some point, tho I'm not sure which show yet...I'm in transit again from CT to NYC, and everything is in flux, as usual. Come on down and see our traveling correspondent in his element...its always fun, and Comix is a nice place. Its gonna be a rainy Saturday in NYC, and you know, I love me some weather...

See ya there!

c/p Briliant at Breakfast

Old Music Wednesday...just because...

Sirius has an all Bruce all the time station that I have been listening to alot...really alot...this is still one of my favorite songs, and it holds up great...



Those romantic young boys, all they ever want to do is fight....

Shays v. Himes Tips Blue...Other Close Races Abound...

Though I couldn't go to the debate personally today due to a bad virus that has laid me low, I have seen video of some of it and have been looking at alot of other video of the previous debates. Currently Himes is ahead by 3 points, within the margin of error, and I believe that these close numbers are due to the bullshit facade that Chris Shays projects as a very connected insider who is hand in hand with Joe Lieberman in belief and attitude that they, (as Bush followers and true believers,) know whats best for us.

Shays is a seemingly mild mannered liberal republican who hides a sharp temper and a belief in the neocon vision. Actually, according to a UConn/Hearst Newspaper poll, Himes is way ahead in the cities of Bridgeport and Stamford...way ahead, like, 54-35%...and an incumbent like Shays should not be that far behind in any polls at this point. There is still the matter of all of the undecideds in the surrounding towns, because Shays is so influential and has been around forever....but according to the CT Post:

The poll found that 86 percent of voters believe the country is on the wrong track. Seventy-five percent of them disapprove of the job President Bush is doing. Seventy-two percent disapprove of Congress while only 22 percent approve. Fifty-five percent said they would prefer Democratic control of Congress, while 34 said power should revert to the GOP.
...snip...
The poll found a 54-percent support for Obama and 34 percent for Republican standard-bearer John McCain, making it even harder for Shays to hold off Himes' challenge Nov. 4. Shays will need voters to split their tickets to win re-election.

The facts are so clear and the differences between these two are so stark that its a wonder, really, that there is a question as to which one should win this seat....except for the fact that this is a very, very rich area and the citizens here like those tax cuts. What is really pathetic is that people who really won't be hurting without those tax cuts will vote based on them even if the rest of the policy throws their children and the rest of their city and country under the bus.
Is that greed or laziness or what?




I'll have more on this in the weeks to come, but its clear that Shays can no longer slide by as New England's only Republican Congressman on the sheer power of his bullshit liberal act. He is not a liberal and he has been a big supporter of George Bush and his war of lies. The last minute apology act has been done before; its getting to be a pattern with this guy, and I can see that people are fed up with him.

There are many close races across the country and its very important now to step up and do some calling, contributing, and legwork. Close races abound with the specifics spelled out in races such as Minnesota's Coleman v. Franken sporting the same statistical spread that Shays v. Himes does. Senate races here show some predictable spreads in firmly red or blue states, but there is much more wiggle room than I would have expected in places like Colorado, Kentucky, and even Texas. A Franken worker told me on the phone tonite that it is imperative that they get additional funds to put television spots on in the more remote areas of a state like Minnesota because people there don't get much more than the news and paper, and one of the few ways to reach out is vis the TV. Think of how different the world would be if the Fairness Doctrine were in place right now and people got an array of opinions on radio and TV. I think that with the kind of filth that Limbaugh, Savage and O'Reilly are spewing, this must be an issue for every blue politician running for a seat anywhere in the country; how do we fight the constant onslaught of lies and degrading accusations coming from these hate-casters?...so send your pennies to whichever one is your's or strikes you as needy...act blue on one of the blogs..whatever. Franken's worker told me that in this economy, no amount is too small.

Closehouse races abound with close races from NJ to Texas. I'm not one to wholeheartedly believe polling numbers, especially in such an unusual and historical time, but I have a feeling that we are gonna see a blue avalanche, if for no other reason than because people just want to vote for something different. There is also the racial issue and how likely people are to be honest if there is a racial feeling involved in their preference; if people will even be honest with themselves about their feelings and fears.

For some interesting nonpartisan commentary and explanation on this, check out Polltrack. They currently have a great interactive presidential race map that projects ahead to tomorrow and even election day. Senate and House graphics are in the works there as well. Its the blog that is interesting because it explains whats going on in very plain terms without projecting too much into the drama of why.

I hope to be looking more closely at these numbers and the races behind them...but mostly I hope to be watching the blue numbers tip the scales more and more every day until we have a working majority that we can expect to fully represent the American people rather than big business, and to make some real lasting changes.

c/p Brilliant at Breakfast

Its the Votes, Stupid! BradBlog Breaks GOP Voter Registration Fraud Arrest...Live on Fox News!

Our great friend Brad of Brad Blog was able to break this story live on Fox News last night in the midst of an appearance with scary John Fund, punditizing for the left on a segment that was purported to be about voter disenfranchisement/fraud through home foreclosures. These things usually devolve into a tit for tat of "well, no one made the borrowers take the loans" versus "well, no one made the banks loan the money," with the likes of Fund saying "poor banks were forced by Freddie/Fannie..." and that the unscrupulous borrowers should have known better...whatever; used to be that the lender did a thorough check as to whether a borrower could afford a loan. So, enter our hero, stage left, with a real breaking story about real, immediate, lawbreaking on the GOP side, and gasp!!! ...Fox led with the breaking story at the top of the news hour, and Fund is probably still bristling.

This is a great example of real news reporting meeting Faux News and the real stuff winning out.... Because when faced with stark truth, even in the face of the angry Fund types trying to spin it, this kind of thing can't get a footing even at Fox. They have to leave it with a "well, if this is true we will run it," statement...and then, they sorta have to run it...

Imagine what would happen if each outlet had to be fair and balanced, and if it was a matter of national regulation rather than corporate interest ...imagine what would happen if Americans had the actual information breaking from wherever the news was, without the spin, and were tasked with coming to their own conclusions...it sounds quaint and old fashioned, but here it is; reporting like it used to be....


Thanks, as always, to Brad for working tirelessly to get the truth out about making our votes count and be counted! This is probably the one most important issue leading to this election, and we all need to be aware of what is going on. Visit Brad often for the constantly breaking news and let your representatives know that you are watching this situation and that you expect to be protected and to have your vote counted.

c/p Brilliant at Breakfast

Shays Debates Himes on Monday Oct 20th, 2008, 7PM, Stamford CT Holiday Inn Select....

Tomorrow at 6 PM there is a rally prior to the final debate between Chris Shays (R-CT,)and his democratic challenger, Jim Himes in their battle for Connecticut's congressional seat. The debate .,takes place at the Holiday Inn Select at 700 Main St., in downtown Stamford, and should be really interesting. The rally is at 6PM with the debate at 7PM and open to the public. The official subject is foreign affairs and this should be great considering Shays support of the war and other sundry freedom spreading missions. I always like a good Shays debate because of his two faced lies that not even his old time supporters are buying anymore…not to mention how great old Chris thinks the economy is.

Shays is a hard nut to crack because he poses as a “liberal republican” even as few of his positions have been any less than neocon, and he has been a huge supporter, along with BFF Joe Lieberman, of the war in Iraq, traveling there some-teen times and only rethinking his position when an election was imminent. Shay’s manner is that of a soft spoken liberal, but behind that facade is a nasty temper protecting a true neo conservative ideology. I never got the idea that he knew what he was talking about regarding heath care when he jumped on board Medicare reform even as he set up forums to try to help his elderly constituents sort through the maze, and lied about the efficacy of Husky for his youthful constituents, many of whom cannot find doctors to take the very state insurance that Shays prides himself on. I have been at meetings where Shays was pro Bush as our fearless leader, and I subsequently had a conversation with him where he tried to divorce himself from his previous positions on Bush and the war. Shays may regret it now, but he drank the Bush Kool-aid and it’s a little disingenuous to suddenly, just weeks before an election where he had a strong challenge from Diane Farrell, begin the backpedaling….and now he continues his backpedaling because he sees the very strong possibility that the days of CT cronyism might be coming to a close. Shays lies when he claims to be a liberal. Just take a look at his voting record and its clear.



Jim Himes is a supporter of cutting taxes for the middle class, who are hurting horribly in this area of haves and have not’s. He is someone who comes from a background of public service and who has benefitted personally from a public education and so sees the importance of strengthening our education system. He is also someone who has extensive experience in business and the markets from his years as a businessman before going into the non profit sector full time. His experience in community service involved working on poverty initiatives to provide business advice, housing, and help with financial services. The work he did in building affordable housing involved green technology and energy efficiency. He is all about energy independence…and he seems to have some great ideas that are off the beaten path of the old crony network of which Shays is an integral part.

We are hoping for a big turnout in support of Himes in this close race, so please pass this information on to anyone who might be interested in attending or blogging about this.
Note that there is also a 10:30 AM debate at 400 Atlantic St; information here
Check Jim Himes out…this is one close race that is worth working for and writing about…if for nothing else than to take away Joe Lieberman’s best buddy and Iraq War traveling and disinformation partner.

c/p Brilliant at Breakfast