The Obama Project@WindonWater.net

Pronounced like “barracks” not like “Barack” but just the same, a good look at what’s happening in WV:

h/t Christina Bellantoni @ Huffington Post

Seriously – gets called up out of nowhere to be the queen (vice president) of the realm by the man who would be king, and gets dressed up in finery for the part! The only thing missing from this story is Prince Charming (Todd the First Dude is a handsome guy, but unfortunately, he’s not the prince), and perhaps not regrettably at all, it doesn’t look very much like McCain will get the nod either. Well. I hope she gets to keep the clothes.

Here’s Maureen Dowd on the topic:

Politico broke the news that the Republican National Committee spent over $150,000 on a “Pretty Woman”-style shopping spree for Palin, including about $75,000 at Neiman Marcus in Minneapolis and nearly $50,000 at Saks Fifth Avenue in New York and St. Louis.

Palin advisers did their best to spin the fashion explosion during the economic implosion, telling The Times that she needed new outfits to match the climate changes across 50 states.

Seriously – if anyone wants to have me run for vice president and provide me with an all new wardrobe – I’m available. Call me.

QT

A group of seniors in Michigan came up with a great little dance (they call it a hustle, but it looks a lot like the electric slide, which was more of a bus stop kind of dance) for if Obama wins. Seriously – we’ve got 10 days to learn it. Get going!

http://obamaproject.windonwater.net/?page_id=11

(BTW – the funny thing about the dance is it looks very much like the dance he did on Ellen… lol!)

QT

Taylor Marsh on writes on the Huffington Post:

Having written columns on “the politics of sex” (used to have that URL) off and on for 15 years, it was plain to see from the start to me. Sarah’s got sex appeal. She’s got camera appeal, that thing you can’t teach. Good for her. She also can manipulate a crowd, and I mean that in a good way, at least for her purposes.

Women swooned over J.F.K. WJC’s sex appeal got him into trouble as well.

Taylor – darned straight. Some women are ticked off about it, but I’m not. If I were a political woman, I’d use my good looks too – and I’m no beauty queen – just girl next door pretty – but I’d use it. You betcha!

Seriously – I don’t know why women are up in arms about this. Anyone think Obama isn’t using it? How about that utterly devastating picture of him posing for the press on his plane? Where is that picture anyway – when all the press swooned because he donned a pair of jeans? LOL! I mean – seriously – he’s a good looking man. And we ladies have had time to reconcile his swoonworthiness with his actual candidate worthiness (and I think some Hillary supporters were originally pissed because it was very clear that some of Obama’s off the bat support was just cuz he was cute – and they refused, REFUSED! to be taken in by that… good on them, but if you didn’t have that as a motive, you were vulnerable. That’s a truism).

Obama’s a good looking man, and Palin is a good looking woman. They each have those assets to leverage – and as you say – so long as that’s not all that’s there, nothing wrong with leveraging it.
More on John McCain
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

OK – some of you guys know that Crimson Avenger is my son. He’s 12, but instead of being in the 7th grade like most 12 year olds, he’s in the 9th. Yep. First year of high school. He’s been 2 years ahead of himself for a while – and it’s been going well. Until just a week ago.

Last week, I was laying down sick as a dog. (I’m still sick, but that’s another story). I hear coming out of the livingroom my son laughing so hard I’m afraid he’s going to hurt himself. I mean – he’s ROARING! Its so raucous that I drag myself out of bed to go see what the heck is so funny. Know what he was watching? Stephen Colbert.

Stephen FRACKING Colbert. My 12 year old son. I stood there in utter dismay, trying to understand this. When did my son get old enough to watch Stephen Colbert? Did I give him permission to watch Stephen Colbert? Who told him he could watch Comedy Central? Since when?

To put this in context – earlier that same morning, I once again found myself grumbling at the fact that he ran out the door to catch the school bus, and forgot to turn the tv off. That meant that Jimmy Neutron was left to watch itself. Jimmy Neutron. Which comes on after Fairly Odd Parents.

Keep in mind, that I can’t keep the kid still long enough to watch the debates. He watches with one eye on the debates, and one eye and both hands on the Nintendo DS. For about 5 minutes, and then he’s had enough of that, and goes to his room to watch the Nintendo DS with both eyes and hands. This is the same kid who informed me last week, with some degree of solemnity, that he’d voted in the Nick Kids vote. For Obama, of course. I’ve been taking his 12 year old interest in stride, watching with a touch of pride, at his gradual maturation. And then, Stephen Colbert happened.

Where’s that finger drumming icon when you really need it. If you could see me, I’ve got the most annoyed face on my face right now…

Today, I got up to look at a bentley and a farrari. Cars. I thought this was an E! type of thing, but no… this was a program called “My dork boyfriend” or some such, on MTV. MTV. I don’t let my son watch MTV. When did he get the idea that he could watch MTV? Who told him this? Do they play Hannah Montana or the Jonas Brothers on MTV? I grumbled something about disrespectful jerks being rude to parents, and left, because I wasn’t really prepared to deal with this. Now I’ve just discovered that he is watching the Simpsons. I don’t watch the Simpsons, and I’ve never let CA watch the Simpsons, because the Simpsons is not really kids-fare. Somehow or another, he decided all by himself to watch.

OK – the good news is, he got bored with it pretty quickly, and reverted to something on Nick. This is a relief. But I’m registering my official complaint with … with whoever feels like listening. When did my baby boy become a Stephen Colbert, MTV, Simpsons watching… kid? sad.gif

I’m filing this in triplicate, with the powers that be. This is my only little boy, and I think they need to give me just a little more time to catch up…No fair sneaking this in on me while I’m sick.

QT

http://www.bobcesca.com/blog-archives/2008/10/forever.html

On Bob Cesca’s GD Awesome Blog, Elvis Dingeldein shared his personal ancestry – which shows his ancesters involved with America’s “peculiar institution” of slavery. He relates movingly what this history means to him, and how it inspires him toward his (and our) better angels in this day…. it’s a wonderful read, and I encourage all to share it with him.

A nice little run is going on at Ex Isle, which is my online “home” – a group of us are naming ourselves “Hussein” to protest xenophobia. Name changes good till November 5th. Here’s a link: http://www.exisle.net/mb/index.php?s=&showtopic=54662&view=findpost&p=1154469

Well – I’ll go a step further and do it here as well. Just for now.

QT

I may say something totally different 3 days from now, and of course, history still has to be the final judge. But here’s what I wrote in other online incarnations, and I want to capture it here:

I had a bit of an epiphany about the whole gay marriage thing this weekend, and I can say with some degree of certainty that there is a lot of ambivalence on the subject of “gay marriage” though most people want to ensure “gay rights.” Even Sarah Palin wants to ensure gay rights – that’s why she spoke as she did in the debate. The glitch comes in when the assumption is that there is a right to “marriage.” People start getting uncomfortable there.

On another board I wrote this:

The grand idea that enabled us to shake off the idea of a monarchy was that government exists largely to uphold a social contract and nothing more. That we cede to government ONLY what we must to preserve the social contract, and otherwise would rather be left to our own devices. That is the fundamental conceit of the American political identity. Liberal or progressive ideas gain favor when we perceive a threat to the social order (as do conservative ones like sanctity of marriage acts) because that’s the role we envision for government. Involving government where we don’t have to is counter the American identity. Liberals are perceived as always wanting to change things by means of government intervention and expansion – the very opposite of the social contract theory of government upon which the nation was founded.

This was in answer to a question “Why do the American people favor liberal ideas but refuse to identify themselves as liberals?” But I quoted it because it occurs to me that at least some resistance to gay marriage has nothing to do with bigotry, and everything to do with identity. Americans identify heterosexual marriage as part of what American society is about and perceive any effort to change that as a threat to the social order – an area in which government is supposed to intervene. Meanwhile gay rights activists are trying to expand the horizon of what it means to be American. And for the most part – that’s what this entire election has been about. What does it mean to be American? And it has everything to do with why those folks in Appalachia, who self-identify as “American” as opposed to “white” or any other ethnicity, are struggling… the definition of American has been shifting for the past two years, and that’s really hard work.

There are other more intellectual arguments about gay “marriage” – but the reason they are non-starters (to my chagrin) is because the majority of the people aren’t thinking in those terms. The majority are thinking in terms of what it means to be American at a gut level, and they haven’t found “gay marriage” anywhere in their make up, yet.

That’s where courts get to step in – indeed, need to. Courts need to look at the framework of our democracy and decide if something can or cannot fit into what is justifiably understood as “American.” Common understanding comes later in those cases.

Once again – this makes the case for Barack Obama’s candidacy. Just by holding the office and acquitting himself well in the role, he expands our common understanding – expands the parameters of what it means to be American – and that expansion is inherently good for the nation.

QT

McCain’s Muslim Supporters confront religious intolerance at a McCain-Palin rally, and officials from the campaign have to intervene. Its unfortunate that McCain’s allowed his campaign (especially with Palin on the ticket) to attract this kind of thing out in the open, but I at least appreciate the effort to push back against this, and am grateful for the courage the muslim McCain supporters showed.