Status Update

this too shall pass

I’m counting down the final minutes here on an era that I’m certain will go down as a dark stain on America’s history. I’d start a list, but I don’t have that kind of free time. Would I count just the massive failures, or just the gross incompetencies, or just the blatant treasons, or just the missed opportunities at any sort of common sense, or … you see the trap — I’d need an outline just to compile a full list of the Bush atrocities.

Worst president ever?

I’m watching on CNN as I type. They’re wheeling Dick Cheney out of the White House in a wheelchair. It’s a striking parallel to the state of this country — the US is essentially in a wheelchair, and will be dumped into the lap of Barack Obama in an hour or so. We’ve survived the Bush years. Barely.

On election night, when Obama was projected as the winner, I turned to Marlin and started singing the Grateful Dead (from “Truckin”): “What a long, strange trip it’s been” before giving him a big hug. I had also been working on my own take of the iconic Obama poster (above), which I never got around to posting.

And while I’m posting the Obama related pics, here was our 2008 ornament for the Christmas tree (below). I hand-painted it — picked up a plain ornament and paints at Michael’s crafts for less than $5. I probably could have made a nice chunk of money for it on eBay, but it will be fun to hang it on the tree every year (and hopefully add 2012 to the 2008 I painted on the reverse).

Today it’s a celebration here. Marlin and I both took the day off work (we briefly considered going to Washington, but we reconsidered within days). Instead, we are watching the ceremonies on television and shortly after we have a new president, we’ll hit the kitchen for our inaugural dinner preparations. We’ll be eating what the Obama’s are eating at their inaugural luncheon today, thanks to the Inaugural Committee’s decision to post menus and recipes on the web. http://inaugural.senate.gov/documents/doc-2009-recipes.pdf Our menu includes some of Lincoln’s favorites: duck breast with cherry chutney, molasses whipped sweet potatoes, winter vegetables (asparagus, baby brussel sprouts, wax beans, carrots), and cinnamon apple sponge cake. It’s good hearty American food, especially if you’ve got a deep hunger for real change. Celebrate!

so they loaded up the truck and they moved back to Wasilla, yeehaw

I would just love to have known what thoughts were going through Senator John McCain’s mind at the moment pictured here on election night. He had just finished what I considered to be a graceful concession speech, albeit a speech interrupted by ugly and inappropriate outbursts from his gathered supporters. After the speech, and at the time of this photo, he gave Sarah Palin a rather stiff and cold embrace. After McCain turned away, Palin’s body language gave a visible sigh. My guess is that his thoughts included an ugly word that he’s been known to use from time to time and that also rhymes with runt. Maybe he said “see you next Tuesday, Sarah.” And with today’s headlines, the knives are out and we’re finding out what a truly historic over-reach the selection of Sarah Palin was. She thought Africa was a country. She didn’t know what countries were involved in the NAFTA agreement. She had tantrums that brought staff to tears. She once greeted two of McCain’s top advisors wearing only a towel and suggested they chat with her husband Todd for a bit (whom sources described as “laconic”) until she was ready. And the big shopping spree to outfit her and her family for the campaign? It was apparently far worse than has been reported to date. One insider described it as “Wasilla hillbillies looting Neiman Marcus from coast to coast.”

nutty business

From an excellent, fair and balanced article in The Guardian about ACORN, the latest distraction from Fox “News” and their ilk:

Here are the facts. Acorn verifies the legitimacy of every registration its canvassers collect. If they can’t authenticate the registration, or it’s incomplete or questionable in other ways, they flag that form as problematic (“fraudulent”, “incomplete”, et cetera). They then hand in all registration forms, even the problematic ones, to elections officials, as they are required to do by law. In almost every case where you’ve heard about fraud by Acorn, it’s because Acorn itself notified officials about the fraud that’s been perpetrated on them by rogue canvassers. Most officials who run to the media screaming “Acorn is committing fraud” know all of the above but don’t bother to share those facts with the media they’ve run to. None of this is about voter fraud. None of it. Where any fraud has occurred, it’s voter registration fraud and has resulted in exactly zero fraudulent votes.

You’ll hear that Donald Duck, Mary Poppins, Dick Tracy, Mickey Mouse and (new this year) the starting lineup of the Dallas Cowboys football team have all had fraudulent registrations submitted in their names. That’s true. And we know this, why? Because Acorn told officials about it when they followed the law and turned in those registrations, flagged as fraudulent.

What you won’t hear is that federal law requires anybody who does not register to vote in person at the county office to show an ID when they go to vote the first time. So, unless Donald Duck shows up with his ID, he won’t be voting this November.

When you pay people to register voters, as both major political parties do, you are going to get some fraudulent registrations. ACORN is aware of this and follows the law as required. There really is no story here, outside of these rogue canvassers turning in registrations that will never result in a vote.

Today’s fun link: Palin as President. Absolutely hysterical until you click the red phone. 😦