Victory!

Being an American feels very different today. I feel like a great sadness has been lifted from our nation.

There is much to do, and numerous obstacles on the path ahead, but Barack Obama's message of hope has had a decisive victory over the politics of fear and division.

Almost There....

It's never fun having insomnia, but it's worse on a Sunday night. That's the night you should be resting for the new week, but for whatever reason - and there are many - it's the night I'm most prone to sleeplessness. Sometimes it can happen twice in a month, and then not at all for a number of months. Sometimes I see what I have done to cause the problem - working too late into the night, doing something that I should haven't been doing late at night (such as drinking or eating). Sometimes I just can't help stop the ideas in my head from jumping back and forth across my brain like ping pong balls.

But I think part of why I didn't sleep last night is that tomorrow is the election and I realize that after that day everything will change in our country in some fundamental way. And I'm worrying now that I haven't done enough to help the causes that I believe in. That I haven't made enough calls. That I haven't gotten enough involved. I dozed off momentarily last night and quickly fell into turbulent dreams, and in all of them I felt that I had somehow failed. That I hadn't been good enough to my beautiful partner Brian, or my family, or to the people I work with, or to myself. But that's what happens when you think when you should be sleeping, whether the imminent election is really the reason you can't quiet your mind. You don't tend to look at the bright side when your exhausted and wanting nothing more than a little bit of sleep.

But insomnia also is a powerful truth serum of sorts. You lie there and in the deep quiet of the night your only companion seems to be the truth itself. This can bring a strange sense of wonderment at life when you realize that despite the turmoil and struggle of the moment you have managed to find love and other things that make life meaningful. But this can also bring great sadness as you realize your own limitations, your lack of achievement, your sense that even the most vivid dreams for the future can elude us.

As the dawn breaks weakly on this gray autumn morning (the photo here is looking west from the lower level of our house in the Hudson Valley), I am sad that I have lost a precious night of rest, but I also suspect that this feeling will pass just as quickly when I finally get some sleep tonight. And when dawn breaks on Tuesday the election will be here, and regardless of the outcome, at least this one huge, spinning unknown will be revealed. Depending on what happens I realize, happily, that it might finally time to change the name of this blog to something more appropriate, like Stay Awake - and Be Glad! For an occasional insomniac like me, something tells me I'll be up for the challenge.

We're almost there, but it's still a day and a world away.

Hey Barack! Some Free Advice - Part I

Hey Barack!

You have many friends who believe in you, but it's much easier to beat the Republicans than your advisers seem to be making of it. So here's the first post from me with free advice. While I have your debate with McCain in mind, the following sample responses will do just fine in other settings as well.

QUESTION: You have a short resume and haven't accomplished much. Why do you think you're qualified to be President?

SERIOUS REPLY: The most important quality in a President is good judgment, having competent and informed people around you who take advice-giving seriously and who help you make the most informed decision. I had the good judgment to be against the Iraq War from Day One, saying it would distract us from the far more serious problems in Afghanistan - that country that harbors the 9-11 terrorists and sits next door to a nuclear-armed Pakistan. A top general just reported that the problems in Afghanistan are at the top of the list of serious national security issues facing the United States. Given that Mr. McCain has been an advocate and defender for the Iraq War since the beginning, I'd say his judgment on the most important national security issue of our time was entirely wrong and mine was right.

SIMPLE, FUNNY REPLY: Anyone who can beat as qualified, passionate and intelligent a person as Hillary Clinton in a Presidential primary can do just about anything.

QUESTION: You're going to tax people into submission once you take office. The economy is tanking. That's exactly the wrong direction to go.

SERIOUS REPLY: By curtailing the disastrous tax cuts that Bush enacted during war time, and which blew a whole in the budget, we will actually be able to give 95% of American families tax relief. And while the Republicans don't talk about this, the massive deficit spending Bush and company have overseen is actually worst than any tax, because the bill for this administration's reckless policies will have to be paid by your children. The Republicans won't call pushing the bills on your children taxes, but I'll call it what it is: theft.

QUESTION: John McCain was right about The Surge. You weren't. Why won't you admit that you were wrong?

REPLY: As discussed earlier, John McCain's tragically wrong decision to push for the invasion of Irag remains the issue to decide which of us has the better judgment to serve as President and Commander in Chief. For the sake of Iraq's people, hundreds of thousands of whom perished during this war and who are never mentioned in George Bush's or John McCain's speeches, I'm happy if the surge helped increase their internal security. But it's McCain's advocacy for the Iraq War, and my opposition to it, that people should remember when they vote in November.

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I have to take a nap now, sir, but I'll write again later.

Cordially,
Sam

Dear John (McCain):

Dear John:

Mr. McCain, it would be a great service to the country you supposedly love if you took your soul back from your party before it's too late!

Pretty please!

Is becoming President worth soiling your legacy with lies?

Will it feel good when you're President to know that you got there by the most cynical marketing? By downright lying?

I'm sad, but I'll write again soon. Maybe there's still hope.

Yours truly,
Sally

What the Republicans Really Mean by Change

It's no surprise that the cynical, self-serving, no-ideas Republican Party has tried to hijack Obama's call for change on the American political scene. Of course it defies logic to imagine that voting for another Republican after the eight years of the Bush two-term disaster could possibly be a way to change the direction of the country - particularly since McCain, after voting with Bush 90% of the time, has now abandoned virtually every "independent" position he ever held. So, let's give it to the Republicans and admit that they are indeed the party of change. But what does change really mean to the Republicans? To really appreciate their definition of change, let's review just a few of the changes that have happened since the current Republican President took office:

* A country that had a massive budget surplus now has a massive deficit.
* Millions of people lost their homes.
* The disparity between the wealthiest and the poorest has grown dramatically.
* Millions more people, especially children, have been pushed into poverty and have lost (or have never had) health care.
* The United States has lost the vast majority of its prestige abroad.

Considering just these five examples (and there are dozens more), how can any patriotic American not see that the changes the Republican party brings - and would continue to bring under the Republican ticket of McCain/Palin - are precisely the changes we can no longer endure if we have any hopes of remaining (or perhaps becoming is a better choice of word) a healthy, just society?

My Only Real-life Bozo Story

I had a friend in high school, Peter Trager, who told me his own Bozo story that I still remember (human memory is a rather strange phenomenon, isn't it?). It may be apocryphal, but I still find it funny even if it never happened.

Apparently Peter was on the Bozo show when he was a kid. Peter was fairly competitive as a high school student, and, from his Bozo story, he had also been one - not to mention a sore loser - when he was just a toddler too.

Peter's Bozo story went like this...

Somehow Peter's Dad managed to get his young son Peter on the Bozo TV show. I never knew what Peter's Dad did - vaguely I knew he was involved in law in some way. In any case, Dad pulled some strings and got Peter on the show.

Towards the end of the show Peter was picked for one of the competitions - it may have been musical chairs, but I don't recall. Perhaps Peter didn't recall either. In any case, Peter was doing well for a bit, but ultimately he was eliminated from the competition, to which he said, "Fuck!" rather loudly.

Of course there's nothing quite as jarring as a young toddler using the F-word, particularly when it was happening on a TV show for kids. So Bozo took Peter aside and said with a comforting smile, "You shouldn't say that my friend. That's a Bozo no-no!"

To which Peter said he replied threateningly, "Clam it clown!"

Boy, would I love to see that video if it exists!

Peter was definitely a major wise ass. He was a fairly short guy, but he loved making trouble and provoking people just for the hell of it. So I don't doubt that young Peter tried to clam up the clown.

I wonder if he's feeling guilty now that Bozo has gone to that great Big Top in the sky?

Bozo Is Dead

Seriously, the great clown has died. Bozo is dead. Long live Bozo.

CNN story at this link: http://www.cnn.com/2008/SHOWBIZ/07/03/obit.bozo.ap/index.html

Nice Concise Article About Why George W. Bush is Worst President Ever

Listing and keeping track of the reasons you dislike George W. Bush and think he's the worst President ever could be a full time job. And who wants to spend that much time thinking about such a stupid and selfish man anyway. In any case, the folks the folks at Harper's have done a service by given us a good, concise summary which you can read at:
http://harpers.org/archive/2008/04/hbc-90002804

Buy a copy of their magazine sometime or send them a thank you note. Anyone as consistently against Dubya from Day 1 is worth supporting.

By the way, and I'm not telling you anything here you probably haven't figured out on your own: you can find articles like this by Googling "worst president ever."