no more bedhead

Who was Neda? - CNN

Wil Wheaton had a great post yesterday about how he (and I, and I'm sure a lot of progressives) feel about the fallout from the election.

Read it here.

This was in my inbox this morning:

Bill --

I'm about to head to Grant Park to talk to everyone gathered there, but I wanted to write to you first.

We just made history.

And I don't want you to forget how we did it.

You made history every single day during this campaign -- every day you knocked on doors, made a donation, or talked to your family, friends, and neighbors about why you believe it's time for change.

I want to thank all of you who gave your time, talent, and passion to this campaign.

We have a lot of work to do to get our country back on track, and I'll be in touch soon about what comes next.

But I want to be very clear about one thing... All of this happened because of you.

Thank you,

Barack

Now, I originally wasn't going to post it because I know it's just a form email that was sent out to everyone who is registered with the Obama campaign, but one line struck me:

We have a lot of work to do to get our country back on track, and I'll be in touch soon about what comes next.

The idea that there is this group of committed volunteers, and the President-elect isn't going to let them all slink back into the background. The only way to change this country is to get all of us working together.

I was impressed during the whole campaign at the use of technology to bring people together for a common purpose, and I'm glad to see that it doesn't end here. I will be interested to see if it becomes a reality or if it's just political lip service. I suspect the former.

MSNBC just called the election for Obama!

I am struck most by the comments that things will never be the way they were because the baton has been passed to the "Obama Generation" - my generation. It is no longer politics as usual.

Yes. We. Can.

OHIO GOES FOR OBAMA!!!

At least MSNBC has called it. I think Ohio, combined with a win in Pennsylvania, should pretty much seal it up. Although, you never know. As my sister said, "When I went to bed, Al Gore was my President. When I woke up, it was George Bush."

But the good news either way is that the robocalls will stop! We've averaged 4 per day over the last week (including today) - all from John McCain. His calls have all seemed to try to scare me into not voting for Obama, using a variety of scare tactics and hyperbole.

I did receive two calls from Obama, but he was very calm and polite, and told me why I would want to vote for him.

I dropped Munchkin off at school and walked across the street to my polling place. I was expecting a huge line, but it wasn't bad. Longer than usual, but I was in and out in a half an hour.


Please don't forget to vote.
For Obama.

I hate making telephone calls. The thought of picking up the phone and speaking to someone, especially someone I don't know terrifies me.* (It makes ordering a pizza a true ordeal.) So, when I tell you that I called 40 strangers today to encourage them to vote for Barack Obama, you need to understand that, while it may not be a lot in the grand scheme of things, it was a really big deal for me.

I went to barackobama.com, signed up, and a list of 40 people from the Cincinnati area appeared on my computer. I fired up Skype and started dialing. The first person I spoke with - my first political call ever - was an 89 year old lady who hung up on me. I figured that it must be better than that, and kept going.

Unfortunately (or fortunately for me) I only ended up speaking to about 5 people, and left messages for everyone else. As I said, it wasn't much, but I feel really good about doing something over and above voting. If Obama loses tomorrow I wouldn't have believed it was my fault, but I would have been upset that there was something I could have done and didn't.

I'm glad I did it.




*Just for the record - work phone calls don't count. I can call parishes all over the place without hesitation and talk with rectors and lay people alike. I guess that when it's part of my job it's different.

A little late, but as yesterday was Halloween, here are a couple of pictures from the neighborhood.

Some people had scary pumpkins on the porch:


Some had scary spiders on the roof:

But, this house had the scariest decoration of all:


All pictures taken with the new camera, by the way.

How pathetic is this?

Don't Vote:



From Craig Ferguson: If you don't vote, you're a moron.

Is it just a coincidence that former Republican Senator Jesse Helms and Bozo the Clown both died on the same day? Were they in fact....the same person? Arguably.

RIP, Bozo.


Disclaimer: okay, they didn't actually die on the same day. Bozo died 7/3 and bozo died 7/4.

I came across this great site last night. It is part of the Washington Post, and it allows you to track your (and everyone else's) congressperson and senator. You can learn information like how many votes did that person miss, how often did they vote with their party, and how did they vote on key issues (and every issue as a matter of fact). The more you drill down, the more information is there, including biographies and district demographic data. Fascinating!

Congress Votes Datatbase

I was at a meeting last night, and Tracey had some big news. She had to leave early because she had to go to the dress rehearsal for the Democratic Presidential Debate. It seems that she had been asked to deliver the invocation! We were all excited for her, but she was just beaming!! She graciously offered to share with us her draft of the prayer, and it was really good (no surprise there).

I watched the beginning of the debate, hoping that they would televise her, but alas, they did not. Fortunately, Episcopal Cafe posted a copy of the invocation, so I get to add it here:

A Prayer for the Nation
Invocation for the Democratic Presidential Debate
The Very Rev. Tracey Lind, Dean, Trinity Episcopal Cathedral, Cleveland
February 26, 2008


Shalom, Salaam, Peace be with you. Let us pray.

Gracious and loving God: we call you by many names and come to you by many paths, yet you have brought us together to this time and place. We join our voices in praising you for the majesty and beauty of this land, for the people of our nation, for the state of Ohio and its citizens, and for the city of Cleveland and those who live, work and study here. May we always be mindful stewards of your bountiful creation.

As we come together this evening, we thank you, O God, for the great diversity of our nation and its people who, throughout our history, have embodied the principles and ideals of a democratic society. We pray especially this night for Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. We give thanks for their willingness to stand before us and offer themselves to serve as our nation’s president. We pray that as they debate, they will exhibit the courage of their convictions, hunger for the truth, a vision of compassion, justice for all people, and civility toward one another.

And as we, your faithful people, listen, discern and cast our ballots, may we remember that this nation is too important for anything but truth, that this world is too vulnerable for anything but peace, and that your creation is too precious for anything but love.

Amen.

Too close to call in New Hampshire!! I love it!! I love races that take it down to the wire. For most of the evening the race between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama has been too close to call. Although, in the last couple of minutes the news outlets have given the state to Clinton.

On the Republican side, John McCain is the winner, with Mitt Romney second, and Mike Huckabee third. The good news there is that Romney didn't win again! Let's keep that trend going.

So, the salad course is over. Now a quick sip of wine (Nevada caucus, and South Carolina primary), before we delve into the main course - Super Tuesday, Feb 5.

Today is Iowa Caucus day!! The first actual voting of the 2008 Presidential Campaign. I admit it - I'm an election junkie. I'll stay up until the wee hours on election day, and I love watching the primaries, at least early on when the candidates are still up in the air. So, I'm not to fussed that the Iowa Caucuses got moved up until today.

At 8:00 I turned on the TV to watch with all the talking heads to see what was going to happen. I was watching MSNBC, 'cause I think Keith Olbermann is great. He was joined by Chris Matthews, who speaks in ALL CAPS. Of course, right off the bat there was nothing to report. That didn't stop Norah O'Donnell. She was throwing facts and figures and percentages left and right. Naturally, what she was saying didn't match the graphics that were being shown over her shoulder. I had a vision of a frustrated tech guy in the control room trying to figure out which graphic Norah was going to talk about next, and get that up on the screen. I have a similar experience with one particular person in our diocese when I'm running her powerpoint presentations. She's done it to me two out of two times. But I digress.

So, Mike Huckabee (who?) wins for the Republicans, and Barack Obama wins for the Democrats. The sad part is that it doesn't really matter to me as I will be supporting whoever the Democrats pick. I don't want four more years of this bullshit.

Of course, the Iowa Caucuses don't really mean a whole lot either. It's like the appetizer before the banquet. It starts the meal, but really doesn't have an effect on the main course. Still...

On to New Hampshire (Tuesday)!!