Is it just the uniforms?

Reading reactions to the NCAA sanctions against the Oregon Ducks, and taken aback by such vehement hatred of Big Green. Is it just because of the crazy uniforms that people are hating on the Ducks, or is it because they are seen as an upstart in the world of college football powerhouses? Well, sour grapes. Haters will be even more unhappy this season when Thomas Tyner of Aloha joins the Ducks. The combo of D'Anthony Thomas, Marcus Mariota and Thomas Tyner means just one thing...lightning quick. Watch out, PAC12 and beyond!

I love the winter weather...

so the two of us can get together...

Or not. Holiday travel plans on hold at the moment, welcome to rainy Portland!

Wow!

I don't know how you determine if an election is won by a landslide, but these results seem to me about as close to that term as you can get! It's gratifying to know that so many Americans felt the same way I (we?) did.

I feel like I was wound as tightly as a spring until Tuesday and when the whole thing was over, I was exhausted! I felt like a just ran an emotional marathon, rather than a physical one. I was so worried about the outcome of this election, I honestly don't know what I would have done if McCain had won. I might have taken to my bed for a month, too depressed to function. I might have started looking for property in Canada. Or I might have taken to civil disobedience. But I don't think I could have just sucked it up and carried on. Now the future looks bright.

I'm not going to go into how historic this election was, I think we've all been hearing it for too long. We know! But I will say a few final things, and then tell you what I have in mind for the future of this blog.

#1. I certainly hope Barack Obama thanks Hillary Clinton properly for training him to run against John McCain. She was an absolute superstar on the campaign trail for Obama, but I believe that she was so much more tough for him to beat that she got him ready to run against McCain. We all owe her a debt of gratitude. Hil-lar-y! Hil-lar-y! And a side note on Hillary, was anyone but me amazed at how reviled Hillary was during and immediately after the Clinton administration, and then when she ran, she was winning people over left and right? I love Hillary.

#2. I just love this quote. A disgusted McCain aide calls the Palins “Wasilla hillbillies looting Neiman Marcus from coast to coast.” If you haven't heard that one yet, read this. http://wonkette.com/404194/mccain-campaign-knocks-wasilla-hillbillies-looting-neiman-marcus-from-coast-to-coast And then there's something I heard once when the whole clothing budget thing came out, and haven't heard since. Which may mean it isn't true, and I really hope it isn't. I heard that during the shopping spree, Sarah insisted they buy the Cute Palin (little Piper, who is absolutely adorable) a Louis Vuitton handbag.
Oh! I thought I'd better check with "the google" on that one, since I might have dreamed it or something. Well, the consensus is that Piper's bag is a fake, purchased as a souvinir in NYC. Ummm, that's not really any better! Don't these people know about how horrible the counterfitting business is? Maybe they don't, I didn't know back in the day when I had my aunt (Hi Nea!) purchase a fake Kate Spade for me in NYC...but you know, I never carried that bag. I felt cheap and guilty, and later I found out that there was a good reason for that.

Most people think that buying an imitation handbag or wallet is harmless, a victimless crime. But the counterfeiting rackets are run by crime syndicates that also deal in narcotics, weapons, child prostitution, human trafficking and terrorism. Ronald K. Noble, the secretary general of Interpol, told the House of Representatives Committee on International Relations that profits from the sale of counterfeit goods have gone to groups associated with Hezbollah, the Shiite terrorist group, paramilitary organizations in Northern Ireland and FARC, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia.

Sales of counterfeit T-shirts may have helped finance the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, according to the International AntiCounterfeiting Coalition. “Profits from counterfeiting are one of the three main sources of income supporting international terrorism,” said Magnus Ranstorp, a terrorism expert at the University of St. Andrews, in Scotland.

Most fakes today are produced in China, a good many of them by children. Children are sometimes sold or sent off by their families to work in clandestine factories that produce counterfeit luxury goods. Many in the West consider this an urban myth. But I have seen it myself.

On a warm winter afternoon in Guangzhou, I accompanied Chinese police officers on a factory raid in a decrepit tenement. Inside, we found two dozen children, ages 8 to 13, gluing and sewing together fake luxury-brand handbags. The police confiscated everything, arrested the owner and sent the children out. Some punched their timecards, hoping to still get paid. (The average Chinese factory worker earns about $120 a month; the counterfeit factory worker earns half that or less.) As we made our way back to the police vans, the children threw bottles and cans at us. They were now jobless and, because the factory owner housed them, homeless. It was “Oliver Twist” in the 21st century.

Dana Thomas, New York Times

#3. Rumors are swirling about the source of the leaks about the Palins. Many believe that Romney supporters are behind it, he's hoping to damager her brand before the 2012 election. Please, no to both of them. Not that Obama will have anything to worry about in 2012, but I hope the Republicans are able to come up with someone who can represent America better than either of those two! No, wait a minute...no, I don't. Go Sarah!

This is turning into a really long post, so I'll wrap it up now. Just a hint of what's to come, and an invitation for you all to stay around. I know I'm not fascinating, but I'll try to post at least a couple of times a week with something that I think is important. My first two important things that I want to talk about in the upcoming weeks are the Wall Street-state of the radio business connection. Maybe it's obvious to everyone, maybe it's boring. It's important to me and my family though, and I want to rant about it. It's also HIGHLY unstable right now, with the state of the market. This gives me both great fear and great hope. The other thing that's important is High Fructose Corn Syrup. Again, maybe obvious, maybe boring, but important.

If you haven't celebrated yet, please do. Personally, we enjoyed champagne and other treats at work on both Wednesday and Thursday, I hope the rest of you were so lucky.

It's almost over!

Tomorrow I can exhale. This morning I woke up feeling very optimistic, ready to embrace history being made. Then I turned on the tv and saw Joe Scarborough saying he could come up with several scenarios where McCain could win. Then I thought about all the people I've heard say that they voted twice for Bush and that they regret it. They couldn't make the same mistake a third time, could they? Then reports of voting problems started coming in. I'm hoping that they are isolated, and just part of regular life, things can go wrong and get straightened out.

So today I'll go to work wearing my Obama shirt, with my fingers and my toes crossed, and all my good-luck charms in place. And I'll try to have faith in the American people, even though they have let me down before.

You can help! Remind everyone you know to go vote. Don't be one of the people that cause a tight race to be lost. Remember Florida, 2000. The entire election was won by a questionable 537 votes. That margin probably would have disappeared if the Supreme Court had allowed recounts to continue. I hope Sandra Day O'Connor is sorry for what she did.

But for now, I'm trying to keep the optimism. I'm hoping for a landslide!

Why haven't I been writing?

Well, I'll tell you. I'm paralyzed with fear! I just want to go to sleep and wake up on November 5. I am so afraid that either this election will be stolen like the last two, or that the GOP has something sleazy up their sleeves...some last minute October Surprise. I know that each minute that passes makes that last one less and less likely, but I'm still nervous.

So while I sit here and bite my nails, here's something for your viewing enjoyment!
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/10/23/ron-howards-call-for-obam_n_137214.html
(scroll down to the ron howard video)

Happy Halloween!

It's starting already!

Early voters in two West Virginia counties are reporting that voting machines switched their votes from Obama to McCain, and switched other down-ballot choices from the Democrat to the Republican. Election officials blamed the errors on voters, but it's odd how no one has complained that their McCain votes were changed to Obama.

The two most profound things General Powell said

The endorsement of General Colin Powell is definitely a positive thing for Barack Obama. But in the interview with Tom Brokaw on Meet the Press, two things really jumped out at me.

1. Referring to Sarah Palin, General Powell gave her props, but said she clearly isn't ready to be the president, which after all is THE job of the vice-president.

2. When people say, "Obama's a Muslim," the answer is "no, he isn't he's a Christian, he's always been a Christian." The answer SHOULD be, "so what if he is?" Should an American-born Muslim grow up feeling that they can't become president? No, that's not America. (Paraphrasing of General Powell ends here.) We need to remember that this country was created in a search for freedom to practice one's own religion.