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.

That darn Social Security crisis!

Social Security is running out of money! There won't be enough money when we need it! Privatize it!

Wow. Where would we be right now if President Bush's 2004 big push to privatize Social Security had gone ahead? Broke, that's where.

There really is a crisis in Social Security, it really is running out of money, but the solution is simple. In 2007, your FICA deduction from your paycheck was 6.2%, but only on the first $97,500 you earned. Everything above that amount was not subject to the FICA deductions. The amount may have gone up this year, it does go up, if I remember correctly, back in the early 90's it was around $75,000. Anyway, after you reach the cut off, you've paid your Social Security contributions for the year. So that means, the maximum any one person would contribute (as of 2007) was $6,045. The current cap may be $102,000.

Through the years, Dan and I have had the privilege of being above the Social Security income cap. Not every year, but quite a few years. When that happened, and the deduction was no longer taken out of his check, it was definitely a nice thing, having a little extra money, but it just seemed silly to me. All of my adult life, I've heard that Social Security wouldn't be there for me when I needed it...so why have the cap? 6.2% isn't a lot of money, and if people earning under $25,000 a year can afford 6.2% of their income, why can't people earning $250,000? Or $2,500,000? I mean think about it. Those people with the golden parachutes at AIG and Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac only paid $6,045 into Social Security in 2007. The CEO of Exxon Mobile paid $6,045 into Social Security in 2007.

Once we are over this bubble in the population, the baby boomers that are beginning to collect Social Security, this won't really be an issue, but for the next couple of decades, we need more money coming into the system.

Apparently Senator Chris Dodd's office calculated that if they removed the income cap on the Social Security tax, that is if everyone paid the same percentage on everything that they earned, there would immediately be enough money in the system for the next 75 years. That should get us through that Baby Boom Bubble!

Now I'm sure we all aspire to be above that Social Security income cap, but can't we agree that it wouldn't really hurt that much to continue to pay 6.2% on every dollar above that cap? I think we can all agree, it wouldn't really pose a hardship. I speak from experience, it wouldn't have hurt a bit. We need to remove that income cap.

Keep in mind, Luke 12.48: "From everyone to whom much has been given, much will be required; and from the one to whom much has been entrusted, even more will be demanded." (Oxford NRSV Bible) Perhaps the Gates Foundation says it a little more succinctly, "* To whom much has been given, much is expected."

I suppose you're wondering why I've called you all here.

I've had a blog for nearly two years. Actually, I have two of them. But I never write in them. They just sit there, taking up space. When my poor Mom (Hi Mom!) described her dinner with four of her republican friends, I thought it might be good for me to use this space to tell more of the story. The things that you might not hear on the "liberal, mainstream media." You might not all be as lucky as I am...I wake up to Air America on radio, I drive to work with Air America on radio. I get to work, discuss the political happenings of the past 24 hours with my boss and co-workers, check in with the DailyKos on my computer. Then I get in my car and drive home with Air America radio. When I get home and start dinner, I turn on MSNBC, which then stays on, through "Race for the Whitehouse" with David Gregory, to "Hardball" with Chris Matthews. Then the crowning glory, "Countdown" with Keith Olbermann, and finishing up with the new and great "Rachel Maddow Show." Of course, Dan will flip channels around during Rachel, but I can put my foot down if it seems there might be something that I didn't already hear about on the previous three shows. The next day, I do it all again. So my views aren't "fair and balanced," and especially not "fair and balanced" like FOX news. They are definitely left-leaning, but I learn details about things that I doubt you hear about on CBS Evening News or CNN. So I thought I'd share. Maybe if you don't have access to the media that I do, you'll read something that will help you with a quick comeback for those Republican friends and relatives.

If you were invited here by me, please feel free to invite others you know and/or love. Everyone is welcome to post comments, even if they are comments I disagree with, but mean comments will be deleted. You have been warned! Maybe if this becomes lively enough, I'll be inspired to keep it up after the election and we can all communicate more easily.

If you have more to say than just in response to my posts, I can add you as an author. Just email me at terresa_c@yahoo.com and I'll set it up. (No, that's not my normal email address, but it's the easiest one to get to on my laptop. Long story.)

Oh, and I left a couple of my few-and-far-between posts from before on here. Don't laugh at me, I was just talking to myself.

When did it become bad to be smart?

I think it happened sometime between 1992 when the Republicans took control of the House and Senate during the Clinton administration (thereby allowing a sitting president to face impeachment for having an affair...but the current president lied us into a war and faces no repercussions.) and today, when Barack Obama is dissed by the righties as being "elitist."

This is part of a diary that appeared recently on the DailyKos. An Obama supporter was out canvassing a conservative neighborhood, and he found an older gentleman, sitting on the porch. The man invited him to sit down and they chatted. The man said he had been a Republican until recently, and he went on to explain why. This is part of that explanation, and I think it might speak to some people who have just always been Republicans, so they continue to vote that way, without really noticing that perhaps that party doesn't represent them that well anymore.

"Back in the 60's, before either of you young folks were born there was a guy named Barry Goldwater. He was the GOP nominee that LBJ beat in '64. He was an intellectual. He was a big believer in rational government and making government smaller. He was of the belief that the American people were the best judges of what was good and not good for them but wanted and fought for them to have the right to choose for themselves. Barry Goldwater was far from perfect though. He had his faults as all men do but he was also a man who was very much about ideas and liberties and not about policies and programs. He liked the idea that America was a place that you could talk about big things and have big ideas that made big achievements. It was really something.

"When Reagan won in 1980 it was almost a vindication of those beliefs. You have to understand that for many of us who voted for Reagan it wasn't so much about his policies as it was about his ideas. Back then Conservatives talked about policy and ideas like they were important. They valued intelligence and education. They believed that if they presented their ideas pragmatically and logically that people would respond and we could unite the country. Regan did that. Not perfectly of course but he did it.

Then something happened. Nixon played to it of course but it really came into play in the 1990's and even more this past decade. Republicans turned their backs on smart people. Just like that, being smart was less important than being 'real'. Being qualified was about being ordinary. New ideas and thoughtful discourse was something to be ridiculed and not something to be examined. A good education and vocabulary became something to disdain and not something to celebrate. The Republicans stopped being leaders and started becoming drum bangers. Oh, they'd pull out their tanks and missiles like they were penises and pretend that asking questions was akin to treason. Scary."

He stopped for a moment and took another sip from his mug. "The Republican party is the party of the bowling alley. It's the party of the poker game. It's the party of pseudo patriotism and talking points masquerading as a platform. It's the party of shrillness and fear and I couldn't in good conscience be a part of that smoke and mirrors any longer."

Needless to say, Shannon and I were stunned. It was very quiet for a moment as we allowed what this smart and friendly older gentleman had just said to sink in. Finally we found our voices again and asked him if he had any questions about Senator Obama or his platforms. He gave us a shrewd wink and replied, "I do indeed son, but I don't think they are ones anyone can answer until he's in the job." Taking this as our cue, we both got up and thanked Dave for the chat and he replied with an airy wave of his mug. "What you are doing is important. It's important to stand up for something you believe in." We said our goodbyes and started down the steps when he called out to us again.

"And you can pound one of those signs in the lawn on the way out if you'd like."

One more down. More to go. America is waking up. And it was such a beautiful day."

So why haven't those Democrats done anything?

Your Republican friends are probably fond of pointing out how the Democrats have been in control of the House and the Senate since 2006, and they haven't accomplished much of anything. Well, that's true. But why not? It's simple, they do not have a veto-proof majority. It takes 60 votes in the Senate to pass a bill that the President can't veto. The Dems have 51 Senators (on a good day, when none of them are battling life-threatening illnesses). So anything that they can't get at least nine Republicans to sign on to, President Bush just tells them he will veto it. That's why they can't accomplish much.

OK, so who is David Iglesias?

David Iglesias is one of the fired US Attorneys...fired for being honest, and not using their office for political reasons. Here is what Wikipedia says about his dismissal:

In October 2006 (prior to the 2006 midterm election) Senator Pete Domenici called to ask about the progress of an investigation, New Mexico U.S. Attorney Iglesias said he felt this inquiry was trying to "pressure" him to speed up indictments in a federal corruption investigation that involved at least one former Democratic state senator. When Iglesias said an indictment wouldn't be handed down until at least December, "the line went dead." Iglesias was fired one month after the election by the Bush Administration as part of the Dismissal of U.S. attorneys controversy. Also in October, Representative Heather Wilson called about the indictments in a federal corruption investigation that involved at least one former Democratic state Senator."[14]
Allen Weh, chairman of the Republican Party of New Mexico, said he complained in 2005 about then-U.S. Attorney David Iglesias to a White House aide for Rove, asking that Iglesias be removed.[15] Then in 2006 Rove personally told Weh “He’s gone,” Rove said.[15]
One of the stated reasons for Iglesias' dismissal, by Administration officials, was dissatisfaction in his prosecution of voter-fraud cases. Nevertheless, Iglesias "had been heralded for his expertise in that area by the Justice Department, which twice selected him to train other federal prosecutors to pursue election crimes" and was "one of two chief federal prosecutors invited to teach at a 'voting integrity symposium' in October 2005… sponsored by Justice's public integrity and civil rights sections."[16]
Iglesias said that in October 2006 he received inquiries regarding the timing of a federal probe of a kickback scheme involving local Democrats from two congressmen whom Iglesias refused to name for fear of retribution. He said that they appeared eager for there to be an indictment in time to assist the Republicans in the upcoming November election, and believed that he was ultimately fired for refusing to expedite matters.[17] In comments to the Albuquerque Journal he described them as "two members of the New Mexico delegation".[18]
The Justice Department said that part of the reason for Iglesias's dismissal was his frequent absences. In response to this charge, Iglesias stated that the reason for these absences was his mandatory 40-day per year service as part of the Navy Reserve, in which he still serves as a commander.[19] This represents a possible violation of USERRA.
In October 2008, a report by the Department of Justice's Inspector General found that Iglesias had been wrongfully dismissed because he had refused to pursue prosecutions against a Democrat-linked community organization and a prominent New Mexico Democrat. "The real reasons for Iglesias' removal were the complaints from New Mexico Republican politicians and party activists about how Iglesias handled voter fraud and public corruption cases in the state," the report says. The Inspector General's report says that Senator Domenici's complaints were the "primary" reason Iglesias was fired. [20]
He was to be replaced with Larry Gomez, the man who had been his assistant.[21]
[edit]

So David Iglesias, must be some raving liberal, right? No. Republican, appointed by George W. Bush. Exemplary record. In fact, this is the most interesting fact about David Iglesias. You know the movie A Few Good Men , where Tom Cruise was the attorney and Jack Nicholson yelled at him, "YOU CAN"T HANDLE THE TRUTH!" That movie was based on a true story, and the Tom Cruise character was based on...David Iglesias who was a JAG in US Navy.

From little ACORNs...

grow huge Republican talking points.

I don't know if all media outlets have explained this ACORN flap as well as the ones that I'm lucky enough to be able to watch and listen to. So I thought I'd explain it, as I've heard it explained. If you already know, just skip this!

ACORN stands for Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now. One way they work for Reform Now is to register people to vote. To do this, they send people to communities where registration is low, which coincidentally happen to be non-white, lower income neighborhoods. (Democratic neighborhoods.) They employ people who really need the work. They pay them by the registration. Sometimes in these communities, they give the people who register a dollar. So people who are in desperate need of money occasionally do things that are less than honest. It might be the people who are being asked to register, and are being offered a dollar. They sign up using the name "Mickey Mouse," or "Michael Jordan" or whatever. Or it might be the people collecting the registrations (remember they get paid by the registration), padding their income. No matter who does it, there are definitely bogus registrations coming in. So here are the two important things to remember:

1. ACORN (and anyone else who registers voters) are required BY LAW to turn in every form they collect to the elections office in their area. And with good reason, we don't want someone going through them and pulling out some, saying "oh, we don't want THIS person to vote, so we'll just "lose" their registration," right? They have to turn them all in. But ACORN actually goes through them and pulls the obviously bogus registrations, puts them in a separate stack and tells the election office, "here, these are clearly bogus." They are doing what they have to do, but they are trying to be helpful.

2. The people who submit the bogus registrations are, yes, absolutely, committing Voter Registration Fraud. But notice that word in the middle that starts with R. Registration. They are NOT committing Voter Fraud, which would be trying to vote more than once, or vote for a person they are not. You don't really think these people plan to show up at the polls with their voter registration card that identifies them as "Mickey Mouse," do you? They did it for the money, not to vote.

So why are the republicans making such a big deal about this? John McCain said this fraud was "tearing the fabric of democracy," or something along those lines. Clearly it isn't, but they are making a big deal about it so that when Obama wins, they can point to this "fraud" and use it to claim that Obama's presidency isn't legitimate. (Hmmm, like anyone else we know?) The Republicans should remember, they are the ones that need to steal elections, not the Democrats.

Oh, and one more thing. The Republicans tried to prosecute ACORN for this Voter Registration Fraud prior to the 2006 election. They filed complaints with the US Attorneys offices about "voter fraud," which were then investigated by US Attorneys offices. It was found that there were no grounds for prosecution. This didn't please some Republican office-holders, so they complained (apparently) to Karl Rove, which led to the firing of some US Attorneys, including David Iglesias. (I'll tell you a little about him in my next post.) You may have heard of the US Attorneys Scandal. This is the root of it, the fact that they investigated this type of voter registration fraud prior to the 2006 election, and found nothing to prosecute.

WTH?

Apparently, women are stupid. Even though Sarah Palin is completely opposite of Hillary Clinton, we're supposed to want to vote for her because she has two X chromosomes? Nice work, McSame!

Wow.

Those were some speakers at that Democratic Convention! Ted Kennedy, Michelle Obama, Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden, Beau Biden, John Kerry, Bill Clinton, Al Gore, Bob Casey and of course, Barack Obama. All fabulous. I have to say, I was particularly fond of watching Pat Buchanan gush about Obama's acceptance speech, calling it "magnificent." That made my week!

Broken-hearted...

for Senator Ted Kennedy and his family. So much tragedy for one family. An imperfect family, an imperfect man, but a family and a man who have given so much to our country. If you're unsure of Senator Kennedy's contributions to our government over the past 40+ years, find some of his speeches from the Senate floor on line, or read the transcripts of some of them on his website. Please send healing thoughts and prayers to the Senator.