I hope the Letterman reference amused the old-school late-nighters among you. Anyway!

I think the Patriot Act is sort of lame and while well intentioned, really poorly executed. So now that it’s up for renewal (a process not without contention, I might add), there’s some discussion in Congress and because I’m on the Congress.org mailing list, I get a link in my email that I click and fill in what I want to tell them. #Seriously, it is THAT easy. So I went and filled it in. Like this:

Please do not allow the Patriot Act to continue in the current form.
Wiretapping has not made me safer. No plot has been foiled because the
government could, on a whim, listen to me tell my husband what’s for
dinner. None of what was instituted in the name of my safety has made me
more secure. In fact, this Act has only helped advance the cause of
terrorists who hate the very freedoms that set the United States apart. By
damaging or eliminating entirely some of the liberties afforded me as a
citizen of the United States of America, this Act has done more to further
the aims of terrorists than any of the plots it is allegedly protecting me
from.

That little paragraph went to all my representatives in Washington. It is THAT easy to get involved. I’ll outline that more later, but really since I am on such a hot streak of posting letters I write to people, I thought I’d add one more.

Other holidays which celebrate people are a bit specific: Presidents Day, for example, (I know it as Presidents Day, others specifically celebrate it as Washington’s Birthday) is a holiday meant to honor a President (and as Presidents Day, a second one as well). Presidents are a select group of people. Veteran’s Day is meant to celebrate Veterans, those who have served this country. Again, a specific and clearly defined group. Martin Luther King Day celebrates one specific person, Memorial Day is meant for remembering those who died in service to our country. All of these are very clear cut groups of people who are celebrated or honored for something they have done.

And somehow tomorrow is Patriot Day.

I went and looked up ‘patriot’ so I could see for certain what it meant. Merriam and Webster say: one who loves his or her country and supports its authority and interests. Can someone explain to me how people dying in collapsing buildings makes them patriots? I mean, I have no issue with honoring and remember people who died that day, that isn’t my problem. My problem is that someone dying doesn’t automatically make them a patriot. By that token, if I love and support America, I can’t be a patriot because I’m still alive. I find this disturbing. People who went out of their way to do something (be President, serve their country) are being honored for having done so. People who happened to be in a particular place at a particularly unfortunate time are being honored for it. They did not go out of their way to join the Army or win an election. A lot of people died at Pearl Harbor just for being on those ships, much like the people in those towers died just for being there. We do not honor them, Americans blown up by someone from another country with an axe to grind. We do not honor those who died in another building that happened to get bombed: in Oklahoma City. They died just for going to work too. We do not honor those who died in a plane crash where nobody survived (there are many, pick one). What makes these people different? Special?

Perhaps this would not alarm me so if it weren’t for the fact that the word “patriot” is now supercharged with political meaning and used as a club to beat people into toeing a line.

I want to honor these people, and it is tragic what happened to them. Their families have to get up every day and go on without those people. Honoring them is important. So lay off the politics and the agendas and the hidden meanings and the partisanship. Let’s leave patriotism out of it and show a little respect.

Let me restate that.

President Obama, leader of the free world, was HECKLED. In his own country. By, in essence, someone from a different department in the same company. Wanna see? Brace yourself.

I also enjoyed this analysis on DailyKos.

Say what you will about President Obama. He was elected fair and square (unlike the last guy, this was a clear cut victory). In fact, I encourage people to say what they will. It’s what makes this country great. And the same thing I keep saying holds true here: When situations were reversed, this wasn’t how the last guy got treated. For the record, the last guy actually DID address a joint session of Congress and lie. But since he was THE PRESIDENT he was shown a modicum of respect and people were quiet.

In the entire speech, there were points where Obama would say something and people would stand up and clap. Not everyone in the chamber. Some of them stayed seated and some didn’t even clap. I don’t mean things that were obviously democratic, I mean things like this:

…that concern and regard for the plight of others – is not a partisan feeling. It is not a Republican or a Democratic feeling. It, too, is part of the American character. Our ability to stand in other people’s shoes. A recognition that we are all in this together; that when fortune turns against one of us, others are there to lend a helping hand. A belief that in this country, hard work and responsibility should be rewarded by some measure of security and fair play; and an acknowledgement that sometimes government has to step in to help deliver on that promise.

and this:

That’s not what we came here to do. We did not come to fear the future. We came here to shape it. I still believe we can act even when it’s hard. I still believe we can replace acrimony with civility, and gridlock with progress. I still believe we can do great things, and that here and now we will meet history’s test.

Got NO applause from Republicans. Which clearly means that something I was thinking before and used to kid about is actually true: Republicans only care about people UNTIL they are born. After that you’re on your own. Come back when you’ve amasssed enough zeroes and we’ll talk.

Again, say what you will about Obama or his policies or his birthplace or whatever you want. Feel free to disagree. But if you can’t do so in a CIVIL fashion, you are not allowed to be part of the debate.

Or, bluntly: You know that hole you put pie in? Shut it. Grownups are talking.

I am writing to express my concerns about Lou Dobbs being scheduled to broadcast the “Hold Their Feet to the Fire” conference. They are considered a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center, and it concerns me that someone from CNN would be part of an event held by this organization. Lou Dobbs broadcasting from this event lends this group a certain measure of unwarranted credibility. Would you be happy to broadcast The Situation Room from a Ku Klux Klan event? Would you expend the resources to send 360 to the Westboro Baptist Church Labor Day picnic? I hope the answer is “Of course not”, and I wish the answer to sending Lou Dobbs to this sort of conference was the same. Please stop this from happening.

Also: If you’re here to validate your own health care reform opinions or you just want to tear me down for mine, I’m sorry, that’s not gonna happen.

I do believe the cost of health care is out of control, and whether there’s a public plan or not, regardless of what comes from Congress this is an issue that warrants discussion. I went to see what Webster’s said was the definition of discussion, and they say:

1 : consideration of a question in open and usually informal debate
2 : a formal treatment of a topic in speech or writing

I say that seems about right. However, just to be clear, I looked up the word debate, and that definition was discussion, so I looked up discussion and got:

Discuss implies a sifting of possibilities especially by presenting considerations pro and con (discussed the need for a new highway)

See? Presenting considerations pro and con. Nowhere in any of these definitions did I find the following phrases:
Yell inflammatory comments to bring debate to a halt
Scream your fool head off as soon as someone speaks civilly
Invoke Godwin’s Law for attention only
Contribute nothing but decibels

So if you are against the contents of the bills Congress is considering, that’s fine. I am interested in what it is THOSE BILLS ACTUALLY SAY that you disagree with. If you can’t quote me the bill and can only quote me what you heard on the TV, well, I’m not interested. Same goes for “saw it on Facebook” and “I got an email…” and “JimBob down at the truck stop says..” and any other place you saw/heard/read something and are now all worked up. I’m happy to engage in conversation and debate with anyone (even you!) as long as your stance is thoughtful and based in reality.

At first I was excited about Town Halls and people wanting to go and be involved in the process (you know, “Yes We Can” and all of that). Then I found out there were people going for the sake of halting the process, not for the sake of learning or CIVIL discourse, just going to gum up the works.

If I had my way I would ask one question of the people going to Town Hall meetings and screeching about the end of America, and that question is:

Where were you before?

I want to know why it is terrible NOW that government is addressing an issue that needs to be addressed. Why weren’t you screaming bloody murder over tax cuts that contributed to the economic mess (which caused people to lose jobs and therefore health insurance)? Why wasn’t it so bad that under the previous administration, government spending continually went up disproportionately to the rest of the US economy? Now that we have an administration who is interested in what America has to say you are complaining about the opportunity? Why wasn’t that a tragedy when the last guy ignored every statistic that said “America thinks you’re doing it wrong”?

I admit the answer to my question scares me a little. But I really do want to hear it.

(EDITED TO ADD: My friend PAgent whipped up a comic strip on this very issue. hee hee hee!)

Commissioners:

I am disappointed you did not take the wishes of the residents of 39th Avenue into account when you voted yes. Why not a compromise on a new building someplace? Or the new Interstate Bridge? And on more practical matters, renaming streets isn’t cheap for anyone, so in an environment already not conducive to small businesses you are making it more expensive for those on 39th now that they have change their address or move away, and I’m willing to bet some of those businesses will leave Portland altogether.

I am not opposed to a tribute to Cesar Chavez, I am more than happy for something in tribute to him to exist in Portland. But why not a Farmer’s Market? Or a school? Because the committee who wanted a street said they’d get one by hook or by crook? They put enough money into their campaign to get attention? After enough unsuccessful tries they had finally pestered this into being?

As a child in rural Oregon, I went to Sam Boardman Elementary School. As a result I spent a bit of time each year learning about Sam Boardman. He was the first State Parks Superintendent, and he did a lot to preserve parts of Oregon by turning them into parks. That is more than I was ever taught about Cesar Chavez, and I lived in a part of Oregon where as a white person I was a minority in my high school for about half the school year as a result of the influx of students due to migrant seasonal workers.

I use 39th Avenue. One of the fundamental ways I was able to find my way around Portland when I first moved to Portland (I lived on SE 36th) was to use the existing grid system that included numbered streets such as 39th. That ease of navigation is diminished when that navigation now has to come with an exception. There are a lot of other ways honoring Cesar Chavez could have been handled that would have made a lot more Portlanders happy. I also don’t appreciate that the process to get a street renamed never takes the wishes of that street’s residents into account. I find it shameful that in a representative democracy, those representatives are clearly not voting according to the wishes of those they represent.

And I will be frank here: Right now the Council doesn’t need another black mark. Between the recall in the works for our Mayor, a contentious Major League Soccer bid, and a new baseball stadium, there is a lot of money being spent or being committed to be spent. And yet in my neighborhood entire blocks are nothing but potholes held together with pavement and there wasn’t enough money to keep a police precinct open in southeast Portland.

I know that this is only one person’s opinion and you have made it abundantly clear you are not interested in one opinion let alone the opinions of many many people, but since I already contacted the Council with my stance on this I felt it necessary to follow up and let you know how disappointed I am in this decision. There are better ways to honor Cesar Chavez. I wish the City Council was more concerned about doing what their constituency wants them to and less concerned with what “looks good” for Portland.

Sincerely,
Miss Kelly
Southeast Portland

These people have proven they are poor decision makers and in other industries they would no longer have jobs, especially provided they are by and large owned by the government. Since these particular organizations have been deemed “too big to fail” or otherwise fundamentally important to the US economy, it is clear they need to remain operational.

Here’s my idea: Let me have a crack at it. Here’s why I am qualified:
* I have been laid off as a direct result of the economy, and therefore have the time to devote to doing this job.
* I happen to know how to operate Quicken, and I know when you look at Quicken and the number at the bottom is red, that’s bad.
* Having looked at the track records of the three men below, I find it hard to believe I could do worse.
* I’m willing to make the sort of sacrifices necessary to set things right. (See below.)

This article says JP Morgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon’s compensation was $19.7 million in 2008. This one says the CEO of Citigroup (Vikram S Pandit, who said he got the “new reality” of the bailout situation) made $38.2 million in 2008. According to this, the CEO of AIG (not the current guy, he was installed by the government, this is the guy before) made about $25 million a year. So if we round those off, that’s 20 + 38 + 25 or 83 million a year. Divided by 3, that comes out to 27.66 million. Because I want this to be easy, I’m going to round up and say 30 million dollars is about the salary of the three men getting the most attention at the moment for what they are paid. I am willing to do this job for a mere ten percent of that rate, or 3 million a year. Practically a steal!

So, in the interest of serving my country, I am willing to become the CEO of one of these organizations to help steer them back into profitable territory. Mister President, please tell me where to send my W-4 and which one you would like me to take charge of. I await your response.

Bless this nation with anger – anger at discrimination, at home and abroad, against refugees and immigrants, women, people of color, gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender people.

Bless us with discomfort at the easy, simplistic answers we’ve preferred to hear from our politicians, instead of the truth about ourselves and our world, which we need to face if we are going to rise to the challenges of the future.

Bless us with patience and the knowledge that none of what ails us will be fixed anytime soon, and the understanding that our new president is a human being, not a messiah.

Bless us with humility, open to understanding that our own needs as a nation must always be balanced with those of the world.

Bless us with freedom from mere tolerance, replacing it with a genuine respect and warm embrace of our differences.

Bless us with compassion and generosity, remembering that every religion’s God judges us by the way we care for the most vulnerable.

And God, we give you thanks for your child, Barack, as he assumes the office of President of the United States.

Give him wisdom beyond his years, inspire him with President Lincoln’s reconciling leadership style, President Kennedy’s ability to enlist our best efforts, and Dr. King’s dream of a nation for all people.

Give him a quiet heart, for our ship of state needs a steady, calm captain.

Give him stirring words; We will need to be inspired and motivated to make the personal and common sacrifices necessary to facing the challenges ahead.

Make him color-blind, reminding him of his own words that under his leadership, there will be neither red nor blue states, but the United States.

Help him remember his own oppression as a minority, drawing on that experience of discrimination, that he might seek to change the lives of those who are still its victims.

Give him strength to find family time and privacy, and help him remember that even though he is president, a father only gets one shot at his daughters’ childhoods.

And please, God, keep him safe. We know we ask too much of our presidents, and we’re asking far too much of this one. We implore you, O good and great God, to keep him safe. Hold him in the palm of your hand, that he might do the work we have called him to do, that he might find joy in this impossible calling, and that in the end, he might lead us as a nation to a place of integrity, prosperity, and peace.

Amen.
–

Amen indeed. Oh, did I mention this lovely prayer came from an openly gay man? No? Sorry. I think the real question is does that even matter? What does matter is the kind of persecution and hate and violence he has experienced at the hands of “good” Christians. I thought it was a very sincere and thoughtful blessing, and it doesn’t matter that I’m not Episcopalian. Say what you will about Kevin Smith but he nailed it in Dogma:

RUFUS
He still digs humanity, but it bothers Him to see the shit that gets carried out in His name – wars, bigotry, but especially the fractioning of all the religions. He said humanity took a good idea and, like always, built a belief structure on it.

BETHANY
Having beliefs isn’t good?

RUFUS
I think it’s better to have ideas. You can change an idea. Changing a belief is trickier. Life should malleable and progressive; working from idea to idea permits that. Beliefs anchor you to certain points and limit growth; new ideas can’t generate. Life becomes stagnant. That was one thing the Man hated – still life. He wanted everyone to be as enthralled with living as He was. Maybe it had something to do with knowing when He was going to die. but Christ had this vitality that I’ve never encountered in another person since.
–

Yeah. That.

* Why does Amy Ruiz have ANYTHING to do with this? Is WW having a sour grapes moment because someone there applied for the same job and didn’t get it? There is no proof or evidence or ANYTHING that ties Amy’s position to her knowledge of this story except WW saying so. Fine. I’m not saying Nigel Jaquiss has a particular fetish for sex scandals either. Except that he’s broken news on two of them. And won a PULITZER for one of them. But I’m not saying anything about anything.

* Sam, it IS true you should have come out and said so. And it IS true that you looked me (me = Portland) in the (metaphorical) eye and went all Clinton on me. I feel a little twinge of disappointment here. I thought you were different. You have to know you are a lightning rod of big gay controversy, everything is twice as scrutinized when you do it, and the fact that you went anywhere near someone who could even SEE seventeen from where he stood will get all manner of folks in a tizzy in no time flat.

* I understand why you did it, but you could have put a finer point on never with someone underage, maybe (so you could get around the underage or not question). If this all went down after he was 18 then just say you never touched a 17 year old boy and that’s that. Still a bit slippery but not a lie and more importantly not fodder for the “OMGWTFBBQ GAYS WANT YOUR CHILLUNS RUN AND HIDE” crowd.

(update 1)
* I am worked up about this also because it shouldn’t matter who did what with who. If he did something he’s not proud of he shouldn’t have said ANYthing. My cynical side says “go ahead, make the crack about how you have lots of gay friends and you KNOW not one of them can keep their mouth shut for anything” but I don’t want to turn this into armchair snark. (: It’s irritating because I’ll bet money there’s a MEGA double standard. Right now it’s still about “OMG HE LIED” but the “HE’S COMING FOR YOUR KIDDIES NEXT” contingent will join us soon enough. If this had been a newly 18 year old GIRL, it would be less of a deal I assure you. There’d be stern talking-to and all of that, but for the most part it would be “oh he lied now let’s move on”.

* Let me be clear: MY OWN issue with this is that he flat out lied. I don’t care what he (legally) did. I don’t care who he (legally) did it with. Consent is consent is consent. I care that he said he didn’t but now oh wait yes he did. Resignable? No. Shady? Yes. And saddest of all, Politics As Usual? Most assuredly.

I will update this yet again as more comes to me.

Today this showed up in my email:

Thank you for your letter on Congress’s response to the financial crisis confronting the auto-industry. The question of whether an additional bailout of the auto industry is good or bad policy depends entirely on how we provide assistance.

Giving the Big Three auto makers more funds to continue business as usual is probably not good policy nor is it a wise use of resources. I have long advocated investments that accomplish more than one objective. In the aftermath of 9/11, for example, I was disappointed that we gave money to the airlines without insisting that they use it to buy quieter, less-polluting aircraft. Today, we have the opportunity to use federal investments to not only help the auto industry respond to future needs, but to strengthen the economy and the environment in communities across America.

We could, for example, create fueling stations for the sorts of cars we need for the future: making sure that people with biofuel, compressed natural gas, and plug-in hybrids are able to get the energies they need for operation. We don’t yet have the infrastructure we need to make it easier to sell the products of tomorrow. Investing in such infrastructure would have a profound effect.

As the largest buyer of vehicles in the United States, the federal government could play an important role in shaping the auto market of future. If all federal departments and agencies were committed over the next three years to buy hyper fuel-efficient cars, plug-in hybrids, and flex-fuel or compressed natural gas vehicles, we could have a profound effect on the industry. This one requirement would provide a modern fleet for our operations, improve the efficiency of our departments, and reduce long-term operating costs.

We could also dedicate a portion of Detroit’s bail-out request to removing old, polluting cars from the road, trading “cash for clunkers.” This would improve the environment and help people who are probably paying too much to operate dirty, unsafe vehicles.

In short, we have a prime opportunity to stimulate a market, improve our own operations, and give people the incentive to upgrade their vehicle.

At a time of unprecedented economic stress, while we are struggling to protect the planet, reorient the long-term practices of auto industry, and change consumer habits, we can either provide a narrowly-defined knee-jerk reaction that has little or no effect, or a more thoughtful policy that will reap numerous benefits and get us where we want to go faster.

Again, thank you for your letter. I look forward to continuing our conversation on the financial challenges facing America.

Sincerely,
Earl Blumenauer
Member of Congress

I was very impressed with this thoughtful response. I also appreciated hearing back. It made me feel like someone received and read that message and sent me a reply. I was heard. Maybe I was the only anti person, maybe I wasn’t. I am completely aware there are staff people who spend a vast percentage of their time on reading and replying to communcation (calls, letters, email) on behalf of Mr Blumenauer. But the point is, SOMEONE (Earl or not) took a moment to send me a reply and while that may not have been a big deal to them it is a pretty big deal to me. I want to make sure I give credit where credit is deserved, and Earl’s office DEFINITELY deserves credit.

Oh you heard me, I said nonsense. Because apparently the REAL issue here is that we don’t yet have a Mayor Potter Style Advisory Committee to make recommendations. OK, we didn’t, until now. I am still confused about the No-Hooker-Zone because I thought Portland, nay, OREGON was a No-Hooker-Zone. If prostitution is illegal then why do we have a special part of town where it’s extra illegal? Like the No-Meth-Zone downtown I don’t get it. What makes this a good thing to spend time and resources and money on?

This isn’t to say I think it’s stupid to reach out to the people involved and try to get them off the street and into a better situation, I can’t imagine anyone “working” 82nd is doing it for fun. It’s a good idea to try harder to address the actual issue, and I’m not against that. It’s more that once again the approach is to sit around and talk about what’s going on and what can happen. But we KNOW what’s going on and we KNOW what is happening. Why isn’t it possible to take a different approach?

Here’s my idea: make 82nd less seedy so it attracts less seedy people. Whether you love it or it makes you itch, the Pearl District is the new fancy part of town. Imagine your “standard issue” streetwalker from 82nd sashaying down NW 11th. Not likely! So if 82nd looked better and had more than just porn and used cars, maybe this “oh no the prostitutes are back and what will we do and how is this possible and oh my STARS my delicate sensibilities” attitude and handwringing and committeeforming can finally stop.

Here’s what I said at the time:

Why not do what you’ve done in other parts of town? Give new businesses tax breaks to move there, make deals on new construction, make it tempting to build a new thing on 82nd. If perceptions are so key, then let people perceive actual redevelopment instead of some signs and some landscaping.

And here’s what I say now:
* Get a deal with Home Depot or Lowe’s or Hertz Heavy Equipment or whoever and give out vouchers for powerwashers. Make deals on paint. Make the barrier of entry to a Clean Shiny Eighty Second so low they are fools to pass it up.

* Make a deal with a big or popular business to MOVE to 82nd or open something new there (besides Wal-Mart). Give tax breaks to everybody who wants to set up shop there. Make new construction easier to start. If I thought it were possible I’d say to make a deal so moving into the former location of a used car lot was EXTRA cheap.

* Increase police. I don’t mean if it happens on 82nd all the cops in town show up, but right now the only time I see police in my neighborhood is when they’re lit up. I don’t see patrols or anything, and that should change.

* Promote good things. Fubonn, Asian Supermall, is a beautiful place and I ADORE it. Make some noise about it! Find a way to make a big deal about Hung Far Low, Slighty Tipsy Portland Institution, moving out to 82nd. Recognize those who ARE making an effort to improve 82nd and the area around it, like the Academy Theater.

* Ask the public! There are a LOT of people who live or work right around 82nd who have a lot of ideas and suggestions. Find out what they are! Crowdsourcing the brainstorm of improvement is a really easy way to get a lot of ideas that could be useful and it makes people in the area feel like they are doing something to improve the situation. Everybody wins!

And you know what? I didn’t even spend a bunch of time thinking of those few ideas. I’m sure if I applied some brainpower I could come up with some really fantastic ones! But the fact remains: There are better things to do about 82nd than forming a committee to talk about what we can do about 82nd. All this time later I think it proves that I was right: Changing the name DIDN’T DO A DAMNED THING. It was a (metaphorical) pig before, and we put (metaphorical) lipstick on it by changing the name, and now years later what do we have? A (metaphorical) pig. That’s right! Why don’t you quote me on THAT, Oregonian?

Since I know posts fall off Craigslist after awhile, I wanted to preserve this before it was gone forever.

Ten Reasons Gays Shouldn’t Marry

10. Homosexuality is not natural, much like eyeglasses, polyester, and birth control.

9. Heterosexual marriage has been around a long time and hasn’t changed at all; women are property, blacks can’t marry whites, and divorce is illegal.

8. Gay marriage should be decided by the people, not the courts, because majority-elected legislatures, not courts, have historically protected the rights of the minorities.

7. Gay marriage is not supported by religion. In a theocracy like ours, the values of one religion are imposed on the entire country. That’s why we have only one religion in America.

6. Legalizing gay marriage will open the door to all kinds of crazy behavior. People may even wish to marry their pets because a dog has legal standing and can sign a marriage contract.

5. Children can never succeed without a male and a female role model at home. That’s why single parents are forbidden to raise children.

4. Gay marriage will change the foundation of society. Heterosexual marriage has been around for a long time, and we could never adapt to new social norms because we haven’t adapted to things like cars or longer life spans.

3. Heterosexual marriages are valid because they produce children. Infertile couples and old people can’t legally get married because the world needs more children.

2. Civil unions, providing most of the same benefits as marriage with a different name are better, because a “seperate but equal” institution is always constitutional. Separate schools for African-Americans worked just as well as separate marriages for gays and lesbians will.

1. Obviously, gay parents will raise gay children, since straight parents only raise straight children.

And if that wasn’t enough, Westboro Baptist Church (they do not get a link from me, they are behind the God Hates Fags site) came to Portland today and had themselves a good old fashioned protest. Clearly they did not realize that Portland is a protest town and we come correct for this stuff. See some photos taken by The One True B!x of their cute little attempt at stirring up support here. It isn’t often I say this proudly: We’re a buncha liberal hippies in PDX, and us treehuggers tend to be gayhuggers too so it’s adorable that you tried, but given your failure here I hope you go home and stay there.

* This does not mean we are not a racist country. This does not mean there are not more people who will take a shot (literally) at him. People who are Americans.

* This does not mean we are finished. Not by a damn sight. If you made calls for Obama (as an official volunteer or using the iPhone app) you need to keep doing that sort of thing.

* This does not mean things will be immediately better. You heard the man himself say so: It may take MORE THAN A TERM to really set things right again.

* This is the first step in a long long journey to restoring the world’s faith in us and our reputation. Do not think for one second that President Obama automatically gives us back our cred.

* This is the time to knock off the cynicsm. Stop acting like you can’t make a difference. Clearly you can. And you have. Now that you get a crack at this don’t screw it up. Trying to RE-do something is always harder than doing it in the first place.

* This is the time to remember. Hit that little “Record” in your brain and try to capture this night. How it feels, how YOU feel, how you were part of it, what you did to help this night happen (hint: YOU VOTED. R or D or I or whatever, it doesn’t matter as long as it was a vote. If you didn’t, leave this blog immediately.). I know most elections aren’t really of this magnitude, but you were part of the process and that is always a good thing.

* This is NOT the time to stop. Winning the election was not the finish.

* This is HUGE for America. Whoever you voted for, please support the new guy until you have a reason not to. When John Wayne heard that JFK won he said “I didn’t vote for him, but he’s my president, and I hope he does a good job.” Let’s try to keep that in mind, ok?

* This is the perfect time to remember what the new guy has said all along: There are no red states or blue states, just the UNITED States of America.

I do some of these things already. Here’s a list of things I do now to be part of the process:

* Subscribe to Megavote. I can keep up on how my Senators/Reps vote VIA EMAIL.

* Contact people! Congress.org has a spot there on the left where you can enter your zip code and find your Congressional folks. Get ahold of them and tell them what you think! You can also check out places like True Majority and MoveOn.org to find out about issues being discussed or voted on and sometimes it’s as easy as replying to an email to get your name listed as supporting or opposing a particular issue. And you have a cell phone right? You probably aren’t using EVERY space for contacts. Put your Congresspeeps in there and tell them what you think.

* Get informed. I know I’m lefty but watch Rachel Maddow once in awhile even if you aren’t. She’s not a shouter, she LOVES talking policy, and never makes personal attacks on those who disagree with her. She loves to be engaged and in total disagreement with someone. I think you’ll like it. She’s fun to watch and there are a fair number of people watching her who probably don’t necessarily agree with all her views but watch anyway. Try it!

* Admit you’re wrong. It happens. Stop forwarding crazy emails even if they support your point of view, quit repeating things you aren’t absolutely certain are true, and mostly STOP running around saying something to people SIMPLY because CNN or Fox or MSNBC told you to. Come to your own conclusion and use that quote to back you up. (:

* Don’t gloat. Quit feeling superior, stop being smug, knock off all the superior nonsense. We are still pretty majorly buggered, and that’s not going to change just because we elected him. We gotta help him get it done.

I may add to this later when I am awake. But for now, check those out and if I missed anything please let me know.

Here in Oregon we have two candidates for a Senate seat: Gordon Smith who holds the seat now, and his challenger, Jeff Merkley. This is my attempt to work out some of my conflict over who to vote for.

Gordon Smith Pros:
* From Pendleton
(He lives near my mom, actually. I like the perspective this gives him. As someone from ‘out east’ he has a point of view that Portlanders don’t have.)
* Sits on several Committees/Subcommittees (Ranking Minority Member on at least 1)
(Do you know how long it takes to become someone with enough power to get on a committee? It’s a LONG time. And it gives us visibility.)
* Has deviated from Party Lockstep ™ from time to time
(This matters to me because it means he has a stance of his own. NOBODY should ever march in complete lockstep all the time. Thinking for yourself FTW!)

Gordon Smith Cons:
* Republican
(We all know what this means. There are some larger issues I disagree with him on.)
* Fudging a bit on the “pro gay” issue
(He says he’s all gay friendly or whatever, but he’d vote FOR a Constitutional ban on gay marriage and that’s wrong in like 8 different ways. He just helped pass hate crime laws. Good, certainly, but not enough IMO.)
* Helped Trent Lott maintain Minority Whip position
(Trent #$@ * Anti-abortion stance
(I can't call it pro-life, I just can't. He thinks it is wrong and I can't get behind that.)
* Pro Broadcast Flag
(Kind of a big deal really. This matters to me a LOT.)
* Running sleaziest/most negative campaign ads on TV (except maybe Merkley’s)
(Seriously. They are SO bad!!)

Jeff Merkley Pros:
* Democrat
(So we agree on some of the bigger stuff.)
* Unanimously elected to Oregon’s Speaker Of The House position
(In Oregon I’m pretty sure a unanimous anything is a big frigging deal.)
* Director of Habitat For Humanity’s Portland chapter
(This is good. I like that he’s done something that helps other people.)
* Pro “gay marriage”
(I use quotes because it should just be “marriage” and it should be for everybody. He agrees.)

Jeff Merkley Cons:
* Took away my Sudafed
(HUGE red flag for me. Sudafed is prescription only in Oregon now, and one of the biggest tines on the VOTE YES fork was “who, pray who, will think of the children!?” and it bugs me when someone is swayed by that. We still have a lot of meth, btw.)
* Claims he “grew up in a mill town” but graduated from a Portland HS
(I don’t get this. Why would his ad say it? It was super easy for me to determine this was hooey. They moved to Portland after FIRST GRADE. That barely even counts as living in the wilderness! I graduated high school from a teeny town where I spent my whole life. That’s a huge difference, Jeff.)
* Increased school FUNDING, but not school ACCOUNTABILITY for funding.
(If someone says they need ten dollars and you give it to them and a week later they need ten more, how many times do you give it before going “what are you doing with all that cash?” This is what already aggravates me about school funding.)
* Running sleaziest/most negative campaign ads on TV (except maybe Smith’s)
(Seriously. They are SO bad!!)

So while it would be nice to have Smith’s experience and committee seats, knowing that Merkley could possibly help the Senate hit the filibuster proof 60 votes would also be really nice.

If you know something I should be considering, or if I’m mistaken on something already in this list, please let me know. Thank you!

You know what really grinds my gears? (Or as The Ambassador would prefer me to call it, You Wanna Know Why? I’ll TELL You Why!) Here it is: McCain’s campaign is having like six different varieties of cows over Obama QUOTING MCCAIN. What’s their excuse? “Oh you shouldn’t be mean he can’t type because he is a POW are YOU a POW too Obama then you can’t say anything you are a mean jerky head and YOU ARE NOT READY TO LEAD! VOTE MCCAIN! CHANGE 08!!!” and so on.

Guess what? BULLSHIT. (Sorry Mom, if you read this, but it is.) I have a friend who is deaf. She plays video games and she’s on Twitter and has a computer and does all kinds of things effectively. I used to know someone who had a degenerative eye condition and she kept a blog and used instant messenger and SENT EMAIL and did all kinds of things. With her computer, no less. So that means a deaf person AND a blind person both use their computers successfully. I know there are people with other sorts of handicaps as well who get around that pesky keyboard issue JUST FRIGGING FINE thank you very much. Some people have a computer as their only means of communication with the rest of the world. It certainly doesn’t stop them. So why is it stopping John McCain? You’re going to have to try a little harder than “it hurts when I type” because NaturallySpeaking is one such bit of software that allows you to talk to your computer to control it. It’s easy to use and would allow people who are unable to use a keyboard, for example, to be able to control the computer with their voice. I am not shilling for them, I just know they are one of the more popular software packages with this capability. So learn to talk to your computer and then you can send email with the best of them!

Here’s the thing: My great aunt was older than Senator McCain when she passed away. She had email and went to websites and was capable of all of this without getting someone to do it for her. My mom can run a spell check competently, and I have an aunt who is set up with her own gMail address now. I used my mom as a test case at a startup I used to work at. I would look at different UI elements and complain to engineers: You guys, my mom will never find this button. Can we put it at the top? Because we had decided everybody’s mom should be able to use this software, so she was my example. Also she lives in Eastern Oregon in a town of about 15,000 people. They have one “nice” restaurant in town, a couple of Mexican food places, and I think one Chinese place. It’s not the biggest place nor is it central to anything, so when my mom asks me about things (what is this Twitter I heard about?”) I can pretty much presume they’ve been around. My mom totally knows how to get her machine to check email, what her homepage is, and how to report spam. These are BASIC skills.

I am not saying McCain’s service to our country is useless or stupid. However that service does not entitle him to the Presidency. This seems to be his belief and I disagree. This is America and I am well within my rights (at least for now) to do so. I think Obama was well within the bounds of a “clean campaign” to point out that McCain doesn’t know how to send an email. It is yet another startling contrast between the candidates, and I think a valid thing to point out. My issue lies entirely at the feet of Rick Davis, McCain’s campaign manager. He is allowing this campaign to make McCain out to be a victim of his handicap and if someone wants to be The Leader Of The Free World they’d damn well better act like it and not let a little thing like “typing hurts” turn into the big issue of the day.

I would also like to point out, while I still have on my PunditPants(tm)*, that Karl Rove is absolutely the last guy on earth who gets to piss and moan about being taken out of context. Bitch all you want, turd blossom, the part you don’t seem to get is that I learned it by watching you.

*I have no actual graphic for PunditPants(tm), but I am accepting submissions. For now this photo will do since I only wear my PunditPants(tm) for blogging:

At the very end of Hardball today with these two particular guests on (whose names escape me at the moment) Chris Matthews asked, “You know, every candidate for President in our lifetime has had a very succinct message if he won the Presidency: ‘Get this country moving again’, Jack Kennedy, ‘It’s the Economy stupid’, ‘Are you better off than you were four years ago?’, I can’t think of the line from Obama yet.”

Buchanan (OMG yes THAT Pat Buchanan*): We can’t stand four more years of what we’ve had for the last eight years?
Matthews: Do you feel like four more years of this!? That’s what I’d say.

(he goes on)

“All I know is I’d go to the numbers…every time the Senator from Arizona spoke, I’d say let me read those numbers to you John McCain, you got a tough act to defend here, and you gotta defend it because you’re the republican candidate that’s why you’re standing here. You got an unemployment rate that’s spiking, you got a debt that’s growing, you’ve got a surplus that’s disappeared into a deficit and you’ve got gas prices at four bucks, your side has BLOWN IT, don’t ask for four more years.”

To which I say AMEN! I don’t want Obama to go out and say terrible things about McCain (and while he doesn’t know how to send email is TOTALLY TRUE it is one that they are crying foul about), but I want him to go out and speak truth to power as it were. If repeating “I said thanks but no thanks to that bridge to nowhere” over and over is going to make it true, then why not repeat things over and over that ACTUALLY are true? I wonder how well THAT would go over. How do you beat him up over things that are TOTALLY accurate? More “sex ed to kindergarteners” nonsense? Even KARL ROVE said your campaign is a little out of line.

*Not only is it THAT Pat Buchanan but that link is to his blog. McCain can’t send an email, but Pat Buchanan has a blog (E I E I O).

Because, you see, if they had, I could have said “Oh, no no no. Don’t do it. You will have nothing but heartache. Someone will misquote you and use it to drum up outrage against whatever you represent. They’ll gladly strip you of context and try to work people up about you criticizing something you never criticized at all.”

And they would have listened to that answer and said “My goodness Banana Lee, you certainly sound like someone who’s been there. Is this your area of expertise?”

To which my reply would only be, “Why, yes. As a matter of fact, it is.”*

*Seriously, I got misquoted about lipstick on a pig myself. It was stupid then and it’s stupider now.

“I think the Church must come round and see people as they are now. Gone are the days when we assumed loving relationships would be solely between men and women. It seems to me that commitment is the issue, and if anyone comes to me and says: ‘This is my partner; we are committed to each other’, then I don’t care what their sexuality is. I’m not going to judge; I’ll leave that to God.”

And to that I say AMEN! This is line I referred to in the subject. Who are you to stand in judgment of someone’s personal decisions? Isn’t the whole point of things like Christianity that you are to stand in judgment after you die and that’s when you find out if you chose correctly during life? (Mormons was the correct answer.) Because, you know, when I went to church I remember the lesson being “Judge not, lest ye be judged.” But then I haven’t set foot in a church of any sort for full mass in a long LONG time so my memory might be fuzzy.

I’m referring to the word “support” and how the wave of “do as I say not as I do” in the current administration is leading me to believe they either have no idea what the word means or they have such contempt for ‘Mercans they just don’t care if there is any consistency between their words and their actions.

Case in point: Yesterday I was watching Friday’s Countdown (mmm, Keithy!) and he has started this segment called “Bushed!” where he tracks “the administration’s 50 other scandals” and the winner on Friday was “Support The Troops Gate” (they all end in Gate, btw). Here’s a transcript of what exactly he said:

(Shows a photo of a man in a wheelchair)
This is about Private First Class Isaac Stevens, Third Infantry Div, 11 bravo co. Well, that’s where he started. Then he suffered a head injury and spinal damage during training. Last November, PFC Stevens was discharged with his claim for medical benefits not yet processed. (music stops) You heard me, he was removed from the Army. No longer received his Army pay and had not yet been granted any Army benefit money. Did I mention the injury had left him in that wheelchair? That was last November. By February he was broke. By March he was in a homeless shelter. By April, from his wheelchair, he had had to fight off the sexual advances of another man in the homeless shelter. Fortunately for Private Stevens, a social worker at an army base, working in her spare time, got him into an apartment with help from a non-profit non-governmental organization. But nearly twenty thousand disabled soldiers like Isaac Stevens were discharged in the last two years and most of them have had to navigate or fall through cracks between the last day of pay and the first day of benefits, a gap of up to a year.

You let this happen Mr Bush and it’s your CRITICS who are not doing enough to support the troops?

There you have it. What really concerns me is that Keith only reports the ones HE KNOWS ABOUT. It makes me wonder, if he is talking about Isaac Stevens and refers to twenty thousand others, how hard has it been for them?

So again, Mister Bush, please stop using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.