Well I’ve been try my hand at quitting smoking again. My inspiration? Barack Obama. About a week ago I decided that if Barack won the election, I would quit smoking. Not like I was making a deal with the world, that if the world helped to get Barack in office, I would return the favor by quitting smoking. The idea behind it was simple. Obama quit smoking shortly before he began running for President. He made a sacrifice along with many others in order to get to where he is today. And in my support for Barack and as I’ve been inspired by him, I’ve decided to quit. Almost as a “thank you” to Obama for his sacrifices. I know it might sound lame, but that’s been my inspiration. And honestly it’s one of the greatest inspirations I’ve used in quitting smoking. I’ve tried for others in my life and I’ve tried for myself, but this time I’m quitting for an idea and a symbol (with a living person behind it). It’s been a lot easier to say no to my desires for smoking when I just think about the fact that I’m doing it for Obama and myself. Hope for the future. Again, I know it sounds pretty lame. But I’m closing in on day two. It’s been going well so far, and although I’m not guaranteeing it to last (I hope it does though) I feel pretty good about the choice to quit and how it’s gone so far.
Last night the nation made history as it elected Barack Obama as the 44th President. Unlike the past eight years, this election wasn’t even close. Obama won with 349 of the electoral college, leaving McCain with only 147. In terms of the popular vote, Obama had 62,816,357 (52.3%) to McCain’s 55,656,309 (46.4%). Which isn’t unbelievably close with only a six point spread, looking at popular vote, but a hell of a lot closer than any election I’ve been able to vote in.
In election news the House and the Senate are both held in majority by the democratic party. Senate seats are 56 (Dem) to 40 (GOP) and the house is 252 (Dem) to 173 (GOP). It’s wonderful to finally see this country saying enough is enough. We don’t like what’s going on here. We want a change and we want it now. I can’t wait until Barack gets inaugurated. We’ve still got Bush for two more months, which is honestly way, way, way too much time for that stupid f@&ker to be in office. But change is here. The people have spoken.
Unfortunately in Minnesota politics, it looks like we’ve got Norm Coleman’s crooked ass in office for another six years. I hate Norm Coleman. He represents everything wrong with the Republican party right now. A whole lot of doing nothing write in getting anything done, and doing a lot of work in getting in the way of people doing the right thing. And we’re “probably” going to get the s.o.b. for another six years! Minnesota voted 54%-44% Obama. and yet have a tie with Coleman/Franken. Why? Because Franken is a hot head and used to be on SNL. I’m honestly not a huge fan of Franken or anything, but I hate Coleman. So am I disappointed that a man named Barkley ran as a third party candidate taking up 15% of the vote? Yes, overall yes, I am. Why? Because 15% is nowhere near enough to take office, but it’s plenty to jack everything else up pretty damn well. Consider this, you could very safely say that a most people who voted for Barkley would have voted for Franken. Take a small majority of Barkley’s 15% and give it to Franken, and there’s the election. Is the system flawed? Is Barkley flawed? Are the voters flawed? I’d say a bit of everything. But regardless of who’s fault it is, I’m just pissed that we’ve got Coleman for another six years.
Enough ranting. OBAMA!!
Just finished voting. Super kick-ass-a-ma-tastic!
GO OBAMA!!
Looks like FOX “News” is at it again. They had Obama’s campaign spokesman Bill Burton on to defend a statement accusing Fox of, “false, desperate attacks.” Now of course Fox replied with the “fact” that they are “fair and unbiased” while of course cutting off and talking over Bill Burton as much as humanly possible. The exchange is pretty entertaining, but also disturbing. Disturbing because it’s suck a blatant example of how unfair and biased Fox really is. How exactly is it fair and unbiased to constantly cut of your interviewee and attempt to make your own opinions known more than theirs? Especially when your point is that you are unbiased? What is more disturbing is the fact that people watch Fox News, they’ve seen this interview and plenty like it, and continue to view Fox News as “fair and unbiased”. Why? Because Fox News has told them they are fair and unbiased thousands of times over. If you hear something enough times, you start to believe it, I guess. But even with this excuse it disturbs me that people are so illogically equipped to overcome such a brain washing. It’s like if I told you a thousand times that I wasn’t going to slap you in the face, slapped you in the face, and then when asked if you were slapped you said, “He’s not going to slap me in the face.” Except that I’m constantly slapping and saying I won’t slap. Good thing stupid people can’t vote… wait a minute?
Earlier this week Colin Powell went on Meet the Press to endorse Obama. The interview (or speech rather) is intelligent, compelling, and truthful. Watch for yourself.
A couple of days ago Laura and I went to see Oliver Stone’s W. Overall it was an pretty incredible movie. Honestly the thing that impressed me the most about the movie is that it’s fairly unbiased in the storyline towards both Geloce W. Bush and his cabinet and staff. It was a very intelligent film and was very honest in its depiction of the 43rd president. I hope that both liberals and democrats are able to enjoy this film. It does not accuse the administration of anything that is not factually known already. It is not propaganda. It is simple the story of W coming to be president and his first term. I’m guessing a right winged mind may attack back at me for thinking this, but I’d simple like to challenge them to see the film.
Now, Some People can have a harder time with this sort of open mindedness. Yesterday Laura sent an email to a friend of hers whose husband is a republican. The email contained a like the Colin Powell video above and the suggestion that her friend should try to get her husband out to see W. She’d even offered to watch their six month (+/-) son so they can go see a movie. She wasn’t being forceful about it and even said we’d be happy to watch their son if they wanted to see a different movie. But in response she got this message from the husband:
Subject: No Way
Stop sending me your Democratic propaganda.
If I could vote for W again I would.
And that was it. I think it’s incredibly disappointing that people are so unable to open minded. I can understand the view that the movie is going to be terribly skewed against Geloce W. Bush. Honestly, I thought it was going to be much more so, but it’s not. And regardless if how skewed or honest the film is, a complete unwillingness to see the film, to discuss the issues, to share and listen to opinions just seems so incredibly naive and narrow minded and knowingly ignorant. I honestly feel that my perception of most every Republican I know is that they just can’t accept the idea that Bush has done a poor job running the country. Not because of what he has done, but more because of who he is and that he’s the leader of the Republican party. Laura and I were discussing this last night and I think I came upon a pretty healthy realization. If Bush was a Democrat and had done everything regarding the war in Iraq exactly the same way, which I truly believe is a very possible thing. If nothing had changed but his party, A) the republicans would be lynching him right now, and B) no republican would endorse his presidency and it would take a long time for any democrat to put their party aside and admit he has done a poor job. I think that the democratic party has had the advantage of being able to openly scrutinize the Bush administration. And it had taken close to eight years for most republicans to do the same. And it honestly disappoints me that there are people out there that simply blindly follow, without hesitation, without question. It simply does not make logical sense. People say we need to support our president because we’re in a state of wartime? The main issue against Bush is the fact that we are in a state of wartime. It doesn’t make much sense that we are unable to question or that we are unpatriotic!? for questioning the course of the country and the course of this war? It is our patriotic duty to question our government. I’m getting off on a tangent here, so I’m going to simply end with this quote:
“The truth is that all men having power ought to be mistrusted.”
– James Madison
On a lighter note, looks like MSNBC’s got themselves a “Big Ass Table”. I suppose there is a Microsoft connection there, huh?
It’s pretty scary when the next round of terrorists seem to be the American people themselves. That fact that as many people believe Obama to be a terrorist (and/or Muslim, which by the way, being Muslim doesn’t make someone a terrorist), along with the fact that the GOP has done nothing to stop this type of hate is terrifying. Not only has the GOP not done anything, but they continue their fear mongering and it has been pushed to the limit so much, that this is the result. Something bad is going to happen and I’m truly afraid of what that could be. We finally might get someone intelligent in the white house and there’s a good chance that a bunch of narrow minded, miss informed, naive people are going to try something.
I think we have a lot more to fear from the people in this video than anyone in the middle east.
Click on image to view.
Here’s a nice response a friend of mine made on Gov. Palin. Basically a friend of his made some stupid comment on his face book to which he eagerly, yet frustratedly, replied. He liked his stream of thought so much he decided to blog it. Here’s the full blog posting: Judgement on Experience.