President Obama, happy to be inaugurated, originally uploaded by jurvetson.

I liked Obama’s speech, for the most part. “Risk-takers, doers, and makers of things” got some recognition, as do those of us who are “non-believers”. Science “will be restored to its rightful place”. The rule of law and human rights were mentioned as well. Hard to complain about any of that.

This won’t be an overnight transformation of our government. The rich and the powerful will still throw all their influence against the momentum of real change. Although I believe Obama is sincere, I worry that he will be too eager compromise with those who profit from the status quo. Still, I think he did a good job of defining the values that he wants to see established inside our government. Greed and wastefulness will continue, no doubt. But at least there is a chance that they will no longer be quietly accepted as virtues.

Politics

Although the national returns are coming fast and furious, our local results are moving slower. One thing I do know is that turnout was very heavy here. I will update when we hear something about the county board races.

Update: Wow. We were all very moved by Obama’s victory tonight. When I think of the difference between our new president and the man he’s replacing… It doesn’t even seem real to me yet. McCain managed a very gracious concession speech as well. Had he kept to that kind of honorable, respectful tone throughout the election, the vote might have been a lot closer.

Locally, neither of my friends won their races. However they both captured 30% of the vote, which is fairly amazing in a year that is seeing big Democratic wins across the board. I hope that this moves our local democrats to pay more attention to their constituencies. You can’t just slap a “D” next to your name and expect to sidestep accountability, people.

Politics

Come back later with your “I voted” sticker, and I’ll give you a special treat.

Politics

Politics

Yes!

9:28 Coming to an end, finally. Final comments: McCain is a careful steward of our tax dollars, Obama wants to work on America’s problems in a new way.

9:25 Autism is not the same thing as Down’s Syndrome. Check that with Palin, John.

9:23 Somebody’s gotta pay for it. That is the point McCain keeps dodging. That is the point we’ve dodged for the last eight years.

9:21 Charter schools provide competition and throwing money at education won’t solve the problem? Teachers don’t need to be certified? McCain is hitting all the same old notes.

9:19 Pay teachers better? Terrorist.

9:15 Oooh eloquence bad.

9:11 Supreme Court Justices! Obama wants to change the Court, MCain wants to change the entire culture. Which one is more obnoxious?

9:05 Joe the Plumber just called. He wants that scary man on the TV to stop talking to him.

9:04 McCain just made Joe the Plumber rich. He does understand Joe isn’t real, doesn’t he? EDIT: OK, he is real. My mistake.

9:00 Joe the Plumber! Here’s a tax credit! But your current ability to take an exemption for paying for employee health care is out the window. Thanks, McCain!

8:58 Health care wonkery. Look for McCain to call Obama’s plan socialist.

8:56 Obama is just like Herbert Hoover!

8:51 Trade agreements.  ZZZZZZZZZZZZZ. Oh, wait McCain just said we have to pay attention to words. Those crafty devils, words.

8:47 37 Nuclear power plants, right away! We can get that done tomorrow!

8:41 Who is more qualified, Biden or Palin? If I were McCain, I’d bring up Joe the Plumber again.

8:39 OK, throw it all in one great big long sentence, John.

8:36 ACORN is destroying America? Please.

8:35 McCain’s non-repudiation repudiation.

8:33 Obama does say that Lewis was over the line.

8:31 Here comes J the P again.

8:26 Would McCain say the things his campaign said about Obama to Obama’s face? No, I guess. How about Obama? He’s not answering the question either, but he pivots nicely to making it about the voters, not the candidates’ hurt feelings..

8:23 As Anne points out, so far McCain hasn’t made any big mistakes. But he does have some scars, apparently.

8:22 Hatchet! Scalpel! Chainsaw! Steamroller!

8:18 Not the overhead projector again!

8:17 Does McCain remember the Great Depression?

8:15 How dare Schieffer ask him to actually answer the question? Hasn’t he watched the other two debates?

8:12 I’m already tired of Joe the Plumber.

Politics, Random Jabber

But what none of the bloggers seemed willing to talk about was Obama’s stunning display of supernatural powers in the early minutes of the debate. With a mere wave of his hand, he was able to reduce his opponent to nearly a third of his original stature.

For the remainder of the debate, McCain hopped madly around the stage, his squeakily unpleasant voice grating on the nerves of the audience. Yet neither moderator Tom Brokaw nor any other commentator had the courage to make note of Obama’s sorcerer’s ways. Just more evidence of reality-based community’s unvarnished bias.

Politics, Random Jabber

“Of course, it’s a fungible commodity and they don’t flag, you know, the molecules, where it’s going and where it’s not. But in the sense of the Congress today, they know that there are very, very hungry domestic markets that need that oil first. So, I believe that what Congress is going to do, also, is not to allow the export bans to such a degree that it’s Americans who get stuck holding the bag without the energy source that is produced here, pumped here. It’s got to flow into our domestic markets first.”

I am stunned. How can we possibly keep track of our precious fungible commodities if we don’t flag the molecules? I believe we should immediately embark on an aggressive NASA-like initiative to affix tiny RFID flags to each and every fungible molecule on American soil. Otherwise, we run the risk of contamination by ungodly and potentially fungible Canadian molecules.

Politics

See? Was that so hard? No pretending we’re doing it all for national security’s sake. No blaming the victims (that’s us taxpayers, by the way). Just good, old-fashioned graft and depravity. Now that is government corruption we can believe in.

Politics

Politics

More seriously, the big takeaway from what I’ve heard so far is this: ranting on your blog is great, but the best way to mobilize people is still going out and knocking on doors. And this is from people who make their livings ranting on blogs!

bloggers, blogospheres, elections, netroots, Politics