South Dakota easily beat back, for the second time, the most repellent anti-choice legislation in the nation. Colorado was close behind, trouncing an insidious proposition that would've deemed a zygote a whole little person. California will get high-speed rail. The smart black dude actually won.
It's almost a grand sweep. It's almost the most forward-thinking, thoroughly stunning election in American history, so much dead wood and so many old evangelical poisons swept from the national dialogue, it's as though we just swallowed a grand emetic of possibility, and purged like never before.
It appears that the right wing is divided among the 'elites' and the trash-- those who want nothing to do with Palin and those who thinks she's the Mooses moo.
"Ladies and gentlemen, it is worse than I thought," Limbaugh told listeners. "What the Republican party, led by disgruntled and failed McCain staffers, is trying to do to Sarah Palin, is unconscionable ... There are country-club, blue-blood ... Republicans who want nothing to do with a firebrand conservative [who] can fire up people." He added: "We're going to be taking on two things here [over] the next four years: Obama, and our own party establishment."
What I took away from the above article is that truth isn't the name of the game. Facts don't matter. All that matters is how things are supposed to be perceived and no one better reveal what's behind the curtain. But we already knew that. It's a big show.
I'm not going to worry about what the right has to say about Obama because the left is already on the job. I'm somewhere in the middle, but enjoying the hell out of the wingnut's meltdown.
It's official, Barack Obama has won an electoral vote in Nebraska. This is the first time that any state has ever split its electoral votes.
It turns out that Maine and Nebraska are the only two states that award their electoral votes based on the vote in each congressional district and two overall state total votes — just like their representation in Washington.
Well, it took until today to determine who would win this electoral vote, because the voting was so close. However, today the provisional ballots were tallied and the winner was Barack Obama.
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Bill Ayers speaks about the election: What a long, strange trip it's been: http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/4028/what_a_long_strange_trip_its_been/
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I think a follow-up question is in order
Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin describes herself as a "hard-core pro-lifer" and expresses confidence that in spite of disheartening polls, "putting this in God's hands, that the right thing for America will be done at the end of the day on Nov. 4."
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This is why we sent the bastards packing:
In the first of an expected avalanche of post-election regulations, the Bush administration on Friday narrowed the scope of services that can be provided to poor people under Medicaid's outpatient hospital benefit.
Public hospitals and state officials immediately protested the action, saying it would reduce Medicaid payments to many hospitals at a time of growing need.
The new rule conflicts with efforts by Congressional leaders and governors to increase federal aid to the states for Medicaid as part of a new economic action plan.
President-elect Barack Obama has endorsed those efforts. At a news conference on Friday, he said that legislation to stimulate the economy should include "assistance to state and local governments" so they would not have to lay off workers or increase taxes.
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Take a bow, America
The markets are battered and job losses are skyrocketing, but even in the midst of a national economic crisis, we should not lose sight of the profound significance of this week and what it tells us about the continuing promise of America.
Voters said no to incompetence and divisiveness and elbowed their way past the blight of racism that has been such a barrier to progress for so long. Barack Obama won the state of North Carolina, for crying out loud.
The nation deserves to take a bow. This is not the same place it used to be.
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4,193 soldiers killed in Iraq; 626 in Afghanistan.
US admits to dozens of Afghan civilian deaths in the last week: http://fairuse.100webcustomers.com/mayfaire/latimes0178.htm
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Franken inches closer. From AP:
Sen. Norm Coleman has failed in an attempt to block some absentee ballots from being counted in his close race with Democrat Al Franken.
A Ramsey County judge on Saturday denied the request because of lack of jurisdiction. The incumbent Republican had tried to block 32 ballots from heavily Democratic Hennepin County.
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The Conservative Intelligentsia and Palin
Mark Lilla has a must-read in the WSJ today. It charts the collapse of the intellectual right from a pioneering attempt to re-think established nostrums about public policy to ... well the Caribbean cruise now floating around on a sea of denial and contempt.
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According to our fierce leader on the Alaska/Soviet frontline, holding back Putin from the lower 48, raising the top marginal tax rates from 36 to 39% will usher in a new era of socialism, but this is not socialist at all:
Ms. Palin, in an interview in her office on Friday, said she was ready to work."Now we kick in that fiscal conservativeness that needs to be engaged, and we progress this state with $57-a-barrel oil," Ms. Palin said. She said the state would have to "be prudent with public dollars and provide services more efficiently than have ever been provided in the state of Alaska before."
The price and production of oil determines state finances: taxes on oil bring in about 85 percent of state revenue. To balance the budget for the 2008-9 fiscal year, the price of oil needs to average $74 over the 12 months, said Karen J. Rehfeld, director of the state office of management and budget. If it falls below that average, the state could have to make emergency cuts or dip into a reserve account that contains several billion dollars. High prices early in the fiscal year may help keep the average up this year, but next year is another matter.
That is right. Taxes Alaska takes from oil and gas companies balance their budget, and that only happens if oil costs more than 74 bucks a barrel. In other words, in order for Gov. Palin to be that reforming mavericky fiscal conservative, you and I and every other American, real or not, needs to pay through the teeth for gas. If we don't have high gas prices, Alaska doesn't have a balanced budget. In a sense, Alaska is taxing YOU to pay for their budget. A nice gig if you can get it.
Also, while clearly not socialism, either, Gov. Palin gets to mail out big checks to every Alaska resident. In 2008, that was about $3300.00 big ones. That buys a fair bit of moose hunting ammo.
In addition to all this, Alaska is one of the largest recipients of federal aid to state and local government per capita. In 2006, it was 3600 per person, making them #2 in the nation. Only Dick Cheney's Wyoming ranked higher. This fiscal conservatism is fricking awesome, and you almost have to wonder how she managed to get Wasilla 20 million dollars in debt.
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From Bill Maher's New Rules:
And finally New Rule, now that you've lost Republicans have to agree not to waste everyone's time spending the next four years screaming for investigations of Barack Obama over made up bulls#*t. Let's not kid ourselves. The hard core Republican base is like a stalker. Rejection just makes them crazier. You think Matt Drudge was a vindictive p#%ck before. His headline Wednesday morning was Senior Citizen and Woman Beaten By Black Man. [...] And wait till you see Ann Coulter's new book How to Field Dress a Liberal.
You know there's loyal opposition and then there's just opposition. Let's not do the 90's again except for the part where we have peace and prosperity. You know there was an entire industry back then dedicated to making Bill Clinton's life miserable over expensive hair cuts and old land deals and the Lincoln Bedroom and getting blown. But this ain't the 90's.
We've got two wars, a melting planet and the only thing keeping the economy from total collapse is Sarah Palin's shopping sprees. But you know what phrase I don't want to hear used frivolously for the next four years whenever Barack Obama forgets to put the kids in the car seat? Disrespect for the rule of law. Dick Cheney ordered prisoners tortured by name. That ship has sailed.
I don't want to hear Sean Hannity say that "Barack Obama announced that his daughters will be getting a puppy. A puppy from where? Probably a chihuahua that came in from Mexico illegally. And how do we know this isn't a dog that pals around with terriers?
You know when Obama starts a preemptive war and then f%#ks it up and makes torture our official policy and outs a CIA agent and purges US Attorneys and tries to put his cleaning lady on the Supreme Court and doesn't act on global warming and appoints at the head of FEMA an ex-d*#do salesman who was his college roommate, you know, that kind of stuff, believe me I'll be with you.
But until then I don't want to see Republicans freaking out if Obama isn't singing the National Anthem loud enough or they find out he gets his suits made in France. If he puts a moon roof in the Presidential limo, he's not making himself Fuehrer. He's just trying to get the smell of stupidity out of the seats. And mostly I don't want to hear about ACORN. Your guy lost by eight million votes. Just because you don't know any black people doesn't mean they don't exist.
So that's it. No Special Prosecutors. No trumped up investigations. If Republicans who really want to look into something for the next four years, my suggestion, try a mirror.
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Palin touts Alaska as a race-relations paradise
We're raised up here to to know that, um -- you talk about equality? You see equality in Alaska. And so that's a good question, because I think that was a bit of a surprise on a national level, was -- what, you mean the other 49 states aren't quite there, like Alaskans are? Well come on, follow Alaska's lead and start allowing the equal opportunities and the equal treatment.
Funny thing about that. The black people and other minorities in Alaska tell quite a different story -- especially when it comes to Sarah Palin:
... Palin made clear to them through her refusal to participate in the state's traditional Juneteenth celebration, as well as her refusal to work on their concerns about minority hiring for the gas-pipeline commission and on her staff, that race relations are pretty low on her priority list. Much of this was reported a few weeks ago by Earl Ofari Hutchinson, but the impact of Palin's behavior comes home here: It's clear that the African American community in Alaska feels thoroughly disenfranchised. Then there was the news today that Palin's rural adviser has quit because of the governor's shoddy treatment of Alaska Natives. Among other items: Palin appointed a white woman to a game-board seat traditionally held by a Native.
Yeah, Alaskans are so colorblind. Just ask Sarah's pals in the AIP.
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Transition advisers to President-elect Barack Obama have compiled a list of about 200 Bush administration actions and executive orders that could be swiftly undone to reverse White House policies on climate change, stem cell research, reproductive rights and other issues, according to congressional Democrats, campaign aides and experts working with the transition team. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/11/08/AR2008110801856_pf.html
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