seticat

...Barak Obama as the next president of the United States of America!!!



We as a people and as a culture have finally broken into the self imposed Caucasian good old boys club' that surrounded the White House.

This 50+ year old retired military white female is happy beyond words.

Oh My Freaking GOD! We did it!

First precinct's votes are in from New Hampshire - Obama wins in earliest vote in tiny Dixville, NH.

To quote: "With 115 residents between them, Dixville Notch and Hart's Location get every eligible voter to the polls beginning at midnight on Election Day. Between them, the towns have been enjoying their first-vote status since 1948."

So right there - the people in those two little towns have already made their voice heard. Let's keep talkin', America.

I've gotten pretty used to all the various flavors of political phone calls over the last month or so.Volunteers for the various parties and groups giving a call at all hours, both live and computer canned. But the call I just got is a first.

The phone rang. Nothing odd in itself, especially with the elections only a couple of days away. They asked for me by name and that was in itself interesting because they pronounced my name right - I have a oddly spelled first name and about 75% of folks get it wrong. When I did my standard 'Who may I ask is calling?', the response was 'State Representative Tami Green'.

Never say military training doesn't stick because after a split-beat of stunned silence, I replied with 'How may I help you, Ma'am?'

That got a chuckle and we continued from there.

The 'Reader's Digest' version of the call is a Washington State Representative called me personally just wanting to check to make sure I'd gotten my absentee ballot and would be able to get it in on/before the Tuesday deadline. And if not, what help did I need to make it happen. Now the fact that she's running for re-election in my Legislative District [LD 28] not withstanding, I was fairly impressed that one of my elected officials would contact me, rather than the other way around. She didn't ask me to vote for her or anything, just if I had gotten the ballot, would I have any problems getting it in, etc.

No matter if it's a political ploy or not, I'm fairly impressed.

By close of day on 4 November, you folks are going to be right sick of me and probably more than ready to put me on your ban list. That's cool. For those who know me in real life, you know I'm probably one of the least rabid people where politics are concerned. [Please note, I didn't say I didn't have strong opinions on things and that I won't defend them, just that I'm not the kind to delve into the political world as a regular occupation] If you really tried to pin down my political leanings, you might tag me as a 'soft sided' Libertarian, a Social Creditist of some flavor or some other 'mixed fruit cup' flavor of political views. I'm *am*, however, very Heinleinian ala 'Starship Trooper' in my views. You have a right to work toward a good life and have the ability to access the basic needs of life [food, shelter, health care] without restrictions, but you also have the responsibility to the society around you to make a contribution to that society before you reap all of the benefits that that society produces.

I could ramble on here trying to sort out what my head means by all of this, but I'm not up to massive political/literary debates right now - maybe another time. The crux of it thought, for me, all boils down to making sure that we, as individuals, need to get off our butts and exercise those rights that our Constitution grants us and that many men and women who have come before us have worked hard and fought hard to make sure we have.

And one of the most important ones is looming on our visual horizon right now.

The right to have a say in our own governmental processes.

We as people of this country have 6 days to make our wishes known. Look at the two candidates and their running mates, their platforms, their points of view, their lives and backgrounds and the current state of our country, and think hard about it. This election may go down in history as one of the 10 *most* important points in our government and our future.

Vote for the guy I'm voting for. Vote for the guy I'm not voting for. Vote for one of those folks in the political pamphlet you get in the mail that you've never even heard of before. I don't really give a frack. But just get your tuckus out there and vote.

Or plan on keeping your yap shut for the next four years 'coz I don't want to hear it.

BTW&FWIW - *please* feel free to steal, liberate, share or otherwise use the icon on this post.


Robert A. Heinlein- Politics

7 days - 168 hours [plus or minus] and counting down.

Get out and vote. My candidate or yours, never no mind. Just make your voice heard.

Echoed from katmoonshaker's lj who echoed it from melanie's lj.

--------------------
Okay, if you haven't voted yet, pay attention to what melanie had to say:

Apparently there has been a big push from the Republican party to have people removed from the voting rosters, or at least marked "inactive" which means that if they show up, they'll have to use those cute little "provisional ballots" instead of voting the regular way, making it much easier to misplace or forget to count those votes.

Today I decided to check up on my status, and to my surprise I found that I had been marked "inactive" even though I last voted just a few months ago.

Here is where you can go to make sure you haven't been fucked with: http://www.votersunite.org/info/RegInfo.asp


Do it quick, or you may not have time to dick around with them before the election happens.
----------------------

I checked mine and I'm good. Are you?

What does it say when prominent endorsements, folks who usually lean toward the conservative end of things, are backing Obama? To me, it says the man is not only doing something right, but that his ideas and platform is appealing across political lines.

Cartoon

We'll see what the majority of the nation things in a couple of weeks.

Okay, for you daily dose of insanity, go check out drharper's post "The Geek will inherit the Earth" and then run back here and give me *your* perfect 'first family' scenario.

Ah, come on. You know you want to.

This seems to be cross-posting day. From jazzrat via ysabetwordsmith to here.

The government is taking our rights away

Those of you who know me know I'm not a government conspiracy maven. I don't think the government faked the moon landing. I'm willing to discuss the whole JFK and one vrs two shooters theory. But agree or not, the way the government had been dealing with things over the last 8+ years, well it makes one think a bit.

The other thing that makes me think it here: Brigade homeland tours start Oct. 1 And this actually concerns me the most. To quote the first part of the article:

----------
The 3rd Infantry Division’s 1st Brigade Combat Team has spent 35 of the last 60 months in Iraq patrolling in full battle rattle, helping restore essential services and escorting supply convoys.

Now they’re training for the same mission — with a twist — at home.

Beginning Oct. 1 for 12 months, the 1st BCT will be under the day-to-day control of U.S. Army North, the Army service component of Northern Command, as an on-call federal response force for natural or manmade emergencies and disasters, including terrorist attacks.

It is not the first time an active-duty unit has been tapped to help at home. In August 2005, for example, when Hurricane Katrina unleashed hell in Mississippi and Louisiana, several active-duty units were pulled from various posts and mobilized to those areas.

But this new mission marks the first time an active unit has been given a dedicated assignment to NorthCom, a joint command established in 2002 to provide command and control for federal homeland defense efforts and coordinate defense support of civil authorities.
----------

Basically picture a National Guard level response mandated by the federal government, quite possibly falling under the ultimate mandate of Homeland Security.

Anyone remember Kent State? Or Katrina?

I'm sorry if I'm painting a 'government conspiracy' picture here. I don't believe that's my intent. But go read things and draw your own conclusions.

Personally - I'm not all that fond of the picture I see evolving.

[politics ahead - considered yourself warned]



That is all.