The Ojai Post

This is great, Tyler, much appreciated -- but is there a place here on the Ojai Post for the latest news on those California Propositions? -- especially, of course, Prop. 2 and Prop. 8?? (apologies in advance if I have overlooked it).

David - if you go to the Ojai Election Results page (linked from the home page), there's a link to the County of Ventura - scroll down for the ballot initiatives. I decided not to cherry-pick, and covering all of them from a data standpoint would be too much. I'll live blog as results come in. Feel free to help me out in the comments.

Ohio is ours! We've done it!!!

Seeing coverage in the international (especially European) media gives me such great hope that maybe we haven't crossed the point of no return. They seem to realize (as we are beginning to) the scope of this election and that this is our Berlin Wall coming down....

abc news has called it!!

Let me Congratulate President elect Obama. I did not vote for him and I do not agree with many of his agendas, but let this be said; This is truly a milestone in American history to be celebrated. For better or for worse America can never be accused of being anything other than a Democracy. The people have spoken.

Fusion

What a truly Amazing moment in history! I am so thankful to be a part of this time. Congratulations President-elect Barack Obama and his family! May we all savor this moment and really take it in and honor what this means.

God help us all

Think I'll cancel my health Insurance at work. Why should I pay when I could be uninsured and get the coverage as Congress.

According to LA Times at 10:25 p.m.,

Prop 2 is winning 62% to 38% with 22% of precincts reporting...

Prop 8 is winning 53% to 47% with 26% of precincts reporting...

Congratulations to Obama !

Lisa I owe you a beer.

McCain's concession speech was fantastic. his supporters...not so much.

L.A. TIMES DECLARES PROPOSITION 2 HAS PASSED!!!

prop 8 still too close to call.... running about 52/48 in favor....

http://elections.cbslocal.com/cbs/kcbs/20081104/race822.shtml
Election Results
CITY COUNCIL-OJAI
Total Reporting:83%
Name Votes Pct.
Betsy CLAPP (NP) 1,102 28%
Mary HORGAN (NP) 908 23%
Suza FRANCINA (NP) 797 20%
Rae HANSTAD (NP) 674 17%
Mike LENEHAN (NP) 491 12%

LAST UPDATE: Nov-05-2008, 02:03 AM Pacific Standard Time

I am going to wake Betsy up and congratulate her!!!

a day long LONG awaited, Tyler!

Suza, Evan, Raymond, LTOR friend, Dennis, Jock, everyone ...

first halfway good (moral, thoughtful) thing I can think of that 'the US' sheeplery has managed to do since we ran Dicky Nixon out of office in 1973.

thank you Spirit! thank you Mother Earth!! thank you, our World Community, who insisted we change our course!!!

the GOOD is returning to our planet ...

"I have just sent my warmest congratulations to Senator Obama on his election as president of the United States of America and I have also sent my best wishes to Michelle and his family," Gordon Brown, British Prime Minister.

Millennium,

I am glad you are pleased that Obama won. But if you are pleased, why did you post so many articles that suggested he was Osama bin Laden?

Also, why do you now say you like Obama, after you have so often called Al Gore and Dennis Kucinich criminals and murderers? Why is Obama "GOOD" in your book (now), but Gore and Kucinich deeply evil?

CITY COUNCIL-OJAI
Total Reporting:100%
Name Votes Pct.
Betsy CLAPP (NP) 1,275 27%
Mary HORGAN (NP) 1,057 23%
Suza FRANCINA (NP) 969 21%
Rae HANSTAD (NP) 790 17%
Mike LENEHAN (NP) 536 12%

Proposition 8 still too close to call in California. 91% of precincts reporting. 51.9% yes. 48.1% no.

A huge congratulations out to Betsy Clapp. Who would have thought that a person could come in first ahead of not just one, but two incumbents? Good work Betsy. I look forward to your leadership on the Ojai City Council in the next four years.

I love what Michael Moore said this morning. "Never before in our history has an avowed anti-war candidate been elected president during a time of war."

Let's hope that President-Elect Obama remembers this position as he becomes president.

Congratulations to Betsy on the local election and to Barrack on the national.

For my views on the Obama phenomena, google love government blogstream or go directly by link and navigate to entries: http://the love government.blogstream.com

Sorry. I gave incorrect information. Googling: love government blogstream takes you directly to the latest blog; you don't have to navigate entries. I was thinking of a different site. Here's the correct direct link (hopefully): http://thelovegovernment.blogstream.com

Suza, I was quite saddened not to see your name in one of the two top spots...

Luckily, here on the Ojai Post, we have the privilege of benefiting from your advocacy of many issues that affect our community (both local and global). Keep on truckin', girl!

Thank you Tyler for staying up late and keeping us all posted throughout the evening. The OJAIPOST is the #1 news source for Ojai. Congratulations Betsy.

Regarding the interchange between MT and david, I agree with MT that the people have again spoken loud and clear. It is to their credit. However, they also spoke loudly at the 2006 elections and at the first bailout, and they were betrayed and doublecrossed by their own demoncrats. What's to prevent it happening again after the partying is over?

MT is obviously more forgiving than Jock with his Nader missive. I like both of these Ojai artists since both are needed. In a fascist culture, even a faint and incipient one, artists are the first to go because they offend the status quo. I understand that even Plato banned them from his ideal republic, but I could be wrong. More at: http://laojaivalleyepost.blogstream.com or google blogstream La Ojai Valley Epost.

Hi Shangrilalife - Glad I could be of service, and my big thanks to Kenley, who took the ball and ran with it, posting all of the final results and the new City Council thread. I had fun last night, hope you all did too.

When we consider the results for City Council, we have to bear in mind that VOTES and VOTERS represent very different percentages, since each voter votes for two candidates. The grand total of votes cast was 4648 (including 21 write-in votes). However, assuming each voter voted for two candidates, that means the election for Ojai City Council was determined by only 2324 VOTERS.

Of these 2324 voters, fully 55% cast their ballots for Betsy Clapp.

Other candidates' percentage of voters (not votes) were:

Horgan: 45%
Francina: 42%
Hanstad: 34%
Lenehan: 23%

CITY COUNCIL-OJAI
Total Reporting:100%
Name Votes Pct.
Betsy CLAPP (NP) 1,275 27%
Mary HORGAN (NP) 1,057 23%
Suza FRANCINA (NP) 969 21%
Rae HANSTAD (NP) 790 17%
Mike LENEHAN (NP) 536 12%

This morning I crawled out of the warm cocoon of my bed to find the world has changed. My marriage will not be recognized by my state (nor by Florida or Arizona). In Arkansas, unmarried sexual partners have been barred from adopting or fostering children together. The jubilant photos of the people who fought so hard to deny rights to 10% of us tell a story of an America I do not want to be a part of. Is one liberal-leaning president enough to change all of that?

Heather, i've been thinking of you all last night and today, and i feel like crying. my joy at Obama's victory is heavily tempered by my horror at what we've done to you. i don't know if one left-leaning president is enough to change that, but i do know that this isn't over. the will of the people was unconstitutional once...it still is now.

if America means pro-war and anti-equality, then i will gladly resign my Citizenship. fortunately, i don't think that's what it means.

Thanks evan. I wish it were only me it affected.

I will say that I think the Yes on 8 people have guaranteed that gay marriage WILL be taught in schools - high school civics and government classes!

That was me - oops.

Prop 8 Legal Challenges Begin:
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/11/5/125155/110/471/654479

We watched the returns with Sue and Beryl at their restaurant, Feast Bistro. They are from Chicago and have been together 20 years. Indeed it was a bitter sweet evening. I sent an email to Ventura's Rainbow Alliance asking what's next and what can I do.

Just a word of realism...according to the City Clerk, there are 5,089 registered voters in Ojai. At this time, only 2,324 have been counted. If the voter turnout trend of 70% is expected in Ojai, and I don't see why it wouldn't, then there could be up to 1,200 more ballots to count.

That number could swing a vote in favor of Measure P, which needs 67% to pass. It could also move Suza into the winning position for the City Council.

Hmmm.

Oh, and can I just add how glad I am to have my mailbox and answering machine back?

i second that, Lisa!!

also, would you let me know when you find out how you can help next? i'm still ready.

Its a bittersweet day for some of us indeed, but I did wish to say thanks to those in Ojai who supported us and those willing to share their stories and speak out. And to those who opposed us, just remember, the fight just gets stronger. Sooner or later we will be a braver California, and before long a braver nation willing to accept all our citizens as equals without fearing what equality brings. Until then, there are countless happy couples, some of them families with kids, for whom life will go on without the marriage label. You can't take away their experiences, their happiness, it isn't yours to decide. You are protecting only your own bigotry.

It was thrilling to see Obama take the Presidency last night. He secured the possibility of something better in this country. The elation here in Ojai was palpable.

But let's keep in mind, all we have secured so far is the possibility of something better. We have sidestepped the utter despair of McCain and Palin. But they and their ilk are still with us. We have not seen the back of the bad people who have reduced this country to its present sorry state.

As of this writing, it appears that the Democrats have fallen short of a filibuster-proof majority in Congress. If that is the case, we face the prospect of the Repugnicans continuing to run the agenda, as they have to date in the Democratic-controlled Congress. We have to if anything multiply the efforts that got Obama elected to put pressure on Obama and the Democrats to shut these people down.

So, let's enjoy this long-awaited moment of elation. But lets temper it with the reality of what's ahead. Repugnicans are nasty, they mean us ill, they are still here, and they will go to extremes to stop even small reversals of their horrific legacy. Obama will give them a seat at the table if we let him, and once they are at the table, they will dominate the debate. Countering this will take alot of work.

For those who doubt, let's look at the election results, even here in supposedly forward-thinking California:

Yes on Hate.

No on sensible drugs policy.

Yes on one of two initiatives to warehouse more people in prison. Prisons won over schools.

Yes on Gallegly, and two Stricklands, both of whom outright lied about who they are and what they stand for in a blitz of mailers.

Even right here in enlightened Ojai, yes on Horgan (so far, lets cross our fingers the result changes).

I think these results tell us that we have not yet won anything. Instead, the fight to reclaim America has just begun.

So, what should Obama do in his first 10 (not 100) days? What is the new, sensible American agenda?

Here are some priorities for the first 10 days:

1. Appoint a blue ribbon commission to devise a policy to end both wars and transition peacekeeping to UN or NATO control, not in sixteen months but NOW. These wars are not in our interest and only hurt us around the world.

2. Clean sweep the Repugnican political appointees from every federal agency, from top to bottom. Put them out on the street. Obama should start taking resumes today and having them vetted so that non-ideological, competent people can be put into place immediately.

3. Appoint a blue ribbon commission to identify and target for elimination regulatory and rule changes implemented by the Bush regime throughout the federal government. Call this the "control-alt-delete" commission (not my idea, cribbed from moveon I think): The goal should be to simply return all regulations across the board to where Bill Clinton left them in 2000. No discussion, no debating the "merits" of anything Bush-Cheney have done. Get rid of all of it. Then, and only then, do we begin the deliberative process of making new changes.

4. Show us you mean it: Demand that Congress deliver bills for signing on Obama's first day in office doing the following:

a. Putting a moratorium on foreclosures, allowing adjustment of primary-home mortgages in bankruptcy, and giving homeowners tools to save their mortgages.

b. Implementing Obama's health care plan.

c. Implementing a green energy plan.

d. Pass a real stimulus: Give the bottom 75% of taxpayers a five-year federal income tax holiday, to be paid for by restoring taxes on the richest to pre-Bush levels. (I have read that the bottom 75% of taxpayers literally could pay 0, and if rates were raised a couple of points on the top 5%, this would be fully paid for.)

e. Redistribute! The Repugnicans made the cornerstone of their campaign "Joe the Plumber's" fear that Obama and a Democratic Congress would redistribute income from the rich to the commons. Guess what? That's your mandate, Obama and Democratic Congress. Its time to recognize that according to the values of real Americans, the Repugnican thieves who made hundreds of millions of dollars collapsing the economy did not "earn" anything, and have no right to keep a penny of it. Worse, it is bad for the country when so much of our wealth is so obviously in the least wise and least deserving hands. Implement a "gross negligence" tax on assets above, say, $10 million, held by people who "earned" it from investment banking, securities trading, or executive management. Exempt fortunes earned by actual entrepreneurs who actually started and grew successful companies that make and sell things people use. Use the money to eliminate income, payroll and social security taxes on small businesses, and/or to fund basic R & D in new green technologies and energy.

(If Repugnicans object, every time they open their mouth, drop the number they get to keep by a million. "Don't like $10M? How about let's tax everything over $9M? What? Still talking? How about $8M?")

6. Close Gitmo, reaffirm habeas corpus, sign the International Criminal Courts agreement, and turn over to the ICC all the information necessary to prosecute Bush, Cheney, etc.

Good start? What would you add to that list?

Can we just call them Republicans, though?

LS, the Republican party was once a great and proud party that stood for good things. Calling the present day version "Republicans" stains this legacy. It is also dishonest in a way. It suggests that the present day GOP has some connection to the party of Lincoln (beyond the fact that a group of corporate and ideological raiders succeeded in their hostile takeover of the brand).

So, if not "Repugnicans," what do you suggest?

Republican.

I suggest we be respectful and civil and not do what they did to us for 8 long years.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown has led the tributes to Barack Obama, hailing the new president-elect's "inspirational" ascent to the White House.

Speaking from No 10, the Prime Minister declared: "This is a moment that will live in history as long as history books are written."

Mr Brown described Mr Obama as "a true friend of Britain", while emphasising their shared commitment to "progressive" politics.

"I know that the values we share in common and the policies we work on together will enable us, these two countries, to come through these difficult economic times and build a safer and more secure society for the future," he said.

"I hope to be able to work with Senator Obama to bring the world together so that we can face these difficult times with more co-ordination and more unity than we've seen before."

Tory leader David Cameron also sought to align himself and Mr Obama as one of a new generation of political leaders who were ready to change the world. "In these difficult times people everywhere are crying out for change. Barack Obama is the first of a new generation of leaders who will deliver it - he has my whole-hearted congratulations," he said. "This is an important moment not just for America but for the world."

Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg said that the world would now be looking to Mr Obama for a "radical new approach" that would leave the Bush era firmly behind. "British voters may not have been able to vote in this election, but its outcome is vital to our future," he said.

Across the Channel, French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who currently holds the rotating EU presidency, said that Mr Obama's "exceptional" campaign had underlined the vitality of American democracy. "By choosing you, the American people have chosen change, openness and optimism," he said. "At a time when all of us must face huge challenges together, your election raises great hope in France, in Europe and elsewhere in the world."

I so agree Lisa!

As much as I agree with much of what Anon says above, I am so very inspired and in awe of what Barack Obama and my fellow Americans did yesterday - I have no stomach right now for anything negative or divisive or a return to what has proven to be so wrong with the way we are dealing with all of our societal ills. The eyes of the world are upon us. Let's, for the moment anyway, try to emulate what our new President personifies and what he is asking all of us to do.

We have defeated "the enemy" in the short run. I refuse to return to their demoralizing and soul sucking tactics. (Until it becomes necessary, that is!) Right now, I for one want to savor being on the "right" side of history....

Taking the high road can feel so good when you can afford it...

Get ready for WWIII, courtesy of the Obama-Biden Zionist team.

Joe Biden interviewed by Shalom TV.
"I am a Zionist. You don't have to be a Jew to be a Zionist."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yAZmO80dLfE

Jock

What a cheery ray of sunlight.

Jock,

You remain an unrepentant hate monger - just as much as the hate mongers from another era who murdered every single member of my family living in Europe.

You and your attitudes have no place here. Go away or we will continue to dog you and your endless garbage and trash.

You are lower than the low on the scum level.

Jock - it's obvious that you're very passionate about what you do, and that is certainly a great virtue and reason for living and giving and helping and doing - but honestly GIVE IT A REST...your constant attention on the misery of this world, does not make this a better place and it doesn't help us to change anything or be inspired by you...and that's what you want isn't it? For us to be inspired by what you have to say so we will go out there with you and help change the injustice in the world?

This is a lovely day for many of us and we are your friends - So "put a little love in your heart" and send your smile of congratulations, or a wish or two for this beautiful President, who (we believe) is going to try and make this a better world with the mess he's been given. Rejoice with us, even if it's only for a day. After all, we are a family of American friends (especially in Ojai) - and your invited to our party.

I'm elated that Obama won but I'm very sad and sobered by why he won.

Jock remains true to his art even in the midst of Ojai euphoria. A Cassandra? A prophet who is reviled in his hometown?

I don't enjoy the role of spoil-sport, kill-joy or party-pooper but I also have my art to honor.

Take a moment away from your rejoicing, Ojai, and carefully note the video on Biden which Jock posted, and what it's implications are. Also, note that a wedding in Afghanistan was bombed at the US election, killing many womem. Accident or message? Paranoia or reality?

As we feel hope and the winds of changes shift, don't forget to think.

Tough love is not puppy love, despite what Americans think about First Puppy.

Read more at http://redbrownandblueparty.blogstream.com.

The other evening someone posted comment #37 with some valuable insights and interesting concepts. Unfortunately it was mostly ignored on this thread in favor of yet another Jock-meltdown. No, I was not Comment #37's author, but I recognize the style and we have had many debates here on the post in the past, especially with regard to this election. I was surprised that the only comments anyone posted about comment #37 were that we should not call the Republicans names. That's a fairly weak showing intellectually here on the post, and I don't mean the person(s) in particular that held that position. I mean the lack of engagement with the points. I was a little startled to see how easily Jock could derail the course of reason.

I've been feeling like the post has been having a nervous breakdown on the way up to this election, and I was hoping that we could reintroduce some rationality now that Obama has won. The Twenty-First Century has finally started. We can begin to heal the wounds and move past the millenarianism that has so enthralled us since at least 2000. There is an awful lot of work to be done. There are problems so immense, that they literally dwarf Jock's and others concerns. I'm talking about the very survival of our species on this planet, not what one criminal or another did or did not do. Don't get me wrong, I think we need to hold the Bush Administration responsible for the crimes it has committed, but that is not the only job we have ahead of us.

With regard to comment #37. You got a lot wrong:

It is not at all clear that we have not gained a SuperMajority(60 seats) in the Senate. Oregon just went our way, and there are three other races yet to be called. Alaska, Minnesota and Georgia. There is already mounting evidence that serious election fraud has taken place in both Alaska and Georgia. According to the results that both states are currently showing, the turnout in Alaska and Georgia is down by more that 13% from 2004. That is not possible. That means votes are being hidden, and the facts will be uncovered shortly. In Minnesota, Al Franken is losing by 438 votes. That automatically throws MN into a recount. MN has very particular laws regarding a recount, it is very slow and deliberate. We will not know the results of that race until mid-December. Also, there is already evidence of Repug election fraud in MN(I'm using this term LS and LTOR because the Republicans are trying to cheat like usual and that is not okay with me). That election fraud will be made obvious in a recount and it will disappear, favoring Franken. Further, depending on what happens in Georgia, Chambliss is likely headed for a runoff. And if the extent of election fraud by the Repugs is discovered, as I believe it will be, then he will lose the runoff. Oh, and Stevens is a convicted felon. Even if we don't discover the missing 14%+ of the vote that the Alaska Repugs are trying to hide, Alaska will have a new Senator other than that sack-of-shit Stevens. Because Palin is the Governor, it will likely be a Republican Senator, but a very junior one.

Bottom line on the Senate, we have a good chance of getting our SuperMajority, better then we had any right to expect from the polling data. Even if we don't get it, we don't need it. We put everything we want into a giant omnibus bill, a la Tom DeLay, and we force the Republicans in the Senate to start and sustain a filibuster. Ten days, 20 days, a month, day and night, so what. All the while Obama's entire administration will be out in the media pointing at the OBSTRUCTIONIST Repugs while we have real problems to solve. We'll target each and every one of them for elimination during the elections in 2010. They are doomed. And I think we all know the Republicans couldn't really keep up a serious filibuster. They are not that used to work, and a 24 hr a day operation like that will take a lot of work. Many of those people are very very old. I wouldn't be surprised if a couple didn't just succumb during the whole ordeal.

If you've read this far, you deserve a treat. Here it is. Lieberman is being stripped of his committee chairs today! Hahahahahaha. He could decide to wonder over and caucus with his friend McCain in the minority for the last four years of his political career, or he could stay with us and maybe rejoin the fold. It's up to his sorry ass.

I agree with you, #37, that to fix this country will take a lot of work. I hope we can manage. Prop. 8 was a disgrace. I am sickened to live in a state that would re-write it's constitution to discriminate against its' people. Two things need to happen there, The Church of Latter Day Saints, headquartered in one of the most backward states in the union--Utah, needs to be held accountable for its' actions. Similarly, the Knights of Columbus and the Catholic church needs to be held accountable. There are a number of ways to do this, but attacking their cash flow is what will really hurt them. California is a very creative state, and the people who these venerable religious institutions have hurt are among the most creative. I trust we/they will be able to devise several ways to seriously undermine the financial positions of these two loving churches. I have some ideas, but I'll save them for now.

Elton Gallegly did win his seat. But it was a lot closer then it has been in the past, and the effort was less than minimal. I maintained that we could have taken this seat this time if we had a candidate and a campaign. I even went so far as to approach Steve Bennett to see if he would run. I really think he could have won, especially given the extraordinary coat-tail effect we are seeing nationwide. He claimed he was happy where he was. Well, perhaps he'll reconsider in 2010 since Measure T, the term limits on supervisors, passed. But by then, Elton will probably have retired or passed on. Your assertion that both Stricklands won is not correct. As of this morning Hannah-Beth is 108 votes ahead of Tony Strickland. It's usually true that absentee ballots favor the Republican, but in this election, it's anybody's guess. In 2010, I think it is very likely that we will see a Strickland running for Elton's seat against whomever we can get to beat them. Now is the time to start looking. I still think Bennett is the obvious choice.

This brings me to the local city council race. For some strange reason the results have not been updated since yesterday early morning. There are a lot of absentee votes to count still. This is where Len lost two years ago. It certainly looks like Betsy has won, but I wouldn't count Suza out just yet. Also, while I was working the polls Tuesday, I was blown away by the number of provisional ballots being cast. During my three hour shift, over 6% were provisionals. These ballots are not counted unless the race is very tight. I'm going to call the county to see when they are going to begin counting those ballots. The race for the 19th Senatorial District between Hannah-Beth and Strickland is close enough to cause them to have to count the provisionals. My guess is that those votes will favor both Hannah-Beth and Suza.

Finally, I agree that the fight has only just begun. I think we are up to the task. It will take a minute to undo 28 years of disastrous right-wing rule. Hopefully our friends on the post that persist in their millenary fantasies will snap out of it and help.

"How poor are they that have not patience!
What wound did ever heal but by degrees?
Thou know'st we work by wit, and not by witchcraft;
And wit depends on dilatory time." - Othello

Yee Haw! It's officially a landslide now. Obama won North Carolina giving him 364 electoral votes.

Dear Dennis...you said: "I don't enjoy the role of spoil-sport, kill-joy or party-pooper but I also have my art to honor..."

... and your art says you can't say anything nice to anyone? or Congratulate them on something "they're" happy about? Not even for one day? So you're saying your art is all about what "you feel is right" it's all about YOU.

Look it can all be about YOU - after all it's "our life" and we see it through our own perspectives. However what I'm suggesting here is that you and Jock - take a break for ONE DAY from your art - and let your friends be happy without being a kill-joy or party pooper. Puppy love leaves soon enough without your impressive art...

I just got this from the Ventura County Democrats. It's a very interesting development. I've never heard of a post-election celebration this far after the election. Oh sure, people are thrilled or not on election night, but this is a bit new. What happens in this country is up to us, but only if there is an us. The most insidious aspect of modern American political life is that the populace is basically atomized. There is little sense of community in much of this country. The only "communities" that seem to be acceptable are fan based, market driven, consumerist hobbies and pop culture.

If we are going to see the change we want in this country, it is up to us to manifest it. That requires concerted, coordinated effort and a movement. The biggest question about this election: Is there really a movement or was it just a product of the most effective campaign we've ever seen? Can we effectively pressure the Congress and this new President, or are we just watching more tv.

I read it long ago in school, but Naomi Klein hammered it home in her book The Shock Doctrine when she quoted trickle-down economics guru Milton Friedman:

(Speaking about the purpose of the free-traders that have plagued us since 1980.)

Only a crisis - actual or perceived - produces real change. When that crisis occurs, the actions that are taken depend on the ideas that are lying around. That, I believe, is our basic function: to develop alternatives to existing policies, to keep them alive and available until the politically impossible becomes politically inevitable.

We've had the crisis. It's ongoing in the economy and liable to get much much worse. Arguably, the shredding of the economy allowed us to elect Obama; But has anyone actually sat down and discussed with others how to change the economy and the country. Do we have any ideas lying around. Because I assure you, the corporatists have a few more ideas for us. Obama can only effect the change we want if we lead, not the other way around.

By the way, if listening to Tom Brokaw and the other bubble heads on tv trying to convince you that "America is a center-right country." hasn't already driven you to it--Kill your television. We don't own it, 6 major media conglomerates do. Let's start enforcing the Sherman Anti-Trust Act and reclaim our media, then let's reinstate the Fairness Doctrine and clean up our discourse. There are a lot more good ideas.

i LOVE your ideas, Sean! can we take action in a focused and coordinated way?

Dennis,

Wake up. Jock's art is not art. It's barely disguised hate speech that is vile and destructive and has no place in this or any other community. That he makes these comments and you treasure them is a sign of just how pathetic you have both become as members of the human species.

spk -

You mentioned a high number of provisional ballots cast during your shift as a poll worker. I would very much like to know what you observed of the reason(s) these voters were forced to vote provisionally. If you or any other poll worker could post on this, I'd be grateful.

As a poll worker and voter protection poll observer, I've learned that a large number of provisional ballots in a certain voting site or region are a sign of a poorly run precinct, bad registration info coming from the County Registrar, or a poorly educated voting populace, or some combination of all the above. Provisional ballots are a final resort only after all other efforts to cast a proper ballot are unavailing. Let me be clear, I do not want to cast aspersions on our local poll workers, who are dedicated to their task, so which of the other two causes are in play, if in fact there were a disproportionate number of provisional ballots cast?

The most common reasons for casting a provisional ballot are 1) a voter appears at the incorrect polling place and cannot or will not vote at the site appropriate to the address where he/she registered, or 2) a voter issued an absentee ballot comes to cast his/her vote on election day and does not surrender his/her absentee ballot. Both these causes of provisional ballots are a sign of a misinformed (or lazy) electorate, which is sad indeed after the heroic efforts this year to register all eligible voters, to ensure that voters knew where to vote, and how to vote. I worked many phone banks this year, and voting procedures were a primary focus of these calls, especially given the number of new voters in this election. I find it hard to believe that in this election that voters were too lazy to go to their proper polling places, or to surrender their absentee ballot. This election set a high mark for motivated voters and voter eductation.

Then I must ask if the problem was with the information given to the precinct. Were incomplete or incorrect registration data issued to the polls, so that properly registered voters did not appear on the lists?

Before I get any more paranoid, I hope to hear from poll workers what they experienced.

Thanks.

For the record, I did say I was elated with Obama's win and I did congratulate him. And I cannot take a holiday from my pursuit of truth.

More at: http://thelovegovernment.blogstream.com #17 Post-election blues.

Did you all hear about this?

http://www.tmz.com/2008/11/04/tim-robbins-couldnt-vote-cops-called/

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Thanks, LTOR. I try to resist paranoia and conspiracy theories. While individual stories and personal observations do not prove a point conclusively, they do, however, give rise to theories to be tested scientifically. The fact that Tim Robbins was dropped from the registration data again posits the question I raised above. Any other observations about registration lists and provisional ballots? I'm going to Google and see what I can find.

Fortunately, even if these stories reflect anything more than coincidence (the usual reality behind conspiracy paranoia), the effort failed.

If the debacle of 2000 accomplished anything beyond ushering in eight years of bad news, it DID prompt some pretty scrupulous voter protection efforts in this election. "Won't get fooled again..."

Frida,

I can assure you, our polling place was working very efficiently at Chaparral Auditorium. We were getting more than one voter per minute while I was there. The people that came in were simply not on the list for that precinct. Either they were at the wrong precinct or they were not registered. It is possible that the county failed to send their information over, but that would be a new occurrence since I've been working the polls for a decade.

Another possibility is election fraud. There was an outfit working in Ventura county registering people and switching their party affiliation. It's not a stretch from there to imagine that they or others who were not arrested were also throwing away the registration information altogether.

Sorry, I meant to post the Huffington Post article (not the TMZ video) with the specific quote by Robbins and his assertion that this was by no means just a one-off in his case:

"This is what you have to do to vote... I had to go down to see a judge... My name was not on the roll, and I'm not the only one. According to workers, 30 people in 5 hours had been taking off the rolls. You can do the math on that. 6 per hour, per district across America..."

Luckily, he is such a strong activist willing to invest the time and effort to speak out - I hope he continues to raise hell about this issue...

spk, you are right that what we need to do is have the ideas ready to go. One reason the ludicrous looting/"bailout" program got passed was because the Democrats didn't have their own alternative ready to go. Had Paulson came into Congress with something remotely reasonable, the Demos were ready to play their usual game, and try to tack on some urgently needed additional measures. But he, true to form, outflanked them by coming in with something so shoddy that he succeeded in taking up all their efforts in attempting to fashion a workable scheme out of what he proposed. The Demos who were talking sense and saying "hello? No bailout until we get health care, foreclosure moratorium, etc." were pushed aside as the leadership bought into the (potentially correct) idea that the U.S. Congress did have to make a very large bailout fund available immediately in order to avert crisis.

This has been Repugnican 101 for 30 years. We need to put a stop to it.

As far as other "ideas on the table," there is so much immediately to fix that it is just sad. Take a look at the ACLU "first 100 days" list:

http://www.aclu.org/transition/

That ought to make every American cry. How have we fallen so far? How can it be that we are sitting here in 2008 laying out, as part of a "first 100 days" agenda, the elimination of torture, kidnaping, secret prisons, the reaffirmation of our commitment to the Geneva Conventions, and the rest?

It sure would be a good idea to come up with a rock solid, "ten in ten days" list to push for Obama and the Democratic Congress to complete in their first ten days. Things are so rotten that I am pretty sure that top ten would be somethign that even Repugnicans would rally around (if it was stripped of any partisan labels, which prevents them from being able to comprehend proposals). Just yesterday, I asked a McCain voter I know what his #1 first thing to do item would be for the new President. You know what he said? "Forfeit all bonuses paid to executives of companies that have taken U.S. Government bailout funds in the last three years."

That's not too far from the "gross negligence asset tax" proposal laid out above.

Post #37 has a start on a top ten. Anyone else have some ideas we can start working on?

#61, You are #37. Stop being so coy. Do you imagine your style is so unrecognizable?

and refer to #40

You mean #39, that's you too.

Anonymous Sixty One wrote "ACLU First Hundred Days"... "That ought to make every American cry. How have we fallen so far? How can it be that we are sitting here in 2008 laying out, as part of a "first 100 days" agenda, the elimination of torture, kidnaping, secret prisons, the reaffirmation of our commitment to the Geneva Conventions, and the rest?"

Reading the ACLU list we note that the underlying issues are not addressed, that state violence will continue. The fundamentals are a hundred times more comprehensive and end the victimization of the poor and working people of the US and the World by the rich and powerful. Until we restore the Bill of Rights of the US Constitution and remove the provisions enabling the outlaw power priesthood of Wall Street and Crown Law.. outlaw power and privilege altogether.. we have done nothing but expand the war against the poor of the US and the planet.

No coyness intended, didn't realize that referring directly to the #39 would distract you. Sorry.

No coyness intended, didn't realize that referring directly to the #37 would distract you. Sorry.

Anyway, can we/do we carry on from here?

One of the most powerful things we saw in this election - for the first time in my lifetime - was an electorate engaged with issues. The magnitude of the Repugnican disaster has made all of us have to think a little bit about what our leadership should be doing. We have been forced to realize that we are responsible for pushing in the good ideas, and pushing out the bad.

What I think we also need to realize is that our responsibility has only increased now that we've succeeded in putting Obama in office.

You can bet that the Repugnicans are sitting down right now, laying out their derailment agenda.

We, each of us, as voters and citizens, should think clearly and see if we can formulate for ourselves ten things we elected Obama to do. We should have our own internal yardstick, with which to measure our leadership as they proceed, and from which to take action when they stray. By sharing it here and elsewhere, we might - just as has happened in this campaign - find that our list dovetails with a large number of other people. If we can refine it, quickly, and propagate it in the same grassroots fashion that got Obama elected in the first place, we might actually be able to set the foundation Obama needs to make real change.

If we sit back now, and say, hey, let's see what Obama does - the test that is being pushed for us by the media - we will miss our historic opportunity.

Not so long ago, a guy named Bill Clinton got elected with some big ideas. Once he was in office, everyone abandoned him, counting on him by himself to fend off the forces of evil and get universal health care, etc. in place. He tried - but then, Repugnicans with their derailment agenda took the Congress. What a gross failure of all of us. There are people here today who vilify him for having signed on to free trade deals and deregulation and the like - but where were they in 1993 and 1994?

Let's not make the same mistake again, is all I'm saying. It would be a real shame.

So: #37 (yes, that's me) lays out a start on a top ten for the first ten days. What do you think? What is your list? What did you elect Obama to do?

Tim Robbins is an idiot. Like the MANHATTAN voter registrars would screw with him. Like it would make a difference in his city or his state. LIke anybody doesn't know his vote.

I bet $1 he never bothered to have "his people" register him. He's such an elitist, entitled pile of...

Tim Robbins is an idiot. Like the MANHATTAN voter registrars would screw with him. Like it would make a difference in his city or his state. LIke anybody doesn't know his vote.

I bet $1 he never bothered to have "his people" register him. He's such an elitist, entitled pile of...

"Tim Robbins is an idiot. Like the MANHATTAN voter registrars would screw with him. Like it would make a difference in his city or his state. LIke anybody doesn't know his vote."

Uh...someone out there not getting the point???

Ok #37, I'll bite.

First of all, I agree with a lot of what you said. I was not one of those people who abandoned Bill Clinton. I started dogging him his first week when he balked on his gays in the military promise and I never stopped hounding him to keep his progressive promises.

I protested every military action he took and protested every humanitarian action he didn't take.

If anyone watched the recent amazing interview with Harry Belafonte on the Tavis Smiley show, he had a cool story to tell about Roosevelt. Excuse the lack of memory, but Eleanor had invited a famous black man to a dinner party at the white house. After dinner Roosevelt asked the man what he could do to solve the “Negros problems”. The scholar gave him an earful of all the problems facing the community and what the power of the president could do to solve these problems. When the man finished, Roosevelt said, “I agree with everything you just said and I do believe as the president I could accomplish a lot of these things. Now leave here and go make me.”

You’re right #37. It is up to us!

So, here's (off the top of my head) my ideas for Obama.

1. Start a Peace Department and make Dennis Kucinich the head of it.
2. Stop both wars and get the international communities, the CIA, and all other intelligence agencies to pursue terrorists as they should be pursued, and brought to trial, convicted, and imprisoned.
3. Sign back onto to all non-proliferation treaties and begin work to eliminate nuclear weapons from ALL countries, not just the ones who have no weapons now.
4. Become a true partner with the UN and stop blocking its attempts to bring peace to the world.
5. Create a world peace team to bring peace, once and for all, to Israel and Palestine.
6. Yes, health care and education for all Americans.
7. Do everything possible to become the world’s leader in protecting the environment and developing alternative energies.
8. Eliminate nuclear power and find a way to get rid of all the waste destroying our planet and poisoning our citizens as we speak. Eliminate using depleted uranium on any battle field and clean up the places where we've already used it.
9. Re-build the countries we've destroyed and try to make their citizens as "whole" as we possibly can.
10. Restore our constitution, give us back our transparent government, our media, our airwaves, and move Helen Thomas back to the front row.

I could go on forever, but I'll stop there and give someone else a chance.

Great ideas, Nukebuster.

Some things on my imaginary Honey-Do list: I would like to see him advocate for the concept of volunteerism both locally and abroad. (Colin Powell was very active in this arena in the late nineties. I was in the audience for a speech that he gave and even the most cynical, blase investment bankers had lumps in their throats and were misty eyed. I would love to see him back doing this, as it clearly is a passion of his.) I would love for this Administration to make joining the Peace Corps cool again. I would love to see them help teenagers and young adults get the chance to study or live abroad in our international exchange programs. I look forward to the WPA type progams that he has promised to launch. I want to see art and music back in our schools and I want more grants awarded to cultural endeavors.

And what I wouldn't give to see him begin his own version of "Fireside Chats" with the American people - encouraging us (among other things) to conserve more, consume less, spend within our means and to become more involved in the lives of our children, and inspiring those children to wrench themselves away from the tv and video games and get excited about their educations and to dream about their futures, to feel proud of being nice and showing kindness to one another...

Ok, now I'm dreaming...(and getting sappy!)

Happy Friday, everyone!

The press conference today was impressive. He took less then 24 hrs off and then he showed up at the white house asking uncomfortable questions. Then he met with some decidedly old-guard, Goldman Sachs, Wall Street types(yes this worries me, but I'm willing to give him the benefit of the doubt) and then he held a press conference talking about the urgency of a stimulus package. He essentially ordered the the lame-duck congress and president to make it happen sooner rather then later. Here's a useful statistic when you are talking about this with friends and you haven't had time to read over Keynsian economics. Fully 70%+ of GDP is consumption! This stat comes from the conservative "think" tank known as the Hoover Institution, so you can doubt it if you like, it's probably a conservative estimate anyway.

True to form, the wing nuts seized on Obama referring to himself as a mutt and to his making a slight joke that he had met with all the living presidents and that he hadn't held a seance with Nancy Reagan. Whatever, Drudge, et. al are now irrelevant. Ignore them. We no longer need to be reactive, we are in control. We have the luxury of time for a change. We've entered a new era of reality based policies that can be swayed by reasoned, researched argument.

Further, ignore the corporate media trying to claim that Obama needs to govern from the "center"(READ: right). When you are out with friends or others and this topic comes up, kindly remind them that of the of 31+ seats Democrats won in what Thomas Jefferson called the "Peoples House", 29 are real-live PROGRESSIVES. The best indicator that national politics have realigned themselves with the majority of Americans is the pick-up we made in the House of Representatives. Yes Obama needs to govern from the center, but the center has shifted way to the left.

One more thing, I expected at least some props for quoting Othello in comment #48 above. I mean come on, Othello and it was a quote urging patience. Try to keep up. Just kidding.

Sorry, spk, the quote was over my head! LTOR, I love all your ideas too! As for the mutt comment, I thought it was funny AND appropriate. I thought he looked REALLY tired and already older. I didn't like that. I knew he'd be ripped apart for the nancy reagan comment the minute he said it. I loved the way he handled/interacted with the press!

thanks to spk, the anons, ltor, everyone for pushing ahead with the issue of ethics -- just what is it we can do now that we got these evil creepublicans out of office -- what can we do that has never been done before, and desperately needs doing?

yes, return the Bill of Rights, or an increased Bill of Rights which has meaning, viz. from an earlier thread:

1) individual sovereignty,
2) the right to speak, or not to speak.
3) the right to all information, truth from all institutions.
4) the right to live, to grow, to be self-determined.
5) the right to be free, to travel, to experience.
6) the right never to be touched, never to be violated or abused.
7) the right to be a personality, to evolve, to enlighten.
8) the right to be equally involved in all decisionmaking, at all levels, of all associations of which you are a part.
9) the right to opt out of any decisions or decisionmaking, to have no decisions affect you unless you chose to be a part of them.
10) the obligation and responsibility to live by the 42 Judgements, as best you may, and never do violence upon another, or upon all our sacred relations, or upon our Mother Earth.
11) the obligation to reforest, re-ocean, re-atmosphere our planet -- returning the divine life tenfold -- to heal our Mother Earth.

the government of the United States was set up to provide protection and privilege for the white male aristocracy, more than two centuries ago ... and to date it has changed little.

we have the largest mandate, consciousness sea change, in history. it is time to do something honest and ethical for a change ... end government based on violating the poor ...

enable a Bill of Rights which ends all power to do evil, for the police state to prey upon the poor and therefore friendless, for the benefit of the rich and powerful.

a first Constitution of and by the People, ALL THE PEOPLE.

say millennium,

I asked you before, but you did not reply, so I will ask you again:

I am glad you are appreciative and supportive of Obama, but I have trouble understanding why you now have this attitude after repeatedly conflating his name with that of Osama bin Laden, as well as ridiculing Obama as a "Messiah."

Also, why would you admire Obama when you consider Al Gore and Dennis Kucinich to be criminals and gangsters, as you have often claimed in the past?

Thanks Nukebuster. I like your list. Seems like its on the same page with mine. And I bet, a whole lot of others.

You don't have anything in there for the economy or taxes. Seems to me a specific tax/economy plan to implement in the first ten days could go far to increase Obama's political capital for so many other things that will take longer.

Imagine if Obama demanded the Congress give him a three-year middle class tax holiday - no federal income tax, no withholding, no reporting - to sign on day one as part one of his stimulus package. (Economists on the right and the left agree this would be a highly effective stimulus - its blocked and shushed by ideologues who are afraid that if the middle class here gets a taste of no taxes, that will start a snowball of newer and higher taxes on the wealthy.) Pay for it by restoring rates on the wealthy and indolent (dividends and cap gains) to Clinton levels, with the balance coming from higher rates on the very highest incomes. That would send the Repugnicans into far off fringe territory the very next day, and Obama would have so much political capital he'd be able to pass sweeping reforms on the heels of it.

I like the Department of Peace. First we need to get rid of Homeland Security. And Obama cannot dismantle the military-industrial complex in a day. He could start down the path by appointing with big fanfare on day one a commission, stocked with sensible people, to end both wars and transition them to the UN, with a reconstruction plan.

I left Israel-Palestine out. I figure its better not to get AIPAC all riled up early on. Obama is on top of that issue, and I think his will be the administration that solves it, if we can get our own house in enough order to help solve anything.

Nuclear proliferation I don't think is a first ten days issue. But I agree, we need to push Obama to completely reverse the sick policies of the Repugnicans, and lead the world in nonproliferation and eventually, elimination of weapons of mass destruction.

I'd like to see a sharpened, tight list of priorities we know Obama voters will agree to demand as a package. "Ten in ten days." Obama is soliciting ideas from the public. What if we could present a "ten in ten days", through moveon and the other organs of the campaign, with massive support?

I bet Helen Thomas will be back in the front row.

Ok, I missed the 10/10 concept. My list was my 10/4 wish list. I love your idea, #37, to submit a citizen's list. I didn't put down any economic issues, cause even though I've lost half my 401K in the past 60 days, the money thing isn't really where I'm coming from. I do like your ideas, however!

Just in the nick of time, I get this amazing link in my "in box". Hope it works (the link, i mean).

Go to this page to submit your ideas directly to the Obama/Biden transition team on what needs to happen. Brilliant!http://www.change.gov/page/s/ofthepeople

the power of the human spirit to do good is beyond simply knowing. look to the limits of your imagination, every day, and find the way... that we can bring the women and the poor into the franchise and the commonwealth of society. do nothing less and all your life will be one in service to the will of divine reason.

I feel sad because the conversation here is so unrealistic. I feel sad also because I'll be reviled for saying so. Obama is a tragic figure, like Polonius, caught "between mighty opposites." He's an appeaser and a gatekeeper, used by the hidden powers. That approach will not achieve what the innocents here want.

You ignore prophets like Jock and the old Millenium to your peril. I know you can't see it but I have the responsibility to say it anyway.

Until you face reality, you become part of the problem as an enabler. None of the lists addresses fundamental problems. These kinds of surface ideas just cause confusion and lead to disappointment and despair. Your lack of education and courage plays into the hands of your worst enemies.

I'm going to continue to think out loud at: http://redbrownandblueparty.blogstream.com.

Join me if you wish but you do so at your own risk.

Beware, Dennis...

The full moon approaches...

Mirroring your lunacy as it reaches apogee...

And then maybe, just maybe...

In the days afterward...

When the light begins to ebb once more...

And the Milky Way returns to the night sky...

You will journey off with your comrades to "Das Narrenschiff..."

And sail swiftly beyond the horizon.

Now that would be a event worth celebrating!

Oh happy day.

en la'kech Nukebuster, for the link to WORLD REFORMATION: www.change.gov/page/s/ofthepeople

and brother Dennis, and #37, all.

we have to NOW speak up to dismantle the evils of Homeland Security, the Torture State, the Police State which imprisons the honest and ethical who speak out, practice our only defense which is civil protest/action against the outlaws and treasoners, the secret government security state which is above the law, above our once-Constitution, and obeys no laws but those of demon hell.

here is the contribution I sent, from the Ojai Post, to: www.change.gov/page/s/ofthepeople

en la'kech, nothing less than the good ...

Dearest brother, Barack Hussein Obama,

just what is it we can do now that we got these most evil gangsters out of office -- what can we do that has never been done before, and ~desperately~ needs doing?

return the Bill of Rights, or an increased Bill of Rights which has meaning, viz. from discussions at the Ojai Post:

1) individual sovereignty,
2) the right to speak, or not to speak.
3) the right to all information, truth from all institutions.
4) the right to live, to grow, to be self-determined.
5) the right to be free, to travel, to experience.
6) the right never to be touched, never to be violated or abused.
7) the right to be a personality, to evolve, to enlighten.
8) the right to be equally involved in all decisionmaking, at all levels, of all associations of which you are a part.
9) the right to opt out of any decisions or decisionmaking, to have no decisions affect you unless you chose to be a part of them.
10) the obligation and responsibility to live by the 42 Judgements, as best you may, and never do violence upon another, or upon all our sacred relations, or upon our Mother Earth.
11) the obligation to reforest, re-ocean, re-atmosphere our planet -- returning the divine life tenfold -- to heal our Mother Earth.

the government of the United States was set up to provide protection and privilege for the white male aristocracy, more than two centuries ago ... and to date it has changed little.

we have the largest mandate, consciousness sea change, in history. it is time to do something honest and ethical for a change ... end government based on violating women and the poor ...

enable a Bill of Rights which ends all power to do evil, for the police state to prey upon the elderly and women and poor and therefore friendless, for the benefit of the rich and powerful.

end the power of secret government, our above-the-law government, acting with their NSDD's national security decision directives, and include ALL the PEOPLE in the franchise of society.

protect EVERY citizen from the guilds of privilege and power.

create a first government of and by the People, ALL THE PEOPLE.

Millennium Twain
father of the US/Intl Space Station Program,
publisher of the Structure of the Atomic Nucleus,
founder of the Universal World Parliament, SoverAnia

Thanks, Dharma, for the thought. I had to google das narrenschiff. I was afraid it was some Nazi thing but ship of fools made me chuckle. I remember reading that book way, way back and the title has always stuck with me.

I love the Fool card in tarot, Francis of Assisi as Love's Fool and the Fools in Shakespeare. I also love the Moon card in tarot and of course the moon herself and the name Ojai which means moon. I saw the moon last night and look forward to the apogee you refer to.

Nice poetry by the way.

I'd rather be on a ship of fools than on a ship of state such as the sinking one we're on.

By the way, if you want to follow this fool to my heart core website at Aeonity, you can't get there directly by a link here. You have to take a meandering fool's way and google or yahoo: loverearth aeonity blog. I gave misleading information above. It is my policy to correct my misinformation as soon as possible.

I just reread the Dharma poem. Really, really good. I'm laughing as I think of MT, Jock and myself sailing off into the moonset. I think too of the card "C" in Lover Earth Government with its polarities of "Lunacy" and "Lunar C." Ojai Moon Lover, see what you've done to me. Do it again. Once is not enough.

O.K., Millennium,

With your latest post it is now clear that you are deliberately ignoring my question to you, rather than merely overlooking it.

But sooner or later, you are going to have to address it. Even "brother Dennis" as you call him has noticed the change in you -- he refers (approvingly) to the "old Millennium" and he too must be scratching his head and wondering what has come over you.

So I will ask you again: What gives? How come just a couple of weeks ago you ridiculed Obama as "Messiah" and slurred his name into a parody of Osama bin Laden, and now you appear to embrace his election and what it represents?

And how come Obama escapes the condemnation you have heaped upon Al Gore and Dennis Kucinich?

Come on, Millennium, don't be a no-show -- the world awaits your reply!!

Not to mention Suza, David, MT worked her over a bit too for no reason I can imagine. But it's blank slate time. There's work to be done, and anyone who wants to help is more then welcome.

The link nukebuster sent is a great thing, and we should all weigh in thoughtfully, but there needs to be an independent movement that is capable of forming its' own ideas and working to get them implemented. Even I have several concrete policy ideas which I will be putting into an editorial in a few days.

Dennis, I have no illusions that my ideas will be acted upon, but it is still very important to have new/old ideas out there. It increases the resilience of out Democracy and it enriches the possibilities we can achieve. I am not willing to sink into your cynical morass with you just yet. I mean no disrespect to the "baby boom" generation, especially not to the ones who did so much to lay the foundations for civil rights, but a new generation is taking over. Gone are the slick promises and lies and hubris that so characterized the two baby boom presidents. Bill Clinton was never a transformative figure and he betrayed us almost immediately. If I had to rate him, I'd call him the third best Republican President we've ever had. All I can think about when I look back on clinton is what I call "bad Blue Jazz". That's my nickname for his type of politics. George Bush was/is a travesty. He was a product of a world and nation gone mad from millenarianism. The conservative "movement" that he represented has lost what intellectual vigor it ever had, and the collapsing of the economy has totally bankrupted its' whole economic theory. Supply-side, trickle-down, Friedman economics has been shown to be a fraud.

I have a feeling this new movement that has swept Obama into the Presidency and give the majority in the House and Senate to the Democrats will be headquartered on the internet. Al Gore, after he regained some sanity after all that bad blue jazz, wrote a really great book called The Assault on Reason. It was all about the insanity of the Bush administration and of our country because of its' lack of reason. He blamed a lot of the problem on the media. He went back to the writings of the founders and produced quotes where they continually referred to the importance of written, reasoned arguments. The act of writing forces one to give ideas a certain rigor. And the fact that the ideas can be independently analyzed and critiqued imposes a system of exchange that lends more weight then if someone had simply said the same thing. He claimed that we had become a nation of spectators watching TV for our opinions and that increasingly those opinions came from an ever narrowing set if interests. In the book, he thought that the internet could play an important part in reviving our democracy because blogs increasingly were threatening the reign and the authenticity of the corporate media. I think we have seen exactly that in this election.

SPK, once again, I couldn't agree with you more. As one of those optimistic baby boomers, I couldn't wait to get in charge only to find myself so miserably disappointed and scratching my head as to how this could have happened.

I, too, am pleased to see the tone change in MT, and I love a lot of the ideas he has presented on this thread. I believe his change has to do, not so much with the candidate, but with the "sea change" he sees happening, not just here in our country, but around the world.

There is hope! It is a new generation and all I can say is I'm happy I've contributed children to this movement. You can thank the boomers for at least that much, ehh?

I'm feeling less cocky and more unsure at the moment. I'm thinking to myself: what if I'm wrong about something very fundamental? What if I'm missing some important piece? What if I'm conning myself?

These are sobering thoughts. There is a lot at stake. I'll say this though. The Ojai Post is doing me a real service by providing a community of peers against which I can test myself and my ideas.

Truth seeking is a tricky business. There are several elements involved; and one of the major ones is a community of competent participants. This community is a virtual one created by the internet but it has the advantage of being based in a small town where some of the persons are physically known which is another part of the check and balance system of truth identification.

In my own personality and life I tend to extremes from true believer to critical pessimist. Besides my personal family, I've had two major communities in my experience and both of them were religious based. It looks like I've found a secular community here in Ojai which I think is good for me.

Obama does bring hope and humanity. I remember my love for JFK. I fear for Obama. I wish I knew him better. I kind of froze up and stopped breathing at the end of his Grant Park victory speech in Chicago when he said about his children: "you'll never know how much I love you." I felt he was giving them a message in case...

There is only one way for me to be at peace, and that is to pursue the truth wherever she may lead. As Polonius said: I will seek truth even in the center [of the earth].

I see MT has put up another thread which I will visit after leaving here.

revised statement just posted to www.change.gov/page/s/ofthepeople

~~

Dearest brother, Barack Hussein Obama,

just what is it we can do now that we have got these most evil mobsters out of office -- what can we do that has never been done before, and ~desperately~ needs doing?

return the Bill of Rights, which was discarded by the Security State during the 20th century -- or create an increased Bill of Rights which has meaning, viz. from discussions at the Ojai Post, where we have been reviewing my proposals and those of Rinaldo Brutoco:

1) individual sovereignty,
2) the right to speak, or not to speak.
3) the right to all information, truth from all institutions.
4) the right to live, to grow, to be self-determined.
5) the right to be free, to travel, to experience.
6) the right never to be touched, never to be violated or abused.
7) the right to be a personality, to evolve, to enlighten.
8) the right to be equally involved in all decisionmaking, at all levels, of all associations of which you are a part.
9) the right to opt out of any decisions or decisionmaking, to have no decisions affect you unless you chose to be a part of them.
10) the obligation and responsibility to live by the 42 Judgements, as best you may, and never do violence upon another, or upon all our sacred relations, or upon our Mother Earth.
11) the obligation to reforest, re-ocean, re-atmosphere our planet -- returning the divine life tenfold -- to heal our Mother Earth.

the government of the United States was set up to provide protection and privilege for the white male aristocracy, more than two centuries ago ... and to date it has changed little.

we have the largest mandate, consciousness sea change, in history. it is time to do something honest and ethical for a change ... end government based on violating women and the poor ...

enable a Bill of Rights which ends all power to do evil, for the police state to prey upon the elderly and women and poor and therefore friendless, for the benefit of the rich and powerful.

end the power of secret government, our above-the-law government, acting with their NSDD's national security decision directives, and include ALL the PEOPLE in the franchise of society.

protect EVERY citizen from the guilds of privilege and power.

create a first government of and by the People, ALL THE PEOPLE.

Millennium Twain
father of the US/Intl Space Station Program,
publisher of the Structure of the Atomic Nucleus,
founder of the Universal World Parliament, SoverAnia

ps. you may have noted that 22 November 2008 has become the date for a nationwide protest, in likely hundreds of cities, to demand an end to the tenure of the gangster Federal Reserve!

Obama Wife 'Dares' Cheney-Bush Neocon Nazis To Kill Her Husband

An historic new chapter has begun to be written in the annals of human history with the ascension to the United States Presidency of Barak Obama whose historic election victory is still resounding around the World.

And to this historic moment in time, the new American President’s wife, Michelle, presented herself to the World at the side of her husband as both the United States new First Lady and a ‘visual warning’ to her, and her husbands, enemies that she would not become the ‘black widow’ they fully expect her to be.

Though virtually unnoticed by the American people, and totally ignored by their propaganda media, Michelle Obama stood confidentially beside her husband on this historic night garbed in the ancient African Bantu ceremonial ‘Royal Robe’ meant to signify that that which they most feared would not hold power over them, and which in this case was her dress of black doused with the reverse triangles of red upon her breast and abdomen like the ‘black widow’ spider she has called to have power over.

The history of the ancient Bantu peoples of Africa has been nearly entirely erased from Western history other than the mention of their mass migration in 1,000BC (still considered one of the largest in human history) forced upon them by the new ‘gods’ of the Middle East seeking domination over our human race and fearing our peoples ever becoming united against them.

For these past 3,000 years, these ‘gods’ of the Middle East have waged perpetual genocidal warfare against the Bantu peoples to both enslave and kill them to keep from our World the knowledge of the truest origins of our human race preserved in their ancient myths and religious beliefs, and whose battles still rage today and shows the vast African Continent, and its peoples, embroiled in countless wars, famine and massive deaths by disease.

None of these diseases threatens the Bantu peoples of the World more than the incurable and deadly HIV/Aids virus known to have been engineered by the West to totally eradicate ‘once and for all’ the ‘threat’ to these ancient ‘gods’ posed by these ‘First Peoples of Earth’ and which now affects fully 70 percent of the African Continent peoples.

And to our human races most ancient ‘story’, as told by the Bantu peoples through their myths and religious practices, our Earth and its peoples lived in total harmony before the descent to our planet by the ancient ‘gods’ in the African Nation of Zimbabwe where the oldest structures ever built by human beings still survive to this day.

After the reengineering of our human race to a ‘form’ better suited to their uses, as the Bantu peoples refused to bow before them, these ancient ‘gods’ abandoned the Continent of the Bantu (Africa) and established in present day Iraq their ‘main base’ which today goes by the name of Garden of Eden and from which their religions of Christianity, Islam and Judaism all share their birth.

But, and unlike the beliefs of the Bantu peoples which stressed no difference between our Earth and its peoples, these ‘new’ religions were designed to keep our human race in perpetual warfare with each other, and which over these past 5,000 years have been astoundingly successful as billions of our race have died for the glory, and in devotion to, the new ‘gods’ of our planet.

It goes without my saying that these things I speak of are almost entirely unknown to the vast populations of our Earth’s peoples, but it should also be known that just because a thing may be unknown does not make it untrue. And if not untrue, just unknown, it then falls upon the hearer of these things to prove their truth with the evidence available to them.

And the first piece of evidence to be presented is the rise of Barack Obama to not just the Presidency of the United States, but also to his being the acknowledged ruler of our entire World, and as we had laid forth the facts of this being true in our November 4th report titled “Chaos And War Face United States As It Chooses New Leader”.

For anyone to believe that as our World enters what will prove to be its ‘Last Days of this Age’, and that it is just a ‘coincidence’ that the now defacto Leader of our entire Earth is of ancient Bantu blood, I would, respectfully, state to them that they have no idea of the true significance of the Kenyan-American ‘mystery man’ being hailed as a new ‘Messiah’ and looked upon as a modern day ‘Moses’ who now rules over them.

Likewise, for those foolishly believing that the ascent to World Power of Bantu people has once-and-for-all defeated the power of the ancient ‘gods’ I can state with one-hundred percent certainty that the blood that has been spilled over these past thousands of years for control of our Earth will pale in comparison to that which is soon to be spilled as the forces aligned for the final battles of our race are now in place and prepared to be unleashed upon one another.

We are one human race, we live on one World, there is only one fate which awaits us all when we die, there are no real ‘borders’ existing between our Earth’s peoples, there isn’t a ‘them versus us’, there is only us…this is what the ancient Bantu knew and now they hold the fate of our entire human race in their hands once again…let’s hope they do better in protecting us this time…Michelle Obama has made a good first start.

To be continued…

Suggested first reading for further research on this subject matter: “Wars in Heaven, Wars on Earth”, “Dirty, Filthy, Christians”: Treatise On The Most Dangerous Death Cult In Human History”, “The Science of the Dogon: Decoding the African Mystery Tradition”, and “Les Peuples Bantu: Migrations, expansion et identite culturelle”

Comment #90 has no attribution and violates Fair Use. And the title in particular (used by the original author or editor) is ridiculous and inflammatory.
http://www.fourwinds10.com/siterun_data/history/africa/news.php?q=1225937865

I find the last two comments intriguing. Thanks, Tyler, for not just deleting it. I think it has elements that are worth investigating.

Sometimes it's little things that stick in the mind. I remember someone else wondering what that strange dress was that Michelle wore that evening in Grant Park, and how inappropriate it seemed.

What does "Fair Use" mean? What does "no attribution" mean?

There are so many mind games being played today that we have to test everything and take all with a grain of salt. That's why I value freedom of expression unless it causes real harm. You never know from where enlightenment will come.

Thanks for providing the original piece. I watched the victory speech that night and that red dress registered in my mind, although it was only a blur. I would like to see a full body photo, back and front. It doesn't really look like "reversed triangles" on her breast but it could be. Since seeing her, I've had the impression that there is more to Michelle than meets the eye. Barack also.

I just notified the terms "ridiculous and inflammatory." That seems unfair. Given the tone and some of the words Barack used that night, and my belief that the JFK murder and 911 were inside jobs, the original author's interpretation of the dress, is not that unreasonable, even if improbable. If there were any games being played with that dress, and if it was not just coincidental to a black widow and Bantu ceremonial dress, I would assign motives and actors differently.

Dennis -

Attribution - where the article came from, who wrote it, etc.

Fair Use - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fair_use

"ridiculous and inflammatory" - I was specifically referring to the Title of the article.

I just googled Michelle's red and black dress, and wow, there's more to this than meets the eye. If you want to theorize, or get into conspiracies, here's your chance. Some liked it, many hated it. But who or what was behind it? And I got my wish. Many beautiful photos.

Red and black was the theme. Even her two daughters and Barack's tie. Someone put a lot of thought into this dress. Very controlled and manipulative of public opinion and perception. Very modern advertising in a cult-ural context. All kinds of angles.

Red and black. The color of bondage and hell? Or an interesting fashion statement? All agree that it was unusual but few go deeper than that.

In the context of all this, comment 90 is not that inflammatory. In fact, it is rather tame, considering all the possibilities. One thing about Obama's handlers: nothing is left to chance. It all seems to have a design.

Time will tell. He's an interesting cultural icon. But Michelle is red hot. She was making more than a fashion statement on one of her husband's greatest nights. And for his sake, she did wear low, low heels. Otherwise, she might have blown him out of the park, granted it was Grant Park.

We're wondering what she'll wear to the inauguration. If she wanted she could blow him out of the White House. The power behind the throne? Sort of like MT's "All Womam"?

Way to ruin a perfectly good moment, Dennis and "Sorcha."

"Disgusted"-
There are very negative people in the world and those that feed off them.
Let us rejoice that we are not them.

Hallelujah
Praise Barack and his consort Michelle

Consort? Barack is not our king. Dennis, calm down. It was a dress. Not a particularly flattering one either. People seem to forget that tv is 2d.

There is more than one definition of consort, SPK. And I seem to remember you getting worked up about Hilary wearing a red dress a while back... :)

But yes, I agree - all this talk about sinister ulterior meanings of this Narcisco Rodriquez dress (as unflattering and "ill-suited" for the occasion that it may have been) is beyond ridiculous.

No. There is one thing more ridiculous than all the talk about her red and black dress. It is all the talk about their First Puppy. Agree?

wow, Michelle Obama!

have we a Bantu Priestess as our new First Lady?!

it is beyond our grandest dreams, to Now, today, have the SACRED returning to North America -- GrandMother Spider, Spider Woman, Asibikaashi, of thousands of names, who knit all creation together!!

so indescribably wondrous, to finally be done with this white patriarchal cultural sacrilege -- desecration of divine creation -- murder of our Mother Earth -- genocide against the world's and the aboriginal peoples.

bless you GrandMother Spider. may you and Leopard, Lion, Tiger, Python, Crocodile, ALL come to the side of our newly elected African-American first family -- and all the peoples of all the cultures of the world who are rising up now to end the white patriarchal regime of predation upon the sacred, upon cultural wisdom, upon our Mother Earth.

we are equal, or we are nothing! all cultures, all individuals ...

all our relations ...

Wow. Millenium, you nailed it. Exactly. There's more to this red and black dress than I thought. Bantu High Priestess weaving a world web. By the way, don't black and red widow spiderwomem sacrifice their patriarchal mates?

I don't think this site can bear it. Between this, and Olbermann's sermon on love and prop 8, and the Ojai Film Fest's "up my xxx coming alive (see lead threads), it's just too much for one small town.

I'm going to tie them together and try to make sense of these late Ojai developments at http://laojaivalleyepost.blogstream.com.

For some reason, I can't login to my blogstream account I linked to above. They said to check "cookies" whatever that is. Have I screwed something by linking? Or is it a conspiracy? Or just part of evolution? But then isn't that an impersonal conspiracy?

At any rate I was steered away so I checked my email and revisited something MT sent me about the Jesuits and that conspiracy theory. Fascinating because I was once in the major rival Order, the Franciscans. That led to an interesting u-tuber who questioned all these conspiracy advocates with his reasonable explanation of evolution. His explanation sounds plausible but it still doesn't answer the question of the origin of evolution.

Anyway, here I am back here again, right back where I started from. I see there's one comment under Olbermann's "love attack." Quotes Paul's poem on Christian love from Corinthians. Question is, is that genuine Paul, and even so, it sounds pretty pagan in origin.

I subscribe to love in impersonal terms and to the Lover in personal ways. It's a personal choice so it naturally favors the personal approach as opposed to the impersonal evolutionary one. That links back to my personal history as a Franciscan, the order that was known for following the path of love, as opposed to the Jesuit one of knowledge, which followed upon the Dominican one. The Franciscans had Duns Scotus as their philosopher and the Dominicans had Thomas Acquinas from whom we get the name of the Catholic church here in Ojai. According to conspiracy theory the Jesuits were into power, and not just knowledge as power but as "black popes" superior to the "white pope." The game was Franciscan love vs. Jesuit knowledge=power, or will vs. intellect.

MT talks of the returning Great Woman. I definitely lean in that direction. I can't buy the evolution theory, and it is a theory, that things just happen by natural selection and survival of the fittest. As Celia says of Rosalind's fainting: "There's more to it."

The Lover breathes down my neck. Con-spiracy of course literally means "breathe together" unless you interpret con as against. I've had too many experiences of being steered by some personal force to attribute all events to evolution. In fact, I rather believe that evolution theory itself is part of a greater conspiracy. In further fact, I believe everything is a conspiracy, a sort of breathing in and out by the Lover, or in line with the Lover Earth Government's origin myth, the Lover masturbating creation.

Wasn't MT just bringing this out in his latest thread about Womam? And right on his heels comes this red and black dress item with Michelle. Now I ask you, is this all accidental? Or if you're going to rationalize it, is it evolution? But then you're left holding evolution out in the air by itself. We can then take our pick: leave it at that with evolution as a cause and end in itself or as being held up by a personal force. Or you can ignore the whole thing as a conspiracy and say nothing matters except what you think about it.

The problem with evolutionaries as I see it is the avoidance of love or of a relation with a greater lover. I have even gone so far as to conflate evolution with evilution, basically a voiding of personal love.

The threads above for the moment are Olbermann's rage at Christian marriagists refusing to allow same sex marriages and the OFF contextual male homosexual remark about placing a penis in an anus. The connection here is the tension between conservative and liberal values. Both however are controlled by patriarchal rules whether in regard to the patriarchal penis being in a vagina or an anus; in other words it is the penis that matters, not its placement. In our culture, patriarchy rules regardless. We've got to get that first or we'll never understand the point that MT is making with his art about the return of pre-patriarchal womam values.

I wasn't going to bring this up here due to sensibilities but I can't post to my intended site so I guess the Lover is giving me a green light for here. It seems unlikely that the red and black dresses of Michelle and her two daughters were accidental because there was needed too much alteration and/or special purchase, all of which required careful pre-planning.

Red and black are very powerful colors so right away know the message is about power, who rules who? Patriarchal colors are red and black with the Nazi and communist flags, sexual bondage, the Rothchild red shields and so on.

However, beneath that is the pre-patriarchal original use of red ocher and black for womem ceremonies. Red of course is the color of her internal sex organs and her monthly blood and black the color of her body hair, especially in the pubic region.

So red and black are womam colors in all womem but decidely in dark skinned, black haired womem. Red and black are likewise the color of the earth from her dark interiors and red-fire core.

In its general war on womem and the earth, patriarchal warriors took womem's ceremonial colors and subverted them to their own ends. In their lust for red blood they took to killing animals and eventually other men, and always womem in one form or another.

The Red Brown and Blue Party taps into these energetics. It supports the Lover and her Love Government. As said, red is a womam and earth color. Brown is a womam and earth skin color (black is a very deep brown since pure black is the absence of all color). Blue is a blueblood color from the sky as star covering. Red Brown and Blue is on the up energy and Red Black and Blue on the down side. Both counter the Red White and Blue patriachal white supremcy fallacy/phallacy.

If you are programmed or have consciously chosen to be an evolutionary you will tend to deny these more personal theories. You prefer a safer and more bland worldview. It is an understandable choice. Red fire and black interiors are very scary indeed. Patriarchs were terrorized and they are no wimps when it comes to war. They are also bullies so they pick on womem, children, animals and the defenseless earth and divide the spoils among the mob bosses.

However, what MT and others I think are saying is that the Obama phenomena signals a change, a return of the divine feminine in those terms. But two can play the same game so it's hard to tell which with the dress, if there's any conspiratorial message at all. If there is, denial by all but those privy to the game would be part of the strategy.

Well, I better quit while I'm ahead. I was going to talk about this in a safer place but I don't always get what I want. The Womam in Red and Black apparently has me wound around her little finger. Oh well, I was always a sucker for love, although a patriarchal one. I'm trying to change for the better. And as spk says, I need to calm down.

I console myself by the fact that "God" made you....

Good Lord Dennis & Company, you re-affirm that ANYTHING is possible in consciousness, absolutely anything & everything.

If there's a thought or fantasy or illusion that could possibly materialize - there it is and there you are... Dennis, you and your intellectual giants of friends are ridiculous megalomaniacs. YOU ARE DREAMING...taking every side road and web-like trail to keep yourself interested, alive and meaningful...

Now I'm not saying we don't ALL do the same thing to one degree or other - but we don't take it so seriously. You really think you know what you're talking about and that's the joke. You really think you're telling people "the Truth" and that's the joke. Dennis & Company, you're simple yapping about your "little" imaginative opinions! that's all. A little opinion among trillions. And that's all it's worth - little opinions made to sound "grand & meaningful".

And still there's nothing wrong with that - if only you both smiled once in while - a friendly "simple" (and I emphasize simple) joke now and then - a friendly "simple" (in human form) love song now and then...would be so appreciated by many who are "trying" to be your neighbor...

Hey Dvorah:

What do you take seriously? (Besides trying to get a date with Dennis.)

No side roads, web-like trails and the like.

And no yapping any little imaginative opinions.

And Lord forbid, please do not say anything in a way that might sound grand and meaningful.

Thank you.

Reg Honey - I don't take anything I say seriously and I'm certainly not suggesting that you do (how can we take ourselves seriously, when one moment we're brilliant and the next moment we can't remember where our keys are?) -

Most of the stuff I write is for yours & mine entertainment, why do you think anyone does anything? ..and obviously it entertained you enough to respond...If we had anything more important or fun to do at this very moment, we wouldn't be blogging on the "ojai post".

Leary why aren't you marching all over town or something - yelling about the Kennedy assasination or "the red mysterious dress" Michelle wore?

Dennis & Company are my joy-they give me something to get all riled up and righteous & sarcastic & holier than thou and sane about.....and Hey Dennis a date sounds fine to me - let's go on a cyber date and agree on everything....

Dennis, oh Dennis...

You brain is like an overcooked sunbather
On a nude beach
Who begs us to witness
The rites of stripping bare.

But no...
The sun bleaches out everything of worth
And burns the skin beyond recognition...

Oh, that it was a beauty queen
We were watching instead,
But no, it is you...

An ancient body, an ancient mind,
Repulsing all who "bare" witness...
To this sad spectacle...

Go home, quietly, go home...

...and the boomers devolve into chaos and meaningless infighting...

...and the boomers devolve into chaos and meaningless infighting...

Could be wrong, but I am guessing there is more to it. See, Dennis is the "Greatest Generation." Right?

I suspect Dvorah and Dharma, etc. are boomers.

In their attacks on Dennis, I think we could be witnessing a symbolic patricide. (Or, as Dennis would probably have it, matricide.) Much like the theme of the movie of the iconic boomer, "W" (not so coincidentally, made by a boomer)?

Or maybe Dvorah is just trolling for a date...

Uh oh. There I go again, yapping imaginative little opinions. I'd better stop, before I either fall off down some web trails and side roads, or worse, say something that sounds grand and meaningful.

um... Tyler ... how do you turn this thing off?

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dorothy: [as the Wizard's balloon goes off without her] Come back! Come back! Don't leave without me! Come back!
Wizard of Oz: I can't come back! I don't know how it works! Good-bye folks!

*yawn*

As a matter of fact, Tyler has had the chance to "turn this thing off" with two of my last posts. They got held, I think because of my links being interpreted as spam, or something which is beyond me. I had to request by email to him for release of my comment which he did. I want to participate here and I don't want to do anything to prevent that. I believe Ojai has a very important role to play in bringing the changes we want, and I personally also have a role, as we all do. What will not work for the greater good is for any of us to hold back for any reason. It's that critical and that vital for all our futures, not to speak of our children and their children.

I was born in 1939 so I'm not a boomer. I don't know what they call us but I know one thing: I have that old-timers' disease so cut me a little slack. I'm 68 and will be 69 in December. I'm a sag, not a sage. I know next to nothing; I'm just creatively guessing, and Tyler is gracious enough to let me speak. If I ever overstep a line that only he can see, I hope he gives me plenty of notice. I do not want to go the way of Jock. I am no jock, and certainly not an intellectual. If anything, I am a metafizzle.

Dvorah sounds like a hot virtual date. Is this the Dvorah that wrote "Shut Up"?

Thanks for your comments, Dvorah. You're obviously a serious thinker, and I want to reread your comment more carefully when I have the time.

I also enjoy the Post Poets, david and Dharma come to mind but there have been others. MT is a mountain of poetic fireworks. Jock did it in the park. And then there was that lady who went nearly nude (I'm blocking on her name). Oh, yes there's that lady who has the art store in the building with the goldsmith; I stopped in there a couple times. Hey, Ojai is full of artists and writers now that I think of it. Ojai herself is a piece of art, not Art City like her sister city. Ojai is ArtTownUSA. She always was, way back in Chumash times.

I want to go more into Michelle's art dress, you know, the red and black one but I'm at the library and fear getting cut off and not being able to post this, and thereby losing it so I might have to come back later.

I'm afraid now to post links to my other sites because I can't get into them now, and I think I did something to short out the connection on the other end. My generation is not today's kind of techs like my 15 year old. I worry about him because he's addicted in my view. However, he does help me, like with Dylan songs, and he lets me use his MacBook except today when he took it with him to the sleepover last night at his friends. Gee, I'm like a minor sidebar in his life now, oh, and I give him money, and cook for him, vegan at that but he eats Thatchers at ??????, damn this old-timers can't remember the name of that place on Signal...

I'm beginning to lose it. Better quit while I have a head. My brain is like an "overcooked sunbather." Good, that's good. "Cocaine, cocaine, all around my brain." Remember that one. Except I change it to love all around my brain.

I'm starting to spin. I did that once on the Sears Tower, and then I floated like a butterfly, time stood still and I heard these words stand out like all by themselves. Wish I could remember them.

Geez, I can't see my knees.

Sorry. I apologize for everything, especially if I hurt anybody or their feelings. Gee, the library gave me another ten minutes so I needn't worry about losing it.

How can I conclude? What can I say? I'll just sign this with "love." That will work, won't it?

I just proofread this and now I remember the lady's name: Earth Friend Jen, and the burrito place is Rubens the only place I eat out now, except for Starr Market where I get $2 bucks worth of french fries and they put in a lot of catsup packages. I'm going to go there after here. Nine minutes left. Now 8. Better "shut up," according to one of the Dvorah's, I think, or creatively guess.

Love, Dennis the Menace AKA Leary the Timothy.

One of my wishes has come true!

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/11/12/helen-thomas-returns-to-w_n_143355.html

"It's a New Day..."

Dennis, oh Dennis,
Did I forget to mention,
Thy brains in the sun resemble dried prunes...

Having tripped the light fantastic...
With Timothy Leary - as in the real one...
You are definitely not him.

Not even remotely close.
Get thee to a nunnery.

Post haste...

From Michael Moore

Friends,

Who among us is not at a loss for words? Tears pour out. Tears of joy. Tears of relief. A stunning, whopping landslide of hope in a time of deep despair.

In a nation that was founded on genocide and then built on the backs of slaves, it was an unexpected moment, shocking in its simplicity: Barack Obama, a good man, a black man, said he would bring change to Washington, and the majority of the country liked that idea. The racists were present throughout the campaign and in the voting booth. But they are no longer the majority, and we will see their flame of hate fizzle out in our lifetime.

There was another important "first" last night. Never before in our history has an avowed anti-war candidate been elected president during a time of war. I hope President-elect Obama remembers that as he considers expanding the war in Afghanistan. The faith we now have will be lost if he forgets the main issue on which he beat his fellow Dems in the primaries and then a great war hero in the general election: The people of America are tired of war. Sick and tired. And their voice was loud and clear yesterday.

It's been an inexcusable 44 years since a Democrat running for president has received even just 51% of the vote. That's because most Americans haven't really liked the Democrats. They see them as rarely having the guts to get the job done or stand up for the working people they say they support. Well, here's their chance. It has been handed to them, via the voting public, in the form of a man who is not a party hack, not a set-for-life Beltway bureaucrat. Will he now become one of them, or will he force them to be more like him? We pray for the latter.

But today we celebrate this triumph of decency over personal attack, of peace over war, of intelligence over a belief that Adam and Eve rode around on dinosaurs just 6,000 years ago. What will it be like to have a smart president? Science, banished for eight years, will return. Imagine supporting our country's greatest minds as they seek to cure illness, discover new forms of energy, and work to save the planet. I know, pinch me.

We may, just possibly, also see a time of refreshing openness, enlightenment and creativity. The arts and the artists will not be seen as the enemy. Perhaps art will be explored in order to discover the greater truths. When FDR was ushered in with his landslide in 1932, what followed was Frank Capra and Preston Sturgis, Woody Guthrie and John Steinbeck, Dorothea Lange and Orson Welles. All week long I have been inundated with media asking me, "gee, Mike, what will you do now that Bush is gone?" Are they kidding? What will it be like to work and create in an environment that nurtures and supports film and the arts, science and invention, and the freedom to be whatever you want to be? Watch a thousand flowers bloom! We've entered a new era, and if I could sum up our collective first thought of this new era, it is this: Anything Is Possible.

An African American has been elected President of the United States! Anything is possible! We can wrestle our economy out of the hands of the reckless rich and return it to the people. Anything is possible! Every citizen can be guaranteed health care. Anything is possible! We can stop melting the polar ice caps. Anything is possible! Those who have committed war crimes will be brought to justice. Anything is possible.

We really don't have much time. There is big work to do. But this is the week for all of us to revel in this great moment. Be humble about it. Do not treat the Republicans in your life the way they have treated you the past eight years. Show them the grace and goodness that Barack Obama exuded throughout the campaign. Though called every name in the book, he refused to lower himself to the gutter and sling the mud back. Can we follow his example? I know, it will be hard.

I want to thank everyone who gave of their time and resources to make this victory happen. It's been a long road, and huge damage has been done to this great country, not to mention to many of you who have lost your jobs, gone bankrupt from medical bills, or suffered through a loved one being shipped off to Iraq. We will now work to repair this damage, and it won't be easy.

But what a way to start! Barack Hussein Obama, the 44th President of the United States. Wow. Seriously, wow.

Yours,
Michael Moore

MichaelMoore.com

(Written on Wednesday, November 5, 2008)