In all the election excitement, I missed the fact that the one-year anniversary of this blog had passed. It was November 1st of 2007 that I started this BS. In between, I've run hot & cold on posting, sometimes barely writing in a given month, sometimes posting as much as three times a week (or four, last week, my highest rate of blogging yet). I've experimented with a regular feature, the Weeklypedia quiz, which became increasingly less regular and more inaccurately named.
Trafficwise, I passed the 1,000-pageview mark at the end of April. Given that I didn't add StatCounter to the front page until at least a month in, it might have been sooner. That said, there have been about 2 1/2 as many views since then as before then. I started using Google analytics a few months ago, which is great, and tells me not only how much traffic I'm getting, but where it's coming from.
In the last month, there have been single page views each from Mexico, Costa Rica, Germany, Austria, Poland, Sweden, Afghanistan, the UAE, and Indonesia and three hits each from The Netherlands, UK, and Canada. It is unknown how many of those visits were accidental. The most popular Google search that led people here (vigor space probe), with 22 hits, probably was intended to find information on an actual Vigor probe that was intended to study Venus, but failed due to a major error in units of measurement. Take that with a grain of salt, though, as I haven't been able to find another reference to this probe besides the one I just linked.
Anyway, thank you for reading and humoring me in my flights of fancy and delusions of grandeur. I enjoy writing this stuff, and especially have enjoyed your comments. I've got some fun ideas to write about, which I hopefully will not dawdle on too long.
Finally, a request: do any of you know of a good, free option for hosting short audio clips online for streaming? Something like YouTube but for audio? Lemme know.
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
An after-dinner Beck mint
Alright, now that the big election posts are out of the way, it's back to the random connections that inspired this blog in the first place.
I discovered last week that Beck's song "E-Pro," from his album Guero, samples the drum beat from the Beastie Boys' "So Whatcha Want," from way back on Check Your Head. In fact, Beck gave the Beasties a songwriting co-credit on the track. Both songs are good, especially the original. Incidentally, both songs are in Rock Band 2; once that comes out for the Wii, I'll have to investigate whether the drum parts in the game are tracked the same. Here are the videos:
[E-Pro: Universal Music Group are jerks for disallowing embedding of YouTube videos]
[So Whatcha Want: The Beastie Boys are not jerks
]
This provides me with an opportunity to state that Beck's last really good album was Midnite Vultures in 1999. I'm probably biased, since this came out when I was in college and I listened the hell out of that album for about a year and a half, and even drove 5 hours in a snowstorm to see Beck in Kansas City during that time but dammit, he hasn't been the same since. There are a few cuts on Guero I liked, but the biggest problem I have is that you can't understand his insane lyrics anymore. I mean, what's the point of stringing together bizarre turns of phrase and clever wordplay if you're going to mumble your way through it? I may not know what "Norman Schwartzkopf / somethin' tells me you wanna go home / champagne bottles / custom clothes you own / calling up from special area codes" means, but I could understand the words and it is funky. I'll have to give Modern Guilt a listen, and see if he's cleaned up his act and his diction.
For the record, Odelay was Beck's best album and I wish I could dance like Beck.
I discovered last week that Beck's song "E-Pro," from his album Guero, samples the drum beat from the Beastie Boys' "So Whatcha Want," from way back on Check Your Head. In fact, Beck gave the Beasties a songwriting co-credit on the track. Both songs are good, especially the original. Incidentally, both songs are in Rock Band 2; once that comes out for the Wii, I'll have to investigate whether the drum parts in the game are tracked the same. Here are the videos:
[E-Pro: Universal Music Group are jerks for disallowing embedding of YouTube videos]
[So Whatcha Want: The Beastie Boys are not jerks
]
This provides me with an opportunity to state that Beck's last really good album was Midnite Vultures in 1999. I'm probably biased, since this came out when I was in college and I listened the hell out of that album for about a year and a half, and even drove 5 hours in a snowstorm to see Beck in Kansas City during that time but dammit, he hasn't been the same since. There are a few cuts on Guero I liked, but the biggest problem I have is that you can't understand his insane lyrics anymore. I mean, what's the point of stringing together bizarre turns of phrase and clever wordplay if you're going to mumble your way through it? I may not know what "Norman Schwartzkopf / somethin' tells me you wanna go home / champagne bottles / custom clothes you own / calling up from special area codes" means, but I could understand the words and it is funky. I'll have to give Modern Guilt a listen, and see if he's cleaned up his act and his diction.
For the record, Odelay was Beck's best album and I wish I could dance like Beck.
Monday, November 10, 2008
Election Reaction: Proposition 8
The most disappointing result of Tuesday night was the passage of Proposition 8 in California, which amended the state's constitution to ban same-sex marriage. The margin by which it passed (52.3% to 47.7) was surprising, given that in the last weeks before Election Day, polls showed the measure failing by about the same difference.Some notes:
1. Why is it that in California, ballot items that involve tax or spending issues seem to take a supermajority to pass, but amending the constitution needs only a simple 50%+1 majority? This seems hopelessly backwards.
2. Thankfully, the CA Attorney General has stated that the approximately 18,000 same-sex couples who married this year will remain married. Here's hoping that continues to stand, and that the normalcy of those marriages continues to undermine claims that gay marriage somehow endangers the sanctity of heterosexual unions. Of course, the way that opponents of equality have lied and spun statistics (Sweden is dying, you know!) thus far, perhaps this is wishful thinking.
3. It is disappointing that two particularly high-profile opponents of the amendment didn't do more to stop it. Barack Obama and Gov. Arnold Schwartzanegger both voiced their opposition to the proposition, but did not campaign against it. I find it hard to believe either that their voices wouldn't have at least made up some of the difference OR that spending this bit of capital would have harmed them politically enough to make a difference for their respective electoral chances. Grow a backbone, people.
4. Early exit polls suggested that African-Americans might have made the difference in passing the bill, but subsequent analysis seems to prove otherwise, though it is true that, of ethnic groups, African American voters in California showed the largest proportion of support for Prop. 8 (about 70%).
5. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, officially, as an organization, poured money into the Yes-on-8 effort in California, and encouraged its supporters to do the same. Mitt Romney recently explained why:
[S]everal months ago, not long before he died, I had the occasion of having the Rev. Jerry Falwell at our home. He said that when he was getting ready to oppose same-sex marriage in California, he met with the president of my church in Salt Lake City, and they agreed to work together in a campaign in California.Romney's difficulties in the Republican primaries came in part from being a Mormon in a party dominated by a religious base distrustful of that religion. Was this agreement by the Church of LDS a way to buy respect from the religious right? Gross.
Note that not all Mormons were willing to follow the Church's lead. Hall-of-Fame 49'er Steve Young, a Mormon, contributed and campaigned for the No-on-8 efforts. Here's hoping that he can continue to be a strong example. It's disturbing to see the official institution of an entire faith group play politics in such a hateful, discriminatory way, but heartening to see that some of their membership is bucking the leadership.
On this last note, Todd Zywicki at the Volokh Conspiracy wrote an either under-informed or under-honest post painting the marriage equality supporters in California who have taken out their frustration by picketing at a Mormon temple as mindless bigots. He trots out the misleading exit polls and suggests the protests would be more accurately (but "less-politically-correctly") pointed at black churches. Even with two updates, he does not address the very substantial role that the Mormon Church played in the passage of Proposition 8. His blogging colleage Dale Carpenter, who writes often about gay rights, had a much more on-point post discouraging people from tarring all Mormons with the same brush, while still encouraging drawing attention to the church's actions and making constructive suggestions as to useful projects for protest.
6. One lesson I'm personally taking from the Proposition 8 campaigns in California is that it isn't enough to argue against these marriage amendments, as the No On 8 campaigns did, from a perspective that says "no matter what you think of marriage, we shouldn't put discrimination in the constitution." That may be true, but it isn't the point, nor is it the whole point that supporters of 8 lied in suggesting that kids will be indoctrinated or recruited. The point is that America needs to get past thinking of gay people and their relationships as necessarily icky. There is nothing icky about a committed monogamous relationship that seeks to grow deeper with time. What those of us proudly allied with the gay rights movement seek is not somehow special or unique, but the same boring stuff to which the rest of us are already blessed to have access. Tuesday was a setback. But it's not the end of the story. Onward and upward.
Friday, November 7, 2008
Election Reaction: In Congress
OK, more election reactions; let's look down ballot across the land.
The Dems picked up a chunk of seats in the Senate and House, and depending on the results of a few outstanding races, they stand to pick up some more. That includes Senate races the afore-mentioned MN, the about-to-runoff-on-December-3rd GA race, and the still-counting AK, and a number of House races mostly too obscure for me to know about them, save Darcy Burner (D) vs. Dave Reichert (R - i) in the Washington 8th, where the Burner, a former Microsoft project manager, got a raw deal from the Seattle Times throughout the campaign. Trivia!
A theme this year seems to be "Re-elect Your Corrupt Congressman or Congresspeople!" Like Michelle Bachmann but for different reasons, Reps. Jack Murtha (D, PA) and William Jefferson (D, LA) are embarrassments, and should not be in their offices. The former was re-elected, even after calling his constituents racists, and the latter, who apparently STILL hasn't been indicted for corruption despite it being almost two years since the Feds found he had a freezer full of cash (literally, literally!), advanced to a run-off later this month. I don't understand how elections in Louisiana work, but it seems to take about as long as the NBA post-season.
And then there's Alaska. Oh, Alaska. Josh Marshall at Talking Points Memo, who had been on top of Alaskan corruption rumors and investigations long before Palin was selected by McCain, jokes that the rest of the nation should take the Alaska Independence Party up on their offer to secede. They seem to be on their way to re-electing not only their soon-to-be-indicted Representative-at-large Don Young but their Septuple-felon Senior Senator Ted Stevens. Both of these despite polling that in the final days of the campaign reliably showed both of them losing. And, despite having their governor on the presidential ticket, apparently turnout is looking like it was down around 10% from 2004, even though early voting records in the state were shattered. Zuh? Really, rhetorical flourish aside, this is truly bizarre and I'm not sure I buy it. I guess they're still counting early and absentee ballots, of which there are many, but this is weird.
I wouldn't be sad to see Stevens or Young go, neither of whom I would be happy about in the Congress if they were Democrats, either. Getting Ted "Series of Tubes" Stevens as far away from oversight of the internet as possible seems to me to be a worthwhile project. Despite being convicted two (?) weeks ago on seven counts of corruption by accepting undisclosed gifts of great value, he subsequently claimed that he is not, in fact, convicted until he has exhausted all appeals. That's true in every way except fact and spirit of the law.
Actually, Stevens' re-election may not be as irrational as it appears. Thanks to the nepotistic shenanigans of former governor Frank Murkowski (appointed his daughter), Alaska voters stripped the governor of the ability to appoint Senators to vacancies. So while Sarah Palin may not be able to pick the next Senator if Stevens goes to jail, resigns, or is kicked out (the latter of which is likely if he is indeed re-elected), she may run for the open seat in the proscribed special election. And I suspect she'd win. So maybe the conservative voters of the Last Frontier are crazy like foxes.
In South Carolina, Sen. Elizabeth Dole (R) is gone, after describing the agenda of her opponent Kay Hagan (D), who is in fact a Sunday school teacher, as "godless" and an "atheist agenda." Good riddance to Dole and welcome another moderate Dem to the mid-Atlantic seabord.
It took a couple days to call, but it seems that Democrat Jeff Merkley may have unseated incumbent Republican Gordon Smith in Oregon. Smith is a Republican Senator I wouldn't have minded if he'd stayed. He's moderate on a lot of issues, gay-friendly, and has a history of working with Democrats. He even touted projects he'd worked on with Sen. Obama in campaign ads. Also, he is second cousins with the two Udalls who were elected to the Senate in New Mexico and Colorado. Had he stayed, the Smith-Udall family would have made up 3% of the Senate.
If Franken pulls it off in the recounts here in MN, and Stevens loses as the remainind votes are counted in AK, and (this is the big stretch) Saxby Chambliss loses the runoff in GA, the Democrats will hold a 60-vote majority in the Senate. Filibuster-proof. Neat, except it doesn't really matter. Having a simple majority grants control of the body, of course. But voting on cloture on an issue isnt automatic. You actually have to have 60 votes on a given issue, regardless of party. This swings both ways. Liberal Republicans like Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins of Maine, and Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, have voted with Democrats on divisive issues on occasion, as has John McCain, for that matter. So even without 60 Democrats, they can get to 60 votes to end debate if they put together a workable coalition. By the same token, conservative Democrats could join in a filibuster if so inclined. Honestly, I'm just relieved that the Democratic majority is now Lieberman-proofed.
Next time: Prop. 8. Boo Prop. 8.
The Dems picked up a chunk of seats in the Senate and House, and depending on the results of a few outstanding races, they stand to pick up some more. That includes Senate races the afore-mentioned MN, the about-to-runoff-on-December-3rd GA race, and the still-counting AK, and a number of House races mostly too obscure for me to know about them, save Darcy Burner (D) vs. Dave Reichert (R - i) in the Washington 8th, where the Burner, a former Microsoft project manager, got a raw deal from the Seattle Times throughout the campaign. Trivia!
A theme this year seems to be "Re-elect Your Corrupt Congressman or Congresspeople!" Like Michelle Bachmann but for different reasons, Reps. Jack Murtha (D, PA) and William Jefferson (D, LA) are embarrassments, and should not be in their offices. The former was re-elected, even after calling his constituents racists, and the latter, who apparently STILL hasn't been indicted for corruption despite it being almost two years since the Feds found he had a freezer full of cash (literally, literally!), advanced to a run-off later this month. I don't understand how elections in Louisiana work, but it seems to take about as long as the NBA post-season.
And then there's Alaska. Oh, Alaska. Josh Marshall at Talking Points Memo, who had been on top of Alaskan corruption rumors and investigations long before Palin was selected by McCain, jokes that the rest of the nation should take the Alaska Independence Party up on their offer to secede. They seem to be on their way to re-electing not only their soon-to-be-indicted Representative-at-large Don Young but their Septuple-felon Senior Senator Ted Stevens. Both of these despite polling that in the final days of the campaign reliably showed both of them losing. And, despite having their governor on the presidential ticket, apparently turnout is looking like it was down around 10% from 2004, even though early voting records in the state were shattered. Zuh? Really, rhetorical flourish aside, this is truly bizarre and I'm not sure I buy it. I guess they're still counting early and absentee ballots, of which there are many, but this is weird.
I wouldn't be sad to see Stevens or Young go, neither of whom I would be happy about in the Congress if they were Democrats, either. Getting Ted "Series of Tubes" Stevens as far away from oversight of the internet as possible seems to me to be a worthwhile project. Despite being convicted two (?) weeks ago on seven counts of corruption by accepting undisclosed gifts of great value, he subsequently claimed that he is not, in fact, convicted until he has exhausted all appeals. That's true in every way except fact and spirit of the law.
Actually, Stevens' re-election may not be as irrational as it appears. Thanks to the nepotistic shenanigans of former governor Frank Murkowski (appointed his daughter), Alaska voters stripped the governor of the ability to appoint Senators to vacancies. So while Sarah Palin may not be able to pick the next Senator if Stevens goes to jail, resigns, or is kicked out (the latter of which is likely if he is indeed re-elected), she may run for the open seat in the proscribed special election. And I suspect she'd win. So maybe the conservative voters of the Last Frontier are crazy like foxes.
In South Carolina, Sen. Elizabeth Dole (R) is gone, after describing the agenda of her opponent Kay Hagan (D), who is in fact a Sunday school teacher, as "godless" and an "atheist agenda." Good riddance to Dole and welcome another moderate Dem to the mid-Atlantic seabord.
It took a couple days to call, but it seems that Democrat Jeff Merkley may have unseated incumbent Republican Gordon Smith in Oregon. Smith is a Republican Senator I wouldn't have minded if he'd stayed. He's moderate on a lot of issues, gay-friendly, and has a history of working with Democrats. He even touted projects he'd worked on with Sen. Obama in campaign ads. Also, he is second cousins with the two Udalls who were elected to the Senate in New Mexico and Colorado. Had he stayed, the Smith-Udall family would have made up 3% of the Senate.
If Franken pulls it off in the recounts here in MN, and Stevens loses as the remainind votes are counted in AK, and (this is the big stretch) Saxby Chambliss loses the runoff in GA, the Democrats will hold a 60-vote majority in the Senate. Filibuster-proof. Neat, except it doesn't really matter. Having a simple majority grants control of the body, of course. But voting on cloture on an issue isnt automatic. You actually have to have 60 votes on a given issue, regardless of party. This swings both ways. Liberal Republicans like Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins of Maine, and Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, have voted with Democrats on divisive issues on occasion, as has John McCain, for that matter. So even without 60 Democrats, they can get to 60 votes to end debate if they put together a workable coalition. By the same token, conservative Democrats could join in a filibuster if so inclined. Honestly, I'm just relieved that the Democratic majority is now Lieberman-proofed.
Next time: Prop. 8. Boo Prop. 8.
Thursday, November 6, 2008
Election Reaction: Minnesota Edition
Note 1: MN Senate numbers changed to reflect update by Secretary of State.
Note 2: Changed the number again, down to 236, due to a data entry error in one county.
For liberals in Minnesota, the local news was a bit less positive than the big national story.
The race for US Senate and top Jewish-Minnesotan-guy-born-in-New-York between Norm Coleman (R,i) and Al Franken (D) is extremely close. At last count, Coleman leads by 236 in a field of 2.9 million votes. The difference is 0.008% of the total votes cast. To put that in perspective, if you equate the total votes to the length of the Golden Gate Bridge (8,981 ft), the difference between Coleman and Franken is about 9 inches. Wow! In Minnesota, a statewide recount is triggered automatically by any difference less than 0.5%, so that will be happening.
According to MN Sec. of State Mark Ritchie on MPR yesterday, the vote will first be certified by the canvass boards in mid-November, and then each county will recount their votes by hand. It is not uncommon, apparently, for people to be baffled by the, honestly, really easy instructions on the Scantron ballots. Ritchie says some people will mark an X or a check mark in the bubble instead of filling it, or circle the candidate. So the counties will look for these votes, under the no-doubt annoyingly watchful eyes of both campaigns' legal observers.
I do, of course, hope for a net gain for Franken of at least 237 votes. It's time the Brave New Workshop had a Senator. But for every me in this state, there's approximately one not-me on this question. The divisiveness of this Senate race was unusual (clearly proven by the numbers). It's tough to say what Barkley's effect on the race was. I suspect he got a lot of "a pox on both your houses" voters. There was as much, if not more, advertising against each major candidate on the basis of personal rancor as actual issues. For everyone who finds Franken personally repellent, there are those who feel the same about Norm Coleman. I'm one of these latter, finding Coleman somewhat moderate as Republicans go but also completely slimy and opportunistic. His suggestion that a recount should not proceed due to the "need for the healing process" plays into this impression. Seriously, Norm, "hopefully, you don't have TV ads during an election recount"? No kidding; why are you even bringing it up?
In other MN election news, I'm disappointed that Madia lost to Paulsen in the 3rd district. Madia's biography (young, South Asian heritage, Iraq war vet, Republican until recently) and moderation make him seem like he should be appealing to moderates and a kind of person the Democratic party could use more of. I hope he finds his way into politics yet.
An open letter to the 6th District: What the hell? Conservative district or no, to re-elect Bachmann after she shit the bed on national TV and then spent two weeks distorting or lying about what she said? And if El Tinklenberg can't make use of an opening like that, and the flood of national money that ensued, I've got no use for him. Bachmann's an embarrassment. The 6th, like the Gubernatorial race, needs a better DFL candidate (seriously, Dems, Mike Hatch?).
Finally, this guy is both an asshole for his actions, and an idiot for writing about it in public under his real name. Good riddance.
Note 2: Changed the number again, down to 236, due to a data entry error in one county.
For liberals in Minnesota, the local news was a bit less positive than the big national story.
The race for US Senate and top Jewish-Minnesotan-guy-born-in-New-York between Norm Coleman (R,i) and Al Franken (D) is extremely close. At last count, Coleman leads by 236 in a field of 2.9 million votes. The difference is 0.008% of the total votes cast. To put that in perspective, if you equate the total votes to the length of the Golden Gate Bridge (8,981 ft), the difference between Coleman and Franken is about 9 inches. Wow! In Minnesota, a statewide recount is triggered automatically by any difference less than 0.5%, so that will be happening.
According to MN Sec. of State Mark Ritchie on MPR yesterday, the vote will first be certified by the canvass boards in mid-November, and then each county will recount their votes by hand. It is not uncommon, apparently, for people to be baffled by the, honestly, really easy instructions on the Scantron ballots. Ritchie says some people will mark an X or a check mark in the bubble instead of filling it, or circle the candidate. So the counties will look for these votes, under the no-doubt annoyingly watchful eyes of both campaigns' legal observers.
I do, of course, hope for a net gain for Franken of at least 237 votes. It's time the Brave New Workshop had a Senator. But for every me in this state, there's approximately one not-me on this question. The divisiveness of this Senate race was unusual (clearly proven by the numbers). It's tough to say what Barkley's effect on the race was. I suspect he got a lot of "a pox on both your houses" voters. There was as much, if not more, advertising against each major candidate on the basis of personal rancor as actual issues. For everyone who finds Franken personally repellent, there are those who feel the same about Norm Coleman. I'm one of these latter, finding Coleman somewhat moderate as Republicans go but also completely slimy and opportunistic. His suggestion that a recount should not proceed due to the "need for the healing process" plays into this impression. Seriously, Norm, "hopefully, you don't have TV ads during an election recount"? No kidding; why are you even bringing it up?
In other MN election news, I'm disappointed that Madia lost to Paulsen in the 3rd district. Madia's biography (young, South Asian heritage, Iraq war vet, Republican until recently) and moderation make him seem like he should be appealing to moderates and a kind of person the Democratic party could use more of. I hope he finds his way into politics yet.
An open letter to the 6th District: What the hell? Conservative district or no, to re-elect Bachmann after she shit the bed on national TV and then spent two weeks distorting or lying about what she said? And if El Tinklenberg can't make use of an opening like that, and the flood of national money that ensued, I've got no use for him. Bachmann's an embarrassment. The 6th, like the Gubernatorial race, needs a better DFL candidate (seriously, Dems, Mike Hatch?).
Finally, this guy is both an asshole for his actions, and an idiot for writing about it in public under his real name. Good riddance.
Wednesday, November 5, 2008
Election reaction: The Big One
What a night. We had 12 or so friends over to watch the returns last night. We allowed ourselves to go into full media saturation mode, flipping the TV from CNN to Fox to Comedy Central, the radio in the dining room staying on NPR, MSNBC on the desktop computer, and three laptops floating around. Plus lots of delicious junk food & cheap champagne.
The atmosphere was electric. People yelled news from room-to-room as states were called by various networks. The big marker board was scribbled-in. When the networks called the election, seemingly all at once, the noisemakers came out. At this point, we were all excited seemingly on a horse-race level as much as anything else. I'm speaking for myself and projecting on the others, but I think we were delighted to each have voted, for the first time in our lives, for a winning presidential candidate.
McCain gave an excellent and gracious concession speech. He rejected the bitterness and divisiveness of his campaign, silencing some boos at first, and made a strong appeal to finding middle ground and shared solutions to the challenge ahead. He invoked the history of the moment, too, reflecting on what it says about the United States to have elected its first African-American president (the first black executive of a major western power, too, if I'm not mistaken). This was the McCain I admired in the 2000 primaries and throughout the first Bush administration, little seen in this general election. If Obama does some reaching out to McCain, and works to overcome the distrust McCain seems to have had of him since early 2005, McCain could be a helpful ally across the aisle. Honestly, if the circular conservative firing squad takes aim at McCain as much as I expect it will, the Senator may find more common cause with the President than his party on some issues (immigration and the environment chief among them).
When Obama spoke we were mostly silent, and for several of us, it got a bit dusty in the room. For my part the symbolism of the moment was incredibly moving, as were the possibilities of the return of American soft power on the global stage and an inspirational, oratory leadership not seen in this country in my lifetime.*
Lots of work to do, people, but last night is worth celebrating.
U-S-A! U-S-A!
* OK, conservatives, Reagan was a Great Communicator. I'm thinking Kennedy, I'll grant you Reagan -- I'm feeling magnanimous today. You're welcome.**
** Magnanimous and arrogant.
The atmosphere was electric. People yelled news from room-to-room as states were called by various networks. The big marker board was scribbled-in. When the networks called the election, seemingly all at once, the noisemakers came out. At this point, we were all excited seemingly on a horse-race level as much as anything else. I'm speaking for myself and projecting on the others, but I think we were delighted to each have voted, for the first time in our lives, for a winning presidential candidate.
McCain gave an excellent and gracious concession speech. He rejected the bitterness and divisiveness of his campaign, silencing some boos at first, and made a strong appeal to finding middle ground and shared solutions to the challenge ahead. He invoked the history of the moment, too, reflecting on what it says about the United States to have elected its first African-American president (the first black executive of a major western power, too, if I'm not mistaken). This was the McCain I admired in the 2000 primaries and throughout the first Bush administration, little seen in this general election. If Obama does some reaching out to McCain, and works to overcome the distrust McCain seems to have had of him since early 2005, McCain could be a helpful ally across the aisle. Honestly, if the circular conservative firing squad takes aim at McCain as much as I expect it will, the Senator may find more common cause with the President than his party on some issues (immigration and the environment chief among them).
When Obama spoke we were mostly silent, and for several of us, it got a bit dusty in the room. For my part the symbolism of the moment was incredibly moving, as were the possibilities of the return of American soft power on the global stage and an inspirational, oratory leadership not seen in this country in my lifetime.*
Lots of work to do, people, but last night is worth celebrating.
U-S-A! U-S-A!
* OK, conservatives, Reagan was a Great Communicator. I'm thinking Kennedy, I'll grant you Reagan -- I'm feeling magnanimous today. You're welcome.**
** Magnanimous and arrogant.
Tuesday, November 4, 2008
Done and Done
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Vote #207, St. Helena Catholic Church, Minneapolis.
Melissa and I got in line around 6:45. Waited an hour and 15 to vote. A similar wait, incidentally, to the one I had at a precinct across town in 2004. I ran into a former improv classmate and a college classmate, both of whom it turns out live on our street within two blocks of us.
Plenty of ballots and booths. Choke point was table where registered people checked in. There were only two or three spots for check-in; they could have used at least one or two more teams.
I don't get why other states muck around with old-school machines, complicated ballots, or dubious electronics. Gimme a Scantron (Scantron and Scranton have literally -- literally! -- the same letters in them) any day of the week. It's the best of both worlds: rapid results when you scan it in, but it leaves a verifiable paper trail that's difficult to mess with.
Ultimately, while symbolically exciting, my voting experience was procedurally boring. That's the way I like it. I don't know why other states can't seem to figure out how to run an election, but I'm glad they have around here.
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