We all know I <3 Obama.  He is smart, funny, revolutionary, idealistic and let’s face it ladies - the guy is completely cute.  But I will try to stay on topic here.  I think Obama supporters could be his biggest critics throughout his presidency.  He has promised us a lot and I believe we are looking forward to the changes.  I know I’ll be keeping close track of how he follows through.

I began to pay attention to Obama when I heard him talk about three things:

• Education for everyone
• Health care for all

and most importantly

• the federal budget

Really those three things go hand in hand for me.  I’ve thought to myself for many years, even when I was much younger and wasn’t so politically inclined, that our President needed a normal person to go through the budget line by line and start to cut out the ridiculous things our country spends billions of dollars on every year.  It seemed like such a simple solution to a complicated problem.

I’ve also thought to myself many times (SW- because I am obviously a genius) that OUR government should have some type feedback system for the people.  After all, they are here to represent US, why is it so difficult to give input?

It only took my man a few days http://change.gov

I was wondering if he had the follow-through.  Keep it up B.

This past weekend I was in Boston.  It was my first trip to Boston and we had a fabulous time for the short

go vote sign in newton mass

time we were able to get around (outside of work conferences).  It was quite interesting to be in a non-swing state, the general atmosphere was so different.  We actually saw a sandwich sign on one of our morning walks reminding people of what time the polls were open on Nov. 4th.  I suppose a lot of people wouldn’t even notice the sign or find it strange if they did… but it really stuck out to us.

No early voting, no political ads, no robo calls, no campaign visits to their towns - can you even imagine??

Saturday night we had the most wonderful hosts and they asked what it was like having the opposite here.  I told them that earlier in the day and older white man, probably in his 80’s had looked at my walking partner’s Obama shirt and said  in an ecstatic voice “I hope he makes it!!” and how in Ohio (or at least my town) you would be hard pressed to find a white man over 50 that was an Obama supporter (or at least willing to admit it).

What really struck me about the people in Massachusetts is that even though their state is sewn up and may not matter on the grand stage of the media politic game - THEY VOTE - and they do it with pride.

Tomorrow I will vote outside of Dayton for the first time… and it is a completely different feeling.  Every day I drive home through the suburbs and the sea of Palin/McCain signs - every day I get the same feeling of excitement knowing that my vote will be cast against the odds.

I have my blue outfit picked out that hides my Obama ‘08 shirt underneath - fired up and ready to go.

You betcha!

See you there - and don’t forget to get your free Starbucks.  No more Bush and free Starbucks??  Nuff said.

I wrote this post once already this morning, saved, previewed and all - but my fingers + my keyboard = post gone.

Anyhow - it went a little something like this…

I stole this from David, it’s a must watch (hence the stealing)

I’m excited to see what Barack is going to say tonight - I hope it’s good, he is spending an awful lot of our money to get this message through.  It has been rumored that it is the same speech he delivered in Canton, OH on Monday.  Unfortunately, I’ll be on an airplane and won’t be able to share in the excitement - but that is what youtube is good for!

I just finished a big push to get some major projects done for school - I had to have worked for 30 hours or so this weekend trying to get it all done.  Thanks to Bette and Scott for helping with the kids, and the rest of you that gave me input and advice.  Here is a little sample of my finished products…

Diagonal grid using pictograms and tag line for Design Applications class

Logo I designed for Design Principles class

I read a pretty good story today from the Huffington Post - but mostly I just liked this quote.

$150,000 for clothes and they apparently didn’t buy her a raincoat.

Oh. Snap.

My mom sent me this via email this morning.  What’s really scary is that my mom finally figured out how to send an email.

haunted houses

What’s even scarier?  This excerpt from an article in the New York Times by Judith Warner:

Rick Davis, who is John McCain’s campaign manager, said a friend had told him how best to choose a running mate: “You get a frame of Time magazine, and you put the pictures of the people in that frame. You look at who fits that frame best — that’s your V.P.”

See that ^?  That’s me being speechless.

I have to admit - at times I can sympathize with the right wing values I have grown to despise.  When I say sympathize, I in no way mean “agree with”, I simply mean that I understand where the delusions come from.

Most of you know I grew up as the PK (preacher’s kid) and it was VERY hard for me to shed a lot of the so called “values” that were ingrained in my being.  So, when I hear people talk about being Pro-Life and how it affects their vote, I understand how deeply they feel about the subject.  After all, my parents regularly took my siblings and I to abortion clinic picket lines at a very young age.

Even though I hold some bitterness for certain aspects about the way I was raised, I do not hold hatred or resentment.  My upbringing was also what taught me the tolerance, compassion and empathy for others that I now hold as some of my best personality traits.

When I think about the people I know that are going to vote for McCain/Palin this year, they will do so for one of 6 reasons:

1.  money - meaning, they have a lot of it and think Dems want to take it

2. abortion - they are pro-life and think Dems want to kill babies

3. cheer leading - they look at our country’s Foreign Policy as some sort of sports game that we have to win.  GO USA!

4. religion - they have been led to believe that Christian’s only vote Republican, after all, Jesus was a Republican

5. family - they were raised Republican and just keep the tradition going for no reason other than that’s all they know

6. racism - it’s sad, but true

All of the above reasons bother me, not just because I feel they are wrong, but because of the apathy needed to actually believe that any of the above are good reasons to elect a president.  I used to  have a bumper sticker that said “If you aren’t completely appalled, then you haven’t been paying attention”.  That was during the election 4 years ago - 4 years later “haven’t been paying attention” is too kind of a description.

Then there are the people who decided it’s time to quit voting along a party line simply because that’s what they have always done.

This is what democracy is supposed to be. These people actually listened, considered and were open to the possibility of change. They didn’t support a candidate. They actually chose one… I think we ended up making an ad campaign about the essential ingredient that makes democracy work: an open mind. We don’t belong to our political parties. Our political parties belong to us.

Eric Hirschburg

I evidently couldn’t, since my mental prowess wasn’t quite strong enough to do very well on this - let’s see if you do better.

Truth-O-Meter (thanks Nicole!)

Watch out, it’s tricky!  Let me know how you do…

Do you know what I <3?

When I get to see a politicians bubble go - POP!

I would like to thank my beautiful, Canadian, friend Lillian for showing me this little gem.

Yesterday in class someone asked me what I have against Sarah Palin.

Can O Worms.

It’s not that I don’t like Sarah Palin as a person. I’m sure she’s a wonderful gal and makes a great moose cake, what I can’t stand is what she represents.

In my opinion, Sarah Palin represents everything wrong with our political process game.

I don’t like the game. The game assumes we (American citizens) are stupid, apt to be easily sidetracked by flashy things (oooooh look at that!) and are unable to think for ourselves. I don’t know about you, but I’m not one to fall for the game, in fact, when I see it being played it makes me ill.

Here it is at its finest

What kind of candidate has to make an entrance on a “Straight Talk Express” with stage smoke? One that knows they have nothing to say. So they put on a show to razzle dazzle you and make you think they are important.

The VP debate was no better – this woman was in seclusion for 2 weeks getting prepared for this debate. What do they teach her to say? “HECK ya it was those predatory lenders!”, because this is what they think of us, if they talk down enough, we will understand and feel some sort of attachment to this woman. I can’t believe a woman of her stature would go along with it.

It gets worse.

I’m sure you’re all aware of this story

In fact, John McCain’s and Sarah Palin’s McCarthyite zeal to slime Barack Obama in that manner may have made them miss golden opportunities that could have paid political dividends.

If each of them had slowed things down and uttered an appropriate rebuke when someone shouted “kill him” during a Palin rally in Florida on the same day that someone else shouted “he’s a terrorist” at a boisterous McCain rally in New Mexico, it might have provided exactly the kind of game-changing occurrence they’ve been so desperately seeking the past two weeks.

Wishing for the old John McCain - Kenneth F. Bunting

(It’s a great article and worth reading)

After the smoke and mirrors entrance in Wilmington yesterday, this is what Palin had to say:

Governor Palin, though, also addressed the situation with DHL and tied Obama to a man she called a domestic terrorist.

KY Post

Straight talk express, my big ass.

So, what do you think about Sarah becoming your next President?  Cause let’s face it people, if we elect the second oldest president in our history in times like these…

PBS is doing a poll asking the same question:

Do you think Sarah Palin is qualified to serve as Vice President of the United States?

Go vote.  And I’ll try to quit being so pissy.

I’ll be honest - I don’t have a whole lot of faith in my country or the people that inhabit it right now.  After the past two elections and the eight years that followed, I think it takes a lot of effort from most of us to get excited about what could be.

So, I’ll keep being honest when I say, I AM SO EXCITED ABOUT THE DEBATES.  These debates are going to be legen-dary.  Of course, I don’t want any of you to miss out, so here is the schedule for your perusal.

September 26, 2008: Presidential debate with domestic policy focus, University of Mississippi, Oxford, MS
October 2, 2008: Vice Presidential debate, Washington University, St. Louis, MO
October 7, 2008: Presidential debate in a town hall format, Belmont University, Nashville, TN
October 15, 2008: Presidential debate with foreign policy focus, Hofstra University, Hempstead, NY

You read right, the first one is NEXT FRIDAY!  Who wants to be my date?