My elation and inspiration at yesterday's election results have no words. So I will post the words of Langston Hughes and Toni Morrison:

In honor of "Toot"--

Mother to Son
by Langston Hughes

Well, son, I'll tell you:
Life for me ain't been no crystal stair.
It's had tacks in it,
And splinters,
And boards torn up,
And places with no carpet on the floor --
Bare.
But all the time
I'se been a-climbin' on,
And reachin' landin's,
And turnin' corners,
And sometimes goin' in the dark
Where there ain't been no light.
So boy, don't you turn back.
Don't you set down on the steps
'Cause you finds it's kinder hard.
Don't you fall now --
For I'se still goin', honey,
I'se still climbin',
And life for me ain't been no crystal stair.

Excerpt from Sula by Toni Morrison:

"they called to the people standing in doors and leaning out of the windows to join them; to help them open further this slit in the veil, this respite from anxiety . . . from the weight of that very adult pain that had undergirded them all those years before. Called to them to come out and play in the sunshine--as though the sunshine would last, as though there really was hope. The same hope that kept them picking beans for other farmers; kept them from finally leaving as they talked of doing; kept them knee-deep in other people's dirt; kept them excited about other people's wars; kept them solicitous of white people's children; kept them convinced that some magic 'government' was going to lift them up, out and away from that dirt, those beans, those wars."

I am so glad that the idea of a government that speaks for all Americans no longer has to appear within quotation marks and laced with sarcasm. I am so glad that today there really is hope.

Congratulations, President-Elect Barack Obama! Congratulations, America! Yes, we can.

Sigh

Click here for the latest Sarah Palin stupidity. The esteemed republican candidate for Vice President of the United States is now on record as saying that she is afraid that a robust media that asks questions and challenges the veracity of her insane claims is a threat to the First Amendment. Yup. A free press is a threat to the amendment that...guarantees a free press.

Saved by iPod

I was feeling cranky this morning, and after I started my elliptical run off on "Rehab" (my ritual because I like singing "No, no, no" aloud; it's my daily denial instead of a daily affirmation), I didn't know what to listen to. My iPod chose two songs that made me feel so much better this morning through my melodramatic karaoke stylings, I had to share them in case you too are feeling the cranky Mondays. First, classic Madonna:



Second, classic Buffy. And she's feeling sorry for herself in this ballad, which fit my grumpy mood this morning. Plus, this YouTube video of it even has the lyrics light up underneath it (just in case you forget):



Hope you have some sing-a-long Monday fun.

Feeling seasonal

With Halloween coming up this week, I thought I would post two Halloween related pictures from recent adventures in our homestead. First, Nelle as Bat Dog (her Halloween costume):


and second, my angry Jack-o'-lantern. (He was supposed to be surprised but turned out a little enraged.)

Who Knew?

Apparently, my beautiful, happy, and staunchly feminist wife only hates Sarah Palin because Palin is attractive and happy. Phew! I thought it might have something to do with Palin's stunning incompetence, frightening hardcore conservatism, and proud ignorance. I'm glad Bill Bennett and McCain's campaign manager could clear up my confusion.

Sigh.

David Sedaris on undecided voters

Paul and I went to see a David Sedaris reading a couple of weekends ago in Charlotte, and we loved his show. I was tempted to post then but realized quickly that I would have to spoil this new New Yorker article in order to do so. So I will let Sedaris speak for himself now that the essay is available online. Plus, I will post a picture of him with a monkey. I have no idea what or when this photo is from, but it made me smile when I found it after running a Google Image search. (Sorry, Nadine! I know you are creeped out by monkeys.)

I like Michelle Obama

I was just sorting through my mail and the half a dozen appeals from the Democrats and Obama's campaigns that my small donations have prompted. (I may sound cranky about this, but it's only thanks to the business of sorting, not the business of soliciting. I'm glad that my party is going to the mattresses over this election and hope we will be doing so until the 11th hour! Into the 12th hour even.)

I read the Michelle Obama letter, and I will here shamefacedly admit that I did not watch the speeches during the Democratic National Convention this year. So I was not aware until reading this letter (or potentially had forgotten) that her father had Multiple Sclerosis. This letter talks about Election Day and canvassing:

"When I was a kid, my dad volunteered as a precinct captain for the Democratic Party in our neighborhood on the South Side of Chicago. Some of my earliest memories are of tagging along as he went door to door during the campaign season. He registered people to vote. if our neighbors needed absentee ballows, he arranged it. He helped them figure out how they'd get to the voting booth on Election Day. It wasn't always easy. Dad was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis in his early thirties. But even as it got harder for him to walk, he never let up because he believed in the value of each person's voice in the political process. In you, I see the same commitment and determination that my father showed me on those fall afternoons on the South Side of Chicago."

I'm a soft touch and was very affected by that personal appeal even though
A) I'm part of the base for them; they've appealed to me long ago
B) I'm so frustrated by the insistence in contemporary American politics on sentimentalism and "personal" anecdotes. (See Joan Didion's scathing article "Election by Sound Bite" and her discussion of the misleading and reductive emphasis on candidates' "stories.") It's all politics, deliberately presented as theatre, and the need for pseudo emotional transparency bugs me.

That being said, emotional appeals can be tremendously effective. Which is why they are so central in this election year--appealing to base emotions or to noble ones.

And my empathy for Michelle Obama reminded me of my admiration for her, especially in this cool, calm, and collected interview on the Daily Show. I improvise in the classroom all the time, attempting to make jokes, sometimes blurting things I regret (or at least doubt the wisdom of) later. I would definitely not have been able to sit there with Jon Stewart and resist the desire to try to seem funny, no matter how flat my punchlines might fall. (McCain fails to resist this impulse all the time, much to his detriment.) After the shitstorm she faced about her truthful and even moving words that this is the first time she's been proud of her country, Michelle Obama has learned even further restraint and verbal judiciousness the hard way. But this has not diminished her eloquence, poise, and erudition.

That is one thing I am so proud of in the Obama campaign: that all the accusations of professorial rhetoric (perish the thought!) and "eloquence" as a crime (McCain's sneers throughout Tuesday's debate) have fallen at the feet of Barack and Michelle's determination to run this campaign with dignity, intelligence, and complex thought.

Anyway, this whole post is just to praise Michelle Obama and also to link to this New York Times profile of her from back in June.

Stay Classy, Republicans

Recently taken down from the official Sacramento County California Republican party's website:

Forgetting the Election . . . I mean, Sarah Marshall

I'd like to preface this frivolous post by with an embarrassed disclaimer about the whimsy of my posts here: I do feel strongly about this election even though I never seem to post political thoughts on our blog. I have the Audacity to Hope fever and the boogie-woogie flu (and a McCain administration would take away my work-based health insurance, so they might be incurable), and McCain reminds me more of Mr. Burns or the Emperor from Star Wars every day.

But perhaps because times have been pretty intense recently, it made it all the more lovely to finish watching the Jason Segel penned Forgetting Sarah Marshall last night and to discover that the second hour is funnier and more delightfully idiosyncratic and random than the first half. There seems to be a boilerplate romantic comedy in the Adam Sandler or Judd Apatow vein that involves lots of quippiness in the beginning, slapstick farce and raunchy jokes-between-the-dudes, a contrived separation between two winning leads, and then the reunion. All of these things exist in Forgetting Sarah Marshall, but it is a more interesting movie than that as well because at moments it actually really brings humor out of daily situations and tensions, even if it transplants those situations to gorgeous Hawaii to make it more blockbuster movie friendly.

And then sometimes it's just outrageous. Make sure you watch the alternate lines special feature if you rent this DVD.

There are three scenes to look for at the end of this movie: the lots of wine scene, competing screams scene, and finally . . . . The Dracula puppet musical scene. I did not make this up, and I actually feel guilty mentioning it because Paul's and my level of surprise made this scene even more delightful. Jim Henson's creature shop, baby, and Avenue Q gone Gothic!

Surprisingly droll movie and fabulous performances all round, especially the British rocker dude who Sarah Marshall starts dating when she breaks off with our lovable hero.

Also I am increasingly infatuated with Jason Segel, screenwriter of the film, singer of Dracula musical songs, goofy hubby to Alyson Hannigan's character in How I Met Your Mother, and contracted screenwriter for the next Muppet movie (!!!!). I like this picture because I can imagine me as the blonde in the background.
If he were a little more Mediterranean looking, I could cast him as Paul in the movie of my life. There were several things about this character (including the fact that, as Sarah Marshall says, he is a really great guy) that reminded me of my honey.

"Welcome to the jungle -- we've got fun and games"

Paul obtained a jungle gym for our kitties yesterday, and they are big fans as the above picture will attest.

Outrage of the Day

House republicans are blaming the bailout failure on a speech Nancy Pelosi gave prior to the vote. According to Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH): ""We could have gotten here today had it not been for a partisan speech on the floor of the House."

Are you FUCKING KIDDING ME? House republicans decided to kill the bill because Nancy Pelosi said some mean things about them? The economy is tanking and the reason the republicans give for failing to provide the votes they promised to (and McCain claimed credit for delivering earlier in the day) is that the Speaker of the House said some partisan things? What the fuck? That's one of the most reckless and appalling justifications I've ever heard. The bill may be crap (probably is), but have the balls to say it. Don't spout some baby bullshit that you voted against the most important bill of the year because your feelings were hurt. Just disgusting.

The Bailout

No, not that bailout. I'm talking about the coordinated bailout of John McCain's floundering presidential campaign. Here's how it has works:

(1) McCain's poll numbers tank. Wednesday, the Washington Post had McCain down 9. Fox news had McCain polling under 40%. Obama up in traditionally red states like Colorado, Virginia, and North Carolina.

(2) The economy, quite understandably, dominates the news and the election. Polls all show that the electorate strongly prefers Obama on the economy. McCain has been utterly incapable of gaining any kind of traction on the issue or of offering a coherent message ("The fundamentals of the economy are strong;" "Fire the SEC Chairman! What, you mean the president doesn't have that authority? Well, I'd make him resign then;" "We're facing a historic crisis!" Seriously, the dude's been all over the place.)

(3) Congress appears on its way to crafting a bipartisan financial bailout plan.

(4) McCain, unable to gain any traction, and floudering in the polls (largely because people prefer Obama on the economy), has to find a way to make himself appear stronger on the economy.

(5) McCain suspends his campaign and pledges to devote all his energy to getting bailout plan in place.

(6) But, Congress is doing that already without him and announces a negotiated plan on Thursday, before McCain ever gets to D.C. Again, he's on the outside looking in.

(7) McCain contacts conservative house members who then announce that a plan is, in fact, not near. McCain stays silent. Mind you, the conservative wing had been silent on the issue and the negotiations prior to yesterday.

(8) McCain says nothing at the White House meeting while conservative house leaders scuttle the negotiated plan. Everything is back in turmoil and uncertainty.

That's where things stand now. Here's the end game:

(9) Congress furiously negotiates with the conservative wing today and some minor changes are made to the framework that was already in place. The conservatives concede and the plan is approved. Conservatives and McCain then scream to the rafters that McCain saved the day and brokered the new bailout plan. There would have been no plan without him! McCain is your economic savior! This has the added bonus of McCain being able to argue that he stood up to Bush. McCain then triumphantly shows up at the debate in Mississippi and claims full credit.

Viola! The conservatives orchestrate a massive bailout of McCain's campaign.

Hopefully, people will see through this charade if it plays out like that.

John McCain's Farce

The following from the New York Times account of yesterday's White House meeting should put to rest any doubt that McCain's dramatic campaign "suspension"* and return to Washington to deal with the financial crisis was anything but a political ploy:

"Mr. McCain was at one end of the long conference table, Mr. Obama at the other, with the president and senior Congressional leaders between them. Participants said Mr. Obama peppered Mr. Paulson with questions, while Mr. McCain said little."

That's all you need to know. McCain pushed for this meeting and then sat there and said nothing while the conservative House delegation effectively scuttled the bailout framework** that Congressional leaders had been negotiating for days. By all accounts, McCain didn't even offer up a personal opinion as to whether he preferred the negotiated deal or the conservative alternative proposal. He just sat there and let the process unravel. Note that Obama, once again, comes across as the reasonable, responsible, adult in the process. He's engaged, wants information, but refuses to inject presidential politics into delicate negotiations he has not been at all involved in.

So, McCain announces Wednesday night that he's "suspending" his campaign and immediately returning to D.C. Except that he first must tape an interview with CBS (designed, I think, to limit fallout from Palin's disastrous train-wreck of an interview with Katie Couric). Then, yesterday morning, McCain finds the time to tape interviews with all the major networks and personally attend the Clinton Global Initiative. The financial crisis, evidently, can wait for his personal involvement. A bipartisan framework and set of principals is announced prior to his arrival in D.C. Then, he says nothing at the meeting he insisted upon having at the White House. The deal falls apart. McCain does interviews for all the major networks, blames Obama, and doesn't offer up any proposals or alternatives.

Yup. That's exactly the kind of leadership the situation demanded and required. Rather than provide any real leadership, McCain has injected himself and gummed up a process that was progressing along just fine without him. All the while without clearly expressing what he wants. Way to go, John!

*I use fun scare quotes because it's clear McCain never suspended his campaign. Advertisements were up an running (yes, it's a bitch to take down nationwide advertising), he was still conducting interview after interview after interview, Palin held a rally at the Philly airport, his surrogates were all over the news attacking Obama, etc, etc, etc.

**I'm not expressing an opinion on the merits of the negotiated framework. I think that any plan generated in response to the crisis will be flawed. The key is to limit the flaws as much as possible and implement as many provisions for transparency, accountability, and tax payer protection as possible (say strong oversight and an equity stake in the companies that participate in the bailout). I'm only commenting on the absurd and transparently political actions of McCain in response to the situation.

Blog Chain Mail

Paul has been exploring weighty issues. Now I'll introduce some frivolous ones.
Jess, this is for you. Answers to the Blog Chain mail you tagged me with...

1. Where were you 10 years ago? I guess I was starting my sophomore year of college, as mind-boggling as that passage of time is. I remember I had a very moody start to my sophomore year (sophomore slump, mayhap), but on the plus side of sophomore fall, I met one of my dearest friends, Kate, that fall when she became my other dear friend Jake's girlfriend. (Now they are married.)

2. What's on your to-do list today? I am through my to-do list for today! I taught today.

3. What if you were a billionaire? This is kind of a dopey question. Or at least phrased in a dopey way. It seems like a section of it is left out. What would I do if I were a billionaire? What would the effect on the world order be if I were a millionaire? (Of course, I would aspire to world domination.) "If I were a rich girl . . . "

4. Name 5 places that you have lived?

-Princeton, NJ (blue)
-Sea Girt, NJ (blue)
-Brooklyn, NY (blue)
-Cambridge, MA (blue)

-Columbia, SC (red)

5. What are 3 bad habits that you have?

Not sure I should answer this one in a public forum...
Nail-biting.
Foot-tapping.
Jewelry-fidgeting

6. What kind of snack do you like?
Oh, I am hungry...Salty snacks!

Rhetorical Questions

One of the first things Sarah Palin did as mayor of her hometown was to seek out the public librarian and ask how she could go about banning books. The librarian refused to ban any books. Palin threatened to fire the librarian for failing to show her "full support," but, ultimately, did not fire her and no books were banned. Yesterday, the McCain camp issued a memo stating that the question "was a rhetorical question -- nothing more."

First, who the hell asks a rhetorical question about banning books?

Second, was the threat to fire the librarian rhetorical, too?

Deference???

It is now about a week and a half since McCain picked Palin as his VP nominee and she has yet to take questions from reporters. Actually, I'm not giving her enough credit. She did field one question from an Alaskan reporter who wanted to know if Palin was still there for Alaska. That's it. We still know nothing about any of her policy positions. She has not answered a single question about her abuse of power while in Alaska. She has not answered a single question about her repeated exaggerations and outright lies on the campaign trail about her "opposition" to the Bridge to Nowhere (she favored it and only tepidly opposed it when Congress would no longer fund it. She kept the $223 millions the Feds earmarked for the project, though, and used it as she saw fit) and earmarks (see previous parenthetical along with Palin's extraordinary success at securing federal money as mayor and then governor). Now comes word that Palin will sit down several times over the course of two days (who is she, some kind of celebrity???) with ABC's Charlie Gibson. The announcement, of course, came one day after Gibson stated that questions about Palin's personal life and associations (think nutty churches and the secessionist Alaska Independence Party) should be off-limits. So, Gibson got the interview after he announced that he'd treat Palin with kid gloves. Excellent. In a rare example of honesty, McCain's campaign manager, Rick Davis, stated on one of the Sunday news shows that Palin wouldn't deal with the press until they showed "her some level of respect and deference." So there you have it. McCain made a reckless and dangerous selection in tapping a complete unknown (after performing virtually no vetting) and now he refuses to allow the public to find out just who she is (and, ultimately, what a tremendous mistake he made) unless the press agrees to grovel and only ask nice questions. Un-fucking-believable. McCain's complete disdain for the American people is appalling. And the sad thing is that it might actually work.

These are the sort of thoughts that can ruin a week in Charleston. Bah.

Country First

John McCain has made "Country First" the rallying slogan of his campaign. He has explicitly attacked Barack Obama for preferring to "lose a war than lose a campaign" and for placing his personal ambition above the nation's safety. According to McCain, this is a perilous time for the nation, one rife with grave national security threats. The next president will have to deal with (likely) troop withdrawal from Iraq, continued prosecution of the global war on terror in Afghanistan (and, likely, elsewhere), an unstable Pakistan, the growing threat of Iran, an increasingly frisky and testy Russia, and, of course, the continued rise of China. Scary stuff requirng a strong national security and foreign policy president. How, then, do we square that with McCain's selection of Alaska governor Sarah Palin to be his vice president, one 72-year old heartbeat from being the most powerful person in the world?

The answer is we don't.

McCain's selection of Palin is completely indefensible, reckless, impulsive, and, ultimately, dangerous. Fundamentally, this is all about McCain's judgment. Palin has been governor of Alaska, one of the smallest (by population) states in the country for a little over a year and a half. Prior to that she served as mayor of a town of approximately 6,500 residents. She has no expressed foreign policy position. Worse, she has previously exhibited zero interest in foreign policy issues. Likewise, she has shown scant interest in national domestic policy. This is the person that McCain thinks is best suited to tackle the thicket of national security issues we face? Really? The proposition is patently laughable, made all the more so by lame attempts to argue that Alaska's proximity to Russia and her titular command of the Alaska National Guard somehow qualify as relevant and powerful foreign policy qualifications.

This laughable proposition is made terrifying by the very legitimate concerns about McCain's age. He's a 72-year old cancer survivor who lost five and a half years as a POW (had you heard he was a POW? He never speaks of it). If elected, he would be the oldest first term president in history. It is not unreasonable to worry that he might not make it through his first term. Therefore, McCain's VP is especially important. That he saw fit to select someone so bereft of suitable experience, or even interest in issues of importance, speaks volumes about McCain's arrogance and poor judgment.

Frankly, there is so much to this pick that offends and I'm in danger of turning this into a rambling, rant-y, mess. So, time for fun with bullets!

- Pro creationism in public schools
- Thinks the most important thing about the Iraq war and the Surge is that our leaders are following "God's plan."
- Abuse of power: Troopergate, fired a slew of public officials when she became mayor of her hometown because she could tell that they weren't sufficiently "loyal."
- Tried to fire the public librarian because she wouldn't censor books Palin found offensive.
- Lied about her courageous fight against the pork-bellied "Bridge to Nowhere"

There are many more of these kinds of fun tidbits. To reiterate, lest the point be lost, this is not to rail against Palin. This is to rail against McCain and his complete lack of judgment. It's abundantly clear that he didn't properly vet her and that he had no clue who this person was prior to picking her. He closed his eyes, blew on the dice, and hoped he rolled a seven. Clearly, however, he crapped out.

Nellie has a monkey

A New Beginning

With the wedding, honeymoon, and summer behind us, we thought it would be a good idea to take the virtual eraser to our interweby blackboard and start anew. We hope to post updates on our lives, travels, and tastes, as well as random thoughts on entertainment, politics, culture, and whatever else strikes our fancy. We hope you enjoy!