President Donald?

I'm sure you've all heard about Donald Trump possibly running for president in the 2012 election.  

David Plouffe (WH senior advisor) was quoted as saying that "There is zero chance that Donald Trump would ever be hired by the American people to do this job."  The Donald, of course, had to share his 2 cents.  

He responded by saying, "Obviously, I hit a nerve because they're fighting me."  And then, "I can tell you I'm their worst nightmare.  I am not the person they want to run against.  They know it, and I know it.  I know it for a fact because I have a lot of people that frankly are contributors to him and they tell me, 'Donald, you are not the person they want to run against.' "

I actually had to read that twice to make sense of it.  

Most of you have probably heard that Trump is riding the birther wave.  He's pushing to investigate Obama's Hawaiian birth.  I honestly think he's putting too much effort into that.  I think there are far fewer birther nut-jobs than what he's hoping for.  I think most of us do not question whether Obama is a citizen.  So, Trump is making himself look like an outright idiot to most of the nation.

I say that, but I thought Trump was an idiot even before this came out.  I do not think that most of the nation can take the Donald seriously enough to even consider voting for him for president.  Maybe I'm mistaken, but I sure hope not.  What do you think?

Voting

Unless you have been living under a rock for the past several months, you probably know that today was Election Day. I really think they should be honest and call it "Try to Pick the Lesser of Two Evils Day" but I guess that is probably too long of a name.

I've been weighing the choices for weeks now. I'm not affiliated with a party, so I do not just go in and vote straight party ticket. I'm independent... a moderate. :) I'm pro-life but pro-gay. I'm opposed to the death penalty and to big government. I'm all over the board. I'm me.

So, I have to really look at the candidates' positions. And then pretend that they actually feel the way they say they do... and that even if they did really feel that way, that they would let that affect their voting. Gah! I wish politicians weren't so slimy.

I am so sick of all of the political advertisements. I did a lot of fact checking and half of what they say about each other isn't even true. I just want real answers. I want to know what a candidate believes and what they are going to do in office. Is that really that much to ask?? Apparently so.

Today, I voted straight ticket Democrat. It hurt. I normally have some variance on my ballot. Not today. I really didn't want to vote for Bennett (Colorado Senate race), but Ken Buck scares me. He's a little too far out there on some things. I am pro-life. I would not get an abortion if I were raped or even if my life were at risk. It's just not what I believe in. However, I think that women should be able to decide on their own what to do in those situations (and only those situations... I believe that all other abortion should be illegal). Ken Buck pushes that issue a little too far (and could affect birth control... which would be TERRIBLE). So, I voted Bennett.

The other ones I don't feel as strongly about. I felt that the democratic candidates were slightly better, so I voted democrat. For the initiatives, I voted NO on all of them except for Amendment P (Bingo) and 102 (I think that all people should have to post bail/bond no matter what the crime). Pretty simple.

I voted when I got home from work. It was between 5 and 6. I live in a teeny-tiny town outside of Denver. I was pleasantly surprised to see so many people in line at the town hall... Especially for mid-term elections. I'm sure that most of them were not voting as I did (rural, farm town), but it's nice to see people getting involved. :)

Mixed Emotions...

Last night I was so incredibly happy. Barrack Obama won. Not only that, but John McCain gave an incredible speech. It left me feeling so wonderful about the direction that our country is heading. We will have change. We have a nation where truly anyone can do what they set their minds to without having to feel discouraged about race or gender. We have a nation where republicans and democrats are willing to work together to make our country a better place. I was brought to tears several times throughout the evening because of how proud and euphoric I was. It was incredible.

And then, today, I was still riding that high. And then part of me cracked. Proposition 8 passed in California. And other gay marriage bans passed in Arizona and Florida. So incredibly disappointing. I am really hoping that it will be overturned. No one has the right to take other people's rights away based upon sexual preference. It's ridiculous.

How likely Is It That McCain Will Kick the Bucket?

Well, I did bring it up in my last post, so I thought that this was very relevant. This author gives some odds of how likely it is that McCain will die in his first term as president [God (or your preferred Authority) help us!] leaving Sarah Palin as the President of the United States. I shudder to think of it. Anyway, he goes on to compare those odds with things we come across in every day life. It's definitely worth a look. :)

http://www.portfolio.com/views/blogs/daily-brief/2008/09/15/feeling-lucky-the-odds-of-a-president-palin?tid=advert/bizjourn/prespalin

Also, there are a bunch of websites where you can dress Sarah Palin up in her old clothes and even her new $150,000 wardrobe. This one is my favorite (I love that you can see Russia through the window in her closet!):

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/election2008/shopwithpalin/index.html

And, my favorite story that I came across today is of Sarah Palin's other wardrobe malfunction. See Below...

Yes, folks. Those are donkeys on that scarf. Even Sarah Palin wants you to vote Democrat. :)

I voted! :)

It was my first time going to the polls (I sent in an absentee ballot in 2004). Joe and I went together this morning. I got up at 5:30 AM so that I could get ready for work and still get to the polls by 6:30 AM when they opened. We had to wait in line for 20 to 30 minutes and then we voted. It was pretty uneventful. But also exciting at the same time. It is an extremely important election.

I, of course, voted for Barack Obama. Unfortunately, the people surrounding me a majority of the time are McCain supporters. So, I have taken a lot of crap from people around me. I don't understand it. I don't go around telling people that they are stupid for voting for McCain when that evil wench would end up being president if/when McCain kicks the bucket in office. I don't tell them that they are stupid for voting for a third term for Bush/Cheney. So, why do these people feel the need to bring me down for voting for Obama? The worst argument I've heard is that Obama doesn't have enough experience. Well, first of all, Palin has less experience and she is likely to become president if McCain wins (because he's freakin' old!). Second of all, we've had "experienced" leaders in office and so far it hasn't done us much good.

People are ragging on Obama because of his eloquent speech and saying that it doesn't do much good. Well, how often do we bash Bush because he can't speak well? The president is the face of our country. It sure helps if we don't have a complete dumbass in that role. It can help bring the country together and it can help the rest of the world see us in a better light. And after the hole we have dug ourselves into in the past several years, I don't see that as a bad thing!

Anyway, I've already irritated myself, so I'm going to stop. I shouldn't have to defend my vote to everyone I know. It's my vote and I can vote for whoever I damn well please. Thank you very much!

On a different note... I found this comic and it made me happy inside. :)

Drill, Drill, Drill

The following was written by Eve Ensler (the author of the Vagina Monologues). It expresses much of what I am feeling about this campaign. I thought it summed this up nicely.

Drill, Drill, Drill:

I am having Sarah Palin nightmares. I dreamt last night that she was a member of a club where they rode snowmobiles and wore the claws of drowned and starved polar bears around their necks. I have a particular thing for Polar Bears. Maybe it's their snowy whiteness or their bigness or the fact that they live in the arctic or that I have never seen one in person or touched one. Maybe it is the fact that they live so comfortably on ice. Whatever it is, I need the polar bears.

I don't like raging at women. I am a Feminist and have spent my life trying to build community, help empower women and stop violence against them. It is hard to write about Sarah Palin. This is why the Sarah Palin choice was all the more insidious and cynical. The people who made this choice count on the goodness and solidarity of Feminists.

But everything Sarah Palin believes in and practices is antithetical to Feminism which for me is part of one story -- connected to saving the earth, ending racism, empowering women, giving young girls options, opening our minds, deepening tolerance, and ending violence and war.

I believe that the McCain/Palin ticket is one of the most dangerous choices of my lifetime, and should this country chose those candidates the fall-out may be so great, the destruction so vast in so many areas that America may never recover. But what is equally disturbing is the impact that duo would have on the rest of the world. Unfortunately, this is not a joke. In my lifetime I have seen the clownish, the inept, the bizarre be elected to the presidency with regularity.

Sarah Palin does not believe in evolution. I take this as a metaphor. In her world and the world of Fundamentalists nothing changes or gets better or evolves. She does not believe in global warming. The melting of the arctic, the storms that are destroying our cities, the pollution and rise of cancers, are all part of God's plan. She is fighting to take the polar bears off the endangered species list. The earth, in Palin's view, is here to be taken and plundered. The wolves and the bears are here to be shot and plundered. The oil is here to be taken and plundered. Iraq is here to be taken and plundered. As she said herself of the Iraqi war, "It was a task from God."

Sarah Palin does not believe in abortion. She does not believe women who are raped and incested and ripped open against their will should have a right to determine whether they have their rapist's baby or not.

She obviously does not believe in sex education or birth control. I imagine her daughter was practicing abstinence and we know how many babies that makes.

Sarah Palin does not much believe in thinking. From what I gather she has tried to ban books from the library, has a tendency to dispense with people who think independently. She cannot tolerate an environment of ambiguity and difference. This is a woman who could and might very well be the next president of the United States. She would govern one of the most diverse populations on the earth.Sarah believes in guns. She has her own custom Austrian hunting rifle. She has been known to kill 40 caribou at a clip. She has shot hundreds of wolves from the air.

Sarah believes in God. That is of course her right, her private right. But when God and Guns come together in the public sector, when war is declared in God's name, when the rights of women are denied in his name, that is the end of separation of church and state and the undoing of everything America has ever tried to be.

I write to my sisters. I write because I believe we hold this election in our hands. This vote is a vote that will determine the future not just of the U.S., but of the planet. It will determine whether we create policies to save the earth or make it forever uninhabitable for humans. It will determine whether we move towards dialogue and diplomacy in the world or whether we escalate violence through invasion, undermining and attack. It will determine whether we go for oil, strip mining, coal burning or invest our money in alternatives that will free us from dependency and destruction. It will determine if money gets spent on education and healthcare or whether we build more and more methods of killing. It will determine whether America is a free open tolerant society or a closed place of fear, fundamentalism and aggression.

If the Polar Bears don't move you to go and do everything in your power to get Obama elected then consider the chant that filled the hall after Palin spoke at the RNC, "Drill Drill Drill." I think of teeth when I think of drills. I think of rape. I think of destruction. I think of domination. I think of military exercises that force mindless repetition, emptying the brain of analysis, doubt, ambiguity or dissent. I think of pain.

Do we want a future of drilling? More holes in the ozone, in the floor of the sea, more holes in our thinking, in the trust between nations and peoples, more holes in the fabric of this precious thing we call life?