Nosey Online

As absent as I've been (work, work, work), I just wanted to say good luck out there to everyone. Today is bound to be a long one that inevitably stretches out to days (weeks?). So let’s just hope that the election is as clean as can be. For me, it’s been a very long four years. There hasn’t been a day gone by without a thought of this election running through my head.

I feel confident. Regardless of when, I believe that we’ll be getting the 44nd President of the United States soon. Wouldn’t that be great? So I wish every one of my friends a very patient day. The time has come and we will be watching. I’ll try to chime in more, but if I don’t, we’ll get together soon.

From MoDo:

Jim DeMint, the new senator from South Carolina, said during his campaign that he supported a state G.O.P. platform plank banning gays from teaching in public schools. He explained, "I would have given the same answer when asked if a single woman who was pregnant and living with her boyfriend should be hired to teach my third-grade children."

The New Wave. Ugh.

I'll have more opinion later, as I've had a hard time composing my thoughts since Tuesday.

Somethings wrong with my blog. Will work on it this weekend.

UPDATE: Working again.

Yes, I have kind of abandoned this blog as of late. The difference between my previous job and the one that is currently taking up most of my time is like night and day. The funny thing is that I am still spouting off my opinions in the Real World just like I used to all the time in this space. Most of you by now have stopped wondering when Sean is going to post again. Hopefully I will soon, but the passion has left me for now.

By the early morning hours of November 3rd, I was already in a state of denial. By dawn of the next day, I had already moved past depression and into acceptance. No, I am not okay with the fact that we have to put up with Bushie for another four years, but we have to move forward. Reading a lot of rage posts all over the lefty blogs made my head swim. I am not surprised by the way this election turned out. The GOP has spent the better part of four decades demonizing the left, mischaracterizing the mainstream media, and defining America with a WASP colored brush. Yes, 51% of Americans thought voting for Bush was the best thing for our country. But that doesn’t mean they’re all doing the right thing. I’d bet that one-third of those votes were cast begrudgingly by middle of the road conservatives who just wanted to keep their tax cuts. They only had to turn a blind eye for their Faustian Bargain.

This election has cemented a split in the country. It succeeded in changing an otherwise noble party into a fringe-driven one. It almost makes me laugh to think that Democrats have been burdened with the fringe label for so long. The current leadership of the GOP takes the cake. What can Rush say now? His party is no longer the one that he spent the last ten years fighting for over the airwaves.

The best outcome of this election is that Democrats won’t be resting on laurels. This is the beginning of the next cycle. It might take some time, but I believe that the downfall is imminent for the Grand Old Party. Sure, conventional wisdom might say that it should be the Donkeys planning a funeral. But CW said that a large voter turnout would benefit the challenger. I guess the gay marriage issue changed everything.

So for now, Republicans will be happy and sad. For their party has now abandoned its pillars of faith for blind faith. But they’ll take their tax cuts and eat them too.

doesn't she?...

W.'s presidency rushes backward, stifling possibilities, stirring intolerance, confusing church with state, blowing off the world, replacing science with religion, and facts with faith. We're entering another dark age, more creationist than cutting edge, more premodern than postmodern. Instead of leading America to an exciting new reality, the Bushies cocoon in a scary, paranoid, regressive reality. Their new health care plan will probably be a return to leeches.

Josh Marshall outlines his two reasons why Hillary shouldn't run for President. I identify most with the second one.

Now, to the second reason, the one I focused most on in that Jan. 2000 article in Slate. And that would be, 'Are you kidding?'

Let's be honest, Hillary Clinton is a deeply divisive figure. And if there's one thing Democrats have learned in this and the previous election it is the danger of going into a national election with a candidate who cannot even get a real hearing over a large swath of the country.

As I wrote in that Slate article ...

Gore won virtually all the Northeast, all the West Coast, and nearly all the Industrial Midwest, but failed to win any other state except New Mexico. What did him in in the rest of the country was cultural liberalism—support for gun control, abortion rights, and gay rights. This handicap was particularly evident in Appalachia—West Virginia, Tennessee, western Pennsylvania, and southeastern Ohio. And who is more identified with cultural liberalism, Al Gore or Hillary Clinton?

Now if you read Josh's full post on the matter, he goes into greater detail about this and his objection to Presidential-family dynasties. My opinion on the subject is an amalgamation of the two. Hillary’s greatest strength and subsequent greatest weakness comes from the same source.

She’s married to Bill Clinton.

Despite my love for Bill and Hillary, I fully realize that any future of the Democratic Party does not have a Clinton (including Chelsea) in the picture. Kerry called in the Clinton reinforcements in the embodiment of Schrum, Lockhart, et al. See where that got him? I don’t want to be looking backwards on the 90’s like our parents look back on the 60’s – with a sense of nostalgia and longing for a time that shall never return. I fear that liberals are cursed with that backwards-looking mentality.

The GOP took their time over four decades to get to this place. They have succeeded in pervading our culture and society with the negative Democratic image, all the while being just as nefarious as the dark words spread out over the radio waves and in conservative print.

We need to take it back, to solidify behind a common cause. Peace and prosperity are not just Republican ideals. If the Democratic Party takes a giant step back come November 2006, then it will cease to be a major player in American politics. And as my college poli-sci prof said, when one of the two major parties succeeds in crystallizing America around one common cause, the other will fall to the wayside as another rises to take its place. Perhaps he was speaking about terrorism and just didn’t know it.

Mark my words, I believe Democrats can ride the down cycle all the way back up. But if they fail to capitalize on the huge negatives of a New Christian Revival, then the jig is up. And if Democrats try to be Republican-Lite, then I’m off to greener pastures (and I don’t mean the Green Party).

So for the next two years, I’ll be waiting in high anticipation.

This is something that should bother those of us in the Red and Blue states.

The dollar could slide still further, in spite of hitting an all-time low against the euro last week in the wake of George W. Bush's re-election, currency traders have said.

The dollar sell-off has resumed amid fears among traders that Mr Bush's victory will bring four more years of widening US budget and current account deficits, heightened geopolitical risks and a policy of "benign neglect" of the dollar. [...]

China, which has $515bn of reserves, was also said to be selling dollars and buying Asian currencies in readiness to switch the renminbi's dollar peg to a basket arrangement, something Chinese officials have increasingly hinted at. Any re-allocation could push the dollar sharply lower and Treasury yields markedly higher.

George W. Bush. Good for the American Dollar and the Chinese economy. Well, maybe not the dollar.

The moderate Democrat, center-left Democrat, McCain Democrat, whatever, who voted for Bush because they thought he was shying away from making the gay marriage issue a federal one ought to start taking count of every one of their beliefs Bush will flush down the toilet over the next four years. Here's numero uno.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Bush will renew a quest in his second term for a constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage as essential to a ``hopeful and decent'' society, his top political aide said on Sunday.

Bush's call for a constitutional ban on gay marriages failed last year in Congress, but his position was seen as a key factor motivating Christian conservatives concerned about ``moral values'' to turn out in large numbers and help supply Bush with a winning margin in last week's election.

The Faustian bargain pays back in spades, remember that.

Olbermann is pushing the story...

This is mentioned because there is a small but blood-curdling set of news stories that right now exists somewhere between the world of investigative journalism, and the world of the Reynolds Wrap Hat. And while the group’s ultimate home remains unclear - so might our election of just a week ago.

Stories like these have filled the web since the tide turned against John Kerry late Tuesday night. But not until Friday did they begin to spill into the more conventional news media. That’s when the Cincinnati Enquirer reported that officials in Warren County, Ohio, had “locked down” its administration building to prevent anybody from observing the vote count there.

Suspicious enough on the face of it, the decision got more dubious still when County Commissioners confirmed that they were acting on the advice of their Emergency Services Director, Frank Young. Mr. Young had explained that he had been advised by the federal government to implement the measures for the sake of Homeland Security. [...]

Thus the majority of the media has yet to touch the other stories of Ohio (the amazing Bush Times Ten voting machine in Gahanna) or the sagas of Ohio South: huge margins for Bush in Florida counties in which registered Democrats outnumber registered Republicans 2-1, places where the optical scanning of precinct totals seems to have turned results from perfect matches for the pro-Kerry exit poll data, to Bush sweeps.

Of course, the unmedia types in the blogosphere are pushing this story, but it does have its merits. The 4000+ extra votes for Bush in Franklin County alone should raise the alert status. I really hope these stories don't turn into a Watergate-type thing, because then that would really be bad for the country. Giving Bush another term is bad enough.

The first to go....

WASHINGTON - President Bush has accepted the resignations of Attorney General John Ashcroft and Commerce Secretary Donald Evans, White House press secretary Scott McClellan said Tuesday.

“The objective of securing the safety of Americans from crime and terror has been achieved,” Ashcroft wrote in a five-page handwritten letter to Bush.

Are you friggin kidding me?

NOW HEAR THIS, NOW HEAR THIS!!! All you in the Red States; the murderers, child molesters, and young males of Middle Eastern descent are no longer a danger to you. They've all moved to the Blue States.

Seriously, it's nice to see their "values" shine through. From Dianne Bell in the San Diego Union-Tribune.

Political tempers are running hot even after the election. On Saturday, Gary Jimenez discovered two tires slashed on his Volvo station wagon with its four anti-Bush bumper stickers. Lest he miss the point, the vandals left a note on the windshield that said: "We voted . . . Now you can either move to another country (maybe France, Germany, Iran or Pakistan will take you) or stop your whiney belly aching. This country was founded by righteous God-fearing men of integrity like George W. Bush. Now, take off these bumper stickers. We don't want to see them again."

Jimenez's immediate reaction was to add two more pro-Kerry stickers, including: "Let's Kerry Bush out of the White House."

Jimenez, a Clairemont High School teacher, had anticipated some reaction but was disappointed that it went so far.

"Free speech is an important value in America," he said. "I was trying to make people think. I wouldn't attack someone's car over their bumper stickers."

After all, he says, it's democracy for which several of his former students are fighting in Iraq. Yesterday, he learned that one was seriously injured when his vehicle ran over a land mine.

You know, it’s very interesting to live in a military area and hear all the baloney about "we're giving Iraqis a chance at democracy." And then those people go and slash the car tires belonging to someone exercising their freedom of speech because of, you know, our freedom. Man oh man, wake up and realize just how hypocritical you are being. Your values are for shit if you can’t respect someone’s differing opinion. Quite honestly, I'm surprised I made it three months without some damage done to my car because of the Kerry bumper sticker.

You are all a bunch of loud mouth, ignorant, uninformed, democracy-haters. Same goes for this guy.

Yet, there are 38 states today that may be inclined to adopt, let us call it, a "Declaration of Expulsion," that is, a specific constitutional amendment to kick out the systemically troublesome states and those trending rapidly toward anti-American, if not outright subversive, behavior. The 12 states that must go: California, Illinois, New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Maryland, and Delaware. Only the remaining 38 states would retain the name, "United States of America." The 12 expelled mobs could call themselves the "Dirty Dozen," or individually keep their identity and go their separate ways, probably straight to Hell.

Really, why do they hate America?

I've been surveying the scene, looking to see if there are any blogs with ads left. Atrios has a couple, as does Kos. Josh Marshall still has a few, but I think he does his own selling. I just wonder if Blogads will survive the political off-season.

More news of Republican weirdness. Seems as if being in power has turned GoOPers into a bunch of angry, twisted losers.

TAMPA - Some of the worst horrors of the war in Iraq were on sale right here in the bay area. Action News found a DVD featuring the beheading of two Americans being sold at a Tampa gas station, but it was not the work of Muslim extremists.

The 90-minute video, titled Buried in the Sand, shows the gruesome way Saddam Hussein tortured his country. It also prominently features the end of Nicholas Berg's life -- in all, a series of brutally graphic, violent images culminating with the beheading.

The DVD was on a shelf right inside the front door of a Shell station on E. Busch Boulevard. The station's assistant manager, 'Sal,' couldn't explain why the station was selling it, but he admitted the images made him sick.

"What's in there is very disgusting. What you see is disgusting. It's not something to be proud about. I think it shows the U.S. isn't bad about the war. They free a country," he observed in broken English.

What might be most surprising about the video, however, is who was behind it. The movie was actually produced by two Republicans out of California as part of the campaign propaganda, meant to counter films like Fahrenheit 9/11.

"I just wanted to get the truth out there and let people know what the face of our enemy was really like," producer Rob Cartee told Action News.

Huh. So I guess these DVDs have been collecting dust since late 02, early 03, when the debate over Iraq began in earnest. Right?

The DVD was on sale for two weeks, and Sal said they sold about half a dozen.

So this was a recent addition to the store? And where is this store again? Oh that's right, Tampa. Which is located where again?

Along the I-4 corridor, that's right. And what's so special about the I-4 corridor? Let me think.

The Republican Party's campaign to dominate the vote in Florida's central I-4 corridor in the Nov. 2 election can best be compared to Hurricane Charley, which swept powerfully along the same approximate path about two months before.

It has long been an axiom that statewide elections are won along that Interstate 4 axis, which runs diagonally from Tampa to Daytona Beach. That Central Florida region is home to more swing voters than Democratic South Florida or the Republican north.

You know, I wonder just what kind of people might be affected by seeing this DVD for sale right next to the lottery tickets and beef jerky.

"The NASCAR dads and the soccer moms along the corridor," said Miami-based political analyst Dario Moreno, when asked which voters in particular created President Bush's overwhelming victory.

"The security moms along the I-4 corridor," echoed Sergio Bendixen, a pollster for the Democrats.

This really pisses me off. The modern GOP is nothing more than a group of bigoted, racist, fear-mongering asses. I'll bet you could find this DVD for sale all the way up to the Atlantic coast. Sure, Democrats could have filed a few too many voter registrations with Mickey and Minnie listed as the voters, but it's nothing compared to what has, and what will, come out about GOP efforts to sway the election. Way to go guys! Way to raise the bar! Maybe next time we can have a real debate.