election 2008, blah blah, almost over

[hermionesviolin]

Last Tuesday's metro had an article which quoted John Kerry (who's running for re-election to the Senate) saying, "The last thing we need is a Republican senator from Massachusetts who will cancel Ted Kennedy's vote out, who will support someone else being the majority leader of the United States Senate so that a President Obama doesn't have the majority that he can move forward with."

I winced, 'cause I've imbibed my father's conviction that divide government is better than having one party control both branches.

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Other down-ticket races [WhereDoIVoteMA.com]

SENATOR IN CONGRESS
JOHN F. KERRY         DEMOCRATIC
    Candidate for Re-election
JEFFREY K. BEATTY         REPUBLICAN
ROBERT J. UNDERWOOD         LIBERTARIAN

I wasn't a fan of Beatty from the stuff in the metro article.  I checked out his Issues page, and I'm discomfited by stuff like, "We need to lower taxes. End of story."

REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS
SEVENTH DISTRICT
EDWARD J. MARKEY         DEMOCRATIC
    Candidate for Re-election
JOHN CUNNINGHAM         REPUBLICAN

I went to Cunningham's website.  Is it bad that I want to vote for him just because his bullet-point list includes End the "War on Drugs"? 
I watched the 10/30 debate video.  Cunningham is identified as a "Republican Libertarian."  In his opening statement, he states that he opposes: the bailout, the Iraq War, No Child Left Behind.

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From an op-ed piece in Wednesday's metro on Question 1:

There has always been taxation. From ancient times there has always been the principle of the citizenry chipping in to fund the organization of the greater good. Like vegetables, moderation and referees, tax is unpopular with most of us but delivers a healthier whole.

[...]

We have brainless blowholes on talk radio telling us to vote yes and stop "the government stealing your money." As if "the government" was some occupying force of imposters and not the people we've chosen to run the state and can replace in six days if we want to.

And a reader letter from the same issue, with a take on Question 2 I hadn't thought of:

Reducing the punishment for possession of small quantities of pot might encourage more drug use.  However, what the opponents of the bill may be failing to consider is that decriminalization and reduction of the penalty for small-quantity possession may also increase reporting of marijuana use to the police, thus resulting in a net decrease of illegal marijuana use.  I speak from personal experience; I have been in situations lately where others in my vicinity have been smoking marijuana, and their smoke has made its way into my bedroom.  If I had good reason to believe they would only be facing a fine if I were to call the police (i.e., they're not drug dealers, just occasional users), I wouldn't hesitate to report them.
-Brian Skinn, Cambridge

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I have 6 options for President:

BALDWIN and CASTLE, Constitution
BARR and ROOT, Libertarian
McCAIN and PALIN, Republican
McKINNEY and CLEMENTE, Green-Rainbow
NADER and GONZALEZ, Independent
OBAMA and BIDEN, Democratic

Friday, CNN AM had Bob Barr and Ralph Nader on via satellite
Kieran asked them: What issues are being ignored in this election?
Barr said the Constitution, which made me wince because (a) "What do you mean no one running knows anything the Constitution?  Wasn't Obama and Biden both con law profs?" and (b) I had just been looking at the platform of the "Constitution Party," but he went on to talk about the recent bailouts.  Eh, I am not really invested in whether the bailouts are constitutional or not -- I find the more important debate to be whether they were the best (ends justify the means, what? ;) ).  He also talked about government's electronic surveillance.
Nader said corporate waste/fraud, and full Medicare for all (Barr says the 1% govt rate is ridiculously low and people should go the private investment route).

Later they had John Sununu (fmr NH gov, R -- though my first thought was of the John Sununu v. Jeanne Shaheen Senate ads I keep seeing) and Kathleen Sebelius (KS gov, R) on via satellite.  I was entertained when Sununu was like, "You refused to okay two new coal plants in KS," and Sebelius was like, "The energy from those plants would have gone to Colorado; we're well-supplied with energy in Kansas, and also coal is dirty."

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Amy posted:

I have succumbed to the times. Right now, what's everyone focused on? The two most important upcoming events: Halloween and the election.

To that end, have a collage that combines the most important part of one (the Charlie Brown special, obviously) with the key Dem slogan of the other.

http://i38.tinypic.com/2po46ja.gif

materials: cardstock and watercolors paints
archive: http://del.icio.us/nailpolishportraits

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slodwick linked to some YouTube clips from the West Wing episode "Game On."

Gov. Ritchie: Now, I want people to work together in this great country, and that's what I did in Florida—I brought people together—and that's what I'll do as your President. End the logjam, end the gridlock, and bring Republicans together with Democrats, 'cause Americans are tired of partisan politics.
Bartlet: Actually, what you've done in Florida is bring the right together with the far right. And I don't think Americans are tired of partisan politics; I think they're tired of hearing career politicians diss partisan politics to get a gig. I've tried it before. They ain't buying it. That's okay, though; that's okay, though, 'cause partisan politics is good. Partisan politics is what the Founders had in mind. It guarantees that the minority opinion is heard, and as a lifelong possessor of minority opinions, I appreciate it.

I like Bartlet's quip about what Ritchie's "bring people together" actually looked like, but I"m uncomfortable with the idea that partisan politics "guarantees that the minority opinion is heard;" I feel like it forces everyone to decide between two opinions.

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(found on friendsfriends) rwday made a post I really liked on the "Copy this sentence into your livejournal if you're in a heterosexual marriage, and you don't want it "protected" by the bigots who think that gay marriage hurts it somehow." meme.

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mjules sent me this article.

I've had moments of cognitive disconnect when I read LJers being like, "the Founding Fathers totally wouldn't have felt their marriages threatened by same-sex marriage,"so I appreciated this bit:

Like most Americans, I like to believe in the promises those Founding Fathers made. I hold the Declaration of Independence especially dear because it was written by a long-lost cousin of mine (look again at my byline). If he were alive today, I'd have invited him to my wedding. Not that Thomas Jefferson would necessarily have approved of my sexual orientation—back in his day, he advocated castration as punishment for sodomy in the state of Virginia. Then again, my cousin was hardly a model of sexual propriety, canoodling as he did with his slave Sally Hemings. I would only hope that the man who promised me "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness" would agree that affairs of the heart should not be determined by popular vote. (Question for the Mormon church, which has pushed its members to funnel millions of dollars into the Yes on Prop 8 campaign: do you regret having helped my dad and I trace our genealogy when I was in sixth grade?)

Look, I'm a realist. "All men are created equal" may be the cornerstone of what we call "liberty," but it has taken a couple of centuries for the American populace to digest the meaning of those words, and I suspect it will take centuries more. When my mother was born, women didn't have the right to vote. When my sister was born, "separate but equal" was the law in the South. When I was born, blacks and whites couldn't marry in several states.

Aww, the gays (and liberals generally) hate on Reagan, so this bit made me happy:

Since I was a teenager, I've been watching gay people in America fight for their rights. In 1978, when I was 14, a conservative legislator named John Briggs got an initiative on the California state ballot to prevent gays and lesbians from working in the public schools. The measure was leading in the polls by a large margin until just the week before the election when Gov. Ronald Reagan announced his opposition and it lost by a wide margin. "Homosexuality is not a contagious disease like measles," the governor wrote in a September 1978 statement. "Prevailing scientific opinion is that an individual's sexuality is determined at a very early age and that a child's teachers do not really influence this."

And lastly:

The bakery we chose, Hansen's Cakes in Los Angeles, was a particular surprise: they were already carrying same-sex cake toppers, with mixed-race gay and lesbian couples. This is what I love most about American capitalism: smart business people don't discriminate as long as your money's green.

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online quiz seen via ann1962:
33 miles per gallon