CafeChatNoir

Virginia went Blue.  Well done.  And yes, I was on CNN.com hitting refresh every minute last night watching those returns come in.

I’m still fumbling about for words.

I wish my Mom had been alive to see this.  She would have loved it.  When she moved to Atlanta as a child, there were still separate water fountains.  And look how far we’ve come.

I was amazed it was over and done so early - I really thought we’d be up half the night counting and watching and waiting.

McCain’s concession speech was exceptionally classy.  Little bro & I went up to the pub and watched Obama’s acceptance speech.  Though the pub leans a little more right than left, there were a few teary eyes and a fair amount of smiles.  The shot of the throngs of people celebrating in front of the White House had me grinning from ear to ear.  I have never seen an election where people were so downright joyous at the outcome.

Congratulations President-Elect Obama.

By calling the Virginia Senate race - WITH ZERO PRECINCTS REPORTING.

I hate exit polling.

The Virginia polls are closed (or more likely in some places, the last person in line has been told they will be the last person allowed in) and soon we’ll be on our way to knowing who our new President is.

I love elections.  The campaigns usually drive me nuts, but I do love to go and vote and sometimes who I pick actually wins to boot.

And yes, I’ll be up all night watching the returns come in.

and all that good stuff.

Orange Hunt Precinct, 1PM - no waiting, but a good steady stream of folks coming and going.

Pretty cool when you think about it - go in, hit a few buttons, check a few boxes and at the end of the day, we have a new President!

Not that I don’t RIDICULOUSLY miss my Dad, too, because I do.  But, Mom & I had developed a great ability to talk politics with absolutely NO hurt feelings whatsoever.

I think it is because we both discovered that we had a lot more in common politically than either of us might had thought possible when I was younger.*  That, and she was able to impart a LOT of insight as how the exec branch affected her job**, which was more telling than any press conference could be as to how any administration would be doing things to affect the country.

While I do have a small handful of people that I feel mildly comfortable talking politics with, it’s just not the same.  Maybe part of it was knowing that even if I joined up with the Anarchists, Mom would be happy that I found a party I could identify with and support and she wouldn’t give me shit about it.  That, and she’s probably nicely quiz me on their platform, if nothing else if to see if perhaps they were a good fit for her as well. ;)

At least little bro & I seem to be running on the same wavelength, so I have someone I can rant to about various political things without worrying about upsetting anyone.  But it was always fun to have a partner in righteous indignation on Friday-night-pizza&beer&ranting-with-Mom night.  (She always won on the “whose employer is more screwed up” game every week.)

I think she’d be tickled as hell that Obama is a viable candidate.  She moved from CA to GA as a little kid and discovered segregation - and being a little one, didn’t understand it one bit.  (And regularly drank from the “colored” fountains because there was no line and couldn’t understand why it made a damn bit of difference.)  I think she would have liked to see the progression from separate fountains, schools, and everything else to candidate for the Presidency of the United States.  Hell, all I know is what she told me over the years and *I* think it’s cool as shit that we’ve managed to come this far in a relatively short period of time.

I still wish she was around so we could crack a couple Guinnesses and split a pizza and solve the problems of the world on Fridays.

*  She genuinely wondered where the hell I could go politically, given that folks tend to get more conservative as they get older, and as a senior in HS, she described me as “one step right of Attila the Hun” - it was delivered with love, but also accurate as I was leaning fairly right at the time.  I think she’d like the fact that I discovered and have lovingly embraced my inner hippie.
**The most basic description of her job:  Government HR rules and regs.  Fine line between fairness to employees, screwing employees and protecting the gov’t from it’s employees.

Watching the Banking Committee hearings this morning on CNBC re: market bailout.

It would be more comforting if the members understood what a reverse auction was.

So, Palin’s 17 year old daughter is pregnant.  Already seen lots of snarky comments floating about re: the parenting skills of the VP candidate and her husband.  Eh, as far as I am concerned, it’s more of an “it is what it is” situation.  They’re hardly the first to try to do their best with their kids and still have a 17 year old that gets pregnant.

Lots of speculation that the young lady had no say in the matter as far as keeping the baby and marrying the father are concerned.  Then again - I doubt she’s the only teen to get pregnant that found she had no say in the matter.

I did read the rumors that Palin had faked her 5th pregnancy and it was really her daughter’s child.  Just a tad far fetched, don’t you think?  Though I’ll admit I did giggle at the Fark headline of “Bristol Palin pregnant with second child.”

What really surprises me is that McCain supposedly knew and still picked Palin as his running mate. I really would have thought that would have been a dealbreaker.

Just got a news email that Gustav is now a Cat 5.

Still absorbing McCain’s VP pick. I know Palin is very well regarded among her constituents and it doesn’t appear that Alaska is about to fall into the ocean so I assume she’s not done too badly there. But, she’s pretty conservative and McCain didn’t really need that, cause the hard core conservatives weren’t going to be crossing over to the democrats anyway. Hate to think it was nothing more than a pandering move, but maybe it was.

Upgraded WP again and went ahead and blew away all my customizations and theme, which should take care of the disappearing posts issue, because it was something in the comment form, I just never figured out what - but now that I’ve got a shiny new untouched form, that should do it. Unfortunately, I’m having a hard time finding a theme that I like, so I’m going to give some of the theme generators a try and see if I can get things back to looking somewhat like they were before, if not better.

…

OK, so maybe by the end of the day we’ll know who the Democratic presidential nominee will be - or not.

What I am quite interested in (among other things) is to see how the results sync up (if at all) with the “straw poll” organized by Stephen Colbert on DonorsChoose.org - at the moment, Obama is leading $157K in donations to Clinton’s $29K.  Obviously there is no way to know if any of the folks that donated are even voting in today’s election, but it does say to me that Stephen Colbert’s viewers tend to be generous, and there are a fair amount of Obama supporters in there.

Guess we’ll see if that extends to the state of Pennsylvania tonight.

Having a Tom in town can be hazardous to your health. We had a painful amount of fun last evening and today I am definitely feeling it. But hey, I only see the guy every couple of years.  And as a result of his presence, there is a case of Mountain Dew in the fridge.  I haven’t had that in years - damn, that stuff is good.

Hillary coming in 3rd last evening in Iowa really surprised me. I knew Obama would give her a run for her money, but I certainly didn’t see Edwards beating her. And on the republican side - Huckabee? Huh? Perhaps it’s time to move to New Zealand - Tom says it’s pretty nice.

Went and did my civic duty. Though I can’t say I was exceptionally enthusiastic about it, at least I don’t live in a country where the constitution has been suspended and the next elections are now in question. (Yet.) For the most part, the campaigns have been snarky and uninspiring and didn’t exactly leave me with a feeling of “YES! That is who I want in office!”

Bonds were voted upon, my delegate ran unopposed, and my state senator will learn that I don’t like being responded to with a form letter.

Clerk of the Court was up again - I believe it was visgoth that wondered aloud why the position of a professional administrator was an elected one, rather than an appointment given to the most qualified person. Can’t say I disagree on that one.

Then there is my favorite - Soil & Water Conservation Board. If these folks are actively campaigning, they sure as hell missed my neighborhood. I read the candidate profiles, try to do my due diligence, and never manage to see anyone that is either spectacularly perfect for it, or egregiously wrong for it. Short of going and personally interviewing these folks, I never feel like I am making a truly informed decision.

I must say, I do love my polling place - it’s 5 minutes away, only one precinct, and no lines. (OK, doesn’t hurt that I go in the middle of the day.)

We may get our Constitution back!!!!!!!!

Alberto Gonzales Resigns

“…Armageddon is not exactly a foreign policy…”

- Madeline Albright on the Colbert Report, 3.27.07

Add to that list: Congressional hearings. Sure, Congressional hearings aren’t actually making anything, but eventually they lead to laws being made and well, it’s not always pretty.

Been watching Ben Bernake in front of the finance committees the past two days. Despite the fact that I’ve been a swooning fangirl of Alan Greenspan’s for years, the new guy has won me over in his time in the position. He knows his stuff, is very levelheaded and not into fear-mongering.

Overall, the hearings have been fairly tame, a lot of good questions and answers, no raking over the coals and very minimal snarkiness.

However, what is going to make my head explode is how many times I’ve heard reps saying things about “MY district” - do you not understand that the Fed is a regional/national organization? When you’re talking about Fed issues you have to think about the entire region that you are a part of, not just your district. Your district is just a little piece of a bigger thing and you have to remember that - it’s not all about you.

The other question/comment that just killed me was someone talking about “increasing take home pay” in her district… It seemed to be asked in a matter that she expected him to wave a magic wand and everyone would have higher take home pay. In my mind, for higher take home pay, there are two ways to go about it: 1) Make yourself more marketable so you can move up (and Bernake HAS said addressed workforce education as being critical) and/or 2) Find a better employer. Honestly, not sure how the Federal Reserve could directly control it, at least not in the way the representative appeared to think. (Yes, part of their work is employment, but not “*poof*, here’s higher take home pay”)

Best question/comment? From a congressman new to Congress and the committee - just asked (paraphrased to be sure) “Can you give a high level rundown of what the Fed is actually responsible for so that we don’t ask questions about things that you have absolutely no responsibility for?” Kinda think maybe he should have gotten to ask his question first…

This just came across the wires: Texas Governor Rick Perry Issues Order Requiring HPV Vaccine

However, parents can opt-out for “reasons of conscience, including religious beliefs”, which in my eyes takes it from an “order” to a “suggestion”. Even with that, I am sure there will folks on both sides of the debate completely up in arms over it.

Some interesting info from CNBC on this - apparently the Texas governor has close ties with Merck, who makes the vaccine, and their Texas lobbyist used to be on the governor’s staff. Talk about things that make you go Hmmmm. He’s also considered to be fairly right-wing/conservative, so that makes the order a little more surprising, at least to me. It will be interesting to see what political fallout (if any) there is over this with his constituency.

As far as the vaccine itself goes, if I had daughters, I’d most likely get them vaccinated for it, school requirements or not. (I say “most likely” because at the moment, I don’t have all the information needed to make a final decision. Or a daughter.) I’m just not big on government mandating what I see as a decision to be made by parents & health care providers.

I still don’t understand the argument that this will somehow encourage girls to be sexually active. It just really doesn’t make sense to me. If you genuinely think this is going to make your daughter turn into a trollop, then I’d say it’s time to sit down and have a very long talk with them.

I also don’t like hearing the words “cancer vaccine” get thrown around as it is NOT - it’s a vaccine against a virus, and you could get the vaccine and still get cervical cancer.

It’s $360 for the full series of doses, which not everyone has just sitting around. It will be included in the federal Vaccines for Children program, but there is still going to be a gap of families that don’t qualify for VfC or state programs and don’t have it covered by their insurance plans. The Texas order doesn’t go into effect until September of next year, so in theory most insurance plans that are going to cover it will have picked it up by then. Personally, I imagine it will be covered like other childhood vaccines are, given that $360 is cheap compared to cancer treatments.

Several other states are considering similar measures at this time. Maryland has already dropped a proposal to mandate the vaccine for school admission stating that there are “too many vaccine requirements” for schoolchildren already. Which I suppose sounds better than, “We really don’t want to get into this entire mess, thanks.”

Watching the President totally hose floor trading at the NYSE at the moment. The White House had repeatedly denied that he would be visiting the NYSE after his speech across the street at Federal Hall, but there you go. The Secret Service folks do not seem pleased with this turn of events. (I hope they are at least grateful that the NYSE floor is an exceptionally secure area to start with.)

I’ve got a friend that could be making a mistake and I’ve done my best to give warning. (Not “you’re an idiot” mistake but a “you’ve got bad information, PLEASE double check it” mistake.) I’ve done what I can and now all I can do is hope that things turn out OK. Frustrating to say the least.

Entry migration is still coming along. Everything that has been brought over so far has been tagged and checked for security. Once everything is in, then there will be some minor cleanup still to do, as anything without a subject is automatically assigned a # for the subject and that has to go. Minor, but mildly annoying. Need to figure out how to convert the archive list to a dropdown cause it’s just too long, and there will likely be some category cleanups as well.

It’s been really interested re-reading everything as I’ve been importing it. I’ve found that when things are going badly, I write a lot more. It’s a little disturbing how things are so different for me now than they were just two years ago. Never in a million years would I have thought I’d be where I am today. Even with all the changes, there are a lot of good reminders of “don’t make that mistake again, dumbass” in the older entries.

Yup, I watched it. Didn’t even throw anything at the TV and the wine bottle is still in the kitchen.

9PM this evening, pretty much every channel.

I’m debating whether or not I want to watch it. I think as a semi-decent citizen I should take the time to hear what the President has to say. However, I also think it will probably piss me off so much that I will drinking wine straight from the bottle with a straw by the time it’s halfway through.

This is what we’ve been chomping at the bit all week for? Color me somewhat underwhelmed, but I suppose I expected more concrete information on the big new plan.

I don’t feel particularly good when told that “victory will not look like what our fathers and grandfathers knew as victory.” I guess failure must not look like it used to, either.

No, I don’t have the answers. But I’m not the one running the show, either.

I get an AP alert saying the Dems have control of the Senate, yet there are still headlines out there saying the Va vote counts are “still being scrutinized” - so, which is it??!?

AP is reporting that Rumsfeld is stepping down. This has been an interesting election.

Well, I guess Allen wasn’t conceding last night after all, since no one seems to be able to say who won. CNN.com is showing 1.170M for Webb and 1.162M for Allen, with 99% reporting in.

Is it too much to ask for an election that doesn’t have to have a recount at the end of it?

I’ll fully admit I didn’t like either candidate for the Va Senate. Was sitting up at the bar, and looked up, and Allen was on TV…

Gregor: He’s conceding…
Me: I don’t know, his wife sure is smiling a lot.
Gregor: Nope, he’s throwing in the towel…
Cut to return graphics with something along the lines of 99% of precincts reporting in…
Me: Holy crap, her Prozac must be kicking in big time.

Honestly, I didn’t expect that in a million years, and at the same time, I can’t say I’m terribly disappointed.

At the moment, it would appear that the Dems have taken the house, the Senate is still even. I’m VERY glad the FBI is looking into the “you’ll get arrested if you try to vote” phone calls, cause I don’t care which side of the fence you’re on, that is JUST WRONG. Voter intimidation is the stuff that ugly dictatorships are made of, not the US. Or so I keep telling myself. Keeping my fingers crossed that this turns into a very large, ugly, public spectacle that keeps it from happening in the future.

As much as I’d love to stay up and see all the results, I’m tired as all get out, and it’s not like going to sleep will change any outcomes.

Syrians have set fire to the Norwegian and Danish embassies in Damascus to protest at the publication of newspaper cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad.

This is all from the damn cartoons which you may or may not have seen floating around - no, they’re not that inflammatory at first glance, but images of the Prophet of any kind is considered big time blasphemy. So, yeah, they’re pissed and I get that, but going for the full on riot doesn’t make you look like anything but a complete whack job who has zero capability of expressing themselves through anything but violence. Nice work, guys, way to get the point across in a sane and rational manner that really will help the world understand why you’re upset.

Now, I know this is not how Islam works. Sure, you hear a lot of “Religion Of Peace, my ass” type comments, but it is a religion that is fundamentally peaceful - as most religions are. There have been times in history where Muslims, Jews and Christians have lived and worked in the same communities in peace, sharing ideas, culture, education and everyone was better off for it. Problem is then someone who is a little too hard core gets a bug up their ass and then things rapidly go to hell in a handbasket.

This is where your mainstream religious leaders really need to rein in the asshat extremists, or at least do more to distance themselves from them. Pretty much applies to any/all religions - be vocal, get out there and say “this isn’t acceptable and we don’t agree with it and this is not how we all are.”

Maybe eventually people won’t try using religion as their cheap excuse for being a jackass.