Thursday, November 4, 2004

The Recovery Continues It took me a minute to realize I was grateful for Entertainment Tonight updates on "Desperate Housewives."  At least it's not more pop-fluff debriefing on the election debacle. Chuck D made me laugh so hard this morning I couldn't see.  It was bittersweet laughter:  during Bush's press conference this morning, Lizz Winstead was scanning news sites, and stumbled onto the rumor that Yasir Arafat had died.  Chuck's response, deadpan:  "Bush speaks, Arafat dies.  He's that powerful now."  I don't want to go into too much post-mortem, but I emailed the DNC yesterday and told them, as a lifelong Democrat, that I would not raise another penny for the party until Terry McAuliffe was gone.  I suggest you do the same.  7:26:29 PM     comment []

Things that Make You Go Hmm CNN is reporting that John Ashcroft will resign in the next couple of weeks.  Why would you lose the most rabid evangelical Christian nutball if you won a majority from your right-wing Christian buddies?  Will Bush replace him with a reasonable human being?  Or another pitbull?  We're going to find out very early how much Bush means all that "let's come together as one nation" pap. 8:04:37 AM     comment []

Signs of Hope Yeah, yeah, I know, it looks pretty stark on the federal side.  But I work in local politics, and on Tuesday, a lot of interesting things happened on the local side.  First of all, the moral majority that Bush is claiming is a lot more fractured than he thinks.  They passed eleven anti-gay initiatives, but they passed California's stem-cell research initiative by a wide margin.  Anti-abortion crusaders have been fighting to stop this iniative because, I think, they believe that live babies will be killed to get at their stem cells.  Infants, too.  Anyway, they lost dramatically. California also passed a unique tax to pay for mental health care.  A unique tax, because it taxes millionaires to pay for services for everybody.  Each according to their means.  The pro-big business crowd is trumpeting on NPR about their new power, but Florida passed a minimum wage increase from $5.15 to $6.15 an hour, a victory for the little guy. These are just a few examples.  You can tell me about your examples of hope. Tell me that Senator Barack Obama isn't a sign of hope. The execrable governor of Montana, Judy Martz, is gone.  Judy Martz once bragged about  being a lapdog to industry, and has been a trainwreck of a governor.  My friends in Montana have replaced her with Brian Schweitzer, the first Democratic governor since the end of Reagan's second term.  They have apparently also taken a Democratic majority in the state Senate.  That's a good sign. Here in the other Washington, the state Senate has also fallen into the hands of Democrats, complementing a wider majority in the state House.  So much for your mandate.  If there was a real mandate, a real landslide, Patty Murray would be sending out resumes today, instead of preparing for her real term. My best sign for hope, though, is the massive turnout by all sides.  John Kerry won more votes than any other candidate in history, four million votes more than Al Gore in 2000.  Unfortunately, the other guy got four million more votes.  There was a stunning turnout for yesterday's election, and a vigilant public is always better.  The best sign for me is that the public has been awakened, and they will not sleep easily.  Let us be vigilant and show the President our own mandate:  a mandate for public involvement, a mandate for clear answers and honest politics.  The aggresive turnout efforts by both D's and R's has turned America into a hungry crowd, and it's a lot easier to run a dictatorship when the public's not paying attention.  7:49:45 AM     comment []