Get out the vote

No way I would have even dreamed this result… The House going back to the Democrats seemed like a done deal, but I thought the Democrats would fall just short to take over the Senate. It’s still not certain but considering Webb has a few thousand vote lead with only the absentee ballots remaining, it looks promising!

By the way, Nancy Pelosi being the first female House Speaker, in an interview with Wolf Blitzer, said that even though Democrats, and her in particular, opposed the war in Iraq, and even though the Democrats now control the house, they will not try to cut funding for the war in Iraq in order to force Bush’ hand in changing policies. This shows as example of how you can still support the troops even though you oppose the war and Bush’s policy…

And by the way, those who say Democrats would be bad for the economy, the market does not appear to agree with them. While it’s been known for weeks that Democrats would make gains, the market has been rising… and even after the results have confirmed what was speculated, the markets still went higher. Of course, markets do not necessarily reflect the economy directly, but those who spend their own money to invest would not be investing more money if they feel their would be losing their money….

And PS. The market may go down like in Thursday, but it shows it has more to do with the economic environment and not some perception about who has power…

Yesterday (November 7-ELECTION DAY!) I organized to walk downtown after school with a few of my friends to hold signs for some of the democratic candidates. We walked all around the campus for about three hours, talking to college students, encouraging them to vote for Carol Shea-Porter, but especially just to VOTE! It was a little intimidating at first, 13 and 14 year olds trying to talk to college students, but it was fun. I usually did most of the talking, but my friends helped out a lot too. Some people were really mean, some ignored us, some smiled and told us how awesome we were, some actually listened to what we had to say then told us they would vote for Carol Shea-Porter for us, some asked us questions, some glared at us. I hope that we mde a difference. The first guy we talked to told us we were more politcally active than anyone he knows. It was all very fun. And the most rewarding thing was that the race for New Hampshire congress was so close, that I know I made a difference. And Carol Shea-Porter did win!!!

Thank you to Petersky for inviting me to this great goal!

The Democrats have the House, and they’re so close to the Senate!

The Governor had already declared our county a disaster area on Monday; several polling places had been closed due to flooding. It was still raining Tuesday morning.

By 7:30 we had started. Emma and walked our precinct, reminding people to vote. I got Rose out of school at this point, and we walked another precinct, the one just to the west of ours. It was raining so hard, our sheets to mark down if people had voted completely shredded, and we had to re-write the information on other pieces of paper. We went home, and I completely changed out of my thick corduroy slacks, which had soaked through. Emma took a break at home, while Rose and I walked the one to the south of ours. This time I used plastic protective sheets to keep the paperwork dry.

When that one was done, we came home, and I took a half hour break. I changed out of my shirt, which had also completely soaked through. I hung up my wet jacket. I heated up some canned soup for everyone.

Campaign headquarters said they had a priority precinct in Medina, so after the break, Rose stayed at home, and Emma and I went drove out there. It’s the Gold Coast, the town where Bill Gates lives. By the time we found the right spot, the rain finally started to slack, and then ceased. Sunlight leaked through the banks of grey clouds. The views were spectacular over Lake Washington towards the city and the setting sun.

We finally finished up around 5:30 and drove home. I was completely spent. I had a hot bath while my husband went out to fetch Thai take-out. The combo of hot water and hot food revivified me. I took the girls to trombone lessons, and then went to the Victory Party. After trombone, the girls joined me at the party.

There, we learned that the House has been re-taken by the Democratic Party. Cantwell was declared the winner of our state. And locally, I am now completely represented by Democrats—this used to be a solidly Republican district, where GOP candidates used to run unopposed, and the only action was the primary. No more!

Where we were still all holding our breath - and where we continue to not know the outcome - is in our congressional election. Darcy Burner was ahead briefly; now, she’s behind, but by a very slender margin. We won’t know the actual results of this race for days - maybe weeks - to come.

GOP has been using “robocalls” to place heavy volume of automated political phone calls to infuriate countless voters

From the following article:

Some voters, sick of interrupted dinners and evenings, say they will punish the offending parties by opposing them in today’s elections. But critics say Republicans crafted the messages to delude voters, especially those who hang up quickly, into thinking that Democrats placed the calls.

Reference:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/06/AR2006110601103.html

Go get ‘em to the polls! Report back here later with your experience, if you’d like.

Unfortunately it looks like the Republicans will keep power of the Senate… but we can be hopeful!

And if this isn’t enough to motivate you to vote, then perhaps one of the videos will:

And some other videos:

• Too bad the president doesn’t know the number of days in February…?
• Bush making fun of a blind reporter wearing dark glasses
• Bush not answering question in typical Bush style
• Aren’t you glad that making suspects believe that they are going to drown is considered legal in the US and not torture?
  • (And just in case you would like to have some actual informative background about what Bush is trying to do by redefining torture and retroactively changing the law, you can view this video...)
• Is Bush an idiot?

or my rants and raves at defeat the republicans

And yes, while we are not directly voting for or against Bush, we need to vote out of power the congress which “empowers” Bush to do what he is doing, which is to make uninformed decisions which are have cost thousands of US troops their lives as well as tens of thousands (or even hundreds of thousands) of Iraqi lives.

My teenaged daughter wants to go out canvassing with me on Election Day. She’s playing in a Veteran’s Day assembly at school, so when that’s over (after 2nd period), I’ll sign her out for the day. I don’t know what the excuse will read – I’ll probably put down “Family Activity” and hope that’ll fly. She’ll have to get all her teachers to sign off on it, but since she’s an A student, I think they’ll all be OK with it, especially Mr. Perlmann, her social studies teacher.

If nothing else, she’ll have the stamina for this. At the 2004 election, I was completely limp by the end of the day, even though all I did the last two hours was monitor our local polling place for irregularities. I was so exhausted, I couldn’t make it to the “victory party” downtown.

We live in what used to be Republican district that is becoming more Democratic every year. We have one of the few competitive House races, with Democrat Darcy Burner giving Republican David Reichert a run, literally, for the money. I used to be completely represented in the state house by Republicans. Now, I have a state rep who is a Democrat, and two up-for-grabs-by-the-polls House and Senate seats. We’ll see who we’ll be sending down to Olympia for the legislative session in January!

Edited to add: my daughter said that she wanted to go to the Victory Party because she wanted “to drink from the Fountain of Glory”. I thought that phrase was pretty funny.

I’ve been up in Montogomery County, PA, since Wednesday, helping to build crowds for a series of rallies on Saturday. After that it’s GOTV work!

I am taking the day off from work, and my bass lesson has been cancelled. I am now slated to meet at the VFW hall at 7:15 am. I plan to be working from that time, until the polls close at 8:00. Let’s pray for no rain, big turnout!