Stop being obsessed with politics

How do I even begin to sum up the past weeks since Hillary left the race. It was a painful end to the campaign for me and even though I totally embrace Barack Obama as my candidate, I have found it difficult to come to this goal. I’ve used it in the past as my place to rant, my place to spew my own biases and political takes on everything. But it has been a wild and crazy ride between the Democratic National Convention until today.

How do I describe the intense hope I felt during the DNC? How do I even begin to discuss with you all the emotions I had? It’s not as though I can bring it down to a bumper sticker slogan or one of the many signs my friends sent me from the convention. It’s so much more than that.

It’s a mixture of hope and desperation from the DNC. It’s intense fear and anger over the events of the Republican National Convention – the riots and the tear gas, the attacks on the media, and of course Sarah Palin.

I tried to blow it off for a long time. While I figured out how I felt about it. As a candidate, as someone who could be President, she is horrible. I doubt we agree with much at all around policy. But I think something deeper has been eating at me. It’s the whole feminist thing. How can I tear down another woman? What does that make me?

But the more I have learned about Sarah Palin, the more I grow concerned that she could one day sit in the White House. Her policies in Alaska scare me. When she was mayor of Wasilla, she made rape victims pay for their crime kits. At the time, it was against the law to do so, costing roughly $400 to as much as $1000. What? That can’t be right I thought. She’s a woman. But it is true.

Then, I learned of some of her extreme positions. She believes creation should be taught alongside evolution in public schools. She has made some terrible decisions in her home state, including trying to take the polar bear off the endangered species list in order to drill for oil. This is a position even the Bush Administration does not share with her.

Worst of all, she has extreme positions on abortion (a huge sticking point for me). She opposes access to abortion even in the case of rape and incest.

So how does this woman carry the banner of feminism? I have absolutely no idea.

But I think the thing that bothers me the most, is that after all of our hard work as progressive women. After watching Geraldine Ferraro and Hillary Clinton make their way through the ranks of the Democratic Party, it could very well be the Republicans who get to take credit for bringing a woman to the White House. This is a party where women barely made up a quarter of the RNC delegate, and who rarely place women of Congress in positions of power. And if they do bring a women to the White House, wha kind of woman will that be?

Sarah Palin is not my candidate. Barack Obama is my candidate.

Barack Obama is Pro-choice, Pro-Woman, Pro-Family, Pro-Civil Liberties, Pro-Environment, Pro-Universal Health Care, Pro-taking back our country from Wall Street. And I can’t wait to vote for him on November 4.

His own words speak for themselves.

“I was with some Vietnamese recently, and some of them were smoking two cigarettes at the same time. That’s the kind of customers we need! “

“Mr. Clinton better watch out if he comes down here. He’d better have a bodyguard. ”
“Your tax dollars are being used to pay for grade school classes that teach our children that cannibalism, wife-swapping and the murder of infants and the elderly are acceptable behavior.”

“It’s their deliberate, disgusting, revolting conduct that is responsible for the disease.”

“There is not one single case of AIDS in this country that
cannot be traced in origin to sodomy.”

“I’ve been portrayed as a caveman by some. That’s not true.
I’m a conservative progressive, and that means I think all men
are equal, be they slants, beaners or niggers.”

“If God had wanted us to use the metric system,
Jesus would have had 10 apostles.”

‘Nuff said.

Is it really that simple?

Last year, I saw a great documentary called Flock of Dodos which is an interesting look at the intelligent design movement.

IMO, this movement is all about getting religion back into the classroom without having to use religious terms. It purports that life was “created” or “intelligently designed,” claiming that if we have no scientific proof of the jump from inorganic matter to organic matter in the evolutionary cycle that saying life may have been designed by a super intelligent whatever is just as legitimate as saying “we don’t know” in the classroom.

Well, now you have Ben Stein going out there like a Michael Moore wannabe with a new “documentary” called Expelled: No intelligence allowed which looks a response to Flock of Dodos.

I haven’t seen this movie. Only the trailer. But I can’t help but laugh since I found it on the Operation Rescue website, the heinous anti-choice organization that is storming Atlanta this month.

If it were anyone but someone so ideologically entrenched as Ben Stein, I might actually give it a watch. But he is such a misogynistic ass that I really don’t think I can bring myself to do it.

I would recommend Flock of Dodos. It’s humorous and makes the intelligent design folks look crazy. Which I guess fits my world view and is why I like it so much. Perhaps they are not as crazy as they seem. But to me, science is science. Throw out a hypothesis and test it. If you can’t do that, don’t talk to me. You can’t just say, well this is a possibility, because as said by that guy in the trailer, it’s possible that aliens created life on earth too, but I bet that doesn’t fit the world view of folks supporting intelligent design.

Well, that’s my brief thoughts on it. I’d love to read what anyone else thinks about this.

I’m in a bit of shock. I mean, now what am I going to do Sunday morning? Sure, he wasn’t great, but he was a staple. Kind of like bread. It’s not always good for you, but it’s always in the pantry.

Tim Russert, famed host of Meet the Press, died today from an apparent heart attack at 58. Yikes!

While I was at the gym, I saw a story on CNN that said the final counts are in for Texas and Obama wins the state by 5 delegates with he slam dunk in the caucuses. But I just went on CNN.com and can’t find anything.

If it’s true, that’s pretty devastating. That was supposedly Hillary’s big win. I do think it’s time she stepped away, as sad as that makes me. But as hubby says, just suspend her campaign, just in case Obama makes a huge mistake before the convention, we’ll still have a great nominee.

But to be honest, I have often been speechless in reflecting on current politics.

I can’t even begin to write about how disappointed I am in New York’s Governor Eliot Spitzer. I am continually appalled, and totally depressed about everything going on in NYS politics right now.

To pile it on, the presidential race is nothing as I had expected, or hoped. I have been a strong supporter of Hillary. I think she would be an incredible leader and would change our political world forever. It’s not that I don’t like Obama. I’m just disappointed and very worried. I am very fearful that Obama can’t beat McCain. And another 4 years of Republican rule will absolutely decimate the middle class in this country and set us back even further in women’s rights and civil rights.

I truly hope the Democratic primary is decided soon. And I sadly hope Hillary suspends her campaign so the party can focus on the real enemy. But alas, I don’t make those decisions.

It hurts my head to even consider this, but I know I have to learn to let some political poop go.

from entering anything here. You can imagine I’ve just been ready to burst over the primary season. The blogs are going crazy with sexist comments, racist comments and such. Check dailykos.com and feministing.com for your daily fix.

I think what is so interesting about this race is first, how open it is on both sides and second the strange new primary schedule.

Yes, I’m a Hillary fan. Interesting to those who know me as a 2004 Deaniac. But seriously, I think a woman is what is standing between our current political nightmare and change. We need a total shift in pedagogy. We need a totally new view. Just because Obama is fresh, does not mean he can actually change things. If anything, I feel his naivety and lack of leadership skills will leave him chewed up and spit out by the system. Hillary has already proven her ability to create change. She actually has changed things since she came to the Senate.

But it is a long way to Feb 5 and beyond. Anything can happen.

And what about that Huckabee? Do people realize he doesn’t believe in science? Do people realize he’s a Baptist minister? I am the only one who sees a problem with our President being a Baptist minister who doesn’t believe in evolution? Helloooo?

More to come…

I cannot wait for the results of the Iowa Caucus! Who will emerge the winners? And will they make it all the way?

I have to admit, I am getting very tired of all of these debates, and I’m not even watching them all. Some things that are very clear at the moment.

• The only thing that the Republican Party is united behind is hating Hillary Clinton. Heaven help them if someone else is the nominee. They might actually become speechless.

• Hillary Clinton is amazing. She is fighting off attacks from all of her Democratic opponents and all of the Republican opponents. And even after months and months of these attacks, she is still ahead in all the polls. You have to hand it to her.

• Mike Huckabee is 2nd in Iowa. Hmmm. Where the heck did he come from? Maybe my co-worker G has something in her prediction for the come from behind kid.

• I don’t see much difference in the leading Democratic candidates, even after all these debates. It seems they are all capable of being a good President. But even with all the hatred toward Hillary, I think she is the only one who will bring back our standing with the rest of the world. And she seems to be the most resilliant candidate in US history. My goodness. What else will they throw at her?

• It pisses me off that every question about the Supreme Court revolves around abortion. Yes, it’s important to me, but the Supreme Court has a ton of important issues before it. We must broaden this issue. Like education, affirmative action, equal pay, immigration, torture, civil liberties, free speech, privacy… come on.

• And the Republican Party seems obsessed with abortion and security. You’d think there was nothing more important to them than terrorists, immigrants and fertilized eggs. Sure, those issues are going to make a difference in my every day life. Give me a break guys. Take a walk in my shoes. How about the economy, public education, college education, affordable housing, energy, global warming, health care… So many issues, if tackled, would improve our lives. Now. Focus people. Focus.