I have to say that this is the least prepared I have ever been going into the voting booth and I have a strict policy of not voting on things I know nothing about. So, I only voted on a couple of items.
My first and foremost reason for voting today was that my friend’s dad is running for King County Superior Court Judge and I wanted to make sure to support him. Vote Nic Corning.
I also wanted to make sure and cast a vote for Christine Gregiore because that Dino Rossi character scares me to death and his current messaging is pretty convincing to those not really aware of what he is all about.
I go to the polls to vote as it makes me feel connected in my community and I think it is a good lesson for my kids (well, just Ada right now). They keep telling us they are going to take this right away and make us all vote absentee, but it still hasn’t happened. It’s not like I am up in arms or anything, it just makes me sad.
What’s next? Voting by text message, like American Idol?
They say some of the most outlandish things I have ever heard. The last panel I was listening to, one member of there organization used the words “borderline fascist” when referring to the democratic party and the presidential nomination process.
They are so angry that their candidate didn’t win that they are willing to aggressively sabotage the election process. Would they really rather have McCain and every scary thing that that entails, such as the continuation of bush’s policies, appointment of more very conservative supreme court judges, more war, no addressing of the severely flawed and failing education in this country and a misguided approach to helping the economy recover, rather than have Obama in the White house, simply because Hillary didn’t win the primary fair and square.
Hillary ran a great race and although I truly believe that Obama is the better candidate and that he is better for America than Hillary would be, if Hillary had won the primary by following the existing rules (not the ones she made up), I would have been upset for a little while, but I would have gotten squarely behind Hillary, because she is certainly better than McCain or any other republican they could put out there.
Let’s get real here folks. I am glad that Hillary will get her roll call at the convention. It was close enough that this is clearly the right thing to do. But, why all the anger. Obama won fair and square, following the rules to a tee.
I like to use a football example (don’t ask why, I hate football). Just because the losing team makes a great and triumphant comeback in the second half and gets within one point at the end of the game, doesn’t mean that they deserved to win and the the win should be stripped from the winning team. That’s just absurd. Hillary made some major mistakes at the beginning of her campaign and just because she finally got it together at the end, but not enough to overtake Obama, doesn’t mean that she should win. She didn’t win. Get over it. There is nothing about Hillary Clinton that makes her more entitled to the nomination than anyone else.
Are the rules a little messed up? Maybe. That doesn’t mean you can change them to suit your purposes, it just doesn’t. It is time to rally and get a democrat elected so that we can start fixing the atrocities that have happened over the last eight years.
Everyone is entitled to their opinion, I get that, I have mine too obviously. But, why is this organization getting so much traction in the press? Why are so many people listening to such extreme views and obvious sour grapes? You got me.
I am glad to know that Hillary’s organization is denouncing this kind of behavior, although I think it should be done a little more directly. If it were me, I would be a little more direct with addressing this organization because the sheer number of people that are falling for this crap.
Here are a couple of references…
Here is an article with Hillary denouncing Ricki Liebermann, but not PUMA directly.
I would think there would be more about this, but not too much was easily found.
I will not bless Puma or Just Say No Deal with a link from this site. If you are interested they are easily found on the internet.
Instead, I will post links to the blog portions of both the Clinton and Obama websites. I feel the blog sections are the most informative, and of course you can easily access the rest of their sites from their.
I would also like to state that I am not a christian or a muslim or a buddist or a member or any other organized religious group, but I hold my personal spirituality very close to me. I grew up going to church with my family every sunday and have a good grasp on what christian values are all about, although that is not where my spiritual beliefs lie anymore. I also fully agree that anyone should be able to worship and believe whatever it is that they feel is right, but for God’s sake, keep it out of my government and don’t push your beliefs on me.
The way this country is moving and the fact that a very large portion of the American population believes that God created humans in his image less than 10,000 years ago when scientific research clearly shows over and over again that that is just ludicrous, scares me to death. But again, I digress and that is not what this post is about.
This post is about the George W and Bob Costas interview last night. The way that George W sees every situation through the lense of christianity simply just freaks me out. When asked pretty straight forward questions about the state of political affairs in China and the influence of the Olympics on that, he answered several questions with random unrelated statements about religion.
Here are a few exerpts…
Costas: If these Olympics are as successful as they are shaping up to be, most people believe this only further legitimizes the ruling party in the minds of most Chinese citizens. And even absent true liberty as we understand it, the lives of hundreds of millions of Chinese people are much better than they once were. Therefore, what’s the party’s incentive to reform?
Bush: Well first of all, if you are a religious person you understand that once religion takes hold in a society it can’t be stopped. And secondly I think the Olympics are gonna serve as a chance for people to come and see china the way it is, and let the Chinese see the world and interface and have, you know, the opportunity to converse with people from around the world. This is very positive development in my view for peace. You know, who knows how China’s going to progress. They have been through some very difficult political times, the Cultural Revolution for one, where the leadership actually created violent anarchy as the society turned on itself. All I can tell you is it’s important for the United States to be active in this part of the world, with all countries, and to stay engaged with China.
I do agree that it is important that we actively engage with countries, even if we disagree with their actions, but what does religion have to do with this. Yes, religious freedom is one of the many liberties missing in China, but interesting how this is at the forefront for Mr. Bush and that he makes such a bold religious statement at such a moment.
And after discussing Joey Cheek and China’s relationship with Sudan…
Costas: As you attempt to press these points with them, do you find Hu Jintao not just warm to you personally, but is he receptive? Do you sense any movement?
Bush: Yeah, it’s hard to tell. I mean, all I can tell you is that it is best to be in a position where a leader will listen to you. I went to church here. And I’m sure the cynics say ‘Well, you know, it was just a state sponsored church.’ On the other hand, and that’s true, it gave me a chance to say to the Chinese people, religion won’t hurt you, you ought to welcome religious people. And it gave me a chance to say to the Chinese government, ‘Why don’t you register the underground churches and give them a chance to flourish?’ And he listened politely. I can’t read his mind, but I do know that every time I met with him, I pressed the point.
Huh? What does that have to do with the question? When you don’t know how to answer the questions, just talk about how you would like Christians to be able to push their religion on the Chinese people just like they do everywhere else in the world?
Sigh, I just don’t even know what else to say.
I was talking with one woman that said last time she caucused there was around 10 or 15 people in our precinct that showed up to caucus. Today, our precinct had 98 people.
Our precinct leaned heavily for Obama with 70 people for Obama and 20 for Clinton and then a few undecided and 2 strong kucinich holdouts. Some of the undecideds ended up with Clinton and we ended with 4 Obama delegates and 2 Clinton delegates.
They didn’t announce the results from the other 6 precints that were caucusing at the same location but a couple had put signs up with numbers that also seemed heavily weighted for Obama. I saw one with 60 for Obama and 10 for Clinton.
As an Obama supporter this makes me very happy and proud to have been part of this process. This was my first time caucusing and I have to say, besides all the waiting around, it was pretty exciting. I even got elected to be delegate alternate #3.
I liked this process. I have always been a fan of voting at the polls and have held out till the last minute with the mail in voting that is soon becoming mandatory in King County. I like the community of it. I feel part of something and I think that is lost with mail in voting, but I do get why they do it.
Overall, caucusing was a rewarding and enjoyable experience.