Helen Boyd Kramer's journal on gender and stuff
Feminist Majority has updates on the wins/losses, and a specific site tracking the women running for office.
If the Dems win the house, Nancy Pelosi will be the first woman and feminist-identified Speaker of the House, which would be damned cool.
May the spirit of Atalanta lead them on.
Vis a vis the Democratic Party wins tonight, Keith Olbermann just concluded, “The dog has caught the car.” He is too damned funny (and spot on).
People find Betty’s and my romance odd for the way it’s gendered, but tonight, as I sit here watching election results with my husband, laughing over references to Bob LaFollette (that was Keith Olbermann, of course) and getting aggravated at how grating Tweety’s voice gets (that would be Chris Matthews), it strikes me that the political part of Betty’s and my romance is a lot weirder, maybe, than our genders.
Maybe.
I was supposed to be at the meeting of the MHB group at the Center tonight, but Betty had to work late and we have never *not* voted together. So instead I waited for her to get home and we took a short walk to our polling place together. We don’t always vote the same – I tend to vote Green or WFP or occasionally even Socialist (it took a lot to resist a Socialist named Willie Cotton this year, I mean he sounds like a character in The Grapes of Wrath), and Betty occasionally votes Libertarian – but we share a deep belief in democracy having muscle, but moreso in the crazy notion that people should choose how their lives are run.
So apologies to the people who went to the group expecting me, but Election Day is a little like Valentine’s Day for us. I mean, we did see Point of Order on our first date, & all.
You can get a specific sample ballot courtesy of vote-usa.org.
From Michael Moore:
1. IT’S A NATIONAL REFERENDUM. Although candidates’ names will be on the ballot today, this election is NOT about this candidate or that candidate. Make no mistake about it: This election is nothing less than a National Referendum on George W. Bush and his War. Don’t waste your time trying to learn about who the schlump is that’s running for office. You know they’re all pretty much the same, a few are better than others, but… please. They is who they is. THIS election is not about them. It’s a simple up or down vote on staying the course.
To vote in favor of the war, vote for the Republican. To vote against the war, vote for the Democrat. As crazy as it sounds, even if the Republican is against the war, or the Democrat is for it, it doesn’t matter. All that will matter by midnight tonight is the math on the big tote board. Did America say YES to Bush or NO to Bush? The ONLY way they’re going to add it up is by counting the number of votes under the big D and the big R. The only way to take a stand against Bush today is to vote for the Dems on the ballot.
The good folks at Purdue (mainly Tom Mihail, who did all the legwork for my talk there) have put up some photos from my talk and a description of it as well.
I had a wonderful time there and am still planning on culling my journal some to describe the whole experience in more detail.
I just got this email alert from democrats.com:
Karl Rove has been bragging for weeks about his “72-hour program” to swing the elections, which predict a Democratic takeover of Congress.
Now we know what it is: a dirty trick campaign using robocalls.
The calls are made to Democrats and swing voters at all times of day or night to make them angry. And they pretend to be from the Democrat (“Hello, I’m calling with information about Lois Murphy”). If you hang up, they call back 7-8 times, and each time you hear the Democrat’s name, to get you angry at him or her. If you stay on, you get to hear a scathing attack on the Democrat.
Karl Rove’s whole career has been devoted to dirty tricks. In 2002, his dirty trick was to force Congress to vote shortly before Election Day for the Iraq War based on two months of White House lies about WMD’s and Al Qaeda ties. That dirty trick has cost the lives of 2,834 brave young Americans (16 so far in November), $2 trillion in debt to our children and grandchildren, and unleashed massive bloodshed in Iraq.
It’s too late for legal action or even newspaper stories. If you receive one of these calls, write down the time and candidate and call every radio and TV show you can and urge everyone listening to vote against the disgusting Republican dirty tricksters. And forward this email to everyone you know so they aren’t fooled by Karl Rove’s dirty trick.
Let’s make this Karl Rove’s LAST campaign by voting ALL Republicans out of office.
More details:
http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com
http://dailykos.com
Unless you’re living under a rock, there’s a wind of change blowing this year’s Election Day, and with any luck (money, persistence, & volunteers), either the House or the Senate or both will change from being Republican-dominated to not sucking quite so much. Nutty of us, but I think Americans have learned too well what the whole ‘checks and balances’ thing was intended to prohibit.
Maybe there will be enough change, perhaps, to the degree that these ‘stay the course’ boneheads will get the message that Americans are sick of seeing Americans die, and tired too of the complete acknowledgement of how bad things have gotten under Dubya and his boys.
Good luck to the good folks in Ohio, and don’t take no (or “I need more ID”) for an answer when you go to vote. There are lawyers on your side.
GO VOTE.
And it’s with Rickie Lee Jones and a couple of Squirrel Nut Zippers. Download the song, & donate.
Well, the news is out: I’m going to be the keynote speaker for TCNE’s First Event next year. The event will be from January 17th – 21st, and in addition to the keynote I will be doing a reading from the new book and (I think) doing a workshop for partners.
We have never otherwise been to First Event and are very much looking forward to it.
There’s a thread about this on our boards where you can check in with others who might be going, too – so do come!
Read the press release below the break.
Continue reading “First Event Keynote: Me”