In fact, I gave up my car and motorcycle on 9-12.  True fact.

And I lived for years with a vet, I Corps, LRPS, first in, last out at Khe Sanh.  Finished his tour as a member of the Honor Guard at Arlington.  I'm sure you know what that means.

But I also spend a decade team teaching military history with a three tour Nam Vet, and his stories are not very heroic, though, I must confess, parts of it, though horrific, are rather attractive.  And that's the bad part, that such actions become attractive.

I asked him once why he kept re-upping, and he looked at me and said, "You don't get it do you?  I liked it."  And that was pretty chilling.

"It is 'better to jaw-jaw than to war-war," as Winston said, who knew a little something about war.

I give up.  Tekla definitely won this thread

In the end, while I'm split on who would be the best candidate, I believe that Obama will surround himself with better advisers than McCain would.

Wanna know something interesting?  Internet spell checker picks up McCain but doesn't pick up Obama.  Lolol.

While I don't really think - but we can hope and pray - that Obama will be great, I'm just hoping he might be less bad. 

Classic case of diminished expectations. 

I just like to see people vote, and four years ago I left the top of the ticket blank.  I sure wasn't going to vote for Bush, but Kerry was such a lightweight that I couldn't that either.  But, there were lots (and in California the ballot goes on for pages, and pages, and pages, 4 individual ballots, with 3 of them printed on both sides) of other things to vote for.

So I was really into the vote for High Speed Rail, the Sonoma/Marin train, animal rights and of course, Prop 8.  And the City Council.

Of course our Congresscritter was up for re-election, but she is so popular that I have not seen a single sign for her or her Republican opponent, and only found out his name when I read the sample ballot.

And that spell checker cracks me up, you would think they could update it a touch.

Quote from: Annwyn on November 04, 2008, 01:42:18 AM
I give up.  Tekla definitely won this thread

Actually Annwyn, I think the real winner is that you're going to vote! Thanks for using your voice in the political process, regardless of how flawed it might be. You have a lot to say!

Z

I was waiting at the door when the polls opened this morning.  Proudly wearing my sticker saying "I Voted" while arguing with my assistant, who never votes.  She says she never complains either, so don't get on her.  But you should hear her howl about gas prices!

Kristi

Always like the Churchill quote:

"It has been said that democracy is the worst form of government except all the others that have been tried."

Or perhaps Lazarus Long had it right when he said: Certainly the game is rigged. Don't let that stop you; if you don't bet you can't win.  Of course LL also said: Place your clothes and weapons where you can find them in the dark which also seems like sound advice.

I am truly hopeful, as I said in my blog, that this election repudiates all the "let's go to war over heaven and hell" that our general inclination as Americans seems to be politically. We do a great job of dehumanizing everyone who does agree exactly with us.

After all these years of living with that and more than a few years of living in other lands and hearing the ways "America" is viewed, quite legitimately seems to me, as a mass of unthinking rubes hell-bent on destruction at all costs I'd like to think we can overwhelming elect someone who has no American military experience and whose world-view has been moulded by something other than he-man-woman-hating aggression as the answer to absolutely everything that ails the world.

Killing another to save her life has never struck me as a good policy. Fails both ways it looks to me like.

At one we will go to the school to cast our ballots. Hopefully the lines will be short enough then so we can vote and eat some lunch together with Ian (who's home for election day, playing, of course, totally unaffected by the polls, *smile*) and Cat can get back for her afternoon sessions without a huge and frantic rush.

But, what the heck, I'll stand in line as long as I must and be glad to vote for the first decent, grounded and truly intelligent candidate (well, seems so anyhow) I've had the opportunity to vote for since 1976.

Wow, 32 years of trying to figure out who will harm things least. This time I find the possibilities just too plain to have to do a lot of questioning. I could give a damn less if Obama will be great. It would be nice to think that, if, for four years we can avoid derision and madness in the White House, we might be able to release from our hearts the better angels of our own natures without fear or worry that we are "crazy."

Odd that, no? How what is truly insane seems so often to be held out by American politicos as "sweet reason." It would be nice not to have a completely insane and unconcerned man in the White House. I'm sure Icelandic children, anyway, may be able to sleep more peacefully for four years, not having to worry that their government will follow some path Americans do not agree with and will send troops to invade because of.

Nichole

I voted for That One.

It's about time we grew up as a nation. There is still a long way to go.

Abe Lincoln, First Inaugural Address.

I am loath to close. We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature.

Second Inaugural Address

With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation's wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations.

Ok, you're right.

But phooey, tekla, unlike you I wasn't born yet when it was possible to vote for Lincoln!! Best I could do was Jimmy Carter.

And now, after years of despairing the day would arrive, to vote for Obama.

Nikki

There are lines everywhere.  People on college campuses were lining up at 4:30 in some places.  Record turnout is expected almost everywhere.  I'm sure Nichole read it, but I was moved, not only by the lines but by what Maya Angelou said yesterday.

I never thought I'd see a black president in the White House in my lifetime. I didn't even dare dream it. I feel like a child approaching Christmas, you can't believe election day is finally here. It's been so long since we've had people -- Asian and black, white and Spanish-speaking -- come together and say YES. Some did during the civil rights struggle but not as many as today. What it means if Mr Obama is voted in, is that my country has agreed to grow up, and move beyond the childish idea that human beings are different.

Actually, can your surety, I hadn't read that. But, I still haven't read my Alternet and WaPo or NYT feeds yet.

I've always liked Maya Angelou; she invariably leads me to the center of my heart. So now the tears are there and all I can reply to her with is yes ... o, yes ...

Nikki

Well here is another one, very nice bit.  Written by a guy who voted for bush and all that.

We knocked on every door we could find and checked off every name on our list. We did our job, but Obama may not have been the one who got the most out of the day's work.

I learned in just those three hours that this election is not about what we think of as the "big things."

It's not about taxes. I'm pretty sure mine are going to go up no matter who is elected.

It's not about foreign policy. I think we'll figure out a way to get out of Iraq and Afghanistan no matter which party controls the White House, mostly because the people who live there don't want us there anymore.

I don't see either of the candidates as having all the answers.

I've learned that this election is about the heart of America. It's about the young people who are losing hope and the old people who have been forgotten. It's about those who have worked all their lives and never fully realized the promise of America, but see that promise for their grandchildren in Barack Obama. The poor see a chance, when they often have few. I saw hope in the eyes and faces in those doorways.

My wife and I went out last weekend to knock on more doors. But this time, not because it was her idea. I don't know what it's going to do for the Obama campaign, but it's doing a lot for me.





http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/1103/p09s02-coop.html

I didn't vote.

I'm holding to my previous statement that I think both are horrible candidates.  I'm placing my faith in the rest of our government to keep their power checked so that whatever destruction they may wreak will be limited to a certain degree.

I hope our war continues to such a point that one day America might redefine her land borders and absorb nations that would benefit from our advanced way of life.  Until that happens, I'm just going to watch people get killed over oil and watch our country slowly fall into a state in which we sympathize more with the terrorists blowing up school children than our own American soldiers who are getting blown to bits.
I'm going to watch either the rights of homosexuals, transsexuals, and non-christians get taken away and see these changes ratified into the constitution or I'm going to federal healthcare redistribute the wealth from hard working citizens like me who work out every day to keep our good health to crackheads who eat fried chicken all day and wonder why they have high cholesterol and suddenly need they Bystolic and Lipitor and Allopurinol Lasix and their Humira... and such.  I'll watch the income I could be putting into future investments to better my own lifestyle be put into the filth of this country that's too can't take care of themselves so they have to steal my accomplishments just so they can smoke a little more crack and eat a little more fried chicken before their myocardial infarction.
I'll either watch a war monger push our under supplied troops to the breaking point throughout the world and then watch this planet reciprocate and the glory of America go down the drain, or I'm going to watch a full blown pullout from the middle east and let America become the prime target of muslim terrorist operations, blowing up school kids and large corporate structures over here instead of overseas.
I'm going to have to endure a president that is so dynamic that he'll change his political priorities on a whim for keep public favor; one week he'll say this and the next he'll say that.  Or, I'll have to endure someone who has publicly stated that he knows what's best for America and we're apparently too stupid to figure it out ourselves.

I'm not going to vote.  I would be treasonous in either decision.

I just wanted to vote no on prop 8 (California) haha

I guess there is always choice.  I kind of like Mister Smith Goes to Washington when he says:

You see, boys forget what their country means by just reading The Land of the Free in history books. Then they get to be men they forget even more. Liberty's too precious a thing to be buried in books, Miss Saunders. Men should hold it up in front of them every single day of their lives and say: I'm free to think and to speak. My ancestors couldn't, I can, and my children will. Boys ought to grow up remembering that.

But there is the bit from Taxi Driver, which is kind of what your saying.

Hey, I'm not square, you're the one that's square. Your full of ->-bleeped-<-, man. What are you talking about? You walk out with those ->-bleeped-<-in' creeps and low-lifes and degenerates out on the streets and you sell your little pussy for peanuts? For some low-life pimp who stands in the hall? And I'm square? You're the one that's square, man. I don't go screwing ->-bleeped-<- with bunch of killers and junkies like you do. You call that bein' hip? What world are you from? . . .  I gotta get in shape. Too much sitting has ruined my body. Too much abuse has gone on for too long. From now on there will be 50 pushups each morning, 50 pullups. There will be no more pills, no more bad food, no more destroyers of my body. From now on will be total organization. Every muscle must be tight. . . . All the animals come out at night - whores, skunk pussies, buggers, queens, fairies, dopers, junkies, sick, venal. Someday a real rain will come and wash all this scum off the streets. . .   

I guess you can chose either person, but I'd rather be Jefferson Smith than Travis Bickle anyday.

Quote from: Annwyn on November 04, 2008, 10:25:44 AM
I didn't vote.

I'm holding to my previous statement that I think both are horrible candidates.  I'm placing my faith in the rest of our government to keep their power checked so that whatever destruction they may wreak will be limited to a certain degree.

Well, if you're putting faith in the "rest of government" you could still vote for state and local races, then you'd have more say in who's keeping their power checked.

Z

Not to mention voting on judges. 

I'm watching the pre-election coverage on the BBC rolling news channel at the moment. I have to say, it's pretty amazing. From one non-US gal, I just want to say... good for you. *big hug*

Quote from: Annwyn on November 04, 2008, 10:25:44 AM
I hope our war continues to such a point that one day America might redefine her land borders and absorb nations that would benefit from our advanced way of life.

Okay, now I KNOW you're bulls**ting all of us ... either that or those 13 medications are catching up witcha! 



Posted on: 04 November 2008, 12:43:49

---

And to the rest of you:

You have NO idea how wonderful it is to hear how hopeful you all sound. Frankly, I'm jealous, not to mention wonderfully amazed that, even as jaded as we've all become, we can still BE so hopeful. I just hope desperately that that hope isn't unfounded. For everybody's sake.

Who knew I'd be setting my alarm to get up to see the election results in a country halfway around the world. Weird. 

~Simone.