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:: Tuesday, January 20, 2009 ::

Obama-day!
Finally, we're here: President Obama.

Watched the historic moment in our cosy living room with Miz A, sy and the dogs. Had coffee, oatmeal and twitter on hand, tears in our eyes. Way to go, team us!

Labels: 2009, inauguration, moblog, obama

:: ewee 2:28:00 PM [+] :: 0 comments ::
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landslide and heartache



[Been writing and writing and writing to try and get this all out. Much of this is a repeat of my emails, skip it if you've seen it before. Just working it all through, and figuring stuffs out.]

Oy...so much, and first--how much do you (we) all rock? I'm so proud to be part of this community. Some folks were canvassing/phone banking/volunteering until the bitter end. And I was so inspired and moved (to both laughter and tears) by all the stories. From the image of sweet faced Vung Homo #1 driving up to the yesholes and screaming "NOOOOO!" (and the resulting "Yes!"-"NO!" volley...what I'd give to see that!), to Right Rev JJ (and her LAWFUL wifey, PZ) handing out drinks (read: rights) to some, but not all. Lunamania and (her nonwife) JC for organizing and making it easy to get off my butt and get involved...so glad to have found likeminded folks! (talking bsg, not politics :-)). And all the people who held up signs (no matter the weather or if they were horribly outnumbered and intimidated)--those smiles were like life rafts in a minefield of yesholes as I went to and from work (like my mixed metaphor?). The people who took time and traveled to or called battleground states for Obama. All the people who donated $5, $10, whatever they could. The tomatoes and basil one woman gave me for her Obama pin. FakeSarahPalin, Tina Fey, and all the debate drinking games. What a windup to this election! Phew!

And last night. That amazing, insane moment when Obama passed 270, when I couldn't believe what I was seeing. (Yes, I have a table of the progression of electoral votes in the works, I'll post it here soon now.) And then watching those numbers go higher and higher and higher. Finally believing it. Jumping up and down and screaming. Standing still and crying. Still don't totally believe it's true (anyone get a paper? I forgot! Gotta keep the headlines! get an extra, if you remember?). People jubilant in the streets of Oakland--cars, bikes, people. Like critical mass, but happier for the folks in the cars. Driving through downtown, lake, fruitvale--and happy people everywhere.

	7:35pm1	8:00pm	8:01pm2	8:06pm3	8:14pm	8:16pm	8:22pm	8:37pm
OBAMA!	207	207	2844	297	3065	333	333	338
McCain	135	142	146	146	146	146	156	156
1all times PST, 2called on msnbc, 3called on cnn.com, 4 Obama wins! We start screaming, 5 Really. It starts to really sink in. More screaming.

LANDSLIDE. Mandate of the people. Relief after so much pent up anxiety. A resounding victory they can't steal. And Bush, finally finally finally an afterthought, a footnote, over--thank frakkin dog. We need to have a party for that (belly palace, January, anyone?).

And yes, heartache. It hurts more than I expected it to. We re-defeated prop 4 (yay cali! three times in four years!), northern cali defeated prop h8, and people have been so kind--allies coming out of the woodwork--strangers, coworkers. Straight people who get that it's part of a larger battle. Helps make up for the fact that h8 now has a face in the people in my life who chose to vote yes. Still it hurts.

Here's the thing. Obama wins for me, for you, for all of us. I have to believe it. We knew that change, while it's coming, will require work. Let's take this heartache, and hold it dear and near. Let's use our unique position, straddling communities, on the verge of change in one community, to remember when it's our neighbor who's rights are imperiled. Let's remember the allies who stood with us, who are outraged and upset, who are aware that they too have a personal stake in defending our rights.

When the time comes, and we have our rights, and we are accepted, and we are no longer others or outsiders (ok, mebbe not all of that...). Let us never forget this feeling. And let us always always always choose the right path, make the right choices, and bring others up, rather than stepping on those less fortunate to improve our lot.

To the cowards who lied and cheated us out of our rights, is that the best you could do? Barely over half. That is not the will of the people, that is business as usual--divide and conquer. You know that there is an upwelling of public opinion that's changing. That is why you are afraid. You know that you are wrong. You know that we do not live in a theocracy--that, in fact, this country was founded by people escaping religious persecution (albeit also founded with a fair bit of genocide, among other things). That is why you are turning my family, my friends, my community against me. May I have the strength to turn the other cheek--not out of submission or fear, but in restraint, so I may go on to face the larger fight.

In the end, you know that a house built on a foundation of deceit and manipulation and fear will never last. When they tumble, let us be the ones solid in our knowledge that we are building a movement based on truth and strength and justice. And when they turn to us for help, let me not stoop to revenge (as tempting as it might be). But let me savor the truth and justice, and focus on the next battle ahead, because it's a long road, and queer rights are just the tip of the iceberg.

But mainly, I have hope today that this new administration thinks that the time for lying, fear, cheating/robbery of rights is ending:

"A government of the people, by the people, for the people has not perished from the earth. ...I will listen to you, especially when we disagree. ...Our stories are singular, but our destinies are shared...it is the dawn of a new era...our true power comes, not from the strength of our arms, ...but from the enduring power of our ideas.

YES WE CAN."
- President-elect Barack Obama
in his acceptance speech
nov 4, 2008

Thanks y'all...doing my best to keep my focus on the love, and not the h8. Keep on keepin' on. Sí se puede. Yes. We. Can.

Labels: no on h8, obama, queer rights, vote 2008

:: ewee 11:45:00 PM [+] :: 0 comments ::
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Mandate of the ppl, yeeah!
Oakland downtown is a big party. Now just waiting on 8. At least 4 is looking ok.

Labels: change, no on h8, oaktown, obama, vote 2008

:: ewee 11:22:00 PM [+] :: 0 comments ::
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Hells yeah!

Labels: change, no on h8, oaktown, obama, vote 2008

:: ewee 8:21:00 PM [+] :: 0 comments ::
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move the world
zomg. it's here. election day. i can't stand it. of course, i'm worrying...did i do enough? (miz sy, activist in word and deed, did her part and phonebanked during all her spare moments up until yesterday).

focus is seeming impossible. it's a gorgeous crisp fall day and i'm vibrating with anxiety, hope, fear, and excitement. this election became a surprisingly personal one. surprising, because in some ways, i'm not accustomed to personal attacks within this liberal enclave that i call home (yes, thankful. no, never take it for granted). and also surprising, cuz marriage isn't the civil right that i'm most concerned about...there's people starving, winter coming with people on the streets, and in a very literal sense, people being thrown away.

and yet, people i considered part of my community are speaking out against my rights. not just voting, donating, waving signs, and telling me (in my own neighborhood!) that i'm inherently wrong, evil, lesser. dude. do they even know that sy and i aren't married? does that help? nope. in the end, it's an important object lesson--no matter how we might fit in their safe little boxes, other is other is us.

and, finally, surprising, because the level of discourse around race and gender is still so, well, backwards. never mind the fact that poc is still defined in very--literally--black and white terms. it's appalling that no matter all his qualifications, a black man is still looked upon with distrust for the color of his skin, while a white woman's lacking qualifications are overlooked...and then misappropriated as some kind of feminism.

but the other object lesson, the good one, the one i'm doing my best to feel deeply and to focus on--we are on the tipping point of change. and no matter what comes next, it will take us all (and all our momentum) to work (and work hard) to create the world we'd like to see.

so here's to change and hope and being so dang moved, i can't sit still!

Labels: change, obama, vote 2008

:: ewee 10:05:00 AM [+] :: 0 comments ::
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GObama!
Sample ballot done.

Will get up early a get to my polling place (just across the street! :)). Been so absorbed with the issues that i left the most important part till now-voting!

Labels: change, obama, vote 2008

:: ewee 10:58:00 PM [+] :: 0 comments ::
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belly palace halloween and dia los muertos
we had a good night of handing out candy and hanging out with friends. we managed to hit both the high street jello shots and the rockridge shindig and hang out with kidd rock, mj blidge and rico suavo. my costume was another cardboard and foamy number (i'm almost outta the foamy stuffs!). and since it took longer than expected, i didn't get to the piece de resistance--my pumpkin carving portrait of kehoe. (i know! i know! i can't stand it!)

not making it out to garfield park this year, but gonna do my own thing, as usual, and absorbed some good altars at the oakland museum. quite a few of the pieces were incredibly moving, and i learned how papel picado is made (gonna hafta give that a shot as soon as i can).

Labels: belly palace, change, halloween, obama, pumpkin carving, vote 2008

:: ewee 7:44:00 PM [+] :: 0 comments ::
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GOBAMA!
ok not quite right, but you know, pumpkin isn't my usual media...i know, excuses...

so i clearly didn't get the idea, cuz i ended up with sharpie all over my pumpkin (instead of only marking the parts i'd cut out). still, it was fun...what's next? (other than sleep, that is...)

yay decorating finally! now i just need a costume. right. and sleep.

Labels: change, halloween, obama, pumpkin carving, vote 2008

:: ewee 12:57:00 AM [+] :: 0 comments ::
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Final prez debate: THREEPEAT, baby!
bit of rose, bit of ob beer (ob, geddit? obama/biden 08, baby!), and the final debacle, ahem, debate. mclame is parroting the same lines i heard in the first debate.

obama wins on both substance and style.

tonight's memorabilia:

1. mccain's trembly finger (what was up with that? did anyone else see that?)
2. joe the frakkin plumber (what happened to joe sixpack?)
3. joe the plumber is rich *and* a symbol of obama's class warfare? (can anyone explain that to me?)
4. lilly ledbetter
5. Acorn, Ayers, repeat (yawn, and uh, what about mccain's involvement?)
6. "breast of fresh air"
7. "nuclear pants...plants" -mccain
8. "i am a free traitor" -mccain
9. "senator government" -mccain referring to obama

Labels: change, obama, vote 2008

:: ewee 11:00:00 PM [+] :: 2 comments ::
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veep debate games
Debate games at belly palace--while geeking out on twitter.

Simple rules, when the following terms are mentioned in the debate, it's one drink (or more as noted):

1. Washington outsider
2. Alaska
3. Palin talks in circles--1 drink for everytime someone says "wtf?!?" and another drink for each time the question has to be repeated
4. Anytime the effects of man on the environment were minimized (1 drink) or claimed to be nonexistence (2 drinks)
5. Each time Biden referred to himself in the third person
6. Drill baby drill
7. "Clean" coal
8. Surge (this one had to be removed to keep the bottle from being emptied too early)
9. "Ummmmm..."
10. Says a world leader's name even approximately correctly (1 drink), says a world leader's name incorrectly (2 drinks)
11. "As for..."
12. "Such as..."
13. Wasilla
14. Maverick (like #8 above, we had to eliminate this one early on)

----and my favorites of the evening----


15. O'Biden (and yes, she said it more than once...)
16. "he is the man we need to leave...lead" (Palin on McCain)

Labels: change, obama, vote 2008

:: ewee 8:59:00 PM [+] :: 0 comments ::
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inflamatory
check out the inflamatory ad that reared its ugly head on my facebook page the morning. i took the liberty of highlighting the salient feature of this ad: PAID FOR BY JOHN MCCAIN 2008. let the mudslinging begin. don't take my word for it--here's plenty of reasons why you can't trust mccain (no matter what way you vote--he's flipflopped so many times, it's hard to know what he really believes in...):

• Washington Post on McCain's flipflopping
• Moveon's 10 Things to Know about McCain
• Alternet's The Top Ten Craziest Things John McCain Has Said While You Weren't Watching
• and perhaps a book to add to my list:The Real McCain: Why Conservatives Don't Trust Him and Why Independents Shouldn't

Labels: obama, vote 2008

:: ewee 11:16:00 AM [+] :: 0 comments ::
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