On health care and birther/deather crazies

It's ironic that we're now visiting relatives in Vancouver, BC, where universal health care is a given -- and we're hearing many tales of how our relatives and their friends here have personally benefitted, even though there are occasional waits and administrative inconveniences (not that the American system is any better -- ask me sometime about trying to convince insurance companies that two procedures last year were, in fact, two procedures, and that they weren't being double billed, even though the bills came from different providers with different dates, etc.), while the crazy people in the States are besieging and hollering about 'death committees' and spreading absolute lies with fervor, all but drowning out the sane majority who think it's high time to get universal health coverage as an option -- it is, after all, only some 70 years since it was first proposed by Francis Perkins back in FDR's second term. As a number of people have pointed out, the senior citizens most vocal seem not to be aware that Medicare and Medicaid, along with Social Security, are all examples of the government programs they violently oppose. The cynicism of the right wing commentators and congresspeople who are orchestrating all this is blatantly obvious. Which doesn't seem to matter. Barney Frank's response to the woman in Massachusetts who compared Obama to Hitler (!!!!) was classic. In case anybody missed it, check out www.youtube.com/watch?v=wGX-2oTNens -- or, for the full town hall meeting (with several other odd people, it's at www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ss3PnhP8cp0

And there are also the crazy 'Christian' preachers announcing that they're praying for President Obama to die; see
www.talk2action.org/story/2009/9/2/12392/06622 for the third one to surface. (This particular preacher, by the way, has no training; his church's website states proudly, "Pastor Anderson holds no college degree but has well over 100 chapters of the Bible committed to memory, including almost half of the New Testament." Wonder which half of the New Testament that is? And just wait until he has it all memorized. Then he'll declare himself a bishop or archbishop, no doubt. Organized religion again proves its usefulness in attacking anyone perceived to be opposed to some doctrine or other. These calls are so extreme that they've caused a backlash, as in a veteran of the Iraq war who compared these statements to the more fanatic calls of extremists mullahs -- www.wtsp.com/news/local/story.aspx?storyid=112785 for more details.

The eight year nightmare ends

So long, George! Finally!


Saul Loeb / Pool via Reuters

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

perhaps the most inspiring words from an inspiring day



the Obamas dance. (Charles Dharapak / Associated Press)

and so long, George! At last!

Yes, We Did!

Haven't had time to add to the blog of late; too busy campaigning! And it worked! We're still floating with the joy/surprise/shock/elation of the landslide that Obama pulled off on Tuesday. We spent election day at our precincts in Gahanna, then went to the Ohio Democratic Party celebration in downtown Columbus. And here's part of the crew from our ward, having just learned that Obama won!

The party was terrific, and there was literally dancing in the streets of downtown Columbus--at least near the Renaissance Hotel where the Democrats were! A different story at the Republican headquarters a few blocks away; more about that in The Other Paper -- for details, see http://www.theotherpaper.com/articles/2008/11/08/cover_story/doc49122d18310e6004426032.txt
Still a bit surprised that, despite lots of indications of efforts to suppress votes (some apparently successful), Obama carried Ohio. Our celebrations were as festive as those in New York: here are a couple of photos of Times Square on Election Night, courtesy of OSU alumnus John H. Johnson:


(A portfolio of John's terrific photos of New York City is available at http://www.h2gphotos.com/)

Back in Central Ohio, we're still waiting on the results of the close race that has Mary Jo Kilroy only a few votes down from her Republican opponent, now going into a recount. And despite a desperately dirty campaign from the McCain/Palin ticket, the general voting public clearly didn't buy the smears, the guilt-by-association ploy, and the outright lies. The satirical photo below, which was sent me by Mary Steelsmith, a wonderful playwright from southern California, sums it up nicely:

Our local organization, Ward 19H in Clintonville, was exceptionally active and effective in getting out the vote -- 70% of the registered voters actually voted, and the precinct went 78% for Obama! -- and the early voting that was possible here in Ohio for a month before Election Day clearly made a difference. Democracy works again, finally, after a hiatus of some eight years--

And the enthusiasm continues; we were scheduled to phone bank tonight (11/8) to contact people who'd voted on provisional ballots to make sure they got the needed information in to the Board of Elections by the deadline -- but when we arrived at the Democratic headquarters, we were told that there'd been such a huge turnout of volunteers that the phone lists had all been completed -- so we came home. Terrific to experience such involvement again -- hasn't been this exciting for several decades--

On Primaries and Ohio

Barack Obama in San Antonio on March 4th; photo by Emmanual Durand, AP


Hillary Clinton in Columbus March 4th with Stephanie Tubbs Jones, Ohio Congresswoman, and Governor Ted Strickland. Photo by Mark Duncan, AP


Meanwhile, President George W. Bush demonstrates his tap dancing prowess while being kept waiting by Senator John McCain, coming for hot dogs and endorsement at the White House, March 5. Photo by Jason Reed, Reuters. This is the leader of the Free World, folks; the guy with the red telephone and the button to launch nucular missles.


and McCain arrives at an election night celebration in Texas; photo by LM Otero, AP

After a long day as a precinct judge in Gahanna, Ohio, came home last night and watched returns. Hillary by about ten percent (although provisional votes may change that); received wisdom appears to be that Republicans voted Democratic in order to either vote for Hillary or to vote against Barack. No way to tell, of course. The vote in our two precincts was something like 112 votes for Clinton, 98 for Obama, and only 12 for John McCain -- which indicates a lot of crossover voting, since Gahanna is a heavily Republican suburb of Columbus. At least we can be grateful that Dennis Kucinich beat back a challenge -- heavily funded by special interests -- in his primary in Cleveland.

and a photo from some 40 years ago; a young information specialist in the field in South Vietnam--one of the reasons I worry about bellicose statements from politicians, whether or not they served honorably, as did McCain, or dishonorably, as did Bush, or didn't serve at all, as was the case with Obama.

Of masks and election results

Three wonderful masks by Lauren Raine just acquired. This is her Bast, the goddess of Sunrise; and below, Maat, goddess of truth (among a bunch of other things)--

More about her terrific work at www.rainewalker.com

Interesting results of the primaries tonight, with Barack Obama having pretty much a clean sweep, and John McCain doing the same. Not sure what to make of it all, although it's certainly a relief that the Huckabee candidacy on the Republican side has been such a fizzle; glad his theocratic absolutism hasn't attracted wide support. Some of his narrow-minded and bigoted rhetoric has been pretty scary. It'll be intriguing to see how the Clinton forces deal with the Obama movement, particularly since Ohio is now being touted as a major battleground and a chance for Clinton to regroup and beat back Obama.