This is fucking disgusting. We're better than this.

Here goes nothing.

Obama: opening was boilerplate. Nothing I hadn't already heard.

McCain: hearing him talk about all of what this plan needs lacks one HUGE caveat from the good senator: HE"S OPPOSED ALL THOSE THINGS FOR HIS ENTIRE 26 YEARS IN THE SENATE.

Plan? What plan?

That's right, BO, tell us how we got here ('cause some of us don't know, apparently; McCain's approval ratings are higher than Bush's...)

Oh dear FUCKING Jesus. You're talking about accountability? Are you SERIOUS?!

Okay, Mc, you get points for telling the stuffed-shirt moderator to go fly a kite. Wow. He's not very good at this.

Producers? ProDUCERS?! *palms face* Tell it to Flint, dickhead.

Spending is out of control because George W. Bush asked for huge tax cuts and started two wars at the same time. Earmarks are NOTHING compared to that. NOTHING. NOTHING NOTHING NOTHING. Earmarks are a fucking CYPHER.

Ask your boy Ted Stevens about earmarks. But yeah, that's a nice gotcha on BO. Shoulda thought of that earlier.

Barack, fuck this guy up on health care. Hard. Please.

"What are you gonna have to give up?" Oh, that hurts.

Jeez, he's got a long wish list. How ya gonna pay for all that? (It's on his website...)

"We've got to cut spending." Easy way to cut spending, John: GET THE FUCK OUT OF IRAQ.

Oh, lord, PLEASE hammer his ass about that Boeing thing.

John, as bad as you want offshore drilling, I'm gonna have to ask you to come down here to Ft. DeSoto so I can drown your ass in the pristine Gulf that you'd wantonly ruin to get some votes from people who don't know that that drilling WON'T HELP SHIT. I don't wanna live like fucking Galveston.

Families don't make those decisions now, asshat, accountants do.

Cut everyone's taxes, and the economy gets better. That's the bankrupt ideology you've been pushing for 26 years.

Oh, shit, he opened that torture can of worms. Stuff him in it and bury him, Barack.

Oh, gawd. McCain talking about Iraq. This is the part where I Elvis my TV. Shithead, did you listen to Shinseki? Did you listen to anyone else in the Pentagon who said we needed 300,000 troops to be successful?

Do you REALLY think we're gonna have an ally when we leave that country now, regardless of how internally stable it is? You're fucking deluded. Iran's influence is there whether you like it or not.

"Let us win." Unfortunately, THAT'S NOT UP TO US, DICKHEAD. There is so much bullshit in the bleearrrrghl he just let out Obama needs hip waders.

Obama OWNED McCain about talking to people we don't like. Seriously. Badly. Like, ouch.

Hey, here's an idea...

I got a letter from Henry Paulson in my email today...

Obama's speech...

To Chairman Dean and my great friend Dick Durbin; and to all my fellow citizens of this great nation;



With profound gratitude and great humility, I accept your nomination for the presidency of the United States.

Well, duh. But still, how amazing.

.

Let me express my thanks to the historic slate of candidates who accompanied me on this journey, and especially the one who traveled the farthest – a champion for working Americans and an inspiration to my daughters and to yours -- Hillary Rodham Clinton. To President Clinton, who last night made the case for change as only he can make it; to Ted Kennedy, who embodies the spirit of service; and to the next Vice President of the United States, Joe Biden, I thank you. I am grateful to finish this journey with one of the finest statesmen of our time, a man at ease with everyone from world leaders to the conductors on the Amtrak train he still takes home every night.



To the love of my life, our next First Lady, Michelle Obama, and to Sasha and Malia – I love you so much, and I’m so proud of all of you.

(Yeah, I know it's kind of a zoo. Thanks for putting up with this.)

Four years ago, I stood before you and told you my story – of the brief union between a young man from Kenya and a young woman from Kansas who weren’t well-off or well-known, but shared a belief that in America, their son could achieve whatever he put his mind to.



It is that promise that has always set this country apart – that through hard work and sacrifice, each of us can pursue our individual dreams but still come together as one American family, to ensure that the next generation can pursue their dreams as well.



That’s why I stand here tonight. Because for two hundred and thirty two years, at each moment when that promise was in jeopardy, ordinary men and women – students and soldiers, farmers and teachers, nurses and janitors -- found the courage to keep it alive.



We meet at one of those defining moments – a moment when our nation is at war, our economy is in turmoil, and the American promise has been threatened once more.

Yeah, Barack. By a group of idiots that these American citizens you keep referring to elected to office TWICE. I want to believe my country is better than this, but it really is difficult.

Tonight, more Americans are out of work and more are working harder for less. More of you have lost your homes and even more are watching your home values plummet. More of you have cars you can’t afford to drive, credit card bills you can’t afford to pay, and tuition that’s beyond your reach.



These challenges are not all of government’s making. But the failure to respond is a direct result of a broken politics in Washington and the failed policies of George W. Bush.



America, we are better than these last eight years. We are a better country than this.

I'm not sure he's right, but DAMN, I hope so, and it's about time one of our leaders asked us to do something besides go shopping.

This country is more decent than one where a woman in Ohio, on the brink of retirement, finds herself one illness away from disaster after a lifetime of hard work.



This country is more generous than one where a man in Indiana has to pack up the equipment he’s worked on for twenty years and watch it shipped off to China, and then chokes up as he explains how he felt like a failure when he went home to tell his family the news.



We are more compassionate than a government that lets veterans sleep on our streets and families slide into poverty; that sits on its hands while a major American city drowns before our eyes.



Tonight, I say to the American people, to Democrats and Republicans and Independents across this great land – enough! This moment – this election – is our chance to keep, in the 21st century, the American promise alive. Because next week, in Minnesota, the same party that brought you two terms of George Bush and Dick Cheney will ask this country for a third. And we are here because we love this country too much to let the next four years look like the last eight. On November 4th, we must stand up and say: “Eight is enough.”

Just the word, "ENOUGH," was great here. "Eight is enough," was kind of stupid.

Now let there be no doubt. The Republican nominee, John McCain, has worn the uniform of our country with bravery and distinction, and for that we owe him our gratitude and respect. And next week, we’ll also hear about those occasions when he’s broken with his party as evidence that he can deliver the change that we need.

Bravery? Yeah, seriously. I read what they did to him after they shot him down. Jaysus.

But the record’s clear: John McCain has voted with George Bush ninety percent of the time. Senator McCain likes to talk about judgment, but really, what does it say about your judgment when you think George Bush has been right more than ninety percent of the time? I don’t know about you, but I’m not ready to take a ten percent chance on change.

Thanks for your service, John, but you're not much of a Senator, and your political ideas and those of your party are what got us into this damn mess.

The truth is, on issue after issue that would make a difference in your lives – on health care and education and the economy – Senator McCain has been anything but independent. He said that our economy has made “great progress” under this President. He said that the fundamentals of the economy are strong. And when one of his chief advisors – the man who wrote his economic plan – was talking about the anxiety Americans are feeling, he said that we were just suffering from a “mental recession,” and that we’ve become, and I quote, “a nation of whiners.”

I bet JM wanted to kick Gramm's teeth down his throat after he said that. What an asshole. JM has also admitted being pretty ignorant on the economy.

A nation of whiners? Tell that to the proud auto workers at a Michigan plant who, after they found out it was closing, kept showing up every day and working as hard as ever, because they knew there were people who counted on the brakes that they made. Tell that to the military families who shoulder their burdens silently as they watch their loved ones leave for their third or fourth or fifth tour of duty. These are not whiners. They work hard and give back and keep going without complaint. These are the Americans that I know.

In re: the above italicized: They've gotten less silent as the war has dragged on, especially after the service member gets discharged. Personally, I know how hard that silence is. We offer our lives in service of our country, and THESE are the leaders they put over us?

Now, I don’t believe that Senator McCain doesn’t care what’s going on in the lives of Americans.

That makes one of us, bub. That man could not care less that I work a 40 hour week and can't really pay my bills with what I make.

I just think he doesn’t know. Why else would he define middle-class as someone making under five million dollars a year? Because he's an asshole, is why.

How else could he propose hundreds of billions in tax breaks for big corporations and oil companies but not one penny of tax relief to more than one hundred million Americans? Because none of us play golf with him.

How else could he offer a health care plan that would actually tax people’s benefits, or an education plan that would do nothing to help families pay for college, or a plan that would privatize Social Security and gamble your retirement? Because the family he comes from, much like our current President's, wouldn't know the first thing about having to worry about any of that shit.



It’s not because John McCain doesn’t care. It’s because John McCain doesn’t get it. No, Barack, it's BOTH.



For over two decades, he’s subscribed to that old, discredited Republican philosophy – give more and more to those with the most and hope that prosperity trickles down to everyone else. In Washington, they call this the Ownership Society, but what it really means is – you’re on your own. Out of work? Tough luck. No health care? The market will fix it. Born into poverty? Pull yourself up by your own bootstraps – even if you don’t have boots. You’re on your own.



Well it’s time for them to own their failure. It’s time for us to change America. This, this right here, was the money shot of this speech for me. Just, OUCH.



You see, we Democrats have a very different measure of what constitutes progress in this country.



We measure progress by how many people can find a job that pays the mortgage; whether you can put a little extra money away at the end of each month so you can someday watch your child receive her college diploma. We measure progress in the 23 million new jobs that were created when Bill Clinton was President – when the average American family saw its income go up $7,500 instead of down $2,000 like it has under George Bush.



We measure the strength of our economy not by the number of billionaires we have or the profits of the Fortune 500, but by whether someone with a good idea can take a risk and start a new business, or whether the waitress who lives on tips can take a day off to look after a sick kid without losing her job – an economy that honors the dignity of work (instead of constantly shitting on workers...).



The fundamentals we use to measure economic strength are whether we are living up to that fundamental promise that has made this country great – a promise that is the only reason I am standing here tonight.



Because in the faces of those young veterans who come back from Iraq and Afghanistan, I see my grandfather, who signed up after Pearl Harbor, marched in Patton’s Army, and was rewarded by a grateful nation with the chance to go to college on the GI Bill. Which was just restored to about what it was just after WWII :-) Thanks, Congress.



In the face of that young student who sleeps just three hours before working the night shift, I think about my mom, who raised my sister and me on her own while she worked and earned her degree; who once turned to food stamps but was still able to send us to the best schools in the country with the help of student loans and scholarships.



When I listen to another worker tell me that his factory has shut down, I remember all those men and women on the South Side of Chicago who I stood by and fought for two decades ago after the local steel plant closed.



And when I hear a woman talk about the difficulties of starting her own business, I think about my grandmother, who worked her way up from the secretarial pool to middle-management, despite years of being passed over for promotions because she was a woman. She’s the one who taught me about hard work. She’s the one who put off buying a new car or a new dress for herself so that I could have a better life. She poured everything she had into me. And although she can no longer travel, I know that she’s watching tonight, and that tonight is her night as well.



I don’t know what kind of lives John McCain thinks that celebrities lead, but this has been mine. These are my heroes. Theirs are the stories that shaped me. And it is on their behalf that I intend to win this election and keep our promise alive as President of the United States. That silver spoon you had in your mouth when you were born, John, is it still there? Cause it's still poisoning your perspective, all these many years later...



What is that promise?



It’s a promise that says each of us has the freedom to make of our own lives what we will, but that we also have the obligation to treat each other with dignity and respect.



It’s a promise that says the market should reward drive and innovation and generate growth, but that businesses should live up to their responsibilities to create American jobs, look out for American workers, and play by the rules of the road. Deregulation destroys business in the long term.



Ours is a promise that says government cannot solve all our problems, but what it should do is that which we cannot do for ourselves – protect us from harm and provide every child a decent education; keep our water clean and our toys safe; invest in new schools and new roads and new science and technology.



Our government should work for us, not against us. It should help us, not hurt us. It should ensure opportunity not just for those with the most money and influence, but for every American who’s willing to work.



That’s the promise of America – the idea that we are responsible for ourselves, but that we also rise or fall as one nation; the fundamental belief that I am my brother’s keeper; I am my sister’s keeper.

HEAR MOTHERFUCKING HEAR!!!

That’s the promise we need to keep. That’s the change we need right now. So let me spell out exactly what that change would mean if I am President.

.

Change means a tax code that doesn’t reward the lobbyists who wrote it, but the American workers and small businesses who deserve it. We should build a Roman-style colosseum in D.C., but instead of feeding Christians and other Roman-era undesirables to the lions, we should just feed them lobbyists. And corrupt legislators/bureaucrats. Puts a whole new level of watchability into reality tv, no?



Unlike John McCain, I will stop giving tax breaks to corporations that ship jobs overseas, and I will start giving them to companies that create good jobs right here in America.

See, one of the hurdles you run into there is, how big a tax break do you have to give a manufacturer to make up for the price difference in labor between China and the USA? And, are you gonna work at the problem from the other end by trying, through sane foreign/trade policy, to improve the compensation for labor overseas? Cause if you only work this end of the equation, you're gonna fucking bankrupt us. Just get the WTO to recognize the rights of labor EVERYWHERE to organize and collectively bargain, and I think a large part of your problem with outsourcing goes away.



I will eliminate capital gains taxes for the small businesses and the start-ups that will create the high-wage, high-tech jobs of tomorrow.



I will cut taxes – cut taxes – for 95% of all working families. Because in an economy like this, the last thing we should do is raise taxes on the middle-class.

Again with the hear, hear.



And for the sake of our economy, our security, and the future of our planet, I will set a clear goal as President: in ten years, we will finally end our dependence on oil from the Middle East.

Good luck with that. You may wanna have a few discussions with some high-end physicists about that. As in, how far are we from having usable commercial fusion?

Washington’s been talking about our oil addiction for the last thirty years, and John McCain has been there for twenty-six of them. In that time, he’s said no to higher fuel-efficiency standards for cars, no to investments in renewable energy, no to renewable fuels. And today, we import triple the amount of oil as the day that Senator McCain took office.

Sadly, both parties are almost equally to blame for that.

Now is the time to end this addiction, and to understand that drilling is a stop-gap measure, not a long-term solution. Not even close.

Say you won't allow drilling off FL, Barack. It's the best way to guarantee you get our EC votes.



As President, I will tap our natural gas reserves, invest in clean coal technology (yeah, we control coal, but it's still a fossil fuel :/), and find ways to safely harness nuclear power. I’ll help our auto companies re-tool, so that the fuel-efficient cars of the future are built right here in America. I’ll make it easier for the American people to afford these new cars. And I’ll invest 150 billion dollars over the next decade in affordable, renewable sources of energy – wind power and solar power and the next generation of biofuels; an investment that will lead to new industries and five million new jobs that pay well and can’t ever be outsourced.

:) Yay wind/solar power. I think those enormous windmills are cool-looking.

America, now is not the time for small plans.



Now is the time to finally meet our moral obligation to provide every child a world-class education, because it will take nothing less to compete in the global economy. Michelle and I are only here tonight because we were given a chance at an education. And I will not settle for an America where some kids don’t have that chance. I’ll invest in early childhood education. I’ll recruit an army of new teachers, and pay them higher salaries and give them more support. And in exchange, I’ll ask for higher standards and more accountability. And we will keep our promise to every young American – if you commit to serving your community or your country, we will make sure you can afford a college education.

And I'll lead our country to literacy by example! Unlike GWB, and pretty much unlike Johnny Mac over there...

Now is the time to finally keep the promise of affordable, accessible health care for every single American. If you have health care, my plan will lower your premiums. If you don’t, you’ll be able to get the same kind of coverage that members of Congress give themselves. And as someone who watched my mother argue with insurance companies while she lay in bed dying of cancer, I will make certain those companies stop discriminating against those who are sick and need care the most.

Jesus Mary and Joseph, that had to be a formative experience :(

Now is the time to help families with paid sick days and better family leave, because nobody in America should have to choose between keeping their jobs and caring for a sick child or ailing parent.



Now is the time to change our bankruptcy laws, so that your pensions are protected ahead of CEO bonuses; and the time to protect Social Security for future generations.



And now is the time to keep the promise of equal pay for an equal day’s work, because I want my daughters to have exactly the same opportunities as your sons.

Now THAT was a damn nice line.

Now, many of these plans will cost money, which is why I’ve laid out how I’ll pay for every dime – by closing corporate loopholes and tax havens that don’t help America grow. But I will also go through the federal budget, line by line, eliminating programs that no longer work and making the ones we do need work better and cost less – because we cannot meet twenty-first century challenges with a twentieth century bureaucracy.

So, what, government employees will have to work harder? O NOES!!!11eleventy!!!

And Democrats, we must also admit that fulfilling America’s promise will require more than just money. It will require a renewed sense of responsibility from each of us to recover what John F. Kennedy called our “intellectual and moral strength.” Yes, government must lead on energy independence, but each of us must do our part to make our homes and businesses more efficient. Yes, we must provide more ladders to success for young men who fall into lives of crime and despair. But we must also admit that programs alone can’t replace parents; that government can’t turn off the television and make a child do her homework; that fathers must take more responsibility for providing the love and guidance their children need.

Or you can listen to the other party and just shop some more. A+++ Would listen to again :)

Individual responsibility and mutual responsibility – that’s the essence of America’s promise.



And just as we keep our keep our promise to the next generation here at home, so must we keep America’s promise abroad. If John McCain wants to have a debate about who has the temperament, and judgment, to serve as the next Commander-in-Chief, that’s a debate I’m ready to have.

(And I will eat his sorry ass alive when we do...)

For while Senator McCain was turning his sights to Iraq just days after 9/11, I stood up and opposed this war, knowing that it would distract us from the real threats we face. When John McCain said we could just “muddle through” in Afghanistan, I argued for more resources and more troops to finish the fight against the terrorists who actually attacked us on 9/11, and made clear that we must take out Osama bin Laden and his lieutenants if we have them in our sights. John McCain likes to say that he’ll follow bin Laden to the Gates of Hell – but he won’t even go to the cave where he lives. ZING!!! *guffaw*



And today, as my call for a time frame to remove our troops from Iraq has been echoed by the Iraqi government and even the Bush Administration, even after we learned that Iraq has a $79 billion surplus while we’re wallowing in deficits, John McCain stands alone in his stubborn refusal to end a misguided war.



That’s not the judgment we need. That won’t keep America safe. We need a President who can face the threats of the future, not keep grasping at the ideas of the past.

John McCain is 72, did you know that?



You don’t defeat a terrorist network that operates in eighty countries by occupying Iraq. You don’t protect Israel and deter Iran just by talking tough in Washington. You can’t truly stand up for Georgia when you’ve strained our oldest alliances. If John McCain wants to follow George Bush with more tough talk and bad strategy, that is his choice – but it is not the change we need.



We are the party of Roosevelt. We are the party of Kennedy. So don’t tell me that Democrats won’t defend this country. Don’t tell me that Democrats won’t keep us safe. The Bush-McCain foreign policy has squandered the legacy that generations of Americans -- Democrats and Republicans – have built, and we are here to restore that legacy.

Um, can I get a Truman? Can I get a Wilson? And, even though he fucked up in Vietnam, LBJ was a GREAT Democrat, and nobody's wilting violet when it came to facing down the Soviets.



As Commander-in-Chief, I will never hesitate to defend this nation, but I will only send our troops into harm’s way with a clear mission and a sacred commitment to give them the equipment they need in battle and the care and benefits they deserve when they come home. Halle-fucking-lujah!!! Although the equipment thing has steadily improved. I think the Pentagon pretty much gets what it says it needs in that regard.



I will end this war in Iraq responsibly, and finish the fight against al Qaeda and the Taliban in Afghanistan. I will rebuild our military to meet future conflicts. But I will also renew the tough, direct diplomacy that can prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons and curb Russian aggression. I will build new partnerships to defeat the threats of the 21st century: terrorism and nuclear proliferation; poverty and genocide; climate change and disease. And I will restore our moral standing, so that America is once again that last, best hope for all who are called to the cause of freedom, who long for lives of peace, and who yearn for a better future.

"For we must consider that we shall be as a city upon a hill. The eyes of all people are upon us. So that if we shall deal falsely with our God in this work we have undertaken… we shall be made a story and a by-word throughout the world. We shall open the mouths of enemies to speak evil of the ways of God… We shall shame the faces of many of God's worthy servants, and cause their prayers to be turned into curses upon us til we be consumed out of the good land whither we are a-going." -John Winthrop.

For secular purposes, replace God with freedom, I guess. Still works.



These are the policies I will pursue. And in the weeks ahead, I look forward to debating them with John McCain.

Oh, I think we're ALL looking forward to that.

But what I will not do is suggest that the Senator takes his positions for political purposes. Because one of the things that we have to change in our politics is the idea that people cannot disagree without challenging each other’s character and patriotism.

You know, this is a direct shot at the Rove school of campaigning, but in reality, John McCain is the one who'll say anything, take any position, kiss anyone's ass, if he thinks it'll get him into the White House. It's kind of sad, and I think Barack can win WITHOUT calling him out on it, so he doesn't need to go there.

The times are too serious, the stakes are too high for this same partisan playbook. So let us agree that patriotism has no party. I love this country, and so do you, and so does John McCain. The men and women who serve in our battlefields may be Democrats and Republicans and Independents, but they have fought together and bled together and some died together under the same proud flag. They have not served a Red America or a Blue America – they have served the United States of America. (this was met with thunderous applause, btw. Dems love them some troops too :)



So I’ve got news for you, John McCain. We all put our country first.



America, our work will not be easy. The challenges we face require tough choices, and Democrats as well as Republicans will need to cast off the worn-out ideas and politics of the past. For part of what has been lost these past eight years can’t just be measured by lost wages or bigger trade deficits. What has also been lost is our sense of common purpose – our sense of higher purpose. And that’s what we have to restore.



(This part is where things got a little sticky for me...)

We may not agree on abortion, but surely we can agree on reducing the number of unwanted pregnancies in this country.Abortion: On fucking demand and without motherfucking apology. If you legally compel a woman to have a child, you are morally compelled to help her raise it. If you're not willing to do that, then STFU and MIND YOUR OWN BUSINESS. The state's power stops at every woman's vulva.

The reality of gun ownership may be different for hunters in rural Ohio than for those plagued by gang-violence in Cleveland, but don’t tell me we can’t uphold the Second Amendment while keeping AK-47s out of the hands of criminals. We allow criminals with M4s to roam the streets of Iraq in our name (I'm talking about the contractors, people). Frankly, the best way to take a gun from a criminal is by putting two in his chest and one in his head.

I know there are differences on same-sex marriage, but surely we can agree that our gay and lesbian brothers and sisters deserve to visit the person they love in the hospital and to live lives free of discrimination. Not if you ask those mouth-breathing fucks in charge of the SBC, we can't.

Passions fly on immigration, but I don’t know anyone who benefits when a mother is separated from her infant child or an employer undercuts American wages by hiring illegal workers. No one benefits in the first instance. He's right. But if you can't think of who benefits in the second, you're not thinking very hard, because you said it yourself: employers who undercut American wages. Which explains why the Republican party is so torn on this issue: the money behind the party wants to keep undercutting those wages as much as possible, and the disgruntled white male electorate wants all the damn furrin brown people out. They're at odds with each other.

This too is part of America’s promise – the promise of a democracy where we can find the strength and grace to bridge divides and unite in common effort.


I know there are those who dismiss such beliefs as happy talk. They claim that our insistence on something larger, something firmer and more honest in our public life is just a Trojan Horse for higher taxes and the abandonment of traditional values. And that’s to be expected. Because if you don’t have any fresh ideas, then you use stale tactics to scare the voters. If you don’t have a record to run on, then you paint your opponent as someone people should run from.



You make a big election about small things. OH, SNAP!!!



And you know what – it’s worked before. Because it feeds into the cynicism we all have about government. When Washington doesn’t work, all its promises seem empty. And Grover Norquist blows a wad in his pants, and god tears the wings off an angel :(

If your hopes have been dashed again and again, then it’s best to stop hoping, and settle for what you already know.



I get it. I realize that I am not the likeliest candidate for this office. I don’t fit the typical pedigree, and I haven’t spent my career in the halls of Washington.



But I stand before you tonight because all across America something is stirring. What the nay-sayers don’t understand is that this election has never been about me. It’s been about you.



For eighteen long months, you have stood up, one by one, and said enough to the politics of the past. You understand that in this election, the greatest risk we can take is to try the same old politics with the same old players and expect a different result. You have shown what history teaches us – that at defining moments like this one, the change we need doesn’t come from Washington. Change comes to Washington. Change happens because the American people demand it – because they rise up and insist on new ideas and new leadership, a new politics for a new time.



America, this is one of those moments.



I believe that as hard as it will be, the change we need is coming. Because I’ve seen it. Because I’ve lived it. I’ve seen it in Illinois, when we provided health care to more children and moved more families from welfare to work. I’ve seen it in Washington, when we worked across party lines to open up government and hold lobbyists more accountable, to give better care for our veterans and keep nuclear weapons out of terrorist hands.



And I’ve seen it in this campaign. In the young people who voted for the first time, and in those who got involved again after a very long time. In the Republicans who never thought they’d pick up a Democratic ballot, but did. I’ve seen it in the workers who would rather cut their hours back a day than see their friends lose their jobs, in the soldiers who re-enlist after losing a limb, in the good neighbors who take a stranger in when a hurricane strikes and the floodwaters rise.



This country of ours has more wealth than any nation, but that’s not what makes us rich. We have the most powerful military on Earth, but that’s not what makes us strong. Our universities and our culture are the envy of the world, but that’s not what keeps the world coming to our shores.



Instead, it is that American spirit – that American promise – that pushes us forward even when the path is uncertain; that binds us together in spite of our differences; that makes us fix our eye not on what is seen, but what is unseen, that better place around the bend.



That promise is our greatest inheritance. It’s a promise I make to my daughters when I tuck them in at night, and a promise that you make to yours – a promise that has led immigrants to cross oceans and pioneers to travel west; a promise that led workers to picket lines, and women to reach for the ballot.



And it is that promise that forty five years ago today, brought Americans from every corner of this land to stand together on a Mall in Washington, before Lincoln’s Memorial, and hear a young preacher from Georgia speak of his dream.



The men and women who gathered there could’ve heard many things. They could’ve heard words of anger and discord. They could’ve been told to succumb to the fear and frustration of so many dreams deferred.



But what the people heard instead – people of every creed and color, from every walk of life – is that in America, our destiny is inextricably linked. That together, our dreams can be one.



“We cannot walk alone,” the preacher cried. “And as we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall always march ahead. We cannot turn back.”



America, we cannot turn back. Not with so much work to be done. Not with so many children to educate, and so many veterans to care for. Not with an economy to fix and cities to rebuild and farms to save. Not with so many families to protect and so many lives to mend. America, we cannot turn back. We cannot walk alone. At this moment, in this election, we must pledge once more to march into the future. Let us keep that promise – that American promise – and in the words of Scripture hold firmly, without wavering, to the hope that we confess.

*wipes tears* Boy, this room got dusty all of a sudden...

Thank you, God Bless you, and God Bless the United States of America.

All Dogs go to Heaven.

Or so the movie would have us believe.

I like dogs. A lot. They've brought a lot of joy to my life.

Lately, I've been edified a lot by my fiance's brother's Pit Bull, Diesel. He's really sweet, goofy, and kinda shy. Totally not what you'd expect out of a Pit Bull, given the normal attention they get from the media. Shawn, Maribel's brother, rescued him from a very unpleasant home and has shown him a whole bunch of love since then.

There are a whole bunch of Pit Bulls in Virginia who will die without knowing that kind of experience, what it's like to be loved by a human. All they've seen of us, as a race, is how craven we can be. They've seen our most nauseating cruelty. People have profited and taken sick pleasure in their horrible suffering.

All of the people responsible for that suffering deserve to be locked away for a long time, not to punish them (although they deserve that punishment), but to protect the rest of us from them. The link between cruelty to animals and cruelty to other people to the point of sociopathy has long been academically established.

But the fame of one of them has brought this into the public eye. In a way that it would never have been had the head of it all been only rich, and not rich and famous.

But what to do with Michael Vick? What to think of him? How should the NFL treat him?

Personally, he nauseates me. I find dog fighting repugnant. But, then, I also find violence toward women repugnant. And yet, Michael Pittman remains a Buccaneer, despite having attempted to run his wife and child off the road with an H2.

All life has a bit of the divine spark in it, from oak trees to the bacteria in your colon to horseshoe crabs to the mites that feast on your dead skin in your bed. It's all of a piece. The way we treat all of it reflects on us.

But I really gotta think that other humans should get higher consideration than any other creatures as it regards how we treat them. The victims of genocide in Darfur, even thought I've never met a single one, get more of my sympathy than Mike Vick's dogs do.

The difference is, we have the ability to apply a bit of justice to Vick and his accomplices, and to socially shun this scum by not allowing him to entertain us any more, to take away his superstar lifestyle. That should happen.

But if the NFL does that while allowing serial abusers of women to play on its fields, than its priorities are seriously screwed up.

I love Diesel, but I wouldn't die to defend him. Maribel, on the other hand, or my mom, or my sisters, or my future sister- or mother-in-law, all of them I'd die to try to save from violence.

But the NFL seems to think violence toward women is excusable...

Oh, and PETA can go fuck itself in the ear. Just 'cause.

Time for the occasional random musing.

I read too much and write too little. It's the story of my life. Know lots of good information and fail to act on it.

I really hate that about myself.

Mostly, I know that in order for this society to move forward, in a direction that's good for all of us, we have to let go of this horrible fear that's been used to manipulate us since 9/11/01. Osama's not going to get us, and if some of his cronies actually do, it won't erase our country. It might hurt, but we won't be dead. And the likelihood of it happening to any of us is lower than the likelihood of getting struck by lightning. But we still go outside in the rain.

The Internet is good stuff because what I'm writing right now could be read by anyone anywhere in the world with Internet access (except people in China. Don't know if they can read Blogger, but I doubt it). That means that AOL/TW or News Corp. or General Electric doesn't have a way to stop people from communicating with each other, and it makes the dissemination of information MUCH cheaper. Talkingpointsmemo.com is a ver popular website, and I think in terms of cost per pairs of eyes Josh Marshall and company have the NYT beat by a country mile.

But to produce stuff like this , you need to be a full-time journalist. I'm not one. Wish I was.

The fact that such information is so easily accessible, though, means national awareness is more easily raised. Or maybe I'm kidding myself. Maybe most of my neighbors are still too busy worrying about their next rent/mortgage payment or who's going to win the next season of American Idol or the next Nextel Cup race to appreciate the fact that Dick Cheney has spent the last six years undermining the Constitution he swore to uphold, protect and defend.

I hope Congress takes him down at least a couple of pegs, if not completely. Rahm Emmanuel seems to have the right idea.

I need lunch.

It's TGI/GFY Friday!!!

I aim to start a new feature on this blog: Thank Goodness It's/Go F*** Yourself Friday.

TG Al Gore is a household name who cares enough about global warming to tell us all about it.

Hey, James Dobson! GFY!

TG the news cycle moves faster now than it did in 1966. Maybe we'll get out of Iraq sooner than we did Vietnam, and with fewer casualties.

Hey, Paul Wolfowitz! GFY! And F Richard Perle while you're at it.

TG Katherine Harris is such an out-of-touch tool. Bill Nelson gets to keep his seat in January :-) Hey KH! GFY:-p

TG for new Ice Cube & Tool.

Cingular: if you shared my phone records with the NSA or the CIA, GFY. With a broom handle wrapped in sandpaper.

Don Rumsfeld, for being such an incompetent, never-wore-the-uniform TARD, GFY. And ask the Big Dick if he can help. All those retired generals who're sharpshooting you are doing it for a reason, asshole.

Hallelujah for Weezer. Put me in a FANTASTIC mood on the way to work this morning. The iced quad venti toffee nut latte helped too;-)

TG for Starbucks.

That's all for now.