Running through my head right now:

"This is the song la la la la Snuffy's song...La la la la, La la la la Snuffy's song..."

I think I will dig my ear phones out of my bag and crank up some Broken Social Scene or Slater Kinney to try and regain some dignity and self respect.

I used to think about and worry about politics and the out comes of elections a lot. I canvassed neighborhoods in Missouri on behalf of John Kerry to try and get out the vote in 2004, I've attended anti-war rallies on the Mall in D.C. (in early 2003 before the war started), so you can see that this stuff weighed heavily on my mind and consumed a bit of my time. But, this is my first major national election as a parent, and my feelings about politics and the outcomes of elections have changed. Things like pre-emptively invading a sovereign nation used to make me mad, but now it makes me sad. The whole concept of "mortgaging our children's future" was so abstract to me before November 8th, 2006. This is my daughter's life that we are talking about. What will be Eva's quality of living? What will be her access to energy and electricity when she is my age? How much will she pay in taxes to pay off the debts incurred by Bush's invasion of Iraq, or McCain's rash invasion of Iran (this one hasn't happened yet)?

So yeah as a parent life has changed. I don't get out of the house on Friday nights like I used, my consumption of Malt Liquor has dropped to near zero and I have more conversations about poop that most of you can believe, but really, the way I look at life as a whole has completely changed. I conceptualize almost everything or every decision as something will affect my child (children) and I try to do what will be best for her.

McCain is plagiarizing his entire campaign strategy.

The Last Great Debate

Well...I liked the format of this debate the best. The candidates were allowed to interact and felt more comfortable. Shieffer did a good job, with a good set of questions, It was kind of like a regular Sunday morning version of Face the Nation, but on Wednesday Night.

As for the content, I think that this was McCain least successful outing. At the other two debates, and during his convention speech I was left with a feeling of 'Well, if McCain wins he won't be a terrible President, I kind of agree with him on some of his domestic policies, I don't want to invade Iran, but he was right about the surge so maybe he won't be terrible...' But tonight he just seemed out of sorts and dickish. I couldn't believe how Obama would sit there and explain his approach to something like achieving heath care coverage by regulating the private sector insurance industry, to have McCain turn around and completely inaccurately summing up Obama's plan with a one liner about British single payer nationalized health. He either doesn't listen, thinks we are all stupid, or is stupid himself. This happened over and over again, where Obama would say that his plan was to one thing and McCain would rejoinder with a completely inaccurate summary of Obama's plan.

another criticism of McCain: It's great the Sarah Palin is aware of and supportive of the problems that special needs children and families face...but I think it is important for Him to realize that Autism and Downs Syndrome are 2 completely different diseases. He equated the two ailments a number of times in the debate and it pissed me off. One is an incurable genetic disorder and the other is a behavioral and social disorder with unknown causes and unpredictable consequences.

He definitely had a great line: "I am not George Bush...if you wanted to run against him you should have run in 2004." The problem is that Obama responded with: sure you've stood up to him on things like torture (how brave of you to oppose torture!!!) but on economic policy and foreign policy your philosophies and stated approaches to governance are indistinguishable. After which McCain rattled off a list of 12 or so things that he has opposed Bush on over the last 8 years...one of which concern foreign policy and none of which concerned economic policy. Of Course after the Debate David Gregory would not shut up about the I'm not George Bush line completely leaving out the subsequent conversation.

You all know that my mind was made up about who I am voting for months and months ago. I watched this debate because I am really nervous about the future of this country and my daughter's future. I like to be reassured that either candidate wouldn't be terrible but last night I was pretty disappointed. McCain came off as a Dick-head with limited ability to control and hide his temper. I don't think we need this man negotiating with Putin on nuclear disarmament, or with China on trade policy. Not Only do we not need him, I don't think we can risk the chance that he won't do a terrible job.

This is a excellent speech. It is long but if you have time, I recommend watching. It reminds me of why I think Obama has the potential to be a great president. It makes me proud that he is the candidate my party has nominated for president.

Now that I have notified the extended family via the emails, I feel it is appropriate to finally blog about it here. The Hot Librarian is pregnant. We are expecting a baby of unknown gender in mid to late April. The HL has been super sick again with morning sickness. That completely sux, and our lives have been very stressful and complicated. She's been on this medicine called Zofran to quell the vomiting urges which for the most part has helped, but for about 4 weeks all she could eat without throwing up was grilled cheese sandwiches and chocolate ice-cream. Yum. I think and hope we are over the hump with this morning sickness stuff...she actually ate dinner with me the last two nights...but we'll see how things progress. In my estimation, pregnancy is really hard, and mostly sux except afterwords you get a baby. The baby part is awesome (minus the diaper changes).

Last night's debate showed me a couple things:

If George Bush was the Presidential Candidate you'd want to have a beer with...

John McCain is a guy you'd want to drink some Metamucil with...

and Barak Obama is the type of Guy you'd want to drink a 40 with.

[Editors note: WOW! Ageism and Racism all thrown together in one run on sentence. The author sounds like some kind of Palin supporter. Dr. The Bird Man's credentials as a Liberal are being reviewed, and pending the outcome of that investigation he may no longer be working here at Left Whorled.]

So, Sarah Palin has been throwing monkey poop at Obama for the last three days trying to revive this controversy over the Weathermen founder William Ayers or Reverend Wright. Considering that Hillary tried all this bullshit in the public market 4 or 5 months ago, I'd say that Palin is acting like quite the Maverick.

I personally believe that Obama's relationship with this reformed 60's radical domestic terrorist guy is ACTUALLY COMMENDABLE! Think about it...working with a guy like Ayers on any initiative can only be portrayed as a negative in the political spotlight. Ayers was an aspiring terrorist at one time and that rightfully carries with it a hugely negative connotation. Obama worked with him on education initiatives in the city of Chicago in the early to mid 90's. Obama is a man who obviously has had ambition and dreams of national political office for some time and working with a former terrorist on anything, no matter how altruistic could easily derail any dreams of establishing a career in the US Senate or the White House. But, for the good of his community in Chicago and for the good of the children and their school system, Obama put aside his personal career goals and worked with the people who could get the job done. That says something about his character. It says that he is not blind with ambition for power, but that he is blind with ambition to better his community. He will bring that blind community betterment mentality to the White House and that is a character trait that I can appreciate and even admire.

This is what is happening in the real world...

...and this is the straight talking campaign that McCain and Palin offer to America.

Republicans are the party that wrecked America, there is no way to deny it, and they are desperate to get the voters to stop thinking about it.

Bullets

1)mmmmmm...coffee.

2) My sister and I are going to try and come up with a drinking game to play whilst watching the VP debate tonight. We think it is the only way it will be tolerable. Here are some proposed rules:
- Drink every time Palin calls John McCain a "Maverick"
- Drink every time Biden says to Sarah Palin "Jane, you ignorant, misguided slut!" (this is an SNL reference so don't get too women's lib on me here)
- Drink every time Palin says "I'm gonna haveta get back to you on that..."
- Drink every time Biden just completely makes something up.
- Chug the rest of your beer and crush the can on your forehead every time Palin mentions the proximity of Alaska to Russia or talks about Moose hunting.
- Drink every time Biden says "I told Congress thanks but no thanks on that bridge to nowhere..."
- Give up hope and move to Canada when Sarah Palin is elected Vice President.

3)I am submitting a chapter of my dissertation to the journal Ecological Applications today.

4)mmmmmmmm...coffee...

5) Please leave your drinking game rules suggestions in the comments