Quote of the Day

Paraphrased ...
"Blessed be the discontent: Let no person repress within themselves the
stirrings of hatred of injustice, of discontent; they are the
manifestations of the divine impulse towards better things."

James Connolly, 1908

Our Fellowship of the Ring

OK. So, this is what happened. Ok. Now we get to work.
I don't like having to put up with what will be, but I'm not going to shrink away from the fight.

I draw sustinance from these people...

Blog of the Moderate Left

Mark Morford, SF Gate

...and there are so many others.

Thank all of you so much.

"All you have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to you."
-- Gandalf

Defintely words to live by for the next 4 years.

Sometimes a little adversity brings out our best potential.

Kerry caved...what about those 250,000 provisional ballots???

If there were ever a time to respond to adversity, it's now.
Note to self: If ever a rude, big, bad, adversary tries to stare you down, make you squirm or generally feel bad about yourself ...

D-O N-O-T C-A-V-E.

I've been up most of the night

It's so very hard to be a Democrat in this country. 8 years of Bill Clinton made me forget about the years of stinging defeat under a barage of bully Republicans. And, yes I believe that the 2000 election was stolen...so understandably, I expected last night's fiasco to go a little differently than it has.

I remember how I felt the night Ronald Reagan was elected. It was a cold, smokey evening in Northern California and I sat alone in my dorm room, crying. I was a freshman, newly away from my parents, deeply out of my element in a conservative little agricultural college town. Even though I was 18 by Nov. 2, I was too young to vote in the Mar. primary and hence barred from casting my first vote against this self-styled cowboy. But what perhaps was most disturbing to me was that nobody around me saw Reagan as a threat. He was broadly lauded as a great leader but I could feel the shadows (as it turned out of the not yet revealed Iran-Contra affair) gather that night, portending grave goings on.

And so tonight I unfortunately revisit this unwelcome experience,almost 25 years later, and the dread is just as overwhelming. But here's the thing: the dread may not have changed, but I have. I'm not the wimpy little disinfranchised IR major that I was then, unsure of how to take action, how to protest, how to counteract injustice. I'm not afraid to say that I think the re-election of Bush was a terrible mistake and I'm not afraid to stand up with other Democrats who will not cooperate with the mass hysteria that says that all the iniquities perpetuated by this administration are actually the proper actions of proud super power that should go unobserved...or unquestioned.

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Spiritual takes on the election:
Eric Francis
Ralfee Finn

Standing at the edge...

I've already voted...so the count down to election day isn't what's got me antsy. It's the actual counting of the votes, the very inner workings of democracy that has got my cynical, naturally pessimistic panties in a bunch.

I know that the way things are going, there are people out there that are cheating. That's right, they are actively cheating right now and are fairly confident that they aren't going to get caught. Some of them are cheating for selfish reasons (wealth, power). Others are cheating for selfless reasons (percieved safety at any cost). Whatever the reasons, I'm simply worn out from the whole huge specter of cheating being part of the presidential elections.

Please let us find our way past this challenge. Many are watching and our integrity is on the line.