Monday, November 3, 2008

odds and ends


I've been so unproductive in blogging lately, I thought I'd share a few odds and ends of my week.

New Eyeglasses: For some time I've been trying to find new glasses that look decent on me and yet allow a large enough field of vision. Many lenses of the newer styles are smaller than my eyeballs! Kind of defeats the purpose, in my opinion. See photo above for my final choice. What do you think? They were my second choice. Here is the story of my first choice:

My husband was checking out the sunglasses while I was trying on eyeglass frames. One style in particular seemed perfect, so I put them on to check the look. I thought I looked great in them, so I called out to the husband to get his opinion. He turned around, took one look, screamed and ran out of the store! WHY, you may ask? Because they are the exact same glasses that Sarah Palin wears! I tried coaxing him back into the store by pointing out how perfect they were & how great they looked on me, but he wasn't going for it. What cinched the deal was when I noticed the Sarah-frames were $395 (vs $150 for the ones I finally purchased).

Early Voting: check! done and done! The poll workers said they've never seen anything like the turnout this year. I must admit I wasn't too reassured when I saw the DIEBOLD name stamped on the back of our voting machines, but there is a little roll of paper that runs alongside the screen which allows you to verify the paper trail is correct. I hope it isn't printed with disappearing ink.

Wal-Mart Women: this is a phrase I've been hearing this week. It has Karl Rove written all over it, doesn't it? Just remember the previous phrases of "soccer moms", "security moms", and "values voters" -- all used to justify why exit polling did not match election results for Bush. I have a feeling Tuesday is going to be an allnighter, possibly even an allweeker.

W: We finally went to see the movie, W. Now I remember why I hate going to movie theatres. If the endless commercials and previews weren't enough to keep me at home, the deafening sound system is. If this is what is being installed in expensive Home Theatre Rooms, I want no part of it. But we wanted to see W before this election, just to remind ourselves of what we are voting against. In that regard, the movie was a great success. Unfortunately it was not a great movie. However, it did capture the cockiness of W, the toadiness of Rove, the yes-womanliness of Condi and the shadowiness of Cheney pretty well. If you saw it, do you think Colin Powell ever really told Dick Cheney to fuck off? I hope he did, but I have my doubts. There's also a good scene with Tony Blair that shows him being double-team bullied into supporting our effort at Empire. I choked up over the footage of protestors around the world, because of course none of it ever made one bit of difference to the people pushing U.S. into Iraq. The callousness of these war thugs is astounding!

Democracy: Democracy cannot survive without an informed and motivated citizenry. The U.S. has a dismal record of voter turnout. Other democracies regularly see over 90% voter turnout. If you don't bother to vote, don't be surprised to find many more W's in our future -- a prospect that almost defeats the word "future".

Massive Voter Turnout: watching the scenes of long voter lines on TV fills me with a renewed sense of hope. One of the biggest crimes of the last 8-years has been to make people believe they have no power. That is a bogus argument designed to suppress the vote. We have ultimate power. We always have. It starts with voting, of course, but it does not end there, especially if we see another stolen election. We just have to decide to exercise our power.

We have the power -- People Have the Power (Patti Smith):



Click here for the complete lyrics. It's full of inspiring images, but I think my favorite line says "the armies ceased advancing". I saw Patti Smith some years ago at the Belly-Up Tavern in Solana Beach CA. She became my hero when some young guys in the audience yelled at her between songs, "Just how old a woman are you?"... She responded, "Old enough to know better than to answer fools like you"! BTW, she is even more intense in person than on camera.

Drill Here, Drill Now: In case you missed it, Prez Bush has started his end-of-term enviromental deregulation. 11 Million acres of federal land in Utah will be open for oil and gas drilling interests, as well as off-road vehicles, risking priceless artifacts and some of the most breathtaking open spaces in America if the Bureau of Land Management, guided by Dirk Kempthorne, the interior secretary, has their way. About 1 Million acres near the Grand Canyon will be open for new uranium mining, without any environmental review of potential damage to air and water. This same type of deregulation has to be going on in many other states, too.

Well, I'm sure there were many other odds and ends this week, but I'm also sure that these have been amply covered in the news and on the blogs. If I don't make it back before Tuesday, let me say once again, that in this election, any non-Obama vote is a vote for McCain. You don't need me to do the math for you. This is not just a hope-filled dream; it is the most important election in all my voting years. It took 40 long years to come back to the place we once were and recognize it for the first time (click here for link to T.S. Eliot). Sorry, I cannot be cynical when so much is at stake.

14 comments:

Mary said...

Well you certainly got us all caught up on that post!
The glasses look great.
I am very sorry to hear about the drilling. It breaks my heart.
I can not wait to vote!!!!

D.K. Raed said...

Mary:
Thanks, I'm still getting used to those glasses! I have so many criteria to consider ... can't press on my temples, can't sit on my high cheekbones, have to have the little individually-adjustable cushiony nose pads that allow me to get them high up on my crooked nose bridge. These are my first "feather weights" & I absolutely love how light they feel.

But yeah, hearing about the dismantling of environmental regs here is so depressing. I can only hope Obama will be able to reverse some of the damage, but it won't be easy. Bush was able to reverse much Clinton's last minute stuff because he did it all in the last 30-days. Bush is starting early because there is some little-used clause protecting executive things done at least 60-days before. They can't just be reversed by the next executive, but will have to go through congress. Meanwhile, we are looking at millions of acres being opened to destruction. Not just from drilling & mining ... if Cheney has his way, we will be in ATV and Snow-Ski Hell!

Dada said...

love the new look the glasses bring. The resemblance to Sarah is uncanny!

D.K. Raed said...

Shhhh, Dada! We cannot tell E.K. of even a slight resemblance! He already forced me to reject the actual sarah-glasses saying he would simply be unable to look at me without gagging. I understood though ... it'd be the same to me if he suddenly adopted the Bush-smirk.

D.K. Raed said...

Oh Dada, I'm adding a link to this post, for you and Utah Savage and anyone else who loves T.S. Eliot. Skip to Quartet 4: Little Gidding if you must.

Cartledge said...

Democracy - Australia has compulsory voting, which means a turnout in the mid 90s perhaps to avoid a fine. But once you start breaking down the returns, turnout doesn’t necessarily convert to votes. First up there are those angry with the political establishment, or the compulsory voting, who tend to write profanities across the ballot. Then there is the confusion of voting rules across variations of preferential voting systems. That can include simply marking your choice to numbering some to every candidate on the ticket. Often the actual valid votes can be as low as the high 60s, which is probably consistent with better US and Canadian turnouts.

Oh, and Palin glasses?!? For shame. Good thing you have a decent other half...

Mauigirl said...

I think the new glasses look great. I love the lightweight ones - I've always had heavy ones until they came out with the rimless ones, which is what I have now. But I'm thinking of trying the kind like yours next time.

I'm very upset to hear the environmental harm Bush is doing in his last days. Let's hope the Democrats reverse it when they add to their majority, before too much harm is done.

D.K. Raed said...

Cart:
still, I have to think a high voter turn-out is better than the low number who usually decide our elections. It shouldn't take imposing a fine for not voting to get people interested, though. There have been thoughts here about a national lottery for the national elections. Vote & you get entered. ps, I don't think the glasses I ended up with look anything like the Palin-square ones, but you should've seen the rejects.

MauiG:
I was amazed at the difference in weight. I can hardly feel them on my nose & forget I even have them on! Though the bottoms of mine look like they are rimless, there is some kind of thin clear filament wire that wraps around the lower part of the lens & connects back to the upper frame, so they are different from the completely rimless ones that attach directly into the lenses.

The bush legacy environmental damage is huge news around here but I haven't really heard any national TV coverage. very sad. and uh-oh, my word veri now is "louse" -- how appropriate to anything bush/cheney related.

Utah Savage said...

I thought Dada went silent. He was pretty fed up last time I was there, said he was closing up shop. I loved his site. And he loves TS Eliot too? Thanks for thinking of us.

As you know I have a link on the new Bush attempt to do a little more damage on the way out of town. truthout.org is the only news source I've seen cover this. And I guess they might actually be a blog. But it's a good piece and lets us know how desperately they will grab for buddies whatever graft he can grab and keep. Disgusting.

Fran said...

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Fran said...

Stupid blogger ate my post. Grrrrrr

Glad Ed convinced you to scrap the Palin look. Ack!

Featherweights are great.

I hope they help you see the coming headlines:

OBAMA LANDSLIDE WIN!


Oh & for the record Bush is a jerk who should have a special place in hell. I hope he goes to prison soon after his term is up. I'm thinking Gitmo.

D.K. Raed said...

UT Savage:
I haven't seen any major news coverage of it. You are right, it's all about sneaking in one last favor to the drillers & profiteers (AKA friends of Bush/Cheney). ps, I was only guessing Dada likes T.S.; I KNOW you do!

Fran:
OMG, you ALWAYS come up with the perfect point -- yes I am looking forward to that headline, with or without my new glasses!!!

Now if only Bush or Cheney would visit Vermont and/or some select foreign countries, we could be assured of prison time.

Billie Greenwood said...

Great to have you back, D.K. (You look great in the new frames.)

D.K. Raed said...

Thanks, B.E.! This is an excrutiatingly long day, isn't it? My heart is going flutter-flutter-boom-boom-BOOM!!!