Hitting the nail on the head…

Obama Win Causes Obsessive Supporters To Realize How Empty Their Lives Are

No other commentary, except to give credit to my dear friend Mel at Musings of an ebay Mommy for the great find.

PS) Don’t forget to scroll down to the bottom of this page and turn off the jukebox so you can hear the video!

Praise the Lord!

Election Day!

I have guilt when I’m away from the blog for too long. So rather than post the catch-ups in chronological order, I’m going with the most exciting first. We got to see The First Lady yesterday!

It was such a l-o-n-g wait! We didn’t have enough info first. There were no seats, standing room only, and it was hard concrete. It was packed, so much that I was afraid the girls would get squished. And they nearly did a few times. And it was HOT, since it was 80 degrees here yesterday and the a/c didn’t appear to be running. At least not enough.

We arrived at 11 to get a good seat (ha, ha), and the First Lady didn’t speak until 12:40. The girls were very patient, but they did get quite tired. Annie rested on Pappap’s shoulders:

I made them all outfits to wear. Catie is wearing a really cute twirl skirt that you can’t even see in this picture! lol Annie designed her own tee. She is absolutely enthralled with the idea that a woman could be VP. Interesting to me, since having a female leader has never been at all important to me. But I’m happy to see her enthusiasm. Anything can happen, child, anything can be.

Lousy picture, but at least you can see a glimpse of Catie’s skirt. The bottom layer was blue with silver glittery stars.

Lilly still does her Disney World picture pose! She’s holding Tink of course.

I can’t get these pictures to appear in the order that I want and I’m frustrated and giving up. This was taken at the end of the rally. The crowd was thick and I couldn’t see at all, so I just held the camera up and snapped away. This is a pretty good one!

Here she is giving her speech. Behind her are local candidates:

A better shot of Lilly’s shirt:

Annie wanted desperately to meet her but there was no way I could get to the front of the crowd. She and Catie are small, so they held hands and worked their way up to the front, very excited. Unfortunately then a man passed out next to them, and they had to move so paramedics could get in.

OK, try again. Catie gave up, but Annie wormed her way up front again. In comes the r-u-d-e lady and her child standing next to Annie, who told her that she had to leave. Annie was confused and just looked at her, and the lady said that kids weren’t allowed to talk to the First Lady. Annie ran away in tears. Turns out this was just some attendee who didn’t want Annie taking away from her own child. MANY children got up front and met the First lady, got autographs, snapped pictures…Annie just wasn’t one of them. If I had found the lady who scolded my daughter I might have cheerfully choked her.

Instead I told my baby not to cry, hoisted her onto my shoulders, and ran in as close as I could. Mrs. Bush was just about to leave and I knew I couldn’t get any closer so I told Annie that this was it. She shouted, “I love you Laura!” It was so cute, and many people in front of us turned to look. Including… Mrs. Bush! She looked up and smiled and waved right to Annabelle!!! It was definitely the highlight of our day, and could have been better only if I was able to take a picture of the moment. But that’s ok – when we left Annie found a heart-shaped rock at Fazoli’s that she kept as her remembrance of the day.

Joe the Plumber

I have to say this, because my head might explode if I don’t. Indulge me for a moment.

I feel bad for this guy. Obviously he should be licensed, or he should be working for a licensed master plumber. If he knew that his employer wasn’t licensed then he’s in the wrong, no question. But I still feel bad for him. By walking out onto the street in front of his house and asking a valid question of a political leader, he’s become a target for the national media, and that’s not fair. On many levels.

First off, not fair because he’s just an unlicensed plumber, not a death-row murderer. We don’t need to vet our citizens to see if they are good enough to ask questions.

Second, not fair because even if he were some kind of degenerate lowlife, why would that make his question any less valid? The question is separate from the person. I have the right to ask about abortion though I’d never have one, or taxes on millionaires though I’m not one. I can ask anything I’d like. Just because it doesn’t apply to me doesn’t make the question invalid, and just because I may have a less-than-perfect background doesn’t mean I can’t ask those questions.

Third, not fair because every politician has a ‘skeleton’ in their closet. Obama has some questionable associations, McCain has the speculation about his marriages, Bush has his alcoholism, Ted Kennedy has…well I won’t even go there. You get the point. Everyone has something that they’d rather the world doesn’t know. But the politicians who run for office know that their lives will be exposed, and they’ve made the choice to let that happen and run for office anyway. Joe didn’t. He walked out of his yard and asked a question. If we’re going to start attacking people for things like this, soon none of us will be able to ask any questions, for fear of embarrassment when the press digs into our personal lives. The inability to question our leadership sounds like a dangerous path to me.

Of course, life isn’t fair. We all know that, and Samuel Joseph Wurzelbacher is probably feeling that especially this week. I’ve read many snippy comments about how he’s probably enjoying his new fame, since he’s making the rounds on the talk shows. I sincerely doubt that. He’s got the spotlight on him, uninvited, and he can’t work right now. What else should he be doing? Would we be happier if he slinked off and hid his head in a hole of shame? The man has gotten a raw deal, and he deserves to be able to talk about it.

I’ve thought this all along and wouldn’t have commented on it at all, if not for what I read yesterday. The parallel was striking to me, and I immediately thought of old Joe.

In the recount debacle of 2000, Al Gore had an advisor named Michael Fabiani. He advised the campaign to attack Florida Secretary of State Katherine Harris on any grounds they could, to create public hostility toward the woman and get the people on their side. This was not limited to her career; in fact, it barely touched on her professional life. Instead they focused in on her personally, mocking her appearance, her makeup, and belittling her as a woman. Fabiani later explained the attacks on Harris, glibly telling the New York Times, “We needed an enemy.” He said attacking Harris was “the right thing to do, and it worked.”

Sounds very sadly like what’s happening to Joe the Plumber right now. Attack him personally so people will forget the valid question that he asked, and the answer that he got. So yes, I do feel bad for Joe. And I feel bad for us, too, that this is the M.O. that we have to live with. This is not the American Dream.

One more…

Not Halloween, but another embroidered tee we did over the weekend:

Tell me how you *really* feel

I love this. It sums up my feelings perfectly.

I wish I felt inspired about this election, but I don’t. I wish I felt like we had at least one good candidate, but I don’t. I wish I could go to the polls on election day and be at peace with my decision, but I can’t. Instead I’ll be going and voting for a man whom I hope is the lesser of two evils. Not exactly democracy at its finest.

PS) If you’re interested, you can sport your own from We’re Screwed.com