Yes We Did!!!

Tonight, I am in awe. I am inspired. I am proud.
Earlier tonight, I awakened from a Nyquil enduced stupor to see that Sen. Barack Obama is now President-Elect Obama.

At first, I thought that my fever had gotten the best of me and I was dreaming. Then I started to receive text messages and phone calls and I knew then it was real.

This something I never thought I'd see in my lifetime. FOr my whole life, I have always been told and told my nieces and nephews that we can be whatever we wanted if we simply work hard and put our minds to it. Now, it's all been validated and solidified with this moment in history.

I am overjoyed and I hope you all are as happy as I am tonight.

Election Day

Election day is almost here ...

... doo dah, doo dah ...
You'll have to excuse my excitement. I'm so happy right now, it's not even funny. I got to vote early last week and I am not ashamed to tell you all that I was verklempt while standing in line to cast my ballot.

I could do this long cheesy soliloquy about why I vote but honestly, none of it would be the truth. Quite frankly, I vote because so many of my ancestors died so that I could have the right.

I feel like doing anything less than registering and exercising that right would be spitting on their hard work and pissing on their legacies. And, I wouldn't be able to live with myself.

At any rate, I'm encouraging you guys to get out and vote, either early or on Election Day. Be prepared to wait in a long line for extended periods of time. Take you lawn chairs, pack a lunch, carry your iPods and a couple of books and magazines. I would even encourage you to take a friend.

This is quite possibly the most important election we've ever had. Take you place in history. With that said, I have a problem I was hoping you all could help me with.
As of late, I have been suffering from political road rage and I'm not sure if there's a cure. Every time I see one of these bumper stickers while I'm driving, it kind of makes me want to ram the car in front of me until it's smoking.
No, for real. I think it's some sort of an allergic reaction or something. Do ya'll think I should be medicated for it?

As of yet, I have not acted on my urges, but it is only a matter of time. Granted election day is Tuesday but I don't think they're going to take the stickers off. The only thing I can think of is getting a bottle of rubbing alcohol and pouring over the stickers so that they will detach themselves and blow away.

Is that against the law, like stealing and defacing signs? I hope not, I don't know how much more of this I can take.

And now ...

... meet your other Presidential Candidates for this year's election. For so long, America has been known as a bi-partisan "democracy." We've always had Democrats and Republicans. Well, somewhere along the lines, folks started getting fed up with the foolishness that is this bi-party system and we now have Independents, Socialists, Constitutionalists, Libertarians, Prohibitionists and a partridge in a pear tree. OK, so I did throw in that last one, but you've gotta admit, that's a lot of political parties. I always wondered what the basis of them all are, and lucky for you, I've done the research for you. First up, you got the Independent American Party. Beliefs and Principles According to Wikipedia *ahem* they believe that freedom is founded upon faith in God and the existence of moral law and that our rights come from God, not government and the function of government is to protect those rights. They also believe that the Constitution of the United States is inspired by God. It is a compact between the peoples of the states of that union which the officers of government have a duty to obey. Everybody oughta be familiar with Ralph Nader. He's only been a candidate in the last five or six elections. He's never really had enough folks voting for him to make him viable, but he did have enough votes in 2000 that could have possibly swayed gotten former vice president Al Gore elected or President Bush elected fairly. The remaining candidates are Kelcey Wilson, Frank Moore, Alan Keyes, and Jackson Kirk Grimes. The only one I know of is Alan Keyes and that is because that is the black guy the GOP got to run against Sen. Barack Obama for the Illinois Senate seat in 2004. I'm surprised he's making a run at the White House since he's never even made it to Capitol Hill, but hey, to each his own, right? Next up is one Cynthia McKinney. If her name sounds familiar, it should. She's the state representative who punched a Capitol Hill police officer after he tried to stop her from entering the Longworth House Office Building without passing through the security check point. According to reports, she was not wearing her lapel pin that identifies her as a member of Congress. He went to retrieve her and she punched him. Anyway, the Green Party is apparently a fan of her right hook and extended her the invitation to be their nominee for President of the United States. Here's what I found on the party's Web site about their beliefs. "In the United States, the Green Party has been active as a third party since the 1980s. The party first gained widespread public attention during Ralph Nader's presidential runs in 1996 and 2000. Currently, the primary national Green Party organization in the U.S. is the Green Party of the United States, which has eclipsed the earlier Greens/Green Party USA. There are Green Parties in many nations, with total membership being about a million people. Greens emphasize environmentalism, non-hierarchical participatory democracy, social justice, respect for diversity, peace and nonviolence." Onto the Socialists, their candidate is Brian Moore. I have never heard of this guy. The Web site states that the party: "strives to establish a radical democracy that places people's lives under their own control -- a non-racist, classless, feminist socialist society where working people own and control the means of production and distribution through democratically-controlled public agencies; where full employment is realized for everyone who wants to work; where workers have the right to form unions freely, and to strike and engage in other forms of job actions; and where the production of society is used for the benefit of all humanity, not for the private profit of a few." I couldn't find a pic of him that was worth using so you'll have to click the link to get a look at him. Next up are the Constitutional and Liberatarian parties. All I know about the parties and candidates is what I got from Google and their sites. I lumped them together because both parties have managed to get candidates who look like pedophiles. The Constitutionalists have Chuck Baldwin. According to Wikipedia: "the Constitution Party is a paleoconservative United States political party. It was founded as the U.S. Taxpayers Party in 1992. The party's official name was changed to the Constitution Party in 1999; however, some state affiliate parties are known under different names. The Constitution Party advocates a Bible-based platform which it claims to reflect original intent of the U.S. Constitution and the principles of the U.S. Declaration of Independence.[3] The party seeks "to restore American jurisprudence to its original Biblical common-law foundations."[4]" The Libertarians have this guy, Bob Barr. Wikipedia says, "The Libertarian Party is an American political party founded on December 11, 1971. It is one of the largest continuing Third parties in the United States, claiming more than 200,000 registered voters and more than 600 people in public office,[2] including mayors, county executives, county-council members, school-board members and other local officials. It has more people in office than all other third parties combined.[3] The political platform of the Libertarian Party reflects that group's particular brand of libertarianism, favoring minimally regulated, laissez-faire markets, strong civil liberties, and non-interventionism in foreign policy that respects freedom of trade and travel to all foreign countries." All of that is fine and good, but they still look like pedophiles. New American Independent Party Frank McEnulty The New American Independent Party is a political party in the United States, founded by Michael Thompson in Wayne, Pennsylvania on election day in 2004. The New American Independent Party claims to seek a more sustainable, self-reliant America through a platform of both liberal and conservative views. The New American Independent Party focuses heavily on middle class issues and government reform. Party for Socialism & Liberation Gloria La Riva/Eugene Puryear The Party for Socialism and Liberation is a Marxist party in the United States founded to promote revolutionary change.[2] It was originally created as the result of a split within the ranks of the Workers World Party. The San Francisco, Los Angeles, Seattle and Washington, D.C. branches of WWP left almost in their entirety to form the PSL. The PSL has since established branches in several additional urban centers across the United States. Prohibition Party Gene Admondson/Leroy Pletten The Prohibition Party is a political party in the United States. The party advocates effective action concerning the use of beverages containing alcohol including dealing with the starter/gateway drug, tobacco Socialist Workers Party Róger Calero/Alyson Kennedy The Socialist Workers Party, or SWP, is a communist political party in the United States. The SWP claims that most of its members are industrial workers and trade union members. One of the SWP's main priorities is supporting Pathfinder Press, which publishes titles by past and present SWP leaders (James P. Cannon, Farrell Dobbs, Evelyn Reed and Jack Barnes) as well as by revolutionaries from Vladimir Lenin and Leon Trotsky to Malcolm X and Che Guevara. Now, with all that said, who do you guys think will actually be on the ballot come November? The more important question is do you even care?

I tell you ...

... if this were a movie, I'd be sitting on a porch in a rocking chair with a glass of lemonade humming an old Negro spirituals and telling my grandchildren about where I was on the day Barack Obama made history. I don't know about you guys but I am so proud of this man and his family it makes no sense. I just hope that they are who they say they are and we don't find out some horrible incriminating story about them later on. I just think that it'd be too much for (his supporters) to handle. But anyway, so that I don't ruin the mood I have today, I just want to call attention to the way pop culture has become mainstream, even in politics. Did ya'll catch the way his wife gave him some dap right before he gave his speech last night? I almost fell off my couch laughing when I saw this. First off, the first person I ever saw do that bump on TV was Howie Mandel and that's because he has OCD and shaking hands gives him the 'heebie jeebies.' For the record, OCD is obsessive compulsive disorder. There are different degrees of it. The way I understand it is folks with OCD like everything done a certain way. Everything must be that way at all times or they spaz out. I've always said those people have a tick. Apparently, his tick is excessively washing hands and being in the business of show business, he's constantly meeting people and he had to do something to not seem rude, so, he gives people dap. The only other guy I've ever seen on TV who gives dap is Stephen Colbert (pronounced Cole-bear). Stephen Colbert is THE MAN,OK! That is one of the funniest dudes on TV right now. If you never watch the Colbert Report on Comedy Central, I challenge you to do so. If you're here, that means you are sort of a political junky and I know you'd find his brand of humor as hilarious as I do. He's even renamed it the "Colbert Bump" and he gives one to people every time they come on the show. He even gave one to both Barack and Michelle Obama in separate appearances on the show. That is what made the whole thing funny as crap to me. Now that Obama is the nominee and John McCain makes it his business to run around trying to do what Obama does, I guess he'll find a way to give his wife some 'dap.' I can't wait to see how. This question could be in vain, but I'm dying to know if you guys watched the results on CNN last night. Actually, I only want to know if you happened to catch the banter between Anderson Cooper and Donna Brazile. I won't insult your intelligence and tell you who Anderson Cooper is, but you might need me to refresh your memory about Donna Brazile. I could sit here and type and tell you why she is the best political analyst on CNN, but I won't do that. I'll just tell you that she's a Louisiana native and you can hear it in every word she says. She graduated from LSU and later became the first black woman to direct a major presidential campaign when she was the campaign manager for the Al Gore campaign in 2000. Now she's known for her commentary of this year's primary elections. Anyway, all of this relates to pop culture because of an exchange between her and A.C. last night during an analysis of the elections and Obama's nomination. Take a look: After watching this, I realized not only is pop culture now mainstream, but, from now on, I need to sit on the floor while I watch TV. I can't chance it, one day I really am going to fall off my couch.

Been a minute ...

... since then, Sen. Hillary Clinton won Pennsylvania. Congrats to her, but I have to ask whether or not the Democratic electorate in the Keystone State have televisions. I'm guessing that the folks who voted for Clinton don't have them, I mean, why else would they vote for her? Let's be honest, she's spent the last four or five months trying to discredit Sen. Barack Obama by name calling, mud slinging and just outright "hateration." I must say, green is definitely NOT her color. Now that she's won a couple of primaries, after losing 12 straight, she wants the Democratic National Convention to go back and count Florida and Michigan. That's convenient. Long before those two state had their primaries, Howard Dean, Mr. Excitement himself, told them that if they have early primaries, their votes would not be counted. To me that seems cut and dry, defiance yields consequences. Any parent or child can tell you that. Shoot, my 9-year-old niece can tell you that. But she wants special treatment. She wants the votes to be counted because now it's a close race and now she says that she's got more votes. She's right, she does have more votes, but that could be because her name was the only one on the Democratic ballots in Michigan and Florida and the candidates agreed prior to the primaries not to campaign in those states because they don't count! Sad thing about this is because she won't go away and just sit down somewhere, the party is going to suffer in November. I re-registered Democrat just so I could vote for Obama in next week's primary. Before I was registered as Independent because quite frankly, if you vote for someone based on their political party and not the facts and you don't research them and their policies, you're an idiot. Anyway, this thing is getting ugly and somebody needs to quit, for the sake of the party. I would hope that it will be her since she has absolutely NO reason to stay. She needs to go on somewhere and write a book or something. Oh and now she's calling for another debate. What for? What can they possibly debate that they haven't already? Not a damn thing, that's what. She needs to have the last word and she knows she can't do that if Obama is allowed to speak uninterrupted. She has to be able to interrupt and throw in her own lil' condiments to sauce up what Obama is saying. It's not necessary. We don't need Clinton ketchup. She is not the right person for the job, she is still out slinging mud and saying crap that doesn't matter because she can't win on the issues alone. I have said before and I'll say again, they don't differ that much in policy. They differ in their ability to inspire folks. When I hear Obama speak, I want to move to change the world around me. When I hear Clinton speak, I want to move to change the channel. Bottom line, someone needs to quit before too much damage is done to secure the election in November. If these two allow McCain to win the White House, I am going to look into becoming an expatriate. For real, I'll call to see if Oprah needs an English teacher in South Africa, this is ridiculous!