What a joyous, historic moment it was. A moment such as I’ve never before seen in my 46+ years on the planet. How proud I was for my part in getting my 76 year old father-in-law out to vote – for the first time in his life. How thrilled I was for my nephew, voting in his first presidential election since coming of age. To think that one day he will be able to look back on this and say to his grandchildren, “I remember when Barack Obama was elected. He was the first president I ever voted for.”

He surely doesn’t realize it, but I know how lucky he is to have been able to vote for someone he truly believed in. Having voted (more times than I care to remember) for the lesser of two evils… voting just to keep someone OUT of office, I’m so very happy that his first experience with the electoral process was one that will inspire rather than disillusion him. I’ve voted (even campaigned) before for candidates I believed in, but not one of them had a prayer of winning. And my belief in and support for John Anderson, Jesse Jackson and Jerry Brown paled in comparison to my belief in Barack Obama.

Like many, I first became aware of Barack Obama when he addressed the Democratic National Convention in 2004. I was spellbound by his speech, overwhelmed by his authenticity. Though I was not yet 6 when Bobby Kennedy was assassinated, I have nevertheless been a big fan my whole life. I have read much about him and have often wondered how different our country might be today if he had lived. In Barack Obama, I see a new Bobby Kennedy. I see a new FDR. I see a new Bill Clinton (but just the good parts – the parts where we once again have a leader whose IQ exceeds that of a chimpanzee – but without the distraction of all that extramarital hanky-panky.) Hopeful? You don’t know the half of it.

Now for the hard part- waiting until January 20th, 2009. Couldn’t we just assemble an angry mob with torches and pitchforks and run George W. Bush out of town on a rail? Tomorrow?

My hope, as high as it may currently be soaring, is tempered with reservation. As previously mentioned, over 42 million people (and counting) voted for a man who ran a treacherous, deceitful, underhanded, repugnant campaign. A man who deliberately instilled in his supporters a hatred toward their new president. So, while I’d like to believe that we’ve turned a page, and that the Obama presidency is the start of a new chapter in American politics, the sad truth is, the Republicans will be back. They’ll return in 4 years with another repugnant campaign.

Already they are talking about Sarah Palin in 2012. I hope that comes to pass. If the GOP hasn’t yet learned its lesson about pandering to the wingnuts on the far right, let’s tech them once and for all in 2012.

That said, wouldn’t it be nice if the ugly, hate-filled politics of 2008 were behind us, once and for all? Wouldn’t it be great if we never again had to worry about electing someone with an I.Q. roughly equivalent to his shoe size? Wouldn’t it be wonderful if racism, religious persecution and the undue influence of lobbyists and special interests were ousted by an active, vigilant, informed electorate?

Well, I guess I can dare to dream…

This is utterly DESPICABLE. No amount of repudiation can make this right. John McCain’s contemptible campaign fostered this AND stoked these fires. Is it any wonder Colin Powell is endorsing Obama?

Contact McCain’s campaign – tell him how utterly despical this is: http://www.johnmccain.com/Contact/ Tell him you WERE undecided, but now you’re DEFINITELY voting for Obama. While you’re at it, contact the chairman of the Gutless Old Party: Chairman@GOP.com

Very well said.

Saying it doesn’t make it so, John.

(Just in case, though… I’m a billionaire… Damn.)

King Arthur: Your arm’s off!
The Black Knight: No it isn’t!

For the past 8 years, the Republican party has made up its own “truth” and spoon fed it to a gullible public. At times the real truth was so blatant, so obvious as to be undeniable. But deny it, they did – and do.

Look, you stupid bastard, you’ve got no arms left!
Yes I have!

The truth has been out there, available for anyone to see… but many people didn’t or wouldn’t seek it out – or even consider it when it stared them in the face. They believed what they chose to believe and elected the worst president in this nation’s history – twice.

That’s how the GOP has managed to fool most of the people, most of the time — by lying to people, then sticking doggedly to their ridiculous stories. Like Monty Python, it would be downright funny… except for all the lost lives, homes, jobs, liberties, and the integrity of this country in the world community.

Customer: That parrot is definitely deceased. And when I bought it, not half an hour ago, you assured me that its lack of movement was due to it bein’ tired and shagged out after a long squawk.

Pet Shop Clerk: It’s prob’ly pinin’ for the fjords!

Look, I took the liberty of examining that parrot and I discovered that the only reason that it had been sittin’ on its perch in the first place was that it had been nailed there!

Of course it was nailed there! Otherwise it’d muscle up to those bars and VOOM!

This parrot wouldn’t “voom!” if I put 4000 volts through it. It’s bleeding demised!

It’s not, it’s, it’s pinin’!

Now, the GOP is doing it again, using the same tried and true methods. The campaign trail is littered with statements by and about John McCain (and at the expense of Barack Obama) that are blatantly contradictory to McCain’s senate voting record and archived news stories. But the GOP really kicked the misleading into high gear when it unleashed it’s lipstick-adorned pitbull, Gov. Sarah Palin. If McCain and Palin were wooden puppets, their noses would now reach from Washington D.C. to Nome, Alaska (and they could keep a nostril on Russia from there!)

Below, you’ll find a long list of some of the McCain campaign’s many lies. Each links to a reliable source for the verifiable truth. Note that this list is far from complete; these are just some of the whoppers. A complete list (if that’s possible) is available here.

• “I’m very, very pleased to be cleared of any legal wrongdoing, any hint of any kind of unethical activity there. Very pleased to be cleared of any of that.” –Sarah Palin

• “(Bill) Ayers and Obama ran a radical education foundation together.”–John McCain in a Web ad
• “I can eliminate $100 billion of wasteful and earmark spending immediately–35 billion in big spending bills in the last two years, and another 65 billion that has already been made a permanent part of the budget.” –John McCain
• “He’s a man who wore the uniform of this country for 22 years and refused to break faith with those troops in Iraq who have now brought victory within sight.”–Sarah Palin (speaking of John McCain)
• “Everybody says they’re against the special interests, but I’m the only one the special interests don’t give any money to.”–John McCain
• BARBARA WALTERS: “She [Governor Sarah Palin] also took some earmarks…”
  JOHN MCCAIN: “No, not as governor she didn’t. She vetoed – Look, well, the fact is she’s a reform governor.“–John McCain (on ABC’s “The View,” Sept. 12, 2008)
• “Oil drilling offshore now is vital so we can bridge the gap between imported oil … and it will reduce the price of a barrel of oil. … We’ve got to drill offshore and do it now.”–John McCain
• “Senator Obama has voted 94 times to either increase your taxes or against tax cuts.”–John McCain
• “an energy bill on the floor of the Senate loaded down with goodies, billions for the oil companies, and it was sponsored by Bush and Cheney. You know who voted for it? That one.”–John McCain (“That one” referred to Barack Obama.)
• “Who is Barack Obama?” “How dishonorable.” “Congressional liberals voted repeatedly to cut off funding to our active troops, increasing the risk on their lives. How dangerous.” “I’m John McCain and I approved this message.” –John McCain (attack ad)

This parrot is no more! It has ceased to be! It’s expired and gone to meet its maker! This is a late parrot! It’s a stiff! Bereft of life, it rests in peace; if you hadn’t nailed it to the perch, it would be pushin’ up the daisies! He’s run down the curtain and joined the bleeding choir invisible! This is an ex-parrot!
Clerk: Well, we better replace those lying Republicans, then.

[I paraphrased that last bit.]

Yoichiro Nambu, Physics, 2008
Martin Chalfie, Chemistry, 2008
Roger Tsien, Chemistry, 2008
Mario R. Capecchi, Medicine, 2007
Oliver Smithies, Medicine, 2007
Roger Kornberg, Chemistry, 2006
Craig C. Mello, Medicine, 2006
John L. Hall, Physics, 2005
Richard R Schrock, Chemistry, 2005
Robert H. Grubbs, Chemistry, 2005
Richard Axel, Medicine, 2004
Linda B. Buck, Medicine, 2004
Frank Wilczek, Physics, 2004
David Gross, Physics, 2004
Alexei Arikosov, Physics, 2003
Peter Agre, Chemistry, 2003
H. Robert Horvitz, Medicine, 2002
John B. Fenn, Chemistry, 2002
Riccardo Giacconi, Physics, 2002
Leland H. Hartwell, Medicine, 2001
Eric R. Kandel, Medicine, 2000
Paul Greengard, Medicine, 2000
Louis Ignarro, Medicine, 1998
Walter Kohn, Chemistry, 1998
Daniel C.Tsui, Physics, 1998
Stanley B. Prusiner, Medicine, 1997
Douglas D. Osheroff, Physics, 1996
Robert F. Curl, Chemistry, 1996
Robert Richardson, Physics, 1996
Sherwood Rowland, Chemistry, 1995
Eric Wieschaus, Medicine, 1995
Alfred G. Gilman, Medicine, 1994
Joseph H. Taylor Jr., Physics, 1993
Edmond H. Fischer, Medicine, 1992
Jerome I. Friedman, Physics, 1990
E. Donnall Thomas, Medicine, 1990
Sidney Altman, Chemistry, 1989
J. Michael Bishop, Medicine, 1989
Norman F. Ramsey, Physics, 1989
Harold Varmus, Medicine, 1989
Leon M. Lederman, Physics, 1988
Johann Diesenhofer, Chemistry, 1988
Dudley Herschbach, Chemistry, 1986
Stanley Cohen, Medicine, 1986
Michael S. Brown, Medicine, 1985
Joseph Goldstein, Medicine, 1985
Roald Hoffmann, Chemistry, 1981
N. Bloembergen, Physics, 1981
Baruj Benacerraf, Medicine, 1980
Paul Berg, Chemistry, 1980
James W. Cronin, Physics, 1980
Val Fitch, Physics, 1980
Walter Gilbert, Chemistry, 1980
Sheldon L. Glashow, Physics, 1979
Robert W. Wilson, Physics, 1978
Roger Guillemin, Medicine, 1977
Philip W. Anderson, Physics, 1977
Burton Richter, Physics, 1976
David Baltimore, Medicine, 1975
Leon Cooper, Physics, 1972
Murray Gell-Man, Physics, 1969
Marshall Nirenberg, Medicine, 1968
Charles H. Townes, Physics, 1964
James D. Watson, Medicine, 1962
Donald A. Glaser, Physics, 1960

I was careful not to hound him or turn every conversation into a political one. In fact, I never brought up politics in conversation. A simple e-mail now and then, with a link to a blog post – and not too many such e-mails. I honestly didn’t know if he read them, or if he followed the links… until today.

Today I got word that my father-in-law, at 76 years old, is registering to vote for the first time in his life. My mother-in-law, another non-voter for many years, is registering as well. Once registered, they’ll be casting their ballots early – for Barack Obama.

My mother-in-law says that I am responsible for this. He did read my blog, and it motivated him to finally register and vote.

I can’t begin to convey the pride I feel over this. I don’t know how many people this blog has reached, and I don’t know whether it has made a difference among those who have visited, but it reached two people whom I care about deeply, and it made a difference with them.

Make no mistake- it has all been worth it.

McCain: By the way, my friends, I know you grow a little weary with this back-and-forth. It was an energy bill on the floor of the Senate loaded down with goodies, billions for the oil companies, and it was sponsored by Bush and Cheney. You know who voted for it? You might never know. That one. You know who voted against it? Me.

McCain is referring to the Energy Policy Act of 2005, which Obama did in fact vote for. Clinton raised this same charge against Obama during the Democratic primaries. It was misleading then and it’s equally misleading now.

In fact, according to a Congressional Research Service report, more tax breaks were taken away from oil companies than were given. Overall, the act resulted in a small net tax increase on the oil industry:

Congressional Research Service: The Energy Policy Act of 2005 (EPACT05, P.L. 109-58) included several oil and gas tax incentives, providing about $2.6 billion of tax cuts for the oil and gas industry. In addition, EPACT05 provided for $2.9 billion of tax increases on the oil and gas industry, for a net tax increase on the industry of nearly $300 million over 11 years.

As we said last year, the bill did contain $14.3 billion in tax breaks, but most of those went to electric utilities, and nuclear, and also to alternative fuels research
and subsidies for energy-efficient cars, homes and buildings – not to the oil industry.

from FactCheck.org article FactChecking Debate No. 2

Obama: Senator McCain mentioned Henry Kissinger who is one of his advisors who along with 5 Secretaries of State just said that we should meet with Iran; Guess what? He said without preconditions. This is one of your own advisers…

McCain: Look. Dr. Kissinger did not say that he would approve a face to face meeting between the President of the United States and Ahmadinejad. he did not say that. He said there could be lower level meetings. I’ve always encouraged them.

After the debate:

Kissinger: Senator McCain is right. I would not recommend the next President of the United States engage in talks with Iran at the Presidential level. My views on this issue are entirely compatible with the views of my friend Senator John McCain. We do not agree on everything, but we do agree that any negotiations with Iran must be geared to reality.

And now, the TRUTH:

From CNN Transcripts:

KISSINGER: Well, I am in favor of negotiating with Iran. And one utility of negotiation is to put before Iran our vision of a Middle East, of a stable Middle East, and our notion on nuclear proliferation at a high enough level so that they have to study it. And, therefore, I actually have preferred doing it at the secretary of state level so that we — we know we’re dealing with authentic…
(CROSSTALK)
SESNO: Put at a very high level right out of the box?
KISSINGER: Initially, yes. And I always believed that the best way to begin a negotiation is to tell the other side exactly what you have in mind and what you are — what the outcome is that you’re trying to achieve so that they have something that they can react to. Now, the permanent members of the Security Council, plus Japan and Germany, have all said nuclear weapons in Iran are unacceptable. They’ve never explained what they mean by this. So if we go into a negotiation, we ought to have a clear understanding of what is it we’re trying to prevent. What is it going to do if we can’t achieve what we’re talking about?
But I do not believe that we can make conditions for the opening of negotiations. We ought, however, to be very clear about the content of negotiations and work it out with other countries and with our own government.

Oh, what a tangled web we weave
when we endeavor to deceive.