rock over London. rock on, Chicago.

here’s a picture of the tarantula nebula. yes.

.
I’m listening to a song called “postcards from Italy” by Beirut. I used to own this album. I gave it to Alisha two years ago. she was pumped, I recall.
it’s a good album, especially, considering, that the whole thing is structured around trumpets and ukeleles, the two instruments the band leader plays. but he plays them well.
so I gave the album away. I remember, actually where I was when I decided to do that: downtown Columbus, Ohio. I was driving back to Indiana from DC, got stuck in traffic on the interstate and got off and tried to find my way around the snarl. didn’t work. got stuck in more traffic in the city. it was summer, and it was hot, and there was a festival that I drove into. streets blocked off.
it’s a really pretty song, and I’d put a link to it on here but no one’s gonna click on it anyway – but shit, if you listen to it too much, it’ll make me you want to jump off a goddamn bridge. not because it’ll drive you crazy. it’s just melodramatic. it’s too weepy. I’m not this angst-ridden all the time, but it sure made me feel that way. but it’s just a pretty song …
eh, it’s not the song that’s melodramatic, it’s me.

anyway, on with news, a subject wherein I don’t trip all over myself. I’m not gonna bother with the transitions tonight, or the weak subheads. just look at this shit:
Secret Order Lets U.S. Raid Al Qaeda
“The United States military since 2004 has used broad, secret authority to carry out nearly a dozen previously undisclosed attacks against Al Qaeda and other militants in Syria, Pakistan and elsewhere, according to senior American officials.”
that’s some pretty big news. you better click on it, you fucking dirtbag. no, don’t look around for your friend; I’m talking to you.
anyway, we didn’t get it into tomorrow’s paper, but then again, we don’t get in much. and if you’re reading your tiny local newspaper for your world news updates, you’re either elderly, or slow. or both.
annnd, a judge today told the Bush administration that it’s internal emails aren’t protected from eventual public record by executive priviledge. so they can’t delete them, the bastards.
it isn’t wise to assume that because someone guards their privacy closely that they are therefore guilty of a crime. but this isn’t an indivual we’re talking about, it’s the executive branch, and I don’t understand why they’re so concerned with keeping their records sealed. is it that the legal policy makers within Bush’s White House are really that concerned about cementing the idea of a strong executive? and if so, why is transparency so adverse to that? or have they been pulling off all sorts of bullshit in the last eight years?
all of this could be nothing. I kind of hope so. the adult in me doesn’t want to be reading about morally  questionable scandals perpetrated by this administration for the next decade. but the salivating, bored lunatic in me can’t wait for these stories’ inevitable release. I got a lot of growing up to do.

that guy from Newsweek wrote a column in the Post today which I thought was pretty interesting:

“As conservatives survey the damage they have done to the Republican Party, they have fixed upon one comforting notion. John McCain lost the election, according to many of them, because he supported the surge in Iraq. …
“The fact is that had the surge failed, McCain would have lost. It succeeded, and he lost. The logical conclusion is that the surge was irrelevant to McCain’s fate — that there were broader reasons for the resounding Republican loss. The electorate has voted no on the current Republican ideology on foreign policy.”

about a week ago I mentioned the race in the Va’s 5th District — the fightin’ 5th — between Tom Perriello and entrenched- good ol’ boy- incumbent, Virgil Goode. my newspaper endorsed this guy. the endorsement, just like the rest of them, was pretty disappointing. look, I don’t necessarily mind the endorsement of the candidate not of my choosing. just please, make it intellectually vigorous. make it believable, not just vague platitudes about fighting “Washington insiders.” that’s a bunch of bullshit, the motherfucker’s been involved in politics for the last 25 years.
I don’t like Goode, mostly because he doesn’t seem to do anything; he’s not proactive as a congressman, he just says xenophobic shit about immigrants and religious minorities (Goode was the guy who made a stink about some congressional Democrat from Minnesota who happens to be Muslim taking his oath of office with a Quran), and he does it to keep the local dumb asshole vote firmly in check.
I predicted Goode was gonna win, just because, you know, by looking at it, that was the safe bet. that dumb asshole vote is mighty in this district. and as recently as August, Goode was working Perriello to the tune of a 30 point lead. 
but then the economy tanked and the race tightened, and guess who probably won by a couple of hundred votes out of 300,000 cast?
McNeill says that Goode could call for a recount (which I’ll wager he will). but considering past recounts of statewide elections haven’t turned up anywhere near the vote difference he’d need to overcome Perriello’s lead, he’s pretty much fucked. 

well. there you have it.

Obama won. in case you haven’t heard.
Larry King is interviewing Magic Johnson, presumably because Magic’s a black guy. yes, Obama’s win is that big.

I voted Tuesday morning. only had to wait about ten minutes, then got an electronic voting machine. read the instructions. studied the ballot. made my choices.
bought the paper, and gave a bum a dollar, who said, “thanks, buddy. these are hard streets, especially when you’re sleeping outside.”
got some breakfast. read it through, entirely, drank a couple cups of coffee. then drove up to DC. my niece, it turns out, has bronchitis. she’s not doing so hot, and toddlers you can’t reason with. she has one truth: she feels like shit. and that’s all that matters. she’ll be alright, though. I know what I’m going to get her for Christmas. “Cinderella” on video. DVD, I mean. on DVD.

I watched the returns at Spencer’s apartment in Dupont Circle. McCain lead early, what with West Virginia and Kentucky getting called first, as opposed to Obama’s Vermont. Obama took Vermont, McCain took Kentucky, we said. shockers.
as the night wore on, more folks showed up. and the results rolled in. NJ for Obama. Maine. New Hampshire. Mass. all of New England. Pennsylvania. McCain put a lot of effort into that state, from what I understand, and Obama won it by ten points. and even Virginia. which, like Indiana, hadn’t backed a Democrat since 1964.
I don’t know if it’s obvious who I voted for, because for all of my writing and writing and writing, I’ve never actually declared it. I didn’t do the Nader thing, though I entertained the idea, and I feel vindicated. he suggested Obama might become an Uncle Tom to corporate interests tonight, again, and it seems like he’s deadset on moving into the ”old coot” stage of his career. the system broke Ralph Nader long ago, so I cast my ballot for Obama, because, well, fuck it. it seemed like a good idea, and I’ve already mapped it out (that was the last post). but unlike Spencer and his roommate, I didn’t volunteer. and I wasn’t on board, not emotionally. not yet.
when they called Ohio, it was pretty clear where this was going. the mood brightened.

…
I started this blog four years ago, just before Bush’s reelection. on election night, I remember it started off well, and it went south quick. it was in desperation that I voted for John Kerry then. the man was a stick in the mud, the very image of rigid establishment. but I was 21, and couldn’t fathom that we’d put Bush back in for another term. and we did. and I wrote:

so the left got bitchslapped out of the government. okay. fine, fuck it. that means for the next four years, all of the problems Bush caused and Kerry wanted to inherit, they’re remaining Bush’s. so when the republicans piledrive the economy through the dance floor, and we’re still liberatin’ us some freedom over in Iraq (and god knows where else), it’ll be no one’s fault but their own. Ann Coulter, Rush Limbaugh, and other conservative talking heads will grow tumors trying to blame a crushing national debt and an ever-rising military death toll on liberalism.

that’s a little raw, a little all over the place, and I grimace whenever I reread anything a month old, but still, that’s prescience.
this time, though, I didn’t have to soul search. the guy I voted for, he actually fuckin’ won. this didn’t surprise me, but my growing reaction to the news did. I started cold. matter of fact. quiet, slightly pleased. but I don’t know, it’s kind of hard to be a dreary, cynical pessimist when you’re in a small room surrounded by genuine enthusiasm.
ABC called it for Obama about 15 minutes after California’s polls closed. I don’t know how soon it happened after that, but I realized the guy I was standing next to was bawling. really. he was crying.
later, I told this to my friend Rachana from work. I said, via tex message (how very modern): “I hugged a guy while he cried. really.” 
she asked, “Matt, are you crying?”
and I wasn’t, so I said, “no, I’m good. but I get it.”

the crying put me over the top. you can call me soft.
I patted the guy on the back, and, “come on, dude. turn that frown upside down. tonight’s a good night to be alive.” this is not to say I was politically reborn, but I started to get it.
what is It? It could be nothing. he could be an awful president, and if he is I’ll carry that grudge for years against him. but I can recognize the geniune feeling this campaign has raised in people. that, shit, even if it’s only temporary, there’s legitimate strength in optimism.
the party watched both McCain’s concession and Obama’s acceptance. McCain seemed relieved. he’s much more comfortable when he’s reassuring and calm than when he’s at a campaign rally, tripping over his lines, and painfully declaring “the Mac is back.” it seemed so beneath him, and I think it was. I say this now, though god knows what I’ve said in the past: it’s a fucking shame that McCain ran. there’s nothing more demeaning than being a presidential candidate, because you inevitably look and sound like an asshole, and half the country ends up despising you for your title alone. at the party last night, for instance, some guy called him a “fascist.” which isn’t true — that hipster probably couldn’t define fascism for a million dollars – but that’s beside the point.
a lot of people grew to hate him because of what he represented, and I don’t think the man deserves to be hated. I say this, knowing full well that if we were in bizarro world and McCain had actually won, I’d want blood.

Obama’s speech was soaring, as you would expect. and by this point, you could hear the streets outside. hear the car horns. the news was out. so I ended up with Spencer and his roommate, Krista, and Michael recently of Rhode Island in front of the White House at 12:30 with a couple of thousand other people, who milled and chanted and dance and sang. and at 2:00 am, I saw a spontaneous parade down 16th from U Street. at least a couple of hundred of people banging on pots and pans.
I honestly didn’t know this country had this in it, this delirious celebration. and it says something about the candidate that he could inspire such a reaction.

I’m not doing this justice, I know. I had huge plans for this. I was writing this in my head all fucking day at work, but I’ve got nothing now. this prose is painfully disjointed. it’s because I’m tired. but that’s okay. I’ll maybe be more eloquent later. now, just to finish …

after an epic battle to hail a cab, I got back to my brother’s place and crashed out. I woke up in the morning, and checked the results, just to see it again and make sure. Obama took Indiana late, and trailed the entire time, until they counted Lake County. which he won by 70,000 votes. 
here, I went flush and teared up. I don’t know why this got me going. pride, I guess. but it certainly makes you feel less impotent as a citizen when your state actually responds to your opinion for once. it only took the economy tanking to get me on the same wide page as everyone else, but it happened. and now I’m here.
President Obama. huh, no shit. he stomped McCain, just like I said. I said so. you read it here last week.

politics are coming down the pike. this will require a double.

the Bears won today, barely. Orton fucked up his ankle, and Mike Brown has a calf injury. of course he does.
but we’re on top of the NFC North — suck on that one, Green Bay — and that’s not bad.
I watched the first half before work today at a sports bar. I had the Mile High Nachos (they’re piled Mile High). then, halfway through my evening at work, Frostee run. then, two hours later, two-for-one deal landed me a Big Mac and fries. I hadn’t eaten a Big Mac in at least six, seven years.
I’m not kidding, I don’t think I’ve eaten this poorly in a day in over a year.

okay. a double has been hit.
my newspaper endorsed a straight Republican ticket. already talked about Gilmore, but also McCain, Virgil Goode and Eric Cantor. Goode’s a cartoon of a six-term congressman, who actively deserves to lose. sits on the House appropriations committee, which is a guarantee that he’s both lazy and corrupt. one of his huge issues — and he’s been talking this up – are anchor babies. Goode, of Virginia’s fifth congressional district, is worried about the Mexicans coming here, having kids, and then leeching off of their citizenship to bleed all of us dry.
you’d think we were in Brownsville, fucking Texas, he talks about it so much. his opponent, Tom Perriello, is a lawyer who served as a national security consultant in Afghanistan. but he’s from Albemarle and he doesn’t support a gay marriage ban, so the Goode campaign has depicted him as a hippie. Goode will win, but I can guarantee it won’t be with my help, and it will be a shame.
Cantor’s from suburban Richmond, and isn’t my congressman. he’s the deputy minority whip and was rumored to be on McCain’s VP list. annnd, he was an early leader of the House Republicans who vowed not to support the Bush administration’s $700 billion bailout of the financial system. but then, he wised up. Cantor is a rising star in a party that is about to be experiencing a power vacuum. and that means he’s a vicious bastard in a knife fight, he’s got sharp elbows and flexible morals, and he probably realized it will be politically beneficial for him to have had eventually supported the bailout. so he did. Cantor’s opponent is Anita Hartke, a real estate agent who joined her local democrats in Culpeper a couple of years ago, whose campaign strategy has been to cling deperately to the coattails of Mark Warner. she’s a lightweight. Hartke neve had a prayer and is fucked, and Cantor will cruise.

we also endorsed McCain, arguing that he’s the safer bet on national security issues. that means Iraq and Afghanistan, and Vladimir Putin. and also, because ”Mr. Obama is the most liberal presidential candidate from a major party that this country perhaps has ever seen. His platform would tip us toward socialism.”
…. . I need a drink.
‘The Delta Force’ is on. fuck yes, it is. it has Ernest Borgnine, your boy Chuck Norris, Col. Trautman from ‘Rambo’, Lee ‘gutcheck’ Marvin, and a lot of stereotypes. it’s fucking great.
but you know, I’ve got no problem with people who vote for McCain because of national security. no, really. I disagree with it, and I’m sorry to hear that your vote is based on fear, but it’s your vote and that’s your prerogative. what really bothers me is the socialism thing.
“his platform would tip us toward socialism.” that’s the biggest crock of shit I’ve ever heard. he wants a fucking tax cut for people who don’t make a lot of money, and to cut the tax break for the wealthy. the wealthy act like this is the most unjust proposal in recorded history; no, asshole, it means your tax cut isn’t permanent, and it’s time for it to go away. you’re wealthy. even with higher taxes, you’ll still be wealthy.
but more to the point: Barack Obama Is A Socialist has only become an issue since the McCain campaign started screaming it after the Joe the Plumber fiasco. using it as an argument in a newspaper endorsement is intellectually lazy; I mean, it’s a newspaper endorsement, for christ’s sake. it’s supposed to focus on policy issues and voting records, not campaign soundbites. we’re supposed to recognize bullshit, which the socialism bit clearly is, and react accordingly. not doing so makes us look foolish.

I’ve been trying to write some ringing endorsement of Obama for some time now. I want to, but I wouldn’t really believe in it. that says a lot, I think, that I want to write it. but I don’t see it. I see a great speaker in him, but I don’t expect anything from him.
this has nothing to do with Obama personally. I expect nothing from McCain either. but as great a speaker as Obama is, his platform doesn’t really move me. should it? I want the war to end. and when it comes to the economy, I consider him less wrong than McCain, who doesn’t seem to know what the fuck he’s talking about. but does recognizing that McCain doesn’t know anything about economics make me an Obama supporter?
“less wrong.” jesus. see, beyond the war and the economy, there’s nothing I feel strongly about. everything else is trivial. it’s just a series of issues that I think Obama’s less wrong about than Mccain is. and that sucks, that I don’t believe in him. I want to; my fucking neighbors are gonna act like they won the lottery if Obama wins. I’m gonna shrug, and say, “better him than the other one.” everyone else seems so eager and excited and hopeful. so why the hell am I so pessimistic? I’m too young to be so politically jaded.
you know what is: I’m afraid that I’m going to vote against something and not for it. which is something that you’re often doing when you’re voting for Ralph Nader. and not doing that is something that’s important to me.
Obama’s gonna win, I think, and I believe that he’s a pragmatic man. he’s careful and he’s thoughtful. and because of this, I think he’ll recognize that to be a successful president — and that means a popular one, as well – he’ll govern from the center. this is why George Bush II isn’t a successful president. the center got him elected, but it wasn’t from where he governed; he governed from the fringe that used an act of terror to achieve some radical foreign policy they’d been scheming on for over a decade. and it didn’t work, because the fringe never works, and now Bush is almost universally reviled. and that’s how we’ll remember him, the son of a bitch. I hope he’s happy with himself.
on the other hand, McCain’s The Maverick, who’ll be forced govern from the center, because he certainly won’t have congressional support. but he’s also a foreign policy hawk, a cancer survivor in his seventies, and he picked a mediocre social conservative in Sarah Palin as his running mate. he did this only because the socially conservative wing of his party doesn’t like him, and you know this, because if he means it when he says that Obama’s not qualified to be president, then there’s no way he believes that Palin is. or he doesn’t care about qualifications at all. and what an asshole possibility that is. that bitch could be president.

so with that said. I know who I’m going to vote for. I’m going up to DC tomorrow, I think. I will cast my ballot early here before I leave, then I think Spencer is having a party on Tuesday night. I think Dave’s brother is gonna be getting himself arrested, or something like that. I’d like to see that. so I won’t be at home, so I won’t be writing anything until Wednesday.
I think Wednesday will be an interesting day.