Another post about politics, wtf

[exsequar]

Thoughts before I go to bed:

This week's SGA played like a horror movie! I was so confused, and rather impressed. I think Joe Flanigan accidentally walked onto the wrong set (where there were GIRLS) and the cameras followed him. Whatever, it worked, and it scared the shit outta me, while giving us four interesting and distinct female characters, and confirming my belief that Carson is a whiny bitch who has very misplaced patriarchal inclinations. Hate me if you want, I just call em as I see em.

Sarah Palin scares the fuck out of me too. I hate her rather passionately. If you haven't read the email written about her by a woman from Wasilla, Alaska, you should. It paints a level-headed, fact-filled picture of Sarah Palin as a ruthlessly ambitious, greedy, self-serving, frighteningly savvy woman who will do anything to get more people to look at her. Fun piece of trivia: when she became mayor of Wasilla, the town of ~5,000 had a balanced budget. When she left, it was in debt by $22 million. The main expenditure? A $15m sports facility. Oh yeah. This is who we should trust to help rebuild our shattered economy.

I have faith in Obama, and I have faith in Biden. I know that they won't sink to Palin's level of underhanded shit-slinging. But I'm afraid that that could be their downfall. That the masses will listen to her viciousness and get little thrills down their spine because hey, that woman sure is emphatic! she must be right! Politics (and particularly political campaigns) disgust me in that they often turn on the lowest common denominator, to whom the intelligence and passion of Obama is completely beside the point. They care more that Sarah Palin once drove her kid back and forth from hockey practice. I saw a Republican refer to Obama in the comments on a political blog as "a nasty, ambition, parochial, disingenuous, Chicago machine politician, with a good education but very skewed world view and questionable associations" and I was absolutely floored. If you have spent even five minutes watching Obama speak, how does the word "nasty" even approach your consciousness? HOW DOES THAT WORK? I fundamentally do not understand such drastic divides of perception between myself and others, which is why I have such a hard time engaging with politics in any way, and why my discussions with my roommate, who appreciates the political savvy of the Palin choice and everything she's done though he does not agree with it, often get quite heated.

Ugh. I just meant this to be a short bullet point on how much Sarah Palin horrifies me. I apparently have a lot to say on the subject. I'm sorry to those who don't like to hear about this (although, as someone who usually goes "ew, politics", I think right now is the time to be paying attention if you're American) but I think right now I NEED to say something. I have never before cared so passionately about a political election. That both excites and scares me. Just thinking about the possibility of Obama losing brings tears to my eyes. (I'm not lying. literally. right now.) I'm scared of what it would do to our country, but I'm also scared of what it would do to me. I think my faith in basic human goodness would be very fundamentally shaken, if not shattered. It scares me a lot.

If you have a favorite political blog or source of info on the campaigns, could you point me to them? I'm finding myself wanting to actually be very informed on this, so that I can discuss it passionately without getting stymied by questions I cannot answer, as often happens to me. I want to back up my gut feeling with FACTS, of which I know there are gazillions.

OBAMA BIDEN 08

Comments

[go-gentle.livejournal.com]

Making Light! Which is not actually a political blog, but contains lots of posts about politics, if that makes any sense.

[exsequar.livejournal.com]

Cool, thanks, I will check it out!

[snuffkin.livejournal.com]

I don't understand how people like her. They showed some snippets from her speech in the news here and she just scares me. Not because of what she's saying but (I mean that just makes me headdesk)... but she looks so vicious :/

I'm not sure in how far Obama will be what everyone believes him to be but he sure is the best option.

I read Political Bitches they don't post too often but when they do it's rather amusing and to the point.

[exsequar.livejournal.com]

She DOES look vicious. She almost snarls while she's speaking, and then smiles like she's the sweetest princess in all the land. UGH I HATE HER.

[neverneverfic.livejournal.com]

I think were Obama/Biden to shit-sling we would be fucked. The democratic party has a long history of trying to be good at negative campaigning but being totally shitty at. No one is as good as the republican party at hitting below the belt and then mustering compelling outrage if the dems do something similar.

[exsequar.livejournal.com]

That's very true. The Republicans play dirty and it's very hard to respond to that in a constructive way. I think Obama's policy so far of responding with good humor to their outright lies is a good one.

I'm so nervous :(

[nightxparade.livejournal.com]

You guys have my full support behind Obama. I wish that there were more intelligent people like you in the US who are actually interested in politics and want to be informed about these things, and were allowed to vote. Ugh, Palin disgusts me so much.

[exsequar.livejournal.com]

I'm so scared for our nation. Can we pull off one move of intelligence to get us at least turning in the right direction? How such a vastly stupid nation became a superpower, I'll never understand. I hope we as a generation can bring about important change in that trend.

[jonijess.livejournal.com]

Hello. I usually just lurk at your journal because I stumbled upon it one day whilst randomly clicking. I come back because I agree with you a lot. :) Also, I hear you on this election. I've never gotten involved before but this one is scaring me. I've been out registering voters on behalf of the Obama campaign this summer.

Anyway I noticed you asking for political blogs with info and I thought I'd pull myself out of lurkdom enough to recommend the blog of Taylor Marsh. I don't post much on lj so I'm not sure how to post links but you can just google her name. She was earlier a fervent Hillary supporter but she's 100% behind Obama now. It's a good source for me because she gathers a lot of political information in one place. It's also very active.

There's also of course The Huffington Post and Daily Kos, but I don't frequent those as much. The blogs at the Obama site have a lot of interesting links too.

[exsequar.livejournal.com]

Aw, that's sweet of you! I'm glad you like reading my blog :) And hurrah for registering voters! That's fantastic. I hope I'll be able to get involved in some concrete way, other than ranting on the internet, but this semester is going to be literally the hardest of my life. It's really bad timing! :(

Thank you for the great blog rec! I will be sure to check her out.

[shotofjack.livejournal.com]

I like salon.com and follow the Washington Post.

This is really well written and very on point. Palin is scary because it is a deeply political selection but the masses don't 'get' that. The idea that a person has been selected to run as VP but CAN NOT do an interview with the press because she is not well-versed/ready - can you believe that is happening?

Consider going out to register new voters although I know you are busy. I'm heading off to Nevada to register voters in a few weeks as CA is firmly blue. I believe you are in a swing state so it is very important if you can make the time.

[exsequar.livejournal.com]

Noted!

Thanks hon. I'm afraid I'd need to take a deep breath to write something a little more coherent - this was something of a rant. Glad to know it came across on point anyway.

The entire Palin situation is shocking and so dismaying. I just don't understand it.

I want to, I do, but literally right now it's a struggle to find time to eat. I'm going to try though. Yeah, PA is a very big swing state that often swings red, so work on the ground here is going to be really important.

[musictoyourlips.livejournal.com]

Ahahaha, that is exactly what I thought about this week's SGA. I was super confused and thought for a moment I had accidentally put Supernatural in. However, I really enjoyed that there were *girls* and that they had personalities and were, for the most part, pretty damn awesome. Carson, Carson, Carson. I missed him last season, but not so much I wanted them to bring him back. And now he is back, and so clearly out of his element that it's just sort of painful. The end.

Also, I missed David Hewlett's face.

[pau494.livejournal.com]

Becca told me the monsters were in SGA were creepy! I take it the episode was good!

Just the few basic facts I know about Palin are making me cringe. I want to be informed with you! Even though I don't get to vote, I wish I could. I think it's awesome that so many people in my flist are talking about these elections. Voting is mandatory in Argentina, so it's never really a question for me that I *have* to do it (even though these past elections the candidates were pretty much crap) so it's really something so read about so many passionate people.

ILU.

[rain-dances.livejournal.com]

If McCain wins this election I don't want to come back from Costa Rica. I will be a complete wreck, seriously. So I understand about the tears. It's a terrifying thought.

I BELIEVE IN BARACK OBAMA.

[thelemic.livejournal.com]

Seconding salon.com. And yes. I don't even want to start considering the possibility of Obama not winning, even though i know it is a presidential race and he's still got a chance to. I don't want Sara Palin anywhere near the White House. I read that letter and--that's the last person I even want to have a shot at running the country.

[exsequar.livejournal.com]

Your icon is AWESOME.

There are some people being pessimistic assholes and saying we have no chance of winning. That this kind of talk is even happening horrifies me and turns my stomach. Palin is a TERRIBLE PERSON. McCain seems to me to be a bumbling idiot who's absolutely no improvement on Bush whatsoever, and I didn't even think that was possible.

OBAMAAAAAA. Please?

[flamingkitten.livejournal.com]

-Tales from the Trail (Reuters)
-RealClearPolitics
-NewsBusters
-Daily Kos

sorry if that's too many, poli sci major here and fervent lover of politics and international relations!

[redbrickrose.livejournal.com]

Do you have a link to that email?

Sarah Palin is fucking scary. The stakes are just so high. I started out, way back at the beginning of the election cycle, being very much for Obama, but still thinking that no matter what happened it would be better than what we have now. I don't think so anymore. Like you, I've never felt this way about an election. I will be devastated if Obama doesn't win.