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December 23, 2008

[trannee airport] Everyone's leaving (or have left) town for the hols. 'cept poor ol' me :-(

Well, almost everyone :-) I'll find peeps to party with, don't worry about me...

Claire's on her way to Paris... Blake's in St Louis for work and Charlotte till next week...

Me:: Text or Facebook Claire. She's at the airport getting ready to leave for the year.
Blake:: I texted her, can she receive?
*giggle* "can she receive"... such a silly question!
Me:: Lol! If she receives anymore, they're gonna name an airport after her
Blake:: I'd love it "HellOO, welCUM tew PaRIS. Ew are ahRIVing at AEROport ENTERnationale de Charles de TranNEE! EINjoy your stayEE!"

ROTFL! We ♥ Claire's Fwench-Engrish inflections.

Mewwy Chwistmas evewybody! @ 11:28

December 18, 2008

[inaugural mistake] Joe Solomonese, President of the Human Rights Campaign, spoke for all of us in the WaPo today...

...Rev. Rick Warren, pastor of the humongous, evangelical Saddleback Church in Orange County, Calif... was a general in the campaign to pass California's Proposition 8, which dissolved the legal marriage rights of loving, committed same-sex couples.

We understand that the Rev. Joseph E. Lowery, a civil rights icon and a dear friend of LGBT Americans, will close the inauguration ceremony. But would any inaugural committee say to Jewish Americans, "We're opening with an anti-Semite but closing the program with a rabbi, so don't worry"?

What the Obama team needs to understand is that for many LGBT Americans, this November was bittersweet. We were thrilled with Obama's victory and, in fact, many of us worked the phones, pounded the pavement and wrote checks to make that happen. But the next day, we learned that Proposition 8 passed in California, and our hearts sank. It was the biggest loss our community has faced in decades.

One of the biggest reasons for that hurtful outcome was the Rev. Rick Warren, who publicly endorsed Proposition 8 in late October.

President-elect Obama must now, as my mother used to say, put some meat on the bone. We've seen appointment after appointment of talented Americans who come from constituencies that are part of this country and that helped gain his election. Well, we're one of those constituencies who actually worked and voted for Obama, unlike Warren and probably most of his 21,000 parishioners. Yet, we're the ones left waiting for some real evidence of inclusion.

So, are we angry about Rick Warren? You bet we are. And including a gay marching band in the inaugural festivities doesn't heal this wound. It only serves to make us question the promises that Barack Obama made in his historic quest to be president. We pray we weren't misled.

I doubt JFK would've included George Wallace in his Inauguration.

I'm severely disappointed in this Obama decision.

Not enough to keep me away from the Inauguration though... @ 17:26

December 17, 2008

[poty 2008] This is a big d'uh.

He hit the American scene like a thunderclap, upended our politics, shattered decades of conventional wisdom and overcame centuries of the social pecking order. Understandably, you may be thinking Obama is on the cover for these big and flashy reasons: for ushering the country across a momentous symbolic line, for infusing our democracy with a new intensity of participation, for showing the world and ourselves that our most cherished myth -- the one about boundless opportunity -- has plenty of juice left in it.

Obama's competence fills him with a genuine self-confidence. "I've got a pretty healthy ego," he allows. That's clear when he offers a checklist for voters to use in judging his performance two years from now. It's quite an agenda. Listen: "Have we helped this economy recover from what is the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression? Have we instituted financial regulations and rules of the road that assure this kind of crisis doesn't occur again? Have we created jobs that pay well and allow families to support themselves? Have we made significant progress on reducing the cost of health care and expanding coverage? Have we begun what will probably be a decade-long project to shift America to a new energy economy? Have we begun what may be an even longer project of revitalizing our public-school systems?"

There's more: "Have we closed down Guantánamo in a responsible way, put a clear end to torture and restored a balance between the demands of our security and our Constitution? Have we rebuilt alliances around the world effectively? Have I drawn down U.S. troops out of Iraq, and have we strengthened our approach in Afghanistan — not just militarily but also diplomatically and in terms of development? And have we been able to reinvigorate international institutions to deal with transnational threats, like climate change, that we can't solve on our own?"

And: "Outside of specific policy measures, two years from now, I want the American people to be able to say, 'Government's not perfect; there are some things Obama does that get on my nerves. But you know what? I feel like the government's working for me. I feel like it's accountable. I feel like it's transparent. I feel that I am well informed about what government actions are being taken. I feel that this is a President and an Administration that admits when it makes mistakes and adapts itself to new information.'"

Can he really achieve all that? Plenty of voters will be happy if he aces only Item 1 on his list. But the essence of both Obama's strength and his promise is that, according to a recent poll, a strong majority of Americans believe he will accomplish most of what he aims to do. For having the confidence to sketch that kind of future in this gloomy hour and for showing the competence that makes Americans hopeful that he will pull it off, Barack Obama is Time's Person of the Year for 2008.

History cannot wait. Obama = Hope. And, for that, he may just be the Person of the Decade when this decade draws to a close in a seemingly very short 2 years' time.

Just like our banks and our carmakers, America's shattered confidence is in serious need of a bailout. And the thing about competence is that it nourishes fresh confidence. "Yes, we can" is both an affirmation of optimism and the essential claim of the competent. When the slogan is rooted in a record of accomplishment -- when tomorrow's yes-we-can is backed up by yesterday's yes-we-did -- confidence and competence begin to feed on each other. This virtuous cycle of possibility isn't the whole of leadership, but it is an important part and perhaps the element most needed in today's sea of troubles.

...if he has shown anything this year, Obama has made it clear that he knows how to write new playbooks and do things in new ways. Which is a compelling quality right now. His arrival on the scene feels like a step into the next century -- his genome is global, his mind is innovative, his world is networked, and his spirit is democratic. Perhaps it takes a new face to see the promise in a future that now looks dark.

I am breathlessly counting down the 34 days to go before Obama becomes our 44the President! You can bet yo' ass I will be on the Mall for his Inauguration. @ 10:57

[dc ork] This is kinda cool:

Go check out ORK POSTERS for more :-)

Been busy -- work, parties, etc. Yea, yea, bad excuse for not writing. But it's my blog so you can suck it! ;-) @ 10:31

December 3, 2008

[bush = hoover] This article -- "Bush's Final Fiasco: George W. Bush as Today's Herbert Hoover" -- by WaPo's Harold Meyerson made me squeal with delight today.

As he prepares to move back to Texas, our 43rd president is the beneficiary of Bush fatigue. The nation has long since repudiated him. Americans are looking ahead to the promise of Barack Obama.

And it's lucky for George W. Bush that they are, because his handling of our plunging economy is Hooverian in both its substance and inadequacy.

Herbert Hoover, we should recall, had a program for dealing with the Depression. It consisted of lending to banks but opposing fiscal stimulus or direct aid to individuals. Which is why Hank Paulson's frenzied endeavors to prop up the banking sector and Bush's dogged resistance to assisting anybody else amount to pure neo-Hooverism.

As the 1930s began, Hoover believed that the coordinated actions of the private sector could save the beleaguered economy. It soon became apparent that the only action that private-sector businesses could agree upon was closing down factories and offices and throwing people out of work.

Having done his bit to bail out the banks, however, Hoover rested. He opposed provisions that would have enabled homeowners to hang on to their homes.

As breadlines lengthened, he vetoed a bill appropriating funds for public works on the grounds that it was inflationary and contained pork-barrel spending. Bankers would be saved; everyone else was effectively damned.

Sound familiar? The Bush administration's approach to today's meltdown is to direct all its energies and largess to lending institutions. There is, as yet, no program to help floundering homeowners renegotiate the terms of their mortgages. The president is opposed to further stimulus programs, even though private-sector investment in the United States has all but ceased.

It's becoming increasingly clear, however, that while saving the banks may limit further calamities, it doesn't really save anybody else. Even with government-guaranteed lines of credit, financial institutions are refusing to lend money. With the banks effectively on strike, an economic recovery, if there is to be one, must begin with the government injecting funds to those parts of the economy that need it most: infrastructure development, state and local governments, an alternative-energy sector. These are all programs to which Bush is firmly opposed.

...virtually every reputable conservative economist, from Martin Feldstein on down, now supports a government stimulus program. But Bush, drawing on no known body of economic thought, remains opposed. (So does Republican House leader John Boehner, who seems determined to elevate stupidity to a party principle.) And with each passing day, the economic hole out of which we will have to climb grows deeper.

So where's the outrage? Why aren't demonstrators besieging the White House? Where are the "Welcome to Bushville" signs in those neighborhoods where abandoned homes outnumber the occupied ones?

The answer, I suspect, is that you can only irreversibly give up on a president once. Further catastrophic failures on the president's part elicit only diminishing returns. Buchanan did nothing while the South seceded: That was it for him. Hoover did nothing as farmers, workers and middle-class America got wiped out: With that, he was beyond rehabilitation. Nixon had Watergate: Enough said. One mega-strike and you're out.

Bush, however, has had three. He misled us into a nearly endless war of choice to disarm a threat that never really existed. He let a great American city drown. And now he stands by while the economic security of tens of millions of Americans is vanishing.

Yet in the hearts of his countrymen, Bush's place is already fixed. Even before the financial collapse, he was in the ninth circle of presidential hell, with Buchanan and Hoover. At his own party's national convention this summer, his was the name that no one dared speak. And so, though his mishandling of the economy is criminally inept, he is being spared one more outbreak of public rage by two countervailing public sentiments: Americans' relief that he soon will be gone and their kind reluctance to kick a corpse.

I used to want Bush tried in court for war crimes. Now, I can almost relate to this article coz I barely want to touch his corpse.

RIP, Dubya. May history judge you swiftly, harshly and mercilessly.

p.s. The ninth circle of presidential hell remark made me wet my manties!! @ 12:15

November 21, 2008

[candy galore] You would not be-LIEVE where we were last night...

Blake, Joenn, Aaron and Me @ Wachovia Center

Guess where our seats are? Mmm-hmm...

OMB!!! The Queen has arrived!

*squeals*, *puddles* and *faints*

Tranny Ferosh fist bumps to my 13-hour road-trip Single Ladies to Wachovia Center in Philly for Madonna's Sticky and Sweet last night! @ 10:27

November 19, 2008

[114/66] My doctor called regarding my biannual visit yesterday.

- Blood pressure is at 114/66 which he describes as "excellent". I asked if I can get off the Lisinopril 10mg (lowest dose) and he emphatically said no. Pout.

- Cholesterol is at 168mg/dL; HDL 65 and LDL 68. All three are "amazing", he says. <200, >60 and <100 are optimal numbers.

- Kidney/Liver functions are good. The latter is shocking, LOL!, but def good to know considering how much alcohol I consume.

- STD/HIV are all negative. Der.

He says I'm super healthy. I kinda feel it :-D

p.s. Yes, I am obsessed about my blood pressure numbers. @ 16:49

[cold & miserable] WTF. Yesterday, we recorded our first low at or below freezing since March (high was only 40°! Skank).

And today, our high is 38°?! And they are now calling for sub-freezing lows throughout the weekend, with highs below 50° all the way through Thanksgiving week!

Totes not fetch.

Two more pieces of bad news...

First, the Dow closed below 8,000 for the first time since March 2003. Ouch. Talk about a decimated 401(k). Regardless, I am still totes praying for the auto bailout to fail and for Detroit's Big Three to go under. It's not that American companies don't know how to make cars, they are just saddled with too much legacy and overhead costs that make them uncompetitive. AND they have made extremely poor business decisions in the past. How could they not have foreseen that gas would not stay cheap forever? Why would they spend billions fighting CAFE standards -- that are for their own future good! -- instead of spending that money on researching alternative fuel vehicles??

Chicago (and Obama!) is calling, and they're saying, "You had it comin'!". And you only have yourselves to blame. Generation O has spoken and, GM / Ford / Chrysler -- you're OUT!

Hmm, did you know that two-thirds of all cars sold in the DC area are imports? For me, German (maybe European?) first, Japanese (or Korean :-o) second and everything else is third.

Second, they finally called Missouri for McCain which, thankfully, ends Missouri's status as the bellwether state for Presidential elections after predicting the last 13 in a row correctly. Final electoral tally stands at 365-173.

Good thing too coz now I don't have to bother going to Missouri. There are so many blue states to visit that red states are not worth spending time and/or money in, trust. I love that DC is surrounded by an ocean of blue, now that Virginia has voted Democratic for the first time since 1964. All of NoVA is blue; including Prince William and Loudoun! Fierce.

So long Missouri, and hellooooo Virginia! @ 16:43

November 18, 2008

[4,240] Wow, I sent/received 4,240 text messages last month!

That is def a new record. It's a good thing I have a $15 unlimited text messaging plan with T-Mo coz that would've cost $424 otherwise!

And to commemorate this new record, I have decided to publish my T9 dictionary (yes, my phone has the ability to remember custom T9 words). It's pretty crass and totes vulgar, but you have been warned!

Abercrombie, BFFs, Beyonce, chink, bitch, Claire, blog, BMW, crap, Brett, Argh, ass, BTDubs, Cunt, Aww, DC, dah-ling, Damn, der, Ferosh, fuck, Dulles, dunno, Dupont, Eww, Hah, Halo, Gaysian, hawt, Gimme, Hui, gurl, huwwy, Lauriol, lemme, Kiat, kinda, Logan, Lol, kwazy, ma-wee, Obama, Madonna, nawty, Nellie's, Mikko, OMB, OMG, Mmm, muah, ouch, NYC, penis, Republicunt, shit, pimp, skank, pls, slut, sorority, ROTFL, sowwy, prolly, sushi, pussy, Tarzhay, tmr, Trafalgar, trannies, tranny, twanny, yay, wotcha, wru, WTF, yum

You could pretty much form entire conversations that I would have with just the words above *giggle*

Tranny Ferosh. @ 20:42

[single ladies] The other thing that made me pee ma manties this morning is the release of Beyonce's new album today -- I Am ... Sasha Fierce!

Apparently Blake did too:

"Total tranny alert: the first thing I did this morning is download single ladies and sync it to my phone"

ROTFLMAO! That's more like a Ring the (3) Alarm tranny alert, made especially tranny ferosha today because it's also Christian Siriano's birthday.

I think my gayness is rubbing off on him! *giggle*

Beware, ladies, I'm contagious... just like SARS.

p.s. BTDubs, if you haven't heard "Single Ladies" yet, do it now. And watch the music video! It's mind-blowingly fierce. @ 11:32

[4 million] We have exactly 9 weeks to go before the Inauguration of Hope.

I cannot begin to tell you how long I've waited for this inauguration. I first got here in '97 i.e. just past Bill's 2nd inauguration. The next two... well, the 2000 elections did not quite turn out the way I expected it to. And hell will freeze over and I would be ice-skating back to Malaysia before I would remotely contemplate attending Bush, the War Criminal's inauguration. Actually, I *was* in Malaysia in January 2001 *giggle*. And then he won again in 2004, much to the world's dismay and horror. This time, we roped along Gary/Mike, Tom/Gen to CityZen at the MO on inauguration night for a drown-your-sorrows-and-get-fit-shaced-on-a-hyperexpensive-meal kinda night. We didn't feel better the next day. Talk about an 8-year nightmare.

So Jan 20, 2009 will be my first inauguration ever, even though I have lived here for more than 11 years now. And I am sooooo unbelievably excited I can't even breathe from all the twitching.

But apparently I am not the only one who's excited. They are bracing for 4 million ppl in DC on Inauguration Day! :-o

OK ladies, 4 million ppl may not sound like much -- esp if you're in Tokyo where 10 times that number of ppl live within 40 miles of the Imperial Palace -- but seriously, ladies... Our Metro system has NEVER handled more than 855,000 ppl in a single day. Ever.

4 million ppl is going to be a logistical nightmare. Just the thought of pouring 8 times the population of DC onto the National Mall is making me dizzy. How are these ppl gonna get in and out? There will surely be no parking and roads will be closed off from the Potomac to the Anacostia. Where are these ppl gonna stay? We only have 95,000 rooms in the entire Metro area.

How many gay boys from across the country will make up that 4mn ppl and how many (the vast majority) of them are gonna be cramming into JR's, Nellie's, Halo, Town, etc.??

OMB, it's gonna be insane. And I'm going to get to party throughout the 4-day long MLK/Inauguration weekend like I haven't partied in 8 (dark Republicunt) years, and walk down to the Mall on Jan 20, 2009 to see -- however far away -- the real First President of the New Millennium get sworn in as the leader of the free world.

I think I just pee'd a little in excitement. And I'm about ready to explode in anticipation of BAM-A-LOT!

A historic moment in our lifetimes will unfold in 63 days. Once-in-a-lifetime, and I will totes be there.

Come! @ 11:26

[freeeeezing!] Winter is finally here! *groan*

Temps hovered right at the freezing mark at around 6am today -- our first day with a low at or below the freezing mark in more than 8 months.

So, really, the climate in DC is not so bad. Especially when you consider that it was 74° on Saturday (rainy, but still nice and warm) and that we have had 6 days in November where the highs were in the upper 60s and 70s. Not too shabby, huh?

But y'know, year after year I am reminded that I am just not built for this weather; no matter how much I eat or how many layers I wear.

The walk to work this morning was Crimes Against Humanity! It was 9:15am (*sheepish grin*) but it was still only in the mid-30s outside. I had my overcoat over my sweater with a long-sleeve shirt and a T-shirt underneath. I have wool pants on, thick socks, and was wrapped up with a scarf, gloves and ear muffs. I could not Possibly wear anymore layers! And here I was shivering down 21st street like I was the Giant MarshYellow Man on an ice luge.

Ridick.

And I know I shouldn't complain about the daylight hours in DC. We do get 4 more weeks of Daylight Saving Time than Europe does. And the shortest days in London are suicidal -- 7h 50m of daylight, from 8am to 4pm. Shocking. DC is only slightly better. Now that we're just over a month away from the shortest day of the year (Dec 21), I just want to say that under 9 1/2 hours of sunlight is cruel and unusual punishment! Walking home in the dark is totes not fetch.

Y'know, I will never again complain about the monotony of 12 hours of daylight, 7am to 7pm everyday in Malaysia. Ever. That's not boring, that's just civilized.

I'm just psyching myself up (bracing?) for 4 miserable months of winter. Good thing that work is insanely busy so I have something to focus on other than shivering my protruding nipples out!

I want to Bring Summer Back!

p.s. Yes, I am in a Totes Bitchy mood this a.m. @ 11:04

UPDATE:: OMB, is it snowing??? @ 14:04

November 10, 2008

[pres. cool] Maureen Dowd is a genius:

President Bush was a divider, not a decider. And the city and the country followed his bunker mentality. After 9/11, the White House and Capitol were ever more blockaded, and there seemed to be fewer and fewer bridges across anyof our divisions — racial, political, social and cultural.

But now we have the delicious irony that a white president from a patrician family, whose administration was so negligent about America's poor and black citizens, was so incompetent that he helped elect the first black president.

And she calls Obama "President-elect Cool".

*giggle*

I <3 having a Halfrican President! @ 15:00

[brains 2, bush 0] Michael Hirsh from Newsweek:

For two days now, Americans have celebrated the idea that we may have finally atoned for our nation's original sin, slavery, along with its long legacy of racism. We can rejoice in the world's accolades over the election of a multicultural African-American to the presidency after nearly eight years of cringing in shame as the Bush administration methodically curdled our Constitutional values and sullied our global reputation as a beacon of hope. Every once in a while, it seems, we Americans do manage to live up to our ideals rather than betray them. Hooray!

I am just as happy as everyone else over all this global good feeling. But there's something else that I'm even happier about—positively giddy, in fact. And the effects of this change are likely to last a lot longer than the brief honeymoon Barack Obama will enjoy as a symbol of realized ideals. What Obama's election means, above all, is that brains are back. Sense and pragmatism and the idea of considering-all-the-options are back. Studying one's enemies and thinking through strategic problems are back. Cultural understanding is back. Yahooism and jingoism and junk science about global warming and shabby legal reasoning about torture are out. The national culture of flag-pin shallowness that guided our foreign policy is gone with the wind. And for this reason as much as any, perhaps I can renew my pride in being an American.

Obama brought sexy back to intellectualism. @ 14:54

[brains 1, bush 0] OMB, I <3 Jimmy Kimmel!

"Obama held the first news conference today as president-elect. Some veteran White House reporters were a little bit confused because he didn't make up any words and almost everything he said made sense."

ROTFL!

p.s. OMB, I am blogging from work! Finally...
pp.s. TITS cold. WTF, winter already? @ 14:48

November 8, 2008

[blue america] Notable results:

President

- Obama is the first African-American President in the history of the United States
- Obama, 47, is the 5th-youngest man to be President (after Teddy, JFK, Bill and Ulysses Grant).
- Obama is the 1st President born outside the continental US. Obama was born in Honolulu.
- Obama is the 3rd President elected from Illinois, after Lincoln and Grant, and the 1st from Hawaii.
- Obama is the 16th senator to be President, the first since JFK in 1960.
- Obama/Biden are the third pair of sitting Senators to become President and VP in history.
- Obama is the first Democrat to win an absolute majority since Jimmy Carter in 1976 (50.1%).
- Obama is the first non-southern Democratic President since JFK.
- Obama's vote share is the best for a Democrat since 1964, and better than Reagan's 1980 victory.
- More white men voted for Obama (43%) than any Democrat since Carter.
- Men 49-48, Women 56-43.
- White 43-55, Black 95-4, Hispanic 67-31, Asian 62-35.
- 18-29yo 66-32, 30-44yo 52-46, 45-59yo 49-49, >60yo 47-51.
- More Jews voted for Obama (78%) than did for Kerry (74%).
- More Latinos voted for Obama (67%) than did for Kerry (53%) or even Gore (62%).
- 9 states flipped from R to D -- CO, FL, IN, IA, NV, NM, NC, OH, and VA.
- Indiana and Virginia voted Democratic for the first time since 1964. This is the second time since 1936 that Indiana has voted Democratic.
- North Carolina voted Democratic for the first time since 1976.
- Nebraska split its 5 electoral votes for the first time, awarding the 2nd CD to Obama (other 4 to Mccain). Like IN and VA, NE has not given any electoral votes to a Democrat since 1964. The only other state that can split its electoral vote, Maine, has yet to do so.
- 2008 is the first election since 1952 that no incumbents were running.
- 2008 is the first election that both major party candidates were sitting Senators.

Congress

- Obama comes to the White House in a similar Congressional position as Bill Clinton -- 58 Senators and 255 Representatives (to date) vs. 57 Sens and 258 Reps in 1992.
- The Republican strength in Congress is at its weakest since 1992. Note that Dems lost 9 Senate and 54 House seats 2 years later.
- Democrats wrested 7 seats from the Republicans -- AK, CO, NH, NM, NC, OR, VA -- with 2 undecided races (both Republican Incumbents). Similarly, Dems took 6 seats from Reps in 2006.
- Four years ago, both Virginia's Senators were Republican. They are both Democrat now.
- The winners of the CO and NM races are cousins -- Mark and Tom Udall.
- Democrats added 20 seats to their total in the House. They added 31 in 2006.
- Four Democrats lots in the House; all newcomers in conservative districts elected as part of the last Democratic landslide in 2006.
- Dems defeated 13 Rep incumbents, with 1 undecided. Dems captured all 12 open seats, with 3 undecided.
- There are no more Republican House members in New England now that Chris Shays (CT) is gone.
- Republicans hold only 3 of 29 House seats in NY.

States

- Only one Governor's mansion changed parties -- Missouri. Democrats now control 29 governorships.
- 80% of the 7,382 state legislative seats were contested.
- Democrats controlled 23 legislatures vs Republicans' 14 pre-election (12 were split). Post-election, the numbers are 27 D, 14 R and 8 split; the least number of split legislatures since 1982.
- Democrats gained control of both houses in four state legislatures -- DE, NV, NY and WI. Republicans gained two -- OK and TN; both for the first time in history.
- Democrats control every eastern state legislative chamber north of VA except for the PA Senate.
- Democrats control all of state gov't (executive plus legislature) in 17 states, Republicans have 8.
- Virginia now has two Democratic Senators and a Democratic Governor. The only Republican statewide elected officials are the Lt Gov and the AG.
- Republicans lost their 42-year grip on the NY state Senate. Democrats control the NY governor's mansion and both houses of the Legislature for the first time since 1935.
- Women hold 13 of 24 seats in the NH state senate, the first time in history a state legislature chamber has more women than men.

@ 16:05

[momentous] I have been totes busy at work (der, what's new... but 56 hours this week??) and my social calendar has been equally busy (again, der), hence the "silence" on my part.

October was a whirlwind month as far as work and parties are concerned. The former was and still is compounded by my inability to say "no" to what is fast becoming an untenable situation at work, and the latter was the result of the annual homopalooza in October called Halloween!

The final tally? Four costume parties, oy! I dressed up as Miss Chinatown USA 2008 for Miss Adams Morgan, followed by an Abercrombie Angel (with Blake) for Sharon's, a naughty Santa (with L'David, Joenn and Blake) for Halloween night itself, and a devil for Eric's this past weekend. And in between, there were the three debate parties, Claire and Joenn's birthdays, multiple visits to Nellie's (to savor the last few nice rooftop deck weekends) and Town (shocking), even more visits to JR's (der), housewarming parties and going away parties and more birthday parties, and the High Heel Drag Race (woo!). Super fun, super inebriated, and scandalous all around lol. Oh the stories, and pictures galore.

The gays <3 Halloween :-D

But the past week has been momentous.

The excitement practically exploded when Brett, Alice, Blake and I drove 3 1/2 hours (!) to Manassas for the 21-month-long Obama campaign's final rally at the Prince William County Fairgrounds. Traffic was miserable, the parking situation was abysmal (we parked, like, 1.5 miles away!), we had Roy Rogers for dinner (OMB), and Obama was 90 minutes late for a 9pm rally. On a Monday. We left the city at 5 and didn't get home till 1. Groan. Oh, and did I mention there were 85,000+ ppl there? We were as far away from the stage as we were from DC.

But y'know what? It was all worth it to hear Obama speak in person; his voice hoarse, his intonations tired, but his speech resounding and inspiring nonetheless. It was magical, and goosebumps-inducing to chant "Yes We Can!" and "O-ba-ma!" with 85,000+ other ppl. The electric atmosphere could've powered up all of DC, if not our hope-filled hearts.

And 24 hours later, we were all dancing in front of the White House in pure celebratory joy. I went to bed that night feeling comfortable, secure, proud and optimistic, and woke up to a "nothing can go wrong" kinda morning, even if it was drizzly and overcast.

There are no words for the immense and unbridled joy that exploded in cities and towns all across America this past Tuesday. It was historic, it was real, and it was America's moment to bask once again in the world spotlight. In one instant, at around 11pm EST when CNN called the West Coast states and the electoral college victory for Obama, America and the world changed for the better.

And when his voice boomed across Grant Park with a message of hope and unity during his victory acceptance speech, I was overflowing with tears watching and absorbing the monumental moment at JR's.

Even now, we are still all in stunned but pleasant disbelief that Barack Obama was elected decisively as the 44th President of these United States of America. When the president-elect was born in 1961, many states enforced segregation, miscegenation (like his parents) was banned and voting rights were restricted.

In one groundbreaking and sweeping moment, America turned the pages of its colored history by electing the first ever African-American President four days ago. Milestones along the road to civil rights -- not just in America but around the world -- usually are met with bitterness and bloodshed. This one, a historical high note, was marked by joy. Impossible to contain, tear-jerking, celebratory joy that exploded from the hearts of billions around the world.

The speed of Obama's ascendance has been shocking -- four years ago, he was a state senator in Illinois. And in 72 days' time, he will march into the White House with the largest vote totals ever (to date, more than 65 million), the highest percentage of voters (to date, 52.6%) since 1988, and the biggest electoral college victory since Bill Clinton in 1996; all these effectively sweeping the past 8 years, rife with division and furious partisanship, into the trash cans of history. And Bush along with it.

It was just over 7 years ago when the US elicited such good will throughout much of the world. Back then, the tragic events of 9/11 prompted an outpouring of unity, solidarity and mutual respect throughout the world, and we all felt like one. 7 years later, the feeling is the same but the circumstances are far more joyous. And this time, we won't squander it like Bush did.

We are happy, we are excited, we are hopeful and we are optimistic. Change is coming. And we are ready!

Yes, We Can. Yes, We Did. And Yes, We Will! @ 15:10

[the real america] NYT's Frank Rich in "It Still Felt Good the Morning After":

ON the morning after a black man won the White House, America's tears of catharsis gave way to unadulterated joy.

Our nation was still in the same ditch it had been the day before, but the atmosphere was giddy. We felt good not only because we had breached a racial barrier as old as the Republic. Dawn also brought the realization that we were at last emerging from an abusive relationship with our country's 21st-century leaders. The festive scenes of liberation that Dick Cheney had once imagined for Iraq were finally taking place -- in cities all over America.

The post-Bush-Rove Republican Party is in the minority because it has driven away women, the young, suburbanites, black Americans, Latino-Americans, Asian-Americans, educated Americans, gay Americans and, increasingly, working-class Americans. Who's left? The only states where the G.O.P. increased its percentage of the presidential vote relative to the Democrats were West Virginia, Tennessee, Louisiana and Arkansas. Even the North Carolina county where Palin expressed her delight at being in the "real America" went for Obama by more than 18 percentage points.

The actual real America is everywhere. It is the America that has been in shell shock since the aftermath of 9/11, when our government wielded a brutal attack by terrorists as a club to ratchet up our fears, betray our deepest constitutional values and turn Americans against one another in the name of "patriotism." What we started to remember the morning after Election Day was what we had forgotten over the past eight years, as our abusive relationship with the Bush administration and its press enablers dragged on: That's not who we are.

So even as we celebrated our first black president, we looked around and rediscovered the nation that had elected him. "We are the ones weve been waiting for," Obama said in February, and indeed millions of such Americans were here all along, waiting for a leader. This was the week that they reclaimed their country.

New England is the real America. The MidWest is the real America. The Great Plains is the real America. The Mountain West is the real America. The West Coast and the Pacific NorthWest is the real America. Even the South is the real America. So are Alaska and Hawaii.

DC is the real America!

The Republicunts who want to divide us with fear and hatred and their anti-everything agenda? Definitively and emphatically NOT the real America.

We got our country back on Nov 4th, holla! @ 14:05

November 5, 2008

[yes we can] President-elect #44 Barack Obama's victory speech at a massive rally in Grant Park in Chicago, IL.

Hello, Chicago.

If there is anyone out there who still doubts that America is a place where all things are possible; who still wonders if the dream of our founders is alive in our time; who still questions the power of our democracy, tonight is your answer.

It's the answer told by lines that stretched around schools and churches in numbers this nation has never seen; by people who waited three hours and four hours, many for the very first time in their lives, because they believed that this time must be different; that their voice could be that difference.

It's the answer spoken by young and old, rich and poor, Democrat and Republican, black, white, Latino, Asian, Native American, gay, straight, disabled and not disabled Americans who sent a message to the world that we have never been a collection of Red States and Blue States: we are, and always will be, the United States of America.

It's the answer that led those who have been told for so long by so many to be cynical, and fearful, and doubtful of what we can achieve to put their hands on the arc of history and bend it once more toward the hope of a better day.

It's been a long time coming, but tonight, because of what we did on this day, in this election, at this defining moment, change has come to America.

I just received a very gracious call from Senator McCain. He fought long and hard in this campaign, and he's fought even longer and harder for the country he loves. He has endured sacrifices for America that most of us cannot begin to imagine, and we are better off for the service rendered by this brave and selfless leader. I congratulate him and Governor Palin for all they have achieved, and I look forward to working with them to renew this nation's promise in the months ahead.

I want to thank my partner in this journey, a man who campaigned from his heart and spoke for the men and women he grew up with on the streets of Scranton and rode with on that train home to Delaware, the Vice President-elect of the United States, Joe Biden.

I would not be standing here tonight without the unyielding support of my best friend for the last sixteen years, the rock of our family and the love of my life, our nation's next First Lady, Michelle Obama. Sasha and Malia, I love you both so much, and you have earned the new puppy that's coming with us to the White House. And while she's no longer with us, I know my grandmother is watching, along with the family that made me who I am. I miss them tonight, and know that my debt to them is beyond measure.

To my campaign manager David Plouffe, my chief strategist David Axelrod, and the best campaign team ever assembled in the history of politics you made this happen, and I am forever grateful for what you've sacrificed to get it done.

But above all, I will never forget who this victory truly belongs to it belongs to you.

I was never the likeliest candidate for this office. We didn't start with much money or many endorsements. Our campaign was not hatched in the halls of Washington it began in the backyards of Des Moines and the living rooms of Concord and the front porches of Charleston.

It was built by working men and women who dug into what little savings they had to give five dollars and ten dollars and twenty dollars to this cause. It grew strength from the young people who rejected the myth of their generation's apathy; who left their homes and their families for jobs that offered little pay and less sleep; from the not-so-young people who braved the bitter cold and scorching heat to knock on the doors of perfect strangers; from the millions of Americans who volunteered, and organized, and proved that more than two centuries later, a government of the people, by the people and for the people has not perished from this Earth. This is your victory.

I know you didn't do this just to win an election and I know you didn't do it for me. You did it because you understand the enormity of the task that lies ahead. For even as we celebrate tonight, we know the challenges that tomorrow will bring are the greatest of our lifetime two wars, a planet in peril, the worst financial crisis in a century. Even as we stand here tonight, we know there are brave Americans waking up in the deserts of Iraq and the mountains of Afghanistan to risk their lives for us. There are mothers and fathers who will lie awake after their children fall asleep and wonder how they'll make the mortgage, or pay their doctor's bills, or save enough for college. There is new energy to harness and new jobs to be created; new schools to build and threats to meet and alliances to repair.

The road ahead will be long. Our climb will be steep. We may not get there in one year or even one term, but America I have never been more hopeful than I am tonight that we will get there. I promise you we as a people will get there.

There will be setbacks and false starts. There are many who won't agree with every decision or policy I make as President, and we know that government can't solve every problem. But I will always be honest with you about the challenges we face. I will listen to you, especially when we disagree. And above all, I will ask you join in the work of remaking this nation the only way it's been done in America for two-hundred and twenty-one years block by block, brick by brick, calloused hand by calloused hand.

What began twenty-one months ago in the depths of winter must not end on this autumn night. This victory alone is not the change we seek it is only the chance for us to make that change. And that cannot happen if we go back to the way things were. It cannot happen without you.

So let us summon a new spirit of patriotism; of service and responsibility where each of us resolves to pitch in and work harder and look after not only ourselves, but each other. Let us remember that if this financial crisis taught us anything, it's that we cannot have a thriving Wall Street while Main Street suffers in this country, we rise or fall as one nation; as one people.

Let us resist the temptation to fall back on the same partisanship and pettiness and immaturity that has poisoned our politics for so long. Let us remember that it was a man from this state who first carried the banner of the Republican Party to the White House a party founded on the values of self-reliance, individual liberty, and national unity. Those are values we all share, and while the Democratic Party has won a great victory tonight, we do so with a measure of humility and determination to heal the divides that have held back our progress. As Lincoln said to a nation far more divided than ours, "We are not enemies, but friendsthough passion may have strained it must not break our bonds of affection." And to those Americans whose support I have yet to earn I may not have won your vote, but I hear your voices, I need your help, and I will be your President too.

And to all those watching tonight from beyond our shores, from parliaments and palaces to those who are huddled around radios in the forgotten corners of our world our stories are singular, but our destiny is shared, and a new dawn of American leadership is at hand. To those who would tear this world down we will defeat you. To those who seek peace and security we support you. And to all those who have wondered if America's beacon still burns as bright tonight we proved once more that the true strength of our nation comes not from our the might of our arms or the scale of our wealth, but from the enduring power of our ideals: democracy, liberty, opportunity, and unyielding hope.

For that is the true genius of America that America can change. Our union can be perfected. And what we have already achieved gives us hope for what we can and must achieve tomorrow.

This election had many firsts and many stories that will be told for generations. But one that's on my mind tonight is about a woman who cast her ballot in Atlanta. She's a lot like the millions of others who stood in line to make their voice heard in this election except for one thing Ann Nixon Cooper is 106 years old.

She was born just a generation past slavery; a time when there were no cars on the road or planes in the sky; when someone like her couldn't vote for two reasons because she was a woman and because of the color of her skin.

And tonight, I think about all that she's seen throughout her century in America the heartache and the hope; the struggle and the progress; the times we were told that we can't, and the people who pressed on with that American creed: Yes we can.

At a time when women's voices were silenced and their hopes dismissed, she lived to see them stand up and speak out and reach for the ballot. Yes we can.

When there was despair in the dust bowl and depression across the land, she saw a nation conquer fear itself with a New Deal, new jobs and a new sense of common purpose. Yes we can.

When the bombs fell on our harbor and tyranny threatened the world, she was there to witness a generation rise to greatness and a democracy was saved. Yes we can.

She was there for the buses in Montgomery, the hoses in Birmingham, a bridge in Selma, and a preacher from Atlanta who told a people that "We Shall Overcome." Yes we can.

A man touched down on the moon, a wall came down in Berlin, a world was connected by our own science and imagination. And this year, in this election, she touched her finger to a screen, and cast her vote, because after 106 years in America, through the best of times and the darkest of hours, she knows how America can change. Yes we can.

America, we have come so far. We have seen so much. But there is so much more to do. So tonight, let us ask ourselves if our children should live to see the next century; if my daughters should be so lucky to live as long as Ann Nixon Cooper, what change will they see? What progress will we have made?

This is our chance to answer that call. This is our moment. This is our time to put our people back to work and open doors of opportunity for our kids; to restore prosperity and promote the cause of peace; to reclaim the American Dream and reaffirm that fundamental truth that out of many, we are one; that while we breathe, we hope, and where we are met with cynicism, and doubt, and those who tell us that we can't, we will respond with that timeless creed that sums up the spirit of a people:

Yes We Can. Thank you, God bless you, and may God Bless the United States of America.

This is a victory for the citizens of the United States, and the World.

Yes we did! @ A New Dawn In America

[victory!] Change has come to America...

Obama, Our Next President -- Chicago Tribune
History -- RedEye
Obama Makes History -- Anchorage Daily News
Obama Wins -- The Birmingham News
OBAMA, Racial Barrier Falls In Decisive Victory -- NYT
Obama Makes History, U.S. Decisively Elects First Black President -- WaPo
Obama Overcomes -- The Tuscaloosa News
In Our Lifetime -- The Anniston Star
'Change Has Come To America' -- Arizona Daily Star
Obama Seizes Historic Win -- The Arizona Republic
A Nation Changed -- The Bakersfield Californian
Obama Wins In Historic Vote -- Record Searchlight
'A Long Time Coming', Obama Makes History -- The Salinas Californian
OBAMA, "Change Has Come To America" -- San Francisco Chronicle
OBAMA, Colorado Key In Electing First Black President -- Rocky Mountain News
President Obama -- The Washington Times
HISTORIC, 'Change has come to America' -- Naples Daily News
The 44th President, In Historic Run, Obama Wins White House -- The Times-Picayune
America's New Face -- The Patriot Ledger
'Change Has Come' -- Springfield News-Leader
'Change Has Come To America' -- The Charlotte Observer
Face Of Change -- Omaha World-Herald
MR. PRESIDENT, Obama's Historic Victory -- New York Post
America's Historic Vote, Barack Obama will be our 44th, And our first -- State Island Advance
Obama! -- The Patriot-News
Obama! -- The Examiner
Obama Wins, America Makes History - USA Today
Obama Sweeps To Historic Victory -- The Wall Street Journal
Obama Sweeps To Victory -- Financial Times, UK
The New World -- The Times, UK
President Obama -- Evening Standard, UK

Victory! @ A New Dawn In America

[the morning after] YES WE DID!

Headlines in the US

Headlines in the UK

America and the world rejoices. @ A New Dawn In America

November 4, 2008

[#44] HISTORY!

 

OBAMA WINS!

 

@ Election Day 2008

November 3, 2008

[hope > intolerance] Paul Krugman in the NYT today:

What will defeat do to the Republicans?

You might think, perhaps hope, that Republicans will engage in some soul-searching, that they'll ask themselves whether and how they lost touch with the national mainstream. But my prediction is that this won't happen any time soon.

Instead, the Republican rump, the party that's left after the election, will be the party that attends Sarah Palin's rallies, where crowds chant "Vote McCain, not Hussein!" It will be the party of Saxby Chambliss, the senator from Georgia, who, observing large-scale early voting by African-Americans, warns his supporters that "the other folks are voting." It will be the party that harbors menacing fantasies about Barack Obama's Marxist -- or was that Islamic? -- roots.

Republicunts are despicable.

...in the face of polls suggesting that Mr. Obama will win Virginia, a top McCain aide declared that the "real Virginia" -- the southern part of the state, excluding the Washington, D.C., suburbs -- favors Mr. McCain. A majority of Americans now live in big metropolitan areas, but while visiting a small town in North Carolina, Ms. Palin described it as "what I call the real America," one of the "pro-America" parts of the nation. The real America, it seems, is small-town, mainly southern and, above all, white.

It's heinous for people who call themselves true patriots (aka traitors) to divide the country like this. It almost makes you nostalgic for the good ol' days of Louis XVI when you could be beheaded for treason.

...the G.O.P.'s long transformation into the party of the unreasonable right, a haven for racists and reactionaries, seems likely to accelerate as a result of the impending defeat.

This will pose a dilemma for moderate conservatives. Many of them spent the Bush years in denial, closing their eyes to the administration's dishonesty and contempt for the rule of law. Some of them have tried to maintain that denial through this year's election season, even as the McCain-Palin campaign’s tactics have grown ever uglier. But one of these days they're going to have to realize that the G.O.P. has become the party of intolerance.

Yea, baby, tell it like it is!

Intolerance will be swept away by hope in just 24 hours. VOTE!!! @ 10:47

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