Blogging has continued to be on the low-priority list as of late. Which is weird, considering how strongly I feel about this election. My house is in a 24-hour election news cycle. What time is it? Is it time for Olbermann yet? Is Maddow on? Dammit - there's only the Crypt Keeper Larry King.

I find myself cringing at work, where people let it slip that they don't know who they plan to vote for "for anything" as though it's just another election like one of many we tend to have here in Washington. Sometimes I get especially annoyed, like when I'm trapped in the car on the way to the bank with a couple of folks I would rather talk about anything than politics. A conversation with some of these"Real Americans":

"You can't trust either of them. They're both crooks!" starts in one.

"I just wish the black one would talk about what he's gonna do 'stead of what he's not gonna do. I mean - he's always attacking McCain. And that guy's an American hero!" replies the other.

"You know why he does that...'cause he hangs out with all those terrorists and stuff. He knows if he talks about that he'll lose."

"Um," I finally interject, "Actually Obama has talked a lot about what he plans to do. If you watched any of the debates he spoke about his tax plan and lowering taxes for anyone making less than $200K a year and providing health care for people who can't afford it through their employers."

"Yeah, but lots of presidents have said they're gonna do that stuff and they never do." is the response.

"Yes, but if you don't vote him into office and give him the opportunity, it will certainly never happen. And McCain isn't offering those things at all. And I don't think any president has ever offered a health care plan like this." I persist.

"Uh-huh, Clinton did. And it failed. It didn't work. It's never gonna happen."

"That was Hillary Clinton that tried to pass Universal Health Care, which is a little different. She was the First Lady. Not the President." I rally on.

"Still, I don't like how the World loves Obama. They're scared of McCain. Hopefully they'll just leave us alone, and we'll leave them alone. That's the way it should be."

"Exactly!" Her compatriot agrees.

"Got it. Unfortunately, we are involved in a couple of wars oversees, and we are part of the World, our economy is tied to a number of countries, and a number of other countries economies are tied to ours, so just cutting ourselves off from everyone else isn't really an option. We have to participate for a lot of reasons."

At this point, we had reached our destination, and I exited the vehicle. I felt as thought I had done what I could to share my point of view, although I doubt it had changed any minds. I'm sure once I was gone the conversation consisted of the two of them rolling their eyes and laughing at my educated voter naivete.

Posted by: Ensie at 08:35 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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More funny stuff here.

Posted by: Ensie at 12:05 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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I know I'm late to the caucus blogging party, but I was definitely there on Saturday with what appeared to be my entire neighborhood. I was glad to see them, although things were a little chaotic, Frinklin and myself eventually found our precinct (The Mighty 314!) and were ushered into a separate area of Jason Lee Middle Schoool as we were a good 250 strong, one of the two or three largest precincts in attendence.

After some continued confusion as to who exactly we were (313? 312?) we waited around for our Precinct Captain to show while the Caucus Chair asked us to talk amongs ourselves. No one was entierly clear on how exactly things would go down, considering the number of people present, and the folks running things all seemed to be relatively young first-timers. A festive mood continued to reign as an hour passed and Frinklin and I chatted with an undecided neighbor about why we were for Obama. She remained undecided as we broke into our respective groups a short time later.

The caucus site ran out of sign in sheets and requested that people sign in on the back of sheets if they hadn't already. People who hadn't signed in their choice had their names read aloud and were asked to declare, "Obama!" " Clinton" or "Undecided". The Precinct Captain was the first name read alound and tried to get away with being undecided, but after sheepishly blushing gave it up for Obama. People proudly yelled out their choices and were cheered - undecideds were given just as much applause as those who had a candidate determined.

At that point, the room was divided into our three groups, Clinton on one side, Obama on the other with the Undecideds in the middle. Each group was invited to have a representative speak, which we did. At that point, the Undecideds had questions that they wanted answered. The Caucus Chair asked us to quiet down, but after a couple of hours of being told to keep quiet and chat together, we were ready to make our voices heard and debate. Several of us (myself included) stood up and yelled loudly, stating that we would like the opportunity to debate and sway the Undecideds. The Undecideds shouted that they would like the opportunity to ask questions and make up their minds. The Caucus Chair started to get nervous that he might have a bunch of pissed off Democrats completely rebelling and the debate was on!

While many people spoke from their hearts and didn't always weigh in on specific policy and topics, everyone was passionate about their decisions. We also heard from a number Undecideds who gave varied reasons as to why they hadn't made up their minds; one man couldn't see enough difference between the two (he eventually went with Obama), another woman though Obama supporters were just attracted to the Cult of Personality (although she later also swayed to Obama too), and one woman said she was terrified that Americans are stupid and prejudiced and wouldn't vote for an African-American man (Frinklin stood up and told her, "If YOU are afraid to vote for him, stand with us and show others that people WILL vote for him!).

The final count was 189 for Obama (16 delegates), 58 for Clinton (5 delegates), 16 Undecided (1 delegate). Frinklin is a delegate and I am an alternate for Obama. I find it funny that it appearsthat a bunch of people we know are delegates or alternates (Jen, Kevin, Cassie, Mark -- did I leave anyone out?).

This was my first time caucusing, being from California. I have to say it was confusing and messy and long, and I absolutely loved it. I can see why it's not for everyone, and if I had kids or needed to be somewhere that day why I would hate it. But it was really fun from my perspective this year and I wouldn't mind doing it again at all.

Posted by: Ensie at 06:31 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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I waited in one of the enormous lines to get into Key Arena today. Frinklin and I got there about 10:40 and the line was growing in leaps and bounds (we were standing under the Space Needle). After 11 we were practically running as we moved forward to get inside - but there were two lines and we missed getting in by just a couple of hundred people. It was about 11:15 when we were turned away. We were told they had 14,000 people in the stands and another 5,000 on the floor. We booked it out of there (yay for valet parking at the Needle!) and arrived home just in time to see the speech live on Northwest Cable News.

When we left there were hordes of people behind us in line as well as tons of people still arriving by the thousands. We let as many people as we could know that Key Arena was full, but most continued on to see if they could still get in. Most said they would be caucusing for Obama tomorrow and when it continued to be announced that the event was full people's attitude was, "That sucks that we didn't get in, but that's fantastic!"

There's been some discussion as to weather Obama has outdrawn Hillary at their Seattle events. Even with their respective venue choices, I'd say that Obama could have easily had another 7 - 10 thousand people should he have chosen a larger venue. I don't think that Hillary could have drawn that kind of numbers.

In other news - Frinklin met Janet Huckabee at the Starbucks headquarters this morning. But I'll let him tell that story later on his own blog. He's busy at opening night for his new show (How the Other Half Loves - tickets available now!) right now. It's a funny show he tells me. I'll be there a week from Saturday.

If you're a Democrat and you need information on the how to and where to caucus for (Obama) your (Obama) chosen (Obama) candidate (Obama) in Tacoma (did I mention that Obama rocks?) check out http://wa-democrats.org/. Everything goes down tomorrow at 1 PM. Be there or be square.

Also - (FINALLY!) our long backordered Obama yard sign and rally sign arrived. They went up in our yard and window to tell the world that we're in the cool crowd. Hopefully the yard sign won't blow away!

Posted by: Ensie at 06:34 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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In a Presidential Debate, who asks a candidate the question, "How do you handle the fact that people like Barack Obama more than you?"

What an idiotic question!

And it's something that would never have ever been asked of a male candidate. It's hitting below the belt on a female candidate and it's absolutely ridiculous. It relates directly to the idea that men who show commanding traits are assertive and women who do so are bitches.

I believe Hillary Clinton's immediate inherent response was to look at Scott Spradling from WMUR like the idiot he is and say, "Likability? Did you ask Mr. Huckabee if he's concerned if he's more likable than Mr. McCain you asshat?" Instead, she was forced to choose from one of many more "acceptable" female responses:

Flirty - Giggle and tilt the head. Look down while smiling. Say, "Nuh uh!" (See: Any episode of Sex and the City when Carrie is asked on a date)

Playing Dumb - As lip begins to tremble allow the words, "What? He is?" to slip out before eyes well up in tears and collapsing onto the podium in tears.

Sexy - Bite finger, smolder eyes, ask huskily, "Are you sure about that?" while suddenly finding you must touch desk chair with every. part. of. body. Oooooh.

What Hillary chose in her two seconds she had to think was a coquettish, girlish response of, "Well, that hurts my feelings." I cringed for her in that moment. I think most powerful, strong women did the same Unfortunately, calling out Mr. Spradling would likely have ended her run at the Presidency.

Going forward, can we made sure that Hillary gets the same sort of questions that the boys get? I'm not even a Hillary supporter, but even asking the question was bad form.

Posted by: Ensie at 07:30 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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