My thoughts at the end of the last election

I was trying so hard to not get sucked into this election and I did not till until the last month or so, could not help it. I did not eat well or do anything right for a couple of weeks the last election's results came in and I would have been shattered if there was another rightward turn this time round too.

Here's what I wrote at the end of the last election.

My two cents.

• Fuck electibility and voter acceptance. You could have run anyone and not managed to win the south. John Kerry undoubtedly was the best of the lot but do not let the media dictate your choices.
• Fight the small battles. Fight for unions, minorities, gays. Stand by your priniciples.
• Do not make a red state guy your leader in the house. Now that you realize the polarization, make somone who does not have a sword hanging over his head take the fight to the oppposition,
• Evangelise - Do not keep repeating the "South is unwinnable" or "They are all hicks" crap. Take the message to them.
  
  • Do not expect instant results from your evangelism. If an evangelical christian can go into places like China and India, why can't you go into the south and try spreading your message. They do it inspired by God. Surely your vision of social justice and progress ought to be inspiring. My vision of christianity involvessocial justice and progress and more people ought to hear that too.
• Do not let them continue winning the religion game. Keep harping on the "Love your neighbor aspect". I am not saying this will work wonders, but the world deserves to hear it.
• For every Campus Crusade for Christ start a progressive chapter create a campus organization real fast. Sojourners please pay note. You might not find people willing to join you, but do not let that discourage you. Again, do not expect instant results. Do not let them hijack religion with impunity. Resist and actively fight. It is not enough if a few preachers preach an inclusive and socially just theology. You need to take it to the streets.
• Do not let the media dictate your message or better try building your own media. The Internet is exciting but I know many Americans who do not know what a blog is.
  
  • If the country is evenly split, there should be a market for a counterpoint to Fox. Instead of playing the blame game, start working on that. Get back the air waves.
  • Fight media consolidation tooth and nail and do not make it just a battle in the Congress. Take it to the masses. You know what you did with Sinclair. Do not make it a one off thing. Make the people count.
• Talk religion but not on their terms, on your terms. Take it to them. Do not be defensive of your beliefs. Talk religion as a social tool of progress.

I feel good now that I have written this. Do not be discouraged. The failed Dean bid energised your base. Rise up from this failure and build up an organization that is truly national. Keep chipping away at the South. People are going to wake up one day and it is upto you to hasten it. It is not hopeless. Do not despair.

Keep the faith. Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.

There are no magic answers, no miraculous methods to overcome the problems we face, just the familiar ones: honest search for understanding, education, organization, action that raises the cost of state violence for its perpetrators or that lays the basis for institutional change -- and the kind of commitment that will persist despite the temptations of disillusionment, despite many failures and only limited successes, inspired by the hope of a brighter future."... Noam Chomsky

Yes we can

This truly is a shining moment, a moment a lot of people are happy abput. My parents were up following the election results waiting anxiously for an Obama victory and there were so overjoyed. I am sure America's image just went up a whole lot.

Now comes the real hard work. I am sure he can reverse the direction the last administration was headed in, if not totally at least in a siginigicant manner.

The original maverick

“I’m just enraged that McCain calls himself a maverick,” said Terrellita Maverick, 82, a San Antonio native who proudly carries the name of a family that has been known for its progressive politics since the 1600s, when an early ancestor in Boston got into trouble with the law over his agitation for the rights of indentured servants.

In the 1800s, Samuel Augustus Maverick went to Texas and became known for not branding his cattle. He was more interested in keeping track of the land he owned than the livestock on it, Ms. Maverick said; unbranded cattle, then, were called “Maverick’s.” The name came to mean anyone who didn’t bear another’s brand. ....

“He’s a Republican,” she said. “He’s branded.”

The link

The most pathetic part of this whole maverick stunt was when McCain had to point out during the first debate that he was called a maverick. Really, is this what it has come down to?  Here's some of the present day maverick's maverickness (is that even a word)

The Double-Talk Express

Talking about the debates, It should be obvious to anyone watching the debates that McCain's sense of entitlement comes through in not so pleasant ways.

Smug sneers ,avoiding shaking hand with Obama, not looking at Obama, or even shaking hands with him to calling him the other one. Is McCain so angry that people don't seem to share his highly inflated opinion of himself and this 'nobody' seems to be getting all the attention and love. I think it is a conscious strategy where he hopes to establish that Obama is neither ready nor his equal. But the final effect is one of a bitter old man with a scary sneer. I know this isn't fair but everytime I see McCain debating, my mind screams Cotton Hill, Cotton Hill.

I swear I did not see this page before I wrote this post. http://dhost.info/wcom/vanilla/comments.php?DiscussionID=804

Not another stampede

224 dead in a stampede at a temple fair. This kind of news has become depressingly familiar in India. With all the commissions and judicial probes being appointed, someone surely ought to have come up with something to prevent such tragedies recurring, no?

What a shame! One can only pray the we have seen the last of such tragic incidents. The Story

The toll in the stampede at the Chamunda Devi temple here today rose sharply to 224 with 77 deaths reported today by the relatives of the deceased even as the shrine today opened with fewer devotees amidst heightened police presence along the two-km route leading to it.
Jodhpur Divisional Commissioner Kiran Soni Gupta said the fresh cases of death came to notice today when the relatives of the dead reported them to the authorities which verified them and found true.

Gupta said the 77 dead were taken away by their kins directly to either private hospitals or crematorium on the day the tragedy had struck the temple yesterday when 147 deaths were confirmed.

Although the temple reopened today, the turnout of devotees was much thinner than on the first day of Navaratri festival yesterday, officials said.

More than 100 police personnel were deployed along the route to the temple located in the 15th century fort.

"The devout are visiting the temple but it is different from what it was yesterday before the tragedy struck. It was like a mela and now is deserted," they said.

Over 55 persons, who sustained injury in the stampede, are being treated in various hospitals, they said.

Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasudhara Raje, who had visited the stampede site yesterday, has ordered a judicial probe into the incident.

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi went to the stampede site today, met those injured in the incident and assured them of all possible help from the Centre.

Runaway spending

HAHAHA, earmarks are a mark of runaway spending. What about the freaking Iraq war? Jesus Christ. Talk about a big elephant in the room.

I like Obama's answer. 18 billion dollars is important, but 300 billion dollars is more important. Is McCain gonna harp about this all day long?

How is McCain going to cut spending, keep taxes the same or reduce it and maintain a war. Jeez, earmarks, earmarks. "I was called the sheriff - lol".

Ireland is better than the USA? My friends.

Tax cuts, talk about the fucking deficit.  Do these guys know how to balance their books? Did McCain just smirk? 

Spending controls, spending controls, how much does a war cost Senator? How about cutting some expenses there?