37 posts tagged “politics”

Did I mention that I got four Republican mailings this weekend and picked up my boss’s phone to four robo calls from the Republicans this morning?  I got a real education, let me tell ya! 

Have you ever been in a tough spot without health insurance, yet in need of medical care by no faulty of your own?  I have.  I remember a season of our lives when our dogs saw the vet more than we saw the dr.  And even though we have health insurance now, I live like we don’t.  My recent visit to the Doc trying to figure out my pain condition racked up well over a thousand dollars of stuff that insurance wouldn’t touch and we’re still working at paying that.  So no, even though I have been struggling with a bad cold and very likely should go to the Dr for some antibiotics… I’m not going to.  I can’t afford it right now.  I don’t know if Obama’s health care plan would help me or not, (doubt it) but I think it’s good if SOMEONE out there is being helped.  I remember when my husband was working construction and cut himself pretty badly.  I insisted that he go to the emergency room and he just about came unglued as I drove him there because we both knew we had no way to pay for the visit, but felt we had to go.  It took us a while but we paid it off. 

Have you heard the recent talk from the Republicans?  According to a robo call I got in the office this morning, Obama wants to take money out of YOUR pocket and give it to the LAZY.  Yep, those uninsured sick people.  Like me.  Like my hubby.

I remember a time when hubby and I were both working at part time volunteers at our church, and combined with our regular jobs we worked long hours.  And we struggled to make ends meet from time to time.  Isn’t volunteering a Republican value?  Aren’t faith based organizations that are working in improve their community (I ran a food pantry among other things) a Republican value?  I was a little underemployed at that time, though I don’t know how I would have fit more working hours around my other responsibilities.  Obama wants to take money out of YOUR pocket and give it to the LAZY.  Yep, those people who are so involved in doing something they think is really important that they don’t have a tremendous amount of time to work… you know – like mothers…  Lazy volunteers, Lazy mothers, Lazy dads.

There was a time after we’d move from Indiana to Virginia that we had a mortgage on a house on the market in Indiana and a house we were renting in Virginia, plus two sets of utilities.  We worked our asses off to make it through that year.  We were doing whatever it took to make it.  I worked construction and we took on anything we could to make money in those days.  We didn’t go to the government for handouts, we just survived, sometimes just barely.  I don’t know if we would have qualified for some kind of assistance or not, we didn’t have time to spend in some government office to find out.  Just remember, Obama wants to take money out of your pocket and give it to the LAZY… like us back then.

If you’ve ever been uninsured and in need of health care, the Republicans are talking about you.  If you’ve ever hit a rough patch and worked many hours but still didn’t have enough to make your bills, the Republicans are talking about you.  If you were ever home taking care of the kids and working whenever you could, the Republicans are talking about you.  Do you have friends or family that have been through a rough patch and needed some temporary help?  The Republicans are talking about them also.  Yeah, the Republicans want you to get good and mad that Obama wants to take money out of YOUR pocket and give it to the LAZY.  But those LAZY people vote also.  And there are a heck of a lot of us.  And I’m just wondering how calling Americans LAZY is supposed to get them to vote for McCain?  I’m really confused!

Thank God this will be over soon (except for the legal wrangling.)  All you LAZY LAZY people,

Please. Go. Vote! 

In a recent post I talked about letting my family in on the little secret of my political leanings, including the link to my blog.  We had a dinner party Saturday evening together to celebrate three birthdays and it was a lovely time with excellent food and the miracle of us all around the same table. 

So here are excerpts from the political conversation between my family (who will vote against Barack Obama – not for John McCain) and us (my hubby and I who are voting for Barack Obama this year.) 

Riveting isn’t it?!

Yep, that’s it.  Those are the highlights.  It’s all there.  Practically word for word.

My Mom was the only one to actually respond to my email, and her comment was in a phone call before the party.  She said her “prayer was that we could all come together in unity as a family for this evening.”  Which struck me as quite odd since this isn’t a group that fights with each other.  After thinking awhile I chalked that comment up to the fact that I “came out.”

So there you have it.  I guess this was one of those town hall meetings that McCain keeps talking about.  And I was totally looking forward to hearing their thoughts.  Tsk!

There have been some shifts in the numbers in the news today.  There was a dip in New Hampshire’s support for Obama in the last few days but now he appears to be up by 12.4 points now.  We have a new ‘toss up’ state in Georgia where support for McCain is waning.  Indiana and Montana are both still on the fence but leaning more for McCain as far as we can tell.  The 3 point margin of error makes these fence dwellers particularly interesting.  Missouri, North Carolina and Florida all appear to be headed for Obama.  Florida is still the one to watch with 27 electoral votes.  Obama has 311 electoral votes in his column at the moment so Florida isn’t going to swing the election this year from the looks of things, but it may impact how big the win is.  Here in Virginia Obama is ahead by 7.6 points, which is pretty amazing considering how strongly Republican the small towns are, balanced by the Democratic majority in the more populated areas.    

I’m having my parents and my brother and sister in law and their children over for dinner Saturday evening.  And at that meal it will be 4 for McCain and 2 for Obama.  It should be an interesting evening.

I’m trying to disengage from politics.  Really I am.  But it’s just not that easy to walk away from something I find really fascinating.  Plus, I’m planning on going to Harrisonburg tomorrow to see Barack Obama in the huge stadium at JMU.  I'm looking forward to that!  Can't find anyone to go with me though.  Bummer!

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, while on a bed of straw as a prisoner in the Russian Gulag wrote the following...

"Looking back, I saw that for my whole conscious life I had not understood either myself or my strivings. What had seemed for so long beneficial now turned out in actuality to be fatal, and I had been striving to go in the opposite direction to that which was truly necessary to me. But just as the waves of the sea knock the inexperienced swimmer off his feet and keep tossing him back on to the shore, so also was I painfully tossed back on dry land by the blows of misfortune. And it was only because of this that I was able to travel the path which I had always really wanted to travel. It was granted me to carry away from my prison years on my bent back, which nearly broke beneath its load, this essential experience: how a human being becomes evil and how good. In the intoxication of youthful successes I had felt myself to be infallible, and I was therefore cruel. In the surfeit of power I was a murderer and an oppressor. In my most evil moments I was convinced that I was doing good, and I was well supplied with systematic arguments. And it was only when I lay there rotting on prison straw that I sensed within myself the first stirrings of good. Gradually it was disclosed to me that the line separating good and evil passes not through states, nor between classes, nor between political parties either - but right through every human heart - and through all human hearts. This line shifts. Inside us it oscillates with the years. And even within the hearts overwhelmed with evil, one small bridgehead of good is retained. And even in the best of all hearts, there remains…an un-uprooted small corner of evil. Since then I have come to understand the truth of all the religions on the world. They struggle with the evil inside a human being (inside every human being). It is impossible to expel evil from the world in its entirety, but it is possible to constrict it within each person."

Sarah Palin glasses, $375, Sarah Palin wardrobe $150,000.  Being in this sketch on Saturday Night Live?  Priceless!

Holy Smokes!  Montana had been leaning toward McCain and now it is a toss up state.  Now since Montana only has 3 electoral votes, it’s unlikely that you’re going to see it in the news.  The bigger news however, is that Ohio with 20 electoral votes appears to be heading for Obama.  Both states went to Bush twice.  This is bringing the numbers to Obama 306 electoral votes and McCain at about 157 with toss up of a shrinking 75 electoral votes.  This is an upturn for Obama.  The states that are in the toss up (within the three point margin of error) are: Florida, Nevada, North Carolina, Missouri, Indiana, and now Montana.  Indiana and Montana are expected to go to McCain while the rest go to Obama.  This is getting interesting!

There are still eight states in the Union that seem to be on the fence this political season.  North Dakota – 3, West Virginia, Nevada – both 5, Missouri, Indiana – both 11, North Carolina – 15, Ohio – 20 and Florida – 27.  This is a total of 97 electoral votes that are a toss up – in other words the numbers for one candidate over the other are within the 3% margin of error.  Of these, McCain is expected to take West Virginia and Indiana and Obama is expected to take the rest.  But even if the underdog McCain took all 97 of these electoral votes that would bring him to 252, and one needs 270 to win.  So it seems unlikely that McCain can get there from here.   Recent movement in the numbers includes Obama widening his lead in Minnesota and McCain losing ground in Montana.  The recent announcement that Obama’s fund raising in September topped 150 million – mostly in donations under $100 each suggests that Obama will not be forsaking any of the battlefield states, and so it continues.  This is one for the history books!