Tomorrow, I will cast my vote in Louisville, Kentucky, Precinct D130 at Klondike Elementary School for Barack Obama. And below is why I will be doing so…

Civility in Government

The last 8 years of my life, I have seen the reputation of the United States of America go from a vibrant, hopeful and welcoming place to a self-centered, dogmatic and stubborn cloister. You could likely blame that on 9/11 or the economic woes of our irresponsible economic optimism, but when faced with those challenges the current administration tightened up its belt and stomped through the yard like an angry old man. Refusing to resort to the politics of peace and diplomacy while seemingly ignorant of the harm it was doing to we, a nation of individuals.

The rights and hopes of the individual, both home and abroad, have been treated with a disrespect unseen since the Cold War.

Call me wistful if you will, but I couldn’t help but to imagine what the prior administration would have done in similar circumstances. Clinton could be downright reprehensible at times, but he was always the consummate professional and mindful of the United States’ place as a leader and role-model for the rest of the world

That is what I am hopeful for with an Obama victory. To bring this nation back to a place where we are respected not out of fear, but admired because of our treatment of not only the people within our borders, but of those which our actions may affect. We cannot be a nation of frightened, confused and easily provoked individuals. That is not the nation that we began as and that is not our future.

The War and it’s Future

I was and always have been against the War in Iraq. Though, when the deed had been done and we were solidly there I believed that it would not be wise just to extract ourselves from the beehive that we had stirred up – I didn’t believe that would be responsible or would have the desired outcome.

I have come to change my stance.

Our war there is an unwinnable one and as it did when we invaded, it shows a remarkable lack of respect of sovereignity on our part. I want our military out of Iraq now.  Our being there will only cause further aggravation and I believe with some civility returned to our own government we could begin to influence an international peace in that region.

The Rights of the Individual

So often in the last 8 years, I have seen policies that favor the nation and discount the individual. Whether it is the Patriot Act, healthcare or civil rights – these things have been given less weight than defense or the top-end of our economy.

Our individual rights granted to us as citizens are part of what makes our democracy novel. The guiding priniciples of our government should seek to benefit the individual with the ultimate goal of benefiting the nation.

Healthcare

Healthcare is an issue on which I feel strongly. I believe that it is our duty as a nation of individuals to help to provide that to all. Like roads, libraries and our own defense. No one in this country should fear becoming ill. While I am fortunate enough to have always had health insurance, I know plenty that go without. And should they fall ill, they should know that they will always be treated to the best of our nation’s medical ability.

The Continuing Civil Rights Struggle

Barack Obama’s campaign represents to me the triumph of those “Individual Rights” that make our country so full of promise. The confidence in those individual rights were the bedrock of the many great Americans that stood before him on the precipice of great change – Martin Luther King, Susan B. Anthony, Frederick Douglass and countless others. Those incremental challenges have led to where we are now – when a man of mixed race is not viewed as some novelty, but as a serious and competent leader.

The perspective that he has on this issue will hopefully shape many of his decisions – sometimes in small measures, sometimes in grand. To have his perspective is uniquely American and best represents the nation as a whole.

What an amazing step forward we have already taken in casting aside race in nominating this man for president! When I was in 4th grade (1987) and we held a Democratic primary election in our classroom (keeping in mind that it was at least 80% white) – the man who won was Jesse Jackson. Looking back, it would have been a terrible choice if it had actually happened – but consider that a roomful of white children in a Southern state chose a black man as a candidate. I knew even then that our generation was taking a step forward by casting off our segregationist history. I feel proud about that time, and that is one reason why I feel proud now casting a vote for Barack Obama.

Equal Rights for All

And if the future will follow the past, the next major struggle we will see in America will not be over race, but over the rights of the gay community. To not treat these people – these friends and family members – as equal citizens with equal rights is on par with any sex or race discrimination. As ridiculous as considering women or non-whites partial citizens with partial rights, so is considering those who do not and can not follow the given path of man-and-woman. It is my hope that the breakthrough that would be electing Barack Obama would continue to debase the injustices against the gay community.

In Closing

I am voting for Barack Obama tomorrow because I believe in his attitude towards government as an institution for the people, by the people. I believe in a nation of individuals that respect the rights of the individual, and respect the power of individuals united in a common cause of life and liberty and the pursuit of happiness. We, perhaps unlike any nation on this planet are comprised of so many walks of life, so many different beliefs and so many opportunities that we cannot and must not retreat into policies of exclusion and negativity. Hope and liberty are what we as a nation were founded upon and with out it we shall fail.

Election day (November 7th) is five days away, and the House race for the 3rd District (Louisville) of Kentucky is still in contention, though it is leaning more to the left than it was even 2 weeks ago.

On Sunday, the Louisville Courier-Journal reversed their endorsement from two years ago (when they went for Northup) and endorsed John Yarmuth.

Today, SurveyUSA has released the results of a poll showing Yarmuth ahead of Northup by 8 points. Compared to the neck-and-neck poll results from 2 weeks ago, you’ve got to assume that Yarmuth is pulling ahead.

Why? Hard to say. Northup is still leading in the media-saturation column. Kelly and I have received at least one printed piece of mail from or supporting Northup every day for the last two weeks (sometimes more!) and her commercials are running at every blink. Could it be that her sour tone and base-thumping ways have turned away voters? Maybe. Yarmuth has been getting support late in the race in the way of money for ads, too.

I won’t be happy until there is at least a 10 point lead over Northup. Knowing how the Democrat base stays away from the polls and how reliable the right is in the same regard, we need a good head of steam to win it on Tuesday.

Before the election, and before the overwhelming win for the Kentucky Gay Marriage Amendment, our local super-church, South East Christian helped to support this amendment with their “One Man, One Woman” campaign. This campaign involved numerous billboards and mobile advertising and through their weighty clout and coffers, I think they helped to steel conservative opinion around Louisville at least, where the measure passed 60% YES / 40% NO 20-point margin. The rest of the state voted 75/25 YES/NO. Certainly a win for SouthEast and their campaign, and it could be said for Christians state-wide.

Now, while SouthEast claims that “The same-sex marriage controversy is NOT ABOUT… homophobia, [or] whether homosexuals are nice people, good citizens, loving parents, loyal friends or helpful neighbors”, they forgot to mention that this amendment not only bars gays from “marriage”, but also from the lesser charge of “civil unions” which grants them the same rights as a “wedded couple” which includes any number of legal rights, including inheritance, life insurance, medical decisions, etc. Oddly enough, South East has left this out of their website, on any page dealing with “gay marriage”. However, on a funny ha-ha sidenote, they do reference a number of scientific studies in their defense of marriage. To quote:

The recognition that marriage is the union of male and female has never been seriously questioned in America until the past decade. During that time, activists were busy promoting their own private social revolution, and scientists were busy studying the institution of marriage and its affect on the participants and on society.

The results of hundreds of scientific studies and years of sociological research is undisputable. There is a mountain of evidence demonstrating the rewards to society as well as to individual families of marriage.

This is not an indictment of single-parent families; it is a scientific understanding of the dynamics of family structure.

Wow, hey! While you’re thumbing through scientific reports, why not read up on evolution as well! It’s just a letter away from “faggotry”.

I respect SouthEast’s opinion and the opinion of the lawmakers who support this tripe, but did the lawmakers have to go and completely ban even civil unions? I guess they figured that if they hooped and hollered about marriage enough that they could squeak in some verbiage about civil unions and just really kill the whole thing once and for all. That is some pork-barrel baby and the bath water sort of shenanigans that I really hate to see. To bar marriage from homosexuals is one thing, to categorically and systematically bar them from the rights regarded to any other wedded — or joined — couple is just ridiculous. This is a major setback for a very large and very real segment of our society that is not going to “go away”. Well, I take that back — if you wanted to rid the state of gays, well, you’ve made a step in the right direction, Kentucky!

That, of course, brings me to my final point — Kentucky is attempting a branding initiative that will create a singular, unified logo for the state. You, citizen, can even vote for your favorite logo. (On a side note: the agency that got the state’s business is New West, and according to a little bird New West is shipping a great deal of the some $14 million state ad budget down South to Atlanta in the form of contract work! Thanks Gov. Fletcher! Keep it in the state, man!) Anyway, I figure that at least this time the state is giving the public some choice in what logo will represent the state, rather than foisting some candy-assed design on us. Hey! Kentucky — It’s That Friendly (except to gays). Well, in that spirit of public consideration and contribution, I submit my own Kentucky logo:

jine: antiquated and poetic version of “to join”, or perhaps “to agree with”. Note usage here in this old Civil War bar shanty.

This is the text of an email from a friend of mine (who is gay) in reaction to the Kentucky Anti-Gay Marriage Amendment which passed this last Tuesday…

Friends:

As most of you are probably aware, the majority of voters in Kentucky, along with 10 other states across our fine nation, just placed a ban on same sex marriage into the state constitution, effectively endorsing discrimination as a model practice. I am sitting here very nearly in tears right now because what this means is that the state that I was born in, and spent the first 24 years of my life in, has decided that I am not entitled to the same respect or the same sense of basic human dignity that 90% of the country’s population is automatically accorded. What this means is that my monogamous relationship with my boyfriend of three years is worth less than my father’s less lengthy relationship with a woman from another country; it is worth less than the second marriage of my mother; it is even worth less than a 55 hour practical joke perpetrated by Britney
Spears. It is, in fact, worth nothing in Kentucky.

What this means is that I cannot, and will not, ever be a resident of Kentucky again.

Maybe this seems a bit extreme to some of you, but I’d ask you to try to see this from my perspective. The state I have spent the vast majority of my life in, the one that educated me and collected my tax dollars, has now decided it knows better than I do when it comes to my relationship. All I can think is “What right do you have to tell me who I can marry? What right do you have to determine that my relationship is worth less than your own? What right do you have to presume to speak for God?”

Many people, maybe some of you, think this fight was about giving special rights to gay people. This could not be further from the truth. It was, and is, about affording equal rights to every tax-paying citizen of this country. In fact, the only people with “special rights” in this respect are heterosexuals: straight people have the right to marry, gay people do not. Straight people have the right to inherit property from their significant other, make medical decisions for their significant other, take care of the person they love most in the world; gay people do not. I do not. I am not equal.

So, it’s time I drew a line for my basic sense of self-respect, and sadly for me, that line must be abandoning the state I once considered my home.

I’ve been hearing a bit about the country “healing” after this election — which is as of right now (Kerry is giving his concession speech), officially over. “Re-uniting” is another term I’ve heard today. “Healing” and “re-uniting” is a big bunch of hokum if you ask me — this election only shows that the country is terribly split, and either side is going to have a tough battle. This will be Bush’s last term, and with a pro-Republican shift in Congress, he’ll be pushing even more of his conservative legislation through. The Democrats, long-suffering from the stings of two very, very close defeats will certainly redouble their efforts to curtail those pieces of legislation. Bush’s “standing on principle” and his black-and-white values did well to retain his base, despite polls claiming that a majority of Americans think the US is on the wrong track and that the economy is failing. The gay marriage amendments in 11 states passed by overwhelming margins. These amendments are “protection” amendments — amendments of exclusion the likes of which we have never seen in this country. How do people vote for a politician that they feel is putting the country on the wrong track, both economically and politically? Is the other half of the country so scared that they have to compromise on their economic and national beliefs that they’ll elect the guy who will protect them from the gays and the terrorist by standing on prinicpal? How do you go up against religious faith in a politician? How do you argue against that sort of bull-headed devotion? When you’re against a foe that only knows how to attack and protect, it’s going to be a hard fight.

So, healing isn’t something that is going to happen — re-uniting certainly won’t either. The gloves are off, if they weren’t off before. Get ready.

Well, today is the day. A quick look at the Electoral College Projections tells me that the race, as of late yesterday, is quite possibly the tightest it has been all year. The L.A. Times’ projection shows that there are many states with less than 10% separating the challengers, and if one were to cede the states based on percentage majority, it would come down to a dead heat between Bush and Kerry, with Hawaii as the deciding state (it is completely even according to their polls). The other three projections in that post also reflect the airtight status of this race.

Last night we received a call from Danny Glover, Ret. General Wesley Clark and Mitch McConnell (we were eating dinner, of course). In the last week we have received no less than 30 pieces of political mail, a couple of doorknob hangers, and at least a dozen messages on the answering machine. But after today, I’ll miss Danny’s calls. Yeah, I called him Danny. When dude calls my house 4 times, I think I reserve the right to call him by his first name, you know.

Tonight we are having some election day festivities (read: watching Fox News and cackling) and I’ll be making some White Turkey Chili. We have also prepared living arrangements in Canada, just in case :)

No, not really. In many ways, I’ll be sad to see “the Quadrennial Classic” go. I’m excited about this race — not so much because I’m hyped about Kerry, but I’m hyped that the rest of the U-S-of-A has been whipped into giving a flying foo about the state of the government. I think we might have a electorate-turnout pot tonight. I’m betting on 70%!

Anyway, if you haven’t voted, get out now. If you choose not to vote, well then the hell with ya.

and now ladies and gentleman,
the oddest image of Pat Buchanan I could find.

bOINGbOING has a story about Pat Buchanan’s The American Conservative magazine has endorsed Kerry. Though, not for the reasons you might imagine. Their claim, at least in the article entitled “Kerry’s the One” is that this election isn’t about Kerry, but is about the presidency of Bush and how horribly un-conservative Bush has been. We’ve got a huge deficit, the economy has worsened, and the government has grown greatly. Leave it to Buchanan to play the crazy card, huh? I don’t know how this will affect the whole race — chances are it will be imperceptible, but the article is certainly worth reading for liberals and conservatives and all those in between.

If you’ve happened by The Drudge Report in the last couple of days, you’ll notice that there has been a flap over Dick Cheney getting a flu shot. To counter, the Bush camp says “but Clinton got one, too!” As per usual, both sides are acting like children because both Cheney and Clinton fit the government’s guidelines of “at-risk” people. Cheney and Clinton both have had heart problems, Clinton’s being most recently, but Cheney really holds the crown here with not one, but four heart attacks since 1978.

Geez folks, bring me something real here in the final weeks of the campaign!

So I enjoy flying radio-controlled model gliders (with our local club), and I also subscribe to a mailing-list for like minded individuals called the Radio-Controlled Soaring Exchange (RCSE). For a while now there have been reports of people crashing their planes due to radio interference whenever the President of the United States was within 50 miles of a flying field. This had happened quite a few times in Ohio, with one incident involving a fly-over of an AWACS surveillance plane over a soaring contest which resulted in the crashing of a model sailplane. There has been a lot of speculation as to the true cause of these radio interruptions, but today I saw a message that would seem to corroborate the suspicions of governmental security:

Hi all,
If you will remember last week I sent out a notice about flying here in the valley, well today an incident happened, Randy’s friend Bruce was ask[ed] very nicely to stop flying his electric powered wing type glider, by none other the US Secret Service. So they do have the ability to seek us out. Must have been by GPS.
President Bush spoke here in Medford/Central Point, OR tonight, landed about 3:25 PM this afternoon. I’m no sure what time Bruce was flying, but he was ask to land and not fly the rest of the day. At least he was not shot down [this is a term for crashing due to radio interference -ed.] by the unknown.

Jerry Miller, SOSS

Anyone involved with a hobby knows that there are some involved that can get pretty bent out of shape when protecting their interests, but so far the reaction has been pretty tame to all of this speculation. Personally, I find it all very intriguing. Makes me wonder how deep security planning goes. Are they watching messageboards and mailing-lists of RC aviators? I’d probably think they would be, just to be safe.

Hey hey, it’s that time of year when I remind all of those Louisvillians that read this blog to go and find out where to vote if you don’t already know. It’s too late to remind you to register to vote if you haven’t already (October 4, 2004 being the deadline). So, go and check it out, and make sure to get out the vote on November 2nd. That is all.