Protect Marriage!

Marriage is under attack...from divorce. Did you know that over 50% end in divorce? We need to protect marriage and end divorce!

http://rescuemarriage.org/

here's a gem: "When my child read that Ronald Reagan had gotten a divorce in his history textbook, he cried for a week. Shame on you, public school system!"

Republicans Still Floundering

Really?! Comon' Republicans can't you do better? You have Kenneth from 30 Rock or Mr. Rogers (depending who you ask) giving your rebuttal. He could not have been more patronizing if he had tried. Mr. Jindal it is not persuasive when you say you are not taking stimulus money but are actually taking 3.7 of the 3.8 billion dollars offered. I think you should take it, just don't act like your not.

So, for those of you counting at home, the list of new Republican leader are:

Sarah Palin- VP nominee (ignorant Alaskan pit-bull)
Michael Steele- RNC Chairman (wants to "apply [Republican ideas] to urban-suburban hip-hop
settings)
Bobby Jindal- Louisiana Governor (see above).

Republicans, you can do better.

As Advertised
(Obama a presidential review)

Thus far, I am quite pleased with how true to the campaign the Obama Presidency has been. Everyone is watching and critiquing the presidency thus far, so I add my voice. First of the tone and tenor of the administration is completely different than the Bush administration. While the bi-partisan efforts have been largely snubbed by the republican, his efforts seem genuine and he is engaging them, so there is promise in the future. Despite the current economic collapse, which has taken a good measure of attention, he is addressing the problem and incorporating policy measures that reflect his the campaign platform: universal access to health care, energy investment with environmental reform and investment in education. There have been other policy changes, the closing of Gitmo, the end of torture, acknowledgement of Afganistan as a regional problem in the context of Pakistan and India and the plan for draw-down in Iraq. There have been specific legislative measures as well, SCHIP for child health care, the Leadbeater act for fair pay. Obama has done more than most presidents do in their first hundred days and has looked good doing it. It is great who has mastery of the English language.

Inauguration Day

So, I am back in california now. Below are some more pictures from Inauguration day. This first one is where I watched the inauguration from. Although I wasn't pressed against the fence, I could touch it.

Looking back down the mall was amazing, just a see of humanity. It was so cold you could see heat rising off the people like the street on a hot day.

Here is Rick Warren praying, when they introduced him some people booed. I yelled, "Separate church and state!" I said the same when people said, "Amen."


Here he is the man of the hour...

Thanks to everyone who made this trip possible for me. I love you all.

Picking-up the Ticket

Monday morning I headed down to the Cannon House Office Building to pick-up my ticket, turns out a couple of thousand other people had to do that as well. I was on the early side, but as I left people were streaming out of the metro.

I started in line by the bench near the person in the red coat. The line stretched down around the corner as far as I could see. Everyone had to pass through airport style security (metal detector, x-ray, shoes off). Once the building opened it took about an hour for me to make in to the building. When I left I heard the line was over two and a half hours long!


The temperature was fairly low, I am guessing high twenties or low thirties. We had a brief scare when it started snowing, but it only lasted for a few minutes.

Right before I got in the building, a group of high school students came out and I recognized a letterman jacket. There was a contingent from Davis High. Go Blue Devils!


Here I am with the congressman before I picked up my ticket. He had a nice food spread in his office and was chatting with people as they came by to pick up their tickets.


Once I had my ticket packet, I jumped onto the metro and headed back out to my Aunt and Uncle's in Alexandria, VA and we went to see the farm.

Inauguration

Tired. More tomorrow.

Mr. Fairclough Goes to Washington

Here I am leaving this morning. I don't know where I will be relative to TV cameras but look for the red hat and the Proterospongia flag.

Off like a prom dress!

Alright, I am off to catch my flight to the Presidential Inauguration! I will try to post pictures, video and commentary during the trip, so check back. I'll say, "hi" to Obama for everyone.

Depoliticize Prayer

Steven Waldman, co-founder of Beliefnet, was on Talk of the Nation yesterday and on Forum today. Both days Waldman suggested that the choice of Warren to deliver the invocation was an attempt to depoliticize prayer (because Obama, a liberal, was reaching out Warren, a conservative) Well, bullshit. There is one way to depoliticize prayer, keep it separate from politics. There should be no invocation at the inauguration. Separate church and state. That said, Warren has said bigoted things about the LGBT community. While I find his comments repugnant, I don't think that should disqualify him out right, I just think it is completely ironic in light of the Reverend Wright kerfuffle (Obama should have him give the invocation). I think this is strictly a political move and a savvy one at that, but time will tell.

I guess this means no more shoes on airplanes.

First of all, I am impressed with W's reactions time. Second, it's too bad the guy missed.

Prop 8

The other night Jon Stewart held Mike Huckabee's feet to the fire on gay marriage. I like Mike Huckabee, I think he is a good guy, but I disagree with him on most topics ranging from science to gay marriage. The interview is good and worth watching. the second part is about gay marriage. They came back the other night and looked at alleged conflict between the black and gay communities.

The Daily Show With Jon StewartM - Th 11p / 10c

Proposition 8

Barack Obama Interview
John McCain Interview

Sarah Palin Video
Funny Election Video

Steven Chu to head Department of Energy

Berkeley MCB professor, LBNL Director and Nobel Laureate, was named by Obama to head the Department of Energy. I think this is great. Although it was not intended to be, I see this appointment as repudiation of the know-nothing, anti-intellectual, cronism of the Bush administration. During his tenure at LBNL, Chu has changed the direction of LBNL initiating the Helios project and bringing the labs focus of funneling sunlight into our gas tanks. He was also instrumental in founding the Energy Bioscience Institute, a "collaboration" between Berkeley and BP (personally not a big fan of public private collaborations, but that is another post). Chu's tenure has not been without controversy (he came up during the UC salary controversy), but as a visionary with scientific experience, I think he is top notch.

Obama and The Internet

In light of the 533,000 jobs lost in November, we are going to need a lot of jobs. On Saturday Obama outlined his vision for the reviving the American economy. He plans to create jobs with WPA style projects upgrading roads, schools and energy efficiency in a public-works program whose scale has been unseen since construction of the interstate highway system in the 1950s. One of the programs that excites me is the expansion of broadband access across the country.

“It is unacceptable that the United States ranks 15th in the world in broadband adoption,” Mr. Obama said. “Here, in the country that invented the Internet, every child should have the chance to get online.”

Now, I don't think the internet will solve educations problems per say, but this sort of investment is what we need. These sorts of programs will create jobs now and increase the efficiency and robustness of our economy in the future. Science funding works the same way, it is an investment in our future as a nation and a global community.

Yesterday's Forum

Yesterday KQED's Forum had a good program on the end of the Bush Presidency (many of the things discussed were not unique to the Bush Administration) but should serve as a reminder for us to remain vigilant in the final days of the presidency.

Bush Presidency Winds Down
The Bush presidency is winding to a close, but his term is not over yet. This 'lame duck' period of the presidency is often a time for last minute executive orders and pardons. We look at the waning days of the Bush administration and consider his legacy.

That Conservative Whine

The classic claim of fiscal conservatives is that private corporations are more efficient than government. So setting aside the fact that I think several aspects of society should not be run for profit i.e. education, health care, insurance, I still take exception to the claim. A recent two part story from NPR touches on topic. Surprise (if you have had your head up your ass for the last 8 years), there has been a sharp increase in no-bid contracts. How the hell are no-bid contracts market based? this exposes these people for what they really are, greedy. Interestingly, the story also discovers that

"industry shouldn't collect the nation's taxes; public servants should do that crucial job. And the IRS's own calculations even show that government employees are more efficient: for every dollar spent trying to collect taxes, government workers collect three times as much as the collection companies do."

Surprise, government beats industry three to one! And they do a more professional job. Don't get me wrong, I don't think government should do everything. The claim that companies are better just sticks in my craw. Looking at the corporations I see them suffering from many of the same ailments (bureaucracy, corruption, etc...) as those alleged against the government. Finally, there is limited to no accountability with private contractors. Think Halliburton and Blackwater...

Protest Proposition 8

Help support equality for all, protest proposition 8 this Saturday, November, 15 at 10:30. You can find the nearest protest spot here.

Palin, You're Done!

Just to pile on here for a bit. Palin, you are done politcally. I think this is the demise of the unholy union between the religious right and fiscal conservatives. The intellectuals of the republican party are like rats leaving a sinking ship. The Republican party is done and they wont be back to for a while. The party needs to do some soul searching. When they re-emerge, the likes of Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell will no longer be driving the party. Most of all, Palin will not be a viable candidate. I don't think she will be re-elected governor Alaska.

Yes We Can!

The crowd goes wild as Obama walks out to accept the presidency. What can I say, we did it! I spent the three days leading up the election walking precincts for the Obama campaign in Las Vegas. I have teared-up so many times over the last few days. To join to the choir, America, I am so proud of us. Thank you to all of you have worked on the campaign and supported us. On Monday evening after walking precincts I was challenged/accosted by a drunk guy in the casino/hotel elevator. Not that he wanted to hear my answer, but he asked me for one accomplishment of Obama that qualified him to be president. To answer, I think the most stunning accomplishment is the implementation of bottom-up and top-down organization. If he runs the country the way he ran the campaign we will live in a better place. It is funny, many fiscal conservatives think that the government should be run like a business (those parts that should be around at all). There is a Quest commercial bragging (in a non-political way) about how they built a communications network for the RNC in two months. The Obama campaign organization dwarfs that. I heard that the campaign had 8 million volunteers, that is 2% of the population working for the campaign. There were 24,000 volunteers canvassing in Ohio. The Republicans dissed community organizing, but it kicked their ass. I don't expect the Obama administration to fix everything, but I certainly have hope that we are headed in the right direction.

The most rewarding aspect of the trip, is that I feel I made a difference. Towards the end of election day, I was waiting by the car after canvassing my neighborhood for the third time and a group of teenagers drove up and asked for Obama buttons and a kid on bike came by a little while later. As I was waiting for the rest of my team to reassemble, a guy driving by saw me and pulled over to ask where his polling place was located. I told him the location and handed him a door hanger with directions. As he drove away he said Obama is going to win. A few seconds later, a woman driving by saw me and started cheering. It made me tear-up to see our nation taking the election so seriously. As we drove home we were listening to the local NPR station which was talking about incredible ground presence of the Obama campaign, just out walking their dogs or driving around people new we were there.

Finally, the morning after the election I shared a cab back to the airport with a couple of other volunteers, an undergrad from Berkeley and a middle-aged mother from Idaho. We were ebullient. When we got to the airport, the woman from Idaho said she was so proud of our generation and insisted on covering our cab-fare. On the plane, I was seated towards the back, so I had a view up the aisle and I could see many people were watching CNN. As CNN analyzed the results, they went to Nevada and showed a county-by-county view which showed a red state with two blue counties containing Reno and Las Vegas. The pundit explained that Las Vegas pulled the state blue. I clapped a little bit to myself and the next thing I new the plane erupted into applause. This is the America I want to live in.

Yes we can!

Jody on TV

My friend Jody, has flown to Virgina to work for the campaign and was interviewed on TV.

http://www.charlottesvillenewsplex.tv/home/headlines/33699284.html

Stevo In Nevada

For those of you who don't know, I am in Nevada volunteering for the Obama campaign. I signed up to "Drive-for Change" and travel to Reno to help canvass, but about week ago I received a call from the Nevada headquarters asking if I was willing to travel to Las Vegas because they had a lot of Bay Area volunteers in Reno and 70% of the population is in Las Vegas. If I could get myself there they would provide housing. So, i talked to my Dad and he agreed to finance the flight (Thanks Dad!) and I am putting in the sweat equity. Here is a picture of me "Fired-up" in a shirt I made for the trip.



I flew out from San Francisco on Saturday and after a two hour delay due to rain, I was off to help turn Nevada blue. For those of you who have not flown on Virgin America to Las Vegas before, let me simply say it is basically the "Party Bus" of planes. The interior of the plane is super modern with an uber trendy feel with neon lights and personal interactive entertainment system with video games, movies, you can even track your flight on google maps in flight!

Upon landing, I grabbed a cab to the Imperial Palace. The cabby (who I don't think could vote) was excited about a Obama presidency. As I stood in the check-in line, I noticed the people in front of me had a Berkeley Bowl bag, so I introduced myself. It turned out that they were a group of friends from Berkeley and San Francisco who made the trip to turn Nevada Blue. Later that night I was getting dinner alone, when some Stanford students came in, but there were no more tables available, so I shared my table with them. It seems like there are ton of volunteers here. I have heard that the obama campaign has 8 million volunteers, that is more than 2% of the country working for Obama!

On Sunday morning I met up with my carpool group. Waiting in the lobby it was immediately apparent who was there for the campaign, just from the dress and general appearance of the Obama supports, many of whom who have found the stairs in the hotel/casino (no easy feat.) Below is a picture of my co-canvassers a group of artist friends from SF. I have found people as concerned and fanatical about the election (think checking the polls incessantly). We covered our rental car with Obama schwag.



We are based out of the local Sheetmetal Workers Union Hall.



Here is what were are up against, but I have to say from my canvassing there is very strong support for Obama. We just need people to vote!





The day has gone very well. We have canvassed more territory than hoped for and 50% of the electorate has voted early. The campaign seems very please with the way things are going. After a hard day of canvassing we made our way to Whole Foods, which is an oasis in Las Vegas, to get food that fit our dietary needs (think vegetarian, wheat free, etc...) as we sat there enjoying ourselves we realized what an image we were with organic food checking the poll results on our wireless devices. All we needed was some arugula.

HaHa. I am just watching CNN right now and McCain is imploring his supporters to volunteer for him. I just have to laugh. To bad he wasn't a community organizer, he might have been more on top of things.

This just in!

WOW! Dixville Notch, New Hampshire, the first precinct to vote in the country went for Obama 15 to 6! Dixville Notch has not gone Democratic since 1968. Hopefully it keeps going!


Thanks for reading to the end. Don't forget to vote and remind your friends and family!