Blue Tuesday (and five ideas for real change)

[amphion]

Some are predicting Blue Tuesday, an Obama landslide. While I’m not among them, I’m hoping for it. I’ve become so enraged at the politics of fear being played by the McCain camp (Socialist? Really?) that I’m praying it backfires mightily, taking out McCain, Palin, and any congressional Republicans that happen to be in the way.

The ensuing

Comments

[taxy]

Hear hear

[amphion]

Most teachers I talk to hate that law. Students already spend a disportionate amount of time (as you know) preparing for state standardized tests, now they have federal standards to meet as well. At worst it leads to the kind of work-arounds that effected your sister. At best it leads to a bunch of students who are really good at taking standardized tests. IMO there's so much more to teaching than memorization/regurgitation, and so much more that teachers could do were not their hands so tied.

[foreverfinite]

make that three as far as calling bullshit goes. i'm voting obama because i heard mccain say something about clean coal, which is impossible, but i think they're both full of shit. frankly something about obama creeps me out. there's something up here, as usual.

argo 2008

katamari damacy party ;)

[amphion]

Heh.. I wouldn't last 10 days as a politician. Moosecon alone would supply enough negative ads to kill me.

But yeah, Obama is the most refreshing national candidate since JFK / RFK (or maybe longer, I don't really remember Kennedys), and I just can't work up an ounce of hope that he'll make a significant a positive difference.

[taxy]

And what does that say about the current structure of things?

I mean at this point I'm tired of even talking about it, and tired of listening to other people talk and talk and talk about all the things going wrong. But I don't know what action steps could be taken to really fix things at this point.

Just ship me to New Zealand or something. I want out.

[amphion]

I keep looking over at Canada. A few of my friends have 2nd homes over there. I think if I had the money I would buy one to hedge my bets. I know enough about it to realize it's not Oz or anything, but there'd be little chance that my maturing teenage boys would be dragged into a Middle East war.

[cactus_rs]

But could Obama seriously propose anything so radical during campaign months? No, of course not, because campaigning means pandering to the center as much as possible while still maintaining your allegiance to the original party. Or, he could, but then he wouldn't stand a ghost of a chance. I understand your skepticism but I'm holding on to a little bit of hope. (LOL HOPE YES WE CAN!!!)

We'll see soon enough. And he has a fighting chance. The only registered Republican in our house (my mother) admitted last night that she's going to vote for Obama. And I think my mother is a good barometer for America-at-large, at least recently.

(Will you and Katie be down this way for New Year's again? Because the boy will be in again this year and it would be nice to continue our tradition of hanging out with you guys.)

[amphion]

That's kind of what I mean by the Katamari ball analogy. We're so wrapped up in keeping (our piece of) the ball of crap that any attempts to take it in a new direction get shouted down from all sides.

I'm treating Obama's election as a foregone conclusion at this point. Sure I could be wrong but it'd be a shock. Maybe once elected he'll prove to be an agent of real change. But I'm not counting on it.

[cactus_rs]

I'm hoping for a ninja sort of "corrupt it from within" move (it seems more feasible than anything else), but I am probably being incredibly naive.

And you know where to find me on the internets, so yeah not a problem. Yay!

[amphion]

Oh.. Christmas / New Years plans are still unresolved. The holidays being on Wednesdays, along with a lack of available vacation days, are making it difficult to plan. I'll let you know as soon as possible. It'd be great to link up with you, and to see Jan again.

[_t3_]

I'm similarly less-than-optimistic even if Obama wins, but he's definitely the lesser of two evils. But still, the fact that "well, at least his VP doesn't believe in witchcraft" is the best we have to choose from does weigh heavily on my mind.