The Kiddos

"They" say having pets lowers your risk of stroke. I can't be so sure.

In the barrage of trick or treaters, Isaac (the orange one) kept running outside. I had to chase him so many times that I finally just shut him in the garage. On the other hand, poor George C. Scott (the black one) freaked out and hid under the bed for an hour.

But, really, who can't love these little buggers? Sweet little faces just wanting a little attention.

L.

The Weight

Two hours.

That's how long I waited to vote today.

I was pleased to wait. I've never voted in a presidential election at an actual polling location. My first presidential election was in 1996 when I was a freshman in college, so I voted absentee from Fayetteville.

In 2000, I was still in Fayetteville. In 2004, I lived in DC and vividly remember standing in my tiny studio apartment at 16th Street and Florida Avenue, NW filling in my ballot, sealing the envelope, putting on more stamps than it needed, and walking it downstairs rather than dropping it down the mail drop. I was too afraid that it would get stuck in the mail slot and never make it to the postman.

Now it's 2008, and I actually live in my voting precinct, so I really was pleased to wait.

The crowd was nice, calm, collected, and all around in a good mood. Not to mention, it was a beautiful day, and I managed to get myself a bit of an October sunburn. It was almost like going to a football game without the coolers of beer and pints of bourbon passing around.

After taking the first hour to read a couple of Slate articles I took in anticipation of the wait, and then spending the second hour talking to my fellow voters, I finally made it inside the Sid McMath Library.

I listened to the electronic voting instructions from the poll worker and checked each time my vote was recorded on the paper ballot to the left. Now, I'm not one big for thinking voter fraud, but I wanted to be sure that how I voted actually came out on the paper trail. You know, just in case.

What a wonderful day. A truly wonderful day. I was able to vote for Barack Obama while also voting against a terrible Arkansas Initiative that would ban unmarried, co-habitating individuals from adopting or fostering children.

What the hell kind of thing is that? It would ban me from adopting my own nephews if, God forbid, something happened to both my brother and sister-in-law. It's just complete nonsense because you know, those crazy non-married gays are trying to take over the world by fostering, adopting and loving children. Jesus. Give me a break.

L.

Here's a picture of the line as I was about 10 people away from the door to the library (I had to wait another 30 minutes after I made it in the door). See that guy way in the back wearing a white shirt? That's the end of the line at 3 p.m. and it's about 20 feet further back from where I started at 1:50 p.m.

A Better Time Than Most Can Dream, Really

In five days, I'll be able to vote for a person I believe will be the first good opportunity we have at healing a nation that is almost mortally wounded. A country that has seen better days, has seen worse, but is, as always, full of people who believe in a better tomorrow. A country that thrived through the Great Depression, the free-loving 60s, the self-deprecating 80s, and self-hating 90s.

America is a country that looks toward the future, and I believe our future lies in thinking further than what the "Greatest Generation" and Baby Boomers did. It's time to see what we will do. What my generation can do.

I won't call it a "moment" as Obama does. I'll call it a "chance".

A chance for that young white boy in the photo below to "fist bump" an African-American leader of this country. For me that photograph shows our future. As a 30-year-old woman, it doesn't seem odd to me that a small white child would look up to an older black man. But for my parents' generation and their parents' generation that's a sight that might have (and maybe still does) conjured up long-held racial discrimination. Not me. Not my generation. I believe my generation expects and demands respect for all of our brothers and sisters--black, white, Hispanic, gay, straight, you name it.

I see a chance for us, as America, to elect a president who really, really, represents the face of this country.

We have a long way to go on race relations in America. But, on Tuesday, we have a chance to heal racial wounds this country has long ignored, and we also have an opportunity to heal racial wounds that have recently surfaced. But, most of all, we have a real opportunity to elect a leader. A person with the temperament and the brains to bring this country together in ways my generation has never seen.

We have a chance--not a moment--but a chance. A real chance to be what this country always strives to be...

The best.

The best country on earth, because you can grow up in Kenya, and you can become President of the United States.

Every child from every walk of life will be able to look to a President Obama and know, if he can do it in 2008, I can do it now.

What do I have to say to that child? Yes, You Can.

L.

A Picture Really Is Worth A Thousand Words

What an awesome photo.

Later this evening (or week), I'll try to put up my thoughts about how wonderful I think this sight is, along with my disgust at a racist woman I met at the grocery store yesterday, and my hope an Obama presidency begins a real healing process in this country.

L.
Photo: Joe Raedle of Getty Images

I Check Your Balance

There's something to be said for checks and balances in government.

I'll be the first to admit that a Democratic presidency coupled with a Democratic congress makes me more than just a little nervous. And, this comes from a Democrat.

I think there's something serious to be said about the opposite party keeping their opposition straight.

I worked for a Democratic member of the House during a Republican presidency with a Republican congress, and I saw first hand that oversight and investigations, as much as they are sometimes overdone, were nonexistent.

No president needs a rubber stamp congress, and no congress needs a rubber stamp presidency. When that happens we all end up in wars we shouldn't be fighting and tax plans that don't help anyone.

All this comes down to the point that Republicans can't control it all and, surprise, Democrats can't either. It takes someone on the other side of the aisle to tell you that you're wrong.

Someone has to stand up to you and say, "Hey, X amount of people will suffer if you do this". The people suffering may be low income folks who just want to pay the bills or high income folks who just want to leave something to their grandchildren. And, I'll be sure to admit that I've only been on the latter end of that scenario.

It's not an easy side to take because no party agrees with it, but it's necessary to keep government honest. If someone is always looking over your shoulder, I believe you'll be more careful to do what's right for all citizens, but if you know that whoever is looking over your shoulder agrees with you, then you're more likely to do what's best for your constituency.

I don't think that's a news flash to anyone.

So, just be prepared. I hope that in a year and a half we'll have a President Obama, but I won't be surprised to see an overturn in the House of Representatives.

We all need someone taking us to task and, as much as I like him, that doesn't exclude Barack Obama.


L.

Vote or Die!

Hillary! was in Little Rock yesterday to rally the loyal Arkansans to Obama's ranks. I'm sure her comments were good, but I left when I realized that every person who'd ever registered as a Democrat was going to speak prior to her.

I did see Ted Danson and Mary Steenburgen, as well as Senator Blanche Lincoln, Congressman Marion Berry and Congressman Vic Snyder before I decided the sloppy joes waiting at home were more appealing than Hillary!'s comments and headed straight to the exit.

I never saw hide nor hair of Hillary!, but I'm sure she was there as there was a picture of her with Governor Beebe in the paper this morning.

I did capture these beauties:

The crowd chanted "That One. That One. That One" several times.

Eh. What's that you say? You want to vote for Obama or you wish Woody would say something stupid at the bar?

As my mother always said, McCain't never did do anything.

What I didn't photograph was the very kind policeman who gave me a speeding ticket on the way there. Seriously.

Looking back, I wish I'd asked him to take a picture with me. He was so nice, I'll bet he would have done it.

L.

Hope. Hope. Hope.

Obama says a lot about hope, but I hope my laughter at this wasn't because it was based in real fear that it could happen.

L.

Main Street USA

I can understand the desire to invoke "Main Street" in presidential campaigns. Candidates want to seem "in tune" to Middle America. But I have to wonder if any candidate has been to an actual Main Street in years.

I have. And let me tell you, they're not dying. They're dead.

And they have been for years.

It's not the Dow, and it's not Wal-Mart. It's that no one has shopped on or cared about Main Street in 30 years.

On some levels I find it a bit insulting. It seems to me that people who want to appear as though they know "small town America" are the same people who produce movies that have mid-Americans watching a television with an antenna while sitting in the middle of a wheat field.

Now, I grew up on a farm in the early 80's, and I can honestly say that while I've seen some strange things happen in the middle of wheat fields, I've never seen a man with his 1952 Dodge pickup put a television on a milk crate, hook up the antenna and watch the presidential election results roll in. I seriously doubt it ever did happen, and it certainly doesn't happen now.

I can understand the nostalgia for "Main Street". Really, I can. But Main Street as those who lived in the 30's knew it no longer exists, and it would behoove a candidate to spend some time learning what Mid-America really looks like.

It's full of poverty, yet also full of hope. It's full of the downtrodden, but most are trying, really trying, to pull themselves up. And, I dare say, most never had enough money to invest in the stock market.

The people who live there may not be CEOs of major corporations with the ability to conjugate verbs, but that doesn't mean they spend their time in overalls hanging out in wheat fields setting up televisions so their kids can see this amazing thing called "moving pictures" either.

They are smart people trying to eek out a living. Let's give them a little credit.

Really, at least just a little.

L.

Screw You, Office '07

My office recently made the switch to Office 2007. Let me tell you this. I hate it.

Actually, it's not that I hate the format, I find it to be more user friendly since I spent much of my time digging through the toolbar looking for applications.

What I hate is that it seems that in the amount of time it takes my Outlook to "update folders" I could get in a full day of work.

Everything runs so much slower now, and it's hardly bearable. It's almost as if I've been transported back in time to the world of dial up Internet.

So, until this thing works itself out, Office 07 is now on my Enemy List. And, let me tell you, it takes a good long while to get off of it. I'm a woman who really knows how to hold a grudge.
L.

Choking Up

At first blush, I didn't care for Biden's choking up when talking about the loss his family. I honestly thought, "oh, hell, here we go again with the crying."

Admittedly, I was in the restroom when he started his answer, so I didn't get the full response, and my immediate thought was that it was a bit contrived and he should have figured out by now how to hold it together. However, after I watched the whole clip, I was far more open to it.

Watching the whole response, I get it. It was powerful. It was real.

While I didn't immediately respond kindly to Biden's choking up, I did immediately respond to Palin's complete disregard of of the moment. Maybe she didn't want to come off as too motherly, but my thought is that if she was actually reacting to what was happening around her and not what she expected to happen, she would respond more warmly.

Had she responded to his emotion in her at the table doing homework with the kids hockey mom sort of way, she would have come off as the "I'm Just Like You" woman she portrays herself to be. Instead she came off too hard.

I'll admit it's a fine line for a woman in that position. But, really, if you're campaigning on being the real deal, be the real deal. Real people, real women, respond to that kind of emotion.

People working strictly off talking points don't.

L.

The Debaters

Well, I actually watched the VP debate from start to finish with only one cigarette break in the middle.

A couple of thoughts:

1--What the hell is up with Americans apparently only talking about important issues over the kitchen table? Dave and I don't even have a kitchen table.

2--I love folksiness with the best of 'em, but for the love of all that is good and holy, answer a freaking question without putting a "Darn it" in front of it. For that matter, use "darn it" but please just answer the question.

3--All that folksiness just doesn't compare to that kind smile of Joe Biden. Something about his smile just makes me like him.

4--But, you'd think Joe Biden had my genes when you take a look at those bags under his eyes. Has he had a decent night of sleep in the past two months?

Overall, I think both VP candidates did a fairly decent job.

Palin gave us the party line, but delivered it well and looked into the camera, i.e. at the American people, every time. She answered few questions, and I can't follow her sentence construction, but she didn't bomb. I can see where she might resonate with some voters.

Biden got bogged down with numbers in the beginning and seemed to be on the defensive and losing, but he found his mojo and hammered hard during the foreign policy portion. Of course, that issue is, most assuredly, his forte.

Let's face it. Campaigns aren't won or lost on VP debates (think Bush/Quayle). And, at the end of the day, I just lost an hour and a half of my life I will never get back.

I could have totally spent that time constructively. Like by watching a "House" marathon on USA.

L.

Out of Pocket

Sorry to be out of pocket lately. I had family in town last week and in Ohio until today. I plan to gather my thoughts this evening and come back for a real post.

Check back later...
L.