“As for our common defense, we reject as false the choice between our safety and our ideals. Our Founding Fathers, faced with perils we can scarcely imagine, drafted a charter to assure the rule of law and the rights of man, a charter expanded by the blood of generations. Those ideals still light the world, and we will not give them up for expedience’ sake. And so to all other peoples and governments who are watching today, from the grandest capitals to the small village where my father was born: Know that America is a friend of each nation and every man, woman, and child who seeks a future of peace and dignity, and that we are ready to lead once more.” –President Barack Obama, January 20, 2009

Okay, this is where an actual sob escaped me. A small one. Here was the promise I was hoping for – the return to the rule of law, not malicious caprice. The impending death of the “Patriot Act”. The cessation of spying on fellow countryman and clearing the air of paranoia. We are indeed waking up from the nightmare, America.

Here we go, people — you wanted change, well hang on tight! It’s gonna be a bumpy ride…

Not that you couldn’t find it without me, but if you’re interested, here is the full text of President Obama’s (I do love the sound of that!) inauguration speech.

**A note: I just took on a new advertiser, Rainebrooke Colorful Laptop Bags. I only mention it because of the reasons I took them: This is a woman-owned and run company with a proactive commitment to the environment and leaving a zero carbon footprint. You can read about it here. I don’t get paid for writing about them. I only get paid if someone clicks on that ad in the sidebar and buys a bag. This is part of the new green economy, guys, and I think worthy of our support. No pressure.

Photo courtesy PDPhoto.org

Its… Finally… Almost… Over….

Where will you be when President Obama takes the oath of office? Me? I’ll be at work, dammit. They say they’ll have TVs available, but no cable. Sucks.

But, as the faux Time Magazine cover I posted last week states triumphantly, our national nightmare is nearly over. Well, at least part of it. I still want to see indictments. And trials. And jail time for the lying bastards….

Okay, okay. Tomorrow. But for today, billions of people all over the world are celebrating with us. And for today, my heart swells with pride and joy. I’ll probably even cry.

On Rosh Hashana (the Jewish New Year), several weeks ago, MJ and I went to my brother’s house for the traditional holiday dinner. I discovered several nasty things about my family that evening. Not about my brother, mind you, but his wife, her sister, and her husband. Namely, that my sister-in-law’s sister’s husband is a Republican. And watches Fox News. And that the SIL and her sister were actually planning to vote for McCain.

I suppose it happens in the best of families, but like the people you see on the news who are asked about some random horrible personal event, you never expect it to happen to you.

This revelation took me by surprise on so many different levels. These are the daughters and granddaughters of New York International Ladies Garment Workers Union stewards. And when I asked why they were planning to do something so contrary to their heritage, they replied: “Because Obama is anti-Semitic and against Israel.” Where had they gotten their information? I asked. They didn’t know, couldn’t remember, read something, heard something… you know, the usual sourceless, rumor, drivel.

I hate that. If you’re going to make a statement like that – especially accusing someone of holding a particular position – you’d better be prepared to give me a source. Preferably several. I won’t go into the rest of the conversation, because, well, it pisses me off all over again.

So, when President-Elect Obama (I love the way that sounds!) named Rahm Emanuel to be his Chief of Staff, I took that as a sign from God. So, take THAT you rumor-mongers!

‘Rahmbo’ takes Washington

ALLISON HOFFMAN, Jerusalem Post correspondent in New York , THE JERUSALEM POST

NEW YORK – On Rosh Hashana, Rahm Emanuel called his rabbi with a question: Could he violate the holiday to sit in on a conference call about the $700 billion bank bailout package that congressional Democrats were fiercely trying to revive?

“I told him it was my halachic opinion that the financial system was on the point of failing and it could be a disaster, and this was a matter of life and death, to get this passed, as long as the violation was kept to a minimum,” Lopatin told The Jerusalem Post.

“This is modern Orthodoxy at work – committed to Judaism, but committed to making it a better world,” Lopatin said.

As Democratic officials confirmed Thursday that Emanuel, 49, had accepted the job of chief of staff in US President-elect Barack Obama’s new administration, friends and colleagues from Chicago to Washington described him to the Post as a dauntless political warrior and peerless tactician who had cemented his reputation as a consummate Washington general with his leadership of the Democrats’ congressional takeover in 2006.

“He tends to be more pragmatic than ideological – as a leader of the party, he’s been more focused on the practical aspects of moving the agenda forward,” said Richard Foltin, legislative director for the American Jewish Committee’s Washington office, who first met Emanuel during his stint as an adviser in president Bill Clinton’s administration.

Yet Emanuel was also described as a fiercely principled Jew and supporter of Israel, where his pediatrician father, Benjamin, was born and volunteered for the Irgun before moving to America.

Emanuel, whose family name comes from the first name of an uncle killed in a 1933 skirmish with Arabs in Jerusalem, went to summer camp in Israel as a boy and grew up speaking Hebrew with his father.

“He is unabashed about his own connection to Israel,” said Michael Kotzin, executive vice president of the Jewish United Fund-Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Chicago.

“If he goes to the White House, he’ll be going to serve the president – but Israel will have a friend in the White House,” Kotzin told the Post.

Emanuel’s selection was to be formally announced on Friday.

The man nicknamed “Rahmbo” – derived from his political style, not his record as a volunteer helping the IDF during the First Gulf War – got his start in politics after graduating from Sarah Lawrence College in 1981, where, a talented dancer, he studied ballet.

Emanuel worked for a consumer rights organization in Chicago and then for a Senate campaign in 1984, as well as for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, before becoming a fund-raiser for now Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley in 1989.

In 1991, after returning from Israel, Emanuel joined Clinton’s campaign as a fund-raiser and stayed on as a White House adviser – developing a power base in the capital, and also becoming a model for Josh Lyman of The West Wing, the popular television show written by Clinton alumni.

Emanuel returned to Chicago in 1998 after marrying his wife, Amy Rule, and went to work for investment bank Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein – a move that he acknowledged in a 2002 interview with The New York Times had netted him $7.3 million, enough to guarantee financial stability for his family, if not to compete with the millions his younger brother, Ari Emanuel, rakes in as a powerful Hollywood talent agent. (The younger Emanuel also serves as the model for a television character – the explosive Ari Gold of the HBO show Entourage.)

In 2002, Emanuel decided to make a run for an open congressional seat on Chicago’s North Side.

He earned support among adults who had been his father’s patients as children and from the legions of police officers and firefighters who took the endorsement of Emanuel’s uncle, a police sergeant. However, he faced a bruising battle in the Democratic primary that included anti-Semitic broadsides raised by Polish supporters of one of his opponents.

In response, he gathered religious leaders to condemn the smears, which included allegations that his loyalty was to Israel, rather than to America.

“They tried to bring out the worst of ethnic divisions, and by being strong, he showed he wasn’t going to tolerate anti-Semitism,” recalled Lopatin, who was among the clergy Emanuel called on.

Emanuel – whose spokeswoman did not reply to a request from the Post for an interview – later said the moment was one of his proudest.

Photo courtesy PDPhoto.org

You did it, America! You made History! And in a good way!

We went over to the Shoes’ last night for a little viewing party with Miz Shoes, the RLA, Star, the Surrogate Daughter #3 (hers, not mine), Yogi and BooBoo (don’t ask – they chose their own names). We ate. We drank. We agonized over just WTF was taking Indiana so long. The first great cheer occurred when Ohio went BLUE. I was so proud!

We had our first inkling how Florida would go when one of the talking heads on MSNBC noted that our beloved (Republican) governor, Charlie Crist, had to return to Tallahassee on some “urgent legal matter” and left McSame’s “victory” party. Heh heh heh. When both my birth state and my home state turned BLUE on the map, my heart swelled with pride.

Senator Obama’s speech was inspirational and motivating, tempered by realism. I was moved practically to tears. Once again, I was watching a pivotal moment in history. And a movement away from the politics of fear to the politics of ethics and HOPE.

May I have another glass of Kool Aid, please?

With apologies to Crystal Gayle, et.al., here’s a little ditty I just whipped up in honor of the Blue Wave that’s coming:

Don’t It Make Those Red States Blue
(Sung to the tune of “Don’t It Make My Brown Eyes Blue”)

How long since the map’s so blue?
I know what’s come over you
We finally got a clue
And don’t it make those Red States Blue

Republicans can pack their bags
Forgive us if we’re none too sad
A new day dawns a brilliant hue
And don’t it make those Red States Blue

Eight years of secrets, Eight years of lies
Gave us no reasons, gave us alibis
Held us hostage to fear, then laughed while we cried
Gutted our freedoms, said God’s on your side

We’ll be fine when Bushy’s gone
We’ll just party all night long
America can Hope anew
And don’t it make those Red States
Don’t it make those Red States
Got to make those Red States Blue!

Don’t it make those Red States
Don’t it make those Red States
Got to make those Red States Blue!

Don’t it make those Red States
Come on all you Red States
Got to make those Red States Blue!

Just a little something to hum while you’re standing in line to VOTE this Tuesday.

Am I getting a little ahead of myself? Of course, I am. I want this change so badly, I can taste it. But to make this vision a reality, you must VOTE on Tuesday (if you haven’t already done early voting). I’m serious, people. We can’t stand another 4 years like the last 8. We can’t let the dream slip away because of a little rain or snow, or a few cops standing around the polling places. White, black, and every color in between, we’re all in this together!

Ooo! Ooo! What do you think of “I Can’t Stand McCain”, sung to the tune of “I Can’t Stand The Rain”?

If you think you get plenty of ranting political e-mails from friends and acquaintances on an average day, they just seem to multiply exponentially during Political Season, don’t they? I have a favorite antagonist – normally the sweetest guy on the planet – who, if you were to judge solely by the e-mails he forwards to me, can’t decide if he’s a Libertarian militiaman or a Fascist. This week, he’s a secret Democrat — he just hadn’t really given it quite enough thought before he forwarded this one:

—Original Message from xxxxxxxx@comcast.net:

I just can’t resist tweaking this guy… it’s become one of my favorite sports:

Thank you and God Bless You for my smile of the day. I didn’t know in how high regard you hold ol’ liberal Democrat Harry Truman!

I thought you’d like to know more about your new favorite former President.

From the Truman Library’s biography of Give ‘Em Hell Harry:

“In his domestic policies, Truman sought to accomplish the difficult transition from a war to a peace economy without plunging the nation into recession, and he hoped to extend New Deal social programs to include more government protection and services and to reach more people. He was successful in achieving a healthy peacetime economy, but only a few of his social program proposals became law. The Congress, which was much more Republican in its membership during his presidency than it had been during Franklin Roosevelt’s, did not usually share Truman’s desire to build on the legacy of the New Deal.

The Truman administration went considerably beyond the New Deal in the area of civil rights. Although, the conservative Congress thwarted Truman’s desire to achieve significant civil rights legislation, he was able to use his powers as President to achieve some important changes. He issued executive orders desegregating the armed forces and forbidding racial discrimination in Federal employment. He also established a Committee on Civil Rights and encouraged the Justice Department to argue before the Supreme Court on behalf of plaintiffs fighting against segregation.”

From the White House’s biography:

“In June 1945 Truman witnessed the signing of the charter of the United Nations, hopefully established to preserve peace.

Thus far, he had followed his predecessor’s policies, but he soon developed his own. He presented to Congress a 21-point program, proposing the expansion of Social Security, a full-employment program, a permanent Fair Employment Practices Act, and public housing and slum clearance. The program, Truman wrote, “symbolizes for me my assumption of the office of President in my own right.” It became known as the Fair Deal.”

I know you like quotations, so here are a few that I’m sure you’ll enjoy:

“Men make history, and not the other way around. In periods where there is no leadership, society stands still. Progress occurs when courageous, skillful leaders seize the opportunity to change things for the better.”

“When you have an efficient government, you have a dictatorship.”

“It’s a recession when your neighbor loses his job; it’s a depression when you lose yours.”

My personal favorite from Truman’s Special Letter to Congress on the Internal Security of the United States (August 8, 1950) (click for the full text… substitute the word “terrorists” for “Communists”, and boy, that sounds familiar!):

“…[T]here are some people who wish us to enact laws which would seriously damage the right of free speech and which could be used not only against subversive groups but against other groups engaged in political or other activities which were not generally popular. Such measures would not only infringe on the Bill of Rights and the basic liberties of our people; they would also undermine the very internal security they seek to protect.

Laws forbidding dissent do not prevent subversive activities; they merely drive them into more secret and more dangerous channels. Police states are not secure; their history is marked by successive purges, and growing concentration camps, as their governments strike out blindly in fear of violent revolt. Once a government is committed to the principle of silencing the voice of opposition, it has only one way to go, and that is down the path of increasingly repressive measures, until it becomes a source of terror to all its citizens and creates a country where everyone lives in fear.

We must, therefore, be on our guard against extremists who urge us to adopt police state measures. Such persons advocate breaking down the guarantees of the Bill of Rights in order to get at the communists. They forget that if the Bill of Rights were to be broken down, all groups, even the most conservative, would be in danger from the arbitrary power of government.”

So, hats off to you for admitting your admiration for one of the greatest acknowledged unapologetic liberal Presidents of the 20th Century!

Changed your Voter’s Registration to Democrat yet?

“Opening up the health insurance market to more vigorous nationwide competition, as we have done over the last decade in banking, would provide more choices of innovative products less burdened by the worst excesses of state-based regulation.”
— “Better Care at Lower Cost for Every American” by John McCain in Contingencies (Magazine of the American Academy of Actuaries (read, insurance geeks)) (emphasis added) September/October 2008

If his choice of running mate wasn’t enough to convince you of John McCain’s poor judgment, how about that? In light of the past week’s financial system implosion, McCain believes we should follow the same strategy with health insurance. See how well that worked out?

“I also know, if I might remind you, that she is commander of the Alaska National Guard. In fact, you may know that on Sept. 11 a large contingent of the Alaska Guard deployed to Iraq and her son happened to be one of them. So I think she understands our national security challenges…”
— John McCain speaking in Grand Rapids, Michigan on September 17, 2008, regarding Sarah Palin’s foreign policy credentials.

On that basis, I could have given him some names of women who have had those particular credentials for a lot longer. That must make them eligible for – oh, I don’t know – at least Secretary of State. Of course, it might have been more effective had McCain recalled that Palin’s son is in the Army – not the Alaska National Guard. Oh, yeah. And she can see Russia from her yard. Clears that nagging little doubt right up.

So, if you’ve been following along, on Tuesday, I posted about some pro-Obama mass e-mails I had received from a friend. Those e-mails had been replied to by someone else on the mailing list, a woman who had obviously imbibed the Republican/fundamentalist/right-wing Kool Aid. Repeatedly. I then responded to her, in what I thought was a (mostly) civilized and rational manner, and sent my responses to the whole list, as she had.

The next morning, I received an e-mail from several people who supported my remarks, and a couple from people who did not. Mostly, the “nots” requested that I not e-mail them with my views. A wholly irrational concept, if you think about it. After all, it was not my e-mails that originally began the exchange, and it is not my address list. I’m not psychic, people.

As it turns out, the original responder (“R”) is a sister of my friend who sent the original correspondence. And one of the people who requested that I not tax their brains with an opinion that runs counter to their deeply-held Rove-inspired fantasies or – God forbid! – actual facts, is another of her sisters (“A”). This last, privately sent e-mail, got under my skin for some reason. I guess, because of its sheer childishness. And because it’s a core sample of Uber-Conservative American thought. It’s classic avoidance behavior – I don’t like what you have to say, so shut up so I don’t have to hear it.

Again, I have reproduced her e-mail and my response. The names have been redacted to protect the guilty.

“Please do not copy me on your email replies. I do not know you and do not care about your political stance, stupid or otherwise. If you received a reply from me in regard to an email, it was an accident – I hit “reply all” when replying to my sister M. I am not interested in your views and would appreciate you not sending me anymore emails.

M – please talk to your angry democratic friends and tell them to stop emailing me.”

My response:

A -

I wasn’t going to reply, but you have succeeded in irritating me sufficiently that I can’t write my Project Runway recap until I did.

I’m sorry that you were upset by reading my responses to R’s e-mails. They were not directed to you. R chose to respond to M’s e-mails via the entire e-mail list. Hardly an accident, since she did it 3 times. I merely did the same thing she did, only I happen to have actual facts on my side. I did receive your reply. Despite what you say, yours was not directed to M, either. It was obviously intended to be seen by the group as well. What did you say? Wait a minute, let me dig it out of the trash…… Oh yeah, here it is:

“R – thanks for speaking up for all of us that know the REAL truth.” Whatever that is. Would you be at all interested in knowing that the New Testament bible that you cling to so fiercely, was assembled by a barbarian (non-believer) king? He picked and chose for inclusion only the parts he felt wouldn’t incite the newly-minted Christians to rebellion against him and his fellow monarchs. Left a lot of the good stuff out. Actual, historical, documented fact. No, I guess you wouldn’t be interested.

I’m not angry, A. No, I take that back. Yes I am. I’m angry because this country that we all love and call home, was founded by immigrants looking for religious freedom. They left their homes, countries, and everything they ever knew to come to a place where they could worship as they pleased, without fear. Our families immigrated to this country, because it is the best hope for freedom and prosperity in the world. That includes your family, too.

Yet, here we are, several hundred years later, and we’re back at the beginning, with one group of people who believe that their way is the only way, trying to impose their beliefs and their way of thinking on the rest of us. And when someone calls you on it, instead of having a reasonable conversation or civilized debate, the best you can do is stick your fingers in your ears like Peewee Herman – LALALALALALA! I can’t hear you! and tell me that my opinion is stupid and I should just go away and never darken your doorway again. Figuratively speaking, of course.

I can’t guarantee that you won’t get anymore e-mails from me, A. If M sends something out to the list and I feel like responding to that, or to someone else’s comments, by way of the mailing list – which is my prerogative, by the way, just like you and R – you just might get another e-mail from me. I’m not going to sit here and pick through all the names on the list simply to make someone whose name I’ll probably forget next week, more comfortable. As I see it, if you see my e-mail address in your mailbox, you have three choices: 1) You can read it and act like a grown-up; 2) You can tell M to remove you from her mailing list; or 3) click “Delete”.

And by the way, you do sort of know me. I am a friend of M’s for many years, and you and I met at your father’s funeral. I am still very sorry for your loss.

Best regards,

RJ