In the vast number of tributes and reflections today, this is just another.

I remember walking into my office, here in Miami, when the first plane struck the World Trade Center in New York, thousands of miles away. The sheer implausibility and ridiculousness of even the possibility of that act made even the concept that such a thing could happen, incomprehensible.

I remember that, with tears streaming down my face, all I could think about were the individuals – the secretaries, the maintenance workers, the file clerks. A political statement was the last thing on their minds that morning. They didn’t ask to be part of history. They only wanted to live.

I remember the generosity of spirit that followed. People looked to fulfill their dreams: get married, buy homes, start families. Because in this new world, you just never know when a plane might fall out of the sky.

And I remember that all of that generosity, all of the good will was twisted and squandered by men perverting the memories of the innocents toward their own ends. And we lived in fear. And even the fear was perverted.

Enough. Enough fear and hatred and animosity. I will not live looking over my shoulder and looking at the sky as if it were my enemy. That is not their legacy, nor will it be my future. Don’t let it be yours.

With all the back and forth nonsense about President Obama’s speech to kids, this morning, read it now. Then decide.

Now, I ask you: Why wouldn’t you want your kids to hear this? I’ve read the speech, and I just can’t imagine why anyone wouldn’t want their child(ren) to hear it. Well, yes I can. The same people who don’t believe that President Obama was born in the United States, and those who believe that health care reform means euthanasia for the elderly and infirm. And the people behind the scenes who egg them on. The fear-mongers. They don’t want children to be inspired by the first black president of the United States. There. I’ve said it out loud.

Glen Beck called him a racist and Sarah Palin called him a communist. I really hoped these denizens of the dark would skulk back into their caves after the election. I really hoped that the politics of fear would be replaced by civil discourse and exchange of opinions and ideas with the mutual vision of a better future for all.

We are a nation of freaking sheep, and I guess I’ve been watching too much Star Trek again.

*p.s.* Recipe Monday (on Tuesday) appears below.

I’m not a huge fan of Greenpeace – they’re frequently reckless, dangerous, and frankly, violent. And I stand by what I’ve said before, that I brook no extremists of any stripe, even when I agree with the cause. So you won’t find any links to their website here.

This time, well… They managed to get our attention without hurting themselves, or others, or even damaging this American icon. This stunt was clever. And cerebral. And pretty goddamn funny, whether humor was part of the intent, or not. And, well, Awesome.

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.

No, don’t start here – scroll down to the next post and start there. Then come back.

You know, when I sat down to write this, I knew everything I wanted to write. And then it left me. So forgive me if I ramble a bit. It might come back to me. Or not.

So, my laptop crapped out on Christmas Eve, and it wasn’t the battery or the power supply. It was something called the “dc input board”. Or something like that. it’s the part that apparently tells the battery that it’s being charged. I guess. Anyway, it took nearly two whole weeks to get that all straightened out.

But when I got it back, the very first e-mail I read was from Hootin’ Anni, telling me that I was a winner in her first blog giveaway! You know, I don’t enter most of these blog giveaways you see all over the web (except for Canary Girl when she was giving away a copy of her cookbook – which I didn’t win), but, hey! this is Anni – creative, down to earth, and deep down, a woman after my own heart. Anyway, I won one of these book thongs that she made – aren’t they pretty?

Thanks again, Anni!

Speaking of Canary Girl, I did finally get a copy of her cookbook. Bought it for MJ for Christmas. It’s beautiful! I’ve made several of her recipes – who can forget Intestines at Halloween? – but her photography, like on her website, is just stunning! I’m a fan.

So apparently, Rod Blagojevich, the now nationally famous – or rather infamous – governor of the great State of Illinois, snuck in the back door of the Illinois state legislature today to swear in the new state House of Representatives. Which promptly voted – 114 to 1 – to impeach him. Awkward. Really. What could you possibly add to that?

Nope. It’s not coming back to me. So let me end this on a bright note:

Remember Republic Windows and Doors in Chicago? You know, the company who, last month, closed down the factory on 3 days notice, tossing its workers out into the snow with no severance, no vacation pay, no nada? So the workers staged a sit-in for 6 days, refusing to leave the factory until Bank of America finally regurgitated some of the $10 billion bailout package it was gifted to pay each of the 300 workers $6,000? Remember that? Well, now there’s a construction materials company in California who wants to buy Republic! And give all 300 workers their jobs back! And you know why? Because they see an opportunity to expand their business into a new market by buying an installation that’s already in place with a well-trained workforce ready to go. And you know what makes it particularly attractive? All the machinery and equipment is still in the building because those very same workers refused to allow Bank of America to come in and liquidate it! Union! Union! Union!

There are so many potential posts rattling around in my brain at the moment that it’s difficult to pick one topic. But there are lots of things that probably don’t justify an entire post to themselves, or maybe do, but right now I just want to throw some stuff out there. And so, the first Bits ‘n Pieces for 2009:

Most particularly, I like the stripe in the upper right-hand corner. The man admitted his crimes regarding complicity in the use of torture on detainees, and how nobody gave a rat’s ass whether or not the intelligence was good about WMD’s in Iraq – we were sending troops there – in media interviews. What I have said since before the 2000 election – “If Bush becomes president, we will be back in Iraq. Mark my words.” Nobody listened to me. He confessed. Without the kind of torture he was responsible for inflicting. “Cheney Begins Prison Term” Sweet dreams.

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”?