The end of this election ran like the end of a really good movie, only it was real. Think about it:

A black community organizer from Chicago decides to run for state office to make the changes he can’t on the ground. He wins and spends some time in office getting to know the system and making himself known. After some time, he runs for the Senate and wins. Again, he makes friends and makes himself known.

Then he gives one unlikely speech at the DNC and the world starts to really pay attention to him. The next election cycle, on a cold Chicago morning, he stands before a small crowd and announces his candidacy for president. He runs a tough race against all manner of qualified people, narrowing it down to the biggest name in the party as his opponent. Through persistence, an even tone, and the support of the people he manages to win the nomination, and eventually the support of that opponent.

On to the main race, the other side chose a man that riles up the crazy people, the religious people, the gun people, and the intolerant people. The opponent pulls out all the stops, stoops to all the lows in an attempt to undermine Our Hero’s support. He presses on, talking about hope and change, about the future.

The days before the election, the polls are close and there’s the looming threat of the old, crazy man winning. People showed up in epic numbers across America to vote early and the numbers look good. Then he gets a call: his grandmother is dying. He leaves the campaign in its final moments to travel to her and be at her side one last time. She dies the day before she could see the election, but she managed to get her vote in!

The day of the election. People are still showing up in numbers that amaze the media. Everyone is shocked that the turnout is this large, but the exit polls are wonky. Some show Obama, some have surprising McCain numbers. It’s iffy. Then the actual counts start to roll in, and Obama wins Ohio and Pennsylvania. He’s won.

I don’t want to make anyone’s head explode. I honestly read most of comments above, and alot of what is being said is strange and surreal to me.

What is wrong with socialism?

I live in a socialist country and life here is safe, happy and free.

A comment on Careful, America

Preachin’ to the choir. Liberal thinking is progressive, it moves people into the now and the future. Socialist policies are just that: social, for the people. Done right, they’re great things.

However, in America there’s a huge number of idiots that have been brainwashed by the corporations that “liberalism” and “socialism” would destroy (drugs, healthcare, military-industrial complex, farming and food processing, etc.). They’ve been made to believe that “them liberals” want to take their money away when they’re already poor (which is curious, because they also say it’s a “welfare state” that’s giving money … to the poor — and they believe them). They tell the masses that “socialism” is the opposite of “capitalism” and it would destroy all that is great about American free enterprise. They harp on about how new ideas and progress will ruin this old land and its traditions and make everyone abort every first child because they can, or something equally silly and fatalistic.

Basically, the people that have the most to lose have convinced those with overactive imaginations and underfunded educations to believe that they’re the heroes protecting them from a greater evil, and a vote for them is a “vote for America”. The idiots buy it, hook and sinker and in droves. Then, realizing the stupidity of the masses, they “energize” them with any “immoral” scandal the other side has, showing them what “horrible people” they are, then they ask for “Christian forgiveness” when their own members do the same thing. Having successfully hooked them on their supposed moral foundation, they get into the churches and do the same thing: we’re moral, they’re not! They take on party platforms that are impossible to actually legislate and call them a matter of morality, again saying the other side has none.

This is from my mother-in-law about her experience visiting the Obama rally in Corpus Christi, TX.

As my husband, friend, and I were approaching the Obama rally at the American Bank Plaza, I first saw a large group of my female teacher friends leaving. I asked them why they were leaving and they told me that as soon as they got out of their cars they were approached by some women and men who told them that they wouldn’t be allowed in if they didn’t have photo IDs. They were very upset about this. I asked my husband to get my substitute teacher photo ID out of the glove compartment as my friend and I made it through the crowd. We passed many women (we spoke to about 100) who were leaving for the same reason. A typical response was, “We were told not to bring our purses, but no one said anything about an photo ID and that’s where our IDs are.” They were all very upset about the situation.

From Populist America:

The Protect America Act gives the federal government the authority to monitor American citizens’ phone conversations and e-mails, providing they are corresponding with persons “reasonably believed to be located outside the United States.” This bill, which was drafted mostly by the White House, was created in response to the 2005 scandal where President Bush was ridiculed for authorizing the National Security Agency to conduct a secret wiretapping program targeted at persons within the United States. A federal court ruling found that program to be what most people already believed it to be: unconstitutional.

The Fourth Amendment to the Constitutionstates: “The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.”

bq.. An opinion poll suggests high voter turnout in Iraq has boosted US President George W Bush's approval ratings.

"'Sharp rise' in Bush popularity":http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/2/hi/americas/4544444.stm

p. Um, surprise? They wanted freedom and democracy? This was in doubt? The dude's still an ass hat and should be kicked out.

bq.. Twenty-five years ago a law known as Bayh-Dole spawned the biotech industry. It made lots of university scientists fabulously rich. It was also supposed to usher in a new era of innovation. So why are medical miracles in such short supply?

"Fortune 75 - The Law of Unintended Consequences - FORTUNE - Page 1":http://www.fortune.com/fortune/fortune75/articles/0,15114,1101810-1,00.html

p. Brilliant article about the effects of patent law on the medicine industry.