It's an election eve, so... my thoughts on our responsibilities tomorrow

I hope that everyone I know in Wisconsin votes tomorrow. More to the point, I hope you vote for Barack Obama tomorrow, and I'll tell you why.

If you're a Republican, sorry about your luck. Your vote no longer matters, and also, your candidate is a 71-year-old, Dubya-loving war hawk who has somehow managed to swindle the nation into believing he's a liberal. In other words: the moderates hate him because he's too much of a Bush clone (and they're right), and the conservatives hate him because they think he's a liberal (they're wrong). Let's assess his chances for victory in this climate, eh?

This idea that John McCain is a liberal is infuriating. Granted, in some miniscule ways he has inched away from the reactionary arch-conservatives. And the fact that he has an (albeit ill-deserved) reputation for being liberal and was nominated anyway is a promising sign that the Republican party is either moving closer to the center or fracturing in two, and either way I'm pleased to see the marginalization of the extreme right. Huzzah and all that, what what. But let us not allow ourselves to see liberalism in a man who: is advocating for corporate America to pay FEWER taxes than they already do, wants to make tax cuts a permanent part of the budget (wow, it's so smart to make decisions now about economic circumstances for the future that we can't predict... Bush made this same decision his first year in office), wants to see Roe v. Wade overturned and abortion made illegal, who has always been and continues to be a strong advocate of the war in Iraq (and who recently suggested keeping a military presence there for 100 years), and whose major campaign issue is the fear of future attacks from Islamic extremists.... (deep breath)... HE'S A HUUUUGE CONSERVATIVE.

Let's look at his more "liberal" tendencies: He isn't willing to ban gay marriage on a national level. Okay, sure, that sounds like something a Democrat would say. But McCain strongly encourages the states to do ban it, since "[t]he family represents the foundation of Western Civilization and civil society." Cue up the 1970s scary music and a graphic of two men holding hands. Now spiral it around and flash this up there in dripping-blood font: GAYS RUIN THE WORLD!

But how about his environmentalism? Surely the Republicans are scared for a reason, right? John McCain must love him some nature, and I bet he's ready to vote against all those big, bad coal companies and oil companies so that the bears can frolic! Oh, no, what will us fat-cats do?? Sleep tight, corporate America, John McCain's reputation as a tree-hugger is just a lot of smoke and mirrors. Know how you can tell? The League of Conservation Voters, a group that keeps track of how often congressmen cast votes to protect the environment, gives him a 29% (that's not good). When it comes time to choose between his friends in coal and oil or the environment, he goes with the former 71% of the time. (Hey, isn't that how old he is?)

To quote a recent op-ed piece in the Badger Herald: "Okay, so he is anti-gay, anti-choice, anti-environment, anti-civil liberties and pro-tax cuts for the wealthy and pro-elimination of social programs. Let us get one thing straight: John McCain is definitely not a Democrat and by no means a liberal."

But, hey, what do I care. He's not going to win in November because no one likes him and he can't lift his arms over his head (yeah, I'm making fun of his war injuries, sue me). What I actually want to say on this Election Eve is a message of positivity:

We are about to nominate either a black man or a woman as the Democratic nominee for president. People, this is big. Even bigger is that their minority status isn't even on the top 100 list of reasons to vote for them. They're both highly intelligent, educated and capable leaders. They both stand excellent chances against John McCain in the fall. We are staring down the opportunity of a lifetime, to begin the decades-long process of reversing the effects of the Bush administration, restoring our standing in the world, and sounding a war cry to mainstream racism and misogyny. We have a great shot at this so-inspiring-I-want-to-cry vision. We're polling high. Democrats are going to the polls in 2-to-1 numbers vs. Republicans. The nation wants change. If one of them loses in November, it will not be because the country's not ready for all of these things. The only way they won't get it is if we don't give it to them.

People, we have to pick somebody. We have to be what the Republican party always models for us and we never seem quite able to be: strategic and united. Even in this, the Republicans' least coherent election year in recent memory, they are still able to focus on November and pull out the right strategy: rallying around the guy with the best shot. There are very few lessons we need to look across the aisle to learn, but this is one of them. Let's stop yelling about who's the real "agent of change." Let's stop fighting with each other and start fighting John McCain. Let's face some facts:

Hillary Clinton is sagging behind. The only way for her to pass Barack Obama is by surging, and she's been on a rock-steady decline for months. There's no surge coming.

Obama is on the upswing and will almost certainly finish the primary cycle ahead in delegates and the popular vote (and Democrats ought to remember what happens when you elect the guy--or gal--who lost the popular vote... do we really want to go there?)

It's highly unlikely that, despite these trends, either candidate's lead will be clear enough to call a winner anytime soon.

If we don't call a winner before winter turns to spring, we are handing the election to John McCain, a man who might be four steps to the left of GWB, but is still four time zones away from the middle.

I've never been entirely comfortable with the pragmatic decision. It certainly doesn't sound right coming from someone who supports Barack Obama for entirely un-pragmatic reasons. I like him because he has a vision for the future of this country, a vision that rests on equality, liberty and humanity more than on fear-mongering and us vs. them rhetoric. I like him because he's not afraid to take to the podium and flatly accuse this nation of having the wrong values, of protecting the rich and powerful at the expense of the poor today and the whole world tomorrow. He's not afraid to ask us to believe that we can make major changes in our country's values. These are not practical reasons to like someone. So, no, I don't usually advocate the practical vote. But this election is too important to throw away. If Hillary were the one surging ahead, I would vote for her tomorrow. The fact that the candidate I like is also the candidate with the best shot at victory is a coincidence that serves me well, though I admit looks bad for my sincerity. But hear me:

DEMOCRATS, FOR ONCE IN YOUR LIVES CAST A STRATEGIC VOTE TOMORROW. LET'S SHOW THE SUPERDELEGATES AND THE DNC THAT THE NATION IS BEHIND BARACK OBAMA.

Go get your democracy on tomorrow. Choose Obama and Barack the Vote.

Isla Fisher or Amy Adams?

Who the fuck knows. I can't tell these broads apart.

If that groundhog saw his shadow, he's a fucking marked rodent.

Two things have happened to me this semester, and I can't figure out if they're related to one another. First, and thankfully, I am starting to be able to detect minute improvements in my grad school thinking. For instance, when someone in class says, "This is so Kantian," I don't immediately think, "Fuck you." I often know vaguely what's being referenced. Universalism, aesthetics, teleology, something like that. Also, I find that when I say things in class this semester, I don't always have an out-of-body experience, and most of the time what I've rambled about doesn't make me want to crawl under the seminar table and spend the rest of the class building lego racecars. Most of the time.

I talk a lot about small victories in graduate school, but this is actually a huge improvement.

The other new thing this semester is that, paradoxically, I seem to care much, much less about my work. It's there, and I know I need to do it. But there's no panic, there's no Fear. Fear has been replaced with Priorities. I don't seem to need my entire weekend for doing work. Apart from this weekend, when I fucked myself with three mini-assignments (including a paper I can't seem to formulate a coherent thesis for) on top of all of my reading, most weekends, I think--dare I say it?--I might be able to kick back a little.

So, are these two things related? Or am I heading down a dangerous road of not reading but talking in class anyway? Am I headed down the highway to the danger zone? To a neighboring state that begins with a big old capital A?

Speaking of a different (but related) A, he asked me to update my weather blog. And I was feeling self-conscious that all I ever write about is the weather... it's like being that person at a party who has nothing to talk about, and since I usually feel awkward at parties, with nothing to talk about, it felt important that I try not to simply post over and over again about the temperature. But I do have a couple items of note that I wanted to share, and now that a request has been made, well, here:

It snowed 13 inches last Wednesday. 19 inches in some areas outside of the city. Apparently one of the 5 worst storms on record. 1,000 cars were stranded overnight on the highway. But the University opened in the morning! With a nice, patronizing note reminding us that the UW has only closed twice for snow in the last 18 years. That's cute and all, but when the city has declared an emergency, is woefully behind on plowing the streets, all the other public schools and all the other UWs are closed, and the UW Madison hasn't even begun to shovel its on-campus walkways... maybe it's time to put safety above pride? How many of those people who spent the night on the beltline were trying to get to/from the University? At the very least, the Chancellor needs to reword / make more public the snow policy, because it's not a great reflection on the school when most students believe that the school simply "never closes" or that the Chancellor adheres to some arbitrary snowfall total instead of actual city conditions. The students should at least believe their school puts safety before pride, even if it's not true.

And, finally, here's a screen capture from Saturday night:



HOLY SHIT GROUND BLIZZARDS??

You win, Madison. Game over.

I think we pissed it off...

Anyone who thinks hell is hot has never been to Wisconsin.

This week the weather has actually turned agressor. Exhibit A: Last Tuesday the day started out in the low 40s. By 2:30 it was sleeting giant ice pellets, and by 7pm the wind chills were -30 and we had "blizzard conditions" during which it was advised to simply stay indoors, because frostbite could set into exposed skin in ten minutes. A SEVENTY DEGREE TEMPERATURE SWING in eight hours kinda makes me think Wisconsin doesn't want us here anymore. The 35 mph winds were howling "Get out. Geeettttt oooouuuuuuuuuut."

And exhibit B: Thursday we had an icequake. Yup. Plates of ice on the lake collided and the whole lakeshore shook. It felt like a bomb went off in the building I was in. It registered on the Richter scale. People, I think we need to take this seriously. Maybe we just shouldn't live this far north. If we all pack up quietly and head out to say, Arizona, maybe we won't anger it any further. There's a ton of empty space out there. We could totally just take it over. Anyone with me?