Hagrid is in the House!

Ahhh... is this just politeness, or actual thawing in U.S. - Cuban relations?

Fidel: How can we help President Obama?

The wing nuts' heads should be exploding, right... about... now.

Yesterday turned out to be a much more delightful birthday than I could have hoped for!

The morning started with a visit from my friend and former neighbour Jahan, who came back up to town from Kirkland to pick up his bed. After we loaded his mattresses into his pickup truck, we hung out and watched Family Guy.

Then I discovered that my little sister, Nettie, who is currently serving a tour in Iraq, went on my Amazon.com Wish List and purchased the "Big and Tall" office chair that I have been needing badly (small office chairs hurt my knees). Thank you so much, Little Sister!

In the afternoon, I took the bus down to the Amtrak station to pick up Mom. She arrived on time, and was very happy to see me. I have to confess, I'm happy to see her, too! After picking up a rental car, we went and had a late lunch at Pelmeni. Then we got her checked into her hotel room.

We talked a bit about the tension between us lately. "I know you think I'm awful," she said. "Mom," I replied, "I don't think you're awful. I think you're wonderful. So we don't see eye-to-eye politically, and we bicker over email. So what? Sometimes, bickering's just a way for people who love each other to communicate!" She seemed delighted by my saying this.

After leaving her at her hotel to clean up after being on the train for 3 days, I went home and took care of some things. Then I went back to her hotel room to pick her up for dinner. I also showed her the Message for Obama book I was published in. I explained I did it for Nettie, and she seemed very pleased.

Then we went to the Cliff House for drinks and dinner. I was incredibly pleased by the turnout for my birthday dinner! Ted was there, and Richard and Brian, and Robert, and even man_of_snows and his partner Justin attended! It was like Faerie Coffee for dinner!

Dinner itself was wonderful. I had the Chicken & Dungeness Crab, and at the end of the meal, the restaurant brought out a HUGE complimentary sundae for me with a candle on it, while Ted serenaded me with a lovely birthday song. After making my wish (for financial security), i shared the sundae with everyone. It was a lot of fun, and I was stuffed! It was an expensive meal, and Mom paid for much of it... and I am grateful for it.

After getting Ted on the bus to go home, I took Mom back to her hotel, and then headed home myself, satisfied with a delightful day.

Thank you everyone who made me feel so loved on my 41st birthday!

Obama signs orders to close secret prisons and Guantánamo

President Barack Obama signed executive orders Thursday directing the Central Intelligence Agency to shut what remains of its network of secret prisons and ordering the closing of the Guantánamo detention camp within a year.

Oh my gods, is it actually happening? Is he going to keep his campaign promise? Is this abomination and embarrassment finally over?

*crosses fingers*

Obameter change: +5 (+5)

This week's Obama YouTube Address:

It's a good start. It appears he's talking about a public works program, a la FDR.

Here's to hope. I need it. WE need it.

As I write these words, big fat cathartic tears are rolling down my cheeks, and goosebumps are covering me.

Something's changed. I can feel it.

Even though I voted for Cynthia McKinney, I am absolutely delighted that Barack Hussein Obama has been elected.

Not because he's a Democrat -- I happen to think that the Dems as a party are just as corrupt as the GOP, bought and paid for by big corporations and the Military-Industrial Complex. And certainly not because I agree with many of his political positions, because I emphatically do not.

What strikes me this morning is that, for the first time in over a decade, I'm actually feeling hopeful about the country I was born in.

My gods, we as a people CAN change!

Our conception of what "American" is has changed. When this country was founded, a person like Obama would have been a slave, counted as only 3/5 of a person.

Now, a man of African descent has been elected President. Wow. I never thought I would actually live to see the day.

The problems of race in this country are not over. Not by a long shot.

But our country, founded on slavery, racism, and genocide, has finally reached a place where it can see that we are not a "white" nation. We still have to come to a place where we recognize that we are not a male, Christian, heterosexual nation. We still have tremendous issues of class, poverty, justice, and violence to overcome.

But last night, progress was made.

"We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union..." reads the first line of our Constitution.

We've just become a little more perfect. Progress towards that perfection CAN be made. There is room for hope.

Thank you, America, for restoring a little bit of my faith in you. Thank you for growing up.

The BBC has a very interesting piece about a group of Shamans in Peru who are using their unique skills to make sure "the right candidate" gets elected in the United States.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/us_elections_2008/7699066.stm

You can't make stuff like this up!

(I do worry, though, when the one Shaman says they want the U.S. to get the president it deserves. That's actually a scary thought...)

Obama (and Big Media) Turn Blind Eye to Israeli Apartheid

Is the chance for racial reconciliation, change, and the end of a Republican White House that Obama represents worth this price? That's the question for me this election.

Now she's playing the race card?

Lady, you're asking for a whole lot of trouble. We need someone to unite us as a people, not divide us.


I'll give Clinton props for this: She's tenacious.

Maybe what she says it is true, that she's polling better among certain European-American groups, but she's veering dangerously close to "Obama can't win because he's black" territory.

Give it up Hillary. You lost. More Democrats want Obama than you.

Sheesh.