Housewarming Gift for Sarah Palin

I think that Sarah Palin needs some sort of reward. After all that palin’ around with McCain, all that travelin’ and all that shoppin’ She needs a reward. Something to welcome her home back up there in Alaska. What kind of
"Welcome Home" gift would be good? She needs a dog, you betcha, a dog!

What says “I am home to stay” more than getting a dog? Dogs are a symbol of domesticity and stability. After all, isn’t that what President Elect Obama is doing. He is moving the family to a new house in a new town, and getting a dog. A dog is the finishing touch to any family portrait, it says we are stable, we are planted, we are home to stay.

Sarah needs a dog. After two months of being fodder of late night comedians, of being openly resented by her handlers, grilled and shot down by conservative commentators after all of that, what did she accomplish? An inevitable Emmy for Tina Fey. We can all agree Sara has had a bad trip. So what better to welcome her home than with a cute bouncy ball of fur, a dog?

So I hope she gets a dog, just to let her know she is home and safe and she doesn’t have to ever leave again. A dog would be her buddy. It wouldn’t care that she thinks that Africa is a country and South Africa is the lower area, kind of like Dixie to the USA. No, a dog doesn’t need knowledge or intelligence to be happy, it just needs to be winked at and loved. Let’s skip the obvious joke that she should get a Pit Bull and call it Lipstick, although Sara would probably would want to call it Catie. I just want Sara to go home, kick around a bit, toss a stick, in the direction of Russia, to her furry buddy and feel so much at home that she will never, ever, ever, leave again.

Post-Election Syndrome

Got this in a email. Thanks Carol

Are you suffering from PES (Post Election Syndrome)?

Symptoms include uncontrollable:
singing
smiling
crying
laughing
desire to hug and kiss family, friends, and neighbors
There is no cure so sing, smile, laugh, cry, hug and kiss to your heart's content!

luv,

How Many Phones Can You fit in the Oakland Convention Center

This is From Students for Obama they said pass it along

For those of you who are not in Vegas or Colorado right now...We're going to help the Obama campaign promote the HUGE phonebank that they're organizing at the Oakland Convention Center on election day. They are going to start calling East Coast states at 4:00 AM, so we'll be putting up posters around Berkeley/Oakland area from midnight-3am.Sign-up here: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=43410885933
If you have a car to drive people around, please email me: imagruder@studentsforbarackobama.com
If you can't help with the late night blitz, you can still show up to make calls on election day: http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http://my.barackobama.com%2Fpage%2Fevent%2Fdetail%2Flastcallforchange%2Fgptj57

California Democratic Ticket What Dems Are Voting

This was sent to me by the party via email. They said pass it on.

Vote the Ticket! Yes on 1A, 2, 3, 5 and 12!No on 4, 6, 7, 8, 9 and 11!http://www.kintera.org/TR.asp?a=dsJSKbOPIhLNJbJ&s=hjJTKbOMLkKZJaNZF&m=enLGIQPwFgISG
Join Obama for America and the California Democratic Partyin a Rally for Change!
Monday, Nov. 3, 12 noon - 1pm
California State University, Fresno5421 N. Maple AvenueFree Speech Area at the heart of CampusFresno, CA 93740For more information, http://www.kintera.org/TR.asp?a=ejIUIePTJhKMIcI&s=hjJTKbOMLkKZJaNZF&m=enLGIQPwFgISG
Los Angeles City Hall200 N. Spring StreetTemple Street Steps Between Spring and MainLos Angeles, CA 90012For more information, http://www.kintera.org/TR.asp?a=hwK0JnM5IkJTJmL&s=hjJTKbOMLkKZJaNZF&m=enLGIQPwFgISG
Sacramento Office1420 65th Street, Suite 102Sacramento, CA 95819For more information, http://www.kintera.org/TR.asp?a=afIMK2NDKdIGL2K&s=hjJTKbOMLkKZJaNZF&m=enLGIQPwFgISG
San Diego City Hall ‐ Concourse Plaza3rd Avenue & B StreetSan Diego, CA 92154For more information, http://www.kintera.org/TR.asp?a=dsJSKbOPIgLNJcJ&s=hjJTKbOMLkKZJaNZF&m=enLGIQPwFgISG
UA Local 381621 Market Street (x Franklin)2nd Floor of Main HallSan Francisco, CA 94103For more information, http://www.kintera.org/TR.asp?a=gvLYLkM1LjKULmI&s=hjJTKbOMLkKZJaNZF&m=enLGIQPwFgISG
Help is still needed in your area to get out the vote on Election Day for Barack Obama and the Democratic Ticket! Sign up now at http://www.kintera.org/TR.asp?a=9eJKIZNzFcJHJ2K&s=hjJTKbOMLkKZJaNZF&m=enLGIQPwFgISG!

How to Make Sure Your Vote is Counted in Sacramento/Yolo County

Yolo County CA Voters
If you are on the voter list at the polling place and have not received a mail ballot , INSIST ON VOTING A REGULAR BALLOT AT THE POLLING PLACE.

If you have not mailed in your ballot or you have spoiled your mail ballot, BRING IT TO YOUR POLLING PLACE AND VOTE A REGULAR BALLOT.

If you are not on the voter list at the polling place, or you have lost your mail ballot, VOTE A PROVISIONAL BALLOT AT THE POLLING PLACE.


If you have any question about voting
Yolo United Democratic Campaign
530-231-5746 or 530-661-0118
www.yolounited.org

Yolo County Election office
530-666-8133 or 916-375-6490
www.yoloelections.org

Aunt Zietuni and Sacramento

Tuesday, November 4, 2008 cannot get here fast enough. I am sick of Republican smears. If the Republicans can smoke out the senior aunt of Senator Obama, why can’t they get Bin Laden? If they spent this much energy on governing the country, they wouldn’t be behind in the polls. Hey here’s one for the Sherlock Holmes on the Republican campaign---Where did the USA prosperity go? Huh, have a lead? Need a clue? “Mission Accomplished”

No matter how sexy the news story, Obama’s aunt is a red herring. Let’s all think about November 5, 2008. Okay, if the voting isn’t fully counted yet, then November 7th. Whatever the date, when the election is over, there is an economy to think about. A slow, crawling, languishing economy.

Not sexy, but true. Yes, the growth of the GDP is what? A memory? An old timer’s story for our children? And as the GDP goes by the wayside, so goes what? Standard of living? Wait, before you think I am over exaggerating, turn to the other section of your newspaper, the local section. Guess what happened this week?

In Sacramento one big company dealt the city not just one blow, but two. Trouble of a good company struggling in a bad economy. Target Corp. is called the big box with a heart, because they dedicate a tithe of sorts to the communities they serve.

Representatives told the city of Sacramento that they are going to skip building a store at Broadway and Riverside. And then, if that wasn’t painful enough, they actually decided to skip the store in Westfield downtown too. So now the city has to sharpen new pencils with bigger erasers and adjust job growth and revenue projections. http://www.sacbee.com/latest/story/1354464.html

Oh, did I mention dominoes? Here’s the thing, Target is an anchor store, that means that it provides the foot traffic for smaller stores. Certain stores rely on bigger stores for foot traffic. Think about the food court in a mall. Would there be reliable income for those small restaurants without the mall? So when Target goes, other more vulnerable businesses decide to cancel or not buy in also. So that click sound is the dominoes falling one after the other.

So why the big whoop over the latest attack on Senator Obama? We need to change the economy situation so family can bear the long cold winter that’s already coming.

Studs Terkel Introduced Me to My Grandmother

Studs Terkel Introduced Me to My Grandmother. Really.

"Why have I always upset such gentle hearts? Why couldn't I have been my cute little button self and said the right thing"---Studs Terkel

Wow I lifted that quote from the Nation's article on Studs Terkel . Apparently he is describing a deciding moment in his life.

We need big, brash heros. Heros who are willing to "upset gentle hearts" in order to make right silent atrociousities. Tonight, Halloween, kids dress up and flaunt costumes of popular figures. But popular and heroic are rarely the same. So, I am going to remember a true hero, who shaped my life with a single book "Hard Times: An Oral History of Great Depression" .

That book introduced me to my grandmother, Because it got me to listen to my Grandmother. I was filled with assumption. Just because I saw her almost everyday, I thought I knew her. So, I the scholar who had read such a serious book, being a fifth grader, could now be an interviewer. Sitting down to do that interveiw, I knew what she was going to say-- or so I thought. But actually, no, I didn't know her at all, until I listened. Thank you Studs.

So she told me about the hard time she was born in. Harsh proverty, roaming with her mom, dad and about ten siblings. I heard in her voice that she felt she would never see justice. After all, she watched the lynching of a brother. She described that even as she learned parts of the language, of her mother who was a native american, she knew that that her mother's culture was dying, so she didn't want to learn that language. She said she regretted that she didn't. She also told me about what to do if menstrual cramps got painful and what to do if the baby doesn't cry right away when it is born. She said that for our family childbirth was easier after 30. I remember those talks as my Grandmother brushed her hair which grew to her knees. She brushed in long, continous strokes from the top of her head to the end of the hair shaft. Boy, I am glad I read that book.

I wonder if she and Studs had lived until November 5 what would they think. Not about who won or loss the election or how it was won or lost. Who knows if Obama will win or not, and that is not the question I wonder about. The question that bugs me is --Are we doing our best to make it a little better for everyone--honestly?

The world is quieter now without Studs on the radio, in the bookstore, on the rampage. I am not sure that the quiet is good. So I sit in that quiet, silently longing to watch my grandmother brushing her hair in those long eternal strokes--what I'd give to do that one more time--this Sunday I will sit in church and be grateful for the the big hero named Studs who taught me that life's greatest surprise happens when we listen to the ordinary people that we think we know and yet, don't know at all.

Every Child Left Behind

Check out the 2nd caption. http://tinyurl.com/6drgkb. Subscribe to my blog.