Hey guys.

Sorry I’ve been away for so long. I’m kind of leading a life in transition right now and barely have the time to keep up with all the shit let alone talk about it. I’ll just start by saying that this whole election thing is locked up. Looks like Obama might even have as many as 60 friendly senators and an overwhelmingly friendly House to help move things along. We’ll have a very bitter and vocal minority to contend with once it’s time to start governing in January, so the fight is really only beginning. I’d like to see Obama et al work towards building a real mandate from the people not just so we can get things done, but also that more Americans might enter the expected financial shitstorm with some degree of confidence. Maybe things won’t be so bad.

Poor John McCain. His faustian gambit to oust his long time staffers in favor of the apostles of Rove/Bush came up snake eyes. And, I bet nobody ever claims the strategic credit for choosing Palin, like ever. She has truly proven herself to be a whack job of the highest order. Saved against witchcraft? Are you fucking kidding me! Back in the day, I never would have expected such a willfully nasty McCain campaign ever being run, especially after the way he got Bushfucked in South Carolina back in their 2000 primary. Sad. What they forgot is that the bullshit attack tactics lose their shock value when the voters fear other things more. We saw this same thing back in 1992, when the personal attacks against Clinton never got traction against the fears people had about that year’s Bush-inspired economic unpleasantness. If enduring all their nastiness this year has any measurable upside, it’ll be the warm glow we feel inside knowing that neither John McCain nor Sarah Palin will ever command a god damn thing inside the Oval Office.

I still sometimes wish that Obama would not have opted out of the public funding. That decision will make it so much harder to ever legislate a real public financing system that can really retard the influence of the special interests and corporate power brokers. This year is an anomaly in that we’re usually on the bad side of the fundamentally corrupt fundraiser system we currently have. So, Obama can make it up to me by using some of that 3 or 4-to-1 money advantage to build broad public support for things like health care reform or investing in education. Why not raise more money to do so after the election? Many corporate interests are weak right now, but not so weak that they can’t spend insane millions of dollars on ads to defeat anything we try to do that might require them to sacrifice too. Everyone who gave to Obama’s campaign helped put the right players in place to make change happen, but they’ll need to keep giving if we’re going to capitalize on the juice we’re going to have these next two years.

Hopefully I’ll be able to be around again in time to enjoy this thing with everyone. It’s sure to be an interesting ride. Later y'all.