Wednesday, November 5, 2008

IT'S MY REVOLUTION AND I DANCE TO IT


Here's the crunchy, whole-grain, ever so organically sweetened nuggets of the people's roar from November 4th. We'll talk more analytically another time. For today, wear your grin like a lapel button and relax in the arms of the goddess. We be okay.

Good News:
~South Dakota voted against the proposed abortion ban.
~Jeanne Shaheen has been elected Senator from New Hampshire (I got to meet her daughter at Netroots Nation!)
~Mark Warner has been elected Senator from Virginia, a win that puts Democrats in both state senate seats for the first time since 1970.
~Kay Hagan has been elected Senator from North Carolina -- buh-bye, Liddy Dole! (Trotting out last-minute racism did NOT work here.)
~Democratic Governor Brian Schweitzer won a second term in Montana's gubernatorial race
~New Hampshire Democratic Governor John Lynch nails a third term.
~Democratic State Treasurer Jack Markell has won the governor's seat in Delaware. Markell could replace Sen. Joe Biden when he becomes vice president.
~South Dakota Senator Tim Johnson (D), who missed most of 2007 while recuperating from a brain aneurysm, was re-elected to the Senate.
~Connecticut Republican Chris Shays, New England's last remaining Republican Congress member, lost to Democrat Jim Himes.
~Colorado Democrat Mark Udall defeated Republican to take Senate seat
~New Mexico's Tom Udall, Democratic congressman and a member of a quasi-dynasty of Western environmentalist politicians, claimed the Senate seat vacated by retiring Republican Senator Pete V. Domenici.
~Jay Nixon returned Missouri's Governorship to Democrats.
~Louisiana Senator Mary Landrieu claimed a third term despite Katrina-caused loss of Democratic base.
~All three of New Mexico's House seats -- two held by Republicans -- will now be held by Democrats.
~Colorado voters rejected a proposed amendment to the state constitution which would have defined a person as "any human being from the moment of fertilization."
(From Indexed.)
Bad News:
~Mormon money helped insure California's attempt to award equality in marriage to lesbians and gays was defeated (again).
~Arkansas passed a ban on lesbian/gay adoption.
~Proposition 2 in Florida passed, an amendment to the state constitution to ban lesbian/gay marriage. What fucking morons.
And -- doesn't this mean that a lot of people who voted for Obama in California and Florida also voted to deny human rights to (some of) my people?
~Susan Collins held onto her Senate seat in Maine.
~Indiana's Republican Governor Mitchell E. Daniels Jr. won a second term, defeating former Democratic congresswoman Jill Long Thompson.
~Texas hopeful Rick Noriega lost to Republican John Cornyn for the Texas Senate. (Damn, damn, damn.)

Unusual weather we're having lately, ain't it?

3 comments:

kat said...

Last night, a friend of Boyfriend's said:
"Shows you that people can consider themselves progressive while still being homophobic bigots."

a-yup.

What I read is that it's still (it's 6:53am here in CA) technically undecided, since the provisional and absentee ballots have yet to be counted. I don't think it will realistically change things, but I'll cross my fingers.

I did more "No on 8" volunteering last night. I was supposed to be talking to voters and handing out palm cards, but the polling place we were sent to was really slow, and on a busy street. Since we had to stand at least 100 feet away, we couldn't tell if the foot traffic was really voters or if it was just people going to the laundromat or the pizza place.

After, oh, 3 hours or so of standing by the road waving the sign, we were exhausted and freezing. At about 7:45, a young woman came up and asked if the campaign gave us food. We answered that our bag of supplies had 3 granola bars in it, but that was it.
"Shit, man, at least at Obama headquarters they gave us dinner! Here, I've got a sushi plate that we didn't eat. Do you guys want it?"

Which was awesome. She and another Obama volunteer stayed on the corner with me and the other "No on 8" person and took turns with the signs and kept us company.

We were standing at the junction of Martin Luther King and Adeline in Berkeley, which is a predominantly African American neighborhood. Seconds before 8pm, they called California (and seconds later the election) for Obama. The whole neighborhood screamed. Literally. There wasn't anyone else on the sidewalk, but you could hear cheers and yells as loudly as if everyone were right in front of us.

kat said...

"it" being prop 8.

kat said...

In Alameda county, prop 8 was defeated 61% to 38.....if only the rest of the state followed.....still, as of two minutes ago, 95% of precincts are reported.

I don't think that math adds up in our favor, though. Even with the other 5% of precincts, plus the provisional/absentees.....we're 4 percentage points behind. fuck.

Back to Obama:
gotta love Washington DC. Their percentage was something like 94% Obama, 4% McCain....whee!