Trans Blogs for Obama (plus Tonite, Tonite) edit

*edited. the 1st version cut off the last few paragraphs*

Trans Blogs for Obama

There’s a move afoot among us radical gender rebels to collect a bunch of trans folks blogging for Obama. I’ve not yet written on why I’m voting for Barack, so, here goes.

I’m for Obama. I would have probably voted for whatever Democrat ended up on top, although my initial favorite was John Edwards and my least was Hillary. Why? Well, I don’t have a generic hatred of Republicans, although some will say they’ve earned it. I’ve voted for a Republican or a few in my past, notably for Virginia senators for awhile when the Democratic opponents weren’t worth spit.

Why? There are a lot of things about the last 8 years that have really bothered me.

1) Apparent lack of concern for environmental issues, including bailing on Kyoto and those discussions, increased favoritism towards industry at the expense of the environment or our fuzzy, fishy, or feathered friends, and the way the political appointees running EPA tried to dodge all responsibility for fixing or monitoring things.

2) Excessive drive towards Presidential Executive privilege and power. To me, it seemed to be basically a drastic disrespect for existing laws and precedent. The disrespect for our laws was horrible, and essentially a violation of the oaths they took. To me, there was a lot of disregard for governmental process, such as:

a. When the laws didn’t suit him, Bush would sign executive orders or “signing statements” that when used cleverly, can gut or even turn upside down any law Congress was trying to pass.

b. Lots of secret stuff behind the scenes

c. “legal” interpretations that just boggle the mind sometimes, bordering on what a lot of folks see as threatening the Constitution.

3) The way Cheney set up the VP’s office as a clearinghouse/gauntlet that folks had to run to even get ideas in front of Bush. The Wash. Post did a whole series on him – if Bush was a puppet president, it wasn’t Rove pulling the strings so much as it was Cheney. Note that now that Bush is really a lame duck, you don’t hear anything from Cheney anymore? That’s cause nobody listens to the puppet. Cheney will fight those legal battles to reveal his offices’ documents till he dies. Or he’ll erase them first and say “whatcha gonna do about it?” Bush and the rest of his staff allowed that to happen, possibly because of Bush’s “post turtle” syndrome.

Obama is a lawyer. In fact, Obama, Clinton, and Edwards are all lawyers, which to me, was a good thing. I got the feeling that Cheney and Bush looked at the law as something that got in the way, not something on which our society is based.

Why would I feel this is so important? I’m not a lawyer, never had legal training, never wanted it. But I see respect for the law as one of the cornerstones of our society – of every First World society on the planet. There are a few cornerstones:

Respect for and trust in the law and law enforcement

Respect for and trust in the judicial system

Belief that one can change unfair laws

Note that I don’t include democratic anything up there. If we could achieve all these bullets under a monarchy or a socialist state, I think it would work fine.

Bush et al failed to understand that Iraq didn’t have the first two principles at all, so that merely having a vote for folks was completely insufficient. And Bush et al have messed up these cornerstones in our country by his secret signings and executive orders, which sabotage the legislative actions taken by Congress. And his legal “interpretations”, and Cheney’s just plain refusal to obey judicial orders and subpoenas has un

dermined the effectiveness of the judicial system.

So, I’m against this current administration for a lot of reasons. I could go on (“you’re either with us or against us”, his hard-on to f*** with Iraq, his incredible inability to judge people, like Putin, Gonzales, Harriet Meyers, I could go on)

Obama to me comes across as a very intelligent, and calmly deliberative fellow. He doesn’t run off gut feelings (where Bush has gone wrong), but on consideration of the facts and possible outcomes. Maybe it’s his legal training, but it seems to me he’s more reasonable and less emotional. I don’t want an emotional leader going off in the spur of the moment, even if all of us are p.o’ed at something and demanding immediate action. Sometimes the mob is wrong, even when I’m in the mob. That what real leadership is for. Bush goes off faith, not logic or fact or reasoned argument, and faith never changes its position, regardless of the contradictory evidence. That’s not leadership either, that’s dogmatic adherence. I’ve had enough of that too.

McCain to me seems to be more emotional at times than Obama. I also worry about how dogmatic he might be. But most of all, I am disturbed by the difference in McCain’s demeanor from even like 12-18 months ago to now. I remember when the campaigning first started, I commented to Sweety that I’d rather see McCain get the Republican nomination because he was the most reasonable of the bunch. Perhaps he was at the time, but since getting the nomination, it looks to me like his campaign advisors and handlers and “experts” have changed him a whole whole lot. You hear folks talking about the “Straight Talk Express” is no more – he and his VP candidate have become secretive, anti-press, and sometimes appear to refuse to answer questions because the questioner (some member of the press) is biased, or whatever. That’s not a reason to not answer questions. It’s an attack on free debate. What really bothers me is that McCain has been swayed by his advisors, which is exactly what I fear happened to Bush somewhere along the way.

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Plus, I don’t want a military man in the head office anymore. We need a manager, not another soldier. We’ve had enough pro-military stuff for a while. I object to their whole approach to fighting terrorism. I don’t think “fighting” it works. Think about this: if these young 20-something guys and girls had boyfriends and girlfriends and good jobs and rosy futures and electricity and water and could go to market without getting blown up, do you think they’d be recruitable by the terrorists? I think their recruits would be way way down. “Sorry guys, can’t make the meeting tonite – the restaurant is staying open late then I’ve got a hot date”

Yes, I have bought into the hope that Obama has spoken of. I really do hope that he can help us rediscover our moral underpinnings. Start the long process of getting us to realize that life is more than just a bigger SUV and a bigger TV and mortgaging your house to the hilt so you can buy more stuff. Redefine “winning” in life for us all.

I also believe in catastrophe theory. It’s an obscure area of mathematics that says that a system, any system, one that normally is self-correcting and self-regulating, can be put into a situation where it will never, ever be the same if the outside forces are sufficient. Think about a plateau with a cliff, and the desert floor below. Normally, the “system” exists somewhere on the plateau, it gets blown about by the wind occasionally, but returns to the spot where it works best. But, if forces are strong enough, it goes off the cliff, and can never return to that good spot again. It’ll find some new spot down on the desert floor, but it’ll never be the same.

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I have that worry about the United States right now. Bush and Cheney and their Supreme Courts appointees and Gonzales and Ashcroft and Rumsfeld have pushed and distorted the system (our government, our laws) pretty badly. I am really afraid of anyone who might continue some of those policies might push us over some unseen edge, and we’d never be the same again. What I also fear is that we’ve already gone over the edge, and we won’t recognize the fact for years.

So, that’s why I’m for Obama. I won’t mention my fears of McCain’s VP pick actually becoming president. See below.

Tonite, Tonite

okay, so I was just listening to that song from the Smashing Pumpkins. One of my favorites of theirs.

So, a bunch of us are having dinner tonite at a local microbrew (Lincoln knows which one), and then retiring to our house to watch the debates on tv and throw paper wads at the screen. with plenty of …. alcoholic lubrications. as long as nobody throws anything that hurts the LCD screen, we’re fine. if they do, they die.