Do I wake or sleep?

Scott Eckern resigns.

Scott Eckern has announced his resignation as artistic director of California Musical Theatre following public turmoil in response to his financial support of California's Proposition 8.

What kind of fool issues that kind of insult to the people with whom he works everyday? Moron.

"Go home and sit in judgement on yourselves." (A nickel to anyone who can identify the movie that's from.)

WOW.

What. A. Day! I am truly overwhelmed with the significance of yesterday's events--it's impossible to overstate how big this is to me. After voting, I went into Manhattan to the dentist and then to partake of free coffee. CNN had set up a big gathering place in Times Square with a board to write on, huge screens, and all sorts of things. I wanted to stay--it looked like it was going to be a lot of fun--but had to go to work. Afterward I went down into Rockefeller Plaza where NBC had set up an "Election Plaza" with MORE big screens--they were also handing out little maps with red and blue pens. I stayed there for a little bit (during which I went downstairs to Ben & Jerry's to get my free cone!) but when they called South Carolina for McCain, I got so upset, I knew I had to leave and calm down. Ridiculous, right--of course South Carolina is going to go for McCain. I was able to calm myself a bit on the train ride home, but naturally, as soon as I got off, I whipped out my phone and was checking the New York Times site. And calling my mother--I was obsessive about the Virginia returns. Virginia is as red as they get--they haven't voted for a democratic president since 1964--and yet this year it was a battleground state.

I got home, fed the cats--bouncing in and out of the living room where Mickey had the TV on--and then bounced out the door to Jason's. Jason had ABC on--he said they called results more conservatively than the other networks. We chatted for a while as the results trickled in. Then my Mom called--she told me CNN had just called Virginia--for Obama. Virginia voted for Obama. I am crying right now writing this. Virginia, my home state of Virginia, the home of massive resistance, voted for a black man to be President. I am so proud, I...I can't possibly convey how proud I am of my state, of my friends and family who live there, who helped change people's hearts and minds.

Then when I was still on the phone, Jason yelled that ABC had just called the entire race for Obama. THE. ENTIRE. RACE. We went NUTS--we were yelling and I was on the floor. Poor Benjamin started crying. My Mom heard all of this. The words were flashing across the screen PRESIDENT-ELECT BARACK OBAMA. I still can't believe it. I still. Can't. Believe it. I had hardly dared to hope--four weeks ago, I didn't want to get emotionally invested because 2004 was so, so hurtful. And yet the polls kept saying Obama, Obama, Obama. Yes, we can. Yes, we can. Yes. I allowed myself to hope, and then I started hearing about the Bradley effect. How awful that would be if people were lying to the pollsters--I couldn't let myself believe that might happen again. Surely we've learned something in the last generation...

Jason and I were marveling--it's actually true, it actually happened. Then ABC called Florida for Obama and we went nuts again (and poor Benjamin got upset again). It's just amazing. We watched footage from all over the country of people crying, celebrating, cheering. McCain came on and gave an extremely classy and gracious concession speech, although of course some of the followers booed what he was saying. Nice. He is so much better than some of his followers. He talked about the history of this election--I especially liked that he talked about

inspiring the hopes of so many millions of Americans, who had once wrongly believed that they had little at stake or little influence in the election of an American president, is something I deeply admire and commend him for achieving.

This is an historic election, and I recognize the special significance it has for African-Americans and for the special pride that must be theirs tonight...

It was a really good speech. I have to say (I didn't want to write this before, I was afraid I would jinx the election) that although I could never vote for McCain, as I don't agree with his stances on the issues, I think he is a good man, and worthy to be President. Certainly he is infinitely more qualified and worthy of respect than our current President--no matter what the results were, anyone would've been an improvement over Bush. McCain is a war hero, he went out and actually fought instead of pulling strings to stay stateside and play poker (there is NOTHING quite so loathsome as someone who encourages war without actually suffering the consequences himself--how I despise Bush)--he suffered for this country and I respect him quite a lot. I also don't hate Palin--again, I could never vote for her (and I don't think she's qualified to be Vice President--and I will say it bothers me that she's so intellectually incurious. But I admire her grit--she's a natural politician, and she never backed down under some pretty heavy criticism (which I thought was, for the most part, fair criticism). I hope she learns from her mistakes (and evolves on the issues) and becomes a better campaigner.

And then Obama came on himself to speak with his beautiful family. The two adorable little girls--they're gonna grow up in the White House! The youngest children in the White House since Amy Carter. His speech was terrific, of course--the man has such a natural charisma. I stayed to watch it and Paula came home sometime during this and got very excited as well, upsetting poor Benjamin yet again! We all hugged and then I headed out to do some celebratory drankin' with Griffin.

Damn. DAMN, y'all. We helped make history! Our first president who wasn't a white male. It's...overwhelming. I hope this decisive victory brings us all together to help rebuild this wonderful country--ALL of us together, conservative and liberal, republican and democratic, gay and straight, black and white, all of us together, we are all brothers and sisters.

'Cause I'm proud to be an American where at least I know I'm free
And I won't forget those who died, who gave that right to me
And I'd gladly stand up next to you, and defend her still today
'Cause there ain't no doubt I love this land--God Bless the USA

Yes, we can.

Yes, we CAN.

VOTE!

Participate in our democracy! Exercise the right that our brothers and sisters and fellow Americans have died to protect all over the world!

VOOOOOOOOOOTE!

God bless America!

Damn, I'm excited. History is being made today, one way or the other. We are living in parlous times, y'all!

To continue Duncan's Sarah Palin as Evita fantasy:

I come from the people
They need to adore me
So Christian Dior me...

In all seriousness, I am still mulling over how I feel about the whole clothing mishegoss. There are a bunch of different issues at play here (possible misuse of donor funds, the hypocrisy of Palin's message about how "real" she is--the kind of "real" American she says she is, doesn't drop thousands of $ on designer clothing, societal expectations of how a woman "should" look and specifically how a woman in power "should" look). As much as she (or the RNC, whoever was at fault here) should not have used donor funds that way, I find myself incredibly annoyed that yet AGAIN we pore over how the woman looks--how THAT'S relevant. And it's relevant in both ways--we're talking about it, and she/they obviously felt that would be an issue. If she hadn't upgraded her wardrobe (if it needed that--that's another issue, she was a state Governor, didn't she already have a decent wardrobe?), she would've been torn to shreds for being too dowdy or frumpy. Or--gasp--too masculine. No matter what choice she makes, it's the wrong one--the media NEVER shut up about Hillary Clinton's hairstyle when she was First Lady. Somehow, no matter how she wore it, her hair was sending secret coded messages to the rest of us--either it was too preppy, too severe, too girly, whatever.

It can be cute and fun when constituents affectionately tease the people in power. I remember reading a cute article back in 2004 comparing hairstyles of the four men on the two tickets and it was completely non-partisan, very much in jest, and frankly a welcome relief to the general nastiness of the season. They even got quotations from the candidates. But the reason it's fun is because it *is* so ridiculous--because it's men.

She cracks my shit up. She looks so sweet and demure too--I love it!

My friend dje2004 posted this a few days ago and since YouTube is blocked at work I'd forgotten about it. I just now got around to watching it.

OH. MY. SHIT.

Kevin James, a right-wing radio host, is on Hardball being interviewed by Chris Matthews. Mark Green is also on. James is one of the most annoying, needlessly loud interview subjects I've ever seen--he just comes off as desperate, like he's not even listening to the conversation. But it really gets going around 4 minutes into the clip when (James had been making references to Neville Chamberlain and Obama) Matthews asks him "what exactly did Neville Chamberlain do?" The guy bluffs and blusters and stalls for several minutes, bleating buzz words like "energized and legitimized," "appeasement" over and over--and Matthews does not let him off the hook. He asked him at least 6-7 times "what did Chamberlain do?" And the guy never answered. Finally Matthews called him out for it--"you don't know what you're talking about." Oh, it is AWESOME. And yet terribly embarrassing as well--I literally watched through my fingers. Several points I wanted to point to him like Captain Stillman to Ox in Stripes and say "You. Shut up."

This is the natural outcome when you value rhetoric and yelling and name-calling over actual productive dialogue.

What a loser.