• Can you believe it's fifty degrees today? How unseasonably warm for November!
• Alabama or Texas Tech?
• No, no I don't think we'll need Secret Service to keep our daughters out of bars. Maybe in the second term when they hit their tweens?
• Seen any good movies lately?
• Thanks for that secret CIA order authorizing the military to go after Al-Qaeda through clandestine ops in 15 to 20 countries with whom we already have tenuous and arguably hostile relations! I so enjoy challenges.
• Nice drapes.
• Have you got any more hand sanitizer?
• Did I mention it was unseasonably warm?

Nestled into the historic euphoria of Tuesday's mandate-level win (presidency and increases in both houses of Congress) was the 4-state loss banning same-sex marriage or same-sex adoptions, most notably Prop 8 in California. There have been a lot of protests since then and the LGBT community has been galvanized and is organizing well. This issue is also touching heavily on religion as it always does, but particularly also on the separation of church and state, with Church of Latter Day Saints pumping millions into the Yes effort on Prop 8. This effort looks to be a clear violation of their tax-exempt status. The LDS is a 501c3, which, without getting overly detailed is the "non-political" non-profit type, meaning it is not supposed to lobby:

In general, no organization, including a church, may qualify for IRC section 501(c)(3) status if a substantial part of its activities is attempting to influence legislation (commonly known as lobbying).

7 years, 1 month, and 25 days ago; a few hours after watching the second of the Twin Towers fall, I told my father "today is the most significant moment I will see in my life." Today, I think I stand transcendentally corrected. As tragic, violent and world-changing that 9/11 was, today stands on its own in history in a hopeful, peaceful, united way.

Yes we can.

Yes we did.

Yes we are.

Not sure what else to say.

Tears all around here.

That's it. That puts Obama at 195 called. Add in:

CA 55
OR 7
WA 11
IA 7

= 271!!!!!!!!!!!!!

In other news, the big three Senate races are not going well for the Dems.

Leaving the voting booth this morning it hit me. Today was about a simple choice:

- Vote for cynicism, fear, division and handing over one's fate to others, under the guise of "protecting us".

- Vote for hope, self-empowerment and unity.

It's really that simple.

It's finally- unbelievably- wonderfully here. In four and a half hours, Jesse and I will go stand in line to cast our vote for Barack Obama for President of the United State of America.

And this morning makes me think of another amazing morning for America, Bill Clinton's inauguration. And so, without further ado, the closing salvo to Maya Angelou's "On the Pulse of the Morning":

Here, on the pulse of this new day
You may have the grace to look up and out
And into your sister's eyes, and into
Your brother's face, your country
And say simply
Very simply
With hope --
Good morning.

Can't talk, too busy being hopey.

Fortunately, other people have time on their hands. Time to take trips to New York to commit sacrilege for capitalism.

Yay Dan for finding this gem of a societal clusterbomb.

Something that I've pointed out conversationally several times over the course of the bailout dialogue has been that the question shouldn't be "can we afford it?" The question has to be "Can we afford not to do it?" This was evidenced in real terms by the Dow closing down nearly 800 points yesterday. Bailout = approximately $700 billion, with the possibility of getting some of that back. No bailout = $1.1 trillion in lost market value (taking into consideration Nasdaq and S&P losses). Of course, the market has rebounded a bit today, but don't think that means things are okay. That's just investors grabbing some (perceived?) deals and being optimistic that there might be another vote this week.

The bailout bill fails 228-205 (link goes to roll call). Per Paul Krugman:

So what we now have is non-functional government in the face of a major crisis, because Congress includes a quorum of crazies and nobody trusts the White House an inch. As a friend said last night, we’ve become a banana republic with nukes.

Dow is off 681 as of posting time (moving between 500-700 off). What an unbelievable clusterfuck.