Mid-Studying Post-Election Political Commentary

For the love of everything, no.

I mean, I thought that one of the nicest things about that beautiful sound defeat of Ms. Palin and that old guy almost three weeks ago was that it would shut her up and cart her back to Alaska, where she can make mooseburgers and go hunting with Maurice Minnefield and dream of Chris In The Morning. Like everyone in Alaska does.

But talk shows? Movies? Oprah? Come on, media. Leave it alone. Sarah Palin was a bad idea, was one of the reasons that so many independents left the Republican ticket, and one of the most embarassing examples of what the old Conservatives like to call the new Conservative values, oh, and also feminism.

Does anyone sort of snort when McCain and the others call Palin's policies and so on "fresh" or "new"? I mean, say what you will, but she stands for the same shit that they've always stood for. And a New Conservative is an oxymoron. What, are you going to change even less than you already were?

And is what Sarah Palin does now really count as "Politics", or is she just a celebrity? The folksy Paris?

To her credit, I have seen a few interviews with Palin, and it seems like the first time that she's being candid, which makes me feel almost sorry for her. I mean, if she's that kind of honest when it's just the local Anchorage station, how much scripted crap did they have to shove down her throat when she got on the ticket? Though the interviews tell me that she's informed, more than she seemed before, she still comes across as a bit too small-town folksy, she gets the facts but doesn't seem to turn them into ideas.

But hey, Coulter loves her. I know, right? Nothing says "you will do well" like an endorsement from Ann "The Man" Coulter.

I'm being mean.

At least I've seen Palin back down from that stupid hockey pitbull persona that irritated me so much, and just admitted that they lost because people wanted change and she wasn't it. She seemed more tired than irate, more normal than the conservative messaiah that so many claimed that she was.

So just back off. Leave her alone. At this point I don't care if she's just like me, or the Republican me, or if her doctor is Joel Fleishman, or if she's the Zodiac Killer, or if Bristol actually got an abortion and they were just faking that life thing. Look; she's not going to run for president in 2012, she's not going to try for Ted Steven's absent senate seat. She's going to finish her term(s) as Governor, maybe become and advisor or some shit, and just disappear from the national spotlight. That's what's best for everyone; even if she stays around, doesn't it seem that this candidness that she's showing, this sudden understanding of what's going on without stumping, won't that make it obvious that she was being molded by McCain and Co., that there really was (har har) something going on with that campaign?

There's my two cents. Man I wish that I was able to write essays in my sleep, because I have two to write, one tomorrow and one for Thursday. God, one week of school left. Also, one week (exactly) until my birthday. I found out that my family is coming to visit for that weekend, so I'm starting to look forward to it, because oh my god they are taking me shopping in Seattle. Haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah.

Les Histoires D'Henri Ennui

I think I will seriously make up a character named Henri Ennui, to be my French Existentialist asshole guy. Go me. He would sit outside cafés and smoke cigarettes and say stupid French things like

"Paris, q'est-ce que c'est? Cette un ville....des images....et des rèves....et du mort."

Which are usually the words that are used by English-speaking people who want to sound fancy, so they always title, like, their Myspaces with something relatively francophone, like "Elizabeth De La Belle Epoque", which doesn't exactly make sense next to a picture of her forehead and some eyeliner, to the tune of Fall Out Boy.

I stopped using Myspace. So glad.

Anyway, the reason that I have been thinking upon ennui, is because I am experiencing a certain brand of it:

Birthday Ennui: noun. The experience of disinterest, dissatisfaction, or relative boredom in regard to the observation or celebration of one's birthday. See also: Anniversary Apathy, Christmas Carelessness, Fuck The Fourth Of July.

So that's where I am, right now. Apathetic and self-effacing.

So I'm sitting in American Poetry class the other day, and the prof sticks me as the "leader" of the "group" that's supposed to discuss how William Carlos Williams uses American history in this one part of Paterson. Okay, fine. She always lands me with that crap, because she thinks that I'm, like, the ambassador for the United States at UBC. Anyway, this girl joins the group, claiming to be an American Studies major, and she starts railing on how crappy the U.S. is. Now, usually I can take that sort of talk from the Canucks, seeing as they always rag on the States (to which the American response has always been a bored "whatever."), but this was only, literally, TWO days after the election. So she could have cut some slack for the Capitalist Behemoth Of The World or whatever they call it up here, but no; it's all materialism, how we hate paying taxes and detest socialized medecine, how we're impolite and gross and smoke too much and cause problems for everyone else and don't ever listen to good solid advice and enjoy bombing like the world is out piñata blah blah blah. So I mention that FDR made some of the best advancements in Western socialism but was still an American president, and that Teddy was cool too, to which she replied

"Teddy Roosevelt? Oh, I didn't like him. I mean, we just see him as rude."

To which I replied:

"Yeah, we call that badass."

Apparently there's no distinction, apparently no matter what you do, being a Rough Rider who started the Bull Moose Party, held meetings on hunting and safari trips, inspired the Teddy bear and gave everyone the visual that, while you are whispering sweet nothings in their ear you are grasping a two by four behind your back is just plain rude behavior. No. That is badass.

There's something too soft about Canada. True, they have fought bravely in both the World Wars and helped to win them both (my great grandfather was in the Somme, my grandfather on Omaha beach, both were from Ontario), but the general idealism of the country is to speak softly and not make eye contact so as to not seem indimidating. Come on, guys! Pick it up! I mean, there's no point in being an arrogant warmonger who would rather buy some uranium than buy some, like, food for poor people; but still, a land with no spine is not a land. It's like a sponge land. You just absorb all the other cultures and they mesh together, but you're one of those sponges that doesn't have the steel wool on the back so you just have to wait until the scum is really soggy to wipe it off. I took some pain killers, this doesn't make sense.

But Canada! Grow a pair! A big pair!

I need sleep or drink. Or drink and sleep. What?

Dear Conservative America: Do The Worm!

Stop being so sweet and nice. It's making me sick. I want to laugh in your face but all I can get out is a "yeah...well...we all have to work together...."

Bitches, we ain't gotta do that 'til January. You have like 70 days to be confused and sad and upset. Go back in time and talk to me, four years ago. It shouldn't be that hard. Go on, it's okay. Just don't stop me from being proud cause you're all sugary and nice and crap. Ugh. I know that I wouldn't be happy if McCain won (can you SEE the unmentionable woman's face if that had happened?), so stop the show and start freaking out and going "oh god what happened to our country oh god they beat us oh god there is no hope, cause we got out butts beat by a black dude and a bunch of kids, oh no oh no...."

I will not be denied satisfaction. Time to read the Coulter Blog and pretend that she's the floor.

Yes We Can

And Yes We Did. And Yes We Will Do, for the next four years, eight years, how ever long it takes, to reach that more perfect union, to advance ourselves and to make our country-our world-a better place for us and our children and theirs. It is not just about Barack Obama, or Joe Biden, or the race against John McCain. It was about change, and hope, and moving forward and never going back. Now we can hope without cynicism, dream without the false sense or "realism" that says that there will always be bipartisanship and bigotry in the way of greatness. That is not Us anymore. We The People proved that we can be strong, and We The People will be, together, moving forward.

Um yes

originally posted on Cute Overload

This is it. Don't get scared.

Oh god oh god oh god.

It's tomorrow. Hell, it's practically today. I doubt that I'll be able to sleep or focus. I just want it to be over. And I want....I want to be happy. I want to be happy and cry so damn hard and know that no matter what happens now, at least I've got this hope. At least I've got this...

More on Wednesday.