Great Expectations

By Maui Curmudgeon

For several months I tracked the European thoughts of the American Election through Europe’s most well-known news publication – The Economist. I thought I’d catch up with the magazine for their thoughts on the results:

1. Barack Obama’s election is the cover, with the heading, “Great Expectations.” Inside, coverage is massive. They have an entire column of summaries devoted to the election, a page and a half editorial, a page on worldwide reaction, three full pages on his challenges, two full pages on the economic problems he faces, three full pages and a sidebar on the mechanics of the election, and a full page on the “unhappy warrior” John McCain. All this is besides the pages of coverage on the other elections, Congress and local.

Read the rest…

Dear World:

The United States of America, your quality supplier of ideals of liberty and democracy, would like to apologize for its 2001-2008 service outage.

The technical fault that led to this eight-year service interruption has been located, and the software responsible was replaced Tuesday night, November 4.

Early tests of the newly-installed program indicate that we are now operating correctly, and we expect it to be fully functional by mid-January.

We apologize for any inconvenience caused by the outage, and we look forward to resuming full service — and hopefully even to improve it in years to come.

Thank you for your patience and understanding,

The USA

Yes We Can Hope for Change

By Maui Curmudgeon

On the National Front
The terrorist-hugging closet Muslim and non-native born Marxist has won by a landslide, as the conservatives would have us believe. Hide your guns and your children, they’re no longer safe. Oh, and your wallet because you’re about to be taxed to death.

I’m sitting here knowing that the better man won the election but wondering where all that hate goes, the hate and fear which Republicans have been masterful at whipping up and focusing against decent, intelligent people who would have been so much better at being president than Reagan and Bush.

Initially the fear doesn’t go anywhere, of course. The first reaction to John McCain’s concession speech was several people yelling, “Bullshit!” when McCain said he congratulated Obama on a great win.

Read the rest…

Be Original  Day Day 309 of 2008 57 days left in this year

HAWAIIAN WORD OF THE DAY — Koho: Election, vote
PIDGIN WORD OF THE DAY — Vot: Vote
HAWAIIAN PROVERB OF THE DAY — “The multitude finds life at last.”
HAOLE SAYING OF THE DAY — “A fool and his money are soon elected.” – Will Rogers

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WEB SURF SPOT OF THE WEEK — Washington Post Election Crystal Ball
WEB VIDEO OF THE WEEK — Noami Klein & Alan Greenspan on Crony Capitalism
NETCAST OF THE WEEK — Left Wing Conspiracy
GOOD DEED SITE OF THE WEEK — Media Matters

NATIONAL NEWS TODAY – November 4, 2008:
Follow National Election Results with HuffPost’s Election Widgets
Follow Local Election Results by Joining the Party, 6pm at AKAKU

EVENTS ON THIS DAY – November 4
1873: Dentist John Beers of San Francisco patents the gold crown
1922: Howard Carter discovers the tomb of Tutankhamen in Egypt
1924: Nellie Tayloe Ross is elected the first female governor in the U.S. (Wyoming)
1979: 500 Iranian “students” seize the U.S. embassy, take 90 hostages (beginning a 444-day stand-off)
1997: Hundreds of thousands of men attended a Promise Keepers rally at the Mall in Washington, D.C.

BORN ON THIS DAY – November 4
1650: William III, of Orange, king of England
1879: Will Rogers, humorist
1916: Walter Cronkite, TV news anchor
1918: Art Carney, actor
1919: Martin Balsam, actor
1937: Loretta Swit, actress
1960: Kathy Griffin, comedian
1961: Jeff Probs, TV personality
1967: P Diddy, Rapper/producer
1967: Matthew McConaughey, actor

DIED ON THIS DAY – November 4
1984: Merie Earle actress (Maude-Waltons), dies of uremic poisoning at 95
1987: Raphael Soyer artist (Depression scenes in NYC), dies at 87
1995: Yitzhak Rabin IDF Chief of Staff, diplomat and the fifth Prime Minister of the State of Israel, dies at 73

Fear and Hope set out to have a race. The finish line was the beginning of great change. But only if Hope crossed it first.

If Fear won the race, the shame of Hope would be disgrace. Hope, however, led the race. Justice and peace held banners and cheered its way. Hope’s light never flickered, even when the sorcery of deceit and intimidation tried to detour its journey.

Fear hurled insults, lies and ancient intolerances at the streaking Hope, but Hope had the plight of the people in its heart. This, above all else, lifted Hope, enlightened Hope and made it more fleet. Fear moved more slowly. It carried heavy, hidden weapons, which rubbed against its knees and tripped up its feet.

Following its heart, Hope assumed a pace that Fear could not beat. Fear–the poorest of counselors and a bad conductor to boot, believing itself or not, shriveled in the light of truth. Fear always has a pebble in its shoe, while Hope has the wings of prayer and youth.

Behind, but still close, Fear became more bold. It branded Hope an enemy–something foreign to be feared.

But Hope is like a rope of light, which helps us climb the darkest side of the mountain of life. For those who think that change means loss, Fear is the force of the status quo.

– Raphael O’Suna Haiku

42 Biographies Later

By the Maui Curmudgeon (43rd in a 43-part series)

How do the U.S. Presidents stack up? I thought I’d find out by reading biographies of all 42 constitutionally elected presidents, in the order of their administrations.Reading books on every president from Washington to Clinton is a bit like going to the dentist. You really don’t want to, you know it’s going to hurt, but you also know you’ll be glad you did when it’s over. And I am glad. The task gave me a good historical understanding of the office and the men who have occupied it. And it gave me a bit of insight into the current candidates and there supposed qualifications.

Grave Misconceptions

First, I want to apologize to Sister Bernadette’s fourth grade history class for misleading them in my oral report on Andrew Jackson. Contrary to what I said, Jackson was not a hero or great champion of democracy. He was a racist pig whose men hated him when he was general.

Reading all these biographies gave me a good chance to correct some wrong ideas I have held (and frankly was taught in grammar school) about these fellows. To wit:

George Washington wasn’t just a good president, he was a very great man; his PR doesn’t do him justice. Of all the men involved in the American Revolution, and of the first seven who became president, only Washington was indispensible. Sadly, a majority of Americans think these founders used the constitution to establish a Christian nation. No. What the constitution did and does do is reflect the mind of one man more than any other – Washington. It was he who was president at the Constitutional Congress, and he guided it through to its conclusion. And he bettered himself – though a southerner with slaves, and not well off, he came to understand slavery was wrong and not only released all his slaves, but did so sending them into the world with new clothes, some money and recommendations for work.

Even when young, I was never snowed by Thomas Jefferson, a whiner who road the creation of one good document – the Declaration of Independence – into the White House, where he could be as hypocritical as any man ever was in the office. He was also a rapist (you don’t really think the slave Sally Hemmings had the right to refuse him, do you?) and never set free his slaves. “All men are created equal” indeed.

The great John Adams and his insanely intelligent wife Abigail put the lie to the dirty excuse “well, the founding fathers were products of their time and didn’t really know that slavery was that bad.” Bullshit, Adams might say today. He and Abigail fought against slavery all their lives.

Read the rest…

Screw My Boss – I’m Doing Things My Way!

By Maui Curmudgeon
Would John McCain really be in this presidential race if he had picked a running mate other than idiot (political) savant Sarah Palin? Yes.

It might be the case. A new Pew Research Center poll shows that nearly half of America have an unfavorable opinion of Sarah, more than those who view her favorably. Further, for the first time in the history of the poll, how people feel about the vice-president is affecting – in this case negatively – whether voters will cast for the ticket.

Add to this mix some grumpy analysts. Conservative George Will writes that Sarah is “an even heavier weight in John McCain’s saddle than is his association with George W. Bush.”

Sarah continues to act clueless to all this feedback, choosing instead to admit as of yesterday that she was part of a losing ticket, and setting off on her own without the guidance of her running mate, the man who picked her.

Read the rest…

Palin turning her back on her running mate.

Republican Ignorance vs. Loyalists’ Revulsion

By Maui Curmudgeon
Sarah Palin has taken off the gloves of pretense and admitted her baser instincts and long-term goals – not to mention abandoning her party and ticket partner. As ABC News reports:

“And while it is unusual for candidates to acknowledge the possibility of defeat, Republican running mate Sarah Palin said she intended to remain a national figure even if the ticket loses next week. “I’m not doin’ this for naught,” she told ABC News in an interview.”

It is indeed rare for any candidate to admit defeat before the polls close. This is especially true with Republicans, who follow, if the not the policies of fascist parties, definitely adhere to the brownshirt “loyal at any cost” mentality.

Time will tell if Palin’s appeal to the Republican Party’s conservative base of ignorance will be enough to overcome many party loyalists’ revulsion at her self-aggrandisement at the expense of her ticket.