Desultory election musings
By Heraclitus
I don't have anything terribly enlightening or profound to say. But that's never stopped me from dispensing a drizzle of sardonic and ill-informed commentary before; why should it now? I love the early reporting on the election results. Ted Kennedy has been re-elected. Gee, thanks. Why not just make your headline, We don't know anything yet.
Apparently Sheldon Whitehouse beat Lincoln Chafee. I lived in Rhode Island until late July, and I'm a little disappointed to hear that. Chafee was more liberal than most Democrats in the Senate; he voted against both the torture and detention bill and The Wall of Idiocy and Racism. And he was a more or less constant thorn in Bush's side. In other words, he was a better senator than Hillary Clinton and a host of other Democrats. Whitehouse, meanwhile, looked like something of a clown in his tv ads. I don't think "bring our troops home" is a serious position. (Why not? Well, if you want to take a break from all this election night tension, you can read this rather verbose post I wrote a week or so ago about recent discussions of the future of Iraq.) Incidentally, I've come to hate the phrase "our troops," and nominate it for the most gratingly dishonest and condescending phrase in the English language, at least for the year 2006.
I'm contemplating busting out the gin and tonic equipment. If and when I update this post, I may be shit-faced, or at least a solid one-and-a-half sheets to the wind.
Well, it's now about eleven o'clock, and the BBC just ran a headline saying that the Democrats have taken control of the House of Representatives. Feels anticlimactic.
Okay, it's about twenty past twelve, and the Democrats seem to have won the House. Sherrod Brown has won the Senate seat here in Ohio, which isn't really surprising, considering that he was something like a twenty-point favorite for the past week or so. Michael and I talked earlier, and he has some very interesting thoughts on what it means for the Dems to have control of the House and the Senate vs. just control of the House, and I'm sure he'll write a post about it soon. Meanwhile, I'm pleased, hoping to hell that the next two years see every scumbag in the Bush administration raked across the coals in Congress, and that eventually everyone will see this administration as I do. And if Bush and his supporters are so worried that the country will be paralyzed because of all the investigations (which wouldn't be possible if Bush and his cronies hadn't been so staggeringly corrupt), he can resign. For the good of the country, just like all those GOP blow-hards wanted Clinton to (and don't forget, the Republicans single-handedly caused September 11th). Otherwise, they can all shut the fuck up about paralysis and vulnerability. You know what makes us vulnerable to terrorist attacks? Having a completely incompetent and corrupt ideologue and sociopathic brat (to repeat Amanda Marcotte's characterization of Bush, which I think captures him about as well as any two words can) for president. I look forward to seeing Nancy Pelosi clear the swamp, clean the stables, set fire to the barn and kill the rats. And I delight in knowing that all the misogynists in the GOP will be squeeling like stuck pigs because it's a woman holding their feet to the fire (yes, I like fire imagery). Sunlight is the best disinfectant, and I look forward to plenty of it being let through to shine bright and fierce in Washington. Not that I'm some true believer in the Democrats, but anything is better than this shit we've been getting. More than anything, I look forward to various light and fire metaphors being apt descriptions for what's going to happen in DC for the next two years.
Now I'm going to go watch Conan and go to bed. And, appearances perhaps to the contrary, I never took the gin out of the cupboard.
Okay, one final update. I turned on the tv, but Leno was still on. I tried to figure out where he was in his show by seeing who the guest was. I looked at her and thought, "Okay, it's Bette Midler, she's probably the first guest, so Conan won't be on for a while." But something seemed a bit off; her demeanor and mannerisms didn't seem like Bette Midler's (although, granted, my viewing experience of Bette Midler is limited to the Seinfeld episode she appeared in). I looked at her for a few seconds, and then realized, that's Courtney Love. What the hell is going on in this world?
Okay, one genuinely final update: Andrew Sullivan knows what time it is.
I don't have anything terribly enlightening or profound to say. But that's never stopped me from dispensing a drizzle of sardonic and ill-informed commentary before; why should it now? I love the early reporting on the election results. Ted Kennedy has been re-elected. Gee, thanks. Why not just make your headline, We don't know anything yet.
Apparently Sheldon Whitehouse beat Lincoln Chafee. I lived in Rhode Island until late July, and I'm a little disappointed to hear that. Chafee was more liberal than most Democrats in the Senate; he voted against both the torture and detention bill and The Wall of Idiocy and Racism. And he was a more or less constant thorn in Bush's side. In other words, he was a better senator than Hillary Clinton and a host of other Democrats. Whitehouse, meanwhile, looked like something of a clown in his tv ads. I don't think "bring our troops home" is a serious position. (Why not? Well, if you want to take a break from all this election night tension, you can read this rather verbose post I wrote a week or so ago about recent discussions of the future of Iraq.) Incidentally, I've come to hate the phrase "our troops," and nominate it for the most gratingly dishonest and condescending phrase in the English language, at least for the year 2006.
I'm contemplating busting out the gin and tonic equipment. If and when I update this post, I may be shit-faced, or at least a solid one-and-a-half sheets to the wind.
Well, it's now about eleven o'clock, and the BBC just ran a headline saying that the Democrats have taken control of the House of Representatives. Feels anticlimactic.
Okay, it's about twenty past twelve, and the Democrats seem to have won the House. Sherrod Brown has won the Senate seat here in Ohio, which isn't really surprising, considering that he was something like a twenty-point favorite for the past week or so. Michael and I talked earlier, and he has some very interesting thoughts on what it means for the Dems to have control of the House and the Senate vs. just control of the House, and I'm sure he'll write a post about it soon. Meanwhile, I'm pleased, hoping to hell that the next two years see every scumbag in the Bush administration raked across the coals in Congress, and that eventually everyone will see this administration as I do. And if Bush and his supporters are so worried that the country will be paralyzed because of all the investigations (which wouldn't be possible if Bush and his cronies hadn't been so staggeringly corrupt), he can resign. For the good of the country, just like all those GOP blow-hards wanted Clinton to (and don't forget, the Republicans single-handedly caused September 11th). Otherwise, they can all shut the fuck up about paralysis and vulnerability. You know what makes us vulnerable to terrorist attacks? Having a completely incompetent and corrupt ideologue and sociopathic brat (to repeat Amanda Marcotte's characterization of Bush, which I think captures him about as well as any two words can) for president. I look forward to seeing Nancy Pelosi clear the swamp, clean the stables, set fire to the barn and kill the rats. And I delight in knowing that all the misogynists in the GOP will be squeeling like stuck pigs because it's a woman holding their feet to the fire (yes, I like fire imagery). Sunlight is the best disinfectant, and I look forward to plenty of it being let through to shine bright and fierce in Washington. Not that I'm some true believer in the Democrats, but anything is better than this shit we've been getting. More than anything, I look forward to various light and fire metaphors being apt descriptions for what's going to happen in DC for the next two years.
Now I'm going to go watch Conan and go to bed. And, appearances perhaps to the contrary, I never took the gin out of the cupboard.
Okay, one final update. I turned on the tv, but Leno was still on. I tried to figure out where he was in his show by seeing who the guest was. I looked at her and thought, "Okay, it's Bette Midler, she's probably the first guest, so Conan won't be on for a while." But something seemed a bit off; her demeanor and mannerisms didn't seem like Bette Midler's (although, granted, my viewing experience of Bette Midler is limited to the Seinfeld episode she appeared in). I looked at her for a few seconds, and then realized, that's Courtney Love. What the hell is going on in this world?
Okay, one genuinely final update: Andrew Sullivan knows what time it is.
posted by . at
10:16 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home