Motley Moose – Archive

I am in Shanghai, China for the holidays visiting my boyfriend.  Being back in China has reminded me of the superiority of Asian food, the convenience of good public transportation, the joy of pirated DVDs and the consequences of ignoring the environment.  I shot this picture of the JW Marriott Hotel near People’s Square in central Shanghai.

For those of you who are familiar with Shanghai, I took the picture near the northeast corner of People’s Square, at the corner of Xizang Zhong Lu and Jiujiang Lu.  

I moved away from my small hometown in West Virginia more than seven years ago and vowed never to return for anything other than a visit.  Less than two weeks ago, I made such a visit under very unpleasant circumstances–to say goodbye to a dying relative.  At her funeral, I was reunited with family and old friends I hadn’t seen in many years.  Most of them were from the evangelical church I attended as a child.  We hugged and kissed and prayed and through the tears, tried to catch up and pledged to keep in touch.  I love those people and they love me.  And most of them are bigots.

Here he is.  Our Dear Leader.  The Messiah.  Time Person of the Year.  And the coolest person in the history of humanity.  I mean, when was the last time we had a president who sent text messages!?

On the evening of Friday, December 12, 2008, Florida Governor Charlie Crist will marry his girlfriend, Carole Rome, in a wedding ceremony at St. Petersburg’s First United Methodist in St. Petersburg, Florida.  As has been widely reported in the media, Impact Florida, a new gay rights organization formed in the St. Petersburg-Tampa area following voter approval of amendment 2, a ban on gay marriage, will be holding a demonstration at Williams Park, across the street from the church.

Nate Silver just posted his analysis of the California exit polls and voting patterns on proposition 8.  Like all reason-minded people, he cautioned against blaming any racial group for passage of the controversial amendment.

Certainly, the No on 8 folks might have done a better job of outreach to California’s black and Latino communities. But the notion that Prop 8 passed because of the Obama turnout surge is silly. Exit polls suggest that first-time voters — the vast majority of whom were driven to turn out by Obama (he won 83 percent [!] of their votes) — voted against Prop 8 by a 62-38 margin. More experienced voters voted for the measure 56-44, however, providing for its passage.

However, there is something notable about this post.  It’s what he didn’t say.

Via Kos

Simultaneous nation-wide protests are being held this weekend, in support of gay rights and in protest of the anti-gay measures that passed were passed in Arizona, Arkansas, California, and Florida.  You can find the location nearest you here.

During the primaries, I was disappointed that Hillary did so poorly among African-Americans, but I understood the desire among African-Americans to see a member of their own community in the White House. African-Americans are basically invisible in the media and in politics. To finally have a public figure of this stature is an important achievement, not just for African-Americans, but the entire world.

The reaction in the African-America community has been a beautiful thing to witness. This picture of Rev. Jesse Jackson, Sr. while watching Senator Obama’s speech speaks a thousand words.

Do you think we’re going to do it?

This is the Senate results thread.  My analysis and predictions for the new Senate are below the fold.  We’ll be following the races and discussing the results throughout the night.

12:18 am  Right now, Democrats have 56 seats with three undecided.  In Minnesota, Norm Coleman has a 10,000 vote lead with 43% of the vote.  In Oregon, Merkley is up big with 14% of the vote counted.  Polls in Alaska close in 40 minutes, but I won’t be awake that late.  It will be nice to wake up to 59 Senate seats in the morning.

Good night to all.  What a great night for Democrats!

I am confident that Obama will win tomorrow.

Obama is certain to carry New Mexico, Iowa, and Colorado.  If he holds Pennsylvania and the other Kerry 2004 states, he is the president.  He can lose Ohio, Florida, Virginia, and North Carolina.

McCain’s only path to victory lies through Pennsylvania and he has been behind in nearly every poll since June.  Pennsylvania Senator Arlen Specter (R) basically said yesterday that McCain’s only hope was the Bradley Effect (that white voters were lying to pollsters about voting for Obama, thus inflating his numbers).  In addition, McCain would have to hold Ohio, Virginia, North Carolina, and Florida.  He’s been behind in most of the public polls in Virginia since September and he’s been falling behind in Ohio, North Carolina and Florida.  

A Canadian comedy team known as the Masked Avengers successfully prank called Sarah Palin, who believed that she was speaking with Nicholas Sarkozy, the president of France. The pair is famous for making prank phone calls to world leaders and celebrities.