It's official!

The United States of America has done something that many people never thought it would do... elect an African-American President of the United States.

Now I'm a young guy, born in the early 1970's, who was raised in post-Civil Rights/Integration America. I never saw the "White's Only" signs in Raleigh except in the History Museum. All of my classes have always been integrated and there was never any question about if they should be. Separate but equal has always been morally unacceptable in our world, and that still holds true today no matter which group of Americans you look at.

Yet, growing up in the South and teaching in a rural county in North Carolina, I never believed this would happen. Us 30-somethings like to think of ourselves as "color-blind", but we know we aren't. We are less racist and don't rush to judge based solely on racial stereotypes but they are still there (see Reagan's Welfare Queens or the "articulate candidate"). I see in my students, citizens that define themselves less by race than by other criteria (economics, social status, etc.). There is more acceptance of interracial dating, interracial friendships, and the sharing of common culture.

It looks like North Carolina will barely miss out on the Obama wave, though by the slimmest of margins. If you had told me that this state would be within 30,000 votes of sending its electoral votes for an African-American candidate from the North with the middle name of our greatest enemy, I would have signed you up for a padded room at the local mental hospital.

My children went to vote with us today and helped us bubble in our votes. Later, they got to place their own votes for Senator Obama and left with large "I Voted!" stickers for Kindergarten class. They can tell their children that they helped place a vote for President Obama.

Let's hope that he can handle all of the problems that face the US. More importantly, let's work hard to help him focus on those problems and create solutions that serve all Americans in an utilitarian fashion.


Update: With 95% of the Precincts reporting, Obama is up in NC 50-49 over McCain with just over 4 Million votes cast in the General Election (2.05 million vs 2.03 as of 11:30 in the evening)
Simply amazing... I can't believe it... WE DID IT!!!!!!

Student Newspapers Endorse

According to Andrew Sullivan there is an overwhelming support for Obama with college newspapers. If I hadn't seen some of the strange stuff that happens at a college newspaper with my own eyes, I'd be tempted to file this one under "Water is wet" category.

It doesn't look like the Greenies have endorsed anyone this season, which is a vast improvement from endorsing DAVID DUKE for Governor in 1991.

Of course, anything is possible this year...

Twin Shots

New Halloween Post up soon with the Ghosts and Daddy Ghostbuster.

Yeah, I couldn't resist. So what's your point already?

Voting and Statistics

Here is an amazing site and a true testament to the interest of the Presidential race in the United States plus a sign that I cut my teeth doing political blogging.

You can find here the breakdown for the number of voters who have already voted for the 2008 General Election in the United States. These numbers are simply mindboggling! My home state of North Carolina, for instance, already has over 2 Million citizens who have voted with the last day for early voting ending tonight. In the last Presidential race in 2004, around 3.5 million people voted and that was considered a strong turnout.

Many of the political science experts wondered what effect Obama would have on turnout. At the school I teach at, in a very CONSERVATIVE part of the state, Obama lost the student election this past week. That in and of itself was not a shock... when my Honors kids ran the vote in 2000, Gore was smashed by GW. The astonishing thing was the magain of victory for McCain was less than 5% (51-48 with 3% for "other"... the statictistics teacher apparently didn't know about Bob). For a county that used to have a sign up welcoming people to the "Home of the KKK" as recently as the late 1970's, we've come a long way.

Now I don't know if Obama will actually carry North Carolina... certainly some of the recent polls look good for the Democrats, but that doesn't mean anything right now. The odd thing is that the split ticket voting that NC is infamous for make take place in reverse this year... namely NC voters electing Obama the Democrat and McCrory the Republican for Governor. Apparently the Republicans finally figured out why they haven't been able to win the Governor's race for the last 16 years... they kept selecting candidates from their base who were nuttier than a Planter's Factory, and trust me that's saying something. Even Balentine the Boy Wonder (tm) couldn't defeat Easley last year. Aside from running against Brown People (illegal immigrants), McCrory has come across as a moderate Republican as the Mayor of Charlotte, though he really isn't that moderate.

The current Lt. Gov., Beverly Purdue, is running for the Democrats and has run a horrible campaign... if I didn't know better I'd swear Erskin Bowles and Rufus Edmunsten were in charge of it. She's been incoherent and has really ticked off her base by insulting their intelligence with her rallies. I would not be shocked if she lost and I know a lot of people who refuse to vote for her.

Then there is the Senate race.... good old carpetbagger Lizzie Dole has been reminding North Carolinians that she once lived here and, in theory, still does. Sorry, but that song and dance isn't going to work this time. Likewise she recently declared that her opponent, Kay Hagan, apparently traded her soul for 30 pieces of silver or campaign contributions from a group of atheists. Sadly for Liddy, Hagan is an Elder in her Presbyterian Church and I'm really curious to hear if the reactions at my Presbyterian Church are as angry as everyone else is. Of course, the seat in question was previously held by the late Senator Helms.

Still, going back to the numbers, I've read that some 80-90 thousand of those early voters are new voters which is really exciting. Of course, we don't know if they are NEW as in, just lost their virginity, or if they are some of the many transplants that are making this state so interesting. I can't wait to see what Tuesday brings.

And please, if you are registered.... GO VOTE!!! Thanks.

UPDATE 1:

John Marshall has some interesting polling data on how early voting is shaping up. I think I'm going to need a lot of *ahem* inspiration on Tuesday night/Wednesday Morning.

2nd Time Around redux

Apparently with the oncoming political changes, I feel a need to blog again. Perhaps it won't be from a point of rage and anger and instead, hope and optimism. Of course, my students would claim that I'm a cynic so who knows what will take place.

I once had an individual blog with essentially the same name, but blogger has blocked my access to it, which it probably for the best we're back. Likewise, I was a guest posted with the late Melanie Mattson at Just a Bump on the Beltway. Sadly, there doesn't appear to be a compilation of the posts from that site which is a shame. Melanie was a generous and kind person who didn't tolerate fools and had an astonishing amount of patience with visitors and more amazing cooking tips than anyone should.

Melanie would be very excited though a bit skeptical of the Obama movement, hoping that they would fulfill the promises and dreams that many progressives/liberals/Wow that Bush is a real @!#^ people want. Perhaps one of the goals of the current events part of this blog will be to hold them accountable, in some small way.

I will also have many comments on the misadventures of raising 5 year old twins, teaching high school, and trying to remain sane while the world around us isn't. I have no idea what will dominate this blog... it depends on what you the audience want.

Thanks

So we were able to ressurect this %#$&()! thing after all

See, this is what I get for messing around with Blogger instead of working on my Masters Thesis.

I figured this thing was gone, capput, no mas, end of discussion, but it's the Internet and nothing is gone forever.... though I hope some of my old e-mails and MUD activities from the 90's are lost for good. Oddly enough USENET postings aren't though... but anyways...

I restarted up this blog again today because it's time and I'm going to move the newer posts here. A lot has happened in the last 3+ years and I have a feeling it's only going to get more entertaining.

So to borrow a quote from a famous franchise, soon to be rebooted (and one I used the last first time):

Let's see what's out there.