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It looks like this could be a night where Obama wins by a greater margin than I could have imagined and equality in California falls by a greater margin than I would have expected. Indeed, I was hopeful that proposition 8 would fail in the most progressive state in the country. Unfortunately, hatred and bigotry look like they have won another temporary victory.

Regardless of how that turns out, at worst it can only delay the inevitable. As gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender members of our society become more accepted, as the lies and myths are debunked, the opposition to full equality will crumble. It looks like it may take longer than we’d hoped. As I head off to get some sleep, maybe the tide will change, but even if it doesn’t, it is only a matter of time.

I’m not saying the Obama campaign hasn’t had their share of exaggerations and distortions. But, so far as I’ve been able to tell, they’ve stayed on the side of misrepresentation and haven’t been trying to foment fear.

That fear is the real danger of McCain’s tactics. Scared people don’t act rationally and that’s what they want. Scared people want to feel safe and though they turn to the person who instigated that fear, it isn’t in his interest to resolve it. It’s how he came to power and without fear, people will realize there is nothing behind the facade. This should sound familiar. It’s been the way the Bush administration has operated since 9/11.

To make it worse, that fear mongering creates an “us vs. them” attitude that promotes violence. Don’t take my word for it. Look at the statistics for attacks against groups singled out by a political leader.

We have enough problems to solve without adding irrational fear to the mix. If we can’t have a calm discussion then any hope of a solution is gone. That creates the kind of environment in which violent change starts to look like the only answer. If that happens, then our society will no longer resemble the America we want this country to be.

The moral of the story is: when a politician cares more about acquiring power than he does about the methods used to obtain it then that person is a danger. McCain and his campaign (and all politicians) need to hear that message loud and clear.

Not that Biden was immune to misinterpreting the facts to make his point. McCain’s flub on Spain was because he didn’t know who the prime minister of Spain was, not because he wouldn’t meet with the Spanish PM. That’s a bad enough mistake for a presidential candidate, but not the one that Biden implied. Still, his sins were of exaggeration rather than Palin’s outright lies.

If American politics has been reduced to simply yelling louder than the opponents then she did well, but if was about showing how your policies would actually help us recover from the disaster of the worst presidency in American history then she was abysmal.

I’d really like to see a debate that has more content than politicians saying, “did not,” “did so” back and forth at each other.

Though I went into the debate supporting Obama, I now think the argument that he won’t be good on foreign policy is going to be proven a non-issue. McCain seemed to be talking down to Obama and often appeared to deliberately misinterpret what was a rather clear statement from Obama. Personally, I’ve seen enough of that behavior to last a lifetime in the last eight years so it wasn’t welcome.

McCain seems unwilling to admit that going into Iraq was a mistake and wants only to focus on the future. However, those who are unwilling to admit past mistakes are also unwilling to take the personal responsibility that McCain says he is so in favor of. This strikes me as a problem.

It will be interesting to see what happens in the next two months.

The Fed is bailing out AIG and, in return, getting an 80% ownership stake. We have a word for a system where the government owns the companies: communism. Yet, our free market, fiscal conservative government says these companies are just too big to let fail. It seems to me that two possible responses come to mind. One is that if a company is too big to fail then we shouldn’t let a company get that big because then we can’t get rid of it. If we don’t think that restriction should apply then we need some regulation to ensure these same companies don’t do the things that will get them into such trouble.

Instead, we allow them to be stupid and then bail them out when they do. What incentive do they have to not be stupid? There is very little risk and a boat load of money to be made until the music stops. Enough with corporate handouts! True, that the handouts will preserve the jobs of many people who did nothing wrong, but a better solution would be to let the company fail and use a much smaller amount of money to help those people find new work. And enact laws to restrict unrestrained greed that motivates these companies to such insane action.

And stop calling yourself a fiscal conservative if you think that these types of actions are a good idea. If we must have welfare, then it should go to people and not companies.

I’ve already blogged about McCain’s having lost my vote. And, indeed, he’s done nothing to change that. Just how the Log Cabin Republicans can endorse him based on his atrocious record on LGBT civil rights issues is beyond me. But, that’s not the point of this post. The point is Sarah Palin.

Until last week, I’d never heard of Sarah Palin. That’s probably true for most people in the country. This isn’t, on its own, a bad thing, but it does mean that some education is necessary. When I do that education, the report card I come up with doesn’t get a passing grade.

Her record on LGBT issues is as bad as McCain’s. It is possible that her religious views, which are rather extreme, would negatively impact the country.

Some have said that her family should be off limits and, in general I agree. However, when she is on record as supporting abstinence-only education and also has an unwed pregnant teenage daughter, I can’t help wondering if she should be asked, “So, how about that abstinence-only education? How is it working out for your family?” It is clear that abstinence-only education doesn’t work and her own family is part of the proof.

She is praised for carrying a Down’s Syndrome baby to term and for not having an abortion, but this praise may be misplaced. Though I can’t find the reference at the moment, I recall reading that the information wasn’t known until the fourth month, after an abortion would have been legal making it a moot point. I don’t mean to belittle her choices or her family’s difficulties. Raising any child with special needs is a challenge and those parents with such children deserve our support. But, let’s be clear that this has nothing to do with the debate about a woman’s right to control her own reproductive destiny.

As mayor of a small town, it was written that she, a “fiscal conservative,” oversaw the biggest expansion of city government in the town’s history and left the city in debt that didn’t exist when she took office.

On the positive side, it is remarkable that both our major parties have had women involved in presidential politics. Unfortunately, Ms. Palin, was selected as a political tool to reach out to the most regressive parts of our society and not because of any particular qualifications. If there was any truth to McCain’s claims about Obama’s lack of experience, he lost the right to use it with this choice. Palin is less experienced than Obama and has arguably been a less than capable leader.

The thought that this woman could become president if McCain dies is sobering. Though little is known about her yet, she seems to represent the worst of what the most regressive parts of our society want.

I was appalled to learn that Senator McCain had announced his endorsement of the proposed constitutional ban on gay marriage in California.

Please inform the Senator that his actions have cost him my vote and ensured that I will do what I can to help Senator Obama win in Virginia (where I live).

With great disappointment,
Linda Thomas

Here’s what his website said:

We’re sorry. There appears to have been an error with your request. Please try again or if the problem continues, please contact us.

The “contact us” was a link back to the contact page where I had just tried to send a message. I guess McCain’s more interested in talking than listening. It’s only July and he’s managed to totally alienate me. For someone who doesn’t have the words “George” or “Bush” in his name, that’s pretty bad.

It seems kind of odd that I would be paying attention since my delegate and senator were running unopposed and I like the job that both of them have been doing. But, there were other races that I found I cared about and the results I got were a mixed bag.

It was great to see Delegates Caputo, Englin and Poisson get re-elected. And we got rid of one socially regressive senator (O’Brien) and replaced him with someone much more progressive (Barker). This was particularly gratifying because the Virginia Republican Party put out these anti-gay attack ads right at the end of the campaign.

Unfortunately it looks like Senator Cucinelli will hold on to his seat though by only the slimmest of margins. It was so close I suppose they have to do a recount but the odds of it changing probably aren’t good.

I don’t have any kids but I was happy to see Stephen Hunt get voted out of office on he school board. He used his position to launch an anti-gay attack a couple of years ago and we sure don’t need that in Fairfax County.

So, it was a mixed bag in that we didn’t win them all but we didn’t lose any ground and we made some progress.

Perhaps the most interesting race was the Devolites Davis/Petersen race. I wasn’t thrilled with either candidate and had no idea how it would come out but I expected it would be close. Turns out Petersen won easily. The only real advantage I see is that his win gives the democrats control of the senate and hopefully that will put an end to any anti-gay legislation out of Richmond, at least for 2008.

The forum was held at MCC NOVA in Fairfax and was attended by 40-50 people as well as I can estimate.

In two cases, the incumbents declined to attend but in the 34th senate district covering Vienna, Oakton and Fairfax bot the incumbent and challenger were there.

I had other responsibilities so I didn’t get many photos and I’m beginning to think that I need to get over my aversion to flash photography when at MCC because the lighting there tends to be heavily backlit. The 40D handled well on its first time out but I’m looking forward to getting it out to some outdoor photography.

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