Geeky Posts
When I started this blog, I wanted it to be a mix of stuff on open source, hardware hacking, and progressive politics. Besides all being things that I’m interested in, I think that these are topics that have a lot of idealogy in common, but the two groups aren’t really aware of each other and don’t really communicate.
So during the runup to the election, I got pretty obsessed with the daily news cycle and all my posts were related to election politics.
So now I’m going to try to balance out that spurt of political posts with some things related to hacking hardware & software that I’ve been meaning to post. Part of the problem is I never finish my geek projects in my spare time so I have nothing to post about.
Congratulations
Congratulations to the United States.
Obama giving his inaugural address
On this day, we come to proclaim an end to the petty grievances and false promises, the recriminations and worn out dogmas, that for far too long have strangled our politics.
Today we are reminded again what it’s all about.
That our system of government can do the right thing. That an election (or two) can turn the course of the country.
That hope is a traditional American value.
My parents were activists in the 60’s and 70’s. I wish that my mother could have lived to see it, she would have loved what Barack Obama stands for. My father, I believe, held on when his health was failing just to see what the outcome of the election would be. Then, when he knew our country was safe again, that we were on the right track, let himself fade and passed away the same month as Obama’s election just a few weeks later.
Congratulations to the United States.
Today we proved that we can still be great.
Using the L word
I haven’t posted in a while, largely due to paroxisms of fear and worry over the outcome of the election next Tuesday.
Despite the fact that he risks jinxing the election by coming right out and talking about an Obama landslide, David Kurtz over at TPM has an interesting post questioning the meaning of a “mandate” in this era of tv media focused campaigning. Since elections have become more about the candidate’s brand than about a real discussion of the issues or their platforms, what is it that is really decided when a particular candidate wins?
Did we just vote for universal health care, or against that cranky old man and his dimwitted running mate?
Moreover, if the Democrats really do win this in a big way on Tuesday, what do we really expect them to pull off?