esrosedotblog

OPTING OUT

Since the election I have been getting daily emails soliciting my support of the Obama campaign's after life.

A kind of social action thing with an agenda which isn't very clear. More of the same. Organizing for Action. I got three emails today!

I am still an Obamaphile. I support what he is doing or trying to do.

But I have qualms about the kind of thing his former people are doing now.

Barack is not running again. It is over.

Someone else will come on with the show. It might be Hillary or Joe or any number of other new generation Democrats.

But this kind of operation is not my cup of tea. It seems like having an organization for the sake of having an organization. And keeping some people employed.

The Obama Administration is what I want to support. Not a shadow organization. I think that is actually very dangerous and not even in his best interest.

So. I am busy taking myself off the mailing lists which is harder than you might think. They really do not want to take "no thanks" for an answer. But I am persistent.

When all this started, they had a meme where they asked if I was "in". I said yes. I sent the maximum money.

Now there are asking me about this thing. I am not in. I am out.

Labels: obama, Re-election of Barack Obama

EPIC

Richard Soccarides in the New Yorker.

AMERICA’S MOST IMPORTANT GAY-RIGHTS SPEECH?

Ironies of life.

Socarides, who is openly gay, is the son of the late Charles Socarides (1922–2005), a psychiatrist and psychoanalyst who is widely regarded as the father of conversion therapy, and an outspoken critic of the American Psychiatric Association's 1973 decision to remove homosexuality from its list of mental disorders. In 1992 the elder Socarides co-founded NARTH, in response to the American Psychoanalytic Association's 1992 decision to change its position on homosexuality.

Richard is gay. Ba Boom. Sorry Dad.

Richard became an advisor to the Obamas and is a widely printed commentary on gay affairs.

May his dad spin in his grave for fucking ever, the bastard.

Labels: gay rights, Re-election of Barack Obama

NICE

Labels: gay history, gay rights, Re-election of Barack Obama

BLANCO updated with text of the poem

One sun rose on us today,

kindled over our shores,

peeking over the Smokies, greeting the faces

of the Great Lakes, spreading a simple truth

across the Great Plains, then charging across the Rockies.

One light, waking up rooftops, under each one, a story

told by our silent gestures moving behind windows.

My face, your face, millions of faces in morning’s mirrors,

each one yawning to life, crescendoing into our day:

pencil-yellow school buses, the rhythm of traffic lights,

fruit stands: apples, limes, and oranges arrayed like rainbows

begging our praise. Silver trucks heavy with oil or paper—

bricks or milk, teeming over highways alongside us,

on our way to clean tables, read ledgers, or save lives—

to teach geometry, or ring-up groceries as my mother did

for twenty years, so I could write this poem.

All of us as vital as the one light we move through,

the same light on blackboards with lessons for the day:

equations to solve, history to question, or atoms imagined,

the “I have a dream” we keep dreaming,

or the impossible vocabulary of sorrow that won’t explain

the empty desks of twenty children marked absent

today, and forever. Many prayers, but one light

breathing color into stained glass windows,

life into the faces of bronze statues, warmth

onto the steps of our museums and park benches

as mothers watch children slide into the day.

One ground. Our ground, rooting us to every stalk

of corn, every head of wheat sown by sweat

and hands, hands gleaning coal or planting windmills

in deserts and hilltops that keep us warm, hands

digging trenches, routing pipes and cables, hands

as worn as my father’s cutting sugarcane

so my brother and I could have books and shoes.

The dust of farms and deserts, cities and plains

mingled by one wind—our breath. Breathe. Hear it

through the day’s gorgeous din of honking cabs,

buses launching down avenues, the symphony

of footsteps, guitars, and screeching subways,

the unexpected song bird on your clothes line.

Hear: squeaky playground swings, trains whistling,

or whispers across café tables, Hear: the doors we open

for each other all day, saying: hello, shalom,

buon giorno, howdy, namaste, or buenos días

in the language my mother taught me—in every language

spoken into one wind carrying our lives

without prejudice, as these words break from my lips.

One sky: since the Appalachians and Sierras claimed

their majesty, and the Mississippi and Colorado worked

their way to the sea. Thank the work of our hands: weaving steel into bridges, finishing one more report

for the boss on time, stitching another wound

or uniform, the first brush stroke on a portrait,

or the last floor on the Freedom Tower

jutting into a sky that yields to our resilience.

One sky, toward which we sometimes lift our eyes

tired from work: some days guessing at the weather

of our lives, some days giving thanks for a love

that loves you back, sometimes praising a mother who knew how to give, or forgiving a father

who couldn’t give what you wanted.

We head home: through the gloss of rain or weight

of snow, or the plum blush of dusk, but always—home,

always under one sky, our sky. And always one moon

like a silent drum tapping on every rooftop

and every window, of one country—all of us—

facing the stars

hope—a new constellation

waiting for us to map it,

waiting for us to name it—together

Labels: poetry, Re-election of Barack Obama

FANTASTIC MUSIC

There were three choral groups. Here is the mainline one. What a show!

You should have earphones for this. It is a great recording especially for an outdoors event. Stereophonic! This is a better quality than I heard on the White House dot com broadcast.

Labels: music, Re-election of Barack Obama

LAYING DOWN THE GAUNTLET

I heard Obama as he reeled off these "liberal" broadsides today.

Kevin Drum does some hard work and parses them out for us. He also does the dirty work of tuning into Fox to hear the revulsion.

Obama Gets Political, Kelly Clarkson Wows 'Em

Here is what he picked out.

"...when a shrinking few do very well and a growing many barely make it"

...through Medicare, and Medicaid, and Social Security — these things do not sap our initiative; they strengthen us. They do not make us a nation of takers" (a slap at Mitt's 47%)

...."Our journey is not complete until no citizen is forced to wait for hours to exercise the right to vote"

"Some may still deny the overwhelming judgment of science, but none can avoid the devastating impact of raging fires, and crippling drought, and more powerful storms."

Our journey is not complete until all our children, from the streets of Detroit to the hills of Appalachia to the quiet lanes of Newtown, know that they are cared for, and cherished, and always safe from harm. "

He also talked about the march forward from Selma and included Stonewall. A dollop of inclusion in the rhetoric that has not been there before.

It was a pretty short, moving speech.

You ought to listen to it.

And Kelly Clarkson had a lot of trouble with the sound mix, battled with the big band. She did a great job, as did Beyonce, but the broadcast quality was off.

For my money, the best music was James Taylor "America". Two stanzas and chorus. Guitar only.

Labels: gay history, gay rights, Re-election of Barack Obama

THRILLING

I just finished watching the Inauguration.

Everything was just great. And it was over in an hour!

I won't go on and on about it.

John says it was "simple and elegant". Exactly.

You know, I have mentioned, that the Inaugural Poem was by Richard Blanco, a gay poet of Cuban extraction. An engineer as well!

Who said that "tools" didn't have an artistic heart.

He was great.

Labels: Re-election of Barack Obama

"I DID IT"

Labels: Re-election of Barack Obama

OFFICIAL PORTRAITS

It seems a bit weird that the most photographed person in the world would also have an "official" second term portrait by the same White House photographer, Pete Souza, who has taken thousands of shots already.

But here it is.

And he is radiant.

What a great photo. Great man.

Here is the one for the first term from 2009.

Somehow not as much bang as the one they took last week. The job must agree with him.

Labels: Barack Obama, Re-election of Barack Obama

INAUGURATION POET

Good news

Richard Blanco

American Cuban Gay Poet

How's that for a minority

An Obamaphile

Chosen to read his "occasional piece" at the ceremony

Why good news

Partly that we are still having poets

Another that we have poets openly gay

Beyond that is the Cuban part

Tearing down the walls

Another thing

Blanco was/is an engineer

Time for us having a comeback

What better way than as poetry.

More about this here.

Richard Blanco 2013 Inaugural Poet

A great honor for all of us.

Labels: poetry, Re-election of Barack Obama

DONE DONE AND DONE

The Mahogany Boxes Hold No Surprises From the Electoral College

Like little coffins. Mahogany boxes carrying the votes to be counted.

This is the very last step before he takes the oath later this month.

I love all this paraphernalia of getting the election done.

And he ended up with 332 to the Mitter's 206. A rout.

Here back in the fall, Jim Messina describes the path to the electoral college win. Just for old times' sake.

And the fat lady is singing in other respects as well.

Obama's Popular Vote Totals Put Him In a Small Club.

Topping 51% twice.

Only Andrew Jackson, Ulysses S. Grant, William McKinley, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Eisenhower, and now, Barack Obama.

A small club indeed.

Look at this pre-election bullshit.

Labels: election, Re-election of Barack Obama

STILL RUNNING

You know what dieseling is, eh? I am dieseling about the election.

Kos put up his favorite video today. See below.

My favorite moment is that Romney will end up with 47%, the fateful number. Also that people I know who were so sure he would win still have the crepe out.

The congress people, some of them, don't even seem to realize who won the election.

But I notice some ranks breaking both in the House and the Senate. I am not lulled by this. They will be whipped back into line.

Still.

Labels: Re-election of Barack Obama

NO ONE'S TELLIN'

Lunch.

Oh. To be a fly on the wall.

I notice that Obama has his hand in his pocket.

Romney the usual awkward body language.

More.

Fascinating for some reason.

I don't think this would happen in the rest of the world. Romney might be in chains or in exile or something.

This is the American way. Even if it doesn't mean anything.

Hey. He gave Hillary one of the most important positions in the Cabinet.

Labels: Re-election of Barack Obama

IN WAITING

Stands will be done by first of year.

Labels: Re-election of Barack Obama

STILL CELEBRATIN'

They did this. Had it been the others it would have gone red.

But it didn't.

Still celebratin'.

Labels: Re-election of Barack Obama

GOODBYE AND THANKS

In the Chicago campaign headquarters.

Labels: Barack Obama, Re-election of Barack Obama

HIS BEST SPEECH EVER?

Let's listen to the whole thing.

"There are people in the world who are fighting to be able to argue with each other like we have".

This will likely be the last time I use the label "Re-election of Barack Obama".

Labels: Re-election of Barack Obama

THRILLING

As much as the first time.

I listened to his acceptance speech this morning. Tears.

I followed the blogs and the summaries last night from about 6 PM and couldn't believe that it was over so quickly. A rout.

I am also happy about a lot of other results.

Four, count them, four states will now have gay marriage available.

We are one of the Republican Congressional Districts to turn Democratic. The mostly absent Mary Bono Mack can go back to personal trainer hood where she came from. She has done nothing for the District. Not one piece of legislation has her name on it. She married Connie Mack who lost in Florida running for Senator. So she will not be alone.

We passed Jerry Browns tax law so that schools stop suffering from the terrible restrictions of California's tax code. We did not eliminate capital punishment.

The latter is the only loss on my sides.

Labels: Re-election of Barack Obama

FINAL WORDS AND A FEW TEARS

Labels: Re-election of Barack Obama

SUSPENSE

I am ready for the election to be over.

I feel pretty confident that Obama will get his second term. I am not the only one.

If not, and there is always the faint "if", then I will be glad it is over anyway and I will start working on the next one.

I am close to the electoral vote calculators and feel that is how he is going to do it.

There has been a trend upwards since the beginning of last week. Some say, actually, since the Veep debate.

Did you know that this is where we were in 2008? Bush was, like Obama, ahead by about one point over Kerry and had some electoral advantages and that is how it went down.

The advantage of the incumbent.

I note that the GOPs are gathering their excuses together today. Hurricane Sandy. Some others.

OK. Let's have at it.

Labels: Re-election of Barack Obama