Hello, Chicago.

If there is anyone out there who still doubts that America is a place where all things are possible, who still wonders if the dream of our founders is alive in our time, who still questions the power of our democracy, tonight is your answer.

It’s the answer told by lines that stretched around schools and churches in numbers this nation has never seen, by people who waited three hours and four hours, many for the first time in their lives, because they believed that this time must be different, that their voices could be that difference.

It’s the answer spoken by young and old, rich and poor, Democrat and Republican, black, white, Hispanic, Asian, Native American, gay, straight, disabled and not disabled. Americans who sent a message to the world that we have never been just a collection of individuals or a collection of red states and blue states.

We are, and always will be, the United States of America.

It’s the answer that led those who’ve been told for so long by so many to be cynical and fearful and doubtful about what we can achieve to put their hands on the arc of history and bend it once more toward the hope of a better day.

It’s been a long time coming, but tonight, because of what we did on this date in this election at this defining moment change has come to America.

(more…)

Today we decide what direction that we the people wish to take our country and the rest of the world. It’s an incredible crossroads of so many unique events all coming to a head at the same time and we must decide exactly what we are going to do about all of these monumental issues facing us. It’s about restoring our faith with the rest of the world after 5 years of war with a country who didn’t attack us 7 years ago on that day in September. It’s about bringing justice to those who did attack us on that day. It’s about making sure that we have our future that we all work so hard for all of our lives. It’s about breaking the boundaries of race and overcoming the prejudices so deeply rooted from past generations. It’s about having leadership that we feel we trust to make those impossibly tough decisions that most of us would hope we never have to make ourselves. It’s about making sure that we are preserving the planet that we live on so that it’s here for future generations to come.

No matter who you are, you have a stake in this election. The outcome will affect every human life on earth.

The first two towns in New Hampshire have already cast their votes. The first was in Dixville Notch who voted 15 to 6 for Senator Obama. The second was Hart’s Location who voted 17 to 10 for Obama, with 2 write-in votes for Ron Paul. Historically there isn’t any particular correlation between these two towns, who have always voted first in the nation since 1948, and the rest of New Hampshire or the rest of the electorate. But maybe, just maybe, it’s an omen of what’s to come. The last Democrat that Dixville Notch voted for in a general election was in 1968 for Hubert Humphrey when he was running against Nixon.

Make your voice heard. Get out and vote. Be part of this historic election and make sure we choose the right path for our country and the world.

I’m sick of fear, give me hope.

Yes We Can.

After months of waiting, the official report was released yesterday evening after a 12-0 unanimous vote to release most of it to the public. The Legislative Council members were eight Republicans and four Democrats, not some “smear campaign by the Democrats” as the McCain/Palin people would like everyone to believe. The report was about whether Governor Sarah Palin (our lovely moose huntress) had abused her authority as Governor by firing Public Safety Commissioner Walt Monegan for refusing to fire an Alaska state trooper, Mike Wooten, who just happened to be in a nasty divorce with Palin’s sister. On July 28th, Alaska legislature voted to have the matter investigated and hired Stephen Branchflower to do the job. The investigation had a $100,000 budget but apparently came in at a total of about $75,000 in the end, $45,000 of which goes to Brachflower.

Here are the four key findings taken directly from the report that was released:

• Finding Number One

For the reasons explained in section IV of this report, I find that Governor Sarah Palin abused her power by violating Alaska Statute 39.52.110(a) of the Alaska Executive Branch Ethics Act. Alaska Statute 39.52.110(a) provides The legislature reaffirms that each public officer holds office as a public trust, and any effort to benefit a personal or financial interest through official action is a violation of that trust.

• Finding Number Two
  

  I find that, although Walt Monegan’s refusal to fire Trooper Michael Wooten was not the sole reason he was fired by Governor Sarah Palin, it was likely a contributing factor to his termination as Commissioner of Public Safety. In spite of that, Governor Palin’s firing of Commissioner Monegan was a proper and lawful exercise of her constitutional and statutory authority to hire and fire executive branch department heads.

• Finding Number Three
  

  Harbor Adjustment Service of Anchorage, and its owner Ms. Murleen Wilkes, handled Trooper Michael Wooten’s workers’ compensation claim property and in the normal course of business like any other claim processed by Harbor Adjustment Service and Ms. Wilkes. Further, Trooper Wooten received all the workers’ compensation benefits to which he was entitled.

• Finding Number Four
  

  The Attorney General’s office has failed to substantially comply with my August 6, 2008 written request to Governor Sarah Palin for infomration about the case in the form of emails.

It was amusing to see the reaction yesterday evening. Within about an hour of the report’s release, every major news website (including Fox!) and every blog had variations of the headline “Palin Abused Power”, except for the conservative blogs which made no mention of Troopergate at all. Now, while all the liberals of the world eat this up since it’s something that has been anxiously awaited since the announcement by John McCain of Palin as his VP sidekick, it’s not all it seems to be at first glance.

The McCain/Palin campaign has said all along “we will comply in every way possible with the investigation” and then turned around and refused to do anything even remotely along those lines, including Alaska Attorney General Talis Colberg suing to block 13 subpoenas of state employees and Todd Palin, the moose huntress’s husband. The court ruled that they were to comply with the subpoenas and they did, just in the past week or so. Todd Palin submitted a written testimony to the investigation. But yesterday, according to the Anchorage Daily News:

Branchflower said his report did not include late-arriving statements from state officials who, on the advice of Attorney General Talis Colberg, had resisted subpoenas. They, as well as Todd Palin, did provide written statements this week after a judge upheld the subpoenas. Their statements did not cause Branchflower to change his conclusions.

Um, yeah. So after all that, their statements weren’t even used in the final report, which, by the way, had been moved up from it’s initial release date of the end of October, which seemed to me to be a pure political stunt to get it here with plenty of time for the elections (not that I’m complaining). Todd Palin’s statements (which he refused to give under oath) were pretty much an admittance of guilt that it had been him all along, giving the orders to fire the trooper, etc. but it sounds like he was just trying to “take one for the team” and take some of the heat off of his wife.

So, what does all this mean? Well, it was a legislative inquiry which doesn’t have a fine, imprisonment, impeachment or any punishment at the end of the road. So all in all, it’s purely for informational purposes. The Attorney General (who is in the tank for Palin) or the state Personnel board are the ones who can force some sort of real consequences to happen. They are indeed conducting their own inquiry into these matters but I’m not holding my breath.

All in all, I don’t think it changes the course of the presidential campaigns too much. McCain/Palin will deny everything and continue onward, not admitting any guilt just like they have been doing on all of the questionable issues surrounding the choice of Palin (who was not vetted, by the way). Obama/Biden will play it cool by not mentioning the investigation and let the media stampede all over this as long as it wants to. Obama has no need to touch this issue due to his growing lead in the polls and the people’s focus on the failing world economies at the moment, which plays right into his hands. So the investigation took $75,000 of taxpayer money, created a lot of anxiety, and no actual changes/consequences happen as a result of it. Sounds like politics as usual.

I just got back from the Love Parade Festival in San Francisco. So much fun!

The old jail in Rhyolite:

I forget which building this was but I think it was the school in Rhyolite:

Taken an the Horse-a-Round bar (featured in Hunter S. Thompson’s “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas”):

The borax mines in Boron:

Got to love a sky like this:

Apparently the people counterfeiting this Cisco T1 WIC didn’t speak english but the were fluent in “1337 speak”.