By now, most of you know Obama won

Washington state went overwhelmingly for Obama. How overwhelmingly?

Reading the state's Democratic party stats, I learned Clinton only won 1 jurisdiction in the entire state. Most of the jurisdictions shown are counties, though some of the larger counties were subdivided; ours was King 46th, if you're curious.

I was really surprised - though not disappointed - at how many apparently like-minded people live in my state. Don't even get me started on how much better this process has been here than if I still lived in Virginia, where the political parties can actually advertise IN the polling place. (Note: perhaps they're not *supposed to*, but they do.)

I'm so juiced at the prospect of having a president who represents a generation newer than the boomers, appears to understand the pragmatic necessity of talking with adversarial nations rather than acting like a child holding a grudge, and doesn't trigger the sort of vitriol that the name 'Clinton' does.

Oh yeah, and Clinton essentially improperly voted to turn over the power to declare war to the Executive branch(based on an intelligence report she never even read), and I don't know how I could trust her to then become the head of that branch. Given that the Constitution is the standard by which we judge all other legal concepts, disregarding the checks and balances part of it is troubling.

Really, doesn't this stuff keep anyone else awake?

"I'm a little caucus, short and stout....

... here's when I vote, and here's when I shout."
(gold, I tells ya)

Today is caucus day for both parties in Washington state. What is caucusing? It's intended to be the opportunity for people to argue the merrits of their preferred candidate, and for undecided voters to learn more from their neighbors about how the candidates will address key issues.

Below is an excerpt of a note I wrote to my friend Jeannie, who helped me learn more about my choice, Obama:

I [...] got myself in fighting spirit, and went to the caucus.
The line simply to get into the building was unbelievable; the poor caucus volunteers looked kinda freaked out.
Eventually we all found our caucus rooms and signed in with our vote. My precinct had 7 delegates, 5 went to Obama and 2 went to Clinton. Woo Hoo!!
Paul and I then took off, as the sides were pretty set at that point.
This caucus was so much larger and unruly than the last one I went to, where there was actual opportunity to talk with people and discuss - really, this was just a vote where you had to be present and go through a bunch of inconvenient hoops. To my satisfaction, a woman had brought with her a proposal to make Democratic party primary votes count. I hope it passes at the state level!

Anyway, I thought your little reporter soul would like to know how it went for my precinct. I even managed to talk Paul into going, who was initially resistant.(He called it an interesting experience in arcane democracy.)

In the 2004 caucus, there were still so many candidates (Kerry, Edwards, Kucinich, Clark, Sharpton, and probably 1-2 others I can't remember) that there was functional value in caucusing. This time around, though, it's hard to imagine too many people having so little preference as to consider voting for the other guy/gal.

I'm just pleased that my precinct went the same way I did; more often than not I feel like odd man out, so this was a nice change.


And then there's this take on things:

Sex advice columnist and editor of The Stranger Dan Savage reports from his caucus location in Seattle:

Maybe the caucus system works--when precincts have at most 10 people in them and no one gives a fuck about the election. But it's total pandemonium right now at Stevens Elementary. The lines to sign in--for for precinct--stretches all the way across the gymnasium. Lines to sign in for other precincts intersect with our line and no one is keeping order. Thank God for our neighbor: She commandeered a dozen sign-in sheet from the table and brought them to the end of the line so we could register our preferences and get the hell out. Here's hoping our sign-in sheets got back up to the precinct table: we didn't hang around long enough to find out.

Note to the Washington State Democrats: Please don't put us through that bullshit again. Don't waste our time. Let us vote in a primary. Yeah, yeah: The caucus system is supposed to build community, or something, since we're all supposed to gather together with our neighbors and talk about who we're supporting and why, and make appeals to the braindeads--excuse me, the undecideds--blah blah blah. But the only thing neighbors at Stevens are discussing right now is what a bullshit waste of time this is. You're going to need smaller precincts, and a lot more precinct sites, and a lot more workers, or you're going to need to go to a primary system.

It ain't all gloom and doom

I know there's been a thread of grouchy sarcasm in my last few posts. Maybe it's because I'm preparing to get all feisty at this weekend's caucus - go Obama! Either way, here is the rectification:

Paul made his unbelieveable chocolate cookies last night. After a 2 week long craving, they are sweet indeed!

My dad is sounding and feeling better after a l-o-n-g year of some hard medication.

I plugged our printer into our new mac today and was printing within 30 seconds; it was *actually* plug and play as advertised! SO nice when things work.

I've started journaling a little again, which gives me material that I'll soon edit and throw up on my other blog, ItMightBeDrivel.

Today is the beginning of the Year of the Rat (Xin Nian Kuai Le!), which is my year. In fact, according to wikipedia, I am a Water Rat because I was born in 1972. According to a Chinese Astrology webpage, water represents cold, black, wisdom, and lust. Also, it turns out that 2008 is supposed to be a very lucky year for Water Rats. So I've got those going for me, which is nice.

Had the chance to reconnect with some people I've not really talked with in years at a friend's birthday party last weekend. A real treat, and nice to take a moment to realize how many really quality people I know.

Freakshow Romney dropped outta the race, so I already feel 10 times better about any of the remaining candidates.

What next? A couple warm-just-from-the-oven chocolate cookies, a glass of milk, and a pbs show.

Geek? Yes.
Warm and content? Yes

Show Me da Money!

Well hot damn, turns out the guvment is gonna send me and mine a check for about $600. Wooo HOOO!
Why, with that I could go out and buy me that Sony PlayStation 3 I've been wanting, plus some really good games.
Or, maybe we could take that money and buy a new copy of Photoshop for our small business.
Of course, we could always just pay our $580 monthly medical insurance bill.
Stimulus my foot.

Dumb Question from Dumb Blonde

Listening to NPR and reading the news, I began to wonder:

How will our government afford funding 2 costly wars, bail out homeowners for 5 years, and send all of us a check in the next few months during the beginning of a recession?

Okay, I admit I may not be fully blonde. And this may not be a fully dumb question.