obama and palin

so john mccain chooses sarah palin as a strategic ploy to take attention off of obama's awesome speech. cool--smart call. but somehow i don't think the general male sentiment of "she's so hot, i'd do her" will be enough to offset the active fear of what happens if mccain drops dead and a hot governor of 1 and a half years with a downs syndrome baby to attend to suddenly becomes president of the united states. julia says palin is a poor man's hillary. i say she smells like a conservative geraldine ferraro. aka, never the vice president.

obama's speech was pretty great though, and if you don't know his platform, he did a good job of summing it up in the speech, so you should read through it so you know what he is about.

"America, we cannot turn back. Not with so much work to be done. Not with so many children to educate, and so many veterans to care for. Not with an economy to fix and cities to rebuild and farms to save. Not with so many families to protect and so many lives to mend. America, we cannot turn back. We cannot walk alone. We must pledge once more to march into the future. Let us keep that promise - that American promise - and in the words of Scripture hold firmly, without wavering, to the hope that we confess.

Thank you, God Bless you, and God Bless the United States of America."--Barack Obama

some more of my favorite parts:

I will end this war in Iraq responsibly, and finish the fight against al Qaeda and the Taliban in Afghanistan. I will rebuild our military to meet future conflicts. But I will also renew the tough, direct diplomacy that can prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons and curb Russian aggression. I will build new partnerships to defeat the threats of the 21st century: terrorism and nuclear proliferation; poverty and genocide; climate change and disease. And I will restore our moral standing, so that America is once again that last, best hope for all who are called to the cause of freedom, who long for lives of peace, and who yearn for a better future.

We may not agree on abortion, but surely we can agree on reducing the number of unwanted pregnancies in this country. The reality of gun ownership may be different for hunters in rural Ohio than for those plagued by gang-violence in Cleveland, but don’t tell me we can’t uphold the Second Amendment while keeping AK-47s out of the hands of criminals. I know there are differences on same-sex marriage, but surely we can agree that our gay and lesbian brothers and sisters deserve to visit the person they love in the hospital and to live lives free of discrimination. Passions fly on immigration, but I don’t know anyone who benefits when a mother is separated from her infant child or an employer undercuts American wages by hiring illegal workers. This too is part of America’s promise - the promise of a democracy where we can find the strength and grace to bridge divides and unite in common effort.

I know there are those who dismiss such beliefs as happy talk. They claim that our insistence on something larger, something firmer and more honest in our public life is just a Trojan Horse for higher taxes and the abandonment of traditional values. And that’s to be expected. Because if you don’t have any fresh ideas, then you use stale tactics to scare the voters. If you don’t have a record to run on, then you paint your opponent as someone people should run from. You make a big election about small things.

This country of ours has more wealth than any nation, but that’s not what makes us rich. We have the most powerful military on Earth, but that’s not what makes us strong. Our universities and our culture are the envy of the world, but that’s not what keeps the world coming to our shores.

Instead, it is that American spirit - that American promise - that pushes us forward even when the path is uncertain; that binds us together in spite of our differences; that makes us fix our eye not on what is seen, but what is unseen, that better place around the bend.

That promise is our greatest inheritance. It’s a promise I make to my daughters when I tuck them in at night, and a promise that you make to yours - a promise that has led immigrants to cross oceans and pioneers to travel west; a promise that led workers to picket lines, and women to reach for the ballot.

And it is that promise that forty five years ago today, brought Americans from every corner of this land to stand together on a Mall in Washington, before Lincoln’s Memorial, and hear a young preacher from Georgia speak of his dream.

The men and women who gathered there could’ve heard many things. They could’ve heard words of anger and discord. They could’ve been told to succumb to the fear and frustration of so many dreams deferred.

But what the people heard instead - people of every creed and color, from every walk of life - is that in America, our destiny is inextricably linked. That together, our dreams can be one.

"We cannot walk alone," the preacher cried. "And as we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall always march ahead. We cannot turn back."

moments of what? clarity?

i noticed this morning that i have a disproportionate number of songs in my ipod playlist with the word dancing in the title. it is particularly funny consdering how little real dancing i do, unless you consider wiggling in my seat at work a form of dance, which i believe in some norwegian cultures is actually the most outrageous form of dance currently known.

melissa, jessie, charity, and i got back from our california road trip last week. i hope to post some awesome pictures soon. my camera charger was lost somewhere in my move. it was an epic trip, and i have to say that in 6 and a half days we saw a monumental amount of california and though we did get sick of the car, it was really not that bad. and it was, of course, tons of fun.

today i was making a list of errands i need to run and i nearly started crying as the weight of my unfullfillment and unknown destiny crashed down on me. do you ever have moments like that? i wonder what it was about writing down that i need to buy more breakfast sandwiches that made me just feel a moment of complete dissatisfaction, helplessness, and mediocrity. i'm pretty sure it had nothing to do with the Jimmy Dean de-light sandwiches which i actually find quite tasty with their lowcal egg white, cheese, and turkey sausage goodness. but it's like, ugh, i don't want to deal with feeding myself, making lists and buying things, making money, i don't want to get my car worked on, i don't want to mail my bills, i can't believe i have like 60 more years of this crap. but don't worry. i quickly recovered.
i don't know if these are moments of clarity and insight into the human condition, are they moments of despair, opportunities for change? i guess it could be any of those things. i think the actual line that ran through my head was "God, what am I DOING?"

anyway, the verve has a new album out--it reminds me a little bit of urban hymns, but more of the album before that. as always, sweeping echoing instrumentals. and a chill, somewhat gloomy vibe. i found a fun album called ode to sunshine by a San Diego group called Delta Spirit, it reminds me a little of the cold war kids, whom i also adore.