Well I’m sure you’re all excited about last night, but I must admit to being somewhat disappointed.

While we made a great deal of progress and had some successes, I’m not convinced the euphoria in some quarters (and fear in others) is entirely justified.

If only Obama were a hard core socialist, riding to the Village to pillage and burn the foundations of free market capitalism to the ground.  If only the communist Democratic Representatives were prepared to nationalize the means of production and place management in the hands of the workers, or at least not greedy conmen and thieves of proven incompetence.

Instead I listen to the Village drums pounding out the message of center right bi-partisanship peace.

No justice, no peace.

Here’s an acronym I’m going to be watching, a bell whether or not we’re going to get squat in terms of powder dry performance from the most craven and cowardly group of legislators ever to disgrace the halls of Congress (and frankly, that’s saying a lot)- EFCA.

Supposedly this is a first hundred days priority.

Now sometimes people misunderstand that I am all about electoral victory.  I am a politician and a community organizer.  I am an anarcho-syndicalist not a Stalinist.

Union building is community organizing and has in the past and could again be the institutional infrastructure of the Democratic Party, a permanent counterweight to the organizational abilities of the dominionist fundies AND the financial resources of the corporatists.

You know, not to mention that it would be good for the economy, build the middle class, break down some of the wealth disparity, act as a break on outsourcing.  Little things.

So it just makes sense on multiple levels, but these are Democrats and unlike Wall Street buccaneers they’re more frequently fearful than greedy.

I suspect that some of you may have a passing interest in tonight’s results.

Because I have unlimited essays, I’ll post some open threads for you to express your feelings.

If you want to post your own essay about a particular item of interest please don’t hesitate to do so.  I don’t expect we’ll have to worry as much about traffic as some other sites.

I’ll be busy cranking together Overnight News Digest, so I may not be around much.

I had intended this as my Obama endorsement piece, because have no doubt I’m going to drag myself across 16 miles of broken glass and barb wire to vote for him today.

In Stars Hollow it’s not actually so bad.  I’ve only ever had to stand in a 3 person line once or twice, mostly you chat up the poll workers to keep them awake.  Now that we have optical we have 27 booths and one reader.  The Poll Watchers, both of them, say that if the ballot goes through you’re good to go.  I hope so.  I’m mostly afraid the Flair™ in the booth will be dry and I’l have to flag someone down.

There is a part of me that says bring a spare.

I’m not entirely optimistic as you may suspect.  There are people tugging the other way and it’s a big iceberg.  They’re not going to quit and neither should we.

A little victory, and part of the tugging, will take place tomorrow.

I hope at least for devastating Republican defeat- Red States hemorrhaging blue all over the map.  One party government, dead as the Whigs.  And I’ll dance on the ashes in 2010 before we toss them in the dustbin of history.  This is a mere pre-requisite.

As always we will need to hold Our Representatives accountable for their actions and the clock don’t start ticking tomorrow because I wasn’t born yesterday.  I’m not distracted by shiny objects.  Primary challenges need to begin Wednesday!  Are you better than Club for Growth or not?  You outnumber them 95 to 5!

We have to reform our Corporate Media.  This is at once the hardest and the easiest thing to fix.  It’s the hardest because of the Hypnotoad-

You watch, I know you do.  And you buy stuff too.  Lots of people ride the bus in Montgomery.  Your attention counts more than anything, by merely shifting it you can have an impact.  While I recommend more, uhhh, active actions like changing your habits and expressing your opinions most people are shy and I understand that, but it’s right there beside you.  C’mon.

What makes it the easiest thing to fix is that these preening popinjays are extraordinarily sensitive to public opinion.  These nattering narcissists are so vacuous that without the beaming sunrays of audience approval they shrivel into dust and blow away like a reverse vampire.  Complaint letters are like garlic and a boycott a stake in the heart.  Interestingly enough Bram Stoker’s Dracula was killed by the stroke of a Bowie knife.  Sorry to spoil that for you.

Well, there are other places where you may feel constrained from expressing last minute doubts that our long national nightmare of peace and prosperity is finally over.

Not here!

New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Florida, Virginia, Indiana- McCain runs the table.  Heck, even Stars Hollow turns to the experienced maverick and his oh so cute and smart successor, our very own Caribou Barbie!

Sackcloth and ashes for progressive hopes and dreams.

Ah well, it’s the fight I’ve always hoped for- to the death against impossible odds.

My brewing buddy used to throw Halloween parties for my club.  He’d time them so that they happened the longest night of the year so everyone could stay an extra hour (and hopefully until morning because he’d brew up about 15 gallons).

It was quite a shindig, the peak was about 150 one year when we were politicking.  He was an audiophile and invested thousands of dollars in a CD based dj sytem, mixer, amps, speakers- so good I can still hear the difference between the first and second plays on vinyl.

But you can play CDs a hundred million times exactly the same so- I’ve DJed many Lincoln/Reagan dinners and eaten well (well eaten at least) for free at them, but I’ve never been able to get Republicans to dance after the event.

They can’t wait to get the fuck out of there.

Before dinner you’d play  something that was low and sounded vaguely hip.  We had hours of Steely Dan.  During dinner instrumental new age and after?  For the first few years I’d try, but after that I knew there wasn’t an instant hit that could keep them from their cars.

At the Halloween party we had people in costumes dancing and hooking up, what can I say.  We had to have a woman who was psychotically fixated on me carted off by the police one year.  This led to my brief torrid affair with the nurse who raised Siamese cats and dachshunds and daughters.  She (the nurse, pay attention) thought I was too serious about her and dumped me before Christmas but it all worked out in the end.  She married a biker and is very happy she tells me when she and I and her husband (who I knew before I knew her) meet on ceremonial occasions.

But that was simply one year among many.  We were relentlessly dance oriented at the party, to the point of limiting seating so people were forced to get up and circulate.  Tons of food.  No party games.

At the very first, or one of the very first ones we made the mistake of setting up video game stations and playing videos.  People grabbed the nearest couch.  I’m not sure I was at the last one, but I can understand why my brewing buddy stopped hosting them.  Attendance was down and we’d long since ceased having an agenda.

Logistically big parties are a bitch- 3 or 4 days of work.  I’ve been part of a lot of them come to think of it, one interesting one not a lot of people who know me know about is Gerald’s Party in Binghampton.

Gerald was my next door neighbor in Syracuse and he was kind of a weird dude who kept exotic pets (python, tarantula, monitor lizard).  He didn’t have a car and I did and he wanted to go to this party in Binghamton.  Big.  Live band was arriving Friday, he knew them and we could all crash the night before.

Well, I had a Friday night party, but I told Gerald I’d drop him off and pick him up and he was like- dude.

The Saturday part was quite splashy enough for my tastes.  The band was good and everbody loved them.  I recognized some friends of Gerald’s I’d met the day before so I didn’t feel left out.

I dunno, my inner Emily tells me there is just something classy about a party with a live band.