Mi casa, su casa.

I thought that, tonight, which could be the last Friday night of the Democratic Primary Election, it would be fun to let our hair down (more than usual - ?) and share our spaces with one another.

I know it's posted on my profile page here at TPM, but I just updated my myspace.com's sassy self, and I would like to share with you my latest videos and song. 

Please feel free to click away at the blog links, the videos, all the fun whistles and bells, but please respect the privacy of my friends whom I don't display on my home page, that's all I ask.

I would love to see other TPMers' public myspace pages too, so if you're willing to share your space here, please do so.

Meantime, enjoy my new Moveon.org "Bush and McCain Challenge" (it's in my Television section), Bob Cesca's excellent and beautiful mash-up video of Barack and friends serenaded by Roger Waters, and the amazing and gorgeous wunderkind toddler who sings "Hey Jude" and really feels it.

http://myspace.com/lis64

Peace and happy Friday,
Lis

A year ago, I had been a member of Barack Obama’s campaign through his official website for 3 months.  I had already been donating to his campaign since the first quarter of 2007.  I had already read both of his books.  I fervently believed in his vision for America, and I fervently believed he needed all the help I could give him so that we could get there.  I felt our nation was ready for change, but I wasn’t sure just how much change folks could handle.

A year ago, I felt Hillary Clinton was going to prove to be a very strong opponent.  I felt she had every advantage (name, money and “Machine”), and I feared Barack had no chance in hell of even getting close. 

Half a year ago, I thought McCain’s campaign was down the tubes, and worried that it would be a fight between Rudy and Romney on the Republican side. 

Half a year ago, Iraq was more of a concern to most voters than the economy or the price of gasoline. 

Looking back, would any of us have thought that June of 2008 would start like this?  Looking back, what did you think June of 2008 would be like?

Before you answer that, though, I just want to close with a very guilty confession and one more question.  Okay, two more questions.

First, the guilty confession:  I haven’t made a phone call or knocked on a door for Barack Obama, ever.  I went to one meet-up -- ONE -- in Manhattan in February of 2007.  That’s it.

I’ve made it clear to friends, family and coworkers (and fellow drivers) that I am an Obama supporter, and I’ve kept the discourse about him going for a year.   I have donated money to his campaign like crazy, $25 here, $50 there, and when I look at my total dollar amount donated so far I wonder why no one has had me committed.  It’s not huge, to most folks, but to me (and my family, my boss, my friends -- my budget), it’s a lot.

I like to think that’s enough, but then I look at the energy and creativity of some of Obama’s most ardent supporters, people like me who don’t make much or have much, but (unlike me) choose to get off of their butts and out of the house and energize other people -- and I feel lazy as all get out.

My two last questions, therefore, are:

Anyone else suffer from this kind of guilt?  If so, can you give some advice -- or at least a lazy “hell yeah“?

I never used to think I was the possessive type, the jealous type.  Being a doormat most of my life, and a mouse the rest of my life, acting the vengeful woman seemed quite au contraire. 

I’m a happy, peaceful Libra, according to astrology, so I’m supposed to find everything hunky-dory.  It’s  Aries and the Scorpios and Leos that are supposed to shake things up, not happy-go-lucky balanced-scales me.

But I’m the jealous type when it comes to my relationships with men. 

Odd that Hillary Clinton, a Scorpio, isn’t.

I’ve never been one for the feminist scene.  I actually like it when a man opens a door for me.  Part of me actually wishes we could go back to a time when women stayed home and yet could vote.  That’s the lazy part of me (I am a Libra, after all).  Another part of me, which I call Common Sense, likes the fact that I can make a living and bring home a paycheck and save part of it and spend the rest wisely.  Part of me likes the fact that I no longer have to ride on a man’s coattails. Part of me likes the fact that I can make a name for myself, using only my maiden name.

So it’s kind of odd to me that Hillary Clinton is not only riding on her husband’s coattails, but sweeping the whole feminist movement right along with her.

I just can’t figure this woman out.  I can’t figure her feminist supporters out.

But then again, I’m at a point in my life where I can’t figure me out either, sometimes.

I’m going through a mid-life growing spurt, which I like to call my mid-life non-crisis, because I don’t see it as a crisis, I see it as a beautiful awakening.  I see myself as this repressed little chrysalis ready to break out and become the butterfly I started becoming when I was 19, but then suppressed the minute I got into my first long-term relationship, which was followed by my next long-term relationship, and the next….well, you get it. 

Since the beginning of the year (well, longer really), my boyfriend and I have been struggling to keep our relationship going.  We (well, I first, and him second) have come to the conclusion that we are better off being friends and roommates.  Co-ed buddies.  Platonic bliss.  Yin yang without the hang ups.  We’re working this out in a friendly manner, I’m proud and happy to report, and have just moved past what I like to call the “Boyfroommate” and the “Girlfroommate” stage, to the “Official Roommate” stage: 
I ordered my futon mattress today.

(I’m using part of the check George Bush told me to tickle the economy with.  Oops, stimulate.  Whatever.)

I digress.  What I’m trying to say, here, is that if I had stayed with the first guy I left, I’d probably be in jail by now.  I went through a total of three long-term relationships in which never, ever was I cheated on, yet I still found ways to discover that my choices were the wrong ones.  I wasted time being jealous over women who tried to cling to my boyfriends, while Hillary wasted time trying to cover up the women who definitey did more than just cling to her husband.  Where is the jealousy??  Where is the passion?? 

What do I have that Hillary doesn’t have?

I mean, really.

Pride?  More self-esteem than I thought?  Granted, I didn’t have a child with any of my past boyfriends, so of course there’s Chelsea to consider.  Could that be it?  Could that be Hillary’s soft spot?  I don’t know about you, but I get the impression Chelsea would’ve stood by her mom no matter what her mom chose to do regarding that marriage.

Does Hillary have brains, and I don’t?  Could it be she’s so cool and calm and level-headed that she can withstand several proven, published, and even lampooned affairs and still dare to answer the phone at 3 A.M., whereas I, nowadays, if my roommate’s phone rings at 3 A.M., am hoping he’s getting a booty call?

I’m 43 and just finding my voice.  Hillary’s, what, fourteen years older than me?  And she just found her voice in New Hampshire half of a year ago?  Give me a break. 

Mousy little me should be running for President of the Women’s Movement, not Hillary.

I mean, really.

Feminism, schmeminism.  I would love to vote for a woman President.  But I want a woman who’s strong on her own right.  Known for her own name.  And I’d like her to find her voice when she’s 19, and then move on up from there. 

In her own right.

I want to vote for a female Obama, someday.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080527/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/troops_post_traumatic&printer=1;_ylt=AnA27nujknx4cQ9yraTXyXmWwvIE

ON PTSD and our troops.  Definitely worth the read.

I mean it.

Happy first birthday, Aedan!!

As a follow-on to my previous blog from earlier this week, which is no longer here but is available at my blog page (click on my name, scroll down, it’s there), I would like to add some comments about my Republican family.

I drove up to my grand-nephew’s first birthday party with my right-leaning, Independent sister. We talked politics. In between, we played the license plate game (they saw Hawaii on their way to PA recently), the A My Name Is Alice and My Husband’s Name Is…game, and we played the Guessing Game (is it animal, mineral, or vegetable? Is it bigger than a breadbox?) with my 8-year-old niece. My 8-year-old niece stumped us quite a few times, I’d like to add.

My sister and my niece and I agreed Obama Rules and Hillary Drools!  but after that, we sort of got lost in a giggle attack.

My sister and I agree on certain things about Obama, but disagree on most. I respect my sister for keeping to her points, while listening to mine. It’s hard for family members to deal with a huge change in one of it’s members. My sister is handling mine beautifully.  It's also hard to talk politics while driving on the Taconic, and my sister handled it beautifully.

We arrived at the party, which was at a town park which we had mostly to ourselves, and it was gorgeous and the weather was too, and we stopped talking politics for the most part.

My sister’s brother-in-law walked over to us on his way to smoke a cigar, and he ended up talking with us for a half hour. Mostly about his son, who has been in the military for quite a while. As an aviator with the Air Force. His son decided to forego his Air Force career altogether, recently, to sign up for the Army and fight in Iraq. His son started from the bottom, at Fort Benning, where my nephew Johnny trained.

My sister’s brother-in-law spoke with great -- and well-deserved -- pride about his son’s decision.

Later, I met his wife, and she too spoke with pride about their son. But then her eyes teared up and she said, “He’s being deployed to Iraq in November. After that, I just pray.”

My niece in college at Upenn signed up for and worked for Obama’s campaign there. We compared a lot of notes. We both feel good.

Her little sister in high school likes Obama too, and wants the “O’Bama” t-shirt that I snarkily sent to my mother for St. Patrick’s Day.

My mother admitted to me that she’s not all that crazy about McCain, but she and I know that she’s going to vote for him in November. I asked, “Why aren’t you crazy about Obama, then?” and she said that there is something about him she just doesn’t trust. She knows he’s not a secret Muslim, she knows he has an impact on kids these days and she’s happy to see it, happy to see the turn-out for him, but she feels he’s “too slick”. I can understand that, because I said the same thing about Bill Clinton back in the early 90’s.

My family is not “crazy-Republican”. My family is pretty smart. They are conservative, but they are open-minded.

I don’t know how to sway them, and I don’t think it’s my place to do so. Instead, I will just continue being my liberal self and agree to disagree. By example, I hope to show my family that liberals and Indies who are for Obama are approachable.

Sometimes, compromise is the best solution.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XX5WEgqw6pM

Nice to see him keeping the Kennedy Faith.

Heck...nice to see him speaking anytime, really.

Enjoy.