Just 5 Days Left

Wow, just five days left. Under a week to go. Count down the days on just one hand. Not long to go until...

... until we can all breathe again, clear our heads, have a good night's sleep, move on with our lives and look to the future.

This presidential election campaign has been grueling, not just for the candidates criss-crossing battleground states from rally to rally, fundraiser to debate. It's been tiring for all of us, the electorate, the viewing audience. Nearly two years of campaigning. Non-stop news stories, talking head pundits, political advisers turned news analysts, man-on-the-street sound bites, angry mob interjections, and carefully nuanced biased video biographies of the candidates. Daily polls, and polls of polls, electoral college maps, swing states and county by county splotches of red and blue from 2004.

Taken all together, digested all at once, it's stressful, sometimes gut-wrenching. The anxiety is reaching a high boil. It could boil over with the intensity promised by the 24 hour news channels.

And yet, it's fascinating.

It's gripping, thrilling, inspiring. Already declared historic, before we've even reached the finish line.

The prospect of a true pivotal point in the story of our nation. A moment of truth. A tipping point. An inflection point to reveal a new era. Hope and optimism for something different, a new tone, a new attitude.

Like listening to the overture before the opera's first act. We hear the themes, we can taste what is to come, before actually seeing, living, and experiencing the actual show.

There are very real, important things happening for both myself and my wife. Things that will need attention and understanding. Some study, some preparation, some planning.

I have decided to wait for the election to pass, or perhaps more accurately, to let the 100 year flood of news hype and media attention to drain away with the election, so I can once again breathe, clear my head, and finally focus on important matters at home.

Speak Out Against Prop 8

One of the most succinct and effective ads from the No on Prop 8 folks.

Some additional thoughts: Discrimination is for dumbasses. Leave the California Constitution alone.

Sarah Palin: A Gift to Democrats, More Than Realized

Earlier this evening, I was reading in TIME magazine Joe Klein's interview and analysis of Barack Obama and his campaign: Why Barack Obama is Winning. Klein emphasized how Obama has run a "no-drama" campaign, reflecting both the candidate's personal temperament, as well as an underlying campaign strategy and ability to stay on message which the electorate seems to have found appealing throughout this lengthy campaign.

A day or two ago, Jack Cafferty on the CNN website posed a simple question to the audience: Was Palin as VP pick a mistake? An onslaught of online respondents basically said yes. Some went further to say that Palin was a "gift" to the Democrats. The moment McCain erratically* chose an inexperienced, unknowledgeable governor from a far flung rural state, he not only handed the election gift to the Democrats, he also gave himself a scapegoat for his likely loss to the surging Obama campaign.

Biased Anchorwoman Confronts Biden

Anchorwoman Barbara West of ABC affiliate WFTV in Orlando, Florida, posed some direct and confrontational questions to Democratic vice presidential candidate Joe Biden during a brief satellite interview. West's questions expose her blatant bias for the smear tactics of the McCain-Palin campaign. She repeatedly scrapes at the bottom of the barrel with misleading questions about whether Obama is a Marxist and if Biden is embarrassed about the ACORN controversy. While Biden responded substantively, he also called her out for the slimy quality of her questions. 

Soon afterwards, the Obama-Biden campaign promptly canceled a subsequent WFTV interview with Biden's wife, Jill Biden, citing the unprofessionalism of Barbara West. 

The Drudge Report has posted a link to this YouTube video as its headline story for the moment.

And some people think all media has a liberal bias. Geesh.

High Fructose Corn Syrup Propaganda

The TV ads put out by the Corn Refiners Association in support of high fructose corn syrup continue to drive me and many others crazy over how blatant commercial propaganda is spewed to the public. I've read online that the mere mention of HFCS in an online article, or perhaps even a blog entry like this, will result in the receipt of a stern and lengthy email or letter from the corn refiners touting the so-called misperceptions of the highly processed sweetener. The propaganda campaign is clearly serious business for these guys.

Apple and Google donate to No on Prop 8

The San Francisco Chronicle is reporting that Apple is donating $100,000 to the No on Prop 8 campaign. This is great news and good for the Apple brand. Turns out Google also donated a significant amount. Eric Schmidt is the CEO of Google and also sits on Apple's board of directors, so this is all probably not a coincidence.

Interrupted Sleep Cycle

It's almost 4 A.M. and I seem to have badly interrupted my sleep cycle.  I took a much needed nap yesterday from around 5 P.M. to around 7 P.M. and I've been up ever since.  I tackled a work related report and finished it close to 3 A.M.  I feel almost wide awake, although there are some sleep cycle physical sensations, probably related to the circadian cycle. Fortunately, it's now Friday, so the weekend is just around the corner to hopefully get myself back on a regular sleep cycle.

Unintended Ripple Effect From Bachmann's Comments

Bloomberg news is reporting how Michele Bachmann's recent comments are negatively affecting her re-election campaign, as well as the campaigns of other Republicans in the region. Her comments may even be affecting the presidential election outcome for her state.

She was an idiot to mouth off with McCarthyism on the brain.

Disgusting Extortion Tactics By Prop 8 Supporters

The San Francisco Chronicle has just run an article about threatening letters sent to California businesses from the supporters of Proposition 8 to extort them for donations with the threat of publishing their company names in a list.  This is absolutely disgusting behavior by these hate-mongering, so called "Christian" leaders.  This is quite upsetting!

Really, this sort of bigoted power mongering tactic should result in the revocation of the tax-exempt status of the churches involved.  For literally millenia, the Catholic church and others have severely abused their institutional power, resulting in the slaughter of millions, the obscene oppression of women, the destruction of nations, an ongoing philosophical war against science and scientists, and the continuing discrimination against gays.  I do not understand and certainly do not support major churches having tax exemption in the U.S.

Church and religion is supposed to be about bringing people together, giving meaning to people's lives, and promoting peace.  Any goals behind that, no matter how cloaked in "morality", is a self-serving sham.

I am voting NO on Prop 8.  The abuse of church influence must be stopped here and now.  The hate must end.

Embedded Instant Messenger

Recently, I've been trying to embed a live chat widget into my blog.  For the past week, I had a meebo widget called meebo me installed.  Earlier today, I swapped it out for the newly released Yahoo! Messenger Pingbox widget.

Meebo is a browser based thin-client IM tool that aggregates different platforms, including Yahoo! Messenger and Google Talk.  It worked fine but I didn't entirely get used to managing multiple IM dialog windows within a single browser window.

I do most of my IM with just a small handful of people on Yahoo!, including some of my co-workers.  Having found the new Pingbox widget from Yahoo!, I decided to chuck meebo and try out Pingbox.

It seems to work fine, except I'm noticing that when I view my own blog through Safari on Mac OS X Leopard, the browser sometimes crashes.  It complains that it is Flash related.  I'm unclear whether the problem is with Pingbox or it's something else.  Since Pingbox was released just a couple days ago, and it's the newest widget on my blog, I am assuming that's the source of the problem.

If anyone knows more about this, please let me know.