Today - My eyes got back on the prize.

For a while now - I have been going back and forth with the VP Sweeps diary's - with Obama vacation pics feeling kinda good - but then........Slap - I had to prepare for our event to welcome Howard Dean - to the neighborhood.  And I realized - my eyes have wandered.  It is time to get back focused - eyes on the prize.

A friend of mine, emailed me this story on how women got the right to vote. It's hard to believe that it really wasn't that long ago when women were denied their civil rights and could not vote.
The short story is based on the HBO documentary entitled "Iron Jawed Angels." A chilling tale about the suffragists who braved all odds to see that all Americans have the right to vote.
I put together a funny youtube video starring the Hallmark darling Maxine... Even found a video on the Hallmark site called Maxine for President to add a bit of an uplift to the sad story written by an unknown writer... Video and story below... How Women Got The Right To Vote Website
On Youtube

There's a primary today.  It's a nuisance, top to bottom, pitting a candidate who has been vetted every which way and fervently supported by every legitimate body in the district and state against a person who has been trying to pre-empt and subvert the process at every turn and who espouses views that in many cases are very little short of bizarre, and whose personality has been described in similar words (and worse).  So why should it even matter that people show up and vote for Jim Himes today?

I’d like to tell a story about how I met Senator Obama, talked to him, listened to him and how I was inspired to make a difference.  I’d like to tell a story about how I saw his speech in 2004 or in New Hampshire or Philadelphia or St. Paul or Berlin and how it changed the way I thought about politics.  I could tell that story.  I won’t though.  Because for so many of us it’s already a story well known and well told.  The story I’m going to tell is different.  It’s better.

More below the fold

This rant is going to be short and sweet. While us poor tax paying Americans get gouged at the pump, House Speaker Pelosi decides to take a vacation to prop up her poorly selling book. Where's the LEADERSHIP in that? Come back Congresswoman, we NEED a vote!

I noticed today, as the republicans were making a big noise about staying in Washington over offshore drilling, rather than go home and face their constituents, McCain blustered how he would vote for Offshore drilling if the Congress went back in session.

This got to me to thinking. McCain has not set foot on the senate floor this year. He has missed every important vote. Couldn't be there for FISA, and he was the only senator not to vote on Jim Webb's Veterans bill, which he was against, until he was for it, after it passed.

McCain is saying, he was too busy to show up for our men and women in uniform, but for Big Oil, he'll make the time. He is stating that oil legislation, ie.. taxcuts for Big Oil, is the only legislation he feels is worthy of his vote this year. I think that is a pretty big statement. One which should be noted by the Obama campaign.

I’m going to go ahead and spend some time writing my own diary today. I’m a little irritated. Well, a lot! I got a few bones to pick all with the same theme.

I’m going to go ahead and start with the ignorant bitchasses that keep saying...

"You’re just voting for Obama because he is black!"

I will try and respond to this without cursing or getting angry.
Since I’m a factual kinda gal, let’s look at the facts.

"I live in _______ so no matter what _____ will win, so why bother"

Picture this Sicily 1936, a young peasant girl, a goat, a mule, and two Mafia...err...sorry, wrong diary. (Sorry, I just had to put in a memorial in one of my diaries to Estelle Getty).

But if I may ask a favor for this diary, put yourself not in the shoes of who YOU are, but of someone else... that's why I use the opening quote I did. This is true across party lines. It can be said of all voters, be they Democrats, Republicans, Independents, etc.

Do I believe my vote, or any other vote does not count? No... of course not. But do I know that people have that perception, and for them that perception is their reality, and for them, then, they will not vote? Of course.

<More after the break>

Don't be mistaken, there are many reasons why I support Barack Obama, for instance his positions on health care, education, energy and foreign policy have a lot more to do with my decision to vote for him than his ethnicity.  I admire his stance on lobbyist money and PAC's and the actions he took to eliminate that segment of fundraising from the DNC.  I believe that, unlike his opponent, he has the interests of the people he would lead and represent at heart and is not in the business of saying anything to win.  He is committed, again unlike his opponent, to winning the war on terror and defeating the causes of terrorism; that among them are generational poverty, hunger, lack of education and repressive authoritarian government in the Middle East.

Sick of political attack ads?  Are you afraid to let your children anywhere near a TV during the high political season but still want them to grow up wanting to get involved in politics?

Fear not!  Your Vote Is Magic rides to the rescue.

Give them bunnies.

It might seem like something very simple and straight forward, a candidate who is smart should be elected for the office. But it's not often the case.

The latest public service announcement from Your Vote Is Magic and the Magic of Lyn.

But don't bother checking it out if you're perfectly happy with the status quo or don't care enough to get involved.  

Because, hey, your vote doesn't really matter and you can just let other people tell you what's best for you and let them choose who represents you in government.  We understand.  You're just too busy to be bothered.

That's ok.

Don't look.  Just move along.  Nothing to see here.  Just trust them- it will all be okay.

I start with this preamble just to let you the reader know what time and place I have come from.

I was born in 1965.  My parents were young (at 20 and 18 yo) and semi-innocent, or more likely naive, when they got married and had me 7+ months later...you do the math.  

If I had to describe my Dad in the 60's & 70's, it would have to be "Meathead" (yes, Archie Bunker's son-in-law) without the shouting.  I say "Meathead" because at the time he could have passed for his twin and although I don't remember any political tyrades from him, I felt then and still do that those were his politics.  I think he just didn't think he could be so vocal and still be the head of household he thought he had to be.  Maybe that is why I am not willing to compromise my voice now.

Mom was no "Gloria" though.  I don't know how she did it.  My mom always worked and I know she dealt with the same heart wrenching emotions that I have had to cope with raising my kids as a working mom.  

Once those two steps are completed, Obama said, the government should offer a path to citizenship for existing illegals.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/...

   I admire his honesty and his ability to get it right.

I have to say that he has the attention of everyone that live in a border state when comparing McCains views and flips on the border subject.

From Federal Computer Week:
"The House rejected a bill last week that would have funded the purchase of paper ballots as a backup to electronic voting systems for the upcoming election.

   The bill would have directed the Election Assistance Commission to establish a program to make the grants in time for the November vote."

http://www.fcw.com/...

If Democrats, who lost two presidential elections under questionable e-voting can't pass a bill providing alternative paper ballots to guarantee free and fair elections, then you have to ask "which lobby paid them off?"

This isn't going to be a some intospective, analytical diary, it's going to be about restoring our pride and our standing (the wife and kids are in bed - a few glasses of vino and I'm ready to roll here).  I ask us not to do this only for others but ourselves as well.

I am asking everyone to give what they can, promote when they can and to VOTE for Barack Obama.

Many people are not happy with the two parties or the two party system. It forces candidates to pander to the base during primaries and run to the center during the general election. Both Obama and McCain are going through that now. And what we get in the end is mostly status quo, with just a slight leaning to the left or right depending on who wins in November.

Don't get me wrong, I'm working hard for the Democrats, as I see another 4 or 8 years of Republican rule as being ruinous. But, as Chomsky says, the entire American spectrum, from Democrat to Republican is one single power structure that only seeks to perpetuate itself.

Nothing can really, really change unless we break the two party system, which guarantees a Republican win if any third party candidate gets close.

See below for the real reason why:

This is the most important election of our lifetimes.  We have giant issues that need to be addressed at the local, state, national and international levels.