I have not posted here for several months, so thought it would be good to stop by and check in. It is not that I have not been active on the web.
Quite the contrary, I write almost every day and post to several different blogs. My main political blog is called South by Southwest. I have a secondary one that I call Behind the Links. I often cross-post to a Canadian political blog, The Reaction. I am a regular at TPM Cafe.
In order to provide a wide variety and cover my particular interests, I write about certain themes dedicated to the days of the week. Sunday - the Constitution and national security, Monday - a Republican rant, Tuesday - Congress, Wednesday - activism, Thursday - wars and the Middle East, Friday - the Obama administration, and Saturday - news of other nations.
Happily, I joined Twitter recently, and follow several officials, including Senator McCaskill, V.P. Biden and Senator Grassley (his writing is fun). I also follow David Gregory, George Stephanapoulos and other talking heads.
What I am wondering is what is this blog like? Would it be worth my time to post here? Who reads it? Would it be fun or useful? I would welcome comments.
This has been a stupendous week for our country. With the election of Barack Obama, our long dark night is over. We have hope, help, a plan and the people to get the nation back on track.
But the adjustment will be a decided challenge for just about everyone. No one with feelings will be able to take in the changes without it being stressful. Due to the effort of adjusting, even positive change is stressful.
Original post at South by Southwest (3/5/08)
At around 7:00 PM our two "precinct conventions" (Texas primary "caucuses" to most readers) were gathering where we had voted earlier in the day. There were probably about 200 of us standing in the dimly lit and chilly parking lot and spilling over onto front lawn of the church. Men and women, old and very young, Black and Hispanic and Anglo -- people were visibly excited to be there, though a bit cold and fairly confused about what to do next.
We were among the lucky precincts, however. A middle aged man, who had somehow gotten the necessary manila envelope of instructions and forms, volunteered to get us started. He had been through it before, he said. The man got up into the bed of a pickup and called for nominations for leader and secretary of what I now call the "evening festivities." A man behind me was nominated, a woman volunteered to record, the nominee agreed to serve and they were elected by unanimous and enthusiastic voice vote. We then became stalwarts in waiting mode until the last people in line had voted so the polls could close and the primary vote count (what will amount to 65% of the final total) could start.
