That goddamned Hillary

My letter to Salon.

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Subject: She'll NEVER get my vote...

...and I'm as staunch a Democrat as they come. Her constant triangulation - supporting the war, banning flag burning, joining Lieberman in his hypocritical moral crusades - betray a fundamental contempt for the intelligence of the American voter. Does she think we don't notice that she has no core principles of her own, other than "more power for Hillary"?

And yet, ironically, those contemptible, calculated attempts to appeal to the broadest portion of the electorate only demonstrate her own lack of intelligence. How can she not realize that nearly two decades of demonization by the right and the media have rendered her utterly unelectable to the majority of voters in the heartland? And that her nomination would only motivate those who follow the religious right into never-before-seen levels of turnout, launching an avalanche of Republican votes at all levels of the ballot?

Either she doesn't know, in which case she's stupid...or she doesn't care, in which case she's arrogant and stupid. In either case, I'll cast my vote for a write-in or third party candidate before I'd vote for her. That way, when she loses and the Democrats lose the House and Senate, I'll at least have the meager pleasure of (once again) being able to say "I told you so".

(Not to mention that she has already broken her oath of office as a Senator by failing to try to filibuster the abolition of habeas corpus. Of course, EVERY Senator is guilty of the same thing, including the Republicans.)

I'll admit that if I lived in a state where my vote actually mattered, I'd be more troubled by the idea of not voting for Hillary if she won the nomination. But fortunately (?), I live in a state that's so blue that my vote on the Presidential level is absolutely meaningless.

I'll never vote for a Republican, but I've written in candidates before and I'll do it again if I must. Yes, it's throwing my vote away...but it would have been wasted anyway. At least this way I'll be taking a stand that I can be proud of. And maybe, maybe the Democratic Party "leadership" - if that's the correct word for them - will get the message.

But I sincerely hope that Ms. Clinton tanks in the primaries, so I won't have to make that choice.

That goddamned Hillary

My letter to Salon.

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Subject: She'll NEVER get my vote...

...and I'm as staunch a Democrat as they come. Her constant triangulation - supporting the war, banning flag burning, joining Lieberman in his hypocritical moral crusades - betray a fundamental contempt for the intelligence of the American voter. Does she think we don't notice that she has no core principles of her own, other than "more power for Hillary"?

And yet, ironically, those contemptible, calculated attempts to appeal to the broadest portion of the electorate only demonstrate her own lack of intelligence. How can she not realize that nearly two decades of demonization by the right and the media have rendered her utterly unelectable to the majority of voters in the heartland? And that her nomination would only motivate those who follow the religious right into never-before-seen levels of turnout, launching an avalanche of Republican votes at all levels of the ballot?

Either she doesn't know, in which case she's stupid...or she doesn't care, in which case she's arrogant and stupid. In either case, I'll cast my vote for a write-in or third party candidate before I'd vote for her. That way, when she loses and the Democrats lose the House and Senate, I'll at least have the meager pleasure of (once again) being able to say "I told you so".

(Not to mention that she has already broken her oath of office as a Senator by failing to try to filibuster the abolition of habeas corpus. Of course, EVERY Senator is guilty of the same thing, including the Republicans.)

I'll admit that if I lived in a state where my vote actually mattered, I'd be more troubled by the idea of not voting for Hillary if she won the nomination. But fortunately (?), I live in a state that's so blue that my vote on the Presidential level is absolutely meaningless.

I'll never vote for a Republican, but I've written in candidates before and I'll do it again if I must. Yes, it's throwing my vote away...but it would have been wasted anyway. At least this way I'll be taking a stand that I can be proud of. And maybe, maybe the Democratic Party "leadership" - if that's the correct word for them - will get the message.

But I sincerely hope that Ms. Clinton tanks in the primaries, so I won't have to make that choice.

Sebastian Updates

Tonight Sebastian was in bed with Teri, watching The Jetsons. I never much cared for the Jetsons, but I watched a bit of it with them. It was a really freaky episode, so strange that I wondered if it was a real episode or some sort of wierd parody which had been made recently. Boomerang has some of those, sometimes, and they can be pretty damned strange.

When I came in, George had just had his teeth replaced with "techno-teeth". But right after he left the dentist's office, it was discovered that they were the wrong teeth - they were dog teeth. The dentist left on vacation without correcting the problem, though.

The whole teeth thing was really, really strange, and I commented on that several times to Teri. But otherwise it was typical Jetsons, so I got bored and went over to the den to update my character sheet.

After a little while I heard screams of terror from Sebastian. "Turn it off! Change the channel!" he screamed, sobbing hysterically. Teri was just changing the channel as I came in.

Apparently George Jetson had suddenly and unexpectedly turned into a vampire, scaring the living daylights out of Sebastian. He was SO upset, in fact, that after a few more moments he puked, violently, everywhere. On my comforter, on Teri's quilt, on the cover sheet and the matress cover, and on himself.

We showered him off, and he begged to sleep with us tonight so he could hold me all night long ("Why doesn't he want to hold me?", Teri wondered). Now he's asleep in our bed.

Looks like I'll be up late, washing and washing our bedding. This hasn't happened in quite a while.

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I forgot to say, on Saturday the guys came over to play D&D. The last time they'd come Sebastian had been super-shy, and spent the whole time hiding from them; they never actually got to see him. This time, he started out by peeking out from his hiding space between the two couches. But before long his curiosity overcame him.

At first, he just peeked into the dining room from the front hallway. But before long he was being far more open about it. He put two new Christmas stockings that Teri had bought on his feet; they looked astonishingly like elf boots, apart from the tendency to sag down and fall off. Waving his little plastic sword and shield, he kept coming part-way into the room and making funny faces at everyone. They're all relatively young, and mostly ignored him, but I was hard put not to crack up.

He was clearly fascinated. Even when he wasn't in the dining room, or walking through it (over and over), he was making very loud noises of excitement from the living room. It was really quite funny.

I'll make him a roleplayer yet!

Oh, by the way: I'm going to do my very best to get him to dress up in his Link costume, with those stockings on his feet, and take some pictures of him with his sword and shield. They'll be absolutely hysterical. And of course I'll post them here.

Sebastian Updates

Tonight Sebastian was in bed with Teri, watching The Jetsons. I never much cared for the Jetsons, but I watched a bit of it with them. It was a really freaky episode, so strange that I wondered if it was a real episode or some sort of wierd parody which had been made recently. Boomerang has some of those, sometimes, and they can be pretty damned strange.

When I came in, George had just had his teeth replaced with "techno-teeth". But right after he left the dentist's office, it was discovered that they were the wrong teeth - they were dog teeth. The dentist left on vacation without correcting the problem, though.

The whole teeth thing was really, really strange, and I commented on that several times to Teri. But otherwise it was typical Jetsons, so I got bored and went over to the den to update my character sheet.

After a little while I heard screams of terror from Sebastian. "Turn it off! Change the channel!" he screamed, sobbing hysterically. Teri was just changing the channel as I came in.

Apparently George Jetson had suddenly and unexpectedly turned into a vampire, scaring the living daylights out of Sebastian. He was SO upset, in fact, that after a few more moments he puked, violently, everywhere. On my comforter, on Teri's quilt, on the cover sheet and the matress cover, and on himself.

We showered him off, and he begged to sleep with us tonight so he could hold me all night long ("Why doesn't he want to hold me?", Teri wondered). Now he's asleep in our bed.

Looks like I'll be up late, washing and washing our bedding. This hasn't happened in quite a while.

---

I forgot to say, on Saturday the guys came over to play D&D. The last time they'd come Sebastian had been super-shy, and spent the whole time hiding from them; they never actually got to see him. This time, he started out by peeking out from his hiding space between the two couches. But before long his curiosity overcame him.

At first, he just peeked into the dining room from the front hallway. But before long he was being far more open about it. He put two new Christmas stockings that Teri had bought on his feet; they looked astonishingly like elf boots, apart from the tendency to sag down and fall off. Waving his little plastic sword and shield, he kept coming part-way into the room and making funny faces at everyone. They're all relatively young, and mostly ignored him, but I was hard put not to crack up.

He was clearly fascinated. Even when he wasn't in the dining room, or walking through it (over and over), he was making very loud noises of excitement from the living room. It was really quite funny.

I'll make him a roleplayer yet!

Oh, by the way: I'm going to do my very best to get him to dress up in his Link costume, with those stockings on his feet, and take some pictures of him with his sword and shield. They'll be absolutely hysterical. And of course I'll post them here.