election

Since pixels don’t come with smell-o-vision, I must tell you that these words are being typed in a quiet house that smells of fresh salsa and roasting bell peppers.  The laptop (old, beaten up) is positioned so as to block out the setting sun, which does not come directly through my front door but close enough to force my pupils to readjust.  I have a small party to be at in an hour’s time.  I must not be late, so I must write fast and speak rightly the first time.

The place, now: Huntsville, Alabama.
The place, then: rural Arkansas.

I was a child of the late 1970s, whose memories just missed Jimmy Carter but remembered Reagan dimly through an apolitical child’s eye.  Those who read this site know my story well; I came from a union family in a former mining town.  My tiny hometown, well under three hundred souls at the time, all looked like me because they were almost all related to me.

For those of my friends living in Madison County, Alabama, the Madison County Circuit Clerk’s office has made the 2009 sample ballot available in PDF format.  Get it, study it, do your research on the minor races and cast an informed vote.

For those friends NOT living in Alabama, I’d encourage you to take a look at the amendments proposed on the ballot to understand why we rage about the sheer unbridled awfulness of Alabama’s state constitution.  It is, in a word, embarrassing.  Wikipedia:

Via Think Progress:

A senior campaign aide who agreed to speak on the condition of anonymity admitted that Palin’s knowledge of Russia may be limited to the way someone from Miami might obtain a general feel for Latin America.

“It is very much being able to look off the tip of Alaska,” the aide said. “Metaphorically, I’m talking about.”

I’m considering nominating my cat for vice-president.  He certainly seems qualified now.

Seen on this article at the Burnt Orange Report:

1000 students, along with an additional 1000 friends and supporters, are this morning [Tuesday, Feb 19] walking the 7.3 miles between Prairie View and Hempstead in order to vote today.

Or see yesterday's aerial shots of them walking.

Larger article in the Houston Chronicle here.

I don't know the history here, but this is what I see: the decision not just to speak, but to act. To quote a Farkism:

 THIS.