The big news for our country and the world is of course that Barack Obama has won the presidential election. I would imagine that Europe and Asia are enjoying a collective sign of relief. I think it was one of the most inspirational speeches I’ve ever heard in my life. Simply amazing.

The big news for California is that Proposition 8 to write discrimination into our constitution has likely passed (based on the current election estimates - if this somehow changes I’ll update this). This has a huge and hateful impact on GLBT residents of California who want full equality as intended by our founding fathers. Unfortunately, some people in this country just don’t get it.

What an evening. I was glued to Anderson Cooper (and CNN) for most of the night…the election coverage was pretty good, with a heck of a lot of commentary from both sides of the political system. It’s probably the first time in a long time that I was actually interested an excited about the election - and as I mentioned before, this is a world changing event.

I’m curious to see where it goes from here…

National Election Results - of course the big one here is president. I’m not sure how many people are really even thinking about their local representatives and issues this year unless it’s hotly contested (like the mayoral race in Sacramento, writing discrimination into the constitution, abortion, etc.). I’m certainly not paying nearly as much attention to that as I am to the next president. If you want to get the widgets for yourself, you’ll find a few options for them on msnbc.com.

California Results - the big one here is Prop 8, at least for a lot of people in this state. In Sacramento we’re also looking at the mayoral race, although Kevin J maybe have screwed himself recently by taking his “private tour” of the capital - according to some people being interviewed on NPR, they tore up their support signs when they heard about it. But back to Prop 8. The appropriate response is NO on Prop 8. Don’t allow discrimination of any kind to be written into the constitution, regardless of how you feel about marriage.

This is just a quick one.

This morning on NPR, during a very difficult interview with Obama’s campaign adviser (difficult because the adviser was barely able to speak in coherent sentences, and apparently couldn’t even hear the interviewer most of the time), Robert Siegel (NPR) played an audio clip of a woman in West Virginia who was trying to figure out who she should vote for.

She considered herself a democrat, and was not at all interested in McCain, however, she was also unsure about Obama. Why? Because she thought that if he was elected president he would only care about “his people” and not about anyone else. That’s right…”his people”.

She made a point to mention that she doesn’t consider herself racist, yet she basically insinuated that a black president would only care about black people, without actually bringing herself to say the word black. And all the while delighting us with her WV accent.

I don’t have anything against people with accents.

I do, however, have a problem with ignorance.

The end.

I watched the VP Debate last night (full coverage here on MSNBC Dashboard) and here are my thoughts.

I will begin by disclosing that I am not a republican, and in no way do I share the ideals and beliefs of McCain or Palin. I’m sure that in some way they are both lovely people to their family and friends, but that’s where it ends for me.

Last night’s debate was probably the most anticipated and watched debate of this election cycle, and I’ll venture to guess that more people watched it than the presidential debate (or will for the next one). I will also assume that people were watching to see if Palin would have any repeat performances like her much lampooned interviews with Katie Couric.

I don’t think that she had any major blunders last night - though a few of the questions did throw her for a loop. When the topic abruptly shifted from politics to climate change, she seemed completely unprepared for the change in subject and stumbled pretty heavily over a number of buzzwords. In fact, her performance in the second half of the show was painful - and a republican commentator even mentioned that no matter what republican you put on the stage, they will never win a debate on foreign policy. I think that’s saying something, and it’s not a good something.

Biden was professional, and only once or twice got a bit wind-baggy, which he’s been chided for in the past. He did a bit of repeating - on purpose - which got somewhat tedious, but he was blasting away with facts, figures, and very specific examples for most of the questions asked by the moderator. Palin on the other hand was also professional, when she wasn’t being folksy and “heck ya’ll”, but rarely spoke in specifics. Both candidates were chastised by the moderator for not answering one of her questions, but overall, Biden delivered, Palin did not.

The Palin buzzwords of the evening were “maverick”, “energy producing state”, “darn”, and a few other colloquialisms from up north. Oh and I should mention the best one of the night…Palin said nucular four times in one sentence. That’s right folks, nucular. Not nuclear. Nucular. It’s really hard to tell the American public that you’re not “more of the same”, when you can’t even speak English. And another thing - there is no General McClellan running the show overseas. Get the names right.

I want to bounce back to the opening for a moment, when the candidates met at center stage to greet each other. I’m thinking the mic’s should have been turned off for that, because we learned that Palin and Biden had never actually met each other before, and we also heard her ask “can I call you Joe?”. No Governor, you can not. You can refer to him in the professional manner that he referred to you all night, with your title. Senator and Governor. Not “Joe and Sarah’s Crabshack Debate”.

On to the wrap-up. Both candidates were passionate about their position, although Biden was passionate about Obama’s position AND his own, while Palin was passionate about McCain’s only. She spoke very little about what SHE would do (aside from the direct question on what special tasks McCain wanted her to run as VP) and more about what McCain had voted on, and what he wanted to accomplish. Even the question about what a Palin administration would look like seemed to derail her.

Each candidate ended with a practiced speech to encourage the viewers to vote for their presidential candidate. It wasn’t about Biden and Palin at that point, it was about Obama and McCain. It felt like one big presidential advertisement. Wasn’t this supposed to be the VP debate?

Heck, I don’t know about you but darnit golly gee I wanted to hear some tougher questions and less ridiculousness from Palin referring to Biden’s wife having her “reward in heaven” for being a teacher.

She can just go bless herself.

* Note: And just to make it very clear, my comments about Palin’s performance have nothing to do with her gender. Regardless of her gender I do not believe that someone who only got a passport recently, believes in killing animals for sport, and publicly admits that she’s “only been in this for a few weeks” has any right or experience to be 2nd in command of the United States. A commentator said it best last night - if Palin were in the situation room after 9/11 and was in charge of making the call to shoot down planes coming into US airspace, would you feel comfortable with that? No.

I usually try to refrain from political discourse on this blog, but this was too annoying to pass up. Once again we’ve been treated to some delicious sound bites about the Republican VP contender…

I’m happy to go on the record to state that I in no way support the Republican party, because they, in general, do not support me. Many of them believe that I will go to something called “hell” when I die, and some of them believe that I’m an abomination on the face of the planet because a book told them so. I’m as much of an abomination as Paris Hilton (who I secretly adore). Oh … wait.

Anyway.

America is a very isolated place. When the 11th of September arrived and two of our landmark financial buildings were destroyed, we were shocked. How could this happen in our country? This type of thing happens all the time in other countries - we are just too isolated to ever think it could happen here. I know people who live in the same place they grew up and have no desire to even travel outside the town they live - not even to another state. We have created a self-imposed isolation and it’s not attractive.

Apparently that also extends to Sarah Palin - the person who wants to be your next Vice President. Since she can see Russia from her backyard there’s apparently no reason to go there. Apparently if you can SEE another country there’s really no need to visit is there? Because seeing it from a distance will tell you everything about it: its people, its culture, its ness, its everything. Gosh she must be awfully smart about Russia from all those days sitting on the back porch staring across the waters at another kingdom she wants to conquer. There must be smudges all over the globe in her living room - “Wow, Uganda sure is a pretty shade of blue. I wonder what makes their country so blue?”

According to the NY Times, she didn’t have a passport until last year. LAST YEAR. Who knew that having a passport for less than 18 months qualifies you to be the VP of this country? One would think that at the top levels of government it’s pretty much a requirement that you’ve spent a significant amount of time NOT in your own country, because after all, isn’t running a country about the relationships you build with other countries? We’re not living in a loony lunar colony are we?

For regular Americans I can almost barely sort of but not so much forgive them for not having a passport. Although these figures are dated I’ll use them anyway and say that about 34% of you out there have one. (as of 2007 - USA today reports 74 million out of 281 million have passports) That means 66% have never set foot beyond the borders of this country. They have never experienced another culture first-hand. They have missed out on 90% of the World Heritage Sites. They haven’t seen another country unless they look at a map, much less out the back window of their house. And no, traveling via Google Maps or Google Earth does NOT count. [Listen to her talk to Katie Couric about why she didn't have a passport until recently]

Pathetic. Absolutely pathetic. It’s reprehensible that we expect people to respect us in the world when over half our country isn’t even aware that there IS a rest of the world. It’s no wonder so many non-US comics berate us for thinking we’re the only country on the planet.

If you want to be a citizen of the world, I think you should get out there and SEE the world. Get off your butt, turn off the History Channel, and go out there and see history for yourself.

Otherwise, please go back to your gorgeous house and admire Russia from a distance…and stay there.

And here’s why, from Funny or Die:

http://www.funnyordie.com/videos/64ad536a6d

This just warms my heart on so many levels.

Among the dozens of wrenching accounts to come out of the collapse of the Interstate 35W bridge in Minneapolis, the actions of 20-year-old Jeremy Hernandez were a bright spot: Trapped in a tipping school bus with 50 children, he kicked open the back door and began helping them one by one to safety.

…

Mr. Hernandez was not available to comment on the offer; Ms. Schwartz said he left town for northern Minnesota late on Friday, overwhelmed by the attention and concerned that his co-workers were being overlooked. He spent the weekend fishing. When President Bush’s staff contacted him to request a photo opportunity, “He was just, like, ‘Nope,’ ” she said.

[Link to full article]

And it seems the behaviour is catching on around the world…I just love the French.

WOLFEBORO, United States (AFP) - Cecilia Sarkozy was seen Sunday taking a stroll in the northeastern US town where she and the French president are vacationing a day after she declined lunch with the US president. [Link]