Samantha Pierce

I've been poking around at Change.gov of late to see what the President elect has in store for us. His team has developed a website that is supposed to give the American people a platform to voice their concerns to Obama's administration. The problem is that anybody can get on their soap box, even those with questionable connections to reality and little understanding of how government and America works. Check out the Citizen's Briefing Book , where people can post proposals to be voted on by site users, and see how many mentions of UFOs you come across in 10 minutes. I lost count. It seems that the site has attracted the attention of a host of highly motivated but woefully misinformed individuals. I would hope that the incoming administration has enough sense to recognise crack pot theories when they see them. But since we're talking about politicians and their cronies why don't some of y'all reading this go on over and take a look see. He's your president...

NPR is doing a series on how Obama's election to the Presidency of the United States is playing in Europe. The series, Obama's Election Prompts Soul-Searching In Europe , looks Germany, Italy, and France. As it turns out the grass isn't as green on the other side when it comes to race. German Minorities Still Fight To Be Seen, Heard In Europe, Barack Obama's election as president of the United States was met with euphoria. But now, the continent is peering into the mirror, realizing there is little chance a member of one of its own minorities could reach such prominence any time soon. Take Germany, for instance, where notions of national identity are still strictly linked to ethnicity. Nonwhite Germans are still fighting to overcome exclusion from mainstream society in many ways. I always found it amusing when someone popped up in a blog discussion somewhere to claim that Europe was so much better than the US with regard to race relations. Perhaps now we can lay that p...

With a self identified black man having won the Presidency of the United States one would think that we would stop hearing about how racist America is. One would be wrong, at least according to Bill Moyers. In an interview with Terry Gross of NPR's Fresh Air Moyers claims that whites in the south who didn't vote for Obama did so because of racist beliefs. I waited in vain for the host of the show to challenge Mr. Moyers on his speculation about the motives of southern white McCain voters. Diane Rhem would never have let him get away with saying something so outrageous. As I sat in the car getting all indignant on the behalf of fellow McCain voters I thought, so this racist stereotype of the south is what post racial means? I also thought, what he couldn't think of ANY reasons other than racism why someone wouldn't vote for Obama? Finally I thought, what would he make of me a black woman who didn't vote for Obama and never entertained any fantasies of doing so? As ...

Things are pretty sedate in the house this morning. Sis 1 and I talked this morning of our resignation to gracefully endure the next four years. Interestingly we've both been mistaken for Obama supporters this election season. She in a red part of the state and I in a blue part of the state. I'm not feeling the whole historical first black president thing. The President elect and I are too far apart ideologically for that. Anyway, to President elect Obama I say, good on ya mate and God bless America.

So the long awaited long dreaded day is finally here. Get out and vote already and put an end to possibly the longest presidential campaign in American history. I'll be heading out as soon as the boys leave for school. I don't want to hear about 2012, unless you're talking about the Olympics, until 2012.

Hubby and I are tuned into the VP debate tonight which I may come to regret. Althouse is live blogging the debate. Well that wasn't so bad. Civil and instructive.

A lot of um, stuff, has hit the fan since the announcement of Sarah Palin as John McCain's vice presidential pick. One doesn't expect someone to carry their political opponent's water but this is a bit much. You can keep track of the worst of it at the blogs below. Sarah Palin Sexism Watch Palin Rumors ( backup site in case the main one goes down) If I find more such sites I'll post them. Technorati Tags: mccain , palin , rumors Generated By Technorati Tag Generator

Now here is an interesting argument. A pro-life stance is the lesser of two evils when the other choice is aborting a particular segment of the population based on their genetic profile. The linked post is a call to support McCain/Palin because of the demonstrated pro-life stance of the Republican ticket. I have noticed a certain cognitive dissonance in the online autism community on the issue of abortion. For the most part it seems that abortion is okay unless the individual to be aborted was selected for termination based on their genetic profile. Armed with the knowledge that upwards of 90% of babies who test positive for Down Syndrome are aborted autistic advocates and advocates for autistic individuals rightly fear the development of prenatal tests to detect the potential for autism. The post I linked to above generated the following comment that illustrates the conflict between wanting to protect the life and rights of the unborn autistic individual and wanting to continue abort...

I needed to catch up on sleep last night so I skipped the RNC broadcast. Anne Althouse live blogged the whole thing though. Technorati Tags: mccain , palin , rnc , election , obama , biden Generated By Technorati Tag Generator

I wasn't planning on staying up for the convention but the baby intervened. Since she refused to sleep I'm still up and watching. I caught some of Michael Steele's speech, "Drill Baby! Drill Baby!" Yes please! I also caught most of Romeny's speech, not bad. Now I'm listening to Huckabee. It was worth losing sleep to hear Huckabee drop a Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure reference with regard to Obama's trip to Europe and the comment about Palin getting more votes running for mayor of Wasilla than Biden got running for president. 10:09 PM EDT Oh Giuliani is being rough on Obama. He's got the crowd chanting, "Zero! Zero! Zero!" with regard to Obama's experience. That whole voting present business will be hard to dodge. "Change is not a destination just as hope is not a strategy." Ouch. 10:20 PM EDT "If I were Biden I'd get that VP thing in writing!" Oh Giuliani is merciless! 10:27 PM EDT That whole busines...

Diane Rehm just confirmed that Alaska governor Sarah Palin will be McCain's Vice Presidential pick. I'll post the audio when it becomes available ( here you go ). Maybe this election season will be interesting after all. I wonder what the debates are going to be like. A lot of people are asking who Sarah Palin is. For those of us who have been following the election this year she is a pretty good pick for vice president for the GOP. Blog Reactions NBC Confirms Gov. Sarah Palin As McCain VP Choice McCain Hits It Out of the Park With Palin (UPDATE: ABC says Palin is not the pick -- still in Alaska, UPDATE: CNBC says it is Palin, now confirmed by many sources) The McCain VP choice: Not Huck, Romney, Pawlenty, or Palin(?); Palin buzz alive, multiple sources confirm Palin for America: A true conservative It's a girl? It’s Official! Sarah Palin is McCain’s Veep! McCAIN CHOOSES Brilliant (UPDATED) McCain-Palin Ticket: Reaction By A Swing Voter Instapundit News Reports Alaska Gov....