I was exhausted from it the way I get exhausted from good sex.
3.
Laura W
No.
Yes.
Overly saturated, as evidenced by my ability to scan blogs now instead of devouring every word and considering every thought and nuance. Sometimes I go HOURS without checking blogs! Even this one!!
I am not even paying attention to KO and Rachel when their shows are on. I have not much mental or emotional attention left for those realms right now.
4.
Just Some Fuckhead
Walking dead. I don’t sleep well anyway. Gonna go down and see my folks in Florida for Thanksgiving. That’ll give me a chance to recharge AND rub their faces in our victory. They think Obama is the antichrist so I think I’m going to stencil little numbers on our foreheads or forearms and tell ’em all the Obama supporters got them.
5.
Raenelle
I got sick the day after the election. I think I just collapsed with relief.
I’m trying a little to keep up with what’s going on. But I’m outrage averse at the moment, willing to let more patriotic folk remain vigilant while I just trust for a bit that we’re safe now, and things will get better.
My daughter keeps e-mailing me about Paulson and Hillary and whatever issue du jour. She wants to know what I think. Nothing really. Is that laziness or contentment? Whichever . . . Today, Salon introduced me to the Lolcats site. I think I’ll hang out there a while..
6.
NR
No. There are still three more Senate seats to be decided. Once those are over with, then I’ll be exhausted.
7.
Polish the Guillotines
Not from the election, so much. More from the anticipated (already underway) bullshit the wingtards will be subjecting us to for the next 4 to 8. And anxiety over whether or not my job will remain safe for the near future. And whether or not my mortgage stands a chance of getting restructured to get my head above water.
Oh, and this friggin’ zombie chest cold.
But I’ve found the antidote to all of it: Black Ice.
It’s reassuring to know that in this Time Of Great Turmoil and Uncertainty(tm), five old dudes from Australia still know how asses are supposed to be kicked.
8.
Krista
I’m exhausted from:
1. Our election
2. Your election
3. Packing, lugging, and unpacking our entire office to our new location.
4. Packing to move to our new house (yes, I’m dealing with an office move and a house move in a three-week span. Kill me now.)
5. Laying floor and doing finish work in the aforementioned new house.
6. Getting ready for Christmas
9.
ET
Not only exhausted but sort of at loose ends.
This consumed so much energy and time that now that we have a president- elect and it is the one I wanted, but it is between the old 43) doing nothing and the new (44) not doing anything yet. I am not exactly sure how to proceed. I keep feeling like I need to check to make sure my clothes and house are in order – like something vital is missing.
10.
JGabriel
I’ve been sleeping a lot more.
I can’t tell if that’s exhaustion, or just boredom.
This election just wore me out completely…months ago.
There’s only so many times I could go.."OMFG!!! I can’t believe people are this (insert whatever)…the snark in me packed up and moved to a sunnier clime.
The link above (and I hope I did this right..I googled the BJ refresher to do it) is a great article about the Wall Street Collapse. There really are people who should be drug out, put up against a wall and shot…
Preferably in front of the NYSE, and leave the blood and gore on the wall so others who might want to go down this road have that visible reminder.
In Bakersfield, California, a Mexican strawberry picker with an income of $14,000 and no English was lent every penny he needed to buy a house for $720,000.
14.
raff
Is it just me, or is everyone else exhausted from the election?
Actually, yes. Yes I am. But it’s more than that. I feel sort of deflated. For the last year & 1/2, I’ve felt a sense of… urgency (& perhaps some low-level anxiety). I consumed political news almost obsessively — to the point of distraction — everything building up to Nov 4th. Now that it’s over, I feel like I’ve exhaled a deep breath that I’ve been holding for 18 months.
Of all the emotions I’ve experienced since Obama’s win (& I’ve run the gamut), the strongest has to be: Relief. I’m relieved not just that the election has come to an end, but that something new is just beginning. I can’t predict the contours this "something new" will take, but, for once, I’m (guardedly) opptimistic instead of (openly) cynical. And for that, I can finally breathe a sigh of… relief.
15.
mgordon
Exhaustion? more like withdrawal. I still check 538 about 4 times a day hoping to see some polling data. God I can’t wait for Obama vs. Palin in 2012.
16.
MattF
I think there’s some zombification going on, particularly on the right. Democrats need to just walk away from it (and repeat "I’m alive"), but… it’s just too awful not to gawk and point.
17.
Warren Terra
Sarah Palin seems to have lots of energy, she’s already given more press conferences and as many major interviews as she did during the election.
Of course, that continuing phenomenon may be contributing to the low ebb many of us find ourselves in …
And sick to death so I am down to reading BJ and TPM. The shrieking around the rest of the blogosphere is just fucking tedious. ZOMG! Obama’s gonna pick HRC for State. ZOMG! Obama’s gonna turn America into a socialist state. ZOMG! I think I’ve got whiplash.
But what I now have is some very fine abbey-style ale from Ommegang Brewery, nice thick ribeye steaks, and a beautiful view of the fog setting in over the river across the street.
BTW I hope none of our BJ commentariat is in the path of those LA fires. Mother Nature is pissed at somebody and she’s taking no prisoners.
19.
Brett
Exhausted. I’m not even reading all of the bullshit Horse Race-style stories in the newspapers anymore – they’re just tiring. I’m especially tired of turning on the cable news and seeing tons of goddamn Sarah Palin; can’t the woman just go back and stay as Governor for a while, already?
I was hoping that David Gregory would lose his cable hosting spot on MSNBC. No such luck.
Don’t remind me. My kids started writing their lists in July.
22.
Redhand
What I’m exhausted about is the continued presence of Sarah Palin on the national stage weeks after the election is over.
I was mailing something in the post office today and they had CNN on the tube advertising an upcoming Palin appearance on Larry King to talk about 2012! A media whore pimping for a political one.
The President-elect hasn’t even been inaugurated yet and already this big-hair, incoherent, money-grubbing and absolutely clueless harpie is talking about a run for President in four years. The sheer presumptuousness of the stupid bitch is sickening.
I’ll never forgive McCain playing Pandora and unleashing this creature on us. Once out of the box, never back in.
I bought a closed on a house the same week I got married. That was sheer hell.
25.
Laura W
Let’s start a Post-Election, Pre-Inauguration Under the Bus Throwing List of Words & Phrases, 08-09.
I’ll go first.
TEAM OF RIVALS
I’m too exhausted and spent to search my brain archives for the many other offenders that surely exist.
26.
Brachiator
Is it just me, or is everyone else exhausted from the election?
I think that Doonesbury had a couple of funny strips related to this.
But largely, I have still been basking in the warm afterglow of Obama’s electoral victory, made extra toasty by watching the Republican Party implode.
I was impressed by Obama’s first press conference, especially that moment at the beginning of the press conference when Obama reacted with a smile and "Oh, wow…" when the press stood up for the President-elect.
I was delighted with watching historian Doris Kearns Goodwin practically jump up in her seat like a little schoolgirl on the post election episode of "Meet the Press," as she considered the possibilities of an Obama administration.
I watched the PBS Frontline episode about Obama’s rise, particularly the speech he made at the Democratic convention. I noted from the shots to the faces of some of those present how he touched people even then. It was very interesting to watch Chelsea Clinton jump up out of her seat and applaud Obama, and also to watch her mother react with enthusiasm. Funny how things work out, but also interesting to see how the path was set by this early beginning.
I watched the host of a local PBS show, "California’s Gold" go to the campus of Occidental College, which Obama attended for a couple of years. The host interviewed one of Obama’s political science professors, who claimed — as to be expected — that he remembered Obama and that he was a good student. But then the professor went on to note that he read in one of Obama’s memoirs that Obama seemed to think more seriously about political issues shortly after the time of his attendance at Occidental.
And then, this now elderly professor spoke unprompted about how he voted for Obama, and how nervous and excited he was, and how carefully he marked Obama’s name on the ballot. Somehow, for reasons that I cannot fully articulate, this last bit really made me smile.
I am not tired because in some ways this really may be our moment. With a sense of hope and optimism about politics that I have not felt in quite a while, I can’t wait to see what happens next.
27.
jcricket
I think the Minnesota recount, the Alaska Senate race and the Georgia run-off have now taken over as my objects of obsession. 60! 60! It’s magic! I tell you.
Seriously, I have post-election-partum-depression (or psychosis, hard to say).
28.
Comrade Stuck
Blah Blah Blah
My sentiments on politics generally. We are now deep in the lame duck zone with nothing really new to talk about, lest it be speculation on what Obama might or might not do. And speculation always makes me blah. However, it is Saturday and once again time for the special at The Funhouse & Roadhouse Cafe (FARC)
Today’s entree will offer the rare treat of
Cheney Fried Friend Face Fillets (buckshot removed, but not eyes) smothered in a dancing sauce made from torture tears and the milk of human kindness (curdled)
I was so sure the republicans had figured out how to steal elections that I had been steeling myself for a McCain win despite the polls. I still think they stole the last 2, mainly thru massive voter suppression and roll scrubbing, but had to let this one go simply due to overwhelming factors.
In any event, I cried off and on for days after Obama won. The pent up relief, agony, despair was a broken dam. Of course, I am now steeling myself for Obama to run to the right like Clinton to prove he’s not a radical leftie. And of course the repubs have robbed and looted things beyond the mind’s capacity to fathom. If you’ve read "Shock Capitalism" by Naomi Wolf, it is possible to realize that the whole urgent bailout was a planned event. Norquist’s strangling governemnt – aka "starving the beast" protocol – seems to have been successfully enacted beyond their wildest dreams.
Now Obama cleans up the mess. The Dems will infight and screw everything up. Their failure to investigate and prosecute Cheney/Bush indicates they are nearly complicit in the last 8 years and I expect little from them. The only thing I can celebrate is the temporary 4 year eviction of republicans from government agencies which can now operate under the dictum of their directives instead of opposing it. And, of course, the national dialogue will finally be something approaching sanity since Obama will have the bully pulpit. That I look forward to immensely.
I was floored when O gave his first post election press conference and I realized I could actually listen to my president and expect a rational series of statements and arguments to proceed from his lips, extemporaneous, that weren’t shallow talking points and mindless teleprompter drivel. That excited me a great deal and I remain deeply fascinated by what he will try to do with this mess. I am now, however, in a news funk because all the useless speculation swirling around is well, useless. I need more Obama screen time.
31.
Betsy
Yes, exhausted. But my outrage isn’t yet over, because my hometown is still in shambles and both the state and federal gov’ts are doing fuck-all about it.
And talk about burying the lede: the key line here, about halfway down, is "so far the federal and state governments have not come through with aid."
32.
raff
Let’s start a Post-Election, Pre-Inauguration Under the Bus Throwing List of Words & Phrases, 08-09.
"Center-Right Nation". Delusional bullshit.
"[somebody] the [something]", as in "Joe the Plumber". Stop using it. Even ironically. Just stop.
"Social/ism/ist". As a scare word, it’s weak tea… for anyone under 50 it has no meaning.
33.
LiberalTarian
Well, I have to admit, there is a vacuum where my interest in "finding out what BS the GOP did today" has gone.
I mean, I want to see them investigated and incarcerated, but unless the fine the bejeezus out of them, how can we make them feel any pain for what they did?
And, honestly, I am just bored to death with GOP clown shoes. How many times can you watch that movie?
And, I think I’m sick. So, in answer to the original question …
I think so.
34.
jrosen
This is my 13th President and I’ve never cared more (even though I had a personal stake with Dukakis since I knew him…good luck with that!) — and the only thing saving me from a crash is the NBA season. I still check the paper every morning and Obama still wins, every day. Unbelievable.
I’m too old to expect miracles, however.
35.
Laura W
@lovethebomb: Great post. Speaking of "shallow talking points and mindless teleprompter drivel", anyone catch Bush today live from the G20? ‘Nuff said.
"Y’all hear I’m retiring?" (Interesting term for it, anyway.)
"Goodbye!’
Thank Allah I am nearly done with Top Chef premiere on tape, then onto TDS/Colbert from last Thurs, and then Maher from last night.
Food, wine and LAUGHS.
Bring it on.
36.
Wini
Exhausted, yes. I’ve even started deleting some of my RSS feeds in the interest if gaining back some semblance of a life, and because some of the discussion going on is downright tiring. But, being that I am in MN, I will be tuning in to the recount efforts closely.
Laura W: "recount"; only because it will no doubt tire me out even more.
37.
gex
Not at all blah here. Went to the Minneapolis equal marriage protest. Got to hear people claim that next we’ll want to marry sheep. So no, not feeling blah at all. Kinda angry and motivated to tell you the truth.
38.
Sketch
Well, personally, I’m still hooked on fallout 3…
39.
littlesky
Yeah, 8 years of sustained outrage is very exhausting.
40.
dewberry
I too am tired of being outraged.
I was in a major spot of anxiety–the emotions of the election, a hangover from hurricane Ike–everything just combined to make me seriously on edge.
Now, although my stock portfolio still sucks, I continue to feel relief that there will be grownups in charge. And that’s borne out by the fact that I can actually sleep better at night.
I do think I’m somewhat politicked-out. I can’t get whipped up into a frenzy about who’s going to be secretary of state. But, I’m following the remaining senate races, just not obsessively (but I do check mudflats from time to time).
Is it just me, or is everyone else exhausted from the election?
It’s just you.
But serially, I’m not exhausted from the election. It was the greatest event in this country in my lifetime, and I am glad I was here to see it.
What’s more, this is not the time to be exhausted. The next couple of years are going to be hard as hell, and possibly historic, in terms of economic woes, and hopefully, in terms of government’s ability to serve its citizens in such times.
As Democrats, we have some challenges in front of us if we are going to hold onto the important government buildings for a long time. One obvious one that I see is that the party is turning anti-labor while becoming even more anti-management at the same time. The current lack of urgency about the automakers’ crisis is a good indication. If there is a more anti-labor point of view than shrugging at the collapse of industrial employment and its revenue stream for industrial retirees, I can’t imagine what it would be. If the moribund GOP can turn around its neglect of a few interest groups, like labor and hispanics, it can get itself back into competition quickly, IMO. A depression on the backs of what remains of industrial USA is not exactly going to win Democrats a lot of votes in the next couple of election cycles.
Another challenge before Dems is the political center. Dems at the left are acting like George Bush did in 2004, as if they now have political capital. I don’t think they do. I think political capital is going depend entirely on our ability to deliver to the middle of America in the worst times since the Great Depression, and in case we haven’t figured this out yet, bitching about executive salaries and raising taxes on the rich are not going to feed the bulldog. Something a little more creatively progressive than that is going to be needed.
No, I’m not exhausted by the election. I’m exhausted by your being exhausted by the election. Rest up, get it in gear. Two of you guys are big college egghead cheeses. Give us the epic smart. Smart us up. Get to work.
42.
canuckistani
Depressed, like Christmas afternoon. I have all year to play with my new toys and games, but the excitement and tension are over.
43.
burnspbesq
Not exhausted, but definitely distracted today. Fires burning out of control all over SoCal, including one about four miles from my house.
We’ve never had to evacuate, but I just have a bad feeling about this one.
44.
Xecklothxayyquou Gilchrist
@NR: No. There are still three more Senate seats to be decided.
Yup. And did the Missouri presidential vote get sorted out?
We are going to have to be re-programmed for the flipside of outrage. We will be inundated with mostly phony outrage from the right, which will be annoying, but not hard to deal with. The real test of patience and source of wracked nerves will come from disappointed liberals "concerned" and outraged at centrist governance, from a dem preznit and congress. And finally, if Obama goes to far right to please wingnuts and we all join in the outrage. I don’t expect a lot of this, but who knows.
All of it better to deal with than 8 years of endless arrogant stupid.
46.
lovethebomb
@Laura W : Nice idea. For those who don’t know, the super secret password to get Bill M. on youtube is TULLYCAST3. I’ve just started this Friday’s show and it rocks.
QUITE exhausted for reasons detailed. Palin especially is in ‘how can we miss you if you won’t go away’ mode, and I am wearied.
48.
iluvsummr
I’m relieved to find that I can now go for a couple of days without watching TV or visiting blogs. I was worried I might need to go into rehab for a blog addiction. Now if I can only get myself to throw out this awful Salman Rushdie book I started reading after the election… I’m one of those odd people who has to finish a novel once I start it, no matter how excruciating it is to read…
Went to the Minneapolis equal marriage protest. Got to hear people claim that next we’ll want to marry sheep.
Naaaaaaaaaaaaaah ;)
50.
Laura W
Tonight’s Balloon Laugh Juice installment brought to you by: Bitter Childless Women with Too Many Cats On Lap Making It Hard To Use Laptop But Typing Over Cats And Pressing On:
Ricky Gervaise Stand Up Special, HBO, 9EST.
Wine optional.
But Highly Recommended.
Now rejoining Maher in progress….
@iluvsummr: Which of his awful books are you trying to read?
I have found everything except Midnight’s Children either turgid or flat and boring as hell…
55.
pattonbt
Well my work is happy, because starting last week I began churning out work at a great rate again. I mean, man, I never realized how much the election had taken up my time. Maybe thats because Hopey was the first candidate I actually believed in and wanted from the get go who won. Either way, my productivity was probably half what it normally was.
Now….Its kind of weird. I still check the main sites but the frequency is dwindling and some sites are starting to drop off. I scan a lot more instead of read and I ignore comments sections altogether (except here for some reason, I like this place). Wonkette is becoming central again now that I can laugh a bit more.
But Ive never put too much faith in politicians and dont expect Hopey to save the world (my Unicorn would still be nice though). I know no politician or governmental system will match my beliefs completely which is probably a good thing. Im just happy enough that we have an intelligent adult in the white house. So Im not going to sweat the small stuff for a while.
And while set backs like prop 8 suck, the social pendulum is still swinging in the right direction. The long term view for social justice issues are positive. I know it must suck hard for those directly impacted in the short term, but the world isnt perfect and we will get there. These issues take time unfortunately.
And in closing, I just want to say this once. To all the Clinton Puma deadender naysayers – I Told You So and Fuck You! I knew Hopey would crush (just as I knew Clinton would if she won the nomination). So suck on it (primary venom now vented).
Well my work is happy, because starting last week I began churning out work at a great rate again. I mean, man, I never realized how much the election had taken up my time.
I have an artistic hobby and for the month before the election I had a creative block. I missed project deadlines and I simply could not produce anything. I couldn’t start new pieces; I couldn’t work on the ones in progress. Nothing, nada, no flow. I didn’t blog either.
It wasn’t immediate after the election, but starting earlier this week I started to think of ideas and begin to be able to envision finished projects again. Yesterday, I didn’t get out of my pjs until 1 pm because I was so busy. So that feels good. And I’ve written more in the last few days than in the month leading up to the election too. I freelance write, so that’s a good thing.
A crowd estimated at 20,000 by police and 25,000 by organizers marched downtown Saturday to protest the passage of Proposition 8, with one arrest of a counter-protester reported during the otherwise peaceful event.
A man identified by police as a member of the anti-illegal immigration group San Diego Minutemen was arrested about 12:30 p.m. at Sixth Avenue and Ash Street following a fight, said San Diego police Capt. C.J. Ball.
59.
Litlebritdifrnt
Bragging, on my husband’s babies. West Columbus High School Marching Vikings Half Time Show 2008 – The Lion King. They made Grand Champion at the Stallion Classic this year, something my DH had been working for, for 10 years. He finally got it.
Also, welcome to SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder) Season. Adding some full-spectrum bulbs to your artificial lighting can seriously improve your mood, and the new energy-efficiency paradigm has made such bulbs way cheaper than they were a few years ago. Of course in a perfect world we’d all get up earlier & let natural sunlight caress our pineal glands, but let’s be honest — (most) bloggers think of sunlight as the stuff that leaks around the blackout curtains to damage our limited editions.
I still think they stole the last 2 [elections], mainly thru massive voter suppression and roll scrubbing, but had to let this one go simply due to overwhelming factors.
Hell, *I* still think 1988 was the Repug’s successful trial run for this kind of electronic tweaking. I said so at the time, and all my software-competent friends told me that, sure, it was technically *possible*, but we Americans would never stoop to that kind of pismire third-world chicanery! (cue bitter laughter).
Just a few months ago a historian uncovered physical proof that Jefferson’s supporters stole a few crucial votes to ensure Tom’s election, so I live in hope that we’ll eventually get the details of the specific illegalities Lee Atwater apologized for on his deathbed.
61.
Laura W
@Litlebritdifrnt: OK, so I’m 3 min in…is that your husband with the long, brown tail and the white paws?
(What part of NC are in you again? Apparently it’s snowing at a friend’s house 20 mi. west of me, and about 1,000 ft. higher.)
62.
Litlebritdifrnt
Laura – I am in eastern NC Jacksonville to be precise, my DH teaches at West Columbus, in Cerro Gordo NC, just before you get to the NC/SC border. From the beginning of the Video you see the guy striding about in the burgundy turtle neck? That is my DH.
I’m just coming to terms with the fact Obama won. So, no.
64.
JL
@skippy: Thank you for the election night slide show. There were several photos that I had not seen. Obama will be announcing his Cabinet positions soon and the blogs will be filled with opinions. Until then we are going have to fill the time with blogs about wine, beer, cats and dogs.
WTF happened to Sadly, No!? BJ v. 1.0 never looked so befucked.
66.
Laura W
@Litlebritdifrnt: Well I am relieved that it was not your DH with the long, brown tail and facile white paws conducting the band and wiggling his cute little lion hiney in time because I would not want to hurt you by saying I had a crush on him after watching all 10 minutes. Very sweet.
67.
Portlander
Exhausted.
68.
Litlebritdifrnt
Laura *lol* – Larry is the most excellent of drum majors, in fact my favorite part of the whole video is at 7:52 when Larry jumps off the stand to get into the big part of the song, it is so perfect. My DH’s kids are so awesome, and I am so proud of them.
69.
Delia
I find myself tired of my favorite blogs, bored and depressed. It may also be the incipient holiday season. But I feel like I really need to wean myself from politics and start doing something useful for a change.
Maybe we need more threads about cats.
Oh yeah. And I just discovered, via the intertubes that the final season of Battlestar Galactica comes back in January. I’ve been wondering where that was. I hope they’ve got change we can believe in.
70.
iluvsummr
@Tattoosydney: Slogging through "The Moor’s Last Sigh." I mean it does have its moments. There’re just too few of them. Should have picked Midnight’s Children – most people I’ve spoken to recommend it.
71.
robertdsc
The CA fires have fouled the air something fierce and the soot is everywhere. it was weird seeing the sun as bright orange through the smoke.
As for the election, I’m glad Obama won. I’m glad he’s already made changes I support. I love the fact that I can use the term "The President" and have pride rather than disgust. I love the fact that Obama’s Secret Service name is Renegade.
I hate the fact that Dubya is beyond lame duck status. I hate the fact that the Repubs started bitching the day after the election with the center-right BS. I hate the fact that Sarah Palin, lovely as I think she looks, is still around. I hate Prop 8.
But I’m not tired of the blogs yet. As has already been mentioned, there’s a lot of work to go, so I’m still reading everywhere to stay informed.
72.
Ed Marshall
At least the election was a mission. I had a goal. Now I sit around and try and process the economic Ragnorok that is happening and I wonder if any of it mattered. I don’t think Obama or anyone can fix what’s coming down the pipe.
There is now a powerful new challenge to the Nov. 4 election. Besides the previous lawsuit by Philip J. Berg calling into question Obama’s constitutional qualifications to the Presidency, there is now an independent new challenge filed by Dr. Alan Keyes, Dr. Wiley S. Drake, Sr., and Markham Robinson of the American Independent Party in various state courts, starting with California. Unlike Berg’s suit, this one can’t be flippantly dismissed on the grounds of lack of standing. This lawsuit has a very good chance of throwing sand into the gears of the Obama victory parade.
@pattonbt: I’m still trying desperately to get my productivity back up to a reasonable level. So, yes, I’m tried.
76.
Ed Marshall
Yeah, nabalzbbfr, that’s really serious shit. API is going to release the whitey tape any second now to. Do you ever watch some old sitcom like "three’s company" that sort of relied on embarassment as a punch line and get uncomfortable for the butt of the joke? I do. It sucks, and I don’t want to laugh I want you to figure it all out and exit scene.
It’s almost as if it never stopped, because every single day, it seems like the shit pile gets a little bit bigger. And while the coverage from the election was exhausting because there was so much information, both big and small, most of the information being released about the economy and other things like the stock market is big enough so that we have to pay attention.
In my boredom, I’ve been looking at stargazing information.
There are two dark of the moons between the election and the inauguration. They come at the end of November, and the end of December.
It is hard to see things at night when there is no moon. Those may just be important windows of time.
…
If the Republicans were smarter, they would hold the birth certificate card on the back burner until President Obama starts to make unpopular decisions. Which he will have to make given the fiscal realities of America-2008. President Bush really did bag the guy.
I didn’t believe Berg until I read Obama’s defense that Berg’s argument ‘wasn’t about that piece of paper’. Pretty weak for a Constitutional Law Professor from the University of Chicago. I got my birth certificate re-issued in a few days. Obama was a sitting Senator at the time.
84.
Ed Marshall
Yeah, BOB, yer pretty much a total, drooling moron. I’m glad you can type but I’ve been listening to your bullshit for years and you follow this chain of stupid, I don’t feel bad for you.
I clarify that dark of the moon periods are significant in tactical air warfare, in lands far, far away.
86.
gex
OT: Have you seen the AFA’s new must-have Christmas accessory? Perhaps it is only me, but my initial reaction was "burning cross". These guys are either the most hateful dicks on the planet, or they are the most clueless idiots on the planet.
Do they really, in their sincerest of hearts, think that Obama isn’t eligible to be president of the United States?
88.
Ed Marshall
BOB, this was obvious years ago, but you really need to start paying attention to your social worker and taking the pills. You don’t make any fucking sense.
Alan Keyes, huh? Actually, that shit makes me feel a little better. At least I’m not actively insane like Alan Keyes and nubulzfritter.
@TheHatOnMyCat: yeah, there’s a lot of crap being released now. OTOH, I just heard on Northwest Cable News that there was an anti Prop 8 pro-gay rights demonstration in Pocatello, Idaho. Now I grew up not too far from Pocatello, and this is simply stunning to me. If the approval of Prop 8 and all the outside money that poured into that campaign is prompting pro-gay rights rallies in Pocatello, Idaho, then the anti-gay forces really have gone a bridge too far and have provoked the opposite of what they hoped.
They WANT it to be true, which in Rightard Logic and Peter Pan makes it true.
BTW, my reproductive vigor is drastically impacted by Michelle Malkin’s hateful grimacing attempt at a human smile in the banner ad.
I think I phrased that question poorly. I think I meant to say, do they think it’s true because there’s the vague hint of a connection to reality, or are they really just taking the most ridiculously blatant "facts" and then drawing their own absurd conclusions? In other words, are these types of people looking at Obama’s relationship to Ayers and then thinking there might be some sort of buried approval of those sort of tactics used by Ayers, however wrong that may be, or is it on the level of them drawing the most absurd conclusion possible, like assuming that because Obama is a man, and he works with other men, he’s gay?
96.
Delia
or is it on the level of them drawing the most absurd conclusion possible, like assuming that because Obama is a man, and he works with other men, he’s gay?
Well, hey, we have words, and the words can be strung together together in a certain order, like, say, "whitey tape," or "not really a citizen," or "pals around with terrorists," or, as you say, "he’s gay." None of them have the slightest relation to reality, but once they’re strung together they can be rationalized and massaged and masturbated upon endlessly in the hope that something more real turns up. I mean, look how much mileage they got out of a stupid real estate deal gone bad under the Clintons. That’s really what they’re hoping for. They’ll continue to launch fake investigations over nonexistent birth certificate questions until (they hope) they find something they can really investigate. And of course their wet dream of reproductive vigor (so to speak) is to find a blue dress. Of course there’s a lot more working against them now. Obama seems to have a lot more self control than Bill Clinton every did, And there are a lot more dems in Congress.
Candidate’s campaigns wore me out with demands on my time and thinking, but 11/4/08 was re-invigorating. Then I got my county’s vote totals…
So, no rest for the wickedly left. I have got to hold a County Party together after election burn out and get them cracking on messaging. Our Governor election is in 2 yr, and there are a couple other targets, but biggest is to take control of the narrative and ram propaganda back down the Republican throat. Along side that is tapping into youth, HS age. 64/32 R/D split is not acceptable and neither is the greying of the party.
We cannot retain active membership if they don’t have useful and interesting things to do and we not only need to retain but recruit. If I’m not working directly on political stuff I am honing my analytical skills because I need to have my own early warning system.
Now I’ve got panic gun buying and Obama as the gun grabber fever to try tamp down and they’ve done a swell job of making that really damn difficult. The stupidest thing I can think of to waste political capital on and they’ve managed to set me back over 2 years of hard work and politicking. I had them within a damn ace of keeping their traps shut on "assault weapons," but noooo….
I managed to get two really useful statements into their releases, the best for the National Hunting Day statement and then they just stupided up. That fucking Brady bunch doesn’t play to over 25% of D’s but they’ve got a noisy well financed oppo in the Party and thanks to NRA we’ve got not much more than a grassroots. So to the deficit of the Party those buttheads get listened to and we’re left fighting NRA and our own leaders. Crap.
No, I don’t have a damn thing to do…
99.
Some Guy
I am excited by Obama’s election. I am worn out caring, yes, but the problem are too big and I find myself anxious to see what his first 100 days will bring.
I am worn out by the speculation about his cabinet, though. We will know far sooner that we expect so all the speculation makes me yawn.
It is still sinking in. The BIG BARRIER was broken in terms of race. Nonetheless, in the face of the extraordinary shit Bush is leaving for Obama to take care of, the breakthrough seems less important. I have no idea if any human being is up to the pile of shite left for him or her by Bush. I do know, though, that I can imagine few people as well suited to try as Barack. I am not just proud; on a pragmatic level I am so pleased by his election. I have the strong suspicion that if he fails it will be because we have no way out, not because he is not capable of finding a way out.
All my best to him. He will need it. And he will have my patience (because there are no easy answers left). I only hope others are as understanding. Nobody can undo the unholy mess of Bush quickly. They can only get up everyday and try.
100.
Johnny Pez
Me, I’m exhausted by all the nonstop sex with Halle Berry.
Well, hey, we have words, and the words can be strung together together in a certain order, like, say, "whitey tape," or "not really a citizen," or "pals around with terrorists," or, as you say, "he’s gay." None of them have the slightest relation to reality, but once they’re strung together they can be rationalized and massaged and masturbated upon endlessly in the hope that something more real turns up. I mean, look how much mileage they got out of a stupid real estate deal gone bad under the Clintons. That’s really what they’re hoping for. They’ll continue to launch fake investigations over nonexistent birth certificate questions until (they hope) they find something they can really investigate. And of course their wet dream of reproductive vigor (so to speak) is to find a blue dress. Of course there’s a lot more working against them now. Obama seems to have a lot more self control than Bill Clinton every did, And there are a lot more dems in Congress.
So I guess it’s the former. That makes sense, I guess.
Perhaps I’m brushing over something because I am young, but the only problems that I remember from the Clinton years were sexual ones. There really wasn’t anything else despite many millions of dollars wasted that the Republicans could come up, it seems. Does that sound right?
If that’s the case, then I have to hope it doesn’t work this time. I have to hope that, while Obama is not perfect, there’s nothing there that will hurt Obama in the way it hurt Clinton, and that, because of the enormity of the problems the country is facing, these people are pushed so far out into the margins, they never come back. I fear that if something like this doesn’t happen, it’s never going to go away.
102.
Mako
Is it just me, or is everyone else exhausted from the election?
The whole "How to Be Emo" thing has been done to death on YouTube. Must it be done to gushy sensitive death on political blogs as well?
Time to reflect on the most important rule of blogposting:
Never post drunk.
You know who you are.
104.
Mako
But serially, I’m not exhausted from the election. It was the greatest event in this country in my lifetime…
Meh. ’68 was better. This time, no riots, assassinations, kinda laid-back by ’68 standards.
What’s more, this is not the time to be exhausted. The next couple of years are going to be hard as hell, and possibly historic, in terms of economic woes, and hopefully, in terms of government’s ability to serve its citizens in such times
As Democrats, we have some challenges in front of us if we are going to hold onto the important government buildings for a long time… .
Ahh, the joys of youth
105.
Mako
Time to reflect on the most important rule of blogposting:
Never post drunk.
However, the most important rule of Blog commenting: 9 or 10 beers in is the sweetspot.
I actually am tired but mostly of being a punching bag for every half wit that can parrot some right-tard sound byte, so I’ve decided to do my little part. That invitation is an open one and I’m not blog whoring here, just tapping a talent pool.
107.
CIRCVS MAXIMVS MMVIII
Ahh, the joys of youth
TZ may be youthful, but he’s no "youth". It sounds like you have hit that "sweetspot" you were referencing in your later post. Three sheets to the wind, are you? You’re not the only one on this blog to remember the events of ’68. I admit, I was still a young child at that point, but, TZ was already beyond voting age, and since he was brought up in a political family, I’m sure he was both voting and well aware of those events.
I repeat for the umpteenth time, Obama would be nuts to divide the Party by not offering the Vice Presidency to Hillary Clinton. In a year where only Democratic division tcould possibly deny us the White House, it would take a supendous act of political immaturity to even contemplate taking such a step.
Stupendous acts of political immaturity. Heh, indeed!
109.
Dennis - SGMM
The Obama conspiracy theories are great for the wingers. When they’re disproved, the wingnuts all get to recycle their paranoia by insisting that Obama "got to" the people disproving them. Yep, the disproof is just another sign of the far-reaching and sinister Obama conspiracy. Now, if you didn’t happen to catch Obama’s speech at the 2004 Democratic convention then, like many, you probably didn’t know who the hell he was until he started campaigning so he must have had to work like hell to build up his army of evil minions. And he did it all on a Senator’s salary.
110.
Mako
TZ may be youthful, but he’s no "youth". It sounds like you have hit that "sweetspot" you were referencing in your later post. Three sheets to the wind, are you? You’re not the only one on this blog to remember the events of ‘68. I admit, I was still a young child at that point, but, TZ was already beyond voting age, and since he was brought up in a political family, I’m sure he was both voting and well aware of those events
.
You girls should kiss.
111.
AnneLaurie
There were no crosses available for that first Christmas! The morans need to go back to manger scenes.
Oh, c’mon. All that sweetness-n-light crap about low-level service workers getting priority messaging on the birth of a "Savior" to a pregnant teenager, whose middle-aged green-card husband didn’t have the smarts or skills to reserve a decent room before showing up in the big city looking for a handout? Not to mention those multi-culti "three kings" star-gazing elitists and their BS redistributionary "symbolic" gifts (what every immigrant rug rat needs: stinky incense and bling!)? And then the whole "defy Homeland Security and sneak across the border illegally to avoid lawful interrogation concerning the Holy Infant’s threats to the State!" — is this the kind of behavior we really want to encourage in the Heartland(tm)?!?
The torture-porn details at the *other* end of the Christ story are just so much more… attractive… to the AFA target market. ‘Cause they believe that if Jesus had His life to do over, He would *definitely* bring an assault rifle and some phosphor grenades to that Garden, amirite?
112.
R-Jud
I’m not exhausted from the election, but now that it’s over I’ve realized just how much of my time and attention it was eating up. I’m back up to my usual levels of productivity at work. I’ve remembered that I’m nearly seven months pregnant (holy CRAP) and really ought to start getting stuff ready for the sprog’s arrival. So far I have 7 onesies, a blanket my sister made, about 45 Dr. Seuss books, and a cuddly toy platypus. Not exactly adequate.
Most of all, I’m looking forward to coming back to the US for Thanksgiving even more this year: it’ll be our last visit under the Bush regime. Something better– or at least not actively destructive– is on the way. I have always loved my country, but I love it even more now.
Oh, and AnneLaurie #107? You are my Internet Hero of the day. Stinky incense and bling indeed.
Well, this is completely OT, but since I have to look at her everytime I visit this site, somebody needs to break it to Michelle Malkin that she’s too long in the tooth to wear pigtails now.
So my hometown got their own Apple Store! Booyah! Modesto, CA, boooooyyyyy! First 1000 got a free T-shirt! How awesome is that! Did I use too many "!"?!
115.
Dream On
"Let’s start a Post-Election, Pre-Inauguration Under the Bus Throwing List of Words & Phrases, 08-09."
——————
"My father worked in a mill his entire life!"
"red-state vs. blue state"
"centrist"
"throw him under the bus"
"disavow"
"hateful preacher"
"Bradley Effect"
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dbrown
Its you
Paulie Chestnuts
I was exhausted from it the way I get exhausted from good sex.
Laura W
No.
Yes.
Overly saturated, as evidenced by my ability to scan blogs now instead of devouring every word and considering every thought and nuance. Sometimes I go HOURS without checking blogs! Even this one!!
I am not even paying attention to KO and Rachel when their shows are on. I have not much mental or emotional attention left for those realms right now.
Just Some Fuckhead
Walking dead. I don’t sleep well anyway. Gonna go down and see my folks in Florida for Thanksgiving. That’ll give me a chance to recharge AND rub their faces in our victory. They think Obama is the antichrist so I think I’m going to stencil little numbers on our foreheads or forearms and tell ’em all the Obama supporters got them.
Raenelle
I got sick the day after the election. I think I just collapsed with relief.
I’m trying a little to keep up with what’s going on. But I’m outrage averse at the moment, willing to let more patriotic folk remain vigilant while I just trust for a bit that we’re safe now, and things will get better.
My daughter keeps e-mailing me about Paulson and Hillary and whatever issue du jour. She wants to know what I think. Nothing really. Is that laziness or contentment? Whichever . . . Today, Salon introduced me to the Lolcats site. I think I’ll hang out there a while..
NR
No. There are still three more Senate seats to be decided. Once those are over with, then I’ll be exhausted.
Polish the Guillotines
Not from the election, so much. More from the anticipated (already underway) bullshit the wingtards will be subjecting us to for the next 4 to 8. And anxiety over whether or not my job will remain safe for the near future. And whether or not my mortgage stands a chance of getting restructured to get my head above water.
Oh, and this friggin’ zombie chest cold.
But I’ve found the antidote to all of it: Black Ice.
It’s reassuring to know that in this Time Of Great Turmoil and Uncertainty(tm), five old dudes from Australia still know how asses are supposed to be kicked.
Krista
I’m exhausted from:
1. Our election
2. Your election
3. Packing, lugging, and unpacking our entire office to our new location.
4. Packing to move to our new house (yes, I’m dealing with an office move and a house move in a three-week span. Kill me now.)
5. Laying floor and doing finish work in the aforementioned new house.
6. Getting ready for Christmas
ET
Not only exhausted but sort of at loose ends.
This consumed so much energy and time that now that we have a president- elect and it is the one I wanted, but it is between the old 43) doing nothing and the new (44) not doing anything yet. I am not exactly sure how to proceed. I keep feeling like I need to check to make sure my clothes and house are in order – like something vital is missing.
JGabriel
I’ve been sleeping a lot more.
I can’t tell if that’s exhaustion, or just boredom.
.
Laura W
@Raenelle: Here’s a good kitty site for you.I’ve got many submissions over there by now.
shirt
It’s just post-coital sadness
Capelza Gradenko
The End
This election just wore me out completely…months ago.
There’s only so many times I could go.."OMFG!!! I can’t believe people are this (insert whatever)…the snark in me packed up and moved to a sunnier clime.
The link above (and I hope I did this right..I googled the BJ refresher to do it) is a great article about the Wall Street Collapse. There really are people who should be drug out, put up against a wall and shot…
Preferably in front of the NYSE, and leave the blood and gore on the wall so others who might want to go down this road have that visible reminder.
raff
Actually, yes. Yes I am. But it’s more than that. I feel sort of deflated. For the last year & 1/2, I’ve felt a sense of… urgency (& perhaps some low-level anxiety). I consumed political news almost obsessively — to the point of distraction — everything building up to Nov 4th. Now that it’s over, I feel like I’ve exhaled a deep breath that I’ve been holding for 18 months.
Of all the emotions I’ve experienced since Obama’s win (& I’ve run the gamut), the strongest has to be: Relief. I’m relieved not just that the election has come to an end, but that something new is just beginning. I can’t predict the contours this "something new" will take, but, for once, I’m (guardedly) opptimistic instead of (openly) cynical. And for that, I can finally breathe a sigh of… relief.
mgordon
Exhaustion? more like withdrawal. I still check 538 about 4 times a day hoping to see some polling data. God I can’t wait for Obama vs. Palin in 2012.
MattF
I think there’s some zombification going on, particularly on the right. Democrats need to just walk away from it (and repeat "I’m alive"), but… it’s just too awful not to gawk and point.
Warren Terra
Sarah Palin seems to have lots of energy, she’s already given more press conferences and as many major interviews as she did during the election.
Of course, that continuing phenomenon may be contributing to the low ebb many of us find ourselves in …
The Grand Panjandrum
And sick to death so I am down to reading BJ and TPM. The shrieking around the rest of the blogosphere is just fucking tedious. ZOMG! Obama’s gonna pick HRC for State. ZOMG! Obama’s gonna turn America into a socialist state. ZOMG! I think I’ve got whiplash.
But what I now have is some very fine abbey-style ale from Ommegang Brewery, nice thick ribeye steaks, and a beautiful view of the fog setting in over the river across the street.
BTW I hope none of our BJ commentariat is in the path of those LA fires. Mother Nature is pissed at somebody and she’s taking no prisoners.
Brett
Exhausted. I’m not even reading all of the bullshit Horse Race-style stories in the newspapers anymore – they’re just tiring. I’m especially tired of turning on the cable news and seeing tons of goddamn Sarah Palin; can’t the woman just go back and stay as Governor for a while, already?
I was hoping that David Gregory would lose his cable hosting spot on MSNBC. No such luck.
CIRCVS MAXIMVS MMVIII
Almost eight years of Bush has done me in.
I’m taking a much needed break.
demkat620
Don’t remind me. My kids started writing their lists in July.
Redhand
What I’m exhausted about is the continued presence of Sarah Palin on the national stage weeks after the election is over.
I was mailing something in the post office today and they had CNN on the tube advertising an upcoming Palin appearance on Larry King to talk about 2012! A media whore pimping for a political one.
The President-elect hasn’t even been inaugurated yet and already this big-hair, incoherent, money-grubbing and absolutely clueless harpie is talking about a run for President in four years. The sheer presumptuousness of the stupid bitch is sickening.
I’ll never forgive McCain playing Pandora and unleashing this creature on us. Once out of the box, never back in.
Raenelle
Thanks Laura. Great site–even better.
ninerdave
@Krista:
I bought a closed on a house the same week I got married. That was sheer hell.
Laura W
Let’s start a Post-Election, Pre-Inauguration Under the Bus Throwing List of Words & Phrases, 08-09.
I’ll go first.
TEAM OF RIVALS
I’m too exhausted and spent to search my brain archives for the many other offenders that surely exist.
Brachiator
I think that Doonesbury had a couple of funny strips related to this.
But largely, I have still been basking in the warm afterglow of Obama’s electoral victory, made extra toasty by watching the Republican Party implode.
I was impressed by Obama’s first press conference, especially that moment at the beginning of the press conference when Obama reacted with a smile and "Oh, wow…" when the press stood up for the President-elect.
I was delighted with watching historian Doris Kearns Goodwin practically jump up in her seat like a little schoolgirl on the post election episode of "Meet the Press," as she considered the possibilities of an Obama administration.
I watched the PBS Frontline episode about Obama’s rise, particularly the speech he made at the Democratic convention. I noted from the shots to the faces of some of those present how he touched people even then. It was very interesting to watch Chelsea Clinton jump up out of her seat and applaud Obama, and also to watch her mother react with enthusiasm. Funny how things work out, but also interesting to see how the path was set by this early beginning.
I watched the host of a local PBS show, "California’s Gold" go to the campus of Occidental College, which Obama attended for a couple of years. The host interviewed one of Obama’s political science professors, who claimed — as to be expected — that he remembered Obama and that he was a good student. But then the professor went on to note that he read in one of Obama’s memoirs that Obama seemed to think more seriously about political issues shortly after the time of his attendance at Occidental.
And then, this now elderly professor spoke unprompted about how he voted for Obama, and how nervous and excited he was, and how carefully he marked Obama’s name on the ballot. Somehow, for reasons that I cannot fully articulate, this last bit really made me smile.
I am not tired because in some ways this really may be our moment. With a sense of hope and optimism about politics that I have not felt in quite a while, I can’t wait to see what happens next.
jcricket
I think the Minnesota recount, the Alaska Senate race and the Georgia run-off have now taken over as my objects of obsession. 60! 60! It’s magic! I tell you.
Seriously, I have post-election-partum-depression (or psychosis, hard to say).
Comrade Stuck
My sentiments on politics generally. We are now deep in the lame duck zone with nothing really new to talk about, lest it be speculation on what Obama might or might not do. And speculation always makes me blah. However, it is Saturday and once again time for the special at The Funhouse & Roadhouse Cafe (FARC)
Today’s entree will offer the rare treat of
Cheney Fried Friend Face Fillets (buckshot removed, but not eyes) smothered in a dancing sauce made from torture tears and the milk of human kindness (curdled)
No desert, except the just kind, maybe.
Enjoy!
Just Some Fuckhead
@Laura W: Bipartisanship
lovethebomb
I was so sure the republicans had figured out how to steal elections that I had been steeling myself for a McCain win despite the polls. I still think they stole the last 2, mainly thru massive voter suppression and roll scrubbing, but had to let this one go simply due to overwhelming factors.
In any event, I cried off and on for days after Obama won. The pent up relief, agony, despair was a broken dam. Of course, I am now steeling myself for Obama to run to the right like Clinton to prove he’s not a radical leftie. And of course the repubs have robbed and looted things beyond the mind’s capacity to fathom. If you’ve read "Shock Capitalism" by Naomi Wolf, it is possible to realize that the whole urgent bailout was a planned event. Norquist’s strangling governemnt – aka "starving the beast" protocol – seems to have been successfully enacted beyond their wildest dreams.
Now Obama cleans up the mess. The Dems will infight and screw everything up. Their failure to investigate and prosecute Cheney/Bush indicates they are nearly complicit in the last 8 years and I expect little from them. The only thing I can celebrate is the temporary 4 year eviction of republicans from government agencies which can now operate under the dictum of their directives instead of opposing it. And, of course, the national dialogue will finally be something approaching sanity since Obama will have the bully pulpit. That I look forward to immensely.
I was floored when O gave his first post election press conference and I realized I could actually listen to my president and expect a rational series of statements and arguments to proceed from his lips, extemporaneous, that weren’t shallow talking points and mindless teleprompter drivel. That excited me a great deal and I remain deeply fascinated by what he will try to do with this mess. I am now, however, in a news funk because all the useless speculation swirling around is well, useless. I need more Obama screen time.
Betsy
Yes, exhausted. But my outrage isn’t yet over, because my hometown is still in shambles and both the state and federal gov’ts are doing fuck-all about it.
And talk about burying the lede: the key line here, about halfway down, is "so far the federal and state governments have not come through with aid."
raff
"Center-Right Nation". Delusional bullshit.
"[somebody] the [something]", as in "Joe the Plumber". Stop using it. Even ironically. Just stop.
"Social/ism/ist". As a scare word, it’s weak tea… for anyone under 50 it has no meaning.
LiberalTarian
Well, I have to admit, there is a vacuum where my interest in "finding out what BS the GOP did today" has gone.
I mean, I want to see them investigated and incarcerated, but unless the fine the bejeezus out of them, how can we make them feel any pain for what they did?
And, honestly, I am just bored to death with GOP clown shoes. How many times can you watch that movie?
And, I think I’m sick. So, in answer to the original question …
I think so.
jrosen
This is my 13th President and I’ve never cared more (even though I had a personal stake with Dukakis since I knew him…good luck with that!) — and the only thing saving me from a crash is the NBA season. I still check the paper every morning and Obama still wins, every day. Unbelievable.
I’m too old to expect miracles, however.
Laura W
@lovethebomb: Great post. Speaking of "shallow talking points and mindless teleprompter drivel", anyone catch Bush today live from the G20? ‘Nuff said.
"Y’all hear I’m retiring?" (Interesting term for it, anyway.)
"Goodbye!’
Thank Allah I am nearly done with Top Chef premiere on tape, then onto TDS/Colbert from last Thurs, and then Maher from last night.
Food, wine and LAUGHS.
Bring it on.
Wini
Exhausted, yes. I’ve even started deleting some of my RSS feeds in the interest if gaining back some semblance of a life, and because some of the discussion going on is downright tiring. But, being that I am in MN, I will be tuning in to the recount efforts closely.
Laura W: "recount"; only because it will no doubt tire me out even more.
gex
Not at all blah here. Went to the Minneapolis equal marriage protest. Got to hear people claim that next we’ll want to marry sheep. So no, not feeling blah at all. Kinda angry and motivated to tell you the truth.
Sketch
Well, personally, I’m still hooked on fallout 3…
littlesky
Yeah, 8 years of sustained outrage is very exhausting.
dewberry
I too am tired of being outraged.
I was in a major spot of anxiety–the emotions of the election, a hangover from hurricane Ike–everything just combined to make me seriously on edge.
Now, although my stock portfolio still sucks, I continue to feel relief that there will be grownups in charge. And that’s borne out by the fact that I can actually sleep better at night.
I do think I’m somewhat politicked-out. I can’t get whipped up into a frenzy about who’s going to be secretary of state. But, I’m following the remaining senate races, just not obsessively (but I do check mudflats from time to time).
TheHatOnMyCat
It’s just you.
But serially, I’m not exhausted from the election. It was the greatest event in this country in my lifetime, and I am glad I was here to see it.
What’s more, this is not the time to be exhausted. The next couple of years are going to be hard as hell, and possibly historic, in terms of economic woes, and hopefully, in terms of government’s ability to serve its citizens in such times.
As Democrats, we have some challenges in front of us if we are going to hold onto the important government buildings for a long time. One obvious one that I see is that the party is turning anti-labor while becoming even more anti-management at the same time. The current lack of urgency about the automakers’ crisis is a good indication. If there is a more anti-labor point of view than shrugging at the collapse of industrial employment and its revenue stream for industrial retirees, I can’t imagine what it would be. If the moribund GOP can turn around its neglect of a few interest groups, like labor and hispanics, it can get itself back into competition quickly, IMO. A depression on the backs of what remains of industrial USA is not exactly going to win Democrats a lot of votes in the next couple of election cycles.
Another challenge before Dems is the political center. Dems at the left are acting like George Bush did in 2004, as if they now have political capital. I don’t think they do. I think political capital is going depend entirely on our ability to deliver to the middle of America in the worst times since the Great Depression, and in case we haven’t figured this out yet, bitching about executive salaries and raising taxes on the rich are not going to feed the bulldog. Something a little more creatively progressive than that is going to be needed.
No, I’m not exhausted by the election. I’m exhausted by your being exhausted by the election. Rest up, get it in gear. Two of you guys are big college egghead cheeses. Give us the epic smart. Smart us up. Get to work.
canuckistani
Depressed, like Christmas afternoon. I have all year to play with my new toys and games, but the excitement and tension are over.
burnspbesq
Not exhausted, but definitely distracted today. Fires burning out of control all over SoCal, including one about four miles from my house.
We’ve never had to evacuate, but I just have a bad feeling about this one.
Xecklothxayyquou Gilchrist
@NR: No. There are still three more Senate seats to be decided.
Yup. And did the Missouri presidential vote get sorted out?
Comrade Stuck
@dewberry:
We are going to have to be re-programmed for the flipside of outrage. We will be inundated with mostly phony outrage from the right, which will be annoying, but not hard to deal with. The real test of patience and source of wracked nerves will come from disappointed liberals "concerned" and outraged at centrist governance, from a dem preznit and congress. And finally, if Obama goes to far right to please wingnuts and we all join in the outrage. I don’t expect a lot of this, but who knows.
All of it better to deal with than 8 years of endless arrogant stupid.
lovethebomb
@Laura W : Nice idea. For those who don’t know, the super secret password to get Bill M. on youtube is TULLYCAST3. I’ve just started this Friday’s show and it rocks.
Ned R.
QUITE exhausted for reasons detailed. Palin especially is in ‘how can we miss you if you won’t go away’ mode, and I am wearied.
iluvsummr
I’m relieved to find that I can now go for a couple of days without watching TV or visiting blogs. I was worried I might need to go into rehab for a blog addiction. Now if I can only get myself to throw out this awful Salman Rushdie book I started reading after the election… I’m one of those odd people who has to finish a novel once I start it, no matter how excruciating it is to read…
Chris Johnson
Naaaaaaaaaaaaaah ;)
Laura W
Tonight’s Balloon Laugh Juice installment brought to you by: Bitter Childless Women with Too Many Cats On Lap Making It Hard To Use Laptop But Typing Over Cats And Pressing On:
Ricky Gervaise Stand Up Special, HBO, 9EST.
Wine optional.
But Highly Recommended.
Now rejoining Maher in progress….
Shaggy
Saw this, feel deflated.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081115/ap_on_re_us/obama_racial
MarkusB
Is it just me, or is everyone else exhausted from the election?
zzz
bago
Youtubing maher while waiting for shower to warm up.
Tattoosydney
@iluvsummr: Which of his awful books are you trying to read?
I have found everything except Midnight’s Children either turgid or flat and boring as hell…
pattonbt
Well my work is happy, because starting last week I began churning out work at a great rate again. I mean, man, I never realized how much the election had taken up my time. Maybe thats because Hopey was the first candidate I actually believed in and wanted from the get go who won. Either way, my productivity was probably half what it normally was.
Now….Its kind of weird. I still check the main sites but the frequency is dwindling and some sites are starting to drop off. I scan a lot more instead of read and I ignore comments sections altogether (except here for some reason, I like this place). Wonkette is becoming central again now that I can laugh a bit more.
But Ive never put too much faith in politicians and dont expect Hopey to save the world (my Unicorn would still be nice though). I know no politician or governmental system will match my beliefs completely which is probably a good thing. Im just happy enough that we have an intelligent adult in the white house. So Im not going to sweat the small stuff for a while.
And while set backs like prop 8 suck, the social pendulum is still swinging in the right direction. The long term view for social justice issues are positive. I know it must suck hard for those directly impacted in the short term, but the world isnt perfect and we will get there. These issues take time unfortunately.
And in closing, I just want to say this once. To all the Clinton Puma deadender naysayers – I Told You So and Fuck You! I knew Hopey would crush (just as I knew Clinton would if she won the nomination). So suck on it (primary venom now vented).
skippy
i’m having trouble blogging more than one post a day, plus my usual skippy late nite music club.
i find myself not caring if anybody cares what i write or not, and so not seeing the need to put my thoughts into pixels.
dewberry
@pattonbt:
Well my work is happy, because starting last week I began churning out work at a great rate again. I mean, man, I never realized how much the election had taken up my time.
I have an artistic hobby and for the month before the election I had a creative block. I missed project deadlines and I simply could not produce anything. I couldn’t start new pieces; I couldn’t work on the ones in progress. Nothing, nada, no flow. I didn’t blog either.
It wasn’t immediate after the election, but starting earlier this week I started to think of ideas and begin to be able to envision finished projects again. Yesterday, I didn’t get out of my pjs until 1 pm because I was so busy. So that feels good. And I’ve written more in the last few days than in the month leading up to the election too. I freelance write, so that’s a good thing.
Jeff
Great march in San Diego and more proof the Minutemen are assholes:
Litlebritdifrnt
Bragging, on my husband’s babies. West Columbus High School Marching Vikings Half Time Show 2008 – The Lion King. They made Grand Champion at the Stallion Classic this year, something my DH had been working for, for 10 years. He finally got it.
For all you band geeks out there.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OF-7zC-9VvQ
AnneLaurie
Also, welcome to SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder) Season. Adding some full-spectrum bulbs to your artificial lighting can seriously improve your mood, and the new energy-efficiency paradigm has made such bulbs way cheaper than they were a few years ago. Of course in a perfect world we’d all get up earlier & let natural sunlight caress our pineal glands, but let’s be honest — (most) bloggers think of sunlight as the stuff that leaks around the blackout curtains to damage our limited editions.
Hell, *I* still think 1988 was the Repug’s successful trial run for this kind of electronic tweaking. I said so at the time, and all my software-competent friends told me that, sure, it was technically *possible*, but we Americans would never stoop to that kind of pismire third-world chicanery! (cue bitter laughter).
Just a few months ago a historian uncovered physical proof that Jefferson’s supporters stole a few crucial votes to ensure Tom’s election, so I live in hope that we’ll eventually get the details of the specific illegalities Lee Atwater apologized for on his deathbed.
Laura W
@Litlebritdifrnt: OK, so I’m 3 min in…is that your husband with the long, brown tail and the white paws?
(What part of NC are in you again? Apparently it’s snowing at a friend’s house 20 mi. west of me, and about 1,000 ft. higher.)
Litlebritdifrnt
Laura – I am in eastern NC Jacksonville to be precise, my DH teaches at West Columbus, in Cerro Gordo NC, just before you get to the NC/SC border. From the beginning of the Video you see the guy striding about in the burgundy turtle neck? That is my DH.
kommrade reproductive vigor
I’m just coming to terms with the fact Obama won. So, no.
JL
@skippy: Thank you for the election night slide show. There were several photos that I had not seen. Obama will be announcing his Cabinet positions soon and the blogs will be filled with opinions. Until then we are going have to fill the time with blogs about wine, beer, cats and dogs.
kommrade reproductive vigor
WTF happened to Sadly, No!? BJ v. 1.0 never looked so befucked.
Laura W
@Litlebritdifrnt: Well I am relieved that it was not your DH with the long, brown tail and facile white paws conducting the band and wiggling his cute little lion hiney in time because I would not want to hurt you by saying I had a crush on him after watching all 10 minutes. Very sweet.
Portlander
Exhausted.
Litlebritdifrnt
Laura *lol* – Larry is the most excellent of drum majors, in fact my favorite part of the whole video is at 7:52 when Larry jumps off the stand to get into the big part of the song, it is so perfect. My DH’s kids are so awesome, and I am so proud of them.
Delia
I find myself tired of my favorite blogs, bored and depressed. It may also be the incipient holiday season. But I feel like I really need to wean myself from politics and start doing something useful for a change.
Maybe we need more threads about cats.
Oh yeah. And I just discovered, via the intertubes that the final season of Battlestar Galactica comes back in January. I’ve been wondering where that was. I hope they’ve got change we can believe in.
iluvsummr
@Tattoosydney: Slogging through "The Moor’s Last Sigh." I mean it does have its moments. There’re just too few of them. Should have picked Midnight’s Children – most people I’ve spoken to recommend it.
robertdsc
The CA fires have fouled the air something fierce and the soot is everywhere. it was weird seeing the sun as bright orange through the smoke.
As for the election, I’m glad Obama won. I’m glad he’s already made changes I support. I love the fact that I can use the term "The President" and have pride rather than disgust. I love the fact that Obama’s Secret Service name is Renegade.
I hate the fact that Dubya is beyond lame duck status. I hate the fact that the Repubs started bitching the day after the election with the center-right BS. I hate the fact that Sarah Palin, lovely as I think she looks, is still around. I hate Prop 8.
But I’m not tired of the blogs yet. As has already been mentioned, there’s a lot of work to go, so I’m still reading everywhere to stay informed.
Ed Marshall
At least the election was a mission. I had a goal. Now I sit around and try and process the economic Ragnorok that is happening and I wonder if any of it mattered. I don’t think Obama or anyone can fix what’s coming down the pipe.
Just Some Fuckhead
Cats vs. Dogs, the saga continues.
nabalzbbfr
There is now a powerful new challenge to the Nov. 4 election. Besides the previous lawsuit by Philip J. Berg calling into question Obama’s constitutional qualifications to the Presidency, there is now an independent new challenge filed by Dr. Alan Keyes, Dr. Wiley S. Drake, Sr., and Markham Robinson of the American Independent Party in various state courts, starting with California. Unlike Berg’s suit, this one can’t be flippantly dismissed on the grounds of lack of standing. This lawsuit has a very good chance of throwing sand into the gears of the Obama victory parade.
demimondian
@pattonbt: I’m still trying desperately to get my productivity back up to a reasonable level. So, yes, I’m tried.
Ed Marshall
Yeah, nabalzbbfr, that’s really serious shit. API is going to release the whitey tape any second now to. Do you ever watch some old sitcom like "three’s company" that sort of relied on embarassment as a punch line and get uncomfortable for the butt of the joke? I do. It sucks, and I don’t want to laugh I want you to figure it all out and exit scene.
TheHatOnMyCat
We still have a lot of work to do in this country.
Just Some Fuckhead
@nabalzbbfr: Yawn.
Brian J
It’s almost as if it never stopped, because every single day, it seems like the shit pile gets a little bit bigger. And while the coverage from the election was exhausting because there was so much information, both big and small, most of the information being released about the economy and other things like the stock market is big enough so that we have to pay attention.
demimondian
@nabalzbbfr: Hey, noballsboffer, that’s really impressive.
Slanderous and anti-American, but, hey, you know, sedition is patriotic if you’re a republican. IOKIYAAR.
Just Some Fuckhead
@TheHatOnMyCat: Not we. They. We can’t evolve for them.
Tattoosydney
@iluvsummr:
The Moor’s Last Sigh is one of the ones I gave up on in disgust… I hate to say that it doesn’t get any better, but I think it’s true.
Midnight’s Children, on the other hand, deserves all of the accolades that it has received – still hard work, but very rewarding…
IMO of course…
Brick Oven Bill
In my boredom, I’ve been looking at stargazing information.
There are two dark of the moons between the election and the inauguration. They come at the end of November, and the end of December.
It is hard to see things at night when there is no moon. Those may just be important windows of time.
…
If the Republicans were smarter, they would hold the birth certificate card on the back burner until President Obama starts to make unpopular decisions. Which he will have to make given the fiscal realities of America-2008. President Bush really did bag the guy.
I didn’t believe Berg until I read Obama’s defense that Berg’s argument ‘wasn’t about that piece of paper’. Pretty weak for a Constitutional Law Professor from the University of Chicago. I got my birth certificate re-issued in a few days. Obama was a sitting Senator at the time.
Ed Marshall
Yeah, BOB, yer pretty much a total, drooling moron. I’m glad you can type but I’ve been listening to your bullshit for years and you follow this chain of stupid, I don’t feel bad for you.
Brick Oven Bill
I clarify that dark of the moon periods are significant in tactical air warfare, in lands far, far away.
gex
OT: Have you seen the AFA’s new must-have Christmas accessory? Perhaps it is only me, but my initial reaction was "burning cross". These guys are either the most hateful dicks on the planet, or they are the most clueless idiots on the planet.
Edit: Naturally I forgot the link.
Brian J
Do they really, in their sincerest of hearts, think that Obama isn’t eligible to be president of the United States?
Ed Marshall
BOB, this was obvious years ago, but you really need to start paying attention to your social worker and taking the pills. You don’t make any fucking sense.
YogaforCynics
There was an election?
Please tell me Bush didn’t get reelected again…..
Delia
@nabalzbbfr:
Alan Keyes, huh? Actually, that shit makes me feel a little better. At least I’m not actively insane like Alan Keyes and nubulzfritter.
@TheHatOnMyCat: yeah, there’s a lot of crap being released now. OTOH, I just heard on Northwest Cable News that there was an anti Prop 8 pro-gay rights demonstration in Pocatello, Idaho. Now I grew up not too far from Pocatello, and this is simply stunning to me. If the approval of Prop 8 and all the outside money that poured into that campaign is prompting pro-gay rights rallies in Pocatello, Idaho, then the anti-gay forces really have gone a bridge too far and have provoked the opposite of what they hoped.
Delia
@gex:
And do you know something else? There were no crosses available for that first Christmas!!!! The morans need to go back to manger scenes.
Oh wait. This contingency is covered by "clueless idiots," isn’t it?
burnspbesq
@gex:
I wouldn’t have thought that "hateful dicks" and "clueless idiots" are mutually exclusive. Seems to me there’s a strong positive correlation.
Mike G
Do they really, in their sincerest of hearts, think that Obama isn’t eligible to be president of the United States?
They WANT it to be true, which in Rightard Logic and Peter Pan makes it true.
BTW, my reproductive vigor is drastically impacted by Michelle Malkin’s hateful grimacing attempt at a human smile in the banner ad.
gex
@burnspbesq: True, I should have had an "or both" option.
Brian J
I think I phrased that question poorly. I think I meant to say, do they think it’s true because there’s the vague hint of a connection to reality, or are they really just taking the most ridiculously blatant "facts" and then drawing their own absurd conclusions? In other words, are these types of people looking at Obama’s relationship to Ayers and then thinking there might be some sort of buried approval of those sort of tactics used by Ayers, however wrong that may be, or is it on the level of them drawing the most absurd conclusion possible, like assuming that because Obama is a man, and he works with other men, he’s gay?
Delia
Well, hey, we have words, and the words can be strung together together in a certain order, like, say, "whitey tape," or "not really a citizen," or "pals around with terrorists," or, as you say, "he’s gay." None of them have the slightest relation to reality, but once they’re strung together they can be rationalized and massaged and masturbated upon endlessly in the hope that something more real turns up. I mean, look how much mileage they got out of a stupid real estate deal gone bad under the Clintons. That’s really what they’re hoping for. They’ll continue to launch fake investigations over nonexistent birth certificate questions until (they hope) they find something they can really investigate. And of course their wet dream of reproductive vigor (so to speak) is to find a blue dress. Of course there’s a lot more working against them now. Obama seems to have a lot more self control than Bill Clinton every did, And there are a lot more dems in Congress.
Bob In Pacifica
I’m feeling pretty good.
Chuck Butcher
Candidate’s campaigns wore me out with demands on my time and thinking, but 11/4/08 was re-invigorating. Then I got my county’s vote totals…
So, no rest for the wickedly left. I have got to hold a County Party together after election burn out and get them cracking on messaging. Our Governor election is in 2 yr, and there are a couple other targets, but biggest is to take control of the narrative and ram propaganda back down the Republican throat. Along side that is tapping into youth, HS age. 64/32 R/D split is not acceptable and neither is the greying of the party.
We cannot retain active membership if they don’t have useful and interesting things to do and we not only need to retain but recruit. If I’m not working directly on political stuff I am honing my analytical skills because I need to have my own early warning system.
Now I’ve got panic gun buying and Obama as the gun grabber fever to try tamp down and they’ve done a swell job of making that really damn difficult. The stupidest thing I can think of to waste political capital on and they’ve managed to set me back over 2 years of hard work and politicking. I had them within a damn ace of keeping their traps shut on "assault weapons," but noooo….
I managed to get two really useful statements into their releases, the best for the National Hunting Day statement and then they just stupided up. That fucking Brady bunch doesn’t play to over 25% of D’s but they’ve got a noisy well financed oppo in the Party and thanks to NRA we’ve got not much more than a grassroots. So to the deficit of the Party those buttheads get listened to and we’re left fighting NRA and our own leaders. Crap.
No, I don’t have a damn thing to do…
Some Guy
I am excited by Obama’s election. I am worn out caring, yes, but the problem are too big and I find myself anxious to see what his first 100 days will bring.
I am worn out by the speculation about his cabinet, though. We will know far sooner that we expect so all the speculation makes me yawn.
It is still sinking in. The BIG BARRIER was broken in terms of race. Nonetheless, in the face of the extraordinary shit Bush is leaving for Obama to take care of, the breakthrough seems less important. I have no idea if any human being is up to the pile of shite left for him or her by Bush. I do know, though, that I can imagine few people as well suited to try as Barack. I am not just proud; on a pragmatic level I am so pleased by his election. I have the strong suspicion that if he fails it will be because we have no way out, not because he is not capable of finding a way out.
All my best to him. He will need it. And he will have my patience (because there are no easy answers left). I only hope others are as understanding. Nobody can undo the unholy mess of Bush quickly. They can only get up everyday and try.
Johnny Pez
Me, I’m exhausted by all the nonstop sex with Halle Berry.
Hey! It could happen!
Brian J
So I guess it’s the former. That makes sense, I guess.
Perhaps I’m brushing over something because I am young, but the only problems that I remember from the Clinton years were sexual ones. There really wasn’t anything else despite many millions of dollars wasted that the Republicans could come up, it seems. Does that sound right?
If that’s the case, then I have to hope it doesn’t work this time. I have to hope that, while Obama is not perfect, there’s nothing there that will hurt Obama in the way it hurt Clinton, and that, because of the enormity of the problems the country is facing, these people are pushed so far out into the margins, they never come back. I fear that if something like this doesn’t happen, it’s never going to go away.
Mako
The whole "How to Be Emo" thing has been done to death on YouTube. Must it be done to gushy sensitive death on political blogs as well?
ThymeZoneThePlumber
Time to reflect on the most important rule of blogposting:
Never post drunk.
You know who you are.
Mako
Meh. ’68 was better. This time, no riots, assassinations, kinda laid-back by ’68 standards.
Ahh, the joys of youth
Mako
However, the most important rule of Blog commenting: 9 or 10 beers in is the sweetspot.
Chuck Butcher
I actually am tired but mostly of being a punching bag for every half wit that can parrot some right-tard sound byte, so I’ve decided to do my little part. That invitation is an open one and I’m not blog whoring here, just tapping a talent pool.
CIRCVS MAXIMVS MMVIII
TZ may be youthful, but he’s no "youth". It sounds like you have hit that "sweetspot" you were referencing in your later post. Three sheets to the wind, are you? You’re not the only one on this blog to remember the events of ’68. I admit, I was still a young child at that point, but, TZ was already beyond voting age, and since he was brought up in a political family, I’m sure he was both voting and well aware of those events.
Steve in Sacto
BTD, May 25, 2008:
Stupendous acts of political immaturity. Heh, indeed!
Dennis - SGMM
The Obama conspiracy theories are great for the wingers. When they’re disproved, the wingnuts all get to recycle their paranoia by insisting that Obama "got to" the people disproving them. Yep, the disproof is just another sign of the far-reaching and sinister Obama conspiracy. Now, if you didn’t happen to catch Obama’s speech at the 2004 Democratic convention then, like many, you probably didn’t know who the hell he was until he started campaigning so he must have had to work like hell to build up his army of evil minions. And he did it all on a Senator’s salary.
Mako
.
You girls should kiss.
AnneLaurie
Oh, c’mon. All that sweetness-n-light crap about low-level service workers getting priority messaging on the birth of a "Savior" to a pregnant teenager, whose middle-aged green-card husband didn’t have the smarts or skills to reserve a decent room before showing up in the big city looking for a handout? Not to mention those multi-culti "three kings" star-gazing elitists and their BS redistributionary "symbolic" gifts (what every immigrant rug rat needs: stinky incense and bling!)? And then the whole "defy Homeland Security and sneak across the border illegally to avoid lawful interrogation concerning the Holy Infant’s threats to the State!" — is this the kind of behavior we really want to encourage in the Heartland(tm)?!?
The torture-porn details at the *other* end of the Christ story are just so much more… attractive… to the AFA target market. ‘Cause they believe that if Jesus had His life to do over, He would *definitely* bring an assault rifle and some phosphor grenades to that Garden, amirite?
R-Jud
I’m not exhausted from the election, but now that it’s over I’ve realized just how much of my time and attention it was eating up. I’m back up to my usual levels of productivity at work. I’ve remembered that I’m nearly seven months pregnant (holy CRAP) and really ought to start getting stuff ready for the sprog’s arrival. So far I have 7 onesies, a blanket my sister made, about 45 Dr. Seuss books, and a cuddly toy platypus. Not exactly adequate.
Most of all, I’m looking forward to coming back to the US for Thanksgiving even more this year: it’ll be our last visit under the Bush regime. Something better– or at least not actively destructive– is on the way. I have always loved my country, but I love it even more now.
Oh, and AnneLaurie #107? You are my Internet Hero of the day. Stinky incense and bling indeed.
harlana pepper
Well, this is completely OT, but since I have to look at her everytime I visit this site, somebody needs to break it to Michelle Malkin that she’s too long in the tooth to wear pigtails now.
Galen West
So my hometown got their own Apple Store! Booyah! Modesto, CA, boooooyyyyy! First 1000 got a free T-shirt! How awesome is that! Did I use too many "!"?!
Dream On
"Let’s start a Post-Election, Pre-Inauguration Under the Bus Throwing List of Words & Phrases, 08-09."
——————
"My father worked in a mill his entire life!"
"red-state vs. blue state"
"centrist"
"throw him under the bus"
"disavow"
"hateful preacher"
"Bradley Effect"