Randall's Blog

What an historic moment - after a long legacy of slavery and our brutal version of apartheid to have an African-American president is truly amazing. We are proud of our country this morning and over the last decades there have been many things that have caused us to be ashamed of being an American. The last 8 years of Bush rule with the secret prisons, torture, war crimes etc. have been especially troubling. We hope that there will be real change away from the disastrous Republican policies that have done so much damage to our nation and so much of the rest of the world.

Debbie's guest post from last night:

Debbie's guest blog

Today Muriel and I voted. It went very smoothly. NO LINES! Yay! I have to say in all the years I have voted I have never waited on a line. In Boston, Denver or NJ, never a line.

If you had to wait on a line, I am sorry to hear it but I do admire your patience. There is something so wrong about having to wait hours and hours to vote. And yet it makes me feel proud that people in this country are still willing to wait to participate in this fundamental right.

So good luck Obama/Biden! We all have our fingers crossed!

Debbie & I just came back from a quick trip to NH & Boston. We were able to pick up the rest of the parts to mount the solar hot water collectors in Manchester NH and swung by the Epping house. We drove down to Boston and got settled at Rebecca & Ali's place before venturing out to a Halloween party at Brian Wood's place. Sorry but there weren't too many photos taken there. The duck did have a good time, though.

We got to chat with Neil & Amanda along with other party goers.

On Saturday we went to the Boston Vegetarian Food Festival. It was nice to take it in as attendees after being on the organizing committee for so long. Everyone did a great job and the festival was terrific as usual. I have posted up some general festival photos here. We got to see many of our Boston (and NH & ME) friends at the festival and Debbie took some time to visit the BPL in the afternoon as well to visit with her former co-workers.

We had a nice dinner at My Thai later. On Sunday we drove back home but we had a nice breakfast at the Deluxe Town Diner and stopped off at Trader Joe's to stock up before we left the Boston area. Thanks to Rebecca and Ali for putting us up (and/or putting up with us).

R

This Halloween something that scares anyone with any sense:

Also watch this scary video:

Palin sent by God?

For progressives thinking of voting for Nader or McKinney please read Robert Parry's piece "Two Troubling Election Arguments" on consortiumnews.com. I voted for Nader in 2000 in a "safe state" and I can certainly understand the logic of doing this (as Chomsky suggests) but there are counter-arguments. The popular vote IS important if there is a close election. In 2000 Gore won the popular vote (and certainly should have won the election) but it would have been more impressive if he had a wider popular vote margin. With McCain & Palin I say vote for Obama and press him to make progressive decisions. Here is a guide to making sure your vote counts.

Don't forget the Boston Vegetarian Food Festival is tomorrow!

In the last few days I have started to mount the solar hot water collectors on the roof. Things were going well until I figured out that I have about HALF the hardware I need to successfully complete the task. I looked over the invoice and found that I had been sent the order that was meant for someone else. Hopefully I will be able to straighten out this mess tomorrow. The mounting looks good but it will have to be re-done when the new hardware comes in.

Like a lot of progressives, I'm holding my breath and hoping that McCain and his Republican co-conspirators go down in flaming defeat on election day. I'm also hopeful that the Democrats will do better than they did in '92 - the last time they held congress and the White House. McCain & Palin would be such a disaster, though (as well as the last 8 years), that the bar for the Dems is pretty low.

It is with great sadness that I remember Milena, who died earlier this week.

Milena (Oesterreicher) O'Connor 1957-2008.

I still think of you whenever I clean my "yeast mess" from the counter. It may not seem like much but we all touch each other as we travel through life....

Rest well.