A Smile That Lights Up The World

First of all, did you catch 60 Minutes last night? There were Michelle and Barack, charming, playful, smart, REAL, and looking Good. Just even referring to them by their first names implies a connection not felt with Presidents for a long, long time. Wouldn't it be great to have dinner with them? Can you imagine saying you loved watching Laura and George in an interview or even just feel a sense of comfort calling them by their first names? (Ok, if you're a Republican.)

It will be interesting to see what the Obamas are like when they are interviewed four years from now. Will they be weary, jaded, grey? Probably. But now we see them fresh and ready to tackle the biggest job in the world. That takes courage, guts and confidence. And we wish them well on this most amazing journey.

And, I know this sounds worshipful, but, without having signed one law or executive order, Obama's smile, all by itself, adds wattage power to the world, and brings much needed light to the darkest recesses of humankind. People all over the world see that smile, it makes them smile, and in turn, it turns up the feel good thermometer. That, alone, is consoling, and it doesn't cost anything. Yeah, I told you it sounds worshipful.

In fact, we just missed World Smile Day on October 3. Check it out here: http://www.worldsmileday.com/ And, if you think I've gone all soft, maybe I have, but smiling has real benefits. Try it. You'll like it.

1. Smiling makes us attractive.

We are drawn to people who smile. There is an attraction factor. We want to know a smiling person and figure out what is so good. Frowns, scowls and grimaces all push people away -- but a smile draws them in.

2. Smiling Changes Our Mood

Next time you are feeling down, try putting on a smile. There's a good chance you mood will change for the better. Smiling can trick the body into helping you change your mood.

3. Smiling is Contagious

When someone is smiling they lighten up the room, change the moods of others, and make things happier. A smiling person brings happiness with them. Smile lots and you will draw people to you.

4. Smiling Relieves Stress

Stress can really show up in our faces. Smiling helps to prevent us from looking tired, worn down, and overwhelmed. When you are stressed, take time to put on a smile. The stress should be reduced and you'll be better able to take action.

5. Smiling Boosts Your Immune System

Smiling helps the immune system to work better. When you smile, immune function improves possibly because you are more relaxed. Prevent the flu and colds by smiling.

6. Smiling Lowers Your Blood Pressure

When you smile, there is a measurable reduction in your blood pressure. Give it a try if you have a blood pressure monitor at home. Sit for a few minutes, take a reading. Then smile for a minute and take another reading while still smiling. Do you notice a difference?

7. Smiling Releases Endorphins, Natural Pain Killers and Serotonin

Studies have shown that smiling releases endorphins, natural pain killers, and serotonin. Together these three make us feel good. Smiling is a natural drug.

8. Smiling Lifts the Face and Makes You Look Younger

The muscles we use to smile lift the face, making a person appear younger. Don't go for a face lift, just try smiling your way through the day -- you'll look younger and feel better.

9. Smiling Makes You Seem Successful

Smiling people appear more confident, are more likely to be promoted, and more likely to be approached. Put on a smile at meetings and appointments and people will react to you differently.

10. Smiling Helps You Stay Positive

Try this test: Smile. Now try to think of something negative without losing the smile. It's hard. When we smile our body is sending the rest of us a message that "Life is Good!" Stay away from depression, stress and worry by smiling.

Seven Beautiful Words*

* seven being a nod to George Carlin's Seven Dirty Words...these words, however, are like a breath of delicious cool air that soothe the heat of the angst of the last eight years. Here's the yin to Carlin's yang:

PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA
The Obama Administration
First Lady Michelle Obama
Obama's Inauguration
Tickets to Obama's Inauguration
First Children Malia and Sasha Obama
The First Family
The Obama Administration
The Obama Administration
The Obama White House Team

Okay, I took a little license here...there are ten, and I'm sure a whole lot more. Bring 'em on. Music to the ears.

Soon, I will never again have to turn down the sound of my radio when I hear that air sucking, sibilant, nasal Bush voice of his on the air...and which never fails to conjure Alfred E. Newman. I will never again have to flip the channel when Bush and his cronies dirty up the screen...and who ALL should be starring on MSNBC's Lock-Up instead of spouting bulls**t from the deep recesses of their neanderthal brains (apologies to neanderthals). I will never again have to weep at the asinine stupidity (can never be too redundant here) of the Bush/Cheney manifesto to steal America.

Let's make sure that the likes of these criminals never 'grace' our national stage again. Please, Bushies, just go away.

Potpourri

Okay, I just read a funny headline: Vatican fires off warning to Barack Obama over stem cell research. As iiiiiffff. Here's the whole enchilada: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article5132491.ece So, since when does the Vatican think it has states' rights, a voice in our government or moral authority over the President of the United States because it doesn't like our policies? Did you ever read a headline that said, "American President fires off warning to Pope over birth control"? Puhleese.

Say, have you noticed that Sarah Palin, sans Hollywood hairdresser, makeup artist and stylist, has been kicked down a notch or two on the babe 'o meter. She kind of looks like a tired moose hunter, and for some odd reason, has switched from her hip glasses to a pair that looks like she's wearing windows. Weird. You can take the girl out of Alaska, but....etc.etc. Anyway, I'm stickin' with my prediction that she will lose reelection as governor, and end up with a reality show, "Sarah. LIVE!"

Speaking of speaking...is Sarah Palin a reincarnation of some 17th century evangelical? Her syntax has this strange faux formalism, sort of a tortured way of trying to sound, uh, smart, but it comes off as though she is another person, who has no idea what she's talking about, who found herself in a modern body.

And, the Lieberman brouhaha. Yes, he's a disgusting turncoat and a despicable slimebag, but I'm going with Obama on this decision not to kick him to the curb. Why bother? And, I trust Obama on these strategic political maneuvers. He's the master. So far. Besides, no matter what party Lieberman caucuses with, if he at least maintains a modicum of integrity, he'll still vote domestic policy with the Democrats as he has mostly done. That said, they must mete out some punishment and strip him of his committee chairmanships, one at least. Shunning should make a comeback. And, don't forget, he has to live with himself. That's a nightmare right there.

Oh, the tax code. I don't think that people really, truly consider what place taxes have in their everyday lives. It would be great to have some kind of compulsory course where everyone would take a Taxes 101 course to learn how taxes make our lives livable. Unfortunately, there is a cavaet...it is that the hard earned dollars that we pay in taxes are so often misused and misappropriated that a skeptical and deep mistrust of taxation is totally called for. Ok, forget it. Taxes suck. But necessary.

Never Again

Since the election, four days ago, I have been absorbing, processing and relishing our well-earned, triumphal victory. So many thoughts have been racing around my brain, and I want to write about all of them, but the one that really nailed me was when I read Frank Rich's column today in the New York Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/09/opinion/09rich.html?_r=2&ref=opinion&oref=slogin&oref=slogin. Bathing in the afterglow of almost two years work, depleted, thrilled, and emotional, this article made me sit up straight.

Whether intentionally, or not, Rich made us look like victims...victims of the Bush administration: "For eight years, we’ve been told by those in power that we are small, bigoted and stupid — easily divided and easily frightened."..."We heard this slander of America so often that we all started to believe it, liberals most certainly included." Um, excuuuuuse me, Mr. Rich, but those are not the people I hang around with. While the majority of people bought into the fear dictum, there were a lot of us who were dismayed that so many people drank the Bush kool-aid and became the lemmings of group think. We wondered how so many people could have relinquished their rights, their ability to think things through, and buy into the wholesale fear of a terrorist golam that was invented by someone who couldn't even shoot straight? Now they cry, "We were hoodwinked!" We, the others who didn't believe the spoonfed rhetoric, were aghast that people, pundits and politicos went along with the Bush doctrine.

Rich goes on to say, "If I had a dollar for every Democrat who told me there was no way that Americans would ever turn against the war in Iraq or definitively reject Bush governance or elect a black man named Barack Hussein Obama president, I could almost start to recoup my 401(k). " Cute, but pathetic. Democrats are notoriously 'cajones-less'. For the record, I am not a Democrat. Why on earth would I want to be associated with such mindless wimps as Rich portrays them? If they had actually paid attention, and done something, then they would have known all of these things that Rich lists were impossible to conjure, were actually totally possible.

But then, these mushy Democrats prayed that someone would come to save them from the mess they let happen. They voted, and felt redeemed by shouting, "YES WE DID!" Yes they did allow Bush to take down this country. Where were the protests, where was the outcry when it mattered? Even last year? Boy, I hope they don't swing the other way and think that Obama is the Messiah. Obama has a shitload of a mess to clean up, and he's going to need everybody's help. Now is not the time to resume your couch potato position because your Saviour has arrived. Now is the time to for you to do a little meditating, and think of why you were so easily lead down the path to hell via the loathsome strategy of fear and division. Get out of your comfort zone, for good, and pay attention. All hands should be on deck now.

And Rich is amazed that young people reversed the thinking that they would be too lazy to vote. Thanks for the confidence. We know that young people weren't participants during the Bush theocracy*, but they are certainly engaged now, and forever, I hope. They showed those cynics, and put their money where their mouths are, worked their asses off and came out in droves to vote. Obama gave them something to believe in, and he embraced them. He tapped into their latent potential, and made them dig deep to prove they could deliver. I would bet that the average age of volunteers running campaign offices around the country was around 23. It was a thing to behold...seniors stapling campaign materials while twenty-somethings ran the show. They delivered all right.

This campaign has shown us one thing, loud and clear...that the Power of One, collectively, has the power to move mountains. If you ever doubted that you could make a difference, this election should permanently put that to rest. We can harness that power and make it known that WE are the bosses, the government our employees. Just as I marched, several times, with thousands of others against the Iraq war (how come we knew?), we can employ all the tools at our disposal, some new, some old - the internet, phone calling, letter writing, marching - to let government know that we have grown skeptical, and we will let our will be known when need be. Obama has promised a transparent government, and I believe him. That is not to say we will always agree with him, and it is also not to say that we must hit the streets with every policy disagreement. All I'm saying is that we should keep in mind our personal power and obligation to participate in our own governance. We cannot let anyone tell us what to think when they give us their version of classified information. We don't have to be paranoid, but we need to be vigilant and scrutinize, scrutinize, scrutinize.

As to my personal involvement in the campaign, I am a proud member of the most incredible grassroots organization this nation has ever seen. I am a PROUD COMMUNITY ORGANIZER. If it weren't for the millions of volunteers who sacrificed jobs, money, time with loved ones, who overcame exhaustion and drowned in adrenalin, to make this Obama campaign successful, this victory would not have happened. And that is the power that was sound asleep during the eight years of the Bush nightmare. Now Democrats have seen what they are capable of doing.

Let us take this grassroots effort and keep it going. Let's keep it going so that we, the people, have a place in our own government, and a voice that will not be quelled. Let us never let something like the last eight years happen again...never again.

* Bush theocracy:
1. Mr Shaath said that in a 2003 meeting with Mr Bush, the US president said he was "driven
with a mission from God".

"God would tell me, George, go and fight those terrorists in Afghanistan. And I did, and then God would tell me, George, go and end the tyranny in Iraq... And I did.

"And now, again, I feel God's words coming to me, Go get the Palestinians their state and get the Israelis their security, and get peace in the Middle East. And by God I'm gonna do it."

2. read this: http://www.beliefnet.com/News/Politics/2004/11/Did-God-Intervene.aspx?print=true

3. a very interesting article: http://209.85.173.104/search?q=cache:CKciCa4KPPEJ:www.traditionalvalues.org/modules.php%3Fsid%3D808+bush+said+guided+by+god&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=4&gl=us

McCain vetting Joe the Plumber for Cabinet position

The march to dumb down America has almost reached the nadir. I say 'almost', because I'm sure McCain still has a ways to go before he finally reaches the absolute depths of the shit he's in...up to his elbows and over his head. The only way to stop this man will be the election. Finally.

Now he's trotting out Joe the Fucking Plumber, who, by the way, isn't even a fucking plumber. McCain has elevated some doofus to the national stage and given him credibility as though he were some kind of oracle. In my post, A Confederacy of Dunces, I wrote how the Republicans are glorifying averageness and ordinariness, and stigmatizing exceptionalism. So, here is Joe the Twit spouting off about how you should read and be informed when he can't even put two words together that convey an actual thought.

What a joke. Seriously, the next thing you know there'll be a Cabinet position created just for average Joes, and Joe the Schmoe will be the head of it. A lovely complement to Brownie...remember Brownie of Katrina fame? Book ends, the two of them.

I wish I had more time to write more of what's on my mind but these last weeks have been so intense for we volunteers, and I'm off to Colorado, tomorrow, to pound the pavement canvassing until Monday night. I don't yet have a laptop so I won't be able to write from there. I hope everyone is doing something productive these last few days - phone banking, canvassing, data entry, whatever's needed - as we get our final wind to get us through to the finish line.

Here's to VICTORY, and to the beginning of the age of aquarius (lower case as we want to manage our expectations). ONWARD!

Palin Shopping Spree Sets Women Candidates Back 100 Years

For those of you following this blog, you know that I've already fumed about Palin being selected, unvetted, largely because of her looks (see post: Sarah Palin's Book Deal about the Beauty Myth), but now, with this absurd shopping spree, women candidates will be seen as high maintentance, requiring extra campaign funds to make them look presentable...to men.

If Palin only had mukluks and flouncy dresses in her own closet, and they wanted to streamline her wardrobe, why not go to Target or Ross or thrift stores, where her compatriot hockey moms really go to shop? And, oh, the family, too, has been all gussied up to appeal to the sophisticated Republican voters in the Lower Forty-Eight. What about that little Piper carrying a new Louis Vuitton bag? Are they serious?

Hey, you can you take the girl and her family out of Alaska, but can you take the Alaska out of the girl, or her family? Who knows. Palin's appearance on SNL gave her a taste of Hollywood, of life outside of, as we are reminded endlessly, the coldest state, and my guess is, she liked it, she really, really liked it. You know, hobnobbing with the cast, being told you're 'hot' by Alec Baldwin, all the new clothes, new exposure to life in the medium fast lane. Can she just Go Home Again and be the plain ole Sarah she once was? I doubt it.

But, this whole episode is great, really. It's just another brilliant, Republican revelation that shows just how out of touch they are...and have been...and will continue to be.

High Anxiety & a Potpourri of Other Observations

You know that expression "deer caught in the headlights" look on someone's face? Well, that's what people here in L.A. look like...a bunch of pod people almost paralyzed by the anxiety of reading the tea leaves of whatever poll Drudge dredges up to scare people. Really, the tension is palpable and you can see the wheels turning when thoughts stray to the possibility of what they should do if Obama loses: "Damn, which country should I move to? I only speak English. Ok, maybe a little Spanish. I knew I should have gone to Paris in my sophmore year...I'd so be speaking French.", "Should I reserve a mover now? God, I hope they don't rip me off.", "Should I sell or rent the house...shit the market's so down and who's gonna want to come and live here, anyway, if McPain is in charge? I should've sold last year. What a dumbass...", and so on.

Well, folks, just relax. I am. I am, because when I started to volunteer for Obama the day he announced, I KNEW he would be President. And that was when Hillary was a shoo-in, when blacks said a black man could never be elected, when Latinos were died-in-the-wool Hillary supporters who said they would never support a black man. Now, there is not one Latino that I have spoken to who is not voting for Obama.

We've come a long way, baby, and take my word for it, come November 5th, you will see headlines that trumpet, President-elect Barack Obama. If you must, drink your way through the next 12 days or take whatever drug gets you through, chant or don't listen to the news, but there is something constructive that you CAN do...HELP (YES YOU CAN!). Find a phone bank near you. Go to: http://www.barackobama.com, you'll see 5 options to VOLUNTEER. Do it. Find a phone bank near you and call call call those swing states, help those undecided voters decide to vote for Obama. You'll feel better rather than hiding under the sofa until November 4th.

As you know, you are not alone in your anxiety. Larry David knows just how you feel, cause he's feeling the same way: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/larry-david/waiting-for-nov-4th_b_137029.html

And, speaking of undecideds, I ran into a friend of mine yesterday who was exasperated by the fact that there were any undecideds at this stage...for either candidate. As he said, what more do they need to know?! Then, coincidentally, the New Yorker had an article by David Sedaris about the very same thing...funny: http://www.newyorker.com/humor/2008/10/27/081027sh_shouts_sedaris

However, the other question that is most on people's minds is voter fraud, caging, suppression, and other nefarious methods the Republicans plan to use to steal this election. The best way to overcome any of that is to have the biggest voter turnout ever Ever EVER. The numbers need to be so big that they overcome any question about votes being counted. That's the first and most important factor. But, IF the race should be close, and there are suspicions or outright evidence of stealing votes, I guarantee there will be blood in the streets. Passivity is over, righteous action will prevail, and Republicans better be wearing their body armour. (This is not a threat...just a prediction.) That's why police in cities, far and wide, will be out there to tamp down any unrest. The police are often the provocateurs, so let's hope they don't ignite a firestorm if things don't go the 'right way' voting-wise.

And here's a creative twist...I was talking to another friend of mine about the disgusting McPain campaign, and he predicted that McCain is so desperate, and will do anything, that even McCain is going to endorse Obama hoping for a numbers bounce. Loved it.