Monday, November 3, 2008

Peace (and hope) be with you

I'm off to the hospital today to get that other pesky knee replaced. I've sent in my absentee ballot and will watch the election returns from my hospital room. I hope I'm not too groggy to make sense of what I'm seeing, and I hope that I can remember the names of the battleground states to watch for.

I am full of hope--for my knee, for this election, and for this country.

There's one last thing--this campaign has been so full of memorable words, phrases, and issues (short- and long-lived, meaningful and meaningless)--that I would like to list some of them. In a couple of cases, I've given you the source of the quote, but I'm sure you can work out the rest for yourselves.

We don't want to forget this stuff. Feel free to add to the list via your comments.

******

bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb Iran

maverick

I have the scars to prove it

7 houses? 8 houses?

my friends

Give me a B and an A and an R-A-C-K, O-B-A-M-A (~Obama Girl)

the difference between a hockey mom and a pit bull

Willow, Trig, Track, and Bristol

on day one

I need to know if she really thinks that dinosaurs were here 4,000 years ago. I want to know that, I really do. Because she's gonna have the nuclear codes (~Matt Damon)

pundits

gotcha' journalism

Walmart moms

Caribou Barbie

We are not afraid to get maverick-y in there and ruffle feathers and not got to allow that. And also, too, the great Ronald Reagan (~Tina Fey)

battleground states

lipstick on a pig

flag pin

terrorist fist jab

"In what respect, Charlie?"

Bill Ayers

my friends

eroding the fabric of society

when the phone rings at three in the morning

the Vice President is in charge of the Senate

voter registration drive

thanks, but no thanks, on that Bridge to Nowhere

the change we need

politics of hope

he's measuring the drapes

these wonderful little pockets of what I call the real America

gosh darn it

you betcha

wink

what is it exactly that the VP does every day?

may I call you Joe?

raise your taxes

say it ain't so, Joe

Joe the Plumber

Tito the Builder

Joe the Biden

that one

lower your taxes

I can see Russia

when you think about it, Alaska is also near the North Pole, so she must also be friends with Santa (~Jon Stewart)

$150,000 wardrobe

Neiman Marxist

the difference between a hockey mom and a pit bull: lipstick, Prada shoes, a Gucci handbag, and a few $3,000 suits

pro-America areas of this great nation

I'm very, very pleased to be cleared of any legal wrongdoing

can I get back to ya on that?

Putin rears his head and comes into the airspace of the United States of America

misses palin! i want to fly into ur Airspase! misses palin! i want to reer my little Head! (~Vlad and Friend)

cocktail party Republicans

birth certificate?

the issue of economics is not something I've understood as well as I should

guilt by association

broken politics in Washington

I'm going to talk straight to the American people and let them know my track record also

failed policies

why can't I just eat my waffle?

my favorite consignment shop in Anchorage

buying the election

diva

palling around with terrorists

tax plan

ACORN

voter fraud

choose our better history

my friends

country first

scare tactics

making a big election about small things

Reverend Wright

there are no red states; there are no blue states; there is the United States of America

voted with President Bush 90% (or 95%) of the time

our next door neighbors are foreign countries. They're in the state that I am the executive of

95% of Americans will get a tax cut under my plan

spreading the wealth around

class warfare

media bias

liberal media

a nation of whiners

he's not ready

he's not ready yet

he's a Muslim

he's a socialist

he's a Marxist

my friends

Redistributionist-in-Chief

Khalidi

breaking the country's dependence on foreign oil

voted to teach sex education to kindergarteners

no one is pro-abortion

the fundamentals of our economy are strong

going rogue

grandfather was an African farmer

I stand here knowing that my story is part of the larger American story

in no other country on Earth is my story even possible

we need to internalize this idea of excellence

focusing your life solely on making a buck shows a poverty of ambition

one of those defining moments

the change we need is coming

change happens from the bottom up

we are the ones we've been waiting for

we are the change that we seek

now is not the time for small plans

the promise of America

now is the time

yes we can

yes we can

13 comments:

the7msn said...

Thanks for such a comprehensive list! You've been taking notes.

I am so sorry you're going to be spending election day in a hospital! But I'm sure your knee will be better for it.

Smooch and I will be sitting on the couch and toast to you every time another blue state is declared. And let us hope and pray that this is not a nail-biter night so you won't miss anything if you do doze off.

p.s. yes we can

Sylvia K said...

I'll hold good thoughts for you today, Clariz, I hope the surgery goes well and that you'll be home soon. Thanks for the list -- we did collect a bunch of those this election, didn't we?

Akkire said...

GOOD LUCK WITH SURGERY!!!

Judy said...

I will be thinking of you and your knee and hope you are much better soon and your surgery goes well. Great post. I sure hope Obama wins.

June Saville said...

Clairz
I hope your op. went well and that you aren't in too much pain. I have had something of a blog break and missed out on this post.
Loved/hated your list. Well my dear the election is almost here and we'll be waiting and hoping over here as well.
Love to hear from you that all is well.
Hugs from
June in Oz

June Saville said...

I meant to put my tuppence worth in re the elections. How about 'Something is happening in America' - Barack Obama.
June in Oz

Rain Trueax said...

Good luck with your knee. Hope it all goes well and a quick recovery to follow.

Val said...

Hope you are feeling better soon, and dancing for joy on your new knee!

Anonymous said...

Hi Clairz, I sure hope you and your knee came out alright. The election certainly did! I said prayers for both. :-)

Jessie From the Block said...

I found your blog, because my husband is in the Air Force and we are moving to Clovis. Not only have I found your information on Clovis useful, but I believe we may be political kindred spirits! I love reading your blog and have turned my Mom onto it as well. I hope we can meet sometime in Clovis. You are an inspiration and great source! Thank you! I know this will be a long post, but I wanted to share with you this letter that I found. The disclaimer is my own, because I felt it was necessary. I just thought you may enjoy this.

DISCLAIMER: I cannot take credit for the following letter as I did not write it. In fact, I don't even know who did. It appears to be someone from California... As a person who is liberal to moderate in my political views, California is, as a whole, far more left wing than I. However, the spirit of this letter is my focus... I may have left out the pot portion if I wrote it myself, but I didn't. I also would like to state that just because I find the facts and theme of this letter both true and humorous, I am not a secessionist. I am for unity and believe in this country as a whole. I take the secessionist theme of this letter as sarcastic. I just wanted to re post it as I found it, in its entirety, because it is not my work. To whoever created this, thank you for putting into words what so many of us struggle to. Oh, and thanks for giving me something to post today. Props to you.


Dear Red States,

We've decided we're leaving. We intend to form our own country, and we're taking the other Blue States with us.

In case you aren't aware, that includes Hawaii, Oregon, Washington, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Illinois and all the Northeast. We believe this split will be beneficial to the nation, and especially to the people of the new country of New California.

To sum up briefly: You get Texas, Oklahoma and all the slave states. We get stem cell research and the best beaches. We get Elliot Spitzer. You get Ken Lay.

We get the Statue of Liberty. You get Dollywood. We get Intel and Microsoft. You get WorldCom. We get Harvard. You get Ole' Miss.

We get 85 percent of America's venture capital and entrepreneurs. You get Alabama. We get two-thirds of the tax revenue, you get to make the red states pay their fair share.

Since our aggregate divorce rate is 22 percent lower than the Christian Coalition's, we get a bunch of happy families. You get a bunch of single moms.

Please be aware that Nuevo California will be pro-choice and anti-war, and we're going to want all our citizens back from Iraq at once. If you need people to fight, ask your evangelicals. They have kids they're apparently willing to send to their deaths for no purpose, and they don't care if you don't show pictures of their children's caskets coming home. We do wish you success in Iraq, and hope that the WMDs turn up, but we're not willing to spend our resources in Bush's Quagmire.

With the Blue States in hand, we will have firm control of 80 percent of the country's fresh water, more than 90 percent of the pineapple and lettuce, 92 percent of the nation's fresh fruit, 95 percent of America's quality wines (you can serve French wines at state dinners) 90 percent of all cheese, 90 percent of the high tech industry, most of the U.S. low-sulfur coal, all living redwoods, sequoias and condors, all the Ivy and Seven Sister schools, plus Harvard, Yale, Stanford, Cal Tech and MIT.

With the Red States, on the other hand, you will have to cope with 88 percent of all obese Americans (and their projected health care costs), 92 percent of all U.S. mosquitoes, nearly 100 percent of the tornadoes, 90 percent of the hurricanes, 99 percent of all Southern Baptists, virtually 100 percent of all televangelists, Rush Limbaugh, Bob Jones University, Clemson and the University of Georgia.

We get Hollywood and Yosemite, thank you. Additionally, 38 percent of those in the Red states believe Jonah was actually swallowed by a whale, 62 percent believe life is sacred unless we're discussing the death penalty or gun laws, 44 percent say that evolution is only a theory, 53 percent that Saddam was involved in 9/11 and 61 percent of you crazy bastards believe you are people with higher morals than we lefties.

By the way, we're taking the good pot, too. You can have that dirt weed they grow in Mexico.

Peace out,
Blue States

Jessie From the Block said...

PS: I was so pleased to see New Mexico went blue. Good work getting out the vote!

Quiet Paths said...

This is really a great list. It's amazing to me how profound some statements are within or without of context. Thanks for doing this!

I hope by now you are feeling a bit better. My auntie had both knees replaced last winter - not at the same time - I know it can be painful. Take good care.

T Fab P said...

Clairz - have been reading your blog from the beginning and enjoying your step by step look at the NM culture as well as your political views. Very similar feeling to mine at the csapodcast... Just a couple of quick comments about this post and Obama in general. My co-podcaster makes predictions each January and last year said sarah Palin would be heard from again - hence the booktour. As i read your list of catchy statements from the election process and combined them with her recent interview with Beck I got another one. When asked what newspaper she read she fuddled around for a while and then said "All of them..." When asked by Beck which was her favorite founding father she fuddled around a bit then said "All of them..." Note the similarities, especially the fuddling around part! Anyway, really enjoying your words, it is making the prospect of our moving to new mexico all that more real - Pat Hulser