I did take the week off and it's still made of argh. Most recent news about our stranding car situation? Fixed problem A with second iteration of part, revealing problem B with the exhaust, which shop A does not do. Shop A is sending the car over to Shop B and presumably paying for it, but end result? Still stranded.

One more day, so we booked another night of the hotel, changed rooms to hopefully have better wifi, and are definitely now going to the aquarium and botanical park.

Car repairs are FAIL.

Obama may be a sign of hope for Democrats--though he's made so many concessions I can't quite believe in that, either--but he offers no hope to women, nor to families or individuals not firmly entrenched in the one-man-one-woman-as -many-kids-as-God-sends-us mindset, preferrably fundamentalist Christian. Others need not apply.

Yeah, gotta say, I disagree with this. He's not (sadly) marriage-rights (but I gave up on expecting any sort of real headway from politicians with DADT and the Clinton Disillusion, and boy HOWDY was that a big one), but he's decidedly not a fundie, has a small family himself, and stood up for choice and Roe in Fundie HQ. I mean, NOTHING he's said regarding abortion is something I haven't heard from HRC before, and his record regarding women's issues is strong, as is Biden's.

I mean, both their wives would kick their rears if it wasn't. You can't marry women like that and NOT have a healthy respect for the distaff side.

Fundamentalist Christian?!?

I may have overstated. There has been nothing but rumors of support from groups and organizations that are aligned with a more conservative Christian outlook. I extrapolated off an assumption, for which I apologize.

And let me say, I deeply hope my fears and suspicions are proved to be wrong. Maybe it's my personal hope that's been eroded. I'd like that to be the case.

I wish I could vote for a candidate that thought my rights were worth protecting instead of simply the "lesser of two evils."

You realize you probably can, right? Depending on what the ballot restrictions are where you live, anyway.

Sadly, Meara is me as well, vis a vis Obama. (Meara being me in other areas would be less sad and probably brighten the lives of those around me considerably.)

I'm not sure if an African American, pro-gay equal rights, keep your hands off women's reproductive rights, non-Christian candidate would get elected in the US. But it would be lovely to see one try.

I'm not sure if an African American, pro-gay, keep your hands off women's reproductive rights, non-Christian candidate would get elected in the US. But it would be lovely to see one try.

Dude. Half of America already thinks an African American Gay Muslim Abortionist IS in danger of being elected this fall, what are you talking about??

I may have overstated. There has been nothing but rumors of support from groups and organizations that are aligned with a more conservative Christian outlook. I extrapolated off an assumption, for which I apologize.

He does have support from some people who were once on the forefront of the conservative Christian movement, but have moved from it after seeing the way that the GOP twisted their values. (The one editorial I read by one of them said, effectively, no I don't like that he's pro-choice, but frankly, his proposed policies would do a lot more to reduce the number of abortions than 8 years of Bush did.)

There's some overlap between people who have conservative interpretations of Christianity who want to, you know, live like Christ, help the poor, steward the earth, blah blah blah, and the more liberal side of things. Which, after all the polarizing, is perhaps our only hope for humanity.

I wish I could vote for a candidate that thought my rights were worth protecting instead of simply the "lesser of two evils."

It's sad that it is a radioactive issue. I was sort of a civil-unions-instead guy until the issue really blew up and the one-man-one-woman legislation started up in earnest. That just turned me straight up pro gay marriage.

Half of America already thinks an African American Gay Muslim Abortionist IS in danger of being elected this fall,

True. But most of those people would assume any Democratic candidate was at least half of those thing just because they were running as Democrats.

You realize you probably can, right? Depending on what the ballot restrictions are where you live, anyway.

Yeah, but it's essentially tossing my vote in the garbage. And I definitely don't want McCain.

I know that politicians have to walk a fine line to get elected but when they're reducing you, your family, and your friends to second class citizens, does it really matter why? Grr.