I woke up this morning to the sound of Maya Angelou reading poetry on the CBS Morning News. Best wake-up call Ever! (And such an improvement over jackhammers and barking dogs yesterday...)

I actually had to talk myself into thinking a McCain presidency wouldn't be all THAT bad before I could get up and check the numbers this morning.

Realistically, the only way this election could have failed to cause a vast improvement over current leadership would have been for McCain to win and then keel over during the post-inauguration celebration in January.

I am really shocked that it is going to pass in California. I thought I lived in the liberalist, bluest of states!

Massachusetts? I know California gets talked up as the liberal den of iniquity by conservative pundits, but it is the state that elected Reagan and Schwarzenegger to multiple terms as governor. My condolences if it turns out that Proposition 8 actually passed, and crossed fingers that it will be repealed as soon as possible.

the Mormon church pouring so much money into the Yes on 8 campaign

Do not underestimate how much the Mormon church loathes gays. They have a lot of money and they have a practiced organizational structure and a lot of sheep-brains who believe anything that comes out of the Office of the Presidency is the unadulterated truth. Disagreement is not just disagreement, but a near occasion to sin. There were a lot of Mormons actively protesting the church's involvement in Prop 8, as well as the existence of Prop 8 at all, and there is going to be religious backlash for those people. Arguments over church doctrine have cost people their jobs and their membership in a church they'd like to believe in.

The difference that such people see between being gay and being black is that being black is a passive but very noticeable thing, if you go simply by color of skin and not by attendent culture and history. Being gay, on the other hand, is something that a lot of people honestly believe is purely a matter of action. Even if the tendency is inborn/determined by God, the belief is that the action should be controlled by "decent" folks and shouldn't be catered to by laws.

If the Mormon church had a bigger presence back east, New England wouldn't have the gay marriage laws they do. California has a huge Mormon population, and until/unless the church's influence fades, gay marriage in California has a hard road ahead.

Comcast, at least my local Comcast, actually aired the Indecision special live at 7 PST, though it wasn't listed correctly on any schedules I could find. I happened to switch over just in case, and there it was.

Heh. This is pretty funny. From a forthcoming Newsweek by way of Huffington Post:

-- The debates unnerved both candidates. When he was preparing for the Democratic primary debates, Obama was recorded saying, "I don't consider this to be a good format for me, which makes me more cautious. I often find myself trapped by the questions and thinking to myself, 'You know, this is a stupid question, but let me ... answer it.' So when Brian Williams is asking me about what's a personal thing that you've done [that's green], and I say, you know, 'Well, I planted a bunch of trees.' And he says, 'I'm talking about personal.' What I'm thinking in my head is, 'Well, the truth is, Brian, we can't solve global warming because I f---ing changed light bulbs in my house. It's because of something collective'."

Well, the truth is, Brian, we can't solve global warming because I f---ing changed light bulbs in my house.

I would pay cash money to see any candidate* say that on television. Seriously.

*Or President-Elect! YAAAAAAAAAY!!!!!

The Gwynnie look is an interesting 'concept' best kept on the catwalk. Not so much in real life. It's got great geometry but terrible execution.

I have so much to do this week and I cannot seem to get started. Stoopid elections.

Huff Post slide show of newspaper front pages.

Is anyone else more than a little inordinately pleased that, while not having enough Senate wins to make it fillibuster-proof (and, man, would I have liked Mitch McConnell and Saxby Chambliss to have lost), we do have enough votes to tell Droopy Lieberman to piss off?

I feel like an actual cloud has lifted. It's weird; no one seems to care about the election very much here but I feel actually bouncy today.