Unusual perspective ...

...on a great day.

Palin by comparison

Some comments about the Palin decision on jezebel:

She's Dan Quayle in drag. (my contribution)

I'm afraid her vagina and mine have to agree to disagree.

I will not cut off my nose to spite my vagina.

You mean you won't cut off your vagina to spite your nose.

Margaret Thatcher. Kim Campbell. Condoleeza Rice.

Like my momma said when she found out, "something in the milk ain't clean!"

Every fact I've heard about her today says she stands against everything I believe in. I think I have more common ground with Karl Rove.

"McCain Vagina 2008." I'm not inspired, I'm offended.

Two X chromosomes does not a woman-positive candidate make!

Palin = Harriet Meiers 2.0.

My vagina doesn't vote . . . my brain votes, and it really hates McCain hiding his horrible policies behind another person's vagina.

I drink a lot when the campaigns are on . . . Otherwise I would get a divorce or kill my husband.

I had a polling place at my house once. I believe this qualifies me AT LEAST for Attorney General.

She is no friend of the polar bears either.

Palin is to women what Clarence Thomas is to African Americans.

"Ma'am, I know Hillary Clinton. Hillary is a good friend of mine. And you, ma'am, are no Hillary Clinton."

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MoveOn just sent a crash course around about her via e-mail. For anyone on the fence/needing more info...


Who is Sarah Palin? Here's some basic background:

* She was elected Alaska's governor a little over a year and a half ago. Her previous office was mayor of Wasilla, a small town outside Anchorage.

* Palin is strongly anti-choice, opposing abortion even in the case of rape or incest.

* She supported right-wing extremist Pat Buchanan for president in 2000.

* Palin thinks creationism should be taught in public schools.

* She doesn't think humans are the cause of climate change.

* She's solidly in line with John McCain's "Big Oil first" energy policy. She's pushed hard for more oil drilling and says renewables won't be ready for years.

* She also sued the Bush administration for listing polar bears as an endangered species--she was worried it would interfere with more oil drilling in Alaska.

Veeped out

Check out this blog. Is Obama a poetry lover?

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So, Creaky McCain chose Hot Mama Palin. She ain't as hot, though, as either Obama.

Besides, Gandhi as a VP couldn't get me to vote McCain.

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I'm off to Santa Cruz to take a long beach walk with my friend, Stacey. She is writing a novel for her MFA thesis, and I'm the lucky one who gets to be her advisor. Gone are the days I had to slog through MA in Education theses written in bureaucratic-ese.

The audacity to hope

That was the most amazing political speech I've ever heard.

A presidential candidate talking about peace? empathy? compassion? finding a way to come together in spite of our differences?

He was powerful. He was specific. He was impassioned. He was SMART.

I pray he is our next president. And I'm not the praying type.

Vote No on 8. Choose love, not hate.

Del Martin loved Phyllis Lyons for more than 50 years.

There are people in my beloved state of California who believe that Del and Phyllis should not have been able to be married. People like Michael Bumgarner who apparently never read Thomas Jefferson's words that "institutions must advance to keep pace with the times."

Apparently Bumgarner thinks his love is more valid than Del's and Phyllis', or Annie's and mine:

Michael Bumgarner says he's never campaigned for a political cause before, but his strong opposition to same-sex marriage has prompted him to join thousands of volunteers going door-to-door in support of a ballot initiative that would ban gay nuptuals here.

"I've never stumped before, but I want to be a part of this," Bumgarner said. The retired insurance executive and devout Mormon said his late mother would "turn over in her grave" if she knew that gays and lesbians could marry.

With less than 11 weeks until Election Day, supporters of Proposition 8 are ramping up their field organization and refining their message as they seek to persuade California voters to shut the door on same-sex marriage. It's the first time voters will be asked to weigh in on the issue in either California or Massachusetts — the states where gays have won the right to wed.

In the above quoted article, those who support Prop. 8 claim they are not homophobic. Well, maybe they're just hetero-supremacists.

SUPPORT EQUALITY CALIFORNIA for marriage equality.

Bless you, Del Martin

Renowned LGBT activist Del Martin died today ...

Del Martin, 87 and her partner Phyllis Lyons, 83, became the first gay couple in the nation to legally marry on Feb. 12, 2004, after having spent almost 50 years as a couple.

Their marriage was deemed void later that same year, but this summer, when the California Supreme Court ruled that same-sex marriage is legal, Del and Phyllis were, once again, the first to wed.

Del and Phyllis did so much for queer rights, for civil rights. These are two amazing women. I'm indebted to them, to all they've done in their lifetimes.

Click here if you'd like to sign Del Martin's guest book.

I feel so sad for Phyllis right now.

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This is one of my most difficult realizations, the knowledge that either Annie or I will go first. I even wrote a poem a few years ago about it:

First

I have to die first, you say. When we met
we called in sick, ate in bed, let dishes and dust
collect. Blossoms confettied out-
side. We were like foals, newly testing

our skeletal limbs. I have to die first,
you say, the woman who stopped eating
when the dog died, as though feeling
your flesh wasn’t yours, or didn’t exist

anymore. So you think I’m the strong
one, the one who can stand being left.
Me, the one who, alone in the house, dusts
the furniture, the remainders of our long

departed skin. The one who wipes the ghost
of our fingerprints from the mirror, who
washes our scent from the sheets, who
rinses the spoon that touched the moist-

ness of your tongue. When we were in bed
last night we imagined how we’d go. Our
favorite: I’m 100, you’re 104.
Our hearts stop, just stop, gently, you said,

in our sleep. At exactly the same moment.
But we know there are likelier fates.
I have to die first, you say. And it’s late,
it’s late. We’re drifting off, even as you say it.

Clinton: If We Don't Agree With the President, Call Michelle Obama

Sen. Hillary Clinton used to say that she was the one who could answer the phone at 3 a.m. and know what to do as president. Speaking at the Emily's List lunch, Clinton, after congratulating Michelle Obama for her speech last night, said if the president isn't on her side -- call his wife.

"I know a little bit about how the White House works," Clinton said. "And, you know, if the president isn't exactly on our side -- call the first lady, and with Michelle Obama, we are going to have somebody who answers that phone."

Obamarama

Okay, it's official: Michelle Obama is hot. I wasn't totally buying the "I'm a happy wife and mom" routine in her talk tonight. I know she had to do it, but all I can say is, she's just overflowing with power and knowledge and know-how ... and, whee!, that's sexy. She will be a huge asset to President Obama.

Maybe in 8 years it'll be President Michelle Obama and Vice-President Hillary Clinton, or vice-versa.

Our wedding announcement

has appeared in the Bay Area Reporter amidst announcements of four adorable male couples. Click here and scroll down.

The complex Joe Biden

Powerful, yes, but didn't he vote for the war?

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"I've been to Afghanistan, I've been to Iraq seven times, I've been in the Balkans, I've been in these foxholes with these kids, literally in bunkers with them. Let me tell you something, nobody asked anybody else whether they're gay in those foxholes. Our allies -- the British, the French, all our major allies -- gays openly serve."

"I don't think the government can dictate the definition of marriage to religious institutions. But government does have an obligation to guarantee that every individual is free of discrimination. And there's a distinction. I think government should not be able to dictate to religions the definition of marriage, but on a civil side, government has the obligation to strip away every vestige of discrimination as to what individuals are able to do in terms of their personal conduct. "

Biden:
Voted NO on constitutional ban of same-sex marriage.
Voted YES on adding sexual orientation to definition of hate crimes.
Voted YES on adding sexual orientation to definition of hate crimes.
Voted YES on prohibiting job discrimination by sexual orientation.
Rated 78% by the HRC, indicating a pro-gay-rights stance.

BUT ...
Voted YES on adding sexual orientation to definition of hate crimes. (on DOMA)

Of course all of this is way better than McCain or anyone he'll choose for his running mate.

Should the drinking age be lowered?

(painting by Claudia Eve Kleefeld)

The debate about whether or not the drinking age should be lowered to 18 is in the news right now. I'm very interested in this issue for a few reasons. One is that my novel is about a young woman's first year away from home living in the dorms, and her life is fraught with binge drinking.

The other reason is that I'm teaching a writing class in the fall in which we are going to examine this issue from various angles. We'll be reading Smashed, a memoir by Koren Zailckas; we'll be looking at alcohol ads to interrogate how alcohol is sold; and we'll talk about the various cultures of alcohol (from movies and happy hours, to dorm and frat/sorority life). Students will be writing several papers, including an "alcohol narrative," in which they examine how they first became aware of alcohol, the ways in which it has been featured (or not) in their lives, their relationship with it now, etc.

I'm glad this issue is in the news right now because it will make the class topic even more relevant.

What do you think? Should the drinking age be lowered to 18?

I guess it's really happening ...

since my publisher has my book on the front page of their website.

Re-reading the novel as I go through the galleys is fun. It's strange, I can remember exactly where I was physically and emotionally as I wrote certain passages. I'm so curious what it'll be like for people who know nothing about the book to read it ... an experience I'll never have.

I'm also doing a lot of things to try to get the word out, including a lot of internet time. Damn you, Collin Kelley, for getting me started on Facebook. I'm already having the DTs when I'm away from it for more than an hour.

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I just discovered I was quoted on mirabile dictu: feminism, poetry, images politics--a very cool blog.

When you're quoted, does that mean you're now part of the canon or something?