sweetheart-mine

well i would hope so. that was a crime!

as a slob whose money is all scrunched up in little bunches going every which way, i found it baffling. i like consistent slobdom.

that makes perfect sense.

they'd better be. i'm guessing they will be.

this is true, and i agree likely to foster bigger and faster change than anything else -- though "faster" is always relative. it's why i've never posted laments about gas prices or the economy. hard as those things are on lots of people (including my middle-class-at-best household), in the big picture they or related issues will make daily-life changes necessary and in the process straighten out some really screwed-up materialistic priorities.

we actually agree on quite a lot. what is the alternative to a good start? i think a good start is better than nothing -- or, worse, a deeper dive into the morasses of neocon territory.

no one is ever prepared for one reason or another (probably most of them valid). that is why, though i'd love to see a revolutionary overhaul of our political & governmental systems and consider myself pretty far left of democrat or liberal -- as you sound, at least in this post -- i've learned that, at least for myself, my first responsibility is to vote in the candidate most likely to do the most good, nationwide but especially worldwide.

never to be proven otherwise, of course, but i think that is rash-generalization b.s. edit: p.s. would the world be in equally bad shape in terms of our effects on it? no way.

exactly.

no. i don't think our system is working. that will, realistically, be addressed not by revolution but by evolution, beginning with election of presidents and congresspeople who get it drummed into their skulls by the people who elected them that reform is a must -- or they're out on their butts. if you have a better start in mind, have at it. if the president isn't involved either hands-on or by example, at least for starters, who do you see as leaders in this reform movement? let me know, because i'd like to have a word with them.

yes. amazed. never thought we'd see it. as recently as the 1960s there were exactly two streets in my n.y. state town where the "negros" lived when i was in junior high school -- Lincoln Street and Washington Street. that was it. and no mixing!

you got it, in my opinion.

how do you think the influence of lobbyists will be removed? do you think whoever is president is completely irrelevant to that goal?

yes, of course to your first sentence -- that was certainly included in my idea of consequential. i'm not sure why you would have thought otherwise. i'm not color-blind like, say, stephen colbert. i think people also see other social-change possibilities under obama, which is as you say a motivator to vote. yes, the economy is in the tank. i guess i still don't get the implication of your "for real," but never mind. without doubt there will be a lot of disappointed people when obama can't fix their personal problems in his first year, or maybe ever. that will happen, no questi

what do you think? because it's just fun to vote? or they expect to have nothing better to do on election day? "for real," what do you figure?

no one has taken this country down a radical, extremist path in several decades as the bush administration has. i've never before seen anything like the gap between what the parties are offering now. and if this election isn't seen as more consequential than others in the recent past, why are so many people rushing to register and to vote? it isn't just because of the obama campaign's efforts to register people. mccain people are doing it in larger numbers also. every other election i can think of was either medium-interesting or ho-hum to almost everyone, from friends and neighbors

no, they don't. and after the last eight years, i see this election as more crucial -- on the world scale -- than any other in my lifetime. edit: i haven't seen any hate from you personally -- in fact, not from many on this board, no matter what their political preference.

um, maybe because of the last eight years? but i don't think it's hate. i hear and read more actual hate from the right, and frustration, disgust, and fear from the left.

why do people need their cash all facing the same way and in order even if they're slobs in every other way?

you'd better not!

you just made my day.

well, i understand this, i really do. i'm an idealist who has learned over many elections to vote as a realist -- with the hardest lesson being my vote for nader in 2000 (who i agree has turned out to be a jerk). i'm sure i was half thinking "what's the difference." we've certainly learned the difference, and it was gigantic. although not particularly a gore fan, i'm pretty sure that, had the court awarded the election to gore, we would not have invaded and occupied iraq, most of the rest of the world would still respect us, there wouldn't have been "gore tax cuts for the wealthy," and

no, in albany n.y., having just moved into my first apartment after college. it was a genuine thrill to pull the lever that day, for the first time . . . now i usually go to vote with huge anxiety! haven't had too many lucky election nights.

my first vote went to mcgovern in 1972. wow, was that a sorry night in my apartment.

who? i just turned 154 last week.