Congratulations President-Elect Barack Obama!

If there is anyone out there who still doubts that America is a place where all things are possible; who still wonders if the dream of our founders is alive in our time; who still questions the power of our democracy, tonight is your answer. Barack Obama

What a great night! What a speech! What a great gift of hope!

The whole world was watching, and we did it. We can raise our heads and be proud of our president once again. President-elect Obama ran a masterful campaign. My hope is that his presidency will be as successful, that he will use those same gifts that brought him to the presidency to turn our country around to head in the right direction toward a fairer and more just society.

YES, WE DID!

Mimi! Curb Your Enthusiasm!

I'm trying. I'm trying really hard, but I just can't curb my enthusiasm for Obama. He's a human being. He can't fulfill all my dreams. Look how 8 years of the Bush maladministration has dragged us down, nearly done us in. There's a lot of fixing to do, and it can't all be done quickly, and it can't be done by one man. We'll need a Congress that's ready to go to work and do hard things. We'll need a citizenry that's alert and watchful, ready to goad the president and the Congress whenever they seem to slack and shy away from difficult decisions. It's not just them. It's us, too.

Am I sounding too hopeful? Am I assuming something that has not happened yet? Will too many of the folks in long lines give up and go home? I pray not.

If Obama is elected, we cannot go back to our lazy ways. We must be participants, not observers.

Please Continue Prayers For Roseann

From Roseann's husband, Gary, to Suzanne:

Roseann is in the ICU. The anesthesiologist decided not to do the epidural since they were able to do the surgery lap. This was a bad decision because now she is in pain and the narco pain meds make her blood pressure drop through the floor. I am staying at the hospital with her. The surgery went well, now if the pain can get under control so she can start healing all will be well. I'm very happy the surgery went so smoothly.

Thanks for the prayers, Gary

VOTE! YES, WE CAN!

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Happy Birthday To PJ!

PJ wants no gifts. She's not been in the best mood for the past week or so, so don't get on her wrong side. She's a terrorist, you know. I'm a little concerned that she may think that a post about her birthday is a gift, but we shall see. I hope not. The last thing I want to do is contend with PJ.

Much love, PJ, but no gifts. Definitely no gifts. What she really wants is a tall, dark, and handsome president, which is exactly what I want, even if it's not my birthday.

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US Not Founded On The Christian Religion

Treaty of Peace and Friendship between the United States and the Bey and Subjects of Tripoli of Barbary

Authored by American diplomat Joel Barlow in 1796, the following treaty was sent to the floor of the Senate, June 7, 1797, where it was read aloud in its entirety and unanimously approved. John Adams, having seen the treaty, signed it and proudly proclaimed it to the Nation.

Article 11 of the treaty states:

As the Government of the United States is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion; as it has in itself no character of enmity against the law, religion or tranquility of Musselmen; and as the states never have entered into any war or act of hostility against any Mohometan nation, it is declared by the parties that no pretext arising from religious opinion shall ever produce an interruption of harmony existing between the two countries.

A mere 8 years after the founding of the Republic and 6 years after the "Bill of Rights" was adopted, we find these words. Shocking!

I fear that certain citizens of the US will be greatly disturbed if they ever find out that the US is "not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion". To have it spelled out explicitly and in connection with a treaty with "Musselmen" will surely be more than they can bear.

You thought that Lapinbizarre was a rabbit, didn't you? Well, he's not. He's a ferret in disguise. I know, because he ferrets out these obscure bits of fascinating information and sends them to me.

Here's the link to the entire text of the treaty.

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Madelyn Dunham, Obama's Grandmother, Dies

Barack Obama with his grandparents, Madelyn and Stanley Dunham, after Obama's high school graduation in 1979.

From the Mercury News:

The day before the presidential election, Sen. Barack Obama's campaign announced that his grandmother, the woman he called "Toot" who helped raise him, had died in her apartment in Honolulu.

Aides said Obama was in his hotel room Monday morning in Jacksonville, Fla., doing brief interviews with radio stations in battleground states, when he learned she had died after a long battle with cancer.

He was described as stoic upon hearing that she had died and told aides that he was grateful that he had a chance to say goodbye in person when he recently suspended his campaign for two days to return to Hawaii.

Madelyn Dunham, 86, who had been gravely ill, was a rock of stability as Obama was growing up, giving him the American roots that would ground his teenage years as well as his career in politics.
....

Speaking after news of his grandmother's death had been made public, Obama said Monday that the evening marked a "bittersweet" moment for him.

"She has gone home," he said. "She died peacefully in her sleep with my sister at her side, and so there is great joy as well as tears."

In a rare 2004 interview with the Chicago Tribune, Dunham, who called her grandson "Bear,"said she and her husband offered their grandson a greater sense of normalcy. "I suppose I provided stability in his life," she said.

Madelyn did not live to see the day of what I hope and pray will be the election of her grandson as president of the United States. As Obama says, "She has gone home." But she will know. She will know. It's good that Barack had the opportunity to see her and say good-bye before she died.

O God of grace and glory, we remember before you this day our sister Madelyn. We thank you for giving her to her family and friends, to know and to love as a companion on their earthly pilgrimage. In your boundless compassion, console those who mourn. Give them faith to see in death the gate of eternal life, so that in quiet confidence they may continue their course on earth, until, by your call, they are reunited with those who have gone before; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

[Book of Common Prayer], p. 491 (slightly paraphrased)

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Whatever....

All right, folks, whatever. Just go vote like your yard sign.

Photo of a house in Indiana from Politico.

Thanks to Lapinbizarre.

UPDATE: From Paulas, in the comments, comes a link to an article about the owners of the house pictured above.

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"Refugees In Congo Desperately Need Aid"

From NPR:

Morning Edition, November 3, 2008 · Tens of thousands of civilians have been displaced by fighting in the Democratic Republic of Congo. U.N. peacekeepers are protecting an aid convoy that's heading to a town in the rebel-held zone of east Congo. The town was captured last week by rebels loyal to renegade Tutsi General Laurent Nkunda, who is participating in the fragile cease-fire.
....

Both the Congolese army and the rebel leader it has been battling assured the convoy's safe passage, said Gloria Fernandez, head of the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in eastern Congo.
....

She said health clinics north of Goma have been "looted and completely destroyed," leaving the Rutshuru hospital as the only operating medical facility in a region of hundreds of thousands of people.

Food, however, was the critical issue for most people.

"Everybody is hungry, everybody," said Jean Bizy, 25, a teacher, who watched with envy as the U.N. convoy stopped to deliver a sack of potatoes to U.N. troops in Rugari. Bizy said he has been surviving on wild bananas for days.
....

"They go around in circles ... fleeing the movement of troops and the lines of combat," she said.

Since Thursday, streams of refugees have thronged the roads around Goma trying to get home, lugging babies and bundles of belongings, guiding children, pigs and goats.

Why is it that international aid agencies seem to be able to do so little? I know; it's a war zone, and the UN peacekeepers are few in number. What do we do? Start a war to stop a war? Does anyone have answers?

One answer is that the Western nations must stop exploiting the people of Africa. Too often the leadership, with whom the West makes their deals, is corrupt, and none of the benefits from the natural resources of the countries make their way to the mass of the people.

UPDATE: For further information, read Georgianne Nienaber's article at The Huffington Post on Congo, and pray for the writers who try to tell the story.

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Please Pray For Roseann and Jonathan

NOT HOW IT WILL BE!

A reminder to pray for Roseann, who will have surgery tomorrow to remove both kidneys. Her kidneys are no longer functioning, and she has been on dialysis. She hopes eventually to have a kidney transplant. From Roseann's blog:

One of the things I'm learning while dealing with a serious illness, a life-threatening condition is to limit my contact with certain people. There are people who are helpful and supportive and these are people I want to keep close. There are people who want to make my condition about them somehow and want me to help and support them as they deal with my illness. I don't have the energy for that.

Update on Roseann:

June,...she is listed as Satisfactory. I think that is as good as it gets.

Sue

Pray also for Jonathan, aka Madpriest, who will have dental surgery tomorrow (which it already is now over there). Instead of a general anesthetic, which the dental surgeons recommended, he wants it done under a local anesthetic with an iPod to help him through the ordeal. Let's pray him through this. In his own words:

Your nerves are raw because of an election?!! Hah! You should try facing the extraction of half your teeth in one go on the morrow.

So thank you all for taking my mind off things.

Update from MadPriest:

Well, I'm back. Four rotten teeth lighter.

It wasn't too bad except there was a couple of hours or so between the end of the operation and the point at which I could drink enough to swallow some pain relievers that I was in incredible agony, far worse than any toothache.

He says he's getting sane. I hope he doesn't stop being funny.

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