Facts Are Facts

I heard some good news on the way into work this morning: our new President believes that California's lead in trying to control auto emission pollution should be followed and not obstructed. While it is bound to cost car companies, and therefore individual consumers more money, reinstating the California rules (followed by 11 other states and quashed by the Bush administration) is good for the environment. Facts are facts, and I'm glad that science has a part to play in the Obama administration.

It Is Done!

We're still in San Francisco and had our own impromptu party in Joe and Gay Haldeman's room to watch the inauguration of Barack Obama this morning. There were about a dozen of us laughing, weeping, and applauding. (From left to right: Russell Davis, Mary Robinette Kowal, Gay Haldeman, John Scalzi, Sherry Davis, Ann Crispin, Len Wein, and Jane Jewell with Joe Haldeman closest to the camera.)

What a great day. President Barack Obama. What a great speech. Science is back. Tolerance is back. It's about time.

Proud of the USA and Los Angeles, Disappointed in California

I'm home again and mostly rested from the New Mexico adventure. If you are taking an overnight train ride, a roomette is the way to go. On the way home, I didn't have one. The young woman in the next seat kept hitting my legs as she climbed over me during the night and kicked me in the side two or three other times in her sleep. Then there were the people with headphones which did nothing to block the sound (they'll be deaf a lot earlier in life than I will) and the people who had to check e-mail every 15 minutes--the light is blinding when you are otherwise in the dark. Next time, it's either a sleeper or I'll have to fly.

The USA elected Barack Obama and Los Angeles soundly defeated Proposition 8. Unfortunately, the rest of the state (except for San Francisco, I'm pretty sure) didn't see this assault on equal protection for what it is. I just read the papers which have been filed to overturn the effects of 8 on the basis that it is a revision of the California State Constitution, not an amendment, and therefore illegal. It seems like a sound argument to me. Keith Olbermann did a special comment about this strange result last night. I'm surprised that he had such a hard time identifying anyone in his extended family who is gay. I came up with several without any effort. In terms of friends, I couldn't even begin to do a count. When you live and work among artists, you are in the most accepting of communities. I hope that Proposition 8 comes to a quick and deserving end.

Ace, for all who may be wondering, was glad to see me, although a bit stand-offish when I first showed up, as if to say "where the hell have you been?" He may have a "hot" nail from his visit from the farrier on Saturday. I noticed a bob during lessons yesterday and Gayle called to say it doesn't show at the walk or slow trot, but he's dead lame when he moves out. Left front hoof, of course. I've called Tim and I hope he can get out to see Ace before leaving for a trip home later this week. Poor Ace.

I haven't done more than load into Lightroom the 1000+ images I took in New Mexico. Most of them were of my friend Melinda riding Vento, the wonder stallion from Brazil, so there'll be heavy editing of the blurry images. Pixels are so much cheaper than film, so I don't skimp on the making images end of things. Melinda rode in an enclosed, indoor arena, so it was slow shutter speed, little depth of field, and high ISO. Not the best combination for great pictures, but I've probably got a few nice images in there. The pictures of her house are quite nice, though. Eventually, I'll put some up here.

We're having a brief bit of autumn out here. It was chilly last night and this morning, but 90 degree temperatures are promised for the end of the week.

Yes We Did

Training for the Out of State Attorneys was scheduled for 4 p.m. on Monday in Albuquerque. Melinda drove me into Santa Fe to pick up my car and then I followed her back to the house and over to her barn to see Vento, her handsome Lusitano stallion. I watched her lesson and took off for the 60 or 70 mile drive to the IBEW building for election protection training.

Despite the fact that I told the folks when I volunteered that I would be staying with a friend near Santa Fe and getting assurances that they would put me somewhere in that county, the envelope I received put me at a school in eastern Albuquerque. In order to get there by 6 a.m. on election day, I would either have to get a hotel room in Albuquerque or leave Melinda's by 4 a.m. I was not happy, but I eventually got someone to say there might be a chance to change assignments after the training was over.

There were 200-300 lawyers in the room. The largest contingencies were from Texas (where there was no chance of Barack Obama winning, so the lawyers went where they might do some good) and California (which was pretty much guaranteed to go for Barack), but there were also lawyers from Georgia, Illinois, Minnesota, Arizona, Oregon, and Canada. We were told that we should think of ourselves as firemen, and a good day would be one without a fire. We were given our instructions on what to look for and what to do and told to take masking tape and plain paper along with us to cover any t-shirts that couldn't be removed which might have material considered to be "electioneering" and could result in a voter being denied the right to vote.

As I was waiting to see if there was some lawyer who didn't show so I could switch assignments to one closer to my friends, another lawyer was explaining that she was sharing a vehicle with someone who was going to be at a location in Santa Fe and she couldn't get to her spot 35 miles north of Albuquerque. My assignment was five or six miles away from her colleagues, so we were able to switch. I still had to be up early, but not quite as early, and the distance was half of that for my original assignment.

I headed across the street to the Office Depot, where I ran into one of the other lawyers and we decided to share the supplies we were supposed to buy and split them. I suspect he might have needed them more than I did, but I doubt I'll ever find out for sure.

I called Melinda, who told me she had gone into Santa Fe to work at the Obama headquarters and we picked a rondezvous location so we could have dinner in town before going back to her place. We met up with our friend Parris at Tomasito's for good Mexican food which would have been even better if I could have had a margarita, but that wouldn't be a good idea when I had to drive and then get up early Tuesday morning. We got back to the house around 10 and I went to bed as soon as I could prepare things for the next morning.

The alarm went off much too soon and I managed to fall in the dark on my way down to the car. I've got a nice bruise on my shin. The drive to the San Filipe pueblo took about an hour, and as I said in my last post, I had a little trouble finding the exact location, but eventually it all worked out.

Everyone was incredibly friendly and in that I was fortunate. Late in the morning, I got a call from the war room to make sure I was all right because one of the lawyers in another location was threated with arrest for doing what she was legally there to do.

The only real problem of the day was that the vote scanner broke 5 minutes into the election day. I called the war room and about 90 minutes later someone came to fix it. People who voted in the interrim had their ballots sealed and they were scanned at the end of the day after the doors were locked.

My companion for the day was a resident of the pueblo named Deryl. I met a number of members of Deryl's family through the day: his mother, brother, niece and nephew, and aunt. Deryl's got a brother who's served two or three tours of duty in Iraq with the national guard. Deryl's a student at the University of New Mexico where he is majoring in political science and minoring in Indian studies. He used to work in management and burned out, so he's getting his degree and thinking about going to law school. This was his first time working for a campaign. He said that one of his instructors had gotten tickets for students to see Michelle Obama speak and he went and filled out one of the cards which asked for donations of time and money. He decided to volunteer as part of a class he was taking which appeared to be challenging Native American students to overcome the traditional apathy or indiference toward political involvement. Deryl was a non-lawyer volunteer for Voter Protection and he took his work quite seriously. He also took the time to call and text friends and family to make sure they were going to get to the polls to vote before the day was done.

I wound up calling the war room several times during the day. I had to check about the rules for convicted felons who had served their time and parole being able to vote and I called again when we found out that there was someone from the Department of Justice dropping by the polling place. It turned out there were several other Federal observers present inside as well, but I'm still not sure why. HQ was glad to get the information.

Voters came and went fairly steadily throughout the day. There were times of high traffic, but it never took anyone more than 10-15 minutes to get through the process. Food was provided to anyone who dropped by and the workers were kind enough to bring coffee and offer hot dogs to me. As a non-resident of the county, I was not eligible to be in the polling place itself. Unlike people doing electioneering who can't be any closer than 100' of the building, non-partisan voter protection people could be as close as 50'. It was a little difficult to get that close because of parking, but we were within 100' at all times.

Deryl and I spent a lot of time talking about law school. He had a lot of questions about the LSAT, the bar exam, and what it was like in law school. I recommended he read The Paper Chase and One-L. I learned about life on the reservation, which is about 17,500 acres and has a new school and a casino on the other side of I-25 from the main part of the village. It is a "conservative" tribe, meaning they are serious about following tradition and it seemed that almost everyone spoke the native language as well as English. It really helped to pass the day.

One of the other people I met was a young woman, who, like Deryl, was working on her first campaign. Barack Obama had impressed her, so she worked to get her people to register to vote, going door to door in the pueblo to talk to them. She told me that it was hard work, because so many people in the pueblo did not believe that voting didn't really have any effect on their lives or that it would do any good. It was not their way. It was especially not the way of the women who believed that it was the men's place to make these decisions. She believes that things are changing and it is important to make an effort to become involved to have a say in the direction the community will take. She told us that she had been talking to the "grandmas and grandpas" and pointed out that they needed to be concerned about the kind of lives their grand children would have. Then she said that she had gone to the grocery store where she got into a discussion with a clerk about voting and the clerk said that her grandmother had gotten a visit from someone who had so impressed the grandmother with their arguements for voting that the grandmother had announced that she was going to vote for the first time. The girl realized that she was the person who had convinced the grandmother to vote. I said to her "doesn't it make you feel really good to know you've made a difference like that?" and she positively glowed with pride.

Talking to these two young people and seeing the difference they were trying to make in their communities made the entire trip worthwhile. Barack Obama is having the same effect on them that Jack and Bobby Kennedy had on me.

The pueblo has about 1000 registered voters and by the end of the day almost 600 of them had come into vote. The people there were ecstatic. It was by far the largest voter turnout they had ever had for anything. It was clear to me from the beginning of the day that Barack Obama was the candidate of choice for most of the voters and the only electioneering I saw was for Obama. The Republican challengers were in the poll for only a small part of the day--they really didn't have much to do and, apparently, were no where near as prepared as the Democratic challenger was.

My friend Melinda, meanwhile, spent the entire day canvassing voters in Santa Fe. Parris joined her for the afternoon. Just as they were getting ready to head to Parris' place to watch the returns, panic errupted in Obama headquarters in Santa Fe because they thought they had under-performed in voting and there was this frantic thought that they needed to get more voters out to meet the 75% turnout they thought they needed to win the state. As it happened, many, many people had voted early and the results for New Mexico were called for Obama very soon after the polls closed at 7 p.m.

By the time I got to Parris' and George R.R. Martin's house around 8, virtually all of New England had been called for Obama. Then Pennsylvania was called. And then Ohio. As soon as Iowa was called, I called my sister and thanked her for keeping her Iowa registration and going to Iowa to vote. I watched my former home state of Virginia called for Obama, courtesy of that communistic Northern Virginia, not the real Virginia. At 9 p.m. our time, when the polls had closed everywhere, MSNBC called the election for Obama and we drank champaign to celebrate the coming of age of our country and the election of an articulate and smart President. My friend Karen, who spent the past week working on the election in Las Vegas (something like 1500 lawyers went to Nevada to be part of election protection there), called me to share the moment. It was just great, after the disappointments of 2000 and 2004.

We've spent the past 24 hours giggling and weeping. Melinda alternates between saying "we did it" and "I can't believe we did it." When we went shopping in Santa Fe today, people couldn't stop talking about what a great day yesterday was. Melinda kept pointing out that I had come out from L.A. to work on the election and people thanked me for what I consider to be a very small role in a very big effort. There is so much work to be done, so much damage to repair, but Barack Obama is an inspirational leader who has the potential to be this crisis' FDR. I have great hope and I am so glad that I took the time to be a part of one incredible day.

Day Three in New Mexico

I can't stop weeping, I'm so proud of what happened today in my country.

I'm also exhausted. I left Melinda's at about 4:50 a.m. to go to San Filipe Pueblo, located about 50 miles from where I am staying. It was pitch black when I left, and so dark when I got to the reservation that I wasn't sure I was going in the right direction. I found the building I was told to go to, but there was no indication that was the polling place. A car stopped and the driver rolled down the window. She let me know the location had been moved to another building and asked me to follow her.

The gate to the building wasn't opened until well after 6, so my first call into the voter protection war room was at 6:15 a.m. The second call was when the place finally did open. The third was when the voting scanner machine stopped working after only a few votes. It took about an hour and a half, but the scanner did get repaired and the 75 or so votes which were cast in the interim were scanned at the end of the day. The turn-out was far in excess of any prior election at the pueblo and it was quite clear that Barack Obama was the candidate of choice for most of the voters.

I'm too tired now to write about my fellow voter protection volunteer for the thirteen hours we stood outside the polling place and about the warm and friendly people I met. And now I'm going to wrap myself in the thought that intelligence and competence is no longer a crime in this country and that elections can be won on the issues and I am going to sleep.

Yes We Carve

My friend Gillian held her annual pumpkin-carving party this afternoon. With the temperatures as high as they've been this week, it is unlikely that the pumpkins will make it to Sunday unless they are refrigerated.
As you can see, we've got some talented carvers in the group. Lisa Klink did the cat on the left, a bas relief which left a layer of pumpkin to diffuse the light of the candle. Craig Miller did the nice bats on the right.Indiana Jones, done by Nicole Dubuc, was one one of the most complex carvings of the day, although the portrait of Darth Vader you can see in the center of the bottom row in the group photograph was also impressive.
In past years, more people have done double-sided carvings like this graveyard with ghosts projecting from the back of the pumpkin that Genny Dazzo made. This may have been the only pumpkin with projecting images this year.

Three of us got into the spirit of the election by using the patterns from www.yeswecarve.com to produce pumpkins with the Obama for President logo. It was a great idea, and, as Gillian said, we won't have any problem identifying what year the carvings were done.
The pumpkin in the center on the bottom row of this last photograph was an original design by my husband, Len Wein. He likes designing his own and does a great job with it. In past years, he's created a Swamp Thing and a Batman.

Political Party

Like most people, I'm looking forward to the train wreck which is coming up in the form of the Vice-presidential Debates. It won't be quite as much fun as the one I went to for the first Presidential Debate. In the photograph above, comedian and political commentator Al Franken, candidate for the U.S. Senate from Minnesota, addresses the crowd at a back-yard fundraiser in Los Angeles last Friday night. I saw several people I recognized and even a few that I know, like screen writer Josh Olson (A History of Violence.) Al was planning to do commentary during commercials, except there were no commercials. He did have some remarks at the end, before running off to House of Blues where Dan Ackroyd was having a big-ticket benefit for the campaign.

If you look closely at the photograph below, you can see SNL alum Laraine Newman next to the man watching television. Julia Sweeney was also in attendance. That's Al Franken sitting at my feet watching Jim Leher on the television. At one point, Mr. Leher was absolutely struck dumb by something that John McCain said. I wish I could remember what it was. I have fond memories of photographing Jim Leher in my studio in Virginia for an ad campaign more than 23 years ago. He was very nice, and gave me a lot more than the 10 minutes I was told I would have with him.
I'm hoping the moderator on Thursday night asks Sarah Palin about Adam and Eve riding dinosaurs in the Garden of Eden.

While a number of the people at the fund raiser were disappointed that Barack Obama didn't lay into McCain and were very unhappy that he kept acknowledging points where he agreed with McCain, the polls indicate it was a winning strategy. Obama looked presidential and McCain looked rude and angry. It was as if McCain mentally pictured Obama as the enemy, wouldn't look at him, wouldn't acknowledge him, in order to eviserate him. No wonder no one has nominated him for Mr. Congeniality.

I Need a Commission

Alex Ross is one of the great comic book artists. His paintings for covers and pin ups are spectacular. He's done some wonderful Superman art. He worked with my friend Kurt Busiek on Marvels and Astro City. He even did the art for the Oscars(R) several years ago. The hot item for all of us liberals at Comicon International this year was a tee shirt with art called "Obama for Change." Connie Willis, Melinda Snodgrass, and I all went home with them.

We've got some peculiar rules at work, so I've been reluctant to wear it, but I wanted to show it to two of my co-workers. Since it's so cold in the office, I figured I could keep it covered up with my shawl, which I did. I had to come up with the contact information for Graphitti Designs when I showed my colleagues the shirt and Graphitti got several orders today. Here's the artwork:I admire the fact that Alex refused to do John McCain as a superhero, although I hear that IDW Publishing is doing superhero books of both Obama and McCain this fall.

West Wing v. Commander in Chief

Let me get this straight. The commentators last night were comparing Barack Obama's speeches to those written by the gifted Aaron Sorkin for The American President and The West Wing. Then John McCain comes out looking like he's picked a Gina Davis from Commander in Chief.

One newscaster I heard this morning said "she's young and she's hot!" Please tell me what the message is with this choice? Do the McCain people honestly believe that women will vote for any woman in the White House? Or is it that men will vote for a hot chick over an intelligent leader?

Finally, the Candidate Speaks

I have been glued to MSNBC all week, watching the process of the Democratic National Convention. I have been touched by the speeches made by Michelle Obama, Hillary Clinton, Bill Clinton, Beau Biden, and Joe Biden. And tonight, Barack Obama's acceptance speech hit a grand slam out of Mile High Stadium.

This election is about the best of American values: that anyone can grow up to be president, that the promise of America is a better life for everyone, not just the wealthy, and that we help those who are worse off than ourselves.

After eight years of dispair about my country, my beloved Constitution, and the future my son, my nieces, and my nephews will have, I see a light at the end of a dark tunnel.

I am proud that this year two candidates of great intelligence and insight ran for the Democratic nomination (why is it only that the Democrats value intelligence in their candidates?) And while I was disappointed that Hillary Clinton did not win (I was also very disappointed that General Clark did not run), I will be pleased to cast my vote for someone who has worked hard to get to where he is in life, who could have landed a high-paying job with a big corporate law firm after graduation from Harvard Law School, but who chose, instead, to devote himself to public service. That's the kind of American President I want in the White House.

The Primaries Continue

I've said before that I don't really care which of the Democratic candidates wins, I'll vote for either one of them. But as the primaries have worn on, I've started to feel that, despite her weaknesses, I'd rather see Hillary Clinton in first position, with Barack Obama as VP. I truly believe that she is the better qualified candidate. In my bad moments all I can think is that the American public will choose a younger, less experienced (though no less well educated) male candidate rather than elect a smart, well educated, and highly experienced woman as President.

I also realized that I'd like to see someone who looks a bit like me in the White House before I die. Hillary is as close to a contemporary as I can expect to have (she's a few years older), her daughter is almost the same age as my son, we both went to law school and practiced law, we've both done a lot of volunteer work, and we're both married to famous men, which can overshadow our own abilities and accomplishments. I'm far more militant about keeping my own name than she's been, but I'm not in the political arena and don't want to be.

The thing I believe most about Hillary Clinton in the White House is that many more women will be appointed to positions of power than will happen in an Obama administration. It is what women of my generation worked for and I think that it explains why Hillary has so many "grey" supporters.

I'll enthusiastically support and vote for Barack Obama if he wins the nomination. I will be sad for the loss of a groundbreaking role model for young women if Hillary Clinton is not the nominee. There is no doubt in my mind that either candidate is head and shoulders above anything the other side has to offer people like me. Mike Huckabee's peeps believe that the world was created 6000 years ago, that Adam and Eve went to church riding dinosaurs, and that women should be barefoot and pregnant, subservient to their husbands, seen and not heard. What kind of life is that for anyone's daughter?

And You Think You've Got Stress?

Hillary Clinton chokes up on the campaign trail and the reports sound like she's having a nervous break-down. Just how much do people hate smart, well-educated, accomplished Democratic women in this country? Give me a friggin' break. I don't recall the press stopping for a minute to report on the Reagans' abilities to tear up on cue, which I had the distinct displeasure to observe on an assignment one day back in the 1980s. Hillary's appears to have been an honest moment in a hard-fought campaign. It's tough to watch something you've worked for and you know you'd be great at slipping away.

I'm also really pissed at the commentators who think that things are all over with these two contests which represent less than 2% of the electorate. I'd suggest waiting until after Super Tuesday, when places like California get to check in, before drawing conclusions. Since I still think that Dennis Kucinich is the only candidate speaking like a true liberal, I'm more than irritated that the networks think they can limit candidates access to debates (that's you ABC.) I also think that it's questionable journalism that skewed the coverage after John Edwards came in second to Barack Obama by saying it was a race between Barack and Hillary. And the report I heard saying Hillary had lost Iowa by double digits was also unfair. She lost to Barack by single digits and was right on John Edward's heels. Only by combining the Obama and Edwards numbers does she lose by "double digits."

This race is exciting as it is. I know it is impossible for Fox Noise to be fair and balanced, but that doesn't excuse any of the rest of the journalists out there.

John Stewart and Stephen Colbert returned to the airwaves last night and did a great job of spreading the word on the WGA strike by bringing on guests who could intelligently talk about labor relations and the monetary issues at stake. We roared with laughter at "The AMPTP, pronounced NAMBLA" and Stewart getting jibes in about the companies lying either to the writers or their stock holders. Colbert's feigned lack of understanding about where the words on his monitor come from was priceless, as was the lack of "The Word."

I so wish the WGA would issue those shows interim agreements, but I do understand why they won't--so far. Unlike David Letterman, who owns his own show, I'm pretty sure Viacom owns "The Daily Show" and "The Colbert Report." Without the rest of the company signing on as well, it isn't a move in the right direction. Sigh.