Giants and Conservatives

Good news and bad news (again):

Good news: Now that there's so much distance between me and San Francisco that I can't watch baseball, the Giants go ahead and win the World Series. Good thing I'm not a big baseball fan or I'd be really disappointed I missed it all. Instead, I got a lot of pleasure in knowing how badly they destroyed George W. Bush's old team, especially in the game where Bush and his father threw the opening pitch in Texas only to lose 4-0 to the Giants' rookie pitcher. Plus Giants updates became a major part of the sports unit for my 5th graders. Cool!

Bad news: I really shouldn't complain about the election results seeing as I didn't vote, but in my defense it was impossible to obtain an absentee ballot - a lot to do with the time it takes to apply and the crappy Turkish mailing system. I'm actually pissed off about this: You'd think that a September request would give me enough time to get what I need in the mail, but by the time the application was available all my Turkish friends said it would be wishful thinking to mail 3 items back and forth (the application, the ballot to me, then the filled out ballot) in 2 months. I'm sure there was a way to make it happen, and I'm just making excuses. I'm not proud of not voting. I actually hate myself a little for it. But this was the first time I've ever not had the simple choice of voting or not voting; to vote I would have needed to make a ridiculous effort just to get a ballot into my hands.

And Alameda County election officials reading this: how about some online absentee ballot applications? And if they exist already, don't hide them! Trust me, I looked, and I got frustrated after an hour or so of fruitless searching. I've had better luck Googling Spanish language sources from 1920.

That said, this election was very important, even for this self-pitying non-voter. I didn't expect it to be as bad as it was, honestly. There was a huge move to the right country wide, even if Darth Vader-endorsed people such as Meg Whitman and Sharon Angle didn't end up winning. The Democrats lost 60 seats overall, and nearly both houses. Considering how right-wing the country is already it's amazing that we can go even more right; just to throw it out there, Obama would be considered a moderate conservative in almost any other country, while people in America have somehow been convinced he's a flaming liberal without realizing that flaming liberals feel betrayed by him ("betrayed" as if he ever claimed to be liberal). I've always said he was a moderate, not a left-wing progressive, and we shouldn't expect him to change the world by a liberal's image. Now that it's come true, how come everyone's so surprised and disappointed in him?

And crazy Sharon Angle won 45% of the Nevada vote, we were actually kind of close to having that nut job in office.

For more info about the political shape of the country I call home, check out my friend Isaac Hale's blog, Power to the Pundits. Last I checked he hasn't updated since the election, but he should be soon. He knows way more about all the wild campaigning that's been going on since my absence.

Of course the bad news is so much longer than the good news.