And, yes, I DO take it personally: 11/02/2008

The taste you and I have been waiting for

yes, i've momentarily succumbed to schadenfreude...

Labels: 2008 Election, neocons, schadenfreude

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The view from Pakistan: "...the last eight years when intellect and the White House became mutually exclusive"

from the karachi newspaper, dawn, courtesy of juan cole...

Putting a black man in the White House is a staggering achievement for America where millions of voters chose this year to look at the person, not his race. This wholehearted embrace of multiculturalism will also lift America’s battered image abroad and tell the world that better things may — and that’s a big may, admittedly — be expected of a superpower that has ridden roughshod over real and imagined adversaries in the last eight years when intellect and the White House became mutually exclusive. George W. Bush’s utterances may have been a source of amusement abroad but were also a source of shame for educated Americans.

hahahahahahahahaha... i love it...!!

Labels: 2008 Election, Barack Obama, George Bush, Karachi, Pakistan, United States, White House

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The headline I've been waiting for

News Alert 11:05 p.m. ET Tuesday, November 4, 2008

Barack Obama
Wins the Presidency

Barack Obama defeats John McCain
to become first African American
to win the White House

kabul, afghanistan, 8:50 a.m., wednesday, 5 november 2008

literally everybody here in the project is talking about this, afghans and ex-pats alike... i had the tv on in my hotel room since 5:30 this morning... what an amazing feat... god help barack... god help us all...

Labels: 2008, Barack Obama, Washington Post, White House

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Election Day 2008

so, today is the big day... easily the most important election of my lifetime... i'm still not sure about obama but i've chosen to suspend my concerns and focus on what i believe in, which is goodness and love and light, and trust that sending that kind of energy out into the cosmos is ever so much more constructive than sending doubt and fear...

nevada has voting by fax, so my ballot arrived almost three weeks ago while i was still in jordan via my fax number which delivers to my email inbox... i completed it and faxed it back... i asked for a receipt confirmation which i got, so i know now that my vote got counted... when i was still in reno and setting this up at the washoe county election office, i found out, much to my dismay, that the absentee ballot i priority mailed via correo argentino in 2006 never arrived... sigh... i knew at the time i should probably have sent it via dhl...

afghanistan is going great... in chatting online with some folks here before arriving, i started getting these warm and fuzzy feelings, and, as the plane was on approach to the kabul airport and i was looking out the window at the city below, i experienced a great rush of affection for the place and felt really glad to be coming back... that was topped off by the wedding i attended that evening and then the extremely warm welcome i got from everybody here at the office... it's weird... never in my life would have i imagined that afghanistan would come to occupy a special place in my heart... it's definitely a really tough and dangerous environment but the afghans are some pretty great folks, and, yeah, they have their share of crooks, liars and generally all-around yucky people just like everywhere else...

i haven't been able to upload the video clips i took at the wedding to youtube but below are a couple of photos taken at the wedding hall both outside and inside... if the outside looks like a vegas casino to you, you will have gotten exactly the same impression i got when i saw such places on my first visit...

here's a link to a photo gallery on the website of the hotel where i'm staying here in kabul... it's part of a chain owned and operated by the extensive business interests of the aga khan...