LadyGypsy.net – the blog of Kimberly Dowd of New Jersey

So all of our usual suspects are prepping for the 2012 presidential run. Yay for them.

However, this will likely make my Facebook a vast wasteland of ill-informed rhetoric and hurtful statements. I don’t get it. I’d never say anything like, “I can’t believe the absolute idiots who insist on driving hybrid cars. What ignorant assholes!” primarily because 1) that’s just mean and 2) chances are, someone I’m friends with drives a hybrid car.

So here’s my #1 tip to making sure that my stream of funny videos, Starbucks checkins and cute baby/pet pictures aren’t interrupted by intolerant know-it-alls.

If you put your mouse pointer at the upper left corner of the post that tosses a wrench into your Facebook, you’ll see a blue X. Click that and you’ll see…

Oho! All you have to do then is click “hide this post” and Yes!You!Can! restore peace to your wall.

This technique works for either side of the aisle.

And if Seamus McDouchebag insists on tossing teabags at or spraypainting “HOPE” on your wall, you can click on “Hide all by Seamus” to put him in Facebook time out. This’ll hide all of his postings from your wall, but by the time he gets to this level of political frenzy, it’ll be best to ignore him ’til Jan 2013 anyway. Seriously, by President Obama’s inauguration day, I had seven friends – real friends! – hidden from my wall because it was just that bad.

As much as you think that you can change his mind, because you vote a certain way and drive a hybrid car and surely because he’s your friend he’ll understand that not every person of a certain mindset is a frothing lunatic — do not engage.

And if such a political discussion breaks out on your wall, remember, it’s YOUR wall. You can delete any comment you want to. I see my wall (and this blog) as my personal salon. I love when everyone chats. I become uncomfortable when there is tension. But when people start throwing paint at each other, I kick’em out. If there’s an argument on the wall, I delete all the offending posts. I don’t even hide it…

Remember — Never wrestle with a pig: You both get all dirty, and the pig likes it. (George Bernard Shaw, so says the Internet)

(If you want to friend me, and you don’t become mean during elections, find my Facebook profile here.

I’m home sick today, most likely due to being smashed underground for hours with a bunch of strangers on Friday. Usually, I’d feel crazy-guilty but I’ve this is only the 4th sick day I’ve taken this year out of the 10 we’re allowed. Since our sick days don’t accrue, I opted to spend the day beneath quilts drinking tea. And as a goodly chunk of us at the C-P may be laid off on 12/3, a sick day isn’t going to make a drop of difference.

When WM came home from school we meandered over to vote. Our polling place is in the same building as our apartment’s fitness center, which is very convenient. There were 2 machines. One was occupied by a lady who couldn’t figure out how to vote (I have NO patience that. They send out sample ballots with voting instructions ahead of time. There are instructions RIGHT on the machine. READ THEM!). The other was empty.

It was pretty scary how easy it was to get signed in. The poll worker asked for my last name. I gave them Dowd. She couldn’t find it in the book. Then I realized it was Turberville on my sample ballot – yet another thing I forgot to change. She found me under Turberville and I signed in. I didn’t have to recite my address, show ID, nothing. NOTHING! I think you should have to show ID to vote. That’s not suppressing a right to vote, it’s common sense. Just sayin’.

I voted for John McCain.

For months now I have sat quietly and listened to people (many of whom I know and value as friends) rant and rave about how HORRIBLE Republicans are and how STUPID McCain voters must be and how it’s so RACIST to call into question some of Obama’s connections. Not a week has gone by at work where my political beliefs haven’t been mocked openly by people who sit as close as 3 cubicles away. Not a week has gone by without a Facebook friend posting a anti-Republican article or joining an anti-McCain or anti-Palin hate group.

Not to say the (R) team hasn’t had their shining moments of pure bile and vitriol (Obama’s ideas are not socialist, geez!) – this has been a hateful campaign on both sides. And I’m tired of it. I’m tired of being depicted a monster and I’m tired of having to defend myself.

I am not against hope. I am not against change – I don’t like the way things are now. I am not racist, and I think Obama will make a fantastic president once he gets a bit more experience under his belt. In January, 2009, he will have been in the Senate for 4 years of a 6 year term, and he will have spent 2 of those years spent running for President! If the ticket was Biden-Obama, I’d have voted for it in a heartbeat, even though Obama broke his pledge to take the public campaign financing.

Likewise, if McCain (who signed the bailout bill, even though it’s chock full of the earmarks and pork he claims to be against) had chosen Kay Bailey Hutchinson as his veep candidate my decision would have been so much easier.

In the end I voted for John McCain based on his experience and because I think he’ll do better at getting our guys and girls out of this Mid-East mess safely. I read the issues, I watched the conventions and some of the debates. I believe the economy will right itself, but I don’t believe we should rely on the government to take care of us. We can be our brother’s keeper without the government forcing us to. And it’s easier for me to send money to charity each month when we’re not being taxed to death. I believe Congress will remain heavily Democratic, thereby preventing a super-conservative judge from being appointed to the supreme court.

Will my vote matter? Not this time. I am one red dot in a sea of blue in NJ. I think Obama’s going to take it all. Am I upset about that? No. In reality, he’s not going to ruin us as much as McCain & friends want us to think. He’s bright and articulate and young and hopeful. He has a lovely wife and cute kids He better pony up and get them their damn dog.

And if Obama wins, my job and my Facebook page will be much nicer to be around.

In other voting news, I voted for Dick Zimmer over Frank Lautenberg, Dale Glading over the liar Rob Andrews, and the non-incumbent Camden County Freeholders. If I were in California, I’d have voted NO on Prop 8.

Back under the quilts with me. Wake me when this election is over.

I turned comments off. Not because I can’t take them – Lord knows I’ve had enough people yelling at me about this for months – but because I can’t take you all fighting with each other. I’m fond of all of you, no matter what.

Forgot to turn comments off. Remember, everyone follow the example of the first 5 comments and be nice.

WM and I did indeed go to see John McCain’s “Town Hall” at Burlington County College yesterday. As you can tell by our vantage point in the picture above, we are not financial supporters of the McCain Campaign, nor are we veterans.

I’m on the fence (as usual) this time around. Both candidates have positions and qualities I admire, and at times I’d like one or the other to just go away.

Here are my observations on the day…

We took Route 38 to Pemberton. Anyone who thinks South Jersey is nothing more than a Starbucks on every corner needs to leave drive 30 minutes outside of Camden County. Lots of green, lots of farm.

The email invite I received said that the doors opened at 9:00 for a 9:30 start. The Facebook event page said 10:00am to 1:00pm. The lady behind us said it started at 11:00. It actually started at 10:30 with the parade of local politicos, then there was a short break and the McCain crew hit the stage around 11. If you make people take off of work for these things, at least be forthright with the time.

The Security check involved scanning bags and walking through a metal detector. Both WM and I were wanded after the detector because we wore belts with belt buckles. (To fit in, my buckle featured an oil rig and WM’s featured a longhorn cattle head). I overheard WM say, “Don’t touch me” to the security guy.

Once we got in, we were told that Veterans got to sit in the folding chairs on the ground and everyone else had to sit in the bleachers. Note to the McCain team: You would do VERY WELL to not always surround the older of the 2 major candidates for president with a bunch of old white haired white guys. The bleachers were full of people of all ages, genders, and ethnicities, but for most of the pics of McCain you’ll see in the media, he’s surrounded by old vets. It would be nice to see him with people under the age of 60.

Songs played while we waited: Sweet Home Alabama, Hard Workin’ Man, Walk this Way, Walk the Line, Good Vibrations, Johnny B Goode (2x), Eye of the Tiger (2x), Standing Outside the Fire (2x), Who Says You Can’t Go Home (2x for the obligatory Bon Jovi song.).

One woman the press couldn’t stop swooning over was the ONE Crazed Hillary supporter. She had a Hillary for President sign with one lousy McCain bumper sticker on it. The McCain people gave her a few more to put on her sign. If you google McCain’s event yesterday and look at pics, you’ll see her and/or her sign…she’s sitting with the veterans behind him.

I assume she represents the women who are so mad at the Democratic Party for not letting Hillary win that they’re completely jumping ship and supporting McCain. And those women are bat-shit crazy. If you are TRULY voting for someone because you believe in what she believes in and NOT just because she has boobs then even if she doesn’t win you stick with the party that more accurately represents your beliefs. She makes her ilk look childish and like sore losers and I don’t even know why Team McCain would even want someone like that so prominently featured.

The event started at 10:30am, with the pledge of allegiance and the invocation (mentioning “Father” but not “Jesus”) by the 2 Republican Burlington County Freeholders. Then the president of the college spoke, followed by (R) candidate for NJ Senate Dick Zimmer, Chris Myers, Chris Smith, Jim Saxton and former Governor (and head of the 911 commission) Thomas Kean. The songs kicked in during a short break and then…

Joe Lieberman! Knock me over with a feather! Pretty neat. He and McCain seem chummy, and I’d love to him get the Veep nod, just to shake things up. McCain waited on the floor (standing, not dead) while Lieberman heartily endorsed him, then he took the stage. I stopped counting “Thank yous” at about 12.

McCain spoke for a half hour before he took audience questions. In a nutshell..
Obama won’t accept McCain’s proposal to do 1 Town Hall meeting a week for 10 weeks; the GITMO SCOTUS decision was bad; Pork Barrel spending must end; The economy sucks*; Obama wants to raise taxes, which is bad; McCain wants to double the standard deduction we all get; McCain wants to lower corporate taxes; privatize social security**, energy independence is good, but must come through innovation, not subsidies; and the Enemy are Bad People and an immediate pullout from Iraq would be wrong.

He took questions from the audience. I think two were planted (like the little girl who HAPPENED to be seated in the front row and who HAPPENED to have a prepared question about funding for education) and the other guy who HAPPENED to be running for his city council and HAPPENED to be a 9/11 WTC survivor to boot. But the rest seemed unscripted. Like the veteran who hollered out “HeY!” to McCain from the seats in back of him. None of the volunteers could get to that area to hand him a microphone, so McCain handed him his own so he could be heard. WM noted you could see McCain wince as he reached up to hand the microphone off – because of his war injuries, McCain can’t lift his arms up all the way.

The question I had ready in case I was called on?
“Senator McCain, over the last five years, we’ve seen many tech jobs lost to overseas outsourcing. Now customer service jobs and even Graphic Design jobs are going to countries like India. How will you and your Congress encourage American businesses to keep these jobs here in America?

My pictures of the event were absolutely crappy… unfortunately the one on this post is the best one. I’m glad I took the day off. It’s nice to see candidates talk live without having to put up with just the soundbites you get. And yes, I’d see Obama too if he did something like this in the area.

PS: Guess who was in Philly last night? Obama. But there were no invites to the public, as it was a fundraising event.

* McCain mentioned that because the economy is so bad, people are sitting around their kitchen table wondering how things are going to work. Uh, I don’t even have a kitchen table, John.

** This is why I voted for W in 2000.

Edited to add: I have some ads along the side that Google supplies. They serve ads based on the post. So they’re now serving McCain ads. It’s a Google thing, not a me thing. I’m also still on the voting fence.