President Obama has been reelected to office, causing many people (even those who don't care much for him, like myself) to utter a small sigh of relief after facing what Romney may have brought to our country. While I am no fan of President Obama, I was a bit scared of Romney's possible administration, because he changed course on so many topics that one could never be sure what he was going to do. We still have partisan difficulties in government right now, because while Democrats control the White House and the Senate, Republicans have maintained control of the House of Representatives. Perhaps this time they will be less focused on making the President look bad, and more willing to do their jobs, but that's highly unlikely.
Here in America, we struggle with these liberal versus conservative politics, but if you ask someone from a more forward-thinking European country, they actually laugh when you say Democrats are liberal. (They really do. I've been laughed at for that.) To them, our conservatives are very conservative and our liberals are moderate at best. Anyway, let's take a look at what happened last night outside of the Presidential election.
-- Gay Marriage rights (or just "Marriage Equality Rights;" as one of my friends likes to say "I don't gay-eat a sandwich or gay-check my mail,") have had some huge leaps. For the first time, several states' voters chose to legalize same-sex marriage, and Minnesota chose to prevent an amendment that would define marriage as one man, one woman. While many, including myself, believe that voting on the rights of others is wrong, this is a great leap forward in showing how people are moving toward equality.
-- Even though they will be fighting will the federal government, several states chose to put legalization of marijuana, for medicinal or recreational use, on their ballots, and several of them passed. The laws would regulate marijuana use for adults only, and some would allow for government cultivation and taxation of the plant. Only Arkansas refused to allow medicinal marijuana use, while voters in Oregon shot down recreational use.
-- In other election news, student at Ole Miss grew angry at the election results and took to the streets in protest. There were reports of Obama/Biden signs being burned, rocks being thrown, and the word "riot" being tossed around by the corporate media. However, tweets from those attending the action said that the "riot" was more akin to just being in a long line at Subway, and said that no rocks were thrown. One sign was apparently burned, but for less than a minute before it was extinguished.
-- [Chuck] If you want more information about what's going on with Occupy Sandy, or any of the other Occupy movements, check this out. By the way, it seems that Occupy Sandy is in dire need of food for the people affected by the storm, and have a registry set up on Amazon if you would like to help.
-- [Chuck] Alan Moore is the author of The Watchmen and V for Vendetta, but he also sings a bit. On November 5th, he released a single titled "The Decline of English Murder," in which he sings about how murder used to be grisly, but now comes in more subtle forms, like greed and incompetence. The song is in honor of Guy Fawkes Day, and you can listen to it here. (It's a bit different than the music I normally listen to, but I really enjoyed this song.)
-- In Denver, Occupiers faced off with a tactical SWAT team as they tried to prevent the eviction of a 63 year old woman whose home had been foreclosed upon. The woman had asked her bank for an extra 60 days to find another place to live, but SWAT showed up to evict her, with assault rifles ready, after an Occupier was noticed carrying a BB gun, which the police assumed to be a real concealed weapon. There were no arrests made, although two people were detained for a short amount of time.
***Solidarity***
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