Alternet is clearly one of my most valued news sources, one that ripe with intelligent commentary, talented writers, and breaking stories and perspective from news agencies and sources around the Web.

That’s one reason I’m thrilled to be a part of the AlterNet community, and am hosting Not So Humble @ AlterNet, a special edition of Not So Humble that updates every monday along with the main blog here – just over at AlterNet to supplement their exceptional political coverage.

If you love Not So Humble and love the political commentary and stories that I link here, head over to Not So Humble @ Alternet – a kind of Not So Humble extra edition, and let me know what you think there!

[ Not So Humble @ AlterNet ]
Source: AlterNet

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In a way, I wanted to let the results from Tuesday night sink in before I put fingers to keys, as it were, to describe exactly how I feel and my outlook for the future. Over the past couple of days, I’ve been elated, angry, hopeful, distressed and worried, but above all, optimistic. I’ve seen reactions across the spectrum, from the spontaneous elation that came on election night to the cautious optimism that followed to the anger and angst of disgruntled conservatives who have even threatened – as we did in 2004 – to leave the country for parts unknown (don’t let the door hit you, and good luck finding someone as conservative as American conservatives are).

As millions sat in front of their TVs waiting for results Tuesday night, my girlfriend and I sat in front of our computers, listening to NPR pumped through our home theatre system and wearing out our F5 keys refreshing election results. (personally, I was watching MSNBC’s election map, Yahoo!’s Election Dashboard, the BBC’s election map – who called states before their American counterparts, which was amusing, and the real-time map from the fine folks at DailyKOS) When it became all but clear that John McCain could never recover from the loss of Pennsylvania and New Hampshire, when Iowa and Ohio went blue, when states like Indiana, Virginia, North Carolina, Florida, were at first competitive and then all turned blue on the big map (some sooner than others) and John McCain called Barack Obama to concede the race and subsequently make perhaps the classiest concession speech I’ve heard from a Presidential candidiate, and when it was finally over and every major network called the race for Obama, the entire world changed. When Obama got on stage and delivered the finest victory speech I’ve ever heard, we all knew the world had changed.

I could almost hear the sigh of relief from around the world, the cheers of millions of Americans. I could almost hear the music myself as people flooded the streets in cities across the country, cheering, chanting, playing music – street parties erupted from Washington DC to Chicago to Los Angeles to Seattle. Here in Washington DC, poor George Bush couldn’t possibly have felt very good looking out the window of the White House to the growing mass of people at the gates dancing, playing drums, and holding each other and crying with joy outside of his doorstep.

The world changed, and everyone knew it. While Americans partied, world leaders rushed to call the new President-Elect to congratulate him and warmly open the doors of diplomacy to him; even long-time American rivals like the President of Venezuela Hugo Chavez offered to re-establish full diplomatic ties with the US and send an ambassador.

Back at home, my girlfriend and I held each other, tears welling up in our eyes, hopeful that our long nightmare of fear was over and that our hope for a better tomorrow had finally been rewarded. But where do we go from here? We’re ecstatic now, basking in the historic nature of not just a transformational and transcendent moment in American politics but also in American history, but the honeymoon will only last until the inauguration, at the longest.

The next day, my girlfriend was lucky enough to get one of the last newspapers on the stands in Washington DC, and the news was flooded with stories of people looking to find tangible reminders of the election of America’s first Black President to save for posterity. Civil rights leaders from decades gone by reminded us what a long, hard-fought battle it’s been to get here, the cost of lives, liberty, and livelihoods that brought us here, but made it all worthwhile. Political analysts of all stripes reported of an energized progressive America looking proudly to the future, and a disaffected conservative minority wondering where it all went wrong.

Over the next several days, the fog started to clear, and a few patterns started to make themselves apparent: a lot just happened, and a lot more is about to happen. Let’s take a look.

(more…)

We took our country back, America. A new day is dawning. We can all exhale now.

History in the making. Remember where you were today, my friends. We did it.

Thanks to the brilliant Wil Wheaton, I thought I should do my part and get a last word in before going dark to participate in the thrilling drama that is our democracy.

Get out the vote, everyone. I want to hope again – I want to believe again – I want my beloved country back.

A little music to lead you to the polls on November 4th and something to liven up your pre-Election Day weekend:

Absolutely fabulous. It’s a nice long mix, and definitely hip-hop heavy, but definitely a solid groove. I usually save music reviews for other blogs, but I had to share this one here. Among some of the winning lines:

Lemme hear you cheer if you loved the last eight years! -crickets- Thought so.
and
He has the audacity to hope, we just need the capacity to vote.

Hear, hear. Let’s make this thing happen, folks.

…from women everywhere.

Absolutely stunning, and incredibly inspiring. If you haven’t had a good, hard look at Sarah Palin’s record, you should – it’ll only steel your resolve to vote against her this election season.

Alternet has been very good at these multi-point roundups lately, and this one’s no exception. It’s a valuable read on some important things that the American people should know before they’re willing to take on the trillion dollar debt brought on by the Bush Administration’s financial policies and the party that’s been going on on Wall Street while Main Street crumbles under our feets and our jobs, salaries, and communities have been withering away.

Here are some highlights:

1. Shock Doctrine: Profiting from Crisis

Robert Borosage of Campaign for America’s Future invokes Naomi Klein’s “Shock Doctrine in asking whether we’re going to “get fleeced in this crisis” …

Call it extortion. Every American is told to ante up $2,000–an estimated $700 billion in all–to bail out the banks from their bad bets, or they’ll bring down the entire economy.

In a speculative frenzy that allowed the Masters of the Universe to pocket millions personally, the banks filled their coffers with toxic paper that no one wants to buy. Now they sensibly don’t want to lend money to each other, since no one knows if the other is solvent. So they go on strike, and threaten to trigger a global depression, if they don’t get rescued.

The bailout will happen simply to avoid that depression. But depressions have some salutary effects – the scoundrels go belly up, the weakest get purged, and in the wake of the disaster, people demand strict regulation of the money lenders to keep their greed and predatory behavior in check, and government spends money on the real economy to put people back to work.

2. Has a “Consensus” Really Formed Around the Idea That Something Must Be Done?

Martin Crutsinger of the Associated Press reports that “economists” — implying, troublingly, all economists — see the Bush Bailout as”Necessary.”

But Atrios — economist Duncan Black’s blog handle — has some questions about how everyone got on the same page so quickly …

…

7. What Would a More Progressive Bailout Look Like?

Economist Dean Baker offers up some “Progressive Conditions for a Bailout” at TPM:

Principles to Guide the Bailout

1) Financial institutions should be forced to endure the bulk of the losses with taxpayer funds only used where absolutely necessary to sustain the orderly operation of the financial system.

2) The bailout must be designed to minimize the opportunity for gaming.

3) The bailout should be designed to minimize moral hazard.

4) In the case of delinquent mortgages that come into the government’s possession, there should be an effort to work out an arrangement that allows the homeowner to remain in her house as owner. If this proves impossible, then former homeowners should be allowed to remain in their homes as renters paying the market rent. This should be done even if it leads to losses to the government.

5) There should be serious efforts to severely restrict executive compensation at any companies that directly benefit from the bailout.

For the full list, head over to Alternet. It’s a worthwhile read – call it the “fine print” of this bailout.

[ 10 Things You Should Know About Bush's Trillion Dollar Fleecing Plan ]
Source: Alternet

Earlier this week, we learned that Sarah Palin said “being a small-town mayor is kind of like being a community organizer, except you have actual responsibility.”

Really Ms. Palin? Actual responsibility?

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There’s some excellent commentary on this and other topics at the ever-eloquent Ill Doctrine. Check out this video for specifics:

While “Moose Burgers” Palin is out riding her snowmobile and gunning animals for food with assault weapons (and somehow Republicans actually admire her for these things), those “community organizers” are rallying events larger than the population of her city, and bringing real Americans together to solve the real problems that she and her party refuse to solve.