Holy Fucking Shit
by (Atrios)
I forget who originally wrote something like this (ripping off from unknown source), but it always stuck with me. Imagine it’s 2001. George Bush has just been selected by the Supreme Court. You really don’t like George Bush. Then some guy claiming to be from the future shows up and tells you that George Bush is going to fuck things up so badly that the next president is going to be a black Democrat named Barack Hussein Obama. You probably don’t believe him.
“It’s been a long time coming, but tonight, because of what we did on this day, in this election, at this defining moment, change has come to America.”
Congratulation everyone! Enjoy the night.
But there’s much work to be done in coming years and we all know it won’t be easy. Let’s get it done.
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11:20 EST: Florida’s in the can, Big Joan has set up and is belting this sucker out! OBAMA baby! McCain is conceding right now. I feel bad for him, it sucks losing, but his campaign just didn’t have it. jc
10:45 EST: CA, OR & WA close in 15 minutes and they’re about to put Obama over the magical 270 mark! ic
10:13 EST: Obama pulls ahead in Virgina - 83% in.
9:50 EST: Now just give me Stuart Smalley on the Senate floor and we’re totally styling. jc
9:35 EST: MSNBC: New Mexico for Obama. This is thing is over. fuck yeah! -ic
9:28 EST: Oh hell yeah, i smell a route. jc
9:19 EST: Fox News/MSNBC: Ohio to Obama!!!!! Even w/o Virgina, he only needs CO, IA, NM, or NV to win! Start to get the bubbly out…. (but keep voting in CA so we can beat down Prop. H8) -ic
8:01 EST: NBC: Pennsylvania, New Hampshire to Obama. Waaaahoooooooo! -ic
7:37 EST: I won’t be happy with just a win. i want a bloodbath. jc
7:15 EST: Indiana “too close to call”. Excellent news. We’re headed for a good night. -i
Punishment Park is a 1971 film written and directed by Peter Watkins. Conceived as a pseudo-documentary, it is hands down one of the most intense works ever in political cinema. To set the stage for the film… the Vietnam War escalates with Richard Nixion’s “secret” bombing campaign in Cambodia. Faced with a growing anti-war movement, Nixon decrees through the McCarran Internal Security Act of 1950 a state of emergency. This authorizes federal authorities, without reference to Congress, to detain persons judged to be a “risk to internal security.”
From Wiki:
With state and federal jails at their top capacity, the convicted face the option of spending their full conviction time in federal prison or three days at Punishment Park. There, they will have to traverse 60 miles of the hot California desert in three days, without water or food, while being chased by National Guardsmen and law enforcement officers as part of their field training. If they succeed and reach the American flag at the end of the course, they will be set free. If they fail by getting “arrested”, they will serve the remainder of their sentence in federal prison.
Watkins took real protesters from the southern CA area, most of whom had no acting experience, and threw them into a simulated production of these supposed camps. What resulted were performances so authentic that many left the original screenings convinced what they’d just seen was real. Even more interesting however were the critical responses the film elicited from viewers…
Just kidding, she voted for Obama. Still pretty remarkable though:
Amanda Jones, 109, the daughter of a man born into slavery, has lived a life long enough to touch three centuries. And after voting consistently as a Democrat for 70 years, she has voted early for the country’s first black presidential nominee.
