What Michael is Telling Obama

Excerpt from a Letter

(...)It worked. The Darkness ended. The vast majority of nation wept with joy on the night of the election (those who weren't weeping went out and bought a record number of guns and ammo). Unlike the last president, you didn't "win" by 537 votes in Florida (although Gore won the popular vote by a half-million), you beat McCain nationally by 9,522,083 votes! The House Democrats got a walloping 79-vote margin. The Senate Dems would caucus with a supermajority of 60 votes unheard of in over 30 years. The wars would now end. America would have universal health care. Wall Street and the banks would, at the very least, be reined in. Hardworking citizens would not be thrown out of their homes. It was supposed to be the dawning of a new age.
But the Republicans were not going to go quietly into the night. You see, instead of having just one Rahm Emanuel, they are ALL Rahm Emanuels. That's why they usually win. Unlike most Democrats, they are relentless and unstoppable. When they believe in something (which is usually themselves and the K Street job they hope to be rewarded with someday), they'll fight for it till the death. They are loyal to a fault to each other (they were never able to denounce Bush, even though they knew he was destroying the party). They dig their heels in deep no matter what. If you exiled them to a lone chunk of melting polar ice cap, they would keep insisting that it was just a normal "January thaw," even as the frigid Arctic waters rose above their God-fearing necks ("See what I mean -- this water is COLD! What 'global *warming*'?! (...)
We thought we were all done with this craziness, but we were mistaken. Like a beast that you just can't cage, the Republicans convinced not only the media, but YOU and your fellow Dems, that 59 votes was a *minority*! Precious time was lost trying to reach a "consensus" and trying to be "bipartisan."
Well, you and the Democrats have been in charge now for over a year and not one banking regulation has been reinstated. We don't have universal health care. The war in Afghanistan has escalated. And tens of thousands of Americans continue to lose their jobs and be thrown out of their homes. For most of us, it's just simply no longer good enough that Bush is gone. Woo hoo. Bush is gone. Yippee. That hasn't created one new friggin' job.
You're such a good guy, Mr. President. You came to Washington with your hand extended to the Republicans and they just chopped it off. You wanted to be respectful and they decided that they were going to say "no" to everything you suggested. Yet, you kept on saying you still believed in bipartisanship.
Well, if you really want bipartisanship, just go ahead and let the Republicans win in November. Then you'll get all the bipartisanship you want.
Let me be clear about one thing: The Democrats on Election Day 2010 are going to get an ass-whoopin' of biblical proportions if things don't change right now. And after the new Republican majority takes over, they, along with a few conservative Democrats in Congress, will get to bipartisanly impeach you for being a socialist and a citizen of Kenya. How nice to see both sides of the aisle working together again!
And the brief window we had to fix this country will be gone.
Gone.
Gone, baby, gone.

(...)

Hooked

A slow reader by nature, I put books down quickly. I love authors who chisel and scrape to make every sentence fit the sequence of thoughts. And I admire it if they can do it with seeming effortlessness. A verbacious babbler like Murakami doesn’t stand a chance with me. Recently, The Hours (Michael Cunningham) has gotten me hooked. Smart, slow flowing, melodious but bold in its insights, it has taken me on a journey into the question of identity and the ever-nagging question of normalcy that is worth every comma. But mind you...I have only gotten to page 87 so far.

8 Point 8

Fourteen years ago, a paranoid me was living and working in Santiago de Chile while finishing my Master’s Thesis on Liberation Theology. Having memorized the dates when earthquakes devastated that region in the past, I was prepared to save my floppy disks containing my research out of the rubble of any toppled building or else have them be shipped back by a survivor. The thesis comprised of six diskettes including pictures, stats, and elaborate tables. One complete set accompanied me everywhere I went from the Atacama Desert to the Falls of Iguazú and through the Andean Cordillera via boat and truck. Matt said nothing. Today he said: Oh shit!

No Way!

Watching the Olympic pair figure skating competitions, Julian grew silent. As one ice princess after the other was lifted up into the air by her studly prince and tossed away in a nerve wrecking twirl, he scorned, "No, if I were married, I would not do that!"

Pura Vida!

When in Costa Rica, you will become closely acquainted with ‘pure life’ in the form of a wide-smile, bright-eye greeting that beams across pot holes and drain pipes clogged with crumpled milk cartons.

“ Pura Vida, Senora!” my gardener used to holler from underneath a smothering vine of flesh eating plants in the back of my garden at seven o’clock in the morning, and it was the last I heard from the armed guard closing the gate after our 4x4 steam ship had heaved itself into our drive way at night.

Over the four years that we lived in Costa Rica, “Pura Vida!” became to signify stubborn serenity in the face of abject nonsense. For Christ’s sake, enjoy this while it lasts. It’s just life after all. This is it!

Costa Ricans, at least the humble majority of them, grow up to be amazing problem- solvers. They take life one minute at a time and try not to worry about the big picture, a strategy which all those whose lot in life is less fortunate may be well advised to adopt.

Being able to switch into a “pura vida” mode from time to tome is something I have worked on over these past years and I am proud to report that I have been able to perfect it to a surprising level, given that all that I had going for myself was relentless perfectionism.

I guess, being a mom which entails problem-solving 24/7 everything from torn toe nails, broken bikes to problem pets, I have turned into sort of a subcontinent myself. Just making it through the day...minute by minute while making the best of it.

It’s an art.

Pura Vida!

Yep, it's working!

Broadband is back. After long conversations that turned into intimate relationships with first Satish and then Arun, I managed to change the broadband channel from channel 1 to channel 5 and reclaim my place in cyberspace for 18.99. My knees are still hurting from the time I spent underneath my desk cajoling the router into submission. I am not a young lover anymore. Twenty years ago, with our then brand new Gateway PC, I was abel to poke and prod the harddrive for hours at a time. Ah yes, where would multi-million conglomerates be without those gentle acts of love?