Chad

11/6/08 UPDATE:

Wow, what a 24-hour period. Since I posted this, several things have happened. More than 15 people have commented either on my Facebook status, my wall, or in the comments of the posts themselves, including several African-American friends and friends who went to high school with the person mentioned above.

By the end of the day, that person also wrote in several places to say that her account had been hacked, and it was not her who posted those comments. I believe her.

She wrote "I have contacted customer service regarding the comments made under my name regarding gays and Obama. I wanted McCain but I'm not stupid, Obama is going to be in charge of our country I hope he does a good job. I have heard threats on him but I don't wish harm on anyone. And the fact that someone thought for a moment that I was racist, I have four different nationalities in my house, that is crazy."

I have no reason to doubt her sincerity on this matter. I am glad I never used her name on the blog itself.

I am also not regretting posting what I did, because at the end of the day, *someone* wrote those awful things. They were just as much of a coward as I usually assume the people are who say those things in a public forum.

Those comments were the first thing I read the morning after one of the most special nights of my life, and it felt like a gut punch. I didn't want to pretend it didn't happen, and I didn't want to sweep it under the rug. I wanted to do something in a way that I felt Obama might handle it if he chose to respond.

I was heartened by others who spoke out as well. I firmly believe that's the key to progress. Many must speak out, at big things and small, in order for the definitions of "normal" and "acceptable" to be changed.

I regret that this person had her account hacked and that these things were attributed to her. But part of me is relieved. Because as I said earlier, it was hard for me to understand how someone from my same high school could see the world so differently. We have different politics, and that's fine. That just puts her in the same camp as the rest of my family. But we still share one humanity, and that's what I was fearful we were losing when I read those statements that *someone* wrote. I am also glad I didn't unfriend her, as some people suggested, this would have severed the lines of communication, and made a bad situation worse, which is what I fear has led to many of the misunderstandings we currently face in this nation and in the world.

I awoke this morning to this posted on my wall, from the Facebook "friend" who I went to high school with. I debated the merits of posting her name, but decided against it even though at least 330 people could read it. Maybe it's the Obama hangover, but I thought I'd take the high road on that part.

Anyway, here's the wall post:

Chad, he will never make it, someone will kill him before he ever gets to the white house, there are some good old country boys that are pissed. Who realy cares what gays think at all, do they really think? If they think they wouldn't be gay! This world is all about handouts and feed me, what can you do for me. Our forefathers didn't fight for this! Obama supporst the lazy welfare pieces of crap. He can't even follow through with half of what he promised its impossible.

I fought the urge to go as low as this post and instead wrote the following:

This is something I wrote, and was talked down from posting. A recent exchange (part two of this post), however, got me fired up to post this, as well as the followup to the very ignorant things that were recently posted on my Facebook wall this morning.

I'm probably going to offend a former classmate of mine from high school with this, but then again, I didn't start it, and I'm too fascinated by it to not share it with others. Especially after another friend I read this to couldn't help but burst out laughing.

A couple weeks ago, I was reunited, via Facebook, with a high school classmate I hadn't spoken to in at least 10 - 15 years.

Right off the bat, after having read some of my status updates, she posts on my wall:

"Go Republicans! Don't tell me you want O'butthead??? Come on Chad! How have you been? Married? Kids?"

Since this was sitting out there on my wall, I didn't really want to let it go unadressed. So I wrote back:

"I want a lot of things. I want the Constitution to not be pissed on any more, I want the word 'elitist' to be used appropriately, I want tolerance to become so a part of the fabric of our country that we don't even talk about it because it's such a given, I want a president who wouldn't dare call his wife the C word in front of the media, who has enough respect for his fellow Americans to actually look them in the eye when debating them, who doesn't try to 'save the country' only after the poll numbers look bleak, and who doesn't attempt to pick fights with the same media outlet it quotes 60-plus times during the campaign (New York Times), I want a president who might actually help my parents pay for their medical bills and who isn't afraid of being intellectually curious. Oh yea, and I also want Obama to win by a landslide. I'm married with no kids at the moment. Things are generally good and looking to be much better come January ;-)"

We also got into a pretty intense Facebook IM chat, that I unfortunately didn't save and can't seem to find an archive of. (Facebook folks, please make make chat archives available like Gmail does. Thanks!)

As I was getting ready to head out to volunteer in New Hampshire for Obama/Shaheen, something compelled me to flip through my copy of the 9/11 Commission Report. I was particularly moved by this passage on page 376.

In short, the United States has to help defeat an ideology not just a group of people, and we must do so under different circumstances. How can the United States and its friends help moderate Muslims combat the extremist ideas?

Recommendation: The U.S. Government must define what the message is, what it stands for. We should offer an example of moral leadership in the world, committed to threat people humanely, abide by the rule of law, and be generous and caring to our neighbors. America and Muslim friends can agree on respect for human dignity and opportunity. To Muslim parents, terrorists like Bin Laden have nothing to offer their children but visions of violence and death. America and its friends have a crucial advantage -- we can offer these parents a vision that might give their children a better future. If we heed the views of thoughtful leaders in the Arab and Muslim world, a moderate consensus can be found.

That vision of the future should stress life over death: individual educational economic opportunity. This vision includes widespread political participation and contempt for indiscriminate violence. It includes respect for the rule of law, openness in discussing differences, and tolerance for opposing points of view.

Note: If you'd like to see a PDF of the Excel sheet I made to come up with these nifty calculations, click here.

Fairness. The Environment. Intelligence. Preparation. Causes bigger than one's self. The Constitution. Equality. Diversity. Hope.

None of these things appear to be what the election is about, if you listen to the very latest attempt by the McCain campaign to make its case.

Instead, it's all about taxes. And "socialism." And taxes. Oh, and I heard them complaining about Barack Obama wanting to "spread the wealth around." And how that's so wrong.

Well, I'm always willing to have a discussion with people who I disagree with, and even entertain their premise for a bit to see if I can see things their way.

This time around, however, I just can't seem to do figure it out.

The problem, it appears, is math. It just doesn't add up.

I took a look at some recent tax and election numbers. The tax numbers, by way of taxfoundation.org (thanks @baratunde) show federal spending received per dollar of taxes paid by state from 2005. A quick glance at this, shows a pretty obvious display of how the federal government already "spreads the wealth around."

I had heard about people complaining about their votes for Obama going to McCain, so I can't say I was totally surprised about this, but seeing it in this demonstration is truly stomach turning.

A reporter from the Uptake gets a McCain worker very upset when she interviews multiple minority "volunteers" for the McCain campaign who all admit they're getting paid to work for the campaign. I love the YouTube.

This clip will have no bearing on the election. Unlike certain SNL skits that do much to reinforce a "heightened reality" as Lorne Michaels put it to Sarah Palin during her appearance.

http://view.break.com/592648

The older I get, the more I appreciate R.E.M. songs. I also cringe sometimes, though because every day it seems like we fall back further to the insanity of when those lyrics were originally penned.

The most recent example happened last night, when I watched Michele Bachmann, she of the Republican party and also a congresswoman from Minnesota who decided to question the pro-American loyalties of large swaths of the country, as well as others in congress, as she attempted to denigrate Barack and Michelle Obama.

There's a great lyric from R.E.M.'s "Exhuming McCarthy" that resonated with me as it relates to this whole exchange:

Enemy sighted, enemy met, I'm addressing the realpolitik
Look who bought the myth, by jingo, buy America

Then, a direct quote from Sen. McCarthy himself appears in the song.

"Let us not assassinate this man further Senator, You've done enough. Have you no sense of decency, sir? At long last, have you left no sense of decency?"

In this campaign, more than any other I've ever followed, a sense of decency is sorely lacking. The fact that I'm quoting McCarthy ahead of that last point is making my head spin.

I missed a chance to see Jason Fried from 37signals this week, but I took solace in the fact that I got a lot out of his appearance at the Web 2.0 Expo last month, so I re-read (and spellchecked) the notes I took that day. I have cross-posted them here from their original location here:

Momentum - with out it you are going to trend toward mediocrity

Typically, people eventually lose interest and just want to finish it

Ideal situation is the bursting sound wave

We try to break all of our big projects into as many small projects as possible. Don't like to work on projects longer than 2 weeks.

NO Roadmaps Specifications or Projections "The problem with roadmaps is you're setting your future in stone."

Specification docs are basically a collection of Yeses, and there's little penalty for adding to it.

Get rid of abstractions - "What are we working on right now? That's the most important"

Decisions are temporary. "You should be optimizing for now."

Red Flag Words - We do a lot of collaboration by typing. The more we collaborate the more we use certain words.

Need - Instead, how "Might we try this?"
Can't - "The truth is you probably can."
Easy - A word you use to describe other people's jobs
Everyone & Nobody - "People use these words to justify decisions. You're really exaggerating and blurring the point."

Interruption is the Enemy of Productivity - "The closer you are with somebody, the less work you actually get done."

Taps on the shoulder
Required meetings
Calling someone's name
"Hey check this out"
Phones & Blackberries

That's why most people get work done in the morning and late at night