Nov. 4th - trick or treat?

Why didn't my Halloween guillotine make the national news, like that burning of a Palin-effigy?

I don't know. But just for our La Bloga audience, here's pics of my attempt to combine two nights of horror. (In case it's not readable, the blades are labeled Votes and Change.)

Why didn't Obama pick a Chico o Chica to run as VP?

In case you didn't hear the joke: the best way for Obama to make certain he made it to Inauguration Day was to pick a Mexican or a Chicano. That way the right-wing wouldn't dare assassinate him or they'd wind up with a spic for a President.

But seriously--bad jokes aside--why didn't he? That ticket could have gotten ALL the brown vote, qué no? What?--there wasn't a qualified, not real old, good-looking Chicana out there who wears trendy glasses? Sometimes I just don't understand politics.

Will it ever be "safe" to vote for a third party?

I swear every time I've done that, there's always been a Great Evil running as a Republican, and I've been advised against voting for Ralph Nader, for instance.

So, I'm supposed to wait until they run out of Great Evils? At this rate, there'll be a Chicano in the White House before a really progressive candidate ever wins. And what if a Latino turns out to be one of those Great Evils? Then what?

When should Ralph Nader stop running?

Last time I saw him on the tube, on some late night PBS program, he was looking haggard. (On speaking ability alone, Obama could have taken him.) I know it's all supposed to be about issues and principles, but everybody knows it's just about media now, so why can't progressives run someone who doesn't make us tired just looking at him?

Can't those who decide such things start looking for a progressive who can debate, doesn't look so burned out, and maybe even can wear trendy glasses? Guess what? I know one, although he doesn't wear glasses. His name's Matt Gonzalez.

Why do bloggers do shameless plugs in an election year?

Okay, so I got this distant nephew Don Garcia who's been making and selling Obama and Hillary earrings and such for some time now. I don't know that he's made a killing, but he didn't make enough to send his dad, my brother, out to Denver to sell them around the DNC. Since his big season's almost over, here's the website where you can get the stuff, if you collect such nonsense.

Why did I dump my principles and not vote for a third party?

I know Obama's not getting us completely out of Iraq soon enough, not ridding us of the military-industrial complex (that's gotten filthy rich while the rest of us wonder if next year's recession will completely bury us), and may not substantially change our suicidal spending ways, but I voted for him.

Just this once, and maybe never again, I voted Democratic because I wanted to vote with the young people around the country who've found something to believe in, something to get them out onto the streets, something to give them hope after the same eight years of despair we've all come to know as 21st Century living in America.

I may never do it again. But just this once, I thought it appropriate, even an obligation, to give my vote, not to Obama, but to them--the young people that remind me I once believed. Next time, who knows? Anyway, in that spirit, I've added my pulled-out-of-my-ass guess about the popular vote next week. Here the latest, below.