One of my favorite books is Terry Pratchett’s “Hogfather.”

The quick summary: the Hogfather has disappeared on Hogswatch Eve.  As Death (yes, that Death) explains, if the children do not receive their Hogswatch gifts, they will cease to believe in the Hogfather and “The sun will not rise tomorrow.”

So Death takes over for the Hogfather, delivering gifts to all the children, while his granddaughter tries her best to track down the Hogfather and return him to his post.

At one point, she asks Death if it’s true that the sun wouldn’t rise the next day.  He says yes, it’s true.  When she asks what would happen instead, he explains that merely a flaming ball of gas would illuminate the sky.

This is kind of how I feel about Obama’s victory, and I know this is oddly sentimental, especially for me, but there’s something about what happened that was, to me, magical.  I know that logically there was strategy, planning, and an immense amount of hard work, and I don’t mean to discount that.  

But when we went to bed Tuesday night, I turned to Cyndi and said “it’s a whole new world.”  I didn’t mean that literally, but I meant it in the sense that suddenly everything seems really different.  

Racism isn’t over, not by a long shot, and we’re still in a hell of a mess as far as this country goes, and I mean one hell of a mess.  Nothing’s changed, really, except we’ve decided to put someone smart in the white house.

But if things had gone differently, and we’d nominated Edwards (and he hadn’t turned out to be a bit of a horndog) and ended up with a President Edwards, I would have been happy.  I would have been very pleased.  

But I wouldn’t have felt like it was a whole new world.  I would have just seen the next day as another day with a gaseous ball of fire illuminating the sky.  

Now the sun’s rising on a whole new world and I’m looking to the future with real optimism for the first time in quite some time.

I’m updating this to include a video I tracked down today:

It’s the opening monologue from the Daily Show from the first episode after September 11, 2001.  There’s something about this which has been incredibly profound for me ever since I saw it, and it actually touches on a lot of what I’ve been feeling about this.  It’s well worth watching, but it will make you cry.

Then:

A couple (of Republicans) in particular became fixated on the Democrats and Progressives involved in (the Burlington Intervale’s Composting) operation – particularly Democratic Speaker of the House Gaye Symington and Progressive Representative (and organic farmer) David Zuckerman. When it came out that runoff from the composting operation was not up to specs, Governor Jim Douglas and his attack dog, Agency of Natural Resources Secretary George Crombie could hardly maintain their glee. They tied the discharge violation around Zuckerman’s and Symington’s necks as tightly as they could, despite a continuing history of ignoring meaningful permit violations that don’t have high profile Dems and Progs associated with them.

But the problem was that they were dealing with environmentalists, and unlike their GOP business buddies who might mutter and fume about having to cowtow to the tree-huggers, the folks at the Intervale were fully and humbly prepared to comply – providing, in the process, an example to others.

That would never do for Douglas…

…If you’re still entertaining the notion that this wasn’t a political hit job, consider the rumor in circulation that I was able to confirm with a source close enough to know. In a conversation with the Intervale Director, Crombie openly gloated that he had the Intervale “in a noose” and wasn’t about to let go.

That’s right. He actually said “in a noose.”

Now:

George Crombie is leaving the post of secretary of the Agency of Natural Resources after a little less than two years…

…”Secretary Crombie chose to resign and we are grateful for his time in government,” Douglas spokesman Jason Gibbs said.

Crombie, who worked for two Burlington mayors before moving to Massachusetts, did not return calls left for him Friday.

I’m sure he didn’t. And I’m sure the reporters know not to wait by the phone expecting that return call.

Shay Totten deserves a lot of credit for keeping the pressure on this guy and finally putting his head in the proverbial noose. I’d like to think we had a fair amount of impact at this site as well.

Score one for the good guys.

http://change.gov/

Yeah … go ahead and click on it.

“Tego” of iBrattleboro put together this fun little video from Election Night. The following are scenes from Main and Eliot streets with visits at the The Weathervane, Windham County Democratic Party headquarters, and the Riverview Cafe. Rep. Mike Mrowicki, of Windham-5, even makes a cameo appearance.

Hope you enjoy… because the Obama victory still hasn’t sunk in yet, at least for me!

Tangential to the Dem-Prog debates, third parties potentially changed the electoral vote outcomes in three states Tuesday.  

In Missouri, McCain will get the state’s 11 electoral votes, having beaten Obama by less than 6,000 votes.  Our friend Ralph Nader received over 17,000 votes in MO.

In Indiana, Obama won by 26,000 votes.  Libertarian Bob Barr received 29,000 votes, more than Obama’s margin.

And in North Carolina, Obama won by just under 14,000 votes.  Here Barr got just over 25,000.  

These numbers would indicate that Barr was worse for McCain than Nader was for Obama.

In Georgia, Saxby Chambliss missed 50%+1 by about 16,000 (0.2%) votes, thanks to the Libertarian candidate, who polled over 3.5%.  The runoff is scheduled for December 2.  Traditionally, turnout in Georgia runoffs has been light, but if Obama campaigns for Jim Martin, it could get interesting.