It’s been a strange weekend, with Ike hitting Galveston and Houston. 4 million people without power just a couple of hours away and all of us here in Austin feeling strangely irritated because, in the middle of a terrible drought, we got zero rain. But zero hurricane was a blessing. So, God must be looking after Austin. But does God look after Austin? How could that be? Ask any decent Texas Republican what’s the Sodom of the Lone Star State. You guessed it. Look for me as a pillar of salt come the Rapture.
But in the midst of following the news out of Houston and making gumbo that tasted like etouffe, I started to have a very good feeling. Something’s shifting out there. Apparently, I’m not the only one who’s found a cure to the pox of Palinmania. First there was the startling revelation that 130,000 people have shared their reasons for thinking Sarah Palin is not qualified to be vice president. There’s a petition. And Eve Ensler. And (of course) every one is sending aroung Gloria Steinem’s piece in the LA TImes. People are beginning to take action. (They’re just not thinking about soap operas while they’re doing it.)
This morning was different. This morning, we knew how good Tina Fey is at Sarah Palin. She’s better at Sarah Palin than Sarah Palin is. If Tina Fey stepped in for Sarah Palin in the vice presidential debate, I’m pretty sure that she’d do a better job than Sarah Palin. First of all, she’s smarter. She can’t help but seem like she understands the question. Plus, it’s got to be impossible to blink/wink/tic as much as Sarah Palin does. A normal person, even a trained actress, can’t pull it off. So, Tina Fey makes a more trustworthy Sarah Palin than Sarah Palin does. (But we do not wish Tina Fey the fate of bearing Todd Palin’s sixth child, Dank Palin. Girl.)
It was the news from Alaska that did it. I first heard about it from my old tried and true Daily Kos. Here’s the diary that launched a thousand emails:
Alaska Women Reject Sarah Palin Rally
Woohoo! So good that I emailed the link out to my dad and mother-in-law.
But to get an even better feel for the rally, well, it’s time for our buddy Mudflats. Her descriptive style, combined with the fact that she got to the rally after attending Palin’s actual rally in Anchorage, makes for great reading. Obviously, it was an amazing event for the people of Alaska. According to Mudflats, this was the biggest rally in the history of the state. I’m not sure about you, but I’ve been in some pretty big marches. Pro-choice marches. The huge Si Se Puede march in Austin in May of 2006. The biggest was the Sane/Freeze march in New York in June 1982 (right after I graduated from the EUESGS–my mom forced my brother and me out of bed early on Saturday morning). One million people. One million people.
But if you watch the video Mudflats posted, you’ll know that this was just as huge an event. These people are thrilled to be together. They are thrilled to have the right to assemble. They are thrilled to find out that there are more than five or fifty or one hundred people who are willing to put on what would be deep winter clothing in Austin and gather along a library (hooray!) to register their rejection of their own governor. See for yourself:
Clip Number Four: In Which It Becomes Known that We Can No More Blame the Good People of Alaska for This Sorry State of Affairs than We Can the Good People of Texas for the One that Precedes (and Perhaps Precipitated) Our Current Situtation
You will note, as did I, no updo’s among the rabble rousers. Who needs a secret handshake when you’ve got a hairdo at your disposal?
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