My burlesque troupe- Gilded Lily Burlesque- was featured in an article in the Baltimore City Paper. Check it out! :)

September '57
It was a very good year
That's when I met heaven
And all the smoke came clear

I didn't see it coming
I was a very dumb kid
Nobody ever touched me
Quite like the way that you did

And now you know that I suck at this
And you suck at it, too
And now we're nothing more than vampires in love

And I'm wide awake
And you're wide awake
And I don't think that I'm getting tired at all

This is the brightest sunlight
My shades will do me no good
I ain't a morning person
But I'd be one if I could

And cause of us I just stay up at night
And watch stupid movies till the TV is white
So we're nothing more than vampires in love

And I'm wide awake
And you're wide awake
And I don't think that I'm getting tired at all

And I'm wide awake
And you're wide awake
And, I don't think that I'm getting tired at all

Not getting tired at all...

-Marvelous 3

The Story of A Youth Voter

I don't know why, but the right to vote has always been one that excites me and makes me extremely proud- not just in my head, but in my heart and my gut as well. It's probably because I'm pretty idealistic and the idea of a country that allows us to choose our own leader- and as a result, our own destiny- that just inspires the hell out of me. Apparently the youth vote is always the lowest performing demographic; but, I've voted ever since I got my registration card in 2000.

That's right- my very first election was the dreaded Bush vs Gore, Florida, hanging chad, recount, vote supression, Supreme Court debacle. I can remember watching the election results come in while I sat in my dorm room. I'm pretty sure I went to bed that night thinking that Al Gore had carried the election. When I woke up the next morning- well. You all know how that story went.

The following hours, days and weeks were a hard lesson for me. I watched the news religiously and checked the recount as it unfolded on CNN.com. I constantly updated the vote tallies on the whiteboard outside my dorm room. (Luckily, my roommate, Liz, was as committed to following the election as I was, Otherwise, she may have kicked me out!) Our room was Election Central. When people wanted to hear the latest news they would stop by and chat with us. I lived and breathed that election. And, my hope and faith in our democracy slowly withered.

Fast-forward to 4 years later. Post 9/11. We were (and still ARE) embroiled in an unjust and unjustified war. We had, at the very least, alienated our allies and pissed off most of the rest of the world. We had failed to catch Osama Bin Laden. But, it was finally election time. :) We finally had a chance to eject the piss-poor president who should never have had the chance to lead our country down that dark path to begin with.

I had faith- the American people had SEEN what G.W. Bush did when we gave him power- he lied to us, dragged us into unnecessary wars, failed to fight our true enemies and destroyed our reputation in the world community. SURELY they couldn't elect him to a second term!

I watched the debates like a die-hard sports fan watches Monday Night Football... Yes, I yelled at the tv screen. Alot. :) I watched as John Kerry oratorically ran circles around George Bush; as he ANSWERED questions while W just spouted empty rhetoric.  And, I grew even more confident.

But, you know how that story ends as well. The bin Laden tape was leaked days before the election and the sheeple of America flocked to G.W. Bush.

I was floored. We had let fear manipulate us into another four years of poor leadership and failed policies from a president who would NOT learn from his mistakes- though they were many. I felt sick. And betrayed. And alone.

I was not proud to be an American. I can honestly say that I was ashamed to be an American. Ashamed that our president had been bought in a courtroom, ashamed that we had been lied to, ashamed that we were viewed so poorly by our world neighbors, ashamed that we'd been manipulated by misinformation and fear, and finally, ashamed that I had never wanted any of these things but that I was powerless to do anything about it.

The four years of his second term have been as horrible as I feared they would be. Bush is truly an historically terrible president.

As election season drew round again I was cautiously optimistic. The past two elections had brought our country nothing but grief and deterioration. But, Bush was out of the equation and that had to count for something!

Believe it or not, I'm not a Democrat- I'm an Independent. When I was introduced to Barack Obama and re-introduced to John McCain I didn't know who I would vote for. I've always liked John McCain- and when he selected a woman as his running mate he was very much still in the running to gain my vote.

However, the more I learned about Sarah Palin the less I liked her and the more I saw in her a female George W. Bush. She ran on her personality, not issues. She was proud and blissful in her deliberate ignorance. She was a negative campaigner who brought little to the table except a vagina (unlike Bush) and the ability to inspire other small-minded people with her own arrogant small-mindedness (very much like Bush). 

But, there was hope! As my research continued, I discovered in Barack Obama an inspiring, cool, confident man with visionary ideals and the strength and perseverance to make them a reality.

I watched the debates, of course. I watched as Obama answered tough questions and deftly fended off character attacks from John McCain. Barack had good grace under fire and never lost his cool. When he was challenged he fired right back- but not with malice or underhanded tactics. He stood up for himself without growing defensive or aggressive. His words were eloquent and well thought out. His ideas were new and painted a picture of a place I would like our country to go. THIS is what our president should be like!

After 8 years of outrage and shame, I finally found my hope. I watched as Obama's leads grew in the polls. I fretted when they dropped (minutely, admittedly) and I sweat bullets when the race tightened at the end. After the past two elections, as far as I was concerned it was all too conceivable that America could fuck this up again. Even though the numbers looked good, I didn't trust it.

As Nov. 4th approached I sent out bulletins and posted blogs hectoring all of you to vote. I volunteered at Obama headquarters in Towson and called undecided voters (if I could do one thing differently it would be to volunteer more of my time). I crossed my fingers, I knocked on wood and I prayed.

The night before I barely slept and Election Day I was up bright and early to go to the polls and get in line before they even opened. When I arrived at my polling location I was elated to see a line stretching from the door around two sides of the building. It was still 15 minutes before the polls would open. I was never so happy to wait in a line. :)

My fear, you see, was that no one would come... that the Obama supporters would skip voting, confident of their win. But, they were there. And they were joyous and proud and of every shape, size, gender and color. Voting was an amazing experience. The turnout was tremendous. But, more than that, the voters were excited! They were inspired! And they were united in their desire to see our country take a positive new path. I was honored to share that line with each and every one of them.

This blog is already too long, so I won't bore you with details of my election night. Suffice it to say that I was sick with worry waiting for the results and there was a lot of joyful crying once those results came in.

This is an amazing time. And our country has done an amazing thing. We have joined together and elected a man who is not only fit to govern- but (I believe) born to govern. I have faith that Barack Obama will lead us out of this dark chapter in America's history. Will there be missteps? Will there be delays? Of course. But, I have faith in Barack Obama as a man and leader as well as in the direction he wants to take this country. And more than that... I have hope. I finally have hope.

And for that... I thank you America, as well as Barack Obama.

Thank you. And, god bless President-Elect Obama.

By Jim Tankersley

Washington Bureau

November 2, 2008

WASHINGTON — As the presidential race enters its final weekend after two years of battle, John McCain's best chance for a history-defying comeback rests in the greatest of electoral unknowns: voter turnout.

To win on Tuesday, analysts and polls suggest, the Republican nominee must win nearly all the remaining undecided voters in key swing states and peel a large chunk of "soft" supporters from Democratic rival Barack Obama. Then he must hope that his supporters vote in overwhelming numbers, and that more Obama supporters than expected stay home.

It would be a daunting task in any election, but it's particularly the case this year, when analysts predict the largest voter turnout ever, perhaps 130 million, and the biggest percentage of eligible voters casting ballots in a century.

"It would have to be almost like a perfect game," said Christopher Borick, a Muhlenberg College professor who conducts a daily tracking poll in Pennsylvania, a key battleground state. "Everything would have to break his way."

The McCain campaign believes it will, despite trailing by an average of more than 6 points in polls tracked by RealClearPolitics.com. In a conference call Friday, senior McCain campaign officials said they were picking up momentum and votes. They cast doubt on the turnout assumptions of several polls that showed them trailing badly nationwide and said they've recently matched Obama in TV ad spending.

They extolled a campaign ground game they said far exceeded President George W. Bush's vaunted re-election machine four years ago in terms of phone and door-to-door contact with voters.

But the GOP's central argument stems from political history, specifically, voters' shifting identification with political parties. McCain pollster Bill McInturff said polls that show Obama with wide leads appear to greatly overestimate the number of self-described Democrats. Some show Democrats with a 15-point identification advantage over the GOP; since 1984, McInturff said, the largest Democratic lead in presidential exit polling was 5 points.

"What we're seeing in Missouri and Pennsylvania and in other states," he said, "is that the Barack Obama number is dropping and John McCain is gradually coming up, and I think he is dropping because of that kind of structural barrier in terms of the historic vote in this country."

Analysts expect a historically large turnout Tuesday, a prediction McInturff shares. In 2004, 60 percent of eligible voters cast ballots. Michael McDonald, a George Mason University associate professor who tracks early voting, predicted Friday that this year could approach 64 percent, which would be the biggest percentage since 1908.

The question is, who will those voters be?

Pollsters disagree. The latest poll for CBS News and The New York Times shows Democrats outnumbering Republicans by 7 points and Obama leading McCain by 11. The latest Fox News poll shows Democrats with a 2-point identification edge and Obama leading by 3. Gallup's latest poll using its time-honed "traditional likely voter" model shows Obama up by 8.

There's disagreement as well on what sort of turnout to expect from first-time voters, young people and African-Americans. Democrats predict those groups will vote at a higher clip than usual, and break heavily for Obama. McCain's team believes they will too, but that voting will also increase among other demographic groups, keeping the general makeup of the electorate mostly unchanged.

Democratic pollster Stan Greenberg challenged the GOP logic in an open letter to McInturff.

"The McCain polls assume that young voters and other new voters will not play a disproportionate part in an expanded electorate," Greenberg wrote. "And yet, in the primaries, though turnout more than doubled, young voters and Latinos significantly increased their proportion of the overall expanded electorate. We would not assume that the same cannot happen next week."

McDonald predicted a larger proportion of African-American voters this year, but not young people.

With time running out for a big event to reshape the race, McCain's comeback potential could depend on whose turnout model is correct.

"It's not so much things that have to happen" for McCain to catch up, said Jay Cost, who writes the data-based Horse Race Blog for RealClearPolitics. "He needs certain things to be true."

He also said a half-century of polling doesn't allow for easily predicting the difference between closing, say, a 7-point gap or a 4-point one.

History does favor Obama on one turnout count: the weather. AccuWeather.com says it will be unseasonably warm and dry on Election Day. Poor weather, the service noted, citing a 2007 study, tends to boost Republicans.

jtankersley@tribune.com

Copyright © 2008, Chicago Tribune