I stayed up last night until the speech in Grant Park. Waking up this morning I almost still couldn’t believe it. But it’s a landslide. And not a lesson we can afford to forget over the next four years.

Anyway, the speech. It was classic Obama. And something that I feel should be posted everywhere. After all, how often do you get to witness history?

Hello, Chicago.

If there is anyone out there who still doubts that America is a place where all things are possible, who still wonders if the dream of our founders is alive in our time, who still questions the power of our democracy, tonight is your answer.

It’s the answer told by lines that stretched around schools and churches in numbers this nation has never seen, by people who waited three hours and four hours, many for the first time in their lives, because they believed that this time must be different, that their voices could be that difference.

It’s the answer spoken by young and old, rich and poor, Democrat and Republican, black, white, Hispanic, Asian, Native American, gay, straight, disabled and not disabled. Americans who sent a message to the world that we have never been just a collection of individuals or a collection of red states and blue states.

We are, and always will be, the United States of America.

It’s the answer that led those who’ve been told for so long by so many to be cynical and fearful and doubtful about what we can achieve to put their hands on the arc of history and bend it once more toward the hope of a better day.

It’s been a long time coming, but tonight, because of what we did on this date in this election at this defining moment change has come to America.

A little bit earlier this evening, I received an extraordinarily gracious call from Sen. McCain.

Sen. McCain fought long and hard in this campaign. And he’s fought even longer and harder for the country that he loves. He has endured sacrifices for America that most of us cannot begin to imagine. We are better off for the service rendered by this brave and selfless leader.

I congratulate him; I congratulate Gov. Palin for all that they’ve achieved. And I look forward to working with them to renew this nation’s promise in the months ahead.

I want to thank my partner in this journey, a man who campaigned from his heart, and spoke for the men and women he grew up with on the streets of Scranton and rode with on the train home to Delaware, the vice president-elect of the United States, Joe Biden.

And I would not be standing here tonight without the unyielding support of my best friend for the last 16 years the rock of our family, the love of my life, the nation’s next first lady Michelle Obama.

Sasha and Malia I love you both more than you can imagine. And you have earned the new puppy that’s coming with us to the new White House.

And while she’s no longer with us, I know my grandmother’s watching, along with the family that made me who I am. I miss them tonight. I know that my debt to them is beyond measure.

To my sister Maya, my sister Alma, all my other brothers and sisters, thank you so much for all the support that you’ve given me. I am grateful to them.

And to my campaign manager, David Plouffe, the unsung hero of this campaign, who built the best — the best political campaign, I think, in the history of the United States of America.

To my chief strategist David Axelrod who’s been a partner with me every step of the way.

To the best campaign team ever assembled in the history of politics you made this happen, and I am forever grateful for what you’ve sacrificed to get it done.

But above all, I will never forget who this victory truly belongs to. It belongs to you. It belongs to you.

I was never the likeliest candidate for this office. We didn’t start with much money or many endorsements. Our campaign was not hatched in the halls of Washington. It began in the backyards of Des Moines and the living rooms of Concord and the front porches of Charleston. It was built by working men and women who dug into what little savings they had to give $5 and $10 and $20 to the cause.

It grew strength from the young people who rejected the myth of their generation’s apathy who left their homes and their families for jobs that offered little pay and less sleep.

It drew strength from the not-so-young people who braved the bitter cold and scorching heat to knock on doors of perfect strangers, and from the millions of Americans who volunteered and organized and proved that more than two centuries later a government of the people, by the people, and for the people has not perished from the Earth.

This is your victory.

And I know you didn’t do this just to win an election. And I know you didn’t do it for me.

You did it because you understand the enormity of the task that lies ahead. For even as we celebrate tonight, we know the challenges that tomorrow will bring are the greatest of our lifetime — two wars, a planet in peril, the worst financial crisis in a century.

Even as we stand here tonight, we know there are brave Americans waking up in the deserts of Iraq and the mountains of Afghanistan to risk their lives for us.

There are mothers and fathers who will lie awake after the children fall asleep and wonder how they’ll make the mortgage or pay their doctors’ bills or save enough for their child’s college education.

There’s new energy to harness, new jobs to be created, new schools to build, and threats to meet, alliances to repair.

The road ahead will be long. Our climb will be steep. We may not get there in one year or even in one term. But, America, I have never been more hopeful than I am tonight that we will get there.

I promise you, we as a people will get there.

There will be setbacks and false starts. There are many who won’t agree with every decision or policy I make as president. And we know the government can’t solve every problem.

But I will always be honest with you about the challenges we face. I will listen to you, especially when we disagree. And, above all, I will ask you to join in the work of remaking this nation, the only way it’s been done in America for 221 years — block by block, brick by brick, calloused hand by calloused hand.

What began 21 months ago in the depths of winter cannot end on this autumn night.

This victory alone is not the change we seek. It is only the chance for us to make that change. And that cannot happen if we go back to the way things were.

It can’t happen without you, without a new spirit of service, a new spirit of sacrifice.

So let us summon a new spirit of patriotism, of responsibility, where each of us resolves to pitch in and work harder and look after not only ourselves but each other.

Let us remember that, if this financial crisis taught us anything, it’s that we cannot have a thriving Wall Street while Main Street suffers.

In this country, we rise or fall as one nation, as one people. Let’s resist the temptation to fall back on the same partisanship and pettiness and immaturity that has poisoned our politics for so long.

Let’s remember that it was a man from this state who first carried the banner of the Republican Party to the White House, a party founded on the values of self-reliance and individual liberty and national unity.

Those are values that we all share. And while the Democratic Party has won a great victory tonight, we do so with a measure of humility and determination to heal the divides that have held back our progress.

As Lincoln said to a nation far more divided than ours, we are not enemies but friends. Though passion may have strained, it must not break our bonds of affection.

And to those Americans whose support I have yet to earn, I may not have won your vote tonight, but I hear your voices. I need your help. And I will be your president, too.

And to all those watching tonight from beyond our shores, from parliaments and palaces, to those who are huddled around radios in the forgotten corners of the world, our stories are singular, but our destiny is shared, and a new dawn of American leadership is at hand.

To those — to those who would tear the world down: We will defeat you. To those who seek peace and security: We support you. And to all those who have wondered if America’s beacon still burns as bright: Tonight we proved once more that the true strength of our nation comes not from the might of our arms or the scale of our wealth, but from the enduring power of our ideals: democracy, liberty, opportunity and unyielding hope.

That’s the true genius of America: that America can change. Our union can be perfected. What we’ve already achieved gives us hope for what we can and must achieve tomorrow.

This election had many firsts and many stories that will be told for generations. But one that’s on my mind tonight’s about a woman who cast her ballot in Atlanta. She’s a lot like the millions of others who stood in line to make their voice heard in this election except for one thing: Ann Nixon Cooper is 106 years old.

She was born just a generation past slavery; a time when there were no cars on the road or planes in the sky; when someone like her couldn’t vote for two reasons — because she was a woman and because of the color of her skin.

And tonight, I think about all that she’s seen throughout her century in America — the heartache and the hope; the struggle and the progress; the times we were told that we can’t, and the people who pressed on with that American creed: Yes we can.

At a time when women’s voices were silenced and their hopes dismissed, she lived to see them stand up and speak out and reach for the ballot. Yes we can.

When there was despair in the dust bowl and depression across the land, she saw a nation conquer fear itself with a New Deal, new jobs, a new sense of common purpose. Yes we can.

When the bombs fell on our harbor and tyranny threatened the world, she was there to witness a generation rise to greatness and a democracy was saved. Yes we can.

She was there for the buses in Montgomery, the hoses in Birmingham, a bridge in Selma, and a preacher from Atlanta who told a people that “We Shall Overcome.” Yes we can.

A man touched down on the moon, a wall came down in Berlin, a world was connected by our own science and imagination.

And this year, in this election, she touched her finger to a screen, and cast her vote, because after 106 years in America, through the best of times and the darkest of hours, she knows how America can change.

Yes we can.

America, we have come so far. We have seen so much. But there is so much more to do. So tonight, let us ask ourselves — if our children should live to see the next century; if my daughters should be so lucky to live as long as Ann Nixon Cooper, what change will they see? What progress will we have made?

This is our chance to answer that call. This is our moment.

This is our time, to put our people back to work and open doors of opportunity for our kids; to restore prosperity and promote the cause of peace; to reclaim the American dream and reaffirm that fundamental truth, that, out of many, we are one; that while we breathe, we hope. And where we are met with cynicism and doubts and those who tell us that we can’t, we will respond with that timeless creed that sums up the spirit of a people: Yes, we can.

Thank you. God bless you. And may God bless the United States of America.

Sorry for the downtime. Apparently when I updated Wordpress there were some complications with my theme, some plug-ins I was running and the new version. So, wipe and reinstall, and back with a new look! Some colors still need to be modified, but I’m working on that.

I’m working on writing about the vacation and uploading pictures, so expect that soon.

As a side note, the Wordpress export/import feature is pure crap. Don’t rely on it for your backups. If I didn’t make a database backup before I did this I would have been without about 4 months worth of posts and comments.

The upgrade to Wordpress2.1 went without a hitch (other than having to upgrade about 5 plugins at the same time). However, if you notice anything strange or not working properly over the next few weeks, please let me know.

Hey, it’s March! Time does fly, especially when you don’t have any. Work continues to be fairly busy, but I have had time to sneak out and get a little use out of the Rebel XT. It’s really a lovely camera, and I’m a really poor photographer, but it’s quite fun. I’ve only been out twice so far, both times to temples, but I have a little something set up here if anyone is interested. Comments/critiques are welcome. Please. Most of my new pics will be posted there, so I recommend subscribing to the RSS feed if you care to. If you don’t know how, just check when you have the time. Or not. So, please. Go forth, and tell me exactly how much I suck.

PS - You can change the background color at the bottom. I personally recommend the dark.

I’ll get back to our regularly scheduled programming later, but there are some things I’ve been wanting to write about and now I actually have a little bit of free time to do so.

It’s almost been a month since Japan’s new Prime Minister, Shinzo Abe took office. I have to admit that I really liked Koizumi, and not just because he had great hair. While he made several questionable decisions, Yasukuni not being the least among them, in LDP terms he was quite progressive. And he had great hair.

Abe, however, is carrying on that legacy of questionable decisions without the progressiveness or the hair. Honestly, I wasn’t sure of what to make of Abe at first. He’s the youngest PM ever elected as well as the first PM to be born after the war. Despite his previous hawkishness I was hoping that he would be a bit more liberal. It seems that some things are just not to be. The next is in no particular order, just when it comes to mind or search.

Japan’s post-war constitution has a wonderful idea in Article Nine. If you don’t know, it’s the renunciation of war. It was forced on Japan after WW2, of course, but a large portion of the Japanese populace supports it even now. Unfortunately, that portion does not include Mr. Abe. In a move that’s sure to throw China and Korea up in arms more than a thousand visits to Yasukuni ever could, Abe wants to redraft the Japanese constitution. Before that can go into effect he is also looking into reinterpreting certain policies. A few choice quotes from Abe’s interview with the Financial times:

“The current constitution was written before Japan became independent after the war,” Mr Abe says, speaking in his stark but beautiful official residence in Kasumigaseki, Tokyo’s equivalent of Capitol Hill. “With 60 years past, there are provisions within the constitution that no longer befit the reality of the day.”

Mr Abe said article nine needed to “be revised from the viewpoint of defending Japan” and to comply with growing expectations that the world’s second biggest economic power should contribute to international security.

The next problem that Abe is facing is school bullying. While bullying is a problem in many countries it seems especially severe in Japan. School children here are pushed rather hard to succeed. From the last year of elementary school many children go to cram schools so that they can pass exams to get into good middle schools, and then they do the same to get into good high schools and colleges. If I might give an anecdotal example, I teach an elementary school student. She’s a bright girl, but every day after school she has some sort of lessons. One day is science, the next is math, the next is Japanese, English, piano, tennis, etc. When her lessons are over she goes home and studies until she has to go to bed. This isn’t unusual.

Lately there have been a rash of suicides by children here because of the bullying. There have also been a number of letters sent to the Education Ministry threatening suicide. Of course, the Education Ministry’s response has been outstanding.

Ibuki said that students should feel guilty about suicide.

“Your lives are not just your own,” the minister told a news conference. “You are not alone. Suicide doesn’t solve anything.”

“We are setting up committees at each school to catch the students and help them, but it’s really hard to find the signs,” said Ibuki, who has urged suicidal children to stop writing to him.

Yep, your feelings don’t matter! Now, stop bothering me! Such a sympathetic figure. Of course, this really isn’t surprising at all considering that, until recently, the Ministry had said that there were no suicides because of bullying.

The Education, Science and Technology Ministry has decided to revise its figures for student suicides related to bullying between academic year 1999 and 2005–currently standing at zero–after 16 cases came to light indicating the deaths may have been bullying-related.

This stance was despite the fact that many students had left behind suicide notes clearly stating that bullying was the primary cause. It isn’t overly surprising that Ministry would hold that position as this is a serious loss of face for them, but it is still quite disappointing. Of course, that hasn’t been the only problem the Education Ministry has faced lately, only the most important. In realted news:

And Kyodo News reported last week that the ministry knew four years ago that some 16 percent of incoming college students had not taken world history, which is part of the required curriculum, in high school. The ministry responded simply by telling teachers to follow curriculum guidelines. No sanctions were given.

This whole matter has been quite an egg on the face of the Abe administration even though it’s something that has been happening since at least the Koizumi cabinet. Honestly, he hasn’t been given enough time to adequately deal with the situation yet, but he did just have a new education bill passed. The education law has been unchanged since 1947 when it was put into effect by the US Occupation. To be fair there is quite a bit of public support for educational reforms, but somehow I have a feeling that what Mr. Abe wants isn’t quite the reform that most people had in mind.

The passage brings Prime Minister Shinzo Abe one step closer to achieving his goal of getting schools to instill a sense of newly defined patriotism in their students.

Instilling patriotism in the classroom. If that isn’t echoes of pre-WW2 Japan I don’t know what is. Of course they say that they want to instill a sense of respect for all countries in the children, but Mr. Abe clarifies:

But Abe took a different tack, saying students’ attitudes and eagerness to learn Japanese culture and traditions should be taken into account in evaluating their performance.

Yes, that’s just what children need. I’m sure being forced to compete to demonstrate their patriotism will do wonders to help the country. Of course Abe’s popularity has been falling lately. But, considering everything, I’m not overly shocked.

Japanese politics have always been fairly right wing. Even compared to America it’s a conservative country in many ways. Younger people, like many places, are becoming more liberal, but they, too, are comparatively somewhat conservative. But, like most places, younger people have little interest in politics.

Where does this leave Abe? Sadly, it seems that he’s going to keep the conservative base happy while not really doing much that’s progressive. He does seem somewhat interested in keeping China happy, but if Article 9 is changed his ambiguity about Yasukuni won’t really matter. He’s showing himself to be as Hawkish as was expected but also to be a hard right winger. He has many problems to deal with, both from previous administrations and what troubles the country now, but I’m starting to get very nervous about how he will deal with them in the future.

To start with, I’m an unabashed social liberal. And I’m gloating. If you don’t like that you don’t have to read on.

It was with much trepidation that I woke up this morning to follow the election results back in the US. I knew the Dems were supposed to take a bit of a lead, but I learned in 2004 not to trust polls and projections too much. Seeing as I don’t get any American channels here I fired up the CNN website and a rather active political forum to see where things were standing. Things looked decent at first, but then more and more results kept rolling in… And we have it.

Several Senate races are still up in the air, of course, but the House.. I never could have imagined how well things could have gone there. To go from being 30 seats in the hole to having a commanding majority is more than I ever could have hoped for. And there’s still a chance that the Senate could change hands… Not to mention all the gubernatorial races as well… Suffice to say, I think that America, as a whole, has said what it thinks about the current administration and those that support it.

If I could take a moment, though, and deliver a message to the Dems. Don’t rest on this. Things can change just as easily the next time around, only in the other way. Don’t stay defensive; go all out and show that you have a backbone. Fix what you can and don’t take anything you don’t have have to. The Repubs are masters of disinformation and double-speak, and they will turn anything they can against you next time. Investigate all the injustices that have been done and show the country who was running things. And if, by any chance, a Dem happens to be embroiled in an ethics or sex scandal hang them out to dry. Show that it won’t be tolerated and bring at least a little decorum back to what used to be a proud institution.

Of course, having said that, they will do just the opposite and screw things up for next time. But I’ll bask in the glow while it lasts. Earlier would have been preferable, but better late than never.

YEEHAW

The Nippon Ham Fighters, Sapporo’s baseball team, has just won the Japan Series. And I was there! On my couch! Watching the game!

The Fighters really had a solid team this year with a couple of very, very good young pitchers, solid defence and good hitting. This is the first time they’ve ever won the Series and Shinjo is still crying, roughly half an hour later. Yes, the same Shinjo that played for the Mets a few years back.

Outside of the pride of having my little province win the series, there are expected to be rather massive sales sometime soon. Riots, on the other hand, are not expected. We just don’t live up to the example that Boston sets.