STATE OF AMERICAN CONFUSION: ¨There is just so much at stake. The fact that this election is so close has me really worried about the general intelligence and sensibility of my fellow Americans.¨

I can’t pretend that I can even begin to understand Republicans

¨I can’t wait for tomorrow to be over, but I’m freaking out about it at the same time.

First, I don’t know how I’ll react if Romney wins the presidency. I hate him; I hate him more than I hated McCain and even George W. Bush. I always thought that Bush was just clueless, but Romney is evil. He is a liar and a cheat. He is insincere and he doesn’t have the country’s best interests at heart. He doesn’t care about the American people; he just wants to be president...¨ read it all, Scottbblog,  http://scottbblog.wordpress.com/

Thanks to Bilerico, sidebar
Thanks to Scottbblog

A PRESIDENT PREDICTING BREAKFAST : Peanut butter and dill pickle sandwiches on wheat toast -- builds All-American good moral character!

This morning, Monday morning at the Foot of the Volcano, yo,  Leonardo Ricardo, felt a burst of enthusiasm for everyday life and for the ongoing equality progress, healing and well-being of the United States of America/Norte.  I am, thanks be to God and heterosexual love my parents had for one another, a Yankee Doodle Dandy living in Central America.  I voted in the U.S. general election already, via absentee ballot, over a week ago.  As I type this blog entry I feel a rush of positive eagerness for the reelection of President Obama which will take place tomorrow in the United States/Norte...primero Dios. I notice I have a great deal more confidence than ever before that my hope and wish will come to true tomorrow and we will have four more years of National Integrity led by President Barack Obama.  

What gave me this last minute surge of hope and reelection outcome reassurance you may ask? 

I ate my favorite healthy breakfast this morning.   Good reason as any.  My all-time most energizing breakfast of  Peanut Butter and sliced Dill Pickles (longways) on Multi-grain toast sandwich!   Of course everything will go my way today, tomorrow and this week with such a tasty/happy breakfast choice.  Never question the power of wholesome morning eating when divining presidential elections (or anything else).  

Peace be with you!

 

OBAMANOS 2012
Guatemala, Central America

Independent Women: Whatever The Hell You Do On Tuesday, Don’t Make Mitt Romney Our President!

GOP CIRCLING: ¨President Obama and Mitt Romney are still – incomprehensibly – tied in the polls¨

¨The election is days away, President Obama and Mitt Romney are still – incomprehensibly – tied in the polls, and I’m having flashbacks from the bad acid trip that was the George W. Bush presidency. Nobody I know is laughing at a Mitt Romney win in that “it could never happen” kind of way we did back in 2000, because it absolutely did happen then, and it happened again in 2004. And if George W. Bush could be re-elected after the first four years of his presidency, anything is possible.

Halloween is over, but how fitting the season. Like the zombie’s hand reaching from the grave at the end of the horror movie, just when you thought it was finally over, I fear that gays, blacks, women, will be dragged back down, kicking and screaming, by another Republican presidency, the gains of the last four years lost as if the Obama years were all just a dream.

There has been a strange calm over the Republican Party in the last couple of months, like a lake without ripples, yet something seems to be lurking deep under the surface, waiting to emerge. After the Republican primaries, it was almost as if the Tea Party and their bat-shit crazy agenda just disappeared. Mitt Romney was made the Republican presidential candidate, and someone locked the Tea Partiers in the Political Makeover Cabin and told them to keep their mouths shut until the coast was clear.,,¨ HERE

Thanks to Max S. Gordon
Thanks to The New Civil Rights Movement, sidebar

TAIWAN LGBT PRIDE PARADE: 50,000 attendees from 20+ countries and supported by Christian Action Network too!

It was a record turnout at the Taiwan LGBT Pride Parade on Saturday with over 50,000 attendees from more than 20 countries.

 

An estimated 50,000 on Saturday took to the streets in Taipei – the largest turnout in its 10-year history – to show their support for the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people, calling on the government to recognise same-sex marriage equality and diversity in partnership, according to the Taipei Times. Parade organisers say about 3,000 people from 23 countries were at the parade, and estimated the total number to be at about 65,000.

The parade, which is the largest of its kind in Asia, was split into two groups with different routes after departing Ketagalan Boulevard, in the heart of Taipei City. Both group converged back at Ketagalan Boulevard at about 4:30pm, where they had a tribute to three late advocates of LGBT rights — entertainer Da Bing (大炳), activist Chiang Chia-wen (江嘉雯) and stage actor Liu Ching-hung (劉敬弘).

Hong Kong pop star Gigi Leung (梁詠琪) and singer Anthony Wong (黃天耀) – who came out publicly this year – showed up to express their support for LGBT rights.

“Love is gender-blind, everyone is entitled to the right to enjoy happiness,” Leung said was quoted as saying in the Taipei Times. “I can feel the joy of marriage after I got married last year, and I hope that everyone can enjoy the same degree of happiness as I do, regardless of their sexual orientation.”

Thanks to Fridae Asia, sidebar
Thanks to Taiwan LGBT Pride, 10 Year History, HERE
Thanks to The Taipei Times
Thanks to Gigi Leung (梁詠琪) and singer Anthony Wong (黃天耀)
 

GRACELESS: Archbishop Okoh, apparently not content to resolve the devasting religious rioting and blood drenched civil upraisings in Nigeria, speaks out on how to reorganize The Church of England and the Anglican Communion

The Most Reverend Nicolas Okoh: Nigerian Anglican tackles Britain on Canterbury bishop selection while simultaneously Anglicans are murdered in their own parish churches in Nigeria.

¨The Church of Nigeria (Anglican Communion) demanded a change in the age-long tradition that allows the British government to appoint the Archbishop of Canterbury, the News Agency of Nigeria reports.

The Primate of the Church, Archbishop Nicholas Okoh, on Wednesday in Abuja made the call at a media briefing to herald the 2012 Divine Commonwealth Conference scheduled to begin in the city next week.

NAN reports that the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr. Rowan Williams, is due to retire by the end of the year and according to the the tradition, the British Prime Minister is expected to name his successor.

The appointment of the new Church leader is based on the recommendations of the UK-based Crown Nominations Commission, a 16-member body made up of bishops, priests and laity.

Okoh, who a fierce critic of the outgoing Archbishop of Canterbury, described the selection process for the new church leader as “politicised”...¨  questioning the wisdom, HERE

Thanks to PUNCH, Nigeria
Thanks to Crown Noimnations Commission

SPECIALTY OF THE ¨Dia de los Difuntos¨ : FIAMBRE

As all different families brought food to the celebrations, they became mixed, eventually mixing them together to this all-encompassing salad

Fiambre is a traditional Guatemalan dish that is prepared and eaten yearly to celebrate the Day of the Dead (Día de los Difuntos) and the All Saints Day (Día de los Santos). It is a salad, served chilled, and may be made up from over 50 ingredients.
Fiambre started out from the tradition in Guatemala of taking dead family members their favorite dishes to the cemeteries for the Day of the Dead. As all different families brought food to the celebrations, they became mixed, eventually mixing them together to this all-encompassing salad. Ingredients usually include numerous sausages and cold cuts, pickled baby-corn and onion, beets, pacaya flower, different cheeses, olives, chicken, and sometimes even brussels sprouts or shrimp.
This dish varies from family to family, recipes traditionally passed on to younger generations. Because of this, on the Day of The Dead, it is customary to share your fiambre with other families and relatives.

Thanks to Wikipedia
Thanks to Flickr

ALL SAINTS and ALL SOULS' DAY: Prayers Ascending (quite literally) from Guatemala with Love

Sumpango, Guatemala

October 31-November 2

Throughout Latin America, All Saints' Day, November 1, and All Souls' Day, November 2, are treated like a single holiday. In Guatemala, the Indian villagers of Todos Santos (which means "All Saints") stretch these celebrations honoring the dead into a three-day-long affair by adding October 31. Families pay homage to the dead on All Souls' Day by decorating the graves of their loved ones and offering flowers, corn, squash, and orange slices at church. They position them on the floor of the church, pour some coffee into the flower blossoms, and then shake droplets of brandy over the whole display.

These solemn offerings are in stark contrast to the highlight of the festival, wild horse races, in which many of the riders have been drinking since the previous night. In the town of Santiago Sacatepequez people fly huge kites in the graveyard and many attach prayers and notes to their deceased loved ones to the kites' tails...¨ HERE

Thanks to The Guatemalan Tourist Bureau
Thanks to Sumpango
Thanks to Elizabeth Bell, Antigua Tours http://www.antiguatours.net/

THE NEW YORK TIMES: Editorial Board ¨enthusiastically endorse¨ President Obama´s reelection efforts.¨

The New York Times
' editorial board "enthusiastically endorse" President Obama's reelection efforts.
In addition to approving of his handling of the economy, foreign fairs and maintaining a fair, balanced Supreme Court, the paper gives a thumbs up to Obama's work toward LGBT equality. Mitt Romney's archaic policies are less-than-admirable, the paper says:

The extraordinary fact of Mr. Obama’s 2008 election did not usher in a new post-racial era. In fact, the steady undercurrent of racism in national politics is truly disturbing. Mr. Obama, however, has reversed Bush administration policies that chipped away at minorities’ voting rights and has fought laws, like the ones in Arizona, that seek to turn undocumented immigrants into a class of criminals.
The military’s odious “don’t ask, don’t tell” rule was finally legislated out of existence, under the Obama administration’s leadership. There are still big hurdles to equality to be brought down, including the Defense of Marriage Act, the outrageous federal law that undermines the rights of gay men and lesbians, even in states that recognize those rights.
Though it took Mr. Obama some time to do it, he overcame his hesitation about same-sex marriage and declared his support. That support has helped spur marriage-equality movements around the country. His Justice Department has also stopped defending the Defense of Marriage Act against constitutional challenges.
Mr. Romney opposes same-sex marriage and supports the federal act, which not only denies federal benefits and recognition to same-sex couples but allows states to ignore marriages made in other states. His campaign declared that Mr. Romney would not object if states also banned adoption by same-sex couples and restricted their rights to hospital visitation and other privileges.  HERE
 

Thanks to The New York Times, sidebar
Thanks to Towleroad, sidebar

PRESIDENT OBAMA ROCKETING NOW: 73.1% Chance of Winning re-election! YES! Obamanos!

Nate Silver, who runs the New York Times’ FiveThirtyEight blog, now gives President Obama a 73.1% chance of winning re-election — up more than two points — and predicts 294 electoral college votes and 50.2% of the popular vote.

Yesterday, Silver gave President Obama a 71 percent chance of winning re-election on November 6, with 291 electoral college votes, and a 50.2% of the popular vote.
Perhaps this will stop Romney’s lies about his “momentum,” which is spelled, “backward.”

Thanks to the New Civil Rights Movement, sidebar
Thanks to the New York Times
Thanks to Nate Silver

PRESIDENT BILL CLINTON: ¨President Obama’s got it right. We should invest in the middle class, education and innovation¨

Bill Clinton’s New Ad: ‘President Obama’s Got It Right.’

“The stuff some folks are saying about President Obama sounds kind of familiar,” Bill Clinton says in this new ad for President Barack Obama. “The same people said my ideas destroyed jobs—they called me every name in the book.”

“Well we created 22 million new jobs and turned deficits into surpluses.”

“President Obama’s got it right. We should invest in the middle class, education and innovation. And pay down our debt with spending restraint and asking the wealthy to pay a little more. Sound familiar?” HERE

Thanks to The New Civil Rights Movement, sidebar
Thanks to David Badash