Wow!...What a week!!

First, last weeks 7.0 earthquake in Haiti has affected most, if not all of us, in some way or another. We have all felt extreme sadness throughout the last 12 days, watching on television as thousands have died and watching the thousands who still remain, figuring out the recovery and the future. Then, in Massachusetts an unknown State Senator Scott Brown, beat Martha Coakley on Tuesday, winning overwhelmingly in a special election held to replace Ted Kennedy's US Senate seat. This was then preceded by Thursday in which the Supreme Court of the United States, in a 5-4 decision set a huge precedent by beating down campaign financing reform and ruling that corporations could finance political campaigns because it was their First Amendment Right. And finally, to make matters worse, Conan O'Brien hosted his last Tonight Show after just seven months on the job, leaving millions of fans, like myself...extremely disappointed. Ok...so Conan leaving NBC's the Tonight Show really isn't the end of the world. But I will say that it was sort of the last that I, and many others who do love Conan, could have done without. However, through all that has happened, you got to admit...there's got to be a silver lining, right?

Haiti: Aftershocks continue, while Haitians are still being pulled out of the rubble, many miraculously still alive even after 12 days. CNN's Anderson Cooper has given us the capability to witness a lot of the tragedy on television, but ironically...even a bit of joy and happiness. Case in point, Kiki, the little boy pulled out of the rubble yesterday. He was in the rubble for 8 days. EIGHT DAYS!! Just seeing the picture of him being pulled out made me realize how fortunate we are to experience something so profound, even under the current circumstances in which hundreds of thousands have perished. There has been a great sense of unity throughout these 12 days though and that is the reason that I have hope for the human race once again. Unfortunately it always happens under these circumstances, but it happens and I guess that is what matters right? I mean think about it...from day one, I like millions of others used our cell phones to donate money to the Red Cross and/or other organizations helping directly. Then there was Twitter and other social media networking tools, in which millions came together to share their deepest thoughts, an experience of unity which I don't think I had ever truly experienced with random strangers. Of course, throughout the course of all of this, I've also witnessed the worst in people. Many stating that Haiti should take care of themselves, etc. Not sure why people like this exist, but they do. People seem to not realize or even care that much of the agony the Haitians have dealt with in years past is a result of things America has done to the country. This is the least we can do. Last night though brought something pretty special which helped me to ignore all of the negativity surrounding this situation. The Hope for Haiti telethon, organized by George Clooney was televised in almost all of the major networks and cable channels. Wait up...don't start up on the celebs. Sure, they can be quite annoying...however last night was pretty incredible, with so many participating and performing for a great cause. I witnessed something pretty remarkable as I sat in my new apartment outside Santa Fe, laughing and crying, tweeting with others and thinking about all that was going on at this very instance, some thousands of miles away and how we truly were making a difference, even if it is from out couches. In tragedy, we have witnessed the worst and the best of people...but I choose to look at what could be the best. The world came through to help and even though there are some issues with getting things to the people due to lack of infrastructure in Haiti, I'm hoping that things will remain positive. I have faith in the world that in times of tragedy...we can all come together like we have and make a difference that will last a life time.

Scott Brown: This loss was unbelievable!! OK, maybe it wasn't all that surprising as we all knew what kind of candidate Coakley ended up being in the last month, but for me and like many other progressives, it wasn't so much that we lost this seat to a republican per se, but it was so much that we lost the Lion's TED KENNEDY'S seat. I sat at home on Tuesday night glued to the television and twitter, waiting to hear the results to only be utterly disappointed when around 8pm MST, I received notice that Coakely had called Brown to concede. The Dems obviously still hold the majority with 59 seats, which is great, but the problem though is getting them to use this majority effectively...cause they haven't at all this last year. This has been the greatest issue many of us progressives have had with the Dems since early 09. Let's take for example, healthcare reform. The Dems have given up so much with this reform bill, all because of their attempts at bipartisanship. Since before the summer, we all knew that the Repubs would never vote for anything we put out there and yet the Dems continued to cater to them, specifically the Blue Dogs. The Repubs, since the President took office last January, have all decided to say no to everything that Prez and the Dems have put on the table. Yet the Dems and the Prez refuse to do what the Repubs do best push stuff through without bi-partisanship. The Repubs do it all the time and accomplish nothing except ruining our country. We know the Dems have good policies, which is why we voted for you in 08. Now take the charge, play the Repubs game and accomplish what needs to be done! We lost Ted Kennedy's seat within the state of Mass, which some would consider a pretty progressive state. Bottom line, peeps are pissed and if Dems and the Pres don't get it together pretty soon, Mass will be replicated come November. Silver lining? Dems and the Prez seem to have gotten the message within the last 72 hours. While some were rather astonished by the results on Tuesday night, one in particular (Barney Frank) looks like we might in fact push this healthcare bill through within the next few weeks (hopefully). Secondly, the Prez Obama was in Ohio yesterday doing a town hall and for the first time in probably a year, I saw the guy that I worked my ass off to get to the presidency. He was on the attack and seems like he really is ready for this fight against the Repubs. And yes, I don't care what anyone says, but this IS a fight against the Repubs. They are they reason the US is facing its current challenges, but as a united front we got to make sure we get things done asap. Finally, after Obama's town hall yesterday in Ohio, we got confirmation this morning that David Plouffe, Obama's campaign manager during the presidential election will be rejoining the team, to make sure that all goes well this coming November. This makes me giddy only because...well, if you followed the election last year and have since read the Audacity to Win, this is huge because it puts us back to where we should have been all year. Obama being guided by good people, like Plouffe, who really understands the challenges we face but also knows how to get things done.

The SCOTUS: 5 to 4 ruling FOR corporations. If this doesn't tell you that the Supreme Court judges who ruled for this are not right wing sympathizers, then stop reading now. What gives them the right to think that Corporations of any kind have the same rights that the rest of us have? With this ruling, corporations will be influencing elections with greater ability then ever before. In my opinion, this is the greatest threat to our democracy. Already campaigns in the last few years have exceeded funds of up to billions of dollars and some would say that it has in fact won elections for certain candidates. But now? It will be worse, unless we the People do something about it. SCOTUS silver lining? This one's a bit trickier, but...well; I'm an optimistic so I'll do my best to explain. We need a revolution. I'm not talking about rebelling against the government or anything like that...instead I'm talking about American's coming together with one common goal and rebelling against the corporations who have the capability to turn this country into a corporatist state, more so than what they have already done in the last 20 years. I hate to even say this, but this is the sort of thing I think we could even join the Tea Party movement on. WAIT! Hold up! Let me finish. I can't stand those freaks...AT ALL! They are an absolute disgrace to this country and to the word "American." However, if they truly are who they say they are, and then this ruling is the sort of thing that should piss these freaks off and use this as leverage to help us progressives politically. On Thursday when the ruling was announced, Republicans up in Congress were the only one's cheering this thing on. The Tea Party is a break from the GOP and if anything it is good for us progressives if we can keep them somewhat involved in this particular issue, but irrelevant with everything else, otherwise it could backfire and lead to a "Vote for Nader is a vote for Bush" situation which we obviously don't want. But with this issue in particular, I think something good could come of this and the Dems and the President can feed off of this and use this to gauge the populists all over the country and make sure we keep our country in tact. Demonstrate to the rest of the country that the corporations will not decide our fate and that the People are still in charge. Ok...I think I've already had too much wine if I'm already talking about how we can join the tea baggers on this so let's just put that to the side and pretend I never said anything. What I will say is that this decision should really be pissing a lot of people off all over the country. In order to survive this thing, we need to work hard to make sure that we get everyone out to vote at every single election and I mean EVERYBODY and prevent any corporation from deciding our fate.

Finally, Conan O'Brien. What can I say except that this is probably the classiest man EVER! I have always liked him, but the fact that he was such a cool cat throughout this whole situation with NBC makes me think that we're pretty lucky to have had him, even if it were just for 7 short months. His final farewell, speaking of cynicism and how much he hates it, literally had me in tears. Why you ask? Because I think that all week long, a lot of us progressives have been down in the dumps with all that went wrong. Believe me...I have been pretty sickened by everything that has been happening politically and in Haiti. However when Conan said what he said last night, I was like...Hellz yeah Conan!!! We can't be cynical about all that has occurred these last two week. We have to just get back up and make things happen and make sure that we're fighting on for the progressive cause. No one should hold us back, and that staying optimistic can go a long way. So...what will the future bring after this tumultuous two weeks? Not sure, but I hope that we can all think about where we're headed and understand what is at stake and do our best to make sure that in the end it's for the good of the planet and all people.