Ann Nixon Cooper and The Best Pics You’ll See Maybe Ever.

106 years old. Danced the electric slide up until age 103.

And then there’s this.

And there it is, folks.

Here are the pics, one by one–it’s easier to appreciate them this way:

I don’t know who took these pictures, or who these children are, or who their daddies are, but for everyone involved in this, thank you for making me tear up at my desk.

My Text Message Inbox From Last Night.

5:04 — “I just left a packed laundromat.  EVERY person there was watching the TV, even the young teenagers.  This is amazing.” — Barry The Republican (BTR)

5:34 — “I’m here now.  Walked past Brokaw. He looks good.”  — Barry Bonds (BB), from the NBC floor

6:04 — “Okay, people.  Be ready.  I should know stuff in the next hour or so…NBC has good food, btw…” — BB

7:17 — “Keep an eye on Indiana…might get projected soon.”

8:54 — “It sucks to be in Texas right now” — Hello My Name is Shai (HMNS), from Houston

9:07 — “Fox News electoral count: 163-81 obama” — BB

9:20 — “foxnews projects ohio for obama…” — BB

9:23 — “OHIO!!!!!” — Rachelle (RM)

9:24 — “Watch for Florida. If that goes Obama, it’s game over for McCain.” — BB

9:26 — “Big money” — RM

9:31 — “NM!” — RM (shouting out New Mexico)

9:37 — “It’s done!  Go Ohio.” — HMNS

9:48 — “FNC EV: 200 – 90 Obama” — BB

10:02 — “You know…with Joe downtown right now!”  — Des (DB), live from The Chi

10:16 — “Yeehah!” — The Fabulous DK, from Chicago/Indiana

10:21 — “I voted 5000 TIMES” — HMNS (who isn’t a citizen, for the record)

10:24 — “Us too bro!”  — DB, probably in response to me writing “we’re going crazy here”

10:24 — “Well, we’re pretty Fucking awesome.  And I guess my vote counted.” — Northern Iowa (NI), in response to my cheers for Iowa

10:32 — “Whatchu expect? We rule!” — Southern Iowa (SI)

10:42 — “fox news is giving Virginia to Obama…” — BB

10:49 — “FNC EV: 220-138″ — BB

11:03 — “OBAMA WINS” — BB

11:06 — “YEAH DUDE!!!!” — Yogi Marisa (YM)

11:22 — “It is a new day.” — SI

11:23 — “Shots.  Now.  Come home.” — Harpo Marxist (HM), after I ran down to Telephone Bar to celebrate with a host of Latinos for Obama

11:38 — “Oh shit! Can you believe it?  Time to celebrate!” — NI

11:41 — “Si se we did it” — C. Denby (CD), possibly mixing a couple of thoughts there

11:44 — “tears” — RM

11:58 — “Firecrackers on Vandy and peeps stopping traffic while singing star bangled banner” — YM, reporting from the street in Brooklyn (I like “bangled”)

12:03 — “Never in my life have I been prouder to be an American.” — Raunchy (RK), from Miami

12:04 — “OBAMA’S GETTING A PUPPY?!” — Carey (CO’B), focusing on what matters

12:05 — “Let it flow.  Ran in the street w champagne and friends and now we wait.  wow” — RM, pre-speech

12:06 — “Stuff is going to the White House–via HOLOGRAM!” — CO’B, referring to our imaginary puppy stuff and, of course, Will.I.(Hologr)Am

12:10 — “unreal” — RM

12:15 — “Wow.  This speech is incredible.” — CO’B

12:18 — “Michelle Obama.  Hot.” — CO’B (at this same time, everyone in our bar was predicting a new Obama baby in nine months)

12:31 — “Is it weird that I am still in shock?  I’m watching TV and I’m like, why are there regular commercials playing?  Do they know what just happened here?  I just can’t believe he won!  His speech was incredible.”  — CO’B

(Note…my inbox was full by now.  I might have missed a bunch of incoming messages while I deleted some old ones. My apologies.)

12:36 — “best moment for being american.  The democratic campaign has made me proud to be american many this, but this is the best.” — Lala Vega (LV)

12:57 — “People are setting off fireworks in my neighborhood” — CO’B, live from BK

1:14 — “:-)” — Diane (DA), in response to my semi-mass “Best night of my life” text (as are the next chunk of messages)

1:14 — “Yes we can!” — Jason (JG), live from the front in The Chi

1:20 — “Yes we can!  This is so wonderful!” — Buck Fifty (B5), from New Orleans

1:20 — “So true” — Big Joe (JM) from The Chi

1:20 — “i’m a sloppy tear streaked mess & yes me 2″ — CD

1:20 — “I have a latinos for obama poster.  Lots of people wanted to take pics.  We tried getting into the victory party, but it was full.  I danced in the streets.” — Cindylu (LU), live from LA

1:20 — “Yo, I was there.  the sight of an old black couple crying here was the most powerful thing i’ve ever seen.” — duD (duD), live from The Chi

1:21 — “We did it!  It’s a new day!”  — Heather (HM), from OH! IO!  CLEVELANDWHAT!

(And then my bag got stolen from the bar, which sucks, so then there’s some texts related to that.  And then this morning…)

9:23 — “YES YES YES HOLY SHIT GOOD MORNING!!!!! WE DID” — Rock Star Lila (RSL), live from Louisville

The Schedule for The Horse Race.

From Newsweek.

I will be eating dinner with Kit Kittredge, Pampers Ceviche, Little Linda Winehouse, and who knows who else before heading to an undisclosed (but in no way shocking) location to watch the festivities and (hopefully) celebrate wildly. Conspicuous by his absence will be Barry Bonds, who had planned to host us at the Deeeluxe, but instead will be on the floor at NBC, participating in the whole hullabaloo from the inside.

I won’t be in front of a computer, so no live-blogging or the like. I’d say the best thing you can expect is a drunken post at 4am, one way or the other.

A French Philospher on Sarah Palin’s Panties.

From The Village Voice.

Belzer: “Every black kid in America will be one inch taller the day after Obama is elected.”

Stew: “An Obama presidency will be the quake that unearths the kind of overt, white-hot racism in both the media and the populace that liberals and conservatives have been telling us doesn’t exist anymore, but that black people have known all along was still alive and well.”

Ice-T: “An Obama presidency will be the quake that unearths the kind of overt, white-hot racism in both the media and the populace that liberals and conservatives have been telling us doesn’t exist anymore, but that black people have known all along was still alive and well.”

Richard Foreman: “When I first saw Obama at the beginning of the campaign—and I did tell people this—I said: “You know, I look at Obama and I think, ‘This is going to sound crazy, and I’m not against him, but he seems like the Antichrist.’ ” “

Susan Choi: “The month of September was a very black month for me, where after Palin’s selection I almost felt like an abuse victim.”

Richard Hell: “Obama makes me happy, despite his flattening out of himself for wider electioneering purposes. To my mind, speeches such as the Philadelphia race speech earn him the benefit of the doubt.”

How It Could Break for McCain

Mark Halperin, Time Magazine:

Actually overtaking Obama in enough states to win would require a combination of factors: Obama’s get-out-the-vote efforts have to turn out to be weaker than thought; young voters have to fail to channel their enthusiasm for Obama into actually voting; race has to be a bigger factor than most pollsters currently believe it to be; conservatives have to be more fired up than they have seemed; independents have to be more attracted to the Republican ticket than they have been all year; and, most of all, late-deciding voters have to break disproportionately to McCain.

Unlikely.  But not impossible.  Go vote.

Remember Immigration? || The Great Schlep

Two part post today, with a shameless self-promotion post on its way.

1.  Remember not long ago when immigration reform was this huge issue that would play a major role in shaping the face of the election?  Someone (I believe it was my buddy Pampers) pointed out his shock that the GOP hasn’t revisited immigration in the face of the economic crisis.  I think it would be a cheap shot, but it seems like it would play.  I’m thinking of it again today after reading this CNN article about the effects of immigration raids in places you’d least expect them…like Iowa.

Here’s my quick thought on it all: there’s a tendency to cast Latinos as the great immigration defenders in this debate, but I’m Puerto Rican — immigration wasn’t an issue for my family.  I’ve got questions about border security and the like, although I’ve also got a bunch of folks I respect and trust who come from border towns (or are illegal themselves), and the issue simply isn’t simple.  The CNN article, and the story of Postville in general, really explain the complexity.  When I think Iowa, I think 5′10″ blond rugby playing schoolteachers (but that’s just me) — I certainly don’t think Guatemalans, Hasidim, and Somalis.  Maybe I should.

2.  Sarah Silverman can be super funny.  She can also be less than funny; she’s really of that hit-or-miss, jokes in volume kinda humor that works with her gross-out/offensive style.  For the most part, I like her (and if I was able to, I’d link you to her Matt Damon stuff from Jimmy Kimmel Live just in case you haven’t seen it), and I think she’s an effective advocate/spokesperson for certain stuff.  A few weeks ago, I saw her video for “The Great Schlep,” a program in which young Jewish folks go visit older Jewish folks (often their grandparents) in Florida to convince them to vote for Obama.  I thought it was a joke at first, then I realized it’s kind of brilliant.  And now it’s happening.

And that, on some level, is a big part of what I’m excited about in this election, regardless of how it unfolds: young people are (a) taking responsibility for the things they believe in and (b) finding creative ways to bring about change.  It’s hard to say what tangible impact initiatives like this will have on the world.  Maybe none.  Maybe it doesn’t change the election at all.  Who knows?  At the very least, it’s making people care.  And try.  And it’s leading to sentences like this (from the CNN article):

Sporting an Obama T-shirt with Hebrew writing on it, retiree Morty Brill said, “The economy, the war, you think you can trust Republicans to fix them?”

The world is changing, folks.